MALFOY MANOR

Disclaimer: I do not profit from this story. ^^

A/N: In Jade's POV, there will be a scene not featured in the original fic. Please review and let me know what you think!

Chapter 2

Professor McGonagoll stood up, a frown contorting her forehead. "You are certain that Miss Bloomwood did not return to her dormitory last night?"

"Yes, Professor. Neither was she at breakfast this morning." Snape avoided looking at the two females before him, but couldn't help but raise his brows slightly at that observation. He leaned back in the comfortable armchair, trying to cast his mind back to the Slytherin table that morning.

"And you believe that she is with Mr Malfoy."

Ginny nodded. Snape pursed his lips. No matter what the truth turned out to be, it would spell trouble for the two children if they had been together for the entire time. What was annoying was that it was so unlike them to disappear together without a word.

"On the account that Mr Malfoy and Miss Bloomwood left the ball together."

Ginny answered the affirmative.

"What do you reckon, Severus? Malfoy is, after all, of your House."

Severus Snape chose not to answer that. Instead, he considered Ginny, and she held his gaze. As he stared into her brown eyes, he seemed to dive deep into her eyes.

There, he saw her memory as clear as his own vision- Draco leading Jade away from the Great Hall in the direction of the dungeons. There were smiles on their faces, innocent, carefree... Snape pulled out from the memory as Ginny looked away. He stood up and gestured Professor McGonagoll to the door.

As his robes billowed behind him as he strode towards the Slytherin dungeons, recalling the first time he watched Jade and Draco together outside of school.

It was Christmas evening, and he had been invited to the party the Malfoys threw in their Manor house. While the house elf cooked, Jade was outside serving guests and refilling their drinks. The night wore on. Gradually, the guests took their leave, leaving only perhaps the closest of family friends. Narcissa Malfoy gestured for Jade to begin cleaning up.

She moved discreetly across the room, clearing empty plates and straightening cushions. Lucius Malfoy had invited his guests upstairs to his study. Dobby was undoubtedly unheard upstairs, preparing rooms for several guests to stay the night. Draco was at the gate, playing the role of host and sending off his fellow Slytherins.

Jade sighed softly as she bent down to wipe the coffee tables but it was audible enough for Snape to hear. It was a long time before it was quiet outside. The door closed.

"Are you not talking to me?" Draco murmured, appearing beside her as she repositioned the rug. She ignored him.

"Jade, talk to me," Draco persisted, twirling her brown hair in his finger.

Jade's eyes flashed and tugged her hair out of his reach.

"I've nothing to say. Do excuse me."

"Jade! Why are you ignoring me?"

Her face was statue-like as she faced him squarely.

"You have to ask 'why', Draco?" she whispered, staring with eyes that screamed disappointment. The person who seemed to know her best in the world-

"Please don't tell me this is about Potter."

What-?

"That wasn't the thing I was thinking of, but for that matter, yes."

Draco's jaws tensed.

"What's with taunting Harry about the lack of proper family, Draco? And the Muggleborns for being what they are?" Jade whispered. "Does it not matter to you that I'm like them too? Every time you say these things, I feel it the same. The effect you are trying to achieve on them? On me, Draco."

"But you are not- you know I don't-"

Jade shook his head hysterically, the lack of sleep affecting her behaviour to a certain extent.

"You keep saying that, Draco. You don't mean it. You can't mean it- you've changed. The person who was so nice, so caring... You've lost him. How can you expect me not to change too?"

Draco stood still at a loss of words. Turning away quickly, she picked up pace and disappeared into the kitchen. Draco did not follow, but at his own pace, join his parents in the library.

Severus Snape watched from a corner of the room, hidden into the background with his black robes. His face twitched and formed a sort of grimace as he realised the parallels in this situation to one many, many years ago.

They didn't look alike, not at all- him and Draco, Lily and Jade. Physically, they were worlds apart. But their life... they were walking down similar paths. His face twisted with irony as he realised that.

Only, this time, he wouldn't interfere. Draco should have a right to walk a path he chose, wherever he ended up in, Snape thought. The boy was luckier- Jade cared for him.

He remembered Lucius's request for him to look out for Draco, and to make sure he didn't get too close to Jade. Lucius was going to ask about that later, he'd bet, when Draco was out of earshot.

He decided that he wasn't going to mention it.

But now... If Jade was in Draco's dormitory... Draco would be in for it. They would both be in deep trouble.

As he entered, several Slytherins dipped their heads or acknowledged him quietly. Many others stared as he and Professor McGonagoll made their way to Malfoy's dormitory.

"Has any of you seen Draco up since last night?" he asked quietly.

Silence.

Snape threw open the door, and stared at the emerald curtains drawn of the four poster bed. Pulling out his wand, he pointed at it, but the curtains did not part. McGonagoll met his eyes, looking exceptionally grave.

