Jasmine was a bit saddened when Violet let go of her Patronus. Her friend was immediately hit with the recoil of emotions, making her shiver and end the hug, ruining the moment. Of course, she had told Violet that ending the spell would make her release the emotions she had accumulated to cast it, but it was different hearing it and feeling it.
"Was it harder than you thought it would be?" she asked curiously.
"A bit, it is weird to feel so much happiness and then just feel numb afterward."
"Don't worry you will get used to it." she said caressing her hand trying to comfort her.
"I hope so," she said smiling gratefully before yawning "well I think I will go to sleep." she didn't look so well, she was clearly emotionally exhausted.
Jasmine nodded, knowing first hand how tiring casting the Patronus for the first time could be.
"Good night then." Jasmine said before leaving for her room.
It wasn't hard to get used to going to the boring classes once more. Jasmine felt a bit conflicted about the fact that they didn't have Dumbledore again this year. His classes had been one of the most entertaining ones, despite the fact that she still didn't like the man at all. Contrary to Dumbledore, Slughorn had gone so far as starting to have classes with the second years instead of the first years. According to most rumors, he did it to continue to give classes to his three prodigies, and knowing the man Jasmine was quite inclined to agree.
Meanwhile, the dueling club had had another round of duels to see if someone new wanted to enter. Jasmine and Violet had examined some of the new hopefuls personally, it had been quite funny seeing them nervously shake when they realized that they were going to go against one of the two prodigies. Their reputation preceded them by now, especially in the first four years. She hadn't been as vicious as Violet with her opponents, but, at least according to Dorea, that hadn't changed the fact that now people were terrified of fighting either of them next year.
Now they were going to have their first session with the new members. There hadn't been anyone who caught Jasmine's or Violet's attention among them, with the exception of Theodore Nott. It had been quite surprising seeing the young heir in the evaluation matches, but he had a good showing. Easily beating the opponent he had to fight against in the first match and giving a good fight against a fourth year, despite the obvious difference in magical knowledge and experience. He could make a good duelist with more training and Jasmine was excited to see how he would evolve.
Lucretia was once more waiting for them up on the elevated platform. Jasmine hadn't talked with the older girl since the ball, but her words still felt heavy in Jasmine's mind. She knew that the Wizarding World wasn't the most accepting of places for homosexuals. The constant string of rude comments and insults that followed them when her relationship with Susan had become public, had been proof enough for her of that. It had been bad enough that it was often used as a sticking point against Amelia's administration. However, what Lucretia had implied had been terrifyingly worse.
She could guess that the difference between the two reactions may be caused by the difference in the time period. She knew perfectly well that right now being gay was illegal in Muggle Great Britain. One of the first things she had done when she arrived again at school was investigating if something like that was also true in the Magical side of things. Luckily for her, it wasn't, although the fact of being lesbian was still heavily looked down upon hadn't changed. Especially among the purebloods, as they allegedly saw it as a way to dodge their obligations of creating the next generation of nobles. Jasmine knew better they were simply bigots trying to make their irrational fear rational and justified.
Jasmine dreaded to imagine what kind of reaction Lucretia's family had when they saw her with another woman. The Blacks weren't known for being either the most progressive of thinkers or the most friendly of Noble Houses. She wasn't sure what studying abroad meant for Lucretia's past flame, but she knew it couldn't be as good as it sounded. From her memories of her past life, she knew that it was Orion, not Lucretia who became Lord Black in the future. She didn't quite remember if the other version of her club captain had been disinherited, or she simply had renounced her claim for the heirship. She regretted that she hadn't paid more attention to the genealogical tree when she had the chance.
So despite her cold demeanor, Jasmine had started to feel a little sympathy for the heiress. It also helped that even knowing already that she had lied regarding where she had gotten the training, she hadn't told anyone. Jasmine gladly appreciated the gesture of good faith. On the contrary, Violet seemed to be much more paranoid, she expected her to betray them at one moment or another. She had tried to see if there were any ways to track the frequent use of wandless magic in a muggle household, but she hadn't gotten anything concrete one way or another. So Violet was left there just waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Those thoughts ran wild while they assembled around the platform, they were only cut when the young heiress started talking.
"As many of you already know, in a little more than a year Japan will be hosting the Worldwide Dueling Competition of 1940. Of course, Hogwarts will be participating in the junior category, the preliminaries will take place in early June so our objective this year is to get you ready, we want to have a good showing in next year's competition." she calmly explained.
