Chapter seventy-seven; Dinner
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Four very loud bangs on the door resonated through Jasmine's bedroom. Jasmine sighed and buried her head deeper into a tear-soaked pillow. The curtains were shut and the only source of light was a very narrow slip in the window that wasn't covered by them. Since there was no clock on any of the walls, Jasmine couldn't tell what time in the day it was, she only guessed it had to be the afternoon. She was permanently locked into her room with nothing to do, having no life whatsoever. She cried herself to sleep ever since the first night, her exits out of the room were even forbidden for family dinners. Tinker or Tasha had to bring food up to her room and leave before she would open the door so that none of the elves could help her. Mr Pearson even stopped trusting the elves and Jasmine hoped that the two didn't have any consequences. The food and dinners didn't really matter to her, she lost her appetite completely, feeling like she's in prison and not in her home.
''Jasmine!'' William shouted from the other side of the closed door.
Jasmine rolled her eyes and didn't answer. William was probably there to taunt her or to be annoying as always. Because she didn't answer, William banged on the door more. ''Are you ready to go?''
Jasmine slowly raised up into a sitting position on the bed, eyes staring at the door. Ready to go where? She asked herself and almost dismissed this as another one of William's jokes that only he thinks it's funny. Despite the dark room, Jasmine picked up movement and noticed Isla, back in the black cat form, moving across the floor before she stopped in front of a letter and sniffed at it. That's when it dawned on Jasmine what William was trying to ask her. She groaned loudly and laid back on her bed, covering her face with a pillow.
''I don't know if Mr and Mrs Fawley are going to like that their future daughter-in-law will be late,'' William said in a sing-song voice outside her room.
A few days ago Jasmine, along with William, was invited to a dinner with Fawleys. No, that sounded a bit wrong. There was a dinner arranged with them by her father and now she's being forced to go.
''I told you already, I'm not going!'' Jasmine shouted through her pillow, not caring if William heard her or not.
The last thing she wanted now was to engage in useless conversation as her father wanted. Sure she had no problem seeing Talisa again since she was the only reasonable person in that family. Seeing Gabriel on the other hand, made Jasmine want to disappear, he wasn't on her list of favourites anymore. She didn't understand why the dinner was necessary but she guessed it was one of the customs for future in-laws even though she despised that idea.
''I can call dad up here if you want me to!'' William said with an obvious evil tone.
Jasmine threw the pillow away from her face and pushed up into a sitting position on her bed. Her widened eyes stared at the closed door and she didn't even hesitate for a second to jump out of her bed and open the curtains on her window. Last week she wouldn't react in such a way to William's taunts and her mind unwillingly went back to what happened.
First, she thought that he was just threatening and was all talk and no bite but then her father actually came up from his office, footsteps thumping on the stairs loudly. Jasmine only managed to turn to the door when the door opened with a slam as it hit the wall beside it but Jasmine had her wand at the ready. She told him that she's of age now and that she can use magic and isn't afraid of him, even though her voice was wavering when she was saying those things. Her dad only replied with a humourless laugh as he sent her wand flying from her hand with one sweep of his own. So much for defence for Jasmine, she knew only so little having no Defence Against the Dark Arts for over a year.
That day her wand was taken away from her, wandless magic didn't help either, she didn't know any and on top of all Mr Pearson hit her for daring to use a wand on him.
Jasmine's heart rate picked up its speed as she heard the familiar echo of someone coming up the stairs and she was by the door in seconds from fear of finding her father in her room again. She opened the door and fixed her hair a little so it didn't look like she just fell off her bed as she prepared an answer if dad asked her anything. As she opened the door, which was strangely this time unlocked since she is supposed to go outside to dinner, Jasmine found an empty hallway in front of her.
Turning her head right and checking the stairs she saw William stomping on the top two stairs to imitate as if someone was coming up. When he saw Jasmine's scared look he burst out laughing, thinking his scary joke was the funniest he ever came up with. Jasmine scowled a glare situated on William as she marched towards him fists clenching. William was holding his stomach from laughing so hard and leaning with his shoulder on the wall.
''What the fuck is wrong with you prick!?'' Jasmine shouted as she pushed him so he stumbled backwards.
His feet weren't far off from catching on the edge of a step and falling backwards. That made him stop laughing as a moment of fear flashed on his face. Then he took in Jasmine's raging expression and laughed again. ''You should have seen your face.'' He pointed at her.
