Dorothea Xavier strode through the doors labeled ‘Visitors Entrance’ with all the confidence of a person who knew what they were doing. She didn’t really. Not at all actually. She was a witch, pureblooded and British, and this was an American muggle institution. More than that, it was a prison, which she had even less experience with than muggles and Americans. She had married into that culture, but that had still been high middle class, suburban, and in Connecticut. This was Detroit, which may as well be a different world.
An elderly white lady in outdated but fashionable clothing with her white hair up in a stylish bun stood out here like she never really had even in Connecticut. The guards gave her confused looks, not understanding how a woman of her obvious standing came to know anyone in here.
“I’m here to visit Jahmaal Carter,” she told the man sitting at the main reception desk. “My name is Dorothea Xavier.” They looked at the Connecticut ID she handed them and they heard her British accent, which hadn’t faded much over the decades, and they were not any more enlightened as to her connection to the inmate than her physical appearance had granted.
“Purpose of the visit?” he asked.
“Christmas,” she told him. “I bear well wishes from his sister, Isis, who couldn’t make it this year.” That wasn’t exactly true. It had been Nathan’s idea, and Dorothea was the one best positioned to make the trip, seeing as she could apparate the distance to Detroit in mere seconds, and wasn’t stuck behind quarantine lines, but Isis herself didn’t actually know about this plan. They intended to introduce it more as a fait accompli sort of thing, so she couldn’t talk them out of it.
The guard might have recognized the name, or maybe he just stopped caring, but he lead her through the halls to an unfamiliar room and told her to wait.
Dorothea wasn’t quite sure what to expect. She had no idea if Jahmaal even knew about Nathan nevermind Dorothea herself. She expected he would at minimum be confused by her presence and request to see him, but beyond that, she didn’t know how he might react. Visiting prison inmates she didn’t know was not exactly something she had ever done before.
“Hello, and Merry Christmas from Isis,” she began when he arrived, figuring that was a safe common ground to start from. “Unfortunately her school is under quarantine this Christmas, because there’s a rare contagious disease circulating among its population and they are trying to contain its spread, so she couldn’t come herself.”
“I’m Dorothea,” she added. “My son, Nathan Xavier,” she paused briefly, gauging his reaction to the name, “is stuck there with her and when Isis expressed her concern about not being able to visit you, he asked me to do it for her.”