Hey, sorry for this being a day late...I had a migraine yesterday and no power the day before. I had a few days off from work, so I had time to edit, enjoy!

Chapter 14

About a month had passed and Jasmine's hunt for allies brought her to the library where she was doing the majority of her reading and scoping out for new political interests and allies. She had been having trouble concentrating back at the Tower. Her room was full of a crying Marlene, who had been cursed by a fellow house mate for being a dark witch for the third time this week. She took the insult hard and Lily had been trying to straighten her out all afternoon to no avail. The red head had been ice cold to Jasmine and wanted her nowhere near her crying friend. It wasn't like Jasmine was the one who had cursed her, but that didn't seem to matter to Lily Evans. She enjoyed making snide comments about her being around the Marauders all the time. Marlene had sworn to Merlin and back that the mischievous boys hadn't been behind the attack either, but Lily doubted her friend, making some side remark about an old crush on Sirius clouding her judgment.

To a certain extent, Jasmine was sure Lily was jealous. She might like to act like she hated James with a passion only her temper could surpass, but in the end, she was attracted to him, and his new slightly more "serious" persona.

Though, serious wasn't really the word Jasmine would use…since he still acted like an immature prat most of the time, playing small pranks, making jokes about wanking and just being a general school boy. The only difference in his demeanor was that he was taking his studies a little more seriously and wasn't targeting Severus nearly as much for their pranks. James was making an honest effort to stop bullying and it made a large impact on Lily's image of him and she wasn't taking it well.

Even Sirius was more focused on his school work this past month than he had been during the summer. Jasmine had caught both, James and Sirius, in the library. At first, she thought that they were going to play a prank, but when nothing happened she was sure they were attempting to hide something from Remus. When that didn't happen, she realized that they were working on revising some of their homework. It could be because they actually needed good grades this year. Or, the two of them had always just worked hard when no one was looking, which was also a very viable possibility.

This led to one of Jasmine's main dilemmas. She needed space away from her fellow Gryffindors. She enjoyed the chaos and the general noise, but sometimes she could understand why the hat had put her in Slytherin a few times. Their common room was rather subdued, comparatively to the tower. It wasn't full of studying students like Ravenclaw, but one could get their work done without worrying about it catching on fire or public fits of crying.

No matter the time period, the Gryffindor Common room was too loud to get anything done in. If it wasn't Fred and George, it was the Marauders causing mayhem. They had set a large number of fireworks off, triggered by the amount of times the name Potter was shouted by Evans.

Lily had caught them setting them up, so a lot of fireworks were going off as Marlene cried her eyes out in their room. One of them had nearly set her parchment on fire and that had only made things worse. The Marauders knew how to distract a room, that was for sure.

And, while Jasmine usually appreciated their antics, today was not one of them. Brightbark wanted a rather long essay and Jasmine had handed in flawless work all semester, it was driving the man mad. So, she wanted to keep him frustrated. He wanted to take points off of her work, and if she didn't write this paper perfectly, she knew he would.

Brightbark was sadly one of the best defense teachers she had ever seen enter Hogwarts halls. It was a shame that he was such a bigoted arse, otherwise she would have found his teaching style refreshing. The fifth-year class was really budding under his tutelage for the most part. He only taught light based spells, but defense tended to be light based regardless of bigotry. Brightbark just tended to take more points off students of darker magical decent if they couldn't get the spell work right the first time, which was infuriating and made her want to hex the pants off of him. Though, his need to see perfection from all of his students has created multiple study groups, so there was that. Lily was in charge of one of them, along with Marlene, Alice, a small Ravenclaw named Monica and a tall Hufflepuff chaser named Heather.

Speaking of Lily, the young woman was an ice queen and honestly reminded Jasmine a lot of Daphene Greengrass. The Ice Queen of Slytherin had been a thorn in her side for most of her Hogwarts careers. They had always become friends in her other lives. Many had taken months, if not years to garner any kind of friendship with the Slytherin. Jasmine really didn't want to be fighting with Lily for years.

Lily still hadn't warmed up to Jasmine at all, even though they had been living together for over a month at this point. More often than not the red head was purposely avoiding Jasmine at all costs and just glared at her during classes, as if she was doing something else besides take notes and doing the work, same as her. To a certain extent, some of Lily's attitude towards Jasmine came from finally having someone to challenge her mentally. Jasmine was an outsider that excelled at practical and theoretical magic. Lily had always been on the top of her class without much competition, aside from the Marauders, that despite their magical prowess, didn't try to excel academically. Jasmine had something to prove to Dumbledore and to those in the administration that thought that she was some kind of monster.

