Jasmine clearly hadn't realized how much she had missed Hogwarts, she missed it even before she died. The halls of the castle may not have been as secure as Hagrid had advertised that first time she went to Diagon Alley, but they had always represented something for her. They had always been synonymous with home. Even going to classes had been a delight, after all, they were learning actual magic how could you not find it interesting. However, being taught all the same things she had already learned once more proved to be really boring for Jasmine. She had never been able to match Hermione's incredible dedication to study nor could she hope to match the sheer ease with which Violet learned. She may have always proved her talent for practical applications of wizardry but she had to put some effort into studying if she wanted to keep her high marks. However, with her memories from her past life, she didn't really need to study nearly as much as she did the first time around and now she didn't know what to do with herself in class.
She ended up spending most of the classes reviewing more complicated material instead of paying attention to the lecture. But, the homework and practical work they had to do for their classes was frankly an annoying waste of time. So she found herself frequently looking forward to the morning and the end of the day. In the early morning she and Violet spent their time working with runes and perfecting their Occlumency, having already learned to hide their memories, they were now in the process of creating false memories in case someone tried to enter their minds again. This was much more advanced and difficult than the first step, she knew from personal experience that even Slughorn hadn't mastered it completely. At the same time Dumbledore still kept a close eye on them, especially after the incident during their trials for the dueling club, rumors must have reached his ears because he had even asked Violet where did she learn to transfigure wood into ice. Violet tried to invent an excuse on the flight, that she had learned it from a book but it was obvious that Dumbledore wasn't convinced at all.
Neither of them was surprised when they received a notice informing them that they were admitted to the dueling club. Jasmine might not have won her second duel, but she had put on a good enough fight that it was obvious she would be selected. The kind of "talent" she showed needed to be cultivated. Violet of course had to show up and actually win her duel against someone five years her senior, it had been such an impressive fight that most of Slytherin already knew about it. Now not even the most fervent supporters of blood purity dared to talk badly about the young prodigy. Even though Jasmine was quite impressed, she was sure that she wouldn't have been able to replicate the feat when she was eleven, although she was also sure that it made Dumbledore even more suspicious.
The Friday after their trials they returned to the dueling chamber. Their first session was quite fun, they had to practice dodging incoming spell fire for thirty minutes, then they practiced the speed of their spell casting, and for the younger ones practiced silent casting while the older members practiced point casting. They ended the session by having a series of three duels against different opponents. They tried to group them by age and despite being the only one under the age of thirteen both she and Violet were able to easily win their fights even if the use of powerful spells was prohibited. Jasmine was pretty sure she had found a new favorite subject, even though the fights were underwhelming practicing dueling was easily a great delight. Still, she was quite surprised when Lucretia asked Violet and her to wait after their duels.
"How long have you two been practicing?" she coolly asked once the rest of the members of the club departed.
"Since we got our wands Miss" Jasmine responded automatically.
"Maybe with wands but you have more experience than that, especially you." she said pointing towards Jasmine.
"I don't know…"
"Don't start lying, who taught you? Dorea says that you two were raised in the Muggle world, yet you already know the positions and you are advanced enough to cast a shield silently and wandlessly." she interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest clearly not amused.
"We never had a formal tutor, we…" Violet was interrupted when a red light flew towards her, instinctively she cast a shield that absorbed the spell.
"With less than three months of experience you already have practiced enough to be able to instinctively cast a wandless shield?" Lucretia lifted a brow in doubt, clearly not buying their excuses.
Jasmine opened her mouth to try to convince her that they didn't have any form of formal magical instruction but Lucretia spoke up before she could say even a word.
"Come up, you are going to duel me two against one." she promptly commanded them, leaving no room for discussion as she led them towards the elevated platform. Jasmine was almost sure that she could hear Violet gritting her teeth. However, they both followed the older girl without saying a word. Jasmine was quite nervous, she hadn't seen Lucretia duel but she had seen some of the older members, they were truly talented duelists and she knew that Lucretia was better than any of them.
"I don't think we have any chance of winning a duel against you." Jasmine nervously said.
"You will duel me or I will talk with the ministry about this, I'm sure that if you two had been doing magic in front of Muggles they will be quite interested." Lucretia coldly said and with a casual flicker of her wand, she expanded the rather narrow platform to cover the chamber all the way to the seats. Jasmine had no idea if the ministry would be able to tell that they had been doing magic in the orphanage but they couldn't risk it. They took their positions, Jasmine took a deep breath to calm her nerves before starting the count.
