Chapter 16: Hogwarts
31st October 1994, Hogwarts
I just got summoned by a ball of flames and opened my eyes to the great hall. I'm a bit surprised that the goblet of fire summoned me. To be honest I kinda forgot about the whole Voldemort thing. You don't get to be as old as I am and actually be bothered by a child throwing a tantrum because he's an orphan. Some people pity Tom Riddle, but the world is not fair. Yes, there are some kids with better childhoods but there are also many with worse.
And the whole blood purity thing doesn't make sense at all. It only ever existed because of the rise of inbreeding after the creation of the statue of secrecy. The statue destroyed any wizard-mundane relation (I guess I have to call them muggles now that I'm in this time period) which led to marriages being between magical families which generations later led to inbreeding, which slowly destroyed the families' magical gifts and created squibs. Those squibs who were seen as proof of the family's weakness before the statue were immediately obliviated and sent to the muggle world.
As the number of wizards with magical gifts slowly dwindled, certain muggleborns that are descended from the exiled squibs started showing signs of the magical gifts of their ancestors, hence the whole 'Muggles steal our magic' nonsense. These gifts are the product of very powerful sacrificial blood magic which makes the families' anger understandable, considering it was their ancestors that paid the price for these gifts. The idea of muggleborns stealing magic is absurd. There are two types of muggleborn. They are either descended from squibs or they're conceived in a magical environment like under a leyline of certain ancient wards.
Anyway, this is not the time for this, I'm currently in Hogwarts for the first time since Salazar died. The memories here are painful. I feel the wards connect to me and greet me. Giving this castle a consciousness is one of my best ideas. Being the first magical artificial intelligence allows her to use the wards I created to protect the students. Sometimes, it doesn't really contact the headmaster if they think they're not prioritizing the safety and education of the students which I can tell is the case with Dumbledore.
Now back to the whole goblet thing, I expected to be selected as champion as it was fated to be. When you're as connected to magic as I am you can sense the fate of the world. Sort of like a guideline of a story. Something that seers do naturally. To be honest, time is not rigid, it's malleable, except for certain events that will happen, which are usually accompanied by a prophecy. Uneducated seers often think that everything is set in stone and tell people of their visions as absolute truth. Something that caused a lot of problems in ancient Greece.
So, I knew that I would be selected to compete, I’ll use the tournament as a chance to kill Riddle before focusing on the bigger threat that is Thanos. I knew they could not make me compete as they don’t know of my true name or my magical signature, since it barely lasts more than a year. I expected 'Jasmine Potter' to come out of the Goblet and I would come a few days after to compete. One look at the Goblet and I understood exactly what happened.
"Well, that was interesting."
I recognized the Goblet immediately. Of course, I did; I helped make it after all. However, it went with a different name: "Hestia's Cup".
I created it with Hestia, one of the few Olympians I actually liked. The others being pretentious backstabbing assholes with egos bigger than the sun. At first, I didn't believe that survivors of the fall of Atlantis would find themselves in Greece of all places. They were commoners, fishermen and merchants. They created a small city on top of a mountain called Olympus and were led by the King Ouranos an air elemental and Queen Gaia an earth elemental. Barely a sliver of Atlantis' knowledge remained. Unfortunately, their children did not accept their peaceful rules, thinking themselves above the muggles. They betrayed their parents and killed every single survivor of the sinking leaving only the newborn. Thankfully, when two practitioners of physical magic conceive a child, it already has golden blood which they call ichor. They called themselves the Titans and the new king Kronos ruled with an iron fist. He was later overthrown by his son Zeus who had an elder sister called Hestia that I befriended.
The goblet was Hestia's artifact, and it couldn't be more representative of her character. It was the first magical enforced contract ever created. The contract included certain laws that the Olympians must follow to avoid more wars and backstabbing. They were called the ancient laws. After voting of the laws, each god had to put his name in the goblet, which recognized the magical signature and bound them to the laws. What many do not know is that Hestia added a second function that summons a family member exactly once, with the blood of the missing person and the blood of two direct family members. I guess they took samples of my blood when I was born, and the ritual I used was performed in the past which didn't affect the blood in the future. I guess I'll redo the ritual then.
Dumbledore must have convinced the Potters to use blood magic to summon me. Not very light of him. I can see the barely hidden triumph in his eyes as he looks at me. I don't need my telepathy to tell me that he has plans concerning me.
