Disclaimer: Harry potter belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 8-connected by fate

James and Lily both reached out to steady Jasmine as the three of them apparated onto Diagon Alley. She was grateful for their support as her legs still felt wobbly at times and she feared that they would not be strong enough to reliably support her for quite a while. Even though the healers had discharged her, Jasmine was not under any illusion that she was completely cured. The hospital had far too many patients to deal with due to the myriad number of attacks happening all over the country and so any patient that was not in critical condition was quickly dealt with before being released to recover at home.

"I'm not sure we should have come out today," James spoke out as he observed his cousin anxiously. "You should still be in bed right now."

"I promise to go lie down the moment we're done here," Jasmine soothed her over protective cousin. "I just really need to get a wand. I feel so vulnerable without one."

"Come on then," Lily steered Jasmine in the direction of Ollivander's wand shop and James trailed behind them keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. The shop keepers had done an admirable job cleaning up the alley. Although some of the stores looked a little blackened from the magical fires and the alley floor was still littered with the occasional bit of debris, the place no longer looked like a war zone.

Unfortunately, cleaning up the alley would not make the wizarding world so easily forget that death eaters had attacked the famous shopping district just a few days ago. The alley was quiet and sparsely populated. Those who were walking on the streets kept their heads down and hurried with their business.

The bell tinkled as the three Potters walked into Ollivander's shop. Jasmine revelled in the overwhelming feeling of magic coming from all the thousands upon thousands of wands stacked around the store. Breathing in the sight, she felt for the first time that she would find another companion to replace her dearly loved Unicorn hair wand.

"James Potter, Mahogany, 11 inches, pliable, good for transfiguration." Jasmine nearly jumped in fright at the voice coming from directly behind her but she kept her composure and turned around.

Ollivander was a fragile looking man with wispy white hair and the palest pair of silver eyes Jasmine had ever seen. He turned his attention to Lily and seemed to be remembering something that happened in the past. "And Lily Evans, 10 and a ¼ inches, Willow and Unicorn hair. Swishy and good for charms."

"It's Lily Potter now, Mr Ollivander," Lily ventured to correct him.

Ollivander only nodded absently and fixed his eerie glowing eyes on Jasmine. "And you, my dear. I've never seen you before. Not one of my customers, I take it?"

Jasmine held out her hand for the wand maker to shake. "Jasmine Potter, sir. I'm James cousin. I was disarmed during the battle here three days ago."

The wand maker looked sympathetically at Jasmine. "A shame, a shame. It is always difficult to lose your first wand."

Jasmine did not know how to reply to that but fortunately for her, Ollivander did not seem to expect an answer. He bustled about behind the counter and brought out his magical measuring tape which happily zoomed around Jasmine, getting all her measurements without any direction from its owner.

Ollivander snapped his fingers and the overly enthusiastic measuring tape fell to the floor. "Try this. 10 inches, Hawthorn and dragon heart string," Ollivander commanded, pushing a wand into Jasmine's hands.

She gave it a wave and Ollivander snatched the wand from her hands when James' hair turned orange. He pressed more and more wands on her and seemed to get more and more excited as the pile of rejected wands grew larger.

He brought out a dusty box and reverently opened it. "One of my finest work. 11 inches. Holly and phoenix feather." It looked much newer and younger, but Jasmine immediately recognised that it was the exact same wand that her counterpart had used. She was hesitant to reach out for it because of its significance. Before her, Ollivander held the brother wand to Voldemort's Yew and phoenix feather wand. If this wand chose her, it would mean she had a destiny that was intimately linked to Voldemort's and Jasmine wasn't so sure she wanted that kind of a future.

She slowly reached out for the wand and the moment her fingertips made contact with the wood, Jasmine knew this was the wand for her. Her emotions were in a maelstrom as she considered the wand that had chosen her. Her cousins didn't seem to understand her internal conflict because they were both smiling and clapping for her as they watched silver sparks come out from the wand.

James clapped her on the shoulder. "I knew you would find a wand."

Ollivander simply smiled a eerie smile and as expected, he started baiting her. "Curious, very curious."

James fell into the trap and he asked, "What do you mean, Mr Ollivander? What's so curious about that wand?"

