Chapter 216: Family Impossibility
20th March 2012, New York City
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
Rose’s eyes lit up at the possibility of her meeting some extinct magical creatures. However, she schooled her features and said, “That’s nice and all, but I never agreed to become your successor.”
Her reply shocked me. I always thought that it was a given thing. Rose Potter loved magic, she loved experimenting with it, using it in general. It was her passion. This should be her dream job. Why would she have any reason to refuse?
“Why wouldn’t you?”
She must have seen the shock on my face so she backpedaled, quickly, “I didn’t say that I would refuse. I just want you to do something before I can accept.”
I gave her a confused look, “Like what?”
“I want you to speak to our parents.”
21st March 2012, Potter Cottage, Godric's Hollow
(Lily Potter POV)
It was unusually cold for a day in March, in Godric's Hollow. It was raining, which was somewhat normal in England; it was easier to count the days where it wasn’t raining to be sure. Still, James and Lily Potter sat huddled down in front of the fire. The Potter Lady was just reading a book, one that she had read over a dozen times already, and pretty much knew it by heart.
The Potter Lord, on the other hand, was just watching replays of Quidditch matches on his enchanted mirror. Lily had to say that it was quite the invention that changed the lives of pretty much all wizards and witches in the world.
Truth be told, if one were to look at James and Lily Potter, they would assume that they were a happily retired couple enjoying a parentless life. And why wouldn’t people assume that James Potter had retired as the Head of the DMLE, one of the most prestigious positions in magical Britain. Lily Potter was one of the most recognized Charms Mistresses in the country, and the current Headmistress of Hogwarts had begged her to come and teach at the prestigious school after Flitwick had retired.
Their two children also had prominent careers. Their son, Nathan, was the current Minister for Magic, and had married a lovely young woman, Tracy Davis, and fathered two wonderful children, the eldest, Jasmine, was going to Hogwarts for the first time in a few months.
Their daughter Rose, on the other hand, was a well known prodigy in magic, with mastery over magics never seen before, and whose power was renowned in all of Europe, if not the world.
Is it any wonder that people think that the Potter couple were still happy? And the truth was, that they should be happy. People were envious of their success, of their children’s success, of their newfound fortune. The Potter vaults were practically empty when the first war had ended, and it took a lot of effort for them to slowly build back the Potter fortune. Even then, James’ salary wasn’t enough, and Nathan couldn’t even afford to try, especially after he became a father. In the end, it was Lily and Rose who ended up collaborating on a few charms books, which ended up being so successful that they were recommended by charms classrooms in Hogwarts and even translated versions were created for books abroad.
With that said and done, the profits from the books were more than enough to rebuild the Potter fortune back to what it used to be before Dumbledore had tricked James into financing a war. Even then, the Potters still weren’t one of the wealthiest families in the country, but they still regained some of their standing in the community, not that there was much of a community left. The balance of Power in the Wizengamot was destroyed when the entire Death Eater population died when Voldemort did, and with Dumbledore gone, both political parties, the traditionalists and the progressives, had fallen completely.
The Grey faction, or the conservatives, did their best to revive the economy by spreading policies for commerce and trading. This snowballed into turning magical Britain into the hub of magical development and markets. People stopped caring about magical lineages, outside the few that had bloodline abilities and remarkable affinities, that is. Instead, they cared about the gold in their vaults, the innovation that this family made, and so on. It was far better than the pure blood ideology, magical Britain was still elitist, but everyone had the same chance to succeed.
So, that meant that in a society like this, the Potters were considered elites. Anyone would be happy in their position. But if someone took a closer look at them, they would notice the bags under Lily’s eyes, and that James’ hair started going grey. They rarely smiled in private, they rarely attended parties, unless it was to celebrate an accomplishment by one of their children, or grandchildren. Outside these celebrations, the couple was rarely seen in public.
The worst part was that everyone knew the culprit of the Potters’ misery. It was their daughter, the Lost Potter, the one that they gave away, the one that didn’t grow up a Potter. The one that they had lost forever, by Dumbledore’s hand.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Truthfully, everyone in the magical world mourned the young woman’s passing. It wasn’t because of any connection to her, but because of what she could have represented, a new era of magical development. It was commonly known that the young girl was a magical genius. They had never seen anyone with that much skill in magic while being that young. They might never see it again. But one thing was for sure, and that was, that Jasmine Potter had created entire magical fields and extremely powerful spells that still stumped the Unspeakables. Even now, Rose Potter was rumored to have access to the young witch’s grimoire which is without a doubt currently the most valuable magical tome in the world.
Many have tried to attack Rose Potter in an attempt to steal the rumored book, but every attempt failed miserably, the young Potter being far more powerful than they expected.
