𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 | 𝐀 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥

"𝕯𝕺 not be discouraged class, this is a rather difficult spell to learn. But I have no doubt that every single one of you will get it with time!" Professor Flitwick, ever the encouraging and kind professor that he is cheered his struggling class on.

Jupiter looked to her left and right with a frown — it seemed that no one had been able to perform the charm as of yet. She shrugged and cleared her throat.

"Incendio epitendium!"

Jupiter called out the charm clearly — her voice strong. It was a form of the incendio charm, except this version was made to cause the fire to jut out in a stream and go as the spell-caster forced it.

Like that, a fire was expelled from the tip of her wand and appeared as a string that she easily whipped around. Students immediately drew their attention to her and gasps of excitement were heard as they watched the fire show. Professor Flitwick quickly began clapping rapidly, a large smile on his happy face.

Jupiter was amused at the amount of praise she was receiving. This was a charm she learned in her first year, simply because it was incredibly powerful and beneficial as an Agent. Therefore, this charm along with any other advantageous spells were taught at an early age so the students could perfect it and it would be easy to perform in combat.

Circling her wand, she allowed the fire to whip in a small tornado before flicking it out of existence. The claps were loud.

"Bravo Ms. Williams — truly a good job! Ten points to Gryffindor!" Flitwick called just as the bell rang signaling the end of class.

Many students quickly packed their bags, barely listening as Flitwick rambled the last bit of information he needed to get across.

"Alright, students — the two-page essay is still due on Monday! Make sure to practice the charm in your head and I have no doubt you will all successfully conjure by the end of our next class period!" He called cheerfully standing atop his desk.

Jupiter smiled and nodded at the short Professor as she waltzed by. With a proud look in return, Jupiter was out of the door and shoving her way through a hoard of students: all the faces slowly becoming familiar.

Hogwarts had a small enough population that soon Jupiter suspected she would know nearly every face in the school.

Over the past week, Jupiter had come to terms with a few things involving her classes. She recognized that she had a natural knack for Transfiguration and she was good at Charms, but she excelled at DADA and that was also proving to be her favorite class.

She hated Potions as she was just barely skimming by with that class. One would think that Potions is simple because you have a literal guide to follow... wrong.

Jupiter soon realized that Potions is like cooking in the sense that one could follow the instructions perfectly only for it to just taste... okay. Following the instructions was fine and dandy, and while it did not make the food taste bad — it would simply always be missing that certain spice that meals from scratch contained.

Potions are the same way... following the instructions made it average. It is previous knowledge and experimental ideas and creative thinking that made a Potion phenomenal. Depending on the environment, the time, and any other factor certain ingredients may need to be altered, added, or even taken away from the potion. It is simply a matter of being able to do that.

Jupiter, unfortunately, does not have this skill. She never had a talent for cooking either — if her blown up pot could speak it tell unspeakable tales of the damned and Jupiter's cooking. The only way she is able to slide by is her ability to follow the instruction which again makes it average — and because of this her potions never end up with that phenomenal spice.

Snape, thankfully, was another positive. While he was cruel, cold, and callous — Jupiter had been a victim to the far worse than the likes of Snape. She recognized that not annoying him and simply doing as asked without making a spectacle of herself or showing off quickly earned her a spot on his favorite list... or whatever was a favorite for Snape.

Moving on from Potions there was the spunky Divination class that Jupiter neither favored nor hated. Although, if she had to attend that class any more times in the week than she already did, she would no doubt get annoyed.

History of Magic was interesting enough. She only hated that drawling lecture tone that Professor Binns used — it made it easy to fall asleep if not focusing on the actual words that he was saying rather than his tone. Jupiter supposed she only found it so interesting because Arcane taught specific types of history that would come in handy while on the field.

Although, those classes never failed to bore Jupiter either.

Jupiter had yet to take her astronomy class but she figured she would be rather bored with that one. She may have been named after two planets and a moon, but Jupiter had never found a special interest in the stars.

Of course, the science behind it and thought were intriguing, but when faced with doing the actual math Jupiter would pass. The names of planets, galaxies, and constellations were pretty, however.

"Oi, Jupiter!"

Jupiter was shaken from her thoughts as Lottie attached to her side. Both of them were now heading down one of the many staircases.

"Hey," she greeted her brunette friend.

"Did you hear? Harry knows what the first task is...!"

"He does?!" Jupiter questioned excitedly, both girls walking faster upon noticing a few nosey students eavesdropping.

"Yeah — he heard it from Hermione who was told by Ron who was told by his older brother... some guy names Charlie who apparently trains dragons in Romania! I don't know — Fred and George just told me about it, but apparently, he's here for the first task — the competitors are going to be fighting dragons or something, Jupiter!" Lottie rambled excitedly. "It'll be so interesting, imagine all the gore!"

