Old Friends and New Adventures

Aaron clasped his hands together and placed them under his chin as she spoke. There it was, the fire, the thing he admired most about her. He had to admit, he had gotten it wrong, she was not a slave to her life and he could appreciate that. He had to admit, he would hate to be on her bad side, she would chase the person who had wronged her to the end of the earth if she had to and that was frightening.

"And no one has forgotten, I would say," he nodded his head and let the room fill with silence for a few moments. "You are an intriguing person, I will give you that. If only you could give up this whole protecting the world ideal... we could have made an excellent team."

The fire was beginning to settle down and the flames were not lighting the room as it had when she first arrived. The shadows flickered over both of their faces as they sat. "They have hired me as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts." He chuckled at the statement, still in disbelief of it himself. "Can you believe that? Aaron Marcheti, molding young minds, young and impressionable minds."

She did not shirk beneath his gaze - the thought never even entered her head. She stared him down, the former Dark Lord, and felt completely capable of holding her own. Oh, it had been a long time since she had felt true power. Power on the pitch, over her colleagues, it was nothing compared to the power one felt when they realized they were strong enough to withstand powers that had eradicated scores of weaker souls before them. Aaron Marcheti was not a weak contender, but she was not afraid of him. She was very rarely afraid of anyone anymore. There were scarier things out there than people.

He spoke, breaking the tension that had built with her impassioned little monologue, acknowledging her fortitude. She felt her muscles relax a little, now that her willingness to do what had to be done was no longer on trial. His comment made her tick her head. "Make a great team, sure, but the competition would be boring."

Her eyebrow was liable to get lost in her hairline if it raised any higher. "You're a professor now?" A smirk twisted wryly onto her lips. "That's a little... Aren't you little over-qualified for that?"

Aaron knew that what he did and how he did it was something that most people considered to be "wrong". He thought back to his youth, when he had been an idealist, how he and his best friend were going to change the world for the better. What fools they had been, the world could not be changed, only a mask could be pulled over it to simulate change. The only person he had ever sought out to protect was dead, he could not protect him, so why would he waste his time with others? He had been betrayed by his own logic too young to believe it was anything but a waste to look out for anyone but ones self.

"Yes, but, the world could benefit from two minds working together such as ours." They would never see eye to eye enough to work together, he knew that. They understood each other, at least he believed so, and that was why they tolerated the company of the other. One day he might need her, and if he so requested, he believed she would heed the call. Whether or not Aaron would himself, well, that was another debate.

"Over qualified? Me? The simple wand maker who is always willing to go out of his way to do a good deed?" He spoke sarcastically and in an incredulous voice, almost in a mocking tone, but meant as a joke. "I just want to help lead the next generation into the future. I hear they are still hiring, maybe being a team isn't such a crazy idea after all."

Jack wished his words could be true. How interesting a world it could be if she and Aaron Marcheti could ever manage to jump on the same team and work together. If she could make him believe as she believed, they could fix the world. If he could make her believe as he believed, they could rule.

But they were also stubborn, and set, and certain. Jack wanted a world in which people didn't watch their best friends die at the hands of an ally, a world in which you didn't have to erase yourself from the mind of the first man you loved and send him away forever. Jack had come into the wizarding world with the promise that everything was going to be better, and then had found that it would not be until she made it so. So was her commission.

Until then, Aaron was a respected colleague. Someone who she could appreciate for his talent and intelligence, even if she did not necessarily appreciate the ways he put these qualities to use. But Jack was finding she had less and less contemporaries. Beggars could not be choosers.

She ticked his head at his suggestion, gritting her teeth. "Guardian, Unspeakable, Quidditch, and I have a project or two of my own up my sleeve. Your offer would have to be very pretty to tempt me to hand over my sanity."