I almost forgot that it was Friday! It's been a long week.

Chapter 89

Jasmine tried not to dwell on her impending destiny too much as the weeks passed through the back end of her internship. She had spent most of it fixing the Fujiwara wards that the Lady herself had damaged in order to meet with Jasmine.

Sometimes destiny and fate needed to be helped along, or so Lady Fujiwara claimed. It wasn't much of a surprise hearing that she still had a destiny to complete. Jasmine could have told Lady Fujiwara about her destiny, it was something she had been acutely aware of since her first life. Though, the fact that her existence in this timeline had warped and changed other peoples' destinies was more of a surprise. She supposed it really shouldn't be, butterfly effect and all the twists and turns that comes with it. It was still insane to believe Heir Fujiwara's entire destiny shifted the moment Harriet took the mantel of Jasmine, that her mother felt everything shift the moment she woke up in that hospital bed two years ago. She wondered how many people have had their entire life path altered since she became a part of this timeline.

More than likely, it was more than Jasmine will ever know. So many people had died in the First Wizarding War that hopefully wouldn't this time around.

Well, if Jasmine was due to complete her destiny, Tom had better watch out, because she wouldn't be holding back next time she faced him.

Weeks turned to months and the group of four traveled across Eastern Asia at a steady pace. Jasmine had never learned more about runes in any of her lifetimes. It was getting to the point where she was sick of studying them, somewhat. They were still completely fascinating, but, sweet Morgana, did she need a break. The Runemasters spent extra time outside studying ancient sites cramming for her exams in a few weeks.

Jasmine was due to take her NEWTs when they arrived back in England. She was expected to get a minimum of EE in every field. They would prefer an O in nearly every subject. The higher the score the better chance of them taking her on as a permanent assistant that would eventually take their place as the lead Runemaster. That was their goal, but if she failed her tests, then they would need to look for someone else. Jasmine wasn't all that worried. She knew she had the practical down for charms, transfiguration and defense. The ancient runes section was beyond easy after spending an entire year with them. She was more concerned about potions and history of magic. While she was decent at both, neither were her specialty. Jasmine hadn't taken a NEWT level in either of these fields in a few lives and even going over the review material made her head swim a little bit.

"Come on, Peverell, list the ingredients for Drought of the Living Death in order, then the measurements required, the preparation and then the stirs or incantations as needed," Petunia quizzed as they rested in Potter Manor for the evening. They were finally back in England and Jasmine's tests were tomorrow. Most Hogwarts students had taken these tests about a week prior.

The two of them were in a dark room, so that Petunia could work on her photography, that Jasmine had charmed and warded for Petunia to use. It was faster and cheaper than the muggle alternative. Not to mention that Jasmine got to see all the photos and hear Petunia explain how she took them. Jasmine had been busy during a lot of the different times her friend had been taking pictures of the scenery or wildlife. It was nice seeing the year long trip through her eyes.

Letters from her friends and family picked up again after exams finished for the year. It was only a few weeks until they all graduated. Sirius had sent a few letters celebrating, but Jasmine had been far too busy studying to reply. She felt a bit bad, but after drowning in work for ten days straight, she figured she would make it up to him afterwards and then apologize for teasing him about his whining over all the work he had to do all year.

She had yet to send back her slightly revised version of the marriage proposal, which was a little cruel, but both of them had been so busy, even getting a chance to speak with one another had proven difficult. Jasmine had barely had any time to even look the document over to make sure that there weren't any kind of contractual obligations that were snuck in there that she hadn't noticed during her cursory glance at the damn thing back in December. She didn't think that Sirius would intentionally write something that would harm her, she had to make sure that the wording was to her satisfaction.

"I already did this yesterday, Petunia, and it was perfect."

"Yes, and you'll do it again today. It never hurts to go over something a second time," she replied, her tone board out of her mind.

Jasmine had a feeling that her friend just liked the idea of what Draught of the Living Death was and enjoyed hearing all the strange ingredients that went into it.

