Rodolphus sat in his armchair in his study, looking quite possibly as bad as he felt. He'd spent a few days after the last meeting researching glamours and had come to the conclusion that the glamours he'd need to make himself look worse than he had in that meeting would be far too obvious. That had subsequently led him down a far easier, if more uncomfortable path - potions.
The potions, two of them, he'd taken today were harmless to him but they had rather unpleasant side-effects. Nausea, dizziness, sweating, weakness were all among the side effects he was now experiencing, to the point where his last meal had made a sudden and humiliating reappearance. Thankfully his house elves were wise enough to simply clean the mess away and not say or do anything that was likely to get them hexed or worse.
He reminded himself that this would be worth it in the long run and eyed the cup of ginger tea on the table beside the chair. Shortly after the house elf who had cleaning his vomit had left, this had appeared on the table. He reached out with one trembling hand and picked up the cup. The house elf had been smart enough to leave the level of tea in the cup low enough so that he didn't slosh any. He took a sip and waited, expecting it to make an abrupt return. However instead of doing that, the tea seemed to settle his stomach just a little, certainly enough that he didn't feel like he was about to throw up his toenails.
When the knock came on the door, he carefully put the cup of tea down and took a deep breath. "Come in," he said, his voice hoarse and scratchy.