"Want to sit up and eat something?"
Rachel didn't particularly want to do so, but she opened her eyes. She could feel that she had one of the cats tucked into the crook of her knees and the other was snuggled against her feet. "What time is it?"
"Nearly ten," Theo said, sitting down on the side of her bed. "Hermione is going to be here in thirty minutes to look over you, and then Severus will be here for lunch."
"I think I need to investigate the potion they gave me for pain," she said, blinking a few times and then sitting up without relying on her left hand. Her left arm was tightly bound in a sling and strapped to her torso so that she couldn't move her left shoulder.
"Why's that? Is there something wrong with it?" he asked.
"No, but I cannot remember the last time I slept well enough to sleep in until ten in the morning. Clearly something about all the potions I've been taking the past three days is keeping me asleep, and I didn't have nightmares last night either."
"Could also be your body physically needing to recover from the procedure," Theo suggested. "How is your shoulder feeling?"
Rachel took a moment to check herself over. "Low throb. My shoulder still feels like it's not the right size. It feels enormous."
"I'm sure the swelling has something to do with that. Everything is probably inflamed. How is your sling sitting?"
"Good. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but I can live with it. I feel I'm going to get very used to casting one-handed," she said. She was using clothes changing charms to change her shirt under the sling and she had not yet attempted the shower in the past three days. That was going to have to be dealt with before she went back to the Ministry. Her hair was a mess - she could feel strands of it escaping from the plait she'd put it into before the procedure.
"You realize, everyone else casts with one hand," Theo said, smiling at her. "How do you even know what your hands are supposed to do when you're casting spells? It's not like there's a book describing wandless motions."
"I just do whatever feels natural. Louisa said that pretty much every person who primarily casts wandlessly has their own motions for things, except for some of the countries and groups that cast through totems and other types of wandless magic; theirs is more regimented." Lousia had taught her elemental magic, but they'd also spent some time showing each other various bits of wandless magic. Louisa had said she always learned something new from the people who came to study with her, because every wandless magic user was exploring for themselves and making new discoveries. It had been nice to work with Louisa and meet a few people in her group - for once she'd felt sort of normal, because most of them had crazy stories about the things they'd been expected to do because they were so powerful.
"It must feel like a waste to have memorized so many wand movements over the years."
"No. I think I couldn't have learned the way I did without having studied like that. Besides, it's important that I'm able to fall back on my wand if I need to," she said. "Besides, I have fond memories of our study group working together, even if we were a little intense."
Theo laughed. "We could have stood to relax a little. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves."
"We did, but we came out of it alright." Or, at least, their studying hadn't been what was causing them problems while they were in school.
Kreacher appeared. "Will Miss eat?"
"Yes, I suppose I'd better. Do we have eggs?" she asked.
"Yes, Miss. Eggs and what else?"
"Uh, just toast and tea. I'll eat more a little later." Her appetite had not been great on these potions, but she was working to make sure she ate three times a day. She knew her shoulder needed the nutrients in order to heal properly.
Kreacher disappeared and then reappeared about a minute later with a tray. He arranged the tray over her lap, but she managed to grab the napkin before he tried to settle it over her.
"Thank you. I appreciate it. Is everything alright with the house?" she checked.
"Everything be well, Miss. The owls be sleeping. Tomsi be cleaning. Dobby be in the kitchen. The cats be at Miss's feet," Kreacher recounted.
"Thank you," she said again, picking up her teacup.
"Call Kreacher if Miss needs something," he said before disappearing again.
Dingbat meowed and came nosing up to the tray.
"Not for you," Rachel said, pulling her tray closer. "You've been fed."
The cat sat, but her eyes were fixed on Rachel's plate.
"Cats don't even eat eggs. They're supposed to eat meat and milk," Theo said, eyeing her.
"Well, Dingbat will eat anything if we let her." She knew this from experience, having seen Dingbat take whole bites out of bread before.
Dingbat meowed again, looking between the two of them.
"Yes, we're talking about you," Theo told her. "That's Rachel's breakfast, not yours."
Rachel smiled, shook her head, and began eating her eggs. Best way to not let the cat have her breakfast was to eat it herself.
Thirty minutes later she'd eaten, cast a freshening charm on herself, and managed to make it downstairs to the sofa. She wasn't trying to do any research while her brain was so foggy. She figured she would wait until she'd stopped taking these potions before she went back into the Department of Mysteries - she needed her wits about her in there. Her intent was to return to the Ministry in the next two or three days, assuming she could start waking herself up in the morning.
The flames in the fireplace grew bigger. "May I come through?" Hermione called.
"Yes, please do," Theo called back.
A moment later Hermione was stepping into their sitting room. "How are you feeling?" she immediately asked.
"Not bad. A little groggy, and a little sore," Rachel said.
"Grogginess is to be expected with these potions. They're changing you back to the regular Pain Relieving Potion on Wednesday?" Hermione checked.
"That's the plan." Rachel was looking forward to that. She could stand to have a little more pain if it meant she could concentrate. "Mostly my shoulder just feels too big."
