Chapter 92

Jasmine only spent another hour in the office after everyone left. Her lunch break had been later in the afternoon than she had wanted it to begin with, and then dealing with Bill for another hour had effectively taken most of her day up. It was nearing six when she got home.

The Peverell Estate renovation had been finished two years prior and was one of the most secure buildings on the continent. Only certain magical signatures could get through her wards, and even then, there was backup blood wards covering the property. If someone were to try and breach them, they would mostly likely die trying. Jasmine had spent hours poring over old tomes to make sure her home was like a vault. She was storing at least one of Tom's horcruxes here. She couldn't destroy too many of them without him noticing. Jasmine and Theo were planning on destroying all of them together with a well-placed fiendfire before they march off to go and kill the Dark Lord himself. They couldn't give him the time to regroup and attempt to make more. It was going to be an all or nothing moment.

She entered her home through her study's fireplace. The room was well lit and resembled her office back at the Ministry. She had to make sure it was as official as possible. She took private clients in this office, most close family and friends, but a few of them were Gringotts' special clientele and they paid a lot of money for her services. They also paid a hefty fee for being temporarily keyed into her office's wards. They wouldn't be able to leave the room, not without being forceable ejected from the property, but still. She didn't like strangers in her home.

There weren't too many places that Jasmine could consider herself safe. She had personally warded Potter Manor, the Malfoy Estate in Paris (the contract for their English home was pending), Grimmauld Place (her engagement gift to Sirius' family), Nott Residence, and Godric's Hallow and soon, Longbottom Manor would be added to the list. The wards were more secure then the fidelius charm.

Sirius told her that Dumbledore nearly had kneazles when Lily and James turned him down when he asked to take them under his protection. He might have a stroke when Frank and Alice tell him no as well. If she could be a fly on that wall…she could die happy.

The fidelius had too many opportunities to go wrong. Harriet had lived as an orphan due to the many ways that charm could go wrong. The concept of a secret keeper is a caveat that Jasmine just didn't want to deal with. Peter was working with the Order in this life and she didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, and even with years of constant training, was not very far.

Jasmine sighed, hung up her work robe on her coat rack and made her way towards the kitchens. Her house elves were always working to keep the place spotless and to have some kind of food on the table when she wasn't home.

But, they were more than aware that Jasmine was allowed to cook in her kitchen and not to take it as an offence to them. Sometimes, a girl just needs to stress bake. Nothing feels better than getting to bake your own cookies and then eat the results.

Tonight was not one of those nights. Jasmine just wanted to eat her dinner and then fall face first into her mattress. Though, food came first and the elves had left some kind of wonderful smelling soup on the kitchen counter. It wasn't often that Jasmine made it to the main dining table for any reason other than to entertain a rare guest.

Part way through her meal the wards buzzed against her conscious letting her know that someone had arrived. It wasn't someone that was uninvited, so Jasmine didn't stop eating. Eventually, two arms wrapped around her waist. "You will never guess what happened at our latest Order meeting…" Sirius was above her, picking up a spoon that materialized out of thin air and stealing a bit of her dinner.

She rolled her eyes, "What happened? Did Marlene try and get you to marry her again or did someone actually suggest using more violent hexes at the enemy?"

He laughed and Jasmine could feel the vibrations of his broad chest. "Molly Weasley was having a meltdown. Apparently, her eldest son was nearly kidnapped and then had his soul essentially sold to the grey mage devil."

The nicknames people came up with for her were astounding. "Was that what I did? I hadn't realized. Here I thought I just offered him a sponsorship for his entire Hogwarts schooling and a guaranteed job post grad. I don't remember anyone losing their soul, but then again, what do I know about soul magic? I've just been hunting horcruxes years…" she replied, packing as much sarcasm as she could into her voice.

"Arthur was trying to calm her down. She was screaming at Albus to fix it."

Jasmine frowned. "You can't fix a life debt. It has to be paid in full. The Weasley family has no monetary assets beside their home, which I wouldn't take. I don't find indenturing them to be any more amusing. I don't understand why she thinks I have some kind of dark agenda. I have to go there tomorrow for them to sign the contact. It's going to be a disaster."

Sirius lets out a sigh and massages the tense muscles in Jasmine's shoulders. "If it makes you feel any better, Gideon and Fabian were talking her down when I left."

"I'm not giving up my new apprentice. Bill was able to sense my wards just by walking over the warding threshold. Most trained warders would have a hard time doing that. I specifically create them to be nearly impossible to detect and he felt them, with no training! The natural talent this child has can't be wasted!" Jasmine explained as she pushed the last of her meal towards Sirius' grabby hands. "If you spill any food on me, you're sleeping on the couch."

"Like I would waste a drop of something Mispy took the time to make for us. She's the best chef in the house and she knows how much I enjoy her cooking."

