Chapter 6: Christmas Holidays with Lily
A/N I did it. Another chapter! I don't have much else to say except I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.
It had been over a month since their Halloween prank. In that time, Jasmine was finally able to help the boys and herself become animagi. They had actually been animagi for about a week at this point. Since there hadn't been a full moon yet, they hadn't gone out as their animagi yet. They did test out their animagi within the Shrieking Shack, though. It was the only place that any of them could possibly think of where no one would see them or anything. There was no chance they would get caught within the Shrieking Shack.
Remus, the only one not an animagi, stood in the corner of the room and watched the transformations. It was hard for him to be in the shack and not think about the other times he had been in there. Those thoughts were driven out of his mind as he watched his friends try to transform. It was hilarious watching James and Sirius. It was like they were trying to push something out of them. Just the looks on their faces were enough to send Remus into hysterics. They all turned to him, only to see him fall to the floor in laughter. It was during that time that Peter, surprisingly, transformed into a rat. No one noticed, though, because they were all staring at Remus like he was crazy. It wasn't until Remus had finally settled down that they noticed that Peter was no longer behind them. They all looked around trying to find out what happened to their friend. Then Jaz noticed the rat sitting on the floor.
"Um…, guys," Jaz started a bit shakily. They turned to look at her. "I think I found Peter." She pointed to the rat sitting on the floor. They were astonished it was Peter who was the first to transform first. That quickly wore off and was replaced with James's and Sirius's laughter. They quickly shut up when they saw Jaz glare at them. They didn't want to get on her bad side.
By the end of the night, they were all able to transform into their animagi. After Peter was able to turn himself back, James managed to transform. He transformed into a stag, which was ridiculously awesome to Jasmine. Soon after James was Sirius. Sirius transformed into a big black dog, which Jaz found hilarious. She broke out into laughter, which only caused the boys minus Sirius to give her confused looks. The black dog that was Sirius just cocked his head at her, which caused her to laugh more, so Sirius transformed back.
"What the hell is wrong with you Jaz? What is so funny that my animagi is a black dog?" Sirius questioned the girl. It frustrated him that this cute girl thought his animagi was so funny. It shouldn't be funny.
Before Sirius could get any more pissed off at Jasmine, Jasmine was able to calm down enough to answer his questions. "Sorry. I just couldn't help myself. The irony was just too much." The boys stared at her, confused. Jasmine groaned. "Ugh! Guys, don't you remember? Sirius dressed up like a black dog for Halloween. There's also the fact that, uh, his name means dog black, but I think the real irony is his Halloween costume." The boys finally got it and James broke out laughing. Sirius gave a couple chuckles. He did enjoy the irony of it all after all. The other two boys joined in with the laughing. It was then, while the boys were all laughing, that Jasmine transformed. The boys, who were not looking at her when she transformed, turned to Jasmine to see why she wasn't laughing with them. In her place was a horse. She was a beautiful reddish-brown horse. Her mane and tail were lighter in color, almost like a blondish brown. She was gorgeous, for a horse. Then she transformed back.
They practiced transforming a few more times to make sure they had it down before they left the shack. They would have spoken on the way up to the castle about their transformations, but they didn't want to chance being caught. It was way past curfew and if anyone caught them, it would ruin everything. They took some of the secret passages they knew of to get back to the tower and then said goodnight in the common room. The four animagi were super excited at what they had accomplished. The lone werewolf was just touched by what great friends he had found.
They had been able to complete the transformations at the beginning of December, specifically the first week. They would have gone out as their animagi, but they didn't want Remus to feel left out. Instead, for the rest of the term, the group started to come up with nicknames for each other. It was James's and Sirius's idea. They had said, "Well, we already call ourselves the Marauders, so we should definitely have nicknames for each other now." So began the ridiculous nicknames.
