Chapter 70: Chapter 70Summary:Christmas!
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 70
Christmas morning came and with it was a slew of gifts and happy tidings from the Potter family, which Jasmine was beginning to feel like was her own. The four of them were seated in the main sitting room around the large, and one could say, excessively decorated, Christmas tree. Apparently, it was a Potter family tradition to never throw out ornaments, but to just keep getting larger and larger trees to accommodate them. This had been going on for about four hundred years. Suffice to say, the tree was packed with trinkets from all over the world and from all different time periods.
Monty was sipping what was supposed to be morning tea, but Jasmine had a feeling it was some kind of mulled cider. He had an overly large elf hat perched on his perpetually messy hair. Euphemia, ever the picture of grace was in a bright red dressing gown with matching slippers. Her usual pale blue one was elsewhere. She was watching as James doled out gifts, his glasses somewhat askew. He had procured a flashing stag onesie from some store in Diagon Alley. Jasmine was the most muted out of all of them. She had never been one to celebrate the holidays by dressing according to the day. She was in her usual pale violet dressing gown. Though, she had happily brought presents for all of her friends and acquaintances.
Jasmine honestly enjoyed looking for gifts for people. It was a challenge, and it was one that she got joy out of without it having anything to do with defeating a Dark Lord.
Euphemia and Monty had brought her a new wardrobe for her internship around the world, for both the muggle and the magical world. It had to have cost them a small fortune. Each piece was in style and in colors that would complement her more delicate features. Monty claimed that he picked out the leather jacket that Jasmine had been petting across her lap all morning. Euphemia smacked his arm in retaliation.
"Regardless of whoever picked it out, it's lovely."
James had gotten her a book on runes and transfiguration combinations. two branches of magic didn't often overlap due to the impermanent nature of transfiguration and near permanent nature of runes.
Remus bought her Mexican chocolate, which she had mentioned that she liked once while they were at honeydukes back in September. It was sweet that he remembered.
"Moony sent you chocolate, how like him…" James commented with a fond eyeroll.
Jasmine popped a piece in her mouth and hummed as it warmed her up, the chili flakes peppered throughout leaving a slight burn in their wake. "It's from Mexico, it isn't sweet like European chocolate tends to be, but not overly bitter like baking chocolate."
She didn't offer her cousin any, she knew he'd waste it. If there was one thing that all the Marauder's had in common it was their sweet tooth. It was something she honestly missed as Harriet. For nine lives she enjoyed sweets and craved them regularly, but as Jasmine, she couldn't stand overly sweet treats. Such are the pitfalls of forcibly taking over someone's body. She had never imagined that cravings would be something so biologically inclined that it could override nine lives worth of taste memory.
The next package she picked up was from Lily. She had sent her a small pocket calendar for the next year. It had flowers and saying painted on the sides. In the weekly notes section it looked like Jasmine would be able to communicate with her friend, which was an interesting feature that her roommate had to have added on her own. Lily was going to be a charm master someday. Jasmine was going to make sure of that.
Petunia sent a candid polaroid of Jasmine from Lily's party during the summer. She has no idea when Petunia managed to capture that, but she honestly barely recognized herself. Petunia had managed to catch her right side, the one without the scaring. They had to have been in London looking at something silly since Jasmine had an open-mouthed smile, her lips curling ever so slightly at the corners. Her green eye bright in the midafternoon light.
"Merlin, that girl has talent. I'm glad that you're bringing her on your trip. She might actually help capture your research," James said, as he pulled on one of the ugliest Christmas jumpers she had ever laid eyes on. The tag claimed it was from Sirius. There was fake tinsel and fluffy green and red pom-poms all over it.
She crinkled her nose at the sight of it. "Yes, well, her talent needs exposure and her family can't afford that, so with the salary she will getting from us she should be able to pay for quite a bit of university. I want her to follow her dreams."
If she could do that for Petunia, it would be an honor to change such a retched woman's life into something new and exciting. Fate may actually enjoy this change…hopefully.
Severus and Regulus both got her books on advanced potion making techniques, which was an interesting choice from the two of them. Jasmine was never going to be a potions master. She knew that and Severus and Regulus both knew that, but maybe, they held out a bit of hope for her. It was a vain hope, but it was there all the same.
Sirius, sent her a charm to add to the necklace that the Marauder's gave her last year and a note apologizing for his family's behavior at the party and ranting over his baby brother's first marriage contract proposal. "It looks like Regulus may have a permanent suitor soon." Jasmine commented with a small smile on her face. It would be nice for Mikhail to finally get to fall in love.
Euphemia's eyebrow rose, "Orion is letting his son marry out of the main pureblood families in England?"
"My good friend, Mikhail, has been pursuing him for the past few months. His family is very prominent in Russia."
Monty whistled, "You've talked about his family. They are well known throughout Europe, not just magical Russia. No wonder Orion is letting their son court him. As long as Sirius can produce a few heirs it really won't matter what Regulus does as long as he can secure political alliances."
Mikhail's family would see to it that Regulus would be a prominent figure in their politics which could only help the insular economy that had become the British Magical community.
"Why didn't I find that out in my letter from Sirius?" James asked, a hint of a whine in his voice. He sent Jasmine a wink at the end, to make sure that she knew that he was joking.
She rolled her eyes at the display, "You don't really care about Regulus' love life any more than you care about Mikhail's. I'm friends with both of them and this is no doubt something that most of the Black family allies will be hearing about over the next couple weeks. Sirius knows that his family likes me, so he told me first. It really is exciting news."
Speaking of her good friend, Mikhail, bless his heart, sent her beautiful dagger that had the rest of her family up in arms over the violent nature of the gift. Jasmine on a certain level understood why they were mad, but it was a really pretty goblin forged dagger, with lots of very interesting runes carved into the hilt. "It's always nice to have a little bit of protection."