"There's no point in going over something that I've already memorized, Petunia," Jasmine insisted and her friend rolled her eyes.

Petunia sighed and leaned back on the leather chair she had commandeered for herself. Jasmine hadn't even attempted to sit in it. She knew better. Her friend wasn't territorial about much, but what she claimed as her own, Jasmine wasn't about to get in the way of it. "Fine, if we don't want to talk about your exams, we might as well talk about something else. I know that the graduation is coming up. I've been invited to it, though it's at the Ministry of Magic. I was hoping that it would be at Hogwarts. I never got to see that bloody castle."

Jasmine grimaced. Why had Dumbledore agreed to have the graduation ceremony at the Ministry? She didn't think he was that confident in his abilities to defeat Tom that he would make such a public appearance with Muggles in attendance. Though, even in this timeline, Tom seemed to avoid Dumbledore. He might not want to engage with the Headmaster, but there were other problems to consider.

The main one was that it was a large graduating class and it would take time to get through all of the names. There were so many places for Death Eaters to hide, even if they weren't already amongst the parents. Having so many muggles created more targets for Death Eaters to toy with or kill to prove a point.

Euphemia had promised Jasmine that there would be increased security and wands would be confiscated upon entry. That wasn't going to do much for the people bringing them in illegally, but it would stop the less creative Death Eaters. She just hoped that her aunt had weeded out all of the bad apples in her main department before the event.

Bella and Amelia were going to be there, so there would be a bit of muscle that Jasmine knew she would be able to count on in a pinch. She didn't want anyone getting hurt, but she wasn't about to let any of her friends die right after they got their diplomas.

"You know I think the idea of a public graduation is reckless with a war on the rise. Are you sure that you want to go?"

Petunia crossed her arms and raised a challenging eyebrow, daring Jasmine to ask again. "I've already told you that I will see Lily graduate at the top of her class and put all of those pureblood pounces to shame."

And Petunia wasn't going to budge on that point anytime soon. "I bet you also want to see Theodore graduate. I heard that he has a position in the Ministry lined up after graduation. You haven't seen him in person in a few months."

Jasmine honestly wasn't sure when Petunia had last physically seen Theodore Nott. The two had been very private about their entire relationship, which was safer. There was no telling what his parents would do when they found out who he intended to marry. Petunia might be from the Ravenclaw line, but she was still a squib and that was something that a lot of magical families would disapprove of.

Petunia fiddled with her camera. "Yes, it would be nice to see him again. I know that we can't have too many public interactions before he officially moves out of his home. He has a plan, it's just going to take time."

"It's good to know that the two of you are scheming his escape. If he needs someone to ward his house, let me know."

Petunia grinned, pale hands covered the lens cap before she put the camera down gently. "Yes, well, someone needs to make sure he doesn't do something stupid. His father wants him to follow that Dark Lord. He doesn't want to and I'm more than happy to encourage that kind of behavior. He just needs to move some money around and talk to the goblins, but he wants to graduated first."

All valid points. Jasmine doesn't think that Theodore is leading her on. She was worried about that at first, but she had read some of their letters. He seemed genuine in his interest. Jasmine had gently asked Lily about dating gossip and his name never came up, that didn't mean he wasn't discreet about it, but Jasmine can hope that he is remaining faithful to Petunia. If he hasn't, there will be hell to pay. But, he knows that, which is why he more than likely has been behaving himself. He doesn't want to be on the bad side of not only Petunia and Lily Evans, but he'd also enrage Jasmine Peverell, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. It would be social suicide at this point in his life.

Jasmine vaguely wondered what her Theo would say about this development with his father. He'd probably have some kind of self-depreciating thing to say about his past lives and then grumble about how his father was a piece of human garbage. He had hoped his father would turn out better in this life, it seemed that he will finally get his wish if it works out for both him and Petunia.

"I'm glad that you get to be that voice of reason. Not everyone is lucky enough to have someone that cares enough to do that."

