Rachel was nervous when she approached Patrick's office on Monday morning. She didn't want to leave the Unspeakables, but she couldn't keep using the Morsius Pensieve. She'd spent the weekend thinking about it and had decided that if Patrick said that she needed to keep doing this project, she'd ask him if she could take a break from it and then approach it more slowly, such as maybe a memory a week. She thought she could manage that much.
Liesel had told her the best time to speak with Patrick was at eight in the morning, before he got too deep into his research to be distracted. Rachel went to Patrick's office doorway and peered inside. There was a human skeleton on the floor. At this point, Rachel couldn't find it within herself to be surprised.
Patrick was kneeling on the floor next to the skeleton, holding some sort of device over it.
Rachel waited, not wanting to startle him and cause him to drop whatever it was on the skeleton. It looked breakable.
He held the device up to his face, leaning closer until he was inches away from the skeleton. He nodded to himself, set the device aside, and made a note in the book that was open next to him on the floor.
She used the opportunity to knock on his door frame.
"Ah, Rachel," Patrick said, looking up at her. "I think Liesel told me you wanted to speak to me."
"She did," Rachel said, knowing that Liesel had scheduled the appointment and written it in Patrick's calendar. "Whose skeleton?"
"A former Unspeakable. She left us her remains to study," he said, pushing himself to his feet. "Come in, come in."
Rachel entered the room and closed the door behind her. At least she was assured that these remains had been ethically sourced, even though she couldn't imagine what he was doing with them.
"If you are here about your potions, I am reliably informed that the committee is currently working on them and should have an answer for you within the next week or so," he said, looking for a place to sit down, but not finding one.
"I'm glad to hear that." She'd been starting to wonder if she'd ever hear back from the committee.
"You realize that most inventors only submit one potion at a time?" Patrick asked.
"They all belong together. It doesn't make sense to brew them one at a time," Rachel said. "I can't go further until I get the results, so I needed to get the preliminaries out of the way at the start."
"If you say so. Mirabel says you know what you're doing. How are you finding everything?"
She took a slow breath and exhaled. "I actually need to talk to you about something." She'd gotten very good at saying 'no' to people in the Wizengamot, but it felt different here.
"Yes, of course. A problem?" Patrick asked, his full attention on her now.
"Yes. I…I need to stop using the Morsius Pensieve. It's having ill effects on me and I'm concerned that they will get worse if I continue using it." That was embarrassing to admit, but she didn't want Patrick to think she'd simply gotten tired of the project.
Patrick simply nodded. "That's fine. We got more from it than we anticipated."
Rachel hesitated. "You don't think it's important to know what happened while the Dark Lord was non-corporeal?"
"Well, yes, though I'm uncertain if the Morsius Pensieve will have memories of that. While he was non-corporeal he had nothing with which to store memories. More important though is your safety and health. If you are starting to feel the effects of the pensieve then it is time to stop. It's impressive that you lasted as long as you did," he said, meeting her eyes.
She considered what she was about to say. "Was there a reason that you didn't tell me that the Morsius Pensieve has led people to suicide?"
Patrick looked surprised as his eyebrows shot up. "I hadn't anticipated that it would affect you so severely. Are you well?"
"I'm not a danger to myself," Rachel said quickly, not wanting to get herself banned from the Department or assigned more sessions with a Mind Healer. "I would just rather know up front if there is a risk to something I'm doing."
"Understandable. I had expected that you would stop using the Morsius Pensieve once you felt it starting to affect you. I didn't intend for you to continue using it to the point where you were harmed."
"I didn't know I was allowed to stop," she admitted.
He looked sad that time. "I apologize for not making that clearer. The safety of the Unspeakables is our top priority. We always want people to stop or modify their research if it puts them at risk. I made a number of changes when I became Department Head, which included reducing the research into topics that might put our people in danger. If something is harming you, please stop and let someone know."
Rachel nodded. "Thank you."
"I feel absolutely terrible saying this just now, but I do have another proposed project for you. I will completely understand if you wish to decline," Patrick said.
"What is it?" she asked warily.
"We'd like to take an expedition into the Chamber of Secrets."
She blinked at them. "You know the basilisk is still alive?"
"Well, yes, we assumed so at this point. That is why we would like you to speak with it," he said.
"I'm not entirely sure the basilisk will listen to me, let alone how she'd take anyone else visiting her domain," Rachel warned.
