I'm Not Happy With You (Jack)

Aurora wasn't sure what Jack was playing at. He had been gone for so long and all of a sudden out of the blue he returns, claiming that he had been sent to another dimension! Of course Aurora did not believe this! How could he have just left her like that! She had been alone, heartbroken, and he had not even bothered to try and get in contact with her! Now he wanted to waltz back into her life like it was no big deal! Well it was a big deal...it was a very big deal! She had loved him, still loved him, and he had the audacity to up and leave her!

Going over her werewolf essays she sniffled, she had been crying in the private of her own office...unable to face the world with him being out and about. She hated that she loved him so much, she was so upset that words would never fully comprehend it. Tears would fall and then stop, then fall again, and slap against her desk like little crystal shards.

Marking an essay as a T she continued to her next one. This one caused her hand to shake a bit. She had not left her office all day...and with it being a little bit closer to midnight that was not a good thing. It was the beginning of Saturday and she had not dared to leave the comfort of her little office since. Not since she had learned that Jack had returned.

Marking another essay she stopped when she heard the door to her office open. Looking up she waited to see who the intruder was...and if they had an early death wish planned out for this semester.

She was avoiding him, that much was clear. Jack grumbled, he was so annoyed with himself, but really it wasn't his fault that he'd been away for so long and not able to contact. Aurora didn't believe him when he said he'd been banished to Australia by an evil hag but it was as true as the hair on his head. He shook his floppy brown hair out of his eyes as he thought about his time 'down under'. It had been terrible to say the least. The curse he'd been put under had forbidden him to contact anyone he knew and loved and was supposed to keep him in Australia for the rest of his life. That was the last time he played poker with a group of stranger in the Leaky Cauldron ever again. Jack was an intelligent man although looking at him you wouldn't have thught so. He'd been able to break the curse after a vast amount of research and help from the Australian Ministry. The hag hadn't taken them into account. Jack still chuckled to himself when he thought about it. If the old hag could have been there to see him when he'd had his first meeting with the Australian Minister for Magic.

"What a calamity though," he murmured to himself as he walked towards Aurora's office. He hadn't seen or heard from her all day and he was worried. He knew what she was like when it came to things like this. She would hole herself up in her office and work herself to death before she would confront him in public. Not that she wasn't a strong woman, of course she was and she could hex him under the table any day but this was just how she worked when it came to them.

"It's now or never," he whispered as he pushed open her door and entered in. There she was at her desk, a ray of light in his darkness. Jack couldn't help but smile when he seen Aurora Maddox. Her beauty was classic, like an old time muggle movie star. She was flawless and as perfect as a white lily.

"We need to talk my love," he said a little more confidently than he had intended. Something about her made him feel like more of a man and he loved her for that as he wasn't really much of a man to look at.

Aurora looked up at him and felt her glare deepen. How dare he call her his love! He had left her, abandoned her, he did not want her! And yet he came in with this air of confidence and called her his love! And although she quivered when he uttered her name, or referred to her as his love...it did not change what had happened! She had cried herself ill when she realized he wasn't coming back, and her son had been forced to care for her for a little over a week.

She remained silent as he addressed her and continued forward, she was not going to answer him...was not going to say a single word...because she knew that if she dared to utter a single syllable she would just fall into a deep state of heart break and tears. And that was not something she wanted to do in front of Jack. She wanted to be strong in front of him...she wanted to prove that she was over him...that him leaving her had not hurt her the way it had...but it did...and because it did she was still in love with him.

"What do you want?" she whispered.

Instantly he could tell that she was severely annoyed at him and Jack couldn't help but gulp down the terror he suddenly felt. Aurora was a terrifying woman when she was angry at a person and ever though Jack loved her with a passion so intense that he often got overwhelmed by it he would always be scared of her when she was in a horrific mood. Now was not the time however to be a whimp, he had to take the imaginary bull byt the horns and deal with this if he was ever to get his woman back again.

"Like I said we need to talk about what has been happening over the past few months. The most obvious question that needs answered is the question of why I disappeared. I know you may not believe me my darling but I was banished to Australia by a bitter old hag who was a very sore loser. If you do not believe me then give me the veritaserum I will take it willingly and you can question me until the cows come home."

Jack ran his fingers through his floppy brown hair and scratched the back of his head. He didn't want to use veritaserum but if it was the only way Aurora was going to believe him then he would do it. His free hand found his jeans pocket were a small lump was sitting. He patted it for courage. If things went well then this little mystery in his pocket could be brought into the ocassion.

"I did not leave you Rory why would I do something so stupid? I've never loved anyone as much as I love you I don't think I could. I tried to contact you my love but I was prevented by the damn curse. If I could have contacted you you would have broken that thing in a matter of seconds because you are the smartest witch I have ever met and I bet you would have hunted that hag down and showed her who was boss," he told her in a sincere fashion as he started to rock back and forth on the balls of his feet, as was his habit.

"I know that you may never be able to forgive me but i'm here now to ask you to try."

Aurora had always been one of those women that had the worse time when it came to forgiving people. She had never forgiven her father for the Hell she had been put through when she was a child, and she also spent many years of her life hating Severus Snape because he had been too much of a prat to let her keep her baby girl. But when time went by she found herself letting go of past grudges, excluding the one that involved her evil, asshole, of a father. She looked at Jack, feeling her eyes burn within their sockets. She wanted to take him in her arms, or to be taken in his arms. She wanted to make believe that none of this hurt her, and that while he was gone it did not feel like her heart had repeatedly ripped itself in two.

