Chapter 28: Chapter 28Summary:Back to school...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 28
The school year started back up without much fuss. Or, at least, it began with significantly less than what Jasmine had started the term with. The students that had assaulted her were no longer attending Hogwarts and the board of governors forced an anti-bullying mandate that the school was going to have to follow, or else. The "or else" was extremely vague, but the threat was still there.
Brightbark was still teaching and didn't seem like he was going to be leaving his position of power anytime soon. Jasmine wasn't that surprised, OWLs were coming up and there was no way that Dumbledore was going to hire a new teacher this far into the term.
The Marauders had been planning something against the defense professor, since they still needed revenge against him for outing Jasmine's past, but they needed to work their way around the new bullying code. It wasn't too strict, but it was revolutionary for its time. Harassing other students was forbidden, whether it was verbal abuse or physical, by magical or muggle means. Any attempts on another student's life will be met with swift expulsion, unless there are extenuating circumstances, like self-defense. All accusations would be brought to the Head of House. Dumbledore mostly had the final say, which Jasmine thought was daft on the board's part, but the Heads of House have more control over what goes on within the different houses if certain students were to act out against others.
It was a start to stopping what could happen to Luna in the future, or what happened to Harriet in nearly all of her different lives. Severus may finally get some peace since the professors were also going to need to look into inter house bullying as well. Hopefully, the future potions master would get away from the upper years that followed him around like oversized body guards. Lily was overjoyed to hear about the new rules and was ready to enforce all of them by the second day of classes. Jasmine's dear roommate had memorized them all.
The Marauders had carefully poured over the rules to make sure they could still play their pranks without getting expelled. Naturally, they found at least six loopholes they could jump through to avoid severe punishments for their special brand of shenanigans. The main loophole being that they weren't going to target one person. Everyone was fair game to them and therefore, no one was bullied.
In the brief time they were back at Hogwarts a Quidditch match occurred. Gryffindor played a match against Hufflepuff…and Jasmine used the term "match" loosely. Jasmine felt like massacred was more accurate to describe the game. The Hufflepuff team had apparently lost most of its players this past year and was rebuilding, they only had one senior player, the rest of the team were new to the competitive Quidditch scene. Gryffindor won by over three hundred points, before Jasmine caught the snitch to end the game.
It wasn't until the end of January that the Marauders finally unveiled their prank against Brightbark. As always, it happened at in the Great Hall, this time during breakfast. They needed a large audience after all.
At first Jasmine wasn't sure what was going on. One minute everything was quiet, she was reading over her homework when a large crash sounded from the Head Table. She had wondered for a moment if Dumbledore finally had a heart attack and dropped dead, but when she looked up, where Brightbark sat, there was a rather large, bright orange…ostrich.
The professor turned ostrich opened his mouth to say something, but only a small, but very pervasive squeak came out.
For a moment it was silent, then the entire hall burst out laughing. It was almost if a collective sigh had been let out from the student body. Brightbark had set students against each other in a crusade to rid the world of anything other than light magic. And, if by seeing him, in all his ostrich glory, made the students feel like they had control again, then so be it. Jasmine brought a hand up to cover up a very unladylike snort that escaped her mouth.
James and Sirius, held no such qualms for being polite, they were nearly crying as they pounded their fists against the table. Remus was silently laughing into his arms, his head on the table, his friends' fists only missing him by a hair.
"Prongs…Moony" Sirius gasped out, "he squeaked!"
This only sent the three of them into another fit of hysterical laughter.
Defense classes were canceled for the day since Madam Pomfrey couldn't figure out how to turn him back until sometime later that evening.
Of course, there was no evidence as to who pulled the prank, but the Marauders were watched very closely by the faculty and staff for the rest of the day to make sure that they weren't the next ones on their hit list. Jasmine thought they were being a bit paranoid. The group of mischief makers tended to target faculty and staff that had wronged them. The Marauders were also smart enough to know not to more than one target on the same day. They had to keep them guessing.
~*~
January bled into early February, which meant that the dueling tournament was just around the corner.
It felt like Jasmine had been waiting forever for it to happen. Flitwick had been extremely distracted during classes for the past week. The poor charms professor was running himself ragged as he attempted to plan and strategize for the upcoming duels and grade essays. It was making preparing for their OWLs just that much more difficult. Jasmine wasn't all that concerned with passing or not, she'd done it nine times already and had been doing extremely well in all of her classes, but she could see it taking effect on her friends.
Lily wasn't getting her spell work right immediately and Alice and Marlene weren't doing well on the theoretical side of things. Not to mention that their papers were awful since Lily had less time to help them revise. The Marauders seemed to be the only students that weren't affected. Jasmine thought that it had to do with the fact that they were always busy doing something outside of the normal curriculum. If it wasn't Quidditch, it was playing pranks, creating a sentient map of the school, learning to become illegal animagus, or they were in detention. Adding in some extra dueling was just another way for them to practice using spells quick and efficiently.
