January 2005.

7 years have passed since the Battle of Hogwarts. A lot has happened during those times. We've attended many weddings, Ron and Hermione tied the knot first, then Harry and Ginny followed them. I was one of the best men at the last wedding, which made me feel the happiest. My daughters got married too and decided to stay in the UK with their husbands. Fred and George's shop was getting more and more popular, especially after they themselves started the rumor that they were vampires.

As much as I hated saying goodbye to my daughters, even if it was for a short period of time, I also understood that they might want some time away from their parents, grandparents, aunties, and uncles. They were adults and wanted to live alone with their husbands. So, the rest of the family and I decided to give them some space and return to the US for a while, although I couldn't imagine the house without the constant explosions that were happening in Fred's and George's lab.

There was another wedding…or should I say a repeat of the wedding…Rosalie and Emmett got married twice in the past 7 years, and the whole family had to attend both ceremonies. I hoped Rose's enthusiasm about getting married would dial down now that she got a wizard wedding, although it was a great way to keep my mind away from thinking about my dad and where to look for him.

After Harry dropped a bomb on me, saying that my father wasn't with the dead, I spent most of my time traveling throughout England and Scotland, hoping he would be in one of those places. My mind traveled back to the necklace with a puppy locket on it, which I carried with me since Nessie gave it to me back at Hogwarts. I wondered if it was Dumbledore's doing, he was the only one who knew when this would happen, the only one who we entrusted with that secret. I even thought this was what the prophecy about my daughters meant. 'With the help of a special potion and an old friend of their parents who doesn't know them yet, the kids will strive and bring light to this world.' It made sense to me. Without my daughters, Fred and George would have died at Bill's and Fleur's wedding for one. But I also had a crazy theory that if Dumbledore didn't come to our house for Sav and Ness that one time, he wouldn't know anything about my backstory and wouldn't be able to react on time. I had a very strong feeling he was the one who put the necklace into my pocket before I was pushed through the veil. He must've figured out who was the 'friend' that was pushed with me before it happened and decided to not stand aside and try bringing my dad back the same way I brought back Edward.

The only problem was that necklace didn't have as strong a connection to me as the ring did. The latter I wore every day, and it came with such strong emotions…Love, passion, loss, grief, heartache, a promise…The necklace was just the dearest gift that I had received from my dad. The ring helped bring Edward back to life, but even then, he awakened in the body of a 10-year-old Edward Masen Jr. Even such a strong connection didn't bring him back the same way it brought me, so I had no idea what happened to my father. I just hoped that fate was kind enough to me and my dad wasn't brought back to the 1700s and was still alive today. Although seeing as Harry hasn't seen his as dead, I was hopeful.

Knowing how much Edward, Carlisle, and I would miss England after living there for such a long time, Esme surprised us and told us she chose Forks, Washington as our home for the next few years. I was grateful for her thoughtfulness, Edward was excited to go back to the house that we all liked so much, after all, it was one of the best ones we've lived in. Emmett and Jasper were just happy to be near mountains again where the wildlife was a lot bigger and scarier…at least for humans.

"Call me or write me letters, at least a few times a week," I spoke to my daughters. "And come visit whenever, please."

We were all in our house, back in Britain, saying goodbyes to everyone. Harry and Ginny had their two boys in the strollers with them, Ron was holding Hermione's hand in his, she was expecting to give birth any time now and had a pregnancy glow that I've read so much about. I remembered my own pregnancy and chuckled to myself…I definitely didn't have the 'pregnancy glow'.

"And remember, I don't want to become a grandmother for at least another decade," I begged, remembering that I was leaving some of my books behind, including the one that had the special love potion for wizard-vampire hybrids.

I saw Savannah blush deeply and ignored Edward's look directed at me. What? He should know that them having kids might be in our near future, what is he giving me a look for?

The move was smooth, with all our belongings traveling without us. We decided on taking a flight back to the US and leaving our moving boxes for the moving company to deal with. It might take them a couple of weeks to finally come, but there wasn't anything that we couldn't replace in the meantime.

I strapped in my seatbelt and leaned on Edward's shoulder, while we waited for the takeoff. In the air, I was able to watch one movie with my husband before he got kicked out of his seat by the annoying pixie and was forced to spend the rest of the flight with Jasper. Alice's hopeful attitude lifted my spirit. She told me she has already signed us up for Forks High School, which I wasn't particularly looking forward to. Being in the wizarding world was so much better, there was no need to pretend we were humans, thus eliminating high school repetition, fake backstories, and so many teenage dramas, surrounding the previous two things.

When we finally landed in the small airport of Port Angeles, everyone's moods seemed to lighten. Carlisle got himself and Esme a rental car which he was going to use to drive all our luggage back to the house. The rest of the family, including me, much preferred running.