"That is more than a little bit of protection. That is lethal," Monty pointed out as he held the weapon on its side. He wanted to examine the workmanship. Like her friend would skimp on protection spells.
"Well, that's great, since it's meant to protect me from harm when I wand isn't readily available. The two of us fought often with blades, though I preferred knives, Mikhail enjoyed swords more than anything else," Jasmine replied, taking the weapon back from her guardian carefully and setting it back into the box it came in. Jasmine hoped that Mikhail liked the sheath she'd sent him. It should match the sword he was always gushing about in his letters.
James shifted on the wood floor, breaking up the silence in the room. "How often did you fight with weapons?"
She blinked and drummed her fingers on the hardwood. She didn't really want to talk about this on Christmas, but from the expectant look on her family's faces she might just have to answer them. "Well, we weren't allowed wands, which I've mentioned before. So, when the Patrons weren't drilling wandless spellcasting, they were teaching us how to maim each other with sharp objects. I wasn't the biggest fan of the tournaments that required me to stab my way to victory. I took no pleasure in other people's pain, but," she shrugged, feeling the various scars on her arms and legs throb in memory of all the different wounds she carried from carelessness, "it was either that or die…Eventually, I was taken out of that circuit because two very dangerous and deranged contestants joined, female twins from Romania. They were monsters and enjoyed dismembering."
Those two had been horrific to watch and the Patrons that cared about their older contestants removed themselves from that circuit immediately. Jasmine had won her fight against Sofia, but that girl had tried to hack her arm off. Her opponent used a long serrated knife. It was only supposed to be till first blood…but that match…Jasmine shuddered.
Euphemia clapped, dragging Jasmine away from her train of thought. "Why don't we make breakfast and then go out in the snow for few minutes. I think all of us could use some fresh air."
Monty and James dashed for the kitchen. The older of the two doing a jig on his way there. It wasn't often that Euphemia allows him out of the house for any extended period of time. Especially after the scare this past summer.
"One day, the two of us need to sit down and really discuss what happened with the people that kidnapped you all those years ago. I know that you see a mind healer, but I would feel a bit more secure knowing what they put you through. Though, that might just be the Auror in me," Euphemia said, stretching as she stood, her robes gracefully cascading around her. She was the picture of pureblood grace.
Jasmine looked like a troll that had woken up on the wrong side of the bed with her hair up in a half-asrsed bun that was falling out and in a lose dressing robe. She never really bothered to dress herself up for bed, seemed silly, but she also didn't have anyone to look stunning for in her bedroom besides her cat, and occasionally Death, who would more than likely take that as a compliment and Jasmine couldn't have that happen.
~*~
It wasn't long until the new year was ushered in at the Potter household. The marauders showed up enforce. It was nearly one thirty in the morning and the party was still going. Jasmine was slowly fading, but Sirius and Remus were dancing around the sitting room with James as they attempted to stay up for the entire night. The boys had made the large couch towards the back of the room their base of operations for this little event. Jasmine was watching the fun, nursing a cup of spicy cocoa. Come next year she might be adding a bit of fire whiskey instead. Her other friends were busy either having already celebrated the New Year due to time zones or awaiting to celebrate. Theo and Blaise were apparently a part of some kind of magical ritual or another tonight.
She wished she could be there to watch. The three of them always got into so much trouble when they were all in Slytherin together. She can only image what they were doing in the states attempting to keep their heads low.
Jasmine wished that Tom would just stop his crusade. The madman had been meeting far more resistance in this lifetime than in any other that Jasmine had been a part of as Harriet. With the Black and Malfoy families completely against him, he didn't have nearly as strong of a foothold in England as he'd want, though the werewolves were still siding with him, as well as many other darker magical creatures.
Over the course of the last week, there had been whispers of an upcoming attack from dear old Tom, nothing had happened yet, but Euphemia has been on constant fire calls for the past few days with Minister Minchum. They were expecting something large with plenty of causalities and that worried Jasmine. She had altered the timeline enough that she couldn't accurately predict anything that was going to happen anymore. The butterfly effect was a bitch and everything that she had done had rippled outward and drastically changed Tom's approach to attacking wizarding Britain.
The boys were rather oblivious to Euphemia's plight or they just didn't want to see what was happening in the world beyond Hogwarts yet. Jasmine could understand that, but she never had the luxury of sticking her head in the sand…it would only have gotten her killed.
Sirius sashayed his way over as James and Remus burst into a fit of laughter, collapsing on the plush couch behind them. Jasmine looked up from her drink with a raised eyebrow. "Can I help you?"
He playfully wiggled his fingers in her direction, "Dance with me, Jazzy-pants. Usher in this new year with your closest friends!"
She had a feeling that Sirius had been drinking before he came. There was a brief mention that he and his family had been having arguments and he needed to come here to unwind. Now, he seemed a little bit too unwound and even Remus was swaying slightly. Jasmine noticed three cups of fizzing liquid on the table near James and Remus.
"If I were to smell your breath, would it be soda or would I smell fizzing wine?" It was some kind of seventies fad drink that all of the witches and wizards were partaking in. It was magically carbonated wine meant to look like muggle soda so no one would know, but their breath still reeked of alcohol. Though, Sirius would get in more trouble for having muggle soda than he would about sneaking wine into the Potter house back home.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Soda, Jazz. You wouldn't think that I would get everyone drunk on New Year's right under Euphemia and Monty's noses?"
That almost sounded earnest, until he grinned and a small giggle slipped past his lips. Remus and James joined in. They were going to have one hell of a hangover in the morning and they were going to deserve every minute of it.
