unintended | juniper

[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

Rhys could hear his heart thumping in his ears, and all his senses clashed. It was always disorienting at first. He’d sat as still as he could for a moment. Merlin, this was the third one this week. Why now? Rhys had gone months without a nightmare. Sure, the odd or bad dream left him unsettled occasionally, but that was different. Rhys ran a hand over his face. Was he sweating? Looking to the side, Juniper still looked fast asleep. His concern was waking and worrying her. She knew he struggled with sleep sometimes, especially around the full moon. But with just a couple weeks before he returned to work, Rhys didn’t want any incidents, so to speak. The last cards he held close to his chest were about to fall out of his hands. 

At the moment, however, he needed some air. Unfortunately, this tent didn’t have a stocked liquor cabinet like their flat. Carefully, Rhys made his way outside. The cold was an assault on his senses, but it would eventually help. Those images flashed through his mind. They were near the beach Rhys had shown Juniper earlier in the summer. It wasn’t uncommon to see the camping grounds filled with simple-looking tents, but wizards liked their luxuries. These were not simple tents. A few feet away were some rocks he could sit on while he calmed down. This wasn’t something he shared with people. Rhys felt silly admitting it. Weren’t these types of things for children? But they’d followed Rhys around since he was a child and the attempt to force his memories as the only witness that night.

Leaning forward, he ran his hands over his face again, leaving them there for a moment but not over his eyes which remained closed. The one detail that always stood out was Fenrir’s eyes—the eyes of a monster. Rhys always wondered what someone might see in his eyes. Did they frighten? Or did they say nothing? More than anything, Rhys feared turning into such a person. If you could even call that human. It scared him to death. And even with the best intentions, what if he hurt someone close to him so savagely? Rhys could never linger on that thought for long. He really couldn’t bear it. Sometimes, Rhys could quickly get himself back in control and calm, and sometimes it took a while. It was looking to be the latter. As long as he could get back to bed without Juniper making a note of it and so he could try and get some sleep. They were using this last bit of time to visit the museum finally, and Rhys didn’t want to be too tired for that.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Had they been home in their own bed, Juniper probably wouldn't have woken up from Rhys stirring awake next to her. There were obviously restless nights from time to time so it wasn't completely unusual for him to suddenly jolt awake. But because they were camping in a tent by the beach they'd visited the month prior, the different environment meant her sleep was lighter than it usually was. She really didn't feel anything until the zipper to the tent entrance zagged open, her brain almost tricking her into believing it wasn't real. Being caught somewhere between the waking and dreaming worlds wasn't the worst thing ever, though it did frequently lead to her being tired the following morning.

Blinking her dry and sleepy eyes, her hand crawled out from under the blanket to try and locate her glasses. Automatically she reached as far as her nightstand was at home, though this time she felt a vinyl tent wall. Recounting her last waking moments before calling it a night, her half-awake brain remembered that she'd placed them on the table that was a 'room' away. The multi-room tent was such a fascinating magical item, though she wished she'd remembered to stick something more solid next to the bed so she could safely set her glasses down.

Up until this point, she hadn't realized that the other half of the mattress felt vacant. Unfortunately such a feeling was common with Rhys frequently gone, and she only realized he wasn't there when she rolled herself over his spot and got to her feet. The zipping noise of the tent had been what had woken her up, and putting two and two together with a tired scratch of her head, she shuffled over to find her glasses and then her boyfriend. Disappearing into one of the many rooms was pretty easy to do though, and she poked her head into each despite being blinded by darkness and eye ware.

"Rhys?" she called quietly. Her throat was dry and scratchy. A half finished bottle of water was luckily sat next to her glasses on the kitchen table, which she took advantage of. With her eyesight returned, she looked towards the front door flap and could easily tell that it had been opened. A tiny, knee-high gap opened up to the beach outside. Moonlight and soft crashing waves, as well as a bug or two, were already inviting themselves inside.

Scooping up one of the blankets from the bed, Juniper shuffled around the entrance area in her new found cocoon until her feet managed to slide into her shoes. The door zipper effortlessly gave way to her as she exited, spotting Rhys sitting nearby on a rock outcropping as her eyes readjusted i the change in light. It always amazed her how piercing the moon could be when there was zero light pollution around. At times, it annoyed her. Especially when she wanted to sleep. But not tonight. It left a soft glow across the entire beach.

