It was 10 A.M. Arizona time on the morning of Monday, December 21st, 1992, and Heather had taken Amy by Side Along Apparition to Nurture's Orphanage's temporary building for her first meeting with her parents as well as a meet up with the kids that the fundraiser that had been held at Skyward School of Practical Sorcery had helped.
Amy was wearing a yellow tee shirt, yellow shorts, yellow socks, and yellow tennis shoes. This was the most common wardrobe for her if she wasn't wearing a dress. Her shirt was a bright vivid yellow, her shorts were a somewhat lighter but still vivid yellow, and her matching socks and tennis shoes were a light yellow. Heather was wearing a sparkling blue dress with matching colored socks and tennis shoes.
They came into a room where two people were standing.
One was an average sized average heighted man with medium brown hair and hazel eyes who was wearing a lime green polo shirt, black shorts, black socks, and black tennis shoes. The other was a tall woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes who was wearing a dark brown dress with matching brown sandals. She had been wearing high heels the only previous time Heather had seen her, and Heather had convinced her to give up high heels because of how bad high heels are for the feet.
"Amy," said Heather slowly, pointing at the man and woman, "These are your biological parents, Andrew and Amanda Alworth."
Slowly and deliberately, Amy walked up to where her parents were standing side by side and faced them.
"Mom, dad," mumbled Amy awkwardly and stiffly.
"Amy," mumbled Andrew and Amanda in equally awkward and stiff voices.
This stiff start was inevitable. While Heather had assured Andrew and Amanda beforehand that Amy would forgive them and while Heather had also assured Amy beforehand that her parents had sincere remorse for abandoning her, there was no way around the first contact getting off to an awkward start.
After the exchange of mumbles, there was a minute and a nanosecond of very awkward silence before Amy piped up, "In other news, Jimmy is no longer cracking corn and I do care!"
At this, Andrew, Amanda, and Amy herself all let out a few giggles and the tension was broken.
"Good job breaking the tension, Amy," said Andrew gratefully, "Before we go any further, I just want to say how proud your mother and I are of you for the major role you played in helping out the kids here after that devastating fire."
"It says a lot about you and your character that you still care about the kids here even though you've clearly been happier with the life you've had since you left," said Amanda proudly.
Amy now looked her father and mother directly in the eyes. As she did so, she could literally sense and feel that her dad and mom were genuinely proud of her.
"If I give you direct eye contact," Amy explained to her parents, "I can sense your thoughts and feelings. I can tell your pride in me is sincere."
"Thank you, Amy, " said Andrew clearly, "I'll give you the floor now. Are there any particular questions you have for us?"
"I know you both agreed to abandon me at birth because I am an albino and because I am a witch. Are there any other reasons why you didn't want me?" asked Amy slowly.
"Ultimately, " said Andrew seriously, "Our decision to abandon you both over your albinoness and over your magic was a symptom of a big personal flaw of both Amanda and me at the time and that is that at that time we were both extremely selfish and self-centered."
"This is accurate," confirmed Amanda gravely, "You being what you were didn't align with our idealized view of the type of family we were hoping to start."
"Was my albinoness or my magic the bigger factor in you two not wanting me?" inquired Amy.
"They both fed on each other," said Amanda honestly, "Your albinoness made us hate your magic even more and your magic made us hate your albinoness even more."
"How did you know I was a witch though?" wondered Amy.
"We were informed by a woman named Minerva McGonagall that a magical quill had identified you as a witch and that you would be attending a school of magic starting the first September 1st after your 11th birthday," said Andrew matter of factly.
"This McGonagall woman also explained to us about the types of displays of magic we could expect to see around you as you grew up because of your inevitable accidental magic," added Amanda briskly.
"What was your idealized version of me?" was Amy's next question.
"I was delighted when I learned my child to be was going to be a girl," said Amanda matter of factly, "I had envisioned a daughter who was going to be the spitting image of me to the point of looking at you being like looking at my younger reflection in the mirror. My preference would have been a dark brown haired girl with brown eyes whose skin color matched mine exactly. It was one thing for it not to turn out that way exactly. But I admit that I was bitter that you turned out to be an albino and wanted nothing to do with you after that. Andrew and I also decided then not to have any more kids under the premise we didn't want lightning to strike us twice."
"I went into it hoping we'd eventually be a standard family of four with a mom, dad, son, and daughter," explained Andrew, "I was bitter that you turned out to be a witch because magic was completely inconsistent with my definition of normal. Certainly, making lost toys come to you seemingly of their own accord without having to search for them didn't fit my desire for a standard ordinary family life."
"I appreciate your honestly," said Amy sincerely, "But I'd like to know how old you two were when I was born."
"I gave birth to you precisely one day after my twenty third birthday," answered Amanda, "Andrew's twenty third birthday was the day after your birth. "
"That's certainly young enough that your attitudes and perspectives can mature and change," said Amy calmly,
We're both thirty five now," piped up Andrew, "But our attitudes and perspectives have only recently begun to change, although we hadn't thought much about you after abandoning you until recently."
"When we first took the jobs as the new Matrons of Nurture's Orphanage, " said Amanda solemnly, "We were exposed to all these orphaned kids here and were met face to face with the various things they'd all been through when we learned why they are here. Of course, many of these kids were orphaned by various tragedies, but some of the kids here were also abandoned. In most of the abandonment cases, the biological parents of the kids abandoned them simply because they didn't want kids."
"In both cases," put forth Andrew quietly, "The pain and heartbreak of these kids here was palpable when they told us their stories. We could feel their hurt in their voices and see the pain on their faces and in their body language. The experience caused both Amanda and me to think about people other than ourselves for the first time in our lives."