"One, two, GO!" Jasmine immediately transformed the ground where Lucretia was standing into air. It quickly expanded, creating a strong wind, but she was barely surprised when she saw Lucretia standing on some kind of platform made out of light. The heiress quickly jumped towards the wooden platform, gracefully evading some spells cast by Violet, while immediately casting spells toward Violet.
Jasmine tried to use the opportunity to maintain the offensive but she was stopped by the movement of the ground. The wooden planks folded up like they were a page in an origami, making her trip. She was surprised when the ground transformed into a massive wooden wolf, which immediately started attacking her. She scrambled to evade the furious swipes of the wooden canine, desperately trying to rise up but it was too fast. Without any option, she lifted her hand and an immense fireball came from her palm, hitting the wolf and making it recoil. She quickly used the opportunity to rise up her feet,
"Elden!" a white stream of fire came from the tip of her wand and quickly started to burn down the wooden figure along with the platform. However, before she could even start to search for her opponent the dark smoke that was created by the burning wooden figure suddenly started blowing toward her. Without thinking she cast the bubble head charm, expanding it so that it covered her whole head.
"Ventus!" The smoke rose up in a tornado dispersing up in the calling, letting her see the battled down platform. There were even more holes on it apart from those she had created, part of the platform had been transformed into ice, a tactic she knew that Violet frequently used and there was a sphere of mirrors surrounding a battled down Violet. In front of her was Lucretia, it seemed that Violet had been able to make her sweat but she was in a much better condition than her.
She quickly cast a silent stunning spell followed by a silent disarming spell and a minor spasming curse. She was surprised when she saw that one of the mirrors surrounding Violet shot forward, intercepting the spells and diverting them towards Violet.
"Aegis!" shouted Violet, creating a golden sphere intercepting the first of the spells, however, the other two flew by before hitting another one of the mirrors, and coming towards her from behind. They impacted the shield with force making the surface ripple. Lucretia wasn't sitting idle while that happened. She quickly cast a series of bright orange spells. they all impacted the golden shield making it ripple once more, the golden shield started to crack but in the end, it was able to resist the assault. Violet was left inside panting heavily trying to regain her bearings.
Jasmine continued casting spells trying to force Lucretia to move, but each time a mirror moved to intercept and divert the spell. The mirrors must be made of special material as they were quite hard to break. Jasmine had to restore to using exploding spells to destroy them in one hit. Meanwhile, Lucretia continued to send spell after spell against the golden fortress behind which Violet was trying to catch her breath. The golden sphere continued to crack.
"Bombarda Maxima!" she shouted hoping that the stronger spell would be enough to break past Lucretia's defense, that's when Lucretia spun around pointing towards the nearest mirror. It bolted towards the path of the spell, but the other mirrors weren't idle this time, all of them converged into the first mirror. They fused making it thicker just before the spell hit, the thick mirror broke from the impact but the spell was diverted. It whizzed directly to the golden shield. When it impacted the golden shield broke and the exhausted Violet was sent flying towards the seats.
Jasmine didn't have the time to see if she was okay as Lucretia began to send a barrage of spells and curses toward her. She hastily created a wandless shield, while she cast her own series of spells toward her. She was impressed when she almost elegantly was able to dance around the spells, never flattering in her continuous barrage. She felt her magical reserves quickly drain down, she needed to end this fight quickly.
Seeing that her efforts were being completely trumped she tried to change tactics. She conjured a snake directly at Lucretia's feet. She jumped back to gain distance from the venomous foe before it struck. She had to stop her chain of spells to banish the conjured snake. Taking the opportunity she pointed toward Lucretia and yelled "Veevangla!" water was conjured all around Lucretia creating a sphere of water that started to levitate the older girl. Her breath hitched as she struggled to maintain the sphere. Lucretia struggled trying to reach the border of the sphere for air. However, Jasmine didn't have enough magic to continue holding the sphere and she let it fall down. She fell down to her knees exhausted, hoping that the fall from that height was enough to get Lucretia out of the fight.
It was not, as she heard the soft sound of steps on what was left of the wooden platform. "Do… you yield?" said Lucretia, her breath clearly labored while pointing her wand towards her.
Jasmine gave her a slow nod, still trying to catch her breath after her little show, maybe she had exceeded herself.
"So you weren't… lying you truly weren't trained… in dueling that is,"
Jasmine's head snapped towards her, confusion clear on her face. Lucretia took a couple of deep breaths before continuing.
"That spell isn't something a normal duelist would even consider doing, you were indeed trained but by a fighter. Was it an Auror? Or a Hit-Wizard perhaps? They do use the Aegis shield quite frequently."
