October 8th 1979
It was three in the morning when it was finally time. A young little boy was born in St Mungo's, London. He had clear blue eyes and a few strands of dark brown or black hair. It was hard to tell when there was so little hair to look at after all. He was held by a young woman in her twenties. Considering this was the boy's mother, he'd most likely grow up to have some attractive traits at the least.
She had a heart shaped face with well-defined cheekbones. Even though this probably wasn't the best moment to judge her looks considering she just birthed a child, one could clearly see her beauty through the sweat and tears. Her long brown hair hung over her shoulders. Her blue eyes were filled with tears of joy as she handed the boy over to his father.
The man entered with a stoic appearance but as soon as the door was closed and the couple were alone with their baby, he dropped the stoic face and fell to his knees next to the hospital bed.
The man showed a wide smile as he kissed his wife several times before picking up his son to take a look at him. Struggles for generations brought them to this. This boy was the start of change he thought.
-‐-
The man hoped his son would look more like his mother than himself. The father was a slender man in his late twenties. He had short jet-black curly hair in a kind of bowl cut. His face was almost completely rectangular, and his eyes looked gaunt almost as if he had starved for long.
The man never understood how he managed to convince the beautiful woman lying in front of him to marry him.
For a few years he was afraid she only "liked" him because of the plan their grandparents had for them but nowadays he knew that wasn't true. They were truly and hopelessly in love, and now that a bundle of joy had been brought to them they'd shower it with that love and hope it would be able to live without any of the disadvantages they'd encountered in their life.
Onyx Grey, first of his name and family, was the culmination of a plan set about 50 years earlier in the Gryffindor common room.
~~~50,5 YEARS EARLIER~~~
April 8th 1929
A meeting had been called by one of the prefects. Invitations, however, were only handed to muggleborns and the head girl. As Gryffindor was the house, tied with Hufflepuff, with most muggleborns, quite a crowd was assembled in the common room when the clock struck seven times.
At that time the head girl stood up and asked the prefect "What is the meaning of this? Why have you gathered all of the muggleborns in our house and no one else? Is this about Mr. Pollux Black again? Because I swear, I'm doing all I can to keep him off."
The prefect put her hand up to keep the head girl quiet. "Not this time Minerva. I have gathered you all here because I'm tired of seeing muggleborn treated like they're worth less than the filth under people's shoes! Because of that I've used my own contacts to assist you."
She shoved a tall, seemingly rather shy boy, to the middle of the group and waited for him to speak.
He cleared his throat. "A-As Ms. Prewett here said, she has given us a chance here. With her help, and a couple of others.." He gestured to a couple of other seventh years behind him. "I, Jasper Smith, have started an organization with a very specific goal."
He now stood up straighter and puffed his chest out to show he meant business. That this was truly something he believed in. "As you all can tell, the power is all in the hand of the "pure-blooded" or the insanely rich half-bloods with pure-blood connections.
To make any kind of change to this we need people on the inside, and not just kind hearted people like Ms. Prewett here" He gave the prefect a gentle smile and she nodded back at him to continue while he had everyone's attention.
"We need someone without any kind of history to make a path for us. We need a true representative of our people."
He took another step forward. Now his voice was filled with passion. The people who heard him felt like every word spoken, spoke right to their souls. I was as if his voice was magical, which it very much might have been.
"I have started an organization to gather up all talented, hard working muggleborns and make sure they meet each other. I'll even gather people from all around the world for this project! I intend for us to create new pure-bloods, or simply new-bloods." These words made a few people uneasy in the room, and so he clarified.
"I don't intend to force anyone's choice and everyone's free to just join the celebrations we will have or go to meetings. I'll never force anyone to marry someone else, let the pure-bloods have that to themselves.."
Jasper paused for a short while to let that remain clear in their heads. "I will, however, make sure you meet people in the same situation as you. If you happen to fall for someone there, I'll place your children in the next generation of the project. Still not forcing anyone.