Jasmine had heard a little about the Worldwide Dueling Competition, with almost one hundred countries participating, it was one of the biggest sporting events in the Wizarding World, second only to the Quidditch World Cup. She wondered if the competition would take place counting the growing tensions among magicals due to war. Nevertheless, she knew that this presented an excellent opportunity to create connections among the other nations of the Wizarding World, which may prove to be essential for both their short and long term plans. So Jasmine was sure that she was going to try to participate in the renowned competition.
"Potter, Riddle come with me." commanded Lucretia as she lowered the platform so that they had more space for the duels. They went to one of the more isolated corners and they put the normal wards designed to protect spectators from any kind of stray spells. However, Jasmine noticed that Lucretia had also put another spell among the rest of the protection, a notice-me-not charm.
The older girl turned towards the two of them, her expression stern as usual. "Last year I let you two play with the rest of the club during the normal hours, because I have seen you improve despite the lack of good opponents. However, with the Dueling Competition fast approaching this isn't an option anymore. I want you two to be on the top of your game by the end of the year. Last year you failed to beat me two against one, your cores are bigger, I expect you to have learned more magic. I want you to be able to beat me two against one before Christmas." she demanded not leaving any room for discussion.
Jasmine had to resist the urge to gulp nervously at the hard tone she had taken, Lucretia dropped the privacy ward and started with the training. They spent the rest of the hour doing multiple exercises to increase their speed, stamina, and the speed of spellcasting. All while they tried to avoid spells cast at random by the young heiress. It was by far the most intensive practice they had done since they arrived at the dueling club.
To top it all of they ended their little session of personal torture by dueling once more two against one against Lucretia.
The two of them prepared themselves for the duel. Jasmine was quite nervous, sure their cores had grown considerably this last year but so had Lucretia's, in fact, Lucretia's had grown much more. So a long duel was at their complete disadvantage, there was no way they would be able to win before they fell to the floor exhausted, it all depended on their creativity and their magic.
"You can do the honors." said Lucretia magnanimously.
Jasmine looked towards Violet who seemed to have a fire burning brightly behind her eyes. She gave her a short nod, before steadily shouting.
"One, two, GO!"
Immediately Violet lifted the stone floor to create a wall blocking Lucretia's vision. Using their chance they both cast disillusionment and silencing spells on themselves turning transparent just before the wall exploded sending rocks everywhere in sight. Jasmine tried to dodge the incoming projectiles as gracefully as she could. She hoped that the cloud of debris that covered their little arena would be more than enough to make them more difficult to see.
Sadly for her Lucretia must have thought the same thing as she created a powerful air current that rapidly dispersed the remaining debris to the edges of the wards. Then her eyes shimmered and Jasmine had to start dodging spells and curses that seemed to come faster and faster. She dropped the disillusionment charm as it was clear that she knew where she was hiding and started to send counterfire, asking herself where the hell was Violet.
As if invoked by her thoughts, a new barrage of spells started to be sent to the blindspot behind Lucretia. But Jasmine knew better, she wasn't surprised when the heiress cast a powerful shield charm to her back, blocking the incoming rain of magic long enough for her to jump to safety. Cursing under her breath, Jasmine continued casting more and more spells, forcing the other heiress to continue moving, dodging and casting the occasional shield when too many spells were coming her way both from both in front and behind.
They had her on the defensive, they could do this, she thought with no small amount of glee. However, her cheerful mood was cut short when her opponent yelled.
"Aegis!" the spell created the familiar golden sphere around the Black heiress.
"Luoda Salama!" she cried, immediately a huge lighting bolt was created from the tip of her wand clashing against the golden shield. A loud cracking sound echoed all around them as the blinding light of the lighting destroyed the powerful shield.
But before the lighting finished dissipating Jasmine had to jump out of the way of a stone spike flying towards her. Jasmine was going to start sending more spells the way of the obviously still conscious heiress when she felt something painfully stinging the back of her neck. Quickly turning around she saw a multitude of dark ants rapidly escaping from the cracked spike that had impacted the wards.
They soon arrived in great numbers, stinging her by the dozen. The pain quickly accumulated as she felt them walking all over her. Lifting her wand towards the ceiling she silently conjured a lot of water above her, the water fell over her like a block of wood making her fall, but it quickly washed down all the annoying ants.
Jasmine lifted her gaze towards where the golden shield had been and she saw Violet and Lucretia exchanging spells with a speed that made it almost painful to look at. Gritting her teeth she started to silently cast her own chain of spells hoping to take Lucretia by surprise. But she must have felt the incoming magic as she pointed towards her feet, vanishing the stone floor she was stepping on and falling down a new made hole. The spells Jasmine had cast flew by barely missing the top of her head.
