Chapter 6: Disappearance Aftermath

July 7th, 1989; Godric's Hollow

(Lily Potter POV)

Today was the day Lily Potter had been waiting for. Eight years ago, James made the frankly idiotic move to give away their daughter when Lily wasn’t in her right mind.  The separation had been very difficult for her; it had almost broken her when she realized that her daughter was gone.

It took her almost a year to recover from the heartache and turmoil caused by her mental breakdown after Voldemort’s attack on Godric’s Hollow. During that time, her husband James had been incredibly supportive and understanding, and funnily enough, her pregnancy had helped to bring some balance to her emotions by balancing her hormones, or at least that’s what she theorized.

However, the happiness towards her recovery she felt was short-lived when she learned about what happened to Jasmine, her darling daughter. She was filled with anger and frustration towards James and could barely comprehend how he could have allowed their daughter to be sent away.

James had absolutely no right to abandon their daughter. Sure, Lily wasn’t in her right mind, but making such a drastic decision without any other input other than Dumbledore’s words was completely irrational. Sometimes, Lily resented the faith her husband seemed to develop in the headmaster while she was ill. It was this kind of blind loyalty that always made her wary of her husband’s opinions whenever he was involved. It was like all the misgivings they had during the war had just disappeared overnight after Voldemort’s attack on Godric’s Hollows.

Perhaps it was the fact that they refused to have Dumbledore as the secret keeper and chose to do the ruse with Sirius and choose Wormtail as the secret keeper. Dumbledore had advised against choosing Sirius and was left in the dark, which resulted in the attack in the first place.

Lily barely spoke to James for months. She would have left him outright for what he had done if it wasn’t for the blood wards that Dumbledore installed to protect her family. They could not leave the wards without risking some sort of backlash. It was a feature that is supposed to deal with any potential attackers, but here it served more as a prison.

Adding in the fact that she was pregnant, Lily had reluctantly started speaking with her husband and eventually forgave him for what he had done. It was a difficult decision and Lily wasn’t helping matters. She had no illusions that Dumbledore used her condition to convince James and keep them away from the rest of the wizarding world, not that they knew what the hell he was up to. They were completely separated from the outside world. Hell, they even had to use duplication charms on their food so that they wouldn’t starve.

Oh, how Lily wished she could just rip apart these wards and take her baby from Petunia. She had a faint hope that sharing custody over Jasmine would make them get closer. How could she not love her immediately? Her daughter was adorable after all. It was only the fear of the magical backlash that could have on Jasmine that stopped her from doing this outright.

Even if it wasn’t her decision that sent Jasmine away, Lily couldn't help but feel that she had failed Jasmine and was determined not to fail her new child as well.

Lily had lived with the guilt for so long, but no more. Because after all those years, Dumbledore finally found a replacement for the Bonds of Blood wards. He found some sort of obscure ritual that would cleanse their cottage from the dark magic residue from the attack. It used some sort of combination of phoenix tears and some exotic ingredients. It took some time to gather everything for the ritual, but after eight years, Dumbledore removed the blood wards and removed the oppressive dark magic residue that they have been living in for so long. Instead, he put in place a Fidelius charm, which protected them enough, and would allow them to return to the outside world once more. James could go back to being an Auror, Lily would probably still stay at home with the children while pursuing her charm mastery with Professor Flitwick, which was interrupted by the war.

But that wasn’t important. Finally, it was time for Jasmine to come back home.

Lily wasn’t the only one excited about it. Nathan, Lily’s son, was curious to meet his twin sister. Though Lily and James had told him about her, he had no memories of her and everything he knew was second-hand. Lily was both worried that he didn't sense his twin as most twins do. However, Dumbledore chalked it up to it being a side effect of the Bonds of Blood ward. Lily hoped that it would be reestablished once they were reunited.

Lily remembered Jasmine as a miniature version of James with her mother's eyes. Nathan, on the other hand, had grown red streaks in his hair that was probably inherited from his sister, as well as having his father's hazel eyes. Before the red streaks, he had looked like a perfect carbon copy of his father, but now he looked like his own person. Lily wondered if Jasmine had also grown red streaks in her hair or if she had kept it the same color. The thought that she didn't know brought a pang of sadness to her heart.

Despite her sadness, Lily was overjoyed at the thought of having Jasmine back home and was excited to introduce her to her new little sister, Rose. Rose had been born a year after Jasmine was sent away, on February 8th 1983, and was the spitting image of her mother with James' hazel eyes. Believe it or not, giving birth without a healer or a Medi-witch of some kind, was a frightening experience. She had to rely on books and James' wonky healing charms that he practised when he realized the dangers that involve giving birth without supervision.

It was the morning after the Fidelius charm was set up again, and it was time to get Jasmine, "James! Nathan! Come on, we need to go pick up Jasmine!" The sound of people running down the stairs was heard and James and Nathan rushed into the living room where Lily was waiting. "Sorry, honey." said a breathless James. "But we have to wait for the others. You know that Dumbledore has to be there to take down the wards at Petunia's house before we bring Jasmine here and place the Fidelius. If not, the two overlapping magics could backlash against each other and hurt Jasmine."

