Quick Note: I didn't write the poem (chapter 15). Found it when I was looking for some love poems to read (just because) and I don't know, seemed perfect for my story. The name on it (John Clare) is the guy who actually wrote it.

Also, Happy Birthday to me!

Chapter 16 - "Hannah's Home!"

North Berwick is a miniscule town in east-central Scotland, not far from Edinburgh. Churches and small museums take the place of nightclubs and the majority of it's youth tend to gravitate towards the beach, and it's surroundings when the tide is in. It is a typical Scottish village, everyone knows everyone ("and has done for donkey's years"), and everyone knows that Hannah Abbot is attending some fancy school in London on a scholarship despite the comments that she had never really been all that clever.

They also knew that she was due home soon. Her best friend from primary school was currently in the living room with the Abbot family, chatting animatedly with Hannah's older brother Clark (by eleven months), while his two sisters (twenty-one and eleven) were playing with the baby and their father was frantically tidying up. Thalia Amarante's family were originally from Greece but both her mother and father had been born in London, made a lot of money, moved north of the border and started a family. Truth be told, they had retained a modicum of pretention, which they had unsuccessfully attempted to pass on to their only child. Thalia (or Lia) and Hannah despaired of their separate home-lives and had always "amicably debated" whether it was better to come from a large family or to have no brothers or sisters at all, both envious of the other's situation.

Hannah's family had always been more accommodating to their friendship - their home being better suited to children. At the Amarante homestead, Hannah had always been wary of their furniture being more expensive, and their frantic glances towards each other whenever she neared ornaments or examined the paintings on the walls was enough to ensure that a lot of their time was spent playing at the Abbot residence as children, then (as teenagers) gossiping and practising dance steps to Kylie Minogue. When Hannah had left for Hogwarts, they had been perfecting their routine to "Better The Devil You Know."

Of course, Thalia knew where Hannah spent her school terms and delighted in hearing about all these amazing things that she could do, and all the unbelievable (yet totally real) world that until a few years ago she had no knowledge of. Admittedly, she was a bit jealous. It had been widely recognised in North Berwick that she was "The Best At Everything" but was fair enough to realise that this was a taster of what Hannah had probably endured for years. She had contented herself with living vicariously which was why she was on the Abbot's couch, almost bouncing up and down with excitement. But she also knew better than to mention anything magical in the presence of any of the other Abbots.

Both of Hannah's parents hated magic but were obsessed with film noir. The only reason she had not been named after a famous actresses was because the had allowed five year old Ava to choose her name. They hadn't been particularly thrilled with her choice but Hannah's maternal grandmother (who had been present) insisted they kept their promise. They had learned from their mistake and had therefore named all their other children themselves.

So it happened that their oldest child was named after Ava Gardener, their second after Clark Gable, their fourth after Marilyn Monroe, their youngest after Orson Welles and their middle child was named after Ava's best friend from nursery school. It was a story that had been recounted to Thalia many a time, usually on Hannah's birthdays, and could now tell Mrs. Abbot version verbatim.

Donald Abbot collapsed into his chair, having restored his house to a respectable state, just in time to hear his front door opening and his wife Aileen's clear voice call out: "Hannah's home!"

A.N. Although this story isn't the greatest piece of fiction in the world (I think this is probably my worst chapter but I felt the need of some family history), I do put a lot of effort and thought into it. Especially the non-canon names. If you go to http/ and look up the names I used, it will show you why I chose these particular ones. I think it adds something to my story but then I am just the world's biggest geek.