There were a hundred ways to answer that question, and Topaz took a moment to consider which would be the most helpful for her sister to hear at a moment like this.

"It's always the same. There's a woman at the Ministry who helps with the beginning and the end," Topaz explained. She would be telling the story of the night through the eyes of that woman, because that was what she would be asking of Ruby when it came down to it. "She checks me in at the desk. I leave my wand and get undressed and then I go into the trunk. She locks it behind me and adds the spell. Then the next morning she takes the spells down and unlocks it and waits at the desk until I come out." This was leaving out how the woman often came looking for her, to see whether she'd been badly injured during the night, but Topaz omitted it intentionally. She wouldn't ask Ruby to do that for her. If she broke her leg in the trunk, she'd manage to crawl back to her wand and set it herself rather than force Ruby to deal with it.

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