Chapter 13: Chapter 13Summary:DADA drama...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 13
The rumors around Brightbark's fifth year class had gotten to the sixth and seventh years quickly, which was then brought to the Heads of House before the day had ended. All the Heads of Houses were furious, and quite frankly insulted, that someone would be invading their students' privacy and think they could get away with it, not to mention the fact that he was punishing students for their type of magic. It was a nice change watching the administration of the school actually helping their students. As Harriet, she had to fight all of her own battles. It was refreshing to see adults doing what they were supposed to for the students.
Dinner was the battleground of choice.
Food and drink were provided for the show that ensued.
And it was glorious.
All four heads made a point to stand united to address the situation in front font of the Headmaster. They stood aligned right in front of the Head Table, for the entire population of Hogwarts to watch. It was the first time in Jasmine's many Hogwarts experiences that all four Heads of House were working together. There had always been one, more often than not it was Snape, that wouldn't side with the rest of the school.
Everything had started off calm. Well, it had started as reasoning, but eventually devolved into more of a scolding…which then morphed into yelling. McGonagall had actually shouted at Dumbledore in front of the entire Great Hall. Her tartan accent coming through as she threatened the Headmaster and Brightbark with the board of governors if this kind of behavior didn't stop.
She wasn't the deputy headmistress for nothing.
Sirius wolf whistled in response and there was quite a bit of clapping.
So, naturally, by the end of dinner, Brightbark's homework assignment was cancelled and the students were told just to do the reading assigned to the "light" students. But, the damage had already been done. A lot of the younger years were shying away from friends that had been declared dark in class by Brightbark. Others, like Remus were avoiding everyone, ashamed of their status. Jasmine hadn't seen hide nor hair of the werewolf since DADA. He had skipped dinner and James had eventually left part way through to try and coax him out of hiding.
Apparently, Remus had a very specific hiding spot that was a Marauder trade secret. So, Jasmine figured he was at the Whomping Willow, but held her tongue. Peter followed, giving Sirius a nervous and slightly distrustful glance before dashing off after James for some kind of protection.
This left Jasmine with Sirius, who was picking at what was left of his dinner with a salad fork. "Do you want talk about it?" She asked as the hall cleared out for the evening. She wasn't going to leave him alone to his thoughts. That tended to get Sirius into major trouble in every time line she had encountered with him. Sirius glanced over to her through his unusually curly fringe.
He looked around the room, eyes lingering on something over her shoulder. She reached out with her rune sense to see if she could figure out who he was staring at. The only person over his shoulder was at the Slytherin table. They were younger, but not by too much and she could tell that he had the same build as Sirius…
Ah, Regulus.
Jasmine had forgotten that he existed. She had never met him before, in any life. Honestly, Regulus probably got that a lot as the spare Black heir. Sirius had always told her that he was a tool to the Black family's whims, but family meant a lot to a Black…
He turned his attention back to Jasmine when she began to drum her fingers on the table. "Today's lesson was…worrying."
At least she knew that one of her friends noticed. Jasmine figured that she might as well play dumb for a few moments, test the waters on what Sirius was thinking. "How so? The sensor he used was more than likely a fake. The Department of Mysteries doesn't let those things out of their sight. If it is real than Brightbark as a lot of explaining to do."
Sirius viciously stabbed a piece of chicken on his plate as the last person in the hall cleared out. "It isn't that. People are looking at me funny. I mean, I usually turn heads when I walk by, but now everyone seems to be afraid of me. I spent so long trying to convince everyone I'm not like all the other Blacks out there, and yet, in the end, I'm still just as dark," he replied sullenly, his head bent down focused on what was left of his dinner.
Jasmine reached a hand across the table to stop Sirius from further ruining the food in front of him. Their hands connected and Sirius' head shot up to look at her and his food mutilation stopped dead in its tracks.
She needed to word this carefully…Sirius was always a ticking time bomb when it came to his family. "Don't put too much credence into what that sensor said. Even if you had an affinity for dark magic, it doesn't make you evil. There are plenty of witches and wizards that were dark that made the world a better place."
He snorted. "Name one."
"Merlin for starters. The man was a Slytherin to his core if the records are correct. Gryffindor himself was a dark wizard. The man enjoyed fighting, maiming, and killing. He eventually turned those traits into something useful, like having a house based off noble sacrifice and bravery," Jasmine replied with a gentle squeeze to her friend's hand.
"But I don't want to be dark…" he whispered to the empty hall. Everyone was gone but them. His words echoed off the walls.
"Well, if you want, we can go and see if that sensor was real. Ro stole it halfway through class," Jasmine said with a rather feral grin on her face.
Sirius raised an eyebrow, but didn't tell her that he didn't want to help, so she counted that as a victory. She pulled away from the table and motioned for Sirius to follow. The temperamental fifth year was right behind her as they walked through the halls avoiding Filch, who was beginning his evening patrols of the castle.
She called on Ro again and the cat appeared with the sensor in her mouth waiting at the door of an abandoned classroom. There was dust coating the tables and chairs, save for a few in the corners. It was obvious that this one wasn't really used for anything other than an occasional snog or shag.
