Chapter 31: Chapter 31Summary:More dueling!
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 31
The second day of dueling started similarly to the first. The seventh years started their matches and ended with no Hogwarts win. Jasmine thought their poor performance was rather embarrassing. The team had been decimated by the other schools. None of the students even made it to the second round. Durmstrang and both American schools topped the podium.
The sixth years faired a little bit better, if only thanks to one student. Pandora ended up in the top three, gaining Hogwarts' first medal of the event.
Each duel was fierce and it was obvious that as the matches went on, the students became more and more careless with each attempted counterattack. The magic was haywire and somewhat dangerous, not to mention that they were dead on their feet by the end of the events. Jasmine was surprised that they hadn't had any fist fights yet. It would make declaring the winner so much easier if they would just punch the other fighter out cold and end the magically exhausted stand stills. It would at least add some spice into the morning.
The school from South Dakota really seemed to have something to prove in these matches. They weren't holding anything back and had been in the top three within all of the podium placements. The announcer wasn't all that pleased, the arse, but Jasmine was enjoying watching the different styles of wand work that went into each and every style that they brought to the matches. The wand work was more an extension of themselves than anything else, and their magic was powerful, she figured that they might not use wands during the primary training, which was fascinating, if her hunch was correct.
It wasn't often that Jasmine or Harriet learned new things like this. Once in a lifetime opportunities were still very rare, even for someone who had lived as many lives as Jasmine had.
She sighed as she watched one of the Dakota students transfigured their opponent into a cage and ending the match.
It wasn't long before the remaining fifth years were brought back down to the arena. Lily and James were left in the stands. Jasmine just hoped that a fight wouldn't start between them while she wasn't there to mediate. They were led into the same brick laid room as the day before, it was just as spartan as yesterday, with only a curtain serving as the door and three chairs. The only thing different was the atmosphere. Gone was excitement from the day before. With two of their three members gone it seemed that Sirius and Severus were taking things a bit more seriously. Flitwick had his head poking out of the curtain talking with the officials for the dueling order for the evening, which eventually turned into him leaving the room altogether. Sirius was jumping from foot to foot, halfheartedly mimicking some wand work against the far wall. Severus was teasing the hem of his robe with his fingers, muttering what sounded like potion ingredients under his breath, looking anywhere but at Sirius. Jasmine was stretching on the floor going through a few different scenarios for her upcoming duels.
She couldn't say that she was nervous. This wasn't a life or death situation, it was just a competition. "What's taking Flitwick so long?" Sirius asked, pushing himself away from the wall and towards Jasmine, who was in the center of the room.
"Not sure. Something must have happened with one of the school to have the judges call our coach out," she replied, rolling to her feet.
Jasmine wondered if someone broke the rules. These officials seemed to have really strict guidelines about fraternizing with other schools. It wouldn't be too difficult for an overzealous student to wander into illegal territory…or a rather vengeful student attempting to hurt the person who beat them the day before.
It took another fifteen minutes before Flitwick came back in, face white as a sheet. "One of our fellow competitor's students were attacked last night. The Durmstrang fifth years have officially been disqualified from the competition."
Well, that was four competitors that she wouldn't have to deal with. "Which school was targeted and was anyone hurt?" Jasmine asked trying to figure out how many people were left in the tournament.
"It was the smaller American school. None of the Americans were hurt. The only injury was the Durmstrang student that tried to stop his teammates from leaving their dorm. All of the Americans will be competing today. The meeting was to decide if both school should be disqualified or not, since both technically met with the other."
Jasmine hoped that it was Mikhail that tried to stop them. He had always been the honorable sort in their duels in the past.
"The judges really don't want that American school to be on the podium a third time today?" Severus asked, ever the Slytherin and reading into the situation. He wasn't wrong, that was more or less what Jasmine had figured they were trying to do.
Flitwick nodded. "It was rather unanimous among the coaches that they should be allowed to compete. It wouldn't be a fair duel if it was just seven competitors left after one school tried to cheat their way to victory."
Jasmine shrugged, her robes bunching up around her neck. She had been in forced into duels that had cheaters orchestrating the entire match. These were the kind of things to expect in dueling tournaments. The judges didn't have much say in anything, so they have to start something to keep themselves relevant.
"So, how have the lineups changed?" Sirius asked, pushing the topic back to the tournament. Not a poor choice since they'll be starting soon.
Flitwick pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. Their diminutive professor's shoulders drooped. "Thankfully, no. They were talking about a battle royal, but there had been a few too many deaths caused with those that they changed their minds," he replied voice steady as his frustration slowly left him.
Jasmine felt herself pale at the thought of a battle royal. She'd been in quite a few of those in this body and had seen the Battle of Hogwarts too many times in her many lives not know what kind of destruction those kinds of fights caused.
"Who is going to be dueling first?"
