[Thea Redwood]

Location: Ministry of Magic • Date: Fall 2003
Time of Day: 1:45 pm • Weather: Cloudy

Wearing a yellow badge around her neck, one that made the object of her visit all too obvious, Thea Redwood walked with her shoulders straight, but her eyes never left the ground. She used to brush shoulders with these people, some of them socially, others professionally yet all of them had vanished when she had been sent to pay for her sins.

To make matters worse, Thea had received an owl earlier in the week, informing her that her case was to be overseen by a new Parol Officer. The thought of having to start anew with a Ministry employee mad her stomach lurch. At least this time she brought good news regarding her state of unemployment, barring Ministry approval the blonde had finally managed to find a job.

When finally she reached the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Thea was told to wait in a small waiting room and that her Parol Officer would be with her shortly.

[Edith Lindtberg]

Edith was late. She had somehow managed to sleep through her alarm and then when she had gone to shower, there had been no hot water due to her room mate using it all during her usual hour long showers. So Edith had been forced to use a freshen up charm that had left her hair limp and her skin itchy. Merlin she needed to get her own place.

After disapparting to a street over from the Ministry and then using the underground toilets in Whitehall, Edith appeared in the Atrium looking rather flustered with an arm full of scrolls while more hovered behind her. Rushing down the halls, she weaved past many Ministry workers and ignored the indignant squawks that were sent her way. Edith was late to her first meeting with her new client and she was never late.

Rounding the corner to her office, she skidded to a stop outside her door and then straightened when her gaze fell on a woman sitting to the right of it.

"Miss Redwood?" She inquired, "I'm so sorry, I do hope you weren't waiting to long."

[Thea Redwood]

Legs crossed as had been her arms, she greeted the younger woman with a glacial stare. Little by little, society had stripped her of all she had possessed. Her time was about the last valuable that remained and it seemed the young woman did not much care for it.

Keeping her arms crossed, she followed the young woman towards her office. She did not care to explain how long she had waited, surely her Parol Officier was enlightened enough to read the time, which meant she could surmise how long Thea had waited. "I could be sent back," she dared not speak the name of the cursed establishment, "if I was late to our appointment." Perhaps pointing towards the different standards to which they were held would suffice to make the younger woman understand the extent of her displeasure.

[Edith Lindtberg]

Edith winced, “I know, I’m so sorry,” She repeated as she did her best to balance the stack of scrolls in one hand and open the door to her office with the other. “My alarm never went off and my roommate used all the hot water so I had to use a freshen up charm so I at least looked like I’d had a few hours slee—ah gotcha.” Pausing her rambling to celebrate the fact that she’d managed to finally open the door, she shoved it open with her shoulder and then moved inside. “Anyway, I’m here now and I’m very excited to get to know you.” Edith smiled at the blonde before moving to dump the scrolls she held on top of her desk. Pieces of parchments fluttered away at the impact but she paid them not attention as she waved her wand to set the other scrolls that had hovered behind her on the floor next to her desk.

The office that Edith had only had for the better part of a month was medium sized with wooden finishing and concrete floors that she had attempted to cover up with a large and very old rug she’d found in the flea market. She’d also found the two visitors chairs that sit in front of her desk there as well. One was a rich forest green made from velvet that had been patched in various places in other shades of green. The other was a deep blue with wooden claw feet and thin arms that had scratches covering every inch. Both were piled high with scrolls and pieces of parchments.

On the right side of the room was a bookshelf that covered the entire wall. Various books lined the shelves but every third shelf had photo frames and little knick-knacks she had brought from home.

Her own chair was a leather thing that protested every time she sat on it and the desk in front of it was large with sharp corner and a glass top. Her boss had given it to her as a congratulation gift for her promotion and it was only thing in the whole room that Edith hadn’t found either on the side of the street or at the flea market.

Moving to sit behind her desk, Edith barely sat down before she jumped up, realizing that Thea had nowhere to sit with papers and scrolls taking up both the chairs in front of her.

“Oh here, let me just...” Scooping up the bundle, she turned and deposited it onto her desk. “There.” She said with a bright smile before reclaiming her own chair.

“Now, Miss Redwood. Or Ms Redwood? Which do you prefer?”

[Thea Redwood]

Having suffered years of cold showers, Thea harbored no sympathy for Edith Lindberg's barely infringed upon luxuries.

When the office door finally opened something flashed beneath the surface of her hardened expression; a hint of disdain she quickly managed to restrain. She would remain impassible, no matter the outcome of their meeting. The system had already taken enough from her, she would not let it affect her any longer.

Refusing to move the cowering tower of documents covering the chair, she eyed the misguided purchased until it was finally cleared. She hummed a barely audible "thank you," before she sat with her legs crossed.

"Ms.," Thea expressed as her preference. "I found employment," she continued eager to move the meeting forward.

[Edith Lindtberg]

"Right yes, Ms Redwood," Edith nodded dramatically with a large smile. Reaching for a pile of scrolls, she sorted through them until she found the one with T. Redwood embossed on the front.

Lifting her head at Thea's words, she stopped unraveling the scroll and her smile somehow grew larger, "Really? Oh that's great. Tell me all about it!:

[Thea Redwood]

"Well, it is quite interesting," she introduced though it was unlike her to decorate her statements with unnecessary preludes. Thea Redwood preferred to get straight to the point. Thea's eyes narrowed and quickly she diverted towards a more familiar path.

