ENIGMA

Plot, new characters, new magical terms and abilities etc. are my intellectual property. If you want to borrow then please kindly ask. JK Rowling's characters and Wizarding Universe are all uniquely hers.

Summary: AU: What if everything we ever read in JK Rowling’s books was real – including the people characterised? What would you do if you found yourself caught up in that reality knowing what was to come? SSnape, CDiggory, OFC

Authors Note: It has been mentioned in the story but now I am noting it here. I am a fan of Diana Gabaldon’s ‘Outlander’/’Cross Stitch’ series and definitely was influenced by that in writing this story – i.e. the Standing Stones and traveling through time. But I also love Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ series and the tv programme ‘Sliders’ and the alternate universes alongside ours idea comes from there no doubt.

Fantasy/Drama

This story is rated R/M.

ENIGMA

Chapter 031: The Goblet of Fire

The Library Club had ground to a halt and it only served to increase the questions about Miss Newkirk’s illness.

‘I head she’s quarantined in St. Mungo’s – lethal strand of Skrewt flu,’ Cedric overheard Terry Boot whisper to a few Ravenclaws including Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe as they huddled around a desk trying to finish off the latest salvo of assignments handed down by Snape. ‘What a bugger that is eh? It could be months or years even before she recovers from that…’

‘Hmmph you wish,’ Marietta snarked. ‘I heard she picked up something nasty…’

Marietta made remarks that were so vile that even her fellow students who weren’t particular fans of their former librarian protested. But none protested so vociferously as Cedric. He barged over to their table and made it known in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t have dreamed in a million years that anyone could say something so hateful and untrue.

‘Do you have any idea how damaging that is?’ he demanded.

The others at least backed him up, Terry especially. Cho merely looked uncomfortable and said that she was sure Marietta didn’t mean it the way it sounded.

‘Why do you always defend her especially when she is dead wrong?’ Cedric snapped at the Ravenclaw Seeker. ‘If she can talk like that about Miss Newkirk, she’ll say the same things about you if you cross her or when she gets tired of using you!’

‘Please – you’re as pathetic as the rest of them; mooning over that…’ Marietta used some nasty terms to describe their former Librarian and it became an all-out war of words.

Terry didn’t hold back as he used equally eye-watering language to describe Marietta.

‘With a friend like her you don’t need any enemies!’ he hissed at Cho. ‘And why don’t you get some balls with her like you did with the Ministry and that!’

‘You what?’ Marietta shrieked as she looked at Cho with an expression that went from surprise to horror to anger. ‘You defended that slag?’

‘What’s she ever done except try to help you!’ Cedric said angrily. He knew that Cho had only done it to impress him, and she put on a good show of supposedly liking Jessica so bloody much for the same reason – she was smart enough to keep quiet right now. ‘You’ve had it in for her since she got here! Why don’t you just shut up and leave her alone!’

‘I don’t have to put up with this. I don’t give a damn if you are a Prefect. You can’t tell me to…’

‘But I can!’ Snape said darkly as he stepped from behind a floor-to ceiling bookcase where he’d been standing. ‘That will be thirty points from your House for disturbing my peace. My office. Tonight at eight. And other ten for each of you for your equally disruptive behaviour; that includes you too Diggory – don’t believe for a moment that being a Prefect means that you are above reproach!’

‘You bastard!’ Cedric thought to himself before storming off with the others following in his wake. ‘You won’t even defend her! What the hell did she ever see in you to go out with you and have your baby too! You’re the reason why she’s gone – I know you are!’

If anyone had been looking, the Potions Master’s face was a picture as he eyeballed the retreating back of the Hufflepuff he’d always had an intensely strong dislike for.

xxxOOOxxx

Snape was livid, filled with a rage that permeated every cell in his body. He’d picked up some things he did not want to believe when peering inside the Hufflepuff pretty boy’s mind. Quite a few of the boys had crushes on Jessica; that much he knew. She wasn’t the first staff member to have suffered with it – Sinistra certainly had her fair share as well two of the teaching assistants in the Charms Department. Fortunately that was not a problem he would ever have to endure.

Diggory – he was extremely popular; too damn popular truth be told. Though Snape would never admit it even if he was tortured for confirmation; the Hufflepuff wasn’t as dunderheaded as many of his Housemates were. However, Diggory was mediocre student in his estimation. The boy’s brains were in his biceps to be sure. But his memories – no, those could not be memories. It wasn’t unheard of to tap into the unconscious and be confused by nothing more than fantasy. He laughed derisively as he stalked to and fro in his office.

