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Chapter 46
It wasn't the first time that Jasmine had been interrogated by Tom Riddle, far from it, but it was the first time that it was being done legally...and she wasn't being tortured nearly out of her mind. She somewhat missed that, it was what made their time together so special. She also had complete free reign to attack him. She didn't have that luxury here. Sadly, Jasmine had to play the polite school girl.
It was a part she was quickly getting tired of in this life.
Though, this version of Voldemort was completely different to the one that she was used to dealing with. This Tom Riddle was poised, powerful and not nearly as insane as the one that she had encountered in the future countless times over her last nine lives. He had a bit more of a human soul in him, not much, that her magic could sense, but it was there, and he was clinging to his humanity by his fingertips. The last two splits of his soul must have really done him in something awful, seeing as this Tom Riddle was still charismatic, but nothing, save using the imperious on the entire court, would keep Avery from a lifetime in prison. It didn't quite matter what Tom said or did, all the evidence pointed to Avery's guilt.
So, the real question was, why was Tom here? What was his motivation for this impromptu meeting? From what Jasmine knew as Harriet, Tom had never aspired to become a lawyer. The man only wanted subjects to lord over. It would have taken months to put this little plan into motion. All for what? To see her? Jasmine knew that he had wanted to meet her, he'd been trying to get her to join him all year, but that couldn't be the only reason for his presence here.
He wasn't desperate enough for that, or dumb enough.
A wave of familiar magic washed over her, making her fingers tingle with nearly unrestrained power. Jasmine could feel Death's power pulsating at the monstrosity before her. The Deity wanted him dead, wanted his shredded soul. She could feel the taint in Tom's fractured soul, the dark magic almost had a stench to it. Death wanted what was his... Yet, right now, she could do nothing for the Deity she was master of, the Horcruxes were scattered and Jasmine didn't have the power to find them on her own.
Not yet.
She only knew where three of the five horcruxes currently were...Blaise and Theo were working on fixing that, but as of now, she had to wait. She'd show her hand when the time was right, for now, she had to play the indignant heir.
It didn't take long to have Dumbledore call her up to the stand. The headmaster looked clammy and Jasmine could understand the sentiment. The Minister was overseeing the hearing, apparently, the Avery family had dragged this on long enough to have him called into the session. He seemed like a severe man, with salt and pepper hair and a constant scowl. Though, it was directed at her, which was a welcome change of pace.
Jasmine kept her head up, she had nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to fear, except the Dark Lord in front of her. She missed crazy Voldemort. Tom Riddle had always been a shadow of who the Dark Lord had once been. And, really, she had defeated him nine times already.
She took a deep breath and locked her mind up tight, knowing she had at least two master Occlumens here, so maybe she should be a little wary of thinking too loudly.
Despite knowing that she wasn't here to be tried, she still felt like a criminal. Walking up to the witness stand was enough to give her flashbacks of her past lives. Though, this time, the seat she was on had no chains, she was in her professional dress robes, and she was prepared with an ironclad defense, or at least she hoped so, because the smirk Tom had on his face, worried her. "Mr. Riddle, please begin your cross examination," Dumbledore said wearily. For once it seemed that he was on Jasmine's side. Maybe now he'd believe her when she said she didn't want to side with this wanker.
Tom pushed himself off the table he'd been leaning against, absently looking at a piece of paper in his hand that had notes written on it. Jasmine recognized the hand writing from his diary. She felt a little nauseous. "Now, Ms. Peverell, it has come to my attention that you are one of the survivors of the tragic dueling ring rescue, is that right?" He asked, voice oozing that Riddle charm.
She felt like dry heaving.
Her audience of Purebloods seemed to be eating out of the palm of his unnaturally pale hands. Especially the dark witches, disgusting. The Headmaster looked rather waxy as Riddle spoke, maybe he was finally putting it together that Jasmine wanted nothing to do with either of them and now she was before a man that had tried to kill her not a few months prior.
Not that she was supposed to be aware of that, but that was neither here nor there.
Jasmine cleared her throat politely before beginning, trying to look the part of a humble witch. "Yes, I am, but I don't see what that has to do with the case at hand," Jasmine replied with a small affirmative nod, just like she'd practiced with Andromeda. There was no point in lying, she wasn't on trial. Not to mention that everyone here knew where she had come from, quite a few had tried to fight for custody over her. Not that Euphemia let that go anywhere. While her story had been private from the public, the court here was privy to most of the details of her unique circumstances.
