Chapter 84

Dear Jazzikins,

I can't believe that it has already been two months since I've seen you. This is the first letter that I have managed to get to you. The two other letters I sent came back unopened. I know you mentioned that the mountain ranges you've been traveling through don't have decent magical reception, hence this letter being sent to the nearest rest stop on your internship itinerary. It's awful that the mirrors can't be used yet, but thanks to Mrs. Potter I can have this letter delivered to you as soon as you enter your first stop in civilization.

Hogwarts isn't the same without you. Prongs managed to get Head Boy, the traitor. We're all stilling trying to figure out how that happened. Dumbledore might actually be losing his mind. James probably told you that in his letter, but I still think it's mad.

Lily is Head Girl, as if there was any other choice in our year for that position. I mean, you could have been a contender, but you decided to go on an adventure overseas. We have a new DADA professor, shocking, I know. The woman is ancient, but knows her theory of practical defense against the dark arts. She should be able to help us get decent scores on our NEWTs. She also doesn't seem to care what magical alignment we fall into, which is a nice change of pace.

You know what's ironic? All those new rules that Mrs. Potter was threatening Dumbledore with finally passed through the board of education. It only took two bloody years. Brightbark, despite not teaching here anymore, is being put on trial for attempting to reveal magical alignments publicly and without consent. Dumbledore was fined, he got nothing more than a slap on the wrist. I honestly doubt he knew what a fanatic Brightbark was when he hired him, just that he was anti-dark magic. My father thinks otherwise, but who knows…

NEWTs are a nightmare, be glad you don't have to do all the work for them. McGonagall has been in a mood the entire term. We've had so many detentions. We only charmed four random toilets to sing on the sixth, fourth and nineth floors this month and only enchanted the great hall ceiling once. We didn't need two weeks of detention for that, now when the toilets started trying to flush students, then maybe we deserved it, but to be fair, that wasn't us. Did we get blamed for it? Maybe. Was it hilarious? Officially, no, but unofficially, yes.

It was Charles Flint that set the toilets on the other students.

In other gossip worthy news…Peter is back and attempting to get into our good graces again. Though, none of us are in the mood to humor him. Prongs is too busy sucking Lily's tongue out of her mouth to notice. Mooney has been otherwise occupied, more on that in a minute. Marlene is constantly trying to get into bed with me, what else is new? She thinks that without you here she can just step into your roll. Not possible and I don't want her to.

Though, once again, we never shagged. So, her attempts are futile.

Speaking of women at Hogwarts and the Marauders…you are never going to believe this.

You should know, Mooney is a traitor, Jazz. A huge bloody traitor. Our delegate from Japan arrived earlier in August and we spent days getting to know each other. She's very pretty, very serious and has an attitude I think you would like. She joined us at Hogwarts during the second week of September. And, I know, you have to be thinking to yourself, how does this make Mooney, our dear sweet Mooney, a traitor? Well, the two of them hit it off! She is a creature rights activist. Her entire family is known for it. I think Mooney is in love. He pines for her regularly. They write letters constantly. It's sickening.

I hope that you find a decent place in Central America to use to the mirrors. I miss gossiping to your face. Writing it all down seems petty.

Tell me about all the adventures you've been having in the real world the Professors keep telling us is going to chew us up and spit us out.

NEWTs can bite me,

Sirius

"Are you reading a letter from Sirius? You have that stupid smile on your face again," Petunia teased as she pulled her hair out of its ponytail and began brushing all of the knots out of it. The two of them were tucking in for the night. The group had stopped at a local inn in Mexico. Jasmine was hoping that she would be able to see Blaise soon. He was supposed to be visiting his fiancé and her family in Campeche for the next two weeks.

Jasmine was supposed to be there for the ruins that were located in the city. Well, it looked and operated as a ruin to local muggle population, but the ruins hid the magical temple below. The runemasters had managed to get them all access to the temple to look at their wards that had been repelling muggles for over eleven hundred years. Everyone in their little group was itching to get a look at them.

Petunia's camera was set on the bedside table next to her. She had just finished cleaning the lenses that she frequently used during their excursions. Jasmine set her new rune etched glasses down next to the camera. They were meant to protect her eyes from the lasting effects of staring at magical runes and ancient wards all day. The runemasters teaching her were both going blind.

It was an occupational hazard, but there had been some precautions created in the past few years and since Jasmine only had one eye, the runemasters had made sure that she had a pair as soon as she started with them. It showed that they really had a lot of faith that Jasmine would be able to take over their roles once they were fully ready to retire, or they both went completely blind.

"You mean the same stupid look that you get when Heir Nott sends you a letter?" Jasmine replied with a smirk as her friend's face heated up. Heir Nott had been very obvious in his infatuation with Petunia. Though, the eldest Evans daughter was not one to won over by petty attempts at buying her affections.

