Chapter 10: Chapter 10Summary:And the school year starts....
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 10
No one had gotten sick by the time they had all gone up to bed. So, Jasmine assumed that they literally had a harmless welcome back prank every year, and that was it. She had then been herded to Gryffindor Tower where Alice and her friend Marlene McKinnon helped her up the stairs to their dorm room. There were around thirteen fifth Gryffindor girls, fourteen counting Jasmine, or at least that's what Alice had told her as they climbed the stairs. She'd be staying with her, Marlene and Lily. They were the only dorm room with any space.
"Sorry for Lily's absence, she had to get the first years settled into their dorms and then she needed to talk to McGonagall about her duties as prefect this term. She's going to have so much extra work doing the job of two prefects. Merlin knows Remus isn't going to do his job with James and Sirius bossing him around," Marlene muttered as she pushed open the door to their room.
Jasmine noticed that there were name plates on the doors with the first name and then last initial of each person living in the dorms. The names were embroidered differently, each held a style that seemed specific to the person. Jasmine's was full of winter branches twining through each letter, pantomiming Death's embrace. Alice's was loopy with leaves sprouting up at every corner. Marlene's had balloon letters, a broom and a quaffle surrounding it. Lily's was covered in flowers and vines. The I in her name was even dotted with a daisy. It was something that she hadn't seen in the future and she wondered why it had been taken away.
"Oh, do you like the charm work? Lily thought it up. She figured it would help everyone know where we're all living."
And that's why it disappeared. Either it was taken down by McGonagall, who couldn't bear to see Lily's handiwork around the castle after her untimely death or her mother's magic died with her.
"It's lovely. I haven't seen anything quite like it."
"You wouldn't have. She created it with her…friend…Snape. They two of them are always trying to make new things. Though, Snape's spells tend to be…darker in tone," Alice replied carefully, not wanting to slander Severus in a place where Lily could potentially overhear her.
Jasmine wanted to bash her head into a wall. She had forgotten about Severus. She understood his motives in the future, after about five different lifetimes, but she still couldn't stand dealing with his snarky arse. She hoped he wasn't quite as bad as a teen, but she highly doubted it.
She'd bet her father's journals that she was going to have double potions with Slytherins as her first class in the morning. It was tradition after all, one that had been established long before her time at Hogwarts. She had asked Charlie and Bill about it, as well as Sirius and Remus. Even McGonagall said that when she had attended Hogwarts her first class as a Gryffindor almost every year was double potions with Slytherin.
Jasmine sighed. It would be her luck to need to deal with Snape first thing in the morning.
"Is there something wrong with this Snape," Jasmine inquired as she moved towards her bed at the far corner of the room. She could already list what was wrong with Snape, but she wanted to hear what other people had to say about him.
Ro had already made herself comfortable by sleeping on Jasmine's pillow, traitor. She was never going to get all that cat hair out of that now. Ro was truly an evil mastermind.
Alice and Marlene shared a look while they considered their thoughts on Snape. Marlene spoke first.
"Severus Snape is a troubled Slytherin. He cares about Lily, but that's because their childhood friends. He hates muggleborns and half-bloods and talks about them like their rubbish. All of them except Lily. I think she hopes that she can change him, but I think he's going to hurt her in the long run. I'd watch myself around him, if I were you," she warned, flopping down unto her bed, face first.
Jasmine always found it ironic that a lot of half-bloods hated other half-bloods. It never made much sense to her.
Alice let out a strained sigh. "Marlene, I think that we should let Jasmine decide what to do with Snape when she meets him for the first time. I find him to be a very private person and he trusts Lily. From what she's told me, he has had a hard life."
Jasmine had a feeling that both of them were right to an extent. Severus was more than likely a budding dark wizard, who had powerful friends that wanted to follow a powerful dark lord. Severus Snape didn't have any money or prestige to resist his friends demands in Slytherin. He more than likely owed them something for even talking to him. His mother had ruined the Prince name by marrying a muggle after all.
She'd deal with him when the time came. Jasmine was going to really need to prepare for Lily's entrance. The young witch was more than likely going to give her an earful for something or another. Jasmine hadn't treated her that kindly on the train and the Marauders weren't here to protect her from Lily's wrath.
Though, Jasmine doubted that Lily had anything on Mrs. Weasley's rage.
By the time Jasmine had changed into her sleepwear Lily slowly made her way into the room. She didn't even notice Jasmine at first as she made a beeline for her own bed between Alice and Marlene.
Though when she finally noticed the extra bed her gaze turned towards her newest roommate. Her emerald eyes could cut diamonds with the glare she was sending Jasmine's way. "What is she doing here?"
Marlene let out a sigh, "she's living here, Lily. We went through this with you earlier. We are the only dorm room in the tower with extra space right now."
"Whatever," Lily muttered mutinously.
"How were the first years?" Alice asked, breaking the ice somewhat as she plopped down on Lily's side of the bed. The red head groaned.
"They're so needy. They all wanted me to help them unpack or I had to give some of them hugs when they told me that they missed home. Then I needed to go and talk to McGonagall, who told me that I'm to show Jasmine around tomorrow. Apparently, we have the same class schedule."
Marlene whistled. "Damn, Jasmine, you must be really smart to get into the same classes as Lily!"
