Holly ran and bounced around the magical cinema, a huge grin that lit up the massive atrium that even the lighting charms couldn't manage. "Weeee! I'm so excited!" She gushed.
Harry smiled at his little sister's excitement. "Easy there, kiddo," he told her while he turned to his friends, seeing Melissa's smile. Melissa had come with her own brother, and even her little cousin Stephanie, who shared the Picquerry traits of having caramel smooth and dark skin, and long shining blonde hair.
"Oh, come on, Holly," Stephanie grinned at her friend. "Let's run around together!"
Holly giggled. She and Stephanie had hit it off really quickly; Harry had noticed his little sister had a much easier time with making friends than he did, although it was likely due to the fact Harry had made sure Dudley left her alone.
In the meantime, Harry looked around with a smile at the cinema. When he and Holly had still been stuck on Privet Drive, shortly before they were to go to the MACUSA, they'd had a lot of time on their hands, and they'd visited the cinema in Little Whinging. It wasn't a large, grandiose block of a building, it was more of a large shop that was converted into a theatre. In comparison, this one was a lot more like something someone would expect from the 1930s or 20s.
Harry had visited dozens of places in the MACUSA like this, and they were all richly decorated, with food stalls serving up highly great food that was way better quality than the fast junk food he and Holly had seen in Little Whinging.
Here, children and families could take paper bags that were charmed to be bigger on the inside and weightless too and could carry inside them whole pies the size of dinner plates, and even boxes of meals with silverware. There were fizzy drinks, and once more Harry was left wondering if someone had read Roald Dahl because some of the drinks were like Wily Wonka's lifting drinks.
"No," Melissa's elder sister Olivia said, "we need to pay for the movie and for food and drink."
"Come on, sis," Harry gestured for her to come to him, and she did, much to his relief even though she still pouted a little bit.
"What're we seeing today, Harry?" Holly asked him.
"I dunno," Harry admitted to her, looking at Olivia and Melissa. "Guys, what are we seeing today?"
Olivia chuckled. "We're seeing The Fairies in the Forest."
Harry frowned, he should have expected that. The Fairies in the Forest was one of the reasonably newer novels written by a witch who had emigrated to America because of her non-magical heritage; apparently, she had endured all kinds of prejudice back in Britain and had decided to try her luck somewhere else when she'd had enough. She had found the MACUSA had a wonderful cultural foundation that was close to what she had seen in the muggle world and had worked hard on writing stories.
The Fairies in the Forest was a book about a young witch who played with fairies, who let them explore other worlds beyond the one experienced by witches and wizards. Harry had never read the novel himself, but he knew Holly had begun it. She had only gotten roped into it because some of her friends at school loved it.
"The Fairies in the Forest?" Holly cheered while Stephanie and some of the younger siblings of the friend's group looked interested and excited, too. But then her expression became more quizzical as something important occurred to her. "But, erm, won't that spoil things for me when I read the rest of the book?"
Olivia froze, she hadn't expected that. Harry said nothing while the rest of the kids in their group looked similarly worried and disappointed.
Fortunately, Pandora got there first. "I shouldn't think so, Holly, some of the movie will be different from the novel. It's bound to be."
While Holly looked relieved, Harry knew that was true. Movies, both magical and No-Maj, both tended to shorten the lengths of novels. After Olivia paid for the movie seats and the food. They had small pies, tarts, chocolate frogs, boxes of ever-flavour beans, and chocolate bars.
In the No-Maj cinema, you had to sit down on the folded seats with the seat part folded down. Not in the MACUSA cinemas. Here you sat down on armchairs that were extremely comfortable and layered down with hundreds of charms to keep them clean, repelling even specks of dust.
Harry sat with Melissa on his left, and Holly on his right before they watched the movie, however as with the nonmagical world, the magical world used the opportunity to display a stream of ads and news clips. The ads were pretty same-y; they advertised new cleaning potions, broomsticks, enchanted products like mirrors, flutes, pianos to help children learn how to play, and stuff like that.
Unlike the non-magical world, the wizarding world displayed the movies using a massive crystal ball that displayed a 3D hologram. For the next 3 hours, Harry would smile at his sister, who was munching her sweets gleefully, as the main characters fell through the fairy forest and travelled to dozens of enchanted worlds. Harry had never read the book, but he had read dozens of novels in the muggle world similar to this, but because of the author's experiences with magic, she had something of a greater stepping stone.
The movie was enjoyable, but what Harry found truly worthwhile, was the look of utter joy on his little sister's face.