Sirius grabbed her hand lightly and tugged. "Dance with me," he insisted pulling on her arm again.
She sighed, putting her mug down and swaying with a very drunk Sirius. Jasmine was honestly impressed that he hadn't stepped on her toes yet. "Jazz…Jazz…I need to ask you something…it's real important," Sirius slurred as the danced, Remus and James had both seemed to have dozed off on the couch. They were leaning against each other snoring, James' head resting on Remus' shoulder.
"What is it, Sirius?" She asked, not quite up for putting up with his nonsense this late at night, but figuring she was going to have to if she wanted to go to sleep.
He stopped swaying and moved her so that she was arm's length away from him. His hands were clutching at her shoulders. Even though his cheeks were a bit flushed from the alcohol he seemed fairly coherent in this moment. "Reggie… and Mikhail are going to be going on…. a date this weekend before we go back to Hogwarts. He needs a chaperone…and for whatever reason…my family wants me to do it. I was wondering…if you would come and help me."
Jasmine raised an eyebrow as her friend swayed a little bit precariously, his eyes not focusing. She grabbed his arm and moved him to the nearest couch. Sirius melted into the pillows, eyes closed. Had he fallen asleep before she'd gotten to answer him?
"This is why you decided to go drinking today?" She muttered after his breathing evened out. Jasmine pulled a blanket out and covered Sirius and then moved to do the same with James and Remus.
Reggie dating shouldn't panic Sirius has much as it did. There was no risk to Regulus dating another man. It wasn't like he could get pregnant and shame the family. Not to mention that Mikhail was sterile, even if Regulus had been born female. Her friend was one of the safest dates he could go on.
Then again, he probably doesn't want to see his baby brother fall in love with anyone, at all. Sirius has seemed overly protective of his brother since Jasmine had met him two summers ago.
She ran a hand through her hair as she cleaned the tables of wine, leaving some crackers and water in their place for when they woke up. They'd need to find the hangover potions on their own. Jasmine turned off the lights and blew out the multiple candles in the room, bathing the room in darkness.
She made her way to her room in silence debating if it would be worth it to go with Sirius on Mikhail's date. Her longtime friend would never let her live it down, but it might be worth that to see him attempt to flirt with Regulus while Sirius watched him like a hawk.
She still had all of tonight to think about it, not to mention most of the morning. The Marauders were going to need to sleep that wine off. Ro was napping on her pillow when she entered the room. Jasmine picked her up and groaned into the now empty pillow, "Do I go with Sirius and pray to Merlin this doesn't turn into some weird double date or stay home?"
The cat gave her a very unamused expression as Jasmine changed into her sleepwear and curled up. "Don't give me that look. If you had a feline suitor you'd be fretting about the same things."
Ro blinked at her and began licking her left paw, paying Jasmine no mind at all.
Notes:I hope you enjoyed!
Leave your comments and kudos below!
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 71: Chapter 71Summary:The not double date...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 71
"You're going on a date with Sirius," James muttered for the fifth time that morning as Jasmine fastened her winter cloak over her robes to face the biting January weather. Her cousin was pacing back and forth across the breakfast nook near the kitchen, hands behind his back in some kind of deep contemplation.
Jasmine let out a long-suffering sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. "For the last time, it's not a date. He literally wants me there to stab Mikhail if he gets handsy. He probably just asked me to make his father happy."
Her cousin freezes in place. "AH HA!" James jumps pointing a finger at Jasmine accusatorily. She nearly goes cross eyed with her only good eye.
She slaps his hand away from her face. She raises a single delicate eyebrow, waiting for an explanation to his exclamation. "What?"
"His family does want him to marry you! Moody was right! I'm going to kill Padfoot!"
Jasmine smacked James on the back of the head, none too gently and he gave a small yelp. "You are acting like an idiot, James. Sirius and I aren't about to get together because his family said so. They confronted me at the party. Sirius and I had a talk afterwards. He isn't about to jump my bones because his family wants little Black and Peverell heirs running around. If you don't think better of Sirius, you should at least think I'm better than that," she snapped, arms crossed over her chest as James rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
He hopped on the counter, resting his head in his hands. "Look, Jazz, it's just I know a lot about marriage contracts. Dad has let me see quite a few over the years that have come through for me. We always reject them, but they are really binding. Some of them have really crazy stipulations. I just want you to be happy and the thought of Sirius somehow guilting you into a marriage contract worries me. You're the kind of person that would do that to make sure that he's happy. You'd marry him to make sure that he doesn't suffer in his marriage."
She wrinkled her nose. Jasmine did have a saving people problem, but she had to draw the line somewhere. "I'm not sure if I would sacrifice myself like that. I saw the contact, there are a lot of obligations I would have to fulfill. It's one thing to be friends with someone. I would need to produce at least four heirs or more if we have multiple girls. It would be a lot."
James whistled, legs swinging back and forth, sock clad feet thumping against the wooden counters below. Euphemia would swat him if she saw him on the counter like this, acting like some common born riffraff. "So, you've thought about it extensively?"
She swore he wiggled his eyebrows. Jasmine felt her face heat slightly, so much for killing Sirius, now he was teasing her about it. "Not in the way you think. When I started putting pieces together, I realized which name he had taken off his list and why his family was so angry with him. I tried to figure out why it was such an obvious choice to take my name off besides the whole best mate's cousin thing. The next was the obligation of heirs," she replied with a shrug as she wrapped her favorite grey scarf around her neck. It was soft and fairly shiny. It reminded her of the invisibility she once owned.
James was grinning from ear to ear, "If you say so. Have fun on your not to subtle double date. Stab Padfoot if he starts sniffing around inappropriately."