Their charms professor grinned. "It will be the same order as yesterday. While I enjoy spontaneity as much as the next person, I feel that keeping things the same will throw off the competition."
It wasn't like they were given time to prepare regardless. Honestly, this just seemed to add more drama to the evening than anything else. "Do we know who were facing or is it a blind duel like the day before?" Severus inquired, slowly making his way over towards the two Gryffindors.
Flitwick nodded. "We're against the two American schools. I don't know the order, but I know that we're against the Americans."
And against the Americans they were.
It didn't take long for the matches to begin. Severus was the first out, just like the day before and while it wasn't an easy win, he did come back into the room with a triumphant grin on his face. Jasmine gave him a high-five and watched as he attempted to catch his breath in seat near the door.
Sirius was out twenty minutes later. His battled dragged on and on for nearly another half an hour. The judges' remarks were muffled by the curtains and Jasmine knew better than to try and play with the judges' spell craft. They could get disqualified. They were honestly lucky that no one had found out that the Marauders watched their match the day before. There was a loud bang and horrified gasps from the crowd. Sirius came back in on a floating gurney. He was completely limp and bloody. His left arm had a second-degree burn lacing up skin from the tip of his fingers to his elbow. His hair was matted with blood which covered one of his eyes. He must had put up one hell of a fight. Flitwick came in behind his student. "He and his opponent took each other out. He was dueling one of the twins from the Dakota school."
The Black heir was floated out of the room with two nurses on either side of him and Flitwick following him out. Jasmine was on her own for the next battle at least.
The twins had been a point of discussion with Flitwick. It seemed that they were a duo to watch, well, they had been. With Sirius taking out one of them, it would be that much easier for Jasmine to push herself into the finals. She'd win for her fallen friend.
Her match was about five minutes later and she was against an Ilvermorny girl. She wasn't anything special and Jasmine took her out with little effort. She wasn't as good as Mikhail, not by a long shot. She was good for her age, but nowhere near the level she'd need to be to beat Jasmine on any given day.
So, Severus and Jasmine had to wait as the next round begun. There were six students left after the last matches had ended. Flitwick hadn't made it back before the new round started so an official visited their waiting room and told them that they'd be the second and third matches. It didn't take long for the next match to end with a loud thump and groan against the wall from whoever had lost.
Jasmine gave Severus' shoulder a squeeze. "You'll be fine. You trained for this," she told him with as much encouragement she could muster. Sirius was a much better cheerleader than she'd ever be, but Jasmine put in a bit of effort to at least appear encouraging.
Her Slytherin friend nodded before stepping out onto platform. Jasmine was stretching again when Flitwick made his way quietly into the room. His hands had quite a bit of blood on them. "Will Sirius be alright?" Jasmine asked as she reached for her toes.
She gripped them as he answered. "He'll be fine. The injuries looked far worse than they really were-"
The ground shook under their feet for a moment and Flitwick dashed out of the room and onto the Platform. That hadn't felt natural to Jasmine. A quake of that magnitude would have to have been caused by someone who was using some kind of magical enhancement, which was against the rules. Some runes she knew could do that kind of magic, but that was banned here. She could hear booing from the crowd. It seems that they didn't condone the cheating either.
Flitwick came back in with a barely conscious Severus Snape. Jasmine moved to help her Professor lead him to the seats against the wall. "One of the Italian students was using a rune enchanted bracelet to fight. Severus broke one of the beads, unraveling the spells and causing a minor earthquake and quite a bit of backlash of spell damage. The young man is going to be heavily disciplined and his school is now under review to be suspended along with Durmstrang. I'll take care of Severus, you go out for your match. No matter what happens, you've placed a medal for Hogwarts today.
Jasmine fought the urge to scoff. She was not coming in third.
She was against another student from Ilvermorny. She dispatched him just as easily as the girl earlier in the day. Jasmine moved fast and got into the wizard's personal space within a few seconds. While he tried to back away from her, she disarmed him and knocked him off the platform, ending the match before it even begun. While Jasmine wasn't a fan of using muggle means to end matches, it was far easier and less costly than using her magic excessively in the long run. If she had been paying close enough attention to who she was going to be dueling next, it would be the last of the twins that had taken out James.
Severus was sitting up and coherent when she came back into the dimly lit waiting area. "Are you going to be alright?" He turned to her, glaring, his eyes focused, more so than James' were the day before, so at least he didn't have a concussion and his sneer seemed to be in top form.
"He'll be fine, Ms. Peverell," Flitwick answered.
She could have surmised that herself.
"The better question is how are you feeling? You made it to the finals."
Jasmine let out a deep breath. "I'm feeling fine, not too winded after either duel, so I'm fairly well rested. I know that my opponent shouldn't be under estimated. Do you know which twin will be facing in the finals?"
Flitwick tapped his chin in thought for a moment, more than likely going back to recall which student nearly killed Sirius. "It would be the twin that took James out yesterday."
