That afternoon, there was a Double Charms class, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins; they practiced Banishing Charms with cushions and boxes stationed at their tables and across the room, respectively. Jasmine, who had gotten into the habit of sitting around in different classes every class day depending on whom she felt like seeing or annoying, was watching Lauren and Brittany chat while they practiced, and had to admit they could use a little help. For what she was sure had to be the first time in her life though, Jasmine had the self control to sit in a classroom where the assignment was 'make things fly across the room' and not fly the objects into the back of her unliked classmates' heads. Of course, these weren't her classmates, and while she wasn't going to attack the students now that she had graduated, she did recognize a few names from families she'd like to have a go at. However, she did not have the self control to jinx a couple of the boxes to not accept cushions that came from the side of the room where Slytherins were seated. Professor Flitwick, apparently, had come to the decision they just had exceptionally bad aim.
As a small knock was heard at the door, Flitwick had to dive under a desk to avoid being steam rolled then smashed by a table someone had accidentally banished instead of a cushion before squeaking "Come in."
"Sorry, Professor."
"That's all right, Miss Revon." Flitwick turned his attention to the door. "Can I help you, Mr. Affle?"
"Professor Dumbledore sent me, sir. Said he needed to speak with Miss Black in his office."
Jasmine thought over that morning, quickly scanning its events - or lack there of - in her head. "Ok," she said slowly, still trying to figure out what she had done to get her sent to the Headmaster's office as a graduated student, not for the first time.
She repaired the table that had smashed - as Flitwick chased a banished student around the room, both himself and the student who cast the spell trying to get ahold of him safely - with a flick of her wand and headed for the door, still thinking.
Patrick had waved Lauren a sassy wave, who giggled and returned a flirtatious one as Brittany rolled her eyes.
"Come on, loverboy," Jasmine said to Patrick, half dragging him out the door with her by the collar of his robes, not letting go until they had lost sight of Flitwick's door. "Now, where ever you're suppose to be, go."
Patrick looked at her as if she were telling a very unfunny joke.
"Oh, who am I kidding? Just stay out of trouble or Dumbledore will be after both of us... No, he'll be after me, so it's best you just go someplace you should be."
The dark haired witch came to the stone gargoyles and said the first wizarding sweet that popped into her head. After springing to life, Jasmine passed it to go up the spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office.
She knocked twice and walked in, still unsure about what she had done. To be more exact, what she had been caught doing. But Albus Dumbledore had an uncanny ability to be able to pinpoint the mastermind behind any scheme at Hogwarts.
"Whatever it was, you can't prove I did it; I have an alibi," Jasmine stated, holding up a finger, a decent finger, as if that were the alibi.
Dumbledore's eyes just looked at her in the same way they always had looked upon a Marauder in his office: slightly befuddled on what to do with them, slightly amused that they had pulled another great prank, and slightly disappointed that it had been pulled on Hogwarts staff and/or students. The rest of his face, however, unlike during Marauder school days, looked as if it were witnessed a very amusing joke.
"Sorry, sir," she said, as if just realizing the previous statement to come out of her mouth, and put her finger - along with the rest of her arm - down as she slid into a chair. "Old habits die hard; I've become accustomed to becoming defensive in this office for reasons I'm sure you have yet to forget."
"So it seems they do. However, I doubt there will ever come a day that I forget those reasons, even in my old age." There was a slight twinkle of mischief behind the wizard's half-moon spectacles. "For instance, of those old habits, you have always seemed to know when I was about to invite you to sit, and always do so at that very moment."
Jasmine took a sharp intake of breath. "Right."
Leaning back in his chair, the Headmaster's blue eyes examined her; and Jasmine knew it was time to shut the mind. But before she had the chance, she let a single word slip though it: shit."Well, Miss Black, I am guessing you know why I've asked you here?"
"No, sir," she said, doing her best to disguise her use of Occlumency.
"Is there anything you have need to talk about? Anything you feel you need to say?"
"Not really, Professor, no." Let's see, I've used illegal measures, illegal on many different levels, to commit an illegal act, also illegal on many levels, after I've been deemed a near threat to society. That shouldn't put me in Azkaban for too long, should it? Maybe I'll even get a cell next to Sirius's... or a couple inmates down, right next to him would turn into hell... But those thoughts she kept locked away where she knew even Dumbledore wouldn't be able to find them.
Dumbledore sighed. Jasmine took it as a good sign, for her, that there was some... was it frustration? in that sigh, where there was usually only disappointment.