"I was offered a position as an Agricultural Quality Control Agent," she unrolled the parchment on which the offer had been written. "I am well suited for the position as I have experience in botany." She waited for the young woman's response before she continued.

[Edith Lindtberg]

Listening intently, Edith stopped unrolling Thea's personal scroll and reached for the one the woman was holding out for her.

"That sounds super interesting! So you're working in some sort of greenhous--oh—" Growing silent as she stared at the scroll before her, Edith swallowed heavily as the words Ogden's Distillery glared up at her, "Umm, Miss Redwood, it says here that you've been offered a position at a...Distillery?" Edith looked up at her client and pursed her lips, "Is that correct?" She asked, even though she had the proof right in front of her.

[Thea Redwood]

"Miss Lindtberg," Thea did not bother to ask about the woman's marital status. The lack of a ring and the state of disarray of her office was enough information for Thea to settle on a condescending miss. "As the letter states, I would act as an Agricultural Quality Control Agent. I did not think I would have to explain that the Distillery's crops are grown far from where the alcohol is made." She knew which reservation her parole officer was about to express and felt as though they were not justified. "I would not sell alcohol. I would work in their fields, directly with the crops," she explained.

[Edith Lindtberg]

Squirming in her seat at the authoritarian tone that Thea used, Edith struggled to maintain eye contact.

"Well, that of course sounds incredibly reasonable to me. Why wouldn't you take up a position that utlized your...skills," Thea's criminal charges flashed red and bright inside her mind. Willfully Poisoning by Herbal Means. The woman had been sentenced to eight years in Azkaban but had been granted parole after five years due to good behavior. Thea Redwood seemed to be doing her best to get her life on track, but not a single person other than Edith would let the woman take this job. Yes, Edith could understand and explain it away, but she still had superiors and getting them to sign off on this would be impossible.

Edith sighed, "The thing is, Miss Redwood, if it was up to me, I would certainly sign off on this, but my signature is only one of the three you need. Getting this past my superiors is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. I know that this...position wouldn't have you interacting directly with any sort of alcoholic substances, but you would still be manufacturing it, and that's...well that's enough to alarm my bosses." She grimaced and lower the scroll to her desk. "I'm sorry. I just can't approve this."

[Thea Redwood]

How rich of her to dissociate herself from the system she blindly served.

Thea took the scroll from the Parol Officer's desk. That piece of parchment represented her first offer since she had been liberated from Azkaban, none of the other employers had been interested in giving her the time of day.

"What-" she cleared her throat as she attempted to steady her voice. "What does that mean for my conditions?" She asked, aware that she would not be able to find another offer before the deadline.

[Edith Lindtberg]

Edith licked her lips and stared at Thea. The blondes deadline to find an appropriate job was quickly approaching, and it was very obvious to both of them what that meant if she didn't find a job in time. Thea would be back in Azkaban like she had never left. This short reprieve would be for absolutely nothing.

Edith cared for her clients. Always had and she wanted them to all succeed in bettering themselves but sometimes no matter what she did, some parolees were just without hope. Thea though, was not one of them. The woman was trying and Edith would be damned if this woman went back to Azkaban after the work she had done to better herself.

"Well, as it states in your Parole Agreement, if you unable to find employment with four week of your release, you have two days to return back to Azkaban willingly and if you don't...well," Edith winced and looked away from Thea as she continued, "I'm sure I don't have to tell you what will happen then."

Gaze pinned on the writing above her door, the words Ac non numquam deditionem stood out against the concrete in white marble letters and Edith suddenly found herself struck with a thought.

Without dropping her gaze, Edith asked, "How are you with people?"

[Thea Redwood]

The mere allusion to Azkaban made her blood turn into frozen sludge. She attempted to restrain the shudder running up her spine by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

She could not go back.

Hands clasped against the atrocious chair's armrests, it took her a second before she registered the question she had just been asked.

"I-" she swallowed thickly. What kind of answer was she expected to provide? I'm good with people except when I murder them? "I don't need your help," she finally snickered.

[Edith Lindtberg]

Edith flinched and then straightened, "Yes, yes of course. I'm sorry, I just..." She sighed and clasped her hands together. "I don't want to see you back in Azkaban, Thea. That place is..." Edith shuddered and looked away, remembering all the times she had visited her father while he was there. Those visits still haunted her dreams.

"I am currently looking for someone to work along side me with people like you. Those who have spent quite a bit of time in prison and need a little help adjusting to the world again. I need someone they can relate to, because it's all well and good me telling them what they should be doing and how to go about it, but when it comes from someone else, someone who's been in the exact same position they've currently found themselves in...well, the results are a lot better." Edith smiled tight lipped and looked at the blonde. "Of course, if that's not something you're interested in...I'm sure we can find something else..." Though time was quickly running out.

[Thea Redwood]

She would not become a mouthpiece for a broken system. Not when it worked against the very people it claimed to rehabilitate.

Perhaps she could offer some truth to those who left Azkaban. Let them know that the prison's looming curse, carried on once 'free'. She still felt as though she was in a cell, only now its walls were thick with false promises and the dementors wore colorful robes.

"I will do it," she accepted monotonously.