Title: Jade Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Author: Queen Serenity
Fandom: Harry Potter
Chapter: Three – The Visiting Dragon
For Draco, Jade could tell that the train ride was extremely unpleasant. She was pretty sure that he had never been around so many muggles in his life, especially in such close quarters, and he looked like he was about to snap.
She leaned over to murmur in his ear, "Don't worry. We're almost there."
When they reached their stop, Jade hailed a cab for them to ride the rest of the way to her house. In the back seat, she spoke in a low voice to Draco.
"I'm really glad you came, Draco. Sorry if all of this is bugging you. Don't worry, though, I promise you that I'll make sure you have a good time at my home."
Draco frowned. "I highly doubt I could have anything called fun in a muggle home, but we'll see."
When the cab dropped them off and left when Jade paid it, Jade stood, facing away from her home and towards Draco, and made a sort of 'tada' motion with her arms. "Well, this is it. This is where I live."
Draco wrinkled his nose, looking at the house behind Jade, and then at the other, nearly-identical houses up and down the street. "This is your home?"
Jade nodded, ignoring his obvious distaste, and headed up the sidewalk, gesturing for him to follow. "Come on, I want you to meet my family. Well… most of it, at least." She added the last part, remembering that Uncle Vernon was not, thankfully, home.
Draco hesitated. "I won't have to touch them, will I?"
Jade giggled. "You're silly. No, you don't have to touch them. Won't hurt you to say 'hello', though."
She led him inside to the front entrance, and called out. "Aunt Petunia! Dudley! I'm home!"
Aunt Petunia came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish-towel, and Dudley came down the stairs sounding like a boulder had been tossed down them instead.
Aunt Petunia smiled at Jade. "Jade, welcome home. And this must be your…" As she looked at Draco, the smile sort of turned to a half-smile. "…Friend?"
Jade smiled. "Yes, Aunt Petunia, this is my friend that I told you about, Draco Malfoy. We go to school together. Draco, this is my Aunt Petunia Dursley."
The half-smile on Aunt Petunia's face remained. "Yes, well… it's very nice to meet a friend of Jade's, Draco."
Draco didn't bother with even a half-smile when he answered. "Yes, it's a… pleasure… meeting you, Mrs. Dursley."
Jade then introduced him to Dudley, who, instead of replying to Draco's half-hearted greeting, gawked. "A friend from your school? Dad wouldn't like this, Jade!" He looked at Petunia. "He doesn't know, does he, Mum?"
Jade left Petunia to deal with Dudley as she led Draco from the room so she could show him around the house.
As they walked, Draco leaned over to murmur to Jade, "Are you sure that's your cousin?"
Jade shot him an odd look. "Yeah, why?"
Draco smirked. "Because I'm sorry to say this, but he looks more like someone poorly transfigured a swine into a human."
Jade couldn't help but snicker at this. The thing was, she'd already decided to try and keep Draco as much away from Dudley as she could, and not just because Dudley was a muggle. The other reason was because she'd noticed that it seemed that Dudley had not only acquired weight since he'd gone to Smeltings, but the jerky, bully personality had came out much more, even around Jade. She'd started getting irritated with him because of it, and definitely didn't want him interacting with Draco, afraid they'd end up getting in an argument. That would be just what she needed.
When they entered Jade's room, Draco jumped visibly as he spotted what was lounging on Jade's bed. "Bloody hell, is it just me not seeing her for a while or did she get even bigger!"
Indeed, Solluna had grown, though not as much as Draco seemed to think. On all fours, she was about the size of a doberman as opposed to a tomcat.
I am not the only one who grew, Jade, Solluna murmured in her mind, amused. It appears that your friend had a growth spurt himself since we last saw him.
Jade grinned at Draco. "Solluna says that you've grown since we last saw you, too. It's true, you know."
Draco laughed at this. "Yes, I suppose it is. So…" He looked around the room, and a slight look of disdain was on his face. "What is most of this muggle rubbish?"
Jade chuckled, shaking her head so that her long black hair swung slightly. "This muggle 'rubbish', as you call it, happens to be very expensive rubbish. Not to mention, it's stuff that I like, you know. Tell you what, you sit on the bed, and I'll show you the purpose of my stuff."
