Old Friends and New Adventures

A loud pop echoed through the empty streets and Aaron appeared mid stride, flipping his wand into the air, and catching it. He whistled loudly as he walked, the echo bouncing off the buildings, and the only other sound was that of his footsteps. It was in the dead of the night in a quiet little muggle village, a strange place to meet, but he had found a nice little building here for a reason. Since the accident at the Department of Mysteries, he had been very intrigued, he wanted to know if the Muggles were actually capable of magic. He had heard rumors, but, he did not heed the advice of rumors.

He wore a long black cloak with no hood, but, a long collar came up just bellow his cheeks. Stopping, he spun to face the building he had chosen as their meeting place. Jack was the first person he wanted to meet with, she worked in the Department of Mysteries ( At least she did when he had known her. ) and he hoped to get some answers from her. They had a strange relationship, they had been accomplices in a few occasions, but he was not sure if she knew who he truly was. Which was a good thing.

The building was abandoned and the door creaked loudly when he pushed it open. There was old furniture and a very old fireplace inside, he flicked his wand in the direction of the fireplace, and a roaring fire appeared. Flicking his wand again the chairs rearranged themselves and Aaron plopped down. He had sent a letter to Jack requesting they meet here. Of course he did not mention that he wanted to question her about the accident, simply friends meeting up. He scheduled it at night because he was strange like that.

This seemed to be the flavor of Jack's life. People came into her life, mixed everything up, then exited. Once she got everything back to an even keel, they made their grand re-entrance. She wasn't sure what Aaron Marcheti's reappearance in her life was going to signify, but she knew it wasn't going to be easy or simple. Good or bad, usually the latter given her tendency for horrible rotten luck, she knew that it was going to be more complicated that anything else. Besides, she had never exactly had a straightforward relationship with the Marcheti man anyway.

Besides... the last time she had seen him, she had jut betrayed the Death Eaters to get Nemo Omara out.

So maybe he was going to kill her.

She hadn't told Max. Considering everything, she didn't want to get him all worried over nothing. She kissed Sunny and Goose good-night, donned a jacket over a loose fitting top, yanking boots onto her legs. She grabbed her bag - her muggle gun, some paperwork, her usual jumble of useful things. She was practically a boy scout when it came to being prepared.

She found the place, and she would have been more worried about its obscure location if it didn't have anything to do with Aaron. He had always been a bit offbeat, forging his own path rather than slipping into familiar patterns. As she approached, she saw flickering light - it seemed she wasn't too far behind him. She kept her hand loose, ready to spring for her wand. She approached the door and slipped it open, standing in the doorway.

There he was.

"Hello."

The door creaked open behind him and he turned his head to see Jack standing in the doorway. He could sense she was unsure of what was happening, and why would she, he had invited her to an abandoned area in the middle of a muggle village in the cold of night. She knew who he was, but more than that, she knew what he was capable of so he did not blame her for being cautious. Though she had no reason to be, killing her would create heat, and heat was not something he needed.

"Fire is warm," He said with a smirk as she stood in the doorway. He motioned for her to come inside. "Fear not, I have nothing to gain from hurting you, and who is to say I even could. The infamous Jack Dyllan is more than a match for me." He chuckled and turned back to the fire, he realized he missed being in London, having people who recognized him. He had spent to much time being incognito.

"Let's take a moment and break the ice so that my intentions are known. I recall that you were an unspeakable with the Department of Mysteries, no?" He let his question sink in, she would realize quickly why he had brought her here, he wanted information. "Do you know what happened? Was it an accident like the papers are claiming?"

He had changed. He had changed less than he could of- she was certain she was the one who looked most transformed. Her hair had grown longer, her face had gone thinner. The muscles she had built up from and for Quidditch had slimmed with stress and unrest. She no longer donned the clothes of someone picking out of clearance bins at thrift stores, but wore jeans that fit and flattered her figure, kept her warm, kept her looking professional. Her eyes especially marked the difference. Where fire used to dominate, a spirit of lackluster languished.

Jack Dyllan had become a tired old woman much too young.

She ticked her head as he indicated the fire, a little shrug of sorts. Still, a smile tempted her lips and they curled upwards a bit. Aaron Marcheti was probably the only person who had ever fully admitted her worth as a potential adversary. James Blood, Ne'Os Emof, even Vito... they had all tried to undersell her, cut her down, make her seem like nothing so they could puff themselves up. Jack would remember Aaron as one of the best (or was it worst) people to ever take up the dark side, and yet he would always be the one she respected most. Respect bred respect.

He had given her some comfort. If Aaron was going to kill her, he was going to make a point of it. There was nothing unspectacular about a murder done that would garner no power, and there was nothing to gain tonight. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her, letting it latch. She turned and made her way across the room, settling down across from him on an old, antique couch. She tilted her head.

She probably shouldn't share with him. But she didn't lead the Order anymore. And he didn't lead the Death Eaters. They were free agents.

"I was actually not working that day," she said. "The Ministry was recently destroyed, and we were all working on the reconstruction of the atrium when there was just this..." She shook her head. "No sign of how or why. My guess is if it wasn't really an accident, it was orchestrated by Gideon Pierce." She paused, squinting an eye at him. "You were out of the country, weren't you? Did you hear about Pierce?"