Remus was a little left out, since he wasn't on the dueling team, but that didn't mean that James and Sirius didn't teach him everything that Flitwick taught them. The Marauders usually dragged her to an abandoned classroom to moderate their little private dueling lessons.
The considered Jasmine a professional, after all.
Lily would be horrendously jealous if she found out that Jasmine was helping them outside of Flitwick's lessons. Not that Jasmine really did much besides sit on the desk and scoff. It was rather entertaining to watch them try and teach Remus dueling stances when theirs wasn't perfect.
More often than not, Jasmine was called to help and fix their forms. Much like tonight, they were practicing in an abandoned classroom on the fifth floor. Jasmine was sitting on the professor's desk, her feet swinging as she watched James and Sirius attempt to teach Remus dueling etiquette. Sirius was trying to show Remus an attack stance, but he hadn't mastered it yet.
What kind of friend would she be if she let Sirius teach Remus incorrectly, which was the main reason that she was here in the first place. "No, your wrist should be angled like this…" Jasmine instructed, hopping off the desk, her feet barely making a sound as they hit the stone floor. She walked over to Sirius first and moved his wrist downward slightly and lifted his arm just a bit higher over his head. "This feels awkward now, but eventually, this will become natural. With your wrist at this angle it will be far easier to cast spells at a faster and more accurate rate at your opponents."
Remus copied the way Sirius was positioned, Jasmine nodded at his stance, and their duel began. It was playful, but creative, at first. Sirius and Remus were essentially practicing their charm and transfiguration work, passing spells back and forth. One moment there would be a swarm of paper butterflies going for Sirius, the next it would be flaming weasel charging towards Remus. It was entertaining to watch. Jasmine enjoyed seeing their creativity, it just showed how innovative they were. It would help them in the future.
But it could only take them so far…
"Fight seriously you two. If this was at the tournament, you'd be flat on your back," Jasmine instructed, sounding an awful lot like Flitwick in that moment.
The duel went from playful, to something fierce as they moved towards hexes and curses. Sirius was fast and had a large arsenal of spells, but Remus was calculated and his reflexes were sharper. Sirius' stance slipped up after a rather aggressive curse was sent his way and his curse missed its mark, hitting the wall behind Remus, who had easily stepped out of the way. The werewolf quickly cast an expelliarmus and Sirius ended up on the floor with Remus' wand at his neck. "Moony, why didn't you try out for this club?"
Remus shrugged and let out a tired sigh. "You know why, Padfoot."
James was leaning against one of the student's desks, his arms crossed. "Yes, well, it's stupid that they ban dark magical creatures from dueling tournaments. So, what if you're a little bit faster? Jasmine could more than likely still kick your arse from here to London."
"Aw, James, you have far too much faith in me," Jasmine replied, her voice sickeningly sweet as she batted her eyelashes at her cousin, who rolled his eyes. She turned back to Remus and Sirius. "You really did do a good job, Remus. We can make a champion duelist out of you yet!" She hardened her gaze and turned to the fallen Marauder. "Sirius, you really need to work on your delivery. You could be a great fighter, but you just can't seem to follow through with your attacks. You aren't going to actually hurt Remus. I've wared the room in such a way that you physically can't do that. You need to act like every duel is to the death and at any moment you could lose your life, otherwise you're going to get your arse kicked all the time."
"Speaking from experience?" Sirius quipped as he rolled himself off the floor and back into a dueling stance, this time challenging Jasmine to one.
Someone was in a masochistic mood this evening.
Jasmine chose her words carefully. "Well, considering I'm covered in scars and am still alive to tell the tale, no. I've always attacked. I didn't have a chance to defend myself and shy away from attacking. I needed to end fight quickly and efficiently. One day I hope that you can do the same thing without flinching away from it," she replied and cast a rather powerful levitation charm at his feet that sent him flying into the air, legs first. As Sirius rose towards the ceiling she transfigured the ceiling beams into wooden shackles that held Sirius in place by his ankles.
Sirius wasn't hurt, but he looked extremely disoriented hanging upside-down fifty feet in the air. His want was on the floor, so he was trapped. "Bloody hell, what did you do?" James asked, standing under his best mate.
Jasmine shrugged twirling her wand between her fingers as she watched her friend struggle against his bonds. "I chained him to the ceiling…You all are pretty great on your feet, but once you're taken off the ground you lose focus and just accept defeat. I never moved once I flipped you up-side-down. You could have attacked me with your wand, had you held onto it long enough."
"Pads, I wouldn't struggle too much if I were you. How are you going to get down from there without injuring yourself?" James asked, keeping his eyes on the slowly fraying wood around his friend's ankles.
