Parents for Hire

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah tried to not to tap her toes on the marble floor as she became antsy in her seat. She looked at the small piece of parchment on her lap again, neatly placed on top of a small folder. The documents inside varied from medical information to timelines to photos - all the documents she could get from the sisters and local muggle law enforcement. The church's children's home where she was adopted from had provided as much information as they could, but it was little to no help. Being left on the steps of a church with just a note and necklace wasn't a lot to go on, and the camera around caught mere shadows. She supposed that kept it a safe haven for those in need, but it was detrimental to her purposes. The Ravenclaw had inquired about placing a notice in The Daily Prophet, and triplechecked the scrap of paper to make sure she had written the meeting down correct. A woman had agreed to meet with her so they could make sure the wording was effective. All she had been able to come up with on her own was "Did you abandoned a baby at a church in Germany in 2037? Inquire here!" She didn't think that would bring in many responses. She didn't even think anyone would respond, but she couldn't get rid of this tightness and longing in her chest that hadn't gone away for the past four years since she had first been given an answer to why she felt different her whole life. Maybe her parents weren't wizards. Maybe she was just some weird muggleborn magic freak that no one ever truly wanted. But she had to try. She flattened the skirt of her dress and started to tap her toes again on the floor. It was almost time, and that was when she realized she wasn't even sure what this woman looked like.

 

[Nadia Kaster]

Nadia wasn’t quite sure what she’d thought about being contacted by a girl looking for her parents. She’d told her it was best they met so they could go over a few details. Correspondence was so impersonal and if she was going to have more of an idea about things, she needed to get to know the girl. This wasn’t just the kind of thing you could do on a whim, it had to be calculated and worked out and, honestly, Nadia was probably going to have to bring in experts, maybe Tamalia. She was good at finding people. She hadn’t gone into a lot of detail about what the girl needed to do and she wanted to discuss all of that when she met her. She didn’t know much about the situation other than she’d been left as a baby with some nuns or something and she was at Hogwarts. Her alma mater. She’d had a lot of chances in her life to do something and yet she’d always let the opportunity slip through her fingers. Being in contact with Miss Zumwalt had her thinking about things she hadn’t thought about in… well, a very, very long time. She wasn’t sure how she felt about all of it if she was perfectly honest.​

​

It didn’t take her long to spot her, she looked almost exactly how Nadia had pictured her. Lost, and trying to find her path in a world of uncertainty. Nadia knew what that was like, she’d been in this girl’s situation, though in far more dire circumstances. As an adopted child herself, she felt a special kinship with her, that only deepened her desire to help her find what she’d lost.​

​

“Adorah?” She asked, just to make sure she had the right girl as she approached. She stood out well amongst the tiny gathering of people mulling about along the floors, both as a young girl and as someone who didn’t walk around with exuding confidence. The thought brought a small smile to Nadia’s face, because she remembered being her. These years would be tough on her, she knew, and whether or not Nadia was able to help her find her parents, she knew this was only the beginning for the young one.​

​

“Hi, I’m Nadia, I’m the one you’ve been in contact with,” she said, looking over her and seeing so much of herself in her. The apprehension and confusion, it had followed Nadia for so many years of her young life and even still to this day in her adulthood she felt it creep up on occassion. She had the tools to battle now though, and she used those tools to beat back at the sudden onset of anxiety she felt tightly curl in her stomach. The knot settled, and she smiled pleasantly. “I hope you’ve not been waiting long, is this what you have?” She hadn’t noticed the parchment at first, assuming it might have been in a pocket, but she had placed it nicely on a folder and Nadia looked over her again, trying to read whatever she was thinking. She was usually pretty good at reading people, but it was never a completely reliable skill.​

 