Aaron fought the urge to pull out his wand, though he did not want to intimidate her, he knew that it would at least make her feel uneasy. It was a habit he had formed over the years, he loved to twirl his wand and flip it up into the air and catch it. One of the reasons he had delved so much into wandlore is because he loved using his hands. The habit had formed when he was young and he unintentionally twirled it because he hated his hands not being busy. If they were sitting still he felt somewhat uncomfortable, it was strange, really.

"I heard very little of it," He said with a wave of his hand. "I was never fond of that fellow, and when I am not fond of someone, they get very little of my attention." In truth, he had not followed the politics of London since he had been gone. He really never followed it while he was here, he had to many other things going on, he just knew who he wanted to kill and who he did not want to kill. It was all about who would rise and who would fall.

"Is he dead or alive?"

Jack could not help but think back to what she had left behind that night. At home, Sunny had probably woken up and systematically looked throughout the house for someone to keep her company. Goose had certainly pulled out a book and a flashlight and was reading under his blankets. Max was probably sleeping soundly, unaware that she was out and about, once again trying to get in control of what was happening out in the world. It was interesting how domestic she was required to be in one place, and how that very tenderness was almost not allowed in her dealings outside of her home. What would people say if they saw Jack cooking macaroni for children, folding laundry as she went? Not exactly the most badass image.

"Alive," she said. "But missing. No one is exactly certain where he is. But I promise you that he's not done yet. He cared much too little about subtlety to not want to come back in with a bang."

Aaron nodded his head and he began to drift into thought. If this man did have something to do with it then Aaron wanted to speak with him. He doubted he could get close enough with him to get the truth out of him, maybe he could force it out of him, but he was too high profile to use force with. Either way, he made a mental note, Gideon Pierce was who he wanted to find out more about.

Turning his attention back to Jack, he smiled slightly. "I've heard rumors of your domestication," It was a weird way to say I heard you had settled down, but, she had always seemed the sort to live on her own. "Never pegged you as the type to be honest. Does that mean you are retired from Azkaban escapes? Shame, I don't know if I can find someone as reliable as you."

Jack flicked her eyes skyward, because of course that was going to come out. Of course no one could get that out of their heads once they heard the rumors. But, for Merlin's sake, she was sure as hell not going to allow her marriage nor her family to come in between her and her reputation for getting shit done. "I don't know if you heard, but Pierce's pet project was a marriage law that forced us all into arranged marriages. As much as I would have preferred Azkaban, I wouldn't have been able to continue taking down assholes, now would I?"

She paused. "And beyond that, I found myself a guardian. But that's..." She shook her head, but a sigh finally escaped. "I have missed some action. I've been busy. Distracted. And there's not any... real crime happening anymore. Just bloody politics."

He had heard about the Marriage Law, he almost laughed, how could the Wizarding World have stood for that? He would have been arrested and imprisoned instantly if he had stayed around. He was not a marriage person, there was no one alive he trusted enough to live with and create life with. He would not bring a child into the world because it would be nothing but a crutch for people to grasp at and hold against him. A weakness he could not afford.

"A guardian," He said inquisitively, a smile forming over his lips. "My my, has Jack fallen in love with her arranged husband? Or maybe the unconditional love of her children has turned her soft." He was being a bit of an arse at this point, but, he did not care. He spoke the truth, whether people liked it or not.

"Your family is your weakness now, it seems that was his plan, at least it would have been mine. Arrange marriages, now all of the sudden, everyone has a weakness. Who would stand up to a man who could destroy everything in an instant." He stared at Jack with a stern face from across the room. "Darkness will return, this illusion of peace is only the beginning, and when it comes you will want to fight. When that day comes, you will no longer be reliable, you have an exposed neck ready to be slit. If I were the enemy, you were my foe, your family would be the first to go."

The point of all of this was to let her know that she was just making excuses. He could not prove it but he felt like she still thought she could risk her life without repercussions. She was, after all, out in the middle of the night at some abandoned house with someone she knew to be, well, not nice. She still had a thirst for adventure.

"I am being impolite, forgive me, who am I to judge what you do with your personal life."

Jack lifted an eyebrow, and there was a definite, if slight, curl in her lip. Her own kids - no. No way. It had been hard enough for her to swallow her pride and sign a piece of paper that was a lie. The only thing that kept her strong was knowing that she was pulling a fast one, that it meant nothing and they had not won. Somehow, the officials on her case had known there would be no regulating the second part of the marriage law. She would not be forced into consummating anything.

Her immediate response was to shut him down, but that L-word had always been the word to make Jack Dyllan feel uncomfortable and uncertain. Love Maximus Morrison? Of course not. She just lived with him. He was practically a stranger. And besides... Jack had felt what it was like to love and not be loved back. She wasn't going to be foolish enough to fall for that again.

"Guardian, legally and nothing more," Jack said. "I spawned nothing of my own and I never plan to." Her words were short. "I take care of two kids who had nowhere else to go. But it hasn't made me soft. Sending kids out into the world makes you anything but soft." Her words were sharp, short, true. Jack Dyllan's heart had been opened by her little family, but it had not made her any more tender to the world. If anything, she had become more ruthless - the tenants of the Knight's Watch in comparison to that of the Order was indicative enough of that.

"I didn't fight," she said, her words slow and measured, "because I learned long ago how to choose your battles. And if you think I don't know how to lose a family, you're wrong. I've been doing it for years. I could have just run away to another country, all on my own, set up a comfortable life. But I chose people to protect, and because of that I'll always have a reason to fight." She tilted her head. "If someone came after my family, I wouldn't be able to just kill them. I'd annihilate them. And I haven't let anyone forget that."