Jasmine felt a bit of heat creeping into her cheeks. "I suppose. This is my first time attending a school, so maybe it was all a fluke up until this point," she admitted with a wave of her hand.
Alice rolled her eyes as she flopped on the bed. "If you tested into or did any work for these classes and were admitted, then you more than qualify for them. Why are all my friends so infuriately intelligent!" She grumbled, raising her hands above her head in exasperation.
Marlene let out a small breathy laugh, not the kind of laugh that Jasmine pictured coming out of her, she thought that Marlene would have a snorting kind of laugh, not the silent kind she had just done.
"I'm a smart friend? Alice, you give yourself too little credit! You're really good in Herbology and Defense! You're going to be an Auror one day! You and Frank are going to be the cutest couple on the force!" Marlene exclaimed, giving a little hop in the air in her excitement, her already high-pitched voice going a smidge higher.
"You want to be an Auror with your boyfriend?" Jasmine asked, eyebrow raised as Alice rolled around on her bed, burying her face in her sheets.
"Marlene! Frank and I aren't even dating yet! You're going to make Jasmine think I'm obsessed with the Longbottom Heir!"
Jasmine felt a grin making its way onto her face. "Ah, you're interested in that Frank. I've heard horror stories about his mother. You must really like a challenge," she replied, and Alice's face turned a bright red.
"Who wouldn't approve of Alice?" Lily snapped, her fists clenched as she glared accusatorily at Jasmine.
Marlene let out a long sigh. "Lily, Augusta Longbottom is very particular on who her son is allowed to date. She has to personally approve of them. There's a reason that Frank hasn't asked Alice out to Hogsmeade yet. The poor boy wants to, but he can't. Pureblood politics can be tricky, and love isn't always the reason for marriages," she explained with a weary shrug.
Marlene had probably had similar talks with her parents. She was a half-blood, but she came from a long line of purebloods prior to that. Her father no doubt had expectations of who she was going to marry.
"You should go after Frank first. Ignore the bloody rules and ask Frank to Hogsmeade," Lily told her best friend, green eyes shining. Alice let out a groan from under the pillow she had covered her face with.
A small chime came from a clock on the wall, signaling that it was elven in the evening. All four girls stare at the clock in morbid fascination for a moment before Lily cursed and ran over to her trunk and rifled through it for some sleepwear. Jasmine noticed that the other two followed suit. She let out a long breath and wished that she could stay up a bit longer, but then flicked her wand out and summoned her clothing from her trunk, not bothering with looking through it on her own. She had charmed that trunk to have almost too many compartments and didn't have enough time to attempt to find where she had put her clothes.
~*~
Morning came too quickly for Jasmine's liking. Ro woke her up by kneading her little paws in her cheek near her very sensitive rune mark. She none too gently pulled her cat from her face and got out of bed. She looked at the time and realized that breakfast had already started. Jasmine turned towards her roommates' beds and noticed that they were all empty. There was a well placed silencing charm around her bed so that should wouldn't have heard them get up.
Well, it seemed that none of them had attempted to wake her up or even wait to see if she knew where the Great Hall was. Jasmine supposed that this was their way of hazing the new girl. Too bad, jokes on them, she'd be able to find her away around Hogwarts without a problem. "Thanks, Ro," Jasmine told her cat, giving her one last pet before she dressed herself and made her way to the Great Hall.
She pretended to get lost once or twice. Breakfast would continue for at least another thirty minutes. If she wasted any more time she'd miss her morning meal, and no one wanted to deal with Jasmine when she was hungry.
So, she pushed on forwards and into the hall. Jasmine didn't even spare Lily and her friends a glance. She noticed Alice blushing out of the corner of her eyes when Jasmine made no move to acknowledge them. If they were going to be petty bints, she would just ignore them. She could sense Lily pointedly not looking anywhere near Jasmine, Marlene putting her head in her hands. It seemed some of them regretted their actions.
Who knew that Lily Evans could be so bloody petty. She hadn't even really done anything. Jasmine just told her that she wasn't comfortable sharing her past with her. It reminded Jasmine a bit of Hermione. Her bushy-haired friend from another lifetime hadn't become her friend easily. They had fought like cats and dogs for nearly a month before Hermione had nearly been killed by a Mountain Troll. Then again, Lily actually had friends, unlike Hermione. Jasmine was also the new girl that people were curious about, but found frightening, and to a degree someone oddly attractive. She just hoped that Lily came around a bit faster than Hermione.
She moved her way around the tables and found the Marauders hastily stuffing a piece of parchment into Remus' defense textbook. They had been looking at the map, then? Were they making sure that she made it to breakfast on time? She hoped so, and it brought a small smile onto her previously frowning face. "And what are you lot up to?" Jasmine asked, sitting down and grabbing a muffin and a bit of oatmeal and berries.
"Nothing really," James said, stuffing a bit of honey covered toast into his mouth.
Ugh.
"Why didn't you come down with Evans?" Sirius questioned as he pulled out Jasmine's timetable and waved it in front of her.
"She said that you didn't want to eat, but Prongs was skeptical," Peter quipped up from the left of Remus. Jasmine had almost missed him.
She grabbed the time table.
