Chapter 61: Funeral
26th June 1995, Godric’s Hollows
(Nathan POV)
When Nathan woke up today, it was several seconds before he remembered what will be occurring that day. Then he hoped childishly that it had been a dream, that Jasmine was still there and had never died, that Dumbledore had never betrayed him or raised him like a lamb to slaughter. Today was a very sad day in the Potter household. Today was the day of the funeral of Jasmine Potter.
Nathan had never been close to his twin sister, definitely not as close as Rose was. He ignored her at first, as a way to deal with his own guilt. Then when he reached out, she welcomed him with her arms open, the only thing that irked him was her unwillingness to accept his parents. Other than that, she was completely cordial and friendly, even if she was very secretive. He didn’t know how it began, but he started to feel hostility towards her, maybe it was Dumbledore’s words, maybe it was his own jealousy of her talent or of her relationship with her sister. He didn’t know and it didn’t matter anymore; his actions were all the same. He still tattled on her to Dumbledore which caused his father to disinherit her officially. He even stopped her relationship with Rose. Rose was never the same after that, she smiled less, barely talked to anyone and just felt numb. That little action cost him and his family the last few months they could have had with her, something her regrets severely.
He could not mourn her, not truly; he never knew her, really knew her. He didn’t know what she liked, what she hated, what her favorite food was, what her favorite spell was. Nathan mostly mourns what could have been. Before, he had been so sure that he never wanted to see her again and didn’t expect to after the Tri Wizard tournament. But now, that he was sure that he never will, he felt a deep sense of loss. Would she have survived, should he have tried to befriend her, should he have not betrayed her?
Probably not. He was not under the delusion that he could beat Albus Dumbledore; his sister had died to him, and she was miles better that he was. But perhaps those last few months would have been spent with her, instead of pushing her away.
Nathan jumped down from his own bed and slowly walked out of his room. He tried his very best to avert his eyes from the door of Jasmine’s empty room. His parents had been taking care of it, even after they gave her away and had furnished it when they knew that she was going to summoned later that year. When he was younger, that door had served as a motivation for him to get better. He had dreamt of finding his twin and going on adventures together. What a fool he was.
He still couldn’t believe that Jasmine was given away by their parents. It was a betrayal of the highest order. They might have liked to say they didn’t have any choice, but there was no reason to not check up on her. They could use the floo in their house, even if they couldn’t leave, they could still contact the outside world. His parents should have asked someone to check in on her, a squib or something to make sure she was alright. The misery and pain Jasmine suffered through was because of his parents’ betrayal just as much as it was his monstrous muggles relatives’ fault. She should have been angry at his parents, she should have been bitter, but she wanted nothing to do with them and in a way that hurt them more than if she had hated them.
He slowly walked towards the kitchen where his mother was silently making breakfast. No one said a word to each other, not even a hello. He knew that no matter the grief he felt, it paled compared to Rose’s or his parents. Rose lost her confidante, her best friend and his parents had just found out that they betrayed their child once more, but now they would never make it up to her, it was too late. They can call betraying her once an accident but the second time, they knew exactly what they were doing, not that he was any better, he did the same thing.
After waking up from the events in the graveyard, and getting treatment for exposure to the Cruciatus Curse, Nathan, his sister, and his mother were allowed to leave Hogwarts early to mourn their loss, not that anyone though they cared about her, it was more out of courtesy than anything. The press has been hounding them non stop trying to find anything against them or about Jasmine. It seems that even in death, his twin was still as mysterious as ever. The press spent the last few days trying to find anything about her but found absolutely nothing. Serves the idiots right.
The press painted a picture of her being the misunderstood hero who discovered Albus Dumbledore’s treachery and opposed him to protect the magical world from him. She had scarified herself valiantly to warn the magical world from their hidden enemy. Nathan, though, was portrayed as an unstable young man who was tortured into insanity by the Cruciatus. His parents and him agreed that they would keep what happened in Little Hangleton to themselves and said that he was trapped in an illusion showing that the dark lord was back. There was no need to create even more chaos. The minister seemed to sag in relief at their admission, he was apparently trying to get him to retract his delirious words about Voldemort coming back when he came back from the graveyard. Yeah, they had dodged a bullet there.
