Quest for Truth

"How could Albus have kept this from me for so long?" James thought angrily to himself as he strode through the darkening streets of London.

He could have apparated much closer to his destination, however he felt that a little walk to cool his head was advisable. He had left immediately after his younger brother's earth-shattering confession, only pausing to retrieve an old photograph that his brother had thankfully kept. Seems that he had always been closer to the woman than he himself had.

Photograph tightly clenched between his sweaty fingers, James arrived at the door in the middle of a run-down street in London; a door which only certain others seemed to notice. James extended a hand and pushed the door open, stepping into The Leaky Cauldron.

With no patience for any tact, James approached the first person he saw; a young woman drinking with a man. James wondered fleetingly if things were going well for them before brandishing a slightly faded photo underneath their noses.

"Excuse me, but do either of you know this woman?" he demanded, indicating the photo.

The Leaky Cauldron was an establishment engulfed in varying stages of the vices that inflicted the Wizarding world; from the fixation with Muggle vices such as cigarettes and the abundance of drugs the foolish creatures seemed to take in to the more Wizarding enjoyments such as potions and the alcohol most often brewed by Goblins – then of course you had gambling.

When the Deputy Minister for Magic entered the pub at around six o’clock that bitterly could September evening, people engaging in those delights seemed to pause for a moment to check to see whether or not to carry on would be sanctioned by the Deputy. Upon his order of a double Firewhisky, no ice, the hubbub returned in full force and Elijah sat down heavily in a booth to himself, keen to lean over his drink and people watch, which the continuity of the folk that entered the Leaky Cauldron allowed him to do.

Soon enough, the equilibrium of the pub was disturbed once again though this time by a young man who was brandishing a photo beneath the noses of those that had come to sit and drink for the evening. Elijah looked up and caught sight of the photograph. His eyebrows shot to his forehead and he found himself calling across the room to the young man.

“I know her.” He said by way of introduction. “Jamie Prophet, if I’m not wrong?”

"Elijah?" James stammered, somewhat disconcerted to see the man who had been the object of reason that had caused him to leave Jamie back in his school days. He didn't blame the man for what happened; that all fell on Jamie, however it didn't make this anymore comfortable.

"Yeah, it's Jamie," James replied after regaining some composure, "Do you still have contact with her? Albus told me..."

James looked around, realizing that they were still speaking right in front of curious eyes.

"Perhaps we should go sit down. I can buy you another drink."

((Object of reason? lol, I think Jack gave me her muse-hindering curse.))

Jack had torn from James' side on their arrival at the Leaky as she quickly excused herself. She was much too close to her store to not check on it. Kirsty was scheduled to be closing but Jack had a knack for having rotten luck, so she quickly apostates to her store, checked in with Kirsty, and made her way back to the Leaky.

James was attacking some innocent couple. Jack was much too amused to stop him, so she approached the bar. "A Firewhiskey and a hot chocolate. Thanks." She hoped her persistence at filling James with anything other than alcohol would still be amusing to him.

She turned and spotted him talking to someone she could not see because of the crowd, so she flagged him down so he could get his drink.

There must have been a certain amount of awkwardness about the situation but whatever it was; Elijah Krum did not feel it. He supposed he should have felt guilty in some respects, because before him was the man who had more of a right to Prim than he himself did yet it was Elijah who had custody of her. He thought of the little girl in that moment, wondering whether she too was tucked up in bed like Thierry and Fauve, his own children.

Jamie’s state was not one that Elijah knew much of. Time had lapsed on and it had been a long time since he had seen her – probably just as long as her daughter had seen her mother. Yet before him was the child’s father who, from the state of him, either missed Jamie most profoundly or had finally found out the truth – and by the look of him, Elijah was going with the latter.

Elijah did not know when he had risen from the booth but he found himself standing before James, staring intently at the image of the woman he had known most intimately at one point, wondering of her in the same manner James did, he did not doubt.

“I have not spoken with her in months,” Elijah readily admitted, looking up from the image to meet James’ gaze. “However, we do have a correspondence through letters. Though, in a typical Jamie fashion, she often forgets to write.” Elijah smiled wryly. “Though, I wrote to her just last week, funnily enough. Nonsensical things enclosed, of course. Might I inquire with you candidly? You were with Jamie for, I don’t know, ages, wasn’t it? It was a few years ago now, granted, but it was a long time. I understand you ended on...less than preferable terms but why have you chosen to look for her in this sense?” Elijah glanced back at his drink after his monologue before smiling a little at James again and nodding. “Yes, I don’t think another drink would go amiss.”

As he listened to Elijah, the sudden realization hit him of how ridiculous it was for him to just run around shouting and waving her picture in the air, but he had never been one to stop and think before acting on his impulses.

Movement in the corner of James' eye alerted him to the fact that Jack was up at the bar, waving to attract his attention. It looked as though she may have some drinks ready. James inclined his head in that direction to indicate Jack, and began to move towards her.

"I suppose I haven't been thinking very straight," James confessed as he wound his way towards the bar, looking somewhat sheepish, "I received a great shock tonight, when my brother approached me with a secret he had been keeping for years. A pretty devastating secret to be honest with you. He told me that Jamie had been pregnant with my child when I left her, and that she made him promise not to tell. So, firstly, the fact that I have a child out there somewhere came as a huge shock to me; second, my own brother had kept this a secret from me for years. I've been pretty angry and pretty wired since I heard the news, and all I could think about was finding her and discovering whether it was true. A child without her father.....well, it just isn't right. She should know her father. I don't care whether Jamie wants her to or not. She will know me."

