The Last Peverell

Chapter 58

Chapter 58

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was filled with idle chatter. Remus and Lily were asking as many questions as they could about the book Jasmine was planning on publishing, and then bringing it in front of the Wizengamot. Just thinking about it made Jasmine both excited and nervous enough to make her a bit nauseous. Remus and Lily seemed to be completely oblivious to her discomfort, which she supposed was a good thing. It at least meant that her poker face wasn't completely shit.

Sirius had dozed off on her shoulder, bored out of his mind and no doubt wanting to avoid any and all questions about his potential suitors. Jasmine figured her friend hadn't realized what kind of chaos he would be unleashing by letting it drop to both Lily and Remus that she was publishing something very controversial. The two bookworms were still chatting about publication rights when he started drooling.

They had been asking Jasmine questions for over an hour. Even James had started losing interest in Lily's questions and was snoring quietly against the window, his gold rim glasses askew on his face. He was going to need to get them repaired again if he wasn't careful. Euphemia would throw a fit. His lenses were magically enhanced to adjust to his eyes, but in doing that the frames couldn't be repaired with magic, they had to be done the muggle way otherwise the lenses would become distorted. Even in Harriet's time there hadn't been too many different ways to adjust eyesight, unless it was with a potion that Severus would invent in about five years, if the timeline was still heading in that direction.

Though, as of right now, there wasn't anything James could do but be careful and he was a sixteen-year-old boy, so that wasn't likely. There was a fine balance with the charm work that he just didn't seem to appreciate like his mother did. "Lily, could you pluck James' glasses off? I don't want to deal with him whining about how the frames are pinching his nose for the next month." Her redheaded friend flushed at the question, but nodded, summoning all of her Gryffindor bravery, she approached James and slid his glasses off without him waking up. Her cousin adjusted himself slightly with the loss of his glasses, but he seemed far more comfortable now that the metal wasn't digging into his face.

Lily handed the spectacles to Jasmine, who adjusted Sirius on her shoulder before giving Lily a grateful smile.

Her eyes trailed back towards Sirius' peaceful sleeping face.

"So, Black is getting married?"

Jasmine let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair, making sure that she didn't jostle Sirius at all. He seemed exhausted when they had boarded the train. The arranged marriage must have been keeping him up for the past few nights, or just reading through the list of potential suitors that his family had for him. It no doubt had to have been very long and overwhelming. "Eventually, his father has a list and his bride has to be from it."

Lily wrinkled her nose and fidgeted with her skirts, something Jasmine noted that she did when she was confronted with something odd in the wizarding world that she didn't quite agree with. "I just find it appalling that they are still forcing their children to go through with arranged marriages. It just seems to backwards."

Jasmine let out a small and rather sad laugh, "the wizarding world can be rather advanced in certain aspects, but when it comes to matters of love, not so much. Marriage is used to produce heirs and to politically profit both families involved. If you can manage to fall in love, you're very lucky. There are a few families that allow for love matches, among purebloods that is rare. James is one of the lucky few that are allowed a love match over an arranged marriage. The Potter family believes that their heirs should be happy with the partners they choose"