She made sure to close everything down behind her, lest more insects got inside, and then crept over to where Rhys was. "You were letting bugs in," she yawned as she took a seat next to him on the rock, throwing the oversized blanket out and around him so that he could get underneath too. A month ago, the breeze had been a savior for her severely heat-scorched skin. Tonight it actually felt cold. "Everything alright?" Juniper added as she moved in as close as possible.

rhys alexander greyback ● 588 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

Rhys was still coming out of his sleepy daze, the logical part of his brain finally stirring awake. That was the hard part. Being awake and terrified. Had the thought occurred in the middle of the day, it would hardly have had an effect. He didn’t register the sound of the tent’s zipper, footsteps, or voice until he felt blanket on his shoulders. It was fortunate that she’d not found him earlier. If a blanket was thrown on him while in that heightened state would’ve not been helpful. Merlin, he was still winding down, wishing he had whiskey to help his nerves.

”Yea, I’m fine.” Rhys mumbled, now realizing his hands felt cold. ”I just…had a bad dream. Needed some air. The phrase ‘I’m fine’ would never leave Rhys’ vocabulary and was an ingrained default response. Rhys felt Juniper’s body heat close to him, which was comforting. But he still moved his arms close to his waist and crossed them like some automatic self-soothing act. ”I didn’t mean to wake you.” He didn’t even know what time it was, aside from the middle of the night and his voice wasn’t strong and probably still sounded sleepy. While Rhys was used to an odd sleep schedule with the ability to nap anywhere during the daytime, he hadn’t wanted to disrupt Juniper’s.

He was always fine after these things, or so he’d like to think. It was a matter of grounding himself and getting back to sleep. During the last two years, it was a rare thing because he was typically so exhausted. Not to say it hadn’t happened at all. And even without a nightmare or bad dream, he’d still wake up. Sometimes he could get back to sleep. Other times, it was a struggle. After two years of training to keep his wits about him, he only felt more uneasy with how easily he felt derailed.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Juniper knew he wasn't fine just from the way he said he was, though that was quickly replaced with having a bad dream. It had been a while since she'd woken up from one of those too, usually sleeping like a rock back home. Being half asleep didn't help either of them, and she only realized after she had sat herself down next to him and gone through the other motions that by 'needing air' he probably also wanted the space. "You didn't." It was a white lie. Technically he did, though only because she'd been drifting in and out of sleep already. If she hadn't been partially awake, then she wouldn't have heard the tent zipper.

The way he was holding onto himself under the blanket told her enough about how bad the dream had to have been. She reached out to rub his back, a comforting motion that her mum had always used when she'd been sick growing up. That was all she knew to do in situations like this, at least until he wanted to talk about it. "Do you want to be alone right now?" Juniper asked. "Because it's okay if you do. I'm fine going back in." There was nothing wrong with needing space and time to think. She had loads of that whenever he was gone, and she could see how going from work to being around her might lead to requiring an hour or two of time alone. Honestly, that was the healthiest need possible. If their life together was better balance - meaning if Rhys had a normal day job - then she was sure things would be different. Even though there were parts of the cursebreaker lifestyle that she abjectly disagreed with, this is what was best for them. Maybe she was just a coward with no sense of adventure. Everything had always been done by the book in her life, at least until that potion was spilled and Rhys became her partner in class.

rhys alexander greyback ● 334 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

It lingered as a lump in his throat and an ache in his chest. Was it lingering feelings or just the cold air he breathed? Rhys wanted to answer ‘yes’ but didn’t answer immediately. And her presence next to him and how she rubbed his back were comforting. This habit of bottling things up until they passed or were compartmentalized into some corner of his mind was difficult to break. And it was still a struggle not to. Nearly four years together made it hard for Rhys to hide from Juniper anymore, and sometimes the energy just wasn’t there. Not that it was his intention, despite whatever reasons he gave himself as justification.

”No.” He was acutely aware of how his mind would fly into some illogical place if it wasn’t tethered to the ground. And Rhys didn’t want her to worry, which she might if he ended up sitting out here all night because he couldn’t properly calm down. Rhys didn’t want old thoughts lingering, dredged up after a time when he wanted to live his life. While he couldn’t undo a lifetime of mentally avoiding the present, he’d improved through his Cursebreaker training. A surprising twist but a helpful one. He went silent for a few moments, though he barely registered the sounds around him.