The deaf twin then. He'd be difficult to follow and dodging spells would be last minute calculations. It wasn't like Jasmine was all that flashy with her spell-work. More often than not she whispered spells instead of shouting them like a child.
It wasn't more than five minutes before she was called out again. Her opponent was tall and broad-shouldered with dark sun kissed skin. He was facing away from her, signing something to his coach, who while older, had corded muscles along his arms. It was good to know that this coach was training his students the same way he was training himself.
She could see that her opponent's long hair was tied back and away from his face, and there was some kind of earring in his left ear that was making the rune under her eyes sting when she looked at it for too long. That was a powerfully enchanted object. Jasmine would bet galleons that the earring worked similarly to the rune burned into her skin, just more practical and far less barbaric than what her patrons did to her. He wasn't wearing conventional robes, but sturdy magically protective leathers, more than likely an American breed of Dragon hide. Jasmine personally wore dragonhide under her medieval robes, easy to move in and resistant to burns and spell damage.
When the other coach saw her standing on the other side waiting, he motioned for his student to turn around. Jasmine's breath nearly caught when she saw his eyes.
They were the same chocolate brown that she'd seen for the past ten lives.
He also had the same blasted know it all smirk when he saw her recognize him, the prat. Oh, she couldn't wait to reem him out for details when this tournament was over.
This was how Death decided to bring Theo back. The bastard gave him a scarred and battered body, much like Jasmine. Though, putting Theo in a body without a voice was cruel irony. Theo had been known for his silver tongue and Death silenced him.
Jasmine heard the signal to get into position. She got into a correct dueling stance, one a little deeper than she used with Mikhail. Theo was an aggressive duelist with a love for close combat spell-work and he tended to enjoy using a modified blasting curse that could cause a minor explosion. He'd come up with that during Jasmine's fifth life.
She didn't even know the name he was using in this life. The announcers were only saying which school each student attended. Names didn't matter, just winning. Theo took his position, his coach moving out of the way. His dueling stance was more upright, and his wrists angled towards himself. It was different than what she was used to seeing, but she'd figure out its merits as this fight went on, she was sure.
She could sense Flitwick hovering in the background near the entrance. Hogwarts hadn't had much luck against this school. All of them had ended in losses, minus Sirius' disastrous draw against Theo's twin.
There was a small pop from above the arena signaling that the match had started. Theo didn't move, he just watched and waited for her to react. She tilted her head as a second pop sounded. Her ear twitched at the noise and that's when she saw him spring into action. Perfect wordless spells were cast in quick succession, each variations of different blasting, disarming, stunning and tripping charms and hexes. There was nothing lethal about his attacks, bar the speed.
Jasmine was fast, this body knew how to move in a way that Harriet never had managed to achieve and Theo noticed that rather quickly when nothing he was throwing at her was connecting.
She responded in kind, by blasting at the boards around his feet sending debris scattering up and around the floor. Her goal was to approach and disarm without getting knocked out herself. He couldn't hear her approach, as far as she knew, but she had a feeling that the earring that gave her a headache worked a bit too much like her rune vision to trust that he wouldn't know that she was coming.
So, she'd take away his sight for the time being by keeping the area full of debris. She didn't need eyes to make her way through this competition. The match continued on a loud fashion, Theo tossing some rather loud explosive hexes, that, if they didn't hit their target were meant to unbalance them.
Instead, Jasmine had transfigured and charmed barriers out of splintered planks. She grabbed a few more pieces of wood as she caught her breath. Jasmine also grabbed a piece of wood from the ground, transfigured it and rolled it into the fray as she bobbed and weaved through an onslaught of spells. At one point two of their spells collided resulting in the two of them skidding across the platform, neither falling off, but both were winded. Jasmine heard the telltale rattle that Theo had dropped his wand and could hear the fast scramble to pick it up before charging back at her.
Jasmine ended up pinned under Theo, his wand at her throat and her wand at his. The announcer was about to call a draw when Jasmine canceled the transfiguration she had cast earlier and the piece of wood in Theo's hands changed into nothing more than a piece of the platform. His wand was lying a few feet back. He'd picked up the fake she had tossed into the area earlier in the duel.
Pure luck, but sometimes that's all she needed.
He looked at the debris in his hand, Jasmine summoned his wand to him as she was declared the winner. Ignoring the announcer, she offered him her hand as he pulled her up with a grin. He tapped her forehead and she heard the words "I'll speak to you later" ghost across her mind before he left the stage as she was swept up in the fanfare of winning the match.
Notes:Note to self...grad school and working full time in an accounting firm leaves no free time. Sorry for the wait.
Thank you for the comments and kudos! Hopefully I will have some time to post another chapter soon?
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 32: Chapter 32Summary:Post duel drama...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 32
The after party would be in full swing approximately two hours after Jasmine's medal ceremony. It wasn't until after the award was handed to her did she start to feel the injuries from her match. Theo didn't hold anything back, the arse, but she wouldn't have it any other way.
