The Mind Room

With the vial of the traumatic memories and an invisibility cloak safely tugged in an enchanted bag, Claudia apparated to the Ministry. As the Head of the Mind Room on her first day back from a holiday, she had a busy day to get through before that vial could be deployed.

"Morning, Miss Avery," Auberon said with a broad smile the moment Claudia stepped over the threshold to the Mind Room. "Here is your diary for the day-" he handed her a piece of parchment. "I managed to squeeze in the Head Auror first thing this morning."

"Great," Claudia mumbled, her eyes fixed on her diary. It was one meeting after the other. "Could you move the four o'clock to tomorrow? I need to leave a bit earlier today."

"Of course," Auberon said. "Consider it done. Coffee?"

"Please. I'll be in my office."

Claudia barely had the time to put the enchanted bag into her safe and drink the coffee Auberon brought her, before she had to leave. Normally, people came to see her in the Mind Room. But when she was meeting with the Head Auror, it was her turn to go see him. She may have left the Auror Office but was not quite free of its hierarchy.

She barely had a chance to sit down in the Head Auror's office before he started barking at her. Marcin, predictably, was nowhere to be seen.

"You lot have been dragging you heels on the advanced veritaserum for long enough!" The Head Auror growled. "You know full well that the standard version is useless on anyone with a basic understanding of Occlumency. And the antidote is now so widespread. We have a case-"

"Before we get into detail," Claudia replied curtly. "Where did you-" But before she could finish her question, the door to the office flew open.

"Ah, good," the Head Auror said. "Here's Inspector Fernsby – it's his case that needs cracking wide open. Have you two-"

"Yes," both Claudia and Oscar interrupted in unison. They have indeed met. In fact, they used to be exceptionally close, before Claudia was an Unspeakable and Oscar was an Inspector. Before everything went to shit. Claudia could not help but follow Oscar with her eyes as he sat in the chair next to the Head Auror. The promotion suited him. His little ponytail was gone, his black hair was cut short, and his clothes looked smarter, more mature. Claudia wondered if some girlfriend, or even a wife, had anything to do with it.

"Alright then," the Head Auror resumed. "We need that veritaserum now and we need a continuing supply of it. If it's as good as-"

Claudia just about recovered from seeing Oscar and remembered to ask her original question again. "Before we get to that, where did you hear about the enhanced veritaserum? That kind of information is restricted."

"I am the Head Auror!" He was now wearing a rather severe frown.

"I am aware-" Claudia said as she folded her arms and waited. "But I still want to know."

"Fine. Fudge told me."

"Did he tell you anything else about that veritaserum?" she asked bitterly.

"Told me not to tell anyone. Look-" the Head Auror huffed. "I am not a child."

Claudia inhaled to respond, but-

"Stopped playing games, Claudia," Oscar barked. "This is serious."

Claudia looked at him. He still looked as furious as he did eleven years ago. She sighed. "First of all, it needs more testing. And not on suspects-" she pre-empted their question- "In controlled conditions."

"If only you knew someone with exceptional lying skills who could test it for you…" Oscar grumbled, making it abundantly clear he was still as furious as he looked.

"And even if it is ready," Claudia ignored him, "the expense of making it is astronomical. The ingredients alone are rare and out of our reach. We are talking about a thousand galleons to make a dose. And the Department of Mysteries does not have that kind of money. Now, if the Auror Office was to give it to me…"

The Head Auror scoffed. "Not without knowing what you're spending it on. What are these ingredients? Why can't you just send someone to collect them?"

Claudia laughed. "If I tell you, there's going to be an antidote in a week."

The Head Auror's forehead contracted again but he did not say anything, and neither did Claudia. Eventually, Oscar managed to recover some professionalism.

"Where does this leave us then?" he sighed.

Claudia began to stand up. "You can either give me ten thousand galleons a month to get yourself a decent supply, or you learn how to do your jobs properly. There is nothing else I can do."

Oscar opened his mouth and Claudia was fully expecting him to start yelling. But he did not get to it-

"I want to speak to Agrippa about this!" the Head Auror barked.

"Be my guest," Claudia shrugged. "He isn't going to tell you anything different." She walked out of that meeting, not daring to take another look at Oscar. But she could feel his furious glare in her back. Claudia did not blame him. She would have felt the same if the tables were turned. There was not getting around the fact she betrayed his trust in a way Oscar could never forgive.

Mercifully, the rest of her meetings that morning were easier, and she even managed to wolf down a sandwich for lunch, and only be a few minutes late for Édith's meeting.