"They put a silencing charm on my bed and left before I woke up. It seems that I might not be welcome in their little group," she replied, as she read over her timetable.
Double potions with Slytherin right after breakfast.
She knew that this would happen.
"Would you lot mind showing me to my classes today?" She inquired, waiting for their reactions.
Remus plucked her schedule out of her hand and read it over once. His eyebrow rising as he took in her course load. She was no slacker and she'd prove that to everyone. "You have a lot of the same classes I do. I can take you to them today. No need to get lost," he told her handing the piece of paper back.
"Thank you."
Remus sent her a small smile in return before he turned back to his breakfast. Sirius was making kissing faces behind his back and she stuck her tongue out at him. The dog Animagus gave her the finger. "Is that anyway to treat a lady, Padfoot?" James asked, motioning to his friend's gesture.
"Mr. Black! What do you think you're doing?" McGonagall shouts and Sirius dashed out of the Great Hall, the transfiguration professor hot on his heels.
Was this normal? None of the other Marauders even flinched.
"Does that happen often?"
James snorted. "More so than you'd expect."
She rolled her eyes at the images that flood her mind. Sirius got up into a lot of trouble, he'd told her so in the future, but she hadn't really believed him. Now though…The Marauders were true troublemakers, driving the professors mad and causing chaos. It brought a fond smile to her scarred face. It was bittersweet that she had the soul of someone who was the child of Lily and James, but had the body of someone who barely had ties to James.
It wasn't long before the remaining Marauders made their way to potions. They were basically acting as bodyguards, surrounding her on all sides so no one would bump into her and push her. It was kind, but completely unnecessary. Jasmine was more than capable of taking care of herself, despite how delicate she looked. Only one Slytherin tried to get in between her and the Marauders and she recognized him. It was Theodore Nott senior. Her Theo had looked remarkably like his father, they had the same aristocratic features, high cheekbones, the same dark brown hair that always had a slight wave to it, and the same thin mouth. The major difference was their eyes, Theo's had always been a warm earthy brown, his father's eyes were a stone-cold grey.
Theodore Nott Senior was a cold bastard that beat his son and killed his wife, the same man that would one day end up in Azkaban for killing, hunting, and torturing muggles, muggleborns, half-bloods and magical creatures. Was there any way to save a man that could wander down that path? Theo had mentioned that his mother said that her husband hadn't always been awful, he'd been caring until Voldemort had gotten a hold of him.
Jasmine had a theory that the dark mark drove his followers to insanity if they weren't skilled enough in Occlumency. Only Severus had really kept his sanity in the end and he was a bastard on his best days. Maybe the mark might have amplified that?
She shook her head and ignored it, turning to look at Theodore Nott Senior before James hexed him. "Can I help you?" She asked, her tone causal, yet guarded.
The Slytherin took in her face, noticing the scars and her odd eyes before replying. "Just seeing the monster they let into the castle. I was expecting someone more imposing when I heard that a Lord slayer was going to attend Hogwarts," he replied giving her another up and down, now taking in the littering of scars up and down on her arms. It was rather easy to tell that they were from hexes, curses and all matter of dark magic. His eyes narrow on the mark next to her sightless eye and his gives her a nod of approval before walking away towards the potions classroom.
She had passed his inspection, she supposed.
"What was that about?" James questions, glaring at the retreating back of the Slytherin fifth year.
"Politics, James, politics," she answered with shrug. She had passed some kind of test. She was probably a popular topic in the Slytherin common room last night. Quite a lot of their families owed her family ancient favors. They'd all be watching her to see if she was an heir that they could push around or if she was someone they could ally with.
James gave her an incredulous look before motioning into the potions classroom dramatically. Sirius was already sitting in the room near the back, a shit eating grin gracing his features. The other three Marauders took their seats and Jasmine made her way towards the front of the room, passing Lily, Alice, Marlene and another girl that she didn't know. She noticed that Severus was sitting away from Lily and his own table by himself.
Had they already started fighting? Were blood loyalties really that important at fifteen? Or was it something else?
Either way, when Slughorn noticed her he clapped his hands and beckoned her over. "Ah, you must be Jasmine Peverell! It's lovely to meet you! I read some of your work this summer and it was top notch. Now, Albus told me about your eyes, so why don't you sit in the front next to Severus, so you don't have to strain your good one," he said and motioned for her to take a seat next to a brooding Severus Snape. "Don't worry, he's one of my best students! I have a feeling you'll work well together!"
He clapped his hands again and nudged her towards the dour teen. Oh, this would be an interesting lesson.
Notes:I hope you enjoyed!
Leave your comments and kudos below!
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 11: Chapter 11Summary:Enter Severus...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 11
Jasmine could feel the heated glare she was receiving from Severus. He looked extremely different, as did all of the people she had met from the past, but he even though he was scowling something fierce, he seemed less stressed and lighter than he did in the future. Severus was younger, lankier, his nose wasn't quite as hooked as it was in the future. She had always guessed that he had broken it sometime when he was younger, and it just didn't heal properly, and it seemed that she may have been right. His shoulders were hunched and there was a lack of confidence.
He didn't seem to be excited to have a potions partner.