Mispy was a seventh generation Peverell house elf. She had been trained by her mother and father, who had worked in the Estate. The little elf had immense talent in the kitchen and that was where Jasmine tended to keep her. She had about a dozen elves spread between a few different properties. She had six on hand here. Mispy, her mother and her father were at the Estate as well as Lace, Maso and Dolly. Jasmine was very proud that her elves were dressed, fed and compensated properly. House elves needed to serve a magical family to keep themselves alive.

All house elves deserved to be treated properly, which was how the Peverell Family had always treated their household staff. Sirius loved them. After having experienced Kreature his entire life, the Peverell elves were a breath of fresh air.

"Why do I get the feeling that you would betray me for Mispy's cooking?"

She could almost picture the smirk on his face, but she wasn't going to turn around and give him the satisfaction. "I don't know, Jazz. How could you compete with food this good?"

He gave an exaggerated moan as he took the last bite of soup. She rolled her eyes and finally turned to face him, her hand on his chest. Her lips turned up in a dangerous smirk. "I'm not sure. You're going to have to tell me. You did marry me, after all."

Sirius let out a small laugh. "That I did. I think it was your natural charm or the fact that you can kill a man without breaking a sweat. It was all very attractive for a fifteen-year-old."
"Speaking of marriage, Lily was asking about a public wedding, again."

"She's literally in hiding and can't be out in public. She knows we're married. We have been for years. We might not have had a public wedding…or one that anyone outside of our immediate family knows about, but we did have one. Did you mention that we're waiting for the war to end? Not all of us are okay with having kids during one of the deadliest conflicts in British wizarding history."

Jasmine rested her head against his shoulder. He was still in his dragon hide Auror uniform. He must have come home straight from the office. It always made her a bit warm inside to remember that Sirius thought of the Estate as their home. He was planning on using Grimmauld as a place for official meetings after his father passes. He didn't want anyone in their family living there. There were far too many bad memories for him associated with it for him to properly sleep at night.

"I guess it's just wishful thinking on her part. She had a decent size wedding with James before everything went to total shit. Alice and Frank had a modest ceremony as well. We just don't want anyone to know. Merlin forbid we want some kind of privacy since someone will try and locate the contracts to see what was promised between our two houses."

It had been a long drawn out fight between Sirius and his father after Jasmine had officially accepted his proposal. Neither Orion nor Cassiopeia had seen the contract before Sirius gave it to Jasmine for a final review. So, it had blindsided the two of them when a lot of their more creative loopholes and demands were no longer in writing.

They had managed to agree that while they needed to have four children they wouldn't be obligated to start until after the war ends. Jasmine knew she was good to have children, bare a horrific accident for at least another fifty to sixty years. They had time.

"I liked our wedding. There were only twenty people there, the ceremony was simple, then we danced and had cake. Honestly, I just wanted to leave to get to the real after party."

Jasmine let out a small snort. That sounded so much like Sirius. "You are such a dog, think with your brain for a moment, you mutt."

"I will have you know, I'm purebred," he replied, his chin was held high with a bit of a haughty flare.

She rolled her eyes. "That doesn't make the comment any better."

Sirius buried his head into her neck and let out a sigh. "The Order is planning its next counterstrike. Our sources say that Tom is planning an attack again. We aren't sure what he's particularly aiming for, but we don't want him to get it. We might need backup. James is still benched, which means I'm benched until he's better. Mooney is out of the country until next week and Frank refuses to leave his home until the new wards are up and running. Fabian and Gideon have volunteered to help as well as Mad-Eye, but our group could always use people with dueling prowess."

"Why are you even in the Order, Sirius? It's such a mess."

"Someone needs to watch James and make sure that we have accurate intel about what the Light is doing…or evidently not doing while Tom actually attempts to forcibly take over Britain."

Jasmine hummed in agreement a mischievous smirk gracing her lips. "Why don't you go upstairs and change out of your work clothes. You smell like old leather. We can plan out next move out before heading to bed for the night."

He raised an eyebrow before pulling away. "Is that what we're calling it now? Well, if you insist. I'd hate to disappoint you by smelling like dragon hide."

Jasmine shooed him as he gave her a lingering kiss to her forehead and sauntered up the stairs. He'd be in there for at least an hour. The man sure loved his post work wash. She saw both hers and Sirius' work shoes sitting on their appointed mat next to the fireplace. There was a cleaning charm on the mat, but it took a few hours to completely remove the grime. After having tracked in mud and grim from battlefields more than once, they both agreed to leave their shoes at the fireplace, or any other entrance of the house.

While she waited she made her way back to the study, and set the fireplace to emergencies only. She wasn't going to be in the mood for random walk ins that the Goblins approved. Merlin knew that they had sent someone into her office at one in the morning a few too many times.

If they saw she had set the fireplace to emergencies only, they knew to have the client's wait till a reasonable hour in England before trying again. Or, they would force them to make an appointment. Outlandish as something like that would seem for an overly entitled pureblood that needed a ward done right that second.

Jasmine stretched as she got her workpapers in order for the morning rush through the floo and then made her way back towards the master bedroom. The wood floors were heated with various ancient runes that hadn't warped the floorboards, which was nice and meant that she wouldn't have to uproot the entire floor in a few years' time to go it again.

