Jasmine hadn't said a word after revealing herself to him and Harry didn't press her. He could tell something was bothering her and not in a rage enduing sort of way. No, this was a pain that she didn't know how to deal with, perhaps didn't even know how to classify. She just sat there after letting him know that she was there, staring out like she was seeing everything and nothing at the same time, so still it was unnatural. One expected someone that was worried or concerned or shellshocked to be jittery and twitching. To leap at the smallest of noises and unable to control the tremors in their bodies. But there was no fluttering of her hands, no jerking of her head, no shudders through her body or bouncing of her knees with nervous energy. She just sat there, still and silent.

And Harry let her. Because he knew that's what she needed of him at that moment. Not for him to wrap his arms around her and hold her close. Nor to press her to get her to speak. She needed him there but didn't need him to take over, to impose his will upon what they talked about and when. So instead he sat there and waited.

She looked worse than when she had called him that horrible day with the news of Jack's injuries. 'A month… has it truly been a month?' he thought. 'Somehow it feels both longer and shorter than that.' He looked about the Chamber, the Unown floating above the two of them, occasionally pausing to observe them before darting off to do… whatever it was they did. He honestly didn't know what strange Pokemon did. His research on them after the events of his Second Year had pulled up very little about them as even the scientists that had attempted a study of them had come up far short. He knew that they were only found in four regions: Johto, where they had first been discovered in the Ruins of Alph, the Solaceon Ruins of Sinnoh, the Mirage Cave in Hoenn, and in the Chamber of the Unown that Harry and Jasmine currently sat in.

'There was so little about them. People aren't sure their behaviors, other than they like to stay in flocks. There are rumors they can create illusions out of thin air and that they have the ability to read minds but none of that has been proven; its just all rumors.' He looked about the Chamber, running his tongue between his upper teeth and his lip. 'But the locations though… that is interesting.' He'd found it very odd that the Unown chose to only live in small sections of the regions they called home; for the most part they stuck almost exclusively to one tiny area in the wilds. That had led him to research the areas themselves and he'd found an interesting running theme.

The Mirage Cave in Hoenn was said to be the location where the last of the Ironside Kings had set aside his crown and made The Promise.

The Solaceon Ruins were rumored to be the ancient burial site of that very same King, who had died after wandering the world.

The Ruins of Alph were the ones that had startled Harry the most. Not only were they said to have belonged to an ancient ruler… but a small factoid he'd stumbled upon in 4th year had made them all the more interesting. Namely that 36 years ago, after engine trouble, an ambulance crew had been forced to use the Ruins of Alph to deliver a baby boy… to Kent and Marie Kenway, who had named their newborn son Jack.

The man Lugia was convinced would fulfill The Promise.

Harry looked around again and wondered if the Unown were merely staying in the chamber because Salazar was of the line of AZ… or if there was some other reason for them to guard the caverns. There were doors that he couldn't open and he sensed rooms that remained hidden from him, waiting for the time when the stars aligned.

"I'd been preparing for a month to do this," Jasmine whispered, breaking Harry from his thoughts and driving his attention right back onto her. Her words were toneless and hollow, like whispers placed in an empty bottle. "From the moment I saw da lyin' in the hospital bed I knew what I was going to do. And has he remained in ICU, the doctors doing all they could to repair him, and that has only driven me to harder towards this endgame. I know what he'll say when he hears this… oh, he is going to tear me a new one!" Her Johto brogue was growing stronger with her emotions. "'What were ya thinkin' Jasmine, goin' off half cocked like that? Ya know that ain't what I want for ya! Ya'r supposed ta stay at ya'r gym, have a normal life! This isn't why I fought the war, ya know. I fought it so you wouldn't have to resort ta doin' things like this!'. Heh, I can hear'im right now, screamin' at me, foamin' at the mouth with rage. He won't see this as something I had to do, that I needed ta do. He'll see it as foolish. Never mind that if it were me or mum or Uncle Jonas or you or Lance or anyone else in our fucked up little family that he'd have run off and done… well, he'd of done far worse. Aye, he'd have done that."

"…done what, Jasmine?" Harry asked softly, knowing it was a risk to press her on this but also knowing he needed more concrete answers if he were to help her.

She shook her head, lost in thought. "I arranged everythin' in secret, so that none of me family would know what I was doin'. Got my Junior Gym Leaders ta cover for me, was able to arrange an alibi, made sure Tonks didn't catch me… ya know that the girl has been followin' me, keepin' tabs on me? Not sure who asked her to do that, as it could be anyone in our group, but I caught on real quick. Even asked her about it and she was unapologetic. 'Needed to be done' she said and all that rot."

