Happy Friday!

Chapter 82

Jasmine stared at the tip of Sirius' wand pointed at her face. His grey eyes were alight with power. Was he really about to hex her? What had prompted this kind of a rection out of him?

She raised an eyebrow at the weapon in front of her. "Have you gone absolutely mental? You do realize that I can disarm you without a wand?" She pointed out, glaring daggers at him. Jasmine didn't want to hurt him, but she wasn't about to let him hold her at wand point because he had thought she was an imposter.

He didn't move, but the muscle in his jaw twitched. Sirius wasn't about to back down from this. Who did he think she was? She was the only Jasmine he ever knew. "I don't know what you are, but I intend to find out what you did to Jazz." He made a motion with his wand, but before he could cast a spell a loud yowl tore through the room.

Both heads turned.

Ro dashed in from the open window and for a brief moment glowed before the entire room was enveloped in white. Despite her better judgement closed her eyes to avoid the blinding glow coming from her cat.

When the light faded Jasmine was on the ground, or what could be considered the ground when she was in an endless whitespace. She was still dressed in the same white dress from the ritual, though she could see out of both eyes, so she hadn't been physically taken somewhere. She put a hand to her face and found that her scars were missing. Where had Ro brought her? It felt a bit like the times that Death had pulled her into their little dream space, but it had always had a destination in the past.

"What the actual hell is going on?"

Jasmine turned around at the voice and saw that Sirius no longer had a wand in his hand as he staggered around and took the room in. Why had Ro brought him with her? What kind of mental landscape were they both brought to? It wasn't a park, so it wasn't one of Death's preferred venues. Why did the Deity bring them here?

Jasmine stood up on shaky legs and dusted herself off.

"I'm not sure. But it seems that the powers at play don't want you attempting to kill me," Jasmine replied, running a hand through her hair, it was still long and curly like Jasmine's and her height was still significantly less than it had been as Harriet.

Sirius cocked his head to the side as his gaze traveled up and down. She had to look different. An odd combination of both Jasmine and Harriet. She had lived as Jasmine for over two years, seeing one face continually looking back at her would only change her mental perspective on how she appeared to herself.

He stalked up to her, finger pointed. "I'll ask, again, who are you? You look somewhat like Jasmine, but not, you talk like her, but you don't sound like her. You have a giant dementor following you around for months and tonight it kissed you. If a dementor kissed you, it would have taken your soul. I don't know what kind of abomination is left over, but I don't intend for you to hurt the Potters."

Despite being taller than her, Jasmine didn't feel all that threatened as Sirius' voice wavered. She smacked his hand away from her face. "I'm the same person that has saved your sorry arse for the last two years. You're the idiot that attacked someone who just went through an inheritance ritual! In what universe did you think that would be a good idea with all the ambient magic flowing through not only me, but the Potter Manor grounds as well! I know you're smarter than this, Sirius."

He crossed his arms and leaned forward. She knew that she spoke like Jasmine, she didn't necessarily have the same accent as her right now, but the sentence structure sounded the same. "But then why do you look different here? You certainly don't look like Jasmine Peverell…I mean, you do, but you don't? The hair is the same, but your eyes are different, the scars are missing, but your mouth is the same…" He said trailing off as he cocked his head so far to the side that he couldn't be comfortable.

The air in the room chilled a few degrees and a breeze that shouldn't exist in a plain white space blew through the air.

"It's about time…" Jasmine muttered as a very familiar hooded figure appeared in front of them. Sirius froze, his grey eyes wide as Death grinned from beneath their hood, pale lips tugged up in some kind of smirk.

"What is that?" Sirius asked, his voice a bit higher than usual.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and pushed forward towards the Deity. Sirius' fingers grazed her arm as he tried to stop her, but he was far too slow. Death gave a small wave as she approached.

She was not in the mood for Death's games. The Deity would be feeling a bit more mortal now that she had bonded her soul to them, but this was not the time for Death to be amused by human interaction. "Why are we here?"

"No thank you? No, you spared me from getting killed by someone I've grown to care for?" The Deity teased, though the tone was flat, it was an attempt at some kind of humor.

Jasmine pinched the bridge of her nose. "This isn't time for jokes. Why did you bring Sirius here? I could have handled this on the physical plane. There was no need to drag him here."

