Jamie shrugged one shoulder, a gesture more careless than his tone. "Grandma Molly's opinion stopped mattering to me when she sent Al a howler over a decision made by a hat." He could be as stubborn as his father when warranted. "Much as I hate to encourage your paranoid streak, in this case, I don't think you're wrong on that one. Not that any of you were sharing too much information with 'the kids'. But, there were plenty of cut-off conversations, non sequitor statements, 'just in case' plans, and commentary in the papers to paint a pretty ugly picture."
"She is that." It wasn't worth pointing out that the younger man seemed to be going out of his way to explain this away as just Aunt Luna being Aunt Luna and there was nothing special about Lilu for it. "There has to be some mention of them in one of the papers. That many dragons don't just disappear. For that matter, has anyone tried to reach out to Uncle Charlie? He was still splitting his time between here and Romania in my time. Maybe he survived? Maybe he was there when this all went down."
Sighing, Jamie rolled his eyes. "That wasn't meant as a jab. Everyone has done something to deserve it at one point or another. It's called being human. She just won't hear it if it's you. Absolutely refuses." He shook his head. "Keep telling yourself that," he said with a laugh. "But, yeah, I had the Map, even if you made me 'knick' it from you." Really, it hadn't been until he'd thought about it after leaving school that he realized there was no way his father 'accidentally' left his desk drawer unprotected and Jamie hadn't been that good at thirteen that he could have broken through any of the spells he knew his father was capable of casting.
"I get that you're not asking that. It's why I'm apologizing for my initial reaction. So, yes, we can spend some time working with Uncle Ron. And, yes, I'd like to spend some time together, just the two of us." There would be time enough to talk about the lack of a relationship between him and his father in 2038 when they weren't in the middle of casting complicated magic, though. So, he let the rest lie in order to focus on the task at hand.
"Isn't that how the best magic starts? 'Guess we can see...'?" Jamie matched his dad's grin. This was the sort of thing he loved. Cursebreaking hadn't been just some way to thumb his nose at his father. Pitting his magic against someone else's, especially someone equally as powerful? Not knowing until the very end if he'd been smart enough or if he was going to end up with a rotting leg or something? This was the sort of challenge he thrived on. Before he began, he set out some protective runes along the perimeter of the 'game'. Just in case he was wrong, they should contain most sorts of spells or power surges. Then he conjured up a set of giant chessmen and got to work.
Having the moves mapped out already meant he could move smoothly through what would have usually been a steady dance of advance and retreat. Although he didn't move too quickly, just in case moving too fast was as bad as moving too slow, he kept the pace steady, still faster than the average game would go if the players were thinking about their moves. Once he got to the position right before the bishop's sacrifice, he paused, took a deep breath, shot his dad a muttered here goes nothing, and then moved the black bishop in to check the white king. When nothing happened, he made the next move, white queen takes black bishop.
And then the black knight moved into checkmate, followed a moment later by the sound of wood sliding against stone behind him.