Jupiter shook her head, and the staff wondered why so many students died in this tournament. Great... just great! Now Jupiter was going to need to find a way to help Harry out with fucking DRAGONS!

How the hell do you even fight one of those... aguamenti?

Why could they not do something simple? Like a maze or something... maybe even a swimming competition.

"Yeah, imagine poor Harry getting burned alive," Jupiter shook her head.

Although, she had to admit — if Harry was not in this competition and she was here under different circumstances... she would no doubt find entertainment in watching this competition as well.

"Pfft," Lottie waved it off, "he's Harry Potter — he'll be fine!"

"Dude—" Jupiter was cut off by a familiar voice... actually two familiar voices.

"Using Harry's name in vain again, are you Lottie?"

"Tsk, tsk — he is not going to like that..."

The two girls were suddenly joined on either side by a pair of ginger twins. Jupiter had no clue which was which only that one was by her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder while the other did the same from Lottie's side.

Relatively speaking, the ginger-haired twins were rather good-looking. That topped off with their spunky and trickster-like personalities was bound to make them a fan favorite for the people at Hogwarts. And perhaps in another world, one where Jupiter did not have other more important things to worry about — then just perhaps she might entertain a thought of having a small attraction to the twins.

Not that either one would matter — they are identical, after all.

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Jupiter scrunched her nose in confusion, turning to the twin by her side.

His pale freckled face lit up at the sudden attention on his, the tall boy leaning down so his lips were by her ear. Jupiter gave no reaction other than pursing her lips in a peeved manner. The thought of throwing an elbow out and into his stomach crossed her mind.

"Fred Weasley, darling, and you are?"

Both of them had known that introduction had already been made days prior, but it seemed Jupiter's questioning of which twin this what made Fred want to question her on herself as well.

"Jupiter," she answered curtly and Fred quirked a brow.

"Saturn, you say?"

"What?" Jupiter was shaken, her eyes widening in surprise. "No, I said Jupiter..."

"Oh, of course! Sorry 'bout that Mars!" He said in mock regret while George snickered from the other side of Lottie.

Jupiter's heart raced at the sound of her real last name falling from the boy's lips. But she reminded herself that he was only messing with her and had no clue that he actually said her real last name.

"My name," she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "is Jupiter..."

"Understood Venus,"

Jupiter groaned loudly and forced Fred's arm off of her. He laughed loudly, tossing his head back while George slapped him on the back. Lottie called out for her, but Jupiter only continued walking away from the annoying soulless gingers.

Ginger and twins — those boys were probably most people's worse fear when they were children.

"I'll see you later, Lottie!" Jupiter exclaimed before she turned the corner, vaguely hearing her scolding Fred and George.

She rolled her eyes although the smallest of smiles tugged at her lips, continuing on her way — Jupiter had one location in mind. The Forbidden Forest. Her classes for the day were finished and dinner was not for a while.

Therefore, she had time to check on her "traps", Not so much as traps.

After walking for a good fifteen minutes, Jupiter was on the outskirts of the Black Lake and was checking what she left. Dropping her bag, Jupiter double-checked to make sure that no one was around. Smiling at seeing nothing, she crouched by the gentle waves of the lake.

She breathed deeply and focused herself on the water, softly her right hand moved up and her fingers twitched in tender timing with the lake water. In seconds, droplets of water began lifting themselves up from the water of the Black Lake and Jupiter smiled.

Bringing her other hand up, both of her palms moved in sync with each other — her fingers twirling as though performing an epic dance. More droplets began rising at a faster rate as she did this, soon large balls of water starting to form just beyond her palms.

Jupiter took a deep breath, and not that she noticed her eyes started to glow a bright purplish blue. With this, she suddenly threw her arms in the air, and the water of the lake split and rose. It was in the same manner as the Bible says, "Moses stretched out his hand and the waters of the Red Sea divided".

It was odd to see the bottom of the lake, the wet sand for once untouched by water. Jupiter wonders how long it would take to dry out — probably years upon years with how long this lake had sat here.

Flicking her eyes throughout the split waters — Jupiter did nothing more than simply feel. She felt and breathed with the waters surrounding her, she listened and connected herself to the waters in ways untold.

In that instance, Jupiter could understand that from the perspective of the water no one had been within the close vicinity of Hogwarts in recent days. However, just as it had told her the first time she did — there had been a man of suspicion lurking around the base before she got here.

The first day of Hogwarts coming back in session for the year is when it was.

She frowned at this in information, although she was happy that Traskos appeared to be staying away for now. Slowly, she dropped her arms and the water followed spreading back out into the lake. As her eyes stopped glowing, everything went back to normal as though it never occurred in the first place.

