Chapter 7: Chapter Seven

"James!" Lily called out from the lower floor, pulling her head out from the suitcase somewhat filled with gifts, turning to look up the staircase towards her and her husband's bedroom. "Is Nathan all dressed!?" 

"Give us a minute!" James called back, as Lily turned and picked up her youngest babbling daughter, grinning and nuzzling her nose into the little girl's face, much to the child's delight "Who's a good girl~♪ are you ready to meet your older sister?"

Lily has been looking forward to this day for the past three months, after Dumbledore told them he may have found a way to fit the whole family under a Bond of Blood spell- thus negating the need for Jasmine to live with her sister. Lily shuddered for a moment, eyes going glassy. "Hopefully she forgives me." She whispered. 

The guilt of giving away her child only grew worse over the years- regardless of what mental state she was in at the time. Her mind didn't stabilize till she had her current youngest- Rose. The pregnancy's chaotic hormonal changes ironically helped her get a grip. Though the realization of what she'd done, and what James had convinced her to do while unstable... 

A flash of anger was quickly suppressed. She'll fix her mistake soon. She took a shuddering breath and hugged Rose, much to the child's delight. Rose turned four this year, with Nathan and Jasmine both turning ten. 'Eight years.' Lily shuddered again, 'Eight years since I've seen my baby girl.' She would understand if Jasmine hated her. Hopefully she was happy with Lily's sister Petunia, but Lily hadn't talked to the woman in years, nor did they part on the best of terms...

"Lily!" The woman in question nearly jumped at James' nearby shout, causing Rose and Nathan to burst into laughter. "Why you!" Lily yelled, shaking her hand at her two children, with James grinning as he watched his wife chase and tickle the kids. Rose was a short, pale girl with fluffy red hair that refused to be tamed, with sparkling hazel eyes inherited from him. Nathan had grown up a bit, now looking like a preteen. The burn scar covering the right half of his face marred his strong features, and when looked out at from the corner of one's eye seemed to sparkle green. Didn't stop the boy's perpetual grin that mimicked his father's from being charming. 

After letting his wife calm down by playing with the kids for a bit James clapped his hands, bringing the three's attention to him. "Alright. Dumbledore will be arriving shortly with Uncle black. Me and mommy will be going with Dumbledore to pick up your sister, while you both need to behave for Uncle Black, okay?" "Yup!""Okay~!"

James grinned at his kids. 'Hopefully no complications show up.' The crack of apparition came muffled through the door, and James nodded to Lily as he went to go and let their guests in. 'And hopefully the bridge between us and Jasmine isn't too far gone... 

 

>>>  Private Drive, Surrey

As soon as Lily opened her eyes and looked to driveway number four, her stomach dropped. A tilted red 'For Sale' sign was stabbed into the slightly overgrown lawn, the house behind it dark with no lights on. There were no cars in the driveway. Cobwebs in the windows. Lily stood like a statue staring at the house, her stomach sinking lower and lower.

"Dumbledore..." James started muttering. The man in question frowned, tapping his wand in the air, face becoming more grave as he did so. "There are no human life signs in the house." He stated with a frown. 

The early cheerful sunlight seemed to gray, weighing on Lily's shoulders as her head snapped to a neighboring house. 'Hopefully they just moved. And we just need to find them again.' She tried to convince herself, but the twisting in her gut... Without hesitation she strode up to the Dursley's neighbors and rang their doorbell, ignoring the quiet James and Dumbledore behind her. 

Just a minute later and the door partially opened, a young man with a neatly combed head of dirty blonde hair opening the door and raising an eyebrow at the redhead wringing her hands on his doorstep. "Yes? Can I help you?" A news station played from somewhere deeper in the house; "...It's been a couple years since Tony Stark, the fabled Iron Man, has adopted a new daughter to his household..."

"Hello." Lily gave her best smile, "I was wondering if you knew why the house next door is for sale?" 