‘As if she would ever bother with the likes of him!’ he snarled out loud.

But god almighty if that boy’s delusions hadn’t some of the most realistic he’d ever come across since he’d master the fine art of Legilimency. Even as he closed his eyes, he could see could see Jessica through Diggory’s mind’s eye – he could see the woman he loved as though the snot-nosed Hufflepuff had really fucked her. And Merlin how she liked it – she liked it!

Snape picked up a jar and it flew through his open door, causing Marietta Edgecombe to shriek and go tearing back to Ravenclaw Tower as it exploded over her head. Something about the handsome young man got under his skin even more than the situation with Potter did. Why Jessica always insisted on cozying up to these brats was beyond his understanding.

Diggory had done something though, something wholly unexpected. He’d felt Snape’s presence in his mind and immediately shut down. The Potions Master was even more unsettled but thank Merlin there were only a few more days of school before the Mid-Term Break. He was on the edge – and it wouldn’t take much to push him over where Diggory was concerned.

Diggory would be on his knees grateful to see the back of him by the time the Potions Master was through with him.

xxxOOOxxx

Students had been submitting their names for a while for the chance to be Champion of their school. Cedric had watched silently as Viktor Krum, escorted by Krakaroff his Headmaster into the room housing the Goblet, put a folded piece of parchment with his name on it into the wooden cup of flames. Professor Dumbledore had cast an age line around the enchanted object so that no under-aged wizards or witches could cheat and put themselves forward. A number had tried without success, Fred and George Weasley amongst their number.

But Cedric kept the vow he’d made to Jessica, wherever she was. He didn’t submit his name and side-stepped any questions from his Housemates about it.

Sprout was so sure he could be chosen.

xxxOOOxxx

The time had finally come and everyone was gathered in the Great Hall to witness The Choosing of the Champions. Professor Flitwick had been Hogwarts Champion almost two hundred years ago and was hoping that someone from his house might be chosen. He didn’t have the heart to tell Cho and Marietta that neither of them had a snowball’s chance in hell of being picked. Honour wasn’t a particular virtue of Marietta and Cho lacked a backbone in situations that clearly called for a strong one. The rest of the Heads of House had heard names of students being bandied about who supposedly put themselves forward or had strongly considered it. Now they would know for certain whom the Goblet deemed worthy.

Dumbledore raised his hands and the torches on the walls went low. The brightest light in the room came from the Goblet.

Dumbledore in front of Kakaroff and Professors McGonagall and Snape.

The Goblet began to crackle and hiss.

But nothing happened.

Dumbledore frowned and stepped closer.

Again the Globlet crackled and hissed – and again nothing happened.

Anxious murmurs began to spread around the room. The torches began to return to their full brightness as the flames in the Goblet extinguished themselves. The high ornate protecting casing that housed the impartial judge reappeared and reassembled itself, sheathing the Goblet completely.

‘What the devil is going on Dumbledore!’ Kakaroff spat violently.

‘What is the meaning of this!’ bellowed Madame Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons.

‘I can’t believe it,’ the Headmaster mumbled disbelievingly.

‘Ye’d better believe it,’ Liam said tightly as he emerged from his place with the other school governors. ‘What do ye intend to do?’

‘The only thing I can do,’ came a grave reply.

Dumbledore held up his hands and bid everyone to return to their places.

‘It would seem the Goblet could not find the appropriate Champion or Champions. The decision has been made and is binding. The TriWizard tournament is over!’ he said darkly.

The scene was nothing less than pandemonium and outrage as he swept from the room with the governors, staff and the foreign school heads in tow along with several officials from the Ministry of Magic, Minister Fudge, Barty Crouch Senior and Ludo Bagman amongst them. Though this result was always a possibility, it had never happened before and thus the occurrence was unprecedented. It was nigh on improbable in most people’s minds, but there was no mistake.

Either the quality of contenders for one of the schools or perhaps all of them wasn’t good enough or the circumstances just weren’t right to be holding the Tournament. There were no easy answers to this most peculiar and disturbing of dilemmas. And there was nothing to be done about it.

xxxOOOxxx

Jessica stirred and compulsively covered her eyes with an arm as sounds of the early morning greeted her. She glanced at her alarm clock and was relieved that she still had another half hour before she absolutely had to be out of bed.

