Chapter 6: The Duelling Club

Come on, wake up, Jasmine," A voice called, waking Jasmine up from her blissful sleep.

"What time is it?" Jasmine groaned out, still feeling very sleepy.

"9 am, the same time we always get up on the weekend?" Hermione said, sounding confused why she was asking the time.

'Well, I am not normally up till half 3 in the morning', Jasmine grumbled to herself. But she knew that she couldn't tell Hermione that she had sneaked into the Libary without her, or she wouldn't hear the end of it.

"Let me get a shower before we get breakfast," Jasmine said as she nearly flopped out of bed and crawled her way towards the showers.

Jasmine turned it to ice cold before stepping under it, gasping from the cold and grabbing the body wash.

"Morning, Jasmine," Parvati greeted as she walked into the showers.

"Morning," Jasmine gasped back, getting a strange look from Parvati.

"Cold shower needed it to wake up," Jasmine explained, seeing the look.

"Did Hermione keep you up studying?" Parvati asked.

"No, I was reviewing some spells I learned, given that I will be using them in the Duelling Club," Jasmine said as she turned the water slightly warmer.

"Really, hmm, my parents only taught me a few hexes for protecting myself. What spells do you know?" Parvati asked.

"Some stronger variations of the Flipendo charm as well as the disarming charm. What hexes did you learn?" Jasmine asked back.

It seemed to her that all magical families taught their kids some hexes for protection before they went to Hogwarts. Both Ron and Ginny knew a hex or two before coming to Hogwarts, even if Ron had trouble casting it in his first year.

"I was taught the Stinging Jinx and the disorientation hex," Parvarti said.

"I may have to look them up in the Library at some point," Jasmine said but was thinking of asking Daphne about the two spells whenever they next meet.

It sounded like Daphne sneaked into the Libary often to read books, so all she would have to do was wait there or use the map to find her though she would have to see if the twins would let her borrow it again.

"Well, I best hurry up. Hermione and Ron are waiting for me," Jasmine said, stepping out of the shower and grabbing one of the towels that were within hand reach.

"Okay, I will see you at the Duelling Club then," Parvarti said as she started to wash her hair.

Jasmine walked back into her dorm, drying herself off with the towel before grabbing her clothes for the day and checking that the two books were still under the pillow. She realised she needed a better place to hide things.

Not only was under the pillow one of the first places that people looked, but it also lacked room. She would need to think about it. A box under the bed may work.

Jasmine grabbed the map the twins had given her and ran down into the common room.

"Oh, thank god you're here now. We can get some food," Ron said, getting to his feet.

Jasmine rolled her eyes at Ron. From how he ate and talked about food, you would think that he had never eaten a proper meal in his life, which Jasmine knew not to be the case due to the summer she had spent at the Weasley's house.

Jasmine looked around the common room for the twins but couldn't see them. "Okay, let's go then," Jasmine said, guessing she would have to return it later.

Walking into the great hall, everyone was full of excitement for the upcoming duelling club regardless of which year they were in. Jasmine was just glad that each year had its own two-hour slot. It was just a shame that first-years were only allowed to watch.

But Jasmine also understood that almost no first years would be able to cast duelling spells, and that probably held true for the 2nd years as well.

As they walked towards their seats, Jasmine took a peek towards the Slytherin table, hoping to see Daphne. With a quick scan of the table, she quickly noticed Daphne's silvery blond hair but knew that she wouldn't get a warm welcome if she tried to walk over and say hello and didn't risk giving her a wave either.

Just as she was about to look away, Daphne looked up and towards her before looking away again and talking to what looked like a first-year who looked at Jasmine.

Jasmine noticed that she had the same icy blue eyes that Daphne had and guessed that they must have been sisters. Jasmine was tempted to give her a smile but decided better off and looked away as she took her seat at the Gryffindor table.

Jasmine loaded her plate up with food, which she had avoided last year, given that she would return to the Dursleys. Now though, she had more houses than she knew what to do with.

And even though the Potter Manor needed some work, she still had 4 other places where she could live during the summer, so she didn't need to worry about not being able to eat as much as she wanted.

"You hungry?" Hermione asked, seeing the amount of food she had put on her plate.