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah looked up as a woman called her name. She was younger than she had expected, but maybe that was because Adorah expected anyone to be working at the news article to be ancient for some reason. She placed her the folders against her chest, holding them with one arm, and then stood up outreaching her other towards Nadia. "Yes. Hello, Ms. Kaster. Thank you for meeting for me," she attempted to say as professionally and confident as possible - even if she didn't feel that way. She could feel her heart starting to race as things became more real. When she had left his parent's home this morning, her father was still not speaking with her. Her mother gave her some muggle money for the train and told her to be safe. To be fair though, a week ago they both told her they didn't want her coming home after this holiday anymore, especially if she ended up finding her birth parents. With all the trouble she had caused them in the past and her being the reason they relocated their whole family to New Zealand, she could somewhat understand why they were frustrated with her. What she didn't understand is how these two people who were supposed to love her unconditionally just didn't anymore. She didn't intend to upset them by searching for her birth parents, but she knew lots of adopted children who chose that route. Just because Juniper couldn't didn't mean Adorah shouldn't. She didn't know if her parents were dead, and if they were, at least she knew.

She looked down at the folders Nadia noticed and nodded, pulling them away. "Yes. I've tried to do as much research as I could and organized it so it's easily manageable." She took the piece of parchment off the top of her stack and crumpled it in her hand, placing it in the pocket of her dress. "The yellow folder is all the records the home had from my time there, and the red has photos that might be relevant. The blue folder is for all my medical records, just in case there's anything helpful." She had never had a DNA test, and maybe that was the place where they should actually start. "Do you want to dicuss here, or maybe we can sit with a table somewhere so you can take a look at things?" she asked nervously to the woman. She didn't want to be too forward, but then again, this was about her. She needed to stand up for what she wanted for once.

OOC: Feel free to godmod as needed

 

[Nadia Kaster]

Nadia already liked Adorah, after all she was a lot like her at a young age. Whilst the circumstances of her adoption were steadfastly different, she had that same look of desire in her eyes that Nadia recognised. Of course Nadia had given up all false illusions of seeing her biological family years ago, she hoped she could at least help Adorah find something she could hold on to. After all, the chances that her own situation was anything like Nadia’s were infinitesimally slim. Nadia knew her family, Adorah, it seemed, did not. “Of course, I wanted a chance to get to know you before we proceed, and just make sure you’re really ready for this. There’s no way to know what we’re going to find out if you do this,” she said, watching the girl’s reaction so she could understand more of what might be going through her head. There were just some burdens that had to be shared with a stranger, well, someone who could relate, she supposed.​

​

She appreciated that Adorah seemed ready and willing, as though she’d given this a lot of thought, which was good. When Nadia had been taken in by the Kaster’s her best friend’s family to help her escape her own family, she hadn’t been fully prepared for what all of that would mean. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone. It was what had made her give up her own life for a short time, running from place to place. She’d made decision she wasn’t proud of, but it was all for their protection. She didn’t know what would have happened if she’d stayed.​

​

“All of this will definitely help,” Nadia said, gesturing in front of her to the halls. “We can talk in my office. This is a private matter for you, we don’t need to go plastering everything all over the place.” She said, which she thought was probably strange advice coming from a journalist, but there it was. Nadia had integrity. And Adorah was a child, she didn’t need people prying into her business. What if she turned out to be related to someone famous, or high up in the ministry or something? That’d make a great story for someone who wanted to ruin someone’s life. That had never been Nadia’s game, but some of her colleagues didn’t share her morals. “It’s good you’ve looked into this a little on your own to have all of this. I’m sure we’ll have a lot to utilise to find your family,” she said as she gestured Adorah into her office and waved her hand to close the door. The tiny dying cactus on her desk the only real sign of life in the room aside from the photos of her own family. Well, her adoptive one. The only photo she had of her biological family was kept securely in the vault behind her desk. She didn’t need people knowing who she was related to.​

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“Do you want something to drink?”​

 

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah nodded in reply to Nadia's statement. The woman was completely right, and it was definitely a thought that sat in the back of the Ravenclaw's mind. There was the obvious downside that her birth parents could be dead or even not want to contact her. But they could also be criminals, just generally bad people, or she could find out that she would eventually inherit some deadly health condition. There were a variety of outcomes, and she knew that she couldn't prepare for all of them. However, she couldn't let fear keep her from pursuing something that was a part of her. She unconciously grabbed the pendant around her neck and followed the woman through the offices to where they could talk privately. There was a small part of her that was worried about talking to journalists, as she had seen muggle magazines go too far with personal information for celebrities all the time. But she wasn't a celebrity or really anything of note. She was just Adorah.