Jasmine raised her wand to perform a few cleaning spells before she sat down, Sirius close behind her. Ro was on the oak desk in front of them. She looked the part of a proud huntress bringing in her evening kill. Jasmine rolled her eyes before carefully levitating the sensor onto the desk and patting the cat on the head. Ro disappeared a moment later, she was probably off to cause some kind of mischief.
"That's it?" Sirius asked, peering at the small box incredulously. Up close Jasmine realized that this was not the kind of sensor that she had been expecting and changed tactics immediately. She lifted her wand up and levitated it in front of her, conjuring a magnifying glass to see some of the runes easier. It was an impressive display of magic, if Sirius thought so, he didn't say anything. He watched from over her shoulder, his wand pointed at the small wooden box as if it was going to attack them at any moment. Luckily, Sirius was on her blind side, so it wasn't nearly as distracting as a wand in her peripheral vision could have been.
Jasmine ignored him in favor of attempting to figure out what the hell this thing was. On the surface it looked remarkably similar to one that would tell the magical affinity of anyone it came in close contact with it, but it wasn't. Brightbark was a liar and more of a problem than Jasmine had originally thought. The man was smart and knew how to manipulate a situation. The box had a completely different rune structure to its outer edges indicating that it is used in blood type rituals.
Jasmine clicked her tongue. "Tsk, tsk, Professor Brightbark. What kind of blood magic have you being playing with?"
"Blood magic?" Sirius hissed, stepping away from the box a curse on the tip of this tongue. Jasmine held out a hand to stop him.
"Yes, this box tells the magical affinity of the bloodlines of those it comes into contact with. It's stupid and general and is horrifically out dated. No wonder he got his hands on one. No one would want this kind of technology anymore. It's flawed since a bloodline gives no indication of actual magical affinity. There are plenty of people from the same family that have different magical ties. It's why these little boxes were discontinued. Though, I'm not entirely sure why Brightbark was use this kind of device on school children…" Jasmine muttered, more to herself than to Sirius by the end.
The Black Heir hissed something unintelligible under his breath before knocking a chair over in... frustration? Jasmine jumped at this sudden display of anger.
"I know why. The bastard wants all of us to turn on each other like wolves. It would really prove which one of us were truly dark and light. It would eliminate the grey students because in the end everyone would need to pick a side. It's some kind of sick game to him and potentially Dumbledore. Does he even know how badly that entire lesson left Remus? I haven't seen him in hours because he's ashamed that his magic is dark."
Jasmine rolled her eyes, "If Remus is truly dark, I'll rip out my other eye. He's far too sweet of a person to be a dark mage."
Sirius lit up at her comment. "Can you go and tell Remus that yourself? I feel like he'd respond to it better coming from you."
Was there a reason that Sirius and James kept attempting to leave her and Remus alone together? These instances were becoming more and more common. "Why would he need to hear it from me? Hearing it from you, Peter and James should be more than enough. Though, now that I think about it, Peter seemed to be afraid of both you and Remus this afternoon…is everything you lot do in a group of four?"
Sirius grinned from ear to ear and Jasmine pictured a tail wagging between his legs. "We do. We're like a pack, we need more than three members to operate."
She pocketed the little device and motioned for Sirius to lead the way back to the Gryffindor Common room. "If you insist."
It didn't take them long to reach the dorms and find Remus and James sitting on the chairs near the fire. They weren't talking, but it seemed that Remus' eyes were a little red around the rims and one of James' fits had dried blood on them, but neither of them had any injuries to speak of.
"What happened?" Jasmine asked, jogging up to James and inspecting his hand for any other injuries before she pulled out her wand and started to heal the damage.
"We're not going to be talking to Wormtail for a while. I don't want him anywhere near Remus."
So, Peter had become afraid of them. This happened significantly earlier than in any timeline that she had been in previously. He hadn't done anything like this until the day he betrayed her family…in her past…and their future?
Merlin, this was getting complicated.
"Peter? What did Peter do?" Sirius inquired, taking a seat next to his best mate, not believing his ears. Yes, how does Peter do what he does? Jasmine almost wanted to hunt the rat down herself and curse him into next week.
"He called Remus a monster and claimed that you were going to be just like the rest of your family and that we should ask for different rooming assignments. Of course, Remus agreed right away, the prat. I told both of them to cut it out, and that no one was going anywhere. The fact that Remus had an inclination towards dark magic meant nothing. Peter disagreed and thus my fist and his face had a chat."
"You do realize that you can't punch your way out of all of your problems, right, James?" Jasmine asked, as she pulled out a bit of paste from her pocket that she had just in case someone had hurt themselves and needed some quick and painless way of stopping their swelling.
James hissed as she applied it in slow careful circles. The angry red that his fist had been turning started to disappear before their eyes and the boys watched with fascinated wonder at what she did. If only they would pay attention in class or to what their homework was over the summer. Then they would understand what was going on with this bit of magic she just performed.
