Being in a mood
They move towards the exit together.
“Do you have a job, Mr Snape?” The worker is obviously already fishing for information on if he would be a suitable guardian.
He had first thought of writing a fake name on his sticker, but had realized if he wanted to adopt a child it would be better to be honest.
“I’m teaching at an all-year school in Scotland.” Severus answers.
“You’re a teacher. Well, that’s a good precondition to adopt a child.” The worker smiles at him, not the standard fake smile from before.
“I’ll try to reach Ms Anne before the bus drives. Enjoy the paperwork Severus.” His first name is not written out on the sticker.
Ares runs off, properly to do as she said. Severus wonders at first how she knows, before remembering that her twin brother knows, and they seem to be able to talk in full sentences.
It’s a lot of paperwork, but Severus manages to get though it quickly and then leaves for his home. He needs to go over his changes and make sure everything is Muggle proof in case, they send someone. For the first time, he is grateful for having a lot of muggle devices in his home.
AM
Today was a moody day.
And no, he wasn’t talking about his surname.
On such days he missed Sirius and James in the office. They never finished their auror training, but he guessed losing them to the war was worse than just having one fail the program.
On such a day Sirius would make a joke about his surname and then James would say 'Are you Sirius?' and Sirius would answer 'Yes, Sirius-ly', then Alastor would snort or call them brats and they would laugh and the day wouldn't be as moody anymore.
It was such a moody day was today, Tuesday the 1st of august, that Alastor knew today was desk duty.
He had long since learned, not to go anywhere dangerous, when he was in a mood. He tended to oversee something or wasn’t fast enough. During the war he hadn’t had the choice, and it had cost him dearly. Some people where jealous of his replacement eye, Moody would give all his money to never be hit by the curse, which had cost him his eyesight in the first place. Most people pitied him for his leg, fools the lot of them.
Maybe he had used all his money and connections to get the best eye imaginable, it’s not like he had anyone else to spend the money on, no one who would inherit the live-depts he had gathered. Better spend it and ensure he could save someone else his misery, than waiting for death to come.
Another sigh left him, as he finished his latest report. He was glad he had kept his position as head auror. He could train new recruits easily enough on his good days and they needed to learn to do the paperwork as well, but he would never ever want to take over as head of the DMLE. Amelia did very well in that position.
He still remembered training her. She had always been excellent with paper and quill, had kept her head in politics and knew how to do small talk.
Knock, knock. Thinking of the devil.
“Come in Madam Bones.”
The already greying witch came in and closed the door behind her again. Raising a silencing ward, Madam Bones turned to him.
“I need your expertise, Alastor”
Alastor, so it wasn’t in his role as Auror, but as her friend.
“What do you need help with Amelia?”
He indicates to the chair in front of his desk and Amelia takes a seat, putting the folder she had with her on the desk between them.
“I had a muggle paperwork in my inbox today. A wizard wishes to take in an orphaned girl. It confused me, because I doubt the wizard would ever wish to adopt a child, least a muggle one. So, I looked into the girl. There was no indication of her parents being magical. Frankly there is no knowledge of who her parents are at all. The only way to know would be either asking the headmaster to check the book of attendance several years early or a blood test by the goblins, which was made illegal a few years back, for children under 11.” Here Amelia made a face. She had voted against the restriction, it’s why Moody had given her his vote as Proxy. He just wasn’t interested in politics and Amelia and him had similar enough views.
“You could always meet the girl and use that Monocle of yours to look for a magical core.”
“Or I could send you to meet the wizard. From what I heard you and him have a work relation.”
He raised his eyebrow at her. Amelia and he had a closer work relation, than he had with his trainees. And he saw his trainees daily.
Still, he did finally take the folder before him to read. After a moment he looked at her again.
“Is that a prank?”
“Feel free to check. I already spend more time on this, than I have.” Amelia stood up and went to the door. “I leave you in charge of this case, Head Auror Moody. Feel free to burn it.”
The door closed behind her. Well, if this was a joke, he would burn it. At least he had an excuse to get out of the office today. After all, floo calling Severus Snape wasn’t something he would do in a place where anyone could listen in.