Untitled As Of Yet – Chapter 2
Adoptions and Hairpins
A/N: I forgot to put an A/N in the last part, so I'll put one in this.
First of all, I have no idea where this is heading. All I know is that there are going to be hairpins and fireworks involved.
Secondly, my personal rant: Why are there so many fics about muggles turning out to be wizards? What's wrong with muggles turning out to be muggles?
Thirdly, my other personal rant: In all the fics I've met him, Lee Jordan is either commentating on the quidditch or dying. He's the twins' best friend! Surely he deserves a little more than that!
Disclaimer: I am doing this for fun, and making no profit out of it at all: please don't sue me!
* * * * *
Sarah stared around the office for the second time in a week. Laughing-eyed, brown-haired Mrs. Jordan smiled at her. Lee, disrespectfully spread-eagled in a large, plush-upholstered chair, smiled at her. Even Mrs. Winslock was smiling, although her mouth was tight around the corners and the smile did not spread to her eyes.
Something was definitely wrong. In a moment she was going to wake up and this would all be a dream. It was a rule indisputable as gravity. No one ever wanted to adopt Sarah Brighton!
And yet, here she was, in the office again, surrounded by smiles. A heap of paper lay on the desk, signatures and promises and legal scrawl. Mrs. Winslock was shaking hands with Mrs. Jordan.
"Well, Sarah. You have been fostered by Mrs. Jordan here. On trial."
It seemed to Sarah that the odious woman stressed those last two words slightly. It's only a trial, she seemed to be saying. As soon as they see what you're like, they'll bring you straight back.
I hate you, she thought angrily at Mrs.
Winslock. I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU!
Seeing that no reply was forthcoming, the head continued what she had been saying.
"Understand that this is not permanent. At the slightest sign of misbehaviour, the Jordans may bring you back."
And I'll be waiting for you when they do, Sarah finished for her, silently.
"You must behave perfectly. You represent this home, and you will not let me down."
Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah noticed Lee frowning and Mrs. Jordan shifting uncomfortably in her chair. She was a little surprised: this lecture was horrible, but not unexpected. Nearly everyone she'd known had behaved like this to her; she was used to it. They seemed to think something was wrong.
The head finished her monologue. "Very well, Sarah. You may go and pack your things. I need to discuss a couple of things with Mrs. Jordan here."
Yeah. Me. And what things? All I have is
orphanage uniform, and I certainly don't want that! That and the library books
– which I'd better return. I wonder if they'll let me stop off at the library?
I want to say goodbye to Kate as well…
Kate Barnes was the librarian. She was a middle-aged woman with red hair that showed off several grey streaks and twinkling brown eyes that shone through fancy, sparkling glasses. Kate was one of the few allies that Mrs. Winslock hadn't been able to get rid of, and in her light, slightly odd voice – accented as though she had spent a lot of time living in the North of England, maybe even Scotland – she had consoled Sarah when she had had a particularly hard beating, and recommended to her the best fantasy books. Dragonsbane had been one of her recommendations. I never got to finish that one, thought Sarah ruefully.
All this passed through Sarah's mind as she left the warm room, moving stiffly as though her legs had forgotten how to walk.
* * * * *
Lee started up after Sarah immediately after she left the room, then remembered where he was. "Mum, can I leave?" he asked, pausing by the door.
She nodded. "Run along."
As he closed the door behind him, he caught Mrs. Winslock saying "How nice to see that your son is so well behaved…"
He grinned inwardly. What a suck-up.
There was only one way to go: the reception room was right at the end of a corridor. He got to the end and the corridor split: one corridor, brightly painted, led to the way he had come in; the other, whitewashed rather than painted, led off in a twisty curve. He glimpsed a bit of brown hurrying around a corner down there, and set off after it. Chasing the sight of brown, he followed it along several twisted corridors.
He fetched up by a small classroom marked 'Hist.'. He looked around, saw no brown, and realized that he was lost. It then occurred to him that the orphanage uniform was brown so he'd probably been lost all along, perhaps even following several different people.
Have to find my way out of this one. Oh well, won't
take long.
Lee had managed to navigate Hogwarts castle, where staircases led somewhere different on a Friday and doors had to be asked nicely to open and tended to be one-way and the wrong way, for two terms. After that, the sprawling muggle orphanage would be no trouble at all.
Or so he thought. Lee had forgotten to take into account the fact that there were no ghosts around, unless you counted the orphans, who scurried past every once in a while, ignoring his every attempt to get directions. There were no portraits either; even if there had been, Lee knew that they wouldn't be any help. Muggle pictures always remained still.
After a while, he knew he would never find his way out of this one. Every corridor looked exactly like all the rest: whitewashed, unmarked, unpatterned, with plain grey linoleum floors that could be easily washed.
He tripped suddenly, landed on the smooth floor and skidded. Muttering under his breath, he picked himself up and walked back to see what he had tripped on.
It was a small wire hairpin.
Leaving it there, he went on along the corridor. He turned a corner and tripped again. Once more, he went back and looked at what had tripped him.
It was another wire hairpin.
Surprised, he picked it up and went back to where he had left the last one. Picking that one up as well, he compared the two. They were exactly the same; as far as he could tell, the only interesting thing about either was that they'd both been dropped in the middle of a corridor inside an otherwise clean building.
