Chapter 15: The Goblet of Fire
31st October 1994, Hogwarts
(POV Nathan)
It's been a few months since Nathan defeated Salazar Slytherin's basilisk and to be honest, it was weird. Ever since his adventure, his mother didn't leave him alone for a second. She wouldn't let him go to Diagon Alley with his friends and she even wouldn't let anyone visit him other than Tracey for some reason. Nathan knew what he did was dangerous and impulsive, but he had to do it otherwise Ginny would have died.
A month after his punishment, his mother started his training. Well, calling it training would be understating things. She started teaching him dueling but it basically consisted of her kicking his ass and then telling me what he did wrong. He improved, yes, but he was also magically exhausted every night with bruises all over his body.
He had yet to land a single hit on his mother. And while his mother was one of the most inventive duelers he had ever seen, using countless charms in ways he'd never heard of before, it was really frustrating. He couldn't even prank his sister as a way to relax. He had barely any magic left after training and when he did prank her, she froze his bits off. He didn't know when she got so good at ice magic.
He asked his father to ask his mother to take it easy on him but he refused, stating it would help him in the long run. He understood why his mother was this ruthless considering she almost lost her second child, but come on, this is taking it too far. He however offered to teach him the animagus transformation providing he doesn't do anything without his father's presence in case something bad happens. Nathan now has a Mandrake leaf in his mouth for the first part of the transformation. He even used a sticking charm to prevent him from accidentally spitting it out. His father told him he was gonna be at Hogwarts with the potion when he actually starts transforming but he wouldn't tell him why. Something about ruining the surprise.
But the worst thing was his occlumency practice where his mother had access to pretty much his every memory. Those were the most petrifying moments in his life. And he had to do it every night. Funnily enough, his embarrassment caused him to study extra hard in occlumency, which is improving at a very impressive rate.
After days of begging and pleading, he was finally able to convince them to take him and Hermione to the World Cup finals. Sometime Nathan wondered if there was some sort of cosmic god who liked to mess with him because the death eaters attacked after the celebrations. Strangely, someone stole Ron's wand to cast the dark mark. The wand was found with Barty Crouch's elf. Crouch immediately gave the elf clothes which cause Hermione to go on an elf liberation crusade.
Speaking of Ron, he came by to apologize for his behavior last year. An apology that immediately went out the windows when pretty much ordered me to stop hanging out with Tracey, calling her a slimy snake and a Slytherin whore. Considering he was the one who betrayed his trust Nathan pretty much stopped talking to him.
That's not what made the summer vacation weird. After the world cup fiasco, mum and dad went to a meeting with Dumbledore and they came back with smiles on their faces. They have been unusually happy ever since, his mother even started to go easier on him during sparring.
His mother started to clean up Jasmine's room. She even bought dresses to put in Jasmine's closet. Nathan swears he heard her muttering about getting her baby back. He thought they had a lead on Jasmine's location but since Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus were also worried, it started to freak him and Rose out.
Anyway, when he returned to Hogwarts, the first thing he did was find Mordred so that she could teach him swordsmanship. To be honest, while his mother was a very hard trainer, Mordred was on another level. Nathan wonders if this was how the Knights of the Round Table were trained. The first month consisted of nothing but physical training. He hasn't even touched a sword yet and it was the beginning of October. After his training (He calls it torture behind Mordred's back, to his mother's amusement) Mordred considered him acceptable enough to wield a sword. So far, he only learned some basic swings and blocks. She even got the house elves to levitate small stones and throw them at him to learn how to dodge and enhance his reflexes.
Something he noticed was that casting magic had gotten a lot easier after he got physically fit. He also seemed to do a lot better against his mother in his weekly duels against her. However, during Mordred's training sessions he asked her about her life in Camelot. When she finally gave up and told him her story and, boy, wasn't it an exciting one. Turns out Morgan Le Fey wasn't her biological mother but Morgause Pendragon's was, with Arthur Pendragon. She was to be Morgause's weapon against Arthur but Morgan Le Fey intercepted her and chose to raise her herself. According to Mordred, Morgan was an amazing mother, very caring and very protective. She learned almost everything from her and still couldn't compare to an ounce of her mother's skill.