I pretend to examine the goblet, "Blood, you summoned me using my blood."
"That's neither here or there, my girl, you were selected as a Champion in the Tri-Wizard tournament."
"And where am I exactly?"
"You're in Hogwarts, of course."
"I see…"
The Potters look really hopeful and the Hall is deathly quiet. I can feel their guilt, fear, happiness, elation at my presence. It's too bad they will not get a daughter out of me. I kinda feel bad to be honest.
The ceiling enchantments are still holding I see, it took me a while to get it right. I follow Dumbledore's eyes towards the door and I slowly walk my way there.
Viktor Krum, Nathan Potter, and Fleur Delacour were grouped around the fire. They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Krum, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the other two. Nathan looking at me with wide eyes, completely forgetting that his name came out of the goblet. Fleur Delacour looked around when Harry walked in and threw back her sheet of long, silvery hair. "What is it?" she said. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"
There was a sound of scurrying feet behind me, and Ludo Bagman entered the room. He took me by the arm and led him forward. "Extraordinary!" he muttered, squeezing my arm. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen . . . ladies may I introduce — incredible though it may seem — the fourth Triwizard champion?"
"Could you stop touching me, sir." He let go immediately.
Viktor Krum straightened up. Fleur Delacour, however, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman." "Joke?" Bagman repeated, bewildered. "No, no, not at all! Nathan and Jasmine's names just came out of the Goblet of Fire!"
"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said contemptuously to Bagman. "There are only three champions not four."
The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape. Thankfully, the Potters are not here, I'd rather not do the whole reunion thing in public.
Madame Maxime had drawn herself up to her full, and considerable, height. The top of her handsome head brushed the candle filled chandelier, and her gigantic black-satin bosom swelled. "What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" she said imperiously.
"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," said Professor Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions — or have I not read the rules carefully enough?"
He gave a short and nasty laugh. "C'est impossible," said Madame Maxime, whose enormous hand with its many superb opals was resting upon Fleur's shoulder. " 'Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most injust."
"EVERYONE SHUT UP." They all stopped bickering. "Thank you."
"Okay, look people, I have no idea how I'm here but I'm magically bound to compete so arguing about it will not change that. I also am not a student of Hogwarts, or any school for that matter since I graduated last year and took my NEWTS early. So yeah, since I'm not a student, I'll just do the challenges and that's it. Give me zeros for all I care. Once I'm done, you will hopefully never see my again."
"Mr. Crouch . . . Mr. Bagman," said Karkaroff, his voice unctuous once more, "you are our — er — objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?" Bagman wiped his round, boyish face with his handkerchief and looked at Mr. Crouch, who was standing outside the circle of the firelight, his face half hidden in shadow.
He looked slightly eerie, the half-darkness making him look much older, giving him an almost skull-like appearance. When he spoke, however, it was in his usual curt voice. "We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."
"Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front," said Bagman, beaming and turning back to Karkaroff and Madame Maxime, as though the matter was now closed.
"After all our meetings and negotiations and compromises, I little expected something of this nature to occur! I have half a mind to leave now!", exclaims Karkaroff.
"Empty threat, Karkaroff," growled a voice from near the door. "You can't leave your champion now. He's got to compete. They've all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?"
Moody had just entered the room. He limped toward the fire, and with every right step he took, there was a loud clunk. A quick telepathy scan and I could tell it's Barty Crouch Junior. Same plan with the graveyard, same blood ritual for Riddle to return at the end of the third task. Seems like it's going a la cannon so far.
"Convenient?" said Karkaroff, breaking me from my musing. "I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."
"Don't you?" said Moody quietly. "It's very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put Potter's name in that goblet knowing she'd have to compete if it came out. Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it, it would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament. I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name under a fourth school, to make sure she was the only one in her category." said Moody, with the merest trace of a growl.
"How this situation arose, we do not know," said Dumbledore, speaking to everyone gathered in the room. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Jasmine and Nathan have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. This, therefore, they will do."
They went on explaining the first task which surprise, surprise, is actually well, a surprise. Nathan is still staring at me with his best Goldfish expression. After everybody leave, the doors suddenly opened and my two birth parents come in.