The feeling was more than mutual, but Jasmine didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with Professor Slughorn. So, she sat down next to Severus Snape and prayed to Merlin she didn't lose her temper. Severus was one of the many wizards that Death had sent her back in time to save, so she was going to need to attempt to befriend him. Jasmine just hoped he was slightly more approachable than in the future.
For some reason, she highly any prayer would be answered.
She didn't even have time to introduce herself before Slughorn began class. "Welcome to your fifth year of potions. As you're going to hear quite often this week, this is your OWLS year. Today, we're going to be working with a potion that quite a few of you have probably seen before. Can anybody name this?" He motioned to a cauldron full of dreamless sleep potion. Jasmine had seen it more than enough times to know.
Jasmine watched as only Lily and Severus raised their hands. James and Sirius were busy sneering at Snape.
Prats.
She shrugged and put her arm up as well. Slughorn's eyes lit up seeing his newest student participating in class and motioned towards her to answer.
"Ms. Peverell, what potion is this?"
Both Lily and Severus turned to glare at her. "It's Dreamless Sleep, used to aid people with insomnia. It's commonly giving to war victims and trauma suffers due to night terrors. The main problem with this potion is that it is highly addictive and can only be given sparingly or a dependence is created," she replied, going over everything she had learned about the potion over her nine lives.
Slughorn nodded vigorously in approval, his blue eyes gleaming in approval. "Yes, very good. It seems someone did her summer reading! Five points to Gryffindor!"
There was a snort from behind her. "More like she learned from firsthand experience." The voice was feminine, lofty and obnoxious. She had a gut feeling that it was a Slytherin pureblood. Jasmine didn't even bother to turn around to see who it was, she'd figure it out. For right now, class was more important.
Slughorn pretended to not hear what his Slytherin's were saying about her and pushed forward with his lesson. One had to love how the staff never stopped any bullying within the Hogwarts community.
She began to write the instructions down on the board. Jasmine was honestly grateful for being put in the front of the classroom. Slughorn had awful handwriting and with only one good eye she needed all the help she could get. Her rune couldn't sense writing, just moving things and objects. It was more like a bat's vision than anything else. Maybe in a few years, when she had enough time to pour over advanced runes she could create one that would get her vision back. Or, at least, mimic real vision enough for her eye seem to be completely functional.
Jasmine pulled out a quill and quickly began to write down the important parts of the instructions before she moved to gather the ingredients. Severus grabbed her wrist. "Don't mess this up," he hissed before releasing her arm.
It didn't take long for the room to devolve into a low roar as different groups attempted to make potions. Severus and Jasmine worked quietly, but efficiently together. Both of them knew what they were doing, and even though they communicated through grunts, nothing had gone wrong, yet. The potion's color was perfect for the step that they were on.
Remus' and Peter's potion was frothing an ugly brown that was supposed to be a light blue. James and Sirius seemed to be doing fairly well, the color only slightly off, kind of, since their potion was a deep indigo. Lily and Marlene were doing well, but the color still wasn't perfect, not like the potion that Jasmine and Severus were working on.
She would expect nothing less than perfect from the Halfblood-Prince.
Lily kept looking over towards them, an irritated frown on her face the entire lesson, which might have been the reason behind her less than perfect potion. Jasmine had to wonder why Lily was being such a pain in the arse. Was it because she was related to James in some distant fashion? Was it because she didn't do whatever she asked? Was she jealous?
Jasmine wasn't entirely sure, but one way or another, she was going to break the Queen Bee mentality that Lily seemed to have on the Gryffindor girls in her dorm. Both Alice and Marlene seemed nice enough. They didn't seem to like that Lily had convinced them to leave her to find the Great Hall alone that morning, so they couldn't be all bad. They had also introduced themselves the night before and had some lovely banter to go with it.
She shrugged as she added the last bit of chopped intestines into the potion, letting it steep for three minutes and no more. Severus watched her with almost an approving glare. High praise from the future dungeon bat. He didn't seem to want to speak to her, but the Slytherin seemed to be in a better mood after realizing that she wasn't completely useless in the classroom.
It wasn't until she stirred the potion at precisely the right time did he say something. "You know how to brew an above average potion."
"I learned from the best," she replied, a grin forming at the reminder of an older Severus Snape breathing down her neck teaching her potions. He might have been a git, but he knew what he was talking about if you were willing to do the work.
"I'd like to meet this Potions Master of yours," he told her as he finished the potion by bottling it. His accent was different than she remembered, and she had lived nine lives dealing with Severus Snape, but twenty years older. It wasn't a pureblood high-class accent, but one that had notes of a lower class peppered between his words. It was kind of cute and she was a little upset that she hadn't learned about this sooner.
Jasmine felt extremely cheated.
"I'm Jasmine Peverell," she said, letting her Austrian accent really leak out into her voice as she held out a hand to shake. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.
"I'm Severus Snape," he replied, taking her hand hesitantly. She noticed that his eyes were looking over her right shoulder at James and Sirius, who were watching their interaction with narrowed eyes.
"Ignore those prats back there," she muttered, motioning to the Marauders with her thumb. She almost got a smile out of the dour Slytherin, his thin mouth and tweaked up just a little bit and she counted that as a victory.
It wasn't long before Slughorn started to make rounds through the pairs to see who had done the potion correctly.
