Enjoy!
Chapter 54
The rest of the week went by rather quickly. Blaise and Theo had to say goodbye on Friday morning to catch their portkey back to the states, but they promised that they would talk soon. Jasmine always hated saying goodbye to them, it always felt so final. Living in different countries was awful. That hadn't been something she had really had to deal with in any of her lives so far. Her friends had always been close by, easy to call in during an emergency, but now she was mostly by herself. Sure, she had her cousin and his friends, but they didn't have the experience that Blaise and Theo had and, really, she was mostly an outsider to them, a fringe friend, or at least, that's how she felt on occasion.
Now, her three closest friends, Mikhail, Theo and Blaise all lived outside of the UK. Magical transportation was great, and made things easier than traveling the muggle way, but it was still a hassle. It wasn't the same as just flooing over or apparating to someone's house. There was an international portkey, magical immigration and customs, not to mention occasionally dealing with a language barrier, depending on where someone was traveling to. Jasmine was not a fan of separating herself from them, but she knew it was for the best. She would get into far too much trouble with the three of them if they were always together.
"You'll see them again soon, Jasmine. Maybe next time you can go to America. You'll be coming of age soon and that would mean that you could travel outside of the country without an adult. Not that you would be unsupervised the entire trip. I have no doubt that their parents would keep you a respectable distance from-"
She cut Euphemia off with a grateful smile. "I understand the sentiment, but I don't know if I would be welcome into their home. Things work a bit differently across the pond when it comes to indigenous magical communities."
And by that, Jasmine meant that they were rather segregated and completely secret to outsiders. They had been nearly wiped out by the European wizards over the last few hundred years. It wasn't worth it to risk any of their settlements to some random witch from England. Well, she wasn't really all that random, she had a rank and title and that was more than enough of a reason to keep her out. Blaise and Theo had subtly mentioned that more than once when the topic was brought up by either one of her guardians. Though, Theo had mentioned something about hosting her once he had settled into a job. Her friend had told them over dinner he wanted to go into medicine.
It had been Theo's dream since she's known him to open up his own practice. He hadn't been given the chance since the name Nott had always been associated with Death Eaters. No one would even admit him into their medical training programs. They all thought that he was Death Eater in training, even after it had come out that he had helped defeat the Dark Lord.
During her first life as Harriet, Theo had never fought on Voldemort's side. While he didn't take an active approach in defeating him in that life, he had never opposed her, which is what had drawn her to him in the first place. He just seemed like a shy and quiet kid, which he was, but Theo was also a genius in his own right.
Then there was Blaise, a neutral loud mouth from a family of French assassins. Who was now slated to run their tribe back in the states. There was some secret stuff about why he was being chosen, but that was the roll that he was destined to take on through some ritual or another. Jasmine prayed silently for America because Blaise leading anything was a terrifying thought.
"I don't see why they wouldn't allow them to have their friends visit," James grumbled after they had left. He had enjoyed having the two other troublemakers in the house. They had been showing James a few different tricks he could do without a wand and it was driving Euphemia mad. Monty was enjoying the pranks and silly tricks.
Jasmine let out a sigh. "They don't want outsiders seeing what they have or don't have. You have to realize that their communities were nearly destroyed by everything that happened over there. European settlers didn't agree with how the Natives practiced magic, so they tried to "fix" the Native magical population, and then when that didn't work, the settlers stole their children or killed them. They don't want to risk that happening again, which is something I can see being a real fear."
James grunted and flopped onto the couch in the sitting room in response. It was the same reply she got every time he asked about visiting them. She figured that her cousin wanted to visit the twins almost as much as she did. He rolled on the cushions for a moment before hanging his head off the end, his legs in the air. "When you are leaving to see Lily?"
Ah, yes, she still had to pack her last few items for that little adventure about to take place. "In about two hours, why?"
He shrugged. "I wanted to know what time I should invite Sirius over. It gets quiet in this house without someone my own age to talk to. Dad is great, but he tends to mutter to himself about potions and business strategy and I can only stand so much of that before I go mad."
That Jasmine could understand. Monty was a great man, but Merlin, he enjoyed talking about monetary figures and abstract business strategies. And, while it could be interesting, it tended just to bore her and James to sleep.
"You and Sirius better not do anything stupid."
Like follow her to Lily's house in an attempt to crash the party, because she knew that they were stupid enough to try it.
James bat his eyelashes at her. His hazel eyes were wide and overly innocent. "When would we ever do anything stupid, Jazz? You know that Sirius and I are extremely mature for our age."
If she could push him off the couch she would have. "You're an idiot," she muttered, more than loud enough for him to hear, which earned a scoff from James and Jasmine leaned over the sofa, "and if I catch you in London stalking us, you will find yourself lost and confused on a deserted island with no idea how you got there."
He gave an audible gulp and nodded.
~*~
It was around eleven in the morning when Euphemia dropped Jasmine off on Lily's street, which was average by all accounts, before apparating away. Her guardian had a last-minute meeting with an anti-terrorist task force she was in charge of, there had apparently been an incident during training she had to handle.