"Let's take a look then," she said, drawing her wand and coming to Rachel's side.
Even through the potions she was taking, Rachel could feel the various diagnostics that Hermione was casting.
"Well, you've got quite a bit of swelling, but that's not surprising. That should start to subside in the next week, but you should let your Healer at St. Mungo's know if it doesn't. Everything is looking about as it should so far, I'm not seeing any signs of rejection from the tissues or around the scapula. How would you rate your pain?"
"Minimal, I can feel it aching and feeling strange, but as long as I'm not touching it against anything, it's fine." She'd learned to sit so that she was resting against her right shoulder instead of her back.
"Good. We'll see how you do when you switch potions, but please say something if the pain gets worse," Hermione said, pocketing her wand.
"I will. How are you?" Rachel asked.
"Oh, well enough, all things considered. The situation is still a little nerve wracking. I've adjusted the wards on my parents' home, but they weren't pleased to hear that Death Eaters are attacking again. I've got a few projects I'm working on, so at least I'm busy," Hermione said.
"Everything has been alright around your flat and their home?" Theo checked.
"So far. I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary and my parents know to keep their eye out for anything magical," she said.
"I think for now the best thing we can do is keep our guard up," Rachel said, wishing there was more they could feasibly do.
"I think so, yes," Hermione said.
"Do you want to stay and have lunch with us? Severus will be here too," Theo offered.
"I'd like that. It's good to take a short break," she said. "Tell me about your research. How is your new paper coming?"
Rachel settled in to chat about research for a little while, always happy to have someone to bounce her theories off of.
Three days later found Rachel settling on a bench in courtroom ten. Her shoulder was throbbing, which was annoying, but she'd rather have a clear mind and a throbbing shoulder than a clouded mind and mild pain.
Draco and Neville sat down on the bench next to her, both looking grim.
"This should be fun," Draco said, his gaze moving over the room. The public section was already packed with people, including two reporters - one for the Daily Prophet and one for the Wizarding Wireless.
"Are you sure you're well enough to be back?" Neville asked, peering at her.
"I am," she said. The reason she was here was multifold. One was that her absence would be noted by the public and she did not want rumors swirling about; it was bad enough that they were seeing her in a sling. One was that she wanted to be back at the Ministry and getting things done. A five day absence had been enough to drive her crazy sitting at home - Booker had refused to forward her memos or other things, saying she needed to spend the time resting and healing. And the most important reason was because this was part of her duty as a Wizengamot member, and she would not shirk her duty, no matter how unpleasant it may be.
The rest of the Wizengamot was slowly filtering in, though Amelia was already in place, with Stella at her side. A quick look revealed that Rufus was already there as well, two of his clerks conferring with him quietly.
Sirius had his arm held supporting Linette on the steps, and they were heading in their direction.
"How are you doing, dear?" Linette asked as she sat.
"I'm doing well. How are you?" Rachel asked.
"As well as I ever am, just not as spry as I was ten years ago," Linette said.
"None of us are," Sirius said with a wink.
"You will speak to me of spry when you are in your ninth decade and not before," Linette told him.
"As my lady commands," he said, smiling at Rachel.
Rachel managed a smile back.
"Are we looking to meet in the near future?" Linette asked. "What is this I hear about Francis?"
"We'll likely have a faction meeting in December, but I don't have a firm date just yet. What about Francis?" she asked, leery of hearing what Francis had done now.
"I hear he's plying you for tax advice because he believes he can't get anything through the Wizengamot without your approval," Linette said, raising her eyebrows.
Rachel sighed. "How the hell did that rumor get started? Where did you hear it?"
"It's been going around, I've heard it too. People are saying that you're the one who forced Francis to retract his last proposal," Draco said, leaning past Neville to look at her.
She looked at Sirius, who shrugged his shoulders. "This is the first I'm hearing of it. Where did you two hear that from?"
"I heard it from Anyssa. I'm not sure where she heard it," Draco said.
"I heard it from Auroris; we had tea just the other day," Linette said.
"Well if Auroris is passing it around, then everyone has heard it," Sirius said, shaking his head.
Rachel put her hand to her mouth as she tried to figure out how to deal with this. She could not have rumors circulating that she was bullying other Wizengamot members into withdrawing their proposals. "What do we do?"
"Let me talk to some people. I'll figure out if Francis is the one saying this, and we'll go from there. If it is Francis, we bring it to Amelia to bring her faction member back in line. If it's not Francis, we'll deal with them when we figure out who it is. Have Booker nose around with the rest of the clerks and see what he can find out. I'll have my clerk do the same, and then we'll compare notes," Sirius said.
"Who else talked to Francis about withdrawing his proposal? Was it just you and Amelia?" Neville asked.
"I know Rufus talked to him as well, and Alwen, but neither of them would have spread those rumors. I don't know who Francis told," Rachel said. "As far as I know, Ethan wasn't in on it, nor do I suspect he would have said anything of the kind."
"I swear, the Wizengamot is worse than Hogwarts when it comes to rumor-mongering, and you should have heard some of the things they said about Rachel when we were there," Draco said.
