The flower stems floated in air above the glass vase. Hester waved her cherry wand. Then happy she let them settle into the water.
"There. They shall make you smile." Brightly she smiled at her friend. Sat down at the other end of the sofa. Eyes on Nadine.

"Tell me everything. Call it a departmental debrief. Spare no detail." Solomon Carstairs better not have told her to be quiet. Her friend needed to speak about what happened. Hester needed to know.

Nadine appreciated her friend coming over to visit. She and Hester seemed to only meet when they made the specific effort to go to lunch, and they really ought to see each other more often. Invariably one or the other of them was tied up with their professional lives. Rex, Nadine’s long term, good as husband, saw Hester most often as they worked on the same floor.

“Gosh, where to begin,” Nadine waved a hand, having already thanked Hester for the flowers and for bringing over something specially cooked. “I should be going back tomorrow if I feel up to it. No lasting damage, thank Merlin.” She was reclined in a comfortable feature armchair of their front room, legs up on a matching stool. Relaxing under healer’s orders[1].

“You’ve seen what they reported[2]. She’s not been dead all this past year, so she came to break him out. It was honestly like nothing I’ve ever seen, Hester. I thought we might not all get out alive for a brief minute.” She looked pointedly to the nearby side table where there were framed family photos, her and Rex, one of them with Aoide, Ariadne looking grown up.

“To think she was walking around for, what, a month without any of us realising she wasn’t Ri. I could have said anything, Hester.”

1.	14th Feb 2012 Dashed to Pieces
2.	15th Feb 2012 Attempted Breakout at St Mungo’s

"You are not to blame! You have to believe that." Insisted Hester. Wagged her finger at Nadine. "From what I heard girl you are a hero. Lucky to come out of it alive. Word of some new magic. Or if not new some old old stuff maybe." She gestured about her head. "Rex must be glad to have you in the house under his feet. He and the girls nearly lost you." Hester sucked air through her teeth. Shook her head. "Why you an auror I do not know. But I cannot argue. You are good at it." She reclined. "So tell me. How did it go down. What did she say to you?"

"... word of some new magic. Or if not new some old, old stuff maybe." Nadine nodded. It had certainly felt like that. Being blown backwards by curses that had blasted into the space like an apparating elephant. The lack of wand, a magic Nadine had only seen demonstration of but never fought.

Hester continued to tick her off for not appreciating how lucky she was. She was right, of course she was right. Hester was a good friend and Nadine very much appreciated having her here.

"... why you an auror I do not know. But I cannot argue. You are good at it. So tell me. How did it go down. What did she say to you?"

"Thanks, love." Nadine replied, feeling briefly like an impostor. She shoved the thought aside, buoyed by the attention of a close friend. "I know I'm good but this just showed me I need to be better."

Nadine's stubborn determination shone through her words. She had set a new goal while resting, to find someone who would train against her in such wandless combat. As a witch who kept an eye on her success rate by shovelling dead-end cases to trainees or those without ambition, the outcome of Gamp-related encounters was getting under her skin.

"She didn't say much to me at St Mungo's," Nadine admitted. "She'd taken the face of one of the healers treating her husband. Andie and Ceph were already there and she had sealed herself into the room with him. I got there with a trainee, one of the more capable ones, Almasy." Nadine gestured to her hair vaguely with one hand, picturing Raine's bright red hair. She'd held her own in the situation, and Nadine would favour her in future as a result.

"There were just these umbrellas all over the place, Hes, I thought for a moment it was all a joke until Morgenthau proved himself useful, working on the door. I guess one unspeakable to another, they have their methods." She shrugged, hand upturned now. "He's a 'funny' man isn't he?" She asked, not implying the Head Unspeakable was a stand-up comedian by a long stretch.

"Gassed more like." Laughed Hester. "Witch Weekly paired us up, you dun know." She had told Nadine about it before. She had hit it off with 'Orion Gamp'. Unaware he was the insane Lyra Gamp in disguise. She could have killed Nad!

"What was with the umbrellas?" Hester was curious. But it did not need to be answered. She waved away her question. "Go on. He made a door again? Did you get in? What was inside?"

“What was with the umbrellas?”
“I’m not sure…”

Nadine shook her head. That had been puzzling her too. Enough to consider asking her former sister and brother in law, but she preferred keeping her distance now. Every time she had brushed with the Gamps in the last year it had turned out for the worse. Even Rex, who was entirely reasonable and often the more rational of the couple, had discouraged further contact. Then again, it was her ex-husband’s family, so more understandable on balance.

“They got out.” Nadine continued the story. “There was nowhere for them to go, they’d boxed themselves in. Well, I guess her plan was to get him out without anyone realising it was her. While she pretended to be the healer. If Andie had been half an hour later… then they might have got away.” Nadine shook her head some more, disbelieving that the nightmare could have continued with their escape.

“Instead they threw magic at us that I have never known, Hes. It was like something new, but I think it was actually something very old.”

"Old? How d'you mean old?" Said Hester. She sat forward. She did not battle with her wand daily. She battled with words and countries and languages and mountains of parchment. But she had seen magic all over the world. Magic different to wand magic. Magic in ritual. Magic in earth. Magic in stone. The Gamps were unspeakables. Mortimer was Head Unspeakable when it had happened. It was not secret that they used teenagers. That one of them died. One of Nadine's cousins. Moses. It could not be made worse. Hester was uncomfortable but o so curious.

