“I honestly don’t know how I would manage without Tweak’s help some days.” Theta confessed, as their house elf ushered her toddler daughters away for some playtime away from their mother and her longtime friend from Hogwarts. “Perry was adamant we should employ one, but you know how my family didn’t, so I was all against it. But then with the movement of free elves, we saw there were some very competent elves still looking for honest work, and Tweak was ever so impressive. She’s the descendant of an elf Perry and Selly grew up with, as it happens.”

They were in the brightly lit kitchen of the Pepper-Gamp’s house in Moonstone Mews, off Diagon Alley. The house had great tall windows, overlooking a walled garden out back, crammed full of enchanted pots, hanging baskets and planters. Theta and Cassie were seated at a worn farmhouse style kitchen table, a bright yellow teapot with white polkadots steaming between them, freshly brewed after the first round. Two delicate little teacups levitated themselves over the witches’ heads to the stone sink, their petite drinkers now dismissed from the table, accompanied by the house elf.

It was Monday, ordinarily a work day, but Theta had taken a day off. February was devoid of full moons after a packed January calendar, so she had hoped her husband, Perry, would take the day with her. He was a workaholic though, and near a possible breakthrough with the next iteration of the Gamp Wolfsbane, so had promised to come home early that afternoon in compromise. Theta would believe it when she saw it, but understood. Cassie had her own business, which bloomed quite literally on the weekend.

“You must have been rushed off your feet with the Valentine’s requests,” Theta remarked, “how is business? How are you?”

Cassie smiled, watching as the little girls were led out of the room by Tweak.She recalled the houses elf her parents had employed for the longest time, only now realizing they had dismissed them around the same time they had started pulling away from their social circle, stopped hosting their usual holiday and dinner parties. Back then she had written it off as her parents simply choosing to be on the right side of history, but how, after all that had happened, Cassie found it all too easy to question if there was a piece to the puzzle she hadn’t been given. The nagging thoughts and unanswered questions, coupled with the relentless nightmares, often kept her up at night, pushing Cassie to drown herself in any literature she could get her hands on just to distract herself long enough to fall asleep on her couch.

“I’m sure it’s wonderful to have another set of hands.” Cassie commented, taking a sip of her steaming hot tea. “I can’t believe how big the girls are getting, Theta! They are beautiful!”

It had been a much needed change in scenery to be seeing at her dear friend’s table, chatting and catching up. Cassie had been meaning to have Theta over for tea, but between work and…life…there had always been something causing them to just miss each other. After being bombarded by the Valentine’s Day holiday, Cassie had decided to take a monday to breathe. People could last a day without herbs for their potions or flowers for their tables, and she was more than thrilled to stop by and visit instead of sit home reading.

“Oh it was probably the busiest day I’ll have all year.” Cassie replied. “Honestly if I had to order more roses there probably wouldn’t be anymore left in London. Goodness, and the amount of people who came in for ingredients clearly for a love potion…I thought you could buy those now, I’m not sure why they’d try and cook it up at home.”

Ah the dreaded question, how was she. How…was she. She was tired to some degree most days from her restless nights, she was hesitant to share how the “tragic accident” that had happened didn’t really feel like an “accident”, especially considering no one was willing to give her any answers about what happened. Most of all…she was being followed, constantly, nearly every time she left her home or shop. She wasn’t sure how scared she should be of that, if it was to keep her safe, or to slowly hunt her down. Taking a long sip of her tea, Cassie decided not to worry her friend.

“I’m fine though. A bit tired, but really, I’m alright. Virgil Carstairs stopped by earlier this month. He had me make my own condolence bouquet, if you can imagine. Honestly he hasn't seemed to change much since school. What about you? How’s Perry? Is he still working his fingers to the bone?” she asked, trying to shift the attention off herself.

Theta was heartened to hear that Cassie’s business had been busier than ever with Valentine’s Day. But she was scandalised by the fact so many customers had come in for ingredients to make love potion!