"We will bring protections to keep us safe from the basilisk's gaze, I can assure you of that. The biggest danger will be her fangs," Patrick said blithely.
"Let me think about it." She wasn't prepared to make this decision at the moment.
"Of course. It's a big project. We'd be the first to see the basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets since Tom Riddle."
"That's not entirely true. Someone was seeing the basilisk and the Chamber when it was being opened in 1992," Rachel pointed out, purposefully not using Ginny's name.
"By possession through Tom Riddle's diary horcrux, if I'm not mistaken," he said with a slight nod. "You believe they went all the way to the Chamber?"
"They would have had to in order to wake the basilisk," she reasoned.
"I don't suppose anyone ever discovered who was being possessed?"
Rachel shook her head. "If Professor Dumbledore knew, he kept that secret to the grave." She would keep that secret for Ginny.
"Pity. Anyway, think on it and let me know what you decide," Patrick said. "Anything else?"
"Not really. I'm sort of in the middle of a project about communicating with the Department," she told him.
"Let me know if you find a way. I'd love to be able to converse with her," he said.
"I will. Thank you," Rachel said before retreating and leaving Patrick with his skeleton.
That had gone better than she had been expecting. She felt deeply reassured by the idea that she could stop a project if it was hurting her and no one would blame her or pressure her to keep going. She just wished she'd known that months ago.
"More tea?" Sirius offered, showing that he did have manners when he chose to use them.
"Yes, thank you," Maisy Collins said, letting Sirius pour for her. "I must admit I didn't expect the invitation."
"Why is that?" Rachel asked. It should be well known by now that she was going around collecting votes. Draco had gotten Henry to agree to vote for the House Elf proposal. Maisy was the last one left that they needed.
"I had rather assumed you'd fob me off on someone else," Maisy said, arching her eyebrows at them. As an independent, most people would come courting her vote when they wanted something passed, but people generally didn't come to her unless they wanted something. Maisy had been newly elected four years ago.
Rachel shook her head. "I generally try to make my pleas in person, unless someone in my faction has already established a relationship with another Wizengamot member. I'm afraid I haven't had much of a chance to get to know you yet."
"The Wizengamot was a little more intimidating than I was expecting. I'm afraid some people won't have anything to do with me given that I'm a half-blood. However, despite your blood status, I don't expect you have that problem," Maisy said.
"Fortunately my blood status rarely comes up, except for with a handful of people who I typically oppose anyway." Most people still thought of Rachel as the Girl-Who-Lived, then as the person who had killed the Dark Lord, and then as Rachel herself, unless they were Quidditch fanatics or involved in the potions community.
"I know who you mean. They've rather shunned me," Maisy said.
"They're good people to be shunned by. The pureblood supremacist faction is on its way out. If they didn't have inherited seats, they would have lost them at the election. The last thing you want is to be seen making nice with them," Sirius said with a nod.
Rachel set down her teacup. "Is there a reason you haven't joined a faction?
"I went into this wanting my vote to matter. I didn't want to be someone's lackey. I didn't want to have my vote co-opted into things I didn't support," she said.
"Completely understandable, but we don't work that way," Sirius said.
"We don't," Rachel agreed, seeing Maisy's skeptical glance. "Everyone in my faction decides their own vote. We generally have discussions about what we believe the right thing to do is, and if someone dissents, we discuss it further, but at the end of the day I trust everyone to vote with their conscience."
Maisy still looked uncertain. "Is this an invitation to join your faction or this about your proposal?"
"Why not both?" Sirius asked. "We've seen how you vote. We know you don't take bribes. That is sort of our minimum requirement."
"I'm not even certain I'm going to be re-elected."
"Nothing in life is certain," she agreed.
"Especially not elections," he added.
"My faction is generally strong and I want it to stay that way. We have seven people with elected seats and we will be working to help them be re-elected," Rachel continued.
"I thought you didn't support bribes," Maisy said.
"We don't. This is not a bribe. We're just telling you about our faction. You can ask whatever questions you wish," she said.
"We do not deal in bribes," Sirius agreed. "If we did, we'd take Mason Fallon's offers, and I'm sure you've heard by now that Rachel has sent him away multiple times."
"Mason Fallon shouldn't be on the Wizengamot. He's just doing it to enrich himself," Maisy said firmly.
"We agree and we'll see what we can do about that closer to elections," Rachel said. She still wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do. She could make a statement about her personal experiences with him, but she didn't know how much that would sway the public. Maybe she needed Booker to take a look at what he could find out about him.