By the last week of term, though, they had come up with their nicknames. They had decided on Remus first since it was pretty obvious. Plus, Sirius, as well as James, had been thinking of nicknames for him ever since they found out he was a werewolf. So, Remus would now be Moony. Jasmine thought it was a bit obvious, but she still liked the nickname. The rest of their nicknames were harder to come up with. They went through a lot of different ones, some of which were just ridiculous (No, James, we are not calling Peter 'Ratty'," Jasmine had told him. "That is just stupid and way too obvious." Then she hit him upside the head.). James ended up settling for Prongs since he was a stag who had antlers and well that was basically it. Sirius's nickname came from Jasmine's suggestion. She thought Padfoot was pretty clever. Peter's nickname ended up being Wormtail, which is pretty self-explanatory. Jasmine's nickname was the hardest to come up with. She was pretty picky with her nickname. Finally, though, Sirius came up with the perfect name, Mare. It was so clever and yet not too obvious. When Sirius had suggested it, Jasmine had loved it so much that she hugged him. As Sirius hugged her back, the boys all saw the blush that had appeared on his cheeks, which they teased him about later. His response was to ignore them all and deny any accusations about him having feelings for Jaz at all. The boys weren't convinced, but they did say they would drop it after the term was over.
Now it was the last week of term, and Jaz was kind of disappointed. It wasn't that she wasn't looking forward to the break with Lily, but she usually would get disappointed and sad toward the end of term. It was mainly because at Beauxbatons she would stay at school for the break. She would have to say goodbye to most of her friends as they went home for the holidays. They would sometimes question why she didn't go home for the holidays, but she would usually dismiss their question with a lame excuse about her mother being super busy. The real reason was that Jaz didn't want to go home to see her mother. She couldn't deal with the emotional abuse she knew would happen if she went home. She could deal with it over the summer holiday, but Christmas was a different story. Before her father did, Jaz felt like Christmas was about family and happy times. So, after her first Christmas without her father, she found out that her mother did not make it feel like that. Instead, her mother would just criticize her the entire time she was home. After that, Jasmine never went home for the break. She still wanted to associate Christmas, her favorite holiday, with the love and happiness she used to feel.
So, as the term winded down, Jaz couldn't help but think about her parents, which only made her sad. She wasn't being very subtle about it, so the Marauders noticed the change in her mood. Lily noticed as well. Lily knew she just needed space. Jasmine would eventually come and talk to her, especially since Lily knew everything that Jasmine still hadn't told the Marauders. That fact gave Lily a bit of hope that they wouldn't get as close as they could be if they didn't have any secrets, but Lily didn't understand why she hadn't told them yet. It wasn't like they would be super supportive of her and what happened. Lily wasn't sure what was holding her back, but she didn't question it just in case she ended up telling them.
As Lily waited for her cousin to come to her on her own, the boys were hatching a plan to cheer up Jaz. They couldn't understand why she was so down lately, and she wouldn't tell them what was wrong either. They had tried several times, mainly James and Sirius, but she would always brush them off saying that she was fine.
It didn't take them long to come up with a great plan. They would just have to find Jaz to implement it. Luckily, they found her in the common room.
"Hey, Jazzy." James refused to call her Mare, even though she called him Prongs all the time. "Just the girl we were looking for."
Jaz looked up at the boy. "Yes, Prongsy? What's up?" Then she glanced at the rest of the Marauders.
James groaned. He hated that nickname. "Well, we have a surprise for you." She raised an eyebrow at them as if to ask oh really. "Yep, but you need to come with us. It's in the Great Hall."
Jaz just looked at them. She made no attempt to get up from her spot. "Come on, Mare," Sirius pleaded. "You are going to be going to the Great Hall anyway. It is almost dinner time." Jasmine glanced at the time and saw that it was dinner time, so she relented. She put the book that she had been reading away and went with the boys to the Great Hall.
Sitting down at the Gryffindor table Jasmine asked, "So, what is this surprise?" She was actually pretty curious to see what they had planned. It was at that moment that a Slytherin happened to enter the Great Hall, but not just any Slytherin. It just so happened to be Snivellus Snape. As he walked in, a bucket of water appeared out of nowhere and dumped on him. The boys all started laughing, though it was more obvious that James and Sirius were laughing rather than Remus and Peter. Jasmine didn't laugh, but a smile did appear on her face, which the boys took as mission accomplished.
"That was the surprise?" Jasmine questioned.
