Trigger Warning: Mentions of the afterlife, loss of parents, loss of siblings, pregnancy loss ahead
Emotional chapter awaits you
Reader discretion is advised
Jasmine had just fallen asleep again, the third attempt at a restful night.
Her dreams were often messages, most so small that she'd long since tuned them out. After all, her husband found most of the entire thought of forecasting was utter rubbish, and he shrugged off most of her little messages as 'coincidence'. There were more than one occasion when this had been a full blown fight, so unless something was of huge importance, Jasmine didn't tell Remus about her dreams. She'd simply remind him to take a sweater, or slip a headache potion vial in his pocket when he left for the day, things that he wouldn't even think about.
This however, Jasmine knew was different.
It wasn't symbolic, where she'd have to consult her crystal ball or the stars. She knew that wherever it was she had found herself, it was something new for her.
The light of the... wherever... was almost blinding. She turned around a couple times, not seeing anything at first, for what seemed like forever. A bright, empty... wherever, Jasmine thought. A new place.
"Don't even try to get your barrings. You can't stay long enough for it to matter, love."
Jasmine squeezed her eyes tight. Willing herself awake.
No.
She wasn't going to do this. It was cruel. It was too painful.
"Stop that and give your sister a hug, yeah?"
Nope. 'Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.' Jasmine willed, tugging at her hair, trying to jar herself awake.
"Seriously, it took me forever to figure out how to do this, and I can only do when you open a bridge to me- don't waste it freaking out." Lily scolded, grabbing Jasmine and turning her around. Jasmine shook her head violently. "Jasmine."
Slowly, Jasmine opened one eye, then the other. The 'wherever' had faded into a large, open meadow, with a pond in the distance where Jasmine could see people- what appeared to be a couple adults and some children. She blinked into the new 'wherever', adjusting to the light. Lily held her arms out.
"Come on, Jazz. Give us a hug!"
Jasmine stepped into the hug and clung as tightly to her as Petunia had when she'd first shown up on the Dursley's doorstep in November. But Lily wrapped her arms around Jasmine back, and unlike most of her dreams- she could feel this embrace. Something here was different.
"Am I dead?" Jasmine pondered aloud, and Lily snorted a laugh.
"No, nothing like that. Like I said... you can't stay. In fact, you can't talk to anyone but me. You opened this bridge." Lily explained.
"How?" Jasmine ask, shaking her head.
"From what I understand, which isn't much, its all to do with your third eye. You fell asleep with it open, thinking about me." Lily shrugged. She took Jasmine's hand and began walking.
Jasmine noticed that she felt warm, and that both she and her sister were barefoot in the grass. She was now dressed in a soft yellow sundress, matching the pale purple one Lily wore. The two matched each other, step for step. They walked but didn't seem to get any closer to or farther from anything. She kept looking around, trying to figure the phenomenon.
"You can't go anywhere, either." Lily laughed. "But taking a walk is nice. Its lovely here."
"Is this..."
"Heaven? The hereafter? The great beyond?" Lily guessed with increasing emphasis at each word. "Sort of. This is what you can see of it."
"Oh." Jasmine nodded. "Listen, Lily... I think I'm going loony. But if not, and we're talking... I have to tell you- I'm sorry I took so long. I tried to get him-"
"Oh Jazzy. Shh." Lily smiled gently, squeezing her little sister's hand. "I know. We keep tabs on all of you lot. You've to him now- and my boy is so happy."
"Oh... Okay. Yeah." Jasmine nodded, shrugging her shoulder up to catch a tear.
"You've been struggling." Lily commented. Jasmine remained silent, so Lily continued. "Comparing yourself to me. You do that because others do it, and because Petunia and Mum and Dad all did... But you've got to stop."
"I just-"
"You're you, love. Not me. And..." Lily leaned closer, "I know you wonder, but the answer is a resounding, and firm, no. Remus has never, not once, tried to see me in you. You're his person. I know you've often thought about life if we'd not been killed- I think you two would still be together, even if you don't. You're meant to be."
