Observation Pays Off

It was a busy day in Sparks. Khaat's managers were doing well for the bistro, but Khaat had come in to sign paychecks and to double check the books. In the back office of the restaurant, she finished the paychecks, and stood up and stretched to relieve the kink in her back. She believed she concentrated better when she had had her normal level of caffeine in her system. She picked up they paychecks, her mug and walked out of her office. She handed out the paychecks one by one and finished by going over to the barrista counter, plunked her money in the register, and poured herself a cup of French Roast. She realized she could certainly take the coffee from her own place without paying, but that just felt plain wrong. She wasn't going to rob from her own place. She always paid for her purchases, even in her own place.

She was pouring the coffee when she heard a little voice. "Mama!" the voice called. Khaat could recognize that voice anywhere. She turned to see Brian coming in, carrying their two year old daughter, Abbey. And Abbey had a stufed toy in her little hands. Brian came over and kissed her simply. She kissed Abbey.

"Did Daddy take you shopping?" Khaat asked. Abbey nodded. She showed Khaat the new toy--a stuffed giraffe with oversized shoebutton eyes. Khaat had to admit, it was cute. "Daddy spoils you. Are you hungry?" Abbey nodded. "What do you want?"

"Cookie?" Abbey asked, pointing to the case of baked goods, to some sugar cookies with pink sprinkles. Khaat put two cookies on the plate and poured a glass of milk for her and a cup of tea for Brian. She sent them over to the table, as Brian reached in his pocket with his free hand and deposited some galleons into the register.

"Can you join us?" he asked, brushing some of Abbey's blond hair from her face.

"I'll try. You go enjoy," Khaat smiled. Brian took Abbey over to the table closest to the kitchen door, as a server put a high chair at the table for Abbey.

"Susan!" Khaat was delighted. "Of course. You have a beautiful family and a wonderful daughter. What a pleasure it was to meet her! You must be so proud. Its good to see you again. Can I get you something? Tea, perhaps? Our flavored tea of the month is a wild raspberry tea. It's quite good."

Making different flavors of tea was one of her father's favorite hobbies. He would take spices and the freshest fruits of the season and make new teas. Khaat knew it was his love of potions that kept him working on things like that. She liked the frequent changes in tea flavors and had started carrying them in Sparks because they were favorites of family and friends, and they had been top sellers in the restaurant. Her personal favorite was the vanilla almond tea. Well, when she abandoned her addiction to French Roast coffee.

Abbey's giggle reached Khaat's ears, and it made her smile. One of Brian's friends had come up to the table and had tickled Abbey. "That's one of my daughters over there with my husband," Khaat said. "She just turned two in May, and she's entirely too smart for her age."

"I've done a lot of guardianships with ophaned wizard kids, and I have an adopted teenage daughter. So I do know some of what you mean," Khaat said, pouring Susan a mug of tea and handing it to her. "The tea is on the house." It interested her that Susan's daughter had had some accidental baby magic. "Abbey has had some random magic stuff too. Brian and I think she's an animagus. But we know its too soon to be entirely sure." Susan wanted a word. Khaat had no problem with that. She was used to people wanting to talk to her. It wasn't unusual. "Let's go to my office," Khaat motioned to her. She led her back through the dining room, to the kitchen and off to the left to her very simply furnished restaurant office that was near the back door of the bistro. The only ones in the kitchen were her chef Lizzie and the soux chef. Both of which Khaat trusted with her very life. And both of which were far too busy to pay any attention to what Khaat was doing anyway. "Come in and make yourself at home," Khaat said. "Have a seat if you like."

The room had a very utilitarian desk and office chair, a contemporary leather loveseat, and two leather sidechairs, along with a file cabinet, and a bookshefl with restaurant supply catalogs shelved on it. The walls were just a simple white color, and the only decorations were the necessary restaurant licensures--and the pictures. A large but tastefully grouped collection of photos graced the largest wall. The photos were of the people she held dear. Her beloved uncle. Her parents. A copy of her wedding picture not even quite a year ago to Brian--her second marriage. Her first marriage had been disasterous, and her husband had left her the night she'd given birth to their daughter Abbey. He had decided he just couldn't do commitment after all. Maturity had not been his 'thing.'