She had to have a quick visit to a healer once she realized that her ankle was sprained and a large wet patch of blood was bleeding through her clothing on her arm. When it started to drip down her fingers and onto the floor, she knew that she had a problem. Flitwick escorted her to the infirmary, but had another student to speak to. One of the seventh years had been severely injured during their match, so he had more important matters to attend to. Jasmine made her way to an empty bed and waited for one of the Matrons to check her over. They weren't going to need to observe her, at least, that's what she hoped. Jasmine wasn't great with the whole, bedrest thing. She was on her own until she decided to head back to the dorms.
The infirmary was similar to the one at Hogwarts. The blasted room was white from top to bottom and all the students there looked like they'd rather succumb to their injuries than spend another minute cooped up here. The matrons were rushing around, healing wounds and giving out potions. Each had on a pristine white uniform with the dueling tournament's logo stitched onto the front left. Two Griffins fighting over a serpent between their two beaks. The logo was supposed to represent something about cooperation, but Jasmine had yet to see anything like that during the entire tournament. It was like there were six Madam Pomfreys in one room with the way people were brought in and out at lightning speed.
Everything was taken care of rather quickly. It was nothing more than a wave of a wand and small dose of a potion. Jasmine was taken care of in a similar manner, there wasn't much physically wrong with her to begin with.
She got to check on Sirius, who was awake on his bed, facing the window, his head wrapped and his leg carefully bound and propped up. He didn't seem to notice her as he stared off into the distance. "Are you going to be alright?" She asked, as she sat down next to him, commandeering the chair next to the cot.
The springs in the mattress creaked as Sirius flipped over on the bed his hair sticking up at odd angles from laying down in bed...and the blood acting as gel. "I'm fine! What are you doing here? Did you win? These prison guards won't tell me anything!" He whined, sounding more like his animagus than anything remotely human.
One of the Matrons rolled her eyes and Jasmine was tempted to do the same. "I won, you prat," she replied as she dug around in her pocket and pulled out the first-place medallion they'd given her only a few minutes ago.
It was gold, with the number one etched into its surface, as well as the city and year that the match took place. She could tell that much just from looking at it. There were some enchantments on it, Jasmine could feel the runes carved into the rim and she wanted to get a better look at them. From what she could feel with her fingers they were Germanic in origin and were more or less just there to keep the medallion from tarnishing or getting dented. She hoped that there was something more creative within it. Medals have a lot of potential to have hidden magic within them.
In more than one life she had runes etched into her jewelry for protection.
Sirius snatched the medallion out of her hand and looked it over appraisingly. "The gold is a decent quality, so they didn't cheat you out on the in your medal, but I would get it looked at by a goblin, just to make sure there's nothing weird about it. I don't like the magic that it's giving off."
Jasmine couldn't agree more. She figured the goblins would like to pick it apart. She'd pay them for their time, which would please them, and she could dissect runes which was always a fun time for her.
It wasn't too long before Sirius was staring off blankly at the wall again and Jasmine wondered if he was hit just a little too hard in the head during his duel. "What were you thinking about before I got here that has you so deep in thought? If you aren't careful you might hurt yourself."
Sirius bit his lip, his left arm flopping behind his head and onto the pillow. "My injuries were pretty bad…"
Jasmine sat herself up a bit straighter, she hadn't been told the extent of his injuries. She had assumed that everything was fine, no one had said anything to the contrary. Flitwick had been rather quiet about them, but maybe that was to keep her focused for the match. Jasmine focused on his visible injuries she could see. His leg was wrapped up, but he had been able to move to talk to her. "Did something else happen? Are you going to be alright?"
He nodded, slowly, his eyes closing for a moment before opening again. He took a deep breath before he continued. "My spine was almost severed from the blow back of that last spell. I nearly lost the complete use of my legs. I was really lucky," he admitted, his breath coming out unevenly. His hands were knotting in his still blood-soaked hair.
Jasmine grabbed his hands, untangling them and holding them in her own. He was trembling ever so slightly. There was no point in having him rip his hair out over this. It was always awful getting caught up in the aftermath of a near career ending injury. The "what ifs" were always the worst or the pain you'd imagine you'd have felt, but never did. "You're fine, Sirius. Nothing bad happened. You'll be on your feet in a few hours," Jasmine reassured him, poking his good leg that was still under the covers, it twitched, obviously not paralyzed.
Sirius pulled one hand away and covered his eyes with his forearm. "But I almost wasn't, Jazz. I could have ruined everything. What would have happened if my spine was severed and I could never walk again? Magic can repair a lot, but spinal injuries are still unfixable."
And spinal injuries would remain so even during her time as Harriet. It was one of the few things that it seemed medical magic had a hard time healing. The spinal cord was just too delicate. Theo had gotten injured in a similar manner in her seventh life. She had to get rather creative with runes and muggle technology to even began helping him live a somewhat normal life in the magical world. Merlin knew that they were less than accommodating for anyone with a disability.