Jasmine stepped down so she was on the same level as him. ''Don't forget I know something about you that would definitely interest my dad.'' She threatened and glared at him more.
The chuckles ceased in William and he merely stared at her. ''He wouldn't believe you and you know it.''
Jasmine shrugged and turned so she could walk downstairs, keeping up her pretence bravery in front of William as much as she could. William seized her wrist quickly and tried to prevent her from walking downstairs.
Both of them couldn't go far when Mr Pearson's voice sounded from his office downstairs. ''Will, Jasmina! I hope you two are ready!''
Jasmine felt William release his hold on her wrist and only then she realised he was in his casual attire as well. He was apparently too busy taunting her to get ready himself. Jasmine sighed, her dad already heard her so she can't just disappear back into her room and she has no chance but to go. The only thing she was able to do is drag herself as slowly as possible to be as late as possible.
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Jasmine's eyes were solely trained on the plate in front of her. The food smelled amazing but her appetite was nowhere in sight so she merely pretended to eat by pushing her food around the plate with her fork. She constantly felt eyes on her and it was none other than Gabriel, who watched her sitting directly opposite her. William was beside her, fully enjoying his meal, happy to be at his best friend's house again. On each end of the table sat Mr and Mrs Fawley, both glancing between the three children since they were awfully quiet.
Mr Fawley then cleared his throat. ''So, Jasmine. Since it's your last year at Hogwarts you surely thought about what you want to do after, right?''
Jasmine looked up and mustered a small smile. ''I thought about applying for Healer training.''
''Oh, that sounds wonderful Jasmine,'' said Talisa and reached over to touch Jasmine's hand since they were sitting close. ''Certainly, it sounds better than boring ministry office jobs.'' She tried to joke because everyone else at the table had something to do with ministry, Gabriel and William were interns while Mr and Mrs Fawley were each in their own departments. Small chuckles came from Mr Fawley while the other three stayed silent.
Jasmine expected a much different house and a much different dinner to happen at the Fawleys. She expected something similar to what it was at her home, quiet dinners with stoic faces and cold rooms. But the Fawley house looked warm and it looked like a real family lived in there. Jasmine's first impression of Mr Fawley wasn't much different from her dad since he was all silent at the time that the engagement was announced. But this night he was talking, cracking jokes and had constantly a big smile on his face. The biggest difference was that Jasmine actually believed Talisa married him out of love and it wasn't a broken marriage like her mum was currently forced to live in.
Jasmine awoke from her thinking trance when Mr Fawley pushed away from the table making the chair scrape against the wooden floor. He walked to the window and let an owl in that was previously tapping on the window with a letter in its beak. ''It's from Grayson.'' Mr Fawley announced as he proceeded to tear open the envelope. Talisa excused herself from the table and walked to her husband so they could read the letter.
Grayson was Gabriel's older brother, a year older or maybe two, already married and off living away from his family home. That much Jasmine knew about him as Gabriel briefly informed her. She peeled her eyes away from the Fawleys and realised that now Gabriel and William were in a deep conversation about something that happened a few days ago.
Jasmine knew about the event that happened every summer for the sons of pureblood families. Since most purebloods had sons instead of daughters, they befriended each other very quickly and began meeting up for a party in the middle of the summer, no matter which year they were attending at Hogwarts. That included William and Gabriel as well as Rosier, Avery, Snape, probably Sirius too but he told Jasmine he never attended, though his brother Regulus did.
''How was the party?'' Jasmine asked in pure curiosity, getting tired of being quiet and brooding all the time.
''It was alright,'' Gabriel answered her vaguely and she knew he was searching her eye line, but Jasmine refused to look at him.
''That reminds me, Rosier asked about you,'' William smirked and nudged Jasmine on the side.
She scrunched up her eyebrows and looked at her cousin, not even close to wanting to hear why in the world Rosier asked about her. It was probably the same old thing about purebloods and other lame stuff.
''Will,'' Gabriel warned sternly.
''No, no, this was actually funny.'' William insisted. ''He mentioned something about June and a party and that you refused to kiss little Gabe here, then he offered himself instead of –''
''Shut up!'' Gabriel raised his voice and dropped his fork on the plate so it made a loud clatter.