Harry scoffed. "That's sounds like Tonks. Give her all the freedom in the world, she deserves it, but we are treated like 2 year olds who got out of our playpens if we sneeze the wrong way."

"How did you manage not to get her or any of the others dragging you out of here?" Jasmine asked, looking about the Chamber for the first time since he'd sat down.

He smirked. "Remus wanted me to leave when he found out. Said I was doing no good hiding myself away." He shrugged at that; honestly he'd wondered about that himself, before he'd come to his realization that no matter what he did if Avalon didn't want to be saved then it wasn't worth his time or energy to try. "I told him if I returned I'd simply leave again and this time I wouldn't stick around on the island. Better to let me hide out someplace where he can quickly find me."

"Good point."

"But we weren't talking about me," Harry said gently.

Jasmine sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Right, of course. So I arranged for everything and finally a few days ago I was able to sneak out of Johto and head here." She turned away from him, lips pressed together.

The time for keeping his distance was over, he could tell. "Jasmine… what did you do?"

"They hurt my da, Harry. They hurt him. They faked going after Arthur Weasley so to force him to come here and then they stirred up the Aurors into attacking him." She clenched her hand into a fist so hard that her knuckles when bone white. "I want to hurt them, Harry… I truly do. Uncle Jonas and Clair and the rest can say that the Aurors were victims in this too but I don't care. I'm not going to forget what they did."

Harry held his breath, waiting and hoping that the next words out of her mouth weren't about her doing something horrible to the Aurors. While he was angry with them too over them choosing to target Jack rather than Nocturne itself he had tempered his rage with the knowledge that going after them now would only do more harm than good.

Jasmine, thankfully, made clear that she felt the same way. "But I'm staying my hand… for now. They were embarrassed by what happened, rattled by it. There are some that still argue that they should have killed da no matter what-" Unable to hold back anymore Jasmine let out a savage roar, a Speaker Pulse bursting from her and making the Unown flee. Her eyes went wild and she bared her suddenly fang-like teeth and Harry, in response, let his own mask slip away and he growled back, warning her about doing something stupid. Jasmine snapped at him before taking a harsh violent breath, regaining control of herself. "Sorry," she muttered, clenching her teeth.

Harry more easily allowed his mask of humanity to slam back into place. "I get it. Honestly I'm surprised I didn't unleash a Pulse myself when I dealt with Dumbledore and McGonagall and Umbitch." Sensing Jasmine needed another moment he added, with a grin. "I did release one down here though." He jerked his thumb towards a pillar that featured deep claw marks in it, a result of Harry using the talons on his left hand he gained when he lost control and his robotic right hand to tear out chunks of the stone. "I did calm down though."

"After we all sat on him!" Hedwig called out from somewhere above.

"Shut it!" Harry bellowed, Hedwig laughing as the sounds of her wings filled the air as she flew to a different perch.

Jasmine managed a weak smile at that before she continued. "But there are others who are utterly ashamed at what they… did-" She made a face. "I nearly said, 'what they almost did' but that downplays all the damage they bloody well did to him." She slapped the stone bench she was sitting on. "Still, I guess there are some of them that are having regrets and actually thinking about what da told them, that we aren't their enemies… Nocturne is."

"The Aurors are having a rough time of it right now," Harry said in agreement. "Sirius told me that they are even debating what to do about Shacklebolt." According to Tonks, thanks to her connections that remained in the Aurors, Kingsley Shacklebolt had admitted to killing the Nocturne double agent, even after several of his fellow officers had tried to get him to pin the blame on The Pack, just as Lance had predicted. Kingsley had burned the corpse to hide the evidence but had still revealed to Madame Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour what he had done… before placing his badge on Madame Bones' desk and walking out. By the time the Elite 4 Member and the Head of the Aurors had recovered their senses Shacklebolt had left the building… and Avalon, his family home emptied. His wife, his son, and all his Pokemon were long gone. There were some in the Aurors that wanted to track him down and convince him to come back, others who stated that Shacklebolt was a coward and a killer and that if they did go looking for him it should be to arrest him. Remus and Sirius and Tonks, along with The Pack, were taking a wait and see approach. It was possible that Shacklebolt had simply decided to finally leave Avalon and settle his family someplace safer; Harry didn't blame him for that as he was ready to give the Potter Family Gym to someone else and leave Avalon himself, though not before trying to convince his friends to come with him. But there was always the chance… no one could say but in the last month someone had picked up where The Pack had left off, nabbing Nocturne Agents and making them disappear. No one as high as the ones they were targets but still…

"I won't ever forget what they did," Jasmine said softly, slowly forcing her fingers to unclench, as if it were the most painful thing in the world for her to do. "And I won't forgive. They nearly took him from me… I don't care if they were tricked into doing it; there are enough of them that want to see him dead. But they aren't the true enemy right now… Nocturne is." She swallowed, opening her mouth to continue only to snap her jaw shut, jerking her head slightly as she worked through her emotions.