"Heather did tell me that she suspected just being around the orphaned children may well have caused the two of you to become more sympathetic and empathic people even before the fire," remembered Amy.
At this nanosecond, Amy happened to look her parents eye to eye without thinking about it and observed, "After interacting with the orphaned kids here, you both started to feel guilty about abandoning me and this guilt evolved into remorse."
"That's exactly right," confirmed Andrew, who noticed where Amy was looking and said, "It's really true that you can sense our thoughts and feelings when you give us eye contact."
"Yes," agreed Amanda, "I suppose that is part of her magic."
Amy nodded as Amanda actually had a few silent tears sliding down her cheeks now.
"Amy," admitted Amanda, "We condemned you to the same fate as the kids we met here because my husband was a selfish asshole, and I was a selfish bitch."
"This is sadly true," acknowledged Andrew, "Basically, we threw you away like wilted salad because you weren't our "perfect ideal daughter".
"Mom, dad," said Amy softly, "If the two of you need some time to expel some emotions, we can take a break for a few minutes and a few nanoseconds."
Andrew and Amanda both nodded their heads gratefully.
"Take as long as you need," said Amy encouragingly, "There is no hurry here."
For five minutes and five nanoseconds, Andrew and Amanda let their tears flow while keeping their eyes focused on Amy. Actually meeting Amy was making it sink in on them exactly what they had done to her, but they also felt as though something poisonous was being extracted from them with every tear. As they suspected, both Andrew and Amanda felt better after they had shed all their tears.
A minute after Andrew and Amanda had stopped crying, Amy asked them, "Are you feeling better and are you ready to resume? Take all the time you need if not."
"I am feeling better," piped up Andrew and Amy could sense this was true.
"Ditto," replied Amanda, who Amy could also sense was feeling better, "Let's move on."
"How big a role did the fire itself play in making you both more compassionate people?" was the thing Amy wanted to know next.
"It finished the job," said Andrew matter of factly, "Being around the orphaned children in the first place did most of the work there."
"How hard was it for you two to console all these poor kids after the fire?" asked Amy softly.
"Amy, if it hadn't been for you, that job would have been impossible," said Amanda, now walking straight up to Amy and giving her a hug.
"You have to understand,' said Andrew sadly, "That Heather wasn't exaggerating when she told you that the children of Nurture's Orphanage had lost everything except the clothes they were wearing at the time of the fire."
"Most of the kids were inconsolable at first," remembered Amanda, "Even ignoring the fact that some of the kids here had what if trauma thinking about how they could have died, being left with NOTHING but the clothes on their backs was absolutely gut wrenching to all the kids here. Most of them were devastated and depressed and there was nothing Andrew or I could say or do to make them feel better."
"That's where you come in," said Andrew proudly, "Can you tell us exactly how this fundraiser came to be?"
"I had asked my three besties, Harry Potter, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbott if they would donate some money to buy new clothes and toys for these poor kids here. Susan and Hannah agreed to do so at once, but Harry said we should set up a fundraiser and involve the entire school. Heather agreed to this, and, as Harry predicted, the overwhelming majority of students at my school made some kind of donation, " explained Amy quietly.
"Every toy or game you see the kids playing with when you go to meet them is here as a result of that fundraiser, " said Andrew seriously, "If you hadn't gotten the ball rolling on that fundraiser, who knows how long it would have taken for everyone here to fully recover."
"When Heather explained to us who you are and that you were the one who got the ball rolling on this fundraiser," said Amanda matter of factly, "It gave us a lot of perspective on what kind of person you are and what your character is."
"We were wrong all along to judge you by your appearance and abilities without ever getting to know you or anything about what kind of person you are and what your character is," said Andrew honestly.
"Now, " said Amanda nervously, "To what extent are you willing to forgive us?"
"About eighty to ninety percent," said Amy, trying her best to be as honest as possible, "I have nothing to gain from being bitter or holding a grudge and it's obvious to me that your remorse is sincere. The one thing that is a bridge too far for me would be living with you. I will never be able to live with you as parents and daughter. That's the main limit of my forgiveness. I am willing to meet with you two on occasion and tell you about how my life is going. And if either of you ever need a transfusion or a transplant and I am a match, I would be willing to be your donor."
Both Andrew and Amanda gave Amy tight hugs at this declaration, as her sincerity was obvious to both of them by this point.
"Are you ready meet the kids?" asked Andrew simply.
"Dad, I have one more question for you first," said Amy crisply.
"Fire away," responded Andrew.
"Dad, if you named me before I was born and it wasn't someone else who named me, then why did you name me Amy?" wondered Amy curiously.
"The name Amy means beloved, and I thought you were going to be beloved to me. You should have been. Interestingly enough, the name Amanda means worthy of love. At the time, Amanda was my favorite girls' name. However, I didn't want to give my daughter the same name my wife had because of confusion issues. I settled on Amy, which can be seen as a short form of Amanda," answered Andrew.
"I always did wonder if Amy could be short for anything, given how short the name is," admitted Amy, "I suppose I should have realized that if it was short for anything, it would be Amanda. And NOW I am ready to meet the kids."
The next chapter will show Amy meeting up with the kids the fundraiser helped and then we'll start getting into Harry's forgiveness/reconciliation arc with Petunia and Dudley. This chapter got longer than I expected so I'm spreading things out amongst more chapters than I planned for this series of chapters.
A shout out to the following members who have added Harry Potter and the Yellow Quartet to their favorites and/or follows lists since the last update.
Benjamin Gatward
cruelkillzone
Ellyana Fischer1
Fear stephina
JS2002
Luiz4200
Navav2431
NofriGunawan111
Pokeranger2002
RevOP
Much love from Arizona for all the support. Love you all-Michael :)