Ugh, she was never going to hear the end of this.
~*~
She met Sirius at the Leaky Cauldron. He was leaning against the far wall near the floo access, more than likely waiting for her, but he stopped paying attention to glare holes into Mikhail's head. Sirius was simmering as he watched Regulus and Mikhail speak to each other near the entrance to Diagon Alley. The two of them were bundled up for the weather and huddled close. "You know if you keep scowling like that your face my stay that way," Jasmine warned and her friend jumped. Sirius swore rather colorfully, a hand on his chest.
"Warn a man, Jazz. Are you trying to put me in an early grave?"
Jasmine grinned, "I wouldn't need to scare you to do that, Sirius, you know that."
Sirius groaned and turned back to see Mikhail and Regulus looking at them. Jasmine waved and pulled Sirius towards the entrance to the alley. She wasn't going to let his awful mood ruin Regulus and Mikhail's day. Her friend had suffered enough in his life.
It didn't take long for the four of them to settle into an easy rhythm. For the most part, Regulus was just showing Mikhail around the area. There was a bit of window shopping involved while Sirius and Jasmine lagged behind enough to give them some semblance of privacy.
She swore she felt eyes on her that shouldn't have been there, but maybe she was just being paranoid. Jasmine pushed her rune vision out and around her and hopefully she wouldn't find anything.
Her friend was on his toes watching his brother grab Mikhail's hand and drag him towards one of the stores to their left.
"You know, James thought that you were asking me out on some kind of Black family double date."
Sirius nearly walked into a light post as he turned an odd shade of red and spluttered something unintelligible. Regulus and Mikhail didn't even notice Sirius apologize to the damn thing before realizing it wasn't a person.
His cheeks were a bright red when he turned towards her. "That wasn't why I asked you to join me!" He nearly shouted, his voice cracking at the very end of his sentence. Jasmine brought a hand up to her mouth to cover the snort that wanted to escape.
He put a hand over his eyes in embarrassment as Jasmine peered up at him. "You never really explained to me why you wanted me here today. I highly doubt you only wanted me here to watch Mikhail like a hawk for you. He's well behaved in public."
She gently took his hand away from his face. They were wearing gloves, so there wasn't any skin to skin contact, which could be construed as highly inappropriate for two potentially courting heirs. Jasmine waited for his response as Mikhail pointed out a book to Regulus in the window of a nearby store.
"I just…thought it would be nice to just be the two of us for once. We don't get to be alone together very often. Prongs and Moony are always glued to your side. I thought you would like to spy on your best friend's date, just as much as I would love to spoil my brother's date."
"So, you wanted it to just be you and me spying on your younger brother's date? You do realize that a lot of people are going to think that we're on a date as well? If the press get wind of this…it could be messy. Most of Hogwarts already thinks we're dating."
The rumors at Hogwarts had been claiming they've been dating since the moment Jasmine stepped foot in school the prior year. She tended to forget that in this timeline the Black Family was still extremely prominent. The heir of that family dating anyone would be a big headline.
Not to mention that the lost heir of the Peverell line dating anyone would be a headline all on its own.
"I don't really care about that…we've been dealing with those kinds of rumors for ages. It isn't anything new."
"Except that your family has made it very clear that they want me to marry you," Jasmine replied with a sigh and Sirius grumbled something under his breath. That sounded like "meddling bastards" but she could have been wrong.
"I don't want this," he motioned between them, "to be about them."
His fists clenched at his sides once more. It was obvious that there was another reason that he was upset over this. His family sticking their noses into his business wasn't anything new, but having them nudge Sirius towards Jasmine seemed to frustrate him to no end.
"Is there any other reason that you hate that they want you to marry me?"
Right before Sirius answered Mikhail came back over, Regulus on his arm, cheeks flushed. It seemed it was time to give Regulus a bit of a break from her flirty friend.
"Sirius, take a look at this! The new cleansweep just released!"
Mikhail was also an awful flyer, it was probably better that Sirius handled this part of their little trip. Her Russian friend held out an arm for her to take, which she accepted with a grin.
The four of them went towards the Quidditch supply store for a bit. Sirius and Regulus arguing over which model would best suite their styles the best.
Mikhail was all smiles as he watched Regulus passionately defend his position to his older brother, who wasn't giving a millimeter. Eventually Jasmine started talking to him when his smile became tight, which never boded well for either of them. "Your parents must be throwing a fit with you so far away from home."
He shrugged, eyes darting to the left and lingered. Jasmine began to stretch her vision out towards the left. "A bit. My mother is more concerned than my father, but he sees this as a great way of branching out the family business. I'm just glad that I get to pursue my interests here. If my mother had her way I would never leave the house again."
Jasmine could sense a couple different people in her vision, a few of them seemed familiar, had she been right earlier when she felt that someone had been watching them? Honestly, if her hunch is correct…they could be in for a very interesting afternoon.
"Honestly, I sometimes feel that my guardians would do the same thing if given the option." With all the different problems that Jasmine has had over the last few years, she felt that Euphemia wanted to just wrap her up and never let her leave the house. Monty would enjoy the company, but she would be so bored and there was no doubt that Mikhail's parents felt the same way.
Mikhail's gaze shifted a bit behind her and her shoulders tensed a little bit. So, he had noticed as well. She switched to German, "You see them too?"
He gave a tight nod. There was a group of five wizards that had been tailing them on and off for the past twenty minutes. Just watching, they were far enough away that it would seem a bit much for Jasmine to bring it up to Sirius. "They're getting far too close for comfort."
"They're watching Regulus and Sirius more so than us. They're probably here to capture them."