Jasmine let out a sigh, she didn't want Sirius to actually injure himself. Flitwick would kill her for injuring one of his duelists. "He could always just cast a wandless levitation charm and float down or he could just concede and I'd get him down. In a dueling tournament the moment he touched the ceiling he'd be considered disqualified. It isn't part of the ring. You can use this if you get in a tight spot. I wouldn't be surprised if another school used those kinds of tactics. Some of the other schools we are going face are known for their dueling talents…," she warned as Sirius groaned.
"Let me down!" He shouted, red faced as his blood rushed to his head. Jasmine rolled her eyes and cast a series of charms that would get him down safely.
Honestly, he looked rather nauseous after he was placed back on his feet. Remus seemed to be thinking the same thing and helped Sirius slowly sit on the floor and put his head between his knees. Jasmine sat down next to him and ran a hand up and down his back in what she hoped was a soothing manner. She hadn't meant to make him ill. So much for proving a point…
"Are you going to be alright?"
He grumbled something under his breath.
"I didn't catch that, Padfoot," James quipped, squatting in front of his friend, who still looked a bit green.
Sirius groaned and looked up at James with a glare that spoke volumes about how he felt. "Hogwarts is one of the best schools in the wizarding world, I doubt that the other schools we're competing against are as good as you claim they are, Jazzy-pants."
Jasmine shrugged, Sirius' color started to return to normal. "It was one of the top schools a few decades ago, but it has fallen down the rankings in the past few years. There's a few American schools on the top of the list now, as well as a few East Asian academies. I don't even know if I'll place first. They might not all be as…experienced as I am with dueling, but they'll be a notch or two above Hogwarts students." A school in Japan was currently at the top of the list, but they weren't going to be coming to the dueling competition, they had better things to do than kick a bunch of European kids arses for a few hours.
"We have no idea what we're up against, do we?" James asked from behind her, his arms crossed as he nervously bounced from foot to foot. He rubbed his hands against his robes. If Jasmine had to hazard a guess, she'd assume that his palms were a bit sweaty. It was a bitter pill to swallow learning that your school wasn't the best.
"It's going to be difficult, but if you practice and follow through with your attacks, you'll stand a fighting chance."
Well, at least she hoped so.
Notes:I hope you enjoyed!
Comment or leave your kudos below!
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 29: Chapter 29Summary:And now, we duel...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 29
It was the evening before the matches and the nervous energy from all the different contestants was palpable. Lily hadn't slept the night before, she had been tossing and turning from dusk to dawn, much to Jasmine's dismay.
Flitwick had gathered his duelists right outside of the Hogwarts boundary line. It was a chilly evening, but for once it was sleeting out in his miserable winter weather. The Marauders were bouncing from foot to foot as they waited for last few students to reach the designated area. Remus was there to see them off, giving his friends a good natured pat on the back, which ended up as some kind of dogpiled hug.
When everyone arrived they were gathered by year and portkeyed to the dueling center in Berlin. They landed in the courtyard, some crashed onto the grassy surface, while others managed to stay standing. Lily and Severus ended up a heap on the ground, Sirius and James were holding each other up for support. After nine lives of magical travel, Jasmine could manage to land gracefully via portkey…floo travel was another matter entirely. She still couldn't bloody figure out how that worked.
She dusted off her robes and straightened her hair out, portkey travel tended to leave one looking rather windswept.
The weather was overcast and frigid, but their rooms were heated, they had a cottage feel to them, with brick walls and personal hearths. Each school or academy was put into a separate housing unit, and then they were broken down into further groups, by age, and finally by gender. Attempting to see any of the other schools was strictly forbidden. Anyone breaking the rules would be disqualified without prejudice.
So, that meant that James and Sirius were going to be rooming with a very wary Severus Snape, while Lily and Jasmine prayed that nothing awful would happen during the night in the boys' room to deter their chances of bringing home a victory for their school.
"Do you think that they'll do something to Severus?" Lily whispered before they attempted to turn in for the night. The beds were narrow and had long thick comforters over the top with heating charms on them to keep the cold out.
Jasmine snorted as she got herself comfortable, "if they know what's good for them, they won't touch a hair on Severus' head. We need all the chances we can get against the other schools tomorrow."
Lily muttered something under her breath before burrowing into her blankets. Jasmine had a feeling that Lily wouldn't be sleeping much tonight, but she wasn't going to comment on it. Everyone dealt with nerves a different way.
Jasmine laid back on her bed, hands behind her head, eyes closed. She stretched her rune vision trough the wall nearest her to where the boys were supposed to be sleeping, just to make sure that they weren't killing each other. To her surprise they all seemed to be in bed, not facing each other, but not murdering one another. Severus was on the far right, curled into himself and as far away from James and Sirius as possible. The two Marauders appeared to be sleeping. Maybe they had been awake the entire night before like Lily and fell asleep the moment their heads hit their pillows.