Jasmine widened her eyes a little and looked at Gabriel across the table but he was glaring at William. There was no way that his parents haven't heard the outburst from the spot where they were reading his brother's letter but they haven't interfered. William did shut up after that but clearly, the situation was still funny to him and he couldn't help but smile.
The realisation that William now knows about the party because of Rosier's big mouth hit Jasmine like a brick. Again she is at risk of her father throwing her in some cave and never letting her out from all the things that he still doesn't know. She wanted to panic but she had no idea what to do about it.
''Jasmine,'' said Gabriel trying to get her attention. Once she looked at him, very reluctantly, he spoke further. ''He won't say anything, he promised me.''
Jasmine narrowed her eyes a little, the thought that Gabriel knew exactly what she was worrying about circling in her mind. After a moment of trying to calm herself down, she nodded slowly, even though her cousin's actions were unpredicted.
The moment of peace was broken by William. ''You really should have seen Gabe's reaction to that at the party –''
''How's Tom? Was he also at the party?'' Jasmine changed the subject, mentioning their mutual friend.
William seemed to want to disappear from his chair all of a sudden as he began sinking down in it. Jasmine looked at Gabriel for help and for him to answer.
''Tom isn't pureblood,'' Gabriel answered.
A shout of pain escaped him a second letter and it appeared that William kicked him under the table. The two shot daggers at each other while Jasmine raised her eyebrows high on her forehead. Not only is her cousin gay, in love with his best friend, but this best friend also isn't pureblood. No wonder William gets really protective whenever Tom is mentioned. Gabriel cursed William with words and William did the same to him, erupting the dining room in curse words and yells. Abruptly, their yells ceased and Mr Fawley appeared by the table with his wand raised, silencing both of them.
''I think it's time for dessert,'' said Talisa as calmly as she could and emphasised her sentence on the last word.
That's how she got Jasmine's attention, and once the girl looked at her she found her eyes trained solely on her. Jasmine quickly understood the meaning of it. ''I can help you with that.'' She stood from the table when Talisa nodded.
The two of them walked into the kitchen, which appeared only half messy with the pots that were used for cooking the dinner. To her observation, it didn't look like the house had any elves at all to help around and it all sat on Talisa's shoulders to do the chores if she didn't teach her sons to do so as well. '
'I'm sorry you have to go through this.'' Talisa said in a sad tone and she brought Jasmine in for a warm hug.
Jasmine nodded against her shoulder, accepting the comfort. When they released from the hug they started preparing the dessert that was already baked and cooling off. ''I'm guessing my dad isn't budging on the deal, is he?'' Jasmine asked as she whisked heavy cream.
Talisa shook her head. ''I know your father since Hogwarts and he is as stubborn as he was back then. Nothing can move him or change his mind once he decides something.'' A great deal of frustration was hidden behind her answer and Jasmine knew that Talisa fought for her and her son's rights until the end.
''But I don't get it, why your family out of all the purebloods in England?'' Jasmine let out in frustration, gripping the whisk tightly.
She meant no offence to that and Talisa knew it, it was just something that was sitting on Jasmine's mind for a long while, along with the question of why he didn't marry William off as well. When Talisa was quiet after Jasmine asked the stupid question, it sent the young girl wondering about her silence. She looked to her left at the older woman, Talisa stopped her actions and stared at her hands. She was hiding something and Jasmine didn't like it. Her mum was already hiding a lot of things from her. She couldn't help but ask that instance, believing that if she won't find out now, she won't find out for a long time.
''What are you not telling me?'' Jasmine whispered.
Talisa sighed and looked at Jasmine with sadness in her eyes. After a few moments heavy with silence she decided to speak nonetheless. ''My husband ran into a problem at work. A problem with legal jobs and your dad helped him out of it. Since it wasn't such an easy feat, he owed your father a favour. And the engagement was the favour David asked for.''
Jasmine could only stare at Talisa with a dumbfounded expression after this latest information. Talisa looked as guilty and responsible for the mess her husband put their families in it and Jasmine, in all honesty, didn't find a way to react. Only inevitable doom settled in her, knowing that it would be a lot harder to call the engagement off than she initially thought.
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I totally forgot to introduce the cast for Isla, so here you go!
Alexandra Shipp as ⇨Isla Halliday⇦