Business as usual. Life was dull. There was nothing to it any more. He had no one he looked forward to seeing any more. The one woman he had loved, the one woman he had truly loved, had decided to tear his heart in two without reason or explanation. She left him and after two months of searching he finally received a letter from her with his engagement ring. He had thought she was worthy of wearing it. How wrong he had been. He was surprised she'd bothered to send back the ring, it was worth quite a lot. He was honestly surprised she hadn't tried selling it and sending back a fake.

Jasper was having a break from work by spending the day in Hogsmeade. It wasn't exactly a break, he was there on business, but it was away from the main building of the Ministry of Magic in London. It was a little more chilled up here and Jasper kept himself warm with a coat. It was nearly Christmas and so he was surprised there wasn't yet a little dusting of snow on the roof tops of Hogsmeade. It was actually a little bit of a shame, it would have looked so picturesque, but he supposed he could come back once the snow started falling. Jasper enjoyed the falling snow, it reminded him of good times in his travels, before his life went to hell.

Jasper shoved his hands in the pockets of his warm coat and pushed against a strong breeze that had picked up all of a sudden. He winced his eyes and before he knew it, his face collided with an owl. Dumb bird. Jasper rubbed of his face and saw he was standing in front of the Three Broomsticks. He could wash up in there, make sure the bird hadn't broken his nose for the pain was searing and he could feel a warm trickle from his nose. Bloody birds.

A hoot came and then another. Jasper turned to look at the owl that had started following him as he'd begun making his way to the door of the establishment. Jasper noticed the blood on the parchment the owl had and wondered it it was his own or the owls. He bent down, scooped up the owl and then made his way into the pub, pushing the door open with his arse as one hand held a handkerchief to his nose and the other held the owl.

The place wasn't that busy and Jasper just went straight to the mens toilets. His nose was broken, he could see it in his reflection. He sat the owl in the basin next to him and pulled out his wand. A wave here, a wave there and the nose was fixed and the blood was gone. He looked at the owl and rolled his eyes at the stupid animal. He supposed he'd best check the thing, let it recover and find a new owl for whomever the letter was for.

Jasper took the letter off of the owl and saw there was no name. Great, now he was going to break laws to see who this letter was for. He rolled open the parchment and saw his name. At least the Jasper bit, but there could be hundreds of Jaspers. He scanned the letter fast for clues and his heart started dropping. Kasper. This letter was for him? He looked at the signature and took a closer look at the handwriting. A sharp intake of breath and knots in his stomach had Jasper confused. She was here? He looked at the blood on the page. It was not his. It was mostly all dried and his blood would have been fresher than that. Was this Sabine's blood?

Jasper looked at the owl. "Are you able to fly to Hogwarts?" The owl ruffled its feathers and hooted, jumping up to perch on the edge of the basin. Jasper flicked his wand and parchment, quill and ink appeared, floating in front of him. With haste he wrote a fresh letter, folded it up and gave it to the owl. "For Headmaster Longbottom, if you would." The owl hooted and flew out an open window it looked to big to fit through, but it managed. The next step was going to be hard.

Washing up and leaving, Jasper exited the mens room. He took to the stairs and knocked twice on the second door from the stairs. The room Sabine said she was staying in. It was her handwriting but what was she doing here? Who did Kasper even know who she was? Did he do this to her for abandoning Jasper? Jasper didn't think Kasper would have cared all that much but he was known to have been wrong about people.

The nerves kept him frozen. Part of him wanted to run away, another part wanted to see her hurt. He knew it was sick and twisted but he couldn't bare the thought of her not suffering for what she had done to him. His lips were shut and he could have sworn he wasn't able to open them. They were dry and he was certain he could feel them starting to crack. He cleared his throat almost silently, hoping it wasn't her, that this was some kind of sick joke, but the letter had been in her hand writing, he would have recognised it everywhere and anywhere because every time he gazed upon it, before his brain would realise it was her, he would feel that sinking in his heart.

The door creaked open and for a minute Jasper was relieved. It wasn't Sabine. Then her voice said his name and his body tensed up. Every muscle stiffened. Sabine? She looked ruined. She was an absolute wreck. This was not the woman he had been engaged to. This was not the woman he had loved. This was someone not worthy of his time, at least that was what he wanted to think but he thought back to the letter he'd read, the one that was scrunched in his left hand. Had Kasper really done this to her? How would he even know who Sabine was? Why was she here? Jasper had so many questions but could not voice a single one. Had his brother really done this to the woman he had once loved? Really? Jasper wondered if she was making it up for his attention. Creating some kind of sob story to draw him in. Well it wouldn't work, he knew better than to trust her.