"Eh, we're all just grown up Hogwarts kids," Sirius said. "Changing the setting doesn't change the people."
Rachel peered at Draco. "What did they say about me while we were at Hogwarts?"
Neville's eyes grew wide and Draco shook his head. "Not a discussion you want to have," Draco said.
She considered that for a moment and decided it was probably best if she didn't know. She knew some of it, from having heard those whispers herself, but she could guess that the worst of it had never been said around her or her friends.
"Let us have order," Amelia called, standing up. "Bring in Teresa Faye."
Rachel had finally managed to convince them to get rid of the Dementors in the courtroom, having made the point that if two aurors couldn't manage a shackled wandless prisoner then they had much bigger problems to contend with. When she'd made that point to Rufus and Amelia, neither of them had looked very impressed, but Rufus had said he'd make it a package deal and that when they got rid of the Dementors for the prison, they would get rid of the Dementors in the Ministry cells and courtrooms too.
The aurors brought in the woman, each with a hand around her biceps, though the woman seemed almost unaware of where she was. Rachel watched as Teresa Faye was bound into the chair in the center of the courtroom, her eyes moving from person to person, but clearly uncomprehending.
"Criminal hearing on the twenty fifth of November, 2009 under offenses committed under the Crimes Against Children Act by Teresa Faye, resident of Fourteen Turner Avenue, Derbyshire. Presiding over this hearing is Madam Amelia Bones, Head of Magical Law Enforcement. Court scribe is Stella Brewerson. As required in trials on offenses with a life sentence, the full Wizengamot is in attendance," Stella said from next to Amelia.
"Thank you, Ms. Brewerson," Amelia said. "We will begin with a statement from Auror Walsh, who made the arrest."
Auror Walsh came down from the visitors section, looking severe in his MLE robes. "Myself and Auror Jenkins were summoned to Fourteen Turner Avenue in Derbyshire on the fifteenth of September, after a floo call that there had been a disturbance in the house and then no response from anyone in the house," he began.
Rachel brought her right hand up to her mouth as Walsh described the scene he had found. The children had been killed with a knife, not by wand. The husband had later been found stabbed to death in their bed. They had found Teresa Faye covered in blood and brought her into the MLE for questioning once they'd determined she was not physically wounded.
When Walsh stepped away, Stella began to read the transcript of the interrogation. Teresa Faye had freely admitted to killing her husband and children, though in a very rambling and roundabout manner, and had sworn that her husband had never hurt her or her children, and that he was not having an affair. When she was asked why she murdered them, she dissolved into saying that it had been necessary, it had been the right thing to do, it had been the only thing she could do. That she loved her children and it had been the only way. No further reasoning could be gotten out of her, no matter what the aurors asked her.
Rachel watched the woman throughout this reading, trying to make sense of it. The woman didn't seem to be disturbed by the reading, if anything, she still didn't seem to understand what was happening, or perhaps even where she was. She reached her hand across to Sirius to catch his attention and he leaned forward. "They checked her for the Confundus charm right? Or something else?" she whispered, gaining Linette's attention as well.
"Yes, dear. They have a healer and a curse breaker look over all prisoners to make sure they're well and that they're not under any curses or spells," Linette said quietly, patting Rachel's knee.
Sirius nodded. "They would have checked."
The woman seemed desperately confused as she leaned against the chains binding her. This was wrong. That woman was not well. This trial should not be happening.
Rachel looked around, trying to figure out what she could do. There wasn't really anything she could do within the bounds set forth for trials. Her only options were to vote guilty or not guilty.
It was clear that Teresa Faye had killed her husband and children, but Rachel wasn't satisfied that she was guilty. For someone to be guilty of a crime, they had to understand what they were doing. Given the way Walsh described finding her, and the contents of the transcript, she did not believe that the woman was capable of the kind of rational thought that came with killing someone. Obviously something was wrong and she could not go free in case she hurt herself or someone else, but she needed a hospital, not a prison.
"Thank you, Ms. Brewerson," Amelia said when Stella finished reading the transcript. "Mrs. Faye, you may speak for yourself."
Teresa Faye did not seem to realize she was being addressed.
"Mrs. Faye," Amelia said again, this time drawing her eyes to her. "Tell us why you killed your family."
"My family. My children," she said, barely audible.
"Why did you kill them?" Amelia asked, her words slow and clear.
"I had to. I must. My babies. I love my babies, but I had to." The woman had closed her eyes and was rocking against the chains.
Rachel felt her stomach turn and she looked back at Linette and Sirius. "What about compulsion charms?" she whispered.
"They checked, they know," Sirius said softly.
"Do you have anything else you would like to tell this court?" Amelia asked.
Teresa Faye continued to rock silently.
"The court will vote," Amelia said. "To find Teresa Faye guilty of three counts of violating the Crimes Against Children Act, raise your hand. To find her innocent, leave your hands unraised."