The man viewed Lily for a few seconds, debating whether or not to answer. His eyes caught another man looking at Lily with worry from behind, with an elderly man to the side that seemed to glance at him in slight disdain. He shrugged his shoulders. "Sure. Bit of a story for that one. Long story short, the two adults who lived there were both arrested on cases of severe child abuse, neglect and abandonment a few years ago."

Lily felt the world dropping out of her, a strangled "What?" came out of her as she looked at the man wide eyed. The news station continued playing, but Lily lost all focus of it. The man nodded, "Yeah. House got reclaimed, one of their kids, a boy from what I remember, got sent to foster care." The man frowned in distaste, "The girl, the target of their abuse for that matter, was apparently abandoned in the United States on one of the adults' buisness trips." He shook his head in distaste, "From what I'm aware she was eventually picked up and brought to the hospital, where they discovered the severe traces of physical beatings and neglect- the girl apparently being near starved." The man sighed with pity, "From what I'm aware, one of her arms even had to be amputated due to it being repeatedly broken and never healed properly."

Lily could only stare in silent shock, the world seemingly collapsing beneath her feet. James was behind her, his face slightly pale but he still struggled out a smile, "Thank you for your time, sir. We'll be going now." 

The man merely nodded and closed the door. Lily nearly collapsed in James' arms, barely staggering backwards as she stiltedly turned around, her face blank. James' gut dropped in worry that his wife would relapse into the mental state she was in a few years ago, his arms partially outstretched to catch her if she collapsed. Her blank face seemingly didn't even see him and Dumbledore as she stared off into space.

"Dear?" James worriedly asked, Lily's head snapping to him, looking at him for a moment before she started chuckling, tears slowly coming out of her eyes. "Fine, huh? Safe?" A warped smile grew on her face, her head snapping to Dumbledore, who was frowning, "Don't worry Lily, we'll get her ba-" "Shut up." Dumbledore blinked in surprise. "Just, bloody shut up." Lily uttured, pulling out her wand. The crack of apparition sounded out a moment later, leaving James and Dumbledore staring at the space Lily just vacated. James glanced at Dumbledore before pulling out his wand and another crack sounded out in the early dawn. 

Dumbledore frowned. 'I miscalculated.' His eyes twitched. 'The Dursley's ruined my plans.' His hand clenched on his wand as he stroked his beard with the other, he spotted the muggle from earlier glancing out the window in confusion at the loud sounds, with a flick of his wrist and a small incantation the man's eyes rolled back in his head, collapsing on the ground a moment later. The muggle would have nightmares for a few days. He flourished his wand again, a wave rippling out for a few blocks and erasing the memories of all the muggles for the past thirty or so minutes. They'd come to in about five. 

Another crack sounded out as he arrived at the Potter's home. James and Sirius talking in hushed voices as Rose and Nathan confusedly watched their dad and uncle, their Mother having blankly walked past them to her room upstairs. 

Rose handled the tiny present in her little hands, tottling up to James. "Where big sister?" She tilted her head up at her father. James' smile strained at his daughter as he knelt down and took her in a small hug, "There's... been some complications sweetie. It may be a bit." He gave a short sigh, "You can put down your presents for now and go play with your older brother, okay?" Rose nodded as James glanced at his eldest son, gesturing with his eyes to temporarily distract his younger sister. Nathan nodded, confused, but leading Rose back into the house so they could play with legos. 

James sighed, standing up and turning to Dumbledore. "What do we do?" The man asked, seemingly aged a few years in this brief time. Sirius pursed his lips behind him, looking at his sworn brother with concern. 

Dumbledore frowned deeper, hiding the hand with his wand in his robes so his annoyed clenching was not seen. "Sending a request to the American ministry of magic will likely not go over well." The aged wizard admitted. "They have very little respect for anyone, much less outsiders and the old world. We'd be lucky if contacting them didn't cause them to hide Jasmine from us further." He sighed, "Not that she'll be easy to find without them." He annoyedly muttured.

