"Shall I get you to sign for my raise before or after I go and check up on my case?" Andi asked her supervisor with her signature good-natured grin.
Even after all that she had seen today with her newest case, Andi was the eternal optimist, and it had taken her less than five minutes to bounce back to her old self. Besides, she knew that all of her cases had seen and been through much, much worse - especially the Potter girl whom she had just met.
Dan Smith groaned into a face palm melodramatically. "I'd better just give it to you now... before you decide to raise it even more when you get back," he chuckled, signing the page Andi had put on his desk and vanishing it away to a safety vault somewhere with a click of his fingers.
"I just want you to know that you deserve every galleon for what you're doing," he called after Andi as she walked out of his office and towards the floor's apparating room. "I know," she called back, "And most likely more,"
"Keep it up and you'll have my job," the supervisor chortled to an empty room.
Andi materialized just outside St. Mungo room 214; Lily Potter's room, since patient rooms had apparating charms on them. The door was slightly ajar, and she could here soft murmurs from inside. Andi furrowed her brow, wondering if that tone of voice was just a precaution for the small and frightened girl, or if it meant something more sinister.
Well, Andi thought, there was only one was to find out. "Knock knock," she chirped with a friendly smile, sticking her head into the room as she quietly knocked on the door.
A pillowy, bustling nurse turned from tending to a small cot in the middle of the room. "You must be the social worker," she greeted with a smile. Andi noticed she had a very pronounced accent - somewhere African, she presumed. Sierra Leone, maybe? "Agent Tonks?" the nurse read off her clipboard.
"Please, call me Andi," Andi said, "And how is my latest young charge doing?"
Looking over at the cot, Andi saw with relief that the young girl was asleep. She had been worried that Lily would be in too much shock to get the sleep she desperately needed. "And how is my latest young charge doing?"
The nurse's expression could only be described as some mixture of confusion and utter shock. Moving closer so that she was out of earshot of her patient, she murmured. "I don't know where this girl came from, I don't know what in hell happened to her, but let me just tell you, it is a miracle she's still breathing,"
"How bad is it?" Andi asked, pulling out her own clipboard to take notes.
The nurse shook her head in some kind of twisted awe. "I did a checkup spell on her when she came in - you know, the standard one... and judging by my results, it's not possible for her to even be alive,"
Andi's brow furrowed in concern. "She's definitely one of the more extreme cases I've seen,"
"One of the more extreme?!" The nurse cried. "If there has ever been a more abused child - no, person - then I want off this planet! Do you know how starved and beaten she is? Her organs are almost as prominent as her ribcage through her skin! She's got so little muscle left I don't even know how she can move! She-"
Andi put an arm on the woman's shoulder to calm her growing hysteria as she built up steam. "I'm glad she's in the hands of someone who shows enough concern for me to able to trust them with her," Andi said, using her social worker voice, "But you need to be quiet; you'll wake her,"
"I'm awake," a tiny voice whispered just loud enough to be heard. Andi looked over to see Lily struggling to sit up in her cot. She and the nurse rushed right over, where Andi took a seat next to the bed as the nurse began tending to her patient again.
"Shh, lie back down, you need rest," the nurse murmured to the girl without a trace of any of the anger that had been there only seconds ago in her voice. Clearly, Andi observed with respect, this woman was very devoted to her work.
Lily did as the nurse asked, though she clearly wanted to protest. Andi wondered if this girl had ever protested in her life. One thing was for sure - the nurse was right about her condition. Andi could barely see her bright green eyes from behind the deep, sunken hollows of her starved cheekbones that they rested in.
"Hey there, Lily, what's up?" Andi asked the girl gently, being sure to use a quiet voice so as not to frighten the girl. Lily only stared back, clearly unused to being spoken to other than in the form of commands.
"I just need to ask you a few questions, is that ok?" Lily, after a few seconds, gave a quick nod in response.
"Great," Andi smiled. "Thank you, Lily." Andi made sure to positively reinforce the girl whenever possible to try and lessen her fear.
"So..." Andi scanned through the checklist of standard questions on her clipboard. "Do you feel comfortable responding verbally to my questions, or would you rather just nod or shake your head to some simple, yes-or-no questions?"
Lily nodded once, looking up at Andi with a fearful and confused expression. "So, the second option?" Andi clarified, not very surprised. Lily nodded again.
"Alright, perfect. Let's get started. First off, here's an easy one: can you verify that your name is Lily Potter?" Andi asked, looking up after reading the question to check for the girl's response.
Lily, looking exceptionally confused, shook her head no. Andi blinked back, surprised. "No? You're name's not Lily Potter?" Andi checked her sheet, checked the DNA test that had clarified that this girl was, in fact, James and Lily Potter's daughter, Harry Potter's twin sister who had supposedly died after the Voldemort incident. Everything was positive.
"Are you saying that you're first name isn't Lily?" Andi asked. It wouldn't be too surprising if the mystery man who had raised Lily had changed her name. He was posing as her father, after all, and his motives were currently unclear, so he could have changed her name for whatever purpose.
But Lily shook her head no again. "So, your name is Lily?" A nod. "Is your last name the same as your dad's, then?" Another nod.
Andi was stumped. She knew this was the Potter girl, but she supposed it was possible for her kidnapper to have changed her last name to match his own. Andi decided to just take the surprise information and use it to track down this indescribably evil man, who had apparently disappeared from the house days before they had rescued Lily.
"Ok, Lily, I know we had an agreement, but I am very confused. I thought your name was Lily Potter, but apparently that's not right. Do you mind telling me what your name actually is?"
Lily nodded, then took a deep breath to gather the courage to speak. "Lily Riddle," she whispered.
Andi's eyes widened. The nurse, who was still tending to Lily, looked up at Andi in shock. And suddenly Andi knew that this already difficult case was going to get much, much harder.