Chapter 29

The sky was a black velvet colour by the time the team arrived back in Virginia. They had stepped off the plane straight into cars that had hummed them back to the BAU headquarters. There was some paperwork to be done, the worst part of any case. As they walked into the building, Reid could not help but look at all the everyday objects that surrounded him with a sense of conflict. Was it more impressive, he wondered, that Muggles had managed to work out things like security doors, elevators and cellphones, all without the aid of magic? Or was it all just painfully ordinary? He felt a bit of both, though mostly he longed to be back in that strange and exciting new place. It seemed so far away from where he was now. Briefly a door had been opened, and now it was firmly closed, magic never to enter his stratosphere again.

The team walked into their main office area, chatting casually, and just a bit tiredly, about what had happened.

"I bet tomorrow I'll wake up and this will all have been a dream," Garcia said, a little sadly.

"You and me both, Baby Girl," Morgan agreed with a grin.

Their conversation stopped abruptly when a blonde woman, her arms loaded with files, walked in. It was their Section Chief, Erin Strauss. A collective holding of breath had commenced, each worried that she had heard something and might ask questions. If something was amiss in her eyes, the superior gave no sign of it.

"I didn't expect you to come in tonight," Strauss commented.

"We thought we'd get the paperwork over and done with," Hotch explained.

Strauss looked around at group and seemed to notice their discomfort, even if she couldn't put a finger on what was causing it.

"Do it tomorrow," she said finally, perhaps putting their mood down to exhaustion, "Go home."

"Am I hearing this correctly?" Rossi said, a teasing note in his voice, "You're telling us to leave early, Erin?"

Strauss raised an eyebrow.

"I can take it back, David."

Rossi raised his hands in surrender and turned to go, the rest following him. Hotch gave her a nod of thanks.

Just as everyone was leaving, Reid noticed a brochure fall from the pile of paper in the Chief's arms. She seemed to notice at the same time he did, rushing to retrieve it, but Reid was already picking it up. The brochure was bright purple in colour, with the word "Kwikspell" written across the top. The only other words Reid could see were "Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork?", because the rest of the text was covered by a yellow post-it-note, which read in Strauss's handwriting, "Tell Mom to stop sending these!". The agent looked up and saw his boss standing frozen. In her eyes was a look that he had never before seen on her face. Fear. Strauss looked like a deer caught in oncoming and fatally fast headlights. Reid gently placed the brochure back in her care.

"Have a good evening, Ma'am," he said quietly, giving her a polite nod and walking away.

"What was that about?" Morgan asked, as Reid dashed to the elevator and slipped in at the last second.

Reid looked back to the office. Strauss was still standing frozen.

"Nothing," he lied, the metal doors closing in front of his face, "Nothing at all."

But he was smiling.

Author's Note: and with this short coda, the story was finished! Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and see you next time.