Jasmine let out a content sigh as she calmly relaxed in the Malfoy's bathtub. Their stay in the Malfoy manor had been delayed initially by the fact that she had been unconscious for three days after their duel with Lucretia. Apparently, Slughorn had even scolded Lucretia for pushing a student to the point of magical exhaustion twice already.
Jasmine felt a bit guilty for that. It wasn't Lucretia's fault that she had decided to materialize her magic physically. It had been quite useful but the smoke filled with her magic was way too much for her, that's without counting the powerful explosive spell she sent right afterward.
She was getting a bit frustrated by how small her reserves were. In her past life, when she had started practicing dueling and fighting, she was already fifteen and her reserves were over a dozen times bigger than what they are now. This is the third time she had overestimated how much magic she could perform, before getting completely exhausted, and it irked her that she had made such a rookie mistake once more. She knew that they would naturally grow at a ridiculous pace for the next few years, but right now she felt that it was painfully limiting.
That feeling of frustration was partially compensated by the fact that at last, they had been able to defeat Lucretia, which wasn't a small feat at all. She had been an important figure in the dueling circuits for years now and they had been able to beat her in a duel despite being much younger physically. She hoped that by the end of the year or maybe the start of next year, they would be able to replicate the feat in a one versus one battle.
That being said, she was really glad that the holidays had already begun, as she spent her time relaxing in the luxurious Malfoy manor. She hadn't even visited the library once in the two weeks they had stayed with the rich family, leaving her academic responsibilities behind for once.
Instead, Violet, Abraxas, and her had spent their time flying around the estate, swimming, after applying an indecent amount of warming charms, in the nearby river and learning to ride the magnificent Abraxans. Jasmine hadn't gathered enough courage to ride the winged horses into the air, but it was quite enjoyable riding them around the extensive grounds.
They even had the good fortune that Dorea had come to spend the solstice with her betrothed. Jasmine hadn't had any opportunities to actually celebrate the Holidays growing up with the Dursleys, so even now she was thrilled by the warm feeling of family that the Dursleys could never have come close to creating.
All in all this vacation was feeling more and more like a well deserved rest. She hadn't realized how stressed she had been before now, but the brutal training regime she and Violet were submitting themselves to was definitely taking its toll. Sadly all good things came to an end.
She reluctantly rose from the bathtub and with a few quick wandless spells she dried herself up and braided her unruly hair. Today was the last day of the Holidays. She quickly dressed herself and made her way to the dining room. She still was quite impressed by the sheer size of the manor, she and Violet had frequently gotten lost in the vast hallways and had to ask help from the house elves to guide them.
When she arrived at the dining room there only was Lady Malfoy and Violet there, happily chatting with each other. Abraxas was not used to waking up early and his father wasn't much better so they frequently were the last ones to come to breakfast.
"Jasmine dear, please come. I'm sure that you will be interested in this. I was talking with Violet about the interview that I had with a Kitsune back in November."
"An interview with a Kitsune?" she asked not knowing much about the famous Japanese magical creature.
"Indeed, it was quite a hassle to arrange transportation for a Kitsune from all the way to Japan but it was definitely worth it," she said with excitement "There are quite a few species who can transform into humans or a hybrid between humans and their animal form. But very few among them have to actually learn to do it, one of the most notable examples are the kitsunes and I was able to interview one of them!" she exclaimed, the sheer amount of excitement was contagious.
"Is it similar to our Animagus transformation?" asked Jasmine, intrigued.
"Not really, the Animagus transformation is more than anything based around the ritual that binds you to your animal form. It is a lengthy process that uses magic from the environment to create the connection and then you use your magic to guide the transformation." explained Lady Malfoy "Meanwhile there isn't a connection between the hybrid form and the fox form that most kitsunes can adopt, they are directly transforming themselves like most simple human transformations. Therefore, they aren't able to stay in their hybrid form for as much time as Animagus can stay in their animal form but they are able to modify how their version of their hybrid form looks. It is rather fascinating."
Jasmine was sure that Lady Malfoy could have continued talking about the topic for hours but at last Abraxas and Lord Malfoy finally came. Tiwaz was crushing a piece of paper to the point where he made his knuckles pale.
"Have you seen the Prophet yet?" he asked his wife.
"Not yet my dear, why did something happen?" she asked, clearly wondering why was her husband so agitated.
"The commonwealth is officially in a civil war, the east is officially trying to secede." he said gravely.
Jasmine paled a little at hearing the news. The string of attacks against key officials and locations hadn't ended since September and no one seemed to know how the 'separatists' were able to be so effective. However, openly declaring that they wanted to secede was going to bring the whole conflict to a whole new level.