"Jasmine… what happened?" he asked, placing a hand on her knee.

"I wanted them to hurt," she said simply.

"Okay."

"And if you go after them then they hurt but only for a little while. Only until I plunge my blades into their hearts." She flexed her hand and the blades on her bracers swung out, the twin edges gleaming in the low light of the Chamber. She looked at her weapons, flashing between maniac and melancholy, before she finally retracted them. "But if you take from them like they nearly took from me… then they hurt forever." She looked up and Harry couldn't tell if she were being reflective or sending a prayer to Arceus. "The greatest power of death is it makes those who remain behind not want to live anymore. I learned that lesson when I was 7 years old. It's something I wanted to share with Nocturne.

"It was too easy getting into the mansion. Ginny's upgrades to our dexes let me break their security measures easily enough. Not that there was much there. In their arrogance they thought no one would dare strike against them and have grown lax. I could tell when I was cracking the security measures that there had once been more extensive defense measures but much of them had been deactivated… probably because they were too lazy to keep them running. Why bother wasting time each day typing in three different codes so you could get inside your manor and move about with ease when no one had ever attempted to get inside and your power was so great that the mere idea would be seen as impossible for the masses? Just keep it at the basic security; they already paid to ensure that their 'basic' was better than what some governments used." She scoffed. "It was too easy. Far… far too easy." She grit her teeth. "It shouldn't have been that easy. Wasn't right. Shouldn'y be that easy to get in, to…"

Jasmine trailed off from that line of thought before returning to the topic at hand. "After that I used some Max Repel bombs to coat the entire manor, to make sure that no Pokemon startled me. A custom blend that's harder for humans to smell, so they wander right into it without realizing it. Similar to what the Aurors used that night… I thought it poetic in a way. Disapattes fast too… gone within an hour or two with no evidence left. Once I got up stairs I was able to find her taking a little cat nap… god, she even slept like a stuck up bitch. All prime and proper and still. It was easy to inject her, nothing harmful just something to keep her sleeping. Once I knew she was settled I got working on planting the note."

"The note?" Harry asked, really not liking where they was going. It might have been different if Jasmine was showing a bit of passion in her words but her tone was just… dead. Robotic in how she spoke… even her exasperation came off as forced, like she was trying to mimic emotions because she knew she should feel them but failed.

"I had to leave a note," she said, reaching up and tucking a strand of hair that had begun to dangle in her eyes behind her ear. "Too many questions if I didn't. It was easy enough to do… did you know the trick to forging someone's handwriting is to write it upside-down? If you write it the correct way you naturally want to begin using your own penmanship. But if you turn the paper upside-down it tricks the mind into seeing it as just random shapes, making it all the easier to forge a signature… or a suicide note."

Harry's stomach plummeted into his feet. 'Jasmine,' he thought, 'what did you do?'

"Her handwriting was all over the place. She's written so many notes and messages… was easy to find them online thanks to all her 'charity work'. Heh. Just her funneling money into slush funds to support Nocturne Agents during the cold war you lot entered into. Can't have high society people giving to thieves and such, would raise to many questions. But if you donate to a group that gives to the poor and the needy… and then get on the board of directors and declare this cutthroat or this assassin a 'person in need' you can all the easily get the cash to the people you want without anyone batting an eye. Hell, the Minister and the Gym leaders will applaud you!" She attempted a sneer but it fell short. "So I found her handwriting and already had the note prepared. I'd imported a pen I'd seen her use in a video at some charier event and written it with that… then I just had to put it in her still hands, make sure that her fingerprints were on it… even got a little bit of ink on her finger tips, just to make it look real.