Draco did as Jade asked, and Jade moved over to her stereo, which was hooked up to speakers hung in each of her corners. Her TV sound came from the same speakers, when she chose for it to. She patted the top of the stereo, shooting Draco a smile. "You know, I love almost everything there is to love about the Wizarding world, Draco."
Draco eyed her. "Almost everything? Honestly, Jade, I can't imagine anything in the muggle world that would not have something better in the wizard world."
This brought a mock-innocent look to Jade's face. "Tell me, Draco, do you enjoy music?"
Draco shrugged. "It's okay. Not a favorite thing of mine, or anything, but it's okay."
The innocent look turned to a smirk. "Then you, my friend, have never muggle music. Namely, American muggle music." With that, she pressed a button on the stereo, and a song started playing.
Draco cocked his head, listening. "…what is this called?"
"The singer or the song?"
"Either. Both."
"The singer is Kelly Clarkson. The song is Hazel Eyes."
"Is all muggle music like this?"
Jade smiled. "Actually, no. There is some that's like this, but there is many many kinds. Rock, pop, punk, rap, classical, and even more. I like a lot of it, but not all of it."
A slow smile inched its way onto Draco's face. "Well, then, I guess that some muggles are good for something." The smile turned to a frown and his eyes darted to Jade. "But you didn't hear that. I am bloody serious, Jade."
Jade grinned and laughed. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Anyway, this thing here…" she gestured to the stereo. "…Is called a stereo. Music is stored on these…" She held up a cassette. "Or these…" She held up a CD.
She turned off the stereo and switched on the TV. "This is a television. Most muggles use it for entertainment. Some of the stuff you can watch is very stupid, but some is really, really cool to watch. You can watch what's being shown on one of the channels…" she flipped through the channels, and wasn't surprised that Draco actually looked interested. "Or you can watch something you have at home on this…" She indicated the VCR, and popped in a record tape on which she'd had Petunia record some music videos while she was at school. The first one on there was, conveniently enough, the same song she'd had Draco hearing a few minutes ago.
"What's this called?" He asked.
"When you watch music on TV, and there's no audience, it's called a music video. Did you bring your Christmas presents with you?"
Draco nodded.
"Good. We'll watch them later."
Next, she showed him her computer, and explained to him how whole books could be held inside computers, and how computers could be linked with tons of other computers through something called 'the internet'. Jade could tell that Draco was trying hard to look unimpressed, especially when she explained that that was how she had mostly been contacting Hermione. To show him, she logged in and chatted with Hermione for a few minutes, mostly just to let her know that she wouldn't be on later tonight because she would be busy. Draco seemed to be, needless to say, very surprised that muggles weren't just stupid, ignorant peasant-types. That they actually had made some nice advances since the older days.
They hung out in Jade's room for a couple of hours, watching music videos and chatting. One thing that was brought up was the fact that Jade was a person who was very hard to surprise, to which Draco replied that he bet he could surprise her in the time that he was there, to which she replied that she doubted it.
At 6 o'clock sharp, Aunt Petunia called them down to dinner.
First, they headed to the bathroom to wash their hands, and then they headed to the dinner table. The dish served was fancier than what Petunia normally made, as Petunia had known ahead of time that Draco's family was very, very rich, and, even if he was one of those wizard folk, she didn't want him going home and saying how shoddy the cooking had been.
The dish was roast duck with plum sauce, baby red potatoes, and glazed carrots.
Something happened at dinner that, at Draco had promised, surprised Jade.
What happened, you ask?
"I must tell you, Mrs. Dursley, that this meal is absolutely delicious. Are you sure you're not a professional cook?"
As Petunia blushed at the compliment to her cooking and assured him that she was not a professional, Draco looked smugly over at Jade, who was staring at him, jaw dropped. "Close your mouth, Jade."
The only other noteful thing about dinner was the fact that Jade was trying very hard not to be embarrassed by her cousin. Seriously, the whole time Dudley did nothing but gawk openly at Draco, all the while shoveling enormous mouthfuls of food down his throat at a ridiculous rate.
When Aunt Petunia served dessert, which was chocolate mousse, Jade told Draco to hurry up, that she had a surprise for him.
After supper, Jade told Draco to put his shoes back on as she put her own on.
Draco looked at her quizzically. "Where are we going?"