The first gathering will be this summer and I hope you'll all make it. Just to try it out." Having said his piece he bowed to the crowd.
"We're called the NBP. The New Blood Project. We'll gather in a location to be announced in your invitation in a few weeks." With that said he left the room with his gang. Leaving a group of very intrigued crowd of young people.
Most of them knew the struggles he spoke of. Muggleborns rarely got any of the better jobs. The ministry barely even hired half bloods!
You can't start a new shop or business without a permit and getting that without pure blood connections is incredibly hard. Even Hogwarts was biased, not even the Muggle Studies professor had ever been a muggleborn.
You'll have trouble finding work at all in the wizarding world which is why many return to the muggle world after Hogwarts, get a little muggle education and then go from there. Some stay in contact with the magical world but many lose it altogether.
Only Gringotts have no disregard towards muggleborn however that probably has to do with the fact that they generally don't like any wizard no matter the blood.
There was also the case of security. You're not allowed to have a heavily warded house unless you get a permit for it. With talk of another uprising, protection would be great for those with all muggle families.
All this added with the fact that if a muggleborn gets together with a muggle the risk of squibs is incredibly high, made several around the room seriously consider this plan. Most of them had already heard of Grindelwald's plans but maybe slow and steady was the way to go.
That summer, Jasper Smith had managed to invite hundreds from all around the world in the ages of 15 to 32 in the same position. Most other countries worked the same way with the same kind of discrimination.
There were groups from India, Egypt, Ghana, Turkey, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Cuba, the US etc. As this was the first time, his standard wasn't all that high. When the group had established he would start to only call in the most brilliant minds to make sure they know each other.
Maybe he'd even find someone himself after a while, he did after all fit into that bill. Jasper was one of the best students of his year, especially in some regards.
There was a reason for only picking the best ones. There was one argument the pure-bloods were correct in. Magic was in the blood. Powerful magics especially, was often handed down through generations.
Old established families even had specializations in their magics which is why they have an easy time getting a job in that area, added to the fact that they have connections.
If Jasper could gather the best muggleborn witches and wizards and have them fall in love then maybe the eventual new blooded offspring could be incredibly gifted.
After the first year he had drawn the attention of a certain Grindelwald. Jasper met with the guy and clearly understood why people followed him.
He exuded magic, and it wasn't an oppressive one. It felt so refreshing and yet so powerful. Gellert Grindelwald had taken an interest in Jasper's plans and although he didn't agree with his slow planning he figured he'd help the young boy.
He knew Jasper needed some help and decided to guide him through some spells to keep him, his family and his organization safe. Since Jasper was just out of school and no family to give him guidance, he didn't know many powerful spells.
For the next few months no one in England heard from Jasper until one day there was a new invite, but this time it was to a lecture. A lecture on the culture of the wizarding world, specifically the one in England.
The invites were spelled to act as a portkey as soon as you accepted and so, one by one people arrived at their seats in an enormous lecture hall.
The walls of the hall were filled with what looked like religious depictions but to most of their surprises it wasn't of any Christian god or tales. It was feats of great magics accompanied by several spirit looking people.
At the center of the stage stood Jasper, next to a middle-aged man with Black uncontrollable hair. Many recognized him for he was the front figure of the newer administration in the Wizengamot, the governing body of the wizarding state in Britain.
Henry Potter stood on that stage, speaking amicably to Jasper. The ones in the crowd from Jasper's class wondered how they knew each other but before they had time to think for long, Jasper left the stage for Henry.
Henry put a hand through his hair as he was known to always do, not that it in any way made his hair form the way he wanted.
"Hello, you wonderful people, I'm Henry Potter. My new friend Jasper over there," He gentured towards Jasper. "has asked me to guide you all through the traditions of the wizarding world and also our faith." This had peaked their interest. The magical world had its own culture but seemed unwilling to teach it to outsiders which made sure they remained as such.