"Yep," Jasmine said as she dug into her scrambled egg and bacon.

"Do we know who is going to be doing the Duelling club yet?" Ron asked with a mouthful of food.

Jasmine saw Hermione's eye twitch from Ron talking with food in his mouth before she seemed to count down from three in her head.

"Not yet, but it must be Flitwick. Who else other than a duelling champion would you get?" Hermione asked.

"Dumbledore is still an option, even if he is a little old," Jasmine said.

In truth, she would rather be taught by Dumbledore. She didn't have anything against Flitwick, but she didn't know if he had ever fought against dark wizards.

Given how the first year went and how this second year was going, she would rather learn how to fight against dark wizards than how to have a friendly duel with someone that she knew wouldn't really hurt her.

She wasn't stupid. The three of them surviving last year had a lot of luck involved. She should have been killed in the forbidden forest when they found Voldemort drinking Unicorn blood. Why Voldemort didn't just blast her into a million pieces there, and then she didn't know.

She hated that feeling both times she had met Voldemort. She was powerless against him, and that was him weakened, and on the edge of death. She shuddered to think how powerful he was during his prime.

"Well, we only need to wait 3 hours before the Duelling class starts, but first, I want to go to the library and look through some books on duelling charms and regulations," Hermione said.

"Doesn't Ron know them he accepted a duel for my last year?" Jasmine asked.

"Hmm, no, I don't know the rules for duels," Ron said with a shrug making Jasmine's eye twitch. He had accepted a duel for her last year without knowing anything about the rules.

Jasmine took a deep breath. "Okay, we can go to the library, but I think almost everyone else in the school has the same idea," Jasmine said, looking around the great hall where the Ravenclaw table only had a few students.

"Err, well, it's still worth a look," Hermione said less excitedly, no doubt guessing that all the good books were no doubt gone.

"Well, let's go then, or there will be zero books left," Jasmine said, standing up.

"Wait, I am not done eating," Ron said, holding up a sausage and bacon sandwich.

"Eat it on the way to the Libary, Ron," Hermione said, standing up.

Jasmine was amazed at how quickly Hermione was walking and even had to jog to keep up with her, which was something Ron was unhappy about as he was trying to eat his sandwich on the way there.

As they got to the entrance of the Libary, what Jasmine had guessed turned out to have been right. Almost all of the Ravenclaw houses seemed to be in the Libary.

"Good luck Hermione," Jasmine said, seeing the sea of people and almost every seat in the Libary was taken.

Looking around, Jasmine saw someone that she recognised and walked over to say hello.

"Hi, Luna," Jasmine said, walking up to the table she was sitting at with another Ravenclaw and seemed to be sharing a book.

"Hi, Jasmine. Cho is helping me with some schoolwork," Luna said.

"I see. Are you looking forward to the Duelling Club?"

"Nope, I don't like the teacher," Luna replied.

"Err, no one knows who the teacher is, do they?" Jasmine asked as she tried to think if she had overheard anyone saying who the teacher was.

"I don't like him. He's a liar, always making people forget," Luna said as she went back to work with her homework.

Jasmine took a look at Cho, who just shook her head, telling her to let it go, which Jasmine thought was rather kind of her as she was sure that many others wouldn't have been that kind.

"Okay, I will see you at the club then," Jasmine said before she went to find Hermione, who seemed to be in a bad mood as she was looking through the bookshelves.

"All the books are gone. How can they not have more than a few copies of each book," Hermione asked more to herself.

"Books cost money, and the school is primarily government funded with no doubt some donations from past students," Jasmine said.

"Let's just grab some books on charms or hexes and read them," Hermione said.

Jasmine thought it would be a bit pointless to read them now if she was hoping to learn a spell 3 hours before the duelling club. Hell, she only learned the spells from Daphne, as two of them were just variations on a spell she already knew.

As for the disarming spell, it was odd how quickly she had learned it and how strong it was when she used it. But nonetheless, she followed behind Hermione as she picked out a spell book on hexes. Jasmine didn't bother getting a book, and Ron looked even less happy to be here surrounded by people studying.

Eventually, after a good amount of looking, they managed to find a place to sit down, and Jasmine closed her eyes as she imagined her casting the spells that Daphne had taught her over and over in her mind.

