Daddy Dearest - (No Update, Edit)

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 72 ~ Jasmine's Return to Hogwarts

The next day Jasmine didn't gather one hundred pounds of Gee-goh plants. She gathered one hundred and two. She was exhausted, but she had never heard a word as satisfying as:

"Finally," from Juan, who spat and watched the witch walk by smiling smugly.

Maria and all the women greeted her that night with handclapping, smiles and hugs, and from that time until the end of the harvest, Jasmine Malfoy never tipped the scales at less than one hundred pounds.

On the final night, when all the harvest was in, and the pay was passed out, everyone received full pay, including Jasmine, who divided her money among Maria and the other women. She was rich after all and had no place to spend muggle money. The women were very grateful to her, and she was covered in kisses. That night there was a celebration with much food and music. Guitars, drums and flutes figured highly, and the women and men danced together for the first time since arriving on the island. They were kept separated by strict rules, but now…the rules were over and husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends came together joyously.

Jasmine sat before the fire, watching everyone dancing, tapping her foot and laughing as they whirled and gyrated. Maria might have been a large woman, but she could dance, swinging her ample hips seductively in the firelight, as her husband, who was skinny as a twig danced with her, his dark eyes glinting hungrily. The barracks were going to be rather empty tonight and the jungle would be singing with the voices of more than the night animals.

Jasmine was watching Anna dance with a handsome, much older man when a shadow fell across her. A young black man with a bright smile held out his hand to her.

"Dance?" he asked Jasmine, who was taken by surprise.

"Er…no…I don't know how to…" she began.

"Dance!" the young man said, shaking his hand at her more urgently, still smiling but refusing to leave.

Maria and Anna danced over and hoisted Jasmine to her feet and threw her into the young man's arms, and before she could protest, he had pulled her out near the fire and began to dance, holding both her hands and whirling her about. The women egged her on from the sidelines, Maria coming out to show her how to swing her hips and kick her feet. Caught up in the fun Jasmine did quite well, the young man's smile growing broader as Jasmine danced wildly around him, clapping her hands and swinging her hips, glowing in the firelight, her skirt swaying invitingly.

Then another older brown-skinned man pushed the younger worker out of the way good-naturedly and began to dance with Jasmine, who laughed and took his hand. They bounded around the fire. Another man, then another took their place, all wanting to dance with the "littlest sister." Jasmine couldn't remember having a better time in all her life. Everyone was so free and uninhibited. Finally the fires burned low, and the couples drifted away into the dark for another more intimate kind of dancing.

Jasmine, happy and tired, returned to the barracks. They were almost empty…only the very young and very old were in their beds. She climbed into her top bunk, and laid there, her hands pressed to her belly. Soft cries echoed beneath the sound of the night creatures and Jasmine knew the workers were celebrating their harvest in a very old and ancient way. No doubt in nine months or so, there would be another harvest among the women.

Jasmine sighed. She didn't know what it was like, but it sounded…beautiful. Then like a dark cloud, the thought of Voldemort closed over her. When her eighteenth birthday came, so would her deflowerment…and she knew it would not be anything she would enjoy or remember with fondness. She was going to be fucked and brutalized by a man less than human. She held herself tightly. It wasn't worth it. The power, the status, it all seemed so empty and hollow now. It wasn't real. Real people didn't live for those things. They lived for Life. The harshness and the beauty of it. Real people like Maria, Anna, Rosa and all the other people she had met on this island.

They weren't rich, but they were happy. They worked hard at it, and saw rewards. Never had she attended a celebration so simple but so rich. They were free to live and love as they wished and that was the most beautiful part of it all.

Before she left, Maria had a heart to heart talk with Jasmine. They sat side by side on the lower bunk.

"This wizard…this Voldemort…is there no way you can avoid him, Jasmine?" the muggle asked her gently, her dark eyes full of sympathy.

Jasmine looked at Maria.

"He won't touch me if I'm not a virgin. But I am sure that only means sexually. He seems so cruel he would probably punish me another way if he found out I was with someone before him," the witch said, twisting her hands.

Maria blinked at her. The poor girl. What choices did she have? What a cruel world she came from where fathers gave their daughters to men of power simply because they had power. Did they value daughters so little? Her people believed women were to be honored, because it is they who bring new life into the world. They are not to be mistreated. Maria considered. If it were she, what would she choose? Maybe punishment rather than desecration.