It wasn't long before Jasmine let herself relax and fall into a light sleep.
She dreamt of death's wicked grin against his pale face, promising nothing but trouble in her near future.
~*~
The arena was a large Roman like structure and had enough seating to fit the twelve different schools' duelists and the instructors. It had to seat around three hundred people, not to mention the large center platform that would hold each duel below the stands. It was only a half an hour before the seventh years would start to duel the other upper years. A small shiver went up Jasmine's spine at the similarity it held to the dueling pit she had fought in for years under the Chesters tender care. Jasmine's fingers curled around the railing as she peered down into the pit. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, her breath started to come in short small gasps. She felt a hand rest on her arm, "Are you alright, Jazz?" James whispered, the group had already moved towards their seats in the upper decks. She hadn't even realized they'd gone ahead without her.
Sirius was waiting by the staircase, motioning for them to hurry up, there was another school making their way towards them and they weren't supposed to interact with any of the other schools until after the duels tomorrow.
She nodded, but felt James tighten an arm around her shoulders and move her barely responding legs forward. When she reached Sirius, he threw an arm around her other shoulder and they led her towards their seats together. Flitwick shot her a concerned glance, but she waved off his concern.
The less he knew the better. She didn't need someone else fussing over her. James and Sirius were going to be enough of a problem.
She put her head between her knees and took a long deep breath. This wasn't the Chesters dueling pit, no matter what images were flashing before her eyes. She had seen much more traumatizing things in her past lives, she wasn't going to let this get in the way of her daily life. Even if it was remarkably similar to the constant trauma her host suffered from for years. Their shared memories were haunting, but nothing that she couldn't handle.
Jasmine wanted to bring home a win for Hogwarts and make Dumbledore congratulate her. She wanted to see him choke on his words as he did so with as much satisfaction she could muster.
"You going to be alright, Jazz?" Sirius asked when Flitwick wasn't watching, since their charms professor was in a tense mood as he instructed his seventh years on the starting order. Jasmine's heart rate was only just slowing down.
She nodded, taking another deep breath. "I'll be alright. Just has some unpleasant thoughts."
James cursed quietly under his breath and ran a hand through his hair, much to Lily's annoyance. Though, she didn't call him out on it, she was watching Jasmine closely. Jasmine supposed that she must look awful to have her roommate's attention away from James' awful habits. "Mum and I should have thought of this. Are you sure you want to do this Jazz?"
She glared at him as best she could when she felt like passing out on the spot.
She hated it when she forgot to breath.
"Of course, I'm going through with this. I won't let what happened to me control my emotions. I'm just glad that our duels are later in the evening. I just need to watch a few. The rules are vastly different from what I was subjected to. I just need to see that this isn't what I was forced to do for years. Then, in a few hours, I'll blast the poor sod I'm dueling against into the nearest wall and win."
The arena was only illuminated around the platform, leaving the seating rather dark. No one was permitted to see any of the other schools' duelists. They were supposed to keep their participants as secret as possible for the best possible duels. It wasn't quite as fun when the participants knew who they were dueling far in advance. Apparently, preparing in advance was looked down upon among this school circuit. It was an unfamiliar practice to Jasmine, who had always known who was dueling at least a week in advance to prepare for her bouts.
Flitwick had shown Jasmine the roster of schools that were coming a week ago, in a vain hope that she would be able to tell him a little something about the duelists from each area, if she had met anyone from those schools during her time in captivity. The question was extremely personal and a bit out of line, but then again, this was Flitwick's reputation on the line, and propriety be damned, he needed answers. Jasmine hadn't been able to give him too much information. She hadn't really met anyone from the American schools that would be in attendance. There were quite a few different ones in the States, Canada, South and Central America. In her original timeline she had met people many witches and wizards who hailed from them, and they had all been extremely accomplished in their respective fields, but she had never dueled against them.
No doubt their opponents were going to be tough, even if they were the same age. Dueling hadn't been a main priority in Hogwarts' curriculum in some time. Jasmine hoped that she would be able to win her matches and bring home a win for Hogwarts. She had quite a few lives of worth of hexes, curses, jinxes, charms and transfiguration spells in her repertoire.
A hush fell over the stadium as the lineup appeared on a small magically conjured screen. The contestants were put in a large bracket, each going against a rival school. No one school would ago against another until the second round, which would be the winners bracket tomorrow. The duels began shortly after that and the longer they want on, the more relaxed that Jasmine became. These were nothing like what she had experienced with the Chesters. There was little to no blood and no weapons besides spellcasting. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the pit duels she was used to, but that was a nice change.