Death peered around her should to where Sirius was no doubt watching the exchange. "Lady Magic has deemed him worthy to know of your past. Why him, I don't know. I thought you could do better, but my opinions on love are apparently less than ideal."

Death was a territorial bastard was what the Deity meant. Scaring Sirius seemed to be something the Deity took great joy in.

Jasmine turned back around, ignoring Death for the moment. Sirius was watching her, "Lady Magic had to give the okay for me to learn about this?"

Death and Jasmine both gave small nods. Theo and Blaise had to go through a similar process, though, Jasmine had chosen them to retain their memories, but Lady Magic had the final say.

"What I'm telling you can never leave this room. There are only a handful of people that know who I serve and what I am," Jasmine began, as she played with the ends of her hair. It was strange how nervous this made her. She was ready to throttle Death a moment ago, but now, here she was, getting ready to explain her past to Sirius, someone she had grown to care about over the last two years. It was difficult enough that James knew something about her. Sirius was going to be told everything. She owed him that much for dragging him into this mess, not to mention that if they ever did agree on some half-baked marriage contract she was going to need to be honest with him.

"I understand that I'm being sworn to some kind of secrecy, thought it doesn't look like I'm getting much of a choice to decline."

Death's grin turned predatory. "No, you aren't getting much choice at all. I tend not to allow room for much choice. In this case, Lady Magic is the one forcing my hand on this issue. I was more than happy watching you."

Sirius frowned for a moment before his eyes narrowed. "I haven't been going mad! You have been hanging around Jazz for months!"

What were they talking about?

Death grinned, completely unrepentant. "You were interested in my master. I couldn't just allow anyone near her. I had to make sure you could handle her particular history. Not everyone can do that."

Jasmine turned towards Death, she wished that she could attack Death sometimes. "You are not my keeper! For the last bloody time, I can choose who I want to spend my time with. I don't care if you don't think they are worth my time. Theo and Blaise were two people you thought would abandon me at the first chance they got, and it's been how many lives since then and they still make sure I'm alright!"

"Do not mention the silver-tongued monster! You know I don't care for him."

The feeling was more than mutual between the two of them. When she tells Theo about this in the morning, he is going to laugh his arse off.

"You may hate him, but Theo is going to help me track down the Horcruxes, again. I don't understand your aversion to him, but he is a tremendous help," Jasmine replied with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

Sirius cleared his throat. "As much as I love listening to you both talk about things I don't understand. Would either of you please enlighten me on why I'm here?"

Jasmine sighed and turned back to Sirius, her long hair falling over her shoulders in waves. "You are going to be told where I come from and the mission I've been given by Lady Magic herself. But, you need to swear on your magic that you will never tell another soul what I'm about to tell, unless I say otherwise."

The dog animagus took another look around the completely white, unescapable room and nodded. "Very well, I've told you before that I would accept your secrets, whatever they were, Jazz. I swear I won't reveal what you're about to tell me."

"Well, then I guess the first secret is that I have lived nine other partial lives and died nine other times. I serve Death as the last Peverell Heir. It isn't a position that is given to everyone of Peverell blood. I was chosen by Death and Lady Magic to take up this mantel and defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort and to tame the Light Lord Dumbledore. Grey magic must be restored and some kind of rise in the birth rate for magical children needed to occur for the magical community to continue to survive…are you following?"

Sirius' brows are knit together. "Nine other lives? How old are you? Have we gotten together before in your past lives?"

Jasmine went to open her mouth and then closed it…she wasn't sure. She had been dropped back to her eleven-year-old self eight times, but there were many lives that she didn't get to live more than a year or two before dying a gruesome death. She had certainly never been with Sirius in any of her other lives. Romance in general wasn't something she really dallied with after her first couple lives.

"I haven't been keeping track of my age…my first life I made it to twenty, but after that I would wake up in my eleven-year-old body again. There were quite a few lives I never made it more than a year. Maybe six years all together…maybe less? I don't know. I never really get to make it to adulthood. As for us getting together, no. This is the first time I've been in this particular time. It is why I look a bit different here…Death maybe you should explain this part, since it was your idea."

