Happy Friday!

Chapter 103

The twins had the funeral set four days from now. It would be small and closed to the general public. Within two of those days, Arthur had been moved to a secure magical mental health facility in Rocky Mountains across the pond. Luckily, they had managed to move him as quickly as they did, since the ward Arthur had been staying at in St. Mungo's was set ablaze the same night he was moved.

Thankfully, there weren't too many casualties, but the room that Arthur had been staying in had been burnt to cinders and Healer Appleby was dead. Or, so they had been told. His body had been found amongst the ash, but nothing had been made public about his coroner's report.

Sirius and Jasmine made the executive decision that the boys didn't need to know about the attack at the hospital. They were having enough trouble sleeping as it was and knowing dark wizards wanted to kill them probably wouldn't make them any better.

Honestly, Jasmine was just glad to have Theo in the same home. Her friend had made sure that no one but a handful of people knew where Arthur was located and four out of the five that knew, Jasmine trusted with her life.

She had set up regular visitation with the hospital overseas for the boys to see their father. Hopefully, Arthur would begin to recover.

Though, due to this string vicious attacks, the Wizengamot was up in arms. They weren't going to fall to the wayside and pushed under the rug. Especially not when two pureblood families on opposite ends of the magical spectrum were attacked. It was a wakeup call to all the purebloods that had been brushing off Tom as a problem for muggleborns and half-bloods to handle on their own. Now, he was also their problem. Purebloods were no longer safe. Their children, were not safe, the future of Magical Britain was not safe.

And, by the next morning, a fire message was left flutter in her office fireplace. The Wizengamot was calling for an emergency meeting, specifically in response to the attack on the Weasleys and the Malfoys. They had refused to call one for the muggle baiting and attacks against half-bloods, but when two pureblood families were attacked all the remaining purebloods rush to find a solution to the problem. It made Jasmine sick to her stomach to watch them pure into the chamber chatting quietly between one another. Nearly every seat was filled, which was a rarity these days with all the of the death threats against multiple light, dark and grey families across the spectrum.

The divide between light and dark was as stark as ever and the small section of grey magic users filled the divide between the two sections in a neat row of three.

Though, there were some new faces amongst the members on all parts of the magical spectrum. To her disgust it seemed that many of Tom's minions had taken over their parent's seats. Avery had recently taken over his disgraced seat, while Alecto Carrow had taken over for her mother. Theodore Nott nodded his head when he met Jasmine's gaze for a brief moment. He had dueled his father for the position and for the right to ask for Petunia's hand in marriage, though he hadn't worked up the courage to ask her yet.

Jasmine would know when he did…

Petunia would never let her hear the end of it.

Orion had officially handed over his seat to Sirius, leaving him in charge of the dark wizards that weren't Voldemort sympathizers. It was more networking than Sirius liked, but it kept the Black Family in charge and that was really all that mattered at the end of the day. Cassie was seated next to him, her wand was in her hand and at the ready. She was there for guidance and for protection. Not many would dare attempt to harm Sirius with Cassiopeia there. Sirius caught her eye and winked at her from across the room. She rolled her eyes and turned towards the opposite section to see who had shown up.

To her surprise James was leaning back in his seat across the room, his gold rimmed glasses were catching the torch light. Monty had deemed him ready to take over the Potter Family's political dealings, much to her cousin's horror. He hadn't been in attendance during the last few due to the death threats from Tom, but there were some meetings that he had to be present for and an emergency like this was one of them.

Augusta still had the Longbottom seat, but there were rumors she was transitioning out and prepping Frank, but Jasmine wasn't sure if that was actually true or not. There hadn't been too much shuffling around on the light side.

The new Lord Greengrass was seated next to Jasmine, while Severus was drumming his fingers to her right. He hated politics more than all the Marauders, but his grandfather was getting far too old to deal with these meetings and Elaine was never going to be in a headspace to mentally handle the pressure that would come with the Wizengamot.

"Do you think anything will actually get done today?" Severus murmured as the last couple people took their seats. Dumbledore was presiding, along with the newly elected Minister Bagnold. Her family didn't have a seat in the Wizengamot, but she was well respected within the DMLE. There was a new face sitting with the minister, a young man, probably a few years Jasmine's senior. He looked startlingly familiar, his blonde hair was cut short and his robes were a pale blue in color. There was a French flag pinned to his robes.

Ah, an ambassador then.

It was odd to see a foreign dignitary in the Wizengamot Chambers. Jasmine doesn't think they've had one in here in nearly a hundred years.

"Something might. I think foreign governments are finally starting to see the threat that is nearly at their doorstep."

Severus hissed something under his breath before replying with a poorly concealed sneer, "Well, better late than never, I suppose."