When she opened the large double doors to the room she saw Sirius with a fire poker in hand nudging Ro with it. The small cat was curled up on their pillows at the head of the bed. Sirius and Ro had never really gotten along, even after Jasmine had explained to Ro that Sirius was a permanent fixture in their lives now and making his life difficult wasn't going to solve anything. Her cat didn't seem to want to listen and instead was twice as awful to Sirius than she had already been. The cat would rather shred their pillows and sheets than let Sirius onto the bed.

"Ro, you have fifteen seconds to get off the bed before I use magic. I understand that you and Death have a connection and more than likely this is Death's fault you're so possessive, but I'm getting a bit sick of your attitude."

The cat opened one eye, curled into a tighter ball than before and refused to budge. Jasmine pulled out her wand and lifted the cat into the air. She hissed and struggled as she was floated over to Jasmine. "I will get a cat carrier and lock you in next time. I know you're smarter than this!"

Ro had the decency to look ashamed of herself. Jasmine gave the cat a light pat on the head before placing her outside the bedroom, in her favorite little fluffy cat bed and then shut and locked the master bedroom door behind her.

"Now, where were we before the cat situation?" She asked wiggling her eyebrows, but her partner seemed to have other ideas.

Sirius flopped face first onto the bed and groaned. "We need to strategize about the potential attack that Tom is planning. I know we wanted sexy time, but Merlin, this is going to be difficult to pull off with Dumbledore knowing who is leaking you information from our meetings."

Jasmine had to resist snorting. "Have they still not realized that you and James essentially tell me everything that goes on in those meetings? I may not have gotten the invitation to the club at the end of your seventh year, but he had to realize that you would tell me everything."

He flipped back over on their silk sheets. Sirius' muffled shouted could be heard from his face down position on the bed.

"I'm guessing that's not the case. Here I assumed that they knew from the beginning. Some of them have to suspect that you're the info leak to my people. Most of those people are your family members."

"They think that I've cut ties with a lot of them. I mean most people think that we're just friends. We've done this on purpose to make sure the general populace doesn't realize the amount of power we control in the general Wizengamot meetings. No one but immediate family know that we're living together."

Jasmine let out a small chuckle. "Ah, yes, most think you live in that lovely London bachelor pad that you, Remus and James enjoy having boys night at. What a scandal for the entire wizarding world to learn that you, Sirius Black, are anchored down to a notorious grey witch with a personal estate."

"And what's even more horrific is that she kept all of her own seats in the government and her maiden name!" He clutched at his chest, faking a heart attack.

Jasmine laid down next to him, lacing their fingers together for a moment. "I can get in contact with Severus. He has some connections that could help. Theodore Nott could also prove fairly useful. Even though he has publicly allied with the Black Family he still runs in very dark circles. Mikhail might be able to pull some strings if we're desperate. I'm surprised that your family hasn't heard any rumors, isn't that your Aunt's specialty?"

Sirius grumbled something under his breath that Jasmine couldn't hear, but she could only make out his aunt's name. "She hasn't heard anything. She thinks the rumor is a ruse for something else. Dumbledore swears there is going to be an attack. He just isn't sure where. I know he was planning on doing some research before having another meeting."

Jasmine let out a sigh as she ran her fingers though Sirius' shaggy hair, careful of the slightly knotted curls at the end. This was a mess. Nothing good can come of half-baked plans on either side. If Cassiopeia thought that nothing was going to happen, Sirius wouldn't have the backing of his family or the resources that it grants. Bella would not be on call to fight, Regulus would not be obligated to do any kind of research and Sirius would not have a steady stream of information. He would need to prove that something was going to happen first and foremost before the Black Family would help.

Conditional family support, it was as Slytherin as a phrase could get. Jasmine knew that it hurt Sirius' feelings that his family didn't rush to help him, but she could understand where they were coming from, a little bit. They didn't trust Dumbledore not to exploit the witches and wizards in his care anymore than they trusted Tom not to murder and torture the witches and wizards that followed him. Light Lords were manipulative, same as Dark Lords and they recognized what Dumbledore was, which was honestly refreshing. It just created an even further divide between some of Sirius' values and his family's, but Jasmine was always happy to play the middleman.

The spoke for a least another hour or two before the clock on the mantle struck elven. "I'll look into it. I think some sleep should do us both good."

Sirius rolled toward her, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Is that what we're going to call it?"

Jasmine let out an excited laugh as their lips met.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next time, more warding! More learning about the future!

Sorry for the slightly late update. Had to take my brother to the ER. Restaurants, PLEASE label your food if it has peanuts in it! My younger brother was very sick today. Had to give him an EpiPen. Guess those years of first aid training really do pay off.

Anyway, happy Friday the 13th! I'm finishing up the second draft of my grad school submission and I finished the personal statement. I'm waiting on two letters of recommendation and have part of my final critical piece written. I'm nearly there!

I should be updating on Black Friday, November 27th.

~Animerocker