Beresford was already in the Love Room when she arrived. "Glad you could finally join us," he said to welcome his boss.

"You didn't miss anything," Édith pitched in prevent Claudia's mood turning sour. "We were just explaining the problem what we have. There is this new love potion, but instead of falling in love, people keep getting incredibly sick. And it does not sound like any of the usual antidotes are working, which would rule out poison."

"I was just saying," Beresford said. "Some toxins can be really hard to detect for an untrained eye. The love potion must be spiked, I'm sure of it."

"Not necessarily," Claudia countered, remembering her very own school days. "I've heard of substances that can alter your mind in a way that you body starts attacking itself. Maybe this could be similar-"

"That's impossible," Beresford scoffed.

"It is not," one of Édith's Love Room colleagues jumped in. "There was a case in the seventies. Muggleborns kept getting sick in Hogwarts. We suspected some kind of mind-altering substance, but then it worked on the purebloods too for some reason. Everyone was so relieved."

Claudia had to smile. She knew the reason why everyone thought the substance worked on purebloods. She and a vial of poison were the reason. But this was not the place to own up to it. "I will have a look through Agrippa's old papers, see what I can find out about that case."

After the meeting was over, Claudia hurried back to her office. It did not take long to find Agrippa's notes on the case of the American potioneer and the memo (signed simply with 'A' that got leaked to Claudia all those years ago, and alerted her to what was happening). Going through all these papers made her think of Hogwarts. How the alchemy project got Claudia and Sirius close again, how he drunk that wild rosemary poison to shut James up. Just how much James still hated Claudia then… Without thinking, she run her fingers up and down her left forearm. "I miss you," she whispered. The tattoo was weirdly quiet today. Hopeful it meant Sirius was getting some respite.

Reluctantly, Claudia tore herself away from her memories and continued going through the pile of Agrippa's papers on the case – the last piece of parchment was almost blank. It only had 'TOP SECRET – HEAD UNSPEAKABLE EYES ONLY' written across it. Claudia knew instantly what it was; the instructions for the making of the substance that had the power to kill every muggleborn in England. But alas, she was not the Head Unspeakable, and did not have the right spell to reveal what was written on that piece of parchment, so her curiosity about how it truly worked would have to wait.

She put the top-secret parchment back into the safe, and then rang the little bell on her desk. Within a second, Auberon's head was poking through the door.

"Give this to Miss Dubois, please," she said and passed him the rest of the file. "Highest level of security though, her eyes only."

"Beresford's already asked me to give him a copy of whatever you find."

"No copies. And Miss Dubois' eyes only."

"Understood," Auberon said sheepishly.

"And if Beresford gives you trouble, send him my way."

Auberon flashed her a brief smile and disappeared as fast as he came.

Claudia sunk into her chair and surveyed her office. It would have been hard to express in words just how much she loved this job – the secrets she knew, the skills she learned, the responsibility she had. In her wildest dreams she would not have imagined mind magic to be as complex as it truly was when she first became an Unspeakable over ten years ago. And, above all, the independence of the Department of Mysteries made her untouchable. As long as she had Agrippa's trust, no one in the Ministry could reprimand or fire her, no matter how mouthy she got with them. It was days like this when she was glad that she got fired from the Auror Office all those years ago. In some ways, an Unspeakable was who she was born to be.

But soon enough, the time for reflection was over. It was four o'clock. Claudia took out her bag from the safe, threw it over her shoulder and set off. Before she managed to get out of the door, however, her path was blocked by Agrippa.

"First day back, and I already have a complaint from the Head Auror on my desk," he said shaking his head, before his face melted into a weak smile. "Keep up the good work! Merlin knows I need it…"

Claudia would swear that the lines on his face got deeper and circles under his eyes darker since the last time she saw him. "You look knackered…" she mumbled.

Agrippa looked around and dropped his voice to a barely audible whisper. "I hate this job. I don't know what possessed me to take it. You're the only one who can fight their own battles with the Ministry. I'm left with everyone else's mess. And I hate it. I much rather be back in my old office, playing with memories and potions."

"Well, you can't have your old office back," Claudia smirked. "But do let me know if you need me to go and be unreasonable to another high-ranking Ministry official. I kind of enjoy it."

"I know you do," he said with a laugh, this time a more genuine one. "Any plans for this evening?"

Claudia shrugged. "Not really, an early night…"

"Have a good one!"

"You too!"