"Yep," Sirius said, popping the p. "Though, we didn't intentionally set for it to dump on Snivellus, only a Slytherin. It was just really bad timing on his part." Then Sirius started laughing again. Jasmine even gave a few chuckles at the terrible timing that Snape had.
The Marauders' plan seemed to have worked. For the rest of their last week of term, Jasmine was acting more like her regular self. It hadn't actually been them, though. Jaz had finally gone to Lily when their dorm room was empty and talked with her. They had talked and Jaz had cried a bit, but afterward, Jaz was able to see the upsides of the end of term. She was finally going to get that sense of happiness and family that had been missing from her favorite holiday since her father died. She would also be spending Christmas with her favorite cousin, and lucky for both of them, Petunia decided to not come home for Christmas this year. It was really looking up.
So, by the end of term, Jaz was actually excited that she didn't have to stay at school over the holidays. She was also excited to see the look on Lily's face when she saw what Jaz had gotten her. She wished she could see the boys' reactions as well, but that would be for another time.
Since Jaz didn't know of another way to get their presents to them during the break, Jaz gave each of the Marauders their wrapped Christmas presents on the train. She made them all promise that they wouldn't open them until Christmas, which they all readily agreed to. Jaz could really be scary when she wanted to.
After giving them their presents, the conversation turned to their Christmas plans. "So, what are everyone's Christmas plans?" Jasmine asked. "I know you all know I will be spending my Christmas with Lily."
Peter was the first to respond. "My parents and I are going to go visit family out of the country like we do every year." Jasmine nodded her head and turned to the other three.
Remus was the next. "I'm going to have a nice quiet Christmas at home."
"Sounds nice." Jaz smiled and turned to the other two. Sirius was leaning back in his seat not looking at Jasmine and James was grinning at her.
Sirius looked distracted, so James went next. "Well, Sirius and I have an amazing Christmas planned together."
"Sirius is spending Christmas with you, James?" A flash of fear sprung upon Sirius's face, but it was gone before Jasmine ever saw it.
"That's right, Mare," Sirius answered, using Jaz's new nickname. He was really the only one who called her by it, but she didn't really mind. She kind of liked having a nickname only Sirius called her. "I'm going to be spending Christmas with my best friend. We've been doing this for years, so why stop now."
Jasmine accepted the answer, nodding. The boys were basically brothers in everything but blood, like how she and Lily were basically sisters.
The conversation moved on to other things, but Jasmine wasn't really paying much attention. She was lost in thought about Sirius's Christmas plans to stay with the Potters. "I wonder why he isn't going home."Jasmine pondered in her head. "What could be so wrong with his family that he doesn't want to stay there for Christmas?" Jasmine would have asked, but she feared that somehow it would lead to questions about her and the Christmases that she had before Beauxbatons Academy. Those types of questions, Jasmine wasn't prepared to answer, and she didn't know if she would ever be able to answer them.
Realizing the dark path that her thoughts were about to drag her down, she broke out of them and joined in the conversation the Marauders were having about their favorite Christmas presents that they have gotten.
Halfway through the train ride back to the platform, Lily came by to grab Jasmine. This time it wasn't forced. Jasmine had agreed previously that she would spend the first half of the train ride with the Marauders and the other half with Lily and the girls. It would make it easier that way since she was going to be going home with Lily anyway. It just made sense. So, Jaz said goodbye to the Marauders, wishing each of them a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year before heading off with Lily.
While on the way to the compartment that Lily's friends were in, Jasmine asked her cousin, "Hey, do you know why Sirius is spending Christmas with James instead of going home?"
"I have no idea. Why would I know?" The look on Lily's face said otherwise though. Jaz could see that she knew something about Sirius's home life that she didn't. Jasmine wasn't sure why Lily would know such a thing given that she hated the boys. Jasmine could also see on Lily's face that she wasn't going to tell her what she knew, which meant that if she really wanted to know, she would have to ask Sirius himself. Jasmine figured that wouldn't happen though, at least not anytime soon or maybe even ever. She didn't know. So, she dropped the subject.
Meanwhile, while Jasmine was stuck in her thoughts, Lily was thinking about a day late last year when Sirius found her crying in the Owlery.