The press has been relentless of their pursuit of any type of information, reveling in the chaos. Rita Skeeter was even caught trying to infiltrate Hogwarts to interrogate students about Jasmine and was asked to leave by Professor McGonagall.
Speaking of Hogwarts, they were in a very bad situation with the Dumbledore situation. The man left them with a horrible reputation and quite the mess. Professor McGonagall was devastated with the man’s crimes and betrayals but still soldiered on to take the post of Headmistress, not that it changed much; she did do most of the job when she was still deputy Headmistress. Dumbledore was really only Headmaster in name, or if he wanted something specifically. Nathan had tried to find Mordred, to have someone to talk to but he couldn’t find her anywhere. Mordred wasn’t the only ghost having seemingly disappeared. Nathan heard rumors that Ravenclaw’s ghost, the grey lady, was never seen after the third task.
The visiting schools were definitely not happy with what happened. Dumbledore’s betrayal aside, their champions were put under an unforgivable each to ensure they wouldn’t win. With America closing their borders after Jasmine, being an American citizen, was murdered on British soil, on top of the situation with France and Scandinavian countries, international relations were in an all time low. Barty Crouch’s death didn’t help matters, they had a hard time replacing the man since he never delegated his work, meaning he did all the work himself.
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To the entire world, Britain was responsible for Albus Dumbledore’s crimes, especially his role in Grindelwald’s rise. Thank Merlin that the death eaters died with Voldemort, if they were still alive, they could have easily taken over the country in this state of affairs. With a large percent of the traditionalist party, also known as the dark party, dying and the progressive party, or the light party, having imploded when Dumbledore’s crimes were revealed, and the neutrals were pretty much scared out of their wits since they mainly only cared for business. Even Nathan, who was rarely interested in politics, knew that the situation in Britain was delicate.
Nathan shook his head, this was not the time to think about politics, this was the time to mourn Jasmine. He sat down and started to eat his breakfast. He looked at his mother’s face to find her eyes red with tears, she must have cried all night. His father was sitting in the living room, uncommonly silent in his grief. It was a few minutes later that his younger sister walked out of her bedroom. Her eyes were blank, like she was still processing what happened. She didn’t talk to anyone, just sat down, and ate her breakfast. After a few hours, his Uncles Sirius and Remus arrived by floo, and it was time for the funeral to begin.
They got out of the house in silence and walked towards the graveyard, which was by the church. There was a kissing gate at the entrance to the graveyard. Nathan’s mother pushed it open as quietly as possible and they edged through it and walked next to the church, getting past it. The path was slippery and there was mud around them; it must have rained recently.
Behind the church, row upon row of tombstones protruded from a blanket of pale blue that was flecked with dazzling red, gold, and green wherever the reflections from the stained glass hit the wet tombstones. Having never been to the graveyard, Nathan moved toward the nearest grave and read the name. It was an Abbot, probably a relation to Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff.
They walked deeper and deeper into the graveyard, the mud ruining their shoes and robes. Nathan did look at a lot of old tombstones, trying to find any Potter’s grave. He was curious, there might be a famous wizard or witch’s grave somewhere. Godric’s Hollows was the birthplace of Godric Gryffindor after all.
They kept walking and found the graves of Kendra and Arianna Dumbledore. Probably members of his former Headmaster’s family. The name Dumbledore seemed to make him angry now. The man had betrayed him in the worst way possible, he manipulated him into rejecting his twin sister, manipulated his parents to give away their daughter, tried to make him a martyr and wanted Voldemort to return. To think he thought of him as a surrogate grandfather of sorts, his betrayal broke his heart. He had watched the recording when he woke up at Hogwarts, the man was really as bad as Voldemort.
