Myrni was pleased with how the Year Out Adventures table was fairing at the Career Fair. Quite a few students had signed up for a portion of the summer, all of the summer or the entire year of travel with the group and Myrni was already looking forward to the end of the school year so that she could embark on it with them. It would be a nice distraction for her and hopefully by the summer's end, she could be ready to start the next school year fresh

Myrni was cautious at the Fair though, as she knew that there was a chance that Nathan would be there. She did her best to avoid the Ministry tables and when lunchtime rolled around, she dashed out of the Great Hall and planned to head upstairs to her office to eat in solitude.

Her escape was interrupted, however, by a student asking a few questions about the program. Myrni could have brushed the student off and continued on her way, but that would have been very unlike her. So she stayed and patiently addressed every question asked of her, even after she felt her spine tingle with the feeling one gets when they sense someone watching them.

As the student walked away, that same feeling compelled Myrni to turn to look back to the Great Hall entrance. Her breath caught in her throat as soon as her eyes locked onto Nathan Whitman's face—a face of which she had memorized every contour over the years of knowing him.

Along with the rest of him, Myrni silently reminded herself as she finally averted her gaze.

Myrni wanted to run but she couldn't get her feet to move from where she was. It would have been rude to bolt when he had already seen her. Still, even as she took a breath and raised her eyes again to seek out his figure in the crowd, she couldn't help but wonder if he was going to come and talk to her or turn and walk away....

Nathan wouldn't say he had a one-track mind, he was just stubborn, and ignored all his family members, and ignored that nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he should wait, but he didn't feel like listening.

So there he was, running around with the aurors on Career Day and  instigating nonsense and 'recruiting' potential aurors, (whatever that really meant.) Getting through the academic requirements for the field was one thing, but getting through the training and mental and emotional obstacles was another requirement and obstacle entirely. So was being a fiance. An ex-fiance.

But Nathan Whitman wasn't going to let that be too much of an issue that day. He knew that being at Hogwarts meant that he was more likely to run into Myrni, even if he had to take a break from the auror booth and get up and walk around to make it happen.

Sure enough he saw her, just standing off on her own. He stuffed his hands in his robes and surveyed the crowds of kids before he looked back at Myrni, and she hadn't run off yet--that was a good thing, right?

He shrugged off any doubts before he jaunted over to her with a bright smile,"Hey," he took his hands from his pockets and patted his hair, "Hope you don't mind if I steal a moment from your busy schedule of Gryffindor career talks and detentions to chat, yeah?"eah?"

Myrni reluctantly moved away from the stairs and made her way slowly back towards where her ex-fiancee was. It was hard for her to look at him much less be near him without feeling a full weight of guilt about calling off the engagement. She wondered if he understood any of her reasons for doing so but she did know that he didn't know everything.

Still, she felt justified in what she did in the grand scheme of things and being the stubborn Gryffindor that she was, she was having a hard time admitting that she might be wrong. And as evidenced by such conversations with people like Nathan's cousin, Kurby, when pressed to explain herself, she was liable to lash out irrationally.

She hoped her encounter with Nathan would not turn into a heated battle of wills. Although that was something she admitted to liking about their relationship. They shared so much in common but they were also different enough to keep things interesting.

Myrni stopped a safe distance from him and clasped her hands in front of her to help maintain her composure. She was sure he knew -- but she didn't want to make it so obvious -- that he had a way of unnerving her, for good or for bad. And his disarming smile didn't help her stay calm either.

"Hey," she echoed softly. "How has your day been going recruiting future defenders of the earth?" She tempered an impish grin. Then she shook her head at his inquiry. "No, I don't mind." There was an awkward pause for a moment as she wondered if she had said that too quickly. Surely if she were alone with him for too long, he'd have ample opportunity to argue his way back to where they once were. She was so vulnerable and she knew it. She was at his mercy.

After a nibble on her lower lip, she asked, "What's up?"

It almost felt like nothing had changed between Nathan and his ex-fiance; he couldn't quite help but feel an urge to take her back into his arms and talk about absolutely nothing, or resolve himself to lighthearted quips for the rest of the day, "With whom Raynor sent here I imagine we're either recruiting certain doom," from the amusement weighing down his tone, his voice then lightened into a whisper of cautious glee, accompanied by a smile and a playful arch of his brows, "or a week's worth of clothing offense interrogations."[1]

"Double-edged sword she pulled on that one," his smile lingered for a brief moment before concern etched at his features and he looked around a hallway.

"Well," he said with a careless sigh, signaling a change of topic, "You know, between us," he put a hand on Myrni's shoulder as he tried to gently direct her into an empty room, "I don't want things to end like they did." He suddenly felt his full height and the weight being pulled down by his red Auror robes. "At least, if it's to be final, we should talk about it."  But even though Nathan let a sad pleading tug at his tone, Nathan had no intention of letting anything 'end' between him and Myrni--at least not without a damned good reason.

1.	referring to wizards wearing self-altering and very wizarding clothes out in muggle public

“I’m sure you’ll manage to find some decent recruits,” Myrni said in a calmer tone than she was feeling as she watched him speak. Nathan really was quite the charismatic man and it still amazed her how differently he used his charms as opposed to some of the other men in his family. It was almost as if in doing so he had no calculating motives whatsoever. It just was who he was.

