The Heart Is Not Black or White

Chapter 3

I stood at the top of the hill in the woods behind my house, staring at the portkey that would take my parents and I to the Leaky Cauldron. The portkey was an old stuffy top hat, with a slick black ribbon tied around it. I was tempted to touch it, wanting to get to Britain and the Weasleys as soon as possible.

"Are you ready, Marissa?" I heard my mom say as she came up beside me.

"Yes, I can't wait," I replied.

"Well we can't wait either to finally see Arthur," my dad said as he arrived on the hill too. "Some weird things have been going on at the American Ministry that he would know about."

The American Ministry was fairly new. My father was one of the first aurors hired there, just after he had moved to America from the UK with my mother. When they had me, they decided right away that they wanted me to have an education at Hogwarts. So while I'm at Hogwarts this year they're going to start moving into a house just a couple miles away from the Weasleys. I wasn't too sad to move away because I already had some friends there, and would hopefully make more at Hogwarts. When we moved my father would start working at the British Ministry.

"Okay, we better get going, or the Weaslys will be wondering where we've been," my father urged us.

"Wait," I said, taking one last look back at our house through the trees. All my things were packed up in boxes ready to be moved, and they would be at my new house when I came home for the holidays. Even though I was prepared to leave, I needed one last look.

"Ok," I said. "I'm ready."

I gripped the handle of my trunk and the edge of the hat. My father did the same. But my mother said, "Marissa, when I asked if you were ready, I didn't just mean moving or Hogwarts. I meant are you ready for the things that will happen when you move and go to Hogwarts?"

"I already told you, Mom," I said. "I'm excited."

With that she smiled and held onto the hat.

I was ready. I knew my life was changing, but I couldn't wait to begin a new life and travel to almost a whole new world. The Wizarding World. Where I would find my purpose. I could most feel that world calling to me across the ocean.