"I know that I can't punch people to make myself feel better. I just…I don't know, snapped. What Brightbark did this afternoon really bothered me and then having Peter just turn on Remus and Sirius like that, it hurt. I could never imagine betraying them. Seeing Peter do it without so much as a thought…well, it just opened my eyes to the fact that he isn't as loyal as I thought that he was and that I'm going to need to rethink who gets to keep their status as Marauders," James replied slowly as he clenched and unclenched his newly healed fist.
Jasmine smiled. James was growing up a bit faster now that she was around to push him in the right directions. It seemed that Brightbark hadn't forced the Marauders into other groups in the original timeline that she had been born into. Jasmine had never even heard of Brightbark until he was introduced at the welcome feast. He might have been a new factor in the timeline all together.
Instead of school keeping the Marauders together, they were all separated, causing an early rift to form. It was perfect. If Peter was taken out of the equation early on, then there was one less person for her to worry about in the long run. Peter wasn't someone that was magically powerful. If Jasmine took away his friends and support network, then he would be left without anyone to defend him.
Though, there was still the danger of him joining the Death Eaters sooner rather than later. It would have to be a risk that Jasmine was willing to take because this was the moment where she could bring he four of them back together with only a few simple words.
"It's honestly up to you three, whether or not you're willing to bring Peter back into your group of friends. I'm not a fan of betrayers. I've dealt with enough of them personally, but if you think that he is worth the risk, then, by all means, make up with him," Jasmine replied, leaving the door open, but not outright saying to leave the rat high and dry.
Peter hadn't been awful to her, but he hadn't been overly kind. He seemed to be afraid and slightly resentful of her. Jasmine wondered if he felt a bit threatened by her presence. She had been told by James on a few occasions that she can come off a bit intimidating.
Jasmine felt that the scars turned people off, but Sirius insisted that it was the fact that she didn't really smile and had two different colored eyes that really freaked people out.
Brightbark had started something between the Marauders and Jasmine honestly couldn't be happier.
If he thought that he could divide the school so much that he would break up different groups of friends, so be it. He's playing war…well, two could play at that game and Jasmine had fought in nine different wars. Eight more than her professor. She knew what she'd need to do to take him down, which would mean she needed to push up her project to gain allies.
Notes:I hope you enjoyed!
Leave your comments and kudos below!
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 14: Chapter 14Summary:Hogwarts drama continues...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 14
About a month had passed and Jasmine's hunt for allies brought her to the library where she was doing the majority of her reading and scoping out for new political interests and allies. She had been having trouble concentrating back at the Tower. Her room was full of a crying Marlene, who had been cursed by a fellow house mate for being a dark witch for the third time this week. She took the insult hard and Lily had been trying to straighten her out all afternoon to no avail. The red head had been ice cold to Jasmine and wanted her nowhere near her crying friend. It wasn't like Jasmine was the one who had cursed her, but that didn't seem to matter to Lily Evans. She enjoyed making snide comments about her being around the Marauders all the time. Marlene had sworn to Merlin and back that the mischievous boys hadn't been behind the attack either, but Lily doubted her friend, making some side remark about an old crush on Sirius clouding her judgment.
To a certain extent, Jasmine was sure Lily was jealous. She might like to act like she hated James with a passion only her temper could surpass, but in the end, she was attracted to him, and his new slightly more "serious" persona.
Though, serious wasn't really the word Jasmine would use…since he still acted like an immature prat most of the time, playing small pranks, making jokes about wanking and just being a general school boy. The only difference in his demeanor was that he was taking his studies a little more seriously and wasn't targeting Severus nearly as much for their pranks. James was making an honest effort to stop bullying and it made a large impact on Lily's image of him and she wasn't taking it well.
Even Sirius was more focused on his school work this past month than he had been during the summer. Jasmine had caught both, James and Sirius, in the library. At first, she thought that they were going to play a prank, but when nothing happened she was sure they were attempting to hide something from Remus. When that didn't happen, she realized that they were working on revising some of their homework. It could be because they actually needed good grades this year. Or, the two of them had always just worked hard when no one was looking, which was also a very viable possibility.
This led to one of Jasmine's main dilemmas. She needed space away from her fellow Gryffindors. She enjoyed the chaos and the general noise, but sometimes she could understand why the hat had put her in Slytherin a few times. Their common room was rather subdued, comparatively to the tower. It wasn't full of studying students like Ravenclaw, but one could get their work done without worrying about it catching on fire or public fits of crying.
No matter the time period, the Gryffindor Common room was too loud to get anything done in. If it wasn't Fred and George, it was the Marauders causing mayhem. They had set a large number of fireworks off, triggered by the amount of times the name Potter was shouted by Evans.
Lily had caught them setting them up, so a lot of fireworks were going off as Marlene cried her eyes out in their room. One of them had nearly set her parchment on fire and that had only made things worse. The Marauders knew how to distract a room, that was for sure.
And, while Jasmine usually appreciated their antics, today was not one of them. Brightbark wanted a rather long essay and Jasmine had handed in flawless work all semester, it was driving the man mad. So, she wanted to keep him frustrated. He wanted to take points off of her work, and if she didn't write this paper perfectly, she knew he would.
