At least Jonas hadn't opened the letter.

It was obvious that he hadn't opened the letter because 1) The red-haired Auror certainly did not project the kind of aura of someone who would go around peeking into the sealed private correspondence of his niece, and 2) For all intents and purposes, nothing about the envelope seemed to hint that it had been disturbed in the least. 

If he had had magic, which obviously included the potential ability to wave a wand and simply seal an envelope again, Jonas would have -- of course -- held himself under greater suspicion.  But he didn't, and there wasn't a wand in sight as he strode briskly through the office to make the mail delivery.  No one needed to know that his partner's sense of right and wrong swayed with the winds once he started to argue with him.

He stopped alongside Holt's desk, with the letter that he had not opened clutched in hand.  Jonas paused outside the cubicle, squinting perplexedly at the back of the other Auror's head.  He didn't know the younger man well.  Chalmers Holt had joined well after Jonas had left the Corps, and while he seemed to be on generally friendly terms with all of their colleagues, they didn't quite run in the same social circle.

That, of course, begged the question of why Grace was sending the bloke a letter.  Why Grace was sending the bloke such an inappropriately addressed letter, although of course Jonas couldn't know that because he had not read it, a fact which he was going to have to work to remember throughout this conversation.  And so he simply stared, and waited, until Holt realized that someone was standing behind him. 

Jonas cleared his throat, and then held the letter out impatiently.

"Mail for you," he said simply.

Chalmers Holt was doing paperwork at his desk. Most of the week had been just paperwork.  Of course, he really should be thankful for it just being paperwork.  Things could be a lot worse.  Kidnappings, break ins, horrible enchantments and dark art exposions would have been trouble that the auror didn’t really feel like dealing with at the moment.  But then again, they were the types of things he was really paid to take care of.  But the day had been passing rather slowly, and he wished something would happen to liven things up. 

Of course, they always say be careful what you wish for.  He was onto his eleventh page of a thirty one page report when he felt weird.  Chalmers wasn’t sure what the feeling was... but he felt like he was being watched.  He slowly lifted up his head and didn’t see anyone in front of him. Someone behind him cleared their throat.  Slowly he turned around and nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw the ginger-haired auror behind him.

“Merlin you’re stealthy.” He said before Jonas held out the letter for him.

Mail. For him.  Chalmers had a confused look on his face as he reached out and grasped the letter in his hand.  Why would Jonas have a letter for him? Owls were very well trained and it would be very unlikely for a letter to Chalmers to have shown up to Jonas.  Their desks weren’t that far from each other, but still.  He looked from the letter to Jonas, and back to the letter.  He recognized that handwriting.  It was Grace’s.  He noticed the letter hadn’t been opened yet, and then opened it himself.  Reading through it, he allowed a smile to be brought to his face remembering the ice skating and their letters.  He set it down and was going to write a response when he realized that Jonas was still standing there.

“So... why did you have this letter? And is there a problem? You seem... upset.” Chalmers was still very much questioning why his fellow auror had the letter in the first place.  And of course, why he seemed so bothered about it.

It gave Jonas no small satisfaction to see the other Auror jump.  Holt took the letter.  Holt opened the letter.  Holt read the letter, and Jonas still stood there.  His eyes narrowed as a smile played across the younger man's face.  That was not the reaction he wanted to see, although anything short of complete and utter shock would have probably left him still angry, not that he had any idea of what was in it.

Holt finished reading it, set it down, and nearly picked up a quill to write a response before he realized that Jonas was still hadn't budged.

“So... why did you have this letter? And is there a problem? You seem... upset.”

"I'm not upset," Jonas said automatically, in the perfectly reasonable tone that had been honed by any number of angry and overprotective fathers, uncles, and other male relatives over the years.  Which he wasn't, he reminded himself with gritted teeth, because he certainly hadn't opened his niece's letter, and what did it matter if she was addressing one of his colleagues as 'Hunky Auror' anyhow?  As far as he knew, Hogwarts was far, far away from the Ministry, and he had plenty of time to make certain that Grace stayed far away even after her graduation.  Never had sticking spells sounded so appealing.

It occurred to him that he had completely missed Holt's question.  Jonas arched an eyebrow, his calm expression never faltering as he regarded the other man coolly.

"Owl left it at me desk," he said easily.  "Why?  Were you expecting that letter?"

It was funny how even the simplest questions could come out sounding like an accusation.

When Jonas said he wasn’t upset, Chalmers knew he was lying.  He just had that tone of voice when you were trying to hide your true emotions and were failing.  Chalmers was certain he and Jonas looked nothing alike, and there wasn’t a likely chance of an owl leaving a letter for him on Jonas’ desk.  There was some reason for him to hide the real reason he had the letter.  He seemed almost to be getting defensive about it all.  Obviously Jonas had some connection with Grace.

How they were connected, Chalmers was sure he’d find out soon.  Trust him to start really liking a girl who was somehow connected with one of his coworkers.  Things couldn’t be easy, could they?  But he wouldn’t let it dismay him.  Grace obviously knew he worked with Jonas, and didn’t seem to have a problem with it.  Hopefully.