For one of the full moons early in the year, Rhys didn't have access to his usual Wolfsbane potion. Every once in a while, it happened. It wasn’t a fun experience. There was a tendency to injure yourself, although it provided a healthy reminder of how dangerous an untamed werewolf could be. He supposed the thought had lingered. This entire time his gaze never left whatever was in front of him, not even when he finally spoke again. ”Juni, have I ever…” Rhys paused just briefly. ”Have you ever been afraid of me?” He asked, a note of fear in his voice. Fenrir didn’t have a conscience. That was known. Rhys knew he was more human in that respect, though his temper never left much room for logic. And hurting someone he cared about because he let control slip through his fingers like a runaway rope scared him to death.

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The 'no' almost came as a surprise to her. There had been a little voice in her head that was telling her that he definitely wanted the space and she had just intruded in on it. Not that there was anything wrong with that, and he had every right to ask her for time to himself. What sort of controlling monster would she be if she refused that? She had such little knowledge in any of these things, always defaulting to whatever their communication lead to, and often times wondered if she poked or prided too much. She liked to think that Rhys would tell her if she was being too intrusive. Like with the shoulder injury incident. In the end it had worked out, but there were so many different avenues where they could have avoided the eventual blow-up. Hopefully this wasn't going to be another one of those, where emotions were controlled by sleep-deprived brains.

She wished that the sinking feeling in her stomach when he asked if she'd ever been afraid of him before had never happened. It was an immediate pang of non-existent guilt, as if she may have unknowingly signaled that she had been at some point, when such a thing had never once occurred. "Of course not," Juniper responded immediately. She didn't need time to think about that at all. Her hand that had been on his back gripped his side in a tight, yet comforting way. It almost made her angry that he thought that way, but knew that everything that comprised of Rhys was far more complicated than that. Surely this had to do with either the werewolf or work, or a bit of both. "I wouldn't be here if that was the case." Merlin knew she'd be out the door the second something like that happened. Obviously if there was a werewolf accident, that was an entirely different situation. "I'm more scared you won't come back from a job one day," she added. They'd been over that before plenty of times.

rhys alexander greyback ● 340 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

Rhys felt like he’d been holding his breath, but he’d tensed up so much that everything felt tight. Juniper didn’t respond with anything new. These were facts that Rhys knew, but hearing her say them aloud made the doubt go away. His half-siblings came to mind. Their lives were relatively normal, even if one was a werewolf as well. Fenrir liked to turn his children, but did two justify a trend? Still, they had their own families and foundation. Rhys was happy for them even if he couldn’t help but resent those facts even more. He felt different even among his family.

She echoed what every loved one of any of his colleagues thought daily. It was not a ridiculous fear. Rhys just didn’t think about it because he would lose focus. But he still felt awful that the realization of Juniper’s anxiety had come so late or that he hadn’t picked up on it. Finally, he looked to the side. Subconsciously, Rhys probably just needed to see if there was any indication that she wasn’t telling him the truth, but there wasn’t. Rhys looked forward again. Maybe it was the exhaustion or all that had built up over the years. Like all those things ready to be said knew that Juniper was someone loved and trusted. Whether Rhys liked it or not, she existed beyond any walls.

“I know I’m not like him.” Rhys knew that. Hence his unwavering goal of making sure people knew. Last name and all. It didn’t mean doubt wasn’t a constant companion. Not that Rhys had killed or turned anyone lately, but this monster was technically his father. What did that mean for Rhys and his half-siblings? Rhys shook his head a bit. “I’ve seen him do awful things—just…horrible things...” Rhys trailed off a bit, glancing down at his hands, where he’d started picking at the side of one of his fingernails. Had he ever told anyone that before? “He’s a monster. But he was a man before he was a monster.” And Fenrir was a part of Rhys whether he liked it or not. And he still took Rhys’ sleep and peace as if he hadn’t already taken everything else. But was Fenrir just like this before that transformation? Was he some normal almost-twenty-year-old one day, and then the next he wasn’t?