Brightbark was sadly one of the best defense teachers she had ever seen enter Hogwarts halls. It was a shame that he was such a bigoted arse, otherwise she would have found his teaching style refreshing. The fifth-year class was really budding under his tutelage for the most part. He only taught light based spells, but defense tended to be light based regardless of bigotry. Brightbark just tended to take more points off students of darker magical decent if they couldn't get the spell work right the first time, which was infuriating and made her want to hex the pants off of him. Though, his need to see perfection from all of his students has created multiple study groups, so there was that. Lily was in charge of one of them, along with Marlene, Alice, a small Ravenclaw named Monica and a tall Hufflepuff chaser named Heather.
Speaking of Lily, the young woman was an ice queen and honestly reminded Jasmine a lot of Daphene Greengrass. The Ice Queen of Slytherin had been a thorn in her side for most of her Hogwarts careers. They had always become friends in her other lives. Many had taken months, if not years to garner any kind of friendship with the Slytherin. Jasmine really didn't want to be fighting with Lily for years.
Lily still hadn't warmed up to Jasmine at all, even though they had been living together for over a month at this point. More often than not the red head was purposely avoiding Jasmine at all costs and just glared at her during classes, as if she was doing something else besides take notes and doing the work, same as her. To a certain extent, some of Lily's attitude towards Jasmine came from finally having someone to challenge her mentally. Jasmine was an outsider that excelled at practical and theoretical magic. Lily had always been on the top of her class without much competition, aside from the Marauders, that despite their magical prowess, didn't try to excel academically. Jasmine had something to prove to Dumbledore and to those in the administration that thought that she was some kind of monster.
She had caught Lily and Remus arguing the other morning after potions. Lily had pulled Remus aside after James and Sirius had gone to the hospital wing for a caldron mishap. Jasmine noticed that the two of them had been attempting to make a strengthening solution, but they stirred in the wrong direction for too long and caused the potion they were working on to change shades and they nearly blew up a part of the classroom. They might have also ruined quite a few other people's potions as well.
It was an accident, so Slughorn was letting them redo the potion once Madam Pomphrey clears them in another hour or so. Once class was over, Jasmine had noticed that Lily had been waiting for Remus to gather his stuff. The red head been watching the werewolf all morning and it bugged Jasmine how obvious she was being about it. It wasn't that Jasmine minded that she spoke to Remus, Merlin only knew the bloke needed friends, it was that she didn't care about watching her surroundings, there was a dark lord on the loose, a Slytherin dark lord no less!
Jasmine made herself scarce and hid in a small alcove, out of sight and waited for her to begin her talk with Remus. He had been surprised by Lily's coy smile and beckoning finger. Merlin, was she trying to flirt with him?
"Is there something that you need, Lily?" Remus asked, ignoring her behavior completely.
The red head fidgeted with the hem of her skirt before answering, "What's wrong with Potter and Black? They've been acting different recently, even since Peverell came things have become strange…"
Remus ran a hand through his sandy hair and abandoned his books on the nearest desk. "They've had to grow up a bit. Isn't that what you've been telling them to do for years? Maybe they finally took your advice."
She frowned. "What does Peverell have to do with this this though? What's her angel…she has to be working with you all on some elaborate prank to hurt all the people outside of your little group," Lily snapped, arms crossed, defensive, as if she was preparing for some kind of fight. This is what confused Jasmine about Lily. The girl was always ready to defend herself against whoever she spoke with, even when it was just Marlene and Alice. It was as if she was waiting for the preverbal shoe to drop…then it hit Jasmine, how could she forget.
Petunia.
Who else could help foster such a toxic attitude, but her lovely future aunt. As Harriet, she had heard stories from Remus and Sirius how awful Petunia was to her mother, but she had never heard that her mother was so distrustful to other people because of it.
Remus, at this point in time, who was completely unaware of her situation, was pushing forward. "Why do you keep harassing her? Is it because she spends time with Snape and doesn't end up fighting with him or because she has conversations with James and Sirius and people from other houses without getting into a shouting match? Jasmine is a great person. I haven't had any issues with her and the professors don't understand what you have against her," he grumbled, pulling at the strap to his shoulder bag, shifting from foot to foot unconsciously.
"She…just…I don't know. Peverell just rubs me the wrong way. She's really closed off and she talks like a bloody pureblood Slytherin, if they all had German accents," she grumbled, pouting towards the end.
Merlin, she sounded like a child.
"First, Jasmine is from Austria. If you ever bothered to speak with her, you'd know that. And, she is from a pureblooded British family on her father's side, so she is going to speak like a pureblood, no matter what language it is in. Finally, she isn't quite as closed off as you imagine her being. You just want an excuse to hate her since she's related to James in some way," Remus snapped, before pushing off the chair he leaning against, "And, if you haven't realized this yet, you treat Jasmine in a very similar manner to the way that James and Sirius treat Snape and you've said less to her than James and Sirius have ever said to Severus Snape."