Jade smiled mysteriously. "You wouldn't know it. But I'm pretty sure you'll like it."
The surprise? It was a movie theater, one of those cheaper ones that show movies that have been out for a few years.
The walk was pretty short, only a few blocks from Jade's house.
"This is it." Jade said, standing in front of the place. She still hadn't told Draco what they were doing.
Draco looked up, frowning slightly as he read what he didn't know was the title of the movie showing. "The Silence of the Lambs. Whatever this is, it sounds rather… unusual. You sure I'll like it?"
Jade nodded and pulled him inside, paying for their tickets. Aunt Petunia knew the ticket teller lady (it was one of her friends whom she liked to gossip with), and had called ahead so that Jade and Draco would have no problem getting into the rated R movie.
Inside the theater room, it looked like Jade and were the only ones there except for one guy who looked to be in his late teens sitting up in the far corner. Jade chose seats for them around the middle, close to the front without being too close.
The room was still mostly dark, the screen unseen and empty.
Draco looked around, frowning. I swear, Jade thought to herself, if he frowns at every unfamiliar muggle thing he sees, his face is gonna get stuck that way. "What are we supposed to do here?"
Jade grinned and shushed him, and a moment late the projector came on, images coming onto the screen. Poor Draco jumped about a foot in the air when an advertisement came on for another movie, the people in the advertisement looking, well…. Considerably large compared to Jade and Draco, as was expected since it was on the 'big screen'.
"Bloody hell, Jade," he griped, staring at the screen wide-eyed, then shooting her a glare. "You could have warned me!"
Jade smiled. "But that would have taken away my fun. This screen is like my TV at home, but bigger. The movie that's going to show is one of those three I gave you, but bigger. I really do think you'll like it."
The other person in the room loudly shushed them, glaring, to which Draco responded with a rather rude hand gesture before he and Jade settled back in their seats. Jade leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Hey, I'll be right back…"
"Where are you going?"
"To get refreshments."
"But we just ate."
"You can't have a movie without refreshments. It's tradition."
Jade came back about five minutes later, having an oh-so-fun time juggling the large popcorn, two drinks, and candy she'd bought.
Draco took some of it from her and eyed it before whispering, "What in blazes is this stuff?"
Jade rolled her eyes, handing him his drink. "Try it. It's a Coke."
Draco sighed, "You know my father would kill me if he saw me now. Or disown me, perhaps." He complied, taking the straw into his mouth and trying a sip. He wrinkled his nose slightly. "This stuff feels… well, weird. Tingly."
"Yeah, that's the carbonation. Now shush, the movie's starting."
As Jade had predicted, Draco enjoyed the movie. He also enjoyed the popcorn and Cookie Dough Bites, but he really enjoyed the movie. He especially liked the character, Hannibal Lecter, and the way he played with peoples' minds. Jade had had to repress a laugh at the look on Draco's face when it had shown Buffalo Bill tuck his… ahem… to look like a woman in the mirror.
All in all, they had a good time.
When they returned to Jade's home, they headed for her room once more. It was getting late, but they would be staying up even later, so that they could watch video tapes. They started off with the sequel to Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and then moved onto Bram Stoker's Dracula (the one with Winona Ryder in it), and lastly A Nightmare on Elm Street IV: The Dream Master, Jade's fave in the Elm Street Series.
Draco couldn't decide which of the Hannibal Lecter movies he liked better, but he said he was rather leaning towards the sequel, as he preferred seeing Hannibal not behind bars, but free.
The Bram Stoker's Dracula he liked a bit. He hated the character named Jonathon Harker, though. He said he found the guy to be pretty annoying.
As for the Elm Street movie… well, he found that more funny than anything, he claimed. He bragged to Jade that if that Freddy guy were real, he wouldn't be scared of him, that he'd be able to beat him quicker than that girl did. Jade just laughed and rolled her eyes.
By the end of the final movie, both of them were practically falling asleep sitting up.
Jade showed Draco to the guest room, where he would sleep, and bid him goodnight.
The next day, Draco would have to go home, but, though he was loath to admit it, he had had a much better time than he had expected.
He still knew wizards were better than muggles, though. So there.
The next day, before breakfast, Jade heard an unexpected sound. Unexpected, because it was a sound that hadn't been expected to be heard until the next day.
