Disclaimer: Not mine, except for those you don't know.
Chapter 6 - Midnight Talk: When the five teens returned to Gryffindor Tower, Ethan Thomas told them that McGonagall had been looking for them. They went to her office to explain, and were told simply to report tomorrow. They turned to leave, and McGonagall said, "Temaida, I want a word." Jazlyn nodded, and the others left, although reluctantly.
"Sit down, Jazlyn," McGonagall said, her voice surprisingly kind. Jazlyn did so, wondering what was going on. "Now," McGonagall continued, "what really happened? I doubt you got lost again - in fact, I doubt you actually got lost last time." Jazlyn had been afraid of this, and even though she'd asked the boys not to mention that she'd been under the full Body-Bind when they'd found her, she'd known that it wouldn't work.
"I guess it was one of the Slytherins, in revenge for that prank, but I don't know who. I was Stunned from behind and woke up down in the catacombs with both the Silencing Charm and Body-Bind on me. That was this time, but I really did get lost before." There. A more convincing lie, that even had bits of truth in it.
McGonagall gave her a look that suggested disbelief but let her go. By the time Jazlyn got back to Gryffindor Tower, it was nearly midnight. She headed straight for bed, but found that she couldn't sleep. So she rummaged in her trunk for a certain book bound in red leather and went down to the common room, which was now deserted. Changing her eyes to cats' eyes, she opened the photo album (for that was what the book was) and flipped through its pages. It was one of her rituals for the sleepless nights that came on now and then. She paused on one of the pictures. Her mother (most of these pictures were of Selene Temaida) was alone in this one, her head angled slightly away from the camera. Her expression was that of someone lost in thought. She was Jazlyn's age in this photo, and the marked resemblance between mother and daughter was quite obvious here.
"Can't sleep?" said a voice behind her. Jazlyn froze, and then sighed in resignation, recognizing the voice of Sirius Black. She'd known this was coming. She turned to face him.
"No, I can't. I see you can't either."
"Well, actually, I probably could, but I want to talk to you. Jaz, why do you let them walk all over you? I'll bet they've been awful to you ever since you got Sorted into Gryffindor -"
Jazlyn laughed. She couldn't help it. "No, actually, it wasn't Gryffindor. I was born, that was enough for them." She could see that Sirius was a bit confused now, and she sighed. "Let me guess," she said dryly, "Your family didn't start their vendetta against you until you gave them a reason." Sirius nodded and she continued. "Well, in my case, things were a bit different. My father was in France and he met this woman. She was a witch, pureblood, by the name of Selene de Chardin."
"So what was the problem?" Sirius interrupted. "She was a pureblood..."
Jazlyn smiled ruefully. "She was French. My family doesn't believe in marrying those of other nationalities. Besides that, she was fiery, and unwilling to bend to the wishes of my grandmother, who is effectively the head of our family. Truly, I think they hoped she'd be infertile or something. So when I was born, they were really upset, but relieved that I was a girl. If I'd been a boy, I'd be the Temaida heir, and there would be no way around that unless they disowned me. Still, they disliked me, and they detested Mum. She died when I was 4, supposedly of an illness, but I'm pretty sure they - meaning Grandmother Katherine and my other relatives - poisoned her."
Sirius glanced at the picture Jazlyn had been looking at. She could be Jazlyn's twin, down to the wavy golden brown hair, except for the eyes. The girl in the picture had blue eyes, and Jazlyn's were amber. He pointed to the photograph. "Is this your mum?" he asked. She nodded. "So, you say that she was poisoned. What then?"
"Dad retreated to his library. He's an historian of sorts. I almost never see him. Since I look so much like Mum, he can hardly handle looking at me. He destroyed all her pictures; all of the ones I have are from Grandmere and Grandpere, her parents. I used to spend summers with them when I was small, but they died too. I'm the last of that family, which is another reason the relatives don't like me. I wound up an heiress anyway, even though I can't touch it until I'm 21, for some reason."
"You know," Sirius said, "this doesn't explain why you let them control you, Jaz."
"It does, actually. I can barely remember a time when I wasn't the outcast, and after Grandmere and Grandpere died when I was 6 and 8, that life was all I knew. I learned to hide in the background. It was just simpler to obey, so they took as little notice of me as possible. It's not so much what I said, that they took the defiance out of me, so much as they never gave me a chance to develop any. You can't understand that, Sirius."
She watched the expressions fly across his face in quick succession, wondering what the result would be. Suddenly, to her great surprise, he smiled slyly.
"Well, Jaz, maybe all you need is someone to teach you to break the rules a bit." Sirius looked amused, and his voice was light and teasing, but he meant what he said. One thing about Sirius was his loyalty to his friends, and Jazlyn was his friend now. He knew all too well what a family that hated you was like, and he was determined to give her a hand.
Jazlyn looked at Sirius oddly for a moment, and then ducked her head to hide the smile spreading over her own face. When she had forced her features into a calm, cool expression, she looked up. "All right, 'Professor'," she replied, and felt the smile return, despite her efforts to stop it.
A/N: So, there's Jazlyn's past for you - or some of it, anyway. R&R, people!
