The waiting was interminable. Without understanding why he was summoned by their master, there was no simple way to determine how long she could expect him to be gone. The shortest time she'd ever been away from home after feeling the burn of the Dark Mark on her arm was half an hour, but the longest time away from home was seventeen weeks. She was fortunate that Antonin wasn't summoned at the same time. Ollie was still quite small and while Mafalda was always the one to venture next door to collect him after they had to rush off to perform their duties, that was an awfully long time to impose upon their friend the care of their child.