"Then you must decide, Jasmine…which is the lesser evil. To give your most precious gift to a man who will abuse it, or to be punished for making your own decision whom to lie with for the first time. Only you can decide that, my chica," the woman said, caressing the witch's hair.

Jasmine laid her head against Maria's shoulder and cried as if her heart would break.

"I wish I could stay with you, Maria. With the women here," she said softly, sniffing. "The work is hard, but it is so much better here. I can be myself here. There's no pretense, no falseness. People love each other here and are judged by their character and nothing else," she whispered. Maria patted her back and rocked Jasmine as if she were a little child.

"You can be yourself wherever you are, Jasmine. You do not have to pretend or be false unless you are protecting yourself. You can carry what you've learned about people here, back to your home and teach others. It seems such understanding is badly needed where you come from," the muggle said.

"I'm only one person," Jasmine breathed against Maria. "There are thousands of DKV members who follow an organized hate system. What can I do against them?"

"Surely there are those who do not believe such things," Maria said.

Jasmine fell silent.

"There are, but I don't know them…and even if I did, they wouldn't trust me. I'm a Malfoy, and Malfoy is practically synonymous with Voldemort in the wizarding world. My father and grandfather are faithful followers, part of his inner circle…among his most trusted."

Jasmine paused.

"There is Andreas. And Mathias," Jasmine said. "Andreas is a pureblood but because he is black, he is ostracized. Mathias is a halfblood and destined to take Voldemort's mark, but he doesn't want to. He doesn't believe in him. I don't think he ever did."

She looked up at Maria.

"My father is going to make me join the young DKV again. I am going to have to do it or he will make my life miserable," Jasmine said.

"Then join again, but only in body…not in heart. Make your time easier until you can decide what to do," Maria advised her. "Maybe watch for weaknesses. Maybe you can do something from within. Maybe share your stories from this place with those willing to listen."

"Maybe," Jasmine said.

Maria felt so much like what a mother should feel like to the witch. Her own mother, Eloise, had never been very maternal. From the time she was born, her mother counted on house elves and nannies to handle Jasmine as she visited country after country, discretely running through lover after lover, spending Draco's ample galleons, staying home only long enough to try to get pregnant again and provide him with a male heir until she finally succeeded.

Jasmine only saw Eloise twice this year, once while she was on her way out the door, heading for Morocco, the other when she was leaving for Hogwarts. Jasmine's brother, Lord Draco Lucius Malfoy the Second was a year and a half old, and with his birth, Eloise was freed to do what she wished as long as she didn't openly embarrass Draco. Rumors were one thing, but if she were caught dirty, there would be hell to pay. So Eloise was quite careful how she moved in the international circles.

She had no love of the Dark Lord, however, particularly since the Sweet Sweet incident, so stayed away. She was of little worth other than breeding stock, so Voldemort didn't care one way or the other as long as Draco met his needs. The Dark Lord knew that if he threatened to do anything to Eloise, Draco would probably go out of his way to let it happen, so he could be free of her.

Maria and Jasmine talked far into the night, muggle and pureblood bonding deeper than Jasmine ever thought possible. She listened to what Maria had to say and tucked it inside her heart.

When Jasmine left the island two days later, tears pouring down her face as she kissed the women goodbye, she took much more with her than calloused hands and sun kissed skin. She took a new heart back to England with her.

A heart she would never lock down with senseless hate again.

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Jasmine was waiting in the common room at five o'clock in the morning, dressed in an ice-blue sweat suit and white trainers. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and a towel wrapped around her neck.

Both Mathias and Andreas walked down the stairs yawning and stretching, similarly dressed, both in black sweat suits and white trainers. Mathias looked at Jasmine, who looked quite fresh. She should. She'd been waking up at five am for the entire summer, and taking freezing baths in the river before starting her day. Now she had the luxury of hot water and a loo, and she really appreciated them.

"Good morning," she said to Mathias and Andreas.

Andreas gave her a rather sleepy smile, while Mathias looked decidedly grumpy. He walked up to her.

"Let me see your hands," he said, scowling at her.

"Why?" she asked him, frowning right back.

"I just want to see them," he demanded.

Jasmine stepped back but Mathias reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her right hand forward and turning it so he could see her palm. As he suspected, her fingertips and palms were calloused.

"What did you do this summer, Jasmine?" Mathias asked her.

"I went to the Caribbean," she said, trying to make it sound as if she were on vacation without lying as to where she was.

Andreas and Mathias looked at each other, Andreas smirking a bit. It was a good try.