Jasmine had to resist the groan loudly at that. She had indeed learned that particular spell from Sirius, who had worked as a Hit-Wizard during the first war, it was one of the many spells he taught her during the summer before fifth year. But she was too tired to say anything even if she had been inclined to do so. Her silence didn't seem to perturb the older witch, she calmly dried herself and looked over Violet's fallen form, before giving her a look clearly waiting for an answer. Knowing she needed to say something about this or she may just ask one of the professors, Jasmine took a deep breath before finally answering the question.
"He was a Hit-Wizard, he was a friend of my parents but he didn't have the resources to adopt me. But he came frequently enough to teach us a few spells with a few spare wands he had, they weren't as good as our usual wands but they did the work." lied Jasmine hoping that the Black heiress was going to buy his excuse. Lucretia slightly narrowed her eyes, before apparently accepting her answer.
"Take your friend here to the infirmary if they ask, tell them we had an intense practice, they are used to it." she said pointing to the still unresponsive Violet. Jasmine sighed but cast a spell to make Violet levitate a few feet over the ground and went towards the infirmary, hoping that the older girl wouldn't tattle on them.
Violet wasn't happy when she woke up in the infirmary and realized the two of them had been completely destroyed by a single opponent. Jasmine wasn't quite as surprised, she knew that both of them were far better than any regular first year both in knowledge as in talent. However, even with their much larger than average cores the core of a wizard expanded almost exponentially during their seven years at Hogwarts. If Violet hadn't ended her second duel when she did the older teenager would have outlasted her. Lucretia not only had more magic than either of them but she was definitely a talented fighter, neither Hermione nor Susan had shown a similar talent in dueling at her age. Especially in transformations, thought Jasmine remembered the wolf she had easily created and animated with a slight wince.
The months quickly passed by, and the two of them continued to excel in all their subjects, they had become the darlings of Professor Slughorn. According to Mrs. Herrera he was bragging about their exploits to any teacher willing to have a conversation with him. At least no one seemed to know about their little duel with the Black heiress, at least no one mentioned it. Jasmine hoped that Lucretia had kept their supposed secret for herself because if any of the professors tried to investigate more directly they would easily find out that she was lying through her teeth.
Jasmine and Dorea had taken quite a liking to each other, her previous grandmother was quite a firecracker, she frequently stumped her way through social niceties and she was apparently a talented seeker. Jasmine had always loved Quidditch despite the fact that she was completely useless in a broom. It had been one of the few things that had actually made her feel connected to her late father, she was happy to know that link still remained despite the different universe. So she had been front and center when the first match of the season happened. The traditional Gryffindor vs Slytherin match happened on a windy November day. The sky was clear of any clouds and the atmosphere was electrifying with anticipation, although Jasmine noticed that there were much fewer pranks made between the two houses in the weeks before the game compared to her time.
Violet didn't seem to be half as excited as her with the idea of seeing their house team play. Despite showing that she was quite graceful in the air she thought that the sport was nonsensical and a waste of their time, she probably wouldn't have come if it was for the fact that Jasmine had insisted. The young heiress had been proudly showing her house colors and she loudly cheered when she saw her cousin enter the field. When the match started it quickly became clear that the Gryffindor's had a much better group of chasers as they rapidly accumulated quite a lead. Luckily Dorea seemed to quickly have seen the Snitch as she fearlessly dived down to the ground. When the Gryffindor's seeker saw that he made a violent turn, making his own dive trying to catch Dorea. This started a wild chase between the two as they dashed through the field narrowly avoiding balls, poles, and the other players. Jasmine was left completely speechless seeing how talented Dorea was on a broom, she flew through the air as if she belonged there. Suddenly the two seekers made a violent turn and started flying directly towards the stands. The entire Slytherin stand gasped when the two players almost collided with them before making a sharp turn to the left avoiding them by the skin of their teeth. Jasmine had to duck to avoid being hit by the tail of one of the brooms.
Then they all heard the sound whistle being blown. Jasmine cheered with the rest of her house when she saw Dorea proudly showing the snitch firmly in her hand. The young seeker did a few laps around the stadium, doing tricks and chanting "Slytherin!" to the echo of their entire house. The only one who didn't seem to be as excited as the rest was Violet who was giving the young seeker quite a nasty glare through her whole show, with her hair a very uncharacteristic mess.
