Chapter 219: Responsibilities
21st March 2012, Potter Cottage, Godric's Hollow
(Lily Potter POV)
Rose nodded, “She didn’t want anyone to know. She didn’t want any of you to be held back and for you to grow on your own. She told me that she was proud of you, by the way.”
“Are you kidding? That’s her reason for not… wait a minute, she said that she was proud of me?”
Lily stifled a chuckle as Rose answered, “Yes. She said that you made great changes in the country and that it’s prospering because of you.”
While Nathan had a goofy smile on his face, Tracy had a very calculating look, and turned towards Rose, “Explain everything…”
Rose sighed in defeat and nodded, “Alright, but it’s a long story.”
(Rose Potter POV)
Things took an awkward turn when Nathan had arrived at their parents’ home. The kids were as loud as ever, but their father had been uncharacteristically silent on the matter of Jasmine’s survival. Very few people actually knew how much her supposed death affected Nathan. It was a turning point in his life, the day that Nathan’s innocence perished, and he finally started to grow up and think for himself.
Not many people remember that Jasmine was Nathan’s twin, and in the magical world, twin bonds are a very serious thing. Seeing his twin die in front of him had cut him deeply, but what was worse, was his role in the fiasco. Nathan had always trusted Albus Dumbledore implicitly. He was sometimes suspicious of him, but the man’s reputation and role as his Headmaster, created a bond between them, one that turned out to be very one sided, especially after the elder man’s confession to planning on killing Nathan and robbing a priceless artifact from the Potter family.
To see his trust, his action result in his twin’s death had scarred Nathan. He was a lot less outgoing afterwards, a lot less trusting. His relationship with Tracy had almost gone in flames before the young Slytherin realized what was going on and set him straight, somewhat.
This skittishness was still a problem today. He was still hesitant to trust any new acquaintance with anything, which meant that unfortunately, Hermione Granger, one of his oldest friends, was allowed to have far more power and influence than anyone in the Ministry did, excluding Nathan himself.
Even with the way she has been subtly trying to get access to her magic by getting her bound to Britain, Nathan still didn’t do anything about it, preferring his sister to settle down, get married, have a few kids, in Britain, close to him.
It created some tension between the two siblings, one that was growing stronger every day Rose doesn’t return home, and Nathan doesn’t stop Granger’s witch hunt. Rose had even gone to Tracy to make him see sense, but the man’s wife told her that he was being very stubborn with this. He had already lost one sister; he didn’t want to lose another one to a dangerous foe on the other side of the world.
She could see his point; Jasmine’s supposed death still affects him to this day. Which is why he looked betrayed when her father revealed Jasmine’s survival to him. It was like someone told him that his whole life, his ambitions, his goals, were all built on a lie. It must have shocked him greatly, especially when his sister knew about it for years.
Truth be told, Nathan and Jasmine wouldn’t have gotten along too well after the tournament. Jasmine was too apathetic, too calculative, and was rarely passionate about anything other than magic. She could spend hours lecturing the people around her about magic and its subtleties. Truthfully, Rose doesn’t think that anyone in history has ever equaled her in terms of magical knowledge.
Nathan on the other hand, was very passionate, volatile and could easily jump to conclusions, especially during a situation where Jasmine took a calculating risk. And while he was a powerful wizard, he never tried to branch out to any magical field outside his OWLs and NEWTs. Even when Rose had tried to push him towards fire elemental magic, he refused to study it too much. Don’t get her wrong, he’s an amazing fighter, but his magical repertoire doesn’t include a single spell that wasn’t taught to him by either a Hogwarts professor or in the Auror academy. There was nothing wrong with that, but Jasmine, no matter the number of battles she participated in, was an academic at heart, and Nathan was a born fighter, seeing magic as nothing more than a tool to be used. They’re just different people, with different values.
