Margaret takes out a white, swilled shell with brown zebra looking stripes on it and blue fading down to the bottom, it was a squid cuttlefish shell "before I left for Hogwart my friends and I went to the beach, we found this box of beautiful shells like this one, the box had 'take one' on the side we all have one as a symbol of our friendship" Margaret said, smiling. She put it down on the chair. She waved her wand one, clock ways, and pointed it at the shell "engario" she said, still pointing the wand at the shell. The shell began to grow, at first slowly then rapidly until it was the size of a volleyball or maybe bigger. Margaret smiled, happily, she was surprised she did it, she had done it before but thought she might fail now and make a fool of herself. "Reducio" she said twirling her hand counter-clockwise then back at the shell. It shrunk quickly, within a second it was back to its usual size.
"Your turn," Margaret said cheerily "just do exactly what I did. To make the shell bigger it's clockwise, point your wand at the shell, and say 'engario' then to shrink it back down say 'reducio' twirl your wand counter-clockwise then point it at the shell. Oh and please don't mess this up, this shells kinda important to me just remember all the steps and you'll do fine it's pretty easy, no pressure." Margaret scooches a little away from the shell just in case, really hoping it wouldn't explode or anything.

Miranda eyed the shell nervously. "Right. No blowing stuff up. Got it."

She lifted her wand slightly and twirled it in a clockwise spiral. "Engargio!" she exclaimed, and then closed her eyes tightly, which wasn't the best reaction when she thought back on it. Slowly, she peeked over at the shell. It had grown - slightly. It was now the size of two or three baseballs, which, while not quite as large as Margaret's, was still an impressive sight for Miranda. My first spell! she thought exultantly. I might not flunk out of Hogwarts completely after all!

"Well, that went better than I expected," Miranda said aloud, struggling to keep her face neutral and not grinning idiotically the way she wanted to. However, she couldn't keep a small smile from breaking out.

Once again, she lifted her wand and aimed it at the shell. "Reducio!" she cried, and twirled her wand counter clockwise this time. The shell shrunk slightly, but was still bigger than it had been originally. 'Whoops," Miranda said with concern. "Maybe if I try again...?"

When she tried the shrinking spell again, the shell promptly shrunk to its proper size, much to her relief. "I was worried there for a moment," Miranda told Margaret, smiling.

Margaret grins widely, partly because Miranda didn't blow up the shell but mostly because she was happy with Miranda's success. "I was honestly hoping you'd do a bit worse, you did better than me when I tried that spell," Margaret said jokingly. She remembered that being her first spell she had gotten a rubberband/hair tie to be the size of a hula hoop that only a cat could use. When she shrunk it back down it became as small as dirt an she couldn't find it for a while, when she made it larger it had gone back to size but she didn't do too well nonetheless.

"Do you want to try another spell, one a little harder but not too hard just in case," Margaret asked knowing the answer would most likely be yes but she wanted to make sure. Being afraid or anxious always made spells harder for her and she didn't want to pressure Miranda (whom she considered a friend but didn't want to say it in case Miranda didn't feel mutually) into doing a spell if she didn't want to or make her feel like she had to do the spell so she asked just in case.

"Of course!" Miranda exclaimed, her fear of failing momentarily forgotten. My first spell! she shouted silently. I did magic! Wait 'till Cedar hears! He'll be so jealous!

She glanced over at Margaret's book, wondering what other kinds of magic they'd be learning in their first year. I can't wait until we get there. Mother said the Starts of Year Feast is amazing. Although, for her that might mean everyone just sits around and reads a book.

Her smile fell a bit. I kind of wish Cedar were here. He'd be so excited by everything. I wouldn't be quite this nervous if he were here. She glanced over at Margaret. Although, I guess I might already have a friend. That makes it better, to be sure. I hope she thinks of me as a friend, too, and not a hopeless nuisance.

Mother was so worried about whether the other students would like me. Miranda remembered the awkward trip to the station, when her Mother had listed all of the things she wanted her daughter to do. "Don't ask too many questions," she'd ordered. "And don't act like you know everything. Other children don't like a know-it-all. You must also be careful not to embarrass anyone or be rude to anyone. If someone talks to you, listen. And for goodness sake, do not fidget in class!"

Margaret smiles, happy to be doing magic with who she considered a friend. "I have two that I think are fairly easy but are still a little hard, one makes water flow out of your wand the other cleans objects, I use it for my chores sometimes, so does the rest of my family although we're not supposed to in case a muggle sees and my dad disagrees with using magic for chores he thinks it makes us lazy and soft. Anyway, I hope you don't mind if we start with the cleaning spell, it's a bit easier." I hope I don't mess this up and look like a complete idiot. I flick my wand harshly while saying "aguamenti" on the second large movement of flicking water spewed out like a water fountain. I quickly yell "aguamenti" again and flick my wand in hopes that it will stop but it doesn't. "Reverte" Margaret says panicked realizing if this doesn't work she won't know how to stop it. The water retracts back into the wand and off the floor, Margaret lets out a sigh of relief and smiles at Miranda. "Just do it as I did and you'll probably be fine," Margaret says assuringly.