So yeah — this was another oddity of Jupiter's. And if she was being honest, she had no clue what this even was. All she knew was that she had a special connection to the water and the creatures of the oceans that went far beyond many understanding. Even her own at times.

She did not find the need to tell anyone about this as what was there to do anyway? The last thing she wanted was to make herself even more of a black sheep to her family than she already was.

Placing her hands on her hips, Jupiter bit her lip in frustration.

The first time she made a connection to the Black Lake's waters — it told her the same thing. A man of suspicion had entered Hogwarts on the first day of term, and he never left. Or at least he never left in an area that the waters could see.

He could have left through a secret pathway as Hogwarts obviously has far too many of those. But it was still frustrating because in the past week Jupiter had investigated this campus and many miles beyond it more than she could count and there was absolutely nothing!

She supposed it was a good thing as that meant Harry was safe for now, but she doubted it would stay that way. That man of suspicion would come back eventually... if he had ever left at all.

Shaking her head, Jupiter grabbed her bag and headed back toward the castle. It just did not make sense — what was she missing? Obviously Arcane and the SCMD were not going to send her here for no reason. In fact, so far this proved to be a rather easy field mission in comparison to the others.

Normally, while field missions were shorter than the ones that she was on, they were also a lot harder. Her oldest brother, Titan had gone on many field missions in his time at Arcane (another one of his many accomplishments). However, Jupiter distinctly remembers he had been on one mission so difficult and terrifying it nearly killed him.

Not only that, but her second oldest sibling — Kingston — had actually followed Titan on that mission to prove himself just as worthy. Long story short (and Jupiter still does not know the full details) but they both nearly died, they had a huge blowout fight that they then made up as they had to work together in order to survive.

Apparently, Titan and Kingston had been sent to some uncharted island off the coast of Brazil. It was an island unexplored by muggles as it had extreme and volatile abnormal natures about it. It was a scary type of magic that much of the Wizarding community was far too terrified to explore.

The island was under tight wraps by the Brazilian Ministry of Magic. Only very specific people high up in the ministry and Auror departments were cleared to enter the island as it was so dangerous many would die within hours of being there. Therefore, it was important for those who managed to get access to stay close to the high-ranking ministry officials who studied this island for a living.

The secret island is named "Ilha da Morte" which literally translates it "Island of Death".

In a nutshell, Titan because of his amazing reputation at Arcane had been the first student ever to and only the eighth American Auror to gain access to this island. Even Apollo had been hesitant to send him because of the dangers that lurked.

Esmond and Slyvia Marrs wanted him to go; however, they believed this opportunity was something that could not be passed up. And so, Titan for his senior year would be sent to the island for a few hours with a group of highly trained Brazilian Ministry Aurors, magical geologists, and archaeologists to study the island.

This is when Kingston managed to sneak along (he still will not admit how he did it). Jupiter remembers that Titan once told her the second he entered barrier the island he simply felt unwell — paranoid and horrid. As though something was constantly lurking over his shoulder ready to strike, it was a feeling he would never be able to describe fully and something that he never again wanted to experience.

When Titan found that Kingston had been following the group, he yelled at him. As the two fought it was then that something struck, and Titan nor Kingston never wanted to remember it and they would never be able to describe what it was. But they always said it was something undiscovered and something could only be described as so terrible that you would never be able to imagine it in your worst nightmares.

It had made the hairs on Jupiter's arms stand tall when they told her.

It killed every single wizard and witch in that group of ten: Titan and Kingston had only been able to escape by the skin of their necks. The monster apparently did not like fire and Kingston tended to be the King of conjuring fires. Perhaps it had something to do with his constant and terrible firey mood.

If there was one thing that Kingston embodied then it was anger. Titan was like the calming river to Kingston's volcano of a personality.

The two of them spent two entire days there before they managed to get back to the beach where they had to swim through the monster-infested waters until they breached the barrier that would allow them to apparate. Jupiter and everyone had thought they were dead during this time: her parents had been beside themselves thinking their two eldest sons were both dead.

Jupiter nor anyone else knows exactly what happened as the two hate thinking about it. Only bits and pieces came through from their words, but it seemed to make the two closer than they had been before. Sure they bickered but they were not at each other's throats nearly as much.

Jupiter bit her lip as she walked up, her thoughts wandering from her eldest brothers' to what her family was doing. She knew she would never be able to hold a candle to Titan's achievements through school, his and Kingston's experience, and survival with Ilha da Morte was enough in itself to wipe any of her achievements away.

She could try though. After all, if she was able to catch Traskos that would be a rather big achievement.

Jupiter crossed through the threshold leading into the courtyard of the school. What befell her eyesight is not something she was expecting to see at all.

Mad-eye Moody, an Auror infamous for how many dark witches and wizards he had put away was the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts. Jupiter had actually been rather impressed, after all, he was a man known for his amazing skills at wizard hunting. She would be learning from one of the best in Britain.