Her mouth opened and closed a few times. Lily couldn't seem to find something to say to that. It seemed that Remus had effectively left her speechless. "That can't be true…"
Jasmine heard Remus sigh. "Lily, just act civil to Jasmine. She isn't James and she certainly isn't Sirius. Just act mature."
Lily huffed off, her shoes clicking on the stone floor and down the hall. "I thought that you could defend your own honor?" Remus asked, looking towards the area that Jasmine was hiding in. It was close to the full moon, so Remus' senses were more than likely heightened to an uncomfortable extreme.
"How did you know that I was hiding there?" Jasmine asked, dispelling her stealth spells and coming into view. She walked over to Remus, hands behind her back as the werewolf scrambled to figure out an excuse.
She loved watching him squirm.
"I saw you cast the spell work after class…" he blurted out and she raised an eyebrow, obviously not believing a single word that came out of his mouth.
She smiled, feeling the scar on her lips pull slightly. "Keep your secrets, Remus. Are you going to be visiting your sick relative next week? I heard Sirius mention something about them, as well as your furry little rabbit problem. I'm not sure if they're related, but James and Sirius sure seemed to think so when I asked," Jasmine said, changing the subject to something a little more manageable for him to answer.
"My mother gets ill rather often, and I need to go back home to help take care of her. She also has a temperamental rabbit that I take care of while she's recovering," he answered as they walked through the halls towards the Hospital Wing to check on their rather…trouble loving friends.
~*~
That night while she was getting ready for bed, Lily finally approached her. Her eyes were rimmed red, as if she might have been crying earlier that afternoon. Marlene and Alice had excused themselves a short time ago. Alice had finally mustered up her courage and asked Frank to speak privately with her in the common room. Marlene was writing a letter to her family, watching Frank and Alice, in case her friend needed back up.
This left Lily and Jasmine to their own devices. "Um, Peverell…Jasmine, can we talk?" She asked, as Jasmine sat on her bed, Ro curling up on the pillow that Jasmine wanted to use, the brat.
Instead of ignoring the red head, she turned towards her, making sure she got a good look at multicolored eyes. And, for once, Lily didn't flinch. "Can I help you, Evans?" She replied coldly. Even though she heard her conversation with Remus, she didn't quite trust Lily. She knew that Evans could be really vindictive when she wanted to be.
"I wanted to talk to you about the way I've been treating you the past few weeks…I wanted to apologize. I've been an awful person, all because I was jealous of you," she admitted, not making eye contact. Lily was no doubt wishing that she was anywhere, but with Jasmine.
The Master of Death sighed, tugging at her hair in thought. Swallowing her pride must have been difficult for her. "Why are you jealous of me? I don't understand…"
Lily groaned, flopping back on her bed. "You know how to talk to people in the magical community. You're really smart and have befriended the Marauders. Despite the fact that I abhor their pranks, I respect the magic that they cast. I just…it seems like everything comes easy to you and you try in classes. It just reminds me how behind I am as a muggleborn," she said, muffled at the end as she pulled a pillow over her face.
"Evans," she didn't respond, "Lily," she twitched, "look, I spent a good portion of my life in Austria with my family learning pureblood customs and about wizarding culture from both my mother's Austrian side and British wizarding culture from my father. Then I was kidnapped and raised captive in another pureblood household full of Slytherins. So, I can speak to Slytherins without too much trouble. I can also fight like a Gryffindor, but that doesn't mean that I find class work easy. I had to do four months of extra school work just to get into Hogwarts this year. The reason that I'm working so damn hard is because Dumbledore is looking for an excuse to expel me. I'm sorry that I seem intimidating, but you never gave me a chance. The first thing that you asked me was about my past. It isn't something that I'm comfortable with," Jasmine told her, and Lily pulled the pillow off her face, her face and she looked rather embarrassed.
"I might have overreacted. It's just, when I heard that Hogwarts was getting a transfer student and they were going to be a Gryffindor, I didn't expect them to be friends with Sirius Black and related to James Potter. The two are insufferable. I thought that you would be the same way," she admitted sheepishly.
"Would you like to start over?" Jasmine asked, sticking out her hand as a peace offering to Lily.
She looked at the hand like it was going to bite before Lily grasped it firmly. "I'm Lily Evans, it's nice to meet you. I won't assume you're a prat because you cousin and his best friend are wankers."
"Jasmine Peverell, it's a pleasure to meet you. Sorry for the dreadful accent, but I was born in Austria. And, I can verify, that and James and Sirius are wankers, both here and at home."
The two shared a rather solemn look before they broke out in slightly hysterical laughter. It was as if all the tense situations that they had been in over the last four weeks had come out all at once and they realized how ridiculous the entire ordeal had been in the first place. The two were holding their sides, Lily clutching her bed post to keep herself up and Jasmine sitting on the floor, not bothering to stay standing.
Eventually, the laughter died down, just enough for Lily to gasp out, "Jasmine…I have a rather large favor to ask."
