Yule Ball Panic is a series of Harry Potter fanfictions by Philosophize
. The story follows Jasmine Potter and her budding romantic relationship with Hermione Granger, and explores the psychological damage done to her by her relatives and her growing disillusionment with Wizarding culture. The story ultimately diverges from the canon in large ways as a result of Jasmine's cynicism and unwillingness to cooperate with the adults in her life.
This work contains examples of
- All of the Other Reindeer: Jasmine has been a pariah at Hogwarts for years with the professors doing nothing about it. Finally stops at the end of Fourth Year when news of her being molested by Death Eaters and threatened with rape by both Death Eaters and Malfoy rallies the other witches in support of her.
- Babies Ever After: The epilogue takes place 19 years later, and shows Jasmine and Hermione getting married with their three children in attendance.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jasmine. While meek and cowardly during the first act, she quickly turns into a witch that verbally slays the adults around her, and physically slays the Death Eaters and Voldemort.
- Chekhov's Gun: Dumbledore tries to convince Jasmine and Hermione to be less prone to violence by talking about the chance of missing and hitting the wrong target with a lethal spell. Later, Snape kills Dumbledore when he misses and knocks him into the Veil of Death.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Jasmine and Hermione have been friends since first year, and are a couple between 1995 and 2015 when they get married.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Jasmine is tortured so badly by Voldemort that her nerve-endings become extremely raw and sensitive. This causes her to feel even more extreme pain when others touch her, with Hermione being the sole exception.
- Dance of Romance: Jasmine and Hermione dance together at every ritual, and on their dates in the Room of Requirement.
- Darker and Edgier: The story amplifies the dark material from the original, making torture more long-lasting and severe, making the Death Eaters threaten Jasmine with rape on multiple occasions, including depictions of overt misogyny and making the characters pick signature spells that cause more gore on death.
- Deconstructed Trope: In canon, Harry comes out of his abuse and horrible circumstances with a remarkable amount of compassion and love for those around him. Here, Jasmine came out of her experiences an emotional wreck who doesn't trust people who aren't forthright with her and is uninterested in getting involved in the prophecy until it's made clear that Voldemort will not stop hunting her, a form of self-preservation and hardened emotions that are more common among survivors of extreme abuse.
- Declaration of Protection: Jasmine and Hermione make these to eachother constantly throughout the story.
- Deconstruction Fic: The entire series is written with the criticisms of Harry Potter in mind. Dumbledore's actions are under extreme scrutiny, Ron's behavior during the Triwizard Tournament permanently damages his friendship with Jasmine to the point that he gets Demoted to Extra, and Jasmine is suffering the affects of PTSD as a result of her dangerous school life and the Dursely's abuse of her.
- Destructo-Nookie: The piece of Voldemort's soul in Jasmine's scar that links her to the other horcruxes causes her soul bond with Hermione to force the Horcruxes to explode whenever they are intimate.
- Distant Finale: The epilogue covers Jasmine and Hermione's wedding two decades later.
- Emotional Powers: Intent is made to be a core part of all spellcasting, not just the Unforgivable Curses. It is also what marks the difference between light and dark magic. It's also why Jasmine can use Dark Magic so easily, because she's always within the vicinity of someone she'd like to throttle.
- Hide Your Lesbians: Invoked. Jasmine and Hermione keep their relationship secret due to fear of persecutin until the epilogue.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Jasmine absolutely despises any and all attention, her own fame, and oftentimes simply the credit for her actual feats like saving the champions in the Second Task and carving a bloody path through Death Eaters.
- Kudzu Plot: What started as a story about Jasmine asking Hermione to the Yule Ball turned into a story about killing Voldemort, Soul Bonds, ancient pagan rituals, ancient prophecies of Aphrodite, goblin conspiracies, and Jasmine making plans to either leave the Wizarding World or change it completely.
- Loophole Abuse: Everyone in Hogwarts does this to Umbridge, causing her to have to go back and revise almost every single Educational Decree she makes.
- Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: Subverted. Jasmine is an extremely ruthless witch who considers killing Death Eaters to not be a moral concern at all, and actively chides people (Dumbledore) who would try to tell her otherwise.
- Memetic Badass: In-Universe example. Jasmine and Hermione's increasingly high Death Eater body count is weaponized both to persuade people to give them information, and by the Ministry as an excuse to arrest them.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: The strike team that does most of the fighting against the Death Eaters consists entirely of Hogwarts witches, nicknamed a "coven".
- Mind Rape: Both Dumbledore and Snape attempt to do this to Jasmine, with Hermione comparing it to rape shortly afterward. She again makes this comparision directly to Dumbledore.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Dumbledore's disregard of the Dursley's abuse and insistence on isolating Jasmine from everything and everyone she loves over the summer ultimately destroy the blood wards that were keeping her safe. Additionally, Dumbledore has to come to grips with the fact that Jasmine doesn't trust him because she feels he is treating her like a tool in his game. He receives a reality check from Sirius about how Jasmine is NOT his ally, and if he wants her to be one he's going to have to earn it.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Voldemort actually had Jasmine in a state of exhaustion, fear and hopelessness in the graveyard... and then he threatened to have Hermione raped, which sent Jasmine into a Rage Breaking Point that let her ignore her pain, slaughter his Death Eaters and escape.
- No More Lies: Dumbledore is lectured by no less than 15 people that his constant and incessant lying to Jasmine is causing her undue pain and grief and that he needs to be honest with her before she snaps and tries to kill him.
- Psychic Link: Hermione and Jasmine develop one as the story progresses, making them more powerful and more aware of the other.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
- Lucius Malfoy molests Jasmine after she's kidnapped for the ritual, taunting her about how he and the other death eaters are going to "show her a witch's place."
- Voldemort reinforces Lucius' threats while he's torturing Jasmine.
- Ritual Magic: In addition to Voldemort's rebirth ritual, there are the Veela rituals which Jasmine and Hermione take part in throughout the story. They actually render the Horcrux hunt irrelevant.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: While characters tend to waver back and forth, Jasmine is noteworthy for being EXTREMELY cynical about the Wizarding world and deeply despises Dumbledore for his meddling and neglect. She openly talks about leaving Magical Britain and going somewhere else, much to the alarm of everyone who hears her.
- Stupid Evil: Voldemort continuously underestimates Jasmine, despite her routinely sending his Death Eaters back to him in pieces.
