To be perfectly honest, Zach's love life was not at the top of her priority list that week. She had a dozen other things on her mind. At home on her desk was a half-written scandal letter about Ellory Lestrange and Reuben Crouch, which she wasn't sure yet that she would even finish, much less send in to the hungry editors at Witch Weekly. More pressingly, she still had not responded to the letter she'd received signed Kieran Abernathy, and she knew that if she didn't manage to write something soon it would start to look strange. He'd ended his last letter with a question, as he often did; he clearly wanted a response. And besides those things, there was Lachlan MacFusty, and besides that, there was still her research and her work and her mother's bemoaning her recent scandal and her whole life, really. So when Zach said that something had happened with Jo, her first thought had been what inconvenient timing.
But she loved her brother, so she'd offered a sympathetic ear, at least. She could not offer much in the way of advice, because she was already operating at capacity and could not take on any more problems to fix — at least not until she had cleared some of her own. And, really, she didn't know what to say. She had expected... maybe not this, but something like this, since she'd discovered them in his flat prior to Christmas. The way that Jo had announced she was going to be leaving the country and her brother apparently hadn't heard about it yet had never settled with her into something that felt right. She knew Zach well, and it was obvious to her how much he cared about Jo Smith. She knew people well, too, and much as she tried to hide it, it had seemed apparent to her then that Miss Smith was... restless, perhaps. But saying well, it was going to happen sooner or later would not have comforted Zach, so she did not say anything at all, beyond nodding and making vague remarks of sympathy.
Then she spotted her, in Diagon Alley, and much as she would have preferred to have kept walking Juliana knew Zach would have wanted her to at least try. So: "Miss Smith," she called, overly cheerful. "Fancy running into you again."
Jules
But she loved her brother, so she'd offered a sympathetic ear, at least. She could not offer much in the way of advice, because she was already operating at capacity and could not take on any more problems to fix — at least not until she had cleared some of her own. And, really, she didn't know what to say. She had expected... maybe not this, but something like this, since she'd discovered them in his flat prior to Christmas. The way that Jo had announced she was going to be leaving the country and her brother apparently hadn't heard about it yet had never settled with her into something that felt right. She knew Zach well, and it was obvious to her how much he cared about Jo Smith. She knew people well, too, and much as she tried to hide it, it had seemed apparent to her then that Miss Smith was... restless, perhaps. But saying well, it was going to happen sooner or later would not have comforted Zach, so she did not say anything at all, beyond nodding and making vague remarks of sympathy.
Then she spotted her, in Diagon Alley, and much as she would have preferred to have kept walking Juliana knew Zach would have wanted her to at least try. So: "Miss Smith," she called, overly cheerful. "Fancy running into you again."
Prof. Marlowe Forfang
Jules