Jasmine pushed herself up off the floor, the scar on her lips contorting as she frowned. "What kind of favor?"
As much as she wanted to make up with Lily there was no way that she was going to just do the girl favors. "I wanted to know if you could teach me about pureblood culture. I know that I'm not a pureblood, but I want to know what I've been missing about wizarding society that most of the students at Hogwarts are born knowing," she replied, a blush creeping up her neck and face at a rather steady pace.
That honestly hadn't been something that Jasmine was expecting her to ask. It wasn't often that any muggleborn would ask to learn about pureblood society. At least, that had been her experience in the future. Hermione, for all of her brilliance, abhorred anything to do with pureblood culture and teachings. Many of the lower-class purebloods preferred to take up the teachings and culture of the muggleborn students, shunning the thousands of years of magical culture that built where they were today. It seemed that within the next twenty or so years a lot of want and desire to learn about where magic truly came from deteriorated with the rise of the Pureblood fanatics.
Now, Jasmine didn't want to follow pureblood culture completely. It was awful sometimes and archaic at others, but there was some bits and pieces, that, as the Master of Death, she had to respect and follow. She knew that magic came from higher beings that had offspring with humans, or in Death's case, made deals with them.
Jasmine grinned from ear to ear and Lily honestly looked a little shocked by her genuine enthusiasm. "I'd love to. Would you like your friend, Severus, to join us? He's the last of this line and I'm not sure the other Slytherins are attempting to teach him how to run a household," Jasmine mentioned, and Lily gave her a puzzled look.
"Sev isn't a pureblood…he's a halfblood."
Jasmine resisted the urge to snort. "Rule number one of pureblood society, everyone is related in some way, shape, or form and everyone knows who is a part of whose family line. Severus is from the Prince line. A generation ago, they had more promise, since the heir, Severus' mother, was set to marry a wizard from the Nott line. Instead of following her family's instruction, she fell in love with a muggle, which isn't a bad thing on its own, but her father disowned her and the family has been disgraced. Of course, that doesn't mean that their wealth is gone, Gringotts keeps track of money and assets and the Prince family was always wealthy. Severus' Grandfather has been making pleas in court to speak with his grandson-"
"Wait, Sev's never spoken to his mother's family. He said they've never tried to contact him before."
Jasmine had to bite her cheek to stop her from cursing. It would figure that Snape had never heard from the only family he had left, that was slated to die in about four years, give or take a few months. His grandfather was supposedly a right bastard when angry, but he loved his family.
"Well, the Lord of the Prince house has been making inquiries. I got a letter a few days ago regarding if I've ever spoken to him. Apparently, the other pureblood lines aren't answering him and he's reaching out to a fellow neutral house for answers," Jasmine said with a shrug. It had been odd receiving that letter. At first, she had thought that it was a trap, but Jasmine was very careful about vetting her letters.
To a certain extent, Jasmine wondered if someone was tampering with the mail at Hogwarts. Jasmine had very specific enchantments on her owl. She had runes carved on Potter family tracking bracelet on the bird's leg that kept mail from being intercepted or rerouted by third parties. Jasmine made sure that all of her personal mail was sent to Potter manner and then flown from there to Hogwarts. It might make the letters a day later than she'd like them, but this way she always had the same owl delivering her mail.
Jasmine had replied to the letter quickly, claiming that she knew Severus, but had only just met him. There wasn't much else to say, but to tell him that Severus had no idea that his grandfather was attempting to contact him. She hadn't heard anything since and wondered if the letter had been captured on its return trip.
"Have you told Sev about the letter from his grandfather? He doesn't like liars…"
"I'm not lying about anything. The letter was honestly uncalled for and a breach of decorum on Lord Prince's part, but I let it pass since I know he was only looking for his family. I know what that's like, but this is a family matter. It isn't my business to say something unless I get the go ahead from Severus' family head."
Lily groaned. "This all sounds rather complicated for something that really should be simple."
"Rule number two of pureblood society, nothing is ever simple."
Notes:Hope you enjoyed!
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Chapter 15: Chapter 15Summary:Some Prince Family Drama...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 15
It took another week for Lord Prince to send his reply letter. By September twenty-ninth, Jasmine received another letter and large package from Gringotts via the Potter family barn owl, Apollo. The owl was James' personal message carrier and Jasmine trusted the bird. Though, he was the vainest bird Jasmine had ever met. Apollo took after his owner in that way and preened under the constant petting that Jasmine was giving him as she read the bank files that the goblins had sent her. There were quite a few families that owed her large sums of money…the loans had been put on hold when the Peverell family went into hiding after the rise of Grindewald. They must be quaking in their boots to learn that her family line was active on British soil again.
She gave Apollo a thin strip of bacon as she flipped open the letter from Lord Prince. James grumbled to her left about spoiling the bird and the owl having a new favorite human instead of him.
James wasn't wrong, the bird did like her more, but that was because they had an understanding and she thanked him after ever delivery. Her cousin could be a bit of brat when it came to saying thank you. It was hard delivering mail to the right person, it had to be taxing, so she treated Apollo the same way she had always treated Hedwig. She gave him lots of treats and respected him as a magical animal.
