Ah, god I can never remember to put a disclaimer on the first chapter. Well, guess what people none of the character you recognize belongs to me. They all belong to the great goddess JK Rowling (bow before her you puny mortals!) who began the Harry Potter craze in the first place. So with that, on with this… uhh, I guess you would call it a fic… type… thing… yeah…
Warning! Warning! Bad Geography ahead!
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Social Worker Claudia Bailey's day started out just as normal as anyone else's day, thank you vary much. She woke up at six thirty on the dot just as she had done (almost) every day for ten years. Waited for her computer to boot while she took a shower and then checked her e-mail; deleting (almost) all the porn, and saving the work related mails. She ate, made coffee, picked out a suite for the day, and put on her face all while listening to her favorite CD. Then, car keys in hand, she was out the door by eight thirty, yes a perfectly normal day…
"Claudia!" normal, that is, until she got to her office… Barton Baxter, head supervisor for Claudia's level, stuck his head out of his office door and screeched again. "Claudia! Get your ass in here! Don't make me fire you!" She rubbed at her temples, oh god, she thought, not another fucking migraine. Setting her briefcase down on her desk, she ambled slowly into her boss's office.
BB, as some of Barton's underlings called him (his initials could also stand for Bitchass Bastard), stood facing a window that looked down out over a busy main street. Claudia didn't care what the damned street was called, she never used it anyway, rubbing at her temples again she flopped into a chair. "Claudia." Baxter said, "you're late again, are you trying to make me fire you?" yes… completely normal. "BB, I'm always late! What do you want from me, to be on time? You would need to find a girl that does my job as well, if not better then me, for half the price. Do you think you could do that?" Claudia could tell that Baxter was grinding his teeth. "I should fire you," he said slowly, "just for that. But not now, I don't have the time and I have a job for you." Oh goody, Claudia thought, just what I wanted, something to add to my migraine. "I've already had some people on this one," he turned and handed Claudia a file from his desk, "the parents are seemingly unemployed, and they have seven kids." Claudia let out a low whistle. "But to our knowledge only a few of them live at home now."
Claudia nodded her head and skimmed across the anonymous call in about the family. 'But I kin tell you what, I sho do hear dat movher. Or what I fink is da movher. Dat lady be screamin' day an' night!' this caught Claudia's eye, she knew what growing up with a mother that screamed all the time was like, she shuddered, she didn't like to think about that time in her life. "I want you to take officers Arland, and Dermot with you and get out there as soon as possible, you got that?" Claudia nodded, still reading the report. "THAT MEANS NOW, BAILEY!" now if you have never been shot with a sound arrow you have to consider yourself lucky, for that was exactly what happened to Claudia Bailey; not only did it make her jump out of her seat and flee the room but it split her head in two, and made her brain fall on to the floor.
Walking back to her cubicle, Claudia popped four ibuprofen into her mouth; she swallowed quickly and grimaced at the sour taste of the pills. "Well good golly miss molly, what was that all about?" oh god, was this migraine ever going to go away? Not with people like the 16 year old intern that had been hired for the summer that was fruiter then Toucan Sam stopping in to say hi every 2 minutes. "I've got a head ache. Just drop the mail on the desk and go away." The boy looked a little put off. "Well that's no way to say hi, grumpy gills."
She growled narrowed her eyes into slits. "Hi."
"Well, I guess I can accept that. But tomorrow I want a big smile and a hug from you!" ignoring her glare, he just smiled as he flipped through the mail in his little cart and plucked some out. "Oh and do you want this? It's from your mother, third one this week, I think you should read it." Claudia snatched the letter from his hand, "If I wanted your opinion, I'd beat it out of you!" and tossed the letter into the trashcan. The boy tossed the rest of Claudia's mail on her little cubicle desk and sashayed away with a harrumph.
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The drive out to Ottery St. Catchpole was a good 1½ hour that Claudia could have done with out. Dirt roads, the constant white noise from the police radio Dermot refused to turn off and Arland's sense of direction (which had gotten them lost 3 times), had culminated in another headache that was, if she wasn't careful, going to lead to another migraine. Growling, she pushed her hand against the ceiling of the patrol car as Dermot drove over another pothole. "I swear if you drive over another pothole, I'll put a hole in you skull!" Dermot rolled his eyes and sighed, "don't blame me lady, it's not me fault that this place is way out in the bleedin' boonys where the government don't take care of the roads. Her comes anuvver one!" Claudia screeched as Dermot swerved out of the way of one hole and bounced into another. "That were a big one, that were!" rubbing her head with one hand Claudia's other smacked Dermot upside the head. "Remind me to kill you when we get back to London." Dermot smiled. "Hey now yer wouldn't kill me, yer like me too much. Besides I'm ter handsome ter murder."