"Come on, it's time for lunch," Hermione said, waking Jasmine up, that had fallen asleep.

"Hmm ya, let's go," Jasmine said with a yawn.

"Ron gets up," Hermione said, shaking Ron awake.

"Is it time for the Duelling club?" Ron asked.

"No, we are getting lunch first," Jasmine said, getting to her feet.

Looking around, the Libary had emptied out a lot compared to a few hours ago, and I guessed they had all gone to get food before the Duelling club started.

Once they had gotten to the great hall, Jasmine saw the two twins and walked over to them.

"Keep it till later. We have pulled a prank and don't want a teacher to see if in case they can figure out what it is," one of the twins said.

"Okay, after the Duelling club in the common room then," Jasmine said before she walked over to sit next to Hermione.

Jasmine looked at all the food and wished there was more variety in the types of food that were served at Hogwarts. There was nothing wrong with it, but she would love to try some Chinese or Indian food without waiting for summer.

She was a little surprised that she hadn't ever heard Parvarti complain about all the food being English. Given that her family came from India, she would have expected that she would have grown up eating Indian food.

Jasmine looked around the room as they entered the Duelling club and wasn't surprised to see that it looked a lot like the one that she and Daphne had used only, unlike the one platform that the Slytherins had.

This room had a total of three large platforms. On the other side of the room were much smaller platforms. Jasmine looked around the room, hoping to see who was teaching them but yet she couldn't see any teachers.

Jasmine had to stop herself from groaning as she saw Gilderoy Lockhart walking onto the stage in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black.

Thankfully Professor McGonagall and Flitwick weren't far behind. Jasmine guessed it made sense with the number of people that would be duelling each other two teachers wouldn't be anywhere near enough.

Truth be told, Jasmine was surprised that the Gryffindors and the Slytherins were even going to be allowed to duel each other. After all, many of the parents or relatives of the students in Slytherins were death eaters.

And they were responsible for the deaths of many family members in the other houses, and while Jasmine wouldn't blame their children for what their family members did, she wasn't sure everyone else would be as open-minded as herself.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Perfect."

"Now the Headmaster has allowed me to start this duelling club in case you ever need to protect yourself from as I have had to countless times, as my books will tell you," Lockhart said, taking off a silly side cape and throwing it into the crowd.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. Jasmine took a look over at Professor Snape and shivered at the look in his eyes, and wondered if Lockhart would live past today.

"Do you recon that Lockhart can actually duel? Looking at how Snape is glaring at Lockhart, he much either be really confident or really, really stupid," Jasmine whispered to Ron.

"Of course, he can. Why else would Dumbledore let him run the club if he can't?" Hermione asked.

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered back.

"Well, it's nice to dream, but I don't think Lockhart will get a single spell off," Jasmine said back.

"He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you to worry. You'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

Jasmine doubted that 75% of the school would be upset if Snape was to be injured. In fact, she would guess that even some Slytherins didn't like Snape that much.

Jasmine watched as the two men walked to the centre of the Duelling platform before then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"This is how you should hold your wand before the duel starts, and then we will turn around and take a step on the countdown before turning around and casting out spells at each other. Of course, neither of us will be going for a kill," Lockhart said.

Jasmine felt that just because they weren't going for the kill didn't mean that Snape could hurt him really badly.

"One- Two- Three"

Both of them took steps on each call out before turning around and raising their wands, and pointing them at their opponent.

Before Lockhart could say a single word, Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!"

There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light, and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backwards off the stage, smashed into the wall, with a loud bang and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Jasmine flinched and was surprised at how powerful Snapes, Disarming charm was. She had managed to knock Daphne off her feet and send her back a bit, but Snape had sent Lockhart back over ten feet, and if the wall wasn't there, she was sure he would have gone much further.

"Oh my god! Do you think he is okay?" Hermione asked, concerned.

"Who cares," Ron said, smiling at Lockhart's situation.

"Im sure he is fine, Hermione," Jasmine said.

While she didn't like Lockhart, she also didn't hate him to the point that she wished that he would be injured.

Lockhart let out a groan before standing up, looking quite embarrassed at his situation before he brushed himself off.