Claudia managed to get out of the Department without further delay, and apparated to a woodland in Hampstead Heath. Once there, she threw her invisibility cloak over her head. It was one of the commercially produced one and not as resistant to revealing spells as the ones they had in the Department of Mysteries. But she did not want to draw suspicion by borrowing one of those. The Head of the Mind Room rarely got to do fieldwork.

She walked briskly to Frognal Gardens, and scaled the fence to the garden of the house that neighboured the one her parents lived in. The neighbours had a shed, the roof of which was at eye-level with Frederick's study at the side of the house. The muggle repellent enchantments did not work on Claudia, of course, and whatever Avery family spells Frederick put on the house did not work either on someone with Avery blood in them. She sat down on the roof of the shed and waited. It was the perfect vantage point.

It was half past four, and she knew that in about five minutes, her father would walk through the door having just got home from work. He usually got home early and then worked in his study until dinner. And on this day, Frederick did not disappoint. Right on time, he sat down at his desk, his back facing the window and began going through some papers.

Claudia folded her legs underneath her and centred herself. "Practice makes perfect," she mumbled to herself and fixed her eyes on the back of her father's head. Wandless Legilimency was hard, but slowly, she was getting better at it.

She cleared her mind of all thoughts and focused. She managed to get glimpses of what he was reading and of his thoughts on the matter. It was nothing compared to what she could do with her wand, but it was still progress. A few months ago, she would not have been able to see anything at all.

She tried for half an hour more, but she could not get any deeper into his mind than the paper in front of him, so she took out her Legilimency wand. She needed not to worry about being caught. Shivali taught her a neat trick she learnt during her training in India, about accessing someone's mind without them being able to easily realise what was happening. On anyone but a skilled Occlumens, it made Legilimency practically undetectable.

The power of the connection was intense. She saw Frederick began rubbing his temples. Shivali said that could happen sometimes, that the connection was manifesting itself as a headache. But Frederick was no skilled Occlumens, and Claudia could keep going.

For a while, she poked around her father's mind but quickly got bored. Without having anything specific to look for, it was not much fun. For someone so evil, Frederick's daily life was remarkably boring these days.

Soon after Barty Crouch Sr moved to head up the Department of International Magical Cooperation back in the early eighties, he requested Frederick be transferred. That infuriated Claudia. To her, it was clear evidence that, despite everything, Crouch knew Frederick was a Death Eater but chose to let him be. He was now at the Department of Magical Transportation, which was clearly a demotion. Between that, and the fact Frederick's main hobby of being a Death Eater was not a very attractive prospect since Voldemort's demise, he was miserable.

As Claudia got better reading the depth of her father's mind over the last couple of years, she could also see how he grew increasingly frustrated not only with his job, but also with both his wife and his son.

Cassandra missed the glamorous parties of his days in international cooperation and kept spending more and more of his money to preserve her beauty. It was expensive, but it worked. She looked like she barely aged a day. But she was bored and irritable and, since Claudia had moved out, no longer had an easy outlet for her frustrations.

Marcus still lived at home, having lost his job at the Ministry after the war. He looked like aged three decades rather than one since then. He got rather large, and his hair was thinning. All he did was lounge around the house, eat and sulk. It was laughable that he was meant to be the one who caried the family's future on his shoulders, while Claudia was born to be married off to the highest bidder. And for the sole reason of what genitals they happened to be born with. Talent or brains did not matter.

This infuriated Claudia sufficiently to refocus. It was time to stop poking around her father's mind and get to work. She used her normal, walnut wand to open the window to her father's study the tiniest bit. Frederick stopped for a moment, as if he noticed the noise of the window opening and wanted to listen for more. But was soon satisfied that nothing untoward was taking place and returned to work.

Carefully, Claudia took out the vial from her bag, and sent a thin sliver floating through the window, and into the back of Frederick's head.

The change in his demeanour was instantaneous.

He gripped his head and began to jerk in his chair, as if he was trying to shake the memory off. So far, a fairly typical reaction, Claudia thought.

But Claudia did not relent, she sent another sliver through the window and then another. Frederick began to shake even more violently and pushed himself to standing. Slowly, he turned towards the window and reached for a bottle of something that was standing on the windowsill.

Claudia pulled the invisibility cloak closer to her and made sure her wand was covered too. Frederick was looking right through her. There was no way she could send any more of those memories his way. Not until he turned back.

Gripping the bottle in his shaking hand, Frederick backed away from the window and collapsed onto the sofa.

