Last Wednesday of the school year. Jasmine was preparing her last class when the end of the year feast ended - after attending shortly herself - and her eight students piled in.
By now, they all, miraculously, knew each other very well and were actually glad they could take this 'class' next year since it was more like a time to relax and break from school life than any study period any of them had ever had.
"Hey, y'all, listen up!" Jasmine told the class. Everyone stopped talking and most sat down on the desks.
"So what are we doing, Jas? A party?" Brittany asked hopefully.
As the year went on, the kids became more and more comfortable and were now on first name terms because, as Jasmine said, being called 'Miss' by a bunch of kids all the time made her feel older than McGonagall, discreetly, of course.
Brittany's question was followed by enthusiastic agreement.
Jasmine nodded. "To celebrate endless sleeping, doing nothing, or whatever else, CoughQuidditchCough-"
Everyone laughed, they knew she loved Quidditch.
"-Cake and music, I'm thinking. No work, but that's a given." She smiled and pulled out a large cake shaped like a Quidditch pitch and nine bottles of butterbeer.
"Quidditch?" Alec asked. He had come a long way from his toothbrush scrubbing days.
"Yes, I find Quidditch to be much more satisfactory on the summer holidays... Oh, who am I kidding? What good is Quidditch if you can't use it to kick Slytherin butt?"
Everyone dug into the cake and butterbeer and the radio was turned to the WWN, not playing at all quietly.
"Hey, Jas?" Annie hollered over the music.
"What?"
"How long will this go on for?"
"As long as you want. I don't know how much sleep you require."
About twenty minutes later, Professor Dumbledore cane into the classroom with an amused look on his face, especially considering that Jasmine had soundproofed the room and he was sure to have just had his eardrums blown out.
"Ah, celebrating the successful year, I see."
"Yes, sir!" Jasmine told him. "Care to join us?"
"I would find that most delightful, actually. May I?" he asked, indicating the half-eaten cake.
"Help yourself."
"Why thank you."
Two hours later and the class was still going strong. Dumbledore, however, began to feel a splitting headache and decided to return to his study. The cake was almost gone, as well as the butterbeer, but no one wanted to go to bed just yet. After all, they could always just sleep on the train.
Steven turned off the radio, much to the displeasure of the class. "It's just starting to get dark now," he said.
"So?" came the general response.
"So why don't we all go down by the forest, make a fire, and tell stories? They don't have to be scary, just something new to do. We could invite Hagrid, too, I bet he'd know some, and after all, he did help with that forest project," he said, referring to when the class split into two groups, went into the Forbidden Forest, one group with Hagrid and one with Jasmine, each magically marked a dozen tall trees, and the other group had to find the trees and hit the mark with and arrow - Alec had stuck close to Jasmine the entire time, not wishing to stray off the path again.
"Yeah."
"Good idea."
"Let's go."
Jasmine whistled.
No one paid any attention. Her whistle wasn't that bad, but it couldn't compete with the noise made by the students.
So she scratched her nails along the blackboard.
"Ahhh!"
"My ears!"
"Ouch!"
"How about we wait for it to get a little darker first. There's still a bit of cake left and I don't want to bring that outside."
By the time the moon was the only light outdoors, the cake was completely diminished and everyone was still hungry.
"So when we do go outside, like now, are we going to bring something to eat?"
"Yeah," Jasmine said. "I went Florean's this morning and made sure to get enough ice cream to last. Let's go!"
They were out on the grounds and Jasmine put Steven in charge of making a safe fire and Brittany and Lauren in charge of the ice cream. She went over to the gamekeeper's cabin and knocked on the door.
"I'm comin', I'm comin'. Oh, Jasmine. Nice ter see ya."
"Hey, Hagrid. Feel up to joining the festives?"
"Sure! Why not? I always look forwa'd ter a party."
Jasmine and Hagrid went over the campfire and grabbed and ice cream.
"Jas, you go first with the stories!" Nancy requested.
"Ok, ok, what d'ya want to hear?"
Her nine kids instantly silenced as Josh said, "A ghost story."
"Ok." Jasmine waved her hand and clouds covered the moon to make it even darker.
"Hold up," Steven said. "You can do wandless magic?"
"Well," Jasmine thought about how to answer that. "Not really, I can create weak illusions, and since illusions themselves aren't real, like magic is real, it's a lot like doing nonverbal magic."
Satisfied with that answer, Steven nodded. "Uh, Jas?"
"Yeah?"
"I really want to hear your story, but I promised my girlfriend I'd spend the night with her and our friends, you know, recall the year."
"Isn't it a little late for that?" Jasmine asked.
Steven shrugged.
"Alright then, just leave us, all alone, in the dark."
Some people chuckled
(A/N: This is a really bad attempt at a ghost story. I know it's not scary, but please, just pretend it is. And I know the name is... unusual.)
"Alright, so have any of you heard of Elustrid Black?"
All of the students shook their heads, as did Hagrid, but only not to cause suspicion - he had heard Jasmine tell this when she was attending school and wondered how she'd be able to tell it now.
"Well Elustrid Black lived thousands of years ago, maybe even before Hogwarts existed, no one knows for sure."
"Are you related to Elustrid?" Annie asked.
"I think so, but we're not at all alike. And not just because he was born without a left leg or right eye, and a few other, ah, deformities.