The answer was rather obvious and when the Professor made his way towards their desk he clapped his hands to gain everyone's attention. "Now, class, this is a perfectly done potion. It seems that Ms. Peverell and Mr. Snape have brewed a dreamless sleep, that can and will be, sent to Madam Pomphrey for actual use in the Hospital Wing. Ten points to both Slytherin and Gryffindor. For not only brewing a potion worth an O on your OWLS, but also for inter house teamwork. Not all Gryffindor and Slytherins can be paired together and work so well," he gushed.
Jasmine noticed that the side of Severus' neck were getting rather red from embarrassment. She supposed that she should also feel the same way, if she hadn't spent her last nine lives as The-Girl-Who-Bloody-Lived. She'd had far too much attention on her on a regular basis. Something like this didn't even phase her. She just ignored his words and stared straight ahead, thinking off all the ways that the room was different in the past.
Jasmine hadn't really noticed, but the room was brighter and honestly seemed a bit cleaner than she remembered it being in her time. Severus Snape had been a bitter man and it reflected in his dingy teaching space. Then again, he had been blackmailed into teaching, so some form of petty revenge was more than likely needed to keep the man somewhat sane.
Regardless, classes ended shortly after that with Severus giving her a small nod before ducking his head and dashing off to his next class. It wasn't until Snape was out of sight that she felt a hand grip her shoulder rather tightly.
She could sense that it was James, trying to hold himself back from hexing poor Severus, who had more than likely run off to avoid a confrontation with them. James had his gaggle of friends standing behind him. Jasmine was proud that he hadn't automatically attacked the Slytherin for being anywhere near her.
Hogwarts hadn't been this…friend group oriented when she had attended. Maybe there just weren't enough students for that to happen?
"Is there a reason your bruising my shoulder with your grip? I'm not a quaffle," Jasmine said, just loud enough for him to hear. James nearly jumped a foot in the air when he realized that he was hurting her. He patted her should twice in apology before he attempted to reply, the git.
"Sorry about your arm. It's just… I don't like Snape. He just exists and sometimes that bothers me and when I saw him staring at your face the way a lot of people do before they insult you…"
Jasmine let out a long sigh. People were always going to stare at face and they were always going to insult her. "I can honestly fight my own battles. Severus," she made a point to stress his name and saw Sirius pretend to gag, Remus smacked the back of his head, "was completely polite. I don't want to see you picking on him because he exists in the same space you do, James Potter."
He muttered something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like "kill joy" before he crossed his arms and pouted slightly before turning towards their next class.
Remus motioned to follow with a slightly odd expression on his face. He kept their pace slightly further back from Sirius, James and Peter, who were joking around and whispering conspiratorially. When they were completely out of earshot he asked, "How did you get him to get away from Severus? I've been trying for years, Evans has been trying since she met him…"
"I told him some rather disturbing similarities to him and the people that had…taken me…from my family. They had picked on me in the same way that you Marauders pick on Severus. I told James I wasn't going to talk to him if he kept doing what he was doing."
Remus blinked. "That was it? You just reasoned with him?"
She shrugged. "Yes. James was rather horrified to find out that I even associated him with my former caregivers. He considers me family. The only reason I feel that he ignored you was that both Sirius and Peter outvote you no matter how reasonable. And James, no doubt, loves to get a rise out of Evans."
The werewolf nodded, his mouth quirked up in a fond smile. "I'm glad that you've at least convinced him to let up on his rather destructive behavior. I don't know if Sirius is going to stop attempting to convince James to bully Severus though…"
"He'd better, or he's going to answer to me. And, he isn't going to like the results of the duel that will occur," Jasmine replied, cracking her knuckles in a mock threatening manner. Sirius wouldn't stand a chance against her in a duel, at least, not for another decade.
Remus shivered before he looked around the hallway and that's when Jasmine noticed that it was empty. It seemed that the others had walked off ahead without them. This left Remus and Jasmine alone, again. But, that's when she sensed something floating just above them. Was someone trying to attack them?
Jasmine put a hand on Remus' arm and jerked him to the side and moving them out of the way just before a water balloon would have hit them. Or, whatever liquid was in the balloons, because it certainly didn't smell like water once it splashed on castle floor. There was a distant cackle and the two gave each other a look and then a nod before the sprinted down the hallway.
Water balloons were being thrown at them left and right and Jasmine was moving them both out of the way expertly.
Peeves swore before swooping off once they reached the Transfiguration wing. Even Peeves feared McGonagall's wrath if he ruined anything near her classroom.
"How did you know that he was going to do that?" Remus asked, slightly out of breath by the time they reached the Transfiguration classroom.
He hadn't even realized that she had led them the majority of the way there. The ghost had been chasing them through the halls, attempting to cover them in various kinds of liquids. Jasmine wondered if James and Sirius had put Peeves up to it. She wouldn't have put it past them to play a trick that dirty on her. She had been stifling their destructively creative mind by convincing them not to prank Slytherins cruelly.
She tapped the rune on the left side of her face in response to his question. She could feel the ridges of the scars rubbing against the tip of her finger. "This isn't only for decoration, you know."
