Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

2 January, 1996 - Photographs

(The Unforeseen But Delightful Consequences of Boredom or Why Doing Your Homework Is Overrated)

Jasmine took Lavinia at her word. On multiple counts, actually, but they all amounted to the same thing. It seemed perfectly logical to Jasmine that if she really was welcome all the time and Lavinia really did want to make more time for family, then why on Earth would she spend her winter holidays in that cramped old apartment with the wallpaper that was peeling and that Heather wouldn't let her fix because of some muggle lord when she could be spending them in this perfectly lovely country house, which had the added bonus of being near Ethan, who was, in Jasmine's opinion, the only person properly suited to keep up with her. And her fondness for the man most certainly had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that there were always baked goods in his apartment. Not at all.

Heather, being her usual anxious self, got rather ridiculously ruffled when Jasmine suggested they spend the holidays at Lavinia's house. Heather, of course, was of the opinion that you didn't intrude on other people's space. Jasmine was of the opinion that seeing as how Lavinia had functionally been a mother to both of them and constantly told them they were welcome all the time, they may as well spend the break with the closest thing to family that they had since everyone else in the world was probably doing the exact same thing.

Heather hadn't been able to argue with this. Especially when Lavinia had so emphatically agreed that they could come and stay for as long as they wanted and she would be glad for the company since Remus was going away on a trip. Jasmine had made no attempt to hide her smugness at this confirmation of her opinion and Heather had just wrinkled her nose and told her to stop rubbing it in.

Jasmine wasn't sure she'd succeeded on this count, but the way she saw it, the hesitation was just Heather overreacting again, a suspicion underscored by the fact that Jasmine knew Heather loved the excuse to stay with Lavinia as much as Jasmine herself did. It was, Jasmine thought, like how she remembered life from when their father had been around. Like they were a proper family who ate meals together and laughed together and were almost sort of normal in one of the only ways that it really worth being normal in the first place. And Jasmine had missed that more than almost anything. Not that she didn't miss her father. She did. Very much. But she had been only seven and a half when he'd died and her memories of him were sparse and faded. And she had never properly met her mother anyway. But what she remembered, what had stuck with her even as the specific memories had faded, was the feeling of it. The warmth and the assurance and the security. And though she knew Heather had done her absolute best to keep that up, it wasn't the same. Because Heather had only ever been her sister.

It was Lavinia who had become her mother. Because of all of her sister's friends, Lavinia was the one she had spent the most time with. Who had given her the most. After all, she'd spent every Friday for the better part of two years living with her. And though Miriam and Ethan and Remus were all wonderful and supportive and as parental as they could be... it was different. Jasmine wouldn't have gone to any of them when she was hurting. She hadn't gone to any of them at the end of last year when Cedric Diggory had died. She had gone to Lavinia. Because she knew that Lavinia would understand, better than the rest of them. That Lavinia would comfort her and wouldn't promise that the would would be fine and there was no need to cry. Because where Ethan was spontaneous and optimistic and Remus would now forever be Professor Lupin and Miriam was just plain fun, Lavinia was steady. And somehow, the steady had felt like home.

Which, Jasmine supposed, was why staying with her felt so incredibly normal. And it was. It was easy and wonderful and normal.

Or mostly normal.

The only sort-of-problem that Jasmine encountered was when she started looking a little too closely at the photographs on the mantle. Which, she maintained wasn't actually a problem at all because they were photographs on display in the living room. Why put them there if you didn't want people to look at them? But it did lead her to a spot of bother. A small one and one that was quickly resolved but... well. It was still bother.