James' palm slid down his face, "Is there nothing we can do? Owls? Surely the Bonds of Blood is disrupted by this so she can be contacted now?" 

Dumbledore frowned further, "Normally, yes. But the United States have boundary wards set up in pretty much every city, and owls have difficulty crossing the ocean. You know how it is with apparition trying to cross such large and deep bodies of water. The same is true for message magic."

(A/n: I have no idea if this is actually true or not in base HP. In this universe, large bodies of 'anything' tend to have magic interference. Water also has a disruptive effect on such magics, making moats more than just a physical defenses. This means oceans are especially bad for long range magics. It's even worse for all types of 'transfer' magics.)

James dryly chuckled. One of the basics of apparition is to not use it over any too large bodies of water, lest one ends up in random chunks spread out over it. Luckily apparition does not take straight paths, but large enough rivers can stop an apparition in its tracks and delay owls. "Is there any hope of finding her?" He asked, nearly at the end of his rope. "I can't have Lily fall into that state again, I can't." He uttered, near crying as Sirius held his shoulder with a frown.

The elder wizard stroked his beard while looking at James, his annoyance carefully hidden deep within his mind as he gave an aura of a concerned leader. He sighed, "I do not know, my boy. I'll have the few mental wizards come back to help Lily's mental state while looking for solutions."

Sirius nodded in James' stead, the man emptily gazing into nothing. The exiled Black family heir sighed and nudged James towards his house, before turning to Dumbledore, who met the gaze of his pitch black irises. Sirius said nothing, but seemingly stared through the old wizard before turning and following James into the house. 

A frown reappeared on Dumbledore's face. 'Sirius is getting too cautious of me. Maybe I should have gone with the plan to have both Potters killed by Voldemort and him sent to Azkaban on false charges...' Dumbledore shook his head, 'No. That would have left me with less pawns, and the Dursley's being crueler than I thought, could have ended up with both children being killed before their time.' He stroked through his beard as he looked at the Potter house, deciding to apparate back to Hogwarts to plan his next move. 'I need to find and return Jasmine before I lose their trust anyway. If the girl's arm was really amputated then maybe giving her a new one after reuniting her with her family would be a good idea? It would take a bit out of Fawkes, but... Yes, that would work spectacularly.' 

A crack of apparition, and Dumbledore was gone.

 

>>> In the United States 

You are reading story Warped Causality at novel35.com

Natasha held Jasmine's hand as they walked behind the tour guide of OsCorp industries, the older Stark's meeting with Norman Osborn over a deal relating to energy supply. She had a light smile on her face as she felt the girl curiously absorb everything she could, badgering their poor tour guide with questions- from simple to advanced enough the tour guide could only apologize for not even scratching the answer. 

"And this here is a few of the OsCorp 'Silk' Project's surviving tests." The tour guide, a blonde woman in a clean business suit introduced, waving her hand to a few dozen glass enclosures that had small, brightly colored spiders inside- most covered with webs. "The Silk Project was deemed a mild failure- an attempt to create spider's that could produce far more webs to harvest silk from, as well as changing the properties of said silk." The guide continued, a professional smile permanently on her face. Natasha had to give her props, the smile felt very natural. A trained resting face, perhaps?

Jasmine curiously looked through the glass enclosures, the ends of her long, waist-length black hair twitching- unnoticed by the guide- as she tilted her head at several of the red, blue, black, and golden spiders. "How were they made?" The ten year old asked, watching a particular red and gold spider slowly crawl up its web. This one, and a few others, gave her a strange feeling to her magical senses. 

"I unfortunately do not know the specifics of that." The tour guide answered, "Though, I do know various methods were used- such as radiation bombardment and exposure to certain chemicals known to induce mutation." Natasha quirked an eyebrow at that. She knew radiation bombardment to have... mixed results. She's had to put down a few cases of animals gaining odd powers after some wacko threw a bunch into a radiation chamber, bombarding them with all the forms of radiation they could get their hands on. For what reason she never learned- the idiots are generally the first victims.  A spider with super powers is not something she'd like to face. Luckily the success rate of those experiments are dreadfully low... Mostly the animals just die, especially those without a chemical primer from what she's aware. 

