Hello!

It's been so long since I've talked to all of you.

I hope all of you are doing well.

I'm doing....WONDERFUL!!

We're no longer in Gorgaryle.   We left last week.

I'm free now!   And I can use the internet.

What happened was the Cawoods found a writing job for my dad.    With that he was able to get a visa.   The difficult thing is they had to use magic to make it look like we've been in London for the last few months.   It would be hard to get a visa if the government thought we had been here as illegal aliens.  

The other WONDERFUL thing is that Julia is back with us.   I'm happy because I like having my sister near me.   I'm also happy because I didn't like her living with Malcolm.   I know that's selfish and petty.   Sorry.   

Julia said nothing ever happened between them.  They're just friends.   I suppose I believe her.  She says it doesn't matter though because he's too old for me. 

He's not that much older than me.   I'm sixteen now.    He's eighteen.

Valentine's Day is in a few days.   I'm counting on Malcolm to get me a very romantic gift.

I'm joking.  

I still have Harry in my life.   I'll probably buy him some special bird treats.  

Oh!   I forgot to tell you guys where we're living.  

We're back in Kiama.   My dad's job is freelance so we could go wherever we wanted.    I sort of wish we had stayed in Sydney so we could be near Malcolm.   It doesn't matter that much though.  He can apparate and visit us.  Hopefully, he'll visit a lot. 

Julia's pretty good at the whole apparating thing now too.  

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say for now.

I hope all of you are alive and well.  

Visitor

Malcolm came to visit me today!

Well, honestly he came Gorgaryle to buy some potion ingredients, but he stopped in to say hello.  He was super nice and invited me out for a little snack.  

We had butterbeer.   I used to love that stuff, but I've drunk so much of it since we've been here.   I'm getting kind of tired of it.

Most of the refugees have left.  Some of them went back to the UK and some are settling in Australia.

I don't know what's going to happen to us.   My parents still want to return to the UK, but they don't want to leave without Julia.   

I don't want to leave without her either.  Then another point of me asks, what difference does it make?  We're in the same city and we barely see each other.

Anyway, I thought I was over Malcolm; but now I'm totally back to not being over him.  

Still Here

Hello!

Sorry I haven't written in awhile.

As I said before, it's hard for me to get on the internet.  

Life here is pretty nice.

Actually, no it's not.

I feel like a prisoner.

Everyone's really nice, but the last time I was outside of Gorgaryle was on June 29.   That's 26 days ago!    I feel trapped.

I shouldn't complain though.   We're eating.  We're drinking.  We have shelter.  

We're not being tortured or abused.

I may have memorised every item in every shop around here.

I've read a whole series about a witch named Penelope Plattersmush.    It was cute.   Have any of you read it?  

Julia's come to visit us twice the whole time we've been here.   I think she's trying to forget I'm her sister.

Malcolm came one of those times.   I guess I can give up my delusional fantasies that he might be interested in me. 

I met this girl who might have become my friend.   We had lunch together one day.    She was really nice.

She left on Wednesday.   Her family is moving to Broome.    It's very far away from here.  

Oh well.   She said she'll sound me an owl....or parrot.  

That's about all that's going on in my life.

I hope I'm not stuck here forever.   

I'm trying to read the new Ministry newspaper when I have a chance.   That should keep me entertained.    The only problem is right now I can only get the newspaper off the internet; and I don't have much internet time.

My dad is going to talk to the bookstore and see if they can get copies there.

Cold!

Hello!

I'm so sorry I haven't written in awhile.   It's really a pain to come to the Muggle Centre.   Plus, it's cold.  Maybe in the spring it will be easier for me.

We've been in Gorgaryle for almost two weeks now.   It's not too bad.   My mum has met a few friends.  Most people here don't mind at all that we're Muggles.   They're very nice.

The other day I went to the potions shop (just for the fun of it).   This elderly woman started talking to me about the stuff she was buying.   She thought I was a witch!   I was too shy at first to tell her I wasn't.  Plus....well, she talked a bit much and didn't give me much of a chance to say anything.  

Finally I let her know I was a Muggle.   I prepared for her to scold me for being there or to lose interest in talking to me.   Instead, she was very excited.    She lives up north in Sydney.   She said there's beautiful beaches near her, and she said we should visit her.    I hope we can!    The council here says we have to have permission to leave.   I hate that!    We haven't left yet.   My dad says we should wait to ask because he doesn't want to get them annoyed with us.

