Rhys had a bad feeling about this whole thing. After the tremor had rocked through the sleeping boroughs, Rhys had sent his men home and told them to stay put. After the cold snap of the last few days and now the cold, he just felt some unnatural disaster coming and knew he couldn't leave Zinnia home along for it. Normally he would hunker down at work and do his best to keep an eye on Hogsmeade from there, but with a wife and unborn babe at home he needed to reorganize his priorities.

In the first lull of the storm, Rhys had gone outside and gathered as much wood from the pile as he could unearth from the accumulating snow. By the second stall, he knew he'd made the right choice in being home. After leaving his boots by the door and hanging his snow-covered jacket and hat by the fireplace, he added another log to the fire and checked on Zinnia where she was curled up on his sometimes-bed. "Warm enough?" Roxy was curled up right beside Zinnia, after not being allowed on the sofa for her entire life, had gotten quite used to it.

He hovered by the fire himself, warming up his cold hands. He had half a mind to pull the mattress from the bed and set it up right next to the fire so Zinnia would be warm enough and they could keep this fire going all night. Not that Rhys wouldn't also keep the bedroom one going, but he could keep a better eye on her from here. "There's extra blankets in the closet in the nursery," he recalled, thinking they might need them tonight.