Chapter 36: Chapter 36: First Task Aftermath

Chapter 36: First Task Aftermath

30^th of November 1994, Hogwarts

(Nathan POV)

It’s been almost a week since Nathan saw his sister amaze the entirety of magical Britain during the first task. When he learnt that Jasmine was finally back after all these years, the first thing he felt was joy. That joy, however, was immediately squashed by the amount of shame he felt. Something that has always been in the back of his mind, ever since he heard about what happened to his sister, that what she went through was his fault. His parents sent her away because of him, to keep him safe. They had shown in such an obvious manner that he was their favorite; they chose him over her. And from the tongue lashing Jasmine gave his parents, he could tell she didn’t want anything to do with his family.

So, he kept his distance, despite wishing with all his heart that they would be family again. After all, in the magical world, there are few things as intimate as a twins’ bond. He had hoped that their bond would be repaired by itself but that wasn’t the case.

He had researched about the magical twin bond, hoping to use it to contact his sister somehow, it didn’t work, of course but it was worth a shot. He discovered that even in case of separation anywhere in the world, the bond was weak but still present. There were only ways to suppress the bond using certain spells or rituals, all of them were painful to both twins, and he didn’t feel any of the excruciating pain described in the books so he doubted that happened. Even after the spells were cast, the bond was reforged when the siblings met each other once again.

The only permanent separation he had ever read about was in a very old book in Hogwarts where after their bonds was suppressed, one of the twins used a time turner regularly. For some reason the bond could not link the two brothers after the met again, traveling through time had somehow made both their minds incompatible for that kind of bond. Although, he did doubt that Jasmine was able to get a time turner, even Hermione had been rejected access to one when she wanted to apply for all the Hogwarts electives.

On the other hand, she did graduate early from Ilvemorny. As a prodigy, she could have been granted access to a time turner but the magical congress was even more strict than the department of mysteries about time manipulation. Her early graduation served as reminder at how much he had been slacking during his time at Hogwarts. Magic may have come naturally to him, but he couldn’t help but feel jealous when he compared himself to her. Isn’t he supposed to be the boy who lived? The magical powerhouse that will probably one day replace Dumbledore?

But that wasn’t enough, what really pissed him off was Jasmine’s relationship with Rose. He had been surprised and hurt when Rose told him about how much time they spent together. Jasmine had even helped her by teaching her magic. And while it was nice seeing Rose this happy that didn’t stop him from feeling hurt that his twin obviously preferred his sister to him. It started with Rose but it didn’t end there. Jasmine even got along with Mordred, his teacher. He could see them sometimes talking and laughing like they were old friends or something. It was odd, Mordred rarely spoke with anyone and when she did, she didn’t seem so carefree as when she was with his sister. Damn it, Mordred was supposed to be his teacher. Well, at least she kept teaching him swordsmanship, but he still didn’t like the situation. To deal with it, he had then decided to ignore Jasmine out of spite and a little bit of fear.

These feelings, of course went out of the window when Hagrid showed him what the first task was. Dragons, were they crazy? Who the fuck brings dragons to a school competition? After the panic attack was over and he had his head straight again, the first thing he thought of was warning his twin. To avoid contact with her, he just told Rose, who in turn told Jasmine. Now he had to develop a strategy with dealing with the dragons, and thanks to Moody’s help, he decided on flying, he only needed to be able to use a summoning charm powerful enough to summon his broom from the tower since he wasn’t allowed to get someone to hold it in the stadium, apparently it would count as cheating.

This presented another drawback, while the summoning charm costs little magic when the object is near, the amount of magic needed to summon something grows exponentially when the weight or the distance increases. Assuming he could do it, it would still cost him half his magic to perform the spell. He spent days practicing the spell with Hermione, adding more mass and summoning from further away each time, until he was confident he could do it during the task. And he did, by the way. He summoned the broom from the castle and outflew a dragon with minimal injuries, he even got some good scores out of it. High off the adrenalin and after a quick visit to the infirmary, he decided to spectate during his sister’s task, he was curious what her plan would be.

Well, if he thought he had it bad fighting a dragon, she had it so much worse fighting what can only be described as death with wings and spikes. It was far larger than his and even more aggressive, the number of dragon handlers was almost the double for any of the other dragons when they stunned it. He just got his sister back and he couldn’t bear to lose her now without so much as talking with her. Then and there he promised himself he would try to talk to her if she was able to get out of this alive.