"Well, there you have it, one of the most basic duelling spells, the disarming charm, and as you can see, I have been disarmed," Lockhart said, holing up his empty hands before he went to pick up his wand.

"Of course, it was very obvious what you were going to do and would have been far too easy to block it with a shield charm," Lockhart said, walking back to the centre of the duelling platform.

"Enough demonstrating! We will be coming amongst you now and putting you all into pairs. Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick if you'd like to help me," Lockhart said after seeing the look of murder in Sanpes eyes at the idea of another demonstration.

Professor McGonagall gathered all of the Gryffindors together, and Jasmine couldn't help but feel a little disappointed as they hadn't even been taught any spells.

Sure Professor Snape used the disarming charm, but he didn't need the wand movement to use it, so the chances of the students being able to cast it after seeing it once were next to zero.

"Miss Potter, if you can pair up with Miss Brown and Miss Granger, if you could pair up with Miss Patil and wait for me to arrange everyone else, and I will teach you the first spell," Professor McGonagall said before walking over to the boys to put them into pairs.

Jasmine walked over to one of the smaller platforms with Lavender.

"Do you know any spells? I don't really know any that would be useful for duelling," Lavender said, worried.

Jasmine let out a mental sigh. She wasn't very fond of Lavender as she seemed to care more about her hair and who was dating who than she did learning magic, something Jasmine didn't understand.

Even if she held herself back, she still loved to learn magic and was quite good at learning magic when she put her mind to it.

As her night with Daphne showed, she learned Flipendo Duo, Flipendo Tria, Flipendo Maxima and the disarming charm all in a single night, even if they were not as powerful as they could have been.

"Right, we will be starting off with the stinging hex," Professor McGonagall said as she demonstrated the wand movement and how to pronounce the spell.

Jasmine turned to face Lavender. "You can try first," Jasmine offered.

Lavender nodded before drawing her wand and pointing it at Jasmine.

"Aculeatum," Lavender called out, along with many other students doing so a second later. But nothing happened when Lavender cast her hex.

Lavender blushed before taking a quick look around in case anyone else saw, but there wasn't much to be embarrassed about in Jasmine's view. Almost no one got a spell on their first try, and many other people hadn't been able to cast the hex either.

"Err, you try," Lavender offered.

Thanks to Daphne's lessons, she had learned a few things, and she really needed to visualise her spell and want it to happen.

"Aculeatum", Jasmine called, jabbing her wand like Professor McGonagall had done.

A white orb flew out of her wand and hit Lavender, making her jump a bit when it hit her.

"It was more of a small zap than a stinging sensation," Lavender said, trying to be helpful.

Jasmine didn't feel that bad about her spell as the only people who seemed to get it to work were purebloods who had no doubt been taught this spell before they came to Hogwarts and Hermione.

Jasmine and Lavender went back and forth for the next 20 minutes trying the stinging hex over and over on each other, and towards the end, they had both been able to get it working somewhat.

Lavender's hex felt more like a slap than a sting, but her own hex had gotten much stronger, and Lavender didn't seem happy to be her test dummy towards the end.

"Right, everyone wands down!" Lockhart called out, causing everyone to stop.

"Now we have all randomly picked opponents for you to go against in the last twenty minutes. You will notice that each of the duelling areas has a number, and your teacher will tell you which number you are going to, and then you will have someone to duel with," Lockhart said to everyone.

Jasmine walked over to the area labelled as number 2 and looked around to see who was at her arena. She saw Ron and Hermione walking over, which was a shock as she expected them to have been split up but wasn't unhappy that they were in the same group as her.

Next, there was a group of people from Hufflepuff consisting of Susan, Justin and Ernie, and the final group was from Slytherin. Jasmine was surprised to see that Daphne was part of the four people from Slytherin.

Jasmine watched as the first match started, with Susan going against Ernie. Jasmine took a quick look at Daphne as the match was going on, wondering when she would next be able to talk to her.

Looking back at the duel, it was over already, which shocked Jasmine as they had only been taught the stinging hex, so she had missed how Ernie had been beaten.

The next map was her against Ron.