Rachel firmly kept her hands in her lap, glancing around the room. To her dismay, most hands were raising, though not Linette or Sirius', and to her other side, Draco and Neville kept their hands down after looking at her. Draco raised his eyebrows and Rachel firmly shook her head. This wasn't right.
Stella finished her tally and handed the parchment to Amelia.
"Teresa Faye is hereby found guilty. She is sentenced to prison for life. This court is adjourned," Amelia announced.
"Sirius, what do you know about getting someone a retrial?" Rachel asked immediately.
"It's very difficult. There would have to be new evidence," Sirius said.
"Rachel, she did kill them. She said she did," Neville said.
"No, this was wrong," she said. "That woman was not fit to stand trial. Why do we not have provisions for this?"
Draco shook his head. "I don't know of any provisions that say someone can't stand trial."
"Did she look competent to any of you? Did she look like she even knew where she was?" Rachel asked, getting to her feet and looking around the room as she tried to decide what to do next.
"Easy, Rachel," Sirius said, also standing. "We will figure something out, but running to Amelia or Rufus before we've had a chance to discuss it and come up with something is not the solution."
"Sirius is right. We need a plan and for that we need to make a clearer indication of what the problem is and what we want to do about it," Linette said.
"There are Mind Healers in the prison. Maybe they can help her," Neville suggested.
"Hopefully they will help her for now, while we figure out what we're going to do," Rachel said. She was determined that she was going to get Teresa Faye a new trial, and do something so that people who very clearly had something wrong with them were getting help instead of being sent to prison. "We have work to do. I need books. I need…I need something."
She walked away, aware of her friends trailing after her. She had to do something about this.
Rachel was kneeling on the floor, her mind occupied with other matters than the three dead muggles in front of her. As far as she could tell, it was summer of 1943. Tom Riddle had just interrogated Morfin Gaunt, stunned him, and then stolen his family ring. Tom had turned it over in his hands several times, and then had taken Morfin's wand as well. From there, they'd apparated into the nearby town - Little Hangleton by the signs - and Tom had approached the manor of his grandparents and father.
She couldn't help but think that Tom Riddle Senior must have been rather traumatized by his experience with Merope to never again leave his parents' home. His body was one of the ones in front of her, the one that Tom Riddle Junior was working over with his knife. The family resemblance was obvious, especially now that Tom was older and carried a strong jaw line and a tidy coif of dark hair.
To her surprise, Tom Riddle hadn't tortured his father or grandparents, he'd simply killed them with the Killing Curse. She wasn't sure what that meant. He had been angry when he'd confronted his father, demanding to know why he never came for him. Tom Riddle Senior had simply stammered, managing to say he hadn't known that Tom existed. Tom had killed him immediately, and then his two grandparents as they screamed and wailed.
And now, Tom was making his next horcrux, with the ring he'd just taken from his uncle.
Even though it was disgusting to watch, and the Morsius Pensieve wouldn't let her do anything but watch, Rachel minded a little less now that she knew what to expect. After this was done, she'd go home and place this memory with the other horcrux memory so that she could safely be obliviated of it later.
Then she'd come back to the Wizengamot and try to solve some of her ongoing problems. She currently had Booker seeking rumors about her and Francis, to see if they could pin down the source and then do something about it. What they were going to do about, she had no idea. Fighting rumors was futile, people would believe what they were going to believe. But at least she could have her people explain to others what the problem with the tax proposal was and that they were working on steps to correct it.
She still needed to meet with Alwen about the current tax proposal, but she wasn't in a hurry to do that until they figured out whether or not Francis was the one spreading those rumors. If he was, well then something would need to be done about that too, especially if he wanted her help like he claimed to.
For her House Elf proposal, she still needed to meet with Janice and Rufus. She was waiting to see a sign that Janice and Ethan had their faction back in order before she approached Janice, and Rufus would have to wait for the new year. After that, she'd go courting the independents.
And now she had the new problem that trial had dumped on her lap. She had Booker looking for books on law to try and figure out what was already on record for dealing with mental incompetence, because she couldn't imagine that this hadn't been a problem somewhere along the way. So far all she'd found was restrictions on what minors could be charged with and alternative sentencing options for them. She would keep looking, and if she couldn't find what she was looking for, then it was time for her to draft a new proposal.
Tom Riddle rested the ring - a fine golden piece with a black stone with an odd carving on it, a rune or symbol that Rachel didn't recognize - on his father's bloody chest and pulled out his wand to incant.
Rachel found that it was interesting that Tom was still reliant on his wand, even in private. Apparently he hadn't learned of his wandless abilities until later, just like she hadn't. As much as she disliked the similarities between herself and Tom Riddle, they no longer bothered her as much as they initially had. She would never do the things that Tom Riddle was doing here, and that was all she really needed to know. However they'd arrived at it, they were the people they were, and while various circumstances in their lives might have changed that, they would never really know.
He finished, hid the evidence of the carvings he'd made on his father's body and redressed his corpse. Then he shined the ring and slid it onto his finger, taking a moment to turn it this way and that to see how it caught on the light.