Rhys stopped for a few moments. And none of this was probably clear since Rhys had explained the why before the what. But for Rhys, this was a lot of detail. “Sorry…every time he’s in a dream, it all comes back. It’s nonsense. I know I’m not him.” Those memories would never leave him, though he wished they would. Even if they were most of what he could remember from that time. Rhys looked at Juniper, offering her a quick half-hearted grin. ”It was just a dream.” He repeated. Though it was more for himself. Nobody had ever bothered to listen to him before, and If you repeat something enough, you will eventually believe it, right?

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Letting him talk himself through everything seemed to be the best she could do right now, only offering reassurances when he got to the roadblocks. This wasn't a new fear he was explaining, and she'd heard it before. Merlin, she thought of it a lot more when they were in school than she had since. Kids were ruthless and dating one with the name Greyback had its own fun involved. Adding into the mix her lack of any meaningful friendships outside of Rhys (and maybe Ollivander), and it was her against the rumors. There was no way he'd never heard them too. But a couple of hand waves and she could dispel most of them. So what if he was a werewolf? That hadn't been his choice. And once he was 'off the market', as she heard Dolohov once say in a not so hushed voice after Potions class, it had drawn a lot more attention. Thankfully that had stopped, at least outwardly, and things had been fine since then. The only time there were really ever any issues was if a particular moon cycle was more difficult than usual. To say that scared her though was nonsense.

It seemed that listening was the right thing to do. "If dreams were real, then I'd be a niffler stuck in an empty Gringotts vault or forced to work at Madame Puddifoot's," she compared her strange, yet funny dreams to his own. The one about the tea shop had been quite terrifying though. Angry customers and she swore she could smell the perfume that was always wafting out of the front door. In all of her years living in Hogsmeade, she'd only been a few times. And those visits were enough to produce nightmares years later.

The problem Juniper constantly found herself in when this happened was that she didn't know how to actually respond. Or if Rhys wanted an answer from her. Of course he would never be like his father, such a thing was preposterous. It didn't matter if Fenrir Greyback started as a man or not. He used his lycanthropy to do harm. That was where he and Rhys differed. "It was just a dream," Juniper repeated back to him. "And it'll always just be a dream."

rhys alexander greyback ● 378 ● Song by Artist

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[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

Rhys fidgeted a bit. That wasn’t new. All throughout his youth, he remained relatively stoic. Well, as much as he could when anger built up in his chest and his face went hot. But those close to him could testify that Rhys did, in fact, speak, and he was capable of speaking quite a lot. Something consistent was that Rhys might pick at his nails, tap his foot, or look around when anxious or uncomfortable. And he was used to waiting for that numbly calm feeling on his own, but Rhys had wanted Juniper to stay because it helped. And really, he just needed to hear from someone else—someone he trusted that his fear would never come true.

He nodded lightly, staring ahead as everything mentally shifted back to the respective corners of his mind. “You didn’t tell me you had nightmares.” He responded, glancing at her again. Fortunately, he wasn’t so far gone that he was wholly consumed by his mind, as could occasionally happen, and he tried not to look so haunted even grinning a tiny bit. The Madame Puddifoot dream was up there in the ‘disturbing’ category. And Rhys knew Juniper well enough to know this would count as torture. Even Rhys took the scenic around to avoid those heavy perfume clouds. He was also half-convinced that his senses were more sensitive as a werewolf. Which explained the migraine that perfume gave him. And he also knew if Juniper ever willingly wanted to go there, it was likely she was under the effects of the Imperius Curse or had completely lost her mind.

Rhys let out a heavier exhale. The exhaustion and the hour were getting to him. His body began to relax a bit, his arms uncurling from his midsection and his hand gently on Juniper’s leg as she reassured him. She was right. It would never be a reality. Rhys actively made sure it wasn’t. If he was ever willing to put a child through his experiences, that would’ve made him a monster. Her presence also reminded him that he wasn’t alone, not like he used to be. Rhys had close friends, but this was more than that, and it mattered greatly to him. ”Thank you.” He spoke. It could have been the knowledge that his time at home was ending soon. As excited as Rhys was to go off and explore the world, he didn’t like to be away too long.