Brian, on the other hand, was her best friend from childhood. He had come, as a healer, to assist with the Abbey's birth, which had been so complicated, it had nearly killed Khaat. And Brian had stood strong with her ever since. He had taken on the job of being her chief bodyguard when her life had been threatened. They had agreed they would never fall in love. They had agreed it would be just platonic. And somewhere, a year ago, that had all gone to hell. They were tail over teakettle in love. And her parents had been delighted to see the two childhood friends finally give in and marry and then have triplets almost immediately--an unplanned triple blessing.

There were pictures of all her children. Every child she was the guardian of. She loved them as dearly as if she had given birth to them. There were about eight of those. Some were grown with children of their own, and she displayed photos of them and their families proudly. Her 17 year old daughter, Miseria. Miseria's two year old daughter, Dakota. Khaat's firstborn, Abbey. And Khaat's one year old triplets, Robert, Michael, and Brian.

She sat down in the desk chair and faced the grouping of the other chairs. "So--how can I help you?"

ooc: sorry. i had a wonderful post and somehow i accidently deleted it before it saved it to the board. Phooey.

"Susan," Khaat said, knowing what that desire was like to have children. "You might consider something if you're serious about more children. I presume you know I'm the Director of St. Mungos. Between that job and the wizengamot, I run into all kids of kids--kids of all ages--that need good homes. Sometimes they're babies of teen moms who are still in school. Sometimes its a young child who has lost a parent through some sort of tragedy. And sometimes it is a teen who perhaps has a parent out of the country or through any wide variety of events, doesn't have anyone to be their legal caretaker.

"The option of adoption is always open. And so is guardianship. With adoption, they take your family name and you become their parent in every form of the word. In guardianship, you become legally, and often financially, responsible for a child, but it allows them to keep their own family name, and it provides you with the additional backing of the Wizengamot if there should come any legal trouble in perhaps a touchy custody issue down the line. I've done both, and in my family, those kids are just as much a part of our home and our hearts as if we'd given birth to them.

"You remember Viktor Krum? Viktor lies in Bulgaria, but he doesn't get along well with his son. And Eli has been living here in England for some time. I was Eli's legal guardian for years until he graduated last month. I will always think of him as my son, and I know he will always think of me as his mom.

"I just wanted you to know that there are options and that we always need both adoptive parents and guardians."

She listened as Susan told her about sighting Zada Forbes. Her interest peeked sharply. "Zada Forbes? In broad daylight? Well, now isn't that interesting?" she said thoughtfully. "I was hoping she had fled back to Russia. You say she was heading down Knockturn? That is very valuable indeed. Oh, well done. Did she see you? If there is any chance she saw you and suspects you recognize her, we might well need to move you and your family to a safehouse. If I were to show you some photographs of the witches and wizards we suspect were working with her and with Gellert Grindelwald, and if you're willing to get me word if you see any of them, your information might be priceless to us. I'm not asking you to deliberately risk your life, you understand. But if you do see something more and would be willing to pass it along, that might be incredibly helpful."

"Just a moment," she said. "I think I can have them brought here. Excuse me one moment." She got up and went to the dining room and looked at Brian.

"Need something?" he asked, looking up.

"As a matter of fact, I do," she said. "Can you go get the photo file in the lockdown vault? The one in the first active case file, please?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he nodded. "Anything I should know about?"

"Not yet."

"Very well." He saw one of their servers about ready to go on break. He offered to pay them to watch Abbey for a few minutes. The teenaged server was so tickled with getting to spend some time with Khaat and Brian's daughter, that she refused the extra money Brian offered, so long as she got to spoil Abbey while Brian was gone. That was fine with Khaat and Brian. The server sat with Abbey and Brian went to the Ministry file vaults.

Khaat came back to the office. "Brian will be back in a moment with the photograph files. Some of these men and women you may know well from the community and their involvement. Some are witches and wizards we don't even know the names of. Not yet. We suspect they may well have come over from mainland Europe. Whether they're still here or not, I don't know.

"I will arrange to pay you for your information from our intelligence program. Do not put yourself in danger to get anything for us, but we will compensate you for what you do get for us." It did take Brian a few minutes to get past all the levels of protection enchantments to get to the vaults to get to the file Khaat had requested. He shrank it and put it in his shirt pocket and then apparated back to Sparks. He went into the office and drew the file out of his pocket, letting it resize as he retrieved it. He handed it to Khaat.

"Is that the one?" he asked. She opened it.

"Yes. Thank you," she said. He nodded and left, closing the door this time. Sensitive information did need to be protected. Khaat handed the file of photographs to Susan to give her time to commit them to memory.