Jamie laughed fondly. "Oh, all of us kids knew that if Uncle George handed you a treat, it was going to do something weird. It was half the fun of coming in here...at least until we were old enough to be given sweets to pass on to our younger siblings and cousins ourselves." Nudging his father lightly with his shoulder, he nodded. "You might have mentioned not liking prophecies once or twice." Not usually when he was sober, but Jamie didn't think that needed to be said.
"She would have," he agreed. "But, she also still has a soft spot for you and Mum both, plus you named your daughter after her. Lilu's not just anyone who showed an interest to her." At the snort, he rolled his eyes. "Uncle Charlie is hardly an idiot," he said with a laugh. "But, dragons definitely trump books any day. Romania was my second choice if cursebreaking didn't work out."
Jamie wasn't surprised that his father seemed to brush off the extent of his own popularity. In twenty-five years, he still wouldn't have truly comes to terms with his own fame. "Grandma Molly hasn't changed. She still won't hear a word against you...even if you've done something to actually deserve it." It was Jamie's turn to snort, however. "Funny how you got me around a lot of technically rules, Mr. Head Auror. Magic outside school, broom my first year, keeping the Map in the only drawer of your desk you never locked..."
He sighed. "Not joining the aurors was a real sore spot between us for the last couple years. Guess I have a knee-jerk reaction to it and working on spells was pretty much our thing, you and me." Their only thing, really. "You worked with all three of us, but I was first, you know? Never mind, it's fine. If joining Uncle Ron's team means getting to see you try to get the better of Savannah in the air, I'm there," he added with a grin." That his dad wasn't interested in sitting in his office all day wasn't a surprise, either. It was only mildly surprising that he'd lasted this long at it...voluntarily.
"It's probably not even this specific positioning," Jamie agreed, focus more on the board in front of him. "More likely the concept behind the scenario. Uncle Ron's knight sacrificing himself for your bishop to make the checkmate." Because whether his father saw it or liked it, everything and everyone sacrificed for him. "It's just easier to work backwards from a known scenario." As he spoke, Jamie conjured a smaller mirror image of the glowing board in front of him, using the second board to test the moves going backwards without jeopardizing setting off any sort of trap (however minor) that might be triggered with a wrong move or too much time between moves. It took a bit of time. He had to go back a couple moves and change things up a few times. But, he eventually had a full chart of the shortest number of moves needed to get back to that same moment when Uncle Ron had moved into check, knowing he was going to be taken out of the game and doing it anyway so his best friend could move forward. "Right. I think I've got this. You want to cover us while I do it on the board -- faster -- for real?"