Riddle ran his fingers along the stand in front of her, blocking her view of Euphemia and Andromeda. A clever tactic that would have more than likely worked on a younger and less experienced witch. His glamoured blue eyes met hers. "You see, it has everything to do with this case. You've lived a life where ever choice you made was life or death. Your dueled against Mr. Avery, who had no hope of besting you," he went on with a wave of his hand, all eyes followed him as he paced the room.
She was sorely tempted to send a silent stinging hex at him. Sirius would have more than likely hailed her a hero for doing so, but she refrained.
And while that statement was true, that wasn't what happened and the witches and wizards here knew that.
Jasmine cocked her head to the side, frowning. She drummed her fingers on her leg, recounting everything she could about the attack. "Mr. Avery brought five other seventh year students with him to try and harm me. He nearly killed one of them himself. My victory over him was chance. I had been practicing for a dueling tournament for hours when they cornered me. I was exhausted. The eye witnesses that came to my aid cast him and Lestrange away from me. I don't understand your line of questioning, Mr. Riddle."
That only seemed to egg the Dark Lord on, his grin becoming wider, more predatory. Maybe he wasn't quite as in control as Jasmine had originally thought. While not completely crazy, he was probably teetering on the edge of insanity. "Well, from what I've gleaned from my client is that the staff at Hogwarts considers you dangerous to the students around you, that you aren't emotionally stable for civilian life. My client was trying to protect himself, and the school, from a Gryffindor on a rampage."
And here was his argument...she was dangerous.
She crinkled her nose, why use a Hogwarts House analogy. She had only been in the UK for a few months. It was hardly enough time to turn her into a fully-fledged Gryffindor.
Merlin, he sounded like Dumbledore, how ironic, the two people that hate her most in the world right now, sitting on opposite sides of the political map...and they both want her away from the school. Jasmine supposed that meant that she was doing something horrifically right. The grey side to magic had nearly been wiped out during her other lives, only brought back by herself after the war. Keeping it alive and thriving in the past was already stirring up both sides of the political spectrum into acting.
Fate must be having a field day with all of the changes that Jasmine was making just by existing here.
She bit her lip, making sure to keep a grip on her temper before continuing. "You know, you and the Headmaster sound awfully alike when you talk about my mental state. It's as if it's up for some kind of debate. I've been cleared by multiple mind healers. I'm mentally capable of going to school. I have peers in every house and I'm excelling in all of my classes. There is no reason to think that I am not well adjusted. Your client attacked me, there is no disputing that," Jasmine reaffirmed, watching as Tom's face morphed from confident into furious at being compared to Dumbledore.
She hoped the insult grated on him for days.
"How did you defend yourself during the duel?"
Jasmine shrugged and bit her lip to seem a little less sure of herself. She could see Tom beginning to circle her again, waiting for a crack in her armor to appear. "I used defensive charms and ducked around suits of armor. There wasn't much I could do against so many people. They did a good job of taking each other out, it's obvious whoever was teaching them dark magic had no idea what they were doing," she sniped, Riddle's magic snapped dangerously close to the surface, it's murky black tendrils snaking around the room.
Most wouldn't notice it, but Jasmine had become too attuned to Tom over her last nine lives. Not to know when he was beginning to lose his temper could cost you greatly in a battle against him. It was too bad that he couldn't do anything with it, not without outing himself as the Dark Lord. She'd love to fight him right now. It would certainly liven things up having a full brawl in a courtroom.
"And, how do you know about dark magic?" He purred, knuckles gripping the table in front of him. The wood splintered slightly under his grip.
Temper. Temper.
"As you have already pointed out, I spent years in an illegal dueling ring. There was plenty of dark magic. It's rather obvious when someone is untrained when using it, someone can get severely injured, or even killed," she answered, throwing his words back into his face. She wasn't going to let him win. She had never let him do that in the past, she wasn't about to start now.
That seemed like the wrong thing to say since a lot of people flinched, mostly light wizards.
Cowards.
It wasn't as if Dark Magic was something to be terrified of, only in the wrong hands did it spiral out of control and kill people. Underaged witches and wizards needed to discipline themselves when it came to the dark arts. They were seductive by nature, especially to those inclined towards it. The students who attacked her were powerful budding dark wizards and witches, but their control was horrific. Those children hadn't been taught control, the witches and wizards of this past generation seemed to be afraid of the mere concept of dark magic, avoiding it at all costs. It wasn't like the magic would just take over your body and possess you...it something that is all in all avoidable if you catch the child before they dive too deep and can't get back out of the darkness.
Her gaze locked with Dumbledore's, he honestly looked a bit concerned. How touching, it only took a dark lord interrogating her to make Jasmine seem human to him.
"Miss Peverell, your exposure to dark magic is what disfigured your face?"
