The Last Peverell

Chapter 81

Chapter 81

The eve of Jasmine's birthday was a loud affair. Euphemia invited most of Jasmine's friends from school, along with Petunia, Mikhail, Theo and Blaise, though Blaise couldn't make it due to familial obligations back in the states, for a small party. The party started in the early afternoon and was due to end close to seven. Jasmine had told her guardians that she didn't want any kind of celebration. Though, she didn't go into details. Her family's ritual was supposed to be a secret and she didn't want James or Sirius attempting to figure out it before she could actually get to her casting grounds at midnight.

Euphemia had ignored her plea for a quiet evening, which at its core was fine, but she had to know that Jasmine was going to come into some kind of inheritance tonight. Though, her guardian might have been trying to distract her from worrying about it. She didn't get to see all of her friends together in one place very often. It was nice to see everyone laughing and having a good time before the war really started. Jasmine didn't even know if everyone was going to survive the war. She was going to do her best to make sure that happened, but there was never any guarantee.

Her Slytherin friends, and Mikhail had congregated to a window seat as they chatted. Marianna had come from France just for the occasion, her engagement ring was resting on her fourth finger proudly. She was planning to marry the Zabini Heir in December. Regulus was next to Mikhail, who had his arm around the younger Black brother. Severus was making various motions with his arms as he explained something to group their full attention on him. The future potions master had really started to come out of his shell. Rumor had it that he was going take an apprenticeship with one of Monty's contacts after Hogwarts. Jasmine couldn't remember her name, but she was a very successful Irish potions master with multiple patents for her creations. Monty tended to work with her directly when he'd run into a problem with his experimental brews.

Lily, Petunia, Pandora and Alice had been at the table with Jasmine and Theo for last hour. Sadly, Pandora had to leave early due to some familial obligations. Her seer friend winked to Jasmine on her way out, wishing her good luck.

Theo was sitting next to her, signing away as he ate. "You do realize that the rest of your family is just as curious as your cousin to see your inheritance ritual?" Theo teased as he brought a fork full of cake to his mouth. He had mentioned that this was one of the few perks to not being able to speak. He never had to worry about talking with his mouth full.

That thought hadn't really crossed her mind...then again even as Harriet, she had never been curious about other family's inheritance rituals. They weren't her problem. But, she had come to realize that most Noble Houses wanted to know what secrets the other families were hiding.

Jasmine put her fork down. She had been playing with the last bit of icing left on her plate for nearly ten minutes. "You could be right. The Peverell Family has kept this ritual secret for hundreds of years."

"Do you have everything prepared?"

Jasmine raised an eyebrow and he shrugged, his long hair spilling over his shoulder, unapologetically. He had to ask. Theo always asked, in every life she made it to seventeen if she was ready to take the official mantel of Master of Death. It wasn't that she wasn't already the Master of Death in spirit, this is just made it official in the current timeline, but with this body it theoretically would be different since she had direct Peverell blood.

"I like to think so. Death is very excited." She signed back, not wanting her friends and family to really know what she was saying. It would cause far too much trouble.

"It is never a good thing if that creature is excited. It almost killed you a couple months ago."

She was about to reply when Sirius, James and Remus came bounding into the room, excitement rolling off of them in waves. "Jazz! Come on! We have a surprise for you! It's finally dark enough for it!"