"It sounds like you're offering to get me re-elected if I join your faction and vote with you," Maisy said.
"We can't make that kind of promise. We take care of our own people, but we can't promise that anyone will be re-elected," Sirius said, shaking his head. "At the same time, people like Rachel."
"Except for the people who try to kill me," Rachel put in.
"Except for those," he agreed gamely. "But she's perfectly equipped for handling assassination attempts. Thankfully my goddaughter is very difficult to kill."
Rachel shrugged. There were attacks even she couldn't guard against, but in general, if she was conscious, she was a strong opponent.
"In any case, if you were to join us, you'd certainly be making some enemies, but those people never would have voted for you in the first place because of your blood status," Sirius continued.
Maisy sighed. "I'm hoping you don't want an answer this very minute."
"No. Take your time. Think about it. Ask questions. Ask other people what our faction is like. Ask your clerk for all the relevant gossip," Rachel suggested. "Can I ask for your thoughts on the House Elf proposal?"
"Is it going to pass?"
"Yes, it is." She couldn't back down from this, nor would she.
"And I suppose the same people who have a problem with the House Elf proposal wouldn't vote for me anyway," Maisy said, looking a little grim.
"That's likely true," Sirius said.
"Why does everything always come back to the purity of our blood?"
"One of the things we're working toward is having that not matter. We can't fix our culture overnight, or even for the next generation, but I'm hoping that for the generation after that it simply won't matter as much," Rachel said. "I've done a lot of work for the acceptance of muggleborns and half-bloods. More than anything, even my potions research, I consider that to be my life's work. If I have any power at all, it will be to stop another war about blood purity from ever tearing apart our country."
Maisy nodded. "That I can fully support. I lost my father in the war. He was a half-blood."
"I'm sorry to hear that. A great many people were lost," Sirius said, his head bowing.
"If I could change anything about the past, it would be ending the war sooner." Rachel exhaled as she thought of the last months of the war. She had always wondered why they hadn't been able to press the Dark Lord sooner, as soon as they found the last horcrux.
"You were just a child. You may have killed You-Know-Who, but you were just a child. I look back at that now and think that it was kind of messed up that we relied on a child to save us all," Maisy said. "I'm sure you did everything you could."
"She did," Sirius said. "And you're right. Far too much of the war was placed on her."
"We all did whatever we could. I simply played my role." That much at least, Rachel wouldn't change. In the end, she had stopped the Dark Lord, just as she was supposed to.
"You have my vote for the House Elf proposal. Let me think about the faction. I'd like to do some research," Maisy said.
"Thank you. Just let us know if you have questions we can answer," she said.
"Rachel always approves of research," Sirius said with a sly look at her.
She felt the corners of her mouth curl up. There could never be too much research.
"Ready for this?" Theo asked from her bedroom doorway.
"Just about," Rachel said. She was wearing her hair up in a twist tonight and she wanted to look reasonably presentable. She was in dress robes instead of a gown, as most people preferred dress robes for Potions Guild functions unless there was a ball.
"Anyone we're avoiding?" he checked.
"Just the usual. I need to check in with Ethan and Miranda, and I'd like to see Emlyn as well. This should only take around two hours," she told him. There would be time to chat with people before the ceremony, then the ceremony would take about thirty minutes with various speeches and then Severus would be awarded the Innovation Award. Then there would be a small celebratory party with hor d'oeuvres.
Rachel generally tried to keep her Potions Guild appearances minimal. She went to the yearly Christmas ball and to the major award ceremony, and that was about it. She had attended more functions with Emlyn when she was doing her mastery, but had found them uncomfortable and had found that she disliked the gossipy nature of the guild. She wasn't sure how Millie and Theo stood the Spell Crafting Guild, but they both seemed happy and comfortable there. Maybe it was different working for the guild than just being a member.
Finishing her hair, having had to let it down and put it back up three times before she got it looking decent, Rachel checked herself over in the mirror. Still her. Still the usual person she saw in the mirror. She could see that she looked a little tired and unhappy. Hopefully the further away she got from using the Morsius Pensieve, the better her sleep would be. It had only been a week since she'd last used it.
"Okay, ready," she said, deciding that was as good as it was going to get.
"You look lovely," Theo said.
She raised her eyebrows at him. "I look how I usually look."
"You usually look lovely," he countered.
"You're biased," she told him, moving to take his arm so they could apparate together.
"I don't mind being biased."