His bitterness was earned. They, the neutral faction, had been slowly fighting Tom for years. Their allies were influential, but they hadn't been able to get any kind of government sanctioned help against Tom. Marianna Zabini was the closest they've gotten to having sanctioned help from the French government, but that was only due to her family's business practices. Magical assassins were impressive, but it wasn't the same as dignitaries and officials denouncing Tom.

They had managed to have private businesses refuse to do business with Death Eaters, but at the top of the governments, they weren't planning on doing anything to help.

Now, it seems that they've changed their minds.

Dumbledore raised his wand and it sent off three loud bangs that got everyone's attention. "I, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, will be presiding over this emergency meeting. Please take your seats."

There was minor grumbling from various members, but everyone settled within a few minutes.

Albus cleared his throat and began the usual introductions. "Today we are here to discuss the tragic murder of four members of the Weasley Family and the brutal attack of the Malfoy Family. We have representative, Julien Delacour, of France here to discuss charges being brought against the perpetrators of an attack against a prominent French citizen."

Julien Delacour…he must be Fleur's father. Jasmine had only met him a handful of times throughout her various lifetimes. She had never realized that he was an ambassador for French government.

A wand was raised from the light side of room. "Call it what it was, Albus, a terrorist attack against those that stood up against the self-proclaimed Dark Lord. He claimed he cared about blood status, but everyone he attacked was a pureblood. It's obvious that he never cared for blood status, but followers to give him power. He wanted the Malfoy Family out of the way since they wouldn't join him." Augusta nearly shouted from her seat, her arms crossed, her mouth was set in a firm line.

The room was silent for a moment. There wasn't much to refute with the claim. Even the staunch Voldemort supporters were staying quiet.

"Speaking of the Weasley Family, I feel that there needs to be a discussion of the placement of their children. Is it really safe for Lady Peverell to have custody of them?" Herman Littlewheather interjected from his seat near Augusta. He wasn't a major voice in the Wizengamot, but he was a staunch Light Wizard and tended to be a pain in the arse.

Jasmine folded her arms in front of her, her back straight in her chair. She made eye contact with the Lord across the room and spoke clearly and evenly. "Is there something wrong with the boys being placed in my care? Legally and magically, I am their guardian. I have the monetary means to house all four of them when their family couldn't. What is your specific complaint against me?"

Littlewheather scowled at her response. He more than likely did not want someone who wasn't light aligned to care for the boys, but that wasn't up to him. "You are not married and you haven't even had your own heirs yet. How are you going to marry with four young boys running around? Don't you have a duty to your family?"

There were hushed gasps around the room and Littlewheather's blatant insult against her family. "You know full well you aren't privy to that knowledge, Lord Littlewheather. Ancient Houses have their own traditions to uphold. They're private," James responded a few seats down from Littlewheather. Her cousin looked less than impressed with his colleague. "I personally think that Lady Peverell will do fine raising the boys. We also aren't gathered here today to discuss something that you have no legal standing to change. We're here to discuss an attack perpetrated by Dark Lord sympathizers within this room."

Alecto Carrow jumped up out of her seat and slammed her hand down on the table in front of her. "That is all rumored. The attack on the Weasley's is still under investigation and the Malfoy Family situation was unfortunate, but that is why we need stricter policy when dealing with werewolves. The abominations can't be controlled," she snapped, her robes were billowing around her with a dramatic flourish.

Jasmine would bet actual gold that she practiced that before coming in today.

With a sigh Jasmine raised her arm and lit her wand to respond. All eyes turned towards her.. She couldn't let Alecto gain any ground with restricting werewolves further. If the laws were anymore backwards they would start with werewolf hunts again.

"As the person who saved the Malfoy Family and stopped Greyback, I don't think putting further restrictions on werewolves is going to help the situation. Greyback and his pack are virtually gone. They were the problem. Hurting an entire population based on a small group isn't going to solve anything. They need access to healthcare, jobs and potions. They already have a hard enough time doing that in Britain."

Alecto snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yes, tell us about how you were raised by a werewolf in a foreign county, Lady Peverell. We know you're biased, but you haven't lived in fear of what Greyback has done."

Jasmine sat a bit straighter. It wasn't often her aunt was brought up by purebloods. They liked to forget that she was not only a squib, but a werewolf as well. "My aunt held down a job until the day she was murdered and provided for me. Yes, werewolves can be dangerous, but when we cast them out to the fringes of society and demand they stay away from civilization that would cause unrest. Which is why we can't just rashly vote to restrict them further."

Julien Delacour cleared his throat. "I have to side with Lady Peverell. Witches and wizards afflicted with various magical illnesses shouldn't be considered second class citizens. Restricting them further will only cause more packs like Greyback's to appear. We had this issue fifty years ago in France."

