 Lovely™ | Captain Hurted | Ariana's Bane | Resident Antagonist | Unparalleled Delight
"Of course," Jake said, mind already half on what might be necessary in these next steps. He wouldn't hesitate, it was true; decades of teaching himself self-restraint the hard way, all he needed was for a simple 'don't hesitate to ...' and all bets were off. At least the Minister was more likely to mean it. "Thank you."
His focus had drifted, but was snatched back suddenly. Jake looked at Charles, instinctively working through deductions. One of his kids had... well, that discounted four of them for certain, and tentatively two more. Vandalism narrowed it down to two, and the mention of the plaque brought him to one prime suspect. Courtyard. Charles. Plaque. Nemesis.
It was always a little difficult to shift himself out of Work Mode, especially here, in the middle of the Ministry, but Jake worked all the way through his deductions before the gravity of Charles' words even came close to striking true.
"I see." It wasn't intentional, the momentary closing off, just... just it was still very raw. Jake's kneejerk reaction was to want to shift the blame. Term time wasn't his domain, and, come to that, no longer were the holidays. Nemesis was more or less beyond his reach, just as they'd always wanted to be. A moment later, and he was hit with a brutal self-reminder that this kind of thinking likely contributed to so much of the damage in the first place.
For just a moment, Jake's composure wavered; he ran a hand over his face, took a deep breath, released it. "Nemesis? War plaque?" While he had every reason to not operate on assumptions, he had little reason to doubt. He just kept picturing Rosier - stone cold dead, and still causing problems. "Are they in trouble?" Again? "... I think, perhaps, I was never as cut out for this parenting lark as I thought I'd be." But nine... uh... ten... kids down the line, it was a little late for misgivings. "I don't know how you managed to do it, Mr Hollingberry."
__________________ Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
You are Chocolate! |