chapter one

His three years abroad had unintentionally trained Matt to pay more attention than every needed to be. Matt had to be ready to place any substantial information away in the back of his brain to record later. Of course, his journal would later be destroyed out of sheer paranoia but he had memorized most of the damn thing anyway. He was drinking and listening and decided maybe he wanted something a bit more than just a few crisps. However he felt the mental tick of something he had forgotten at Jack's final statement. He really didn't want to disappoint her but he didn't really have a choice.

"Ah, well those rumours.." he trailed off and took another sip from his drink. "I wouldn't count that idea out as fact right away Jack. I heard whispers which eventually turned into rumours and after some investigating turned into fact."

He frowned as he looked at her and sighed heavily. "When I left I wasn't sure if they had sent somebody yet but I'm willing to bet money on the fact that if they aren't there already they will be within the month"

That was the extent of the bad news he had for her. Well, actually it was the extent of all the news that he had for her. Not much of what had happened to him was particularly good. He had eaten some great food and discovered a love for American coffee but otherwise his time spent abroad as less than enjoyable. It as now noticeable that he was hungry, his stomach grumbled. It dawned on Matt that he hadn't actually had a proper meal in a few days. He had been surviving on vending machine snacks and whatever was lukewarm at varying train and bus stations.

"Otherwise I have no more news to give you. My time spent abroad was for work and work was what I did. It's all I got Jack, I'm sorry I don't have more."

And there it was.

Jack let out a long sigh, and filled her glass to the brim, exhaustion setting in her. "No, they must be here," she said. "We had evidence of some sort of infiltration a few years back. The trail went cold, but that's likely the intention. Throw us off the trail so that, when they really needed it, they could step in and do whatever damage they've been planning. We have new wards, new systems, new background checks. Someone getting in now... I'm not sure they could." She frowned deeply, trying to consider the implications of a spy in their government. She couldn't even say she was supportive of the Ministry anymore, but it certainly didn't need anything more to compromise it.

She sighed. "Or, I dunno. Maybe they're not here and that was all some weird scare," she said as she reached up to massage her temples, her elbows dipping to rest on the table. She dropped a hand and reached for the glass, and voila, the drink was gone - just like magic. She drew herself up and stretched her neck, feeling a small pop. There always seemed to be tension in her body that needed to be relieved.

There was almost an apology in his tired tone, bringing Jack back to the realization that many of his trials and tribulations have been faced at her request. She finally met his eyes and gave him a bracing smile, really more of a grimace than anything, but it was the first real show of camaraderie she had managed to muster. "It's not great news but at least we have something to work with now. We needed something."

This was not the news that Jack wanted to hear, Matt could tell that based entirely in her initial reaction. There wasn't much other than that news that he could really offer her. He knew quite a few American wizarding tricks that, being British, he was unaware of before. Although there was no telling whether those would prove to be useful to them in their endeavours to track an American spy. It's not like he wanted to help the Ministry that much anyway. He had entertained the idea of working there but that was mostly to satiate his need to keep an eye on the government. And it wasn't like he was going to get a high standing position where he could keep his eye on everyone; regardless he was getting a little sick of adventure. At the rate he was going he was bound to go grey in the next few years.

"It's not much but I could demonstrate a few American magical tricks. The Americans are really into making things more complicated than they need to be which, oddly enough, makes them quite easy to figure out but still just as hard to deal with." he offered to her. He wasn't even sure he sold himself on that statement.

Her smile was welcome, he hadn't seen a friends mile in such a long time. He knew that at the very least he wouldn't be screwed up alone; all of his friends were f*cked in one way or another. Pouring himself another glass to sip on while avoiding the inevitable awkward silence that was to come. He wasn't sure where they went after this initial meeting. He was just hoping Jack would fill him in on what he missed while he was abroad. There were several people he wanted to go meet with and chat with and he just wanted to know who on his list was still alive or even worth speaking with.

"Now, what have I missed here?"

What Jack wanted to say and what she knew she was going to say were two very different things.

She wished she could welcome Matt back with some hopeful news, and the state of affairs would make it so he could return back to his life without the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had sacrificed so much only to come back to an even worse mess and she didn't want to be the one to tell him that the work wasn't over. She could easily tell him his work was done, that he should feel free to focus on himself, but she knew it wouldn't last long. It was hard to escape it when there was that sense of duty beating deep in one's chest.

