Southern Soldier Returning Home
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ideas below. Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer and Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.
Chapter 12
Jack's first months at Hogwarts had gone very well. By the time Halloween came around, he had caught up with the basic theory for most of his classes and was working with his tutors on catching up with the spell work. He was struggling with the practical side of the courses a little, because he had not known about his magic before he hit his majority. It was not used to moving through a wand, so he had to use more power than the other students in his classes. The extra power made the more delicate magics difficult, because it was harder to control. He would never be able to attempt something like sculpting with his magic because it would blow up in his face. His quirky magic was perfect for the battle magics that the professors were teaching him in their spare time though.
Despite his difficulties in smaller magics, Jack had been happy to get to know his tutors. As Professor Dumbledore had said, there was one from each house. He was thrilled to learn that Luna and Hermione were among his tutors, since he had enjoyed his conversation with them on the train. Hermione had been wary at first, fearing his house and remembering his past as a Confederate soldier. He knew she feared that he would be a bigot, but he was quick to reassure her. Over the past few months they had regained the easy comradery they had had at their first meeting.
He got along reasonably well with his Slytherin tutor though, even if no deeper friendship had developed. Tracy Davis was quiet and cunning, and a skilled potioneer. Her lessons were fast-paced and concise, but while Jack had learned enough of the basics that Snape would never taunt him for his potion skills, Jack would never have any true talent for it.
Tracy and her family were neutral in the war against Voldemort. She was betrothed to the only other Slytherin in their year to admit to his neutrality, a dark-skinned Italian born boy by the name Blaise Zabini. Both had a subtle presence in Slytherin, in the hope that they would not draw the attention of their housemates who were loyal to Voldemort. Because of this, Jack only ever interacted with Tracy outside of their tutoring sessions, and Blaise even less than that. They had spoken only once, on Jack's first night in the Slytherin dorms.
When Jack approached the Slytherin table after his sorting, he faced open hostility from many of the older students, and a well-hidden cautious hope from Draco. A few of the students looked at Draco with their skepticism written on their faces as though in ink. Jack assumed that they had heard about his promise to Draco, but they took their cues from the blond boy, and acted as though ignoring him. The rest of the great hall was silent, but Jack could hear the whispers starting.
Draco prompted movement on the bench, appearing to close ranks against him, but which opened a space at the end of the table. Jack sat down without acknowledging the favor. He was used to the type of distain shown by his housemates. He had fought in the Union army as an officer from Texas. At least in this situation he had an ally, even if it was one who would not declare said alliance with the rest of the school. Jack sat in the opened space, all emotion hidden beneath a still façade. When the food appeared, he began to eat, not speaking to anyone, but instead listening to the whispers that now permeated the hall amidst the clatter of silverware on plates.
Those at the far table seemed wary and distrusting. He could see Hermione among them, and could tell she was trying hard to keep an open mind. She argued with the people she was sitting with, but flashes of unease still flew across her face.
The people seated at the closest table to him appeared to be ignoring his sorting altogether, and focused more on where he had been since 1981. (It was still strange to think that he had grown up more than 100 years previous). He recognized a group of girls that had been taunting Luna. They seemed to feel justified by the snake crest that had appeared on his robes. Luna herself sat alone at the end of the table, ostracized and isolated by her housemates as Jack was. She was humming to herself, apparently unbothered, thumbing through her magazine with her right hand, fork held in her left in a loose grip.
The students at the table between the two seemed to be reacting the same way as Hermione was for the most part. They looked wary, but most of them looked open-minded. A red-haired girl with long braids was arguing with an indignant blond boy halfway down the table, and similar conversations were taking place all along the length of it. At the head table, the professors looked shocked, and were hiding it poorly. The exception was Professor Snape who was as blank faced as his students. Professor Dumbledore had the same twinkle in his eye that had been there on their first meeting, trying to appear as though he had expected this outcome, but from the whispers he heard at the Slytherin table, Jack wasn't the only one who saw through the façade.
Finally, the last plate disappeared, and Dumbledore finished his announcements. The students stood up, almost as a collective unit, and started streaming out of the great hall. Jack stood with them, and followed one of the Slytherins who had completely ignored him during dinner rather than sneered at him, a dark-skinned boy, around his age.