"I don't know enough about Ancient Runes to know what it does…" he replied, eyeing the mark, almost reaching out to touch it, but stopping himself at the last minute. As much as Jasmine wanted Remus to reach out to people and physically touch them, even in the most mundane ways, she really didn't like people touching her face. She never had, no matter what life she was living. Only a very few people had ever gotten to touch any of her scars.
"It grants "sight" or the illusion of it. It grants a bit of a bat sonar around me, so I can make out shapes around me. It is great for dueling since I literally have eyes on the back of my head," Jasmine told him as they entered the Transfiguration classroom. People were milling about around different desks. She saw Lily, Marlene, Alice and a few other Gryffindor and Ravenclaw girls all talking near the left corner of the room.
James, Sirius, and Peter were all in the center row, facing the door as they sat on the long desks. They were watching them as they walked, not a touch of any nefarious substance on them. The three Marauders looked shocked. She had been right, they had tried to play a prank on her.
Bloody prats.
They were still grinning ear to ear though.
"How did you manage to avoid Peeves?"
Jasmine's lips curled into a rather vicious smile that had the boys backing into the desks a little bit as she approached. "Would you believe me if I told you it was magic?" She asked, batting her eyelashes in a slightly threatening manner.
Peter squeaked and tumbled off the desk into the row behind him, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
Sirius grinned and leaned in close to Jasmine's face. "Now, Jazz, what if I told you that I don't believe you?"
Jasmine poked Sirius on the forehead. While she didn't mind James calling her Jazz, it sounded a bit weird coming out Sirius' mouth. She could tell that he was teasing her by using the nickname. "Then, I'd say we were at a rather inconvenient impasse, Heir Black."
Sirius' nose crinkled at the mention of still being the Black Heir. He was about to retort again, when the handle to the room turned and everyone scrambled to their seats right as McGonagall stalked in. She was a woman on a mission.
No doubt about to give them all the OWLS speech. Jasmine sighed and began to zone out. This was going to be ninth time that she'd heard this one.
The class was relatively uneventful. The only thing that she was really interested in was watching the way the Marauders acted in a classroom setting outside of potions. James and Sirius were particularly infuriating to watch. They casted spells with a lazy ease that nearly drove her up the wall. While she was a great spellcaster, it had taken many different lives to culminate the skills she had today. In her first life, she was gifted but not a natural, even Jasmine could admit to that now. It took another two before spells started coming with the kind of ease that Sirius and James displayed. The two of them were prodigies, it was no wonder that Voldemort would, in the near future, attempt to sway them to his side of the war. Now, that's not to say that the two of them didn't spend a lot of time practicing their spell work in their room, but she had yet to find much evidence of that.
Remus was a completely different story. He worked hard in class and while he didn't get the spells on his first try, he would turn back to his textbook and attempt it again and again until he got it right. It seemed that Remus needed to completely understand the theory behind each piece of magic he casted before he could perfect it. He was nearly the opposite to James and Sirius, who despite their casting, weren't the best with theoretical application. Jasmine had seen that first hand with them getting stuck near the end of their Animagus transformations. They had the spell down to an art, but the mental aspect escaped them.
Of course, there was Peter. He didn't fit in with his friends, at all. He struggled to keep up even with the simplest of spells. He more than likely wouldn't even finish during the class period, leaving his friends to help him to catch up.
Jasmine never quite understood how Peter had managed to stay in this group for as long as he had, which was until he betrayed them and got James killed. He seemed more like James' and Sirius' fan than a friend. He followed the two around like a lost puppy. Jasmine wasn't sure what the other Marauders thought of Peter.
Then there was Lily. She was a wonder to watch, even though it was obvious that transfiguration wasn't her strongest subject. She was nearly too smart for her own good. Lily would watch the way Professor McGonagall would move her wand, read the theory once, maybe twice, and then master the spell and understand the major principles behind it. Though, Jasmine had seen Lily reading over the material for class during breakfast, so she might have been practicing this morning.
Jasmine was beginning to finally understand why her parents and her friends had been cherished by the Hogwarts' staff. It wasn't often that there was collection of such talented individuals under one roof for so long. This isn't even counting Severus Snape, who would change the world with some of his potions. Though, Jasmine was going to make sure that he never enters teaching as a profession, unless he is taking on an apprentice in a lab somewhere far away from Hogwarts.
She frowned, tapping her chin as she changed her hedgehog into a lovely pin cushion and back for McGonagall, making sure to add the Peverell family crest as an added design into the fabric. "Five points to Gryffindor!"
Jasmine sighed as the professor walked away, turning the poor animal back. She wasn't going to see Severus cast anything till at least Thursday, in DADA. That was, if Brightbark let them cast anything. The prat had been giving her strange looks throughout her meals the past few days.
Notes:I hope you enjoyed!
Leave your comments and kudos below!
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 12: Chapter 12Summary:First DADA lesson...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 12
Classes began, and nothing really changed for Jasmine. Everything was progressing smoothly, that is, until her first defense class on Thursday. Professor Brightbark had introduced his class as a defense against the darkest of magics. "Magic should only be used in the pursuit of making the world a better place without the use of violence. But, sometimes, defense is necessary from those that would mean you harm," he had told the class, eyeing the Slytherins and Sirius and Jasmine in particular. Was he expecting them to jump and attack him? Jasmine had far better things to do than attack an overweight and out of shape Professor.