"The hardest part, Harry? The hardest part was lifting her limp body up. Just dead weight. Even with the strength I gained from the Long Talk it was still hard to get her up out of that bed and get her in place. Couldn't put the noose on her while she was in bed-" The servos in Harry's prosthetic hand whined from how hard he clenched his fist after that comment, "-I've seen enough CSI shows to know that they can tell all sorts of things about how a body was positioned just before head. I had to hold her up, get her neck in the noose, then keep her head up even as I made sure the rope was tight. Then I waited. I was standing on a chair, holding her so she was directly under her own chair, and waited. That was the longest 20 minutes of my life… the waiting for her to finally wake up, for the drugs to run their course and for her to come out of it. There were moments I feared I'd used too much and that she'd never wake up but I couldn't get down… I just had to keep holding her up until her eyes finally fluttered open. She saw me… and that's when I kicked the chair out from under her. I leapt from my chair and pulled it away as she thrashed and fought, struggling to free herself… they don't tell you how damn long it takes a person to die from hanging."

"Jasmine," Harry said, squeezing her leg with his left hand. "Who did you kill?"

She licked her lips. "Narcissa Malfoy."

The world screeched to a halt.

"…fuck," Harry whispered.

Jasmine could only nod.

Neither of them said anything for a long time.

In fact it wasn't Harry or Jasmine that were the first ones to talk, but rather a rather panicked Hermione who came rushing down into the chamber with Ron, Neville, Luna, and Ginny fast on her heels. "Harry, have you- Jasmine?"

"Last time I checked," Jasmine said weakly.

Hermione blinked at that before continuing on. "Have you heard the news?"

"Yeah, Jasmine just told me," Harry said. "This complicates things."

"What are we going to do about this?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. "I'm thinking about it right now, coming up with gameplans. This is… going to get real bad."

"I think that's an understatement," Ginny said darkly. "We need to stop it."

"Kind of hard to stop it," Harry pointed out. "The deed is done."

"Yeah, but we can undo it," Neville pointed out.

Now it was Harry's turn to look at his friends in surprise. He stared at Neville and wondered if finally his little choo choo had gone off the tracks thanks to being in close proximity of Luna (as Harry was pretty sure the girl radiated insanity). "What now?"

"We can stop it. Prevent this from happening." Neville made a rolling notion with his hands. "You follow…"

Harry frowned, suddenly having an image of Neville in a white lab coat, standing in the Potions classroom, cackling, "IT'S ALIVE!" as lightning hit a green Narcissa Malfoy, a hump-backed Ron moving about the machines making sure that all was working properly as the electricity went into the bolts in her neck-

-and suddenly a Luna with black hair sticking straight up and in a white dress appeared in his mind and screamed "FOCUS HARRY!" before hissing at him.

He mentally slapped himself. 'Yup, Luna radiates insanity.' He looked to his friends. "Okay, I am really confused here. You do get that dead is dead."

"Yes, Harry, but not if we stop them from dying."

Jasmine opened her mouth to protest that she'd only killed one person but Harry held up his hand to stop her. "Hold on… I think we are talking about different things."

Hermione frowned at that. "What are you talking about then?"

"Draco's mother being killed."

That caused his friends to start. "She is going to be killed?" Neville finally got out.

Jasmine grimaced. "Less with the going…"

"…oh," Neville said softly, looking at the shame-faced woman. "Oh. Fuck."

"I'm confused," Ron said.

Luna turned to him. "You know how you always find some reason to blame for the Tor Town Cannons always losing their Gauntlet matches? Like the weather or crooked refs?" Ron nodded. "Jasmine murdered Narcissa Malfoy."

"…what does that have to do with the Cannons?"

"Nothing, I'm just all screwed up because she's depressed and I feed on emotions like a… I don't know, I can't make references!" Luna walked over and hugged Jasmine, the older woman stiffening before quickly returning the embrace, understanding instantly what Luna was trying to do; she had grown up around Fleur and Gabrielle and knew how negative emotions could screw up Veelas real bad. Jasmine began to stroke Luna's hair, the blonde burrowing her face into her shoulder.

"So… she's dead," Ginny said dully. "Payback for Jack?" Jasmine nodded. "Yeah, I get that. Considering how much the Aurors screwed up the forests around Tor Town I can't blame you for getting a pound of flesh from the Malfoys."

Harry shook his head. "But that isn't why you guys came running down here, is it?"

"What?" Hermione said before shaking her head. "Yeah, yeah you're right. That isn't why we are down here. We were talking about something else."

"And that is?" Jasmine said, taking her conflicting emotions about ending a human life and strangling them and burying them deep. Luna was giving her someone else to focus on and that was allowing her to reaffix the Princess of Johto persona back in place.

