Happy Friday!

Chapter 80

The year ended on a surprisingly quiet note compared to every other year that Jasmine had ever had at Hogwarts. There wasn't a large attack at the end of the term that had caused her to miss exams and she was able to ride home on the train for the last time in this life.

She even arrived back a Potter Manor with no problems. Euphemia and Monty were, as always, happy to see both James and Jasmine as they regaled their guardians with various stories from their time at school. James, as always, had a lot more to tell, with significantly more embellishments than Jasmine did, but Euphemia and Monty listened all the same.

That evening she poured over political documents that Euphemia had left for her to look over from the last few Wizengamot meetings she had missed due to final exams. Revising was far more important than a few meetings, or so Euphemia had insisted. Jasmine wasn't so sure as she read what had transpired while she was focused elsewhere.

She supposed that Tom would more than likely focus his attentions on a more politically charged field, especially since his last raid failed to capture his intended targets. Now that Tom had upset the Black Family, he had to be far more careful with his attacks. If he were to lose any more support from the dark families in power he might not have a strong enough foothold in Britain to create his uprising.

Wouldn't that be a shame?

Though, as always, Dumbledore was helping Tom gain followers by continually trying to ban all kinds of dark magic or anything that resemble dark magic. To be fair Dumbledore was also creating a large following himself using this tactic, just on the other side of the spectrum with light magic users. In Jasmine's opinion, it was polarizing people and causing more harm than good. He might have been a great teacher in theoretical transfiguration and a fairly decent orator, but he wasn't nearly as politically savvy as someone his age really should have been. He had been riding on the coattails of defeating Grindelwald for years.

Jasmine bit her lip and picked up her quill. She had some letters to write to allies.

It wasn't all fun and games back home. Jasmine had to prepare for her coming of age ceremony in July. That was going to take quite a bit of time to prep and that was if she was lucky enough to slip away from her family members. She didn't need them asking questions about the Peverell inheritance or trying to look into it. She knew what was going to be asked of her and it wasn't going to be something that any parent or family member would really want to know about.

Which, by mid-July was finally starting to grate on her. James was constantly asking questions. It was a rainy Saturday when Jasmine finally reached her wits end with him. They were sitting in the parlor, both of them resting in the wood framed window seats, plush cousins underneath them. The two of them had different books open in front of them. James was working on his summer homework and Jasmine had a book of runes she was supposed to memorize for her internship in a few weeks.

They had been sitting in silence for nearly two hours, just the scratching of their quills and the rain as the only noise in the room.

Naturally, James had to ruin it. "So, do you even know what you're supposed to do? Do you need help? I'd be glad to be a caster or whatever it is that your family needs."

What she needed was a casting ground. There was one at the Peverell Estate, but she couldn't access that till she came of age, so she had been slowly creating one in the fields a small distance away from the quidditch pitch.

Jasmine had already created the rune circle that she would need to lay in for the majority of the ritual. It would keep anyone unwanted out and let her magic do what it needed to do without anyone getting in the way.

"Stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, James. I didn't bother you before your birthday, so don't harass me before mine," she replied, holding back a snarl towards the end. She really didn't want to end up fighting with her cousin, but Merlin, was he pushing her buttons.

James blushed, his eyes ducked back to his work. At least he had the courtesy to be bashful about it this time. He had been getting a bit too aggressive in asking for details. She knew that he was curious. Most people did tend to be curious about the inheritance rituals of other noble houses. It was natural to want to learn their secrets, who they serve, what they will be getting in exchange for that service.

Jasmine didn't need people learning about her family's ritual. It was already weird enough with her and Death needing to have a ceremony to cement a relationship that they already had with one another over the course of nine different lives. This would be her tenth with the deity. Though, this time she would be a full Peverell. She knew on an instinctual level that this was going to be a little bit different than the few times she had reached seventeen and received a magical boost from Death.

The Deity had warned her to make sure that the runes were perfect and that no one would interfere. Death couldn't promise anyone's safety if they entered the circle while the ritual was being performed, which was fine with Jasmine. She could respect and understand that. She didn't want anyone disturbing them either. She had done more than enough prep work for this. She didn't want years of hard work going down the drain because one of her family members decided to interfere with this ritual.

"Sorry, Jazz. I just want to make sure that you're ready. You don't have a family to fall back on to make sure that everything is in its proper place."

She let out a sigh, "I know that, James. Trust me, I know what I'm doing here. You don't need to worry about me. When the time comes, I will know what to do. I honestly don't need to do too much during the ritual." Jasmine only needed to offer up her soul to Death…and have the Deity accept it.

That's all.

Though the arse had to be very specific on how she was to appear during the ritual. She had learned that over the various different lives she had lived. Death had very specific taste for this ritual in particular.