"So are the spider's radioactive then?" Jasmine asked, curiously switching her gaze to another tank, where she saw a spider briefly shimmer for a second- the blue white coloration appealing to her eyes as it seemed to shrink under her gaze. 

The tour guide laughed, "Only slightly. Not enough to harm anyone even if they are crawling on your skin. According to the scientists, the spider's are pretty much harmless. They even have an aversion to biting, and aren't even venomous to humans." 

Jasmine nodded thoughtfully, her own senses sweeping over the assorted spiders. Most gave her a 'normal' feeling, for a lack of a better term, but a few seemed to pop out, both magically, empathetically, and to her odd third sense which Jasmine still hasn't quite pinned down. Instinct, may be the best term for it. The girl blinked, grip tightening on Natasha's hand as she noticed a spider directly above the woman- one that popped to her senses. 

Her head tilted upwards, causing Natasha and the tour guide to follow her gaze. The spider, startled by the sudden 'weight' it felt, lost grip on the ceiling. Natasha smirked in amusement, free hand snaking out and gently catching the falling spider, which curled up on her palm. The tour guide gasped in panic, to which Natasha ignored as she looked at the little thing- the spider  only half the length of her pinky in size- shivering on her palm. Slowly Natasha brought her hand down so Jasmine could get a closer look as well. 

"Uh, misses, p-please be careful. I-I'll call my manager, she'll be here shortly." Jasmine absently nodded as she looked at the tiny, beautiful spider on Natasha's palm. Taking a liking to its white coloration marked by random red and blue stripes and spots. The spider nervously held itself in place, the 'weight' was closer now- right near it. It didn't dare move. 

"Poor thing." Jasmine muttured, feeling it's fear on her empathy. Natasha nodded. Her senses weren't as sharp as Jasmine's, but her skill with ki alone made her sensitive to emotions. The spider in her palm was positively terrified. "Be careful. It's very scared at the moment, we don't know what it'll do." Natasha said quietly, gracefully and gently moving her palm to view the little spider from different angles.

The spider was aglow to Jasmine's magical sense, and Jasmine's instinct was niggling in her gut, causing the girl to frown. The feeling reminded her of when she was in the library with Pepper after first meeting the Starks. The spider seemingly shivered, but refused to move.

"Where's the spider!?" A man stepped in and yelled, causing Jasmine- and the spider- to startle. Natasha quirked an eyebrow as she felt herself get panic bitten, but didn't even flinch at the tiny amount of pain. Her head turned to the security guard who was holding a cup and piece of paper, followed by a woman in thick high-heels and straight suit with a frown on her face. "It would be in my hand." Natasha said dryly. Jasmine was frowning, her instinct spiked and she noticed a small spot on Natasha's palm right under the spider. She tilted her head at the feeling to her magic senses. Something... was transfering to Natasha? Changing? 

The security guard blinked. A man in a lab coat rushed into the room, slightly out of breath as he looked around, seeing the spider frozen on Natasha's palm. The woman nearby decided to intervene at this point "Alright, alright. Please let our security guard get the spider into the cup. We'll take care of this, and apologize for the inconvenience." Her eyes seemed to almost glare at the spider- as if it was the single most treasonous thing in existence. 'If this gets in the way of Osman's deal, he'll have my head...' The woman hid her worry well, though both Natasha and Jasmine noted it. 

Natasha's arm was feeling a bit warm at this point, but not bad like it had been poisoned. The ex-assassin briefly pondered, not showing anything on her face. Jasmine leaned in, able to reach her ear due to Natasha still crouching, "The spider gave you something. I don't know what, but it's not bad." The girl whispered, making Natasha nod and hide her curiosity as she stretched out her arm with the spider, the security guard carefully using a thick piece of paper to push the nearly statuesque spider into a cup, much to the relief of the scientist, manager, and tour guide to Natasha and Jasmine's amusement. 