Though, if it came down to it, then Jasmine would go to the ends of the Earth to help Sirius a full life. She had figured it out before. It was the least she could do for a friend.
"Well, James, Remus and I would enchant you a flying wheelchair for starters," she began and that, at least, got her a smile, "and you would finish your education at Hogwarts, the same as everyone else. You'd get a job after you graduated, it might not be the one that you had envisioned, but you would find something to occupy your time. You're the heir to the House of Black. It wouldn't matter if you had three heads, you'd be hired in whatever department you'd want."
His pale fingers tightened around hers. "But, would I be the heir to the House of Black if something like that happened to me? My father wants perfection and future heirs to the family line. I wouldn't be able to do everything needed-"
Jasmine cut him off with a choked cough.
Bloody hell…was really thinking about sex?
She composed herself enough to roll her eyes, and raised an accusatory eyebrow, glancing towards his manhood with small smirk.
"You do realize that you could probably still produce heirs without a problem regardless…" Jasmine informed him, and he avoided her gaze, his cheeks going a deep scarlet when he realized where she was looking. He picked at his bedsheets with his right hand, finding it very fascinating, avoiding all eye contact.
"Merlin…I wasn't talking about my…sexual performance…I was talking about my marriage eligibility. No one is going to want to marry someone who can't walk."
What a lovely way to stick his still moveable foot in his mouth.
Jasmine snorted, Sirius was beginning to sound like a stuck-up pureblood. "Then we would be two of a kind, because I'm considered horrifically disfigured by pureblood standards and I'm blind in one eye. I've been told by numerous people that I'm never going to find a husband, so don't worry too much about it. We can be pariahs together."
Sirius turned to face her, his mouth set into a hard line, furious. "You're not disfigured. Avery should have never said that to you!"
If that kind of talk had stopped at Avery she would have feel lucky. Jasmine heard the girls at Hogwarts whispering about her, the jokes the boys in the other classes made about her. None dared make any where the Marauders could hear, but that didn't mean that they didn't exist.
"He isn't the only person that has said that to me, Sirius. I've been getting looks of disgust and pity since I woke up earlier this past summer. 'If she only didn't have those scars.' 'Her face would be so lovely if she hadn't been attacked.' At least Avery was honest about the way he viewed me. I'm not beautiful by any conventional standard, I know this, but I'm still willing to keep going. If you think that losing the ability to walk is the end of the world, then I'm going to need to slap some sense into you. I'm not losing my heirship over worrying about hypotheticals or worrying about marriage. My face isn't the most pleasant thing to look at, I understand that, but everyone else is going to need to get over it," Jasmine replied, her voice low, she wasn't going to disturb the other patients and they really didn't need to know what she was talking about. She hadn't really shared much about her opinion of having scars along her face to anyone.
Jasmine knew that everyone saw them, unless they were blind. There was no way to get rid of them, it was where she had been hit with the killing curse twice in this life.
She knew that the scaring would lead to a lack of friends and distance from her peers. While the scars weren't nearly as bad as what happened to Bill Weasley, they were still noticeable enough to cause people to back up and look at her more than once.
"You aren't hideous to look at, Jazz. If people are only seeing your bloody brilliant battle scars and your wicked cool eyes then they're idiots," Sirius stopped himself mid-sentence, "I see what you did there, and I don't like that you got me out of the pity party I was throwing. I was enjoying wallowing."
Well, he was back to normal rather quickly. Jasmine would need to pay attention to him for the next few days. Sirius was known for his brooding. "When will you be out of the infirmary? There's an afterparty to go to and I guarantee that it is going to be far better than the pity party you're throwing yourself."
He hummed, eyeing the matron around the corner. "In about an hour or so. They're making sure that my leg is completely healed before they let me out of here. Even though it's fine!" He shouted, just loud enough for one of the elderly matrons to turn around and give him a stink eye so fierce that Jasmine was worried he'd be cursed.
Right as Jasmine was about to reply, the door to the infirmary was pushed open and the loud shout of "Padfoot!" could be heard throughout the room, drawing everyone's attention. In a very James Potter fashion, her cousin came rushing into the room, robes billowing out behind him as he made his way towards the bed. Flitwick, Lily, and Severus were trailing behind James as he nearly sprinted over to his best mate's bed.
James threw himself on the cot Sirius was on, avoiding the injury, but still making his entrance as dramatic as possible.
"How are you feeling, Paddy? Everything still attached that should be attached to your body?"
Sirius nodded, a wide grin spread across his face. At least someone was entertained by James' stupidity. "I'm healing up for this afterparty Jazz has been telling me about."