"Seems like you know what I'm going to say before I say it." Jasmine replied quietly.
"I see you hurting. I've wanted to help you, but I died at peace with dying... So like I said, you had to open the connection, I couldn't." Lily sighed. "I uh- I wanted to show you something, but it turns out, this is as close to... well... anything... as we can get. But look." Lily pointed into the distance near the pond where she could just make out the figure of two adults and three children.
"I don't understand." Jasmine looked back to her sister, then squinted again, attempting to get a better picture, to no avail.
"The taller one, with the two boys- that is James. The lady holding hands with the girl, the ones feeding the ducks? That's Hope, the Mrs. Lupin preceding you."
"Hope?" Jasmine snapped her attention back to Lily. "I need you to- Lily..." Jasmine choked, a sob breaking out of her chest. She looked to her sister with pleading eyes. "Are they-"
"Yeah," Lily replied softly. "Yeah, Hope... she's taking Mari to feed the ducks. Poor kid loves the ducks- and sometimes, they love her too. If she isn't casing them." Lily laughed lightly, but kept talking, as she held her sister, who was sobbing uncontrollably. "James has Bryn, he's yours and Remus' boy- looks just... so much like Remus it is scary. Harry has never seen they day where he looked as much like his father as Bryn does his... Its him and Henry, he's the only pregnancy Petunia had after Dudley. When they were brought to James and I, we thought it would be better to let Hope name yours since you and Remus never got to pick names. She did what Lyall didn't give her a chance to- she named them in her mother tongue. Henry though... Henry came named. Our mum and dad come through and see us sometimes- but they're... distant. I dunno."
Jasmine had broken down crying so hard she'd sank to her knees, but Lily had knelt with her, rubbing soothing circles on her back. She'd kept talking through it all, knowing that time would grow short.
"I didn't show you to hurt you..." Lily sighed, kissing her sister's hair, right above her ear. "I just wanted you to know. I have them, they're okay. They're happy. I'm sorry we can't get closer."
"Than- Thank you." Jasmine choked out, taking the hand Lily held out to help her up.
"You needed to know. I've got them, and you've got Harry. I know you have him, and you'll not let him go now. So you needed to know that I've got yours, too. James and I love your children, Jazz. And I know you may not tell him about this, given how he is..." Jasmine smiled sadly, "But if you do, James wanted to apologize to Remus. Tell him he loves him, and that he should've never doubted his brother like that. He's hoping Sirius can pull off catching Peter so they can make up."
Jasmine nodded, wiping her face again.
"Yeah... I might tell him. I dunno." She bit at her lip. "I don't know how'd I would make him believe this wasn't a dream. Frankly, I don't know how to know for myself this wasn't a dream."
"Oh, that's easy." Lily grinned. "Bryn. That was going to be Remus' name, if Lyall hadn't worn her down on the name Remus. He knows that, she'd told him. He can confirm that for you, then you'll both know."
Light around them flashed a bit. Lily took Jasmine's hand.
"You're about to wake up. I have to tell you two more things. First- I love you, and you need to love you- as you. Second- and this is important because- well it just is. You need to be at Dervish and Banges on Thursday, quarter past noon. You're going to run into one of the students you'd tutored for Astronomy. She's going to tell you something very important, but it won't seem so at first. If used correctly, it'll keep Remus in his job- even with the supposed 'curse' around it. You'll know when you hear it." Lily squeezed her hand again and-
Jasmine sat bolt upright in bed. She blinked hard into the pale light of her bedroom, glad Remus and Harry were both at Hogwarts. She felt her face, where the tears she'd cried had grown cold on her cheeks.
It was Tuesday night. Thursday she'd have to be at Hogsmade.
And between now and then she'd have to decide whether or not to tell her husband what she'd experienced.
Hundreds of miles away, in the Hogwarts castle, Harry was awake, peering over the Marauder's map.
He knew he should've told his uncle he had it- but there was something about having a magical object his father had helped make... He wanted to hold on to it a bit longer.