Still, Nathan’s eerily calm expression when she told him that Jasmine was alive had made her uncomfortable. She hadn’t told him the whole story, with the time travel and all, only that she had chosen to fake her death at the hands of Dumbledore so that she would be free to do as she wished and not be forced to stay in Britain, like the Wizengamot is still trying to do to Rose right now.
Nathan will have to see her point, but in a way, it doesn’t excuse her not revealing her status to her own twin, other than the fact that she didn’t trust him. It was the only conclusion. And the fact that Rose had hidden that fact had hurt him as well.
After Rose had told him what happened to Jasmine, he just calmly stood up, asked his wife and children to come with him, and apparated away, leaving an awkward atmosphere. Rose hoped that he wasn’t going to do anything rash in his obviously repressed anger.
With that said and done, Rose just bade her parents goodbye and apparated to Jasmine’s location, who was waiting for her while drinking a cup of tea, “Well, you sure took your time.”
“You could have warned me that Nathan was coming.” Rose answered back glaring at her sister.
Jasmine chuckled, “Now, where’s the fun in that?”
“Dad told Nathan, you know. Not about the time travel thing, only that you were alive.”
Rose’s sister gave her a shrug, “It might be troublesome down the line, but I don’t see anything too bad happening. And if it does, it will be your responsibility to calm things.”
“My responsibility? You’re the one who faked her death.”
Jasmine didn’t react at her sister’s outraged tone, “It is, because as we said before, it’s time for you to start shouldering the responsibilities of being my heir in the magical world. So far, you’ve only had the benefits, the magical knowledge, the riches, and much more. It’s time for you to take my place. Don’t worry, I won’t push you in directly. Consider this to be a trial period, an apprenticeship if you would like, until I deem you ready to take up my post fully.”
Jasmine kept talking about being her successor, her heir in magical matters, but she never actually gave her a detailed description of what that actually means, “What does that entail exactly?”
“Well, you need to make sure that no forbidden magics are being used around the world. You’ll need to hunt down books sold in the magical underworld, from all races. You are, technically, the supreme authority, and all races, other than wizards, will recognize this. This will, of course, mean that you’ll need to understand what the forbidden magics are and how to deal with them.”
“What do you mean by forbidden magics?”
Jasmine shrugged, “It could be anything that threatens the balance of the world. Something like Voldemort’s Horcruxes, certain large scale rituals, summoning elder gods or trying to bind demons. Mages can be powerful but a lot of knowledge from these kinds of magics are lost or incomplete. Wizards and witches are reckless and would try to perform a ritual without understanding the risks involved.”
Huh, that seemed interesting, “Alright, that makes sense, what else do my duties entail?”
“You are tasked with preserving the population of every magical creature on the planet. The magical world has always had some kind of balance, one that went askew when the number of competent mages started growing with the invention of the wand. Magical creatures, especially peaceful ones were hunted down to extinction. You’ll need to keep an eye on the population of every magical race, to prevent even more creatures from disappearing.”
“Wait, you didn’t save them?”
Jasmine looked outraged, “Of course, I did. But I’m not done. You’re also responsible in securing artifacts that are deemed to be too dangerous to be used by mortals. Things like Poseidon’s trident, Harpe, the god killing scythe, and other similar artifacts can cause a lot of mayhem if they’re used today.”
Rose nodded, and her sister continued, “You’re also responsible for stopping any magical genocides before they happen, and finally, you have to maintain the Statute of Secrecy. The mist, the spell I created to hide the magical world, can be bypassed by a wizard or witch who knows what they’re doing. It rarely ever happens, but you’ll have to be the one to stop them because if the magical world is ever revealed to muggles, war will follow, and it’s not a war that the magical world will survive.”
The younger woman nodded, “Is this what you do all the time? Making sure that we mortals don’t blow ourselves up?”