He shrugged, and went on along the corridor where he had found the second, this time keeping an eye on his feet. Sure enough, there was another… and another… and another! Intrigued, he followed them along. He found the last at the very foot of a large green door. Tentatively, he opened it.
A plump, middle-aged black woman was standing at the sink, whistling as she washed dishes. She heard the door open, and turned to face him.
"They don' norm'ly let visitors into the kitchens," she said irritably. "I was busy."
"Uh," said Lee, "I found these…"
He held out his collection of wire hairpins. There was a sizeable number of them.
The woman laughed out loud. "Kid, you foun' anot'er of Sarah's trails!"
Lee's face must have looked puzzled.
"Sarah Brighton," the woman explained. "N'orphan. The old woman beats she whenever she can find she, so she leave these trails of pins around for they – and she normally far 'way by the time they get the end of 'em."
"D'you know where Sarah Brighton is now?" he asked.
"Nobody ever know where Sarah be," she replied. "She got more hideys 'n any other kid in this hole. But ya might wanna try the gel's dormy. Out that there door, secon' onna left, take the middle fork and you're right there."
"Thanks," said Lee.
The woman started whistling again as Lee left the kitchen.
* * * * *
Sarah had realized that Lee was following her almost straight away, of course. She shook him off pretty quickly, and left him at the beginning of one of her hairpin trails. She had a lot of fun with those trails.
She then took the quick route to the girl's dormitory – through the chimneys. By the time she came out in the mercifully empty girl's dormitory, she was black with years of accumulated dust and dirt. She grimaced as she brushed a couple of blackened feathers off her pinafore – in her haste, she must have climbed over one of the near-fossilized corpses of pigeons that occasionally dropped down the chimneys.
She picked up a feather, and realized, surprised, that it was hardly dirty at all by comparison with some of the stuff in the chimneys, and very soft. Had it come from a living bird? One that was moulting, perhaps?
It was a mystery that would have to wait until later. She had to pack.
Taking out a plastic bag from a store that was kept in every orphanage room, she took the revolting brown pinafores and white shirts from her drawer in the chest. Then she looked at her pile of library books – some of them very much overdue, but Kate never sent overdue letters to the orphanage as Mrs Winslock opened all the mail. They were all fantasy stories: books by Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, Terry Pratchett, Patricia C. Wrede, Phillip Pullman.
She would never be able to carry them all, she realized. She would have to enlist someone's help, and there was no one she would trust with the precious books.
"Need help?" asked someone. Sarah turned and saw Lee
Jordan standing in the doorway. Damn, she thought. I thought I shook
him off!
"Well?"
Sarah decided that there was no other way she could shift all the books. "Yes please," she said. "I have to get all these books back to the library, and 'til then I've got to carry them."
He looked at the pile of books. "You'll probably need another bag. You have tons there!"
She shook her head. "The old woman would notice. We're not supposed to read fiction. In fact, she'll probably notice anyway. I shouldn't have taken so many out all at once."
He picked up some books. "Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones. Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce. The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett. You're into fantasy books, aren't you?"
"And if I am?" she asked, annoyed.
"Nothing. Here, I'll help."
* * * * *
The car had been borrowed from the Ministry – to be more precise, from the Department Of Wizard/Muggle Relationships, who almost all agreed that a wizard family adopting a muggle child would be a very good idea.
It was purple.
Not just any purple, either – it was the deep, rich shade normally associated with blackcurrant juice.
'Muggle-born squib' Mrs. Lisa Jordan was well aware that it stood out like a firework against the ordinary muggle cars. Sometimes she thought it would be a good idea if the Ministry hired a few muggles. That way, they might just stop making mistakes the way they did.
She slid comfortably into the drivers seat and turned the key in the ignition, smiling. She hadn't driven a car since she had married Arnold, and was looking forward to this short journey. She had point-blank refused all the Ministry's offers of a driver.
"Get in, Sarah, Lee. In the back."
The one plastic bag which contained all Sarah's possessions was on the passenger seat beside her. It was pitiful, really. Lisa was only sorry that they couldn't adopt every child in the orphanage to get them out of reach of that dreadful woman. Lee seemed perfectly happy that he had suddenly acquired a younger sister, for which she was thankful. Life with Arnold Jordan was hectic enough without an eleven-year-old wizard slouching around in a sulk.
I wonder what she'll do when she finds out? thought Mrs. Jordan. She herself had screamed in Arnold's face, fainted, come round in a couple of hours and almost knocked him out when he had told her of his decision to leave her. After that, he had acquiesced and the wedding had gone ahead as planned. Lisa knew that many wizard/muggle relationships did not work out nearly as well, and she considered herself lucky.
"Umm – Mrs Jordan?" asked Sarah's timid voice from behind her.
"Call me Mum," said Lisa. "Or Lisa, if you prefer."
"Thank you, Mrs. J- Lisa. Er… could we stop off at the library? Only I've got some books I need to return."
"Of course!"
* * * * *
A/N 2: My thanks go to Lauren, w&m_law (I know nothing about Les Miserables, it was unintentional), Sidra Astro, Neva, Snapa, Tazy Silverpen, GoldenPhoenix, LiLi (who went around ALL of my original fics and reviewed them as welll… thank you, LiLi!), setzkitten, Rose Black and specially Headmistress Abby, without whom I'd never have come to ff.n in the first place. Thank you for reviewing! You guys are the best!