"Why didn't you tell me…er…us your father was sending you away to work?" Mathias asked her, still holding on to her wrist.

Shit. Mathias and Andreas knew.

"How do you know about it?" she asked him.

"Word gets around," Mathias lied.

Actually, the fact that Jasmine was sent away to work was all over the DKV. It was even written up in their newsletter under the heading, "How to Handle Wayward Children." Draco's methods had been applauded as well as the seemingly successful outcome of Jasmine obediently rejoining the Young DKV club. It was as if the wizard was Father of the Year. He even got fan mail from other DKV parents who were having trouble with their children. He gave harsh advice, from beatings to downright incarceration. Of course, the information got back to Slytherin house. And Severus.

The Potions Master had been observing the witch since she returned, and noticed a marked difference in her behavior. First, she did not spend her first two weeks back at Hogwarts tormenting the new first year witches as she usually did, establishing herself as the Alpha fifth-year witch. Nor did Jasmine seem to spend as much time with her brood of cackling witches as she used to, which actually made her the subject of a lot of malicious gossip among the girls, who said her spirit had been broken.

He did note that in the Great Hall she sat with her fellow DKV members rather than Mathias and Andreas as she did at the end of last year, but he still saw her with them in the halls. She didn't seem to mesh with the DKV as she used to. She was quieter too, more thoughtful. No doubt her summer had changed her very much. For the good or the bad he wasn't sure. But the witch definitely was different. More mature as well. She was growing up.

Jasmine narrowed her eyes at Mathias, and pulled her wrist out of his grip. The wizard's eyes flicked over her angrily for a moment, then calmed.

"I didn't tell you because there was nothing you could do about it, Mathias. I didn't want to talk about it…it would have been useless and just made me more upset. I went, did what I was supposed to do, and came back," Jasmine said evenly.

"If you had let me know, I could have sent you a wand or something," Mathias said. He began walking toward the common room entrance. Andreas and Jasmine fell in step.

"I didn't need magic. People can live without magic, you know. Good lives," she responded. "Happy lives."

Mathias and Andreas looked at each other. Was this Jasmine Malfoy or a doppelganger that simply looked like her?

"Better not let your DKV buddies hear you say that, Jasmine. That's blasphemy," Mathias said soberly.

"They aren't my buddies. I'm just doing what my father says to keep him off my back," Jasmine said.

That made sense. She was a Slytherin after all.

"I haven't forgotten what Franklin said to me, either. His is the first ass I'm going to kick…after yours," Jasmine said, looking sidelong at Mathias. Andreas barely managed to keep from laughing.

Mathias gave Jasmine a long, lingering gaze just like his father's gaze when he was thinking something completely inappropriate. But in Mathias' case, it consisted of slamming Jasmine hard to the mats a few times until she ran crying from the ROR. He didn't plan on making this easy for her. He really hoped she could keep up with their morning regime. If she wanted to learn to fight, he'd teach her to fight…the hard way. No prisoners.

They exited Hogwarts proper and walked on to the grounds.

"Warm-ups, Jasmine. Just do what we do," Mathias said, snapping his head back and forth, then jumping around a bit. Then he and Andreas began stretching. The boys were very limber, Andreas able to do a one hundred and eighty degree split. They stretched every limb and Jasmine kept up with them as best she could. Then they began to do sit-ups. Three hundred of them. They soon left Jasmine in the dust, but she kept working until she completed them. Then there were push-ups, one and two handed. She could only do two one-handed pushups with her right arm and none with her left. The boys could each do fifty one-handed push-ups with each arm, probably more but Kingsley warned them to stick to the amount of exercises he gave them. He didn't want them getting too bulky.

They alternated each morning between exercising outdoors and weight training in the room of requirement. Again, Kingsley made the boys promise not to lift large amounts. Only enough to keep them strong and toned. He wasn't trying to turn them into muscle men and Andreas was already showing signs of getting too broad across the chest, which would inhibit the strength of his blows if he weren't careful.

They watched Jasmine struggle.

"See, I told you she wouldn't be able to keep up," Mathias said to Andreas as he watched Jasmine. He noticed that she had become more…womanish over the summer. She was getting curves and taller too. She wasn't weak though. Actually, Jasmine was much stronger than he thought she'd be.

"We weren't able to keep up when we first started either. Remember that first morning with Kingsley, when Tonks demonstrated the exercises?"