Jasmine laughed bitterly, “In a way, yes. I have taken it upon myself to preserve this planet for as long as I can. In many ways, the magical world is my greatest creation and my greatest failure. The truth is, that the moment wands were created, people stopped appreciating their magic, they stopped studying it, cherishing it. Knowledge slowly started to fade away as all it took was a few words and wand movements for them to use magic. When you learn magic the way I taught you, you start developing a sixth sense of sort, a bond with the magical creatures around you. The mere thought of ever hurting an innocent magical creature just to use them as cattle would disgust you, and yet it is something that other wizards and witches do without batting an eye. I have succeeded in making the magical world into a structured society, but in the end, they lost what made them truly special in my eyes.”
“Is it always like this? A thankless job, where you see people trampling on their values, disregarding their magic?”
“In a way, yes. But you’re not just going to be in charge of the wizards, you’ll be in charge of the entire magical world. You’ll have to speak with Goblins, Centaurs, Mermen, Veela, and so much more. Mages might be the most troublesome of the magical races, but the rest will be very thankful for your help. But be very careful, do not expect them to disregard their own values for you. A Goblin will always try to scam you out of your gold, a Veela will try to seduce you, and a centaur will always speak in cryptic riddles. It’s in their nature, after all.”
Rose chuckled, “Well, it doesn’t seem that bad, after all.”
Jasmine gave her a warm smile, “I guess it doesn’t. Now, that I finished with the responsibilities, let me show you the biggest advantage there is for you to become my successor.”
“And what is that?”
“Why, your domain, of course.”
Wait what? “What domain?”
Jasmine laughed, “By agreeing to become my heir, you are essentially becoming the Queen of the magical world. And while you’ll probably not wear a crown, a queen must have a kingdom to rule. This is yours.”
Jasmine summoned a key out of nowhere. It was a beautiful golden key, filled with rubies and small sapphires. Rose could sense the power emanating from it. This wasn’t a normal key; it was some sort of a very powerful artifact.
Jasmine grasped the key and put it near a wall. Somehow, a golden keyhole appeared out of nowhere. The Key fit the hold perfectly, and glowing golden lines started appearing in a rectangular shape in the wall, before opening as if it was a door. Jasmine gestured for her to go in.
“Welcome, Rose, to Avalon.”
Chapter 219: Responsibilities
21st March 2012, Potter Cottage, Godric's Hollow
(Lily Potter POV)
Rose nodded, “She didn’t want anyone to know. She didn’t want any of you to be held back and for you to grow on your own. She told me that she was proud of you, by the way.”
“Are you kidding? That’s her reason for not… wait a minute, she said that she was proud of me?”
Lily stifled a chuckle as Rose answered, “Yes. She said that you made great changes in the country and that it’s prospering because of you.”
While Nathan had a goofy smile on his face, Tracy had a very calculating look, and turned towards Rose, “Explain everything…”
Rose sighed in defeat and nodded, “Alright, but it’s a long story.”
(Rose Potter POV)
Things took an awkward turn when Nathan had arrived at their parents’ home. The kids were as loud as ever, but their father had been uncharacteristically silent on the matter of Jasmine’s survival. Very few people actually knew how much her supposed death affected Nathan. It was a turning point in his life, the day that Nathan’s innocence perished, and he finally started to grow up and think for himself.
Not many people remember that Jasmine was Nathan’s twin, and in the magical world, twin bonds are a very serious thing. Seeing his twin die in front of him had cut him deeply, but what was worse, was his role in the fiasco. Nathan had always trusted Albus Dumbledore implicitly. He was sometimes suspicious of him, but the man’s reputation and role as his Headmaster, created a bond between them, one that turned out to be very one sided, especially after the elder man’s confession to planning on killing Nathan and robbing a priceless artifact from the Potter family.
To see his trust, his action result in his twin’s death had scarred Nathan. He was a lot less outgoing afterwards, a lot less trusting. His relationship with Tracy had almost gone in flames before the young Slytherin realized what was going on and set him straight, somewhat.
This skittishness was still a problem today. He was still hesitant to trust any new acquaintance with anything, which meant that unfortunately, Hermione Granger, one of his oldest friends, was allowed to have far more power and influence than anyone in the Ministry did, excluding Nathan himself.