“… why they’d try and cook it up at home.”
  “Quite.” Theta agreed, pausing as Cassie drank tea.

It was a great temptation to fill silence, and Theta had often fallen into the trap. But it had been Perry who had said that silence was nothing to be afraid of, when she’d fretted over the fact she’d struggle to hold conversation at a dinner party with people she didn’t know well in their early days. Silence enabled someone else to feel the need to fill the gaps, or gave the opportunity to pivot the conversation cleanly. Conversation had to breathe. With old friends like Cassie, neither witch was scared to share a moment’s silent contemplation, especially in Ravenclaw.

“I’m fine…” Her dear friend began. A placeholder for ‘don’t worry about me’ undoubtedly. “… Virgil Carstairs stopped by … had me make my own condolence bouquet, if you can imagine…” Theta’s eyebrows shot up in alarm at this. Virgil was anything but conventional, Theta knew, but she worried that the move might have been insensitive. A protective urge arose, and Theta’s friend swiftly changed topic.

“What about you? How’s Perry? Is he still working his fingers to the bone?”

“I get as much sleep as you can imagine with my little witches,” Theta agreed, “don’t tell Perry but I’ve taken to sneaking in the odd nap in the workshop when I test a time turner. My uncle was the one to normalise it would you believe, what with he and
Gabrielle with two not much older than ours.”

Theta worked alongside her uncle, Francis Pepper, making time turners. Despite being an unspeakable, this element of her work wasn’t covert, especially as it had been a family trade for generations. Her uncle had remarried Gabrielle Pepper - the Head of the Department for International Magical Cooperation almost seven years ago, and the two had two daughters under seven, too, alongside two grown up sons (Ambrose, a Beast Handler and Tim, a Healer) from Francis’s late wife. As such, Theta took parenting advice from her uncle with minimal questioning. Her own father, Monty, doted on his granddaughters, but was preoccupied with running Blue Silver, his flying car company and painting portraits of people when he could.

“Perry was meant to have today off, but as you guessed… he’s close to some breakthrough…” Theta waved a hand. “I’ve sent him an owl to tell him to get himself back here in time to see you, or he’s buying us an expensive dinner out to apologise for missing you.” Theta grinned mischievously. It was not a secret that her husband had come from a financially fortunate family and was now earning a pretty penny for his talents.

“I hope Virgil paid for his bouquet, by the way. That sounds a little manipulative of him…” Theta examined Cassie’s expression. “Between you and me, he is still too big for his boots a lot of the time. He best not have been bothering you.”

“Well goodness Theta, who could blame you for needing to rest every now and then! You’re a working mother, I can only imagine how busy you must be! Your uncle was fantastic for normalizing it.” Cassie added, her life may have been chaotic in the most unexpected ways recently, she couldn’t fathom working as hard as Theta and her husband did on top of raising two little girls who had seemingly endless amounts of energy.

Cassie smiled sympathetically as her friend explained her husband’s absence and how he was close to breaking new ground on whatever he was working on. She knew the routine all too well having been raised by two Unspeakables herself. Although she never knew the true goings on surrounding her parent’s careers, from the outside it seemed merciless sometimes, her mother looking drained and exhausted at the breakfast table having stayed at work until well after Cassie had been sent to bed by their house elf, her father spending days or even weeks mostly locked in his office when, or rather, if he managed to break away from work long enough to come home. They had been good, and wonderful parents with an unending amount of love to give Cassie, but she had learned early on that sometimes work just could not wait.

“I certainly hope he doesn’t work himself to the point of burnout.” Cassie commented, having witnessed the stresses a job like that could have on a person. Though her hope was genuine, she quickly followed it up with something more light hearted and humorous accompanied with a teasing and playful smile. “How else will he manage to pay for our extravagant meal if he’s too exhausted to lift his wallet?”