The unspoken "or kill them" went without mention. Orion had been speaking out against the Dark Lord's propaganda at the most recent Wizengamot meetings. It had been causing quite the divide amongst the dark pureblood families. Jasmine felt that it was a rather easy choice, either use dark magic and accept muggleborns or follow a psychotic megalomaniac to their eventual death. The choice seemed obvious, but purebloods almost seemed to enjoy sending themselves to their death.
Jasmine's eyes darted around the area, there was a small café to their right. Sirius and Regulus were oblivious to what was going on as Mikhail nodded. The two of them approached the Black brothers right as the group of five Death Eaters slipped their masks on.
She could sense wand movement as she grabbed Sirius and pushed him to the ground and over towards the café. There was a small explosion above them, a blasting hex smashed into the window of the quidditch supply store. Shards of glass rained down around them. Sirius hissed as something hard landed on his leg, but he kept moving. There were more hexes and curses cast as they made their way around upturned tables and bodies on the ground. Jasmine didn't want to think if they were alive or dead. Mikhail and Regulus were right behind them as people screamed and created general chaos for them to get out of the way.
"They're getting away!" One of the men shouted from behind them as Jasmine helped Sirius down the three steps to the café's door and ushered the group inside.
That was when she noticed that Mikhail had Regulus slung over his shoulder. His head lolling to the side. "The blast knocked him silly. He should be fine after getting looked at by a healer," Mikhail muttered as he entered. Jasmine let out a breath as she locked the door. He was still breathing, so at least there was that.
The café itself was abandoned after the initial blast. It would make evacuating the premises easier. The main room was mostly closed off to the outside, with only a small bit of light coming in from the upper level windows. It left lots of tables and chairs for later use. Jasmine bit her lip and grabbed her carving crystal from her back pocket. She etched a few runes into the wood near the lock, which would stave off intruders...it wasn't a strong rune, that would take far too much time. It should hold long enough to get both Sirius and Regulus somewhere a little safer.
"Jazz, what are we doing? We need to leave," Sirius advised, pulling out his wand. He was the only one of them that could use magic outside of school right now. Though, he was limping, a patch of blood was starting to stain his pants around his knee.
Mikhail snorted, adjusting Regulus. "Go ahead and try to disapperate out, there are no doubt wards up against it. Otherwise your law enforcement would be here by now."
Jasmine bit her lip…that sounded about right for a raid…or a kidnapping. She couldn't let the Death Eaters get a hold of the Black brothers.
"Mikhail, now is not the time to be petty about this. Get Regulus to the back room we need to get him out of sight for right now."
Her friend nodded and gently picked Regulus up bridal style and carried him into the back. He was going to need to see a healer soon. Untreated head injuries, even in the magical world, could be dangerous. The fact he wasn't responsive was worrying.
The back room was in better condition than Jasmine thought it would be. It looked like this was where most of the employees spend their breaks since it was comfortable and large enough to accommodate quite a few people.
The door in the front shook. This was turning into a disaster of day.
"If we can't use magic to get out what do we do?" Sirius asked, watching the wood slowly start to splinter, the runes holding on by a thread. Well, Sirius could use magic, but he would be a sitting duck…which would only hold Jasmine and Mikhail back in the brawl to come.
Jasmine could feel the magic of the runes fading. Mikhail waved his hand over his right side and a glamour hiding a rather impressive sword appeared. It was almost comforting seeing him with it. Sirius eyed him warily.
"We fight, Heir Black."
Jasmine pulled out wicked looking knife from her boot. It looks like she was going to use Mikhail's Christmas gift earlier than she'd expected. "You stay here and watch your brother, Sirius. They're after the two of you. Mikhail and I will take care of this until we can't."
Sirius staggered forward, hissing as he put weight on his leg, he put a hand on Jasmine's right arm. "You can't be serious? You two can't take on five adult wizards. I have to help."
Jasmine eyed his bleeding leg, "You can barely walk. Mikhail and I used to fight together all the time without magic. Protect your brother and let Mikhail and I do what we were trained to do for years." It was something that she hadn't really spoken about in detail to the Marauders or the Potters. She had really only discussed this with her Mind Healer…her capacity to kill was disconcerting at times. Jasmine hadn't personally murdered anyone in the ring, but she had come close…she had killed those Death Eaters and the Chesters. As Harriet she had killed to save herself in multiple lives.
Mikhail had been in one death match, but they had both had their share of brutal fighting. Blood shed was inevitable in this fight.
The rune began to fracture, and Jasmine ran out of patience and time. Mikhail had already left towards the front of the store and Jasmine closed the door as Sirius hobbled towards it with a shout. She quickly craved a complicated locking rune onto the knob, trapping Sirius in with Regulus.
Mikhail readied his weapon as Jasmine turned some tables over on their sides to act as cover. "Just like old times. Pit rules?"
Jasmine nodded and poised herself right next to the front door right as the rune finally gave away and the door was blasted off its hinges, and the first Death Eater entered the room. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears. She couldn't mess this up, she didn't want to die here and she couldn't let them get to Sirius or Regulus.
Her grip on the knife tightened, her resolve strong. Jasmine descended on him, her knife plunging into his shoulder. The men were in their full Death Eater regalia, skull masks and all. The man cried out and dropped his wand. Jasmine pulled the blade out as he staggered backwards, gripping the new bleeding appendage. That was for Sirius.
She jumped out of the way as spells began to fly through the air towards her. Jasmine ducked behind a table as Mikhail impaled one of the men. There was an audible crunch as bones grinded under the blade. He used him as a shield for the curses aimed towards him. A common pit tactic when dealing with a large brawl.
The Death Eater with the sword him in screamed as one of the curses collided with him. His skin begin to blister and burn as he writhed. Someone was going to need to go to St. Mungo's after this.
