21 May 2028

Subject: 21 May 2028 Wed Mar 17, 2021 7:11 am

The world had all but stopped.

Except, it was only his world that had stopped, and everyone else's had hit the fast forward button somehow...

***

"Good evening, A-Azalea."

They'd put some distance between themselves the moment Azalea had seen the man entering the Ministry with his mother. Jake had not recognised the name, nor the man, but Azalea had softly let him know why her body had tensed upon sight of the man. The Auror had nodded discretely to show he understood as his arm fell away from her waist and he moved a little away from her to be less obvious in that moment.

"I thought I told you to join me with the rest of the sponsors."

Jake's blood had boiled at the lies the other man told, but he'd not replied, simply offering a small smile in return to the icy glare he was being subjected to before Josh and Azalea had turned away from him and moved back to the front of the room to the sponsor's area.

"Don't want to shit on your parade, Jake, but I think that man just stole your woman." Tray commented with a hint of playfulness, but to those who knew him as well as Jake did, the underlying tone was that he was worried.

"It's fine," Jake replied evenly in that moment as his eyes moved from Azalea's back to the stage and the emcee who was just passing over to Lady Eleanor Murray.

It wasn't fine, though.

The shift in Jake's glance to the witch every couple of seconds would attest to that as he tried in vain to work out what he should do. The evening seemingly continued on without keeping him informed of what was happening, for what felt like only moments had turned in to hours, and the Auror was left to simply watch as Azalea and Josh left the building together. Her glance towards him did not help in making a decision, either, for it was just a fleeting one.

One that he hoped would convey everything was going to be alright, despite the fact the man had no idea what to do.

***

Sleep had been fitful for the man that evening, every time he closed his eyes, his mind would conjure a new way in which Azalea was being hurt. Each time Jake had woken, he'd reasoned with himself that Azalea could look after herself, she was probably talking things through with Josh in private, and then...

And then... Jake wasn't sure what would happen next.

Every time he checked his phone, the witch smiled back at him from the background he'd put up of the five of them, but her name never showed in the messages, and her status on various platforms showed she had not been online for hours.

***

The status hadn't changed throughout Friday.

Jake had willed Azalea to message him, but she hadn't.

He couldn't message her, because he didn't want her to have to explain more than she probably already had.

And so the man had waited.

***

BRITAIN'S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR HAS FINALLY FOUND THE ONE HE WISHES TO SPEND HIS LIFE WITH

JOSHUA MURRAY ANNOUNCES ENGAGEMENT TO AZALEA HARRINGTON

THE AMERICAN WITCH WHO SNAGGED A PRINCE

The newspapers had not been subtle. Nor had any media outlet. Any source you could think of that had links with the Magical world had been quick to make the announcement of the engagement between Joshua Murray and Azalea Harrington. Jake had been knocked sideways when he'd seen the headline, sinking in to the kitchen chair as he read the announcement that had been made. Of all the things he'd been expecting since Thursday evening, an engagement announcement had not been one of them.

The picture of the couple was not a recent one that looked back at Jake from his phone that morning, Azalea had lost weight since this picture had been taken, and the smile on her features was one that looked much more genuine that Jake imagined could be shot now. He'd reached for his phone by instinct, and opened Azalea's messages with him. She'd been online, but she had not messaged him. He closed out of the messages and opened the news article once more.

Had this been what Azalea had wanted?

For the life of him, Jake did not want to believe it to be true, it couldn't be true...

And yet, it was on every news outlet, so how could it not be?

***

The Gryffindor Head of House had barely been with it when he'd arrived at Hogwarts on the Sunday morning to referee the last match of the year. Sleep had eluded him for the last three nights, or plagued with dreams that had left him waking in a cold sweat when his body had given in to tiredness. The man had only just enough time to leave the children in the teacher's stand before he'd hurried off to get ready.

The two hours of the game had been a blur, the man had barely kept up with the game that had been going on around him, and had narrowly avoided a Bludger to the face because his concentration had lapsed.

By the time the game had finished, Slytherin had won the Quidditch Cup, and more on auto-pilot than anything else, Jake had handed the Cup to Mimosa with a tired smile, telling her he was proud of her before she was engulfed by the other Slytherins who were ready to party through the rest of the day. Jake had left them to it in that moment, moving instead to collect Ivan and Adrienne from their chaperone for the day.

"That was a good game!" Adrienne chimed excitedly, taking hold of his hand. "Can we party with them?" The question was asked as the young witch pointed to the Slytherins who were bouncing around excitedly.

"I don't think they want to party with children, Adrienne." Ivan replied matter of factly.

"I wouldn't be so sure," the voice of Grayson's chimed in with a warm smile. Adrienne looked up to him inquisitively. "But, I think your dad needs to get home for some rest, so maybe another time." The latter was said with the underlying look of 'are you okay?' by the librarian.

"I'm fine, just a couple of nights without a good sleep. Thank you for looking after them for me, Grayson, I appreciate it." Jake replied, offering the man a warm smile.

"It was my pleasure." Grayson acknowledged, giving a fond smile towards the children in that moment. "Not to create gossip, but did you hear the news? I know you weren't working on Friday."

Jake shook his head, not sure what the other man meant.

"Miss Harrington has resigned from her position. We're in need of some extra hands to help with the exams, if you're free at all this week?"

The latter part of Grayson's explanation had not registered with the Auror, his mind focused instead on the first sentence.

"Resigned?" Jake repeated.

Grayson nodded, watching as Jake's features contorted in to that of confusion.

"She wouldn't do that so close to exams. You know how she is with children..."

Grayson's reply was that of a face that said she had done that, despite him knowing that Azalea wouldn't normally have acted in such a manner.

"I guess that's what happens when you fall in love, and decide to get married." The wistful tone was lost on Jake in that moment, jerked hard by the notion that Azalea would give up on her children for love. No, that was not how Azalea had ever been, children had always come first. Anyone who knew her well would know and understand that.

"You're getting married, daddy?" Adrienne asked, looking up at him very confused and making Jake realise in that moment that he hadn't told the children... anything.

"No, daddy isn't getting married." Jake replied, and before the witch could ask any further questions, Jake continued on. "Shall we get going, then? I think we have time to go to Honeydukes if we leave now. What do you guys think?"

"SWEETIES!"

That had distracted the children long enough for Jake to thank Grayson (and for the kids to thank him) for looking after them during the match, and to say goodbye. The promise of sweeties had kept Adrienne's mind off of any mention of marriage as she scampered on ahead of them on the walk down to Hogsmeade.

Ivan had seemingly gone quiet.

Which suited Jake just fine in that moment. His mind trying to decide whether or not he could text Azalea to ask why she had quit her job -- as a friend, or a colleague, that would be okay, wouldn't it? And then... if she didn't reply, he would know he'd been wrong in his feelings.

But... the man hadn't text, because each time he ran the scenario through his head, his worry intensified even more.

Azalea hadn't wanted to be with Josh, Jake knew that.

She'd stayed for Ethan.

Only Ethan.

Which meant something was incredibly wrong.

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