For her thirteen's birthday, she received a gift from her mother in the form of a sword that she called Anduril. A sword made with unknown metal that she enchanted into only being wielded by a worthy knight from her bloodline. Apparently when Merlin had foreseen Arthur's death at her hands (Merlin apparently was a seer. Nathan wondered why nobody knew that as it was common knowledge at the time) he decided to kill her but Morgan intervened and took the blow meant for her and teleported her to safety. She never saw her again and assumed Merlin had killed her.
Wanting to avenge her mother by completing Merlin's prophecy, she went to the person that wanted to kill Arthur the most and that had been Morgause. Apparently, the main problem between them was the fact that Arthur was actually a woman, Artoria. And with Morgause being the oldest she had the better claim citing that she never got to try removing the sword from the stone. Nathan chose to ignore the fact that Mordred was born because Merlin made Artoria a fake p*nis to conceive an heir with Guinevere and Morgause decided to sleep with her sister. After her decision to join Morgause, Anduril disappeared deeming her unworthy.
Falling into Morgause's empty promises of kingship, Mordred infiltrated the knights of the round table where she was ordered by Morgause to assassinate the King after she gains his trust. However, she grew to admire her king and started to worship him. When she decided to reveal her heritage to him, he did not accept her as his heir. Furious over the rejection of her last parent, she instilled a rebellion and at Camlann, they both killed one another.
The sword was lost to history until one of her descendants a Godric Le fey was deemed worthy enough to become Anduril's wielder. He was later known as Godric Gryffindor.
She still doesn't understand his fire abilities in the Chamber of Secrets but she didn't get enough time with the sword to know its true potential.
Nathan notices he's running late for the champion selection and sprints to be there in time. Both the Durmstrung and Beauxbatons delegations arrived last night where the notable features are Victor Krum the best seeker in the world, and Fleur Delacour, a veela from France that seems to take the attention of all the males surrounding her. His feeble occlumency abilities were the only thing that stopped him from drooling but he still can't stop himself from staring. Not that he minds.
Anyway, he enters the great hall and sits down next to Hermione who was trying to bully Colin Creevey into buying her SPEW badges. Anyway, the tri-wizard tournament was being revived in Hogwarts this year and wasn't that a surprise. He still didn't understand why the Quidditch Cup wasn't held this year. At least his dad was with him at school to oversee his Animagus training. Anyway, champions were selected from ages fourteen to seventeen. His parents had forbidden him from entering, not that he wanted to.
At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" — he indicated the door behind the staff table — "where they will be receiving their first instructions."
He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting. A few people kept checking their watches.
The flames inside the goblet turned red again suddenly. Sparks began to fly from it. In the next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped. Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.
"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum." "No surprises there!" he heard Ron yelling at the end of the table, as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Nathan saw Viktor Krum rise from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.
"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you! The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.
"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!" The girl got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.
"Oh look, they're all disappointed," Hermione said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the Beauxbatons party that were for some reason sobbing.
When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it.
The Hogwarts champion next . . . And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment. "The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Nathan Potter!"
Nathan's ears were ringing, he did not focus on the screaming and stamping around him, he smiled and got up but internally he was scared out of his mind. He saw his father and mother furiously speaking with Dumbledore about something. He did not put his name in the goblet. He didn't understand why that always happened to him, and on Halloween no less, he must have some curse on him or something. He slowly walked towards the chamber as he digests what happened and what type of dangers to expect this year.
"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real —" But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him. The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand
and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out — "Jasmine Potter."
The goblet then spat out a giant fireball that turned around the goblet creating a vortex. Suddenly, the flames were reabsorbed by the goblet, leaving only a girl his age with hair as black as night and emerald eyes. She was wearing a dragonhide leather jacket with muggle jeans and a black shirt. He instinctively knew it was his sister. She takes a look around and then says, "Well, that was interesting."
Chaos ensues.