She’d been in Venice for quite a while now, just how long she really couldn’t be sure since even here there was no real marking of time. In her head she knew that it had to have been just over three months according to timekeeping in her world, but this world was vastly different and there was nothing to give her any real clue about the exact date. It seemed that at the end a seven-day cycle of sunrises and sunsets or sometimes double that, people referred to the “new day”. Jessica still hadn’t stopped counting and it only served to frustrate and confuse her even more.

Her first few “days” were spent in floods of tears. It occurred to her that Cedric was now Hogwarts Champion for the TriWizard Tournament and would be attending the Yule Ball, a long-standing tradition. With her out of the way, he was free – free to pursue Cho Chang and take her to the Ball as the books dictated he would do. The mere thought of him brought tears to Jessica’s eyes even after all this time. The thought of him with Cho, the idea of being with the Ravenclaw Seeker as he’d been with her and especially intimately – well, it was more than she could take.

The two weeks or so were hell as she adjusted to her new home in the Cannaregio district of the city and to Cedric being completely gone from her life. Trying to find a place to live could be traumatic no matter where one lived, but unlike the Venice of her world this Venice was fairly uncomplicated. There were none of the laws that often left tenants in a rather precarious position subject to the whims of their landlords. Cannaregio was the humble side of Venice that few tourists ever discovered. Washing was still hung outside and only the locals could be found in its restaurants and bars. The former Librarian decided to rent first and then would look at buying a place once she completed the apprenticeship she’d managed to secure. In this world she could afford it. She needed to get herself together and forget about the young man she’d left behind at Hogwarts. What must he think of her now? But despite what she kept trying to convince herself of, the idea that Cedric Diggory could think horribly of her filled Jessica with a sadness and pain that she couldn’t understand or bear.

xxxOOOxxx

Jessica had long harbored a dream to become a Master of the ancient and noble Venetian arts of mask making and Murano glass crafts. People didn’t exactly queue up for such labor-intensive work and there were imitators to be found in other countries. She wanted the real thing and to be respected for the hard work she would have to put in. In this world as in her own, the arts were mostly handed down from generation to generation in the old families; many of the crafts families where also amongst Venice’s most prominent. It seemed no matter where she went, Jessica couldn’t escape social lines being drawn. Jessica realised that she had a lot working against her as an outsider and especially as a non-white outsider, but she’d never been the sort to let the practical realities get in the way of pursuing her dreams.

She had legal British identity papers; as an EU citizen she could move around as she pleased. The process wasn’t nearly as trying as it would have been in her world, no thanks to politics. But many outsiders had some to Venice to settle and make their mark in Venetian society. Some had grand aims while others wanted some more practical. The former Librarian wasn’t looking for fame or fortune, she just wanted a decent life doing something she loved. She wouldn’t even let the fact that she didn’t speak much Italian stop her.

And so she awoke on the first day of a trial towards becoming a proper Apprentice focusing on the task at hand. She’d had numerous doors slammed in her face all over the city, but had refused to give up. It was a goal worth pursuing and it gave her life a renewed sense of purpose.

xxxOOOxxx

The former Librarian settled into her routine. She woke every morning at seven and by eight-thirty was at her place in the workshop of Ca’Macana, one of the oldest crafts houses in the city and which was also located in Cannaregio, but at the opposite end of the island from her flat. She would take a gondola from door-to-door. But the lines were drawn even within the ranks Gondoliers – not one of them was a woman and wouldn’t be for the foreseeable future as far as she could tell. At least in her world, one woman had finally made it into the venerated association after failing three times – and she was of Algerian extraction to boot.

“If we don’t change and move with the times, our arts will die out. The art of making these masterpieces is hard work and there is no glamour except to wear them,” wizened patriarch Giuseppe Ormessini had told her during their second lunch together after she’d been hired. All but one of his sons had turned their interests to other professions. Only a middle son, Elio, shared his father’s love of the family business. It was a small house with just a few artisans. They were used to people coming in bursting with excitement and ideas only to disappear and usually after the week or so. Everyone had to pass the trial, and even his own son had been no exception to that.

