Quinn snapped the file shut on Tessa Sherwood. She was doing fine. Quinn had ten more to go through. And that was just today. Kids with missing parents, and half of them Muggles. She hated dealing with the Muggle authorities.

The kids just kept losing their parents, having to be placed in other homes. She was a part of that herself, but from a brother who hated her and hated his own child because they were witches. Thurston's wife had died in childbirth, and like both Quinn's parents, he was quite without magic. Not that the whole family was. Quinn had cousins that she had never spoken to that came from one of the largest wizarding families in Britain. Her father had been a Squib, though. He had never been able to connect with the rest of his family.

He was also the only one who did not resent her. Her mother and brothers did. Hell, Thurston resented his own daughter. He'd left her with Quinn the instant he knew what she was. Quinn had raised Pepper as her own, and potions class aside, the girl was doing well. She had it in her head to be an Auror, but Quinn was hoping that would be grown out of.

Quinn sighed and opened the file for Noah and Nila Chalke. They were staying with their Muggle grandparents. It was proving tricky. The words on the page started blending.

She groaned and fell forward onto her desk. Quinn banged her head on it a few more times.

Tossing a cushioning charm towards the social worker's desk, Jonathan slid into the seat in front of her. "It's curious, but I never knew we had such a place in the Ministry. Child Protective Services? It all makes sense now, of course, but had anyone asked me, I would have denied your very existence." When the woman looked up at him, Jonathan gave her a wide smile. "Jonathan Savage, Auror."

"That's nice. I'm so pleased you know your name and what you do for a living. I have a lot of work to do, and I am not in the habit of socializing with Aurors." An actual Auror. Pepper would die.

"As I'm not in the habit of socializing with social workers, our meeting today is a first. Neat." He sat forward in the chair, his face shifting to that of something more serious. "I'm looking into several disappearances, and I was informed that you're taking the cases of those children who's parents have gone missing. I think we can be mutually beneficial to each other."

Quinn arched a brow. "Really? Who are you looking into? And if you are planning of talking to any of these children of the missing adults, you can't really do that without me there, so perhaps you are right, and we can benefit one another."

"Oh, I'm sure of us benefiting each other," he replied with a roguish grin. "At the moment I'm looking into several persons, including Cara Talbot, Lyra Sherwood, Nahim Bahal, Grant MacPhee, Norman Rook, Bethany Chalke... Would you like me to go on?"

"Martha Stewart? Though I think that woman just took off, and the father... not interested. He said the youngest isn't even his. A real stand-up guy, that one." Quinn, frowned. "Talbot? Not familiar. No children? Because I only get the ones who have kids. I handle what to do with the children."

"Have any of them said anything?" At her look, he shrugged, lounging back in his chair, crossing his legs at the ankles and folding his hands over his stomach. "Children sometimes see things that they don't think are important. Have any of the children said anything about someone they saw hanging around a bit more than normal?"

Quinn shook her head. "Most of the parents have vanished during the day at some point. They drop their kids off at school... then nothing. They don't show up for their regular day of work or whatnot. No one notices them gone much until they don't come for the children at the end of the school day. The ones that were parents at Sara Prep were very dedicated. Mainly Sherwood, Bahal, Rook, MacPhee, Chalke. They wouldn't leave their children. Also, all of them were single parents. All of these cases I have right here are children of single-parent families with missing parents."

"Hmmm," Jonathan said, dedicating everything the woman had said to his memory. "It means that whoever is taking them is picking people who will most likely not be searched too hard for. If they had a spouse it'd be more difficult. It's smart."

"It's disgusting. These people have children who are depending upon them. You know the ones who have Muggle parents think their parents left them because they will do magic, be different."

Quinn slapped one pile of folders on another.

Jonathan rose an eyebrow at the redhead. It was obvious she had some mummy-daddy issues that she needed to work through. "Indeed," he said, grinning a bit. She seemed rather... angry. It was almost amusing. "Well, either way, I'd like to talk to the children, see if anything they saw might be of use."

"Which ones," Quinn asked in clipped tones.

"I made a list," he answered, grinning as he dug into his pocket. He carefully smoothed the piece of paper out for her to see. "Just to make it easier on you, of course."

Quinn perused the list. "I'll see what I can do. School broke session for winter break last Friday. It will probably take several days, and I have a lot of work right now."

"I can wait for a beautiful woman." At her glare, his grin only widened. "I suppose you do have an influx of work with everything." Jonathan rose from his chair, nodding at the list. "You just let me know when you have time for me, Love. I'll make time for you."

"Does that approach usually work for you? Because I have to tell you... nothing here. Just do your job and let me do mine, got it?"

Jonathan grinned. "I have absolutely no idea what you mean. I'm all about the job. Place something before me and I lavish it with attention, always have, almost to a fault." Flashing her a wolfish grin, he headed to the door. "And I mean it, owl me anytime. About the children," he added at her look. Pleased with himself, thoroughly amused, he let himself out of the woman's office.

Quinn rolled her eyes. She'd have to owl him though. Unfortunately. He was too smug and too flirty.

But he was looking for her kids' parents.


{SUMMARY} Jonathan visits Quinn in the Child Protective Services offices.