They're both smiling, Lily has tears in her eyes. She looks at me, as if I would disappear any second and whispers "Jasmine…"
Chapter 16: Hogwarts
31st October 1994, Hogwarts
I just got summoned by a ball of flames and opened my eyes to the great hall. I'm a bit surprised that the goblet of fire summoned me. To be honest I kinda forgot about the whole Voldemort thing. You don't get to be as old as I am and actually be bothered by a child throwing a tantrum because he's an orphan. Some people pity Tom Riddle, but the world is not fair. Yes, there are some kids with better childhoods but there are also many with worse.
And the whole blood purity thing doesn't make sense at all. It only ever existed because of the rise of inbreeding after the creation of the statue of secrecy. The statue destroyed any wizard-mundane relation (I guess I have to call them muggles now that I'm in this time period) which led to marriages being between magical families which generations later led to inbreeding, which slowly destroyed the families' magical gifts and created squibs. Those squibs who were seen as proof of the family's weakness before the statue were immediately obliviated and sent to the muggle world.
As the number of wizards with magical gifts slowly dwindled, certain muggleborns that are descended from the exiled squibs started showing signs of the magical gifts of their ancestors, hence the whole 'Muggles steal our magic' nonsense. These gifts are the product of very powerful sacrificial blood magic which makes the families' anger understandable, considering it was their ancestors that paid the price for these gifts. The idea of muggleborns stealing magic is absurd. There are two types of muggleborn. They are either descended from squibs or they're conceived in a magical environment like under a leyline of certain ancient wards.
Anyway, this is not the time for this, I'm currently in Hogwarts for the first time since Salazar died. The memories here are painful. I feel the wards connect to me and greet me. Giving this castle a consciousness is one of my best ideas. Being the first magical artificial intelligence allows her to use the wards I created to protect the students. Sometimes, it doesn't really contact the headmaster if they think they're not prioritizing the safety and education of the students which I can tell is the case with Dumbledore.
Now back to the whole goblet thing, I expected to be selected as champion as it was fated to be. When you're as connected to magic as I am you can sense the fate of the world. Sort of like a guideline of a story. Something that seers do naturally. To be honest, time is not rigid, it's malleable, except for certain events that will happen, which are usually accompanied by a prophecy. Uneducated seers often think that everything is set in stone and tell people of their visions as absolute truth. Something that caused a lot of problems in ancient Greece.
So, I knew that I would be selected to compete, I’ll use the tournament as a chance to kill Riddle before focusing on the bigger threat that is Thanos. I knew they could not make me compete as they don’t know of my true name or my magical signature, since it barely lasts more than a year. I expected 'Jasmine Potter' to come out of the Goblet and I would come a few days after to compete. One look at the Goblet and I understood exactly what happened.
"Well, that was interesting."
I recognized the Goblet immediately. Of course, I did; I helped make it after all. However, it went with a different name: "Hestia's Cup".
I created it with Hestia, one of the few Olympians I actually liked. The others being pretentious backstabbing assholes with egos bigger than the sun. At first, I didn't believe that survivors of the fall of Atlantis would find themselves in Greece of all places. They were commoners, fishermen and merchants. They created a small city on top of a mountain called Olympus and were led by the King Ouranos an air elemental and Queen Gaia an earth elemental. Barely a sliver of Atlantis' knowledge remained. Unfortunately, their children did not accept their peaceful rules, thinking themselves above the muggles. They betrayed their parents and killed every single survivor of the sinking leaving only the newborn. Thankfully, when two practitioners of physical magic conceive a child, it already has golden blood which they call ichor. They called themselves the Titans and the new king Kronos ruled with an iron fist. He was later overthrown by his son Zeus who had an elder sister called Hestia that I befriended.
The goblet was Hestia's artifact, and it couldn't be more representative of her character. It was the first magical enforced contract ever created. The contract included certain laws that the Olympians must follow to avoid more wars and backstabbing. They were called the ancient laws. After voting of the laws, each god had to put his name in the goblet, which recognized the magical signature and bound them to the laws. What many do not know is that Hestia added a second function that summons a family member exactly once, with the blood of the missing person and the blood of two direct family members. I guess they took samples of my blood when I was born, and the ritual I used was performed in the past which didn't affect the blood in the future. I guess I'll redo the ritual then.
Dumbledore must have convinced the Potters to use blood magic to summon me. Not very light of him. I can see the barely hidden triumph in his eyes as he looks at me. I don't need my telepathy to tell me that he has plans concerning me.