"I know that I shouldn't worry, but turning seventeen by yourself has to be awful. I couldn't imagine going through it by myself. I would have lost it if dad wasn't there for me."
Harriet had never had anyone by her side during any of her rituals. Theo and Blaise watched from afar a few times, but she had always had to do them alone. Being an orphan tended to make family events difficult.

"Speaking of family and friends, where is Sirius? I thought he was supposed to visit this morning?"

Sirius was over at Potter Manor almost everyday this summer. Jasmine felt that might have been her fault, since she was leaving in a few short weeks, but it was nice seeing him on a regular basis.

It wasn't like the two of them could do much with James constantly around, but it was a nice change of pace just to be able to joke around and talk to each other without a crowd of onlookers in the great hall or Marlene sneering from the sidelines.

Lily had been sending her owls the entire summer begging for juicy details over anything that had happened with the Black Heir, though she did it in a coded way that on the two of them would really understand. They couldn't have their mail intercepted and read. Those letters could do a lot of damage to not only Jasmine's reputation, but also Sirius'. Despite her roommate's begging Jasmine told her nothing, because nothing explicit was going on.

James let out a sigh, pouted a bit and crossed his arms. "He fire called early this morning. His dad and aunt needed to talk to him about something. He said that he'd be late. It probably has to do with marriage arrangements. Mum heard that the young woman from Japan is going to be arriving the third week of August and that's whether Sirius wants to marry her or not. From what I understand she wants to use this as a way to push her family business across international borders."

Smart woman.

"I hope I get to meet her. She seems like an interesting person. I know that I was the one that picked her out and read her file to match her to Sirius, but she just gets more interesting the more I hear about her," Jasmine replied with a small nod. Danuja had been the most active with her family since she was their heir. She was from a long line of powerful business tycoons with great insight into the international markets. They also were proponents of magical creature rights, which was something Jasmine found very refreshing about the family as a whole. Then again, Japan was one of the most liberal countries when it came to magical creatures. There was a deep respect for creatures that roamed their island with them. Hopefully, Danuja doesn't find England to oppressive and leave. The country needed some new views to move it out of the dark ages and into at least the Early Modern Period. Jasmine would prefer the twentieth century, but that was asking a lot.

"She is going to be staying with the Blacks and even attending a few Hogwarts classes while here. I imagine she is going to be at the holiday parties, so you should see her there."

"Hopefully, she will entertain Lily while I'm gone. I know she's been upset that here number one competition is going away. That means all of her attention is going to back on you, whether it is good or bad, we'll have to wait and see," Jasmine teased, a small grin pulled at her pale lips.

Her cousin rolled his eyes. "You talk like Lily and I haven't been attached at the hip most of the year."

"Yes, but at the end of all of that she came to me and complained about what happened during the day and I helped her with the subjects that she was stuck on. Now, you and Remus are going to have to do that, not to mention fielding all of her questions about pureblood culture. You get the fun Lily. I get the studious Lily for the most part. The two of us also know how to gossip and have some fun, but we tend to mostly talk about our studies," Jasmine replied with smirk as her cousin visibly gulped.

This would be a large test to their relationship. If they couldn't handle caring for each other without Jasmine interfering constantly, then they weren't meant to be together in this timeline.

It would be upsetting if they broke up since she was friends with Lily and James' cousin. Not to mention that in another timeline, a different Lily and James had been her parents. Though, she wasn't going to force them to stay together. They were adults and needed to learn to live with each other.

"I think I'll be able to handle Lily. Have some faith in me, Jazz," James said with a roll of his eyes.

Sirius arrived later that afternoon with a bag of schoolbooks stuffed under his arms and a scowl plastered on his face. Jasmine and James hadn't moved from their respective spots by the window but they both looked up when Sirius entered the room.

"Is something wrong, Padfoot? You look like a niffler took your favorite galleon," James teased as he put his quill down and moved to great his best friend. Sirius groaned as he tossed his bag onto the seat next to Jasmine and threw himself over top of her legs, passing James entirely. He groaned into a red cushion he plucked from the foot of the window seat.

James held a hand over his heart, obviously suffering horribly since Sirius hadn't given him a proper hug with lots of manly back patting. Jasmine swore if James hadn't been obsessed with Lily, he and Sirius could have been a couple.

"My family is impossible to please. I swear to Merlin, I'm going to lose my mind one of these days."

Jasmine ran a hand through his hair in what she hoped was a soothing manner. "I'm pretty sure you're already well on your way to insanity, Sirius. What did you family do this time?" She asked, as he grumbled into the pillow one more time before pulling it off his face.

He let his arm drop towards the floor, the pillow grazing the wood below. "Well, we have that woman from Japan coming in a few weeks and they want me to draft a marriage contract for her to look over! Me! I'm not even sure I want to marry her. What do I know about writing a marriage proposal!"