"They are trying to become independent?" she asked alarmed.
"It is complicated, there are different groups that all want different things, some want to reunite with Russia while others want to stay independent nations. The commonwealth has been a powder crate for centuries and it seems that it has finally exploded." explained Lord Malfoy.
"Yet they think they are going to be able to combat the Commonwealth government?" asked Violet in disbelief with a raised eyebrow. Jasmine was also inclined to agree. If the movement was so disorganized how would they be able to contend with a fully-fledged government?
Lord Malfoy stayed carefully quiet, despite his best efforts it was clear that he knew more.
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Abraxas, who was already sitting in his favorite chair. "Foreign countries must be helping them behind the scenes. No one wants to have a European-wide war but countries such as Russia would benefit immensely. They must be helping them with resources and manpower as well." he said.
"Very insightful, my son. However, wouldn't other European powers also take sides in the incoming war?" asked Lord Malfoy even though he clearly already knew the answer.
Abraxas seemed to ponder his answer, he clearly hadn't thought that far away. Ever impatient, Violet decided to interrupt his musings.
"Who would pick the Commonwealth side? Britain is too far away and too isolationist to care, Germany and Poland have been fighting for students for the last few decades and the major powers in the Balkans have little love for the Commonwealth. The only ones that may intervene in their favor are France and maybe Spain as they benefit from a weaker Durmstrang."
"You are well informed, young Lady." said Lord Malfoy, clearly impressed.
"I want to go into politics later on." she exclaimed casually. "This decade is shaping up to be quite a tumultuous one and it's better if I know what's going on in the continent."
"Perhaps, you want to work at the department of international cooperation?" Lord Malfoy asked.
"It's a possibility." admitted Violet.
"Coincidentally that's the department I work at. If you continue to excel as you have, I could try to get you a hand after Hogwarts."
Violet did her best to show off her gratitude in a way that anyone other than Jasmine would have believed. "That's too much sir, but it is still a long time before I graduate."
"That's why I will wait to see how you develop in the next few years, you seem to have a rather bright mind."
Violet laid it out a bit thickly when she blushed in feigned embarrassment. Even Abraxas had to muffle a snort at her display.
"Now it isn't necessary to carelessly panic if they just declared independence, maybe there's still a chance of stopping the conflict before it escalates." tried to reassure Lady Malfoy, although she didn't seem to believe it herself. "Now let's eat. It is already quite late and if we don't hurry we may lose the train."
The rest of the breakfast was spent on more light topics, even if the shadow of the news that Lord Malfoy had brought were still in everyone's mind.
When they arrived at the station it was already brimming with families and students saying their goodbyes or catching up with each other. Jasmine marveled slightly at how carefree everything seemed, it was quite nostalgic reminding her how things used to be before her fifth year. They quickly said their goodbyes before boarding the train back to the castle.
The sun was setting down as a finely dressed young man was walking down the muddy streets of a poor rural town a few kilometers away from Tullin. His fine clothes and lustrous red hair contrasted with the poor environment he found himself in. Many were left staring at who they could only assume to be a city boy wondering what he was doing here. However, the young man felt more relaxed here than back in the capital, as if he could breathe better.
In this rural town, contrary to the capital, one could almost forget that the country had been invaded just a few months prior. Sure no one called it that, they said it was just a treaty for military assistance after all. Allegedly the Soviets were only going to put a few bases in the baltic states to protect them during this new European war. However, most knew what this really was, the first steps on a complete annexation, the writing was on the wall for everyone to see.
The young man that walked down the streets towards the church at the center of the town was quite aware of the political situation of the baltic country. However, he hadn't come to this poor town because of the danger that the Estonian estate now faced. No, sadly there was little that he or his allies could do against the muggle threat.
He felt the weak magic of the temporary wards pass through him when he entered the wooden church. He mentally noted that they were weak even for temporary wards, someone with a crude understanding of ancient runes would have been able to easily break them. As he walked down the nave he saw the silhouette of a few men and women, they seemed as if they were made out of dirty glass contouring the image that they were trying to hide behind.
"You can drop the pretense Dorek. I know you are here." said the young man in French talking to one of the human-shaped silhouettes.
The silhouette lifted his wand and let the disillusionment charm drop, revealing an older man with a bit of a gut wearing a bright purple sweater and large brown coat that must have seen better days. The other silhouettes followed suit revealing a dozen men and women wearing similarly worn down clothing. The young man idly noted that at least some of them still were pointing their wands towards him.
"I see that you have graduated to a full-on spy, Romain, no more babysitter then?" asked the old man with a thick Estonian accent.
"They know that I'm more than capable enough to deal with your bouts of madness. Now can you tell me what Aleksy is thinking, why did he declare independence." he said with a steady voice.
