The Last Peverell

Chapter 75

Chapter 75

The basilisk was seemed mildly agitated as it drew closer to Jasmine. She knew from past experience that Death's magic tended to leave creatures warry of her. They knew better than to get too close to something that could kill them. Though, neither Jasmine nor Harriet could just access Death's magic in a way that could cause the mass destruction lurking beneath the surface of the Deity's cold exterior, not without a lot of preparation.

"You smell of he whom the cursed one feared most in this world and of time beyond your years. How did you acquire my true master's talent for speaking to our kind?" The basilisk asked, edging closer to Jasmine with every hissed syllable.

The young witch nearly let out a strained laugh. The creature knew that was descended from the Peverells by scent alone...not to mention that she had lived multiple lives. Why hadn't she spoken to a sane basilisk sooner than this? They seemed to have rather fascinating conversation starters...and wasn't that an interesting development?

Jasmine shrugged, she might as well be honest with the snake. "I came by the talent to speak through my mother's line. She hails from Austria's finest speakers. My father's line holds the power of Death. The man whom you don't wish to hear the name of has created some rather disgusting artifacts that I need to destroy."

The giant serpent leaned in closer to Jasmine, she could feel it breathing on her. The pointed fangs millimeters from her. She could die right here, and no one would know where she went or where to find the body. This had to be one of her absolute dumbest ideas...

"Yes, he created one by using my magic against my will. It is slowly poisoning me and driving me mad."

Jasmine winced, she had never realized that the crazed frenzy the basilisk had been in during her time at Hogwarts had to do with the creation of the diary itself. Horcruxes tended to drive anyone mad if they were close to the object, but to be the unintentional catalyst to it...that had to poison their magic nearly as much as the original caster. Merlin only know the extent it truly poisoned Tom Riddle.

In Harriet's time, Tom drove the basilisk mad and then Lucius, in a stroke of his mighty intelligence, set it free during Harriet's second year. "Would destroying the horcrux stop the madness?"

The creature was sentient, charming and extremely rare. It would be a travesty to have to end its life while it was still thinking clearly. The basilisk slammed its tail on the floor, causing the room to shake slightly. Jasmine flinched, but did not attempt to shy away from the creature. "No, my mind is barely my own. Salazar would be ashamed of what I have done in the name of his descendant. I was meant to protect the students at Hogwarts, but I killed a child, whose spirit still resides within the castle walls. I need you to do what your people do best. Kill me. My young died, I have no mate and I will soon succumb to the urge to rip, tear and kill everything within my path. I do not wish to live like that, young one."

Jasmine bit her lip. How was she supposed to kill it? She could use the transfiguration trick she had been planning on using. It would be over in a moment after the cock crows, but it just seemed like such an undignified way to go.

She raised her wand, but the snake pounded its tail again. It seemed Jasmine wasn't doing something correctly. She raised an eyebrow, eyes still firmly shut. "Is there a particular way you wish for this madness to end?"

"A kiss of Death."

She lowered her wand.

Now, that was something that Jasmine didn't have the power to do, yet. She might have some of her magic boosted by Death, but to actually commit a kiss of Death. She had done it twice after her seventeenth birthday in two different lifetimes, but they had been acts of desperation. Death had possessed her body, it wasn't something that she could do on her own and it took either her mind to shut down or magical preparation. She didn't have the raw magic to handle this.