She had noticed that Sirius' fist clenched rather tightly when Brightbark singled them out as dark and potentially dangerous. To an extent, he wasn't wrong. Jasmine and Sirius were extremely dangerous. Jasmine had seen the way that Sirius dueled in the future and that was after years in Azkaban. She could only imagine how good he had been before his twelve-year stint in prison.
James gave Sirius' shoulder a slight squeeze and a sympathetic look. Jasmine wondered if this had happened to Sirius before. James had an uncharacteristic frown on his face as he listened the Brightbark drone on and on. "Now, there are different elements to magic, some more abominable than others. Some are born that way and need to learn to curb that malicious appetite."
Jasmine had a bad feeling the in the pit of her stomach. This class was starting to go in an Umbridge type of direction. It seems that this man much like the toad in the future, were terrified of dark magic, but for completely different reasons. Umbridge worried that teaching her students magic of any kind would be used against the Ministry in rebellion. Brightback was afraid that his students would use their knowledge to kill each other and turn each other dark, which was ridiculous. If Jasmine was going to kill anyone they'd never see her coming. She wasn't one to leave witnesses and classrooms tended to have plenty of those.
She blinked twice, realizing that she had missed a chunk of his speech. Oh well, it didn't seem like much had changed in the last ten minutes, save for different students dozing off in various places across the classroom. Only Lily seemed to be taking notes, everyone else had given up.
"Some branches of magic are darker than others…some are mutilated by them, while others are caught in between. In a grey space, if you would," He had stared straight at Jasmine as he said that. At first, she just thought that her scars had caught his eye and he recognized them as dark magic residue. It wasn't until he broke students up into groups did she notice his…bias.
Professor Brightbark had broken the room up into three groups by magical affinity: light, dark, and grey. The first two groups were nearly even, about twenty on both sides. Both Sirius and Remus were on the dark side, leaving James with Peter and Lily and some of her friends on the light side. This left a total of nine grey students, including herself, Severus and Marlene.
Jasmine had always pegged Severus as a man of dark magic. He adored the darks arts, but then again, he had always wanted to teach DADA. He was passionate about defending against attacks as he was in making them himself. That could put him into the grey magic spectrum more so than the dark magic one…why hadn't she noticed that sooner? It bothered Jasmine that she had missed so much about not only Severus, but Remus and Sirius, people that she had gotten to know rather well over the nine lives that she had lived over and over again in hopes of saving them all.
"Now, this is just preliminary guesses on my part of what kind of magic I sensed from each of you as you walked through the door."
Wait…
No one can sense magical affinity. There were was no such familial line gifts. From what Jasmine understood, and she had done research on this two lives ago, in hopes of finding a way to get rid of Death so she could finally just die. There was no way for someone to sense if she was a grey mage. It was something that he'd have to witness in her spellcasting, something he hadn't seen yet.
So, there had to be an external factor to aid him…something really illegal and it had to be placed somewhere every student had been.
Jasmine's eyes went to a device that was above the door. What a clever little shite…
The device looked magical in nature, it was a cube that had a constantly rotating center. It had three little color panels on the front, no doubt to give that affinity that Brightbark claimed he was sensing.
The cube was a sensor of some kind, one that was considered highly illegal in the future, she wasn't sure of today's laws, but this was at least a major breach of school rules to have an object from the Department of Mysteries within the school. It was used to discern magical core types. It was highly invasive, and they were extremely regulated by the ministry. Jasmine had to wonder how Brightbark got his grubby little hands on one.
Sirius looked livid, his grey as burning. It seemed the Heir to the House of Black had noticed the cube as well. He raised a hand into the air and didn't even wait for the professor to call on him once he gained the man's attention. He pointed to the cube. "Those devices aren't allowed outside of Department of Mysteries unless they're needed for very delicate criminal cases, sir." Jasmine could almost hear his teeth grinding as he used his most authoritative pureblood voice on the professor. A few of the Slytherins straightened at Sirius' tone. It might have even hurt the dog animagus physically to speak like that, but it brought about the desire effect.
A low murmur broke out across the room, mostly among the purebloods. "Silence!" He shouted, causing the whispers to taper off, "I assure you, Mr. Black, that I have the full permission of the Headmaster-"
And that gave confidence to only the muggleborns and halfbloods that had no idea that meant that Dumbledore had gone around the board of governors, again, to bring something dangerous into the school. Though, this time he had gone too far. This professor was trying to get them to hate all kinds of magic that isn't pure light magic. That isn't the way that the wizarding world works. There could be pure light families that birth a dark witch or wizard every few generations. It happens sometimes, and these students didn't need to think that all dark magic was wrong.
This time it was James who interrupted and for a moment Brightbark looked hopeful that the Potter Heir was going to stand up for him. "It doesn't matter if you have the permission of the headmaster, professor. Do you have the full backing of the DMLE and the Department of Mysteries, not to mention the Board of Governors?"
Jasmine honestly didn't care if he was being rude or if he was going to lose points for their house. Jasmine was proud of James. This was something that she wasn't going to let a professor get away with. She had kept her head down with Umbridge during her first lifetime and after that, she hadn't been, and the toad had been sacked right away.