"I suppose so. Something Lady Fujiwara said to me sounded a bit like that in an odd sort of way. She mentioned that my destiny had been drastically altered beyond recognition. That the woman I was originally supposed to be was long dead and no matter what happened now, I would be someone new. I suppose that might have to do with you. It goes along with a lot of the other magical nonsense she was talking about."

Jasmine blinked and have a small, if not a little hesitant, nod. "I seem to be a never-ending black hole of changed destinies. Maybe you would have gone on a date with the Vernon fellow in another life, gotten married, moved to a cookie cutter house in the suburbs, had a child, grew a garden, lived your life as a housewife and nothing more."

Petunia scrunched up her nose like she had smelled something particularly foul. "I would hope not. That sounds ghastly. Vernon was a nightmare of a man. He didn't believe in my work. As much as I want a family, I don't want to start one right away, not with that Dark Lord parading around. Vernon wouldn't have understood that. I wouldn't have been able to talk to him about magic or Lily. That would have been very awkward family dinners."

"You aren't having family dinners with Theodore either, Petunia."

She ignored Jasmine's interruption with an unimpressed glare. "I plan on making sure that Theodore starts to get acquainted with my family. I'm going to introduce them after graduation. I was hoping that you could be there to mediate? Also, would you be able to ward my parents' home? I've saved up some cash to pay you. I'm not letting you do the work for free. Lily has mentioned that things are starting to get dangerous here and I want them to be safe from harm. I could never forgive myself if I let something happen that I could help prevent."

Petunia was such a good daughter in this life. Jasmine wondered if she had always been a good child and she just never got to witness it. She could have blamed the magical world for everything, but there might have been some kind of self-hatred involved in her parents' deaths in Harriet's timelines.

The Evans were originally murdered two years after her parents seventh year in a targeted Death Eater raid. Petunia had hated Lily in those timelines, but that might have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Jasmine would make sure that she tried to keep them alive as long as possible. She would take some of her friend's money. Petunia wasn't going to let her do it for free, but Jasmine wasn't going to charge her full price for something like this. She wasn't short on money and Petunia didn't need to know how many galleons she would actually charge for ward work as complicated as the ones she was going to put on the house.

"I would be honored to ward your parents' home. I will start drawing up the schematics tonight."

"Good, we can tell them about it at the graduation. Mum really liked you last time you were over. Dad will be happy to talk about runes with you. He's found our entire travel about the world to be very fascinating. He thinks that your work is really neat."

Of course, he did. Jasmine had learned over the past couple months that Mr. Evans was very much like Mr. Weasley except he liked magical items and never wanted to stop learning about them.

Her exams passed in a whirlwind of stress and anxiety that was over nearly as fast as it began. Jasmine felt that she had aced nearly everything. Only time would tell if she made the grades that would qualify her for the position Celeste and Simon had in mind for her. She had a feeling that she could be moving into a small room in their Gringotts office within the next month or so.

The morning of the graduation was met with rain and thunder. It was a great foreshadowing for the rest of the day, if it was going to go as poorly as Jasmine thought it was. She had dressed in a set of nice black dress robes with the Peverell crest embroidered over her heart in a traditional pureblood style. Underneath she made sure that there were more than a few throwing knives and an assortment of other pointy object that would keep her safe. No one checked her for them at the entrance. Wizards never checked for that kind of riffraff and certainly not from someone who was supposed to be as high class as Jasmine.

Wands were being confiscated at the entrance to the main atrium for the duration of the ceremony. Jasmine didn't bring her primary wand with her. She had grown attached to the wand she bought with Euphemia two years ago. It was one of the first gifts the Potters had given her and she wasn't going to let it fall into enemy hands. She did have two knives hidden in her dragonhide boots for emergencies. She just hoped that it wouldn't come to that, but with Tom at the helm and this being a perfect stage, she couldn't be too careful.

There were rows upon rows of conjured seats lining the area. The graduates were already up front, their colored robes distinctly separating the four houses. Jasmine could make out Sirius, James and Remus just by their hats, which were charms to light up with their nicknames every few minutes. It was good to know that they were still as ostentatious as always.