Lifting her teacup to her lips, Cassie mused for a moment as the liquid warmed its way down her throat and into her stomach as her friend turned the topic of conversation back to Virgil. Manipulative….perhaps it had been. Truthfully his words had lingered in Cassie’s mind longer than she liked, still curious how he knew she was submitting request after request and getting denied every time. Was it typical for Unspeakables to be made aware of that sort of thing.

“Oh, yes, he paid for it along with an enormous order of other arrangements he wanted to send to various people for Valentine’s Day.” Cassie explained. “I wouldn’t say he was…well no that’s a lie, he was certainly being bothersome….I think…”

Cassie paused, unsure how much she wanted to share, how much would be appropriate.

“He-uh-suggested I go to see his latest play. I’m not entirely sure if that was a genuine invitation to go or just some ploy to pester me further.”

Cassie felt like a chicken for not divulging everything they had discussed. Did Theta know about her countless requests for the investigation records and reports about her parents? Could Cassie even ask? What was the worst she could say? That she couldn’t tell her? Cassie didn’t want to put her friend in an uncomfortable position.

“… if he’s too exhausted to lift his wallet?”

Theta let out a genuine cackle of humour at Cassie’s response, her eyes creasing at the corners in amusement.

“Oh I know a charm or too,” she managed between chuckles, “but quite - quite, Cassie! I’ll tell him you said that.” She could imagine Perry rolling his eyes at the comment but finding amusement in it too.

Virgil had paid for his little ploy, and it sounded like he had done the right thing in using Cassie’s floristry services to send more arrangements. Theta wasn’t wholly surprised her colleague had sent to multiple people, it matched Virgil’s persona given he flitted from bed to bed. It was also the pureblood way with a bit of money. Theta had begun to understand the normal of people who had grown up much more privileged than the Pepper family.

“He - uh - suggested I go see his latest play.” Cassie explained. “I’m not entirely sure if that was a genuine invitation to go or just some ploy to pester me further.”

“Did he? Well, not surprising if it’s at Stardust, given his family own it.” Theta issued a matter of fact response to the news. “If he was offering you free tickets that would be a different thing. Why, what’s he in? Do you want me to come with you?” Theta had skipped over the question of whether Cassie wanted to go at all.

Joining her friend in her laughter was like a breath of fresh air sweeping through her soul, reviving parts of her that hadn’t seen the sunshine in what felt like ages since her parents had passed. Life had seemed more hazy ever since then, less vibrant, like looking through the world through a smudged window. The respite from her grief and stress, no matter how brief, felt like taking a huge deep breath after endlessly treading water and barely keeping her nose above the surface. Thank Merlin for Theta. She was doing more healing just by sitting across the table from her than she probably even realized she was doing.

Cassie’s blue eyes looked upward for a moment, searching her memory for any trace of accurate information that’d answer Theta’s questions.

“Truthfully….I’m not sure he’s actually in it. I think it’s something about his father mainly acting in it. I’m not sure.” with a casual wave of her hand she brushed it off “Honestly I didn’t really bother to ask much about it. I don’t have any plans on going anyway. The last thing I need is another opportunity to run into Virgil Carstars. Hopefully this will have been the last I’ll see of him for some time.”

Mentally Cassie brushed off the thoughts of Virgil and their strange and obnoxious encounter, preferring to refocus her attention on her dear friend. Lifting her cup to her lips she took another long sip, glancing around Theta’s comfortable home. Setting her cup down, Cassie let out a content sigh, and reached over to give Theta’s hand an affectionate squeeze.

“Thank you so much for having me over Theta! We really must make sure to do this more often!”

“… hopefully this will have been the last I’ll see of him for some time.”
“Hopefully.” Theta echoed.

“Thank you so much for having me over, Theta! We really must make sure to do this more often!” Cassie expressed, squeezing Theta’s hand. The unspeakable beamed at her friend and nodded fervently in agreement. They’d set a date before Cassie left, for sure, and Perry was definitely paying for that slap up lunch.

End