From there they apparated back to the Gaunt's shack. Rachel watched as Tom memory charmed his uncle, wondering where he had picked up those skills. It wasn't anything she'd seen him studying, though she was only seeing a handful of moments from each of his years at Hogwarts.
He left Morfin's wand at his side, took another look around the shack and held his head high. "I am Lord Voldemort. Anyone who dares cross me shall suffer."
The memory ended and Rachel sighed as she went to the desk. With any other student who'd said such a thing, she'd chalk it up to that odd time of being a teenager where the whole world seemed like a possibility if you could just seize it, and at the same time where you felt helpless and trapped. With Tom Riddle, however, it was a legitimate threat.
She adjusted her sling ever so slightly, aware of the ache in her shoulder, and began to write. The sooner she finished this, the sooner she could go set her mind - and the Wizengamot - in order.
"Can we talk?" Theo asked, sometime after dinner when they were both settled on the sofa. He was sitting to her right, so she could easily turn to see him, instead of his usual spot on her left.
Rachel hurt too much to focus on reading anything, so she'd mostly just been sitting. "Sure. What's going on?"
"I just wanted to check in with you. You've seemed stressed lately."
She stared at him for a moment. It wasn't like they didn't all currently have things to be stressed about. There were Death Eaters on the loose.
"I think it started before the Death Eater attacks even," he said after another moment. "Have you noticed that as well?"
"I don't know," she said, knowing that wasn't a very good answer. "Our lives are so busy, sometimes it's hard to notice these things. What am I doing that makes you think I'm stressed?"
"You've been a little distant. I see you staring into space a lot, which you used to do quite a bit of when we were younger and you were struggling. You seem worried, but you also don't seem to want to share those worries with me," he said, reaching for her hand.
Rachel took his hand with her right hand and squeezed. "I'm sorry if I've been distant. I haven't realized. I'm not trying to exclude you or not tell you things."
"I don't need an apology. I simply want to check if something is wrong, and make sure we're both on the same page if something is, so that we can do something about it before it grows worse. I spent a lot of our sixth and seventh years watching you struggle in silence and not knowing what to do to help. I'd rather be proactive in making sure that you get any help that you need." Theo met her gaze. "You told me that your Mind Healer said that sometimes this can go in cycles, where you're alright for a while, until something triggers you to start struggling."
"I know. I don't think I'm struggling, not exactly," she said. Maybe she was stressed, but she wasn't falling apart like she'd been seven years ago. But he was right that she wanted to stop it before it reached that point. She wasn't of any use to anyone if she was falling apart.
"Is something on your mind that has been worrying you? Apart from the Death Eaters, I mean. I know going in for this procedure wasn't easy on you," he offered.
She shook her head. "The procedure was…I don't want to say fine. I definitely did not want to do it. But I got through it without anything terrible happening and I will feel better about the whole thing once I have free movement back. There's a lot going on in the Wizengamot right now, but we're trying to take care of things. And there are some things in the Department of Mysteries that are unpleasant, but time should take care of that." Tom Riddle was now sixteen years old. Rachel figured that if she watched about a year of his life a week, she could get to 1981 in the space of nine months. Surely she could hold out for that long, and the time that he'd spent being noncorporeal couldn't be too terrible.
"Time?" Theo asked.
"It's a project that has an end date. And I'm still doing a fair bit of potions research, so that's alright. I have access to a few things that have allowed me to take a better stab at a new Dreamless Sleep modification than I've had in the past three years," she said, trying to look on the bright side. "I really like the Department, I do. I don't want to leave."
"Can you tell them you don't want to do this project?"
"No. I tried and got a list of all of the reasons it needed to be done, and unfortunately I'm the only one who can do it. I quite expect this project is one of the reasons they invited me into the Department in the first place."
"Is it tolerable, at least?" he asked, looking worried.
"It is. I'm trying to gain some distance from it, and I think it's getting a little easier in that regard." Some of the time, at least. She wasn't thrilled about watching people die. It reminded her too much of the war and her visions.
"What's going on in the Wizengamot? Anything that can be solved with some expedient dinners?"
Rachel sighed. "When I get my hands on whoever is spreading the rumors that I forced Francis to withdraw his proposal I am going to throttle them. One handed," she said, squeezing Theo's hand again.
Theo smiled tentatively. "Did you?"
"No! Amelia, Rufus, Alwen, and I explained that this proposal wasn't going to pass and that he needed to separate them into individual proposals and make it clearer what his proposals would do. That's all!" she protested. "How that gets distilled into me bullying Francis into withdrawing his proposal, I don't know. We're having our clerks look into it and see if we can figure out how those rumors got started. It is not a good look for me and I do not want to read about it in the paper. If Francis is the one spreading those rumors, then-"
"Then?" he asked, almost eagerly.
She gave a one shouldered shrug. "Then I turn him over to Amelia and let her deal with her wayward faction member. I'd rather not drag Rufus into this pettiness unless I absolutely have to, though I'm certain he's heard the rumors by now as well."
"Probably. I get the feeling there's not a lot that Rufus doesn't hear."
