Chapter 246: Apprehension

4th October 2012, British Ministry of Magic

(Hermione Granger POV)

She looked younger than she had any right to be, barely more than her early twenties, but it was a face that the bushy haired woman could never forget, it was a face that she hated with a passion, the face of a woman she envied, a woman who in a single year, secured her place in the history books while Hermione kept slaving for her righteous goal, it was the face of Jasmine Potter.

Somehow, Jasmine Potter had survived her duel with Dumbledore. Somehow, Jasmine Potter had remained hidden from the world. Somehow, Jasmine Potter became even more powerful than she used to be.

But outside of her shock, the young witch felt a pang of betrayal. Had Nathan known all this time? Did he hide her existence from Hermione knowing that his sister could have been the key to Hermione’s own goals of a utopian magical society?

She needed answers, and she needed them now. The witch stood up in her office and walked towards the fireplace. She sent some floo powder at the fire and bellowed, “Potter Manor!”

She had never gotten used to the floo network and had never understood its purpose. It was such a waste to use fireplaces of all things to travel, never mind the security risk it posed to everyone who had installed a private floo network, it also created a lot of issues in terms of the resources needed to sustain the network itself. Everyone and their mothers set up a floo in their homes even if they don’t need it. Every wizard worth their salt knew how to apparate. But the large number of homes connected to the floo network, each one allowing only certain fireplaces to access it with certain restrictions, things got very complicated for something that’s barely necessary for society to function.

Still, she could see the utility of having it for people who can’t apparate, or for communal areas like Diagon Alley or the Ministry of Magic, especially when it benefitted her. Nathan had allowed a direct unrestricted access to his home and his office in case something happened. Tracy didn’t like her so she kinda avoided going to Potter Manor, but she would shoulder the Potter Lady’s judgmental looks if it meant that Nathan would explain to her how in Merlin’s name did his twin sister survive her fight with Dumbledore.

She arrived at the familiar sight of Nathan’s home, that he had built in honor of the first Potter Manor that was destroyed by some Dark Lord over a hundred years ago. She walked directly towards Nathan’s study and listened to Nathan’s voice somewhere. He sounded angry and another person was yelling back at him for some reason. When she opened the door, Nathan stiffened and looked at her before relaxing.

There was no one in the room, it seemed that her friend was just on a mirror call. He looked down at the mirror and sighed, “Look, Rose, I have to go. Just please reconsider this…”

Hermione heard the telltale sound of the call ending and before she could say anything Nathan sighed, “I suppose you want some explanation about what happened in Hogsmeade?”

Well, at least he wasn’t trying to deny it, “That will be a good way to start the conversation, yes.”

“How much have you figured out?”

Hermione snorted, “Two very powerful magic users met in the Three Broomsticks and got into a fight that made the duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald look like a school fight between first years, and one of the fighters happened to be your twin sister, who is supposed to have died in the scandal that revealed Dumbledore’s machinations.”

For most of the people Dumbledore’s machinations were abhorrent; the public had demonized him, made him into some evil figure that played chess with everyone’s lives. Hermione though, had researched his possessions and had understood the depth of his plans. His main goal was to unite the magical world and to make magical knowledge available for everyone, provided that he removed all of the harmful magics first. It was a worthy goal, and one that was very close to the one Hermione wanted to achieve. A united magical society, where everyone is equal, everyone is given the same opportunities and where everyone could use their minds, their intelligence, their skills, and their hard work, to rise to the top.

The Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic wouldn’t deny that she emulated a lot of Dumbledore’s plans in her career, and it had proven that the man knew what he was doing. It was a shame that he wanted the magical world to unite under a large threat, which he chose to be Voldemort. It could have worked; in fact, it probably would have worked, if it wasn’t for Jasmine Potter interfering with everything.

Hermione had previously thought that the Potter girl was just defending herself from her attacker. Everyone thought so, everyone assumed that it was like this, because no one in the public expected it. But the fact that the woman was alive now, got Hermione to start asking questions. Potter couldn’t have fought Dumbledore on even grounds if he had surprised her. No one, even a prodigy that hadn’t even gotten her magical maturity yet, would have walked away alive if they did. So, had the duel between Potter and Dumbledore been premeditated, or had she emulated Voldemort and made a Horcrux?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Nathan sighing, “Alright, so you recognized her. What do you want to know?”

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“Everything, Nathan. How is she still alive? Who was she fighting in Hogsmeade? What has she been up to all this time? Did you know, did your sister know as well? They were kinda close before she died.”

Nathan gave her a bitter smile, “Yes, I’ve known that she was alive for months now, Rose knew from the beginning. I’m not sure how she survived, but she didn’t die. She knew that Dumbledore was going after her, tricked him into confessing to the entire world and made arrangements to fake her death. I don’t know what she’s been doing all this time, but what I do know, is that she wasn’t twiddling her thumbs during all this time. As for what exactly happened in Hogsmeade, I have no idea, neither does Rose for that matter. I think she’ll be on her way to demand answers from our sister after our call.”

