Chapter 57: Thorns

Chapter 57: Thorns

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24th June 1995, Hogwarts

(Rose POV)

Rose watched the start of the Third task with dreaded anticipation. It was bittersweet; she had talked to her sister earlier that day, for the first time in months. She had missed Jasmine terribly and she knew her sister felt the same. She missed her dry humor, her lessons in magic. She had a grasp of magic that she had never seen before, never heard of before. She knew things that she shouldn't have. She read countless tomes and books, some were even centuries old, and she found nothing about what she was talking about. Only speculation and wild theories.

Jasmine spoke with such certainty that Rose knew her sister wasn't lying or making stuff up. And her lessons were real, the magic she taught Rose wasn't mentioned in any book or in any scroll. It was weeks after her first lesson that she realized how special her sister really was. She didn't understand what made her this way, but she is different than any other wizard or witch out there.

Rose remembers once testing her sister by copying some unidentified runes from the library and asking her to translate them. Apparently, they were found somewhere in Asia but couldn't be understood without the alphabet. She showed it to her sister during one of the lessons and she immediately recognized that it was in ancient Sumerian and translated what was written. She then proceeded to teach her a couple of wards using the supposedly unknown language. Although she did mention not seeing that language in a while. That confirmed that her sister knew more than she should.

But what made her sure that her sister was different were her eyes. Jasmine had her mother's eyes, that was true, but they were old. They were eyes that had seen too much, that lived for too long. She had seen eyes like that once when she went to France with her family during summer vacation, two years ago, and met an old wizard that fought in Grindelwald's war. He was very old, he experienced terrible things, but he was one of the kindest men she had ever met. Jasmine's eyes reminded her of that old man. It was what put her at ease with Jasmine and made her trust her sister easily. Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

When her parents subtly asked her about her lessons with Jasmine, she didn't tell them anything. Jasmine's lessons were private, and they shouldn't intrude. They did not like her saying no to them but respected her decisions. After all, Jasmine not only taught her magic but also how to understand people. She was wiser than she looked, and her stories were always entertaining. Rose kept silent about her suspicions and didn't even voice them to Jasmine.

When her parents went behind her back and forced her to stop spending time with her sister, she was devastated, angry and most of all, she was sad. She stopped speaking to her parents because they didn't even listen to her. Jasmine did once say that if someone doesn't listen to you then they are not worth your words. She stopped speaking to Nathan because he spied on her and Jasmine during her lessons.

She still loved them, don't get her wrong, but they didn't even apologize. They only said that it was for her own good. But after her anger simmered, she was lonely. She hadn't been lonely since last year where people avoided her because her brother was a parselmouth.

She blamed Dumbledore for what happened. Her family used to be wary of the man, but he wormed his way back into their trust and she didn't like it. She knew that having her stop seeing Jasmine was his idea. She didn't understand why a headmaster of a school had so much influence on family matters, but the man was always awfully interested in Nathan.

When she talked to her sister earlier today, it was the best she felt so far. But when Rose looked at Jasmine's eyes, a pit grew in her stomach; her eyes were sad. Which meant that it was probably the last time they will spend together.

So now, while her sister is entering the maze, she wants it to end as fast as possible so that she wouldn't be in danger and to last as long as possible because after the task, her sister will leave her forever. She recalled her sister's last words. She sent them telepathically as she entered the maze, 'Do not trust Alastor Moody'. Rose trusted her sister with all her life, so she took those words seriously.

He laughed at her, it was a laugh full of madness and cruelty.

"I am my master's most loyal, and he has returned. He will reward me, his most devout, and he will destroy you all."

"Who is your master?"

"You're about to meet him, girl. Oh, the plans he has for you" The mystery man giggled. He rolled his sleeves and looked at the jet-black mark of a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth. She knew what that was, this was the dark mark. Her attacker was a death eater.

Just as she was about to stun him, he sneakily caught her with a disarming charm, sending her flying back and her wand too far away from her.

"It's almost time for you to meet my Lord, and my mission will be complete. He was very interested in meeting you." The man continued.

Rose was disarmed and very scared. Her parents hadn't woken up from the stunner, which meant that her attacker overpowered the stunning charm so it will take time for them to wake up. She was sure that she cast the "Rennervate" charm correctly. She only had to delay him.

But she wasn't helpless as she seemed when she was wandless. She could only cast a couple of spells; her sister insisted she did and once more her sister was saving her life. She created a small illusion and made herself invisible, at the same time. While her illusion, stayed where she used to be, trembling in fear, she slowly walked to the side, making sure to make no noise. Thank Merlin, that he didn't have Moody's eye anymore, he would have seen right through it. Damn, her wand was too far away.

"Don't worry, girl. The dark lord is merciful; he will treat you well and he will teach you so much. You will even meet your brother there." The man said to her illusion. "Welcome to your new life, Rose Potter."

He cast another stunning charm at her, and it went through her illusion. She took his confused distraction to create something out of hard light. Long spiked chains emerged from her hands and bound her attacker who groaned in pain as the spikes cut his flesh. He tried to resist but realized that it only brought more pain.

Behind her, her father awoke and got up suddenly. He jumped and looked around, alarmed, only to relax when seeing her unharmed and her attacker bound.

"A little help here, dad." She panted at him. All this wandless magic was taking a lot from her.

Her father focused on her attacker and sent a stunner at him, knocking him out. Rose released her light constructs and walked up to retrieve her wand. Her father checked on the attacker and her mother slowly got up just as distressed as her father, before relaxing when she saw Rose unharmed.

"This is Barty Crouch Junior. He's supposed to be dead, at Azkaban." He father said.

"Mum, Dad. He said that Voldemort has Nathan. He said that he returned and asked him to kidnap me too."

At her parents' terrified look, she knew that they understood the severity of the situation. They decided to split up. Her father went back to the aurors to tell them of the situation and to look for Nathan and her mother and her continued to search in the maze, looking any trace of Jasmine. She now understood why her sister looked so sad. This truly was a horrible day.