This left Jasmine to wander down the street on her own, her trainers lightly scraping against the concrete below her feet. It was a warm day, though, thankfully, it was overcast, so it wasn't overbearingly hot. Jasmine had dressed in muggle jeans and light blue blouse. While a dress would be more fashionable for the time, she wasn't in the mood to wear one. Honestly, the less scaring she showed the better. Jasmine's body was covered in them, so the more skin she covered the less questions she'd be asked in the long run. She had even gone so far as to put a bit of make-up over the scaring on her face. She didn't want to make a bad impression on Lily's parents.
With a quiet hum and small skip in her step, Jasmine made her way to the Evans household. The neighborhood was modest, the houses were all fairly upkept. There were children playing on multiple front lawns. No one sparred her a second glance as she walked by, which was a welcome change from the whispers of the wizarding world.
There was a squeak from her left as she passed a lightly wooded park. It was one that she recognized from Professor Snape's memories and there was a familiar figure sitting on the ground rubbing her arse under a swing. A head a blonde hair and pale blue eyes glared at the offending piece of metal, she mumbled a string of curses under her breath. It was Petunia Evans, at least, Jasmine was nearly positive that it was her.
"Are you alright?" Jasmine asked, entering through the slightly rusted gates to make sure that she wasn't injured.
The young woman's head swiveled in Jasmine's direction, a pale blush creeping up her face at being caught on the ground. "I'm fine!" She snapped, her voice going a bit shrill towards the end.
Jasmine held her hands up in a peaceful gesture. "Okay, okay. I was just making sure you weren't hurt."
Petunia bit her lip, giving Jasmine a cursory glace over. Her eyes lingering on the faded scars. Obviously, Jasmine needed to brush up on her cover-up technique if Petunia was able to notice it. "As I said, I'm fine. You don't need to pity me. Who are you anyway? You don't live around here," she nearly shouted, her tone accusatory and defensive.
Jasmine resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm here visiting a friend during the summer holidays. I was on my way to meet them. Is there a particular reason you're in a park alone on the ground?"
The blonde bit her lip. "My sister has friends over and they're all annoying. They ask the daftest questions. As for the swing, I fell off."
"I can understand having to deal with family inviting annoying friends over. I live with my cousin and he always has his two best mates over. They make a racket all day long. I'm Jasmine by the way," she replied, sticking her hand out. The older teen looked at it for a moment and Jasmine thought she was going to push her away, but she took it, thin fingers gripping her callused ones.
Petunia had always been alone, in all her timelines. Maybe Jasmine could make a small difference here, prove to her that the magical world wasn't out to get her. Lily, from what Jasmine understood, had always attempted to keep her muggle and magical lives very separate, but sometimes things need to overlap. Perhaps explaining the magical world to Petunia could stop her from becoming a horrifically petty bint.
"My name is Petunia. It's nice to meet someone else with a flower name outside of my family." There was a small smile on the older girl's lips. It was enough to make her look fairly attractive and less standoffish. It always made her wonder why she settled for Vernon. Petunia hadn't been stupid and had done fairly well in school. Why would she want to settle for a man five times her size with a stick so far up his arse it was coming out of his mouth?
Before Jasmine was able to respond a distinctly male figure came stumbling out of the tree line. The stench of booze permeated the air rather quickly. The gaunt face of Tobias Snape came into view as he approached. Petunia scrambled to get up off the ground and pulled on Jasmine's arm, moving them towards the exit.
"Now, where-" he swayed, "think-you're-goin? You're one of those Evans whores-what did you do with my son?" He slurred, covering ground rather quickly as the two of them attempted to reach the entrance before him.
The drunkard managed to reach it first and Petunia frantically looked around for another way out. That was when Jasmine noticed the broken beer bottle in his hand, sharp shards of glass glistening with remainder of his early morning drink.
"I think you need to calm down. We haven't seen your son," Jasmine replied, putting an arm in front of Petunia. She wasn't going to let her get hurt, she was Lily's sister, even if she was a bitch in the future.
He pointed a dirty finger in her face. "You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do! My wife and son are gone! Vanished! Like bloody magic!" He shouted, chuckling to himself towards the end at his own joke. "And these Evans girls no doubt did something! And, now I'm going to do something back!"
Petunia flinched at her last name and Jasmine watched his every twitch, waiting for the moment that he would lash out. She reached around with her magical sight, hoping to find something she could use to disarm him. She doubted that he'd be very accurate with his aim, he was very drunk, but his blows would hurt. Jasmine didn't fancy getting glass imbedded into her skin. She really didn't want a trip to the emergency room.
That was when she noticed a pipe behind him, if she could just get around him. There was no way that Jasmine was going to use magic, she'd get her wand snapped in an instant. It didn't matter if it was an emergency, with Dumbledore not wanting her at Hogwarts and quite a few purebloods against her, she'd be out on the streets the moment she stepped out of line. So, muggle fighting was the only way out, not that she wasn't over familiar with it.