Huh, that made sense. Jasmine Potter was probably with her sister, teaching her all this time, hiding in plain sight. She wouldn’t have put it past Nathan to miss his own twin hanging around, for years. But the fact that a witch as prodigal and as powerful as Jasmine Potter was running around for years without any kind of oversight. That kind of power should be under control, or in this case under the Ministry’s control.

Had the general public known about her survival, Hermione was sure that they would have arrested her, or at least put her in a gilded prison to act as their personal deterrent, their pet weapon, against anyone who would defy them. The girl was powerful, yes, and extremely intelligent, but she was a teenager, and inexperienced, she would have lost against an ambush from an experienced enough Auror squad, and she would have been working for the Ministry all this time.

People praised their prodigies and magical titans, but the truth was that no government wanted either. With magic involved, these people could easily destabilize the entire nation, with nothing but their presence or the threat they possessed. For some reason, magical Titans tended to be more common in Britain than anywhere else. It was a source of great power for the nation, but also of great strife, which was shown with the abundance of Dark Lords in their history.

The events of the third task of the Tri Wizard tournament were monumental because it resulted in the deaths of every single magical titan in Britain, if not the world. Dumbledore had disappeared and was presumed dead, Voldemort had died by Nathan’s hand, and Jasmine Potter was disintegrated into nothing. Her twin, Nathan, was found to have the potential to be one as well, but after a lot of effort, the threat he posed was neutralized by making sure that his magic didn’t grow too much with certain artifacts that the Ministry had subtly put on him, as well as a few spells and potions to subtly get rid of the threat he posed.

Hermione had burnt the evidence when she discovered the paper trail when Nathan was elected into office. Some things just shouldn’t be shared at all. Still, for the first time, things were relatively balanced, until Rose Potter revealed her might years later.

Still, Jasmine Potter’s reappearance provided her with an opportunity, “We could convince her to come back, to show her support for our administration. It will do a lot to silence the opposition. They said that she could have been as good as Merlin himself, we could use her name at the very least to threaten them.”

Nathan shook his head, “Trust me, from what I've heard from Rose, what happened in Hogsmeade today was barely a glimpse of what she could do. And that’s not the problem, she’s really cunning, like seriously cunning. The third task was entirely planned by her. That’s not just the stuff with Dumbledore, it was also everything with Voldemort. She knew that I would be taken by the Death Eaters and Voldemort, that I would be used to resurrect the Dark Lord. She’s the shadowy figure that helped me, that killed all of the Death Eaters and let me kill Voldemort with the sword. Rose told me when I found out that she was alive, trying to show me that I owed my life to Jasmine. Going against her, or just using her in general, is nothing short of suicide.”

Hermione was curious now. Yes, the stuff with the third task was worrying, and the witch had no illusions against Jasmine Potter in a straight fight, but pressure from the public should be enough to threaten her. Nathan also knew that; he had to deal with a lot of cutthroat politics in his tenure as Minister of Magic, and he knew that raw power mattered very little when someone poisons them or stabs them in the back. In the end, money ran the world, not power. And yet, he was still warning her against doing the same to his twin sister. Was this some sort of familial affection that he had towards his twin?

No, family was family, and politics was politics. It was something that Nathan decided when he got the job in the first place. He wouldn’t let personal attachments affect him when dealing with a political decision. It was his way of avoiding the trap that Fudge and many others had fallen into before him.

That meant that there was something more, “What are you not telling me?”

Hermione knew that she asked the right question because her boss stiffened before sighing in exasperation, “You really are too smart for your own good, Hermione. You’re right, there’s a lot more there, and most of it I will not share with you. It’s nothing personal. Consider them to be family secrets. Jasmine is dangerous, absurdly so, but she can be reasonable. I asked Rose to get her to explain to me what happened. I don’t know whether she would accept, but she could be on her way right now. Just don’t do anything rash, please. I’m not asking as your friend, I’m asking as your superior and your boss.”

Hermione was gobsmacked; Nathan had never used this card on her, even when they knew that he was her boss. Whatever this was must have unsettled him as well. But this was unacceptable, she was his right hand, she has to know everything he does so that she could make the right decisions during tough times, “Are you sure about that, Nathan. We can use her. Jasmine could be a tremendous asset…”

Hermione was interrupted by a cough behind her and she jumped in fear. In front of her was the demon that she saw fighting in the memories of her subordinate. In a small way, she had hoped that she was mistaken, that Jasmine Potter had died and that this was an imposter.

But now, she knew that this was a vain hope. She couldn’t mistake the sheer presence the other woman had. She was standing by the doorway, next to her younger sister, and gave Hermione an amused look, “Go on, a tremendous asset for what exactly?”

Hermione gulped. Well, that was a horrible start to their meeting.

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