Giuseppe had been quite intrigued by the quiet young lady with just a hint of sadness in her countenance. She offered to complete her trial without pay, she was that serious. The old man prided himself on looking after his partners; anyone who became an Apprentice would be considered a partner in the business. They would start off with a small share with the potential to earn more if they remained. A small few of the partners had opened workshops elsewhere in Italy and in Europe, but always under the Ca’Macana name. They still returned for the occasional Partner’s meeting and to refine their craft in the bosom of the Master Artisan. Their trade was largely masks and costumes, but they specialised in glass crafts as well. Their large glass workshop was on the island of Murano, which could be seen from the workshop and where the Venetian glassware industry had been long based. Ca’Macana offered the opportunity to work on Murano jewelry in the officina primaria in Cannaregio in addition to the masks.

The young lady had made quite an impression when she asked him directly if her being Native American would be a problem for any of the other Partners. He’d replied simply that he would not have taken the time to meet with her if there was any possibility that even one person on his team would protest against it. “We only care about your dedication and willingness to learn,” he’d said forthrightly.

By the end of her third week (as it was) with them, the artisans recognised that Jessica had “it” – that unmistakable something that marks a true Master and she was offered the Apprenticeship if she was still interested. She didn’t “watch the clock” and that made as much an impression as her almost encyclopedic knowledge of Venice, its history and crafts did. For Jessica, she finally discovered what she was meant to be doing.

xxxOOOxxx

There was one other woman in to the group of nine at her workshop. Like Jessica, Marta Friedmann wasn’t Venetian or even Italian. However, she was married to one of the Senior Artisans and that did help cement her position in the Workshop with the others. The situation could have easily been fraught with tension if Marta had felt threatened by Jessica. But fortunately, unlike many of their sex in business, the older woman saw Jessica as an ally and a friend in the testosterone-driven environment that was their workplace. They got on well and found the exchange of ideas mutually beneficial and stimulating. They even spent time together outside of work, with Marta showing Jessica her favourite places in Venice and The Veneto and introducing her around. The older woman quite liked Jessica’s company, and was happy to see that the sadness was perhaps beginning to lift as Jessica came out of her shell.

The Library at Hogwarts was slowly becoming a memory as Jessica dove her new life. She was starting to pick up Italian – not a word of English was spoken in the Workshop. The only concessions made were during lunchtime and only after she’d secured the Apprenticeship. She was finally accepted and even began to socialise with her colleagues. There were nice, leisurely dinners and social events around Venice. Ca’Macana took part in some of the Gondola Regattas which pitched them against their competitors. Jessica didn’t hide herself away anymore; she came out in support of her colleagues and had even taken part in one event with Elio when ac colleagueinjured his shoulder. The House’s reputation was firmly intact as they took home yet another trophy as a reward for a race well-run. Jessica was now well-and-truly one of them.

Everyone at Ca’Macana agreed: Giuseppe Ormessini still had a fine nose for picking his partners.

xxxOOOxxx

Everyone was grateful that they had a nice long break ahead. The controversy had been relentless and some in the magical press had blamed the Tournament result on the work of ‘Dark Wizards or Witches unknown’ even though it was supposed to be nigh on impossible to hoodwink the Goblet. But there it was.

The Tri-Wizard Tournament was not meant to be.

Cedric felt nothing less than sheer relief and his conscious was clear. As far as he was concerned what was done, was done. Everyone just needed to get over it and get back to their normal lives. If he’d been religious like Muggles tended to be, he would have been in a church giving thanks.

He’d been doing a lot of thinking and decided that he needed to do what was right for himself and not just surrender himself to the random dictates of fate. The Hufflepuff was moving out of the family home, a situation that upset his parents. Many in his year had been on their own since they were 17, the age when they legally gained adult status in their world. His father was particularly upset, but his mother at least tried to understand. His parents wouldn’t hear of him spending his savings to rent a room somewhere and like a number of peers in his year, Cedric found himself the owner of a small starter house. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about having a roof over his head, his mother reasoned, but he was always welcome to come back home – there was no shame in it.

The first two days of his break Cedric moved what little he had into his house in a hamlet outside the Highland city of Inverness. It wasn’t much, but it would do. Besides he could always sell it later. He had more important things to think about.

He needed to find Jessica and now that the drama about that damn Tournament was over, he was able to focus – and was fairly certain where she had gone. He packed a large traveler’s rucksack on his third day in his new home and set off with the confidence that he would find her.