We all raced each other through the forested areas, kicking each other into trees to slow down our opponents. There was so much laughter and joy around, I felt like a little kid again, except now I had four siblings and my best friend, who also happened to be my husband, with me…and to be honest, this was so much better.

Halfway there, I managed to trip Emmett and ran into a large rock, denting it with his silhouette. Rose was laughing so hard, that she had to stop running. Edward won the race, of course, he was always the fastest out of all of us. Jasper came second, his longer legs giving him an advantage, which neither Alice, nor I had. Still, I beat the pixie, who seemed to give up a few minutes before we reached the house. Alice was no fun that way, always forfeiting after seeing she wasn't going to win anyway. She still made it before Emmett or Rose did and by the time difference between Alice's and Em's and Rose's arrival as well as judging by the looks of their clothes, they too forfeited the race to do something much more pleasant.

Alice grabbed the key from its secret spot, and I raised my eyebrow in disbelief. After so many years, it was still there, the house seemed to look just like it did seven decades ago, there was no graffiti on the walls, and no broken windows, I was pleasantly surprised and the hope for modern humans grew within me.

The inside of the house felt homey, I remembered why I loved this place so much. The thick layer of dust everywhere and the plastic-wrapped furniture looked sad, but the high ceilings and all-wall glass mirrors brought back funny memories, Emmett breaking them…more than once…when he was still trying to control his newborn strength.

"We're home!" Rose exclaimed, leaving momentarily to go to the garage. I wondered if the one car that we left back here would still run after so many years. 1930 Cadillac V16 Roadster, what a car that was…I also wondered how much we could get for it if we were to find a collector.

"Oh! The clothes I left behind!" Alice squeaked. "What if they're back in fashion?!"

With those words, Alice disappeared upstairs to ramage in her closet, and most likely in mine and Rosalie's too.

"Well, I think it's just you and me, boys." I sighed, going into the broom closet. I grabbed cleaning supplies and gave Emmett some garbage bags, Jasper a mop, and Edward received a blue cloth and a water bucket.

"Love." Edward stopped me with a grin on his face. I raised my eyebrows at him in confusion. Jasper and Emmett were chuckling already, which made me feel slightly stupid, especially since I didn't understand why they were looking at me like that.

"What?" I questioned.

"I get that it was a long flight home, but…Did going back to the US make you forget that you have magic?" Edward chuckled now and I felt like I needed to slap myself on the forehead. I did forget…I didn't even think about it. I've been using magic every day for the past seven years and now that I wasn't in the wizarding community, I completely forgot about it.

"I swear there must be something broken with your vampirism, Bells." Emmett laughed.

I huffed in annoyance, slightly agreeing with Emmett's statement. Vampires didn't forget things, but I always proved it wrong somehow. Edward took out his wand and pointed it at the three things he, Emmett, and Jasper were holding. One by one he spoke, "Scourgify," and the broom, mop, and cloth started dancing around the room, making it look perfectly clean in minutes.

"Why don't you take the plastic off the furniture, while I get the upstairs clean?" Edward asked, giving me a kiss on the forehead. His smirk was still present on his face as he climbed the stairs, still pointing his wand at the cleaning equipment.

By the end of the day, the house looked spotless, our luggage was in our rooms, Carlisle had returned the rental car back to the company and we all gathered in the living room for the first family meeting in decades with just the eight of us.

"New documents will be arriving tomorrow," Carlisle informed us after receiving a nod from Jazz. "I know we had a very nice stay in England, and I'm very glad that all of you enjoyed it. Hopefully, we can return there soon to spend more time with our new friends and the new lovely family members. Having said that, I want to say thank you to those of us who consider the US their home and who never spoke a word about leaving England sooner than we did. I really appreciate you all."

"Oh, Carlisle, you gonna make me cry." Emmett laughed, patting our 'father' on his shoulder. Carlisle shook his head with a knowing smile. "But seriously, Britain was cool, and I wouldn't mind one bit if we go there again. We could make it an annual get-together for Christmas!"

"We'll have to invite Tanya and the other Denali's though or she will rip my head off," I added. Tanya was calling me monthly, asking for updates about girls and the family, as well as letting me know how much she needs to get out of the house now that Irina found her mate.

"Another thing that I wanted to discuss with you is your father, Bella," Carlisle spoke, ignoring Emmett. I felt my mouth open; did he think of something that might help me find him?

"What is it?" I asked eagerly.

"I was thinking we can ask someone for help. I'm not sure if they are going to agree, but we need a tracker and the best one we know is…"

"Demetri." I finished for him.

"Do you think Volturi would actually let him go to help us?" Jasper asked.