Even with the way she has been subtly trying to get access to her magic by getting her bound to Britain, Nathan still didn’t do anything about it, preferring his sister to settle down, get married, have a few kids, in Britain, close to him.
It created some tension between the two siblings, one that was growing stronger every day Rose doesn’t return home, and Nathan doesn’t stop Granger’s witch hunt. Rose had even gone to Tracy to make him see sense, but the man’s wife told her that he was being very stubborn with this. He had already lost one sister; he didn’t want to lose another one to a dangerous foe on the other side of the world.
She could see his point; Jasmine’s supposed death still affects him to this day. Which is why he looked betrayed when her father revealed Jasmine’s survival to him. It was like someone told him that his whole life, his ambitions, his goals, were all built on a lie. It must have shocked him greatly, especially when his sister knew about it for years.
Truth be told, Nathan and Jasmine wouldn’t have gotten along too well after the tournament. Jasmine was too apathetic, too calculative, and was rarely passionate about anything other than magic. She could spend hours lecturing the people around her about magic and its subtleties. Truthfully, Rose doesn’t think that anyone in history has ever equaled her in terms of magical knowledge.
Nathan on the other hand, was very passionate, volatile and could easily jump to conclusions, especially during a situation where Jasmine took a calculating risk. And while he was a powerful wizard, he never tried to branch out to any magical field outside his OWLs and NEWTs. Even when Rose had tried to push him towards fire elemental magic, he refused to study it too much. Don’t get her wrong, he’s an amazing fighter, but his magical repertoire doesn’t include a single spell that wasn’t taught to him by either a Hogwarts professor or in the Auror academy. There was nothing wrong with that, but Jasmine, no matter the number of battles she participated in, was an academic at heart, and Nathan was a born fighter, seeing magic as nothing more than a tool to be used. They’re just different people, with different values.
Still, Nathan’s eerily calm expression when she told him that Jasmine was alive had made her uncomfortable. She hadn’t told him the whole story, with the time travel and all, only that she had chosen to fake her death at the hands of Dumbledore so that she would be free to do as she wished and not be forced to stay in Britain, like the Wizengamot is still trying to do to Rose right now.
Nathan will have to see her point, but in a way, it doesn’t excuse her not revealing her status to her own twin, other than the fact that she didn’t trust him. It was the only conclusion. And the fact that Rose had hidden that fact had hurt him as well.
After Rose had told him what happened to Jasmine, he just calmly stood up, asked his wife and children to come with him, and apparated away, leaving an awkward atmosphere. Rose hoped that he wasn’t going to do anything rash in his obviously repressed anger.
With that said and done, Rose just bade her parents goodbye and apparated to Jasmine’s location, who was waiting for her while drinking a cup of tea, “Well, you sure took your time.”
“You could have warned me that Nathan was coming.” Rose answered back glaring at her sister.
Jasmine chuckled, “Now, where’s the fun in that?”
“Dad told Nathan, you know. Not about the time travel thing, only that you were alive.”
Rose’s sister gave her a shrug, “It might be troublesome down the line, but I don’t see anything too bad happening. And if it does, it will be your responsibility to calm things.”
“My responsibility? You’re the one who faked her death.”
Jasmine didn’t react at her sister’s outraged tone, “It is, because as we said before, it’s time for you to start shouldering the responsibilities of being my heir in the magical world. So far, you’ve only had the benefits, the magical knowledge, the riches, and much more. It’s time for you to take my place. Don’t worry, I won’t push you in directly. Consider this to be a trial period, an apprenticeship if you would like, until I deem you ready to take up my post fully.”
Jasmine kept talking about being her successor, her heir in magical matters, but she never actually gave her a detailed description of what that actually means, “What does that entail exactly?”
“Well, you need to make sure that no forbidden magics are being used around the world. You’ll need to hunt down books sold in the magical underworld, from all races. You are, technically, the supreme authority, and all races, other than wizards, will recognize this. This will, of course, mean that you’ll need to understand what the forbidden magics are and how to deal with them.”
