Chapter 11: Chapter Eleven

Nathan sighed, rubbing the tingling scar on the side of his face as he absently laid on the hospital bed. Muffled conversations resounded from outside the doors to the hospital room of Hogwarts.

'Mom is going to freak again.' He sighed again. While not to the level of her mental state when he was really little, Lily's mind has not been in the best of places for the last few years  His mother has lost nearly all trust in Dumbledore and the wider wizarding community, and there was even a large argument between her and James to even let Nathan go to Hogwarts. 

'And then apparently Voldemort isn't even dead.' Nathan closed his eyes and repressed his shivers. 'Not to mention he somehow snuck in on a dark arts teacher.' He opened his eyes and glared at the ceiling, 'And no one noticed.'

The thirteen year old sighed, rubbing his scar, the rough texture calming him down as the tingles died slightly. The scar had been acting up ever since Voldemort's presence became revealed. 'And it apparently wasn't me who even killed him the first time.' 

Nathan's eyes mellowed. 'Now the brother gets in my way as well!', he said. That means it wasn't me who killed him the first time, it was Jasmine...' He thought of all the fame and infamy heaped onto him by the other kids and adults, putting him on an exalted pedestal like the savior of humanity. 'And meanwhile my sister is abused and abandoned.' He closed his eyes again and sighed. 'What am I even supposed to do?' 

He was only thirteen this year, not some old sage who had weathered wisdom. 'And they'll all expect me to kill the Dark Lord again. Especially Dumbledore.' While Nathan knew his mom was paranoid, he agreed with her caution towards Dumbledore. Something about the white wizard just raised his hackles. He didn't buy the 'kind old man' act for a bloody second. It made him very glad his mom taught him the basics of occlumency, as he was pretty sure the old man had tried to access his thoughts more than once. 

Unfortunately Dumbledore was just far too respected to do anything against, according to his Dad- who still sat in Dumbledore's corner. Him and Lily had been in many fights over this. After discovering what happened to Jasmine, Lily started refusing anyone Dumbledore sent to try and help with her mental state and learning occlumency without either's knowledge and teaching it to Nathan.

He heard the door opening, and glanced over to see the old wizard being followed by his dad. He stifled a sigh, "Dad." He greeted, "Professor Dumbledore." 

Dumbledore kindly smiled at the boy, "Hello young Nathan. How are you holding up?" He pulled his hand out of his robes and offered a small yellow candy, "Lemon drop to relax?" 

"No thank you sir." Nathan declined, seeing a small flash in the back of aged wizard's eyes. Dumbledore chuckled, "If you feel like having one just ask. Now then..."  Dumbledore's face hardened slightly. "What happened in the last room of the philosopher's chamber?" 

Nathan shuddered, trying not to think about Professor Quirrel's neck snapping. He had blasted him with a disorientation spell, causing the wizard to trip, slamming his head into the stone steps. The sound of bones breaking as he crunched a loose brick into the back of Quirrel's neck... Nathan swallowed down a dry heave as his stomach no longer wanted to be in its location, "Q-Quirrel was working with the Dark Lord. He... he had the Dark Lord's face on the back of his head. I-I, Hurk." The memory got too much. James grabbed a bucket and brought Nathan's head over it as the boy started dry heaving. "He... he wanted the stone. I stopped him." Tears went down Nathan's cheeks as his body shook after the dry heaves.

"I see..." Dumbledore mumbled, his thoughts hidden behind his eyes. James looked at the old wizard with worry. "You did well my boy. I'll let you know he did not succeed in acquiring the stone. The Dark Lord wanted it to revive himself. Unfortunately, it is likely he has other methods to try and achieve the same. For now, keep the Dark Lord's involvement hush." Dumbledore brushed off his robes, "I'll leave you to care for your son James. I'll be calling an Order meeting later." 

James nodded and continued rubbing Nathan's back as the white wizard left the room, thoughts unknown. 

It took a few minutes for Nathan to wipe the memory from his head and calm down. James patted his son on the back, "How you holding up kiddo?" 

Nathan weakly laughed, "Okay." His face scrunched up, "I don't think I like killing."

James nodded, "That's good. Wouldn't want you becoming like Slytherins do we?" The man grinned, Nathan giving him a weak smile in return. "They're not all that bad, Dad." 