Though, it easy for Jasmine to notice that the Hogwarts students were average amongst the other schools. Durmstrang was especially strong, as well as two North American schools, Ilvermorny and a lesser known school from South Dakota where many of the Native American wizards attended in North America. Jasmine was sure that the announcer was pronouncing the name of their school wrong on purpose because each time it was said differently, and the attending students would just glare at the announcer before beginning their duel with a fierceness that Jasmine admired.
Hogwarts placed around fifth in the overall standings between the twelve schools, at least, that's what Jasmine felt. The Hogwarts students had beat a bunch of other schools, but no one had yet managed to breach the top four schools. They would have another chance to duel again tomorrow for the winner's bracket, so at least there was still a small chance of winning.
"Fifth years, this way! It's time to get you lined up."
Jasmine warmed herself up for a few minutes while Flitwick explained what was going to happen. The battle wouldn't be decided until someone was unable to get up and at wand point. This was much preferred than what Jasmine was used to. She'd rather not have to nearly kill her opponent to get the battle to stop.
Jasmine was slated to go last, which she noticed a lot of school had left their stronger duelists for later in the brackets. Though, Flitwick had Severus dueling first and he was their second strongest, so she wondered what her professor was up to.
They were led to a small room that would lead out onto the platform. The room itself was small, with just enough room for everyone to sit. Jasmine opted to stretch on the floor while she waited for her turn. Each school had a different entrance to make for as much anonymity as possible. A small green light would popup over the door when the duelists were supposed to enter the pit.
It wasn't long after that when the duels began, but it was annoying to note that Jasmine wasn't able to watch her teammates duel since the curtain was designed to block all view of the platform. She had to rely on the announcer to know what was happening not five meters from her.
Severus ended up dueling against a young woman from an Italian school near Rome. From what she could hear from behind the curtained area, he was winning. She was apparently far too defensive for her own good. There was a loud blast and a gasp, but Severus came back into the waiting room with a grin on his face. "One of her spells backfired and she nearly blew herself up."
That was one win for Hogwarts.
Sirius was next. Before he went out, Jasmine grabbed his forearm. "Attack, Sirius," she told him. He nodded and went out. He ended up dueling against a student from Spain. She could hear him casting various hexes and curses, he didn't bother toying with his enemy and went right for the throat, which gained him a swift victory. Jasmine wished that she could have seen it. James clapped his best friend on the back.
Two wins.
James went out next with a grin on his face. He was apparently against one of the students from the South Dakota school. She could hear the announcer praising James' creative use of transfiguration, but then there was a shout and a loud thud that reverberated on the walls around them. Flitwick came back into the room with James unconscious form floating behind him. Her cousin had a large gash on his head and his arm was bent at an awkward angle. Jasmine wouldn't be surprised if he had a broken rib or two.
"What happened?" Lily asked as she and Sirius hovered over James' unmoving form. Jasmine stayed where she was, not wanting to get in the way. A matron was making her way over her cousin. She ushered them away to work on him.
"He underestimated his opponent. The boy he was up against is deaf, so he got cocky. I always warn him about that in practice. The boy has one hell of a blasting curse. Apparently, he has a twin that won a battle earlier using similar tactics."
Lily looked visibly shaken as she watched the nurse mend James back together. There hadn't been that many accidents or injuries when they had been practicing at Hogwarts.
Her roommate gulped before Flitwick took her out for her duel. Lily had been paired against a student from Ilvermorny. They seemed to be the favored to win and by the way that Lily was acting when she went out they'd be right. She came in not two minutes later bruised and bleeding from a nasty gash to her wand arm.
That was two loses and two wins.
Jasmine was last one to go out. Actually, she was the last duel of the day. She had to wait a good hour before Flitwick ushered her out. James, who had only just woken up, gave her a thumbs up and Sirius gave her a pat on the back.
She stepped out onto the platform, head held high. The magically conjured lights beat down on her. She couldn't see anyone in the shadowed stands. Jasmine saw her opponent on the other end of the platform and her breath caught. There was a familiar mop of blonde hair on the other side. It was a face that she hadn't thought she would ever see again.
It was her old friend Mikhail. He had been on her dueling circuit for the greater part of five years. He had been one of the kids in the basement that she'd freed. Euphemia had showed her a list of all the children that had been reunited with their families. The two of them had been good friends and even better rivals during duels in the pit. It was going to be a grudge match for the ages. Jasmine hadn't lost to him yet, but had quite a few scars along her body that he had personally caused.
Jasmine knew his dueling style, it was aggressive, explosive and passionate, everything that a good Russian duelist should encompass. His fatal flaw was always his left ankle, which he guarded fiercely. She had personally shattered it during one of the matches.
They bowed with a practiced ease that two fifteen-year-old shouldn't have mastered and immediately began firing vicious hexes and curses at each other. There was no holding back and it was more than likely the first time that Flitwick had seen Jasmine fight seriously against anyone. She knew better than to underestimate Mikhail. He was strong and would be highly insulted if she brought anything but her best to a fight with him.