Well, she did get alive in the end, but her performance was one of the most shocking and amazing things he had ever witnessed. While he didn’t understand what was going on, it was clearly on another level. His parents didn’t know and a number of experts also didn’t understand a thing either. He should know, he sat next to his parents during the first task and a number of lords and scholars were sitting near him. Even Dumbledore was openly gaping at her performance. And no one got to ask her about her performance since she disappeared ever since the task ended. She didn’t even return to receive the score, which was first place obviously.

Now that the symbols she used in her magic were confirmed by Dumbledore to be runes, the amount of interest in the field skyrocketed for the next few days after the task. Professor Babbling, the rune mistress in Hogwarts kept getting harassed by students from all three schools asking her questions about Jasmine’s magic. And while she did translate some of the runes she understood, which was after a couple of hours of study, what she discovered was mostly an interpretation as to what the spell could perform.

She still had no idea how she managed to use runes that way, but she did understand most of the runic arrays shown since Jasmine mostly used Elder Futhark and Norse runes during the task. Even Hermione wasn’t spared from the runes hype, as she was currently reading a tome during lunch about runes that’s as thick as his arm. He still had no idea why someone would willingly read something this long and boring.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” bemoaned Hermione, “runes are elements that must be carved or painted into an artifact for them to work. You can’t just write them out of thin air and you definitely couldn’t manipulate them after they activate. Your sister created a solid construct made out of runes. I don’t even know how to begin looking for it in the library.”

“It could be some sort of family technique back in the states. Their laws are still weird.” Nathan responded.

“I just wish she was with us during lessons. We could be asking her all of this directly.” Hermione said.

“I already told you, she already graduated and you didn’t believe me.” Nathan replied.

Indeed, Hermione was skeptical about a student as young as her graduating this early, and maybe a little bit envious. She was called the brightest witch in their generation but compared to Jasmine Potter she felt like a toddler with a wand.

“It doesn’t matter, what does matter is how she was able to do all this stuff by herself. This isn’t just an obscure type of magic, it’s something no one has ever seen before.”

Nathan ignored her, and decided to send Jasmine a letter by owl, asking to meet her for the first time. He didn’t expect her to even answer, but she did. She accepted a meeting at the astronomy tower at midnight.

So, he waited nervously all day. He didn’t even pay attention in class and even nearly blew up his cauldron during potions class. As a result, Slughorn even gave him two days of detention so his weekend was ruined. Not that he cared, he could only focus on what would happen later tonight.

After hours of agonized waiting, it was finally midnight. Nathan put on his family’s invisibility cloak and walked up to the astronomy tower. When he got inside, he found his sister, who hasn’t been seen ever since the first task, laying on her back.

“It’s a beautiful night.” She spoke.

“What?”, he asked, confused.

“The sky in clear and the stars are alight. The moon is shining, the wind gently blowing. You can hear the air rustling the leaves in the forest, the merpeople sing under the lake. Hogwarts is very peaceful at night, as I said it’s a beautiful night.”

Nathan had no idea what she was talking about but he didn’t voice it. Jasmine didn’t try explaining, just stayed there in silence. After a few minutes he couldn’t stay silent.

“I’m sorry.” He stated.

“Why are you sorry? Have you done something wrong?” she asked

“Yes, no, I don’t know,” Nathan responded, “this wasn’t supposed to be this awkward!” He said, frustrated.

“Why does it have to be. Something is awkward when it does not conform to society’s rules. If you don’t want to feel uncomfortable, just ignore the rules. I don’t judge.” Jasmine replied without taking he eyes off the sky.

“Alright!” Nathan was starting to get frustrated now, “I know what happened with the muggles.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb, I know what our aunt and uncle did to you. The way they treated you, they almost killed you, Jasmine.” He exclaimed.

“Ah! That. What about it? I don’t hide from what’s happened to me. It did and I moved on from it. Keeping yourself locked away in the past would only serve you to leading a miserable life.”

“How can you do it?” He asked, “How can you just forgive them?”

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“Who said anything about forgiving them? I never forgotten what they did to me or even forgiven them for what they did. But obsessing over it would give them power over me, and they don’t deserve this. It’s only when you can talk openly about what happened to you that you can finally move on.”

“Why didn’t you take revenge?”

“And what would be the point of it. Petunia and Vernon were both very afraid and very angry. They felt powerless and wanted to take it out on a child. Their son was just emulating their behavior. Without me there, they would have to face their own insecurities without someone to take it out on. Their marriage will crumble and die, they will get divorced and live miserable lives alone because there is no one that would be willing to deal with their baggage. Especially when they would start cursing freaks left, right, and center. People tend to punish themselves more than anyone else would.”

