Happy Friday! Enjoy!
Chapter 77
Jasmine felt that a change in relationship status would affect her more than it really did in her daily interactions with Sirius. But, the Black Heir had always been tactile with his affections towards Jasmine, and really, anyone of his close friends was treated similarly. They couldn't openly do anything that could constitute courting, that would get the marriage contracts brought out and then both Sirius and Jasmine wouldn't really have any other options but marry each other.
They hadn't told their friends and even after three weeks, they hadn't noticed. It would be better to keep it as quiet as possible for the time being. As much as Jasmine loved Lily, she would tell Alice and that would end up finding its way to Marlene, and Merlin knew Jasmine didn't need that nightmare of a witch getting anymore gossip fuel.
Instead, they did what they had been doing since they met, harmlessly flirt with each other and indulge in minor cuddling and no one else would be the wiser to the fact that they were maybe a little bit more than friends. If Sirius was holding her hand under the throw Jasmine had over her shoulders while she studied than that was that.
Sirius had a habit of reading on top of his friends, Jasmine had a feeling that it was a side effect of his animagus transformation. She was tempted to scratch behind his ear and see if he kicked his leg. Sirius cuddled against his friends was a common occurrence, enough so that no one really batted an eyelash at the fact most nights he could be found stretched out over Jasmine as she worked.
Tonight was one of those nights were Jasmine was catching up on some reading, her transfiguration text sitting on the arm of the couch she was sitting on, Sirius was laying on top of her legs, stretched out on the couch a defense essay and red quill in hand for revision. There was a knitted blanket thrown over Sirius' legs, the fire from the common room crackling away as they studied.
Remus and James had both gone up to bed not that long ago. Sirius had been on top of them as well as they worked on various assignments. Now, it was just the two of them. Jasmine was going to wait for Sirius to finish before she went up, otherwise he would lose track of time and stay up all night.
"Almost done," he muttered, crossing out an entire sentence with bright red ink. Despite the Marauders having a very well-known reputation for being lazy when it came to schoolwork, it was mostly for show as Jasmine was coming to find out. The boys had some of the highest grades in their year and Sirius was a perfectionist when it came to papers. He would copy off of Remus sometimes in the past, for classes he didn't care for, but now that he was taking NEWT level classes he was being extra careful with how he wrote essays. He usually went through two or three different drafts before handing anything in.
"That's what you've been saying for nearly thirty minutes. I think it's time to put the homework down and call it a night," Jasmine replied, fishing her spare quill out to create a bookmark to find her place in the morning.
"You two are still here? Don't you have better places to shame your families?" A rather familiar voice sneered from the girl's stairwell.
Great, Marlene was still awake and just as hostile as ever. She had her hands on her hips, her blonde hair pulled into a tight ponytail at the top of her head. Her dressing robes were a bright pink and embroidered with floral patterns. "Is there something either of us can help you with, Marlene?" Sirius asked, pulling himself into a sitting position as he rolled up his work, the quill dripping red ink behind his ear.
Marlene's eyes twinkled as a grin spread on her face. This couldn't be good. "Yes, I would suggest not spending you time with damaged goods. It can only bring your family's standing down."
Jasmine rolled her eyes and waved her left hand carelessly. "We get it Marlene, my face has scars. If you're still going on about them, me thinks the lady doth protest too much, and actually finds them attractive," Jasmine replied, as she moved her book from the arm of the couch to her lap.
Sirius snorted next to her, the blanket that had been covering his legs tumbled silently to the floor. Shakespeare was a well-regarded playwright, even among the magical community.
Marlene crossed her arms, "I'm not talking about your unfortunate face, Peverell. I'm talking about your dirty little secret with the dueling ring you were a part of."
Jasmine raised an elegant eyebrow. It wasn't much of a secret that she was a part of the dueling ring that was raided nearly two years ago, but it is news to her that there is some kind of dirty secret attached to it. Most of the records of the Patrons there were public knowledge at this point. It had been made public after the Aurors closed the case. None of the names of the children involved were named, but it was fairly obvious where Jasmine got her skills from if someone did a little bit of research. "You're going to need to be specific. I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Well, I just thought that Sirius has a right to know that many of the fighters also served to pleasure their masters. If you know what I mean…and Jasmine, you weren't all that ugly without the scaring, you must have been a favorite."
Sirius let out a weird squeaking noise from the back of throat and Jasmine just blinked dumbfounded. "If you're implying what I think you are, you have a lot of nerve to approach me in such a manner. What happened to any child in those circles was horrific and you shouldn't be speaking of it in such a passive and mocking tone."
Marlene tipped her nose up a little bit, her jaw tense. "Oh, please, don't be so dramatic. One of the first things you did when you got here was to fling yourself at the Marauders. I bet you just got down-"
Sirius was up in an instant, wand drawn. His hair was nearly standing on end as he moved forward. His lips were curled into a snarl, "Not another word."