Minister Harold Minchum was in attendance, he would be making a speech to the graduating class, which was supposed to an honor. Minister Fudge never come to Hogwarts to make public speeches, but he also didn't seem to like children at all. The current minister seemed to want to make sure that the children survived this up coming war. It was a nice change of pace. Harriet had dealt with too many politicians trying to make children fight their battles for them.

Jasmine hadn't seen the Minchum in months, he hadn't been making many public appearances due to the constant danger he was in, but the security in here was no joke, even if Jasmine still felt something was going to happen. This all just seemed a bit too perfect and those were the perfect traps.

Minchum seemed fine, he wasn't sweating and he was conversing with the Aurors standing guard around him calmly. Dumbledore spoke first. The man was dressed in some horrific mauve robes with bright yellow twinkling stars on it. He spent the first forty minutes congratulating the students, saying a few jokes, making some more than a little pronounced insinuations that there was a full scale war coming and that people had to pick a side. The muggles in attendance seemed to understand him loud and clear and were quietly talking amongst themselves. Jasmine wondered how many of them were aware of what was going on while their children were at school.

He then introducing Minchum, who did much of the same, except less charismatically and with more political jargon thrown in for good measure, but he was to the point. Minchum didn't beat around the bush, he charged right through it.

Petunia was bored out of her mind a few rows in front Jasmine. The young woman was fanning herself with a pamphlet for the event and taking pictures of Lily and her friends when she could.

It took another fifteen minutes before McGonagall finally started to hand out diplomas. They went by house and then by class ranking, which was announced to the entire student body. Jasmine shuddered and was happy that she wasn't with them. It wouldn't matter if she did well or not, she did not want anyone knowing where she graduated in her class. They did away with that in the future.

Nothing happened while the graduates received their diplomas. All of her friends finished in the top twenty in the class, which was impressive, given that there were well over a hundred students, nearly two hundred, if Jasmine had counted correctly. She needed something to do while Dumbledore and Minchum spoke

Lily had finished at the top, with James nipping at her heels. Euphemia was sniffling next to her, a white handkerchief was in her hand as she dabbed her eyes every now and again. She must be so proud of James. He had really grown up during the last couple years. He was becoming a good man, someone to be more than a little proud of.

Petunia gave a loud shout of approval when Lily received her diploma, much to her younger sister's horror she was also taking pictures.

It all went so well until the closing when wards activated at their feet, separating the graduates from their parents. The room was doused in darkness for only a moment before the masked visage of Lord Voldemort appeared, center stage. His dark robes were flowing behind him. Magic crackled as Dumbledore took a defensive position between him and the student body.

"Now, isn't this just wonderful. You're all gathered here today to witness the rise of my newest army. It was so kind of you to have them all lined up a color coded for me. I can weed out the undesirables that way."

This was the morning event Jasmine was expecting and dreading. She cracked her knuckles and slowly moved her hands towards the knives in her boots. It wouldn't be a proper end to a Hogwarts year without Voldemort showing up in one form or another.

Look who showed back up! Feels like we haven't seen Tom in quite sometime. Big battle incoming! It's action time! I feel like it's been far too quiet for far too long. So, naturally, Tom has to make the biggest entrance possible. Such a drama queen, I love it. This isn't the last time you are going to see Lady Fujiwara, she's a tricky one, urging destiny along. =)

Next chapter, a big old fight! I've missed magical action scenes! We are also getting another big hint about Jasmine's animagus form next chapter! =D

Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows! You guys are the best!

Update news! So, I'm going to be applying for graduate school soon, looking for a fine arts mastery in writing. I'm hoping to have this story finished by the time I start, if I get in. I hope that updates won't get sporadic as I get my portfolio ready! I'm a couple chapters a head right now. This story is going to be capped out at 120 chapters, so we're getting to the ending 3rd! =O

This should be updated again on October 16th!

See you all soon,
~Animerocker