First, he drank, curled up in a ball.

Then, he began to scream.

He let go and the whiskey bottle smashed on the hardwood floor.

The screaming was definitely new. These memories were more potent than what Claudia had put him through before.

Within seconds, Claudia's mother burst through the door. She gestured something, shouted, tried to lift him up to standing, but Frederick silenced her with one swift gesture. He did not want help. He sent Cassandra away, then slid onto the floor, where he sat for ages clutching his knees against his chest like a small child.

Claudia watched him for over an hour, struggling not to smile. She used barely a third of that vial of memories. They worked better than she would have imagined in her wildest dreams.

Eventually, she was satisfied her father had suffered enough for one night, climbed down from the shed and apparated back home. She put the memories safely back into a drawer in her attic room, before showering and cooking herself the simplest of pasta recipes.

That night, she fell asleep quickly, without the aid of a sleeping draught…

But she was not to enjoy peaceful rest. It was still dark when she woke up nauseous and shaking. The Dementors must have started working on Sirius again.

There were not enough blankets in the world to keep her warm, so she got up, put on two jumpers and went to sit down by the fire. It went on for hours.

For hours, she smoked and twirled with the engagement ring that Sirius had made for her. Never did she take it off, not even to get it cleaned. The metal was nearly black now, but the huge emerald was still as clear as ever, and the barely-visible inscription never rang more true.

'Whatever happens, remember I love you.'

Claudia reached for her wand, remembering the time they decided to get married, but all she managed to produce was a silvery cloud that hovered above her head and did nothing to improve her mood. She could still produce a corporal patronus, just not when she needed it most. Not when she could feel Sirius being tortured out of his mind.

Eventually, the Dementors stopped whatever they were doing, and Claudia could breathe again. But it was too late to go back to bed, so she made a fresh pot of coffee, showered again and opened the Daily Prophet that had just arrived.

She rolled her eyes at the headline.

'FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES.'

"Wonder whose it was," she mumbled. There was going to be upheaval again…

Once she was done with her coffee, she set aside her Prophet and got dressed for work.

Straight upon arrival, Claudia got ambushed by Édith. "Where did you go last night?" she asked rather cheerfully. "I came to your office, but Auberon said you already gone. Don't tell me you have finally discovered work-life balance."

"Me? Work-life balance?" Claudia chuckled. "Hardly… Just had some errands."

"Thought as much. Free tonight?"

"I'm going to Hogwarts to get something from Dumbledore, so might be back late. But if you wait for me-"

"I'll wait for you."

Just after lunch, Claudia took Floo to Hogsmeade and walked briskly up to the castle. She had not been in Hogwarts since she came to see Dumbledore just after Sirius was arrested, and hoped with all her heart she was not going to break down again at the sight of every single classroom they ever shared.

As luck would have it, Neville was sitting just outside the steps leading to the Entrance Hall. Claudia sighed when she saw him. It was the first day of school and he already looked broken.

"Hi Nev," she said as cheerfully as she could, and sat down next to him.

Neville stared at her with his eyes wide open. "What- What are you doing here?" he stuttered. "Have you come to get me? Did gran sent you?"

"No." Claudia shook her head. "I have a meeting with the headmaster about Ministry business. How is it going?"

"We had our first Defence against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Lockhart," Neville said.

"Gilderoy Lockhart?" Claudia asked with a grimace. She had one interaction with that man during the one and only Slug Club party she got invited to, and it told her everything she needed to know about him. He was an arse.

"Yeah," Neville sighed. "We had to do a test about him, and then he released a bunch of Cornish pixies into the classroom."

"Sounds very stretching." The sarcasm must have been dripping from Claudia's voice. Cornish pixies? In third year? Some of the teaching at Hogwarts was truly a joke.

"The pixies hoisted me by the ears and hang me from a chandelier…" Neville whispered.

"Oh, Nev…"

"I know," he shrugged and then looked at his watch. "I need to get to class."

"It was good to see you! Stay strong!"

Neville mumbled something incomprehensible and disappeared out of sight. Claudia sighed again; half tempted to suggest to Mrs Longbottom they should home-school him together.

Just at that moment, Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker, walked up to her. "The headmaster is delayed. You're supposed to come with me."

Claudia stood up from the steps and brushed dust off her clothes. "You lead the way."

Filch walked fast, muttering things about nasty brats, failing Ministry standards, and punishment under his breath. He clearly remembered the company that Claudia used to keep while at Hogwarts. Eventually, he stopped in front of a disused classroom near the Ravenclaw tower, opened the door, and very nearly pushed Claudia through it. "Here it is. Dumbledore will be with you shortly."

