Chapter 290: Have Violent Ends
3rd March 2013, Sayre Manor
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
“She blames you for the death of her brother, which you are completely blameless in. Granger was the one that killed him, and even then, he had betrayed her and captured her for the Court. You have given her time to grieve, but she still hasn’t come back. I know that you were excited about the idea of a successor, but Rose has been nothing other than ungrateful to your gifts.”
“I suppose you’re right. I’m just scared that she might end up doing something reckless…”
Before I could even complete my question, I heard a loud explosion in the courtyard. Hoping that Thor and Loki haven’t blown up half my mansion in a little feud of theirs, I run towards the noise. I was surprised to being met with the unconscious forms of Loki and Thor in the courtyard.
Facing them was a familiar figure of Rose that was glaring at them. That glare turned towards me when she noticed my arrival. I spoke up, “Rose?”
The witch pointed her wand at me and yelled out, “You MONSTER!”
My reflexes allowed me to dodge the incoming spell coming my way. She was using traditional magics for some reason. I didn’t even know why she was using her wand again; she has learnt how to use her wandless magic when she was younger.
Sending another beam of light at me, my sister kept screaming profanities. I just conjured a shield of shadows not understanding what was going on, “What the hell is wrong with you, Rose?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know!” she yelled back at me, “You killed them, you killed them all!”
“Just relax, Rose. Let’s just talk about it calmly. I have no idea what you’re talking about…”
The young woman didn’t seem to listen to a word I said. I saw Loki attempting to cast an illusion to trick her, but the witch conjured some hard light chains, which were riddled with small runes, and bound him and his brother. It was a neat trick I taught her. You can make temporary runes if you shape the hard light into them while conjuring. It’s a little tricky but dead useful. As for now, I assume that Thor and Loki are out of the fight as long as those chains remain.
I raised an eyebrow at my sister’s actions, “What are you hoping to gain in this?”
“They were in the way. You’re going to pay for what you’ve done.”
“Darling, I have no idea what’s going on. What have I done now?”
The redhead witch snarled at me, “Don’t pretend like you don’t know. You killed all those people!”
Sighing in exasperation, “Rose, I’ve killed more people than I can count. I told you this before. I am not shy about admitting it. But now, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who did I kill now?”
“The Court!” The young woman sounded deranged. Seriously, what happened to her in the last few months.
This was getting ridiculous, “I killed the members of the Court of Shadows months ago when I saved you. Remember, you left saying that it was too much and that you wanted to mourn your brother with your parents.”
For some reason, Rose sobbed at the mention of her parents, “Don’t you dare speak of them!”
I dispelled the shield and looked her in the eye, “You’re not making any sense, honey. I haven’t hidden anything from you. Yes, I killed the Court members during our meeting. You know this, I told you. Did someone tamper with your memories?”
It was a farfetched idea. I had made sure to train Rose in the mind arts enough that she would be able to resist any attempts at her mind, bar a few special cases like Jean and myself.”
Rose didn’t seem to listen whatever I said, “You killed the Court of Shadows. I don’t mean the ones in Britain. I mean all of them!! They all died at exactly midnight yesterday, not that a lot of people knew about it.”
My eyes widened at this. No wonder I haven’t heard anything. My informants in the magical world were either members of the Court themselves who sent me reports of changes in the political landscape when they occur, or Unspeakables, that report on magical research. This was a mess and a half. The magical world was now headed towards chaos. The Court was a stabilizing force for all the horrible things its members did in the shadows. Considering that each cell was made up of the most politically and economically influential people in the region, with them missing, things will get a lot worse before the situation stabilizes.
I raised my hands in the air and spoke up, “I swear to you, Rose. I had nothing to do with this. Why would I kill people if their deaths will not benefit me in any way? In the contrary, I’ll have to spend time stabilizing the magical world.”
The redhead looked unhinged, “I don’t know. Maybe it was because they insulted you, or betrayed you somehow, but I don’t care. Who can really tell what goes on in that head of yours. You’re the only person in the world with such deep knowledge of the Court of Shadows’ members and you’re the only one with the capabilities to kill that many influential people at once.”
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Rose was extremely unhinged, and overwhelmed. Too overwhelmed to control her magic correctly. No wonder she was using her wand and casting standardized spells. Magic required absolute focus and discipline to be controlled adequately, but standardized spells with wand movements bypassed this. And the wand helped her channel her magic too, for whatever little control she had now.
I didn’t kill the Court. I will not say that I wasn’t tempted, but it wouldn’t serve anything right now. Even then, I wouldn’t have killed them. Ruined them and erased their memories of the Court, maybe, but I would have done my best to limit the chaos that would follow. But with my sister’s distressed state of mind, she was obviously beyond reason.