James rolled his eyes at that, "Please. The houses are sorted based on personality. Slytherins are all snakes as a part of their nature." The long time Gryffindor scoffed, "They'll stab you in the back if they think it benefits them." 

'Thankfully you didn't hear my conversation with the sorting hat...' Nathan kept his thoughts to himself. 'I wonder if his hatred of Sltherin has to do with his and Snape's hatred for each other.' Nathan shook his head and changed the subject, "Do you think Voldemort will be able to revive himself?"

James pursed his lips, "No. Not if I have anything to say about it. Don't worry. Dumbledore will help us come up with a solution to the Dark Lord and end him permanently." 

Nathan hid his disappointment and nodded. Leaning back and sighing, "At least I've got the quidditch tournament to look forward to..." 

A grin spread across James' face at that, "Damn straight kiddo. You'll do gloriously." He slaps Nathan on the back. "We'll all be there watching so do us proud!"

Nathan grins as well, "I'll do my best!" 

 

>>> New York City, Stark Mansion, Jasmine's Room

"So the concept of creating a magic principle in one's mind is inherently to amplify the abilities of a wizard..." Jasmine muttured, flipping through the various notes on her tablet as her spider familiars crawled all around and over her, "They're supposed to be multipliers to one's efficiency, like a sword being wielded by someone with a powerful body. Able to be put down, but when picked up allowing one to accomplish tasks with far more ease and efficiency then their bare hands. They can also be inherited and taught to others, hence the origins of ring and wand magics. Unfortunately, inheriting a magic principle this way can lead to detrimental effects, such as near crippling a wizard if they lose an outside medium 'necessary' for their magic. Like someone who has always relied on a gun to fight suddenly not having a gun..." 

Jasmine tapped her finger on her thigh, hair curling behind her in thought. "I primarily use raw magic with no principle, basically acting through brute force and dexterity. This is fine, like a martial artist relying solely on their body with no clothes, charms, or weapons. Just flesh and bone." Her eyes flashed, "But humans excel in creating and using tools. Our bodies are merely one of them." She continued muttering to herself while absently feeling her familiars crawl and laze around. 

"But if I want to create a new principle, solely for myself, what should it be and how should I go about it?" The girl frowned. The question was a hard one. 'Normally one builds principles automatically, with their mind sorting the relevent information: with around 99% of principles built this way being learned from others and inherited' This is how most wand and ring wizards gain theirs; automatically. Others stumble into them, but a few powerful individuals skilled with raw magic can purposefully create them.

"A principle is a system of magic." Jasmine started muttering to herself again, the light of the setting sun illuminating her sparkling emerald eyes that absently stared into space, "It is a tool to cast a narrower focus of spells upon the world with significant force; far more effectively than raw magic alone. It is..." The girl failed to find the words and sighed in frustration, rubbing her forehead with her arm. 'Let's recontextualize. An example of a principle is ' four elemental' magic. One who has established a principle like this can easily cast spells of the 'elements' they have in their principle- far more powerfully than if they were to do so through raw magic alone. However they will have difficulty using that principle to cast magics that said principle is not adapted to, such as teleportation- unless a spell is crafted to suit that principle for the task, like the ability to teleport through bodies of water.' 

"In theory, a principle can cast all forms of spells one could with raw magic, but only if a spell is adapted properly to use that principle to cast it. They lean into one's perception of the world- or 'Truth' as it were- to streamline casting." Jasmine muttured, holding her forehead, absently glancing at her tablet. 

"Uuuugh... This is so complicated..." She complained, as if the girl wasn't trying to comprehend cutting edge modern magic theory at thirteen years old. Poor Maeve was having headaches due to the girl's progress with pure magic theory. "Making exo-suits is so much easier than this." Jasmine grumbled, "Just a bunch of logic used smartly and a ton of variables to track and presto..." Nevermind the fact that most could not grasp that branch of knowledge either due to the sheer scope required... 

Jasmine flopped onto her back, her hair moving her familiars out of the way to not crush them as she absently stared at the ceiling and continued her contemplations, black hair slithering back and forth on its own. A palm-sized orange spider with pink leg tips crawled up her face and crouched on her forehead; directly over her lightning-shaped scar. Jasmine absently reached up with her synthetic arm and pet the girl's back with a finger. 