Again, Nathan cursed his wandering mind and focused on the matter at hand, this was his sister’s funeral. He walked past a very old grave of someone called Ignotus Peverell. That name was familiar for some reason, but he ignored it and continued following his father. It was only a few minutes later that they arrived at the Potter section of the graveyard. Nathan saw his father freeze for a second before two graves. He took a look at them and saw their names being Charlus and Dorea Potter. These were his grandparents. He often wandered what they were like; his father never spoke of them.
Next to his grandparent’s graves was an empty patch of land. His father swished his wand, and the dirt was replaced by a three feet deep hole. He then took out something from his pocket and with a flick of his wand enlarged it. It was a casket, and it was beautiful. It was bone white with Jasmine flowers carved all around it. His mother levitated the casket into the hole in the ground. The saddest thing was that there was no body to bury. All that was left of her was an empty casket.
His father then spoke for the first time that day, “Does anyone wish to say a few words?” He looked around to find a solemn Sirius that didn’t answer, Remus didn’t even stop looking at the empty white grave. His mother was sobbing, and Rose just shook her head.
He continued, “Alright, I will not pretend that I knew Jasmine well, and I have failed her in ways I could not describe. We all did, in our own ways. My biggest regret in life is my decision to give her away. But alas, we cannot travel back in time. I realize now that we didn’t even try to make an effort to have her back other than just asking her to come back to a family that caused her so much pain. We have failed her in life, but the least we can do is honor her in death. She was the bravest one of us all, a true Potter and died with her head held high like a Potter would. She did not bow. Perhaps we should learn from this, from her. She died a Potter and should be buried as a Potter. Goodbye, Jasmine. We will miss you.”
Everyone was tearing up. His father swished his wand once more and the hole was patched back up, as if it was never dug. His father took out something else from his pocket and enlarged it once again. It was a tombstone with a Jasmine flower on top, in the middle, Nathan read, “Jasmine Potter, may she bloom even in death”. It was as beautiful as the casket and Nathan had no doubt that his father made them himself.
They stayed at Jasmine’s grave for a while and left together, in silence, back to the cottage and sat down in the living room.
“She loved you, you know?” Nathan’s thoughts were interrupted by his sister’s voice.
Nathan looked confusingly at her, and she continued, “She loved you, believed in you. Even after you went to Dumbledore about her. I was angry, I told her that I hated you and that I wanted to leave with her. She said ‘Hate is a very strong emotion, Nathan is young, misguided, a bit naïve. Nobody is perfect when they’re growing up. Nathan has so much potential, he could help so many people and he needs you. It will come a time where he will understand how wrong he was, and you need to make sure to pick up the pieces.’”
“How, what I did was horrible.” He protested.
“Yes, it was. You broke my trust and Jasmine’s. You went behind our back, and it was wrong of you. Jasmine never blamed you for it, she always called you young, anyways.” She answered.
Nathan stayed silent, no believing what he had just heard.
“You’re not going to leave me?” he asked, hating how vulnerable he sounded.
Rose snorted, “No, I’m not. I’m honoring my sister’s final words to me. This is the last chance, prove to me that Jasmine was right about you, show me the potential she saw in you.”
Nathan nodded, “I will.” And he meant it. He was going to learn from what happened to Jasmine. He will never trust anyone blindly anymore; he will start thinking things through. He will make sure that nobody suffers like Jasmine did.
Rose seemed to approve to what she saw on his face because she smiled at him, it was the first time she did that in months and he knew that now, he and Rose were going to be closer than ever. It’s a shame that their sister had to die for it to happen.
They stayed silently until an owl came into the house and dropped a letter. It was supposed to be impossible; the wards stop unauthorized people from sending them mail. His father took the letter carefully, casting detection spells on the enveloped. Nathan assumed that it was safe because his father opened the letter. “It’s from Gringotts,” he said, “we’re being summoned to the bank. It’s about Jasmine’s will.”