And Merlin, she wished she could tell him nothing had changed for her, that she was the same old Jack, except that she had moved on from the chapter in her life that they had both share, a chapter punctuated evenly with laughter and fear, all culminating into one tragic trip that sometimes Jack wondered if she should have ever made.

And she wished she could tell him the truth. That she had found and made a family only to lose it. That she had missed out on her chance for a real companionship with someone she knew could keep up with her, with someone she didn't feel at all ashamed to want. She wished she could tell him that she had been humbled and beaten and fearful and scorned.

But she knew these words would never fall from her mouth.

"Well, there's that," she said, waving in the direction the kids had tumbled off to. "The strays. My dad split from my mum, so he's been here since the start of summer. Charlie's in and out, but Sunny's here full time. And me and- well, I adopted another kid, magical stuck in a muggle hospital, only way to get him properly treated. It's his first year at Hogwarts. Don't ask-" she added, trying for a good-humored smile amidst the almost exasperated explanation "-how it happened. I hardly know myself.

"And I'm working for the Ministry again. Unspeakable. As well as still beating for the Falcons. But that's..."

She couldn't avoid the big topics. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment, wearing her age as she lifted her glass to her lips to finish it off.

The glass settled and her eyes were open, her face all business once again. "The Hogwarts train disappeared. With all the kids on it. Staff train made it back safe for some reason, but the kids... We found them within the day, they had somehow been transported to Ilvermorny but... And the kids at Ilvermorny were shaken up badly too. The school had stopped... functioning, but they were all stuck. Only one girl., Neville Longbottom's kid-" and here, an almost fond smile flickered onto her lips for the spunky blonde she had met over the summer "-she was pushing the Ministry to investigate. The only sane person in the whole bloody country."

She ran her tongue over her teeth. "Things seemed to be fine after that. But... a pureblood ball was randomly attacked over the holidays. We still haven't figured out who. And then, they targeted the Order. They used Fiendfyre. I got there in time to get Oliver out but..."

She really wished she wasn't the one to have to tell him this.

"They burned Grimmauld Place to the ground."

Matt had known the minute he left British soil that he was going to be missing plenty. He had come to turns with that fact about six months into his escapade when he had essentially been cut off from the European world in America. Yet, he was not nearly as prepared as he thought he would be for the flurry of information that left Jack's mouth.

Yes, he was happy that Jack had a family; she had always needed someone with her. It made him a little more at ease knowing that Jack had surrounded herself with at least a semblance of love. But again, as boring as a family life would be it wasn't Jack's life and she always seemed to find adventure. Then again so did he. Actually, come to think of it it's almost like everyone in London finds adventure of some kind. Almost kind of like people are creating their own adventures for creative purposes like roleplaying or creatively writing or something similar. He wasn't expecting much explanation from her, all he could ask was for some form of basic knowledge; he just wanted to not feel fifty years in the past.

Matt had been aware of the Hogwarts Express incident, he had been stationed at Ilvermorny briefly after the incident to keep an eye. Of course he had been their under the guise of a caretaker but he wasn't going to dwell on that humiliation. He was however unaware of the attack on the purebloods. Fortunately enough for him he wasn't a pureblood, nevertheless its still terrible and something he imagined would find its way into his life.

"They burned Grimmauld Place to the ground...

Matt had been midway through raising his glass to his mouth to take another drink and it felt like his entire body seized up. He lost his grip on the glass and it fell to the table sending splashes of alcohol across the table. That was absolutely the last thing Matt wanted to hear. Grimmauld Place, gone, that didn't register well with him. It had been his home many a night when he did not have a home. Grimmauld Place was where Matt had earned his redemption and where he had so many memories with friends and now it was gone. He wasn't sure if he was going to go into a rage or crumple into a ball; honestly he might just do both.

If there was ever a time for Matt to get back into the game it was now. He looked at the glass on the table and then up at Jack. He stood up and grabbed a dishtowel to wipe up the mess he made.

"My apologies." he said as he started to clean the table. Doing his best to compose himself he finished and sat down, making eye contact with Jack. "Jack, I was actually wondering if I could crash on your couch tonight. It seems as though my sleeping arrangement has been compromised."

What a time to be back in London...