Jasmine walked onto the platform with Ron following behind her and felt more shy than usual maybe it was because everyone in her group was watching her, and she didn't want to make a fool of herself.

Or maybe it was because she didn't want to let Daphne down after she took the time to teach her several new spells.

Jasmine walked to the centre and held her wand in front of her face as Ron did the same before they turned and took three large steps away from each other and raised their wands and someone on the side counted.

"One-Two-Three"

At the end of the countdown, Jasmine didn't hesitate for a second and cast Flipendo Duo, which raced down the duelling platform and hit Ron in the chest, sending him flying 3 feet backwards.

It was nowhere as good as when she used a dummy, but this was the first time she was using it on a persona, and she really didn't want to hurt Ron, making the spell much weaker than it should have been.

"Jasmine wins," the 5th-year student said from the side.

Jasmine walked over to Ron and helped him onto his feet.

"You okay?" Jasmine asked.

"Ya fine, nice spell though," Ron said as they walked off the platform.

As Jasmine watched the other people take their go, she was beginning to feel less confident about the people she had to duel against. Most of them were Purebloods and seemed to have some basic training in spells, and a few of them, like Susan and Daphne, whipped the floor with the people that they were duelling.

Soon Jasmine was back up on the platform against Tracey this time, and Jasmine wasn't hopeful that she could win. After all, Tracey was a friend of Daphne, and no doubt duelled with her as practice.

Jasmine took her place and got ready to cast her spell. As soon as the person in charge of the area counted to three, Jasmine sprung into action casting Flipendo Maxima, hoping to beat Tracey before she could get a spell off.

Jasmine saw her eyes widen at the spell, but she still managed to dodge it before she sent a group of sparks at Jasmine making her jump out of the way and into the path of a jet of water that knocked her over.

Jasmine sat up, looking a little shocked at Tracey, who had a slight grin on her face.

"Winner Tracey."

Jasmine walked down the platform, annoyed that all her clothing was wet and glared at Tracey, who wasn't paying her any attention. As the next match started, Jasmine was planning on asking Hermione to dry her off once her match was over, only for her to feel like she was wrapped in warm air before her clothes were dried.

Jasmine looked around before she noticed that Daphne was looking at her and gave a wink before looking back at the duel that was in progress. Jasmine sent on to duel Susan, who she lost against due to Susan knowing far more useful spells than she did.

Jasmine was really caught off guard when she used the Dancing Feet Jinx they learned in the first year to stop her from being able to cast spells and dodge the spells that Susan sent at her.

The same result happened when she went to a duel against Daphne. She was easily beaten, making her feel even worse when she used the Langlock jinx to stop her from talking and then sent her flying back with the Flipendo Duo jinx.

Hermione's last duel was against Millicent Bulstrode, who she managed to beat due to the large number of spells that she knew, including a weakened version of the shield charm that Jasmine wished Hermione had told her about.

In the end, Millicent charged at Hermione and started to try and physically attack her, with both girls pulling at each other hair before the 5th-year student had gotten involved and broke them both apart and informing the teacher, causing Slytherin to lose 15 points.

Finally, the duel that Jasmine was least looking forward to was her against Malfoy. She didn't think that she had a chance to lose as it seemed that Malfoy either didn't know many Jinx and Hexes or the ones he knew were too dark to use in public.

Honestly, she wasn't sure which one it was, to be fair but was leaning towards the second option. After all, his dad was a well-known death eater in Voldemort supporters' core section. She didn't think that he had become a good person for a second.

So she wouldn't put it past him to teach his son much darker magic than what was appropriate.

Jasmine looked over the Dueling platform at Maloy, who had a stupid cocky grin on his face.

"You ready to lose Potter," Malfoy asked.

"It's good to have dreams, but they should be realistic," Jasmine replied, keeping her focus the moment that the referee called 3. Jasmine wouldn't give him an ounce of mercy.

"Three,"

Jasmine cast Flipendo Maxima with as much will behind it as she could and was surprised a flash of white light rocketed out of Jasmine's wand and hit Malfoy, sending him flying off the platform and landing at the bottom of the stairs with a groan.

Unfortunately for Jasmine, Snape was watching the match as well and walked over and picked up Malfoy before whispering something into his ear and pushing him back onto the Dueling platform. Jasmine took a look at the 5th-year student, who looked very uncomfortable as Snape glared at him.

