Dear Tree,

It was her fourth visit to the wizarding world, and Elise was back at the same tree that she had met James and Gwen. It was large and very tall with green leaves. Gwen had been sleeping in one of the thick branches, and Elise was eager to get up on the tree. Tree-climbing, was one of her favorite activities. And there was no tree that she had failed to climb yet.

She stepped back a few feet away before running. Elise went up a some good distance, but missed latching on to the branch. She clicked her tongue, and tried again.

Andy was walking though the park when he spotted a girl that he recognised as the same girl from the Leaky Cauldron.

He watched on with a smile as she tried to climb the large tree in the middle of the park.

"You could try and get a foot hold in the bark," he suggested, walking up to her, "That might help."

Elise gave a startled jump when she heard the out-of-no-where voice. She let out an embarrassed laugh as she turned around to face Anthony, the boy she had met yesterday.

"I guess, but the branch is to high for me to reach." Her eyes looked at the tree's thick body.

How was she going to get a good hold without scraping her hands? Then she turned her attention to Anthony again, "So... what are you doing here?"

Andy laughed, "Trees and I don't have a good track record, so if it's all the same with you, I think I'll keep my two feet on the ground," he said, smiling.

"Me? I was bored of Diagon Alley. My sister loves this park, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. How about you?" he smiled, "Any reason you're here, apart from your 'trying to climb the tree,' escapade."

"I see..." She hummed in though a bit before nodding. Tree climbing will have to wait until she figure out how to get up there with a different technique.

"Well, I got annoyed with all the kids at the orphanage." Elise admitted. "They were kinda..."

She rubbed the back of her neck and turned her head to the side to glare at the innocent grass. Then she changed her attitude. It was rude to be moody in front of someone.

"Let's just say that they're not fond of me right now." Her smile returned. "But whatever. I know they'll miss me when I'm gone for the year."

Okay. She was blabbering and that needed to stop. Elise sat down by the base of the tree. "So, does the wizarding world have any sports?"

Andy nodded slowly. He didn't know she lived in an orphanage, but did now. That was interesting. He had to think if they had Magical Orphanages, or if she was a Muggleborn. It didn't matter either way.

He sensed that she didn't really want to talk about what happened with the kids there, but she might want to talk later.

Smiling at her subject change, Andy sat down with her. "Only the best sport ever! Quidditch. Have you heard of it before?"

"Nope. Never heard of it. I'm a muggleborn." She was excited to hear about the new sport. "How does it go?"

Elise loved sports, even though she can only really play two: tennis and football (soccer). And the mention of wizards playing sports intrigued her.

Andy was more than up for explaining the game.

"That's okay," he said and then took a deep breath,"Quidditch is played on broomsticks. There are seven players per team and two teams verse each other to try and score as many points as possible by scoring goals through one of three hoops at each end of a pitch. The game only ends when the Golden Snitch is caught which gives the team that catches it, an extra 150 points."

Andy took another breath, "The seven players are as follows. One Keeper, who act as a goalkeeper to keep the opposing team from scoring goals. Three Chasers, who, with a Quaffle, a large red, football shaped ball, try and score goals past the Keeper. Then there are two Beaters, who deflect two Bludgers, which are like heavy black balls of doom, and trust me, hurt when you get hit with one. And then finally," Andy said, smiling, 'there is the Seeker, who's job is to find the tiny Golden Snitch and end the game, and almost always win the game for their team!"

He paused, "Understand?" he asked the girl.

Elise nodded. It sounded a bit like soccer. They both had goalkeepers and strikers (or Chasers in the case of Quidditch). The Beaters and Seeker were a whole new concept to her, but understood them nonetheless.

"Sounds fun! Except for, you know, the whole getting hit by the bludger thing." Then she stopped, "Wait. Broomsticks? We can actually ride on broomsticks?!"

A wide grin fell on her face. Witches riding broomsticks was actually real! And Elise couldn't wait to try riding one.

"Will we be able to play that in Hogwarts?"

Andy laughed, "It is fun, but I agree. Bludgers are scary as anything, and hurt bad when hit. My dad bought one and we were trying it out... I ended up with a broken arm. Nasty things they are!"

He nodded, "Yup. I'll have to take you to Quality Quidditch Supplies and show you the brooms they have there. The Firebolt is a real beauty. Just wait until you see it!"

Andy shrugged, "I'm not sure if we can play the actual game, but I'm sure we can go down to the Quidditch pitch and watch the game on the weekend. My sister is a Chaser on the Ravenclaw team; she's a third year." He grinned, "Oh and don't forget that we have flying lessons to look forward to!"

He looked at her, "You're going to take flying lessons, aren't you? I wouldn't miss it. Imagine, a actual lesson for flying. How awesome!"

Elise winced when Anthony mentioned breaking his arm. "Ouch! That had to hurt. I broke an arm... Well, more of the hand area, too. And I haven't been in that store yet."

Quality Quidditch Supplies didn't have any of the required items for school so it wasn't mentioned on her list. Elise nodded vigorously when he said that he would take her to the store.