He began mentally pushing it all to the side, as always. It was something to deal with later, and Rhys returned to the subject of Juniper’s torturous idea of a bad dream. Something Rhys had realized over their time together was as he began to share more about his past and who he was that, some of those details were not of the faint of heart. So, he didn’t tell her about every injury at work or close call, and to avoid that look in her eyes, he pushed things away when he could. ”If you ever asked me to go to Madame Puddifoot’s, I’d assumed you were cursed.” Rhys added, or maybe kidnapped or some other thing. It was a good thing he was all trained to handle those now. ”We should get some sleep.” It was late, and they had plans. Rhys stood, careful not to let the blanket fall.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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"I mean...they're quite silly, aren't they?" Her nightmares paled in comparison to what Rhys went through. She also forgot about most of them once she fully woke up, the Puddifoot's one only stuck in her brain because she'd had it more than once, and it was a constant disdain for the tea shop that had afflicted her for her entire life. The trapped niffler one was simply weird enough that it stayed with her. "I think the only ones I'd ever tell you about would be if I was being chased by clowns...I hate them." Their big red noses and faces painted to look perpetually happy. Clowns were her boggart, and quite the common fear too. Juniper had no idea where it came from, hoping to trace it back to a traveling circus that showed up in Hogsmeade when she was young, but apparently that never happened. The irrationality behind it was strange and she'd been told so before. These same people also didn't understand her being with a werewolf.

It seemed like Rhys was starting to wind down, or at least had figured out a way to push his own nightmare to the side for the night. Times like this always felt difficult for her. All she could do was reassure him that he was okay and that there was quite literally no way for him to ever physically hurt her the same way that his deadbeat, murderous father had to so many. If there was ever a werewolf incident, it would be because the potion failed, not because of choice. And when it came to magic, Juniper felt incredibly confident in her own that she was positive she could sling a couple transfiguration spells at a wolfed out Rhys to keep him trapped until the morning. Werewolves weren't impossible to deal with, just deadly dogs.

"You're welcome," Juniper yawned as she stood at the same time. She could feel the length of the blanket raise higher as it traveled with Rhys's shoulders, her ankles suddenly feeling cold. "I'd put a sack of galleons down that they pump out love potion into the air. That's why they have to use so much perfume to mask it." A wild and totally unfounded conspiracy theory that she had made up in her head during her fourth year when she discovered that classmates went there frequently on dates, It made sense though: someone would have to either be crazy, cursed, or under the effect of a love potion to ever go inside the tea shop. Seeing as she was rational and didn't even have a hint of romance in her life until she forced herself onto Rhys halfway through sixth year, it made sense that she never fell victim to Madame Puddifoot's. Plus, her sister probably frequented there often, making her poor first dates suffer. But she didn't need the tea shop, and it most certainly didn't need her. As far as she was concerned, there would hopefully never be another 'first date', and unless the two of them decided they wanted to be masochists, Puddifoot's was off the table.

Juniper yawned again, an accompanying shiver creeping its way through her whole body. Whether it was from the night air, exhaustion, or eldritch horror known as Madame Puddifoot, was unknown. Maybe all three. "What time does the museum open again? I'd like to stop by that little coffee shop we saw on the way here before we go," she asked as they neared their tent.

rhys alexander greyback ● 583 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

A niffler stuck in an empty vault felt relevant. What was a Cursebreaker if not a human niffler, after all? ”Not if it bothers you.” Rhys responded calmly. He’d spent years hiding these parts of himself because, let's face it, some of it was just terrifying. Most kids had stories of falling out of trees or something relating to their initial showing of magic. Not really any stories of being bitten by Fenrir Greyback. Unconsciously, he would’ve also kept it to himself in this relationship. But he’d all but spit it out sometime after moving in together. Considering the unpredictableness of his nightmares, it was just a matter of time. Rhys couldn’t explain his total shock that she hadn’t left like his brain said she would.

Clowns. Several students had conjured clowns when they’d tackled boggarts during their third year. Each instance was frightening in a different way. Rhys wasn’t scared of them. It didn’t mean he sought them out, either. It was like some muggle corporeal form of a poltergeist, although some appeared to have murderous intentions. A handful of students had had the chance to face the boggart due to time, although Rhys had always wondered if the Professor would have let him.

Juniper stood with him, and the blanket made him aware of their height difference. Carefully, he let it slip off his shoulders so she could take it. Had it not been the middle of the night and his mood not felt off, Rhys might have tossed the blanket over her head for fun. ”You think so?” That was a thought. Rhys always figured the lack of actual oxygen left everybody dazed and confused when they left. ”I never saw the appeal.” Rhys wasn’t a romance expert, but if an establishment required a bubble-head charm to be comfortable, that probably wasn’t considered romantic.

