Hi All!

'Nother chapter of With My life for you, sorry for the delay! If I don't post anything else before Christmas, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a brilliant 2009.

Thanks :D

Sarah ;) xxx

Chapter 5 - Weighing up the Odds

...

The clunk of a heavy bottle upon his glass brought Jasper from the remains of his dinner.

'Top up, Jas?'

Jasper looked up at his brother, then at the bottle of what he knew to be extra potent mead from Knockturn Alley.

'No-'

John poured the mead into Jasper's glass.

'...thank you,' he finished with a glare at his brother. John grinned at him.

'If I splinch myself going home, I'm using your body for spares.'

John laughed loudly and fell back in his dining chair. 'I'm flattered you think my body worthy of being used for spares.'

Jasper looked over John and mentally tallied up the years of smoking, drinking and general abuse he knew his brother's body had been through.

'Yeah, actually on second thoughts, I'll do without.'

John smirked and put the bottle of mead to his lips.

'Ah! We'll have none of that at the table. You have a glass in front of you!'

Jasper couldn't help but chuckle at his mother's chastisement of his brother.

John huffed and filled his glass before downing most of the contents in one.

'Oh! Jasper, I forgot to ask. How did the job interview go?'

Jasper's stomach squirmed a little. He didn't really want to bring up his past misdoings and how they affected his working life at the dinner table, but he knew if he didn't then his twin most likely would.

'I think it went okay, all things considering, but there was a couple of issues Miss Granger has to think about before she lets me know.'

'Your criminal record being the main one, I presume,' John said with a smirk.

Jasper gave his brother a look of annoyance. 'Yes, thank you, John, that was one of the things she had a concern with, but I was honest with her and all I can do is see what happens. I didn't even expect to get this far, but I have, so who knows!'

'Department of Magical Law, isn't it, Jasper?'

Jasper looked up at his eldest brother and nodded. 'Yeah, it is.'

Jack nodded. 'Um, I hate to be negative, Jas, but, they check your immediate family, too, and, well, not wishing to point the finger or anything but...'

'Oh, here we go!' John said as he took a swig from his bottle.

'John, I won't tell you again about that!'

'Well, I'm sorry, John, but you're hardly a shining example of living by the letter of the law, are you?' Jack replied, justifying his earlier statement.

'Neither's Jasper! That's why he wasn't offered the job outright!'

'Yes, but Jasper can palm his record off as being an immature teenager who'd taken the wrong road. You, on the other hand, are supposed to be an adult so you don't have that luxury anymore!'

John glared at his brother, put his bottle on the table harder than was necessary and left the table.

'Pudding in five minutes, love,' Jasper's mum said cheerfully as John left the room.

She and the rest of the family started clearing plates and glasses while Jasper and Jack stayed in their seats.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to put a downer on your chances, but I think they do look into your family's past,' Jack said quietly.

Jasper's dad walked back into the room. 'I'm not sure if I like people snooping around our family. It's none of their bloody business what we do with our lives.'

Both Jasper and Jack ignored their father's mutterings and waited until he had left the room with a huff before continuing their conversation.

'I'm only applying for an assistant's job, though. It's not as if I'm applying to work for any position to do with prosecution or defence or anything. I'll be filing paperwork, making appointments and keeping Miss Granger's life as simple and as easy for her as possible. Maybe they don't do background checks for something this small.'

Jasper's sister walked through looking irritated. 'Cream or ice cream with your apple pie?'

'Ice cream,' Jasper replied.

'Me, too, thanks, Soph,' Jack said with a smile.

Sophie left the room and Jasper glanced at his brother.

'You might be right,' Jack said with an optimistic smile. 'I suppose there's no point in speculating, especially when there's nothing you can do to change things.'

Jasper nodded and went to pick up his glass before realising it had been tidied up.

Jack smiled. 'Probably a good thing, considering what John was putting in there.'

Jasper snorted. 'Yep, probably a very good-.'

John banged his way through the door smelling of smoke and something that Jasper knew to not be entirely legal. His brother landed on the chair next to Jasper and coughed a hacking cough before grimacing and rubbing his chest with his fist.

'You okay there, dick'ead?' Jasper said with a smirk.

'Thank you for asking, cock'ead, I'm fine!'

'We'll have none of that language in this house, you hear me?'

Jasper smiled at his mum who had walked into the dining room carrying bowls of apple pie, which she put down in front of them harder than was absolutely necessary.

Jasper eagerly picked up his spoon and set about eating his pudding.

'Thanksh- har! that's hot!,' Jasper said through a mouthful of hot apple and pastry.

'The steam rising from it didn't give that away then, Jasper?' Sophie asked as she patiently blew on her own spoonful of pie.

Jasper pulled a sarcastic smile at his sister before his eyes landed on his twin.

Carrying and using a Class C tradable drug, possibly with the intent to supply. Possibility of purchasing dodgy alcohol from a known law breaker. Fake designer watch on his wrist...

Jasper shovelled more pudding onto his spoon and wisely blew on it to cool it down. His eyes glazed over and he stared through the wall in front of him.

Not a Salamander's hope in winter!

…

'What are you thinking?'

Hermione smiled at Ron's question. She opened her eyes and watched him shuffle under the covers towards her. He propped himself on his elbow and stroked Hermione's stray hair out of her eyes.

'Not a lot.'

Ron snorted. 'Okay, you're lying, it's impossible for you not to be thinking a huge amount!'

Hermione laughed. 'I do relax and chill out at some time, you know!'

'Well, yeah, but I can tell when you're mind's working overtime, even when you're trying to go to sleep. You frown ever so slightly. Most people wouldn't notice. But I'm not most people.'

Hermione smiled and ran her hands through Ron's hair. 'Nope, you're definitely not most people.'

