The Pureblood Princess | Sirius Black

|110| The Internship

The lift rattled as smooth jazz played over a tiny enchanted speaker, compartment whizzing every direction as the tea-blowing occupants swayed awkwardly shoulder to shoulder, muttering small talk about burping toilets, the Daily Prophet's latest best-selling book, and the day's galleons trading. Meanwhile, Adelaide fiddled with the strap of her handbag, her father looming ridged and silent at her side...

After the third stop, Adelaide and her father were the only ones left.

Her fidgeting intensified. Not only had she somehow lost the most crucial item needed to crack that damned middle-English riddle... but she was making her father late for work.

She hadn't even stepped foot in the Auror office and she already felt like a big erumpet size failure... So much for proving her father wrong... If she couldn't even be trusted to keep track of her belongings and get places on time... maybe he was right... maybe she really wasn't 'Auror Material'.

When the elevator finally lurched to its destination, Adelaide let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She hustled at her father's heels across the atrium's gleaming emblem set in golden marble. The rickety metal lift doors were still shuttering with a ding behind them when a rather flustered Mrs. Orpington clattered to intercept them.

"Sir," the secretary said, out of breath, teetering on lime green pumps, flicking a stray grey hair away from her wrinkled face with the utmost dignity. "The Minister and Cecil Lee from the Beast Division are waiting for you in the conference room."

Shit. They were really late...

"Thank you," Filip said calmly to the woman. A lot more calmly than he probably felt. "I'll be there momentarily—please fetch them some tea while they wait."

Mrs. Orpington nodded curtly, pushed up her horned rimmed glasses and went clattering off.

Adelaide fiddled with the leather strap of her handbag once again, following after her father. "Dad, I'm really sorry," she said.

Mr Fawley acted as if he hadn't heard her, continuing his brisk walk past the corridor of fake windows showing false sunny skies. Adelaide couldn't tell if he was ignoring her because he was stressed or because he was upset. She feared it was a bit of both. "Dad, I—"

"You'll have to find your own way to orientation—" he finally said once they reached his office. Adelaide frowned... it was messier than she remembered; books open and stacked in teetering towers that defied gravity, parchments and scrolls all messily scattered on every inch of table-top. "—Go to the aurors office and look for the Prewett boy—he's the one running it this year—"

"Prewett?" Adelaide perked up at the mention of her favorite twins. "Wait—which Prewett boy?"

Mr. Fawley summoned several files and parchments. "The one with the ear—"

"Ear?" Adelaide ducked as a large scroll when zooming past her.

"—Gideon," her father clarified impatiently. He looked down at his watch and cursed under his breath. "Just look for the other students—I'm sure they won't be difficult to find—"

"But what happened to his e—?"

The office door flung open. Adelaide squeaked.

"Ah! Orpington," Mr. Fawley said. "Do you happen to know where the—"

"I've already given them copies of last month's report," the woman said. She flicked her wand and a piece of parchment fluttered towards him. Adelaide caught a glimpse as it drifted past... It was filled with names and dates and addresses, all in teeny-tiny print... Boring. But it looked familiar for some reason... "They're reading it over as we speak."