"Wow! You guys have different models? Can't you just use any broom?" She asked, a bit confused but more than excited at the same time.

"And of course I'll take the class. I want to play!" Then it she just realized something. "Wait... You just said your sister plays for her team. How come we can't play?"

Andy cringed, "I bet it took ages to heal though, the Muggle way. I went to Mungo's and the Healer fixed it in about 2 seconds."

He laughed again, 'Course there are different models. You can't just use a common cleaning broom," he said, laughing. "Some brooms are better than others. Like a Nimbus brand is far better than Comets or Cleansweeps. I'll have to show you!"

Andy shrugged, "I don't think first years are allowed on the house teams. Too dangerous, I guess. But I'm hankering for try-outs in Second year. That'll be epic."

"Yeah, it was. And I'm jealous! It took about two months for me to heal." Elise shook her head at the amount of downtime she had to take from playing sports.

"I see! Of course that makes more sense." She nodded her head as she thought about it. It was like in tennis where buying a racket from a sports store was better than the ones in the food market. It just didn't compare.

"Oh." Elise shrugged. She supposed that made sense too. "Nice. I guess I'll try out too! Although, I don't think I'll be any good."

"What kind of Muggle sports do you play? My dad and I played some soccer in the backyard once, but I got pretty over it fairly quickly. I don't really like being outdoors, expect on a broom, for long periods of time; plus the bugs seem to love bitting me!" He didn't want to sound so girly about it, but he really did hate bugs, especially spiders.

He tilted his head, "I'm sure with practice, you'll be good at it. You never know, you may be a natural born Quidditch player," he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Excited about Hogwarts?" he asked, "What house are you hoping to get into?"

"Tennis and soccer." She grinned. "Those are the only sports I play. I tried others, but I didn't do any good with them. Oh, and I do martial arts too, though I don't think that's a common sport."

Elise laughed when Anthony admitted at hating bugs. Every boy she knew, sort of, were drawn to those icky creatures. She returned his smile. "Yeah. I hope so. And I think I'm good to go for Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. The other two houses... I don't think I'd fit them too nicely. You?"

"What's that?" he asked, "Martial arts?" He really had no idea what kind of sport that was; granted, he didn't know much about Muggles, only what his dad told him.

"I don't mind the idea of Gryffindor either, but I think I'll end up a Raven, like my sister, and mother. I do enjoy solving riddles and the like, so perhaps I'm more suited to that house. I'm not brave in the slightest, so probably not Gryffindor, now that I think on it," Andy's face flushed ever so slightly, because he let slip his fear of spiders earlier. She probably thinks I'm a super pansy, or something, he thought.

Elise face lit up. "Martial Arts is basically fighting, but you know how to control yourself when you fight. My teacher says that Martial Arts is something that helps you balance yourself and calm your mind. It's like a stress reliever, I guess."

Then she stopped and blushed. She didn't think that she was doing the subject any justice with her petty explanation.

"Er... I don't think what I just said made any sense, so I'll try again. Martial Arts is, or rather are, traditions of combat. Literally it means 'Arts of War' or 'Fighting Arts.' There's loads of different forms like Karate in Japan, or Kung Fu in China."

Then she brought up her hands, clenched into fists, and snapped it forward into a punch to demonstrate Karate. Her hands relaxed, opening her hands, and made a fluid motion when it came to Kung Fu.

"Yikes! I heard that Ravenclaws have to riddles to get into their rooms or something. And I'm not too smart with those." She admitted.

Andy sat, wide-eyed and listened as Elise explained Martial arts. Whilst most of it went right over his head, he got the gist of the sport.

"Sounds awesome," he said, smiling. "It would take some dedication, I'd reckon. I don't think I'm committed enough for something like that. Cool that you are though."

Andy nodded, "Yeah, my sister said that she spent twenty minutes trying to solve one of the riddles the portrait had for her. She said she was busting for the loo as well. I hope nothing like that happens to me, if I'm in Ravenclaw, that is."

Martial Arts did take a lot of commitment. When Elise was frustrated with one of the techniques, she would ask herself multiple times to quit. Elise mentally shook her head at those times; happy to have grit her teeth and plowed through it.

"Yeah, it does," she laughed and remembered the tantrum she threw because the teacher wouldn't teach her a cool technique. "Sometimes I really wanted to quit, but it was worth it."

Elise winced at the story, "Ouch! Good luck with that then... if you make it into Ravenclaw."

Andy nodded, "I wish I had something I could be dedicated about," he said. "Perhaps I'll find something at Hogwarts to inspire me."

Andy jumped up, "Oh! Speaking of Hogwarts, I haven't finished getting my stuff! I better be off. I'm sure I'll see you around Hogwarts!" Andy brushed the grass from his pants and walked off, definitely looking forward for the term to start.

"I'm sure you'll find something," she said with a smile.

Elise believed that everyone had something that they were truly dedicated to. They probably overlooked it, or hadn't found it yet.

"Okay, see you then!" She waved bye to Anthony before making her way out to the Leaky Cauldron. It was time to get home and face her "family."