Upon arrival at the castle, the two were informed that there was a meeting in the throne room with the Royal Household (Royal Family and Servants employed at the castle) and the council members. The men burst into the room, uncaring of the commotion they caused in doing so. James walked straight up to his Parents, standing before their thrones.
"What happened?" He queried. He felt Teddy come to a stop just behind him.
Queen Ginevra Molly was the one to reply, "Lady Vane was found dead in her chambers. Lady Hermoine took a look at her body, and suspects a form of poison. She was just in the middle of her report when you arrived." She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the pair, gesturing to the Court Physician to continue. Lady Hermione was a close friend to the King growing up, and had found that her intellectual talents and ability to scold misbehaviour made her the perfect Court Physician. James had found himself on the wrong end of one of her lectures many a time.
He bowed apologetically to his parents before stepping to stand behind their thrones, sending an alarmed look across at Teddy before letting the brown-haired healer continue.
"As I was saying," She shot a wry smile at the Prince and his companion, "Whilst the circumstances of Lady Romilda's death did seem to match the symptoms of poison, the poison in question can be found easily, and is in fact edible normally but poisonous in large or concentrated quantities. Therefore, whilst it may at first appear to be an act of malicious intent, we need to consider that it may have been an accident."
King Harry nodded in thanks to Hermione before standing from his Throne, Queen Ginny joining him in this action, "The Council and I will look into this death with haste. If there has been foul play, the culprit will be punished appropriately. However, until we find evidence of this, the situation will be treated as an unfortunate incident." Then the ruling couple left the Throne Room, leaving the rest of the members in attendance to start discussing the situation between themselves.
James headed over to Hermione, who was currently talking with Lady Minerva. They both turned to him when they noticed his approach, and he soon felt as his siblings came up alongside him to join the conversation.
"Sorry to interrupt." He apologised to the two women.
"Not at all, Prince James. I was just leaving." Said the eldest of the group, "But I expect to see you at the emergency council meeting tomorrow." She looked at him sternly before walking in the direction of the doors. The oldest Prince turned to Hermione as Teddy started enquiring about the circumstances of the tragedy.
"Truthfully, do you think it was an unfortunate accident or something more worrying?" He asked, an anxious tone to his voice. James didn't blame him. If there was a murderer about then it would definitely need dealing with as quickly as possible.
"It's just what I said to everyone else. It could be foul play but it could equally just be an accident. As Lady Minerva stated, there will be a meeting tomorrow. I will be there also, after having done a proper check over the body. We will decide on a plan for how we're going to look into it – searches and interviews, things like that." Hermione replied diplomatically.
Teddy nodded, and looked over to James. Said man nodded towards the doors, and the older took this as a cue to head in that direction, saying goodbye to the Physician as he went. James followed quickly behind him, waving to Hermione as she entered conversation with the youngest two of the royal family.
Once the two had gotten outside, Teddy put his hands on James' shoulders. "You alright?"
"Yeah." He sighed, letting his shoulders relax with the release of breath. "I'm just hoping that this isn't bad news." He let himself be pulled into a gentle hug from the 25-year-old, relaxing further as he did so. After a several moments, he pulled out of the contact with a soft, "Thanks."
"You're Welcome." Teddy said, equally as soft. "Now, I was thinking of heading to the library to find something interesting. Care to join me?"
"Sure," The Prince said, deciding that the distraction would be good. They fell into step with each other towards the library, arriving there fairly quickly. The oldest Prince quickly settled into his favourite seat. Well, seat was generous. It was actually a window that he had placed numerous blankets and cushions in until it had started to resemble a chair. The staff had quickly learnt to leave it as it was. When he was comfortable, James rummaged around under the cushions until he found the book he was part way through reading. He had learnt from a young age that he had to hide the books he was reading if he wanted to finish them any time soon. It seemed that being the heir to the throne with two younger siblings meant that everything he wanted to read, they wanted to read too.