"That's true. How much he cares on the other hand, we'll have to see. He might not mind if my faction had slightly more limited power, even if he and Amelia do come to me every time there's a proposal they don't want to pass. We'll see what happens come elections."
"Elections aren't for another three years," he pointed out.
"I know, but we need to be thinking about them now. Well, not right this second. Death Eaters now, elections later. And, of course, I've told you about that trial fiasco, so Sirius and I are trying to figure out what we can do about it. And I will do something about it. I will get that woman a new trial with a better outcome," she said, feeling that down to her bones.
"You will. But for now she has access to Healers and Mind Healers in the prison and I'm sure they're taking good care of her," Theo said, using his other hand to pat Rachel's knee. "You made certain conditions in the prison were as good as possible, and you check on them every six months. "
Rachel nodded. At the very least, Teresa Faye was in a safe place where she couldn't hurt herself or others, and was receiving healing services. That gave her time to work on a better solution.
"Anything else on your mind?" he checked.
"Just Death Eaters. I'd like to know what the hell they're doing right now. It's been nearly a month since their last attack. Are they recruiting? Do they think we're close to catching them? Because we're not."
"Maybe they're planning. The Dark Lord used to go for holidays and Christmas is coming right up," Theo suggested after a moment to think about it.
"Maybe. Maybe they don't have the people to field constant attacks the way they did in the war. Maybe they need to regroup and decide who their next targets are," she said. The best case scenario was that there were only a handful of them and that they needed this time to regroup. "Maybe they're leaving the country in between attacks to reduce the chances someone will see them."
"Either that or they have runners or a good supply of Polyjuice or some disguise cloaks. I know we used those to good effect during the war, but sometimes I wonder at Fred and George selling them so freely."
"The ones they sell publicly are all famous faces. I don't think they sell real disguises to anyone but the MLE and us." She'd had to practically beg Fred and George not to make disguises with her face. Rufus had not fared as well. There were also Dumbledore cloaks, but people had mostly stopped using those after Professor Dumbledore's death, and she didn't think Fred and George supplied them any longer.
"That's good, I hadn't realized," he said.
Rachel shook her head. "I'm pretty sure Amelia or Gawain had a talk with them about who they were selling them to and that was the compromise they'd agreed on."
"Good to know someone is keeping an eye on them at least. Their inventions are fun, but some of them are a little bit pushing the bounds of what might be allowed."
"I'm pretty sure that's the fun part for them." She'd grown to appreciate Fred and George more as she'd gotten older. They were good inventors and they were generally interesting people. From what she'd seen, all of the Weasley siblings got along better now that they were adults and weren't living under the same roof.
"So you're alright overall?" Theo asked.
"I think I am a bit stressed," she allowed. "Thank you for letting me know though. If things seem worse, will you tell me?"
"Of course. Always."
"Are you stressed?"
"My level of stress has dropped dramatically at not having Markham in my department," he said, shaking his head as he sagged against the sofa. "Like you, I'm worried about the Death Eater situation, and I'm worried that we're all targets again. And I'm worried about Hermione. I would have much preferred if she was under our wards, or Neville's, or Draco's."
"I would prefer that too, but if Hermione feels secure in her flat, I think we have to trust her. And, so far at least, all the targets have been in detached homes. There might not be enough Death Eaters to deal with a flat. Honestly, she might be in more danger if she was here with us."
"Do you think so?" he asked, his brow furrowing.
"I think you, me, and her all in one place make for a tempting target, just as I wouldn't want me, Rufus, and Amelia all in one place. Too easy to take a good chunk out of our government all at once," she said. "Right now I'm counting on the idea that they don't have enough Death Eaters to assail the Ministry, otherwise our Wizengamot meetings would be a very bad idea."
"I think if they have enough Death Eaters to attack the Ministry, we'll know before they do. They wouldn't be exposing themselves through small attacks if that was their goal."
"That's what Rufus, Amelia, and I all think too. We're all taking the precautions that we can. I can't think of anything else you or I can do to help with this right now."
Theo nodded. "I know. I will still be relieved when the situation is dealt with."
"I think we all will." Hopefully that day would come sooner rather than later.
"Rachel," Daphne said, coming into the front office of Witch Weekly.
"Daphne, it's good to see you," she said, smiling at her friend.
"Can I hug you? Will it hurt?" Daphne asked, eyeing Rachel's sling.
"Hug me on my right side." Rachel reached for her with her right arm and they gave each other an awkward side hug.
"There we go. Come on back. How is everything? Off the record," Daphne said, leading her further back into the offices after releasing her.
"Not too bad. I'm pretty busy, but that's usual for me. How are you? How is Jacques?" she asked. Jacques was Daphne's current boyfriend as she had not yet settled down, much to the disappointment of her parents.
"Oh, you know how it is," Daphne said, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
Rachel knew Daphne well enough to know that meant she and Jacques were on the outs.
"How is Theo?" she asked.