I guess I understand his point.    I feel like a prisoner here.   Well, that's stupid of me to say.   It's not like we're in Azkaban.   Everyone is nice here.   We have a nice big tent.   We have good food. 

I haven't met any real friends yet, but that might happen eventually.   Probably?

The Cawoods + Julia are coming this afternoon.   We're going to celebrate Julia's birthday.   Well, it's not her birthday today.   It was last Tuesday.   But they were "too busy" to come here until now.   I'm a little mad about that, but I'm not going to go into it.   It's better not to dwell on things.   Right?

Yes, I still have a crush on Malcolm.    I'm hoping to get over that soon though.   Maybe I'll meet someone interesting in Gorgaryle.  

Hello

Hello!

I can't talk for long because they don't want me using the internet too much here.

They accepted us into the refugee program and we're living in Gorgaryle.  

We got here yesterday.

I don't know if I like it or not.

I hope all of you are okay.  

Harry's with me.   I'm happy about that.   He's my best friend right now.  

I guess maybe I'll meet other friends later.   I feel worried that no one here's going to like me because I'm a Muggle.  

That's kind of silly because no one has been mean or anything.    A girl waved to me this morning.  She was friendly enough.

Maybe I feel unwelcomed here because they had to vote to decide whether we'd be allowed in or not.   I heard it was pretty close...11-10.   That means almost half the people didn't want us here.   Well, it's not like all the wizards voted.    It was only the refugee committee, and many of them don't even live in Gorgaryle.  

I think the other refugees are probably okay with us being here.  Maybe?

My mum talked to some of them today.   They told her they're going to return to England soon.  There's no war anymore, so why not?    But now they're kind of attached to being here.  They're not in a huge hurry to leave.   They said there's other people like us....ones who don't want to return to England.   They're going to leave the tent area and find a place to live in Australia.   They won't have a proper visa, but they don't care.  They're part of the magical world, not the Muggle one.

I guess that's us now too.   It's just we're Muggles, so it's kind of strange.

Well, I have to go.   They close this Muggle centre at 9 pm.   

They really don't want any of us using too much Muggle technology in Gorgaryle.  

Another Parrot

I got a parrot message from Julia.   She and Malcolm are coming here tonight

It wasn't Harry who sent the message.  He's still here (in Kiama) with me, and refusing to send any of my messages.

I expected this new parrot to refuse to send my message too.  But he didn't.    That's good.

I think Harry's just going to be my pet parrot and not a wizarding message bird.   It's fine with me.   I love him, anyway.

Julia has Malcolm now.   I have Harry.

Maybe I'll marry him someday.    

Where is Home?

We're heading back to Kiama today.  

The inn is a bit expensive, and my parents figure we might as well stay in our house since it's already paid for.    Then we'll either come back here in a few weeks or return to London.   I guess it will depend on how the voting goes.    The refugee group is going to vote; and if the vote passes they're going to talk to the Ministry of Magic in New South Wales. 

If we live here, we'll have to live in tents.   That's where all the refugees are living.   It's not so bad since they're magical tents and fairly big.  

Some people though aren't happy about the refugees.   Before the war, there were only about 75 wizards living in the village.    Now that's doubled.  It's gotten a bit crowded.  

The most difficult thing is the entrance way to the village.   It's in a puppet shop for Muggles.  I told you guys that before, right?    There's security against apparating so it's difficult for wizards and witches to get in and out.    Before the war, they were talking about lifting the apparating ban. But now the Ministry is thinking of keeping it.   Since it's crowded in here, they feel there needs to be more security.

My mum says they should let people go in and out freely and just have security in the individual shops.

Mr. Cawood says he thinks there'd no reason to keep the ban;  but certain people aren't happy with the refugees and it's their way of making the refugee program look bad.   They want all of them to go back to London...not just us.   I kind of understand their point even though it's annoying.   The war is over.  It's probably safe for us to go back.   But I think a lot of people want to stay because they're happy in Australia.

I want to stay in Australia, but I'm not too excited about living in a refugee camp.    Most of the refugees will slowly move out of Gorgaryle and into the regular Sydney neighborhoods.  That's where most wizards here live.   But we won't be able to leave since we're supposed to be hiding from the government...not the magical one, but the Muggle one.  

It's all too crazy!!!!!!!!

And the worse thing is Julia's not going back to Kiama with us.  She's staying with the Cawoods.   It makes me mad because she knows how I feel about Malcolm, and here she's going to be staying in the same house as him.   I think she's doing it just to be mean to me.   

I hate that Malcolm asked her in the first place.