James really had matured from his youthful days. Lily remembered when they were young, he had been a bit of a braggart and a little bit cruel. However, through tragedy and conflict, they had grown closer, and he slowly became a good man who she fell in love with, despite his misgivings and flaws. He wasn’t as cheerful anymore, nor was he constantly pulling pranks. Perhaps it was the fact that if he had pranked her or his children, she would have had his hide, or maybe it was the absence of his friends during their isolation. James’ reunion with Sirius and Remus was a very tearful one indeed.

After everyone arrived, they set off on their journey to retrieve Jasmine, Lily couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions. She was excited to finally have her eldest back home but also filled with guilt for not being there for her all these years. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had failed Jasmine, but was determined to make it up to her and give her the loving and supportive home she deserved.

James, on the other hand, looked like he was filled with a sense of relief. He had been carrying the weight of guilt for leaving Jasmine with his sister-in-law for all these years, and couldn't wait to finally make amends and bring her home.

As they apparated to Privet Drive, Lily was shocked by finding how disgustingly mundane everything was. It was unnatural. The houses looked exactly the same, down to the plant. It was like some of the old commercials that Lily had seen in her youth come to life.

Did Petunia really live in such a place? Lily couldn’t stomach the idea of spending more than an afternoon in this place, and she doesn’t seem to be the only one with the same idea. Sirius had a visible look of disgust on his face but didn’t make a joke, seeing the seriousness of the situation.

Dumbledore slowly walked towards a certain house and frowned, “How odd. Jasmine doesn’t seem to be in the house right now. Perhaps, she’s simply visiting a friend. It doesn’t matter, I’ll simply remove the wards and we could track her down once we’re inside.”

Dumbledore put a notice-me-not charm around them and proceeded to move his wand in a very complicated pattern. A few arithmetic formulas appear and then with a final wave, a small imperceptible shell appeared in the air and started dissolving, showcasing the fact that the ward was disarmed. He nodded to them but asked, “The ward is down. How curious.”

“What’s curious Professor,” Lily asked.

“The ward is much weaker than yours. Perhaps it was the fact only one witch currently lives there. I’ll need to research this further. As for now, it’s time to meet your sister, Lily.”

They slowly walked towards the disgustingly symmetrical house and knocked on the door. It didn’t take long for someone to open it, which happened to be Petunia. Lily’s sister immediately scowled at them, especially at Dumbledore who was wearing a bright purple cloak. She then looked directly at Lily and sneered, “What are you doing here?”

Lily’s heart dropped at the way her sister was addressing her but put it in the back of her mind; Jasmine was more important than Petunia’s jealousy, “We’re here to pick up Jasmine.”

Petunia stiffened and glared at her, “Well, she’s not here. So, you can piss off, Lily.”

She tried to close the door, but Lily stopped her, “What do you mean she’s not here?”

“Did you really think you could just leave her here without even sending a letter? We weren’t financially stable enough to deal with an extra child and not a freak one at that. We agreed, Lily, to keep our two worlds separate after our parents’ funeral. I have respected this, and you haven’t. You can’t just send your brat at me just because you don’t want her. As soon as I realized that you weren’t watching us, we got rid of her.”

Lily glared at her sister, “We trusted you with her welfare.”

“Exactly, you just left her in the middle of the night on her doorstep. You don’t do that to someone or is common courtesy not a thing you learnt in your freak school? It doesn’t matter, we left her as far away as we could, in the streets. She’s probably in an orphanage somewhere. She couldn’t even pull her weight around with her chores, and we Vernon had lost a big contract, so we had to let her go. Good riddance, I wanted nothing of that freakishness in my house.”

As she ranted, the wizards paled. Lily had lost her voice from the venom in her sister’s voice, “What have you done, Petunia. Where is my daughter?”

Tears were stinging her eyes, ready to explode out of her. The house rumbled with her accidental magic. She wasn’t even supposed to have any after so long, but she just couldn’t contain herself. The door violently opened, and Lily almost readied her wand to hurt her sister. Dumbledore ended up sending a calming charm at her. It didn’t stop her rage and fear, but it was enough that she wouldn’t have killed her sister.

The headmaster slowly walked towards Petunia with a very serious expression on her face, “where did you leave Jasmine?”

Petunia must have felt the danger of lying to him and simply answered, “New York. We left her there three years ago when we went there for a business meeting that Vernon needed to go to.”

Lily glared venomously at her sister, “You call me a freak, but what you’ve done is far more terrible than anything I could have. I would have never done this to your son.”

“As if I would leave a son with freaks like you! You’re the one who abandoned her. You’re the one who didn’t love her enough to care for her. Now, leave. You are not welcome here.”

The moment they left the lawn, Lily ran towards the headmaster, “Please tell me you can find her professor!”

“I will do my best, Lily. But the relations between America and the ICW have worsened in the last decade or so. There’s a blockade in place and I’ll need for permission to search the place. I’ll ask a few of my contacts to track down any signs of accidental magic in the last few years, but it was too far back, and it’s probably too late to get something useful out of it. I promise you, Lily, I will do my absolute best to find your daughter. The fault lies in me just as much as it does in Petunia. I should have known not to trust her with your daughter, and for that, I am deeply sorry.”

With that done, Dumbledore apparated away, probably to start the search for Jasmine. Unfortunately for Lily, it all felt like empty platitudes. Jasmine was gone for good, and Lily had no idea what to do. Consumed by her despair and guilt, Lily collapsed, barely caught by her husband.

She didn’t know what she was supposed to do.