"He would always hide in shadows, to keep his appearance secret, so no one would notice his scratchy piece of metal he called a leg that would eeekkk every time he took a step."
Jasmine paused, just as an eerie noise was heard behind them, like metal on wood. Annie and Nancy shivered.
Jasmine gave a startled look and continued. "There was nothing Elustrid hated more than any person who could walk or run without making the horrible sound, especially if they weren't considered 'worthy' to be a wizard. He could never get away with anything; from an early morning walk to a murderous crime.
"So he blamed them for his faults, them and anyone who dared get in his way. Elustrid decided to destroy them, but first, he would need a spell with which to do so.
"For twenty years, Elustrid disappeared. He went underground, to create something no one had, not ever before. He strived to beget fear and death - evil - that he alone could control. And by the time he resurfaced, no one remembered him.
"He went to a wizard neighborhood, full of families with small children. He walked up to a little girl, she was about your age-" Jasmine pointed to Annie and Nancy who both gulped.
"He said, 'Little girl, come and look me in my eye,' pointing to his false one.
"The little girl was scared, but she didn't know what to do. And as she approached him---
"'AVADA KEDAVRA!'
"A flash of green light and the little girl was dead. Nobody knew how he did it. But it's what happened next that established the real fear. The air became cold and the day became dark. Cloaked, rotting beings surrounded the street. Elustrid gave a command that went unheard over the screams.
"He called the creatures 'dementors' after his own demonic existence; and they sucked the souls of the living, leaving them neither alive nor dead, at Elustrid's command. He created them.
"Elustrid went from street to street, from town to town, reeking havoc, pain, death, and worse; always beginning the end with 'Come and look me in my eye.' Until one day, something went wrong. The dementors became restless with evil and power. A mutiny was at hand. Dementors were the superior race.
"They came to destroy Elustrid, as they and he had so many others, and claim the world as theirs. But not before Elustrid spoke a final spell: to one day return and reclaim what he took, finish what he began, in either his own body, or that of his descendant and heir."
"AAAHHHH!!"
Everyone screamed and jumped as the fire suddenly shot up no less than six feet in the air and out of the forest jumped a man from whom a scratchy, metal sound diffused.
The man started to laugh, but it wasn't evil, it was... amused.
"Steven!" Nancy yelled. "You really scared us!"
"Sorry, Nance," Steven laughed, "but Jas asked me to."
"Jasmine!" Annie started.
Jasmine was chuckling. "Yeah, yeah, I told him how to turn out the lights so he could get in the forest without any of you noticing."
"I thought that mighta been him," Hagrid said. "I remember when yeh told that one at school."
"Yup, I just figured it was time to bring back the classic."
"But... was that... was that... true?" Lauren asked.
"No, no one named 'Elustrid Black' ever lived, neither did likes of him, unless you count Voldemort-"
Everyone else shuddered and Jasmine told them get over it.
"-and he didn't create any unforgivables that I'm aware of.
"So who's next?" she asked.
"No more horror."
"I'll go," Alec said. "This is true. My uncle told me the story, he knew the people in it, sorta. Well, anyways, when he was at school, there was a group of kids a year under him who were called the Marauders."
Hagrid looked at Jasmine, who was acting as though this was news to her.
"There were five, four boys and one girl, but no one figured out who they were. Uh, actually, my uncle just wouldn't tell me, 'part of the legend' he said. Well, they were legends of the school, the Pranking Masters. M-W-P-P-W is what would stand for them. Those letters could always be found by their pranks, which were always perfect. They pranked everyone, the entire school at once sometimes, even the Headmaster."
"Dumbledore?"
"Yes."
"Whoa."
"Well, one time, my uncle told me that they were always wagging war against Filch. And this one time, he hung them by their ankles in the dungeons, so they took Mrs. Norris and hung her by her ankles in the Great Hall, and no one could get her down. Not even Dumbledore!" Alec started laughing with everyone else.
After he calmed down, "She was up there for the entire weekend before the Marauders agreed to take her down, and when they did, they hung up Filch!"
More laughter rang out at the thought that someone was actually able to extract revenge against the loathed caretaker and his hated pussy.
"And then, they took Filch down and left before anyone could take house points or put them in detention!"
Everyone was laughing, even Jasmine, who remembered when that happened, only they did get detention.
"Hey, Jas," Alec said, "you're about my uncle's age."
"So?"
"Did you know the Marauders?"
"Uh, you could say that. They really went to Hogwarts, if that's what you mean."
"Wow, you really knew them?" Steven asked.
"Yeah, and now it's getting late."
"How late?"
"It's two in the morning," Jasmine said. "Back to the castle, if you miss the train, it's not my fault."
After some unenthusiastic grumbling about wanting to stay up, the students said good night and headed back up to the school and Jasmine cleaned up.
After about ten minutes, Jasmine went back up to the castle and in her room. She laid down, ready to go to bed.
Silent tears threatened to fall for the first time since September as Jasmine reached under her pillow and took out a picture of the Marauders - minus Pettigrew - Lily, and Harry taken just after she, Sirius, and Remus moved in with the Potters.
She touched the familiar faces and put the photo back under her head.
A/N: Sorry about taking o long to update. I'll try to get the next one up quicker!