America's Sweetheart

    ~America’s Sweetheart~

~*Chapter 1*~

        Over The Ocean

         Marianna basked in the sun, her shoulder-length curly brown hair blowing in the wind, her caramel highlights gleaming in the sunlight. She held onto her broom as the turquoise-blue ocean sparkled below her. Her trunk swayed in the breeze as it followed her broom.

         Finally, she thought, smiling to herself. I’m going to England. After harassing Mom and Dad for two years, we’re finally going!

        Her sister Carissa was next to her, on her own broom. Carissa was humming to herself, smiling as she looked at the vast ocean below her.

        Marianna sighed with pleasure. She’d been waiting for two years to go to the only country in the world with a higher concentration of wizards than America. She’d been attending Salem Witches Institute for 3 years now, and had been reading up on other wizarding schools in her History Of Magic class. She fell in love with Hogwarts from the moment she first read Hogwarts: A History for her essay. Hogwarts was their final destination on their little vacation.

        Marianna gasped; she just saw land.

         “Ok, girls, we’re now officially in England,” called her mom as they reached the shore. “We’re heading for London.”

         “The Leaky Cauldron, right Mom?” shouted Marianna over the wind.

         “Yes,” called back her father. “Put your Invisibility Cloaks on.”

        They flew over the English countryside for the next two hours. Marianna smiled; everything was so pretty here, and there weren’t as many houses and buildings as there were in Massachusetts. The forests were filled with green trees and animals, not picnic benches, and paved paths.

        Finally, the trees started to thin, the houses became closer together and more numerous, until they saw the city of London looming in the distance. The skyscrapers provided a sharp contrast to the tall evergreens of the countryside.

        They skirted the city, then turned back in, and landed on a grubby little street in the heart of London. The shops looked old and vacant, and few people were walking the cobbled street. Marianna looked around as she took her cloak off, and spotted a little pub with a sign over the top that read The Leaky Cauldron in spiky black letters, with a picture of a cauldron under them.

         “Mom,” Marianna called. “I think I found it.”

        They entered the pub, and Marianna saw the weirdest assortment of people she’d ever seen. A man in a violet top hat was talking to an exceedingly tall man whose face was concealed behind a newspaper called The Daily Prophet. An old lady in carpet slippers with a bag around her wrist was smacking a man with graying ginger hair and droopy eyes. A short witch concealed in a traveling cloak was speaking to the toothless old man behind the bar.

        They all walked over the bar, dodging the violet top-hatted man and his companion.

         Marianna’s dad cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”

         “The man behind the counter turned, his wrinkled face smiling.

         “Yes?”

         “We’re the Americans who made reservations for three rooms last week.”

         “Ah, yes, I remember. I’m Tom, the barkeeper and caretaker. Let me show you to your rooms.”

        He walked out of the bar area, and up a flight of stairs. As Marianna watched, her parents looked at each other, shrugged, then followed Tom up the stairs. Marianna and Carissa darted after them, taking in as much as they could at once. Tom stopped in front of a door with a brass number twelve on it.

         “Here they are: rooms twelve through fourteen are yours. See you at dinner.”

        Marianna opened the door of number twelve and stepped inside, calling, “I’ll be in this room. See you at dinner.”

        She shut the door, and looked at the twin bed, bureau and mirror. She smiled. I’m in England, she thought. I’m meant to be here, I know it!

        She laid down on the bed and sighed. Life was good right now.