Chapter 15: The Goblet of Fire
31st October 1994, Hogwarts
(POV Nathan)
It's been a few months since Nathan defeated Salazar Slytherin's basilisk and to be honest, it was weird. Ever since his adventure, his mother didn't leave him alone for a second. She wouldn't let him go to Diagon Alley with his friends and she even wouldn't let anyone visit him other than Tracey for some reason. Nathan knew what he did was dangerous and impulsive, but he had to do it otherwise Ginny would have died.
A month after his punishment, his mother started his training. Well, calling it training would be understating things. She started teaching him dueling but it basically consisted of her kicking his ass and then telling me what he did wrong. He improved, yes, but he was also magically exhausted every night with bruises all over his body.
He had yet to land a single hit on his mother. And while his mother was one of the most inventive duelers he had ever seen, using countless charms in ways he'd never heard of before, it was really frustrating. He couldn't even prank his sister as a way to relax. He had barely any magic left after training and when he did prank her, she froze his bits off. He didn't know when she got so good at ice magic.
He asked his father to ask his mother to take it easy on him but he refused, stating it would help him in the long run. He understood why his mother was this ruthless considering she almost lost her second child, but come on, this is taking it too far. He however offered to teach him the animagus transformation providing he doesn't do anything without his father's presence in case something bad happens. Nathan now has a Mandrake leaf in his mouth for the first part of the transformation. He even used a sticking charm to prevent him from accidentally spitting it out. His father told him he was gonna be at Hogwarts with the potion when he actually starts transforming but he wouldn't tell him why. Something about ruining the surprise.
But the worst thing was his occlumency practice where his mother had access to pretty much his every memory. Those were the most petrifying moments in his life. And he had to do it every night. Funnily enough, his embarrassment caused him to study extra hard in occlumency, which is improving at a very impressive rate.
After days of begging and pleading, he was finally able to convince them to take him and Hermione to the World Cup finals. Sometime Nathan wondered if there was some sort of cosmic god who liked to mess with him because the death eaters attacked after the celebrations. Strangely, someone stole Ron's wand to cast the dark mark. The wand was found with Barty Crouch's elf. Crouch immediately gave the elf clothes which cause Hermione to go on an elf liberation crusade.
Speaking of Ron, he came by to apologize for his behavior last year. An apology that immediately went out the windows when pretty much ordered me to stop hanging out with Tracey, calling her a slimy snake and a Slytherin whore. Considering he was the one who betrayed his trust Nathan pretty much stopped talking to him.
That's not what made the summer vacation weird. After the world cup fiasco, mum and dad went to a meeting with Dumbledore and they came back with smiles on their faces. They have been unusually happy ever since, his mother even started to go easier on him during sparring.
His mother started to clean up Jasmine's room. She even bought dresses to put in Jasmine's closet. Nathan swears he heard her muttering about getting her baby back. He thought they had a lead on Jasmine's location but since Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus were also worried, it started to freak him and Rose out.
Anyway, when he returned to Hogwarts, the first thing he did was find Mordred so that she could teach him swordsmanship. To be honest, while his mother was a very hard trainer, Mordred was on another level. Nathan wonders if this was how the Knights of the Round Table were trained. The first month consisted of nothing but physical training. He hasn't even touched a sword yet and it was the beginning of October. After his training (He calls it torture behind Mordred's back, to his mother's amusement) Mordred considered him acceptable enough to wield a sword. So far, he only learned some basic swings and blocks. She even got the house elves to levitate small stones and throw them at him to learn how to dodge and enhance his reflexes.
Something he noticed was that casting magic had gotten a lot easier after he got physically fit. He also seemed to do a lot better against his mother in his weekly duels against her. However, during Mordred's training sessions he asked her about her life in Camelot. When she finally gave up and told him her story and, boy, wasn't it an exciting one. Turns out Morgan Le Fey wasn't her biological mother but Morgause Pendragon's was, with Arthur Pendragon. She was to be Morgause's weapon against Arthur but Morgan Le Fey intercepted her and chose to raise her herself. According to Mordred, Morgan was an amazing mother, very caring and very protective. She learned almost everything from her and still couldn't compare to an ounce of her mother's skill.