But Claudia did not care about Filch's behaviour, not once she was inside that classroom. All she could focus on was something thin and tall under a heavy drape. She walked over to it and pulled the drape down – it was a mirror with a distinctive ornate frame and an inscription.

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi."

That was not a language Claudia knew. Maybe someone from the Indigenous Magic Room would know what it meant.

She looked into the mirror to see her reflection.

It was a few months ago that she turned thirty-two. And, in some ways, she looked different than the last time she walked the Hogwarts halls. Silver round glasses were now framing her face, as was a strand of grey hair falling across her forehead. But in other ways, she had not changed. Her hair was the same, as were her clothes. Everything she wore that day was black, with the exception of the dark green ring gleaming on her finger. She would still fit right in with the rest of the Slytherins.

Then, all of a sudden, a figure began to materialise behind her reflection – he had longer black hair, familiar grey eyes. She turned but there was no one there. Yet – when she turned back towards the mirror – he was still there. He was smiling and hung his arms around Claudia's neck. It looked so real. What was this? And importantly, how was the mirror doing it?

Then, two more figures began to emerge, shorter than either Claudia or Sirius. One was Neville and one looked very much like James. It must have been Harry. Both of the boys were grinning, and Neville was standing just a little bit taller than usual.

They looked like a family.

"Sirius?"

Claudia's heart jumped, and she turned in the direction of the voice. Dumbledore's eyes were staring at her from behind his spectacles.

"You can see it too?"

"No," Dumbledore shook his head. "I just assumed."

"I wish you would stop assuming things," Claudia hissed, the pleasant scene in the mirror forgotten and her blood-pressure rising. "It's what got him in that place…" Dumbledore said nothing, so Claudia cleared her throat, recovered her composure and continued. "Is this what you want me to take?"

"It is."

"What is it?"

"The Mirror of Erised. It shows one's deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. It has been in Hogwarts for decades if not centuries, but students have found it and I don't want them wasting away in front of it."

Claudia's interest peaked and she forgot her anger for a moment. This was an amazing acquisition for the Mind Room. An object with Legilimency properties. "Where did you get it?" she whispered.

"Found it in an old cupboard not long after I became the headmaster. I've asked around, the portraits, the ghosts. No one know when it first appeared."

"What language is that?" Claudia said, pointing at the inscription. "Might help us identify the origin."

Dumbledore smiled. "Read it backwards."

"Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire," she read it out with difficulty. It still made no sense.

"I show not your face but your heart's desire."

"Ah."

"I am too proud to tell you how long it took me to figure that out," Dumbledore said. "In fact, I did not figure it out at all. Severus did when he came to my office unexpectedly. He was still a student."

Claudia's insides contracted with disgust at the mention of Severus. "Alright, I should get going."

"Do you want to stay for dinner? As a guest of honour?"

"No, thank you-" she said through gritted teeth. Her composure had reached its limits. "Don't fancy dining with Death Eaters."

"You know full well what happened. Severus-"

"I don't want to hear it!" she snapped. "He was the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy. He was a Death Eater. Yet, he's here. Teaching kids, whose parents he helped to murder. All the while-" she cleared her throat. There was no point arguing with Dumbledore about Sirius again. "If you excuse me, I'll just perform the spell and go," she said instead.

"Of course…" But Dumbledore did not move.

"I need to be alone for this."

Once Dumbledore backed out of the room, Claudia took out her wand and closed her eyes. This was one of the most complicated spells she had ever had to learn – only Agrippa and the Heads of the Rooms knew about it. It required so much inner focus and strength, that she had to whisper the incantation rather than use non-verbal magic.

"Aperta scrinium transitum."

Glowing golden circle appeared on the floor around the mirror and then began to rise until it encapsulated the whole mirror. When it did, the glow faded, the lines firmed up and in the middle of the room stood a golden ornate cabinet. Claudia tapped it with her wand. "Department of Mysteries," she said.

Claudia waited a couple of seconds before opening the door of the cabinet to check it has worked and the mirror was indeed gone. And it was.

"Occludo."

The cabinet vanished too, and Claudia was left in the room alone.

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed when he saw Claudia walk out of the door without the mirror or anything that would be able to contain it. "Do I need to make our protective enchantments more sophisticated?"

"Probably," Claudia shrugged.

For a while, they stared at each other in silence.