“What do you mean by forbidden magics?”
Jasmine shrugged, “It could be anything that threatens the balance of the world. Something like Voldemort’s Horcruxes, certain large scale rituals, summoning elder gods or trying to bind demons. Mages can be powerful but a lot of knowledge from these kinds of magics are lost or incomplete. Wizards and witches are reckless and would try to perform a ritual without understanding the risks involved.”
Huh, that seemed interesting, “Alright, that makes sense, what else do my duties entail?”
“You are tasked with preserving the population of every magical creature on the planet. The magical world has always had some kind of balance, one that went askew when the number of competent mages started growing with the invention of the wand. Magical creatures, especially peaceful ones were hunted down to extinction. You’ll need to keep an eye on the population of every magical race, to prevent even more creatures from disappearing.”
“Wait, you didn’t save them?”
Jasmine looked outraged, “Of course, I did. But I’m not done. You’re also responsible in securing artifacts that are deemed to be too dangerous to be used by mortals. Things like Poseidon’s trident, Harpe, the god killing scythe, and other similar artifacts can cause a lot of mayhem if they’re used today.”
Rose nodded, and her sister continued, “You’re also responsible for stopping any magical genocides before they happen, and finally, you have to maintain the Statute of Secrecy. The mist, the spell I created to hide the magical world, can be bypassed by a wizard or witch who knows what they’re doing. It rarely ever happens, but you’ll have to be the one to stop them because if the magical world is ever revealed to muggles, war will follow, and it’s not a war that the magical world will survive.”
The younger woman nodded, “Is this what you do all the time? Making sure that we mortals don’t blow ourselves up?”
Jasmine laughed bitterly, “In a way, yes. I have taken it upon myself to preserve this planet for as long as I can. In many ways, the magical world is my greatest creation and my greatest failure. The truth is, that the moment wands were created, people stopped appreciating their magic, they stopped studying it, cherishing it. Knowledge slowly started to fade away as all it took was a few words and wand movements for them to use magic. When you learn magic the way I taught you, you start developing a sixth sense of sort, a bond with the magical creatures around you. The mere thought of ever hurting an innocent magical creature just to use them as cattle would disgust you, and yet it is something that other wizards and witches do without batting an eye. I have succeeded in making the magical world into a structured society, but in the end, they lost what made them truly special in my eyes.”
“Is it always like this? A thankless job, where you see people trampling on their values, disregarding their magic?”
“In a way, yes. But you’re not just going to be in charge of the wizards, you’ll be in charge of the entire magical world. You’ll have to speak with Goblins, Centaurs, Mermen, Veela, and so much more. Mages might be the most troublesome of the magical races, but the rest will be very thankful for your help. But be very careful, do not expect them to disregard their own values for you. A Goblin will always try to scam you out of your gold, a Veela will try to seduce you, and a centaur will always speak in cryptic riddles. It’s in their nature, after all.”
Rose chuckled, “Well, it doesn’t seem that bad, after all.”
Jasmine gave her a warm smile, “I guess it doesn’t. Now, that I finished with the responsibilities, let me show you the biggest advantage there is for you to become my successor.”
“And what is that?”
“Why, your domain, of course.”
Wait what? “What domain?”
Jasmine laughed, “By agreeing to become my heir, you are essentially becoming the Queen of the magical world. And while you’ll probably not wear a crown, a queen must have a kingdom to rule. This is yours.”
Jasmine summoned a key out of nowhere. It was a beautiful golden key, filled with rubies and small sapphires. Rose could sense the power emanating from it. This wasn’t a normal key; it was some sort of a very powerful artifact.
Jasmine grasped the key and put it near a wall. Somehow, a golden keyhole appeared out of nowhere. The Key fit the hold perfectly, and glowing golden lines started appearing in a rectangular shape in the wall, before opening as if it was a door. Jasmine gestured for her to go in.
“Welcome, Rose, to Avalon.”