Jasmine and Violet immediately started to run towards the hole trying to get an angle to start firing again when the top of the hole was filled once more blocking their access to the evasive heiress. Violet snarled before sending a powerful bombarda spell towards where the hole was, exploding against the stone. They quickly approached only to fail to see anything in what remained of the hole, she had escaped them. They both tensed knowing that the heiress could attack at any moment.
Jasmine looked towards Violet giving her a look before jumping and creating a golden platform where they both waited for the moment to attack. That's when a multitude of stone spikes started appearing all over the ground of their little arena, covering the entire thing. Not wanting to continue wasting magic on the platform, Jasmine unsummoned it letting them both fall to the ground. She smiled when she saw that Violet immediately transformed the floor once more into a flat surface so that they didn't fall against the sharp spikes.
They weren't surprised when they saw a new hole form from which Lucretia jumped up. She was covered with debris and her uniform was a bit torn apart but an excited smirk still adorned her face. Not wasting any time, she started to send towards them a new wave of curses. Violet took care of the defensive, lifting once more a wall of stone from the floor while Jasmine tried to send a few spells from behind the wall.
Yet, the wall proved to be easily breakable once more when a bombarda spell completely destroyed it. But Violet had been expecting it, as she banished the rock and debris towards the heiress with more power than what even Jasmine would have expected. Lucretia didn't wait idly for them as she created a new blue shield that deflected most of the stones headed her way. Jasmine had already sent a chain of spells, led by a powerful bombarding spell it crashed against the cracked shield breaking it apart, Lucretia tried to dodge the spells but the last one hit her directly in the left arm breaking it immediately. She screamed in pain before yelling loudly.
"Protego Maxima!" a blue shield much more solid than the ones before appeared. Immediately, Jasmine continued sending more spells, but her magic reserves were dwindling. The shield finally broke but Lucretia seemed to have done something for her arm as she was dodging their spells with the same grace she had since the beginning of the fight, quickly approaching them.
Violet then closed her eyes and with a long complicated wand movement the ground under which Lucretia was running folded like a piece of paper, making her stumble. Jasmine immediately recognized the spell as the stone floor rapidly folded creating a giant animated stone snake that instantly started attacking the fallen heiress. Lucretia narrowly dodged and avoided the strikes and Jasmine immediately started to send more spells her way. However, when she looked at her side she saw that her friend was struggling to remain conscious. Knowing that she didn't have much time before Violet's magic was completely spent, she shouted.
"Vélos Apollona!" an arrow made out of blazing fire descended from above to strike the ground where Lucretia was. The Black heiress barely had time to form a half made shield before the arrow exploded sending her flying to the nearby wall. Jasmine wasn't much better as she hastily made a shield in front of her that barely protected her from the fiery explosion. When the shield gave away, she struggled to not fall down. The whole arena was covered with small fires and her whole being ached from using so much magic in one go. She fell to her knees, her breath labored and her eyelids heavy. The wards fell down as people started to flood putting out the fires and dispersing the smoke. The last thing she saw before falling unconscious was the form of someone struggling to rise up.
"You know it wouldn't have been as bad if you had only given up." casually said Nott while reading a book seated on the chair beside her bed.
Meanwhile, Jasmine was busy groaning in pain, she was still bedridden suffering from aches all over her body and almost unable to move. Apparently, her last spell had been a bit excessive as it had almost completely depleted her magic reserves, sending her into unconsciousness for the next two days.
Violet was even worse as her little foray into animated transformation didn't dispel when she fell unconscious after being bashed against the wall by the explosion. So the half destroyed snake continued to try to move around until Violet's magic was unable to supply her with the power to do so. So she was completely magically exhausted, they were still waiting for her to wake up even though the medical staff at hand had already healed most of the many bruises, lacerations and burns she had suffered from because of Jasmine's last explosion.
She felt quite guilty for her stupid last move. Especially because it had completely failed, Lucretia had barely remained conscious so she would have won if it was a real duel, despite her concussion. At least she was as battled down as the two of them but the lack of magical exhaustion meant that she had already been discharged. Jasmine cursed her rotten luck, she had already seen the infirmary more than enough times in her first life.
