And so our story begins

When he heard the news that he was going to be an auror, Jack could hardly contain his excitement. He had been waiting for this day for a very long time now and now that it was here he did not know what to do. Breaking the news to his parents was not an easy task, but they understood and knew it was coming. He loved both of them, and they loved him, but all three of them knew that he was not meant to work behind a desk.

He spent the day after receiving the news wandering the streets, unsure of what to do with himself. He had not been on the job yet, but he was starting very soon and he was more excited then when he first found out he was going to Hogwarts. He wanted to prove that he was a great wizard and that his power with magic was not something to be meddled with. He knew better than to overestimate people, but he also knew of his own skill and he knew he was not an easy foe himself.

Caught up in all of his excitement, he did not realize he was walking into a crowd of people. He had spent his day looking at the ground with a huge smile on his face and was not paying attention to where he was going. Like a fool, he bumped into someone, knocking himself backwards and then looking up to see whom he had bumped into. He already felt like a fool.

London was brimming people. It was insane and Phaedra was beginning to question whether it was a good idea to have moved there instead of somewhere in the countryside. Although she had wanted the hubbub of the city and she had wanted to be in the thick of it all but she hadn’t wanted all of this. No, this was far too much. She’d spent the morning in one of London’s libraries, reading up on some of the new medical procedures that the Muggles did. She was eager to also learn about vampire and werewolf folklore. Most of the texts that the Muggles dismissed were actually corrected in the magical sense and Phaedra wanted to read up on some notes.

She had done just that and had even managed to convince the librarian to give her some of the older tomes that she’d picked out from the dark, dusty shelves at the very back of the library. She now found herself in the heart of London, desperately clutching the books to her chest that she hadn’t been able to fit in her bag. The quilted messenger bag kept slipping off of her shoulder and she was afraid of losing all of the notes she’d put into there. Phaedra caught her bag once more and had made one vital mistake. She’d not been watching where she’d been going.

Phaedra collided with a soft but firm chest and in a second felt herself on the floor. The papers flew up in the air and landed around her. The crowd seemed to have taken a bypass around her and one other person. She rubbed the base of her spine with her hand and winced a little. “Ow.” She mumbled. Phae looked around and saw a man who looked equally as disorientated. “I am so sorry. Are you alright?” she asked, thinking of him first and then her papers. She bit her lip and tried to gather some of them in before the wind took them away. “I should have been watching where I was going.”

Jack felt like a fool when he looked down to see that he had knocked over a woman and sent her papers sprawling everywhere. He could feel his face getting a little flushed because he was embarrassed and could not believe what he had done. The worst part was, she was trying to take the blame for something that was completely his fault and he was just standing there like a loony looking at her. Shaking his head, he went into action.

"Nonsense, it was my fault! Here I will get everything." He scurried to collect her papers, not taking no for an answer. He would have shoved passed her to collect all of her things. He probably looked like a raging fool running around getting papers that were blowing out into the street, but he did not care. He was now determined to get everything for the woman he had just knocked over. After a few seconds, and a particularly rough paper to catch, brought everything back to her and handed her the crumpled papers.

"A little crumpled, but I am pretty sure I got everything," he said, handing her the papers and standing awkwardly in front of her. "Please don't try and take the blame, it was one hundred percent my fault and I am determined to make it up to you. Do you want to get a coffee or something?"

After a few moments to gather herself together, Phaedra got to her feet and picked up her bag. She smiled at the man and watched as he scrambled around for her notes. He seemed genuinely ready to make it up to her but there was nothing to forgive. She was equally responsible but she doubted he could see that. She hadn’t been paying attention to where she was walking in a huge crowd of people. She felt her cheeks warm up and bent down to pick up her dog-eared book and the old tome which she’d been hugging to her chest. She smiled at him again and took the papers from him. She slipped them inside the book and hugged it back to her chest.

“Thank you.” She said, straightening herself up. “Don’t blame yourself. I wasn’t paying attention either.” She laughed lightly and shook her head. This was so bizarre. It wasn’t often things like that happened to her and it wasn’t often she found herself with a man offering to get coffee with her. It was odd but nice in some way. “Sure.” She smiled. “I’m Phaedra by the way.”

He nodded his head when she said thank you and was tempted to say something else when she continued to say it was her own fault. He refused to place the blame on her, but she seemed just as persistent as he was so he did not push the topic any further. During the whole ordeal he had not received a chance to look closely at the person who he had hit, and when he did he almost smiled. She was a very attractive women, but he quickly pushed the thoughts out of his head. He could not have her thinking he was a pervert.

"Awesome," He said with a smile when she agreed to get coffee with him. He was looking for a person to talk to not even a few minutes ago and when she agreed to have coffee with him it made him feel a little bit better about what he had done. It meant she did not completely resent him for what he did. "Pleasure to meet you Phaedra, even under the circumstances. I am Jack." He smiled and gave a little bow in a joking way to try and lighten the mood.

"So what brings you out and about today?" He said, trying to start conversation.

She didn’t know if he was going to try and take the blame again but she was glad when he didn’t. She hugged her books to her chest again and smiled at his antics. He was definitely not like she’d seen before. She hadn’t quite known what to expect upon her arrival to England but everything seemed pretty peachy from what she could see. She had seen no signs of the so called war that there apparently was. Everything seemed pretty perfect in her eyes but she had yet to learn about most of it. She smiled at him and pretended to curtsy despite the fact she was wearing jeans. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Jack.” She laughed.

She raised an eyebrow at him. Surely it was obvious. She had to feed the bookworm inside of her. No, it wasn’t like that really. It was more work orientated although it was a bit weird – she wasn’t sure if he’d really understand why. People did find vampire research odd. “The call of blood.” She joked. “No, I was actually reading some old folktales on vampires. That’s probably a little weird...” her cheeks flushed with colour and she looked down at her feet. “I think that being able to cure them or create a substitute for human blood could be a medical breakthrough. I just wanted to do a bit of research. What about you?"