helpinghannah (helpinghannah) wrote in vrrpg, @ 2016-11-21 09:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !backstory, !complete, char: elladora guffy-goldstein, char: hannah abbott, time: 2007 |
Backstory - Ella and Hannah
Spring 2007
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Hannah had only just started volunteering for the Fawley Foundation. It wasn’t much but her help was appreciated and she was more than happy to do it. Training to be a Healer had come very late to Hannah. She had to watch all of her friends with similar interests go through the training without her. All she could do was serve them drinks after a hard day and save all her money for when she could begin. So volunteering had been her first instinct and carried on with it when she had started training. That day she was meeting with Ella in the hopes she could help to plan an outreach event coming up. Ella was lovely and fun, it made helping her so much easier. With two coffees at the table for them, Hannah sat waiting and made notes - she was painfully early! It took a few more minutes for Ella to arrive. She was usually pretty punctual herself so arriving early much more painful in Hannah’s case. The older woman popped in with a particular urgency in her step. She spotted Hannah immediately and beamed a smile at the woman along with a wave. “Oh, Merlin, hello! Hi! I hope you weren’t waiting long. I would have gotten here sooner, but the babysitter was a bit late, then I got distracted with a call from the orphanage in Belfast, then I couldn’t find my shoes,” she chuckled as she hung her purse on the back of the chair and settled into her seat, “... and now I just sound like I’m making excuses .” It was only then that she’d realized she’d been rambling. A beat occurred and she shook her head. “Hello, how are you today?” Hannah watched the other woman’s animated personality. How Hannah envied her - a Healer, married with kids of her own and still managed to pull herself together. “I’m good and don’t worry, you’re not late, I’m very early.” She smiled widely and genuinely though - Ella was one of the best people she knew and her mood was infectious. “And that’s why I like you,” the woman offered pointedly. “Have you eaten?” Ella changed the subject entirely with no warning. Between organizing this orphanage outreach and taking care of a two year old at home Ella honestly forgot to eat throughout the day. It was a regular occasion, actually. Now that there was a smell of coffee shop treats in the air she couldn’t not reach for the menu - handing Hannah one of her own. “My treat - whatever you want.” Truthfully, Hannah hadn’t had anything to eat yet. “Only if I get it next time.” Ella was very kind and generous but Hannah could be overly prideful and wanted to pay for most of everything herself. She was just used to doing it. “How is Leticia, by the way?” Hannah loved kids and were exactly the reason why she wanted to study pediatrics. She’d lucked out getting to know Ella through the Fawley Foundation. “She’s great!” Ella beamed. She could talk about Letty for hours, “She’s two now, so she’s moving around like a pro, starting to talk in more complete sentences. She’s basically brilliant!” A short laugh came from the woman at how ridiculous she must have sounded. Hearing about Letty made Hannah want to see the little girl again, it had been a while. “I’ve no doubt. She’s so precocious and curious.” Hannah remembered the last time when Leticia had upturned her bag just to find Hannah’s keys with the little rabbit fob on the end. “D’you have any children, Hannah? Forgive me, I can’t seem to recall,” Ella asked genuinely curious. Hannah smiled and shook her head. “Not yet.” Kind of need a Father for that. “No one’s really lined up to help me make one and I don’t think the adoption agencies would look kindly on a single woman who runs and lives above a pub.” She laughed a little nervously but being realistic as well. “In time, I’d like to have children though.” “Well, we didn’t have Letty traditionally,” Ella offered far more casually than most people would. She’d lived with her infertility for quite some time and used her own experiences to educate people on the subject via casual conversation. “I found out in ‘94 that I couldn’t gestate children of my own. We used a muggle surrogate service and a process they call in vitro fertilization to bring Leticia into the world. So there are other options than having a bloke knock you up.” Hannah had been studying Muggle medical textbooks as well, not wanting to limit her learning, so she was familiar with in vitro. So she nodded along, smiling, and was glad that Ella could have her little girl. Hannah didn’t have ‘baby fever’ by any means, but she was getting older and she felt some small ache - just for a moment. It was then that a waiter arrived and the conversation