For a moment Morwenna considered lying – it felt like a further betrayal to admit that she had told others before her son, but she doubted it would do much good at this point to carry on deceiving her son. What made it tricky is that he knew Nora and would likely have to have an awkward conversation with her at some point in the future. (It also made it incrementally less likely that he would ever consider courting a girl who had kept his mother’s secret but that was not worth worrying about at the moment.)

“Nora guessed. She sees me every day and has a sharper mind that most of my staff,” she admitted, unable to resist a small jab at her department’s expense even now. “And there’s a young man in London who has managed to avoid being found out by the Ministry so far,” partly because of her influence, partly his own cunning. “Though he’s far from dangerous,” Morwenna added, as though she could be sure of any such thing.

As though she wasn’t the worst kind of dangerous herself – the kind that didn’t believe it herself.

“I’m as safe as I can be, I promise.”

---

MJ knows my soul rings to the rune of this iconic hat