The Last Peverell

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

It was the evening before the matches and the nervous energy from all the different contestants was palpable. Lily hadn't slept the night before, she had been tossing and turning from dusk to dawn, much to Jasmine's dismay.

Flitwick had gathered his duelists right outside of the Hogwarts boundary line. It was a chilly evening, but for once it was sleeting out in his miserable winter weather. The Marauders were bouncing from foot to foot as they waited for last few students to reach the designated area. Remus was there to see them off, giving his friends a good natured pat on the back, which ended up as some kind of dogpiled hug.

When everyone arrived they were gathered by year and portkeyed to the dueling center in Berlin. They landed in the courtyard, some crashed onto the grassy surface, while others managed to stay standing. Lily and Severus ended up a heap on the ground, Sirius and James were holding each other up for support. After nine lives of magical travel, Jasmine could manage to land gracefully via portkey...floo travel was another matter entirely. She still couldn't bloody figure out how that worked.

She dusted off her robes and straightened her hair out, portkey travel tended to leave one looking rather windswept.

The weather was overcast and frigid, but their rooms were heated, they had a cottage feel to them, with brick walls and personal hearths. Each school or academy was put into a separate housing unit, and then they were broken down into further groups, by age, and finally by gender. Attempting to see any of the other schools was strictly forbidden. Anyone breaking the rules would be disqualified without prejudice.

So, that meant that James and Sirius were going to be rooming with a very wary Severus Snape, while Lily and Jasmine prayed that nothing awful would happen during the night in the boys' room to deter their chances of bringing home a victory for their school.

"Do you think that they'll do something to Severus?" Lily whispered before they attempted to turn in for the night. The beds were narrow and had long thick comforters over the top with heating charms on them to keep the cold out.

Jasmine snorted as she got herself comfortable, "if they know what's good for them, they won't touch a hair on Severus' head. We need all the chances we can get against the other schools tomorrow."

Lily muttered something under her breath before burrowing into her blankets. Jasmine had a feeling that Lily wouldn't be sleeping much tonight, but she wasn't going to comment on it. Everyone dealt with nerves a different way.

Jasmine laid back on her bed, hands behind her head, eyes closed. She stretched her rune vision trough the wall nearest her to where the boys were supposed to be sleeping, just to make sure that they weren't killing each other. To her surprise they all seemed to be in bed, not facing each other, but not murdering one another. Severus was on the far right, curled into himself and as far away from James and Sirius as possible. The two Marauders appeared to be sleeping. Maybe they had been awake the entire night before like Lily and fell asleep the moment their heads hit their pillows.

It wasn't long before Jasmine let herself relax and fall into a light sleep.

She dreamt of death's wicked grin against his pale face, promising nothing but trouble in her near future.

~*~

The arena was a large Roman like structure and had enough seating to fit the twelve different schools' duelists and the instructors. It had to seat around three hundred people, not to mention the large center platform that would hold each duel below the stands. It was only a half an hour before the seventh years would start to duel the other upper years. A small shiver went up Jasmine's spine at the similarity it held to the dueling pit she had fought in for years under the Chesters tender care. Jasmine's fingers curled around the railing as she peered down into the pit. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, her breath started to come in short small gasps. She felt a hand rest on her arm, "Are you alright, Jazz?" James whispered, the group had already moved towards their seats in the upper decks. She hadn't even realized they'd gone ahead without her.