temporarily halted. Ella ordered a turkey panini with crisps. Hannah ordered a small bowl of soup and a BLT. As the waiter nodded and walked off Ella realized they’d gotten off track, “We should probably talk business, though, shouldn’t we?” Hannah pulled out her notebook as Ella leaned over her plate and had to gush a little bit. “Thank you so much for this opportunity. I want to help but there’s only so much I can do while in Training.” She was woefully behind all of her other classmates from Hogwarts and it made her melancholy every once in awhile. “No thank you!” the older woman shook her head making a gesture with her hand as though Hannah was being silly. “It’s hard getting people involved beyond just showing up day of. I can get a healer to commit to most of our events without a problem, but the moment I start asking them to help make calls to spread the word -- their eyes just glaze over.” It may seem tedious to some people, but to Hannah, any kind of help she could give, she would try. “I’m here for whatever you need me to do, really.” She’d taken a bite of her meal and picked up her pen to take notes. “Really, what I need help on right now is forming an accurate list of all the magical orphanages that are still in operation. After the war a lot of small organizations popped up all over the place to help out, and the Ministry made a big long list of ‘em. But nine years later they still haven’t updated that list. So, a lot of them shut down and it’s a long tedious process.” She’d spoken so accurately and passionately she smiled and took an exaggerated breath. “Sooo, if you could help me narrow down the list that’ll help loads. The other part of it is spreading word to the orphanages that are still around and tell them that we’ll be offering pro-bono wellness checkups for the kids that can be put in their case files.” “In a lot of ways this will also put the orphanages on spot for keeping the kids fed, and clothed, and taken care of properly. There’s been some recent reports in the news about mistreatment in some of the orphanages that are under funded. So we’ll be helping keep an eye out for that as well.” Hannah wrote everything down at a feverish pace, wanting every detail so she wouldn’t forget. “Is there any recourse for the mistreatment?” she questioned. Surely if it was discovered something could be done to remedy it - move the children to different facilities perhaps? Maybe it wasn’t right for her to question but she was curious. “Oh yes,” Ella nodded, “I’ve been talking to a few politico types that have set up a response process for those sorts of situations. Ideally, what would happen would be we’d take the children to Fawley Foundation approved facilities where they can be properly taken care of.” “So any new orphanages would be on record already - we’re just looking to see if the existing ones are running and if they need help, who’s running it, how many kids...am I forgetting anything?” Hannah would update the list accordingly with contact names and such. “That covers it for the list, I think.” She reached into her bag and grabbed a large green folder, “I’ve gotten through half of them already, so there’s only about 54 more to inquire about. I figure if we split this between us we’ll be able to focus more on the outreach work much sooner.” “Right. When would you like the list to be done?” It was always good to know how much time was needed for such an undertaking. “I’ve already started scheduling the outreach visits. The first one is at an orphanage in York in 34 days. So, if we can knock out our individual lists of 27 each before then we’ll be fully advancing forward to phase two of the operation.” Hannah took her half of the list and looked it over quickly, adding the list to a secondary list in her notebook. She’d be able to contact a few a day and that should make it manageable without missing anything. “Would you need me to come with you on any visits? I’d like to, for the experience. Even if it’s just taking notes for you or being a spare pair of hands.” “Yes!’ Ella quickly burst, “I didn’t mean for this all to sound like a boring desk job. I’d love for you to come along and help with the visits. I’ve got two other healers from St. Mungos that’ll be coming along, a medi-wizard, and we’ll be pushing for a few more volunteers to help with things like weight and height measurements, and since you’re in the process of studying we can definitely have you observe and take notes.” Beaming at Ella’s enthusiasm to have her along, Hannah got excited. She had hoped that she’d be included in the visits. “Excellent! I can definitely help with the measurements, or even just document them if you need an actual Healer to do that.” “That’s totally something you can take charge of,” she motioned encouragingly with her hand. The lists were probably the most important parts