They arrived in front of a blank wall in the dungeons, and the boy he was following finally spoke. "I'm sure you have noticed by now, but you will not get a good reception in this house. Most of us don't trust Dumbledore, and your introduction and status as the Boy-Who-Lived automatically associate you with him, and his so-called light side. You will need to prove yourself, just as all Slytherins do, but you start with a disadvantage. I will help you just this once, but I need to keep my neutrality, so don't expect anything from me in the future.
"The current password to the Slytherin common room is 'Caprificus'. Remember it. The password changes bi-weekly and the prefects post the new password on the common room notice board before it changes." With that, the boy turned away, and spoke the password to the blank wall, leaving Jack in the empty hallway without even an introduction.
Jack took a deep breath. He knew what was coming. There would be hatred, and probably a lot of hazing. Given Slytherin's reputation, the hazing would be more subtle than that of the Union Officers, and was far more likely to be magical in nature. He wished with a desperate but futile hope that Jasper were there, but he knew that would have been impossible even if it were still the 1860's, because there was absolutely nothing magical about Jasper. He sighed, but steeled himself, and walked blank faced through the still open portal.
As expected, His reception that night was just as cold as it had been at the sorting feast. Yet over the last few months his interactions with his housemates had gotten warmer as he proved that he was not Dumbledore's lapdog. He was getting along well with his professors, especially Flitwick and Moody. Flitwick remembered Lily Evans as one of his favorite students, and liked telling Jack stories about her as they worked. Jack liked hearing about his birth mother, now that he knew she wasn't abusive and that she loved him, but his favorite part of the lessons was when they were dueling. It reminded him of learning the sword alongside Jasper from his father. Flitwick was the same kind of instructor as Elijah Morgan had been, patient and serious without being overly demanding.
Moody on the other hand reminded him of Joseph Whitlock. He was demanding, saying he refused to coddle Jack at every lesson. He admired Jack's attitude of vigilance, left over from his days in the war, but kept on him to develop it further. Like Mr. Whitlock, he was gruff while being affectionate, and showed the boy how much he cared by pushing him to improve himself and learn to protect himself. He took Jack's previous tactics training and built on it, showing him how to apply it to wizards. Together the two were a potent reminder of the home that was now out of his reach for good, but despite the bittersweet nostalgia each of their lessons brought, he appreciated the training and the company.
Jack's relationship with Professor Snape was nearly the opposite. The man was bitter and resentful at the best of times, and seemed to have an especially strong dislike for Jack that stemmed from James Potter. Snape rarely mentioned it, and the result of Jack's sorting had dulled the hatred that had been directed at him when the two met over the summer, but the relationship between them would never become more than an extremely reluctant cooperation. Professor Snape's instruction focused on recognizing poisons, antidotes, and various healing potions, since Jack's tutoring sessions with Tracey covered brewing skills and Jack would never have the talent needed to brew the higher level potions Snape was going over with him. McGonagall was again different. She was a good teacher, and fair, but Jack sensed an underlying disappointment in his house placement that prevented any deeper bond from forming.
His additional lessons with the professors had started a couple of weeks into the term. On the 15th of September, Professor Flitwick had held him after Charms to inform him that their first lesson would be held that evening at 1900h. They met in the Defense classroom, since there was already a dueling ring. Both Flitwick and Moody had been there when he arrived, and they informed him that they would be combining their lessons, and would meet every Monday, unless otherwise informed. The same thing happened the next two nights, meeting Snape in the potions lab on Tuesdays, and McGonagall in an empty classroom by her office on Wednesdays for animagus training. This allowed him the rest of the week for tutoring sessions, although Hermione usually allowed him Sundays free by taking up Saturday afternoons. She would meet Jack and Luna after their sessions for lunch.