Draco raised his wand, and Jasmine went on guard as she raised her own wand.

"Serpensortia," Malfoy called out as a large black snake shot out of his wand, landed on the duelling platform, raised its head, and let out a hiss.

Jasmine wasn't an expert on snakes, but the large hood on its head made Jasmine think of the King Cobra almost immediately.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Jasmine standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it…."

Snape said, moving forward slowly as the snake turned to look at the people at the side and let out a hiss before lunging forward threateningly.

Jasmine felt a strange connection to the snake, and then she remembered that she had talked to a snake before she had come to Hogwarts and decided it was worth a chance to try again.

"Leave him alone!" And almost inexplicably, the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Jasmine as it swayed side to side.

Jasmine hadn't noticed that the entire hall had gone silent, looking at her, some in fear, some in shock.

"Come here," Jasmine ordered the snake again, and it slowly slithered away from the edge of the platform and made its way towards her.

Snape finally stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. The action seemed to have brought Jasmine's focus back to her surroundings.

"What the hell are you playing at!" Justin and Ernie shouted at Jasmine, making her confused as she had stopped the snake from attacking them.

Looking around, Jasmine noticed lots of people were giving her either dirty looks or they were giving her sacred looks. Only a few people stood out by giving her different looks.

Both Ron and Hermione were looking worried for Jasmine and were rushing towards her. She noticed some of the Slytherins were a mix of angry and curious, but the one that stood out the most was Daphne, who had an almost happy look on her face for some reason.

"Come on," said Ron's voice in her ear. "Move, come on," Ron said as she pulled the back of her jacket.

Ron steered her out of the hall as Jasmine was still trying to understand what was wrong, and Hermione hurried alongside them.

As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of something. Jasmine didn't have a clue what was going on, unlike Ron and Hermione, who didn't explain anything and just rushed her out of the room.

They didn't explain anything until they dragged her up to the empty Gryffindor common room. Ron and Hermione pushed Jasmine into an armchair and looked around before saying, "You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Parselmouth?" Jasmine asked, having never heard the term before.

"It means you can speak to snakes," Hermione added.

"So I talked to a big snake deal, Wizards can turn into animals and create them from thin air talking to snakes is hardly something amazing," Jasmine said, rolling her eyes.

"It's not the first time I have talked to a snake. I did it at a Zoo once as it was escaping to Brazil."

"A boa constrictor told you it was escaping to Brazil?" Ron repeated, confused.

"Jasmine, this is really bad," Hermione said.

"So I talk to snakes im sure many people here can do it,"

"Did the snake ever make it to Brazil?" Ron asked.

"Ron, focus!" Hermione said, sounding annoyed.

"Why are you making a big deal over me telling that snake not to attack people?" Jasmine asked, annoyed, given she had stopped a dangerous snake from attacking people.

"Oh, that's what you said to it? Well, to use, you were just hissing at the snake," Hermione said.

"Hissing? I was talking normally," Jasmine said, not remembering hissing at anything.

"No, you were hissing, and it sounded creepy as hell. It's no wonder that Justin and Ernie were both scared," Ron said.

"Why does any of this matter anyway?"

"It matters," said Hermione, speaking in a hushed voice, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

"Not only that, but the last Parslemouth was You-Know-Who," Ron said, looking around the empty room as if scared by what he had just said.

Jasmine lay awake for hours that night. She was unable to sleep as she wondered why she could talk to snakes. She had never really thought much of the ability when she first used it after all strange things happened around her often, like when she flew to the roof of the school building.

After what Ron had told her, she could now understand why everyone was so scared of her in the duelling club, given who the last well-known speaker of snakes was and why everyone, even many people in her own house, were wary of being near her during dinner.

Jasmine let out a sigh. Her hand slipped under her pillow and touched the book Magic in the Bedroom when an idea popped into her head. Maybe the Library would be able to tell her more about Parslemouths, and if she checked at night, no one would know she had gone to look.

With that, Jasmine grabbed her invisibility cloak and the map of Hogwarts she hadn't yet returned and left the dorm quietly without anyone knowing.