Razi Levine stood tall and braced herself for the task that she was about to perform. It had to be done, and there was no one else who could. It should have been done weeks ago, but her heart had been no less heavy after a week, and it hadn't felt right. With a shaking hand she pulled the heavy dark cloth from the mirror in what had been her mother's bedroom. Watching the dust motes swirl in the light of the rising sun she felt hollow and fragile, as if she too could be pushed apart with a breath.

She walked to the bedroom where her mother had died and pulled the dark cloth from the mirror there as well. She walked room to room and took down the last outward markers of her mourning. Each time she saw her mother's nose, the shape of her eyes- if not quite the color - and the similarities struck her. It seemed strange that she should still be her mother's daughter. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world, but the world still felt wrong without Shara Levine. How could it be right without her breathing its air and making it better, without her seeing and loving Razi, and loving the people that Razi had set before her like offerings?

There were mysteries that might never be solved. A glance at the clock in living room told her that she needed to get ready if she was going to be on time. Razi pulled a black summer robe over her knee length dark grey dress and walked out to the shed, passing the copy of the Prophet that had arrived earlier that morning with purposeful inattention. She apparated to a designated alley near the visitor's entrance to the ministry, strained her robes, and walked quickly to the red phone booth. Dialing the number and following prompts, she thought back to the events that had brought her to ministry.

It'd begun after the week of mourning that a dusty old book in Shara's room had said was proper. Razi had finished the final pages of the Ministry guidebook. On the inside of the back cover, a final complex spell had revealed a message.

"Congratulation, young witch. You have met the requirements for the only position not covered in detail in the pages of this book. Please join us on the fourth Wednesday of the first month following your graduation at 7:28 a.m. Simply present the guidebook when asked your purpose for being at the ministry. Tell no one. - Selan B. Spuake"

Zonko's had closed, and Razi had known that she wouldn't be able to take the job there, not after everything that had happened. Razi had set her mind on going for a ministry job, and the opportunity presented by the book was better than most, even if it was unknown.

So it was that Razi was riding down to the atrium of the ministry. When she arrived, she saw an immense pair of statues; a witch and a wizard, whose feet were in pools of water that were too blue and sparkling not to have been enchanted. Their wands were raised and crossed forming an arch. Razi passed through the arch without looking longer than necessary and made her way to the security desk to have her want weighed. There was a nervous energy to the place. The Dark Lord had been growing bolder, and the death count was rising faster than it ever had before. In cells in the deepest level below their feet several people claiming to have been imperiused when they tortured and killed. They waited for trial in cells across from the handful of true believers that the aurors had gotten hold of. Razi shuddered to think how many of the people racing around would join either group in time.

The witch working the security table took one look at the book then directed her to the ninth level, the Department of Mysteries.

It took time for Razi to find an empty lift, but she did, wary of more people than necessary seeing where she was going. The actual ride to the floor was fast by comparison, and soon Razi found herself stepping into the black tiled hall that led to the department entrance. A pair of torches set too far apart lit the hall but left spaces where the shadows seemed deeper than they ought to have. The tile was polished and reflected oddly in ways that made Razi want to play with illusions. This was a canvas beyond anything she'd thought about before. She resisted the urge and walked towards the door at the other end.

Razi put her hand on the knob and waited, watching the seconds on her watch until, at 7:28 exactly, she opened the door and stepped inside.

The room seemed very full, with blue flamed candles casting an eerie light on hooded figures robed in grey. Behind them, in the walls of the round room were countless doors. One of the figures stepped forward and Razi gripped her wand but held it at her side. The figure raised an arm with a slim pale wrist and drew the name Selan B. Spuake on the air, the letters as smooth as if she'd written them in floating ink. Another figure waved his or her own wand at the name and the letters shifted until at last they stopped, and Razi saw the one mystery that the book had held onto.

The word left floating in the air was "Unspeakables".

