Thank you angel2u, Aims5, PerfectlyObscure, pancakeatebatman for your reviews! I love knowing what you think about the story so far !
Don't worry, things will get happier soon, it's just that adoption isn't always 100% cheerful, well, it's never – it has the sad part about loss, anger and trust. There are lots of emotions involved and there will be for a long time, even after the adoption process is finished so just be patient with Jade and give her time to get through this.
Thanks everyone for reading and adding my story to your favorites! there will be no update for at least two days - school stuff - fingers crossed - I have to finish this term...
Enjoy!
Another week was a blur, Jade didn't do much, she didn't make new friends, she didn't go outside, and she didn't eat, at least not much – always just enough for the caretakers to stop bugging her. She spent days lying in her bad, staring at the ceiling and going over every single day at the Burrow in her head, trying to find all those little mistakes, which she would never repeat and she'd apologize for them if she ever saw Molly and Arthur again.
She didn't find many so far, just minor mischief and few misunderstandings which could be easily repaired if she was given a chance. But then there was the day of Fred and George's birthday party…
It was only few days after Bill's arrival so the house was still fairly clean from the big homecoming polishing and de-gnoming so Molly gave kids some small jobs in the garden before sending them outside to read for a while before lunch.
The plan was to surprise twins with party with their friends, whole family and a couple of neighbours, but it wasn't entirely a surprise as they found out it was going to be today. So when they were sent away to go to the village and play in the park for the afternoon, everyone knew what was going on and there was general excitement in the air.
Molly had beautiful birthday cake prepared, it was chocolate with vanilla ice cream filling and purple fondant on top. They had sparkles on top and candles too. And banners and twinkle lights were put up (more then usually). The big kitchen table was now standing next to the picnic table with all the chairs and benches Molly could find in the house.
Arthur came home earlier and helped her set everything up. Big pitcher of strawberry flavoured water and bowls with celebration dinner were ready, waiting to be served.
They had fried chicken and roasted potatoes – twins' favourite, and sliced veggies with sour-cream onion dip. There were party hats and confetti ready on the table.
Arthur wrapped the presents in shiny gold paper. They didn't have much for boys, each of them got new school book – brand new, with shiny bras corners and clean white pages. Two matching red shirts and Arthur added a pair of new Quidditch gloves to each package, reassuring Molly that he has saved the Quidditch shop owner whole lot of money by helping him with a muggle football shirts he's decided to sell in one section of his shop as time-limited offer and he had no idea how the teams were named and how the football worked. "So after explaining it to him and helping him with the exhibit he was so happy he gave me a gift card for two galleons! I just had to add four sickles and two pairs of gloves were mine. Molly they'll be so happy, you know how they're always talking about joining the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year." Said Arthur with pleading eyes and when he saw Molly smile a little, he tied the last ribbon on the parcels and got up from the floor.
"They'll be happy, you'll see." He winked at her and kissed her loudly on her lips.
As the party time came and all the guests started to come, Charlie and Bill brought everyone back home, but under strict directions they came in through the front door and went right upstairs to freshen up and wait for the party to begin.
Ginny put on her pink skirt and matching pink-white striped tee with huge fabric flower headband and as Jade wanted to look nice too, she pulled out her new blue dress from Molly and carefully put it on. Her hair was growing out but it still wasn't long enough for her to braid it without help so she just let it down.
They came downstairs and joined the crowd that formed around the tables.
Everyone was getting a little bit impatient because twins weren't coming, and when Bill was about to go and check on them, a single spark, glowing with golden light flew up to the air. There was a second of silence before it exploded and formed beautiful golden-silver flower up in the sky, perfectly contrasting with the purple sunset sky.
The fireworks then split in two and flew around in circle, making all the guests gasp and move in closer to the centre of the yarn, as the sparkles flew a little bit too low.
The two parts of the fireworks crashed into one another right in front of the back door with loud bang and ton of dark grey smoke and Fred with George appeared in the door way.
Everyone applauded, kids admired the fireworks and adults were more relieved that nothing caught on fire so they clapped as well.
Molly looked furious, but when she saw how proud her sons looked, she couldn't help but smile. There will be time for speech and extra chores for misbehaving later.
Everyone loved the food. It as delicious and the ice cream cake cooled everybody down.
After opening the presents and thanking everyone for coming the party was cut short because of another storm coming.
Weasleys had just enough time to hide the last piece of cake and leftovers in the kitchen when heavy rain started to fall, and it continued through the night.
Next day however, it seemed that all the excitement from the party got washed away with the storm. Together with breakfast, there was a long speech about safety, responsibility and listening to one's parents. It went on forever and although Molly didn't keep the rest of the kids in her kitchen, they could still hear it from the porch.
And in sudden rush of bravery, Jade decided it's not fair to let them suffer two weeks of extra chores alone and she stepped inside to confess she too, helped with the fireworks.
Fred and George tried to deny it and save her from mom's anger but Jade wouldn't take it.
So she too got two weeks of chores and now that she was thinking about it, she still had more than a week left, as the punishment was interrupted by social worker coming in and taking her away.