She had caught Lily and Remus arguing the other morning after potions. Lily had pulled Remus aside after James and Sirius had gone to the hospital wing for a caldron mishap. Jasmine noticed that the two of them had been attempting to make a strengthening solution, but they stirred in the wrong direction for too long and caused the potion they were working on to change shades and they nearly blew up a part of the classroom. They might have also ruined quite a few other people's potions as well.

It was an accident, so Slughorn was letting them redo the potion once Madam Pomphrey clears them in another hour or so. Once class was over, Jasmine had noticed that Lily had been waiting for Remus to gather his stuff. The red head been watching the werewolf all morning and it bugged Jasmine how obvious she was being about it. It wasn't that Jasmine minded that she spoke to Remus, Merlin only knew the bloke needed friends, it was that she didn't care about watching her surroundings, there was a dark lord on the loose, a Slytherin dark lord no less!

Jasmine made herself scarce and hid in a small alcove, out of sight and waited for her to begin her talk with Remus. He had been surprised by Lily's coy smile and beckoning finger. Merlin, was she trying to flirt with him?

"Is there something that you need, Lily?" Remus asked, ignoring her behavior completely.

The red head fidgeted with the hem of her skirt before answering, "What's wrong with Potter and Black? They've been acting different recently, even since Peverell came things have become strange…"

Remus ran a hand through his sandy hair and abandoned his books on the nearest desk. "They've had to grow up a bit. Isn't that what you've been telling them to do for years? Maybe they finally took your advice."

She frowned. "What does Peverell have to do with this this though? What's her angel…she has to be working with you all on some elaborate prank to hurt all the people outside of your little group," Lily snapped, arms crossed, defensive, as if she was preparing for some kind of fight. This is what confused Jasmine about Lily. The girl was always ready to defend herself against whoever she spoke with, even when it was just Marlene and Alice. It was as if she was waiting for the preverbal shoe to drop…then it hit Jasmine, how could she forget.

Petunia.

Who else could help foster such a toxic attitude, but her lovely future aunt. As Harriet, she had heard stories from Remus and Sirius how awful Petunia was to her mother, but she had never heard that her mother was so distrustful to other people because of it.

Remus, at this point in time, who was completely unaware of her situation, was pushing forward. "Why do you keep harassing her? Is it because she spends time with Snape and doesn't end up fighting with him or because she has conversations with James and Sirius and people from other houses without getting into a shouting match? Jasmine is a great person. I haven't had any issues with her and the professors don't understand what you have against her," he grumbled, pulling at the strap to his shoulder bag, shifting from foot to foot unconsciously.

"She…just…I don't know. Peverell just rubs me the wrong way. She's really closed off and she talks like a bloody pureblood Slytherin, if they all had German accents," she grumbled, pouting towards the end.

Merlin, she sounded like a child.

"First, Jasmine is from Austria. If you ever bothered to speak with her, you'd know that. And, she is from a pureblooded British family on her father's side, so she is going to speak like a pureblood, no matter what language it is in. Finally, she isn't quite as closed off as you imagine her being. You just want an excuse to hate her since she's related to James in some way," Remus snapped, before pushing off the chair he leaning against, "And, if you haven't realized this yet, you treat Jasmine in a very similar manner to the way that James and Sirius treat Snape and you've said less to her than James and Sirius have ever said to Severus Snape."

Her mouth opened and closed a few times. Lily couldn't seem to find something to say to that. It seemed that Remus had effectively left her speechless. "That can't be true…"

Jasmine heard Remus sigh. "Lily, just act civil to Jasmine. She isn't James and she certainly isn't Sirius. Just act mature."

Lily huffed off, her shoes clicking on the stone floor and down the hall. "I thought that you could defend your own honor?" Remus asked, looking towards the area that Jasmine was hiding in. It was close to the full moon, so Remus' senses were more than likely heightened to an uncomfortable extreme.

"How did you know that I was hiding there?" Jasmine asked, dispelling her stealth spells and coming into view. She walked over to Remus, hands behind her back as the werewolf scrambled to figure out an excuse.