“I may or may not have been.” Chalmers figured this was a good enough answer.  Or not much of an answer. “Why do you seem so interested in my letter?  Were you expecting any letters? Are you jealous of my letter?”

Okay, so playing back at him may not be the best decision.  But Chalmers was interested now and wanted to figure out what was going on. 

"Why the bloody hell would I be jealous of a letter?" Jonas fired back, his facade starting to crack.  It wasn't that he was jealous any more than he was upset -- in fact, if he had indeed taken the time to read the aforementioned letter, he would have been a hell of a lot more likely to admit that he was upset.  The idea of a full-robed Auror flirting with his barely-legal niece did not inspire anything close to jealousy.  Rather, it made him want to personally claw Holt's eyes out.

"Look," he said, a little too snappishly.  "I just don't think it's appropriate.  You want to get sent personal letters, Holt, you don't need to receive them at work."

Although, it quickly occurred to him, the alternative might be even worse.  Grace sending letters to a man probably ten years her senior at work was bad enough.  Merlin knew what would happen if someone gave her his home address.

"Not that you should be receiving them at all," he added sharply, jabbing a finger at the envelope.  "She's at Hogwarts!  What the bloody hell are you thinking, man?" he demanded, giving the other Auror a challenging look.  "You know what happened to Pratt's parents!  And you're encouraging her to write you?  She's only seventeen!"

“Oh, no personal letters at work? I’m pretty certain I’m not the only person getting personal letters at work.  Considering that owls are so smart they’ll deliver a letter to the person even if they don’t have an address, I can’t really stop that.”

The red-haired auror was getting quite upset at Chalmers.  Grace and Jonas must be somewhat close then if he’s acting like her father.  Of course, he wasn’t taking too well to Jonas trying to dictate to him who he could and couldn’t see.  He liked Grace, and wouldn’t let anything happen to her.  It would probably kill him to see something happen to her on his account.  And it hadn’t been the first time Chalmers had thought of that.  He knew there were risks with his job, but Jonas suggesting something like that struck a nerve.  Chalmers stood and faced his co-worker, almost eye level with him, but a mere inch taller.

“Are you suggesting I’d let her get hurt?  You don’t think all of this hasn’t crossed my mind?  We met, we talked, we kept in touch.  Like you have any business involving yourself with who I write to, anyways.  And what are you, her father? She’s old enough to make her own decisions on who she corresponds with. As am I.”

He decided to keep out the I really like her part, figuring it may not help his case.  He knew she was at Hogwarts, and of her age.  It was something that Chalmers thought about often.  But it wasn’t like they were necessarily dating yet.  They wrote letters.  They may have been valentines.  Chalmers was now looking forward to seeing her soon when she had her Hogsmeade weekend.  Of course, the whole Jonas thing may complicate that. But he really didn’t want it too.

"No, I'm suggesting that you're making bad decisions!" Jonas snapped, now openly glaring.  "She's a kid, Holt.  She's got no bloody idea how bad this can get!  And in two months, she's going to be living on her own --"  Likely without her mother.  That realization hit him like a load of bricks to the chest, but the Auror gritted his teeth and plowed on.  "--on her own, outside of Hogwarts."

Grace, he knew, could have no concept of the last war.  He hadn't either, not when he'd first graduated from Hogwarts and signed on with the Ministry.  The world had gotten dark so quickly, and it hadn't been until Tait had died that he'd finally realized just how final the dangers could be.

He couldn't stop his niece from going through that.  But with her parents absent from their world, the least that he could do was try to mitigate it, and he could start that by keeping the bullheaded Auror in front of him by turning Grace into a target even before she graduated.

"You meet her for lunch in Hogsmeade.  What then?" Jonas demanded.  It barely even registered that he couldn't have gotten this information without reading the other man's letter.  "Someone sees you and Macduff or Tawse finds out, and the next thing you know, they're doing the same thing to you that they did to Fox and Pratt.  She's just a kid!  How the hell is it a good idea to drag her into our mess?"

“A kid? I’m pretty sure she’s not. Being seventeen makes her an adult. And she’s smart.” Chalmers was starting to get pretty annoyed at the other auror. That and he wasn’t used to having other people tell him what to do in his personal life.  Of course, he’d never had a problem like this before.  He hadn’t really liked any girls recently.  To much work, and being focused on work.  He hadn’t allowed himself to get involved with anyone.

And of course, when Chalmers actually found someone he liked, it had to happen like this.  The current auror situation didn’t help either.  Oh, the complications of life. For once, Chalmers wished he were back at Hogwarts too.  The he wouldn’t have to worry about this then.

“Are we supposed to live our lives in fear? Am I not allowed to see people I like because there’s some danger out there? There’s danger every where. We can’t allow ourselves to be so in fear of this! We can’t hole ourselves up and not interact with anyone just because of this.”

It was then, he realized Jonas mentioned Hogsmeade and having lunch there.

“And did you read my letter? Invasion of privacy and throwing yourself into my personal life? You’re racking up a lot of points on my list of people I don’t like. Anything else you want to add?”