"You...left...me," she whimpered, her voice choking with sobs. "You left me here... all alone...when you promised not to!"

And although Aurora had made no real acknowledgment of the promise when it had been first made, she had believed in it. She had believe it with all of her heart and she still wanted to believe it. Words could not describe how upset she had been when she had waited for Jack...how much she had hoped to marry him and having his child...but he had disappeared, and banishment or not that did not make it hurt any less!

Aurora gave her heart to him, and he still held it in his hand. But she did not want it to be crushed or broken anymore than what it already was. And it was not that she did not trust Jack, it was the fact that when it came to love she did not particularly trust herself. She knew that the man in front of her had no desire to hurt her, but the fact still remained that she had been hurt regardless.

The tears that had been boiling up in her eyes began to trickle down her cheeks, and soon she found herself having to look away from Jack. Aurora was a woman that did not like crying in front of others, and with Jack being gone for so long it seemed that all of her tears had welled up within themselves.

For a split second Jack's blood boiled with rage. Yes he had promised never to leave and he'd meant it with every fibre of his being but he'd been banished for Merlin's sake. It was something he hadn't taken into consideration? What was he supposed to say instead...'I promise to never leave you with the exception of an occassional banishment to Australia?' The fire that was his temper quickly died out however when Aurora turned away from him and started to cry. Oh how he hated seeing her cry. He'd seen her cry so many time and still he couldn't handle it. Seeing her cry made him want to cry and he couldn't cry right now, he had to be the strong man in this situation.

"Look at me Aurora," he said in a tonne which was firm yet gentle. This was the only wayt to get through to her, being a weak, whimpering man wouldn't suffice now.

"I promised to never leave you and I stick by it. I was banished, something which was out of my hands. I love you Aurora but how do you think I felt? Some evil old hag took me away from you. I couldn't write, I couldn't call and the most heart wrenching of all was that I couldn't see you. I broke down. I cried till I could cry no more and then I went balistic...completely crazy. The thought of you back here, all alone, drove me to the point where I started cursing the very air around me with my wand just to see if that would break the bloody curse." Jack stopped here and took a deep breath. The emotions of that very first day in Australia were still raw in his mind. He hadn't recognised himself when he'd finally been found out in the bush. The anger bubbled under the surface of his skin and he clenched his fists.

"In my time of need I didn't think about myself Aurora I thought about you," Jack said in a deadpan voice which reminded him of how he'd sounded when he'd been found. He felt his resolve leave him and he found that he couldn't be in the room anymore. The little lump in his pocket would have to wait for another day when his one and only love was feeling a little less...self absorbed. Jack had been through a terrible ordeal and he needed her to just be herself so he could talk to her about it, to get it all out of his system so that he could go on with his life. The last thing he wanted right now was a fight which was just what this conversation was going to turn into if he didn't leave now.

"Clearly you don't want to see me. I'll leave you to your marking," Jack said in a voice so devoid of emotion he actually scared himself slightly. Slowly he turned and made his way to the office door, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Aurora glared, it was clear that wherever the Hell Jack had been sent it had changed him. And she did not like it one bit, she was not going to chase him. It was clear that he did not want to be near her...and as much as it hurt her she would not make him stay. If he wanted to just walk out of her office door than that was fine. But he was not going to be able to walk back into her life like nothing happened. She no longer cared if he claimed to be sent to Australia, but for him to just leave like that...it just made her see more clearly.

"Fine," she hissed. "Get out."

She was angry again, going through bi-polar emotions that would make Voldemort gawk. Speaking of Voldemort...Severus and her had a meeting later in the night to speak about her certain obligations...to him and the school. Of course it was something she really did not want to do, but she had done it for years now. And she could not just stop.

Opening her desk drawer she felt more tears roll down her face at what met her. It was a picture someone had taken of the two of them on their first date. Aurora had been so nervous...she acted calm and collected, but she had been more nervous than anything. Sighing she took the photo out and sat it on her desk.

Those were memories now...she could not face Jack...it was just not in her nature to fight for love. Mostly because she knew that all love died within time. It had died between her and Ronan first, it had died between her and Severus, and now it was going to die between her and Jack. And her, being the idiot woman that she was, was completely powerless to stop it in its efforts.

"I love you." she whispered, her own tone matching the defeat his shoulders radiated.

Jack stopped at the open door and stared out into the corridor which was completely empty of it's student activity. Her whisper seemed to echo around him in the air in fact it seemed to become tangible before his very eyes. He felt a familiar tickling sensation at the top of his nose which told him that he was going to cry. He breathed deeply and as he turned to look at her the tears spilled out of his eyes and down his flushed cheeks.

"I love you too Aurora Maddox." His voice was a whisper and was choked with emotion but he meant every word of it.

"I love you so much it hurts," Jack said a little stronger as the tears continued to fall. He wasn't embarrassed that he was crying, in fact he was glad of it. Crying was better than shouting in Jack's opinion. As he looked at the woman of his dreams he couldn't help but get severely overwhelmed by what he was feeling.

"You're my everything," he let out as he sank to the floor. His legs could no longer support him and he knew he looked like a desperate fool but Aurora made him feel like that sometimes. He looked towards her, his floppy brown hair getting in his eyes and his cheeks flushing furiously.

"I need you."