"Everyone out," she commanded, of the Slytherins who had gathered around. When the door was closed shut behind them, Snape blasted the curtains apart.

Whatever he was expecting behind the curtain, he obviously wasn't prepared for this.

Draco was on top of Jade, ravaging her as tears rolled from her green eyes. The whimpers that were magically hidden by the spell on the curtains now reached them, and just listening to it made his heart shatter. Barely suppressing a shiver, he froze as he recalled Jade asking for permission to leave for the Burrow with puffy red eyes just a few months ago. He had looked into her eyes, and Draco's subsequently... He didn't expect it to turn out this way. He realised that he had counted on Draco understanding his girl better since that time. He hadn't thought to warn Lucius. He had decided not to interfere. Secretly, he might have been wishing for them to succeed where he did not before.

At this cost.

He paused briefly, before moving forward to pull Draco off. He met Draco's grey eyes and was alarmed to see it almost disconnected from reason... He looked like a hungry animal. Anger rose in Snape's chest and he mustered all his strength, bringing his palm across the boy's face in a resounding slap.

McGonagoll went over to Jade, and conjured robes from mid air, holding the whimpering girl and attempting to comfort her.

When Draco's eyes met his again, there was awareness. Snape watched as Draco turned to look at the girl on his bed in horror at the pain he had caused. He reached for her, but Jade cried only louder. Snape shot out his arm to block him, but there was no need.

He saw what he had done. Draco shut his eyes and let out an almost inaudible moan to every whimper Jade let out.

"Off to the Headmaster's office, Draco."

Draco's eyes met his again, and Snape felt as if there was an endless abyss behind those grey orbs. Hanging in the middle of that was a still image of the crying girl upon the bed. The pain and regret upon his face made him look like he had aged by several years. He nodded, trancelike, then almost as if unable to remove his eyes from her, stared at Jade at every available second.

Alone in the darkness of the hospital wing, Jade sat up slowly, cushioning her back against several of the fluffy pillows. She was shivering slightly, but not because of the cold. When she closed her eyes, she saw the lust that burned in those grey eyes that she had come to love.

The invisible weight on her heart was suffocating her. Draco did it to her. Her Draco.

Her thoughts returned to earlier that day, when Professor McGonagall had escorted her to the Headmaster's study. Professor Dumbledore had been kind, but insistant that she recounted that incident to him, and subsequently, answer his questions.

"Has Mr Malfoy- that is, Draco- done anything to you without your consent before?"

She remembered that night of Draco's 14th birthday, when he sought her in the kitchen alone. Her heart had raced, and not all because Narcissa Malfoy had punished her for kissing Draco during the Christmas party. As he pressed her against the wall and leaned in, she could taste the Firewhiskey in his breath, and his eyes had lit up with anticipation. Then he tilted her head up and kissed her on the lips, slowly at first, then kissed her fervently and hungrily. Electricity ran through her veins, and she kissed him back. She flushed harder when his tongue roamed into her mouth...

It came as a surprise when his hands grabbed her thighs, and before she could pull away it was already roaming up into the skirt she was wearing. Ignoring the fire burning in his veins, she pushed him away, hard. But Draco merely leaned in again, assaulting her senses and entering her mouth, his hands groping...

"It's not for you, so stop resisting!" Draco huffed at last, annoyance seeping into his tone the first time Jade could remember it.

The words cut her like sharp blades, slicing through her heart, rendering her motionless as his hands trailed to her stomach, and heading up. She froze as he pressed his lips against hers again, demanding entry, ignoring how her body wanted badly to respond to his touch.

Not for you.

He using her as practice? God she was stupid, so stupid, misunderstanding his previous kisses, all his smiles and actions...

Part of her mind screamed that that was not true, that Draco did love her. But his words rang true, and that hurt beyond anything.

With strength she did not realise she possessed, she pushed Draco aside, running out of the kitchen as tears streamed down her face.

The next morning he cornered her again, so the excuse she fabricated for him in her mind- being drunk- could not hold true. And it hurt to know, so very much that she asked to leave the Manor for The Burrow the same day. Perhaps Lucius, Narcissa and Snape had seen the puffy eyes that she did her best to hide, the swollen lips that ought to have healed, and understood. Lucius Malfoy passed her the ticket to the Quidditch Cup that he had already bought and let her go.

The trial was to pass Draco as he was entering the room, his eyes set on her. His presence which stirred up crazy emotions in her, and for all her love for him, she wouldn't have wanted to leave.

Yet she was tempted to forgive him for it during the Quidditch Cup, when he had in a possessive tone, stopped Harry from buying her a pair of Omniculars for her and reaching for his own bag of coins instead. And when he met her on the edge of the forest, amidst chaos, pulled her into his arms and begged to be forgiven, and convinced her again that he really liked her... She forgave him. She loved him.

Jade cried herself asleep at her stupidity, cried because of Draco's betrayal of her heart.