Shaking her head slightly, she took his forearm and apparated them to the atrium of the Potions Guild.
They followed the slowly gathering crowd into the large room that was reserved for guild events. Most of the guild would be here today, as this was the annual awards event. There would be four other people receiving awards, though the award Severus was receiving was the most prestigious award the guild had to offer.
Rachel had received the Innovation Award in 2006 and still felt a little uncertain that she had deserved it. That award was supposed to be for an achievement in invention that was extraordinary and was usually given after a career of invention. She'd received it for her sleeping potion that could be used safely most nights of the week, but she would have rather the guild have waited until she developed the perfect sleeping potion.
Maybe that was one of the reasons she didn't like the guild. They never seemed to be able to separate the Girl-Who-Lived from Rachel the potions inventor. At least she didn't have that problem in the Unspeakables. She was pretty sure most of the Unspeakables barely recognized that she was a Wizengamot member, let alone that she had killed the Dark Lord.
Spotting Emlyn and her most recent apprentice Allison, Rachel led the way over, keeping a firm grip on Theo's arm. She didn't want to be separated from him in this crowd.
"Rachel," Emlyn said, a smile moving over her time worn features as she saw her approaching.
"Emlyn, how are you?" Rachel asked.
"I am doing as well as ever. How are you and Theo?" she asked.
"We're doing well," Rachel said with a glance at Theo.
"Things are a little quieter now," Theo agreed.
Emlyn shook her head. "I heard, of course."
"Of course," Rachel said. No one could have avoided the knowledge that she'd killed Barty Crouch Junior. The Daily Prophet had been talking about it for weeks afterward.
"You're alright after all that?" Emlyn checked.
"Just fine. I got lucky," she said, squeezing Theo's arm.
He moved to place his hand over hers. "We got very lucky."
"Was he really the one behind all the attacks? Just one person?" Allison asked, getting a glance from Emlyn.
"Given that the attacks have stopped, that's what the MLE thinks. Either that, or he didn't teach anyone else to stealthily bring down wards. At this point, we think it's likely he was working alone," Rachel said, having given that information to just about everyone. Magical Britain was slowly settling again as there had been no new attacks since the attack on Rachel's home.
"Strange as it seems, I'm grateful for that," Emlyn said.
"I don't think it's strange," Theo said. "We're all relieved that the attacks have stopped."
"Enough of that," Emlyn said. "How are the Unspeakables treating you?"
"Very well. I'm enjoying my time there," she said. And she was, except for the Morsius Pensieve. And now that was over.
"Can you still publish?" Allison asked.
"I have to admit, I'm curious about that myself," Emlyn said.
"There are avenues for publishing, depending on what I'm researching. I'm planning on getting a few potions tested soon and we'll go from there," Rachel said.
"Sleeping potions?" Emlyn checked.
Rachel smiled. "Yes, sleeping potions still."
"I'm not sure I could imagine working on a project for a decade," Allison said.
"Rachel has always been a little more obsessive than most of us in the guild," Emlyn said with a smile, eliciting gentle laughter from all of them.
"Obsessive is one word for it," Rachel allowed, still smiling. "I'll move on when I solve the problem."
"Come sit with us," Emlyn said. "I have seats over with Master Anderson."
They joined her and took seats near the front of the room, curtsying, bowing, and giving greetings to Master Anderson before they sat. Rachel looked around the room and spotted Severus with the other awardees sitting on the back edge of the stage. She thought he looked uncomfortable there. Severus was never someone who enjoyed drawing attention to himself. She understood the feeling.
"Can I sit with you?" Andrea asked. She was Severus' current apprentice.
"Of course," Rachel said.
They didn't have time to talk as the lights dimmed and Ethan and Miranda Davies took their places on the stage.
"Welcome to all of you on one of our most celebrated evenings of the year," Miranda began.
Rachel listened, applauding when appropriate, but mostly waiting for Severus to be awarded. After about twenty minutes, he was called up. Miranda gave a speech about all of Severus' accomplishments, including his seventeen years at Hogwarts and the influence he had on an entire generation of potioneers.
Severus nodded as the crowd applauded, bowing his head to allow Miranda to place his award around his neck.
She met his eyes and smiled at him, hoping he knew how proud of him she was.
His gaze fell on her and he nodded slightly, the corners of his mouth lifting in a small smile.