"Pretty good. He's working on a new paper, so he's pretty involved at the moment," Rachel said, following Daphne into her office. Daphne's office had a large picture window, several bookshelves of Witch Weekly back issues, framed covers on the wall, and a sofa and armchair opposite her desk.
"You two and your papers. I assume you're working on one as well," Daphne asked, retrieving her quill and parchment to take notes. "Tea?"
"Sure. And I'm working on some recipe modifications at the moment. If I get something that works, I'll probably write a paper about it, but that won't be for several months. I'm not brewing right now." She took a seat on the sofa and watched as Daphne made tea.
"When do they let you loose from the sling?"
"Six more weeks. Feels like an eternity. I have Theo checking on my cauldrons because I don't want to do things one handed in case something spills," she said. "We're alright to do the photo shoot once I'm out of the sling and have a full range of movement again?" Normally she'd be doing a photo shoot this month to go with the interview, but she did not want pictures of her like this.
"Yes, I already explained it to Tessa and she understands completely. How is your shoulder? Still off the record," Daphne asked, bringing over a tea tray to the low table.
"Tender, but slowly getting better than it was. I'm hoping I'll be able to fly again once I'm fully healed." She'd better be able to fly. That was non-negotiable.
Daphne nodded. "Ready?" she asked when they both had cups of tea.
"Sure." Rachel was used to doing this with Daphne by now, and it generally wasn't a big deal.
"Let's start with the Unspeakables. I think you caught quite a few people by surprise by joining them," Daphne said, her quill poised to take notes.
"The Unspeakable are one thing I can't say too much about. I will tell you that I'm enjoying my work there and everyone has been very welcoming to me."
"No secrets revealed?" Daphne teased with a smile.
"No secrets, but everyone I've met there has been a dedicated researcher. The Department of Mysteries is safe in our hands," Rachel said, having already cleared this with Patrick since she'd known Daphne would ask about it.
Daphne nodded. "How about retiring from the Harpies? Did you already have plans to join the Unspeakables when you retired?"
"Well, the Unspeakables invite you, so I didn't exactly have plans, but I had a hunch I might receive an invitation. I retired from the Harpies because it was time. I very much enjoyed playing with them in the League, but I'm nearly thirty and it was time for me to focus on other things." If it hadn't been for her shoulder, she probably would have stayed another five years, but it was what it was.
"Word on the street is that your new Wizengamot proposal deals with House Elves. Can you tell us more?"
"I can," Rachel said, prepared for this as well. She'd already released the proposal drafts to the full Wizengamot, so everyone should have seen it by now. "My proposal advances rights for House Elves. It will require that House Elves are paid for their labor, also instituting a minimum wage for them. It will require that House Elves are being treated well and are free from bodily injury or harm. It will establish a department within the Ministry to look over matters pertaining to House Elves. And it will establish a House Elf census, so that we have a full accounting of how many House Elves are in Britain and where they are located."
Daphne paused her questions for a moment, her quill moving quickly. "Off the record. Will this really pass?" she asked, looking at Rachel.
"We'll see. I'm working on ensuring that it does, but I won't take it in front of the Wizengamot until I know that it will."
"Well, good luck to you. Back on record. Can I ask what House Elves think of this proposal?"
"I think that will vary from House Elf to House Elf. Just like humans, they each have their own individual politics and preferences. Many House Elves will resist being paid at first, and we have provisions to handle that. I'd like to note that in much of Western Europe and in the United States, Canada, Australia, and a number of other countries, House Elves are paid for their labor, as are prisoners. It's clear that this can be done, but it's going to require a shift in thinking both from humans and House Elves. We are at the start of a new century and there are so many paths open to us, both as a nation and as a world. We have the option to embrace the future, or to shy away from it. I know which I prefer."
Daphne nodded, still writing quickly. "Do you want to talk about the situation with the Death Eaters?"
"I trust Minister Scrimgeour, Madam Bones, and the MLE to handle the situation with the Death Eaters. The Wizengamot has already authorized provisions to enable the MLE to act with any force necessary to contain the Death Eaters. The Ministry and the Wizengamot are keeping a close eye on the situation and are ready to respond accordingly," Rachel said. Working with Booker and preparing statements for the press had taught her the language to answer this sort of question.
"Off the record, are they calling on you to deal with the Death Eaters?" she asked, her eyes slightly wide.
Rachel shook her head. "If they meet someone with abilities they cannot handle, I will step in. But right now nothing suggests that anyone in the Death Eaters is on that level of power."
"They're dropping wards," Daphne pointed out.
"It doesn't take someone with my sort of abilities to do that, and just because they're skilled in that way does not make them skilled in combat. Right now it's wait and see. Everything they do tells us more about them," she said.
Daphne sighed. "I had hoped we were finished with all of this."
"Me too."
"Is Hermione alright?" Daphne asked.
"She's fine. She's had her wards checked already and she's in a flat. All of the attacks so far have been on detached houses," Rachel said.
"And your wards are good?"
"Our wards are excellent. I'm not too worried. The last person the Death Eaters should want to come to is me, if they have any sense at all," she said.
