Three days after Karma had told me he was leaving, I woke up without really realizing what day it was. I yawned, shoved on my slippers, and headed downstairs, just like I did every day during the summer. On the way down, I passed the calendar that Mom hung on the wall. Curious to see what day of the week it was (A/N: everyone forgets what day of the week it is in the summer. Don't lie), I glanced at it. Tuesday, huh...

After a few seconds, it clicked. "Oh!" It was my eleventh birthday! Finally! Ten was starting to feel like it was never going to end! I ran down the last of the steps, tripped on one, and tumbled down. Ouch. I instantly bounced back up and ran to the kitchen, full of energy. Birthdays were so exciting! Even I, with my crappy, cross-dressing life, had those to look forward to.

"Morning, Mom!" I yelled, practically falling into my chair as I reached the table.

"Good morning, Nagisa," Mom greeted me, smiling. "Today's a big day, huh? Do you want to do anything special?"

"Not really," I told her. "I just want to visit my friend Karma... Before he leaves..."

"Oh, he?" Mom swooped in on me, ruffling my hair and laughing. "Did you already find yourself a boyfriend?"

"Mom!" I complained, ducking away. "He's my best friend! And besides, I'm not a-"

At that moment, I felt the world go dark. Mom had a deadly aura about her. Oh no. I quickly bit my tongue, stopping myself before I said the taboo phrase: I'm not a girl. Never were those words to come out of my mouth. I'd learned that the hard way.

"-allowed to date!" I covered up quickly, forcing a giggle. "You said that yourself, Mom!"

I nearly sighed in relief as I felt the deadly aura fade away. "Of course! I'm just teasing you, Nagisa!" Mom laughed. She patted my head, then said, "Okay, you can go over to Karma's around lunch. He's that Weasley kid, right?" At my nod, she laughed, ruffling my hair. "Well, have a nice birthday, sweetie. I'll have a nice surprise waiting for you when you get back!"

After stuffing my face with cereal, I spent the rest of the morning playing video games, but I wasn't really paying attention to any of it. I was anxiously awaiting my visit to the Weasleys'. Also, it was sort of hard to focus with the pecking. Every hour on the dot, this stupid owl kept pecking at the window. Mom had to keep shooing it away. Finally, at 11:30, after turning off my games and bidding Mom goodbye, I dashed out of the front door, desperate to see Karma. Had he left already? No. He couldn't have. He had to still be here.

After a few minutes of running, I came upon the Weasley house: an odd building called the Burrow II. I guess they had another one just like it in... Where was it? London? And that's why they called it that. I dashed to the front door, yelled Karma's name, and waited anxiously. Please let him be here, please let him be here... After a moment or two, the door opened, and I screamed in delight as I saw Karma and Ron on the other side.

"Karma!" I cried, tackling him in a hug. I squeezed him so tightly that he probably had trouble breathing. "Thank goodness! I was afraid you already left!"

"Nagisa, please-" Karma choked, "You're going to kill me!"

"Whoops!" I gasped, scrambling off of him. After a second of silence, we both burst out laughing. "I guess I was a bit too excited, huh?" I grinned, turning to Karma's twin. "Good morning, Ron!"

"Morning, Nagisa," Ron greeted me, holding in laughter of his own. "So... Karma tells me it's your eleventh birthday today?"

"Yeah!" I agreed, shooting Karma a smile. He told his family that it was my birthday today? He shot a mischievous grin at me, but it faded as Ron muttered,

"He should be at home. If the letter shows up for him today..."

"Huh?" I blinked, confused. The letter? Now that I thought about it, Karma had mentioned something about getting letters on their eleventh birthdays. "What kind of letter?"

"That doesn't matter right now," Karma cut in, grabbing my arm and dragging me inside. "Come on in! Mom thought you might be coming, so she's preparing a HUGE lunch. We were actually going to invite you, but you showed up before we got the chance," Karma explained, laughing.

"That's so nice of you guys!" I exclaimed, smiling so wide that my jaw hurt. The Weasleys were the best! Too bad none of them were ever around during the school year... At least all throughout primary school, I had Ron and Karma. Now I wouldn't have anybody. Well, except for...

"Hi, Nagisa," a high voice greeted me as we turned the corner. I smiled as I saw Ginny Weasley, the youngest of the siblings and the only girl. "Happy birthday!"

"Th-thanks," I stuttered, blushing. Karma rolled his eyes; I elbowed him in the ribs. I know, I know, it's weird to have a crush on your best friend's little sister, but I had some pretty good reasons:

1) Ginny is pretty.
2) She's the only girl who actually knows I'm a guy.
3) She reminds me of Karma...