I pretend to examine the goblet, "Blood, you summoned me using my blood."
"That's neither here or there, my girl, you were selected as a Champion in the Tri-Wizard tournament."
"And where am I exactly?"
"You're in Hogwarts, of course."
"I see…"
The Potters look really hopeful and the Hall is deathly quiet. I can feel their guilt, fear, happiness, elation at my presence. It's too bad they will not get a daughter out of me. I kinda feel bad to be honest.
The ceiling enchantments are still holding I see, it took me a while to get it right. I follow Dumbledore's eyes towards the door and I slowly walk my way there.
Viktor Krum, Nathan Potter, and Fleur Delacour were grouped around the fire. They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Krum, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the other two. Nathan looking at me with wide eyes, completely forgetting that his name came out of the goblet. Fleur Delacour looked around when Harry walked in and threw back her sheet of long, silvery hair. "What is it?" she said. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"
There was a sound of scurrying feet behind me, and Ludo Bagman entered the room. He took me by the arm and led him forward. "Extraordinary!" he muttered, squeezing my arm. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen . . . ladies may I introduce — incredible though it may seem — the fourth Triwizard champion?"
"Could you stop touching me, sir." He let go immediately.
Viktor Krum straightened up. Fleur Delacour, however, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman." "Joke?" Bagman repeated, bewildered. "No, no, not at all! Nathan and Jasmine's names just came out of the Goblet of Fire!"
"But evidently zair 'as been a mistake," she said contemptuously to Bagman. "There are only three champions not four."
The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape. Thankfully, the Potters are not here, I'd rather not do the whole reunion thing in public.
Madame Maxime had drawn herself up to her full, and considerable, height. The top of her handsome head brushed the candle filled chandelier, and her gigantic black-satin bosom swelled. "What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" she said imperiously.
"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," said Professor Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions — or have I not read the rules carefully enough?"
He gave a short and nasty laugh. "C'est impossible," said Madame Maxime, whose enormous hand with its many superb opals was resting upon Fleur's shoulder. " 'Ogwarts cannot 'ave two champions. It is most injust."
"EVERYONE SHUT UP." They all stopped bickering. "Thank you."
"Okay, look people, I have no idea how I'm here but I'm magically bound to compete so arguing about it will not change that. I also am not a student of Hogwarts, or any school for that matter since I graduated last year and took my NEWTS early. So yeah, since I'm not a student, I'll just do the challenges and that's it. Give me zeros for all I care. Once I'm done, you will hopefully never see my again."
"Mr. Crouch . . . Mr. Bagman," said Karkaroff, his voice unctuous once more, "you are our — er — objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?" Bagman wiped his round, boyish face with his handkerchief and looked at Mr. Crouch, who was standing outside the circle of the firelight, his face half hidden in shadow.
He looked slightly eerie, the half-darkness making him look much older, giving him an almost skull-like appearance. When he spoke, however, it was in his usual curt voice. "We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."
"Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front," said Bagman, beaming and turning back to Karkaroff and Madame Maxime, as though the matter was now closed.
"After all our meetings and negotiations and compromises, I little expected something of this nature to occur! I have half a mind to leave now!", exclaims Karkaroff.
"Empty threat, Karkaroff," growled a voice from near the door. "You can't leave your champion now. He's got to compete. They've all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?"
Moody had just entered the room. He limped toward the fire, and with every right step he took, there was a loud clunk. A quick telepathy scan and I could tell it's Barty Crouch Junior. Same plan with the graveyard, same blood ritual for Riddle to return at the end of the third task. Seems like it's going a la cannon so far.
"Convenient?" said Karkaroff, breaking me from my musing. "I'm afraid I don't understand you, Moody."
"Don't you?" said Moody quietly. "It's very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put Potter's name in that goblet knowing she'd have to compete if it came out. Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it, it would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament. I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name under a fourth school, to make sure she was the only one in her category." said Moody, with the merest trace of a growl.
"How this situation arose, we do not know," said Dumbledore, speaking to everyone gathered in the room. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Jasmine and Nathan have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. This, therefore, they will do."
They went on explaining the first task which surprise, surprise, is actually well, a surprise. Nathan is still staring at me with his best Goldfish expression. After everybody leave, the doors suddenly opened and my two birth parents come in.
They're both smiling, Lily has tears in her eyes. She looks at me, as if I would disappear any second and whispers "Jasmine…"