She could feel Death's magic in the back of her mind begging for release as well, which made her want to roll her eyes. Jasmine feinted left, passed Tobias as he dove the wrong way and she kicked the back of his knee in, causing him to double over. She gripped the pipe that had been lying on the ground just as he brought up the bottle to retaliate and she smacked him rather hard in the head, not enough to kill, but she used enough force to knock him out.
The remainder of the bottle shattered on the ground next to Jasmine, who looked towards her left to see Petunia with a hand over her mouth. "Are you alright?" Jasmine asked, straightening herself out and putting a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
"You hit him?"
She turned towards the very unconscious form of Tobias Snape and shrugged. "Yes, I did. He was going to attack us. I figured I should stop that from happening."
"You don't even know me! I could have deserved that!"
"No one deserves to be beaten with a broken beer bottle. Did he say your last name was Evans?"
"Tuni? Jazz?" A confused voice called out from down the street. Lily's head of bright red hair was quickly approaching with Alice and Marlene in tow. The two were dressed in muggle clothing, though Alice's fit her oddly, which more than likely meant they were Lily's. Marlene looked like she had swallowed a lemon when she saw Jasmine.
Petunia's entire demeanor changed has her younger sister approached. Her eyes dulled and the line of her mouth hardened. Jealously was an ugly emotion on Petunia Evan's face. Her gaze drifted towards Jasmine as she mouthed the word Jazz and she was more than likely putting the pieces together, of just who Jasmine was here to see today.
"Hi, Lily," Jasmine replied with a wave as she stepped away from Tobias, pulling Petunia along with her, even if she was reluctant to follow.
"You're one of them?" She hissed, yanking her arm away after they were out of striking range from the unconscious man.
"One of what?" Jasmine asked, playing dumb. She couldn't know that Petunia hated magic yet. Lily hadn't even told that about her sister and they had been living in the same dorm for a year already.
Before Petunia could say something she regretted, Lily barreled into both of them, throwing her arms them. "We were so worried. Mum asked me to come and find you! Lunch is going to be ready..." she trailed off, her eyes catching Tobias' prone form on the ground. "Is that Sev's dad?"
Jasmine cocked her head to the side, her eyes widening. "That's Severus' father...no wonder he was so happy to move in with his grandfather. His father is unconscious now, so he's harmless."
Alice bit her lip, she was fighting a grin. "We can't leave you alone for a couple minutes without you getting into trouble, can we, Jazz? I think the Marauders are rubbing off on you."
Marlene scowled at the comment, nudging Alice, who was giggling to herself.
"I suppose not, though, I was getting into trouble far before I met my cousin and his best mates. This isn't my first time fighting someone with my fists, probably won't be the last," she replied with a shrug, as they walked towards the house.
Petunia's stomach let out a loud growl as they approached the house, but the older girl made a beeline for the stairs, pushing past her mother, who had opened the front door for them.
"Ignore her, Petunia can be a bit overwhelmed with a lot of new people."
Rosemary Evans was a beautiful woman, her dark red locks were perfectly curled to frame her face, her blue eyes bright as they landed on her youngest daughter and her friends. Her gaze lingered on Jasmine, taking in her mismatched eyes and the slightly visible scars on her face.
"You must be Jasmine. Lily has told me so much about you!" She came forward, a pale hand reaching towards her on her blind side.
"Mum, we went over this!" Lily hissed as she moved her mother's hand towards Jasmine's direct field of vision.
Jasmine let out a light chuckle before taking her hand in both of her own. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Evans. I hope that Lily has only you good things about me. We got off to a rather rocky start."
Rosemary bit her lip and nodded as she stared at Jasmine's sightless eye. It wasn't something many noticed at first, not until it was pointed out. The older woman shook her head, a smile on her face once more, "Lily has only been singing your praises. Apparently, she finally has some competition with grades."
Jasmine rolled her eyes, a playful grin making its way onto her face. "Lily, you know that James, Severus, Sirius and Remus are right behind us when it comes to grades."
Lily's face heated up, her cheeks turning a rosy red color. James would lose his mind seeing her this flustered over him.
"Speaking of classes," Marlene interrupted, arms crossed, "did you hear that Brightbark got sacked? The board of governors, spearheaded by Lord Black, demanded he be removed. It looks like they're going to need to find another DADA teacher. I didn't mind Brightbark all that much, at least he taught us something."
Rosemary excused herself as the four girls made their way to the kitchen for lunch. "All Brightbark taught was how to hate each other for our magic. It destroyed friendships," Jasmine retorted as Marlene scoffed.
"I didn't see you complaining when the Marauders adopted you into their group when Peter left."
"Peter called Remus a monster," and that in itself was unforgivable. Remus was a great person and he didn't deserve to be treated like that, not by anyone. "That rat deserved what was coming to him. Regardless, I wasn't a fan of all the extra work that he gave anyone that was specifically light oriented. I hope that we get a good teacher this coming year."
I hope you enjoyed!
~Animerocker