Henry went on to explain that the wizarding faith more seemed pagan to a muggle. The main faiths all circled around the origins of magic and if the magic of people is specifically different than the magic in a plant.
He explained that they usually don't celebrate Christmas, Halloween or easter etc. But more the summer and winter solstice. Yule, Samhain, Ostara took their place and that they can often be celebrated accompanied with a small ritual as many rituals are more powerful on those occasions.
He didn't go on to explain proper etiquette because that can be taught from any old book, but he did explain the difference in peerage between families and how some were inherently better at some magics than others.
The lecture lasted for hours and many engaged and asked Henry plenty of questions to specify what he meant at different points. It wasn't all that easy for him to explain everything as he had never explained it to someone outside of those circles where it was normal before.
In the end it all went well and Jasper intended to start hosting celebrations at the major holidays. Now that he had landed a job as a curse breaker at Gringotts he had an easier time renting large locales from them for those celebrations.
Two years went by and Jasper, with the help of three friends, always kept up with the grades of all muggleborns across the world. It wasn't that hard since grades were public record and the muggleborns were specifically noted down in those records. Normally that would make him mad for the separation but it helped his cause.
Each holiday they held massive celebrations and would soon hold a Yule ball. Jasper had noticed that many of the regulars had actually taken a fancy to each other and soon the first child of the project would be born in Sweden. He himself hadn't found anyone and he didn't expect to find anyone any time soon considering how busy he is.
That thought, however, came too soon. That specific Yule ball, a certain American girl came who hadn't accepted any invites the last few years and he instantly took note of her.
She had been a very interesting case. Incredibly gifted and stubborn. She kept on trying and trying to get her point across on the other side of the ocean but eventually, apparently, decided to give this a chance.
Jasper walked up to greet her and the rest is history. The two were both incredibly passionate and as soon as she found out he was the one behind it all, she wanted in.
Two months later she had moved to England, into the same apartment as Jasper. One month later they started living in the same room as they finally admitted they wanted something more. Three years later, they were in St. Mungo's and the next chapter had begun. Opal Smith was born.
The New Blood Project was now running smoothly. The meetings never stopped and now Jasper had even started new meeting specifically for the children of the project.
The first generation born into the project had to know eachother, Jasper thought, and so they did. They grew up together. Many forming deep bonds of friendship and more.
Through the years many were lost from the project. Either due to the wars across the globe or due to lack of interest. Eventually though, the first children in the second generation of the project were born. They were few, very few, as many of the first generation didn't want to be a part of the project. It was after all their choice.
Soon we arrive at the current point in time. Agate Smith and Darren Boyle had just birthed one of the three new-blood families of their world.
It was to be named Grey, mainly to spite the house of Black, in the UK. Gray, in the US, and finally Anguillin for the Swedish family. These three were the only three couples who've currently lasted to make a child of the third generation.
The reason they were allowed to choose the names themselves was due to them not having any relations at all to other known families so there was no name for the pure-blooded child to take. Usually a pure-blooded offspring of half-bloods would take one of the names from its ancestry but since it's impossible they all were allowed to create now houses and this made the news all across the world.
The world was "aware" of the project in the sense that they knew it existed but didn't think it had actually succeeded in its TRUE goal. Many only assumed it existed to help muggleborns, which was in actuality just a great bonus.
Instantly the goblins received notice of a need to create new heir and lord rings and so sent out notices to the new families where they requested a design for their house emblem.
The three families had already agreed that they would all have the rune Othalan representing heritage and tradition on their emblem as well as an animal of their choosing.
Agate and Darren had chosen to represent their family with a great white Owl as a symbol of vigilance and patience. It also served to make comparisons to the Raven the house of Black uses. The design would be a shimmering white owl with a dark background with three runes. Othalan, for heritage, Tiwaz, for honor, and Raidho, for movement.
Onyx Grey was born as the first of his house. With high expectations, an expansive organization looking to him for hope.