Happy that Severus had seen her, she settled in for his speech, knowing that he had spent nearly a month crafting it. She felt a warm glow that she didn't usually feel toward the Potions Guild. It was about time they recognized everything Severus had done for the field.
"I think I have some long awaited news for you," Mirabel said as she approached Rachel's desk.
Rachel looked up from the book she was reading about the Department. All of her research had become focused there now that she wasn't using the Morsius Pensieve or brewing potions. "The committee made a decision?" she asked, since that was the only news she could think of that Mirabel could have for her.
"They have. They're not used to receiving a whole stack of potions at once like this. Usually people submit one at a time," Mirabel said, setting down a thick stack of parchment on Rachel's desk.
She shrugged. "It makes sense to me to work this way. Brewing one potion and waiting for testing takes too long. What did the committee decide?"
"They found nothing inherently dangerous in your potions and agreed that you can send them for standard testing with the Potions Guild. You will have to put them through another approval process once you have results so they can decide if you can publish them," she explained.
"I understand. I once accidentally brewed a variant on Dreamless Sleep that erases people's memories. It can be used stealthily. I never shared that one with anyone," Rachel said a little sheepishly.
"You might want to share it with the group that works on memory. I'm sure they'd be interested in the mechanics of it," Mirabel suggested. "I can promise that one will never make it out of the Unspeakables. The committee would never allow it to be published and the journals wouldn't take it either."
Rachel nodded. "Possibly. I'll talk to them and see if they're interested. Did the committee have anything else to say about my potions?"
"They made notes on each potion, which I'm sure you'll want to review, but don't make any changes to the potions at this stage because then they'd have to be approved again. What are you hoping to accomplish with this?"
"Ideally a Dreamless Sleep potion that can safely be taken every night, or at least most nights. I'd also like a regular sleeping potion that can safely be taken every night," she explained.
"Challenging goals. I'm never one to say that something is impossible, I've seen a lot of impossible things working here, but you've got your work cut out for you. I know you have already improved the base sleeping potion a great deal," Mirabel said with a nod.
"I have, but there are still improvements to be made. I imagine I will eventually move on from sleeping potions, but I still have a lot of work to do in the field first. This is just my first batch. Once I've gotten results from them I'll reformulate for another batch."
"Good. Sounds like you're set for a few years. Are you happy in the general potions group or did you want to move to the mind altering potions group?" she checked.
"I'm happy here," Rachel said firmly. She liked working with Mirabel and Cyril. Maybe eventually she would change to a specific group within the potions groups, but for now she was happy where she was.
"Alright. Just let me know. I'm sure you're eager to review the committee's notes, so I'll let you get to it. You'll have to rebrew your potions for testing. The committee used what you sent them," Mirabel said before walking away.
She suspected Mirabel knew that anyone receiving notes on their inventions immediately wanted to read them and smiled to herself as she cleared a space on her desk to work. There was a letter from the committee on the top of the stack, which Rachel read, nodding to herself. They said that they felt her potions were safe enough to be tested within the Guild, but that she still needed another review before publishing. She wasn't looking forward to the long wait - testing took months and she suspected the next review would take months as well. Hopefully she had something publishable from all of this.
The committee had made notes on each individual potion, mostly about the availability of ingredients and what they believed the effects of each potion would be. They suggested some side effects that Rachel hadn't considered. For now, she would have the potions tested as is, and then see how the results turned out. If there were untenable side effects, she could reformulate and try again.
She had just finished going through the whole stack when Cyril arrived. Cyril was variable when he showed up. Some days he was here first thing looking like he hadn't slept. Other days he didn't wander in until ten - still looking like he hadn't slept. Maybe she needed to talk to him about her sleeping potions.
"Want to help me brew sleeping potions?" she asked once he was settled at his desk.
"New ones, or did you get your results back?" Cyril asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Committee finally approved my potions for testing. Now I just need to brew sample batches to send in," Rachel said, unable to help the pleased feeling that had settled in her chest.
"I can brew. Give me a bit to wake up," he said. "Want to look at something for me?"
"Sure." She'd been learning a great deal more about explosives while sitting next to Cyril.
He passed her a sheaf of parchment and she settled in to read. Now that she wasn't using the Morsius Pensieve, her time in the Unspeakables had become her sanctuary away from politics and the Wizengamot. Part of her wanted to tell all of her friends to come join the Unspeakables, but she knew they were happy where they were.
"Welcome back!" Rachel said, throwing her arms around Millie while Theo hugged Natalie.