The formerly abused girl had filled out well over the past couple years, her skin no longer showing traces of bruising, and many of her scars fading. Her bones were now hidden under a layer of healthy, plush flesh, and her hair glowed with an invisible luster. The start of puberty has treated the girl well, with small developments all around; though Jasmine could honestly do without the cramping of periods... or the growing pains in general. She was tall for her age, and her body was slender and fit rather than skinny. The contract with all fifty-two of her 'girls' increasing the girl's physique definitely played a part, with her aunt Natasha refining it further through teaching Jasmine martial arts along with basic ki manipulation. Though, no new organs for Jasmine with the contracts. That part adapted differently...

["Jasmine, Mother Pepper is notifying you for dinner."] An electronic, smooth female voice whispered in Jasmine's left ear, a hidden bone-speaker tucked away behind it and blending in with Jasmine's skin. 

"Thanks Javia, I'll be down in a bit." Jasmine responded, sitting up on her bed with the orange spider still attached to her forehead, "Alright all of you. Ready to go out?" Jasmine asked with a smile, various emotions of confirmations flickering in her senses as her girls quickly hopped to her- all moving much faster than any spider should-  and quickly crawled into the girl's shirt and hair, somehow disappearing without leaving a trace. 

Setting her tablet to the side Jasmine hopped off her bed and stretched, her flexible body making it quite literal. "Alright!" She relaxed and clapped her hands, a pair of shorts and a shirt flying from her clothes rack to her grasp. Slipping on the clothes Jasmine started humming as she went to go have dinner. 

"Hopefully Dad will finish up with the Ten Rings overseas soon..." She mumbled. "I want his help to test out that new enchantment idea for his suits..."

(A/N: J.A.V.I.A stands for Just A Very Intelligent Assistant, and is an advanced version of JARVIS programmed and created solely by Jasmine to adapt to her magical energies.)

 

>>> Next Day, New York City, with Jasmine. 

"Wait, you're telling me that the knowledge of the creation of principles comes mostly from ancient beings?" Riri asked, afro bobbing as she walked. Jasmine nodded.

"Yeah. And they're apparently annoyingly vague and circular about it." The girl bit into her plain hotdog with force, annoyance flashing on her face. "I swear, every single ancient text I get my hands on is unnecessarily flowery and roundabout. Like, I get that a wide perspective is necessary and that shortening the explanations to a few words fails to accurately and fully explain the intricacies of the abstruse, but they could at least make it succinct." Jasmine waved her half eaten hotdog about to emphasize the point. 

Leona tilted her head and frowned "Wait, shortening it is unable to describe it properly?"

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"Mm." Jasmine nodded and sighed, "Magic is closer to abstract emotion at the high level." Her hair twirled in thought for a moment, "Think of it like this: You learn about the concept of 'anger' when little. You've got a base understanding of it, but not a wide perspective of how it's applicable or the variations of it. As you grow older you experience more and more of it, acquiring knowledge of subtleties for that singular emotion, coming to realizations and enlightenments that expand your grasp of it." Jasmine pointed at Leona with her hotdog, "And then try to explain the sum total of your fundamental understanding of that emotion in a few words." 

Leona and Riri made faces, causing Jasmine to wryly smile, "Language may be a brilliant invention, but it still has huge faults. Even if you do your damn best there's no guarantee that the reader has close enough 'framing' of certain words to grasp your meaning, and it's only complicated further by linguistic drift."

Riri perked up and snickered at that, "You mean like the internet's depraved 'butchering' of words?" 

Jasmine scowled as Leona laughed; "Oh no, this massive collection of human knowledge and interaction is making people dumb! Think of the children!" She squeakily cried, before joining Riri in giggling under Jasmine's deadpan.

Riri snickered, "The greatest thing about those people is that they use said internet to complain about the internet."

Leona nodded in agreement, "But returning to the subject; Aren't you technically already using a principle? Like for your familiar contracts?"

