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Heather Black leaned in close towards the label on the brown package that was sent to her, just to make sure that she had read it correctly the first three times. She never got letters, never mind packages.
"Just open it, already!" exclaimed an excited voice by her left ear. It was her 10-year old sister, Kim.
"Okay, okay, I'm getting to it!" Heather snapped in an annoyed tone. She took a key off the table in the hallway, and opened the box. "Ugh!" she exclaimed, as she lifted out a pink wizard's winter hat.
"Oooh, how pretty!" adored Kim. "I want one."
"Here, you can have this one," Heather thrust the gift into her sister's hands. Kim smiled at Heather, and then skipped off down the hall. Heather peered into the package, and saw that there was also a note and another object in the parcel. She lifted the message to read it before seeing what the gift was. It said this:

There, that got rid of Kim, didn't it? I found this at an old junkshop near Ollivanders. I hope you like it.
~Lupin~

Heather laughed at her godfather's "evil" scheme to keep her sister from seeing the "treasure behind the hat". She reached inside the box and pulled out an old, beaten, sneakscope. "Whoa, a new one of these must cost over a galleon!" she said. "And it's in great condition." She stuffed the note in her pocket, turned on her heal and ran up the stairs to her room. On her way by, she stopped to grab an unsoiled, white, cleaning, rag from the pile of newly-cleaned laundry. When in her room, she polished the scope, wrapped it up in the rag, and put it in her trunk she was going to use for school.
"Dinner!" she heard her mother (Diane) call from the bottom of the stairs. There was a great slamming of doors as all the Black siblings went tumbling down the steps. There was, of course Heather, 10 and Kim, 9, but was also, Jae, 12, Taelor, 14, Pete, 15, Simon, 16, Sydney, 16, Dean, 17, Sean, 17, Caleb, 18, Andrew, 19, and Nora, 20. The children sat down noisily and there were just about to grab for the dishes of food when their mother called out at the top of her lungs, "Quiet!" All the conversation and arguing ceased. "Now, that we've all settled down, I can make an announcement." She said this with her eyes closed as if she was enjoying the last piece of peanut-butter chocolate cake. "Your Hogwarts letters have come at last. Yes, yours too, Heather," she said as Heather opened her mouth to speak. "I will be taking you all to Diagon Alley on Tuesday."
"Are the Weasleys going on that day too?" asked Dean anxiously.
"Yes." Their mother confirmed their hope.