They traded people, Theo hugging Millie while Rachel embraced Natalie.
"I can't believe it's been a month already," Theo said, releasing Millie.
"We can believe it," Millie said with a laugh.
"Can we ever," Natalie said with a rueful grin. "We feel like we've been everywhere. Seven countries, seven portkeys. We took at least three hundred photos, probably more."
"I can't wait to see them," Rachel said. She'd lent them her digital camera for this trip. "Did you have a good time?"
"We did. Come sit down, let's have tea while we talk," Natalie said, motioning everyone toward the kitchen.
They settled at the kitchen table while Millie put the kettle on and Natalie brought out teacups and biscuits.
"Did you have a favorite place that you visited?" Theo asked.
"Well, the beaches in Majorca were to die for. You wouldn't believe how clear and warm the water was. I even got Millie in the water, though she wouldn't go snorkeling," Natalie said, placing a teacup in front of him.
"I just don't like water on my face and it was too crowded to stealthily use the Bubble-Head charm," Millie said unrepentantly. "It was a nice beach though. We spent some time just lounging on the beach with books. I'm even a little tan. The sun potion you brewed for us did wonders."
"I'm pretty sure we both would have burned to a crisp without it," Natalie agreed.
"Did you wind up going on the tours in Egypt that Bill suggested?" Rachel asked.
"We did, but they wouldn't let us take pictures inside the tombs, unfortunately," Natalie said.
"You should have seen some of those skeletons," Millie said with a shudder as she joined them at the table. "There was this one where the bones were all twisted. The tour guide said the person had been cursed while they were still alive."
"Had to be an agonizing death. The tour guide said that most of these curses had been lost to time, fortunately," Natalie said.
"Though I'm guessing you could probably find some of them in the Department Archives if they're as extensive as you say," Millie suggested, looking at Rachel.
"They are extensive, but I don't know that they go back as far as Ancient Egypt," Rachel said. "The pyramids are about the same age as the Stonehenge. As far as I know, the Department wasn't formed until another two thousand years after that."
"It's crazy to think about, isn't it," Natalie said. "So much was lost to time. Though I'm glad that curses that can do that have been lost to time."
"Probably for the best," Theo agreed. "It kind of makes me wonder what we're just reinventing as time goes on. We know that the Founders of Hogwarts could do things that we can't do today."
"We also know some plants and animals that they used to use in potions have gone extinct," Rachel said. "There are some very old scrolls that reference things that simply don't exist any longer."
The kettle whistled, signaling that their tea was ready and Natalie got up to pour each of them a cup.
Rachel added sugar and milk to her teacup, stirring and letting it cool a little bit. "What else did you see?"
"We went to a bunch of museums. I have to tell Luna to go, she would love some of the art that we saw. There was an entire magical art museum in Australia," Millie said.
"There were some incredible moving paintings," Natalie agreed. "We don't seem to have much art like that here."
"Oh, we went horseback riding on a trail ride. That was fun, if a little uncomfortable," Millie said. "I think you'd like it."
"I don't know about that," Theo said with a smile.
Rachel wasn't sure either. She'd never ridden a horse before and wouldn't know where to start. "Where was that?"
"That was in Turkey. We saw some villages that still stick to the traditional ways and we stayed in a cave hotel. It was pretty cool, but I don't think I ever want to sleep in a cave again." Natalie grinned at Millie and they both laughed.
"Maybe not, but it was worth doing once," Millie said.
"What do you think, cave hotel?" Theo asked Rachel.
She smiled. "I don't know. It would depend on the cave and what's in there."
"It was pretty well done. We had an actual bed with a mattress. There was a hanging curtain across the entryway so we had privacy. It wasn't damp or anything," Natalie said.
Rachel didn't think she would be comfortable sleeping in such an exposed space, but maybe it would be alright if she put some wards up first. She sipped at her tea now that it had cooled a little.
"It was a fun trip, but I am really glad to be home and in our own bed," Millie said.
"You don't realize how much you like your home until you've been away for a while," Natalie agreed.
"We're glad you had a good time and we're glad you're back safely," Rachel said honestly. She had received a few postcards from them while they'd traveled, but she was happy they were home.
"It sounds like it was a good honeymoon, but we are glad to have you back," Theo agreed.
"Here, let me grab my laptop and you can see photos," Millie said as she stood up.
Rachel smiled, relieved to be with her friends for something relaxing. Something about it helped something in the back of her mind unwind a little, and she felt she needed that right now.