The Last Peverell

Chapter 86

Chapter 86

The weeks after visiting Blaise and Yunuen were filled with hours of hiking, exploration and photography. Petunia was being a good sport about the entire situation. Jasmine doubted this is exactly what she signed up for when she agreed to take pictures during Jasmine's internship. Honestly, Jasmine isn't quite sure she signed up for this much physical activity in the fine print for her internship. A five-day hike through a jungle to reach different apparition and portkey points was just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of physical activity was even shocking to Jasmine, who was in exceptional shape to begin with and had expected some longer hikes and maybe a bit of camping, but nothing this extreme. She was waiting for the Runemasters to physically make them scale a mountain.

Though, today would be their last afternoon hiking through mountains in Chile since they were making their way towards a portkey to take them back to the United Kingdom for the holidays. Petunia slapped a bug on her arm with a growl as the approached an old umbrella leaning against a tree.

"Is that really it?" She asked, moving a strand of blond hair that had stuck to her face from the humidity.

Celeste let out a small laugh as she slowly moved towards the portkey, her grey eyes closed. The runemaster was mostly using sensory runes to figure out where things were these days. Her eyes were beginning to truly fail her on most days even with the tonic she gets from her healer. "Well, you need magic to activate it, but yes, this is it. I doubt many muggles would want to touch a seemingly moldy umbrella on the side of a mountain trail."

Petunia wrinkled her nose. "I suppose that's true. Though, I thought that international portkeys tended to be in official locations for government supervision."

Runemaster Simon let out a laugh as he held onto his wife's forearm, "Well, this is why rune and ward masters tend to make their own portkeys for private use. This one will lead us all directly to our home, where you will connect our floo network with your own. This is by no means government sanctioned, but once your break is over, we will resume right where we left off."

"Simon, we're traveling to Asia after the holidays. As much as I know you love South America, I think that it is time to move to a different region of the world. I would like to see Japan and India again before my eyes fail me."

"As you wish, my dear. I will make sure that you get to see your favorite historical rune sites after the holidays. But, we have three sets of grandchildren to see before we can head off back into the world."

Jasmine smiled at the pair. They had been married for nearly seventy years at this point. It was nice to see that they still cared about each other. Celeste had come from an old Spanish pureblood line. Her parents had drafted a marriage contract with Simon's family when they were children. They had been lucky that it worked out for them.

It was going to be difficult to fill both of their shoes after they step down, but Jasmine was going to try her best. They weren't going to leave her alone, but they were going to be focusing on their health far more than they had been previously. Celeste suggested that Jasmine look for an apprentice after a few years as lead Runemaster. She had mentioned that it would be best to look for someone a bit younger and try to build up the department. Celeste had tried her best, but between the different wizarding wars and people going into hiding over the past couple decades, she had lost track of time. She hadn't realized that her eyes would fail her as fast as they did.

Simon, bless his heart, was great with runes, but he wasn't the best warder out there. Celeste was the master between them. She was also the one that had organization skills. Jasmine had been unfortunate enough to see how Simon kept his personal tent during their adventures in the jungles. Everyone with magic in their veins needed their own tent during travels. The aftereffects of ambient runes could cause latent chain reactions in large groups of powerful wizards and witches. Petunia always opted to stay with Jasmine, but she had the choice to bunk with Celeste as well. Calling Simon's tent a fire hazard would be generous. The mountains of books and papers he had lying around were no doubt only standing with multiple charms cast on them, not to mention the various sheets of formulas strewn about the room in random piles.