But there was more to it. This reaction was too much; even if Rose was outraged that I had committed mass murder, she wouldn’t have come here with wands blazing like that. I taught her better than that. No, it was something else, something more. I looked at my sister straight in the eyes and asked softly, “what really happened, Rose? And I do mean what really happened. There’s no way me killing a bunch of strangers would have you act like this. What’s going on?”
Rose’s wand arm trembled even further, “THEY’RE DEAD AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!”
Calmly, I responded, “Who’s dead, Rose?”
Rose sobbed, “My parents.”
That threw me for a loop. How did the Court massacre involve them, “How?”
Rose released another sob, “We went to France after the funeral. You know? To have a change of environment. Tracey and the kids chose to stay in Britain even with the shitstorm happening there. I supported Neville Longbottom for the minister, and things were starting to calm down after the massacre and we chose to travel for a bit. But then another one happens, one on a global scale. We didn’t even know that something had happened at the time, and my parents went on a walk in the morning. There was some kind of riot, and then they were found dead in the middle of the street. I don’t know why, maybe they thought we were a bad omen or something. It wasn’t enough that you killed my brother, now my parents too!”
I tried to calm her down, “Rose, I had nothing to do with what happened. Just put the wand down and we’ll go forward from there. You need to take a deep breath and see how rash you’re acting. I understand that you’re grieving, that you’re sad and angry. But your parents just died, you’re not thinking clearly. You need to take some rest and grieve for them properly.”
If anything, my words seemed to make her angrier, “Calm down? You want me to calm down? You took everything from me. I’m all alone now. That was your plan, wasn’t it? To separate me from everyone by teaching me your magic until you kill whatever bonds I have left. This way I would be stuck with you and becoming your heir. But guess what? I see through you!”
I sighed, “I have done nothing of the sort. Granger is the one who killed Nathan, the French wizards are the ones who killed your parents. I have given you everything you ever wanted and more!”
“All I wanted was for us to be family. I tried everything. I accepted your lessons, went on your missions, followed you around, hoping that you’ll return one day. Well, you didn’t. I just told you that our parents were just killed, and you don’t even look sad!”
This was getting too much, “Rose, I can’t afford to emotionally invest in people that would hurt me in the long run. James and Lily Potter might have been my parents once, but the moment they left me, they forfeited that right. Maybe it was something out of their hands, maybe it was Dumbledore messing with them, but what happened, happened. I am sorry for your loss Rose, but I will not pretend to grieve for people that I have barely known.”
Rose didn’t like my answer and sent a spear of light at me, “You always do this. Why do you do your best to not consider them family? I never asked for much, only for this and you still never cared to even try. I tried my best but all I got was a dead family. I wish that I could go back in time and stay the hell away from you.”
“I never forced you to do anything, Rose. You could have left at any time! You could still leave if you want. But coming to my home and attacking my guests is not the answer.”
“You killed my family, Jasmine. All of them died because of you!”
I snorted, “I am not to blame, and you know it. You just want to rationalize it so that you would feel better. Just take a breather and come in a couple of weeks and we’ll sort things out then.”
My sister snarled at me and cast a giant circle made of chains of hard light. This was a very dangerous attack, one that I taught her in case she was in danger and surrounded. I was actually pretty surprised that she could cast such a spell with her current mindset. But from the erratic movements of the chains, she barely had any thoughtful control over the attack. She could easily injure Thor and Loki by accident if she released her chains.
I yelled at her, “Sister, this is your last chance. Stop this foolishness at once!”
“You’re my biggest mistake, Jasmine. You’re no sister of mine.”
Alright that’s enough. I snapped my finger, and the hard light destabilizes and breaks. Rose falls to the ground gasping in exertion, “You say that I am your biggest mistake, that you wish we never met?”
“AND I MEANT EVERY WORD!”
Steeling my emotions, I spoke up, “Alright then! You have made your choice. I let a lot of your actions slide, when others like me would have killed you for your insolence. I was wrong to train you as my heir. I’m sorry that things have come to this, sister.”
I started to do something that I haven’t done in a very long time. I wave my hands and thousands of little runes appeared from thin air and flew towards the kneeling witch “Rose Potter, as your vanquisher, I bind you. You will forget Jasmine Potter’s true identity, you will forget her secrets and never speak of her magics, and you will spend the rest of your days doing your best to stabilize the magical world.”
With these words the magic took hold, Rose was bound and fell unconscious, and I lost a sister. I did my best to repress the tears that came to my eyes.
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AN:
I will admit that I am not perfectly happy with how I handled this. It could have been a lot better, but it's done and it will have a lot of ramifications in the future of the story. There is a reason why Jasmine is acting this rashly, and it will be explored in the next few chapters. So, yeah, I'm not just shifting her personality on a whim. If you have any comments or suggestions please let me know.
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