Jade wondered how was the life in Burrow now. What was Ginny doing? Did she miss her? And what about Ron? Are they all still hanging out by the hammock and spending mornings in the garden in search of any forgotten strawberries?
That's when she remembered how they installed the hammock with Arthur and Ron and Ginny when the rest of the boys were still at school, and a lonely tear escaped from the corner of her eye.
Jade also wondered if Bill and Charlie are still at home. They were supposed to leave week after the party, and even though she tried to count the days, it was impossible, they all seemed like one long nightmare.
…
Life at Burrow wasn't as idyllic as Jade remembered it. Due to the numerous sheets and forms that needed to be filled as soon as possible, Molly left all the work around the house be and concentrated purely on that. Arthur worked long hours to earn extra money for all the adoption fees and with both parents occupied elsewhere all the kids got bored and grumpy.
Somehow burrow didn't work without Jade, she was part of the family and it was impossible to live there without her.
Every time Molly came upstairs, bringing fresh laundry or chasing kids down for dinner she had to go around Jade's bedroom and every single time she broke down in sobs.
The atmosphere was terrible, so when the day came and Molly with Arthur were ready to leave for court, everyone was more than excited to be done with this and have Jade back. Molly never talked about the possibility of coming back home without their newest daughter and she couldn't imagine that version of the story so when she got into that borrowed ministry car and clutched Arthur's left hand in hers, he could feel her shaking violently.
…
Jade was dressed in her blue dress, it was nice enough for her to wear it to the court.
"You won't even go to the court room, you'll just stay in smaller room and talk to the judge. She'll ask you some questions and you have to answer them. Don't lie, just tell the truth and you'll be fine." Said the social worker that came to pick her up.
"Is Molly and Arthur going to be there?" asked Jade silently. She wasn't sure if he wanted to see them, what if she apologized for everything and they would still tell the judge that they don't want her to come home back to the Burrow?
"yes, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley will be there, you won't see them though, unless the judge decides that they can legally adopt you. That's the policy, now you're in care of the country and we can't have strangers hanging around you. You now the stranger-danger rule don't you now?" asked the lady smiling at Jade.
"but they're not strangers, they're family." said Jade and looked out of the car's window.
They had air conditioning on because sun was already up high and there were no clouds today.
Jade was walked into one tiny room with elegant grown-up furniture and she was told to wait for the judge.
Young looking man, in white shirt and dress pants walked in with a plate of salted crackers and small bottle of orange juice for Jade, telling her it will take a while.
After 40 minutes a kind, smiling woman walked in, wearing long black robes, similar to those Jade saw on wizards in Diagon alley, she was muggle though, so Jade didn't mention anything about wizards to her, just in case she didn't know about them yet.
"Alright Jade, how are you today?" she smiled at the girl and sat down on the chair next to her.
"I'm fine, thank you…your honour." Answered Jade silently, quite scared and unsure how she was supposed to talk to the judge.
"Oh don't worry about the titles, I'm Cassey. Now, I've been talking to the Weasleys in the court room and they looked like a nice family. Did you like it at their house?"
asked Cassey taking one of the crackers and popping it into her mouth.
"Yes." Said Jade shortly, but when the judge continued to look at her she added: "they are really nice, you know, but I messed up as usual, and so they had to send me away. It's not their fault and maybe, if you'd let me see them for just a little while, I could apologize and all would be fine again."
Cassey looked confused now. "You messed up? Did they tell you that?"
"Well, no, they said it wasn't my fault and that they don't want to send me away…but…that's what adults always say – right? I mean, I always mess something up and get into trouble and then they always tell me it's not my fault and that it would be better for me to live somewhere else so.."
"Oh dear! That's not the reason at all! You see, there's a trust found set up for you – it was set up by your parents even before you were born, and there's quite a lot of money. So we had to take you away from the Weasleys and make sure they're not keeping you with them to get to that fund. I'm so sorry, I thought someone would have told you already." The judge smiled sadly.
"Well…and were they?" asked Jade, with total chaos in her head.
So they want me? But for the money? But they really want me back? And I didn't mess up? What does she mean, I didn't mess up, I did all those bad things and …
"No, of course they didn't. As it turned out, they didn't even know about the money and Mr. Weasley is willing to transfer the money to another fund which would only be accessible for you when you turn of age, because now if we go through with the adoption, the old fund would be open to them as your guardians."
Jade didn't understand half of the things the judge said to her but the most important thing, she understood.
Weasleys wanted her for who she was, for the first time ever someone actually wanted her because she was Jade.
Could it be true?
But a little voice inside Jade's head told her all the adults are the same. They would send her away again eventually but for now she could go back to the Burrow and enjoy the it for the time they were willing to keep her.
And this time around there would be no mischief, no trouble, just studying, chores and absolutely no nightmares. She'd have to be careful.
"As you'll be 11 soon, we would need your consent before I say yes to the process. So the question is…" started Cassey, "do you want them to adopt you? Do you want Weasleys to be your forever family?"