*********************

The days leading up to Tuesday were slow, boring, and rainy. Finally, on Tuesday morning, Heather woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the exciting day that lay ahead. She got dressed and took a shower even before the sun was out, and went out to practice her Quidditch skills before her brothers and sisters woke up.
"Hey, Simon, I almost nailed a perfect loop this morning on my broom," Heather said to her brother at breakfast, though loud enough for the whole table to hear.
"No way! It took me until my second year to get that down!" Sydney exclaimed.
"Well how can I go wrong with a great teacher like you," said Heather brightly.
"C'mon guys, she said she almost nailed it, meaning she didn't get it completely!" Simon tried to take away Heather's rare compliments.
"Simon, you're just jealous!" said Andy.
"Humph!" Simon declared.
"Don't listen to him Heather," Andy said, "Keep trying like that, though and maybe you'll make the Quidditch team this year!"
"Thanks, Andy," Heather said, looking at Simon in disgust.
"Listen up, children," said Heather's mother as she walked into the room with an open letter in her hand, "your uncle Timothy is coming this Friday, so I'll need you guys to make this house as neat and as muggle-like as possible, okay?"
"Not muggle Uncle Timothy!?" said Sydney and Simon together.
"Yes, but please, please don't call him that in front of him, okay?" said their mother.
"Yes, mom," replied the children in chorus.
"Okay, now finish up your breakfast, and we'll head over to the burrow," their mother instructed sternly.
"Wait, the burrow, I thought that the Weasleys were meeting us in Diagon Alley," Sean said.
"No, we're going to their house first, and then from there, we'll use the floo network to go to Diagon Alley," said the mother.
After breakfast, each child (except for Andy, Caleb, and Nora, who were finished all their years at Hogwarts) grabbed a hand-full of floo powder, threw it into the flames of the fire (which turned emerald green), stepped in, and said loudly, but clearly, "the burrow!", then vanished.
At the burrow, they all appeared again in the fireplace where Mrs. Weasley brushed them off, and gave them each a glass of water. When she was finished drinking, Heather was greeted by her two best friends, Fred and George, who were older than her by just three days. Heather, Fred, and George were always playing pranks on people (mainly their brothers and sisters) and inventing joke shop items. The Weasley family consisted of Mr. Weasley (Arthur), Mrs. Weasley (Molly), and their children, Ginny, 9, Ron, 10, Fred and George (who were twins), 11, Percy, 14, Charlie, 17, and Bill, 18.
"Come on, everyone, don't want to waste any time if we want to be back by dinner!" Mrs. Weasley said to the crowd that had formed in her kitchen. Each person grabbed yet another hand-full of powder and this time said, "Diagon Alley!" when they stepped into the Emerald green flames. When they reappeared again, they were inside the wizarding bookstore, Flourish & Blotts. "Alright, every body, since we're here, we might as well get your school books," instructed Mrs. Weasley. Everyone hastily bought all that they needed in the store, as it was getting fuller by the minute. Once everyone was finished, they walked out of the shop and into the bustling street, filled with witches and wizards alike busily buying everything from school supplies to decorations.
"Alright everyone, let's split up, I don't care who you go with, just make sure you're not alone, and we'll all meet back here at noon. Oh, and make sure you stay in Diagon Alley," said Mr. Weasley, with a quick glance at Heather, Fred, and George. Heather reflected to the day when she and the twins had snuck into Knocturn Alley by themselves. Each group split in different directions.
Heather, Fred, and George decided to get their school shopping done first, then have some fun after lunch. Their first stop was to Ollivanders for wands. When they entered the shop, it didn't seem as though anyone was there, and just as they turned to go, they heard a voice behind them say, "Can I help you?" Heather tuned to see a queer, little old man limping out from one of the many, ceiling-high shelves that filled the shop.
"Yeah, well, we just needed-," Heather began, but was cut off by the man,
"Wands?" He finished the sentence for her, indicating the many wand boxes that lined the shelves, "Well then, it looks like you've come to the right place." Heather, Fred, and George each tried three wands before finding the perfect match.
"Whoa, never knew wand choosing would take up so much time!" exclaimed Fred checking his watch, "It's almost eleven!"
"Don't you mean wizard choosing?" inquired George. "The wand chooses the wizard, you know."
"I know, he only said it about ten times," Fred replied.
"Well then, we'd better be quick if we want to go to Eeylops, Fortescue's, and that junk shop Lupin wrote me about," said Heather. They decided to head over to Madam Malkin's Robe shop first, where they got their new school robes, and then to the Apothecary, where they got their potions supplies. This left them with five minutes to spare, just enough time to weave their way back through the crowd, and right in front of Flourish and Blotts where they found Ginny, Ron, Kim, and Jae already waiting. There was a loud crack, and Mr. And Mrs. Weasley apparated in front of them. They were shortly followed by Simon, Pete, and Sydney, then by Percy and Taelor, then by Dean, Sean, Charlie, Caleb, and Bill, and finally by Andy and Nora.
"Alright, everyone, let's go get some lunch," said Mrs. Weasley cheerfully.
They ate lunch at a small café then they split up again and Heather, Fred, and George headed over to Eeylops Owl Emporium. Heather got a tan and white owl, and bought Fred and George a black barn owl to share. They then headed over to Diggory's Used But Rare Items, (Lupin's junk shop) where Heather found none of the items to be rare, but a lot of them the three found to be extremely useful in the joking and pranking business. After this interesting detour, they headed over to Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and each got the best vanilla ice cream they had ever tasted, and still had an hour's worth of time left to spare. They decided to go back to Flourish and Blotts, where they browsed and socialized for the remaining time, and Heather bought a book called Quidditch Through the Ages, which she found to be slightly interesting (the shopkeeper threatened to ban them from the shop if they were just there to create havoc and not to buy anything) so they all pitched in to buy it. They then left the shop and waited for everyone else to arrive. They didn't have to wait long, seeing as though they too were running out of things to do and places to go.
"Everyone here?" said Mr. Weasley counting everyone, "Okay, let's get back to the burrow and have Molly whip up some thing splendid to eat."
"Where is mum anyway?" asked George.
" She's gone back early to get a start on dinner," Mr. Weasley replied, "Everybody hang on, now and I'll apparate us back to the burrow." All the children (except Bill, Charlie, Dean, Sean, Caleb, Andy, and Nora who could apparate on their own) hung on to Mr. Weasley and one another. They all shut their eyes, and disappeared from Diagon Alley and into the Weasleys' kitchen where a wonderful chicken dinner was waiting for them.