Yes, Mathias remembered. He was left gasping in the dust on the one-handed push-ups. He did about six while Tonks was on her twentieth and showed no signs of stopping. It was as if the witch was all muscle, but she wasn't bulky. She was slender actually. No one who saw her would think the Auror was so strong.

"Well, we'll give her some time. Who knows? She's going to be so sore tonight, she might want to quit before she gets started," Mathias said, watching the witch do a fairly decent backbend. He twisted his head slightly as he looked at her arched over.

Andreas watched his brother watch Jasmine.

"Do you want her to quit, brother?" he asked the wizard in a low voice.

Jasmine kicked her legs over and stood up cleanly.

"No," Mathias said, his eyes glittering. Then he added, "It would be nice if she could protect herself hand to hand."

Andreas smirked at the wizard.

"Yes. It would be," he agreed, focusing his eyes on Jasmine as she wiped her face with the towel and walked up to them.

"I did it…well what I could. I just need more time," she said.

Mathias snorted and walked away from her, breaking into a jog.

"Come on, little sister. Time for a run around the perimeter of Hogwarts," he said, taking off after Mathias.

Jasmine looked a bit daunted.

"But that's a couple of kilometers," she said.

"You're right!" Andreas called back, jogging off after Mathias.

Jasmine sighed and started after them.

After about an hour she caught up to the boys and sprawled on the grass, rolling over on her back panting. Mathias walked over to her, caught her by the wrists and yanked her up from the ground.

"What are you doing? I'm exhausted," she complained.

"You have to walk it off or you'll get bad leg cramps, particularly first time out," he said high-handedly. Jasmine scowled at him, but began to walk in a large circle until she got her breath back.

"Now what?" she asked Mathias. Andreas answered her.

"Now time for a quick dip in the lake," he said.

"Ew, I'm not going in there. It's full of squid piss. Plus, it's not allowed," she said.

Mathias and Andreas started heading for the lake. Jasmine scowled, then followed them.

What Jasmine didn't realize was that after weeks of exposure to Tonks, the two wizards had no hesitation stripping down to the buff in front of a female any longer. So when they got to the lake, both Andreas and Mathias stripped down to their altogether as if she wasn't there.

"What are you doing?" she screamed at them, her eyes on their naked behinds. Mathias started to turn around.

"Don't! Don't turn around. Just…just go," she yelled at him.

Mathias looked over his shoulder and gave her a wicked smirk before walking over to a small ledge and jumping into the water, followed by Andreas, who whooped as he landed with a splash and began swimming strongly. Hell, Jasmine wanted to hang out with the boys, didn't she? She needed to know that sometimes…the boys hung out.

Mathias swum out a few feet, then turned to the shore, treading water.

"You know, Jasmine…this is part of our training regime. If you want us to teach you, you're going to have to swim with us," he called, sure this was enough to send the witch running.

Jasmine scowled at Mathias. She knew he was trying to drive her off. Well, she wasn't going to give up that easy. She had bathed naked with the women on the island, sometimes in plain sight of the male workers, who whistled appreciatively but didn't do anything else. She wasn't comfortable enough to swim naked with the two wizards however…but who said she had to be completely naked?

Scowling at Mathias, Jasmine opened her sweat jacket and took it off. She had on a female version of a wife beater beneath it. She wasn't wearing a bra. Jasmine then pulled off her trainers and her socks.

Both boys were watching her now.

"Damn, she's going to do it, Mathias," Andreas said, watching as Jasmine began untying her sweatpants string.

Mathias didn't say anything. He just stared at her as she pulled her sweatpants down, stepped out of them and stood in her knickers. They were pink. Andreas' eyebrows rose, and Mathias just continued to stare, saying nothing. Jasmine met Mathias' eyes defiantly, then sprinted for the ledge and dove in, reappearing very close to the boys.

In the early morning light, the white wife beater didn't leave much to the imagination, though for the most part Jasmine kept her breasts underwater as she tread. She wiped the water from her face and looked at the boys with wicked, narrowed ice-blue eyes. Mathias felt a pulse in his belly as he looked at the witch.

"You want to swim?" Jasmine said to Mathias and Andreas, "Let's swim then."

She dove underwater again then surfaced several feet away, swimming strongly out to deeper water. Squid piss be damned.

Mathias and Andreas looked at each other, then took off behind her, determined not to be outdone by a girl in pink knickers.

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A/N: Well, well…that ended on a rather interesting note, didn't it? Please review.