Suddenly, the scene around them changed from the blank whiteness to freshly cut grass and the sounds of running water. Jasmine blinked to clear her vision to find that they had been moved to a woodland area, small babbling brook and all. Death was seated on a rock not far from them, the majority of the deity's face was hidden underneath their hood. Death pointed to the ground, "Sit."

Jasmine rolled her eyes and sat at the water's edge, dipping her toes into the imagined water. It was cool to the touch. Sirius plopped down next to her, not as close as he normally would, but at least he wasn't running away screaming.

"As my master so kindly put, we had attempted to fix the inbreeding issue created by two different major wizarding wars, but after nine tries my master mentioned that she didn't have enough time to complete her task. Me, being the understanding Deity I am, found a workaround for the time issue. If I were to take her soul and put it in a worthy heir that passed away years before her intended birth, I could give her more time."

Jasmine scoffed, crossing her arms and kicking some water up at Death. Sirius paled at the action. "I doubt there was even that much of a thought process behind that decision."

"Wait, so you're from the future and took over the life of some poor unsuspecting soul?"

Death frowned, pale lips drawn, "No, those of direct Peverell decent know what can be asked of them. Jasmine Peverell was destined to die that fateful summer day when the compound was attacked. Her soul wasn't ready for the task I needed done, but her body was what I needed. So, I offered her a boon."

Sirius still looked a bit lost and a little horrified. His fists were clenched at his sides, knotting in the grassing below him.

Jasmine sighed, leaning her head back towards the artificial sun above them. "She was offered eternal rest, her duty to her family done and in turn I would be granted access to her memories and use of her body. She got the better end of the deal. She only needed to die once. The original Jasmine was tired, Sirius. After living her life as a slave to the dueling rings, she wanted to die and was expecting to in that battle. I'm not some parasite the exchange was consensual."

"Was it though? You don't seem overly enthusiastic about it."

She let out a quiet huff and turned her head back towards him with a wry smile. "My consent was lost when I was born with an ounce of Peverell blood and gathered all three hallows in my first life. Magic chose me to lead the charge to save the wizarding world. I'm locked into this roll until it is fulfilled."

He winced, grey eyes wide as he scrambled up to a kneeling position. "Wait a bloody minute. If you're from the future, and it doesn't sound like you were that far off…"

"Twenty years or so, give or take at her time of deaths," Death replied with a tone of complete indifference as Sirius stood up and began to pace.

Great he was thinking. That couldn't end well for Jasmine. Sirius was far smarter than most people gave him credit for. "So, that means if Jasmine died in your original time, then if my British bloodline knowledge is correct, which we both know it is, you would be of Potter blood. They are really the only family in Britain with a proper main bloodline connection to the Peverells." Blood was quickly draining from Sirius' face as he continued to speak, "Which would mean that you would be Prong's kid…"

He pivoted towards her and tilted her chin up gently, taking her features in. They were a mismatch of Jasmine and Harriet, but she knew she would always retain more of Harriet here. In her mind's eye she was still mostly Harriet. "Bloody hell, you have her eyes. How could I never notice? Please tell me I'm wrong. This is the one of the few times I would love to be wrong. You can't be Prongs and Lily's kid." he begged, letting her go.

Jasmine flopped back onto the grass. "My name was Harriet Jane Potter. I was born on July 31, 1980 to James and Lily Potter. Both of them were murdered on October 31, 1981 by the Dark Lord Voldemort. He turned his wand on me and my mother, my mum begged for him not to kill me and refused to move when he asked. He killed her and then moved onto me, his curse rebounded, marking me with a scar on my forehead and robbing him of his body. The bastard had created horcruxes…Six at that point in time, seven later on."

Sirius hovered above her. "So, who raised you? Prongs would have named me godfather. I would have raised you! This," he motioned between the two of them, "is wrong. What the-"

She cut him off, "You were locked away in Azkaban for a crime you never committed until I was thirteen and by then you were a shell of a human being. I never got to know you as you are now. You mistook me for my father more often than not. It was disturbing considering I was a young woman. Remus would apologize in those moment for you, but it was obvious that there was something mentally not all there with the version of you I came to know. As for who raised me, I was sent to family members that hated me and abused me. They hated magic and treated me like absolute shit, if that makes you feel any better about," Jasmine motioned between the two of them, "this. If it is any consolation, I died a few times before I met you."

