Disclaimer: I do not own anything by J. K. Rowling or by Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa.

'Thoughts.'

Chapter 1: The Beginning

If anyone were to ask around Privet Drive what kind of person is "Jasmine Potter", the whole neighborhood would have replied with something along the lines of "a good-for-nothing problem child whom the Dursleys took into their household out of the goodness of their hearts". However, they couldn't be any farther from the truth.

Little Jasmine was a tiny waif of a girl with big, vivid green eyes hidden away behind a taped-up pair of coke-bottle glasses and a bird's nest of shoulder length black curls. Her small form was always swimming in worn out hand-me-down cloths that would normally fit a boy nearly twice her size and weight.

If anyone were to closely examine her actions, they would see that the girl was often seen going about the Dursley House doing all sorts of chores. Cooking, dishes, dusting, gardening. The amount of time spent would have been quite unusual for a girl her size and age to do to anyone who cared. Sadly, what was "unfair" was considered "necessary discipline" to the eyes of the residents of Privet Drive.

In school, she was always alone. Her cousin, Dudley Dursley, would regularly torment her with his friends with a game they made up called "Jasmine Jumping" both inside and outside of school whenever they had the chance. For the most part, she found she can get away by hiding in the library. There she would spend most of the day there reading whichever book caught her fancy until it was almost time for her to make her relatives dinner before turning into her room that was the cupboard beneath the staircase.

For a while, this was her daily life. No matter how much she wished things would change, she knew things wouldn't. But deep down, there was a part of her that dared to hope no matter how badly her aunt and uncle treated her. Little did she knew that things will change.

Not for the worst or what one would expect. But for the better.

(◎▼◎)

Jasmine was six years old when things finally started looking up. Their headmistress, C. Roemmele, managed to get the school she and Dudley attended involved in an international penpal program, which was a great honor as many of the schools from all over the world, were pretty prestigious and/or well-known.

The goal of the program was to promote international cooperation among the nations through their respective students. Every student at St. Grogory's Primary School was required to communicate by letter to the assigned person from another country for a minimal period of three months and then "introduce" their new "friend" to their respective class by the end of the year.

Names were all the information they were given. Everything else they would have to find out on their own through the exchange of letters. Some penpals were typically in the same country depending on the class, but they could be from different school districts and/or different grade levels altogether.

Their class was assigned with students from various Japanese elementary schools involved in the program. Jasmine was given someone by the name of "Doppo Kunikida" or 國木田 獨歩 as his name was written on her assignment requirements sheet. Dudley's penpal, on the other hand, was "Ranpo Edogawa" or 江戸川 乱歩.

According to their teacher, the cost of mailing letters to a foreign country was completely covered by the program so the students write as many letters to their penpals they want using the special paper, envelop, and stamps they provided.

Despite nearly all of the students showing growing interest in writing to their new penpal, Dudley kicked up a fuss over having to write a simple letter a "stupid foreigner who can't even speak English" for the next three months. As usual, the homework assignment was chucked towards Jasmine's way to do so "their precious Dudley wouldn't have to bother with uncultured Chinamen".

'Japanese,' Jasmine corrected them inside her head before vindictively adding, 'Not that you can tell with your beady little eyes… at least they're a lot bigger than all your brains combined.'

Despite the fact that she had to do Dudley's homework in addition to her own, she was actually looking forward to the assignment. To be honest, Jasmine was a little nervous about her new penpals. This could be her chance to have friends Dudley can't chase away by his bullying. What would they be like? Would they like her? Would she like them? Once she had quickly finished her meager dinner of a bowl of cold pea soup and glass of water, she immediately searched her ragged knapsack for the papers and took out an old pen.

Now what should she write?

AN: First chapter done! After finishing my first wave of midterms, I decided to celebrate by posting up this new story. Be warned! Updates will be sporadic at best, so please be patient with me.

But anyways thanks for reading, and please leave behind constructive criticism. (*ﾉω-)

Edited (7/13/17)