Freakish *ON HIATUS*

Chapter 5

'Dear Diary,

How do I even BEGIN to explain how my life has changed in a week??!!!???!!???!!??!

It's like - imagine one day you're waking up, completely relaxed, not stressed out about a thing in the world, loving your life and your family...

... and then BOOM! In your face is the proof that the world's most impossible thing is possible!!!

Magic EXISTS! It actually EXISTS! Holy "insert-bad-word-here" crap, that Harry dude was right!!!!

Okay, so you're probably confused - let's start from two days ago -

That Fraylighter person? He replied, with curt, direct instructions to this weird pub/bar called the Leaky Cauldron - I know, strange name. So, me and dad went there. It felt so creepy in there - men and women with ZERO fashion sense were sitting at wobbly tables and chairs, and almost all of them were looking at us. Not staring, but enough to make me uncomfortable. So, we went to the bartender, Darius or something, and said to him that one sentence that Fraylighter had specifically asked us to say -

"Excuse me, we are in a situation in which we need to travel forward, but also to the side - how might we get to our destination?"

The dude, who was definitely in his fifties, grunted, and with a wave of his hand told us to follow him to the back. He opened a tiny little door, and led us out into a small courtyard, which was blocked by a wall with the oldest and moldiest bricks ever (!!).

Here's the scariest part -

From his robe, he took out this long, thin stick, and he tapped one specific brick three times.

THE WALL SEPARATED FROM THE MIDDLE AND FOLDED ONTO ITSELF AND SHOWED THE PATH INTO ANOTHER VILLAGE!!!!!!!

Cue The Exorcist music.

I swear, that was the most TERRIFYING thing in my entire life!!!!

Another weird part, my dad was completely chilled out during this. His face was stern and grim, and he thanked the man. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the village.

And this village - ALL MAGIC!!!!

There were people wearing pointing hats and dark colored clothes, and I swear that I saw them with the same thing long stick!!! Doing magic!!!

(BTW, thin long stick = wand. Remember that.)

I asked my dad if this was real. And he gave me the creepiest smile on earth, saying, "Perfect moment to say 'I told you so,' don't you think?"

Took me all of my self control to not punch him in the arm.

Too many, just way too many emotions rushed through me when I saw magic - FOR REAL.

So let's just skip to the part where we at get our stuff.

First stop - Ollivanders.

My dad made me go in alone, telling me to choose a wand while he got the money for it, because apparently wizards have a different currency that normal human beings do. It was a small shop made shabbily, and when I went in I saw thousands of tiny boxes lined up against the walls, making very tall pile all around the shop. Shelves were stacked with them, and some were even just thrown here and there. I went to the counter and rang the bell. This tall person with braided white hair and a walking stick came from the back. He was a pale man with old skin, as if he was always sad and tired. He just stood there and studied me, and then walked to the counter. He asked me what my name was. Then he asked me if I was a Muggle or not. I just looked at him confused until he just waved the question aside, and started fumbling with the boxes. He pulled out a purple box with a golden design on top of it and said, "Vine wood, dragon heartstring, 14 inches." I opened the box and the most beautiful, sleek wand was in it!!!! I took I out, and something weird happened.

The child in me went haywire, and I did this huge, wide swish of the wand over my head.

Oh my god!

The entire shop suddenly got sparkling clean. All the toppled boxes went back on the shelves and the balls of dust got swept into the bins.

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH MAGIC!!!!

The dude behind the counter looked around at his newly cleaned surroundings and nodded. "You are one powerful witch, young lady." He took the wand from me, put it back in its box and wrapped it up in brown paper. I stared at all the boxes around me. "Are these all wands?"

He nodded and said something about how his family is considered the greatest wand-makers of the wizarding world. Then I said, "That's a lot of powerful magic concentrated into one tiny space, don't you think?"

He stopped and looked at me strangely. For a second I though I said something wrong, but he just stared at me with piercing eyes and handed me the box, saying, "12 Galleons."

One more thing - apparently a "Galleon" is a currency denomination, not a measure of liquid.

My dad walked in at the exact moment (talk about timing), and handed the man a handful of coins that looked like they were made out of real gold. The man accepted it and thanked us as we left, with me holding the box very close to me.

I have a wand. I HAVE A MAGIC WAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, breathe Leah. You're not supposed to use magic outside school anyway.

Why?, you ask, dear Diary? It's because my Dad says so. And I can't convince him out of it.

After getting wands, we went to the robes shop. There was a tall, blonde woman wearing a witches' hat attending us. She took my measurements and sent me off pretty quickly. After that we went to the book shop called Flourish and Blotts, and my god, the stuff they had there! I saw in the far back corner of the shop there were biting books. Books that bite. Thank heavens that I didn't have to buy those.

As we were leaving with the last of our stuff, a peculiar shop caught my eye. It was a shop that had all these strange items on its display case, and the sign read, "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."

Ugh, the list of weird names just keep on increasing right?

But, outside the shop, I saw people of all ages laughing and holding those peculiar items. I heard one of them say something like, "Be careful, the Boxing Telescope will get you!", and "Hey, touch this Electric Shock Snake, let's see if it really is that shocking!" And then the boy yelped aloud, partly in surprise, partly in pain, and partly in laughter. From what I could gather, it was some sort of a joke shop.

I tried to convince Dad to let us in, but he said we were out of time. We went straight home after that.

Oh Diary, I don't know what to do. I am facing a moral dilemma right now - something that I have been trying to prove that doesn't exists my entire life actually does exist. I have seen it with my own eyes!!

Some part of me wants to scream in delight at something that was so amazing being real, and some part of me wants to sit in one spot and cry, because that one thing that I strongly believed in turned out to be wrong. What else is true? Do aliens exist now? Can time be changed? Is there a possibility that all us humans are part of some screwed-up experiment????

This ↑ is exactly why I didn't write to you yesterday. Or the day before. Because I was too busy stressing about stupid stuff (which is possibly not even stupid).

Grandpa and Dad aren't talking to each other. Or me. Nobody is talking. Dad makes breakfast, dinner or lunch and sets it at the table, but Grandpa eats out. I tried to start a conversation with Dad at dinner tonight, but he just sighed and said, "I don't want to be an ignorant dad, princess, but it's been a long day. Could we talk tomorrow?" He managed to kiss my forehead before he went to bed finishing his meal early. At least he didn't see my tears.

Oh, Diary. I'm leaving home this month, and everything's already a mess.

So, I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow?

If I haven't completely lost my mind?

PS- Thanks for always being there, Diary.

Goodnight.

- Love, Leah.