Jasmine could sense one of them men moving towards her. She kicked out a chair, knocking it into his knees, his wand dropping from his hand as he doubled over. Jasmine slammed the butt of her knife into his skull, knocking him out. She grabbed his wand and snapped it before she was grabbed from behind. Her knife clattering to the floor as she was hefted into the air. He lifted her off her feet with a chuckle. She could feel a wand pressing up against her throat. "Looks like we caught ourselves a Peverell. Our Lord will be so pleased."
Mikhail pulled the sword out of his slowly bleeding out opponent. A pool of blood spreading out under it. There were still two left and one had Jasmine. She didn't have eyes on the second one she could sense him behind Mikhail.
Jasmine knocked her head back into her captor, there was a crunch of cartilage as she broke his nose. He howled in pain as she reached down to grab her knife as she sensed both the Death Eater and Mikhail move towards her. Jasmine's hand closed around the knife as Mikhail drove the blade downwards. Jasmine rolled to the side as the blade went through her enemy and right where she had been moments before.
She stood up and caught movement behind her friend and threw her weapon. The throw was low, but it still hit center mass, just in the fleshy part of his upper collar bone and shoulder. He yanked the blade out with a yelp, though it was his wand arm, which was nearly limp at his side.
The man that Mikhail had just stabbed through the upper arm staggered to his feet, wand held very loosely in his hand.
It was always a good idea to take away an opponents' advantage in battle and while Jasmine and Mikhail were younger they knew how to fight dirty and taking away their opponents' ability to use a wand was always a good tactic in any fight.
Jasmine once again had no weapon her knife was on the floor near the death eater's foot. She was back to back with Mikhail. It was a familiar position that Jasmine had been in many times in the ring.
"You two are going to get it," the injured one spat as he lunged for Mikhail with all the finesse of hippogriff. The other man attempted to fire a killing curse at her, but he could barely lift his arm up enough to get the spell off. The spell went low and to the right.
"LEFT!" Jasmine shouted as the curse went wide. Mikhail dove out of the way right as it collided with the other Death Eater who in his blind rage walked right into the attack.
Jasmine held out a hand and concentrated on summoning her knife, which at this point was right behind the last Death Eater. It wiggled for a moment before embedding itself in his back. The man howled in pain as he attempted to remove it, but it was just out of reach. Jasmine picked up a chair and smashed it over the man's head. The wood splinted and broke from the impact, but the final enemy was taken out right as the sound of disapperation filled the area.
"Better late than never," Jasmine muttered, pulling her knife out from the man's back. She flicked her wrist and the door to the back room opened.
Notes:I love writing action scenes. =)
Thanks for all the lovely comments.
You guys are the best!
Leave any comments and kudos below!
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 72: Chapter 72Summary:The aftermath of battle...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 72
The room was a literal bloody mess when Sirius tumbled through the backroom door. It took him a moment to take in the gore the front room had become and then proceeded to dry heave on the tile at the sight before him. Jasmine and Mikhail were splattered here and there with blood. Mostly on their arms, but Jasmine had a bit in her hair from when she headbutted the man that had grabbed her and put her in a headlock. Mikhail had blood splatter on his arms and a streak on his face that was slowly drying. Jasmine had a feeling that was from the man he had used as a human shield for most of the tussle.
As much as Jasmine wanted to go over and comfort him, she didn't think he'd appreciate it. There were some things a man had to do in private. Not to mention that she had quite a bit of blood on her and didn't fancy being vomited on. She already smelled horrendous. She didn't need anything else splashed on her.
She pinched the drying blood on the sleeve of her robe. The stains were never going to come out. Jasmine saw Mikhail grimacing at the state of his clothing as well and gave him a weary sigh. He responded with a lopsided grin.
At least no one had gotten hurt that hadn't deserved it during their little brawl.
Five Death Eater bodies were littered on the floor and only two were alive enough for Auror questioning, if the local law enforcement ever showed up. She could hear fighting a little further north of their shop. Jasmine supposed that there could have been more Death Eaters spread throughout the area to draw focus away from the kidnapping that hadn't occurred.
Jasmine was sorely tempted to cast some charms to abate some of the stink the room had taken on, but then she could get in trouble if they attempted to figure out whose magical signatures were all over the crime scene. Of all the times to need to be careful about wandless magic would be the time that Jasmine would need to use some kind of freshening charm.
Jasmine would be sore in the morning, maybe have a few bruises, but it wouldn't be anything major.
Mikhail turned towards Jasmine a bit out of breath. They used to be able to do this for hours. They had gotten soft during the time outside the ring.
Their weapons were covered in blood and still dripping wet, occasionally adding another drop to the already drenched floor below them. Jasmine was wiping her blade off on one of the Death Eater's robes. Might as well get ahead on cleaning it. There was no use in letting the metal get damaged.
"How is Regulus doing, Sirius?" She asked as he finished retching onto the pink tinted tiles. The poor guy just wasn't cut out for this kind of violence. Then again, most teenagers aren't supposed to be comfortable with stabbing someone.
"He's awake, but he needs medical attention." He croaked out, his grey eyes wide. He scrambled to his feet as best he could with a hurt leg and backed tracked towards the room Regulus was half conscious in.
Jasmine felt a cold hand settle on her shoulder as Death made its presence known to her. She could almost see Death's fingers curl around the joint. The deity went to the nearest dead body and plunged his arm straight into their chest. He pulled out their souls, white wispy things. Jasmine could hear them screaming as Death blew on the top of the soul and stored it in his robes. Death was never gentle with Death Eater souls, there was a bit of righteous indignation the deity had for them. As Harriet, she had always figured that he enjoyed tormenting those that allied with Tom. They dared connect themselves with an abomination. Death did love capturing and destroying monsters.