At least, she hadn't been alone when she woke up, she had been surprised to see Theodore at her bedside calmly reading a book without a care in the world. Apparently, their closest circle of friends had been taking turns to look after them while they waited for them to wake up. She was quite surprised when she saw that on the table beside her bed there was a small mountain of gifts and presents from the members of their study club. She even got a bouquet of flowers that seemed to have been hand collected by Eileen. She greatly appreciates such a sweet gesture although she didn't want to imagine Violet's reaction when she founds out.
"Then what would have been the point of dueling in the first place?" she asked bitterly.
"You would have dueled a worldwide renowned dueling prodigy four years your senior almost to a draw. Isn't that enough for you? Did you need to cast a powerful offensive spell too, when your magical reserves were almost empty too?" he laid out with a slight dose of disbelief in his voice.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" she exclaimed.
"As good an idea as Violet here had with her snake. Seriously, where did you two learn animated transformations? We don't even begin to learn those until fourth year."
"What do you think we do after classes? Study for our regular classes? Those are incredibly boring and easy."
"If only a professor could see you now, one of the two great prodigies of our generation. Freely admitting that she refuses to study for what she is actually being evaluated on." he said, his voice dripping with dry sarcasm. "But that makes me think, where do you two hide during those private afternoons, do you have your own secret classroom?" he asked with a slight hint of mockery in his voice.
"None of your business heir Nott. If you really want to see more of us join us in our study club." she sharply said, trying to deflect his lines of inquiry.
"Oh yes. What did professor Slughorn call it? The best example of inter house relationships since the creation of the Slug Club itself. That's high praise coming from that man you know? You surely have noticed that you have formed quite the following?" Yes, that definitively was an amused smirk on his face now.
"They aren't followers, they are my friends and classmates, helping them is the right thing to do." she protested despite knowing perfectly well that Violet saw them as nothing more than their followers.
"Sometimes you have such a Gryfindor outlook on things, it is quite peculiar. It is no wonder that you get on so well with Miss Black, two wild lions in the middle of the serpent's dent."
"Oh, but I can be quite a snake when it suits me."
"I'm sure you can, Miss Black must have taught you something after all."
Jasmine had to contain herself from starting to giggle "As if Dorea had any kind of sense of subtlety. I love my cousin, but even I have to admit that she can be quite reckless sometimes."
"And you aren't?" he asked, lifting his gaze at his book and giving her an accusatory stare.
"Okay but that is combat that is completely different." she protested.
"I'm sure it is."
Jasmine huffed annoyed at being called reckless; it was already enough to be reminded of one of her worse characteristics by Violet with the whole Basilisk affair. And this whole duel had completely interrupted their plans to go down the Chamber to see what they could find inside.
"Well since you are the one who is here, what other news do you have for me? What did I miss?"
Without even lifting his eyes from his book Nott said. "Well I think that Malfoy took care of taking notes for you two, his penmanship really is ridiculously good. We have to do a few essays for next week, but I'm sure they won't be a problem for you two." he said with a slight smile before turning to look at her with a serious expression. "Also yesterday there were two more bombings in the Commonwealth."
Jasmine's eyes widened at the news. She expected Grindelwald to continue his campaign of terror but she didn't anticipate them continuing their attacks so soon. It had barely been a week since the last one.
"What were the targets? Do they have any leads on who did it this time?" she asked, hoping that the dark lord wouldn't be able to hide himself in the shadows for much longer.
"They attacked the workshop of a local enchanter and the lands and manor of a noble. The enchanter is okay but the Head of the Noble house is dead and most of the rest of his family is in bad shape. They suspect that it may be a more militant branch of those at the east who are seeking Russian integration."
"Those who want what?" she said, quite confused. They still weren't suspecting Grindelwald?
"The Commonwealth extends for much of the plains at the east of Europe. In the Muggle world, that area is divided among many nations, but mostly by Russia and Poland. This last century there has been an uptick in people who want to separate from The Commonwealth which is still dominated by the Polish and to approach Russia, especially among muggleborns."
"I'm impressed how you know so much about the geopolitical situation in the Commonwealth?"
"My father served as ambassador there for a few years. It would be criminal if I didn't know anything about it." he pridefully boasted.
"But why are they so sure the separatist are the ones responsible? Why not a foreign actor?"
A small smile appeared on Nott's face. "I see that your brilliance doesn't end just in the academic field. More than anything is because who they are acting against, the head of the DMLE was a Polish patriot, the same story for the noble they attacked it has become a clear pattern to attack important Polish figures. I wouldn't be surprised if they attacked the major school near Lublin, it has always been a symbol of the unification or as some would say of unfair Polish oppression."
"Why would it be a symbol of oppression?" she asked a bit confused.