and Hannah was going to do her damnedest to be very thorough and make a good impression on Ella. Even though they were friends - Hannah thought so, hoped so - she was also a talented Healer and knew she could learn a lot from the other woman. “I’m sorry if I seem too eager, it’s just, I’ve watched all my friends who had the same ambitions as I do get to go through the Training and learn, but..” she smiled, a little embarrassed and then shrugged “...I never had the money. So I’m a bit of a late bloomer and want to prove myself and help as many people as I can. So, I’m at your complete disposal… anything really.” It felt good to tell Ella the truth, like unburdening a secret. Hannah looked up to Ella in so many ways. “I could even watch Leticia if you get stuck once in awhile. Even though I don’t have my own kids, I’m pretty good with them.” Ella offered a genuine smile at Hannah’s enthusiasm. “You’re a gem,” she offered, “I’m so glad you’re joining me on this project!” The conversation was interrupted by the waiter delivering their food. A brief pause was given to thank the young man, but Ella picked up where she left off. “And thank you so much for offering to watch Letty. I might take you up on that offer at some point - we usually have three available Goldsteins to do the job. But we can never have too much help!” She fiddled with her plate and asked, “Do you have any siblings, Hannah?” There was nothing Hannah liked more than being useful and being able to help Ella with whatever she needed certainly made her feel good. Her smile faded a bit when Ella asked if she had any family. “Blood family? No. But after my mother died, Megan Jones’ parents took me in and treated me like their own. So I consider Megan my sister.” She didn’t really mention that she never knew her father. Mostly because Hannah never thought he was worth mentioning. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea your mother passed when you were younger. That’s awful!” She reached out for the girl’s hand. Making note that she hadn’t mentioned her father - so she didn’t ask. Hannah gave a watery smile and squeezed Ella’s hand, thankful for the comfort. “My sixth year, they pulled me from class and told me she’d been killed.” It was a while ago, but Hannah still remembered the day. “It’s alright, thank you so much. I have a lot of friends so, that made it easier. Still does.” “Do you have a lot of family? I know that you must have a few in-laws?” Hannah had met Ella’s husband a couple times and he was so nice. One day Hannah thought she may be as lucky as Ella was in finding someone that suited her so well. “I have a brother,” Ella nodded, “Edgar Guffy - he’s basically forever a bachelor and comedian. Jackie has three siblings, Gio, Jules, and you know, Anthony…” Hannah laughed and shook her head. “Yes, no one could forget Anthony!” Ella chuckled at Hannah’s laugh as she chewed what food in her mouth. When she swallowed she offered, “Anthony’s certainly unforgettable. I not so secretly pretend I helped in that. So I have faith Letty will turn out fine.” It was a joke, of course. She knew perfectly well that most of the child raising had already been done by the time Ella joined the parenting role for the younger Goldsteins. “So… how much longer do you have of Healer training then?” she asked, changing the subject. “Right now I’m in the middle of my second year, so three and a bit more and I can be a Junior Healer. Then after that I’d like to specialize in pediatrics, like you.” Hannah really did feel at ease with Ella, she felt as if she could say anything. “The dream would be to become Matron at Hogwarts. Madame Pomfrey helped me a lot at school and I really looked up to her.” Another shrug meant that Hannah really didn’t expect to attain that goal but, it was there spurring her on. “Can’t be a landlady my whole life yeah? I feel like I’m contributing to everyone’s bad health owning a pub!” A small laugh escaped her while she tucked her lists and notebook back in her bag, just to get it out of the way. “Hopefully one day I don’t end up treating any of my regulars for a bad liver. I’d feel horrible. The food though, Jasper’s a miracle - he manages to try to make healthy pub food, if there’s such a thing.” “Is there really such a thing?” Ella laughed with a playful tease in her tone. “I don’t know but Jasper manages it somehow.” Hannah laughed and gathered up her things. “Speaking of, I really do need to get back. Megan’s off this evening so I’m tending bar at home.” Making a face at how strange that sounded, but the Leaky Cauldron really was her home. “I’ll message you when I’ve got the list done and … thank you again, for everything.” When Hannah stood, so did Ella and it gave both ladies a chance to hug goodbye as Hannah had to leave, with a sense of fulfillment lighting her smile for the rest of the day. |