Jasmine could see that Ollivander enjoyed the suspense. "That wand you are holding, Miss Potter, is 11 inches, Holly and Phoenix feather. The phoenix that gave the feather for that wand, gave only one other feather. The brother to the wand that you are holding belongs to he whom you call Lord Voldemort."

Lily shrieked and quickly covered her mouth with a hand. James went very pale. Jasmine could only stare blankly at the old man who seemed to be enjoying her suffering.

"What does this mean?" Lily spoke in a whisper, looking around the shop fearfully, checking that it was empty except for them and that no one could hear the conversation.

"This means that Miss Potter's fate is intrinsically entwined with that of he-who-must-not-be-named," Ollivander explained patiently. "Destiny has tied them together and whether it be for good or ill, I cannot say."

Lily began to sob quietly and James pulled both his wife and his cousin into a huge bear hug. Jasmine let her cousin's embrace comfort her before she pulled away.

Jasmine held her new wand loosely by her side, ready to snap out a spell at a moment's notice. She looked intently at Ollivander. "And what will you do with this information, sir?" she asked lightly.

"Nothing, of course! I take customer confidentiality very seriously." The wand maker looked indignant at her implication of his untrustworthiness.

Jasmine wasn't willing to leave it at that. "How do we know we can trust you?" She knew she was being very rude but she felt it was better to take precautions and be safe rather than not and be hunted by Voldemort.

The wand maker raised his own wand in the air and intoned in a solemn voice, "I, Garrick Ollivander, do hereby swear on my magic that I will not share by word or by deed any information I know about Jasmine Potter's wand. So mote it be."

Jasmine let out a sigh of relief. A wizard's promise was not as binding as an unbreakable vow but it would do for now. She slipped her new wand into the wand holster on her forearm and took out her purse to pay the wand maker.

Xxx

She landed face-first on the floor and groaned quietly in misery. She had been downed by a simple body bind and Jasmine felt so humiliated. She knew that she was not all that great with duelling and that she was still recovering from her encounter with Bellatrix, but she had expected to last longer than ten minutes.

Jasmine heard her opponent making his way over to her side. She looked up to see Regulus extending a hand to help her up. She reluctantly let him pull her to her feet.

He was frowning down at her and Jasmine turned away from his concerned gaze. "I'll try harder the next round."

He put a finger beneath her chin and forced her to look up at him. Regulus spoke in a grave tone, trying to make sure she took his words seriously. "You have to do better than that, Jasmine. Bellatrix has marked you. She was furious that she didn't finish you off during the battle. The next time you encounter her, she will aim to kill."

Jasmine felt herself shudder involuntarily at the mental image of a crazed Bellatrix torturing and killing her in their next meeting. Regulus must have seen the horror in her expression because he put his arms around her in a comforting hug. "It will be all right. I will make sure you are ready to face her. You know the spells; we just have to work on your casting speed and your reflexes."

Jasmine could only bury her face into Reg's shoulder and hold on tight. Regulus rubbed her back soothingly. "Lets take a break. Its dinner time now. You can see my new car," he suggested coaxingly.

The last comment peaked Jasmine's interest. She pulled away and tried to forget Bellatrix for the moment. "Really? What sort of car did you get? You didn't tell me."

Regulus could only smile knowingly at her. "Come on outside and I'll show you." He put her hand on his arm and guided her to the front door.

With a flourish, Regulus pulled open the front door and was gratified to hear Jasmine's sigh of exasperation. He couldn't wait to show her the extra features he and Sirius had added.

"I should have known that you would go for Slytherin green," was Jasmine's first comment when she turned away from the sleek and elegant car to face him.

Regulus just smiled proudly at her. "I have always been a Slytherin and shall continue to be a Slytherin for the rest of my life. You couldn't possibly have expected me to choose any other colour."

Regulus popped open the car door for her to take a look of the inside. "This is a Ferari 308 GTSi. One of the fastest cars on the market right now. Sirius helped me make certain adjustments." Regulus patted the car lovingly

Jasmine wasn't sure she wanted to know but she asked anyway. "What sort of adjustments did you two make?"

"This car, my dear Jasmine, is a masterpiece," Reg began and Jasmine was amused by his efforts to build the suspense.