She walked into Nadia's office and took a look around, noting that it was relatively simple. She glanced at some of the photos and then took a seat at the chair by the desk, placing her folders on the edge while still fiddling with her pendant as she leaned back. She thought for a moment if she should take something to drink. If they were going to be there for a while, it might be nice to have something to at least hold in her hands. "Tea, if you have it, but water is fine, thank you," she said to Nadia and looked at the pictures again. "Your family is very beautiful," she said, pointing to a particular frame that stood out to her. Her family was never big on pictures, and she had very few from her childhood and only one of all of her siblings and parents together. She kept it taped in the corner of one of her journals so she could look at it when she was missing home, but she found that she had looked at it less and less over the years. The only person she really wished she could spend more time with at home was Emmi, but her parents made that incredibly difficult. "I'm not sure how much help what I have will be. Being abandoned doesn't give much room to identify my parents," she said, realizing that abandon may have been a strong word, but it was really how she felt. Like she had no one except for a few select friends at Hogwarts that could easily leave her.

 

[Nadia Kaster]

There was something about Adorah that Nadia just couldn’t quite put her finger on. Perhaps it was the kinship she felt for all Ravenclaws, or that natural affinity from adoptee to adoptee, orphan to orphan - though she wasn’t actually an orphan - it was just a feeling she had about her, like they were going to definitely succeed. She very rarely got those feelings, but when she did they were always right. Maybe it was journalistic gut feeling or something, but she was more than happy to follow whatever path this lead them down, if that was what Adorah also wanted. Curious name, hers. Had her adoptive parents called her that? Nadia hadn’t thought about that name for such a long time and it felt strange now that she was helping this girl, she couldn’t stop thinking about her Adorah. She’d never really forgotten her, how could she, but she had also known it had been unwise and unsafe to remain in her life at that time. Being who she was and what she’d done had made any attempts at motherhood seem like a futile effort at best and a complete and utter selfish desire at worst. One of the reasons she felt like she’d never settled down was the memory of what had happened in Germany that day.​

​

Nadia nodded and smiled as she waved her wand to get the tea ready. Unfortunately she’d never been terribly adept at wandless magic, wordless was enough for her. She opened her desk and pulled out a parchment book and some quill and ink. She hated quick quotes quills and never used them, but since this wasn’t really an interview anyway, she didn’t need them. “Thank you, that’s my Mom Hayden and my sister Lucy.” She hadn’t spoken to Lucy for a long time, she missed her. “I’m actually adopted, like you, so I feel a little more qualified to help you with this than some of my other colleagues and it’s why I answered when you asked for help. That and the thought of possibly reuniting someone with their family, if that’s what happens, was too good to pass up. Who doesn’t like happy endings?” She asked, as the tea she’d made rested on the table beside her with sugar and milk as offerings. She didn’t make one for herself, but she picked up her quill anyway.​

​

“You’d be surprised,” Nadia said, trying not to wince at the word usage. She supposed it was fair, since they didn’t really know the situation and, unfortunately, some people in Adorah’s position really had just been abandoned. She hoped that wasn’t the case here, because she wasn’t sure she wanted to be the bearer of that particular kind of bad news. Even death she could probably handle better, because at least then maybe it would give her more closure than if her parents didn’t want anything to do with her. “Even the tiniest thing can help, for example, do you have anything you might have been left with? Any trinkets or something?”​