The room devolved into a werewolf rights discussion for nearly forty-five minutes. The conversation passed mostly between Julien, Jasmine, Dumbledore and a handful of other representatives. Jasmine refused to budge in her stance. She wasn't going to let the situation for werewolves get any worse than they already were. They were getting to the point that they were considered no better than animals. With Greyback dead those views should hopefully start to shift, but the old guard within the Wizengamot was going to make it difficult.

This had to be one of the only times that Jasmine could remember that light and dark mixed on viewpoints. Traditional values about human rights always seemed to bring out the worst in people. It wasn't until Sirius motioned to speak that the room fell silent. He had decided to dress in some of his best dress robes, the Black Family ring glinted on his finger. His magic was coiled just below the surface. He was every inch the Lord of Ancient and Noble Family. "Restricting the rights of British citizens is the last thing we want to do. The Wizengamot has been passing laws trying to rebuild after Grindelwald. We know that lycanthropy can't be passed down to kin. It's been tested within the Department of Mysteries. We're acting on fear, which will only lead to further harm. I vote to table werewolf reform till a later date when we have actual referendums prepared."

James held his wand up, "House Potter seconds the vote."

There was grumbling from the other light houses. It was going to a long couple decades with Sirius and James running their family seats. They get along well and agreed on a lot even though their magics weren't aligned with one another.

Jasmine followed her cousin's lead. "House Peverell agrees to table this discussion." She had sway over the majority of the grey houses and quite a few light families owe the Potter Family in some way or another.

Within a few moments, about a dozen other houses jumped to follow them easily reaching the quota to push that discussions off till later.

Dumbledore pulled out a piece of parchment once the room quieted down. "Now, the real reason we are here today is to discuss the threat level of the Dark Lord that has made himself known. Julien Delacour, has come from France to discuss this with us."

The room was silent as Julien stood once more. He didn't seem all that pleased to be thrust in front of the entire Wizengamot, but he stood with his head held high. "I have come here today to discuss the fact that your country's ridiculous blood war is beginning to effect the greater continent. The Malfoy Family was specifically targeted and nearly ended. The family has always brought positive business to both our countries. They started to expand over to the British Isles for a decade and they were nearly murdered by blood purists. I have come here to warn you that if you don't get this issue under control we will be bringing this to the United Magical Nations."

That caused more than one person to shoot up out of their seats.

It was rare that the UMN did anything outside of pass blanket laws. It hadn't been invoked since all the sentences from World War II finished.

Julien lifted up his wand and motioned for silence. His pale eyes scanned the room and eventually settled on Jasmine for a moment before moving onto a different section of the room. "The Malfoy Family has issued a complaint with the French Government and we will be investigating the breach. But, they also mentioned that there were people that saved their lives."

"Do you have any suspects? We're currently looking into the Weasley attacks," Augusta asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

Julien frowned, "We cannot discuss an active investigation unless you are directly tied to case. You are all well aware of the rules, but I come today as a curtesy and a warning. Many of you will receive summons from the French government and we expect full cooperation in this investigation."

The session ended a few moments later when four different families pushed their chairs back and stormed out of the room. Two were Voldemort sympathizers and two were anti-werewolf families. Jasmine leaned back in her chair and grinned. She did enjoy watching them squirm.

"That was less climatic than I thought it would be. Honestly, we're never going to get anything done if the lot of them still think that we need to restrict human rights from literal humans. Clinging to outdated sensibilities is going to drag this country down further," Severus grumbled as Lord Greengrass gave Jasmine a quick handshake and took his leave.

Jasmine held back a sigh. "We just need to keep pushing for change. Something will stick eventually, even if we have to drag them there kicking and screaming. The old guard is slowly retiring," she replied as she stood from her seat, feeling her back pop a bit as she gave a little stretch. Severus offered his arm as they made their way towards the door. Jasmine didn't need an escort, but it was kind of Severus to offer, but then again, he might have been avoiding Lady Everhart, who had a daughter their age.

"Lady Peverell, may I have a word with you?" Julien asked as they made their way past him.

Jasmine released Severus' arm and motioned for him to leave. He shrugged before making his way through the chamber door. Though she did notice that Sirius and James were lingering in the upper levels of the chamber. James was going to need an escort out anyway, since Tom actively hunting the Potter Family, but she knew they were waiting for her.

And the government is finally getting involved when the war actually affects them. Tom is finally showing his hand and getting more aggressive as his other ventures haven't been working. We also have the French government stepping in and we get to see Fleur's father. Not to mention that the kids are stepping up to take their Family Seats and true Lords and Ladies. =)

This chapter was originally just a small scene, but it ran away from me. I doubt you guys are all that upset about it. XD Next chapter has more of the fallout of this meeting...

Thank you all for the reviews, favorites and follows!

The next update will be on April 30th.

See you soon,
Animerocker