Though, the Nott Heir had been properly courting her for the past few months. Petunia hadn't known he was trying to court her at first. Jasmine had to explain that to her, but that had only seemed to egg Petunia to speak to him more.

"Theodore and I are at least doing this in an official capacity. You and Sirius were never officially together and now your sending cute letters to each other. Don't judge me for my romance."

"Does Lily know you are talking to Nott?"

Petunia scoffed, "Absolutely not. She wouldn't want me speaking to him. She has interesting notions on who in the magical world I should have contact with. Honestly, Theodore has been far better to me than most non-magical men I've had contact with recently. Did I tell you about the man I met near my University?"

"No, you didn't. Was he awful? Do you need me to hunt him down and beat him up?"

Her friend laughed and flopped back on the small bed behind her. "You don't need to hurt him. His name was Vernon. He acted like I had no thoughts of my own when he saw me picking up one of my papers from a professor after class. While he did offer to buy me lunch, he acted like it was some privilege to be seen with him. It was so pompous, but we continued to have lunch until he made some off handed remarks about my career. Told me that I was wasting my time and that I should settle down and marry. I walked out after that."

Jasmine blinked, once, twice, and then a third time. Petunia had stood up to Vernon. Had he told her this about her major in the original timeline? Since she had never met Jasmine she wouldn't have been encouraged to pursue her dream in photography or really have the opportunity or funds to go on a trip to enhance her portfolio.

Had she changed Petunia's fate permanently?

"I hope you don't plan on seeing him again. He sounds ghastly."

She wrinkled her nose and draped her forearm over her face. "Maybe a year ago I would have said yes to him, but I'm finally doing what I want to now. I still have plenty of time to start a family. I want to go places, take pictures, meet new people."

"I'm glad that you are finally able to do that. You have real talent and that should be celebrated," Jasmine told her as she pulled out the communication mirror. She would have to call sometime in the morning. She picked up her wand and traced the word "2:00?" on the glass, leaving the word magically written there. If Sirius saw it in the morning he would reply with yes or no and then Jasmine would know if they were available to talk.

The Runemasters were giving both Petunia and Jasmine the morning off. It was Sunday after all and they had been traveling through the jungle for about two weeks. While magical tents are comfortable, the group had been extremely busy. It was nice to get a few hours to just lay around.

Before drifting off, Jasmine picked up a pen and wrote a reply letter.

Dear Sirius,

You want to hear about my adventures? I suppose I can write one down for you. All gossip will take place on the mirrors, but I'll reward your diligent writing with stories of my time away from home.

Where to start? I suppose the beginning is best, but most of our time in the beginning was spent learning about runes and how they work across the pond. I don't think that's anything you would be interested in. I guess the moral of this story is that we've spent most of the trip in the mountainous jungles of South America camping and then hiking from site to site without much rest.

We're currently in Central America, Mexico, to be more precise. By the time this gets to you we will be long gone.

Though last week we were in an old abandoned temple in a remote and undisclosable location.

Gringotts business.

The temple was large, nameless for centuries. You could feel the magic rolling off it and the wards were powerful. Though, when they started luring muggles to their deaths, wizards needed to get involved to fix it.

Runemaster Celeste and Simon were speaking with the locals and told Petunia and I to explore the area and search for clues as to why the runes had stopped functioning the way they were supposed to.

Anyway, Petunia and I were investigating around this structure to search for lay-lines for the wards. As I mentioned, the temple was trying to lure muggles in to drain their lifeforce to feed the wards. Gruesome deaths, there were a lot of bodies. Most of them appeared to be visiting tourists. We were called here to figure out why. The locals were paying good money to know what was going on.

Long story short, after two hours of circling around the damn place, Petunia trips over some branches. She ends up with a face full of dirt, but uncovered one of the wards, which had been damaged by a recent earthquake.

As it turned out, roots had grown over the wards and the earth cracked through the original formula that had been etched into the ground, causing the wards go from repelling muggles to ingesting them? Draining them?

Either way, still gross.

I miss talking to your face as well.

I received an invite to your family's Christmas Gala. Since when did they throw a gala?

See you at Christmas,

Jasmine

Jasmine woke up to the mirror next to her bed flashing. Sirius must have gotten her message and then completely ignored the fact that she had set times. She groaned as she pushed herself up enough to grope for the mirror. According to the clock on the wall it was barely six in the morning.

"Is there a reason that the mirror is flashing?" Petunia complained as she covered her face with her pillow.

Jasmine groaned. "We're getting a call from Hogwarts. The boys are probably on the line. Lily might be there as well."

Petunia made some kind of inhuman noise from under her pillow. "Don't turn the mirror towards me. I look hideous."

Jasmine pulled her dressing robe around her and managed a couple wandless freshening charms before activating the mirror. She more than likely still looked like she had just rolled out of bed, but there was only so much she could do. All three Marauders and Lily greeted her. "Good morning, do you even know what time it is here?" Jasmine asked, rubbing some of the sleep out of her blind eye.