 

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah watched the water for the tea began to heat for a moment and then turned back to Nadia. She wasn't surprised that the woman had family pictures in her office, but she was surprised to hear that the journalist was adopted, as well. She suddenly felt more vulnerable and comfortable at the idea of opening up to her. Most people didn't understand what it was like to be adopted, and even though everyone's experience with adoption was different, there was a sort of kinship among that crowd. She looked at the woman curiously. "I - I wasn't aware. Have you ever searched for your birth parents?" she asked a little more confidently than her previous questions had been. She did think it was funny that Nadia mentioned happy endings. They couldn't be sure there would be one in this case, and even then, was it truly a happy ending for everyone? It wasn't a happy ending for her adopted parents who didn't want her to search in the first place. It wasn't a happy ending in her relationship with Juniper because she was sure this whole thing would make her even more distant seeing as she couldn't search for her parents. And Adorah wasn't even sure it would a happy ending for her or her birth parents. Even if she found them, she might just be an intrusion on their perfect lives without her.

As the conversation continued into her past, Nadia brought up any identifying factors that may help find her parents. Adorah subconciously clasped her hand around the necklace again. She looked down at the pendant it as the light hit it. She had always thought it was weird that she was left with a necklace. If her parents wanted to abandon her, they would have just left her. But they a necklace. And a note. Well, at least her mother did. She pulled the necklace over her head and held it out to Nadia, letting it dangle from her hand. "I was told that my mother, presumabley, left this along with the note. They gave it to me before I left the children's home to keep. I've always worn it." She hesistated to continue her thought, but for some reason, she felt Nadia might understand where she was coming from even though Adorah felt a little silly. "It's almost like the necklace keeps me safe. Like.. like someone's looking over me when I wear it." She set the necklace in front of the reporter on the desk, hoping the woman didn't find what she said too odd.

 

[Nadia Kaster]

Have you ever searched for your birth parents?​

​

How did Nadia explain to Adorah that she knew perfectly well who her birth parents were, she just didn’t want to know. It was bad enough that she had lived with them for the majority of her childhood and had then chosen to leave them, and she supposed in that way the adoption was not the same as Adorah’s she’d chosen it over the alternative, but it had been that or her life. There was no question that she’d loved her mother dearly and her siblings, but the accident had left her whole family scarred and it had been hard for her father to escape the prison he’d locked himself in. Even for her, as it turned out.​

​

“I was adopted a little later in life, I was… lucky enough to spend a vast portion of my childhood with my birth family, but unfortunately some pretty bad circumstances meant I had to find other arrangements and in the end - adoption.” She said finally, finding it best not to go too deeply into any details. After all, it wasn’t exactly a fun story and she didn’t want to scare Adorah or anything like that. Anything could happen with all of this and she wanted to believe in the best case scenario for her, not that her parents were involved in some scitorari shenanigans or something like Nadia’s own family. All of that was best left in the past where it belonged.​

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Nadia scribbled some notes onto the pad she had in front of her, mostly descriptors of Adorah that might hint at her parentage, perhaps she looked like one or both of her parents?​

​

Nadia frowned slightly and looked up when she saw her shift out of the corner of her eye and move her hand to clutch what appeared to be a necklace. That was… interesting. Nadia shook her head to perish the thought before listening as she mentioned that a note had been left along with it. She hesitated slightly before she looked at the necklace properly, lifting it a little for a closer inspection. There was no way. It had to be purely a coincidence that this necklace was the exact one she’d… No, she couldn’t think about that. This was obviously just a little close for comfort for her and she needed to stop thinking about it.​

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She looked up as she spoke about thinking the pendant was almost a sign of protection. Nadia wished she had something like that from her own mother. It would have been nice to have something of hers to call her own, but she had nothing really. It was why she’d made the decision to leave that necklace… the one that now appeared to be sitting in front of her. But this couldn’t be the same one. This couldn’t be her daughter… could it?​