Myrni flinched at his touch, more out of surprise than anything else. By no means was she repulsed by such a touch. How could it when it was a touch that had been as natural to her over the years as anything in her life? Him touching her now only reminded her of how much she missed it.

She tried to put a little more distance between them but followed him into the empty room. He was right on some level. She owed him an explanation. Or at least a better one.

She fumbled for the best she could find. “You should marry a pureblooded witch. Like your family wants.”

Like Oz wants, she itched to say. But she didn’t. She didn’t want to blame Oz or any of his family, really. But they were very much the problem between her and Nathan. Always had and always would. She felt that the only way she could marry him would be with some sort of assurance that she’d never ben required to have any contact with the Whitmans. And she wasn’t sure she could demand that from him.

But there it was. Her explanation. What else was there to talk about?

It took every proper mannerisms ingrained in the tall Whitman to keep his jaw from hitting the floor. Instead his eyes widened and he irritably rolled his jaw, "Like my family wants?" He moved in closer to Myrni again, looming over her as he pressed his knuckles against his chest, "What does that have anything to do with what I want," his hand left his chest and then fell towards the smaller witch, "or what you want?" His voice was stern, as much as he could make it, but it was always softened whenever he was with Myrni this way. It was like he was beating against the same old hopeless problem, always frustrating him, and always coming back at him stronger and stronger. But this time, it needed to get out of his way.

He leaned up and an arm extended out to some random window as he squared his jaw and locked his helplessly frustrated gaze with Myrni's, "There isn't a pureblooded witch out there that I'd pick over you because that's what my family wants."

Nathan sighed and pressed his hands against his ex-lover's shoulders, "I can't control who I fall in love with Myrni, and so that doesn't make anyone a better judge of that than me," his hands rubbed up her shoulders before he sighed, remembering they weren't together like that right now, and let his hands fall away from her sides and back to his own; one rested on hip and the other wove through his hair as he waited for Myrni to respond.

Myrni tried to keep from cringing as Nathan repeated her words. Hearing them like that made it sound awful. And though she knew Nathan would never hurt her, Myrni took an unsteady step backwards away from him when he tried to move closer. She needed to keep that distance if she was ever going to have a shot of standing her ground. But eventually, if she kept backing up, she was going to be up against a wall with no place else to go. 

When he spoke of what she wanted, Myrni let her gaze fall to the stone floor. She couldn't look him in the eye and lie to him. "I....I don't know what I want," she whispered, "I just want it to stop being so complicated. I thought....that if I broke things off, it would be less complicated for you....for people like Oz or your mother....for everyone. I---"

Myrni met his gaze again. Try as she might, she could not ignore how his worlds made her swell with happiness to know that even after breaking off the engagement, he felt so strongly for her. It was on her tongue to say that she wanted to take it back. And feeling him touch her shoulders made her tingle with warmth, just like it always did. And always could, she reminded herself. Just open up your mouth and say it...that you were wrong...

She couldn't say those words but when he pulled back, she felt she had to do something. She craved more of his touch, his closeness and so with a bit of the old Gryffindor impulsiveness, Myrni quickly stepped forward and threw her arms about Nathan's neck. She hugged him tight, perhaps more so than she ever remembered doing before but never had their relationship been in such disarray as now and she couldn't help but feel as though what she had done could never be fixed. She finally murmured, "I'm sorry."

The mention of Oz and his mother felt like a searing slash against his chest. He loved them, he really did, and always felt a need to hold their pride, but his affections were a different story. He couldn't split up his love based on blood purity, not like the rest of his family. It just felt too complicated. Life was complicated. Merlin, Myrni was complicated.

She threw herself at him, after their little back and forth scuffle like a confusing tug-of-war. Now the rope between them was gone and the woman he'd been fighting so hard to have the whole life was wrapped around him again, with his heavy hands catching her at her waist as he steadied her into the impulsive embrace.

A heavy sigh escaped from his chest, as everything seemed like a disorganized mess. Never short on words, Nathan could say a thousands things at that moment and try to continue to reason with her and continue to patch things up between them, but he could only manage to weave his arms around her and lean into the warm and silent embrace.

"Nothing will make this easy, love," He let his head drop and nestle to her shoulders and with a relaxing breath, taking in her smell and touch, creature comfort habits he could never part with. Even after years of other tough times with Myrni he couldn't ever keep himself from resisting. "All we can do is try and figure things out."

Myrni continued to tred a fine line between exposing what cruel things Oz had said and leaving it alone. Even as Nathan claimed that he was capable of making his own choices without the influences of others, she still knew that family was important to him. Part of her felt that if he saw Oz and other members of his family for what they really were -- purist bigots -- then he might never recover a relationship with them.

Even with all of her feelings of confusion swirling around, Myrni felt at "home" in his arms. If they never had to worry about anything but that then life would be perfect. But that was wishful thinking.

She held onto him for a bit longer -- long enough for Nathan to return the embrace and relax into it -- Myrni abruptly pulled back. She dropped her hands to clasp his and told him, "I should go. But we should talk again....really talk. When we have more time....and some place less crazy and with so many people around."

Myrni gave his hands a gentle squeeze and smiled before letting go and moving towards the door. She paused in the door frame and looked back. "I really do--" she started and stopped, realizing what she was about to say to him. I really do love you. Clearing her throat, she finished, "--Want to talk more. I'll see you soon."

She ventured another, more hesitant smile and then she was gone.