She wasn't going to lose her temper in front of everyone...
"Objection!" Andromeda shouted towards Dumbledore, "is this even relevant to the case or is Mr. Riddle just trying to mock my client?"
He gave his most charming smile to the eldest Black sister. "Oh, I promise, it is completely relevant."
No one was buying what he was selling, not this time, Jasmine was still a Pureblood Heir, there were some lines you didn't cross in a public sphere. Dumbledore seemed especially tired of his trial. "I grow weary of these games, Mr. Riddle. Move this along or we will pass judgment on Mr. Avery now."
Riddle stalked towards the stands once more, standing in front of Jasmine. His gaze had a fevered edge to them. "But you see, this is the heart of the matter. How did Ms. Peverell survive with only minor scars from a battle that killed every other witch and wizard in the room. Only someone with intimate knowledge of the dark arts could manage to survive something like that. Therefore, this young witch was a threat to the children within Hogwarts. My client was only doing what he deemed right."
A quite mummer filled the room. It seemed that Tom had finally said the right thing, because now it seemed that Avery had been doing everyone a favor by attempting to murder her.
A loud cough from the back dragged everyone's attention away from Tom and Jasmine. "Vigilantism is frowned upon, Mr. Riddle," Augusta Longbottom commented from one of the seats near the top left. Her scowl was audible by her tone of voice. "The girl's academic record shows zero detentions and no student has gone to a professor to complain about bad behavior. Unlike your client, who spends more time scrubbing cauldrons and getting letters sent home about his poor demeanor than he does revising his homework."
The quiet muttering began again, this time less hostile towards Jasmine, which was a nice change of pace. Tom looked rather furious. Jasmine was going to need to send Augusta Longbottom some kind of gift, maybe a fruit basket or some powerful restorative potions. She seemed like a practical sort of woman. "Mr. Riddle, if you don't have anything actually pertaining to the case to ask, I think that your line of questioning is over. We have been in agreement about the verdict of this case for nearly a week. Your vain attempts to turn the blame from Mr. Avery to Ms. Peverell weren't successful. It seemed to me that you're more interested in digging through her tragic past than anything else," Dumbledore told the dark lord with that blasted twinkle in his eyes.
It was obvious that Tom was beginning to struggle. He'd need to regroup and attack again or risk losing his ground here. Not that Jasmine minded. She enjoyed watching him squirm.
Tom flashed another charming smile. He swaggered up towards the stand. "I was only here to attempt to lessen the sentence against my client." He looked at Jasmine, attempting to meet her eyes, she didn't back down. Jasmine felt something push against her mental barrier. The prick was trying to read her mind... He met an impenetrable wall behind her gaze. "Airing Ms. Peverell's past sins, was just an unfortunate side effect."
She sat up straighter and looked a bit past Riddle's shoulder.
This case was going nowhere.
The questions ended up being repeated over and over again. Tom kept trying to get her to change her story, in even the slightest of ways. It was obvious to Jasmine that he was fishing for answers on how she survived his attack on the dueling ring. He wanted to meet her and more than likely want to find out the best way to kill her.
How cute.
He probably expected her to lose her temper by now. It took a lot to phase Jasmine at this point in her life. She was well into her first century, she rarely lived past eighteen or nineteen, but still, nine lives, that was a lot of time.
It took another hour for Dumbledore to call a stop to the questioning. They had already reached a verdict and required no further discussion on the matter.
Barty Crouch Senior came up to deliver the sentence to Avery, who looked properly terrified. She hoped they gave him something that ruined his miserable life. Tom was watching the exchange was a disinterest only someone playing these pureblood games for years could have mastered. The amount of sheer indifference was amazing. Jasmine could give him that, he had a good poker face.
"Seeing as this was your first offense, the court has decided to permanently expel you from Hogwarts. You will not receive a diploma, nor will you be allowed within one hundred kilometers of the school at any given time over the next twenty years. You are to be sentenced to house arrest, if this is broken, you will be thrown into Azkaban prison with no chance of parole. You and your family will also be paying back Ms. Peverell every penny you owe to The House of Peverell, she will dictate how and when that amount will be called upon."
Magic spun through the air, creating the binding contract. Jasmine could see quite a few Heads of different families squirming at the mention of their debts. Jasmine was sitting on a few letters, it wouldn't be that way for much longer. She was done playing nice. If Tom Riddle was going to go on the attack, so was she.
And, it seemed the Dark Lord was going attack where she least expected it, so she was going to begin to o the same. She just hoped that the wizarding world was going to be ready for her.
So, I thought I updated this a week ago...I might have dreamed that up. Sorry about that.
See you soon,
~Animerocker