Flashback
It was the last week of classes, the week before exams when Lily had somehow received a letter from Petunia. Her sister once again told her that she was a freak as well as several other mean things. That part of the letter wasn't what made Lily cry though. Petunia had been calling her names since she was 10-11ish years old. By now Lily was used to her sister's name-calling. The worst part of the letter was that Tunnie told Lily that she didn't want to have any part of her. Petunia went as far as to say that Lily wasn't her sister anymore. That hurt Lily so much.
Lily wanted to write a response back to her sister wanting an explanation for why she suddenly didn't want to be her sister, but when she went to the Owlery, Lily broke down into tears. Which is how she ended up in the Owlery, crying her eyes out. It was then that Sirius had shown up. He had been heading to the Owlery to write a letter to his parents. They had sent him another letter telling him that he better be dropping Muggle Studies as an elective and all this other stuff about how he was just a selfish brat. It had pissed him off, so he was going to write them a nasty letter in response. He knew that he probably shouldn't respond, especially since he knew what they would do to him after he got home. He was just so pissed off that he couldn't just brush this off like some of the other letters they had sent throughout the year.
All of those thoughts vanished from his mind, though, when he saw Lily Evans, the girl his best friend was in love with, sitting on the floor of the owlery crying as she clutched some parchment in her hands. Sirius was tempted to just back out of the Owlery and get James, but he thought better of it. Also, his compassion and slight curiosity got the better of him. "Evans?" He asked gently.
Lily looked up and stared at the boy in front of her. She immediately stopped crying and started brushing the tears away after seeing Sirius standing there. "What do you want Black?" The venom in her voice was obvious.
"Well, I was coming to write a letter, but then I saw you crying. What's the matter?" Sirius did his best to sound concerned. He was never great at the whole comfort thing. He never knew what to say or if what he was saying was the right thing. He usually left the comforting to James, who was surprisingly good at it.
"It's nothing, so mind your own business Black," Lily spit back.
"It can't be nothing if you were crying, Evans. I don't think in the 4 years that I've known you that I've ever seen you cry."
Lily could see that Sirius was trying. And she really wanted to tell someone about the letter. She didn't necessarily want to tell Black, but in her moment of weakness, she told him everything. She even handed him the letter to read. It was still clutched in her hand.
Sirius was a great listener. He listened to everything Lily told him as well as read the entire letter that she was sent from her sister. As Sirius read the letter, Lily started sobbing again. Hearing her cries, Sirius finished the letter quickly before pulling the redhead into a hug. As Lily sobbed into Sirius, he couldn't help but think about the similarities between their home lives. It was during this thought process that Sirius concluded that he could trust Lily enough to tell her about his home life. He thought that maybe it would make her feel better to know that she wasn't entirely alone.
Once Lily calmed down enough to hear Sirius, he told her, "Evans, I know it may feel like you are alone right now. That you don't have anyone to talk to about this or anyone that can relate to what you are going through but you're wrong." Lily looked up at Sirius. They were now both sitting in the corner of the Owlery. Sirius has her pulled into a side hug.
Lily gave Sirius a confused look. "How do you know that there is anyone that could even possibly relate to what I am going through right now?"
Sirius took a deep breath before answering. He could trust Lily and he knew that he could. "Well, because I know what you are going through." Lily gasped, but that was the only response Sirius got. He figured he should elaborate. "Well, it's not my sister, since I don't have one, and it isn't really my brother even though he is in Slytherin, and I hardly ever see him. It's actually my parents. I have gotten so many letters like yours, Lily, ever since I was sorted into Gryffindor. It really hurt at first what they said, but now it just pisses me off. Which really doesn't help matters because then…" Sirius trailed off. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Lily that part of his home life. He hadn't even really told James completely about what went on at home. Sure, James knew about how his parents hated him, but he didn't know about the abuse. Sirius would eventually tell James, but he hadn't found the right time.
Sirius was pulled out of his internal argument by the redhead sitting next to him. "Um, Sirius, are you- are you being abused?" Lily asked quietly. Sirius stared at her in shocked silence, which only confirmed Lily's suspicions. "I'm so sorry Sirius!" Lily pulled the boy into a hug. Sirius hugged her back and cried a bit.