"Padma is the one who heard it. She and Parvati were sneaking around to do… honestly, I don't want to know and I think we're all saner not knowing what those two were planning… but they overheard Prof. Flitwick talking with Prof. Vector. He was talking about her covering some meetings he had scheduled with Ravenclaw students." Hermione shook her head. "It didn't make much sense until Prof. McGonagall stated that Madame Hooch would be covering her office hours tonight."

Ginny took over. "That's when we decided to have me look into-"

"Illegally hack," Ron said helpfully.

His sister glowered at him. "-look into their dexes. They all received the same message this morning, requiring them to go to the Ministry along with Dumbledore."

Harry's brow furrowed. "Why would they want to see them?"

Neville rolled his eyes and gestured around them. "I suppose it has nothing to do with you hiding out here for a month and embarrassing Hogwarts?"

He frowned at that. "So what… you think this is Fudge's powerplay? That he is going to use me running off and Ginger's suicide attempt as a way to sack them all and install his yes men in place and that's exactly what that bloated idiot is going to do." Harry groaned and cradled his head in his hands. "Of course it is, of course it damn well is!"

Luna moaned. "Now you're sad!" She leapt out of Jasmine's arms and glomped onto Harry. "and the only thing making me more sad is that Ginny isn't sad!"

"What… why would that-?" Ginny stammered. "What about Hermione, she's not sad!"

"Hermione cries on the inside, Ginny!" Luna sobbed before sniffing. "…ah, a reference." She smiled weakly and began to cuddle a confused and rather befuddled Harry.

"The point is that we have to do something," Ron stated. "Because I get it Harry, Dumbledore lets people do whatever they want and McGonagall is his Yes Woman but… bloody hell, they are better than a school full of Umbridges."

"And what are we supposed to do, Ron?" Harry asked. "I show back up and people are going to ask questions as to why. And I refuse to accept a single punishment that McGonagall will hand out."

"There has been talk of you plea dealing," Ginny said.

"From who?" Hermione asked.

"People."

The others stared at her.

"This… may not have been the first time I hacked professors' dexes."

Jasmine just shook her head. "And I thought going to school with my da as the Headmaster made for a weird educational experience."

Before anyone could say anything else Harry's dex began to buzz. "Uh, Nev? You mind…" he gestured at Luna, who was cooing like a Tribble as she clung to him ('And oh dear Arceus now I'm making references!'). Neville gently pried Luna off of Harry, letting her cling to him as she recentered herself (and slapped her hand a few times when she tried to worm them into his pants in an attempt to generate other emotions in him) and Harry pulled out his dex… only to glower when he saw what had popped up. "It's my informant."

"…what do they say?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know if I want to find out. The last time I did-"

"Harry," Jasmine said, cutting him off. "What happen to my da… it had nothing to do with your informant. That was the Aurors taking advantage of the situation and Nocturne leading everyone into their positions." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Listen, if this person has information that can help us… we at least have to consider what they are saying before we dismiss it."

Harry stared at her for a long moment before leaning over and kissing her. "Alright." He opened up the message, scanning through it…

…and paled.

He ignored his friends as he pulled out his headphones and plugged them in, clicking on the audiofile his informant had sent him, his stomach lurching and heart pounding in his chest as he listened to the clip.

"Oh no."

"Harry?" Neville asked. "What does it say?"

"Voldemort has been playing everyone. Us, the Ministry, Nocturne… everyone."

Hermione swallowed. "What are you talking about?"

"The meeting with the professors and Dumbledore? We were only partially right. He does…" Harry steeled himself. "He does want to get rid of them. Permanently." He looked down at the dex, hands trembling at the implications of what he had read and heard. "He's going to kill them all."

"The professors? Dumbledore?" Ron whispered.

"Y-yeah. He's going to kill all of them and fill the school with his Yes Men."

"Fudge?" Ginny asked. "No… he has to be wrong. That man's greedy and arrogant but he isn't a killer. That's… not him-"

"Unless its no longer him," Jasmine said, instantly cluing in. "What did you listen to, Harry?"

He didn't say a word, instead pulling the headphone jack out and cracking out up the volume on his dex.

"Ah, Lucius… so good to see you. I trust everything is going well?"

"It is, my Master."

"Potter has disappeared at the worst possible time."

"Potter enjoys surrounding himself with traitors to our culture and ways"

"Yes yes, but that isn't important. This meeting with the professors… I have it all set up."

"And they will die?"

"Yes."

"Very well, my Master."

Harry turned off the recording. There was more but that was enough for him. "It's Fudge… he's Voldemort."