At that last one, I started panicking. Wait. Did I somehow grow feelings for Karma? But he was a fellow guy! Then again, maybe pretending to be a girl rubbed off on me. Ughhhhhhh! I shook my head to clear it. No. Any girl who acted like my best friend was bound to draw my attention, right? Yeah, that had to be it... (A/N: that honestly MIGHT be it, because I still don't know if I'm going to make this a Karmagisa or a NagiKae... Heck, it might even be a Naginny at this rate... SORRY HARRY. Or I could pull something completely out of nowhere like NagiRon, HerNagi, LuNagi... Ooh! What about Harrisa??? XDXDXDXDXDXDXD TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS WANT RIGHT HERE AND MAJORITY WINS xD)

"Come on, Nagisa!" Karma called. "You coming?" I jumped; had I really been standing still for so long? Karma, Ron, and Ginny were already at the end of the hallway. I ran to catch up, willing away my blush as I went. I was only eleven; I was NOT ready for some dramatic love story like the ones you see on TV or in books.

"Look, Mum, Nagisa showed up on his own!" Ron called as we entered the kitchen. At this, the entire family turned to look at me, grinning.

"Hey, Nagisa!" The older twins, Fred and George, greeted me in unison. Unlike Karma and Ron, they were completely identical. Sometimes even Mrs. Weasley was tricked into believing one was the other!

"Happy birthday, Mr. Nagisa," Percy said, using the 'San' as if to put up a wall between us. I was used to it by then; Percy had this politeness about him that he used to keep others at bay. It used to tick me off, but eventually I stopped caring.

Mr. Weasley nodded at me, then turned back to whatever it was he was messing with today: an old phone? It had a cord and everything. He seemed really intrigued.

"Mrs. Weasley, where's Charlie?" I asked, sitting down between Karma and Ginny. Charlie was the oldest Weasley sibling, and I had grown rather fond of him in the 'father I never had' sort of way... Since my dad died when I was five years old.

"Oh, he's studying abroad," Mrs. Weasley answered after a slight hesitation. It was so small that most people wouldn't have caught on to it, but I did. And her wavelength was slightly jarred. Hmm... It seemed like she was telling the truth, but Mrs. Weasley was definitely choosing her words carefully.

"More importantly," Mrs. Weasley hurried over to the table with a steaming pot, changing the subject. "You look like a twig, Nagisa! You'd better eat a lot of your birthday meal! Today's pot roast!"

As the rest of the Weasleys started drooling, I smiled. Since this odd family was actually from London, not native to Japan, they didn't really eat much Japanese food... And that was fine with me. Every time I came over, I got to try something new... because Heaven forbid I spend more than five minutes at this house without eating something.

"Alright, everyone!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, clapping happily. "Let's dig-"

She was interrupted by a pecking on the window.

Every head turned to stare at a lone owl on the outside of the Weasleys' window. "No way!" I exclaimed, making everyone jump. "That's the same owl that's been bugging me all day! Is it following me or something?"

No one said anything, but instead stared at me. "What? Aren't one of you going to shoo it away?" Instead of answering me, Mrs. Weasley opened the window and let the owl in. Instantly, it flew over to me, dropped something on the table in front of me, and flew away. Surprised, I picked the object up, identifying it as... an envelope? I turned it over and saw that there was an odd, red wax seal with the word "Hogwarts" on it.

"Blimey, Nagisa!" Ron exclaimed. "You got yourself a letter of acceptance!"

"A letter of what now?" I asked, still sort of in a daze.

Karma nudged me with his elbow. "Read it and you'll see." Taking a gulp of air, I tore open the envelope and unfolded the paper inside. It read,

"Dear Mr. Shiota,

You have hereby been accepted to the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, led by headmaster Albus Dumbledore. You'll learn magic, spells, how to make potions, and much more. At first, we weren't sure whether to send you to Hogwarts or Ilvermorny, but after observing your close relationship with the Weasleys, we decided it better this way.

First years will need..."

The letter went on, describing the school supplies, pets, the wand, and everything else I would need at this Hogwarts place. When I finished reading, I looked up to find the entire Weasley family grinning at me.

"Um..." I managed, my voice a little shaky, "What does this mean?"

"It means we'll get to spend our next school year together after all!" Karma said, his golden eyes gleaming. With a jolt, everything suddenly made sense. When Karma and Ron kept talking about letters... this was what they meant. The Weasleys and I were going to school together... to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."