The party after the game had been as big as the ones Jasmine had seen in Gryfindor. Dorea of course had been the guest of honor having been the key player that saved them the game. Even Slughorn had made an appearance and had proudly announced Dorea's invitation to the incoming Christmas party he was going to throw. Violet was quite clearly angry, at least in the eyes of Jasmine, because the plump professor had later explained that he hadn't been able to invite them as they were too young according to some old Hogwarts law. Apparently, they will have to wait until their third year to participate in the famous Slug Club. Jasmine was internally quite pleased with that as she still had memories of the awkward ambiance of the few Slug Club reunions she went to in her past life, mixing Dark and Light supporters in the middle of civil war had been quite a bad idea.
December soon arrived, and Violet was completely mesmerized by the picturesque image created the first time the snow started to fall. The castle looked completely different covered in snow, almost as if it had been taken directly from a painting. This was made even better by a liberal use of warming charms, allowing them to enjoy the winter climate to the fullest. The Great Hall was less decorated than what Jasmine remembered, a giant tree was installed behind the head table, decorated with golden orbs of light that flew around it like fireflies on a hot night, red plushy lions that roared once in a while, yellow badgers that that moved their heads adorably every once in a while, blue eagles that flew all over the Great Hall and cute little green snakes that slither all around the tree. Smaller trees were also put at the sides of the Great Hall, truly creating a festive atmosphere.
Jasmine and Violet were eating their breakfast there when Dorea made a beeline towards them with an uncharacteristic crestfallen expression.
"I have bad news." she said, Jasmine was apprehensive, this year had been really tranquil all things considered which made her dread what may come later. "I talked with Sirius, I'm sorry but I don't think you can stay with us during the Holidays, apparently there is going to be a ball and there isn't going to be enough space."
Jasmine felt herself relax. Dorea had offered them to come with her for the Holidays, but Jasmine never had much hope that two Half-Bloods would be accepted in the House of Black.
"Don't worry, I appreciate the gesture, I knew it was a long shot, I know you did everything you could." she reassured her cousin sincerely, Violet not too subtly scoffed.
"Well I hope you don't forget your Christmas present then, I will need your support to tolerate those posh balls." Dorea said fake gagging, Jasmine just smiled at her antics.
Thus, when the notice for those who wanted to remain in the castle was posted on the announcement board, Violet and Jasmine were one of the few that actually wrote their names. None of them had any desire to return to the gloomy orphanage and they could just imagine the number of things they could do in the room of requirements.
Jasmine was surprised when she saw Eileen Prince, one of the members of their little study club, write her name on the notice. Eileen was one of the kids that had the most difficulties with the wizarding classes. Her core was particularly small, Jasmine guessed it was less than half the size of the average core. She guessed that her family had to pull some strings to let their daughter in Hogwarts, as she wasn't the heiress of the house nor did she have a strong core like most of the students that attended the school. However, she had a natural knack for potions, she shined in the class despite the presence of two prodigies.
So when classes round off only the three of them and some upper classmates remained in the whole house. Jasmine and Violet spent almost their whole days in the room of requirement, dueling, practicing Occlumency, and just enjoying each other's company. They only moved from there to eat, as the room was completely unable to produce any form of food.
Hence, she was quite surprised when a small scrawny black haired girl decided to sit with them during dinner on Christmas Eve.
"Hello there, how are you?" asked Jasmine with a friendly smile.
"Hello, Heiress Potter, I'm fine." nervously squeaked the young girl.
"There's no need to call me Heiress Potter, or would you like me to call you Miss Prince." she said with a teasing toned.
"No, there's no need, Eileen is fine." sheepishly peeped the young girl. Jasmine found her curiously endearing.
"Did you want something?" coldly asked Violet. The young girl blushed and shied away almost as if she was trying to seem even smaller.
"Don't be rude Violet, tomorrow is Christmas everybody needs company." chastised Jasmine, Violet huffed but didn't try to argue. "How has your holiday been, have you done something interesting with potions lately?" asked Jasmine trying to get the young girl to exit her shell.
"Not really, we can't access the potions labs while school isn't in session so…"
"Nonsense," interrupted Jasmine "I'm sure that professor Slughorn would be more than amenable to let a prodigy such as yourself practice something more complicated while the others aren't around."
The poor girl blushed desperately while she shyly nodded, Jasmine had to contain the urge to squeal at how cute she looked.
"Well he is right there if you want we could go." she sensed Violet tense. However, the frantically nodding of the smaller girl didn't let her think over the action. Maybe, she would need to talk with Violet later. She rose up and went to talk with Slughorn, unsurprisingly he was more than ready to open a classroom so that Prince could practice. He even invited her and Violet to do the same. Jasmine declined, much to the sadness of both the professor and the student, knowing that the room of requirements was a better place than any Slughorn could possibly give. So she excused herself while Slughorn and Prince mulled over the details, when she sat Violet gave her a strange look, but she didn't say anything at all.