"We're allies, Aro knows if he needs our help, we'll come. The offer extended both ways, as far as I can remember." I looked at Carlisle for confirmation.

"Aro really values our friendship, especially since it gives him first-hand knowledge of the wizard community so close to his home," Carlisle explained to the rest of the family.

"I'll write him a letter," I spoke, standing up from my seat and reaching for a nice piece of paper. After all, I was mailing a person of nobility in the vampire world. "You think he'll go ecstatic if I use an owl?" I smiled at Carlisle.

"I think he'll lose his mind." Carlisle laughed. "Wonderful! Oh, look at that bird messenger! These wizards are so interesting!" He mimicked Aro's voice, and I couldn't help but laugh at how perfect he was at that.

"I swear when the two of you talk about Volturi I completely forget everything I was taught in the South." Jasper chuckled.

I wrote the letter while Carlisle shared some of the fun stories about us living with the Volturi. I caught myself smiling at some of them, remembering Volterra and its inhabitants. It was with them that I first felt like I belonged in not only the wizard but the vampire world too. And although I did maintain contact with Aro, sending him regular updates of changes in the British wizarding community, as well as my annual letters to Jane about my family's wellbeing, I still felt slightly guilty for not asking them how things were going for them. As Carlisle mentioned before, we did have a very friendly relationship and Volturi helped both of us for over two decades, giving us rooms, training me, and sharing their knowledge. Moreover, they never asked us anything in return, except for a mutual offer of help in case either of our families needed it, but that was to be expected with the alliance and the friendliness between us.

I put the letter into the special envelope with a Cullen Family crest printed on it just for the letters that Carlisle sent to Italy. I called our new family owl from the forest and tied the letter to her leg, making sure her bowls with food and water were full before she started her long journey.

"Final thing," Carlisle spoke when I sat back on my chair. "I'll be starting work next week again, and I think it would be best if we go car shopping tomorrow. With new ages, it is common now for everyone to have their own cars, especially teenagers, but…" He stopped, seeing all of our excitement.

"Why is there always a but with you?" Emmett pouted.

"Oh, Emmett, will you at least let me finish?" Carlisle chuckled. "But, we have to keep in mind that we are trying not to stand out as much as possible, and we'll already be drawing too much attention as it is with all of us being new in town, sharing similar features, and Esme and I adopting six teenagers at our young age. So I will only ask that you will share two affordable cars between the six of you for when you go to school or run errands within town limits."

Esme nodded, smiling, and added, "Something that wouldn't scream: "look at how much money we have" or "our father is spoiling us."

"More like, look how amazing it is to be adopted." Emmett disagreed, grinning at Carlisle and Esme.

"Or that." Esme smiled, ruffling his hair.

"That's manageable, I can still tune them to go faster than they are supposed to though, right?" Rosalie clarified.

"I would never stop you from playing with your toys," Carlisle smirked.

"Okay, what has Britain done to you, old man?" I asked giggling. "You joke now?"

"Sassy Carlisle! I love it." Emmett grinned.

"Goodnight, kids." Carlisle retrieved, already predicting the number of jokes that would follow Emmett's comment.

Edward caught my eyes and motioned me to follow him outside with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. I quickly stood up and took his hand.

"Look at those two, they're trying to escape." Rose laughed, looking between Edward and me.

"First time the kids are on the other side of the world, Rose." Edward pleaded. "Can I spend some alone time with my wife?"

"Can I get some alone time with mine?" Emmett smirked, winking at Rose. He received the usual slap on the back of his head, however, Rose stood up and motioned for Emmett to follow her with her pointy finger and a smirk of her own. Emmett ran up to her with a speed that could probably leave even Edward behind.

"Whipped." Jasper coughed in his hand, and we all laughed.

"Aren't you?" Alice questioned, repeating Rosalie's pointy figure motion.

"Yes, ma'am." Jasper smiled, sweeping Alice from her feet in bridal style and running upstairs with her in his arms.

I turned to Edward then, my eyes focused on his lips, which were still frozen in my favorite crooked smile. The glint in his eyes made me feel like he was planning to do something we weren't supposed to be doing. He offered me his hand and I took it gladly, knowing well enough that wherever we were going didn't matter as long as we were together.


I know, I know! It has been so long! Thank you to those who have been waiting, I really appreciate your reviews and PMs about Fresh Start. I know this chapter isn't long and doesn't have anything particularly interesting to the story, but I swear it's going to get much more interesting once Demetri comes into play!

P.s. I don't remember a lot of smaller details of Fresh Start because of my ADHD and even with all of my reviewing of it to make sure I don't accidentally put something in that I'm not supposed to, I know I will screw something up eventually lol. So, please let me know if I do, I'm trying to make this story as enjoyable to read as it is to write!