Jasmine grinned while finishing the last of her hotdog, "Aww, are you finally showing an interest in my babies?" She giggled at her friend's rolling eyes and shudders, "Well. Not exactly." She crossed her hands behind her head, "My contracts with the girls were still raw magic; I don't know enough about that specific brand of contract magics to form one. You can... hmm..." She thought for a bit, "You can think of it like this; I know mostly theory on how all this should work, and can do things without the tools; like peeling an apple skin with your bare hands versus an actual peeler. You can do so, if you've got time. But it's likely not gonna be quick or clean. You can also construct a tool out of random sticks and stones you pick up to help you do it better- basically what I did- but that tool isn't anything like a modern peeler- or principle- and falls apart quickly with no permanence."

"But," She continued, "even if I was using a principle for the contracts, it wouldn't matter. They're like weapons and tools; you can know how to use both an axe and a sword. I technically already have a proto-principle in the powers I got from the contract with my girls. This isn't a wuxia novel where dedication to one blade is the only true path." She finished with a snort, causing Riri and Leona to giggle at her exasperation with the popular freshly translated genre.

The three girls continued chatting, walking across the Stark owned beach; the sun starting to dip into the horizon as the girls made their way back to Jasmine's home from their afternoon picnic.

"Hrm." Jasmine blinked, carefully keeping her gaze on the sky. "You guys may want to call your suits." "What?" "Why?" "Javia, please get a brigade ready and notify Mom and Nat we may need help soon." "[Understood]" Riri and Leona's faces blanched, "From where?" Riri asked, carefully trying to keep her head relaxed and not swivel it around as her hands started shaking. "My suits on the way."

"Water, probably." Jasmine said, not looking back at her friends. "Try not to look for them." The girl's hair swayed with her nerves. "Your two's suits need time to get here, and I feel there's more than one enemy and we're still thirty minutes from the mansion." 

Javia's voice echoed in Jasmine's ear, "[Natasha is on her way with a brigade of suits. T-Minus four minutes.]"

Jasmine focused, letting her senses loose. Her friends' nervousness swept around her in a storm. Her girls, tucked away in little pockets of space between her clothes and hair, bristled with anticipation, indignation, blood lust, and patience. She quietly stepped closer to Riri and Leona, orienting herself to be between them and the ocean. 'At least ten individuals...' 

She frowned. Her senses had been getting sharper and sharper as she grew older, the speed of which rapidly growing at the start of her puberty, her innate hyper-intuition and instinct included. Natasha's 'spider sense' was comparable when she first acquired her powers, but Jasmine's instinct has only grown since then, being amplified further by the contract with her girls. Maeve and Nat called it cheating. 

"[T-minus three minutes.]" 

"How close are your suits?" Jasmine asked. 

"Not close enough." Leona hissed, her and Riri trying to mask their nervousness, "How the hell are you so calm?" 

Jasmine shrugged. "Experience? And I think the contract with the girls is helping here." 

"Right," Riri grumbled, "Natasha said something about being alot calmer and patient after being bit; especially in combat." The girl's afro shook nervously as she tried to distract herself, "And you've gotten attacked before?" It was the first time for the twins.

Jasmine nodded, "Yeah. When I lost my arm. I was delirious for most of it."

Leona and Riri glared at their younger friend, causing her to tilt her head; "...What?" ""Not helping.""

"[T-minus two minutes.]"

Jasmine's hair twitched, "They're coming." She whirled towards the ocean, hair floating as her crystal green eyes sharpened. The bulge on the darkening waves didn't have time to fully break before she aimed her synthetic arm, the gaps on the hand starting to glow molten orange as the air shimmered around her palm. "Incinerate." 

*FWOOOOOOSH* 

Riri and Leona quickly looked away from the beam of fire that hit the ocean and caused a steam eruption, already starting to run in the opposite direction to give their trained friend room to fight and delay the enemies. "DAMN IT! How far are our suits!?" Leona cursed. 

"You know when I said I didn't want to use Jasmine's magic to cheat to make our suit parts small enough to be carried on us at all times?" Riri asked, glancing backwards at her friend now covered in gleaming gunmetal. Leona hissed, "Don't worry, I'll beat the crap out of you next time."