For the next hour until dinner, the two of them sat in the corner of the Owlery. They each cried and comforted each other. By the time it was dinner time, both had agreed to never speak of the event with anyone. This would be a one-time thing, but they both knew that if they really needed to talk to someone, the other was willing to listen.
End of Flashback
After that moment, Lily went right back to hating the boys, but she never forgot what Sirius had told her. It still didn't excuse his actions, though. He was still a bully and although she did feel bad for him, she wasn't going to stop hating him.
Lily didn't get a chance to think any more about the moment because they arrived at the compartment that Lily's friends were currently occupying. All thoughts of the moment left her until they were almost at Platform 9 ¾ when Jasmine asked, "Lils, is Petunia going to be spending Christmas with us?"
Lily shook her head. "No, I think she's too busy with that boyfriend of hers to even bother coming home." Thinking about Petunia only managed to bring up the memory that she had thought about earlier.
The rest of the girls knew about Lily's sister, but they didn't know how badly the girl treated their friend. The only one in the compartment that knew was Jasmine. Lily had told her about it several times in her letters.
Soon they arrived at the station. The girls all said their goodbyes on the platform, each promising to write them over the break. Then they all headed off to find each of their respective parents.
It was now Christmas Eve, and so far, Jasmine has been immensely enjoying her break with Lily. They had gone to the park nearby a few times even though it was pretty cold outside. The girls also talked a lot. They seemed to become even closer. Jasmine was just happy to have someone to talk to about her mother. Lily was always there to comfort her cousin, which Jasmine greatly appreciated. After all, this was her first Christmas without her. Well, actually Jasmine hadn't spent Christmas with her mother in quite a while, but this was different. Before, Jasmine always knew that her mother was there if she ever did want to come home, but now that was gone. Jasmine told Lily about this, to which Lily comforted her and told her that no matter what, Lily would always be there to have Christmas with her. That cheered Jasmine up a lot. She was glad that she had Lily in her life. She didn't know what she would do without her.
Besides talking and such, Jasmine was able to help her aunt and uncle decorate the house for Christmas. They usually waited until Lily came home to decorate. It was better that way, and Jasmine couldn't help but agree with that sentiment. It was always better to decorate for Christmas with the whole family. It was part of what made Christmas, well Christmas for Jasmine.
By the time they all finished decorating, the house was covered in lights as well as their Christmas tree. It was a real one, which pleased Jasmine immensely. She never understood the concept of those fake Christmas trees. How was the house supposed to smell like Christmas if the tree was fake? It just didn't make sense to Jasmine. So, she was super excited that her aunt and uncle had gotten a real one for them to decorate. They had covered the tree with lights, tinsel, as well as popcorn they had strung. The tree had a bunch of ornaments, there were even some that the Evans had kept from Jasmine's parents' collection. They also hung some candy canes on the tree. By the end, Jasmine was able to step back from the tree and smile. It was beautiful and almost made Jasmine cry. She couldn't remember the last time she had this much fun decorating a Christmas tree. She couldn't even remember the last time she had actually helped decorate a Christmas tree.
So now it was Christmas Eve, Jasmine was bouncing from excitement. She couldn't believe it was almost Christmas, her favorite holiday. She couldn't wait to open all of her presents. She couldn't wait to see what the Marauders got her because they had better have gotten something for her, or else they were going to pay when they went back to Hogwarts. Well, not really, but she would be mad that they didn't get her anything after she got them things.
That night, Lily and Jasmine were really wound up. They were so excited for Christmas to finally be here that they could barely sleep. Instead, since neither girl was tired, they talked to pass the time. They talked about random stuff until they both eventually fell asleep.
Since the girls had been up late the night before, they didn't get up that early the next morning. It was actually about 10 AM when they finally woke up. They were upset that Lily's parents let them sleep in for so long, but they got over that quickly when they saw the number of presents under the tree.