She waited patiently for him to continue. With a self-satisfied smirk, Reg continued. "You are looking at a flying Ferari with speeds equivalent to a Nimbus 1850."

Jasmine tried to look suitably impressed for Reg's sake. He rambled on and on about the horse power and speed of his new car and Jasmine let a fond smile cross her face as she listened to him.

"Come on, we can fly this thing now and you'll understand what I mean," Reg exclaimed enthusiastically.

Jasmine got into the passenger seat and fastened the seat belt. She was not sure that getting into the car was such a good idea. She reflected on Mr. Weasley's flying car and how her counterpart and Ron Weasley had crashed it into the whomping willow. She tried to reassure herself. They were nowhere near Hogwarts and nothing could go wrong.

Reg turned on the ignition and flicked a switch on the dashboard. At Jasmine's inquisitive look, he explained the purpose of the switch. "There is a notice-me-not ward around the car. Muggles will not notice the car the way they do not notice the leaky Cauldron. Their eyes will just sort of slide over it."

"That's brilliant. So only wizards will notice us in the air?"

"Yes. Sirius and I contemplated making the car invisible, but we wanted the car to be seen and admired." Jasmine could only laugh at the arrogance of the Black brothers.

Within seconds, the car was flying above London and Jasmine revelled in the wind that was blowing in her face from the open window. Soon enough, Reg touched down and parked near a classy French restaurant on Mayfair.

"I thought that you might like to have some familiar food," Reg explained as they let the waiter lead them to their seats in the corner.

As they started in on their main course, Jasmine brought up something that had been on her mind for a while now. "It seems to me that you and your brother are getting along quite well now."

Regulus could only smile contentedly at Jasmine. "Yeah, It's like I have my brother back. We worked on the car together and even though Sirius scoffed at the colour, I know he enjoyed working on it with me."

"That's good. I'm happy for you," Jasmine told him earnestly.

For the rest of the night, they steered away from talking about the war and Voldemort. Jasmine felt very relaxed when Reg dropped her off in front of the townhouse. Before he left, he reminded her to work on her casting speed and to try to improve her reflexes.

"Maybe we should go running together," Regulus mused, tapping his chin in contemplation. "You need to move faster and that could be one way to help improve your speed."

Jasmine thought it was a brilliant idea. "All right, how about tomorrow morning before breakfast?"

Regulus readily agreed and he kissed her on the cheek in farewell before getting back into his car and driving away. She watched him leave and wondered if she should confess her feelings to him.

Xxx

Jasmine had no idea that exercise would be so exhausting. That morning, she and Regulus had gone running in one of the parks around London and she realised for the first time how unfit she was. After running perhaps three kilometres, Jasmine felt like giving up. It was only because she didn't want to let Reg down that she was able to finish up the last two Kilometres before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

Regulus tried to be encouraging. "You're doing really well, Jasmine. I'm better at this because I had to do a lot of running to condition myself for quidditch."

Now she was lying face-first on her bed in Potter manor and trying not to reflect on how sore her whole body felt. Lily burst energetically into the room and Jasmine covered her head with her pillow and moaned for Lily to leave her to her pitiful existence.

Lily snatched the pillow away. "Don't be so dramatic. The way you carry on, sometimes, I think you and James are twins and not cousins. Come on, we can't miss the Order meeting. Don't you remember that we have a surprise for everyone?"

Jasmine reluctantly got up and changed into fresh robes. All the while, Lily was babbling on and on about how she was so excited and Jasmine tuned her out.

"Great, you are finally ready." Lily grabbed Jasmine's hand and chivvied her along. "I have it all shrunken down in my purse so we can go now. James will meet us there. He is apparating from the ministry."

With a pop, the two Potter women disapparated from Potter manor and reappeared in front of a two storey cottage. Jasmine froze in her tracks the moment she set eyes on the home. From her counterpart's memories, she recognised the home she was standing before as the place where James and Lily made their last stand.

Lily did not seem to notice Jasmine's distress and dragged her along to the front door. "This is one of the Potter properties. We've loaned it to the Order so they can use it as headquarters. Pettigrew does not know we have this home and so we should be fine."

