The train ride home seemed to drag on for an inappropriate amount of time. Adora wanted to see her parents after such a long time away. She needed to support her mother after being let go from the ministry. Maybe she'd set up a lemonade stand, or walk people's dogs. But what if that wasn't enough? Her mother would no doubt protest Adora's attempts to help, but she'd do them in secret, then slip what ever money she made into her mother's savings jar. Funny how when she was younger. around ages 6-8, she would steal money from that same jar to get ice cream in the blistering summers of Birmingham.
But now she sat on her bed, still adjusting to the burgundy walls of her room. She'd been home for three days, but her mind was still at Hogwarts. She couldn't help think of her friends, and all the people she'd met. She told her mother about the makeup incident from the first semester, and her mom had laughed so hard her eyes filled with tears.
"Adora, how do you manage to make me laugh when I'm jobless?" she asked. Adora just shrugged. Then, she ran up to her room and cried silently. Her mother was jobless. She loved her job. And Adora was right, her mother told her not to try and help, and that she and Adora's father had everything under control. Adora wasn't going to try and defy her.
She tried to keep herself busy. She went on walks, she started a garden, she baked brownies. But she didn't write a single story. Her father checked on her, of course, asked if she wanted to go camping this year. Adora shook her head "no". When her brother, Fallon, came home from America to visit, Adora filled him in on everything that had happened. She told him about the werewolf attack (neither of them could hold their tears back- and Fallon was not a crier), she told him about her stories, showed him the ones she wrote at school.
Fallon offered to help her start writing again. Adora took his offer graciously, asking him for a name, a noun, and a problem.
"Mark, store, and long-distance relationships," he said. Adora stared at him. "How the heck does and of that go together? Mark the Mouse is in some sort of long-distance relationship with Tina The Roach from an American grocery store?" Fallon's cheeks turned a subtle shade of pink. he mumbled something about it being Adora's story before he got up and left. He didn't seem angry, just... embarrassed. Adora decided not to dig any deeper. She knew Fallon, knew he trusted her. So, if he wanted to talk to her about whatever was obviously going on, he would. She hoped.