Honestly, more than one of the curses they were using could send someone straight to St. Mungos. This was more than likely the first real duel that the audience had seen all day. It was two professional fighters attacking each other with a force that not many new existed in two people so young. She didn't even hear the announcer's voice as they fought. It was just her against Mikhail.
This was familiar, something that her body was used to.
Jasmine shielded against a blasting hex that ricocheted off her and blasted part of the railing to pieces.
She set a cutting hexed him back that he avoided by the skin of his teeth, the ground near his leg wasn't so lucky and it was torn to ribbons.
Another powerful curse came her way and she sidestepped just on time.
Jasmine threw a dancing jinx back at him, just to get him to jump out of the way.
She ducked under the stunner he sent towards her.
It took five or six minutes before Jasmine caught an opening and sent a numbing charm towards Mikhail's left ankle right as he was going to take a backwards step with it. He lost his balance for a single moment, which left Jasmine just enough time to cast a body bind as she ran up towards him, dodging multiple curses as he went down. Her wand was at his throat in an instant. Sweat was rolling down her neck, Mikhail had a grin on his face as the roar from the crowd reached her ears.
"It's been a while since you forced me onto my back. Here I thought that I would have won this tournament without contest," he spoke to her in their broken German and Russian code that they had mastered over the years. "It's good to see you alive, Jasmine."
She smiled and pulled him up in a show of good sportsmanship. "It's good to see you too. Glad that nothing has changed since our last duel," she replied with a chuckle. "I will see you tomorrow during the gala."
Jasmine gave him a brief nod before turning back towards the lineup room. Flitwick was near the door, mouth agape.
Jasmine shrugged her shoulders. "Tada?"
Notes:Sorry for the sporadic updates.
School is keeping me busy and I just don't have the time to repost chapters.
Just to let you all know, this is completed on both FF and wattpad.
Leave your comments and kudos below!
~SugarPhantom
Chapter 30: Chapter 30Summary:The duels continue...
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextChapter 30
Jasmine was escorted back to the Hogwarts' rooms with more force than she thought was necessary. Flitwick's hand was gripping her shoulder tight enough to leave a bruise… It had to look a bit odd, he was about a head shorter than her.
Apparently, tada wasn't the correct response to her display of dueling prowess. It wasn't as if she could just go all out with the students at Hogwarts. They would have gotten injured and she didn't need all of her talents shown to future supporters of dear Tom.
Her charms professor was glaring at her. What was she supposed to say? It wasn't like she could tell him that everyone here just wasn't a challenge for her. Well…she could, but that wouldn't end well. She loved her dueling team, but none of them stood a chance against her, not with nine other lives worth of knowledge packed into her head.
"Well, I can understand why you seemed so dreadfully bored during the majority of our practices back at Hogwarts," Flitwick grumbled after they'd situated themselves back in the fifth-year common space. The boys were with them, Severus sitting next to Lily on the floor, their legs just brushing each other's. James needed to be watched further for any lingering injuries, so naturally Sirius was on top of him, and Flitwick wanted to have a small talk with his youngest students. They had gotten the best results out of all the Hogwarts teams.
He would be going to the upper years next.
Jasmine suspected he was going to ream them out.
"It wasn't that I was bored…just underwhelmed."
"If the dueling talent you're used to was all on the same level as the young man you faced, then I can see why."
Jasmine gave a short nod. "Yes, well, Mikhail and I were friendly rivals within our circuit," she replied, playing with the end of a wayward strand of hair.
"Wait, he was one of the kids from the dueling ring?" James asked, eyebrow raised, eyes slightly unfocused. He seemed more alert now than he had a few minutes ago. He had been given some rather strong pain potions for his mending broken bones.
Flitwick snapped his fingers, drawing their attention back to him. "Now isn't the time to be gossiping. I just wanted to congratulate you all on doing your best today. Some did far better than others, but you were the best group of Hogwarts students today. Three of you made it to the finals. The competition is going to be fierce tomorrow. The coaches have seen what each school has brought. Our main challengers are going to be from that little school in South Dakota and Durmstrang, they each have four of their five students still in the finals. Though, each of them lost a valuable duelist in the later rounds, and quite a few of their winners are injured in some way, they'll be sore in the morning, magic can't fix everything overnight. I want you to rest up this evening, tomorrow is going to be even more difficult," he ordered before stepping out of the room and into the hall.
"You were a one witch army out there, Jazz!" Sirius exclaimed the second the door closed behind their charms professor. He slung an arm around James' neck. "Prongs and I charmed the wall transparent to see you in action. Merlin, you didn't disappoint."
Jasmine could feel her face heating up a bit. They had watched that?