"Alesky knows what he's doing, we aren't alone against the fuking Polish anymore." stated Dorek with conviction.
"You mean the other separatist movements? They don't seem to be able to even agree where they want to go, what makes you think that the Russians will be okay with taking their take and ending it there, don't you see what they are doing to the muggles?" exclaimed the young man.
"They will have to be okay with just those fools that want to join them. Russia doesn't have the power to bring us all in." he said boastfully.
Romain was quite surprised by how sure Dorek was of himself. The rest of the Directorate had been quite sure that someone had been backing the Estonian independence movement, they weren't sure who. Apparently, their backers weren't the Russians like some in his department had thought. There were few entities with enough power to help the separatist movements and Romain was quite sure which one was behind it by now.
"You know that attacking now breaks our agreement, we aren't in a position to provide resources in large quantities at the moment."
"As if you were planning on sharing in the first place." he angrily exclaimed before throwing a bunch of papers in front of him. Romain raised an eyebrow, perfectly aware that two of the people that had accompanied Dorek to the meeting were still pointing their wands at him. He wandlessly summoned said paper. His eyes widened in surprise when he read its content.
It was the location of one of the main bases of the Estonian independence movement. One of the bases that he knew had been raided by the Aurors back in June. One that he personally had visited with Henry, his mentor, last year.
"Our benefactor gave us this when he attacked the ministry. Alesky verified the magical traces of the scrambling spell himself, it seems that your fucking mentor played us!" he snarled.
Before they could continue Romain threw the first spell. In the blink of an eye, his wand was in his hand, he immediately cast a Bombarda at the feet of Dorek while wandlessly raising a shield to protect himself from his opponents that were already casting spells behind him. He dived for cover behind one of the church's chairs and quickly assessed the situation. His initial explosion seemed to have done quite a lot of damage to the cries of pain and gore. Meanwhile, his other opponents were trying to encircle him once more, so he nee…
That's when he felt the telltale feeling of more magical presences apparating outside the church. Containing his desire to curse he quickly started to cast spell after spell against his attackers. The shield he had cast with his off hand held firm against the basic stunners, Reducto, and other simple spells that simply didn't have the punch to pass through his barriers. It was clear that his opponents weren't trained for direct battle making their actions even more questionable. The difference in experience and magical power was shown when he shredded their defenses like a hot knife through butter, but the reinforcements were going to arrive any minute now. He raised a stone wall to cover his retreat before turning towards the wall of the church and pointing his wand towards it.
"Bombarda Maxima!" he shouted creating a large hole in the wall through which he jumped to the outside of the church. What he found there almost made his heart drop, another dozen wizards were waiting for him outside of the church. It was a great numerical advantage and these wizards didn't seem half-starved, but Romain trusted his training and knew that he normally would have had a chance even with these numbers against him. No, what scared him was who was leading them, a tall dark haired woman was there. Anna Schwarz had been a renowned mercenary for years before she seemingly disappeared from the public light a few years back. The Directorate suspected that she had aligned herself with Grindelwald after she was seen a few times in Berlin with known associates before the unification.
"Good evening Mr. Laurent I wasn't sure you were going to show up." she said in immaculate French.
"Why wouldn't I show after all it was just a small little meeting among friends."
"I find it curious how your government treats their friends Mr. Laurent." she said before glancing towards the gore that could still be seen. "Although I see you aren't much better."
Romain gritted his teeth but tried to remain calm, for what he wanted to do he would need all his focus.
"You know it's good to confirm that Grindelwald is behind all this, we were quite divided on the topic among my colleagues."
"And why would the German Prime Minister be involved in all of this?" she asked with a predatory smile.
"Are you telling me that someone of your reputation is working for rebels that can barely afford their own food?"
She didn't rise to the cheap bait and simply let a small little giggle. "I would like to see how Alesky would react to such words. It doesn't matter anyway you're trapped like a fish on a barrel."
"ᛒᚱᛖᚨ" he murmured not even attempting to continue to hide how he channeled his magic towards the rune that he had wandlessly drawn while they talked. His attackers immediately started to send dark curses toward him but it was too late. The wards broke and he apparated away just as a nasty bone-breaking curse hitted him at the last minute.
He appeared a few kilometers away from the small town with a scream, the spell had completely shattered his collar bone, but years of practice had allowed him to not lose focus despite the injury. Knowing that his pursuers wouldn't take long to follow his trail he quickly made his way towards a seemingly innocent bush and took a green bottle of beer.
"Bon vent." he murmured, activating the portkey and disappearing back to the safety of France. He had much information to give after all and he hoped he would get some well-deserved answers.