A man pulled back the hood of his cloak. Rookwood, Razi recognized though he'd graduated at the end Razi's third year in Hogwarts. He'd been something of an unallied force, not in the Malfoy/Black court, but not a grasping outsider either. He handed her an ancient seeming scroll, and Razi felt its magic reach out and touch her, sinking into her skin as she unrolled it and read,

"What we see cannot be known,

What we study, all men feel,

Powers some will seek to own,

Secrets that must be concealed,

Merits marked, your skills arrayed,

Tricks and subtleties explored,

Talents tested, watched, and weighed,

Long before you reached our doors.

Join with us and guard these truths,

In our circle silent seek,

Else be gone and know no more,

Of this place, you'll never speak.

Be now bound to our first oath,

Joined in fate, the oath and mind,

Sound or severed both in kind.

What we see cannot be known."

When she looked up from the scroll, she saw pairs with their hoods pulled back standing in front of the doors set into the walls. An older woman stepped forward and waved them off, leaving Razi standing with her as the others entered the rooms and presumably continued their work. The remaining woman's brown skin was much lighter than Razi's, as was the dark hair that fell in waves framing her rounded face.

"You have been touched by death," the woman observed tilting her head, with frown. "Far too common these days. I am Anandi Batra. If you'll be joining us, I'll be your supervisor and teach you the guidelines for each of the rooms. If not, I can leave you in the Leaky Cauldron with the memory of a spectacular interview for a minor position elsewhere. 'Accidents and catastrophes' are always happy to take our recruits, and they're understaffed. What'll it be?"

Razi took a deep breath and weighed her options. Once again, she'd been stealthily recruited for a secret organization and - if she accepted- she'd never be able to share the nature of her work with anyone. How many secrets could she hold without losing herself? How many ways could her loyalty be split? Still, this job could quite useful. Who could ever tell an unspeakable that she was out of place? Would her work be limited to these rooms? What secrets might she learn if she signed on? It was those latter questions as much as anything that led Razi to nod her head and then give her answer aloud.

"I will join you."

Batra held her hand out for the scroll and when she took it, Razi felt another spark of magic.

"I bind you to your word, Unspeakable Levine. If you change your mind, do it soon. We will guard our truths and we will pursue fiercely any who share them outside of our circle," Batra intoned.

"I understand, Unspeakable Batra," Razi said solemnly.

"Then, as my own supervisor once told me," Batra said with a grin, "'you shall see wonders'. We begin with the rules, and then a tour. If you ask me why you must study the rules first, I will simply wave to you in the atrium when you're heading for level three tomorrow."

Batra showed Razi to a room off to the side and helped her with some basic things, getting her a name tag, badge, and a tome that, when supplied with a drop of Razi's blood, became an enormous book of rules and research, readable only by Razi.

Razi spent much of the day studying. Batra demanded that she memorize the rules for each room before being allowed to enter it, and the more that she knew of the kinds of research carried out in each area, the sooner she could participate. She would be assigned field studies and duties outside of the ministry building only once she'd seen each of their subjects and understood them as they existed in the rooms. Razi worked through lunch, too interested in her reading to want to leave, but Batra sent her home early, with strict instructions to leave further study for the next day.

The unread newspaper was still on the table where Razi had left it when she returned, but she didn't so much as glance at it, just traded her robe for a long apron and went out to see to the garden.

When she'd done as much watering and weeding as she could without collapsing from hunger, she washed up. She made a quick stir-fry and ate it with a generous portion of rice, leaving the dishes in the sink to soak. She had another appointment.

Razi apparated to the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron and used a spell to make herself invisible. She waited for about ten minutes before someone came from Diagon Alley, then caught the door and slipped inside, taking a seat next to Remus Lupin at a table against a wall. Razi watched the doors, waiting for a large enough crowd, and when a family of four came in, drawing the barkeep's attention, she cast illusions of James, Lily, and Sirius that waved to him before coming over and taking places at Remus's table. Remus cast a silencing ward, not terribly uncommon in public with things being what they were, and he acted as though he were greeting and conversing with friends. His back was to the room, allowing him to speak without worry of someone reading his lips. There were fewer people going out these days, and most in the pub were staying in rooms upstairs.