​

Only one way to find out. Where was that note? “Where’s that note?” She asked, lifting one of the files to look for it. What had it said? Nadia remembered the exact words she’d left on the note she’d written, in her handwriting no less, about being safer this way. She’d been on the run at the time, how could she have cared for a child? She’d made a stupid mistake and she’d paid dearly for it since. After everything she’d tried to find her again, but she’d been moved from where Nadia and Tamalia had left her and so she’d just hoped that after it all, maybe she had a better life wherever she was. Everything with Adorah was making her wish she’d tried just a little harder.​

 

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

Adorah felt a little guilty for asking Nadia about her birth parents. She didn't mean to pry, but then again, the woman had been the one who brought up the fact that she was adopted. The Ravenclaw wondered what it would have been like to live at the home longer than she did. Juniper had small memories of her birth parents and brother, but Adorah had nothing. There was not an image she could conjure in her mind. She had very few memories from the children's home, but other than that, she might not even know she was adopted if her parents hadn't told her (and the fact that she looked nothing like her adopted family full of blondes and gingers).

As she passed necklace, Nadia seemed to suddenly be concerned with the note her mother had left. She pulled a different folder than Nadia had picked up and pulled out the note. "It's right here," she said, handing it the reporter. "It's really not much to go on. But that was all that was left with me so the nuns made sure I had it... just in case." She knew this might be searching for a needle in a haystack, but Nadia was interested in the note. Maybe there were clues that Adorah hadn't noticed before that the woman could pick up on. She waited for what felt like forever for Nadia to say something about her posessions, hoping that this wasn't going to end before it even started.

 

[Nadia Kaster]

There was absolutely no way that the note was hers. And as soon as she saw it she could prove that and she wouldn’t have to worry about Adorah probably being the daughter she’d had to put up for adoption. There was just no way.​

​

As Adorah handed her the note, Nadia had to fight herself to stop the shakiness of her hands. Why was she so concerned? It was such an unlikely coincidence that this was her daughter… there were so many reasons why this wasn’t possible. Least of all because she’d specifically left her child in Germany… and Adorah had been adopted from a German based orphanage. Well, there was also the fact that she’d looked everywhere… apparently except here, in front of her.​

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Same name, same necklace…​

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Nadia looked down at the note in her hand… it was the same note. The one she’d left. The note, the name, the necklace.​

​

They said it came in threes but Nadia had never ever expected something like this.​

​

Though outwardly she hoped she appeared mostly calm, the panic welling up inside of her was ferocious. She couldn’t tell her, not now, not like this! She wasn’t equipt to answer any of the questions she would inevitably have. How did this even make any sense! What cosmic joke was being played at her expense for this to have happened now of all times? It was like there was some plan in place to bring her back into contact with her daughter whether she wanted it or not!​

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As she peeked up at Adorah slyly, she knew she wanted it. Of course she wanted to know her child, she would have loved for this moment to have been something else - someone else. This way, it all just felt like a fraud, like a set up - Adorah wouldn’t think that, would she? She wouldn’t think that Nadia would do this just for dramatic affect, would she?​

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Merlin, this was worse than she’d imagined.​

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Clearing her throat, Nadia sat back down again and folded the note. She wasn’t ready, Adorah wasn’t ready. She needed to take a moment to compose herself and then she would figure out what to do. Anything would be better than right here right now - as much as she wanted to tell her - she couldn’t. It wasn’t time.​

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“Yes, this will be quite enough - you’ve done excellently.” She said, trying to keep her voice steady even as he heart thundered in her chest at the implications. She was searching for her family, for Nadia… did that mean she wanted to know her mother? “I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I find anything. Is that everything?” She was trying not to seem like she was dismissing her - but she couldn’t completely mask the hardness of her voice as she pushed the panic back.​

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Merlin, this was terrifying.​