Officer Arland (who was in a patrol car behind Claudia and Dermot after Dermot had refused to get lost again) had stayed strangely silent during the entire trip, not bothering to pick his mike to shoot pointless banter back and forth with Dermot, as per his style. It wasn't that he didn't want to or that he was in a bad mood it was just that he felt like there was something serious was going to go down today. Not something bad per say, just something wrong that you couldn't stop, but only stand back and watch, wishing there was something you could do to stop it. Arland sighed again and watched through the back window of the car in front of himself. Ginning he suddenly remembered why he didn't want Claudia Bailey riding with him; she was the biggest complainer and side seat drivers DSHS had ever seen. But that was fine with him, he couldn't stand her and Dermot had fallen head over heals for her since the first time they went out kid hunting (as Arland had coined it) together. Arland had never like doing this job, he only needed the extra shifts since he was going to become a proud father himself, he was just glad this wasn't his only gig; he liked the security job at the local high school much better, the company was better too. Well, Arland thought, that's neither here nor there, and none of my business. Still, even as he watched Dermot swerve from running over another pothole and then swerve again to miss hitting an old wooden sign that proclaimed 'Welcome to Ottery St. Catchpole!' that odd sinking felling would just not go away.
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Claudia popped the lock of the cruiser door and stepped out onto the old gravel road leading to the shack appropriately called 'The Burrow'. Glancing at the five (A/N: I think it's five), stories of mismatched well… stories, she wanted to retrieve a roll of yellow CONDEMED tape and string it across the whole of the property. It just wasn't safe; she didn't know how or why the place hadn't fallen down yet. But far from that most of the other parts of the report were pretty dead on. There were dead car parts all over the lawn and inside a small run down looking garage she could see what looked like a bench saw whirring away. Claudia immediately whipped out a pocket notebook and began to make notes about anything she saw.
"1. Wild animals running freely in yard,
2. Rundown garden,
3. Dangerous tools left running,
4. House in very bad repair,
5. Automotive and computer trash litter yard."
She could have written more but when she turned around there was a red haired woman wiping her hands on a thread bare kitchen towel and staring pointedly at her. "Can I help you?" the plump woman asked pleasantly, the other two fools might not have heard the snide undertones, but Claudia had been doing this so long she had heard every tone there was to hear in the business.
"Mrs. Weasley I presume?"
"Yes, and you are?"
"Oh! I'm sorry," Claudia pulled her wallet and flashed her ID at Molly long enough for her to get a glimpse of her name and age but that was all. "I'm with the Child Protection Services; my department recently had an anonymous report that claimed that your children seem to be neglected." Molly's face was one of shock and horror. "What!" she shrieked, "I've never beat my children a day in their lives!" the social worker put up her hands. "Mrs. Weasley I never said you did and neither did the report! I didn't mean to alarm you! This is just routine check," that was a lie, if what she found in that house was as bad as what were out here, these kids were as good as gone. "We have to check out each claim to see if there is any truth to it." To Claudia's great relief the woman calmed down slightly, "Ma'am, I don't like this part of my job any more then you do, but please may we take a look around inside the house?"
Molly seemed to think about it for a second then responded. "Can you wait just a moment, I need to uh… call my husband at work, and I think he should be here for this." Claudia wiped out her notebook; "you mean he's not unemployed?" her pen at the ready, Molly was suddenly reminded of Rita Skeeter. "Of course he has a job! How do you think we pay the bills?" Molly turned and after making sure the Muggles were going to stay put out side, turned and fled into the safety of her home.
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Molly was frantic when her husband Arthur finally came to the floo. "Molly, Molly dear, please, stop crying, what's wrong, did something happen to one of the children?" Molly wiped her eyes on the towel she had been drying her hands on earlier, "oh Arthur, it's horrible! There's some Muggle woman here. She said she was from the Child Protection Services and she has two please-men with her!" Arthur looked calm, but molly had been married to him for over thirty years she knew better then to be fooled, his eyes always gave him away. "Oh, what should I do? She wants to come inside! I can't let a muggle come in here! I told you to put up the
Notice–me–not wards again!"
Arthur let his wife rant as he thought for a moment; ranting had always seemed to calm her each of the Weasley men knew this. "Molly listen, go into our room and get me a pair of jeans and a white t–shirt…" she did so, and pushed them into the green fire where Arthur's head had been a moment before, "now," he said when he returned, "run around the house and try to make it as muggle like as possible that means no clock, no self washing dishes or self knitting jumpers, and try to quite the ghoul. Then let the lady have a look around. Try your best to explain away any thing that may seem 'unnormal'," he said making quotes, "to her. Tell her that you called me on a cell phone and I have to walk in from the next village over and will be home in twenty minutes." Molly nodded her head dried her tears now that she had a plan of action she didn't feel near as nervous as before, and blew a kiss at her husband. It took Molly all of two minutes to cast a series of Notice–me–not charms on various objects in the house, disengage the washing and knitting, and shout up the stairs at the ghoul to "Shut up! We have muggle guests!" before letting all three of the said 'guests' inside the kitchen door.
Claudia's reaction was immediate, pen and notebook in hand she began to scribble more notes,
"1. Wild animals running freely in yard,
2. Rundown garden,
3. Dangerous tools left running,
4. House in very bad repair,
5. Automotive and computer trash litter yard
Inside house
6. Piles of unwashed dishes,"
She watched as one of Ginny's 'pet' cockroaches' scuttled around her feet. The bug was immediately squashed under one of Molly's hefty feet; the woman gave Claudia a sheepish smile. Ms. Bailey only grimaced and scribbled again,
"7. House suffering from insect infestation."
By the time Ms. Bailey was done she had amassed a list of about fifteen things that had made her come to one solid fact that no one was changing her mind about; these children were leaving today!
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Thank you everyone ever so much for reading this it just makes my day! Hugs self any way please review! That would make everything even better!