Miranda watches the water spew from the wand in amazement. That's so cool! I almost wish we could drag one of those muggle scientists my father always jokes about and bring him here to see this. He'd have a headache trying to explain it.

Once Margaret makes the water stop, Miranda pulled out her own wand. "Ag-a-men-ti!" she exclaimed, copying Margaret's wand movements. Unfortunately, nothing happened. What happened? she wondered in alarm, and glanced over at her new friend's book. "Oh," she said in realization. "I said it wrong."

She lifted her wand again and flicked it in the proper movements. "A-gue-men-ti!" Miranda cried, and this time a neat spout of water jetted from the tip.

"So cool," she murmured, then said the counter-curse as quickly as she could. "Reverte!"

Luckily for her, the counter-curse worked on the first try, and the flow immediately retracted back into the wand. Yes! she exclaimed in her head. I'm learning magic! Mother and Father were wrong about me being totally useless at magic. I mean, I'm not the best, but I'm still not horrible either!

Miranda turned to look at Margaret." What about the cleaning spell?" she asked. "How do you do that one?" She gestured at the damp floor. "It would probably be pretty useful right around now."

"I don't know if it cleans up water... I've only tried it on dirt and dishes and thing, I was hoping the water would go back with reverte." I say a bit worried. "Reverte" I say almost as if I were talking to the puddle hoping it would clean up. The water streams back into your wand the way water that comes from a house or a sink, Margaret smiles "oh good, I'm glad I've done some magic before or we might of had to leave it or just place our bets on the cleaning spell." I laugh.
"For the cleaning spell, you sweep your hand bac and forth like a broom and say 'tergeo'" I say while demonstrating, and pointing my wand at the semi-dirty window. I realize (not for the first time but it was the first time I really thought about it) how hilarious these words sound. I smirk to myself. I move over to your side of the train compartment "try the spell on the seat" I say smiling. This is so much fun I think Hogwarts is going to be so exciting! I become even more excited and anxious than before at that thought, I smile and watch as you preform the cleaning spell.

Miranda listened to Margaret's instructions, then lifted her wand again. "Tergeo!' she exclaimed, and the dirt and grim on the seat began to clear. For good measure, she repeated the spell twice more, just to get everything off. "There," she said, satisfied. "That's much better."

She stretched her arms back and smiled at Margaret. "I mean, it took me a few tries to get it all, but that wasn't too bad in the end." Miranda hoped that she wouldn't think it was terrible. That wouldn't help Miranda's confidence at all.

Suddenly she remembered a spell she'd practiced with her brother once, long ago. At the time, neither of them had got it right, probably because they were using their mother's stolen wand. But now...maybe it was worth a try.

"I think I have a spell we can use," Miranda announced. She flicked her wand like her mother had done when she'd shown them the spell. "Periculum!" Instantly, a shower of scarlet sparks spewed from the wand tip. Whenever they hit something, they dissipated like smoke, and dealt no damage. "Wow, I didn't think that would work," she said in awe. "I guess my memory is better than I thought it was."

Margaret makes quite golf claps and smiles at Miranda. She moves back to her seat and does the same spell Miranda has just preformed (she decides to keep it to herself that she already knew the spell, she was surprised that it wasn't too much for Miranda, all in her first day. Margaret was so proud of her.) "It'll be so fun to do our classes together, I know the first time we do charms class together I'll remember this" she smiles at Miranda. She pauses for a while before asking "if we can choose where we sit in our classes may I sit next to you. We can switch it up and you can sit next to your other friends too but for the first two or three days I'd really appreciate it if we sat together so I wouldn't be all alone... don't feel obliged to say yes, you don't have to, I'll probably make friends by sitting next to different people (if you say no" Margaret says in a mumbly way "), that's usually how I make friends, I'm just nervous."

Margaret remembered how she made friends with her some of her best friends. She had sat next to one of the guys in her science class for about a month before he finally asked if they could be friends. Later that year He and another guy had gotten into a joke fight and they had all become friends. Then she remembered all the shipping that came from being friends with those friends, she shook her head and laughed. She would miss them, but she hoped they could still be friends for a while even after she left for a while, she'd still see them on Christmas and in summer and she could send them owls but she knew that the odds pointed toward eventually breaking apart.

"You're much better at this than I am," Miranda said with a smile. "I'll never be able to remember all these spells."

She listened to Margaret's question quietly, but her answer was immediate. "Of course I'd like to sit with you in class," she said vehemently. "It definitely beats sitting alone!"

Also, I'll need someone to help me around with the whole "school" thing, she thought. Otherwise I'll probably just flounder around uselessly. And that would make Mother more disappointed than anything.

Someone in the hallway outside banged on their compartment's door, and Miranda shot a disgruntled look in their direction. Some people just don't appreciate the chance we're being offered here, she thought. Either that, or their excitement makes them act like monkeys. Yeesh.

"I wonder how long it will take for us to get to the school?" she asked aloud. "I hope it won't be long. It's taking all my control not to go crazy with excitement." Miranda smiled at Margaret. "My parents have talked about this school since the moment I could understand them. That's probably why I'm so ecstatic."

I also hope its as amazing as they said it was, she thought with a slight wince.