James rolled his eyes and sat down next to his friend. "Just look at the proposal they made for Jazz. It can't be that difficult."

Sirius glared at James. "The contract with Jazz is awful. I don't want her to sign it unless there are serious negotiations over multiple clauses in it. I don't want to offend the young woman coming all the way from Japan with some half-baked marriage contract. My family should have had something made. They want this meeting to fail horribly."

That was underhanded even for the Black Family. They could be jeopardizing a good international business deal just so their heir will marry the woman they want.

"So, your only choice will be to marry me, right?"

Sirius put the pillow back over his face and groaned again.

"James and I will help you draft something. Maybe we can have Monty look over it after he blows up the potion he's been working on all morning and comes out huffing. It would be a nice distraction for him."

James made a frustrated noise from the foot of the window seat. "Why am I being dragged into drafting a letter? I know next to nothing about marriage contracts."

"Because you'll need to draft one for Lily eventually. I figured you should at least attempt to learn how the wording works."

"Ugh, let me go and put my books back in my room and go to the library and grab a few books on marriage customs out. We might as well not go into this blind," James grumbled as he got up and grabbed his schoolwork. He made slow dramatic work packing his away his parchment and trudging up the stairs.

"What clauses do you want taken out of our potential marriage contract?" Jasmine asked, running her fingers through Sirius' hair. Her fingers played with the curls at the tips, running them between her fingers.

He popped on eye open, "Mostly all the ones pertaining to money, assets and property. Not to mention government seats and last names. I want you to be able to retain as much independence as possible. Considering you are the heir to major family house, I can't expect you to relinquish all of that to me, but my father and aunt want you to. I know you won't agree to it and I don't agree with it even being put into writing. You have a right to all your family magic and all the money and value that comes from being the heir to that house. I can't change anything about the amount of children we'd need to have, but I want to take off the time limit for how fast we'd need to have them," he replied, blushing towards the end at the mere mention of children.

Jasmine hummed in response, "I had read of the proposal and had mention that I would be keeping my name. Your family wasn't all that pleased with me, but it seems like they are still pushing you to marry me."

"Jazz, if my aunt was younger, she would be the one asking for your hand in marriage. I'm pretty sure that the woman loves your attitude and power more than her own husband at this point."

"Have you considered just telling your family that you're thinking of choosing me?" she asked. As much as Jasmine enjoyed keeping their relationship from his family as the desperately attempted to convince her to say yes to their contract, this was getting to be a bit much. She knew that Sirius wasn't ready for it from the sheer look of terror on his face.

He furiously shook his head. "No, they'll stick their noses into this and then by the time you're back from your internship they'd have ruined everything. I want to be out of Hogwarts and away from home before I even think about marriage."

Yet, here he was, cuddling with her on the Potter's window seat, desperately gripping her hand. "Does that lifestyle outside of Hogwarts include me? We talked about commitment over the holidays and what that would entail. I want to make sure you haven't changed your mind." Jasmine asked pointed looking towards their clasped hands.

Sirius flushed a bright pink high on his aristocratic cheeks. "It can include you. I you want to be a part of it. I'm not going to force you to stay with me. My family is going to drive you insane before long."

Did he realize that his family actually enjoyed her presence? Not to mention that if they continued to see each other it would need to be in secret.

"Sirius, do you plan on hiding out relationship for years down the line just so your family doesn't interfere?"

"You don't know what they're like, Jazz!"

She raised an eyebrow. "They seem to be very overbearing to the point it makes you want to rip your hair out, but they also care a great deal about your wellbeing. I don't like lies," most of her life was a lie, she didn't need another one, "I respect your family too much for that and you should as well. You're lucky to have a family that, for the most part, loves you."

It was a low blow, she knew this, but it needed to be said. Sirius had something special with his family. Maybe they stuck their noses where it didn't belong, but family tended to be like that, from that Jasmine understood of it.

Sirius blew out a breath. "I guess you're right. It really wouldn't be fair to hide this," he raised their hands. "Not to mention we wouldn't be able to really even have a proper relationship without all of the contracts being signed and rituals cast. Ancient Noble Houses are awful. I want to be able to shag in peace without worrying about magical repercussions. Merlin, is that too much to ask for!"

Jasmine held back a snort.

It most certainly was.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Oh, Sirius, will the family drama ever end? We finally get the inheritance chapter! Jasmine's turning seventeen! She's finally an adult! Next chapter is one that I had planned out for months. I'm very excited for you to read it!

I'm going through an inspiration spree. I've written more these past two weeks than I have in a long time! I almost wrote a chapter and a half last week. That's a lot of words. I think I needed to get out of Hogwarts. XD I'm also storyboarding for an original piece I plan on starting when I finish this monster.

Anyway, thank you all so much for the reviews, favorites and follows this past week! You guys are the best!

See you all soon,
~Animerocker