“So, you just ignore what happened to you?”

“Not ignore, never ignore. I just acknowledge that it happened and refuse to allow the fact that it did, to slow me down. I moved on.”

“But what if I didn’t?” Nathan screamed at her.

“You feel guilty then?”

“Of course, I do. I got everything you ever wanted as a child just because our parents chose you over me. You must have hated me.”

“Hated you? I never hated you in my life. During my childhood, I hated your parents for what they did to me but never you. You had no choice; you were a child and so was I. If I couldn’t do anything to help myself then what could you have done? I never forgave you because there was nothing to forgive. You know, I remember everything from the moment I was born until today, and I reviewed my memory objectively after I got away from the Dursleys and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that you have done nothing wrong to me.”

“But why didn’t you contact me? Or even talk to me after you came to Hogwarts?”

“Because I don’t know you. I assumed that if you wanted to talk, you could just walk up to me and do so. I understood that you had to deal with your issues first before talking to me. What happened to me was awful. Not just on me, but also on you. It left a giant mark on you soul, something you kept feeding with your guilt every time you felt happy, knowing what happened to me. You need to forgive yourself for what your parents did to me.”

“But they’re your parents too.”

“Maybe once, now biologically, I’m barely your third or fourth cousin. And spiritually, they never raised me, so they aren’t my parents.”

“Then why do you call Rose your sister?”

“Because I chose Rose to be my sister. She was lonely and depressed in this place. She needed someone close to her and to be honest, so do I. Loneliness can be a terrible thing, Nathan.”

“Then why did you choose her and not me? Our twin bond can be as intimate as it gets.”

“She simply talked to me first and she needed me. You have friends that always support you but she doesn’t. Now about our bond, it will never recover. We are simply too different, now.”

“What do you mean different?”

“There’s a reason the bond exists in the first place. It doesn’t just appear out of thin air but because both souls and minds grew up very similarly during the pregnancy. This bond didn’t just link minds but souls as well, and the matters of the souls are very complicated. That’s why twins can use to bond to share magic. When growing up in a similar environment, twins tend to evolve similarly. Whether it’s because of the bond or because of the environment itself. They are not identical but still very similar.

Now if one was separated, grew up in a similar environment away from his twin, they will grow up more differently but still connected. The bond might weaken but it can return when they meet each other again. But if one of them grows up differently from their twin, then their souls are not compatible anymore. You see, every day we’re different from the person we were before. Our experiences slowly change our souls, but something extreme causes a more drastic change than a normal day. And that’s okay, we have to keep moving forward, it’s what life is about but you have to remember all the people you were before.”

“I don’t understand?”

“I went through so much more than you. I experienced cruelty, anger, love and friendship. I have felt true despair and risen above it. These experiences change our souls and mine is a lot more mature than yours. It’s why I can be considered an adult but you’re still a child, growing up is more than just a number indicating how many turns you took around the sun. We’re simply too different for the bond to come back and there is nothing that could change that.”

Nathan’s heart broke at her explanation.

“Is there a chance for me, for us to be a family again?”

“There’s always a place in my life for family, but you’ll have to earn it. You’re not my blood relation anymore, you’re not entitled to be my family. You’ll have to do it the hard way.”

“How?”

“Befriend me and become close enough to me that I would consider you, my brother.”

“What about mum and dad?”

“That’s never gonna happen. When I reviewed my memory, I got a good handle on their personalities. James is a man trying to relive his glory days at school and refuses to grow up. When given a choice, he would always choose the easy path. Lily, however, is too overprotective of anyone she calls her family. She’s a smart witch, yes, but she’s also very quick to assume and doesn’t ask any questions when people in position of power decide something.”

“So that’s a no?”

“Yep.”

“Do you ever wish things were different? That mum and dad never gave you away?”

“No, I don’t. I told you before that our experiences shape us into who we are. What I experienced was horrible but it made me who I am and I rather like who I am, to be honest. So, I wouldn’t change a single thing.”

They spent a few minutes in silence, looking at the sky, but it was a comfortable silence. He looked away from the sky for a second to find that Jasmine wasn’t here anymore. For the first time since he first spoke to his sister, he noticed the tears that were streaming on his cheeks. It felt like a load had been lifted from his shoulder. He never felt better in his life.

 

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