James clamped his mouth shut, cutting off any other words that may come spewing from that hole in his face. He was beginning to rant, and if he lost control it wasn't going to help his situation. He reached Jack, and saw that she thankfully had some more hot chocolate for him. That woman was a lifesaver.

Jack recognized that James seemed to have found someone of use from the serious expression on his face. Glancing back at him, Jack swore she saw some sort of promise of a drink upon his lips so she turned back to the bartender, asking for a Butterbeer- Butterbeer was always the safe choice when choosing a drink for someone else. No one could refuse a Butterbeer.

She dished out the coins, thinking that between Nemo and her own twisted version of a social life, the majority of her money seemed to be spent on alcohol. So different from the moral sixteen year old who had screamed at Vito for giving her a small glass of vodka.

She felt James' approach before she saw it, so she reached forward and grabbed the hot chocolate as well as the Firewhiskey, turning and placing the former into James' hands. She turned to hand the other drink to his informant and her eyes fell upon Elijah Krum.

Jack wasn't sure how to feel about Eli. As her boss, she had to respect him. She did have a certain level of respect for him naturally for his own attentive nature. However, things had exploded between him and Chase. And now Chase was gone, leaving all of the task of loathing the Krum boy to Jack. She pushed away this battle and said in a level, almost deadened tone, "Hello Elijah." She handed him the Butterbeer, grabbed her own Firewhiskey, and excused herself to take a drink from it.

There was something incredibly bizarre about the whole affair panning out before Elijah. He hadn’t seen Jamie for months and yet not long ago, out of the blue he had Prim on his doorstep, cold and in need of a mug of warm milk which he duly supplied her. It was only once he had brought her inside into the substantial heat of the manor house that she handed him the letter that her mother had composed to him, explaining briefly, if not somewhat evasively, her situation and entrusting him with Prim until she felt herself well enough and able enough to once again take care of the girl.

Yet here was the child’s father and Elijah, having guessed correctly, was wondering how much information he was supposed to lend James, if at all, and whether it was his place to introduce the man to his daughter or not.

Elijah was only half listening to James as they wandered amongst the tables towards the bar. Granted, he should have been listening but his mind was wandering back to his office in the Ministry, wondering if he had been better off there, nursing a glass of Firewhisky as opposed to being offered a bottle of Butterbeer.

Wait, what?

Blinking back to attention, Elijah found himself stood before Jack and James, wondering when they’d become a pair in crime – or whatever else it was. Elijah took the bottle of Butterbeer regardless, feeling rather foolish because of it and took a swig for etiquette purposes, finding himself curious as to how in Merlin’s name Elves got drunk on the stuff – it had nothing in it. Well, it probably had something in it that got them off but not him. After spending the better part of his childhood drinking the stuff, Elijah had come almost to loathe it save for winter days when there was nothing else that could warm him through.

“Good Evening, Jaquellene.” Elijah greeted somewhat woodenly before looking back over to James. “This might sound a bit French but why didn’t you just Owl her?” Elijah quirked an eyebrow at James, seemingly forgetting to act appropriately at the mention of a child. It was scandalous news after all, but in typical Elijah fashion, prior knowledge allowed him to forget to act in a manner expected of him. “A daughter, so I heard. A friend of mine once said in response to such a revelation: ‘at least I know it all works.’ Congrats, mate. But I suppose congratulations are a bit belated. What are you after specifically?”

For a man who was usually so detail-oriented, it was unlike him to miss subtleties like the slight coldness between Elijah and Jack or the fact that Elijah had not reacted much to the news that Jamie had given birth to his child. He didn't even pick up on the fact that Elijah knew the sex of the child, and could perhaps know more. His brain felt like a overly full sponge, nothing else could get soaked in.

"So it was a girl, then," James muttered mostly to himself, trying to envision what she might look like, "I didn't send an owl, because that would have given Jamie the chance to simply not respond, and even more importantly: warning that I am out looking for her. I'm sure that she'll discover eventually that I'm seeking her out, but I needn't reveal that to her before I've even begun to search. I don't want to give her a chance to take the child and run with a huge head start on top of it. I'm sure that I would always find her in the end, but I'd like to find her sooner rather than later."

James took another sip of his hot chocolate, feeling a bit foolish, but vindicated at the same time. Now that his head was clearing, he was thinking of much better ways that he could have went about finding Jamie; like going through the Order for instance, but what's done was done, and he'd have to roll with the consequences of his actions.

"Nothing new..." he thought to himself, "always act now and pay later with me..."

Finally noticing that Elijah had barely touched his drink, James offered him to choose something different if he'd like. James had plenty of money to burn. Have to make sure and pay Jack back as well.

"Jack," Jack said in a short, near-whisper. They'd gone over this before though, and the two Ministry employees were much too stubborn to take the high road first. Jack refused to call him Elijah, and he refused to call her Jack. Thus, they were stuck sitting through the long versions of their name.

Jack honestly had nothing to add to the conversation so she crossed a leg and nursed her Firewhiskey, already damn near close to finishing it. Honestly, she was here as James' wingman of sorts. If he got in a fight, she was his second. She had contributed to his alcohol intake that night, and he had done her a favor bu offering her some time to enjoy a Quidditch game or two. She was just here to help.

((Sorry, Jack's sort of just... there... right now))