They were about to head straight for the presents, but they were stopped by Mrs. Evan's voice that came from the kitchen. "Dears, no presents until you girls have had something to each at least." The girls groaned but headed toward the kitchen. They knew it was fruitless to argue with her. It would be easier to just eat breakfast and then open presents.
When they got some food in them, they went over to the living room where the Christmas tree was waiting with tons of presents underneath it. Lily and Jasmine set off to sort out the presents by who they were for. Jasmine and Lily had already decided that they would sit on the floor. They assumed Lily's parents would sit on the couch, so that is where they put their presents. There weren't many presents for them, though.
Soon, Lily's parents joined them. Lily directed them toward the couch. "We put your presents over there. We figured that that is where you two were going to sit." Lily smiled as her parents took their seats on the couch.
"Thank you, girls." Mr. Evans smiled at his daughter and Jasmine, who he had begun to see as his own daughter. "We'll let you open up your presents first." The girl grinned appreciatively at him. Then they ripped into their presents.
Jasmine loved all her presents. From Peter, she got some chocolate frogs. They weren't her favorite, but it was the thought that counted. Remus got her some of her favorite sweets from Honeydukes, which she found very thoughtful. She also found it sweet that he knew what her favorite treats were from the Hogsmeade shop. James, her almost brother, got her some of her favorite prank items from Zonko's as well as some more of her favorite sweets from Honeydukes. She would have to thank James for the prank items. She was going to make good use of them. She was excited to use them. Also, with James's gift came a card, but Jasmine set it aside to read later. Then there was the gift she got from Sirius. It was incredibly thoughtful, and Jasmine wondered how he found it. It was a magic music book. She would later learn that he just happened to see it on the last Hogsmeade trip that happened earlier this month.
It seemed that Sirius was paying attention when she had talked about her music class with the Marauders. Most of the time she thought they were just pretending to listen to her, but this proved it. Within the book, there was a short note from Sirius. It said: "Dear Mare, I hope you enjoy the book. Sirius." It wasn't anything special, but the thought behind the present was there.
The last present she opened was the one that she got from Lily. Lily had gotten her a framed magical photo of the two of them during one of her happiest memories with Lily. It was them together when they both found out that they were witches, which was shortly after Jasmine's 11th birthday.
Jasmine tapped her cousin's shoulder to thank her for such a thoughtful gift. Lily turned and saw the picture in her cousin's hand. "You know, I just happened to find someone who knew how to make the photos magical. Luckily, they agreed to make the picture for me. I hope you like it," Lily told her cousin. Jasmine responded by pulling her cousin into a hug.
Pulling back from the hug, Jasmine said, "Thank you, Lils. I love it. It is probably my favorite gift that I have gotten." Then they hugged again. It was during this second hug that Lily noticed both the magical music book as well as the card from James that Jasmine had set aside.
Lily pulled away from the hug and said, "Oh my, Mina. Who got you the book? Is it the same person who that card is from?"
Jasmine blushed a little bit before responding. "Oh no. The book is from Sirius. The card is from James. I actually haven't read it yet." So, Jasmine reached over and grabbed the card. After reading it, she started laughing.
Lily, being curious, asked, "Well, what did the idiot say?"
"Oh nothing, just that those chocolates that you have been eating are from him."
Lily gave a horrified look. Then she took the chocolates and threw them away in her room. Later, when she thought Jasmine wasn't around to see what she was doing, Lily took them out of the trash and stashed them with the rest of her chocolate stash. Jasmine laughed silently when she saw Lily do that. Lily was never one to throw away perfectly good chocolate, though, especially since she loves it so much.
Jasmine loved her presents from the Marauders, especially the music book. She ended up reading it several times before the break was over. She was upset that she couldn't tell them right away how much she loved her gifts, but she got over it. She would just have to tell them when they got back to Hogwarts. Overall, this was probably one of Jasmine's favorite Christmases ever. It was just what she needed this holiday season.
A/N I hope you enjoyed this chapter readers because this was the last of the "happier" chapters. I also hope you liked the extra Sirius-Lily friendship bit I put in there. Next chapter, shit goes down. Remember this in their 5th year and if you remember what happens during their 5th year, you will understand. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it because the drama is just about to begin.
Until Next Time, Knk6700