Jasmine gave herself a mental slap. 'There is nothing to fear. I'm changing things. Lily and James will not die here.' With that, she followed Lily through the house into the dining room and sat herself at one of the seats around the huge dining table.

"Lily?" Jasmine leaned over to speak in Lily's ear. "This table looks really familiar."

Lily grinned back at her. "We borrowed it from the McKinnons. We don't have a dining table large enough to sit fifty comfortably and so they generously offered their table up for use."

As the two of them were talking, people were streaming into the room. James and Sirius came to sit by them when they arrived and soon enough, every seat at the table was occupied.

Dumbledore was the last to arrive and when he took his seat, the meeting began. They first discussed the damaged incurred during the attack on Diagon Alley. Many Order members made reports about the going ons of the ministry and the Wizengamot. Remus offered his incite on the activities of the werewolves and vampires.

When Dumbledore began wrapping up the meeting, Lily interrupted him and stood up excitedly. "Professor Dumbledore, Jasmine and I have something to give to everyone."

Without prompting, she reached into her purse and brought out a huge number of wrapped presents. From the other end of the table, Molly Weasley spoke up sounding horrified.

"Oh no! Lily, we didn't know that you'd be giving out Christmas presents today. I didn't bring anything for you." She looked quite distressed and Jasmine jumped in to calm her down.

"Not to worry, Molly. These are presents from Lily and I to the whole Order. They are something we think will help us in the fight against Voldemort. We'll still be giving out Christmas presents next week."

Lily handed a package to everyone at the table and watched happily as everyone opened the presents. Some members like Sirius tore off the wrapping while others like Remus carefully unwrapped the present.

"Why are you giving us mirrors?" Sirius was the first to speak and he sounded quite disappointed.

"These, my dear Sirius, are not simply mirrors," Lily said, enthusiastically waving around the mirror in her hand.

Sirius looked dubious and Lily continued to explain. She tapped the casing which had the design of a white Lily twining around a yellow Jasmine. "Jasmine transcribed tiny runes in the back of the Mirror. You can't see them now because the casing is there to protect them. They link the mirrors to each other. We can now communicate with each other anytime we need to. There is no need for flashy Patronus messages any more. You just have to tap your mirror with a finger and speak the name of who you would like to talk to."

Lily demonstrated. She tapped the surface of the mirror and called out "Sirius Black". Sirius' face appeared in her mirror and hers appeared in his. That captured everyone's interest and Jasmine could see Dumbledore examining his mirror with an intrigued expression on his face.

James turned to his cousin. "These mirrors are like the mirror hanging in Potter manor?"

Jasmine nodded proudly. "Yes, do you remember I designed the rune scheme for my mastery? I had to modify the scheme since we are not simply connecting two mirrors but fifty, but I did it and now we can all talk to one another at once. You can simply call out 'Order' when you tap the mirror and everyone will hear you. It is a great way to warn of any attacks."

"Ingenious idea, ladies," Dumbledore praised. "It is like instant owl mail."

"That's not all." Lily was grinning ear to ear. "I've put all sorts of charms on these mirrors. They are essentially unbreakable. We also put a tracking charm on them. If any of us get captured, the rest of the Order will be able to track them through the mirrors and come to their rescue."

The last comment sparked discussions all up and down the table. Most people congratulated Lily and Jasmine on their accomplishment and some asked if they were thinking of selling their communication mirrors on the market.

"These are brilliant, Jasmine!" Alice Longbottom gushed. "They could potentially serve as replacements for Owls."

Jasmine smiled back at Alice. "Yes, but I don't think Lily and I are going to start selling them. Perhaps when the war is over. We don't want the death eaters using them against us."

When everyone settled down, Dumbledore concluded the meeting. "All right, I will inform everyone of the next meeting through the com mirrors." At this, his eyes twinkled. "Everyone have a great Christmas and expect a call after the holidays."

Xxx

A/N: To my new readers, Welcome! To everyone else, thank you for favouriting and following this story. I hope you are not too disappointed by the lack of action in this chapter. I've been busy lately. Last week, I was offered a ministry scholarship and so I'm pretty happy about it. University is starting in August and I've had to go for orientation. I hope everyone's doing well. Enjoy the story!