She loved watching him squirm.

"I saw you cast the spell work after class…" he blurted out and she raised an eyebrow, obviously not believing a single word that came out of his mouth.

She smiled, feeling the scar on her lips pull slightly. "Keep your secrets, Remus. Are you going to be visiting your sick relative next week? I heard Sirius mention something about them, as well as your furry little rabbit problem. I'm not sure if they're related, but James and Sirius sure seemed to think so when I asked," Jasmine said, changing the subject to something a little more manageable for him to answer.

"My mother gets ill rather often, and I need to go back home to help take care of her. She also has a temperamental rabbit that I take care of while she's recovering," he answered as they walked through the halls towards the Hospital Wing to check on their rather…trouble loving friends.

That night while she was getting ready for bed, Lily finally approached her. Her eyes were rimmed red, as if she might have been crying earlier that afternoon. Marlene and Alice had excused themselves a short time ago. Alice had finally mustered up her courage and asked Frank to speak privately with her in the common room. Marlene was writing a letter to her family, watching Frank and Alice, in case her friend needed back up.

This left Lily and Jasmine to their own devices. "Um, Peverell…Jasmine, can we talk?" She asked, as Jasmine sat on her bed, Ro curling up on the pillow that Jasmine wanted to use, the brat.

Instead of ignoring the red head, she turned towards her, making sure she got a good look at multicolored eyes. And, for once, Lily didn't flinch. "Can I help you, Evans?" She replied coldly. Even though she heard her conversation with Remus, she didn't quite trust Lily. She knew that Evans could be really vindictive when she wanted to be.

"I wanted to talk to you about the way I've been treating you the past few weeks…I wanted to apologize. I've been an awful person, all because I was jealous of you," she admitted, not making eye contact. Lily was no doubt wishing that she was anywhere, but with Jasmine.

The Master of Death sighed, tugging at her hair in thought. Swallowing her pride must have been difficult for her. "Why are you jealous of me? I don't understand…"

Lily groaned, flopping back on her bed. "You know how to talk to people in the magical community. You're really smart and have befriended the Marauders. Despite the fact that I abhor their pranks, I respect the magic that they cast. I just…it seems like everything comes easy to you and you try in classes. It just reminds me how behind I am as a muggleborn," she said, muffled at the end as she pulled a pillow over her face.

"Evans," she didn't respond, "Lily," she twitched, "look, I spent a good portion of my life in Austria with my family learning pureblood customs and about wizarding culture from both my mother's Austrian side and British wizarding culture from my father. Then I was kidnapped and raised captive in another pureblood household full of Slytherins. So, I can speak to Slytherins without too much trouble. I can also fight like a Gryffindor, but that doesn't mean that I find class work easy. I had to do four months of extra school work just to get into Hogwarts this year. The reason that I'm working so damn hard is because Dumbledore is looking for an excuse to expel me. I'm sorry that I seem intimidating, but you never gave me a chance. The first thing that you asked me was about my past. It isn't something that I'm comfortable with," Jasmine told her, and Lily pulled the pillow off her face, her face and she looked rather embarrassed.

"I might have overreacted. It's just, when I heard that Hogwarts was getting a transfer student and they were going to be a Gryffindor, I didn't expect them to be friends with Sirius Black and related to James Potter. The two are insufferable. I thought that you would be the same way," she admitted sheepishly.

"Would you like to start over?" Jasmine asked, sticking out her hand as a peace offering to Lily.

She looked at the hand like it was going to bite before Lily grasped it firmly. "I'm Lily Evans, it's nice to meet you. I won't assume you're a prat because you cousin and his best friend are wankers."

"Jasmine Peverell, it's a pleasure to meet you. Sorry for the dreadful accent, but I was born in Austria. And, I can verify, that and James and Sirius are wankers, both here and at home."

The two shared a rather solemn look before they broke out in slightly hysterical laughter. It was as if all the tense situations that they had been in over the last four weeks had come out all at once and they realized how ridiculous the entire ordeal had been in the first place. The two were holding their sides, Lily clutching her bed post to keep herself up and Jasmine sitting on the floor, not bothering to stay standing.

Eventually, the laughter died down, just enough for Lily to gasp out, "Jasmine…I have a rather large favor to ask."

Jasmine pushed herself up off the floor, the scar on her lips contorting as she frowned. "What kind of favor?"