Flitwick walked over to Jasmine and put a hand on her shoulder. "You did well today. I wasn't sure if you were going to be able to win. Those twins were a real handful to take down. I'm surprised that Sirius tied with one of them. It was more than likely a mistake on the twin's part than it having to do with Sirius' actual skills."
Jasmine couldn't agree more. If Theo was one twin, Jasmine was guessing that Blaise might be the other. Both were exceptional duelists, but Blaise had always been the risk taker. He'd go big or go home, and accidently blowing something up and knocking both himself and his opponent out was just Blaise enough for Jasmine to think he might be here too. That, and the fact that, Theo never went anywhere without Blaise.
She just hoped that Death had kept his word to Theo. She'd have words with the Deity otherwise. Jasmine felt that she had gone through enough in the past few months that a good stern talking to would do Death some good. It wasn't like it would change him, but it might get him to not be such an inconsiderate arse for a few weeks.
If only she could be that lucky…
Notes:Sorry for the wait, but work and school got in the way.
See you soon,
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 33: Chapter 33Summary:To the after party!
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 33
The afterparty took place where the duels had happened. The platform had been removed from the area and a table full of food replaced it, an ornate chandelier hung from the ceiling, bathing the room in a quiet light, unlike the blinding stage lights from the tournament. Quiet music was being played by a small orchestra and just about everyone was wearing some kind of dress robe. Though, the Americans were all in muggle clothing. It was apparently unfashionable for them to be dressing in something so medieval. They were all about blending in across the pond. Jasmine had to agree with them to some extent.
The majority students from the tournament were present and mingling with each other. This was supposed to be the time when all the schools got together to reminisce about nearly maiming each other. Jasmine never understood the appeal. When the Chesters had her, she would be doing the same thing as right now and sit at her table, eat a bit of food and ignore everyone. She was far too tired to deal with everyone congratulating her on very victory. Half of her team decided not to come (Severus and Lily) and the other part was running late (James and Sirius). So, this left Jasmine alone and at the mercy of all the other competitors.
She hadn't seen Theo since her match. She was hoping that they would get to talk before the evening was over. Jasmine knew that he would be able to find her again, Theo always managed, but it was so much easier when there was a direct route of conversation started.
Jasmine was picking at her food when a shadow covering her plate caught her attention. "Jasmine, how are you?" a familiar voice asked from behind her.
She turned in her chair to see Mikhail there, a wide grin on his face, the same smile she had grown used it during their time in the dueling arena with each other. His thick blonde hair and bright blue eyes were a common feature to be seen across the dueling platform from her. His cheeks were a bit rounder than she remembered, but then again, his patrons hadn't fed him well, so he was no doubt finally getting some of the nutrition that he'd been deprived of for the past few years.
"I'm fine. I'm glad to see that you are safe. I was worried that you had been killed when the house collapsed." She replied, picking at her dinner again. Jasmine felt a bit guilty that she hadn't tried to contact him, but then again, she had been the anonymous survivor.
"I knew that it was you that told the aurors about where to find us. The house of Medvedeva owes you a huge debt."
Jasmine suddenly felt all the air in her lungs rush out in one breath. He was that Mikhail? She had always known that his father was a businessman, but she had no idea that Mikhail was the heir to a muggle/magical technology firm. She and Theo had tried to sway Mikhail's father to their cause in multiple lives, but he'd always told her that he couldn't because of his son.
His son who had been changed into a werewolf by Greyback…Mikhail was supposed to be Greyback's most notorious lieutenant trained from a young age with a bunch of other children, but the timeline didn't fit. He was supposed to be training with Greyback now, who was still looking for a pack despite the fact he should have already had one.
Jasmine felt lightheaded as she finally realized something. Well two somethings, one, that she wasn't breathing and two, she had changed the future. With just one small tip to the aurors, she had removed a rather large part of Voldemort's army and one of his largest scare tactics.
Bloody hell, the attack on the dueling ring…when Voldemort ordered the children to be kept alive, he wasn't talking about the ones upstairs. He made it look like there were no survivors so that the aurors would leave. He'd be talking about the kids in the basement. No wonder Greyback's pack was so powerful, it was full of children that had been trained to duel from a young age without wands and to use lethal force without remorse.
Voldemort would no longer have that powerful source of fear though…Jasmine had accidently taken that away, just be surviving and telling the aurors of their whereabouts before the full moon, which if she remembered right, was the day after she had woken up and given them the tip. It had been close, but she had saved all those kids lives.
"Jasmine?" He called, bringing her attention back to the present. The voices of the larger crowd around them started to filter in. Mikhail looked somewhat amused by her vacant expression. "Scheming?"
Oh, he knew her too well. She could recall quite a bit of mischief that her original host and Mikhail got up to during their time in the ring. They always had each other's backs and the two of them looked after all of the younger kids without a second thought. They had brought holiday cheer by sneaking sweets and food into the cellars, conjuring little figurines for them to play with or even healing minor injuries that the patrons might have not cared to notice.