Daphne's mouth went flat. "I'm not sure the Death Eaters have all that much sense or they wouldn't be doing what they're doing."
"That's true enough," Rachel agreed.
"Can I ask about your vote on Teresa Faye's recent trial? People were surprised to see you vote in her favor."
"I need that to be off the record for the time being. I might have more for you in the spring when I've figured out what I'm going to do about it. I'm still looking up laws and precedent," she explained.
"If you say so," Daphne said. "Anything else you want to say about the Wizengamot on the record?"
"I don't think there is anything big right now." For the time being she was glad the rumors about Francis' proposal hadn't left the Wizengamot yet, and she was hoping they wouldn't.
"Alright, let's move onto other things then. Ready for the ridiculous personal questions?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Ready," Rachel said. She'd learned over the years to tolerate this, even though she still didn't understand why people wanted to know where she was buying her robes, how she was wearing her hair, what dates she went on with Theo, and how her cats were doing.
"How is your shoulder?" Severus asked when Rachel and Theo entered the kitchen at Fallow Farm.
"Why is that everyone's first question when they see me?" Rachel asked. It had been a little over two weeks since the procedure and the inquiries were getting old quickly.
"Because we care about your well being and you are visibly injured," he said, turning back to the pot on the stove.
"My shoulder is fine. It's a little tender, but it's fine," she said, leaning against the kitchen table and watching as Theo settled nearby.
"What are you using for pain management at this point?"
"Pain Relieving Potion twice a day, I'm hoping to move that to once a day in the near future." And she would, once she could actually either make it through the day without one or sleep without one.
He glanced back at her again. "When is your next check-in with the Healer?"
"Next Wednesday. Severus, really. I can manage my own healthcare."
"I know you can, but I am your father and I worry about you. That will never change."
Rachel watched as he turned away from what he was tending on the stove. She knew she was lucky to have Severus, but that didn't mean he didn't occasionally aggravate her. "No need to worry. I'm fine. Another six weeks in this sling and then I can have my arm back. I'll start the motion exercises in two weeks. And Theo and Hermione have been taking good care of me."
"We have, though Rachel is not the most accommodating patient," Theo said with a small smile at Rachel.
"No, she is not," Severus agreed, nodding in Theo's direction. "How are things at the Spell Crafting Guild these days?"
"Quieter, thankfully. No more explosions, which makes for an easy month. Hopefully we'll have a quiet holiday," Theo said.
"Dare I ask about the state of the Wizengamot?" Severus asked.
Rachel groaned. "Probably best that you don't."
"So business as usual then. And the Unspeakables?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.
"The Unspeakables are fine. I'll take them over the Wizengamot any day," she said, fully meaning it. Everyone in the Unspeakables was too wrapped up in their own projects for there to be any sort of political agenda down there.
"Given that I don't know what you get up to down there, I'll just ask that you're taking the necessary precautions while you're in a sling?"
Rachel rolled her eyes. "I'm just doing research. I either spend my time in the Unspeakables at my desk, in the Archives, or walking the Department. This whole idea that the Unspeakables are dangerous is way overblown."
"It makes sense though; keeps everyone on their toes around the Unspeakables and everyone thinks it's too dangerous to go nosing around in," Theo pointed out.
"There are plenty of things in the Department of Mysteries that people shouldn't go nosing around in. But most fields of research are pretty tame. The best part of the Department is the Archives. I could spend days in there."
"So you've said," Severus said, looking mildly amused. "Are you intending to attend the Guild Christmas party or have the Unspeakables won your favor?"
"I'll be at the Christmas party. Ethan would kill me if I bailed on him."
"Too right," Severus said. "Besides, I would like to introduce you to Andrea. Be forewarned, she is not subtle."
Rachel smiled. "From your description of her, I hadn't really expected her to be. How is Andrea these days?"
Severus shook his head. "We are progressing with her experiments. She seems to understand that I will not bend from procedure and that while she is working with me, she will follow procedure as well. At the very least, we are on track to receive a viable potion or two by the end of her Mastery."
"Sometimes that's all you can hope for," Theo said with a shrug.
"There is something I'd like to tell you about. I've been nominated for the Potions Guild Innovation Award for my work in effect delaying potions," Severus said, nodding slightly.
"Severus, that's wonderful," she said, moving to give him a one armed hug. "Congratulations."
"Yes, congratulations. They must have really liked your paper," Theo said. "We need to celebrate."
"There will be time enough for celebration," he said, though he looked pleased. "I met with Master Gilland and we're proposing to do a joint study for the method in a variety of healing potions. It would take too long for me to do it all myself. As it is, I might spend another decade with this, maybe longer."
Rachel smiled at him. "I'm glad you've found a large project to focus on. I'm sure this will help a lot of people. There are so many improvements you can make with what you're doing."
"And I imagine we'll find even more improvements as we experiment," Severus said modestly. "I think dinner is ready."
"I'll set the table," Theo said, moving to the cupboards.
Rachel felt herself relax a little. It was nice to hear good news for a change, and it was nice to have a quiet evening with Theo and Severus.