They approached the tent, and Rhys dragged the zipper up to reveal an opening they could walk through. But he waited for Juniper to enter first. ”Ten.” He answered. The hours were etched into his mind unless they had changed since his last visit. ”We’ll have time.” Rhys added as he pulled the zipper down completely and joined Juniper in the bed. He felt mostly better, but enough to feel calm and get some sleep.

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Of course she believed her paranoid delusions about Puddifoot's. The people in there looked like love-struck fools. While she would never try to claim to be the expert of love (that was already taken by that strange Jimbo Blishwick man in Horizont Alley), Juniper was almost positive that her experiences were more the real deal than whatever was going on in the tea shop. If it wasn't love potion, then people were being cursed. Those were the only possibilities that made sense to her. "Try living near it. On windy days, the smell drifts right down to my parents house." She almost gagged thinking about it. A lesson had been learned one summer where she slept with her bedroom windows open, only to wake up in the morning smelling like she'd just been dunked into the perfume section of a muggle box store. Instant nausea and the chance to try an air circulation charm was not the way she wanted to wake up in the morning.

Climbing through the entrance as Rhys unzipped it, he answered with the time that the museum opened. She remembered commenting on that a few days prior, about how convenient it was to not have to literally roll out of bed to get there. They probably took into account that visitors were traveling by floo or whatnot. Staying locally surely wasn't how they saw most of their guests.

Settling back into the strangely comfortable tent bed was a lot easier for her than she anticipated. Thank Merlin it wasn't an air mattress; always lopsided, lumpy, and losing air. She had no idea if Rhys would actually sleep, but it found her again very quickly. Drifting off into a slightly comedic dream about Madame Puddifoot's tea shop.

---

It was no Spellbucks, but the muggle coffee shop was quaint. Caffeine was basically all she functioned off of until lunchtime, so the large muggle-sized coffee cup was perfect for that. Everything they did was bigger. What wasn't to enjoy about that? And there were no muggles because it was still early on a Sunday. Not that she disliked them, just that having too many around could be a little disorienting sometimes. Especially when ordering coffee. All the wanted were these 'pink drinks' and about a million different added flavors. She didn't see what was wrong with normal coffee. If she wanted a pink colored drink, she would just charm it to change the color.

Taking a long sip of her coffee, Juniper glanced around the museum lobby, which aside from a family of four with two small children already screaming about wanting to see an erumpent skeleton, was only them and the ticket office employee. "Where should we start?" Juniper asked as she stared down at the museum pamphlet, which included a map of all the exhibits. It looked to her like there were two ways to go, but she didn't really care which one was first. The look on Rhys's face already told her that she was going to get a ridiculously thorough tour of each one.

rhys alexander greyback ● 510 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

Eventually, Rhys got to sleep. His mind was still racing by the time he heard Juniper’s slow and steady breathing indicating she’d fallen back asleep. But he’d curled up close to her and eventually drifted off. Coffee was always helpful when his sleep was disrupted like this. He didn’t require the same amount Juniper usually consumed or the strength, so he’d settled for the small size. And since Rhys hardly ever ordered coffee, he let Juniper handle all that as he curiously looked at the menu and the unique names of its beverages and sizes. And Rhys had visited Italy during training. He didn’t recall if the menus there had these sizes for coffee.

But soon, they were at the museum entrance. The caffeine brought Rhys to an appropriate level of consciousness. But you would’ve thought he’d drank a whole pot. Being in this place was energizing, at least for Rhys. So few places in his life held only positive memories, so they were very special to him. The Museum wasn’t some hidden gem in Wales. It was well known in the magical community, but visiting was another thing. Rhys felt good. He was someplace that made him happy with someone who also made him happy.