As much as she wanted to make up with Lily there was no way that she was going to just do the girl favors. "I wanted to know if you could teach me about pureblood culture. I know that I'm not a pureblood, but I want to know what I've been missing about wizarding society that most of the students at Hogwarts are born knowing," she replied, a blush creeping up her neck and face at a rather steady pace.

That honestly hadn't been something that Jasmine was expecting her to ask. It wasn't often that any muggleborn would ask to learn about pureblood society. At least, that had been her experience in the future. Hermione, for all of her brilliance, abhorred anything to do with pureblood culture and teachings. Many of the lower-class purebloods preferred to take up the teachings and culture of the muggleborn students, shunning the thousands of years of magical culture that built where they were today. It seemed that within the next twenty or so years a lot of want and desire to learn about where magic truly came from deteriorated with the rise of the Pureblood fanatics.

Now, Jasmine didn't want to follow pureblood culture completely. It was awful sometimes and archaic at others, but there was some bits and pieces, that, as the Master of Death, she had to respect and follow. She knew that magic came from higher beings that had offspring with humans, or in Death's case, made deals with them.

Jasmine grinned from ear to ear and Lily honestly looked a little shocked by her genuine enthusiasm. "I'd love to. Would you like your friend, Severus, to join us? He's the last of this line and I'm not sure the other Slytherins are attempting to teach him how to run a household," Jasmine mentioned, and Lily gave her a puzzled look.

"Sev isn't a pureblood…he's a halfblood."

Jasmine resisted the urge to snort. "Rule number one of pureblood society, everyone is related in some way, shape, or form and everyone knows who is a part of whose family line. Severus is from the Prince line. A generation ago, they had more promise, since the heir, Severus' mother, was set to marry a wizard from the Nott line. Instead of following her family's instruction, she fell in love with a muggle, which isn't a bad thing on its own, but her father disowned her and the family has been disgraced. Of course, that doesn't mean that their wealth is gone, Gringotts keeps track of money and assets and the Prince family was always wealthy. Severus' Grandfather has been making pleas in court to speak with his grandson-"

"Wait, Sev's never spoken to his mother's family. He said they've never tried to contact him before."

Jasmine had to bite her cheek to stop her from cursing. It would figure that Snape had never heard from the only family he had left, that was slated to die in about four years, give or take a few months. His grandfather was supposedly a right bastard when angry, but he loved his family.

"Well, the Lord of the Prince house has been making inquiries. I got a letter a few days ago regarding if I've ever spoken to him. Apparently, the other pureblood lines aren't answering him and he's reaching out to a fellow neutral house for answers," Jasmine said with a shrug. It had been odd receiving that letter. At first, she had thought that it was a trap, but Jasmine was very careful about vetting her letters.

To a certain extent, Jasmine wondered if someone was tampering with the mail at Hogwarts. Jasmine had very specific enchantments on her owl. She had runes carved on Potter family tracking bracelet on the bird's leg that kept mail from being intercepted or rerouted by third parties. Jasmine made sure that all of her personal mail was sent to Potter manner and then flown from there to Hogwarts. It might make the letters a day later than she'd like them, but this way she always had the same owl delivering her mail.

Jasmine had replied to the letter quickly, claiming that she knew Severus, but had only just met him. There wasn't much else to say, but to tell him that Severus had no idea that his grandfather was attempting to contact him. She hadn't heard anything since and wondered if the letter had been captured on its return trip.

"Have you told Sev about the letter from his grandfather? He doesn't like liars…"

"I'm not lying about anything. The letter was honestly uncalled for and a breach of decorum on Lord Prince's part, but I let it pass since I know he was only looking for his family. I know what that's like, but this is a family matter. It isn't my business to say something unless I get the go ahead from Severus' family head."

Lily groaned. "This all sounds rather complicated for something that really should be simple."

"Rule number two of pureblood society, nothing is ever simple."

So, I had time to edit and you guys got an extra long chapter today! Sorry about things being a day late, but my health decided that I no longer could think straight...or see straight. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. Lily and Jasmine have finally started to mend their relationship. Next chapter has plenty of Severus in it, if I'm remembering correctly.

Thank you for everyone who has favorited, followed and reviewed! You've really been helping my continue this story! Keep it up! =D

See you all soon,

Animerocker