Hester had leaned forward, intrigued. Nadine paused to consider her words, suddenly worried she was sharing too much. If Morgenthau and Glass did not bury her through some other means, Lyra Gamp would have to face the wizengamot some day soon, and if they could figure out how to interview an umbrella…

“No wands.” Nadine drew her hands apart. Her mind’s eye pictured Lyra throwing her hands at them all from the new doorway. A wicked look on her face. Not her true face, but one more recognisably her beside the lean, cragged madman that was her husband. “I could have been standing on ice for all I could hold my ground,” Nadine blinked slowly, “she only had to gesture,” she demonstrated, “and it threw us back. It was like fighting blind, no indication of the spells, no tells, nothing. Something new, but nothing’s ever truly new is it? Our kind don’t all use wands, do they?”

Hester's mouth was open. The mad couple sounded over powered. Like full on Voldemort style. "Jheeeeeze!" Exclaimed Hester. She put up a finger. "They best not have horcruxes." That sort of magic did not belong in the world.

"Some use staffs." Agreed Hester. "Some use nothing. But I think it is very hard. Easier to channel into an object." So much of the world used wands. Easier to hide than a staff. Unless you wanted a walking stick. "Do you think aurors could use that magic?"

Nadine liked the thought of using a staff. She had seen photographs of family ancestors with them back in Nigeria. When they immigrated to Britain in the 1950s, twenty or more years before Nadine was even a thought, the family had switched with new generations admitted to Hogwarts where wands were required, and through an expectation of cultural assimilation.

Nadine’s mother had married an Englishman, and they had taken his name instead of hers. Despite the fact that side of the family had squibs and muggles, his relationship to Nadine's mother had not been received smoothly by everyone. She had neglected in her younger days, but more and more she felt compelled to look back through her family tree and embrace it, rather than feeling she had to fit in. Omari had tried to, with his sabbatical to South Africa.

“If two old white wixes can,” Nadine retorted sharply, “but I think Morgenthau will keep whatever he finds close to his chest.” She huffed, legitimately frustrated with the restriction on knowledge. “I have told you more than I should, no doubt.”

"Seen! You can trust me." Said Hester. No hesitation. "No unbreakable vow needed you get me." She crossed her heart with a finger and pointed up with both forefingers. She kept hundreds of secrets.

"But speakin of secrets..." Hester leaned in. A secret for a secret. "Can you keep one for me?" Of course Nadine would. She trusted Nadine more than anyone in the world right now. They had to stick together.

"So I been meeting with the Minister about my career. Hoping Gabrielle would make dem babies with Francis Pepper." Hester's Department Head had come back from maternity leave. When gone Hester had taken over. She wanted the job. No hiding. Dropped heavy hints to have more babies. To stay at home longer. Even though she liked Gabrielle.

“You can trust me.”
“I know I can, girl.”

She really ought to spend more time with Hester. They were often far too fleeting due to their professional lives. As Nadine rested at home after leaving St Mungo’s she’d wondered why she hadn’t made time. Aoide was away at school and Ariadne had moved out of the house so there were no children to soak up her time these days.

Despite the fact Nadine hadn’t told Hester all of how it had gone down, she knew that they would circle back onto the subject during her visit. It was inevitable and how their conversations went. Instead, it seemed Hester had something to share herself which needed to be said in person.

“Spill,” Nadine encouraged, the background tension of speaking about her ordeal slipping from her shoulders as she became intrigued. Had Hester got a new job? Was Gabrielle Pepper pregnant again?

“How has that been going?” Nadine asked. She was generally in favour of Edwin Glass’ policies and thought he was no-nonsense. Yes he’d been the occasional pain in the backside while head of Accidents and Catastrophes, but that was just the Department’s function, and Nadine could see past it. “The way you say it implies you met more than once?”

"Uhuh." Hester nodded. "You going to think me crazy. But you know I have ambitions." Hester clasped her hands together. Saying it out loud needed courage! Even to Nadine.

"We got talking and we got on the same page. He gets me... ish." Hester waved her hands. How much could your big boss ever 'get' you really. "So we been linking up more late. Still."

Nadine twisted her head, looked at Hester out of the side of her eye. Her friend was all of a sudden a bit lost for words. Was Hester expecting Nadine to fill in the gaps?

“He gets you?” Nadine questioned quietly, prompting Hester’s hand wave at her scepticism. That was like Nadine saying Solomon Carstairs ‘got’ her. He respected her professionally as far as she read but she wouldn’t be sharing her personal concerns unless they were about a colleague who needed ‘intervention’ by someone higher than Pratt.

“Hester, what are you saying?” Nadine asked, turning to look at her with the other side of her eyes. “You moving up to Level One?”

Hester bit her lip. Clasped her hands. Smiled. Pressed her lips tight together. Crossed her legs. Looked up at the ceiling. Cringed.

"Not exactly..." She peeked at Nadine. "It is rude to reject an invitation for private drinks with your boss. He has good taste in wine." She rearranged her hair. Self conscious. Sighed. "No gas. I might have... might have stayed the night." Braced for impact.