'So, I don't actually think I need to ask what you were thinking about.'

'Probably not, no.'

'I'll say it again, you don't have to make a decision until tomorrow, and even then you can take your time!'

'I know,' Hermione replied with a sigh.

Ron leaned over her and kissed her lightly on the lips. Hermione responded in kind and raked her fingers through his hair.

Slowly, he ran his hand down her side, which made her shiver lightly. She smiled against his lips. He pulled his leg over hers, which pinned her to the mattress. It was then that he dug his fingers into her ribs and started tickling her.

'Ron!' Hermione screeched through involuntary laughter. 'Stop it! This is…r-really m…mean!'

Ron merely grinned down at her and continued to tickle her. After a few more seconds, she managed to get wiggle her hand out from between their bodies and attacked his ribs.

Ron would never admit how high-pitched his squeak was, but Hermione had something to giggle at. Or she would have when she'd won this battle.

'Do I win?' Ron asked as he continued to grin at a determined looking Hermione who was reaching her arm around to the other side of his chest.

'No!' she said as Ron let out another very high-pitched squeak.

At her words, Ron shifted himself so he was lying flat on top of Hermione and she could barely move, yet he continued to tickle her.

'Okay! Okay! I give in! You win!'

Ron stopped but didn't move off her.

'Are you sure I win!'

'You know, lying on top of me is cheating, and dare I ask why you started tickling me in such a manner?'

Ron shifted his weight so he wasn't lying totally on top of Hermione. 'You needed something to stop you thinking about work. A short shock achieved that, I think!'

'Well, it certainly did that.'

'See! I'm a genius, and I'm also likely to start tickling you if I think you're thinking about work, so you'd better start thinking about something else, Hermione Granger, or else you shall be tickled!'

Hermione laughed and pushed him off her.

'I shall be careful not to think about work, then. Well, not until I wake up.'

'Good. But you can't dream about it, either, because I will know and will wake you up at a ridiculous time in the morning to tell you to stop!'

'Well, you woke me up at a ridiculous time this morning because you are insatiable even when sleeping!'

'Can't help waking up, seeing you next to me and wanting to shag you senseless!'

Hermione sighed. 'You have such a way with words, my love!'

'I know! And you love me for it!'

...

'Right, let's see what they have in store for me tonight.'

The elderly wizard picked up a stash of folders off his desk and looked at the note clipped to the top most folder.

'Ah, background checks I see. Oh, damn! That means I have to use that blasted machine in the corner.'

'Are you talking to me or yourself again, Richard?'

Richard turned and looked at the portrait behind him, mounted on the wall.

'Myself, thank you, Gerald. That way I am guaranteed intelligent conversation.'

'That, dear man is a matter of personal opinion. But I do believe I've told you over and over again that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, dear boy!'

'And I have told you, over and over again, Gerald, that some people would consider talking to a portrait of a man no longer in this world, worse than talking to one's self!'

Gerald gave an indignant 'humph' before taking a seat in his portrait.

Richard chuckled and read the note on the top of his file.

'Dear Richard, well that certainly narrows down the amount of people this could be from.'

'It's from Miss Granger, I watched her write it this afternoon.'

'Ah, so it is, please would you do a check on any criminal activity of Jasper Mills' direct family, including his mother and father, his half-brother, his elder brother and sister and his twin brother. Thank you, Hermione Granger. It will be a pleasure, Miss Granger.'

'It wasn't going to be a pleasure before, when you realised you had to turn that Muggle machine...thing on!'

'Gerald, how many times do I have to tell you, they call it a computer.'

'Oh, whatever it's called it's still Muggle technology that has the reliability of the Canons' first team Keeper!'

Richard chuckled. 'You do have a point there, but it's been working fine recently, quite efficiently, in fact. I think keeping my wand as far away from the thing as possible is a good course of action to follow.'

He took his wand out of his pocket and put it on his desk near the entrance to the archives.

'Well, I shall leave you in peace, Richard, it is rather late, you know. I still have no idea why you choose to work the Sunday evening shift, but I learned better than to question your eccentricities a long time ago. Have a good evening, old boy. I shall see you soon.'

'Evening, Gerald. Sleep well.'

Richard made his way past the tall and seemingly ongoing shelves, full of parchment, files and folders, to the back of the extremely wide, but not very deep, room.

There was an old, battered monitor standing on an even older and even more battered computer.

He pulled out the chair and sat his old, tired bones on the seat. He switched the machine on and saw the monitor flicker to life.

'Well, that's promising!' Richard said with a chuckle.

He double-checked the name of the family he was researching and, when the computer had booted up and taken him to the system he needed to access, typed in that name. After a few keystrokes, he had found the first person he was looking for. He commanded the computer to list all records of a criminal nature for him. The list appeared.

'Oh, dear. Oh dear, oh dear.'

Taking his Quick Quotes Quill out of his pocket he stood it on its point and started dictating the list of offences to the quill.

As he was about to say the last of the offences, all the candles in the archives went out at once.

Startled, Richard immediately felt round for his wand before remembering that he had left it at the entrance to the archives.

He was about to stand when he heard the swish of robes to his left.

'Hello? Who's there?' he asked.

He heard footsteps come towards him and stood up to meet whoever was in the archives and who had, apparently, plunged him into darkness.

'Who's there? At least have the decency to show yourself!'

Richard felt someone stand very close to him; he didn't move a muscle.

'Now where's the fun in that, old man? And if I did this, so you could see me, you'd be able to add another crime to that list your making, and I can't have that. Especially when that's the reason I'm here.'

'But- what-?'

Blinding pain across his forehead caused him to lose his train of thought, and he fell to his knees.

'Sleep well, old man, it'll all be over soon.'