Marlene scoffed, arms crossed over her chest, completely unphased by Sirius. "Please, you deserve to know what you're dealing with when it comes to foreign trash."
If Marlene only knew what Sirius wanted to do with this foreign trash she'd be fuming even more. Jasmine placed her book on the couch and stood up, stretching her arms and sliding her wand lazily out of its holster. It was an idle threat since she shouldn't really use her magic for another couple days, but everyone knew how dangerous she was. "I'd suggest listening to him. My magic ban is over and I'm more than willing to fight you if I have to. You have no business prying into matters you obviously are too immature to understand. While I wasn't one of the children who suffered in that way under their Patron's hands, I knew quite a few that did. It isn't something to laugh about or create rumors over."
"Get out of here, McKinnon. You've really pissed me off and I don't want to have to explain to McGonagall why I've cursed you six ways to Sunday. Neither us need the detentions it would cause," Sirius growled, stalking just a bit closer to her.
For probably the first time in a long while, Marlene made a decent decision by turning around and going back upstairs. Sirius turned to look at Jasmine, who was holstering her wand. "What?" She asked as he ran a hand down his face and let out a long sigh.
"Please tell me you were telling the truth with Marlene…"
Jasmine raised an eyebrow, "Would it change something if it was lying?"
He shook his head, but there just seemed to be something that spoke of exhaustion in his slumped shoulders. "No, but I would want to make sure certain things were alright with you, double check that nothing is going to fast…"
She sighed, pulling him into a gentle embrace. He was sweet that he was worrying about her mental health. "I'm fine. The Chester Family was solely interested in fighting. I was never going to be anything but a body for the ring. They may have eventually used me to train new recruits when I got older, but that was as far as they would have gone for me."
"Jazz…Marlene is probably going to be spreading rumors about you're and what the Chester never did to you."
Jasmine let out a huff. "Marlene has been saying I'm some kind of whore for a while. I don't think anyone is going to care. I am hardly fun gossip any longer."
Sirius grumbled into her shoulder, but pulled away with a frown. "It's probably a good thing that you aren't going to be at Hogwarts next year. Someone is going to do Marlene in at the rate that she's going and you'd be blamed for it."
She let out a small laugh, going back to the couch to pick up her book. "I'll probably still be blamed for it and I'll be halfway across the world when it happens."
Jasmine ran a finger down the visible bit of quill sticking out between the pages of her textbook. Sirius had grabbed his essay. "You're going to write to us, right? Not just to Prongs? Jealousy is not a good color on me or Moony."
Jasmine cupped Sirius' face between her hands. "There will be a letter for each of you. Don't you worry. You won't even realize I'm missing."
Sirius gave her a weak smile and the words even sounded hallow to her ears.
Interestingly enough, there were no rumors circulating the next morning about Jasmine sleeping with her patrons. There were still whispers about her and the Marauders having an illicit relationship with each other, but other than that, the student body was blissfully quiet. Either that meant that Marlene developed common decency overnight, which was unlikely, or she had been waylaid by something else.
Jasmine was hoping that Lily had managed to distract her with some kind of gossip between friends. It would be the best outcome.
As the day went on and no horrific rumors appeared, Jasmine relaxed a bit. She had defense that afternoon, and though she was cleared for spell casting, teachers were still cautioned against having her use it in class. Pomfrey was worried that she could faint if she used magic during class for another week. So, basically, she was cleared for emergency spell casting, but nothing outside of that.
The magic ban was driving Moody insane. He had made it game to attempt to hit Jasmine with spells the entire year, but he had been strictly ordered against doing that from Pomfrey. Even Moody was terrified of the Mediwitch.
Harriet had seen the woman fight in the second Wizarding War twice and she knew why everyone was afraid of her. If Madam Pomfrey hadn't taken a healer's oath, she would have been one hell of Hitwitch. The woman was a fantastic duelist and with her medical knowledge, she was a nightmare on the battlefield. Though, at the moment, she was just in charge of the Hospital Wing and she looked after her charges with a single-minded devotion that was honestly a bit terrifying.
Jasmine enjoyed watching Moody fume as she sat in class, completely relaxed since he wasn't allowed to even attempt to send spells her way. Admittedly, the class was extremely dull without the added danger factor. It wasn't often that Jasmine was able to enjoy defense class without the added element of a homicidal Professor.
They were reviewing various hexes and curses for their exams later in the semester. It was never too early to start revising with the way Hogwarts ran through Defense Professors. The demonstration that Moody had them working through was an intense session of firing hexes and jinxes in a certain order at the training dummies. If someone misfired, they would get hexed back. If they didn't dodge on time, they were out for the day.