As Apollo flew off, she reread the letter in her hand. Lord Prince was asking for a favor, one that could put them in the debt of House Peverell for some time. All she had to do was convince Severus to speak with his Grandfather and to have them meet in person at some point in the near future. Lord Prince was getting up in years and wanted to make sure that his house had an heir before he died. He didn't want his fortune going to the government or whoever was acting as Severus' magical guardian, since they were apparently blocking all of his mail.
Elaine Prince hadn't died yet. She should be his magical guardian, but from her historical reports, Severus' mother wasn't all that magically powerful. Jasmine honestly didn't think that she was powerful enough to block letters from her own father. She clicked her tongue, someone was going to get in trouble for that, if they could track the magical signature of the person blocking the letters.
That was for another day…Jasmine figured it was either Dumbledore or dear old Tom. Both had government pull and both had something to gain from destroying neutral families and taking the money from dying branches.
This was a task easier said than done, since she only saw the future potions master in class and he really didn't talk to her much outside of potions. With the way that Slytherin House was treating her, it would be social suicide for Severus to speak with her outside of class and even when they spoke it could really only be considered monosyllables uttered to her. She'd need to hunt him down and somehow convince him to speak to the grandfather that he no doubt thought hated him for his mere existence as a halfblood.
There was so much acting against her. She was James' cousin. She was a Gryffindor and she hated the Dark Lord that many of Severus' good friends thought was brining in an age of prosperity for their people.
Jasmine thumped her head against the table.
"Still think it's fun being the heir to a family, Jazz?" Sirius teased from across the table. She flipped him off in reply, which had both James and Remus howling with laughter.
So, this brought her to the library, after extensively begging for Lily's help, Jasmine had managed to get the red head to tell her where the elusive Slytherin spent his time outside of class. Jasmine only needed to bribe her roommate with some rather hard to find books on pureblood culture. Lily was like Hermione in that sense.
Jasmine also might have heard Severus mention that he studies in the back corners of the library sometimes to get away from the chill of the dungeon during potions last week. They had finished their assignments early and chatted for about three and a half minutes.
Eventually, Jasmine caught sight of Severus sitting alone at a small table for four near the potions section. She looked around and saw a few older Slytherin's eyeing him from behind the invisibility section. The giant lugs were anything but invisible, but she wasn't going to be the ones to break the bad news to them. The two of them looked positively moronic and Jasmine wondered if they were Crabbe and Goyle's fathers. Death mentioned nothing about saving them in long run, so at least she wasn't going to need to reason with those two…she wasn't honestly sure if they had the capacity to reason in the first place.
Jasmine made sure on her way over that she didn't see Lily in any of the rows of books. She didn't need the red head over hearing them. As much as she and Lily had made up, she didn't need the red head shouting at her for upsetting Severus. This was going to be the kind of conversation that either ended in tears or screaming…or both.
She knew from the future that talking about family with Severus was always a touchy topic. At least she wasn't getting the information via legilimency or through his dying memories. Those were always rather intrusive and just a bit creepy, every time it happened.
"Is this seat taken?" Jasmine asked, causing Severus' head to snap up, meeting her gaze with a calculating look that screamed distrust. He noted the books in her arms, potions and transfiguration were the easiest to see. There were also a few letters sitting on the top of the pile.
When he didn't reply, Jasmine took that as an invitation to sit down. He didn't protest, but he did look over her shoulder at the idiots behind her attempting to hide. One of them swore when they knocked into something and the clattering of books that followed showed that their idea of trying to stay quiet wasn't working all that well. "Is there a reason that there are two large seventh years watching your every movement over there?"
Severus scowled, drumming his long fingers impatiently on the table in front of him. "Ever since Brightbark's lessons, I'm being watched outside of class. Everyone thought that I was a dark wizard by merit of being in Slytherin. They're here to make sure that I'm not leaning towards the light side of magic as I do my work. Is there a reason that you have decided to impede on my study time?"
Jasmine rolled her eyes and waved her wand towards the invisibility section, a jet of red light shot out and the sound of two bodies hitting the ground could be heard.
"Now that takes care of those two prats," she said putting her wand away with an unnecessary flourish. Severus' eyes were wide at her casual display of magic. She winked at him. It was time to start the work that death had set her back in time to do. "As for why I'm here, the Gryffindor Common room is far too loud for me to get anything done, so I came this way to study. I saw someone I knew, and I figured I go and sit with you. Blame me when your seventh year friends come around."
She pulled out her transfiguration book out with a piece of paper and quill ready to take notes. Severus seemed less than thrilled that she hadn't left him alone. She supposed that most people would run from his dower attitude, but Jasmine had always liked a challenge.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, both working on homework. Severus kept glancing back up at her through his long hair. Occasionally, she would make eye contact with him and he would quickly duck his head back to his work. It wasn't until she pulled out her transfiguration book that something in him snapped. "You sat with me, now leave," he hissed, putting a hand on hers as she tried to open her book, stopping her in her tracks. Or, at least attempting to. There wasn't much that would stop Jasmine from doing what she wanted if she was going to be honest.
