Chapter Three
"I was about eight or nine when I noticed that I was different than the kids I grew up with," Ashlie began. "I was able to make things happen without meaning to. Of course, not everything went the way I planned, but things did happen. I also began to notice that my parents were strange. When we were at home, they dressed weird, in robes, and things happened seemingly by magic. At that time I didn't know that is was magic. I'm pretty sure things had always been strange around our house but I never really noticed it. When friends came over they looked normal and everything else seemed normal, but there was always something weird going on. My parents told me they were a witch and wizard when I turned ten. That's when we moved to the Wizarding world. For a year before I got my Hogwarts letter, we lived in London, England. But it wasn't the London I had learned about in school. At first it was all fascinating and I loved it, but as time went on and I met new people, I realized that I didn't fit in there anymore than I did in the Muggle world."
"The Muggle world?" Mari interrupted. "What's that?"
Ashlie smiled. "I forgot. Muggle is the term that magic-folk use to describe non-magic-folk."
"Ohhh," said Mari. "Okay."
"I thought it was strange for my parents to be using magic for everything when I was so used to seeing them do it the normal way. But I didn't realize that for them it was normal. But it was something that I never really completely got used to. It almost felt like taking the easy way out and cheating. You know how I tell you to walk over to the trash can to throw things away instead of just throwing it and seeing if you can get it in?" Mari nodded. "It's like that. Everything seemed to be made easier and although I liked it because I didn't have to really do any chores, it just didn't feel right. It made me feel like we were even more strange than I had originally thought. I didn't have a lot of friends when we lived in the Wizarding world. Not until I got my Hogwarts letter, anyway. It was like I was an outsider because I grew up for most of my childhood in the Muggle world. I wasn't used to being around magic and there really weren't a lot of magical people around where we were living anyway."
"Hogwarts? You went to the same school I got the letter from?"
"Sure did. Those were some of the best years of my life."
"Then why…?"
"I'll get there in a little bit. At Hogwarts, I made three good friends, Hermione Granger, who was one of my roommates, and her best friends Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. We weren't best friends, but we were close. I made other friends at Hogwarts, but those three are the ones I miss the most at times." Ashlie's voice caught a little as she remembered Harry. "Even if I had friends and did well in school, it just didn't feel right for me to be there. I just felt out of place. I'm not sure why. But just before my final year of school at Hogwarts, I fell in love…I'm sure I had been in love with him long before that, but didn't realize it. I was willing to stay in the Wizarding world just to stay with him. But then something happened and it gave me the reason I needed to come back to the Muggle world."
"You got pregnant with me."
"Yes. I got pregnant."
"But that still doesn't explain why you never told me this sooner."
"I was hoping, foolishly hoping, that you wouldn't develop any powers. I knew it was nonsense and of course you would develop powers, but I hoped we'd still be able to live a normal life here."
"What about my dad?" Mari demanded to know. "You said that this had to do with him too."
"Your dad." Ashlie hesitated. Then she reached into the box and pulled out the photo album. "Your dad was very special. Not only to me, but to the entire wizarding community. He defeated an extremely powerful and evil wizard to free the Wizarding world from a horrible fate you can't even imagine. All throughout his life, fate hadn't been on his side. The evil wizard had killed his parents when he was just a baby and tried to kill him, but couldn't. Your dad grew up living with relatives that didn't want him. It's a long story, but the evil wizard came back to try to kill your dad and for the entire time we were at Hogwarts, he kept having to fight him off. Finally, during what normally would have been our final year, he defeated the evil wizard for good. We almost didn't finish school because of it but the teachers we had at Hogwarts convinced us that we needed to finish the term and complete our education. Your dad had all of this responsibility on his shoulders his whole life, although for the most part he didn't know it. He needed to live life without those responsibilities for a while. Of course, fate had to throw a monkey wrench into my plans to bring the baby back to the Muggle world without telling him. Your dad found out that I was pregnant and tried to make me stay. He was the most amazing person while I was pregnant. And then…"
"I was born. Did he make you leave? He didn't want me anymore?"
"No, sweetie. He didn't make me leave. And I'm sure he wanted you very much." Ashlie opened the photo album and handed it to Mari.
"I…I don't get it. Why are there two babies?"
"One of the babies is you…the other…is your twin brother."
Ashlie braced herself for the outburst she knew was coming.
"I have a brother!"
"Baby, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but…"
"What kind of excuse do you have for not telling me I have a brother?" Mari jumped up, the photo album still in her hands. "I want to see him. And my dad."
"Mari, it's not that easy…" Ashlie began.
"It was sure easy for you to omit them from my life," said Mari.
Ashlie closed her eyes. She was afraid this might happen. "I know you're mad, Mari, but what was I supposed to do? I was 17, not old enough to make as adult decisions as I was being forced to make. It wasn't easy for me to decide to leave your brother with your dad and come back here. But I had to make it. I couldn't live my life there. There were circumstances that would have prevented me from living a life that I wanted to live."
"So you were only thinking of yourself, is that it?"
"At the time, yes," Ashlie admitted. "I hoped that if I left your brother with your dad, he'd let me go."
"And did he?"
"I haven't seen or heard from him since you and I left London."
"I want to see them." Mari had a determined look on her face. Just like her father had always had. Ashlie knew there was nothing she could do except go back.