His lessons were interesting as well: he was not afraid to teach and lean more on the darker arts of defense. Jupiter thought this was important as learning about the dark arts was equally as important as the defense to it. How can you defend yourself against something you do not understand?

Therefore, although he was brutish and slightly scary — Jupiter was already used to this from her teachers at Arcane and she appreciated the man's teachings.

However, to watch him mutter while using his wand to fly a white ferret up and down in the air while many students watched with gasps and screams was not something she was expecting. And to be honest, she was very confused by this as well.

She immediately noticed Harry was standing within vicinity of the Professor and shuffled her way over to him.

"What's going on?" She tilted her head to the bespectacled boy.

Harry jumped not expecting her and whipped around before his face lit up with an amused smile.

"Malfoy thought it was funny to mouth off to me then he pulled his wand when I turned around — Moddy saw and well..." he motioned the comedic scene happening before them.

Jupiter narrowed her eyes in confusion before they widened as realization hit her. That ferret was Draco Malfoy!

Draco Malfoy heir to the great Malfoy family was quite the mean and snobbish boy as Jupiter had learned. Not too much higher on the scale than her own sister. However, as crude as the platinum-haired boy was, Jupiter had also dealt with far worse in her life.

Her own rival back at Arcane Prep was a girl named Vanessa Ambrosia — a vampire-human mix who thought she was the shit. She and Jupiter had been competing head-to-head with each other since they arrived at Arcane. Jupiter was not afraid of the bully of a girl and Vanessa was not intimidated by Jupiter's family name in the slightest.

Definitely not a good mix.

Despite dealing with worse, Jupiter was most certainly not a fan of Draco Malfoy. Thankfully he had not messed with her yet and seeing as she was a year older than him, she doubted he would have the courage to actually do it. And if he ever chose to — well... Jupiter had a mean roundhouse kick with the Malfoy boy's name on it.

"Professor Moody!"

Heads turned as Professor McGonagall raced forward, her long robes swirling behind her and face strewn into confusion. She eyed Professor Moody with clear caution.

"What are you doing?" She demanded as she stopped feet away from him, her eye on the bouncing ferret.

"Teaching," he answered gruffly.

Professor McGonagall looked nothing but even more confused before her eyes widened in sudden realization.

"Is that—is that a student?!" She stumbled over her words staring at the white ferret in something akin to horror.

"Technically it's a ferret," he answered easily before suddenly forcing the ferret down the trousers of Crabbe.

The large Slytherin screamed as his pants were forced open and Draco Malfoy—the ferret was thrown in. The creatures crawled his way to the bottom and out the leg of his pants. Harry Potter was doubled over in laughter and Jupiter's mouth had fallen agape.

Now, this was some Trainer Harkins type shit right here.

With little hesitation and a swift flick of her wand, Professor McGonagall transformed Draco Malfoy back into his normal human and teenage self. He ended up laying and sprawled out on the cold stone slabs of the courtyard—his eyes practically rolling in his head from how dazed he was.

However, in seconds he shook his head and leaped to his feet—a wild look in his eyes. Beyond that, the boy appeared absolutely enraged and with a snarl snapped his face into Moody's.

"My father will hear about this!"

"Is that a threat?" Moody suddenly lunged forward, and Draco just barely jumped backward and out of the way.

As though Satan himself were on his heels, Draco ran with Moody close to his heels yelping.

"I can tell you stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair, boy—!" Moody hollered, making an attempt to grab Draco.

Unfortunately, with his limp and Draco's youth on him: Malfoy was able to easily sprint away with his cronies in tow. Many other Slytherins followed after him, all of them knowing that Moody was not particularly fond of that house seeing as many of the students' heritage just so happened to be that of dark witches and wizards.

"Professor Moody!" McGonagall barked sharply causing Moody to stop screaming profanities at Draco and turn to face her. "We NEVER use transfiguration as a punishment, surely Dumbeldore told you that,"

It was comical as it appeared McGonagall who was maybe half the size of Moody was easily scolding him. The Professor bowed his head in disdain.

"He might have mentioned that," he mumbled.

"And you will do well to remember it," she pursed her lips and gave him one last strict look.

With that, she sharply turned around and walked the way she came—her robes billowing behind her. However, when Moody stuck his tongue out at her retreating figure, the grIns on Jupiter and Harry's faces could not have possibly gotten any bigger.

"You," Harry jumped as Moddy suddenly turned around and Jupiter calmly tilted her head, "with me," the Professor had barked while pointing at Harry.

He barely even blinked at Jupiter before hobbling away. Harry awkwardly shrugged and waved at Jupiter before following after the clearly unstable Professor.

"And Dumbledore seemed unsure about having me here," Jupiter muttered to herself, crossing her arms and shaking her head.