Rhys glanced at the pamphlet in Juniper’s hand. He was pretty confident the layout hadn’t changed much over the years, but sometimes special exhibits changed. The natural place to start was the Egyptian exhibit, but Rhys had just spent the better part of two years in Egypt, so they could loop around and see that one last. But otherwise, there wasn’t a specific order to things. The one area Rhys visited the least pertained more to magizoology and things of that nature, which Rhys wasn’t as interested in personally. Looking to the left, he saw the entrance to the Ancient Egyptian exhibit. ”We can start with Egypt. I know you love the sand.” Rhys teased. Merlin knew he’d brought half a desert’s worth of sand into their flat. ”Or we can start with Ancient Greece.” That exhibit held many old artifacts. Mostly various artworks, but Rhys knew better than to underestimate a simple vase or relief sculpture of Medusa. Many of these items were just that—items, but the majority had been in the hands of a Cursebreaker at some point. The magic of these older civilizations could be volatile, with much still unknown.

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[juniper minerva mcgonagall]

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Egypt. Sand. Juniper visibly squirmed at the thought of finding grains of sand all over the flat. There was no way to avoid it either. It was coarse, rough, and it got everywhere. She had found an excellent cleaning charm a few years back, when Rhys came back from Egypt for the first time. Specifically targeting everything smaller than a dust bunny was perfect, and the spell seemingly took care of it all at once. Obviously there were grains that found their way into pant pockets or under the couch cushions, but those were easy to clean once they became an issue. Still...she disliked sand and it still amazed her that Rhys seemed to just be okay with it. Apparently that was part of the job.

The other option was Ancient Greece, and that piqued her interest. She knew significantly less about their magical history. "Greece it is then." Looking up from the map, it took a moment for her eyes to register which way they were actually supposed to go, focusing on the sign to Ancient Egypt first because of course. If they could do that one last, then it would be a great day at the museum.

"I'm actually kind of excited to see the Merlin exhibit, now that we're here," Juniper commented as they started walking towards the hallway that led to Ancient Greece. "I know we've talked about it before, but how many of the artifacts that you bring back to the bank do you think actually belong in a museum? It's not like the goblins have an actual use for most of those." Gold and goblin-made items, sure. But randomly cursed pendants or diadems? Rings once worn by ancient seers? Juniper realized that she didn't actually know what happened to the objects once the cursebreakers were done with them.

rhys alexander greyback ● 304 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[rhys alexander greyback]

i'll be there as soon as i can

but i'm busy mending broken
pieces of the life i had before

August 15, 2020
juniper minerva mcgonagall

Rhys smirked, a corner of his mouth turning up slightly at Juniper’s physical response. The way he saw it, he could also complain about the sand, but it was basically part of his job description now. Sometimes he wondered if that was one of the magical mysteries of the Egyptian deserts. That sand didn’t always respond to magic or anything except perhaps a Charm’s experts spell. He made a mental note of that. Maybe the Ancients knew something they didn’t, or the information was lost. Odds were the secret was in some cave next to the Ancient Roman’s concrete formula.

They entered the exhibit hall. It didn’t change all that much over the years, and any ‘special’ exhibits were positioned elsewhere, so only one area changed consistently. ”It’s pretty interesting, lots of green.” Merlin was by far one of the most famous Alumni of Rhys’ house. He was known for his clever and cunning ways but without the negative association of other more infamous alumni. People weren’t in their house, much like Rhys was impatient and bookish compared to some of his former housemates. But maybe it was more of a scale than a binary system.

Rhys shrugged. He didn’t know the exact answer to that question. But he could probably make an educated guess. ”I think most of it comes here or to other magical museums.” Although Rhys figured other places, such as in the States, had their own local artifacts to exhibit. ”I’m sure there are some private collectors, of course.” And whatever wasn’t stolen on their way back to the bank. But Rhys shoved aside any thought of criminally inclined tomb raiders as if his job needed any more danger. Fortunately, most of the exhibits had a harmless past. Upon entering, one of the first things one could see was a small encased display where a handful of items lay casually. They were talismans made with various materials and with various symbols on them. Whether they were for good weather or protection, it surely added to the superstitious nature of the Ancient Greeks.

These smaller items had simple labels, but a larger but simple vase with a large piece missing that made the picture incomplete showed Medea. The title on this display gave a description and also a name. This always fascinated Rhys, Cursebreakers could have their name listed here for a couple reasons. If the item was incredibly rare or had previously been incredibly cursed, they’d only list a vastly experienced senior Cursebreaker, if not the Head Cursebreaker himself, for that. ”Some that retire end up working here if they don’t go into teaching or the Ministry.” While Aurors and perhaps Interpol had similar academic credentials, Rhys was sure they still needed help with all those suspicious contraband items.

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