"Any word from them?" Razi asked. Dumbledore hadn't called a meeting since their last, two weeks prior, when he'd sent several members of their order off with assignments. She wasn't worried, exactly, but she hadn't been overly worried about Elaine or her mother either, and they hadn't been actively thwarting Voldemort's followers.

"They've checked in when they can," he replied, turning to the illusion of James and laughing as he gestured with his hand. "All seems well, but you know how quickly that can turn. Have you seen the paper today?"

"I've been busy," Razi replied. She suddenly and fiercely wished for the days before Alyssa's arrangement with Avery, back when she and Remus had been something like equivalents, the outsiders with ties to somewhat dramatic purebloods. Things had been simpler then.

"I know-" Remus began. The image of Lily narrowed he eyes at him and he stopped short, but braved on, "I understand what you tried to do for her, or I think I do. To give her a way back and to hold that door open for so long, knowing what you've seen in Slytherin, and what her friends did- that was admirable."

"You don't have to do this," Razi replied. "I don't need consolation or praise. I was a friend to her, and then we made our choices. She made hers, but I've made mine too. Things will be different moving forward. I'd thank you for minding your own affairs, but if you expected thanks you'd have offered me something I could use."

Remus raised a hand in surrender, and the image of Lily smiled, before turning to the one of James and whispering something in his ear. The Sirius double rolled his eyes and looked conspiratorially to Remus, who smiled at it tilting his head to catch the image's eye.

"What about this?" Remus asked. "You know what I am. And you know that I've seen something of who you are. We have friends in common. We are very nearly friends. Finish up and let me help you home."

"You," Razi shot back, "are an intrusive worrier and far too kind for anyone's good. I'll walk out behind you all."

Razi watched as Remus stood and moved the images so that Lily, James and Sirius seemed to walk with him out into the Alley. If Remus held the door open a beat too long, no one seemed to notice.

She used a spell to mimic the crack of apparition as she dropped all spells and illusions, leaving herself standing next to Remus, visible, but tired. He offered his arm and she took it, allowing him to apparate them to the shed behind her house. He'd come with Lily once during that first week after she'd come home. Razi barely remembered it.

"I'll be fine from here," she told him at the door.

"There are pictures with the article, but just three," Remus told her. "They made the cover, but it's not unbearable. Insipid, but not unbearable."

"Thank you for helping me home," Razi replied. Remus nodded and left with a loud pop.

Razi stepped out of the shed and walked through the garden to the house. Once there, she unlocked the door and stepped inside. She walked through the house once, checked the wards, and took another look around before sitting down in the kitchen and unrolling the Prophet. In the bottom corner of the first page, taking up a quarter of the space there, the headline blared, "POWERHOUSE PAIR TO WED IN WINTER."

Below the bolded text Razi saw a picture of Alyssa and Avery, smiling at the camera and occasionally casting loving and self-satisfied looks at each other. His arm was around her and it seemed to tighten the longer she watched.

Turning to the text of the article, she began to read.

"It is with great joy that I report the anticipated joining of two of wizarding Britain's most venerable houses, those of Avery and Blythe. Sources tell us that these two Hogwarts sweethearts have been together since their fifth year, when a minor rivalry resolved itself into a relationship that spans years and crosses house lines. The story of the romance that endured through joy and tragedy, what this could mean for the wizengamot, and even some hints about what the Blythe Heiress wear on her big day, all on page 3."

Razi didn't turn the page. She looked back at the picture and felt even more tired than she had before. What she'd told Remus was right. Alyssa had made her choices. If all went to plan, maybe Razi would be glad of that someday.

In the room that was once her mothers, in the trunk where she kept her old school things, in pocket with dozens of old letters, was a note that Razi had received the evening after she'd arrived home.

"I'll find you this time. Trust me."

There was no signature. There's been no need.

Razi looked at the picture, thought of the note, and dragged herself to bed. It had been a very long day.