For her thirteen's birthday, she received a gift from her mother in the form of a sword that she called Anduril. A sword made with unknown metal that she enchanted into only being wielded by a worthy knight from her bloodline. Apparently when Merlin had foreseen Arthur's death at her hands (Merlin apparently was a seer. Nathan wondered why nobody knew that as it was common knowledge at the time) he decided to kill her but Morgan intervened and took the blow meant for her and teleported her to safety. She never saw her again and assumed Merlin had killed her.
Wanting to avenge her mother by completing Merlin's prophecy, she went to the person that wanted to kill Arthur the most and that had been Morgause. Apparently, the main problem between them was the fact that Arthur was actually a woman, Artoria. And with Morgause being the oldest she had the better claim citing that she never got to try removing the sword from the stone. Nathan chose to ignore the fact that Mordred was born because Merlin made Artoria a fake p*nis to conceive an heir with Guinevere and Morgause decided to sleep with her sister. After her decision to join Morgause, Anduril disappeared deeming her unworthy.
Falling into Morgause's empty promises of kingship, Mordred infiltrated the knights of the round table where she was ordered by Morgause to assassinate the King after she gains his trust. However, she grew to admire her king and started to worship him. When she decided to reveal her heritage to him, he did not accept her as his heir. Furious over the rejection of her last parent, she instilled a rebellion and at Camlann, they both killed one another.
The sword was lost to history until one of her descendants a Godric Le fey was deemed worthy enough to become Anduril's wielder. He was later known as Godric Gryffindor.
She still doesn't understand his fire abilities in the Chamber of Secrets but she didn't get enough time with the sword to know its true potential.
Nathan notices he's running late for the champion selection and sprints to be there in time. Both the Durmstrung and Beauxbatons delegations arrived last night where the notable features are Victor Krum the best seeker in the world, and Fleur Delacour, a veela from France that seems to take the attention of all the males surrounding her. His feeble occlumency abilities were the only thing that stopped him from drooling but he still can't stop himself from staring. Not that he minds.
Anyway, he enters the great hall and sits down next to Hermione who was trying to bully Colin Creevey into buying her SPEW badges. Anyway, the tri-wizard tournament was being revived in Hogwarts this year and wasn't that a surprise. He still didn't understand why the Quidditch Cup wasn't held this year. At least his dad was with him at school to oversee his Animagus training. Anyway, champions were selected from ages fourteen to seventeen. His parents had forbidden him from entering, not that he wanted to.
At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" — he indicated the door behind the staff table — "where they will be receiving their first instructions."
He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting. A few people kept checking their watches.
The flames inside the goblet turned red again suddenly. Sparks began to fly from it. In the next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped. Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.
"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum." "No surprises there!" he heard Ron yelling at the end of the table, as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Nathan saw Viktor Krum rise from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.
"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you! The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.
"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!" The girl got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.
"Oh look, they're all disappointed," Hermione said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the Beauxbatons party that were for some reason sobbing.
When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it.
The Hogwarts champion next . . . And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment. "The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Nathan Potter!"
Nathan's ears were ringing, he did not focus on the screaming and stamping around him, he smiled and got up but internally he was scared out of his mind. He saw his father and mother furiously speaking with Dumbledore about something. He did not put his name in the goblet. He didn't understand why that always happened to him, and on Halloween no less, he must have some curse on him or something. He slowly walked towards the chamber as he digests what happened and what type of dangers to expect this year.
"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real —" But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him. The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand
and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out — "Jasmine Potter."
The goblet then spat out a giant fireball that turned around the goblet creating a vortex. Suddenly, the flames were reabsorbed by the goblet, leaving only a girl his age with hair as black as night and emerald eyes. She was wearing a dragonhide leather jacket with muggle jeans and a black shirt. He instinctively knew it was his sister. She takes a look around and then says, "Well, that was interesting."
Chaos ensues.