"Well they give their lessons in Polish of course."
Jasmine was quite surprised by what Nott had said. She distantly knew that the Commonwealth existed on the magical side and that the borders in the magical world were quite different than those of the muggle one. However, she had never thought about what that could mean for the countries in question. She still thought that Grindelwald was behind everything but she supposed that it explained quite well why they wouldn't be suspecting him yet.
"Have there been any reactions internationally?"
"Not many, more than anything people are nervous that similar incidents will take place in their own countries."
"And what about Germany?"
Surprise quickly flashed on Theodore's face. "You think that Grindelwald is behind them?"
"Well not behind them necessarily but he has been aggressive for the last few years." she said not knowing how to justify her belief that Grindelwald was behind the attacks.
"Then it would be a bad time to invade, a common foe would quite likely unite the different groups of the Commonwealth, forcing them to fight a stronger enemy."
Jasmine remained quiet while she mulled over the implications of that statement. That's when the doors of the infirmary slammed open and a black haired teen came towards them running at full speed. She jumped towards her to hug her despite still being in bed with bruises all over. Her body screamed in pain when the impact happened and Jasmine cried in anguish.
"Sorry, sorry I forgot about the bruises." quickly said Dorea when she saw that she was hurting her cousin.
"Don't worry but be more careful next time, please." said Jasmine with a grimace.
"Yes, I will remember next time." Then she turned towards Theodore who was very clearly finding the whole situation quite comical. "And you! Why didn't you tell us that Jasmine was awake? I only found out because one of the nurses told me when I was coming this way."
Nott let a short exasperated sigh out. "I hadn't yet finished my book and your turn didn't begin until well now."
Dorea huffed petulantly before turning her attention back to Jasmine. "You are insane, what kind of madwoman are you to duel against Lucretia to a dignified loss. What else did you expect other than you ending up here."
"Well to be honest she was the one who suggested it, I still don't know why she did but she found it extremely important for some reason that we were at the top of our game by the time the next Worldwide Dueling Competition comes around. And also, dignified loss? It was a draw, she was rather beaten up by the end of it, after all, I think that is a draw."
Dorea rolled her eyes "As if, she was able to return to the dormitories by the next day, meanwhile you two idiots are still here."
Jasmine shrank a bit in embarrassment at their stupid loss.
"Do you know why she would want to duel us though?"
Dorea shrugged nonchalantly "Probably because she is going to be seventeen by the time the next competition begins. She is going to fight against adults now and she needs someone to take up the mantle for the Hogwarts team."
"And we are the best option?" asked Jasmine a bit incredulously.
Dorea looked at her with a deadpan expression before saying "You were able to give her a good fight as second years. Do you know how many people could say doing that? I will tell you that there aren't many. Most people are already talking about you two as the next Grindelwald, someone who is going to absolutely dominate the dueling circuits for years to come."
Jasmine was quite surprised, she knew that she was good, really good, but to be compared to Grindelwald, to be compared with one of the most prodigious wizards in the last two centuries, it was quite a compliment. She looked back to Violet's sleeping form and she thought that it was ironic she at least had the excuse of having her past memories. That girl was pure concentrated talent, the one which is seen once in a dozen generations. Once more she felt pity for Violet's counterpart in her old world. He had so foolishly wasted so much potential. She couldn't wait to see what highs Violet was going to reach.
Violet hadn't been amused when she woke up after three days of sleeping. It was kind of funny for Jasmine to see her best friend grumpily sulk in her bed after their rather spectacular defeat. Not even making her remember that everyone knew that they were good enough to be able to duel to basically a stalemate, although, in a two against one, a worldwide renowned duelist prodigy wasn't enough to make her cheer up. They were quite surprised when Dorea told them that they even made an appearance in the Daily Prophet, it was just a corner at the bottom of a page but it was quite spectacular for Jasmine.
They were even more surprised when the day after Violet woke up they received in the morning mail a letter, in an elegant black envelope. Jasmine was quite astonished that the famously dark and bigotted Black family had written to two half-bloods.
Dear Heiress Potter,
Tales of your and Miss Riddle's magical feats have been arriving to our ears for the past year. Your latest showing against our daughter was incredibly impressive. We would be delighted to invite you and Miss Riddle to our Samhain ball this year. The ball will take place on the 31st of October, we will be waiting for you.
Sincerely, Lord Sirius Phineas Black.
Jasmine was left quite surprised by the content of the letter she turned to look towards Violet who looked much happier and was giving her a conspiratorial smile.