One needed to take an active roll in their education to make it worthwhile.
Brightbark was turning a hideous shade of violet. "I have used this method before in other classes, Mr. Potter."
Jasmine stopped herself from scoffing. There was no way that he managed to get everyone to consent to something like that. Unless he was another Lockhart.
"With their permission? Because you never asked us for ours and then set us into groups to show everyone what kind of magic we can be attuned to. If you had done it in your other classes, I haven't heard anything. Why is your fifth year class being singled out for this? Or, have you just not told the other years the method to how you figured out their magical attunement?" Jasmine added, stroking her chin thoughtfully, watching as he gripped his wand tight enough to make his knuckles white.
Temper. Temper.
There were quite a few very talented witches and wizards in this fifth year group. Brightbark might have been spying for Dumbledore and reporting back which kids were light and dark. The greys would all just be considered dark by Dumbledore's standards anyway, so what did they matter?
Lily raised her hand hesitantly and the Professor's nostrils flared for a moment before calling on her, "Yes, Miss?"
She almost looked nervous to answer him, almost, but not quite. "Lily Evans, sir. What is magical attunement. I haven't heard of it before or read about it in any of the books I've read?" She asked seemingly unsure of herself for the first time since Jasmine had met her. She had nearly forgotten that her mother was a muggleborns witch. She acted so confidently with her magic that it was easy to forget.
"Mudblood," one of Slytherins to her left muttered and she silently cast a modified silencing spell on them. It was going to take them quite some time to figure out the counter curse. Jasmine had created that one a few lives ago, maybe four? She had gotten tired of people listening in on her talks with her friends even after she had thrown silencing spells up that they would just dispel. So, she created a new one with a unique dispelling.
Brightbark gave her a relieved smile and Jasmine was waiting for the piss poor answer he was going to give. "You see, my dear, there are different kinds of magic that witches and wizards are naturally born attune to. There's light, dark and then grey. A light wizard can use magic considered light with ease, like the patronus charm. While a dark wizard may never be able to even cast one, since they are naturally inclined to dark spells. Grey witches and wizards tend to be the most versatile," he said, eyeing the small grey group he had created, "they're rather unnatural, since one is usually inclined one way or the other, but they can use both light and dark magic with relative ease, the only issue is they're usually not that magically talented and more often than not, end up dark. Their magic gets corrupted over time."
Bullshite.
Her magic had always been grey. There was never a moment when that changed. It was awful to think that there was a professor teaching things like this in school. He was giving groups of students incorrect information. It made Jasmine's skin crawl.
She glanced over at Severus and he looked positively mutinous over the professor's description of grey and dark magics.
"What does this have to do with defense against the dark arts?" A student asked from the back of the room, on the half where the "dark" witches and wizards were.
The professor lit up at the question. "Ah, yes, well I was going to use this to see what kind of spell work everyone was going to need to work on over the weekend. All of those on the light side will only have to do some basic reading on light magic used last year. Dark magic students are going to write a three-foot-long essay on the dangers of using and indulging into the dark arts that tempts them," there was outraged shouting from nearly half the class before Brightbark turned to the grey students, "and those that are considered grey will be writing a four-and-a-half-foot essay describing grey magic, dark magic and light magics applications in their everyday lives, as well how to stop themselves from falling into the temptation of the dark arts."
"That's ridiculous. You're punishing us for what our magic is attuned to? How do we even know this sensor of yours is accurate!" Sirius' shout echoed through the room, followed by a large wave of echoing protests.
Jasmine leaned against the wall and let out a small wave of her magic calling to Ro. She saw Severus shiver against the cold stone, more than likely unaware that there was death magic in the air making the room drop a few degrees. It wasn't long before she could sense her familiar enter the room completely undetected from the slightly ajar doorway. Jasmine watched as Ro appeared on over the doorway, her grey eye glowing slightly as she came in and out of focus, using her invisibility to stay out of sight as she approached the sensor. Jasmine blinked and one moment the device was there and the next it was gone. Ro was more than likely going to deliver that to Jasmine's trunk for further investigation. She wasn't entirely sure if this was a real sensor or some kind of phony device that is only causing decent amongst the houses.
"Silence!" Brightbark snarled, attempting to gain some modicum of control back, not noticing that his sensor had been snatched. "I am your teacher and a decorated war veteran. I fought in the last wizarding war against Grindelwald. If anyone knows the danger of dark and grey magic, it's me."
Jasmine begged to differ. One can fight dark wizards for years and not understand the principles behind magical theory. Yes, Brightbark more than likely had run into dark wizards in the past and fought them, but some of them could have been light wizards that had decided to fight for the dark side. It had happened before. Just because someone doesn't have the affinity for it doesn't mean that it wasn't possible for them to accomplish it.
James slammed his hand down on a desk, causing the room to go silent. "My parents fought in the war as well and I have never heard them talk down on people who were born being able to use darker magic or grey magic. It's no different than the dark lords talking about eradicating muggleborns for being born with magic," James snapped, right as the bell sounded, signaling the end of the class.
A few students were looking at James with wide eyes, one being Lily Evans, who was playing with the hem of her jumper a slight pink hew to her cheeks.
Notes:Leave your comments and kudos below!
~SugarPhantom