"We deeply apologize for the inconvenience missus'." The manager said and bowed. Jasmine waved her off, then spoke curiously, "It is no problem. Though, I am curious- would it be possible to buy all these spiders from OsCorp?" The girl asked. The manager blinked in surprise, and hesitantly hedged, "That... may be a possibility. I would have to talk to the CEO, but I imagine he wouldn't mind selling them to you at a reasonable price. May I ask why?" 

Jasmine nodded, "I like their colors." She didn't bother mentioning how they felt to her magic senses, or how emotionally active some were. She learned the basics of business discussion from her Mom, and took to them well, much to Pepper's delight. And if OsCorp didn't know their peculiarities then she certainly wasn't going to tell them- Osborn felt disgusting to her senses anyway. 

The manager nodded, such a response expected of a child Jasmine's age, though a girl liking spiders was a peculiarity. "I'll let Osborn know of your request."

"Hoh? What request is it?" A calm, prideful voice startled the manager slightly as she turned and bowed respectfully to her boss. The man who walked in had pale features, with finely cut brown hair and sharp brown eyes Jasmine didn't like. Tony and Pepper followed him, the latter fondly holding Jasmine's younger sister in her arms- the two year old toddler curiously looking around at everything she could get her eyes on. "Jazzy!" The toddler, seeing Jasmine, excitedly yelled, throwing her hands in the air and causing Tony and Pepper to chuckle as Natasha grinned and stepped behind Jasmine, the spider safely in the cup held by the security guard as both he and the scientist quietly stood to the side.

"Hello Sidera." Jasmine smiled, waving back at her little sister before turning to Osborn, carefully keeping her intrinsic distaste for the man out of her expression, "I'd like to buy these spiders from you." She said with a smile. 

Norman observed the girl infront of him, "And why would that be the case?" He asked, mild suspicion a habit he'd long since ingrained. 'Though, the girl is only ten years old. And it's not like Stark has a biomechanics or genetic sector.' 

"They're pretty." Jasmine said with a smile. And Norman nodded, missing Tony and Pepper's briefly quirked eyebrows. Jasmine may be a child, but it took Pepper forever to convince her to buy something just because Jasmine 'liked it' before. 

"That won't be a problem, as long as your father has no objections...?" Norman hedged, turning to look at Tony who smiled, his distaste for the man also hidden. "None at all, how much do you want for them?" 

Norman smiled and waved his hand, "Oh it won't be of any matter. Take them as a gift, for our future cooperation." 

Tony laughed, "How can I let you get the short end of the stick like that, Osborn? I'm sure you sunk a decent chunk of money into the project that created these colorful specimens. How about ten thousand dollars each, that should offset some of your testing costs, no?" 

Norman pondered for a second, in truth the spider's weren't that valuable to him, a favor from Stark would be worth far more. But the money would also be useful, with fifty-two spiders in this exhibit, the rest being incinerated. Still, over half a million dollars fallen from the sky is not something to just wave off- that much liquid funds could go a far way to recover some of his baseline.

"Very well." Norman nodded, turning to the security guard and scientist, neutrally glancing at the spider in the cup, "Return the spider to its enclosure and have people pack them up to be delivered to the Stark mansion." """Yes sir."""

He then turned back to Tony as Pepper carried Sidera over to her older sister, letting the toddler down to clutch onto Jasmine's leg. "I assume there will be no problems with the transportation?" 

Tony grinned, his laid back attitude somewhat getting on Norman's nerves, not that he showed it. "None at all- though please let us know of any special care your scientists noted they need." 

Norman nodded, "I'll have a dossier sent to you."

With that, it was a few minutes later til the Starks left the building. Norman returned to his office, absently tapping his hand on his desk as he tried to focus on the documents in front of him. 

'They're all looking down on you. Mocking you' 

Norman's face twitched. "Shut up." He growled to the empty office.