Jasmine grinned. "Something like that. You seem to be doing much better than when I last saw you," she told him and the blonde rolled his eyes.
"Yes, well the last two times you saw me, I was flat on my back after you beat me in duels. I'd hope that seeing you at an afterparty I would be in slightly better condition."
"You just barely pass."
"Regardless, call in your debt whenever you need to. My family is more than happy to oblige. I'm the sole heir to my father's fortune and business. You saved an empire and for that my family will be forever grateful… I also miss talking to you. We were friends for so long. I wouldn't mind if you wrote to me every now and again." He told her, putting his hand on hers and pulling her into a tight embrace. No one was really paying them any mind which made her wonder if he had cast a notice-me-not charm or no one knew what they were saying and just decided to mind their own damn business.
Jasmine put her hand in his and threaded their fingers together. It was something that they had done quite a bit as young kids. It was a reminder that they were still alive and in this together.
"Jasmine-"
"Jazz!" A loud and more than a little obnoxious yell cut through the room. Sirius came bounding over to her, James hot on his heels, both of them glaring daggers at Mikhail. The two of them were wearing black dress robes, and James even looked like he attempted to do his hair.
"Who's your friend, Jazz?" Sirius asked, his eyes lingering on her joined hands. She didn't pull away from Mikhail, who looked less than impressed by the two Marauders. He could take both of them in a duel with one hand tied behind his back. They wouldn't even know how to handle him. Yet they were trying to intimidate him regardless.
"Sirius, James, this is Mikhail. We've known each other for years. I told you a bit about him yesterday," Jasmine reminded and the Marauders seemed to close in on Mikhail a bit further. It wasn't like she couldn't defend herself…Merlin they were over protective.
"We need to talk with you," James said before he grabbed Mikhail and dragged him across the room, leaving Jasmine alone, again. At least Mikhail was playing nice and letting Sirius and James drag him away.
Jasmine picked at her food a bit more, listening to the chatter around her. It was nothing important, just awkward conversations of people who had dueled each other. It wasn't long until she felt someone lightly tap her shoulder. She spun around to face bright familiar violet eyes, on a very unfamiliar and foreign face. He had both of his ears pierced, each trinket had various runes etched into the stones, but Jasmine, for the first time in many lives, had never seen these kinds of runes. His hair was in two simple braids and there was a single feather hanging from one.
Jasmine had heard of the Native Wizards to America, but had never gotten to meet any during her nine other lives. They were notoriously hard to get a hold of with the aid of MUSCA and even harder to find on an independent search. There were rumors floating around during Harriet's time that there were a few Native Wizards that had learned how to destroy horrific acts of magical mutilation, which she had thought either meant insanity from the cruciatus curse, or they knew an easier way to track and destroy horcruxes. Either way, Harriet had wanted to get a hold of them.
It had always been to no avail. She died to a trap they had set against intruders once and Death still teased her about it, as did Theo and Blaise. The prats had died in the trap with her.
She could tell that he was Theo's twin, they shared the same facial structure, nose and eye shape, but the colors of their irises were vastly different, and Theo had scars littering his body while it seemed that Blaise didn't have nearly as many, just one above his left eyebrow.
"It's been a while, Harri, or, should I say Jasmine?" Blaise asked, his voice was a deep timber, and his accent was foreign in a completely different way than she was used to, he stressed different syllables and his tone was off, but this was definitely her longtime friend. Blaise always had a combination of a French/Italian/English accent that was always all his own. His mother had taught him both French and Italian before English, and it was rarely spoken in the home. Jasmine still remembered various arguments that Blaise would have with his mother with both Harriet and Theo in the room. Neither of the following the combination of Italian and French being fired around at breakneck speeds.
Blaise's smirk reaching up to the corners of his mouth, even if he still had a few bandages wrapped around his arms and legs from his duel with Sirius earlier in the day. She was more than a bit happy to see him and had to resist the urge to jump up and hug him. They weren't supposed to know each other after all.
"It's been far too long…I go by Jasmine now, but I haven't gotten your name yet?" She replied a small grin slowly creeping its way onto her face when he registered the way she spoke, a small raise of his eyebrow the only indication that it had caught him off guard. Jasmine had a rather obvious accent herself and it seemed that it had surprised her old friend.
"I go by Chatan. I have been waiting to meet with the person that bested my brother in combat by tricking him with a fake wand of all things."
Jasmine rolled her eyes. They had to make this look like it was the first time they were meeting after all. It wasn't like she could just hug the life out of him and bawl her eyes out like she wanted to. Jasmine never really got to do exactly what she wanted to whenever she wanted, those kinds of things tended to lead to her death in a few of her lives.
"I've been told that I can be rather clever when the time counts."