Mikhail sheathed his sword, flicking a wayward piece of hair from his face. "We should-" he began right as a contingent of Aurors entered the shop. Their wands were raised anticipating some kind of fight.
Instead, they got three tired looking teens, three dead Death Eaters and two unconscious ones, who at the end of the day more than likely wished they were dead.
A sharp whistle of appreciation drew Jasmine's attention. Amelia and Bellatrix were amongst the group of law enforcement officer pushing their way into the building. "Out of the way!" Bones snapped as two lower ranking Aurors skittered to the side.
Bella was in her unspeakable robes, a dark layered robe with silver sewn runes etched into the sides, it had a hood attached to the back, but it was pulled down at the moment. Bella looked at the scene and then back at Jasmine and Mikhail. "Did you two…do all of this?"
Jasmine's eyes glanced at the body of the man killed from the Avada Kadavra. "We don't take credit for the spell damage done. Neither Mikhail nor I are old enough to preform magic outside of school and Sirius was making sure Regulus regained consciousness in the back room."
At the mention of the younger Black brother Bellatrix dashed towards the back room, careful of the blood and bodies. At least she made sure not to disturb the scene the Aurors were trying to piece together.
"You really can't stay out of trouble for a minute, can you? How did you even manage this?" Amelia asked, a wry grin on her face.
They both shrugged. She could never figure out why fate liked to throw so much her way. "Trouble tends to find me. We," she motioned to her and her friends, "Sirius, Regulus, Mikhail and I, just came to the alley to spend some time with each other. These men followed us and attempted to abduct Sirius and Regulus. As for how we managed this, well, this isn't the first time that Mikhail and I have found ourselves fighting without magic. So, we did what any good pit fighter would do and take away our opponents' ability to use magic easily." All five of the Death Eaters had some kind of damage done to their wand arms, which had caused them to drop them periodically during the fight.
Mikhail rolled his right shoulder, stretching a slowly forming knot out of it. "Then we made sure to use cover. Whether it was an overturned table or one of our opponents. The rest came down to the fact that Jasmine and I have fought together for four years and trust each other implicitly."
"How did you even manage to garner the attention of five Death Eaters in Diagon Alley in the first place?" Amelia questioned as Bellatrix came out of the back room holding a barely conscious Regulus Black. Mikhail looked torn as he bit his lower lip. Bella was speaking to Sirius in hushed tones before disapperating out of the shop with the youngest Black brother in her arms.
"These five," Jasmine motioned to the men bleeding out or dead at her feet, "followed us and attempted to kidnap Sirius and Regulus or that's what they stated they were trying to do."
Amelia's brows knit together. "They wanted to the Black brothers? Kidnapping isn't usually how Death Eaters handle their raids. Are we positive they are actual Death Eaters and not imposters?"
Mikhail scoffed and rolled up their arms, revealing the Death Eaters' dark marks. The magical Russian national gave Amelia a very unimpressed glare as he motioned their tattoo. He even went so far as to wiggle his fingers for emphasis. "They are enemies of your country, yet you are making excuses for them? They mentioned taking Heir Peverell to their Lord. I think they are who we assumed they are."
"Yes, but that doesn't tell us why."
"Do their motives matter that much when they are already guilty. They distracted you to kidnap the Black brothers. You're lucky that we were here to stop that from happening. It isn't everyday that you find two well trained fighters willing to defend their friends against terrorists," Mikhail snarled, his accent thickening towards the end. His fists were clenched and his breathing was fairly erratic. He was a hairpin trigger away from a full-blown panic attack. This might have been his first life or death fight since the they had been under the Patron's thumbs over a year ago.
Jasmine put a calming hand on his arm, hopefully grounding him. "We're free, Mikhail. Regulus is going to be alright."
He shuddered and thunked his head on her shoulder.
Sirius cleared his throat, hobbling forward on his injured leg, drawing the attention away from Mikhail while he composed himself. "This is more than likely because my father doesn't want anything to do with this Dark Lord, but this madman wants my family's money and loyalty. By taking my brother and I our father would have to fall in line or risk the entire main branch of the Black Family. Sadly, this Dark Lord underestimated Jasmine and Mikhail's fighting abilities. I don't think I could have stomached to watch what they did to them," Sirius explained holding back a gag at the end as he once again surveyed the scene in front of him. "But, they protected the two of us. They risked a lot for us and that is admirable all on its own."
Jasmine could honestly say that she has seen worse battle aftermath as Harriet and as Jasmine, but she had lived through the rise of the second wizarding war quite a few times, so her perception of gore is a bit off. Though, she is glad for the recognition, if not for her, then for Mikhail. He didn't need to help fight today. He's more than likely going to need to speak to a mind healer after this, Jasmine too…even if she's fought before, it has been a while since she's seen dead bodies like this.
"Yes, I'm aware that both of your friends are gifted fighters. They were rumored to be the best in their divisions, but it just seems odd that the Death Eaters would target you now. How did they know that you were going to be here today? That's what I'm concerned about. It isn't every day that they set up a distraction to cover a kidnapping. This was premeditated. Who knew that you were making these plans to go out with these two today?"
Now, that was a great question. There could only be handful of people that knew where Sirius and Regulus were going to be today.
One of the Aurors pulled Amelia away from them, leaving the three teens to themselves for a short while.
Jasmine cast a silent cleaning charm over herself, it didn't do too much. The blood was going to need to be cleaned off with special potions and it's not a guarantee that would come out. She went to stand next to Sirius, Mikhail was still breathing a bit heavy, but he had pulled himself together admirably and slowly joined them. She put an arm around Sirius shoulder and let him lean on her for a bit so he didn't put any pressure on his leg.