There were still a couple of hours before supper, and Jasmine decided to go down to visit Hagrid since Nymphadora was in Transfiguration and Jasmine had been kicked out of there by McGonagall enough that week... yesterday. As she made her way across the frosted grounds, Jasmine pulled her cloak tightly around her to block the frigid wind.
The only response from knocking on Hagrid's front door was a weird barking noise.
"Hey, Hagrid!" Jasmine called over the barking and wind. "It's just me, open up! Hey, is Fang ok? His bark doesn't sound right."
"Er, not now, sorry, Jas. I'm kinda busy, yeh know, with Fang an' all," Hagrid called back, his voice muffled by the door and all the noise.
" 'And all?' Hagrid, what you got in there? You know me, I won't tell."
The only answer was another strange bark... barks.
"Hagrid, come on!" Jasmine heaved a sigh. She muttered to herself, "Too curious for my own damn good, and now I have to prove it. I know I'm probably not looking forward to seeing whatever it is he's got in there." She pounded on the door. "I can stand here all day, you know!"
The door swung open, and Jasmine started to say 'Well that's more like it,' but it came out 'What the hell happened to you?'
"Shh! Yer scarin' him with all that bangin'! I'll explain everythin' inside!"
As soon as Jasmine was inside, the door was shut. Looking down at her knee level, 'shocked' only began to explain the look on Jasmine's face.
"In the name of Merlin, Hagrid! Is that a cerberus?"
"Yeah, his name's Fluffy. Isn't he adorable?" Hagrid asked, looking down on it fondly.
"Adorable, yeah. Um, Hagrid, I hate to burst your bubble an all that, but Fluffy's gonna fluff out, and then he'll be big enough to eat your house, let alone fit inside it." She didn't want to know where he got a three-headed dog, but she was sure it wasn't at a local pet shop.
"I know I can't keep him forever, but fer now I got ter. He's just a baby."
"Uh-huh." Jasmine could honestly say she'd heard that before, more than once, too.
"Hagrid," she started, slowly. A thought tore her from those of the cerberus. Dumbledore would never allow her to collect Harry for Hogwarts, still Muggle world, but maybe, just maybe. "Do you think you'll be the one getting Harry Potter when he's old enough to go to Hogwarts?"
"What?" His attention was on the dog, he didn't even seem to notice Fang cowering in the corner.
"Well, Dumbledore does usually ask you do important things like that."
With that, Hagrid looked away from Fluffy, his chest swelling with pride. "Well, I might be. Why?"
"I just wanted to know if you thought it'd be all right if I was to tag along. Of course I'd stay out of sight once you had him, no contact what-so-ever, but would you mind, really?" She bit her lip, looking up at him sadly, hoping everything had come out right.
"Yeh mean yeh don' think Dumbledore will let yeh get him?"
She sighed and looked at the floor. "Not alone, not while he's living in the Muggle world." She let a tear begin to form in one eye. Jasmine knew Hagrid didn't like Harry living with Muggles, and, though she felt bad for manipulating him, if she did it right, she that trip to Diagon Alley might not be spent completely in the shadows. Otherwise, she knew Dumbledore would have her waiting at the castle; he'd count Muggle world right up until the Hogwarts Express, he'd told her.
Feeling better about the day after the talk with Hagrid, Jasmine headed off to supper, forgetting the cold outside as she was greeted by the warmth inside Hogwarts. Walking up to the head table in the Great Hall, she tapped her niece on the head to get her to stop using her Metamorphmagus powers to morph at the table, though it wouldn't have been worth the effort had she not been rearranging her face and just accidentally stuffed carrots up her nose when aiming for her mouth.
The mouth on her forehead grinning sheepishly, she quickly put her features back where they belonged. "Sorry, Auntie J."
"You know, you're face really is going to get stuck like that."
Nymphadora grinned again, blushing, as Annie, Nancy, and Steven snickered.
"I'm too old for this," Jasmine muttered.
"You're not old," Nymphadora told her, staring curiously.
"No, but I'm not fifteen either. Whatever, I'm going to eat."
"Well, eat with us."
"I can't choose favorites," she said simply.
"I'm your niece!"
"And that's why everyone'll say I've chosen a favorite."
She could see what Nymphadora's hand was itching to do, something that had happened at home a lot.
"Don't even think about it, kido." Thankfully, no food went flying across the hall.
A/N: The next chapter should be up sooner.