Sirius pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "It really doesn't make me feel any better. Jazz…wait do you want me to call you-"

"No, Jazz is fine." She didn't really want anyone but Theo and Blaise calling her Harriet or Harri. No one else.

"But why me? Why did Lady Magic and Death choose me?"

Jasmine shrugged. "Not my choice."

"It was your choice. Well, both your choices really. When Lady Magic sensed that the Black Heir was interested in my master, I was sent to observe. See if he was worthy of my master's affection. I told Lady Magic he wasn't, but she felt I was biased."

"You don't like sharing me. She knows this. Lady Magic favors the Black Family regardless. It is a win-win for her. But the greater Deities tend to forget human emotion when creating their plans. I'm sorry they dragged you into this mess." Jasmine muttered, biting her lip as she responded. Sirius wasn't looking at her, he wasn't meeting her gaze at all.

"No, I'm glad they did. I'd rather know why the hell you've been lying and sneaking around. I hate that beings of higher power had to be the ones to make you tell me the truth."

Jasmine put her hands on her hips. "And you think that I wouldn't have sounded completely and utterly mad telling you that I'm from the future, the Master of Death and that I have to kill a Dark Lord? I would have been sent to Saint Mungos and never let out! Answer me honestly, if I sat you down and told you this, would you think I was sane?" She snapped, tired of being accused of lying. It stung, because she had been lying, white lies here or there, some bold faced and outright, but she would have been labeled insane.

Sirius let his shoulders droop a bit and took a step back from Jasmine. "There's a chance I might have thought you were mental or had been cursed. But you still lied, about so much, to James, to Remus and to me. You're literally not the person that I thought you were. I'll help you fix magic or whatever. I won't tell anyone, but I'm not sure what to do about…well, us," he made a motion to reach out to her, but dropped his hand. He seemed unsure of what to do with her.

On most days Jasmine wasn't sure what to do with herself either.

"This is why I generally don't attempt romantic relationships." She grumbled as she flopped on the ground, limbs splayed out like a star.

Sirius laid down next to her, his fingers grazing hers. "I can see why you resisted my immense charm for so long. There is a lot to unpack between the two of us. I don't know if I should be pissed that Lady Magic brought me in on the secret or flattered."

Jasmine let out a sigh and curled her pinky finger around his. "I wish I was warned beforehand. I would have had a far better explanation. I did for Theo and Blaise and those two have been following me for my past eight lives."

"Well, I hope that I can help you finish your mission in this life, so you don't have to live another life to fix a broken timeline…wait speaking of timelines, what happens when you're supposed to be born in this one?"

She let out a small laugh. "I'm not going to disappear, if you're worried. I'm not entirely what exactly is going to happen, but I assume someone else will be born instead."

"Cryptic…"

She turned her head towards him. "Are you planning on staying with me long enough to find out?"

"I think so…" There was a touch of hesitation in his voice. A bit of fear that hadn't been there earlier.

Jasmine saw Death's pale grin behind Sirius' back. All according to the Deity's plan to make sure that they get to keep Jasmine for themself.

She understood the need for space to figure things out. So, she took a deep breath and looked Sirius' dead in the eyes. He needed time to make a choice and to reflect, maybe even mature a bit.

"You have a year to decide what you want. I'm going to be leaving in a couple days for my internship, we were probably going to need to take a break from each other regardless. Meet the delegate from Japan that's coming. Talk to other heirs. Figure out what you want. If you still want a relationship, we'll talk. But, either way, I will be attempting to kill a Dark Lord. That aspect of my life will never change."

Sirius visibly swallowed and nodded. Death slowly clapped behind Sirius, the Deity's postured oozed smug bravado. "While I've enjoyed our chat, it's time to wake up."

Bastard.

Next chapter is the fall out of Death's meddling! This deity is just so hot and cold. Poor dear can never decide what it wants from Jasmine. Though Death is Death...soo...The internship is coming! Post Hogwarts here we come!

This week has been really trying for me emotionally, I'm glad that I was able to get this chapter out. It's always very therapeutic for me to edit and post chapters, so thanks for being here!

Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows! You're all the best!

See you soon,
Animerocker