He grinned in response, no doubt recalling some of her more inventive plans over the last few lifetimes. As Harriet, she had gotten into so much trouble with Blaise, even more so than Theo. Her dear Theo was the responsible one out of the three of them. He was always boringly realistic when it came to their more…inventive plans. Though, over the lifetimes, she and Blaise had gotten rather good and creating beautiful works of chaos with one another. She recalled a rather brilliant bit of magic involving a Death Eater, a shrinking solution, a fragile ball of carnivorous fish and an unbreakable glass tank.
"So, I've been told. It takes quite a lot to defeat my brother in combat, I have no doubt that you're very creative when it comes to spell work. I'd love to meet with whoever taught you fight like that," he said with a gleam in his eyes. Jasmine knew that he wasn't talking about the Chesters. Merlin only knew if Blaise had even been informed about her past with Death. She hadn't had time to really go over her host's backstory with Theo when she'd seen him last.
Blaise was talking about someone else. He knew exactly where she'd learned the majority of her tricks, in particular the one that she had used tonight to defeat Theo with. They had come straight from his mother, who had come from a long line of assassins in the French magical military.
She had taught Harriet quite a bit about the proper way to fight as a young woman and how to apply her magic in rather creative ways to throw a wizard off guard. Taking away his wand was usually a good way to start.
He was smirking at her.
Smug little shit.
Jasmine crossed her arms and pouted. "Where's your brother skulking about? I guarantee I would have a better conversation with him," Blaise, no, Chatan, snorted at her horrific joke. He pulled at one his earrings and leaned his head to the side as if listening to someone else speak to him.
A moment later he replied. "He's around. I'm hurt and insulted that you don't find my company suitable."
She rolled her eyes, did he always need to be this difficult? "I'd really like to speak to the person that I had a duel with this afternoon and not his brother. As charming as you seem to be, you weren't on the other end of the platform against me."
"No, I suppose that I wasn't," Chatan replied, right as a hand reached for her shoulder on her blind side. She spun around, and came face to face with Theo, who was grinning from ear to ear. Jasmine wondered what his brother had told him.
She sent a glare over her shoulder and her traitorous friend just smirked.
Why was she always outnumbered when it came to her friends being snarky arseholes to her?
She felt Theo's hand rest on her shoulder.
"I go by Tahatan publicly, but you can still call me Theo. Blaise still does and it isn't like anyone else can hear you outside of myself and Blaise, if I want him to," Theo said through some kind of magical transmission. Jasmine had a feeling that it had to do with him touching her shoulder. He had done the same thing earlier today.
Blaise was still tugging at his earring and she had a feeling that this was how he communicated with Theo over distance, avoiding body contact all together. "Now, I feel left out of the conversation. Are you going to give our dear Harriet your gift or not? Her father and Black aren't going to be distracted by the Durmstrang boy for long."
Theo made a rude gesture with his right hand at Blaise and placed something discretely in Jasmine's hands. No one was looking, it was the perfect time for a bit of a trade. She gave him a questioning look as she placed it in her pocket without glancing at it. "It's a way to speak with me over long distances. Blaise and I have been able to go as far as from here to America with them. We traveled with separate portkeys here and there was a few minute delay between them, so it was the perfect time to do a test," He told her, playing with the hem of his shirt, a habit that he had never been able to break no matter how much he tried over the vast number of lifetimes they had spent together.
"What's it like living in America?" Jasmine asked, changing the subject. They'd be able to speak to teach other about plans for changing the future later. They needed a few moments to reconnect after their longest separation in over six lifetimes.
"Different than here. Our school is a protected secret from outsiders, so there isn't much that we can tell you."
"European Wizards have been trying to find it for centuries to no avail. We know that you would never tell, but sworn secrets are secrets bound to the grave."
She nodded her head. Jasmine could understand that. She saw a few guests staring at them, particularly Theo's hand on her shoulder. "I'm glad that we were able to meet again. You dueling form is strong," she commented rather deliberately loud enough for the people around them to disperse.
"I could say the same for you as well. I hope that we'll be able to meet again, but it seems that the hostile hospitality that had been shown to us before we got here has just about run out. We'll speak soon, Harri," Theo promised with one last squeeze of her shoulder before turning and leaving with Blaise who gave her a small wave as a farewell.
James and Sirius came sauntering up with a rather disheveled looking Mikhail moments later. "Were those two bothering you?" Sirius asked, puffing himself up.
"No, we were just chatting about the duels this afternoon. What did you do to poor Mikhail?" She questioned the two Marauders as her old friend slumped into the nearest seat.
He ran a hand through his blond hair. "How do you keep up with these two. They're crazy," he muttered in heavily accented English.
Jasmine let out a quiet laugh at the Marauders highly insulted faces. "It takes practice, Mikhail. Lots and lots of practice."
Notes:Sorry for the wait. School has been a bear and I just hadn't found the time to post.
Hopefully, I will have a little bit more time through June to post before the next round of assignments comes in.
Leave comments and kudos below, they are always appreciated.
~SugarPhantom