He entered her room, closing the door with a quiet click behind him. He looked up from the handle, taking a deep breath as he turned to look at Sabine. She truly looked terrible but he felt as though she deserved it for what she'd done to him. He would never have raised a hand to her and he would never have wished it upon her, but she looked nearly as bad as he felt when she tore his heart out of his chest, twisted it, spat on in and returned it along with his ring. "I was already in the area. I wouldn't have wasted my time other wise." He hoped the words stung, he wanted to hurt her more, he wanted that emotional crippling he had dealt with. For two months he had searched for her before she gave back that ring. For two months he had suffered heartache thinking that she was gone, killed or worse, then word came via owl and he could not forgive her.

Covering herself now wouldn't change what he had seen. She had a little dried blood on the corner of her lip, he nose was misshapen just as his had been minutes ago and one of her eyes was swollen and dark. Here and there she was covered in little cuts and there were plenty of bruises. If this had been his brothers doing then he did not care about hiding what he had done. Though of course, Sabine only had herself to blame for all of this. Had she not left him, the two could still have been together, living happily, preparing for their wedding. She could have left school and known that he would have supported her, but no, she chose to leave.

Jasper listened to her words. That was what he was here to do after all - to listen. He wanted nothing else to do with her. He was here because he had literally been right inside the pub she was staying at. Her owl had collided with his face, forcing him to read that note. He was here all ready, he may as well have listened to her words. Hearing things from her would be hard but he knew he had to do it and having seen her, he was glad he had not left. He was glad he had not decided to ignore her. This was truly a sight that made him happy yet all the while left his heart completely hollow and empty.

"If you're willing to put it all in a card then why is my presence required here?" His voice was droll and uncaring. The wreck that sat before him was not a woman he wanted to be seen with. They were alone and that was bad enough. Having to look upon her perfect face was tearing him apart. She was bruised, beaten and bloody, but beneath it all she was still beautiful and still the woman he had loved with all his heart, the only woman he had ever let close to him. She was still beautiful in his eyes but he was glad that she had clearly suffered for her careless choices. He had loved her, now that was gone.

Jasper felt his stomach churning at the words she spoke. She wanted to see him? She? The one who left him? What right did she have for that. Was he here under false pretences? Was it not Kasper that did this to her? Had someone else done it and she thought that she could just come crawling back to him? He wouldn't take her back, not after what she had put him through. The heartache, the searching, the fear that she could be dead. It was all too much to handle and who was to say she wouldn't do it all over and over again? If he went back once then he would always go back and that was not the sort of life he wanted, not even with her.

Jasper did not want to see her again, she was right about that, and yet here he was and here she was stalling about what she supposedly had to tell him. He could feel his temper rising. This wasn't how he had imagined spending his day. He was here on business, he'd sneak in a little pleasure in the form of a few hard drinks and then head back home. Seeing Sabine, even hearing from her had not at all been on the agenda and now she was just wasting his time, just like she had done when she made him fall in love.

"Are you going to get to why I'm here or shall I do what I should have done the moment I got your owl and leave?" Truthfully every inch of him wanted to leave, or at least nearly every inch. A part of his heart wanted to look after her, care for her, fix up her broken nose the way he'd fixed his. He could heal the lighter splits in her skin with a quick and easy spell but that small part of his heart was drowned out by the yelling of his mind to not trust her, to leave her to die in some ditch. The compromise was him staying and listening to her, if anything he might find out why she'd left him without a word for two months.

Did she expect him to believe that she was sorry? She left without a trace for two months, he was frantic and she was no where to be found. His heart was broken but it wasn't until he received his engagement ring back that his heart was truly shattered. Millions of little pieces that would take so much time to repair and he really couldn't afford for her to trash his heart like that again. He needed someone stable, a pureblooded wife with a good family name that would give him children, that was all that he needed. Sabine was not that woman.

Never lied? That was good to know, so when she left him, she actually loved him. Or maybe that love had run out. Either way if she hadn't lied in the past, he was certain she was going to start now in order to make him feel bad for her. She left because she no longer loved him, if she loved him she would have come to him, not made him search for her. If she had loved him, it was only a temporary thing, it wasn't real, he knew that from looking at her.

He listened to her story. Jasper didn't care for it, truth or not it didn't change what she had done to him. She could have come to him, he would have protected her, he would have avenged her but no, she decided to do other things. She decided to leave him and deal completely on her own. Well that was her choice, that was the decision it had made and it lead her here, breaking down in front of him with a body full of cuts and bruises and breaks. This could all have been stopped if she had kept her word to be his wife. Perhaps she wouldn't have been raped or perhaps she would have been but together they could have gotten through it all, together that could have given her a life she had once been worthy of, but stupid decisions lead her to Kasper and it was only now that Jasper was finding out that they had dated, that his brother was abusive to the woman Jasper had once called his fiancée, but this was just all Sabine's story. She could have fabricated the whole thing but one thing was certain. He would be talking to Kasper. Jasper wanted to know his brothers side of things. "And is that all? Am I free to leave or is there more to your story?"