I last another two days in the muggle hotel with my sanity. Pansy is let out of the hospital on the morning of the twenty-third and seeing her is somehow relieving. She doesn't have much to say to me. It's probably for the best anyway. That evening, Auror Dawlish comes and offers to secure Pansy and me in the shelter and Pansy actually laughs. As she sees it, we are more likely to be murdered there. If one person hates us enough, they can certainly find a way inside.

By the twenty-fourth, I cannot take it any longer.

"Just take a train to Brighton," Pansy walks in through the bathroom. She chucks a wallet at me filled with muggle money. "If I listen to you pace any longer, I'm going to go crazy. Also, you might make get a blister, and even that knowledge might kill me. Get out of here. Go home."

I do as she says. She doesn't need to tell me anything else.

From there, I take a cab to King's Cross, and then a train to Brighton, and then another cab. It's easy enough to do because I'm not thinking about what will happen. Some of the memories are certainly real, but I know Blaise fabricated some so that I wouldn't go back to them and foil my fake death. Really, I do anything to avoid thinking about them, Instead, I think about the beach and the marina where I could have worked in the summer if those memories are real. I think about all the physical things I love about my home.

Soon enough, I am on the street I grew up on, staring at the house. It is mine. My parents' cars are in the driveway. They are in there, and possibly my brothers, and even more possibly a nephew of mine that I have never met, Jane or Marty.

Any time is better than never.

I get up to the door and knock on it before I can think myself to death.

I hear people chatting inside. A male voice gets louder as it approaches the door. I can feel a lump in my throat. I try to swallow it.

Then, the door opens.

"Shite," my brother, Aaron, opens the door. He looks like he did in the picture, although in the picture that I saw he was smiling and cooing at Alfred's son, rather than staring at me with a jaw so agape he could swallow a horse. "Holy fucking Christ."

"Magic stuff," I cut in before he tries to ask questions. "It's complicated magic stuff."

"No fucking way!" Aaron rushes forward and pulls me into a hug. "This is fucking crazy! Mum, Da, Alfred! You'll never believe who is at the door!"

I don't even have the opportunity to walk into the house myself. Aaron picks me up off the ground, practically squeezing the life out of me. I cough a bit, and he squeezes harder, nearly throwing me from side to side. The Aaron I remember wouldn't be this excited.

"Aaron, love!" Mum rounds the corner. She is holding a rag, using it to dry her wet hands. Her eyes are on her fingers and not me, but then she looks up. Her sobs rush out of her, so loud her body shakes from the vibrations. She cannot even hold herself up, falling to the floor in tears.

My Da bursts into the hallway, checking on my Mum, and Alfred pops his head in. He nearly drops the tot in his hands. I look at the baby, who fusses as it looks at my Mum on the ground. Alfred is stuttering, and Aaron is laughing. Da still hasn't even looked over at me.

"Aaron, remember what that wizard said," Alfred warns. He struggles to juggle the baby while reaching his hand toward Mum and Da, offering it extended.

"You... you mean Draco, right?" I say as Aaron puts me down. "I told him to charm the torch keychains. He didn't know about torches. Or keychains."

Da finally looks over. He sees me and tears brim in his eyes. He looks between me and Mum, unable to divide his attention.

"He... you're here," he says, and looks at Ma. "Come on Linda, keep it together."

"Draco knew you were alive?" Alfred looks at me, still hanging back. "Or, you're not some trick."

I shake my head, peering between them. Draco, knowing magic, took a few days and a bottle of Veritaserum to be convinced. There isn't quite a way I could tell them, but Aaron still has his arm on my shoulders, squeezing me in toward him. He believes me, and that's enough.

"Draco and I didn't think it was safe for you to know that I'm back," I offer, before nodding. In all the papers I've read, no one ever interviewed them. Hestia once said that there was a law about the whole thing about some fiasco involving the Creevey family. "You're safe now though. I am too."

Aaron tries to pull me out of the doorway. Mum is still on the floor, breathing deeply. She's not sobbing, but she's on the brink. I don't want to leave this family, the one that I didn't know existed.

My Da scoffs, "I knew that boy was a wanker. Is he responsible for this? Some friend."

"They were shagging, Da," Aaron rolls his eyes. "They weren't just friends from school."

"Watch your mouth," Da says.

Aaron leans over to my ear, "still shagging him, I see?"

