A tall red-haired wizard with a great deal of freckles up and down him was dueling the dreaded Lord Voldemort and he was winning. The red-haired wizard had the Lord on his knees begging for the wizard to spare his life and then....

"RONALD WEASLEY!!!!!" The ringing voice of Mrs. Weasley filled the house. "You get up this instant!!"

Ron growned and slowly got out of bed.

He made his way down the long staircase, thinking hard about what he did as he ran his hand absentmindedly through his hair. He finally found his mother in the kitchen."What is it mum?"

"Oh Ronald, dear, you received a letter." Mrs. Weasley replied in the sweetest voice.

"And??" Ron demanded crankily.

"And what dear?"

"Is there anything else you needed, Mum?" Ron asked grounchily.

"Well, there are a lot of things I need, but nothing else from you at the moment." She went back to her work.

Ron grunted and then stared at his letter curiously. "Who's this from, mum?" Ron asked.

"Doesn't it say on there, Ron?" Mrs. Weasley uttered as she continued her work.

"No Mum it doesn't."

"Then bloody open it up and see what it is!" Mrs. Weasley screeched, then under her breath,"and I'm not raising blondes they say, huh, well I'd like them to see my kids sometimes."


"Did you say something, Mum?" Ron questioned.

"No, dear, no,"she said through a sigh.

Ron shrugged and opened the letter quickly and read:

Dear Mr. Ronald Weasley,

Recently we received a recommendation for you to participate in our program, the Wizard Exchange Program. This program gives witches and wizards everywhere a chance to experience a different culture. If you would like to participate in our program, please fill out the application enclosed and send it (owl messaging only please) to:

The Underground Offices
418 Central Avenue
London

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely

John P. Clemens
President of Wizarding Programs, Inc.


Ron stared in awe at the letter he had just read. No one had ever recommended him for anything. Why me? He thought to himself. Then he started imagining life as a different person, in a different house, with different people. He imagined himself with a rich wizarding family. That was it, he was going to apply. Ron ran to his mother to tell her of his plans.

Ron heard his mother's yelling from a distance. It has to be coming from Fred and George's room He thought. He sprinted to their room.

When he reached the room nearly out of breath, all three of the Weasley's already occupying the room stared at Ron as though he were crazy. Ron managed to get a few words out," M-mum...ap-aplic-aplication...wiz-...."


"Whiz? Are you applying for a bloody whiz?" Fred interupted.

"Because, you know, you can use the W.C. when ever you bloody want to. It's just down the hall mate, in case you need it." George finished.

"Thank you, Fred and George, but let the boy finish." Mrs Weasley yelled as she bonked the boys on the head.

"Th-thanks Mum," stuttered Ron, who was slowly catching his breath,"S-so Mum, th-there's th-this Wiz-wizard Ex-ch-change pro-Program a-and th-they w-want me t-to j-join." Ron took a deep breath. He was prepared for what was coming next.

He ran to the old wobbly desk in his room and started filling out the paper work frantically. Name? He thought What's my name?...Oh yeah...I remember I'm Reasley Won...I mean Weasley Ron...I mean Ron Weasley. He finished the application quickly after he remembered his name and rushed to find an owl. He heard a loud bang on the window of his room that made him jump, and found that it was Errol,the old family owl. And in his rush, Ron decided he was just the owl he was just the owl for this job. He may be old Ron thought to himself, but he'll get the job done. He tied to the application to the Errol's foot and watched the owl fly away, hitting one house and two trees on his way to flying into the sunset. Errol wasn't just flying away with his application, he was flying away with Ron's future.

Ron didn't sleep well that night. He felt sick from all the food he consumed at dinner (Mrs. Weasley had prepared a feast in celebration of Ron's upcoming events) and he was worried and he was worried about his application. He had a discussion about it with Mrs. Weasley right after dinner.

"Mum, I really worry that Errol won't get my application to London. I mean, Errol might've been a reliable owl a long time ago, but now, I don't know, he's old. I don't know what I was thinking yesterday when I sent my application with him," Ron confided.

"Really, Ronald, Errol is not a bad owl at all! You're letter will get to London just fine," she said consolingly with a smile that made him feel a hippogriff of a lot better.

"Okay, mum, thanks for that." Ron replied.

* * * *

An owl named Errol made his way through London until he got to The Student Exchange Program office in London (a muggle office), right above the Wizard Exchange Program office (which happened to be exactly 15 miles below the muggle office). The mail was coming at the exact moment. The owl dropped the letter at the doorstep of the Student Exchange Program office. The mail covered it up.