author ;; dimming
title ;; running up that hill
summary ;; the beginnings of a war are stirring in the wizarding world. caught in the crossfire, the balcoin sisters have a choice to make; light or dark? family or friends? fred/oc, draco/oc.
disclaimer ;; we claim no ownership to the harry potter series or its characters. all rights go to j.k rowling and warner brothers'.

{so, chapter two. which i think is pretty good, but zahra doesn't seem to agree... anyway, jasmine for you guys!}

Chapter Two.
A Strange Interruption

Jasmine.

The great hall was always a magnificent sight on the first day back. The hall was light by thousands of bright, floating candles whilst students chatted happily with each other, drinking from the shiny gold goblets and eating from the fine golden plates. The first years had been sorted and sat with their houses, the pride glowing from their faces as they shook hands with fellow housemates. Amongst all the chatter in the great hall sat a petite girl, with dark brunette hair and gorgeous features. She stared into the distance, too entranced by the ceiling – which was enchanted to like the sky- to notice a young slytherin boy dropped next to her. He had pale blond hair, cold grey eyes and wore the same uniform as the girl. He sat there and enjoyed the silence, clearly amused at the fact and chuckled silently.

"What's so funny?" she snapped, irritated at him for disrupting her thoughts. He gazed into her bright blue eyes lazily and smirked.

"Jasmine, can't a friend greet another friend nowadays?" He questioned. Jasmine rolled her eyes and her pink lips turned in to frown before she hissed,

"I'm not in the mood for your nonsense, Draco." The blond threw her a dirty look her before he turned his back and began talking animatedly to Blaise about quidditch. 'That wretch quidditch' Jasmine thought. For a while, she stared at the back of the blond's head, memorising each perfect feature whilst yearning for his attention. Instead, she had to put up with Daphne's constant dilemmas with her boyfriend – not that she minded though, she just wasn't bothered today. Daphne's hazel eyes gleamed with anger and her skinny arms waved about as she tried to explain the situation to Jasmine. Jasmine listened to her whining about him not writing over the holiday and complained to Jasmine that it was her 'disgraceful' figure that had caused such an atrocity. Daphne flicked her golden hair out of her face and she placed her pale face into her bony fingers, whilst screaming,

"And it's all my fault!"

"Is Daphne giving you an earful, Jas?" Theodore asked, laughing as Daphne tried to punch him. He gave Jasmine a cheeky smile, flashing a lot of his teeth and turned to annoy the Carrow twins. His skin had slightly tanned due to him visiting his uncle in Spain and his light brown hair was pushed to one side. You could clearly see his cheekbones when he smiled, causing many girls to drool over him.

"Have you heard about Umbridge?" Theodore questioned, his eyes glistening with curiosity. Draco and Blaise turned around before Draco replied,

"She's the new defence against the dark arts teacher; my father told me." Draco leaned in so closely that you could smell his strong cologne, and whispered, "The ministry is interfering with Hogwarts education. You know what that means?" the group shook their heads, "that certain oafs won't be working here any longer." He leered gleefully at Hagrid's empty seat and smirked before returning to his conversation about quidditch with Blaise.

"Have you nothing else to talk about? Nothing more, oh I don't know, interesting?" Jasmine asked, irritated by the lack of information he'd given them.

"What? I do have other interests besides you, Balcoin." He replied teasingly as he twisted her hair round his pale fingers. She made a kissy face at him and he did the same, whilst everyone on the table groaned. Jasmine saw her sister roll her eyes from the Ravenclaw and waggled her tongue at her. 'The jealous cow,' Jasmine thought, shaking her head irritably.

Suddenly, Professor Dumbledore rose, causing everyone to become silent. "Welcome to another fantastic year here at Hogwarts!" he boomed delightedly, smiling at each one of the students as Blaise muttered a, 'here we go again', under his breath, causing everybody to giggle.

"I hope we are all enjoying this magnificent feast that has been laid upon these marvelous tables. However, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices." Dumbledore spoke uninterrupted for quite a while as the students fidgeted, trying to focus until someone coughed in a ridiculous girly manner and rose.

It was Umbridge.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of welcome. Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. 'And to see such happy little faces looking up at me!"

Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle exchanged smirks and began snickering beneath their breath.

"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends! The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching."

Umbridge pointed towards the professors, who glared back at her with irritation.

"Every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stag-nation and decay. There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation..."

She stared angrily at the Ravenclaw table, where most of the students had started talking, giggling and ignoring her completely. Katherine began embarrassing the entire Blacoin line by imitating a toad to amuse her friends, eyes still fixed on the irritating pink sight that stood at the front. It was a horrid sight; Jasmine could barely keep her dinner in.

"... Because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognised as errors of judgement. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effective-ness and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be pre-served, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."

Umbridge bowed slowly and left the stage as the hall clapped quietly.

Jasmine looked at Daphne, who was wearing the same confused expression as her.

"What on earth-" Daphne was cut off by Draco,

"This place is going to be different when she's done with it." He announced. "Hopefully, they get rid of that loony Trelawny and the oaf. I can't bear the sight of them for another year." Flora Carrow giggled.

"Hey Jas!" Draco called as he pointed towards the corner of her forehead, "How in Merlin's name did you get that?"

Jasmine quickly covered it up with a lock of hair as she told them of Katherine's vicious attack, which involved shampoo bottles, a furnunculus gone wrong and a bowl of pixie puffs. "Let's hope you don't turn into Potter 2.0." Blaise joked, causing the Carrow sisters and Theodore to laugh shortly. However, Draco looked at the scar on his dearest friend with genuine concern whilst cursing her awful sister under his breath. Jasmine giggled.

"You have no reason to hate her Draco; she's just a bitch. It's in her nature." She complained. "Mother and father treat her like a princess and I'm the poor house elf picking up after her messes. God knows how this," she gestures to her forehead, "was supposed to be funny."

"You'll always be my princess." Draco whispered, causing Jasmine to blush an alarming shade of red. Draco chortled delightedly at the sight of Jasmine's face and shook his head. Jasmine saw a couple of her sister's friends thwacking each other on the arm and laughing from the corner of her eye and felt automatically irritated. There was an ink stain on the boy's cheek and she wrinkled her nose disgustedly. 'If only mother knew,' Jasmine thought, disgusted at sight of this carelessness. She watched her sister smile at her friends on the Ravenclaw table when she ought to be sitting at the Slytherin one; perhaps she wouldn't have turned out this way, irritating and unladylike, perhaps she would have befriended upstanding purebloods, not blood traitors. Jasmine's eyes shone with anger. She had been the one who had been sorted into Slytherin, just like the rest of Balcoins, a testament to their noble bloodline, whereas she, the other daughter, had to be the odd one out, the rotten egg that was besmirching the Balcoin name. Yet, mother and father treated her better than they treated Jasmine, their only Slytherin daughter. They always had; they'd been so excited when Katherine had found ehr wand, yet bareley gave her a lick of attention when she received her own. Tears pricked in Jasmine's eyes as she stared at her so called 'perfect' sister, laughing happily whilst she played a silly hand clapping game with a group of her friends. She quickly wiped the tears away as they began to crawl down her cheeks while Draco watched her. She sniffed, knowing once the time came, she would be the favourite in the family, not her stupid sister. When it came down to it, after all, Jasmine would do anything to keep their world pure.

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