"Thank you. You all did fairly well for your first-time dueling in a tournament," she responded. She noticed James looked away and glared off at the far wall.
"Yes, well, not all of us, have a background in this kind of thing. How did you manage it?" Lily groaned rubbing at her neck, which seemed at bit stiff.
Jasmine blinked. They must be tired if they were asking that kind of question. "I wasn't given much choice in the matter. If I didn't do well, I would have been killed. I would also suggest warming up before going out to the platform. If you aren't used to strenuous activity, running around dueling is going to cause your muscles to tense up something awful," Jasmine warned, her eyes straying towards Lily and Severus. James and Sirius were both extremely active quidditch players and general mischief makers, they were very fit.
"How's your head, Prongs?" Sirius asked as his best mate attempted to stay awake. James had been nodding off again. He needed to be up for at least another hour before the healers cleared him for a goodnights rest. Concussions were dangerous, even in the magical world.
"It feels like I've been smashed in the head with a bludger multiple times, Pads," James hissed as he leaned back against the sofa with a sigh. His head must have been pounding. Jasmine could almost see the fuse to James' temper shorten just by answering Sirius' question. They didn't need a fight to break out.
Jasmine knew that his injuries had to be killing him, which only made things worse. The potion he was given were foul and hurt as they mended his bones and organs. Not to mention that he lost his match. James Potter was many things, but he has never been a graceful loser. That was something she'd known throughout all of her lives.
"What did you think of the other schools?" Jasmine asked, steering the conversation away from James' rather extensive injuries. She didn't want him to snap and cause an argument. He'd start one just to distract himself from the pain he was feeling.
"My opponent wasn't all that difficult, though from what I understand the school that I faced is at the bottom of the standings in all the disciplines," Severus replied, a pensive frown adorning his face. Jasmine could understand his frustration. Severus had no idea what was coming tomorrow. He'd be the best rested out of the three of them, but also the most inexperienced. The remaining competitors were fierce. They'd be facing much stronger opponents in the morning and there would only be short breaks between multiple matches. Severus' stamina would be tested.
Sirius shrugged, his shaggy hair covering his eyes. "Mine wasn't all the special either. Their wand work was spotty, and they were shaking for most of the duel. Not to mention that they never really moved from their starting position, which was one of the first lessons that you and Flitwick taught us," he recounted, tugging at the hem of his robes. Jasmine had set them on fire to make a point during her first private lesson with the Marauders.
It seemed like he hadn't forgotten.
Jasmine looked to her cousin next. He'd faced a student from the American school in South Dakota. James sighed, "My opponent was deaf, it was explained to both Flitwick and me before the duel started. His coach needed to stand on our side of the ring to signal when to bow. All of his spell casting is nonverbal, so it was nearly impossible to tell which spells were coming towards be before it was too late. He was so bloody fast on his feet, no matter what I did to the area around him he was two steps ahead of me. His form was different from anything I'd ever read about or seen," James explained, as he attempted to recount everything that happened during his duel, and Jasmine could see him straining himself to recall the finer details as he rubbed his temples.
Jasmine figured that he was talking about the style native to America, before settlers from other European Nations took over. It was a very distinctive dueling style that she had only ever gotten to see once or twice in all of her lives. "I'd imagine you wouldn't. If the school is in the area I think it is, then the it has been around longer than Hogwarts and their teaching styles would have been passed down from generation to generation of students there. I know plenty of witches and wizards that settled in American shut down quite a lot of the original schools. I'm just glad that we're getting to see this kind of dueling style," Jasmine explained, hoping that James and Sirius knew something about colonial wizarding history to understand what she was getting at.
"So, you want us to take this a learning opportunity?" Lily asked, eyebrow raised as she sat back against the couch, her red hair starting to fall out of his braid from this morning and sticking to the cushions due to static electricity. Her eyes were drooping shut ever now and then. The poor girl was exhausted, much like the rest of them, but they were staying awake to figure out what to do next and to make sure that James doesn't die in his sleep.
Jasmine threw her hands up. She could feel her temper coming to a head. "Somewhat…I want you to take the tournament as a learning experience, but I feel that you could all due with a bit of culture outside of the UK. You haven't gotten to experience all these different dueling styles. All you are focusing on is winning and losing."
"So, you want us to have a good time chatting up the people that beat the ever-living shite out of us?" James questioned, fists clenched.
Jasmine nodded, not letting her cousin's attitude stop her from answering. "It's better that way. If you're bitter over every loss, you'll never move forward in dueling. It's all about learning from your injuries and use every scar as a reminder of how you didn't move fast enough or use the shield charm you had drilled a hundred times. It is never your opponent that is at fault for your loss, unless they cheated. So, let it go, James," Jasmine instructed, and she could see him fighting with himself. He was never one to back down from a challenge and he hated losing.