They were all safe, someone would let them go eventually. Hopefully, Jasmine and Mikhail wouldn't be arrested for murder charges.
She had enough of those as Harriet.
Now that the Aurors had flooded in and had started making a racket Jasmine felt it was just about time to leave, but she had a feeling that she was going to be here for a few more hours answering questions about motive and murder before she got to go home and tell James about what he missed.
"Let me take a look at your leg. Is it still bleeding?" Jasmine asked, moving Sirius to one of the few tables that were still standing in the rear of the front room. It was away from all of the blood and gore.
Sirius shrugged, unbuttoning the front of his robes and showing the gash in his trousers. It wasn't too deep and it wasn't by any arteries, but it was still sluggishly oozing.
Since her robes were completely ruined anyway, she ripped a strip off and deftly wrapped his leg in full view of the Aurors who hadn't asked if anyone had been hurt yet. Sirius wasn't hiding the fact he was injured either, which goes to show that either the Aurors were purposefully ignoring the fact that they had three injured kids here or it wasn't standard protocol to send for a healer when civilians were injured.
~*~
It took another forty minutes worth of questioning before they were allowed to really go anywhere. Amelia had been pulled away from the proceedings quite a while ago. Apparently, they needed her elsewhere, which left the three teens with Auror Markson. It was making Jasmine twitchy that they weren't allowed to contact their guardians or leave the scene which smelled about as good as it looked, even with the freshening charms being cast.
This reminded her a little bit too much of the ministry throwing people in Azkaban without a trial just because they felt they were guilty after the first war. Jasmine was getting the inkling that the Aurors were looking for something incriminating that they had done in order to hold them longer than necessary.
What finally got them away from the scene was Bella coming back fuming over the fact Sirius had never shown up at an apperation point she had set up for him.
"Why are they being held here? This is a crime scene for Merlin's sake. This is illegal! Two of these children are underage and should have a guardian present and of those two, one is a foreign national with very powerful ties to the Russian magical community. On what grounds are you holding them? They didn't use wands, these utter foosl on the ground ended up hitting each other more than them. I need to take the heir of my family home to checked over for any major injuries!" She shrieked, loud enough to have Jasmine wincing.
She was exhausted and just wanted to get back home. All the questioning was getting old. There was nothing that they knew that could help them.
Markson squared his shoulders and peered down at Bella, obviously attempting to intimidate the much shorter woman. "They are witnesses to a crime, they are to be kept here until further evidence can be obtained."
Bella crossed her arms over her chest, her jaw clenched as she peered up at this man with murder in her violet eye. The Auror stepped back as she poked him in the chest with her wand, the tip glowing ominously. "No, what you're doing is attempting to pin the mess you lot caused on three teenagers. You have no evidence, so you'll question these three until they give you something to work with that could get them into trouble. I'm taking all three of them to a healer. They've been here long enough and at least one of them needs some kind of medical attention. I know that you lot obviously don't care about their health or safety, but I do. Come along," she motioned for the three of them to take her arm.
The Auror pulled his wand out as well, "You won't be taking these three anywhere-"
"Markson, what's going on? Why is Bellatrix Black here again?" Amelia asked, coming into view. Her eyes landed on Jasmine, who gave a tired wave. Her gaze traveled over the three of teens. She seemed genuinely shocked that they were here.
Markson's eyes widened at his superior officer's reappearance. Bella's eyes narrowed. "They aren't even supposed to be here anymore! You little shit, why were you keeping them here?"
Amelia put a hand on Bella's shoulder. "I'm going to look into this. I bet that the head of our department would love to find out why you were illegally keeping minors here. I thought that I told you to release them to their families on my way out nearly forty minutes ago. Heir Black is injured for Merlin's sake. If we needed to ask them questions I would have owled them in the morning."
Mikhail snorted with a roll of his eyes. Her old friend was leaning against Jasmine, his arms wrapped around himself. They really needed to get the blood out of their clothes and skin soon. "He wants us here because he either wants to blame us for something or he's working with the men that tried to take Sirius and Regulus."
Jasmine could believe that. Knowing her luck Voldemort himself was currently on the way. Bella snarled, wrapped an arm around the three of them and with a flick of her wrist, apparated them to the sitting room at Grimmauld Place. Regulus was quietly speaking with a man in his late forties, his salt and pepper hair was cut short, and was dressed in healer robes of pure white.
"I will inform your parents about your current whereabouts. Healer Jones will be seeing to you all. He has already patched Reggie up," Bella said before making her way out of the room.
Sirius hobbled over to the healer and motioned to his wrapped leg. The bandage had held up nicely, though a spot of red was slowly sleeping through.
"Barbarians. I swear the DMLE will hear about this." The healer grumbled as he banished the wrap off of Sirius' leg and examined the wound. He clicked his tongue and pulled out a potion bottle. He dabbed a bit on the cut and it started to knit itself back together.
Sirius hissed, fingers gripping his pants, but he didn't say anything else. Jasmine rubbed soothing circles into his back as the healer ran medical scans over both Jasmine and Mikhail.
"You two seem to be alright. You'll have some muscle strain, but other than that, you'll be right as rain in the morning. Though, I would suggest you wash up. It's never good to have someone else's blood on you."
He wasn't wrong about that…
"There are a couple bathrooms on this floor if you want to clean up. I'm going to check on Reggie, and I bet I can get Bella to replace your clothes before you finish."
Notes:Sorry for the long wait.
School and work got in the way.
Only a couple months left of school. =)
Leave your comments and kudos below.
~SugarPhantom