"I need to go, I am afraid," Dumbledore said finally. "I suspect you saw the Daily Prophet today. It was two Hogwarts students who flew that car and crashed it into the Whomping Willow. One of them was Harry."

"His father would be very proud," Claudia said with a forced smile.

"His mother less so, I imagine," Dumbledore said softly. "I trust you can find your way out?"

"I can."

Without further ado, Claudia hurried back to the Ministry and by the time she got there, the mirror was already standing in the middle of the Mind Room.

"What is it?" Auberon, who materialised out of thin air, asked.

"Christmas arrived early," Claudia smirked. "Get everyone, you'll all want to see it."

"Miss Dubois asked me to tell her when you get back…"

Claudia glanced at her watch. "Tell her half an hour."

Soon enough, they were all there. Auberon, Beresford, Shivali, Marcin, and even Hortencia, the Mind Room's magical theory specialist. Hortencia must have been well over a hundred, no one quite knew. Half the time, she needed help remembering where her office was and how to make tea, but her understanding of magical theory was unrivalled.

"A present from Headmaster Dumbledore," Claudia said and pointed at the mirror.

"What does it do?" asked Shivali.

"Shows your deepest desire. That's what the inscription on the top says, if you read it backwards that is."

Shivali's eyes widened. "There aren't many objects with Legilimency properties. I've never seen one."

"You have-" Hortencia pitched in eerily- "we all have. The Sorting Hat. But that's sentient, this one-" she tapped her wand on the mirror- "this one looks inanimate."

"Sentient?" asked Shivali. "All it said when I had it on my head was 'Ravenclaw'."

Auberon, Marcin, and Beresford all nodded. "Same."

"You were all in Ravenclaw?" Claudia asked, a little amused when they all nodded again. "I suppose it has to be sentient, I got a bit of commentary when it sent me to Slytherin," she said. Something about being too ambitious and ruthless to be a Ravenclaw, she thought to herself… "Anyone wants to have a go at this? No need to share what it shows you…"

Everyone had their go, and their reactions were different – misty eyes, scared, amused… As Claudia watched them, she could not help but wonder how powerful this seemingly useless object was. There was no lying to it. No Occlumency would help either. And knowing people's greatest desire could give one great power over them. Oh, what would she give to know what her father truly wanted. She could use that against him.

"Any idea how it works?" Asked Marcin, wiping a tear as he looked away.

Without a moment's hesitation, every single one of them turned to Hortencia.

"Can I study this?" she asked.

"Knock yourself out, I'll get them to move it to your office," Claudia said. "Even better if you could find a way of replicating it," she added hastily. Partially motivated by intellectual curiosity, partially by a desire to find a way of putting something more compact that this full-length mirror in front of her father.

Hortencia nodded, the team slowly dispersed, and Claudia was left alone with the mirror once more. She could not resist another peek. Sirius was back, this time, he held Claudia by the shoulders and planted a gentle kiss on their neck. Instinctively, she reached for that spot. She could practically feel his breath on her skin. His lips-

Her daydreaming got interrupted by Édith, however. "Auberon told me what you got," she said.

"Want to have a go?"

"I don't need to. I know I will see my mum, healthy and happy," Édith sighed. Her mother, a muggle Frenchwoman, suffered from a plethora of mental illnesses which had confined her in an asylum ever since Édith was a small child. It was what drove her interest in the matters of the mind. "Shall we get going?" Édith added.

"Yeah," Claudia mumbled absentmindedly as her eyes landed on Sirius, who was now yet again joined by Neville and Harry. He ruffled the hair on Neville's head until the boy laughed. Her heart physically ached at the thought of how much better Neville's life would have been if he had Sirius for a father figure.

With a sigh, Claudia finally managed to peel her eyes off the mirror. "Let's get going then."

Édith did not move. She stared at Claudia for so long it became uncomfortable. Claudia was sure Édith knew what she saw in that mirror.

But Édith did not ask, and Claudia was not prepared to volunteer that information either, so they left the Ministry in an awkward silence.

"Sorry," Édith excused herself right after a subdued dinner. "I don't feel too well. I'm going to go to bed. You can stay here or go home – up to you."

"Goodnight," Claudia said, somewhat perplexed. Normally, Édith was the one who kept the conversation going and no topic was off limits if there was the tiniest possibility it would cheer them both up. Could Édith be bothered by what she guessed Claudia saw in the mirror that much? She knew about Sirius. What else was she expecting Claudia would see there?