Jasmine narrowed her eyes through the glass visor of her helmet, tracking her targets through the steam. Unlike her father's, her suit was yet unpainted, the raw alloy's gun-metal color exposed to the world. 'Not like I intended to use this prototype in a fight...' "[Interfacing complete.]" Javia reported, the suit parts clicking once as they all settled, the network of power-conduits smoothly linked up to the arc-reactor in her shoulder while her raw mana flooded the armor that suddenly felt more like a second skin. 

Movement.

Jasmine's synthetic fingers twitched, a circular web-net suddenly appearing midair and contracting around two would-be assassin's/kidnappers that erupted from the boiling ocean into the blinding steam. Her other hand clenched, a hardened web construct spinning itself into existence. The bio-organic magic made mace settled into her grip, weight nearly unfelt as she stepped forward- both magic, physical strength, and small propulsors guiding her movement as she swung the white mace into the chest of a blindly charging enemy, feeling ribs and sternum crack with malicious satisfaction, the enhanced assassin not reacting quickly enough to her speed. 'Ten Rings?' She quickly registered the equipment of the enemy before they were flung back into the ocean, web balls securely covering their hands. 

The noise drew the attention of the others through the heated fog, Jasmine quickly picking out their forms, the heavy steam unable to hide them from the girl's senses. 'I'm likely the target, considering Dad is having trouble with them across the seas.' A gesture made a wave of web cover the ground, magically cohesive to all but Jasmine's boots. 'And they don't even shout at that?' The girl smirked at their struggles, the assassin's that got out of the ocean starting to silently panic, their surprise glowing like beacons to her emotional senses. 'How professional.' 

The assassin's quickly went still, waiting for their opponent to make a move. Ripping free of some webbing only got their feet stuck in others, but their hands were still free as they held their swords and needles. 'Not for long.' Jasmine grinned at her trapped prey, steps silent despite her armor adding to her weight. Her form shimmered, not quite invisible but better for the magically-enforced steam that didn't cool and fade as fast as it should, and carried a subtle disorientation that the poor assassin's failed to notice as their mental maps of their allies' locations distorted.

Small web balls appeared mid air between the assassin's, picking and flinging themselves at their targets. Jasmine's grin widened at the overreaction she was expecting, the assassin's dodging and flinging their poisoned needles in the direction the noisy web balls came from- straight into the bodies of their allies. 'Though I doubt you're not immune to your own poisons...' Jasmine thought with mirth, the mental states of the Ten Ring member pushed slightly more off balance. 

The web flooring over the sand suddenly came apart, rising up and inwards as it centered on each assassin. Two managed to react in time and jump, their blades flashing as they managed to cut part of the net at the cost of the webs taking their swords. The rest got covered up, becoming cute little squirming beans. 

The two who escaped landed their feet in the sand, one immediately eating Jasmine's mace to the stomach, the down angled blow cracking the man's pelvis and driving his knees into the ground as Jasmine's free hand socked his face, shattering the black mask covering his face and sending the assassin unconscious, sprawled onto the sand with likely ruptured intestines. A quick spell had his hands and feet wrapped in webs. 

The other assassin took the smart approach, dashing back towards the water and exiting the steam- for their eyes to widen as they realized they were further onto the beach. A webline hit their leg, causing them to fall forward into the sand. Their eyes met the eyes of two dark-skinned girls peeking around a rock before the web line yanked and they were pulled back into the steam, digging a furrow in the sand. 

Riri and Leona flinched at the loud crack and quickly muffled scream. "I think she's fine?" Riri whispered. "That didn't sound like Jasmine."

Jasmine smiled, her body seeming to cool as she let up on her magic, the steam starting to disperse and cool naturally. 'No other sources of emotion I can feel, and my instinct is quiet...' She heard splashing from the water, quickly focusing on the source of panic and pain she felt as the assassin she hit with her mace first desperately tried to crawl to the shore with a dented chest and wrapped hands. A web line magicked itself mid air, Jasmine yanking on one end and dragging the assassin to shore before letting the rope go and coil itself around the assassin. 

Her ears picked up the thrum of propulsors, and she glanced up towards the sky, seeing twelve mindless suits racing towards her location. She felt the mind of her aunt quickly approaching and smiled, 'And thus the cavalry arrives.' She giggled, 'I should probably go calm her and my friends down.' The girl happily hummed, skipping out of the steam in full armor and waving, smiling as she felt her Aunt's mind instantly relax in relief.