As it was Friday, he was just finishing his session with MacMillan and was headed back to his dorm, silently steaming. His work had progressed quickly in the last two months, and he was already halfway through the fifth year curriculum in most of his courses. However Charms was giving him difficulties. They required a lighter touch than his magic currently allowed, and his banishing spell was more likely to send a cushion flying through the window than land it gently in the box he aimed for. Jack's frustration with his spell work was not helped by his tutor, who was pompous, and conceited. He lacked the proper mindset for instruction. He was cold and distant, as though the snake on Jack's robes prohibited anything but the barest hint of civility. This Friday's session had ended like most of the others he had had with the haughty Hufflepuff, very close to tempers snapping, and Jack was looking forward to relaxing for the rest of the evening in the Slytherin common room.
He had just reached the main staircase down to the Great Hall, and he could see the turnoff to the dungeons when Hermione ran down the hallway toward him. "Jack! Jack, I really need to show you something!" He sighed. It looked like his meeting with his mattress had just been delayed. Again. He adjusted his bag on his shoulder, and turned to look at her, a weary smile on his lips.
"What is it Hermione?" Her eyes were shining brightly, like they always were when she made a new discovery. Since she had become Head Girl, she had told him she had very little time for her own research. She was always organizing patrols for the prefects, or dealing with the students, and their problems. On top of those duties, she was tutoring Jack, and although she had assured him that she didn't mind, it took up half of the free time she had left. Still, she managed to find time to research or to just relax, on Friday nights and Sundays. From the look in her eyes tonight, he would bet she had just made a breakthrough in her research.
Hermione grabbed his hand and began pulling him back up the hallway. Jack gave one last longing look toward the dungeons, before turning his full attention to his friend. They reached the third floor of the castle before she spoke, although he could tell that she was practically bursting to share her news.
He was pulled into an empty classroom near the library and finally released. "What exactly has you so excited Hermione?" He rubbed at his shoulder. She had almost dislocated it, and while he could have gotten out of her grasp, but it would have been difficult to do without hurting her, given the strength of her grip. Given, it was easy to pull out of joint, given the many times it had been injured in the past, either by climbing trees with Jasper, or being thrown from his horse. Even so, it was a strong indication of just how excited the brown haired girl was. He gave one last sigh over his empty bed before putting it from his mind.
"You know how I have been researching where magic comes from? My current theory is that muggleborns are descended from squibs, and therefore magic is purely a genetic trait." She paused briefly to wait for his bewildered nod, before continuing. "I decided to test this by asking the muggleborns in the school if I could test this using the lineage potion…"
"The lineage potion?"
She sighed, but stopped to explain it to him. "Yes Jack. The goblins use it to determine a witch or wizard's heritage. It allows them to see both the nearest pureblood house, and any houses they might be eligible to inherit. If there are any they might inherit, they then use the inheritance potion to see what if anything they inherit." Finished with her brief interlude, she took a breath to continue her explanation of her research, but Jack interrupted her again.
"Why use two potions? Why not just use the second one?"
This time she glared at him. "Because the inheritance potion only works for one bloodline. You add a drop of blood and a drop of the potion to a parchment with the family crest to determine your eligibility to inherit. Now can I continue?" Her glare increased, daring him to interrupt her again.
He smiled at her irritation, but nodded his assent. She was obviously excited about this breakthrough. "What did you find out?" It was like a switch had been flipped. Immediately she was grinning like a madwoman.
"Like I said, I thought of testing for magical blood lines in muggleborns. If they are, descended from squibs the lineage potion would show it, so I figured I would test it with my own blood. And it worked! I am actually related from a pureblood house!" Her smile grew impossibly wider. "At least distantly." She added as an afterthought.
Jack looked at her affectionately. She was obviously ecstatic about her discovery, but she was still holding something back. "Which family?" He asked. His prompt dimmed her smile a bit, and this time when she started babbling there was a distinctly nervous edge to her words.
"I'm not sure how distantly. I could barely be related to… I mean, it was really just to prove a theory… You don't have to…" Jack reached out and snagged her hand, interrupting another unfinished sentence. She stopped, and just looked at him nervously.
Pushing down his rising hope, he asked her again, "Hermione, which family?"
"The Potters."
AN:
Thanks for still following me! I know it has been a while since I updated, real life and writer's block ganged up on me, and I just finished the chapter. I have no plans to abandon this story, so while updates might be slow they will happen eventually. Please review, and tell me what you think of the chapter and where you want the story to go. Critiques, comments, and suggestions are all welcome.
~bookworm1016~