The jinx would no doubt stop Madeye from teaching next year. Though, she doubted he had been planning on teaching for more than a year regardless. He was an auror in his prime. It would be a waste of his talent to keep him here. Euphemia was more than aware of it, but this was a lesson in humility…if anything. Jasmine watched as Madeye demonstrated a rather dangerous hex at a training dummy to the applause of her fellow classmates. She just wasn't sure if he understood the concept quite yet. Maybe it would take losing partners in the field or a few body parts. She had no idea.
Severus had managed to finish his little tussle with the dummy without a scratch and made his way over to her desk off in the corner of the room. The Prince heir tended to get bored partway through class while Moody preened before the class.
"And I thought Potter had a big head…Merlin, I'm glad that you were here to stop it from inflating further."
Jasmine put her quill down and grinned, "Now, is that a compliment for me or for James?"
"You and I both know that I would never compliment Potter. I'd like to start those lessons now that you're allowed to use small bits of magic."
She let out an exaggerated sigh. Severus was a great friend, but sometimes he was so persistent. Jasmine had been planning on going down to the Chamber and grabbing the basilisk fang while the boys were in detention for the evening.
While she had tamed them somewhat, the Marauders were always going to be troublemakers. Apparently, letting five hundred and twenty-four dragon shaped firecrackers loose in the Great Hall during breakfast was not an appropriate way to celebrate Valentine's Day. Though, it definitely made the meal more entertaining.
No one was hurt and was very colorful. It was also a rather creative bit of charm, potion and transfiguration work to get them up and moving…not to mention the advanced use of a duplication hex whenever someone tried to banish them.
McGonagall had given them detention with a stern pointed finger. Jasmine did see her cover her mouth to hide a grin as the boys sulked away.
"I suppose I do owe you an evening to show you the ropes of intensive dueling."
Severus lasted a full hour before collapsing in a tired heap on the floor of the fifth-floor classroom they had commandeered for the evening. Jasmine had him running drills around the room and then had him try and catch her without magic. He hadn't been very successful and mostly tripped over his own feet as he tried to grab her.
They still had two hours before curfew and Jasmine was grinning, leaning over her Slytherin friend. "You can't be giving up already? I'm only just warming up! I haven't even used any spells!"
He groaned and rolled onto his stomach. "You said we weren't using magic today!"
"We aren't, but do you see me on the floor? I'm going to give you some homework, Sev. You need to start exercising. It is one of the most important aspects of winning any duel, whether it be a professional one or in a life or death fight against Death Eaters. You need to be able to outlast your opponent. Adding magic into what we did today and you wouldn't have lasted thirty minutes."
"You make it sound like I won't be winning many of these fights. I didn't think Gryffindors knew the concept of retreat," he baited grumpily from the floor. He had turned over again and had his arms crossed over his heaving chest. His dark hair was fanning out around his head in a dark halo.
Jasmine sat down on the floor next to him, her legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. "You won't be. We are kids. The people trying to kill us will have more than twice our life experience with a wand. I know how to disarm witches and wizards so they can't use their magic and that isn't something I can really teach you in the allotted time that we have left at school. I would rather teach you the best ways to do that with magic and the best ways to get the hell out of a bad situation."
"You know, this is one of the first times I'm upset that you're not going to be here next year. Only an idiot would have turned down that internship, but you're good at what you know."
This was probably the closest thing to an 'I'm going to miss you. You're a dear friend,' she was going to get from Severus.
"I'll write to you all. You will barely even notice that I'm gone."
Severus snorted, his dark eyes boring into hers. She didn't feel him attempt to probe her mind, but she could never be too careful. "No, those three Gryffindors that you housetrained will go wild without you there to hold their leashes. I'm not looking forward to it."
Jasmine rolled her eyes, "I'll leave Lily a manual to make sure that she knows how to control them properly. To be fair, she has James under lock and key and Remus doesn't act out that much."
Severus pulled himself into a sitting position with a tired groan. "They aren't necessarily who I'm worried about."
Why doesn't that little admission surprise Jasmine at all? "Are you insinuating that Sirius can be impulsive and hard to control?"
Severus' dead stare was enough of an answer.
We're coming towards the end of 6th year! Next chapter is finishing up the year and high school shenanigans. Then to Jasmine's inheritance ritual! It feels like we've been in sixth year for so long! I'm glad that the plot is starting to move forward!
It was interesting seeing everyone's reactions to Jasmine and Sirius acting on their rather pent up desire for one another. While there were a lot excited reviewers there were quite a few that were upset. Just remember that I have another 40 chapters planned for this story. A lot can happen. ;)
I have so many plans for the post-Hogwarts section to this story. I have been looking forward to writing it for over a year and we're right around the corner to it!
Please stay safe in these trying times! And, if you can, stay home as often as possible. It's crazy out there!
Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows, you guys are the best.
See you all soon,
~Animerocker