Still, Jasmine Potter died almost twenty years ago, and yet the Potter couple could still feel her absence deeply. The truth was the fact that their relationship was inconclusive. That was the problem, in the end. Lily’s daughter just ignored them, she didn’t want anything to do with them. Her baby wasn’t angry, wasn’t hateful, or outraged, she just told them to stay away and not speak to her.
Lily had expected their inevitable reunion to have tears, shouting, insults, hateful comments. She was prepared for all of this. Even if she wasn’t in her right mind, she had abandoned her daughter, her own flesh and blood, and she deserved all of Jasmine’s hate.
But the apathy was far worse. Their daughter just didn’t care about them. If she was honest, Lily would have preferred her daughter to hate her. It would be proof that Jasmine still cared somewhat. But this disinterest was worse, far, far worse.
Lily ended up watching from the sidelines as two of her children risked their lives in meaningless tasks for the entertainment of the magical world. It was horrible. But it didn’t come close to watching her own daughter die by the hand of someone she trusted implicitly, just because of his greed.
Dumbledore’s betrayal had stung her deeply, but losing Jasmine, and any chance of ever reconciling with her was far worse. Her daughter had never said that she forgave her, or that she loved her. There was so much that Lily wanted to say, wanted to do, and she will never get the chance to.
Perhaps if she had never given her blood to Dumbledore to summon her in the first place, her daughter would still be alive, even if they would never have seen each other again. It would have been much more preferable than to watch her die because of her own mistakes.
And Lily knew that she was guilty. But the pain of losing your child was agonizing, it was mind breaking, it was far worse than anything she had ever experienced, more than a thousand Cruciatus Curses, more than anyone could describe. And Lily would admit to not being strong enough to handle it. After the funeral, she had broken down completely. She didn’t leave the house for years, and when she did, it was just to see Nathan graduate.
It was a slow road to recovery and even then, Lily was never the same after that. There was a gaping hole in her chest, a missing piece in her heart where her daughter previously resided.
James wasn’t any better, but he was able to bear through it for her sake. He became solemn, serious. He stopped joking around, stopped getting into trouble with Sirius and Remus. The Black Lord ended up stifled from the constant misery and slowly stopped visiting so much. Remus still visited, once in a while, but it wasn’t enough to mend the breach between them.
Sirius did lose a god daughter, but while he was sad for a few months, he had never gotten to know Jasmine, and she wasn’t his daughter, not really. It was cruel, in a way, but Sirius had ended up losing his best friend to his grief. Now, they only met on birthdays, nothing more.
The grief was still there, but the wound was closing. It was still scarred but they were healing. Lily ended up throwing herself into her charms research, and James into his career. But slowly, they started to burn out. James stopped enjoying his job, Lily started to take more free time away from her laboratory. After a while, they decided to retire, to stop running from their pain and confront it. They now accepted that they would never be the same after Jasmine’s death, but that it didn’t need to break them. They just needed to live with the pain. It was their decision, after all.
Lily still hated her sister for what she had done to her daughter. But it seems that the universe punished her without Lily even doing anything. Her husband, Vernon, was found to be guilty of embezzling funds from the company he worked for. He ended up going to jail for five years. When he had gotten out, he could barely get any work and he ended up working at a minimum wage job at a fast food restaurant until he died from a heart attack. As for Petunia, she got into a car accident during Vernon’s incarceration and was paralyzed from the waist down.
The crippled woman had begged Lily for help, but the redhead had answered her sinisterly, ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’, the same quote the bitch told her when she bragged about what she did to her daughter. She was deemed unfit to continue taking care of her son, who ended up in an orphanage. Funnily enough, the boy had gotten straight and worked hard. He got a scholarship and went to university. He’s now in good shape and works as an accountant at a firm in London. It was probably a better future than whatever his parents had planned for him.
In a way, the Potters ended up getting their revenge, from the Dursleys, from Dumbledore… and without anyone left to blame but themselves, they made peace with their mistakes.
Suddenly, Lily felt her mirror vibrate. It was a message from her daughter, Lily spoke up, “James, Rose sent me a message telling me that she’s coming over with a guest.”
“Did she finally find someone to settle down with? I’ve been practicing my shovel talk for decades but she never brought anyone home.”
Lily snorted, “I don’t think so; she didn’t mention anything the last time she came over. As far as I know, she’s still traveling the world with her friends.”
“Wanda and Jean, right?”
Lily nodded, “Alright, let’s get ready before they arrive.”
James sighed and got up. They both went to their bedroom to wear clothes that are at least acceptable for receiving visitors. By the time they were done, they heard Rose’s voice, “Mum, Dad, I’m home.”
Lily stepped down to speak with her daughter, but as soon as she took a look at her guest, she froze completely. She recognized the black hair, the porcelain white skin, the green eyes, her green eyes. That couldn’t be. Lily muttered while stuttering, “J-Jasmine?”