It was the sound of the Dursley family's car pulling into the driveway.
The car containing Uncle Vernon, who was not supposed to be back from his business trip until the next day.
Oh, bloody hell. This, followed by many other (more graphic) words (seriously, these are words that would cause the paint to peel on the walls) ran through Jade's mind. Draco noticed Jade's white face. "What's wrong?"
Without answering, Jade rushed to the top of the stairs just in time to hear her uncle griping at her aunt, who had met him at the door. "Lost the damned Johnson account. He had to leave early because his ruddy daughter went into labor, and I said to him, 'can't she have her baby without-"
Dudley came out of his room, barreling past Jade (nearly knocking her over the railing in the process) and down the stairs, his voice in a tattle-tale voice as he spoke in a rush. "Dad, Dad! Jade's got a wizard boy here from her school and he stayed the night last night!"
"WHAT!" Vernon looked up the stairs and when his eyes fell to behind where Jade was, his face went from almost normal to tomato-red in an instant. Jade turned quickly to see Draco behind her. She glanced back at her Uncle, than back at Draco quickly. "My room. Now."
As they both rushed down the hallway to her room, Jade could hear her uncle stomping up the stairs. When they got inside, she locked the door quickly, only to have him pounding on it a minute later.
"JADE! IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DAMNED DOOR THIS BLOODY INSTANT, THAN I SWEAR I'LL BREAK IT DOWN!" The pictures on the wall were practically shaking from his shouting. Jade, who was still facing the door, cringed visibly before turning around and giving Draco, who was gawking in a manner very unlike him, a sheepish smile.
"Time for us to leave, quick…" she said. She ran over to the window and opened it, and frowned down at the ground, which was several feet below. "Bugger."
"I've got it," Draco said, and pulled his wand from where'd he'd been keeping it in his sleeve. "Come on, jump."
Not bothering to question what he was gonna do, as her uncle would be sure to bust that door any minute, Jade jumped with Draco at the same time. They fell for less than a second before Draco said something that Jade didn't hear clearly, and then they fell like feathers to the ground.
From there they headed to the train station to catch the train that would take them to the place they could reach the Leaky Cauldron from.
On the train, Draco spoke to Jade in a low voice so that those around them wouldn't hear. "Don't worry about that spell I did, I'll make sure it's known that it was I, not you, who cast it."
Jade frowned. "But won't you get into trouble?"
Draco shook his head, grinning. "Not with my father. I'll just tell him that I used the levitation charm to throw your cousin around a bit for annoying me."
This caused Jade to giggle.
When they reached the Leaky Cauldron, Draco looked at Jade, and he actually looked kind of worried. "You're going to be in trouble when you get home, aren't you?"
Jade shrugged. "I'm not too worried about it, so you shouldn't be, either."
Reluctantly, Draco nodded. "Well, I'd better be going. By the way, I almost forgot… I'll give you your present for your birthday when you visit my home."
Jade nodded. "Alright. I'll owl you in a few days to schedule when my visit will be."
QS: You know, I'm telling you guys something right off. According to my calculations, the 2nd Harry Potter book takes place in 1993. But guess what? Some of the stuff that Jade likes will not just be from that year or previously, since I would like to be able to use other certain movies and stuff. Another thing? There's a reason Jade mostly likes American stuff. She may be British, but I'm not. So she mostly likes foreign stuff, ya know? Sorry, but if ya don't like it, too bad.
Also, I'm kinda worried that I got Draco out of character, but think; he's in unfamiliar territory, but he's with a friend. He's not gonna suck up, but he doesn't want to outright piss Jade off, either, you know? Anyway, I could see him as picturing muggles in his head as very primitive and stuff. How'd I do, you think?
Another thing I'm worried about is I think this chapter doesn't quite measure up. You know, not as well-done as usual. However, you must remember that this chapter had nothing in the book to go by. Had to be completely original, you know? Not to mention, I've had writer's block.
Right now, I have writer's block on this still. Tell me, what should happen at the Malfoy Mansion? I have certain vague ideas about little things, but mostly I'm clueless. Help? Thanks.
Still, no one's done any Jade fanart. It makes me sad, to tell the truth. No one likes it well enough to do an artwork of her, or Solluna even? Oh, well…