It was catch the snitch or die trying with him.
"Fine, maybe that afterparty they're throwing after the tournament will be fun, and I'll get to talk to the guy that kicked my arse." his opponent was deaf…James seemed to remember that and frown, "or have someone translate…"
Sirius rolled his eyes and Lily let out a small laugh, which cause a rather large smirk to appear on James' face. It wasn't every day that you got Lily Evans to laugh.
"You even bask in defeat, Potter, how arrogant, no wonder you lost," Severus sneered, slamming his hand down on the table loud enough to cause James to flitch and clutch his head. Well, that wasn't unexpected, but Jasmine was rather disappointed in Severus for picking a fight.
"I get it, Snape, I lost. No need to rub it in," James snapped, his right hand going towards his wand and his left still cradling his head.
Severus stood up, his wand in hand, pointing it down towards James. Jasmine supposed this was bound to happen sooner or later. "What are you going to do, Potter? Out of the two of us, I can at least handle myself in a dueling without ending up flat on my back."
Sirius was in Severus' face in an instant. "Want to put that galleon where your mouth is? I won my duel rather easily and I've been hexing the shite out of you for years."
Jasmine honestly had no idea how to fix this. She couldn't side with either of them, it would end in a shower of spells either way, not to mention it could ruin her neutrality with either family if she picked a side.
Before either Marauder or Jasmine was able to reply Lily stood up, marched over to Severus and poked his chest with her pointer finger.
Bloody hell, this couldn't get any worse.
Her hands were on her hips and she looked pissed. Someone was going to get an earful. Jasmine was just glad that it wasn't her.
"Sev, that was out of line."
What?
"What?" Sirius said, mouth agape. James' eyes were wide with shock, though that also could have been from the concussion.
Severus' face was flushed, it was obviously not what he expected Lily to say either. The red head pushed forward regardless. "I know that we've all been rivals in the room to each other at one point or another. We're on a team now, and petty differences aren't going to help us win tomorrow. Yes, Potter lost, so did I. Neither of us are basking in any kind of defeat. I read the list of injuries that he received, and he's lucky that he wasn't hospitalized. We don't need to fight."
James was still leaning against the couch, his eyes a bit glassy. The last hour was he needed to stay awake was coming to a close. The poor guy could sleep in a few minutes. "Preachy, Evans, but accurate," Sirius replied before turning to Severus. "Look, Sniv-Snape. If we hurt each other than we're going to need to deal with Jasmine, who, for some ungodly reason, is fond of all of us. I don't like losing either and would prefer it if you weren't a prat to my friend."
It seemed to hurt Sirius physically to say that, she could see the beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he sat down with his arms crossed, ever the inconvenienced heir. Severus didn't seem to be in a mood to step down and just gave Lily a betrayed glare. "You're siding with them? You hate them!" Severus shouted, motioning to the Marauders, his hands pointing at a quickly fading James.
Lily let out a long sigh. Jasmine wasn't sure if this was a conversation they should have been having a public. "Sev, while I can't stand the way that they'd bullied students in the past, this year they haven't really picked on anyone. Of course, they've been pulling pranks, but they're harmless fun- Wipe that grin off your face, Black- They've started to grow up…as much as could be expected…" she grumbled towards the end.
James had a hand over his heart. "Evans, I had no idea you felt this way," he told her, batting his eyelashes at her and Sirius snickered.
Jasmine resisted the urge to punch him and rubbed her temples. "It's a sad day when Sirius is the mature one. Severus, I know that these two are absolute wankers most of the time," Sirius let out a small shout before Jasmine silenced him with a single glare, "And, what they put you through during the last four years of schooling had to have been atrocious, but attempting to divide us when we're all on the same team, just seems a little counterproductive."
Severus sneered and started to get up, but James shifted so he was in a more upright position and turned to look at Severus. "Look, Snape, I've come to a few very harsh realizations this year about myself. I know that saying sorry isn't going to make up for what I've done, but attacking me isn't going to change anything in the past. We aren't going to target you, ever again."
That got the Slytherin to stop in his tracks. "I don't want your charity."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Don't be a prat. No one is pitying you. We're just changing our pranks up."
Jasmine didn't even want to think about what they were planning for the school next. No doubt it would be interesting, but highly distracting and wholly unnecessary. "Don't get caught," Jasmine warned with a fond roll of her eyes.
James slumped over against the couch as the clock struck ten. "Now, let's get Prongs here to bed before he passes out on us," Sirius said helping James and towards their room. Her cousin was barely holding himself up.
Lily and Severus were quietly talking to one another, so Jasmine left them be and decided to head to bed herself. She was going to have a long day tomorrow.
Notes:Sorry that this repost is taking forever. School is keeping me so busy.
Hope to post again soon!
~SugarPhanton