Most everyone in the castle was asleep, so as he folded the map pieces away from one another he noticed something in one of the greenhouses. A name that should've been impossible. It was brief, and tucked away in a crease almost as quickly as he'd seen it.
Peter Pettigrew
Harry searched frantically to find where the name had reappeared, but with no luck. It had to have been his imagination. It was just after one in the morning, he should've been asleep hours before.
For a moment, Harry wondered if ghosts were visible on the map. He searched the whole thing over and didn't see a single one of the dozens of Hogwarts' resident ghosts anywhere on the pages. Even so- Pettigrew hadn't died on school grounds. Harry knew that.
He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, then tried one more time to find Pettigrew's name on the map. Having no such luck, he yawned, closed the map, tapped it and gave an exasperated 'Mischief Managed', then fell back into the pillows.
However, sleep did not come.
Harry wiggled his toes as his legs felt restless. He walked around the dorm a couple times, then decided to go down to the Common Room. He'd just made it down the stairs when he saw that the portrait door was opening, and he froze in place. After seeing who entered, he relaxed a bit.
"Hermione?" He questioned, coming on into the common room.
"Oh!" She looked shocked and almost guilty upon seeing him. "Harry! You're awake."
"Hermione are you insane? Where have you been?" Harry demanded, grabbing her arms.
"I just- I was wanting to talk to McGonagall but I wasn't sure, and I argued with myself for a long time and then finally I decided to go to her, but it was late. Actually ended up getting myself a detention for being out and she walked me back after we talked." Hermione looked at the carpet as she spoke.
"Are you okay?" Harry pressed, concerned. Something was clearly bothering her.
Hermione bit at her lower lip, her eyes avoiding Harry's.
"Hermione, talk to me." He pleaded. He could see she was on the verge of tears, and she shook her head.
"I can't." She squeaked.
"Please, 'Mione. C'mon, its me." Harry said, trying to help her relax.
"Harry... I made a mistake, and I just-" she wiped the corner of her eye to keep a tear from slipping out. "I messed up, but McGonagall put me right. That's all." She said, shaking her head again, as if it would shake away the urge to cry.
"Hermione, whatever it is, it is obviously still bothering you. Let's talk it out." Harry pleaded, concern growing for his friend.
"Harry-" She looked at him and took a deep breath, then closed her eyes. "I figured out about... Your Uncle. You know..." She looked around and whispered "The... Monthly... Thing."
"Oh." Harry let her shoulder go and took a full step back. "And you went to McGonagall about it."
"I said I made a mistake, Harry. She and I have been talking for a long time. She told me how wrong I was. How much I didn't understand. Harry-"
Harry backed a bit further away and rubbed one hand up his cheek, setting his glassed cockeyed against his head.
"Hermione, what did you think was going to happen?" He demanded, still speaking in hushed tones.
"I didn't know!" She croaked, her voice fighting not to break. "Please, I was just... I didn't know. I didn't want to hurt him... Or your aunt..."
"I-" Harry shook his head. "I'm going to bed."
"Harry I am so, so sorry." She cried up the stairs.
"Good night, Mione. I'll see you at breakfast." Harry called over his shoulder.
He came back into his dorm and fell into his bed, tossing his glasses toward his nightstand but hearing them clatter to the floor, he couldn't make himself care.
He was hurt.
Normally Hermione came to him with secrets she found out. Even last year, she found a way to get information to him while she was petrified. But going to the Deputy Headmistress about his Uncle Remus' disease... Something he couldn't help but was treated for- It hurt him.
He closed his eyes and willed his brain to just be empty, which took quite a bit longer than he'd have liked, but eventually, close to four in the morning, Harry finally drifted off to sleep.
Thanks for sticking that out with me. Jasmine, as you may be picking up on- is a seer. Even she doesn't know how gifted she is yet, but it'll come into play throughout our story.
Please be sure to follow for updates, and please review! I want to know if anyone has any guesses about where our seer's gift is headed.