"Sirius! I thought you had confirmed the time with her!" Lily hissed, smacking Sirius' in the arm. He squawked in response and batted her hand away. Remus pulled the mirror away from Sirius before it fell to the floor when Lily continued to lightly bat at him.

"You look lovely, Jazz. It's a six-hour time difference, right?" Remus asked as Sirius and Lily shoved at each other playfully, but still forcefully, behind him.

James was shooting them disapproving glares which eventually broke them up. Both of them always loved pleasing James.

The Black Heir crossed his arms and pouted a bit as he more than likely thought of an excuse for calling Jasmine this early. "Don't hit me woman! I might not have noticed the time she put down…or remembered that there was a time difference. We haven't spoken to Jazz in months!"

"Well, regardless of the timing of the call, it is nice to hear from you. We're currently in Mexico. It's rather warm, a nice change from England. You would not believe all the different things we've seen in the rainforests down south or the structure of the ancient temples…"

A loud groan from a across the room caused Jasmine to pause. "Don't let her start about temple structure. She'll never stop otherwise," Petunia groused as she got up from her bed, her blonde hair sticking up in random directions as she moved towards the bathroom, towel in hand.

"Tuny! How are you? I didn't know that you would be rooming with Jasmine!" Lily exclaimed her old roommate lit up hearing her sister's voice.

Petunia looked less than thrilled at being asked anything before her morning cup of tea. "I'm fine. Photography is going great. Jasmine and I always share a room. I will talk to you if you're still with Jasmine when I get out of the restroom. Someone decided to call while we were sleeping," she hissed before closing the door soft enough that it wouldn't disturb their neighbors, but loud enough that their friends could hear it through the mirror.

The water turned on shortly after. "You sister is not a morning person. I haven't met many people less of a morning person than her."

Lily let out a nervous chuckle. "Well, you wouldn't be wrong about that. I'm sorry if she's been a bit temperamental in the mornings."

James cleared his throat. "Enough about Petunia, what have you been doing while we slave away at passing our NEWTs?"

That was more than enough of a segue to start a fifty-minute discussion about ancient rune work and what got both James and Sirius' attention were ancient curses. Jasmine swore they were taking notes as Remus held the mirror away from their hands.

Traitor!

Though their discussions about Hogwarts were just as interesting, if not more so to Jasmine. She missed her friends. Traveling with two rune masters was fascinating, but they were much older than her and Petunia was great, but she was in a different stage of her life to Jasmine. This was mostly a job for Petunia. She was lucky that she was traveling with a friend, but she tended to keep things relatively professional unless they were in a hotel room or their shared tent. Though the tent housed all four of them, which gave no one any privacy.

"Peter is trying to convince us to help him finish his Animagus transformations. He had finished his spiritual journey to find what animal he'd be, but he had wanted our help to finish the actual transfiguration stage back in fifth year. Apparently, you scared him away, Jazz, since he's back begging Prongs for lessons," Sirius explained and Jasmine frowned.

"Is he talking to you or Remus?"

Remus shook his head. "No, he's still avoiding us. Not that we're on speaking terms anyway."

Well, at least that was something…

"Are you going to help him, James?" She asked, her gaze traveling over to her cousin, who looked a bit flustered at the question.

He ruffled his hair a bit and let out a long sigh. "I thought about it. We had been friends for four years, but it just felt like he was using me. I really don't have the time to spend hours teaching him something I learned two years ago. Being Head Boy leaves you with little free time for anything but studying and revising…" Sirius was making kissing faces to the mirror where James couldn't see. Jasmine had to stop herself from laughing. "If he hadn't been such a prat to you, Sirius and Remus I would have taught him in fifth year."

"We'll then don't teach him. Especially if he is still being rude to Sirius and Remus."

"Speaking of Moony," Sirius began in a teasing tone and Remus' face immediately flushed. "He is courting the delegate from Japan."

"It isn't like that, Padfoot. Nothings official yet. Her courting customs are very different from ours. I have to meet her father first!"

"Well, she said that your fortune card was a match for hers. That sounds like you're dating to me," Sirius replied with a smirk on his face as Remus groaned into his hands.

"Fortune?"

"Yea, her family are known tarot readers. They balance out a thin line between fate and fortune for magical deities."

"So, they serve destiny then?" The deity was different from fate. Destiny was an ever-changing deity, they served mankind, as a human being tended to have multiple destinies in a lifetime, it just depended on how that person lived their life.

"She mentioned that she wanted to talk to you at Christmas, Jazz."

That she could believe. She probably had a lot to say to Jasmine.

I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! We're going to see Blaise for the first time since Jasmine birthday before her sixth year. It's going to be fun to show all of you what he's been up to! You're also going to be seeing more of wizarding South/Central America.

Sorry for the late posting, I was away for most of the week.

Thank you all for the favorite, follows and reviews!

See you all soon,
~Animerocker