"Come on, Delilah!" my best friend, Eliza called to me. I ran down the beach toward her, my long dark hair flying behind me. As usual, I had straightened it for the beach so it wasn't its usual curly self. Eliza had decided to braid her long red hair into two plaits that framed her face nicely. My thirteen-year-old cousin, Tony watched from along the shore, wearing a visor over his short brown hair.
Today's my eleventh birthday, and Serena thought it might be a good idea to head to the beach. She knew it was my favorite place to be. Usually I enjoyed it, but today...something just didn't feel right. I had been able to forget about it for the time being.
Eliza and Tony were always telling me to pick my head up, quit being so shy, but what can I say? I can't help myself. My family and my best friend are the only people I feel comfortable with. It's who I am. A shy bookworm, a goody-two-shoes. There are times when I want to be in the spotlight, but I stay elsewhere. In the background, that's where I belong.

So here's a bit about me. I'm adopted. I'm not into the whole sob story background so I'll spare you the details. A person found me on the side of the road, (left for dead I might add) and I was shipped off to one foster home after another. I was born British, but I moved to America when I was three to a group home, and was adopted when I was five. My uncle Will and adoptive mother Serena are one of the nicest people you could meet in my book. But there's kind of something I neglected to tell them, then again I haven't told anyone really, except Eliza.

I told Eliza a secret of mine, that when I was six, I found out I could manipulate the elements. The reason I told her was because I knew she could move objects with her mind. Sure, it was a bit of a shock, but she understood since she has special abilities as well.
I laughed as I met her by the shore. The wind kept trying to blow my hair in every direction, but I quickly made it calm down. Things like this happen all the time, where I would involuntarily use my abilities. It's a wonder how no one has noticed yet.
Eliza gave me a knowing look, one she always have me if she thought I was using my power. It quickly faded into an easy smile. "Want to build a sandcastle?"
"You bet!"
"Hey, Tony!" she called out to him. "Care to join us?"
He shot up, and began following us. I always had a suspicion he liked her. Eliza was that type of girl, one you might look at, and drool over her even if she wasn't your age. Usually she wore her hair loose with some outfit that made her look older than she actually was. You can imagine why I wouldn't be surprised if he did have a thing for her.
As we built our sandcastles, my hands worked automatically, creating whatever came to mind. When I stopped to take a step back, I was surprised. "Look at this!" I exclaimed.
Eliza came over. "Wow, it's a entire street! Where did you even come up with this!"
I created a neighborhood full of houses, but I had focused on the one with the sign 'Privet Drive'. I put little figures of people inside, but I noticed for the first time, that outside there was a boy sitting outside in the flower bed, gazing off at nothing. He seemed so lonely. I wonder if the people inside even noticed he was gone.
"If you think that's amazing, come check out this!" Tony's voice dragged me out of my thoughts as I glanced over at his sand sculpture. It was a life-size suit of armor with a helmet and everything.
A small "Whoa" escaped my lips as I looked up at it.
"I know, right?" he boasted. "Someday, I'm actually gonna build this, and it's going to be able to fly so I can save people and be a hero."
"Just because you can fly, doesn't make you a hero," Eliza scoffed. "You can't even keep an eleven-year-old from stealing your hat. What makes you think you can keep an entire city safe?"
It took a while for the words to sink in for Tony. "Steal my hat?" He didn't have any more time to think on it before Eliza reached up, and snatched the visor off Tony's head. "Hey! Oh, I get it now."
Tony began chasing after her, me racing after. Despite how upset Tony sounded, he didn't seem that angry if he was laughing along with us. We chased each other down the beach until we reached Serena and Will at the end of the beach. Eliza hid the visor behind her back, and Tony took the opportunity to grab it back from her.
"What have you guys been doing?" Serena asked.
"Just building a few sandcastles," I answered.
"Correction, I built a sandcastle, you two built something else entirely," said Eliza.
"Can we see them," asked Will. I nodded, and showed them where we built ours. William Stark, My uncle and Serena's younger brother. He was the kid genius in the duo who graduated early from high school, and now works in the FBI. Tony inherited his smarts, just not his maturity.
They both examined the sandcastle Eliza made, then mine, then Tony's. "These are all amazing," Serena complimented. "Come on, let's take a picture."
All three of us stood in front of our creations, and wrapped our arms around each other, me in the center of Eliza and Tony. As Serena took the picture, I had a feeling Tony made a bunny ears with his fingers, and put it behind either me or Eliza. I had a faint feeling I was being watched after the camera went off.
I looked off to the right to see a woman with long hair watching us wistfully from behind the trees up before the forest broke out into the beach. It made me wonder if she lost someone close to her. I ran up to ask why she was watching us, but by then she ran off, leaving a small note on the ground. I picked it up, and read it, knowing without a doubt it was for me. It had a single sentence on it that might help out in the next few years.
I tucked it in my pocket, and ran back to my family. Will surprised me with a gift when I got back down: a heart-shaped locket. It was a birthday tradition we had where he'd give me one for every year I got older since they adopted me. He'd always give it to me when I least expected it, so I would know he would give it to me, but never when on my birthday.
Serena embraced me as we left the beach. I sometimes wonder about my birth family, then shrug and turn back to the present. It's apparent they didn't want me around if they just abandoned me, and I loved my adoptive one. This is my family now, and even if my birth family begged on their knees, there is no way I am going back.
I looked back one last time at our sand sculptures. It would only be a short amount of time before the tide came in, and washed them away, and I wanted to get a good look at them while they lasted.

Now, even as the Minister of Magic stared down at me, waiting for me to continue, even as I wore the Dark Mark on my arm, even as the entire Ministry of Magic looked at me judgmentally, I still held onto that one memory.

I still have the heart-shaped locket William gave me for my sixteenth birthday, and I still have that photo of that day on the beach tucked into my pocket, the small note paper-clipped to it. That was the exact day my entire life changed just like that, and it still astounds me how it changed so fast. The only thing that hasn't changed is my love for them. I still love my adoptive family, maybe more than I ever will love my birth family, and I know they all still love me, no matter what.