He looked up from the book when he felt a body settle on the seat next to him. Teddy grinned at him as he slotted himself into the remaining space on the windowsill-cum-seat. This action resulted in him being mostly curled around James. It didn't surprise the Prince at all that he was comfortable with the comfort, after all he'd known the older man since his own Birth. But the introduction of their imminent marriage made him more aware of the fact that his objections to the match weren't concerning the person at all. He wouldn't say he felt romantically for the older man. But he would say that he couldn't in the future.
He adjusted the way he was sitting, leaving his legs hanging over Teddy's and his side up against Teddy's chest. This enabled him to study the other without causing suspicion. Looks wise, Teddy was attractive. Nice eyes, soft looking hair, well groomed with obvious care for hygiene. And the council were right, they had always gotten along. Teddy could make him laugh, calm him down and he could equally make him unnecessarily angry when he wanted to (which was rare).
Apparently, there's only so much staring he could get away with before Teddy looked up from his own book with a curious look in his eyes.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, don't worry." He smiled reassuringly. "Just lost in thought."
He may not be in love with Teddy, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a very happy future with him. And who knows – maybe the love part will be solved over time?
Lord Cormac was the first of the council members to bring up the key topic of the meeting the next day.
"Well, while all this small talk is grand, this is an emergency meeting. It was called for a reason; can we address it please?" He asked, arrogance filling his tone, much to the disapproval of the older members of the council.
The King turned to Hermione, who took this as her cue to report her findings, "By the looks of the evidence found with the body, Lady Vane appears to have ingested a common mushroom that can be found in most local forests that span across Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. As I stated yesterday, they may have been picked accidentally and served as food. However, that does appear unlikely, I'm afraid. If that had been the case, there should have been more than one occurrence of illness or death."
James swallowed unhappily. Who knew what this could mean for the kingdom? As a council member was targeted, then there would be an impact upon the Kingdom itself. At the moment Gryffindor had no Head of Health, Accidents and Catastrophes.
Whilst James had been stuck in thought, his Father had turned to Lord Kingsley with his eyebrows drawn into a deep frown, "Kingsley. I want you to have your men to find out which of the serving staff were in the forest in the last few weeks. Find out what they were doing and have their stories corroborated." Said man nodded, sitting back in his seat. "Aberforth, I want you to make sure that an announcement is made noting Romilda's passing. But I want the story to be that it was an honest mistake, with nobody at fault. The interviews to take place are to ensure that no other accidents occur. This will hopefully mean that, if it is the result of suspicious activity, the culprit will feel more secure and be more likely to make mistakes in their attempts to cover their involvement."
James always admired his Father when he acted like this. He was always told that when King Harry was young, he had been reckless and selfless. Always running into trouble and rarely finding time for the rules. It was hard to believe that seeing the man now. It was also quite daunting – was he going to have to do things like this, when he was King?
"Finally," The King stated, "I feel that it may perhaps be prudent to postpone Jamie and Teddy's wedding by a few weeks?"
James lifted his head from his hand at this. That did sound like a good idea. It would give him and Teddy more time, and it would allow more focus to be placed on finding the root of the tragedy from the day before. But the idea was quickly shot down.
"No, absolutely not!" Lady Dolores snottily refused. "The council decided on a date, we will stick to it." She then turned on James, "I know you just want to get out of this, avoid your responsibilities but you need to mature and realise that this is bigger than you!" She scolded. James scowled. The dislike between them had always been obvious, but now she was just blaming him for things he'd had no involvement in. Before he could get his say though, Teddy spoke up:
"I'm sorry to push in, Lady Dolores, but firstly I feel like you forget who you are talking to and the level of respect that you should provide. Secondly, I think you'll find that James had no involvement in this. I believe that King Harry James merely suggested it so that the Kingdom would be able to dedicate their time to the more important matters at hand." He glared.
However, the only response the young Lord received was a snarled, "There's no changing it. The council has decided."
James couldn't help but mentally sing praises to Lady Minerva when she redirected the topic of discussion to the temporary replacement of Lady Vane before they could find a more permanent appointment to the position.