I ignore Aaron. Da helps Mum off the ground, who is trying to calm herself down. She uses the dirty rag to wipe her tears with one hand and presses the other tightly over her chest. Her cries are beginning to turn to soft laughter.

I walk over to Mum and give her a hug. She grips me so tightly. It feels like I'm in some alternate reality, to be here with them like this. The family I remember was never this kind to me. Mum was busy working. Da cared more about my brothers. Alfred and Aaron were mean to me and absent. There was the memory of us on the playground though, that Harry saw when he dug through my head. I would have to have been twelve then, I guess, so the memory could be fake, but they are so much older than me they would've been in their twenties. Maybe they weren't so mean after all.

"Oh, my darling Martina," my mother tucks my hair behind my ear, cradling my face. I can feel myself start to cry with her. "We thought you were dead."

"What happened?" Alfred says, holding on to his baby tightly, still not quite walking into the hallway.

"Memory-altering magic," I explain. "It's quite complicated."

"What?" Alfred continues to question me.

"I had a whole different identity and the like. Everything between age eleven and my supposed murder is kind of fuzzy," I explain. "The memory magic made me forget I was a witch altogether."

"Blimey, that's insane," Aaron says.

"We should never have sent her to that school," Da says, looking at Mum. "I told you it was dangerous."

"Oh shut up for five seconds about that, will you Da?" Aaron almost fumes. "She's back, and on Christmas Eve no less! Can't we just have a normal family fight, instead of one I won't be able to tell my coworkers about?"

Da storms off into the living room. Mum is still holding on to me, with one arm on my shoulder. Her grip is so tight that I wonder if her hand will have moulded to me by the time she decides to let go. We might have to pry her off me with a crowbar.

"Is your memory back now, then?" Alfred finally squishes into the hallway.

I shake my head, "no, not yet. I still remember you lot, but age eleven upward is still messy."

He pauses. Mum and Aaron don't chime in either. I wonder if they are going to have to mourn me twice, just as Draco did.

"Where have you been since it was altered?" Alfred coughs, forcing himself to speak.

"In Inverness," I say, furrowing my brow. "Sorry, the memory alteration changed a lot of our memories as a family, I think. I thought you all hated me."

"Well, we were wankers when we were younger sometimes," Aaron laughs, "but that changed a lot once you got older. Before that wizard bloke you're shagging helped put you into hiding, we had fun during the summers here."

"We were massive cocks sometimes though, yeah," Alfred agrees.

Aaron turns to Alfred, "now don't you feel like a shithead for naming your son after her, huh? Waste of a middle name. It should've been Daniel Aaron Turner."

"Fuck off," Alfred says.

Mum still clings to me, trying not to cry yet unable to say a word, and so it is a bit harder than it ought to be to approach Alfred and the baby in his arms.

"Can I hold Daniel?" I ask. "Draco showed me some old photos, but he was smaller in them."

"Sure," Alfred says, passing me the baby. "He's very friendly."

He puts Daniel in my arms. The little fellow pulls my hair almost immediately, and I find myself laughing about it. From there, we make our way into the living room. Mum has to force herself away to keep making dinner. Da goes with her to make sure she is okay. Alfred and Aaron catch me up on the last few years of their lives, and I tell them what I thought mine was before, and they have a good laugh about it all. I tell them what it's been like since. I let them know that I am doing a bit more than just shagging Draco, and Aaron has a good laugh about it. Alfred thinks it's funny too, even if he only chuckles. Daniel keeps pulling my hair, and I don't mind.

"Do any of you have those torches?" I ask.

"Yeah," Alfred says. "Think Mum kept hers. Your wizard boyfriend came to us a few weeks ago and he said that he wouldn't be able to come anymore, but we'd be safe so we wouldn't need them. Aaron, Da, and I threw them away, but Mum didn't want to get rid of it, just in case."

Aaron goes to get it while I gurgle at baby Daniel. They call him Danny. Soon enough, the torch is in my hand and dinner is ready.

As we are headed to the table. I click the light of the torch on and off. If he could come to me at this moment, I don't know if he would. I hope that it could happen though. So, I flick the torch on and off once more.

The torch in my hand warms up. The light flickers on, even though I know it to be off. It stays on for half a minute before the light goes out.

~~~~~

Okay, but actually this is basically the end. I can't wait for all these chapters to be in your hands. Let me know what you think! I can't wait to hear from you all.