"No, I quite like it here. I also have a message for you, from your mother's family," she said, ripping off the proverbial band-aid off quickly.
Severus froze, his grip on her wrist tightening to the point of bruising, but Jasmine didn't flinch, nor try to pull away. It was like dealing with a startled deer. If she moved even an inch he could run. She had been in too many fights to let a teen version of her potions master intimidate or elude her.
"Why did they contact you?" he growled, black eyes burning with a hatred that she had only seen Severus reserve for James and Sirius. Though, his hands were shaking around her wrist and his eye contact wavering ever so slightly. Someone was nervous.
She frowned before she forcefully pulled Severus' hand off of her arm. "Your grandfather has been trying to contact you for about five years. He has no living heirs and has been attempting to speak to you about taking over the family name. I'm not entirely sure how the Prince line goes about picking heirs, so the letter more than likely goes over that," she replied with a shrug, pulling out a letter from inside of her robe pocket and sliding it across the table to Severus, "And this letter is for your eyes only."
The letter was sealed, the Prince family coat of arms decorating the magically coated wax. With slightly shaking hands he picked up the letter, flipping the parchment over to make sure the wax seal hadn't been broken.
Ah, so little faith.
He'd be a perfect neutral family heir.
He gave her a weak glare before he opened the letter, his eyes taking in the contents quickly, something clattered onto the table's surface. Severus grabbed it quickly before Jasmine could see what it was. If she were a gambler, she would have said it was a key. She had worked at Gringotts in more than one life and that was the general sound that the metal keys for the vaults sounded like.
While Severus, more than likely, read through a life changing letter, Jasmine worked on her homework. She was happily taking notes in her textbook when a small piece of paper was pushed into her line of sight.
She gazed upwards and met Severus' slightly puffy eyes. Jasmine put her quill down rather quickly. She had never, in any of her lives, seen Severus Snape shed a single tear that had been caused by something other than a mortal injury. She was never sure if it was because he was a master at Occlumency or if he was just so emotionally stunted that he couldn't cry.
"What's the matter? Do I need to declare a feud between House Peverell and House Prince in your honor?" Jasmine asked, her tone flat and serious.
Severus let out a quiet huff that quickly turned into hysterical silent laughter or was that sobbing? She couldn't tell through his sheet of his long hair. To be honest, Jasmine had never been a fan of crying, in any of her lives. She jumped out of her seat and over to her Slytherin…friend? She put a gentle hand on his back and he turned to face her, there was a confused expression on his face at her show of comfort.
Was it so hard to think that she could be comforting?
It was probably the scars…and the fact they've barely spoken to each other past some pleasantries. Though, Jasmine was one of the few people to treat Severus like a person and not a pawn or a punching bag.
"My grandfather wants me as his heir. He, honest to Merlin, wants to meet me this Christmas. Apparently, he had been blocked by a third party magical guardian," he admitted with a very small, barely noticeable sniffle.
Jasmine pulled out a tissue from her bag and pushed it over to Severus, who shakily took it.
"I'd suggest using my owl to send a response. None of my letters have been intercepted by whatever third party is keeping you from your family."
Severus' expression closed off for a moment as he sat up, quickly rubbing at his left cheek, catching a stray, traitorous, tear. "I suppose that this means that I owe you a favor now."
Forever the Slytherin… Didn't Severus realize that he was dealing with a Gryffindor and could more than likely get away without owing her a favor? Then again, she needed Severus for her future plans to save the wizarding world. It couldn't hurt to have him in her debt for a while. "Well, I do need a future potions master to help with some research I'm working on," she said with a coy grin, her scarred mouth tilting upwards in what some would think was either horrifying or slightly arousing.
Jasmine liked to think that it was a little bit of both all at once.
Severus blinked, his cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink before he turned away quickly, his hair covering most of his face. "Well, it would reflect poorly on me to not take your favor. You've been very helpful to my family, so far. I know a bit of pureblood politics…I learned that much from my time in Slytherin house. It would reflect poorly on me if I did nothing after you did all of this," he grumbled, facing the opposite direction from her as he spoke.
Boys…always so shy.
Severus had a ways to go before he'd be able to hold his own in a political field, but he'd learn.
Jasmine could almost picture a younger and just as blonde version of Lucius Malfoy teaching Severus about pureblood politics. At least Lucius Malfoy's friendship wasn't completely useless to Severus, the blonde ponce was part of another family that she needed to save somehow.
Bloody hell.
She wondered if Malfoy was a Death Eater yet. If he wasn't, he could be a potential ally as well. His family had influence and money, even this far back in the timeline. Without the Malfoy fortune to pull from, Tom might not be able to make as many political allies, by lining pockets, this time around.
So many new options for her to take.
She hummed an affirmative before standing up. "I'll get back to you on the details. You can give me the response letter when you're ready."
Notes:I hope you enjoyed!
Leave your comments and kudos below!
See you soon,
SugarPhantom