The next day after lunch Harry, Ron and Jade went down to the Quidditch Pitch together. It was time for the Chaser try-outs and Jade was beginning to get nervous.
All in all it went rather well. Even though Katie, Alicia and Angelina played amazingly together, one couldn't deny that Jade was a talented flyer. And so Angelina decided to get her on the team as a reserve player, which meant that from now on, she would practice with the team.
And their first practice was right after the try-outs. Unfortunately, it was a real nightmare and ended with a heavily bleeding Katie Bell, who needed to be taken to the Hospital Wing immediately. And it didn't help that somewhere during the practice some Slytherins had made their way up to the stands and kept ridiculing the Gryffindor players. Draco was among them, and even though Jade didn't hear that he in particular said something with all the wind blowing around her ears, it bugged her that he was there with the sole reason to disturb her practice.
In a foul mood the players walked up to their tower and after taking a quick shower Jade started to work at her homework, which kept her occupied for the entire rest of the weekend.
On Monday morning Jade walked down to the dungeons, meeting the Ravenclaw boys on her way again. Roger quickly took her aside and apologized.
"Jade, I'm really sorry about Friday. I know I promised to bring you back to your Common Room, but somehow I really drank too much of that firewhiskey, Chambers smuggled in. I had quite a lapse of memory, actually. I was told about some of the things I did.. rather upsetting."
Jade thought it was pretty lame of him to blame his own behaviour on his drunkenness, but told him that she really was not angry at him and had found her way back to the Common Room without too much of a disaster.
After yet another torturous double-lesson of Potions, Jade made her way up to the Entrance Hall, noticing that many of the Slytherins coming her way were giving her rather mean stares.
Then a large group of Slytherins in Draco's year walked around the corner, but the blond boy himself was nowhere to be seen. And before Jade could side-step around them, a group of three girls placed themselves directly in her way. She recognized one of them as the pug-faced girl, she had seen on the train. On her right side stood a rather square built-girl with slightly greasy hair and a very dirty look on her face; on her left side a blonde was fidgeting, apparently not happy to be there.
The Pug-Face opened her mouth. "Well, if that isn't our famous newcomer, little Miss Heywood herself. I heard quite some stories about you."
Even though what she had said was not exactly mean, she was shooting daggers out of her eyes. Jade did not know what her problem was, but she remembered that in the train the girl had not been too pleased to see Draco talking to her. Maybe she was in love with him? Or was she even his girlfriend?
Sensing that Jade was not about to answer, the girl went on. "But I have to tell you: You might be walking around the castle with your nose stuck in the air, thinking you're something special. But we in Slytherin see through you. You should watch your steps, girl. Or you might fall hard." She seemed very pleased with herself after that little speech.
Jade straightened her shoulders and transformed her face into a cold mask, something she always did when feeling threatened. She immediately noticed the slight change in the Pug's face, who was getting insecure now.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Jade said icily, her eyebrows rose imperceptibly. The Pug seemed to be fazed for a moment; she clearly had expected some more respect.
"I am Pansy Parkinson. This to my right is Millicent Bulstrode and her name is Daphne Greengrass."
"Parkinson?.. Ah, it rings a bell. Weren't the Parkinsons the family who kept remarrying their own cousins due to sheer lack of any good connection?" She heard snickering in the hallway; it was after all a well-known anecdote, like there were many in the pureblood community. Parkinson's face turned into a shade of blotchy pink. "Well, that was ages ago.. " She mumbled "A rather old tale. And at least my family didn't marry all over the world. Who knows what kind of dirty Brazilian blood runs through your veins, Heywood."
Jade just snickered tauntingly. "Yeah right, Pug-Face. I'm rather in a hurry, so get out of my way, now."
Pansy didn't move, suddenly a bitter determination could be seen on her face. "You know, Heywood. You might think you're all above it. But your family cannot be that great, can they? I mean, your parents snuffed it after all... " A mutual gasp ran through the dungeons, everyone knew that this was a low blow. "They couldn't have been that talented, could they? I heard He finished them off rather fast, after they begged .. "
Pansy broke off; within the blink of an eye Jade had gotten out her wand and already disarmed Daphne and Millicent non-verbally. Before Pansy could even get out her own wand, Jade had pointed hers directly at the girl and started an incantation. It sounded like she mumbled a song, but the words seemed to be in a foreign language. Jade's face suddenly lost its beauty and looked slightly scary; her eyes seemed even darker than they usually were and her voice sent chills down the spines of the students around her. And something else had changed: it seemed as if there was a dark cloud building in the hallway right around the place where Pansy was standing.
The Slytherin girl suddenly acted strangely, she looked around her as if she couldn't see through the cloud, her face looked anxious. And then she broke down. She kneeled on the floor screaming at the top of her lungs trying to fend of invisible attacks. Her scream wasn't a scream out of pain, but out of pure angst.
Daphne and Millicent tried to get to her, but they couldn't reach her through the darkness. They turned towards Jade, but didn't dare to move closer, fearing they would end up like Pansy.
Suddenly a high-pitched scream reverberated through the hallway and it carried through the hazy cloud. It was Hermione, calling Jade's name.
Jade stopped the incantation and the fog immediately dissolved. She turned towards the corner of the hallway where Hermione, Ron and Harry had appeared, all looking shocked. While Daphne and Millicent were quickly picking the whimpering mess that was Pansy up from the floor, a tall figure approached Jade. It was Blaise, a concerned look on his face. "Jade.. are you alright?" he asked her. She didn't answer.
She had to get out of here. She knew she had totally messed up. What she had just done was very, very Dark Magic and she felt close to vomiting. Performing Dark Magic was not a good feeling, especially when your mind was not as evil as it needed to be to perform those curses.
Blaise rested his hand on her shoulder, apparently in an attempt to steady her trembling figure. But Jade shook him off and ran towards Harry, Hermione and Ron. She made her way up to them. Hermione still looked shocked "Jade! What did you do?" Jade couldn't bring out a word, but just grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her with her. They ran through the different hallways of the dungeons, Hermione just followed Jade without asking any more questions. Finally they reached a girl's lavatory and Jade pushed through the doors and right into a cubicle. She couldn't help but vomit the entire contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl; she felt so sick.
Hermione caringly held Jade's hair out of the way and rubbed her back a little. After Jade had washed out her mouth and somehow pulled herself back together, Hermione finally asked again "Jade, I saw what you did. You can't deny that it was some evil curse. I read about this one in particular, it was Perkowski's Cloud of Fear, wasn't it?.. Just look at your own reaction to it! Why did you do this?"
"I'm so sorry.. I completely messed up. She said things about my parents and I snapped. I really wanted to make her pay. I.." She stopped, trying to fight that ugly feeling inside her throat.
"Somehow I really don't know what to say. I think you know that you will be expelled if any teacher gets wind about what happened today. And Pansy is a Prefect after all. You clearly attacked first and the way I know the Slytherins she's already in Professor Snape's Office right now, reporting you. I clearly don't support your breaking of the school rules, but I think I should go down there to cut the losses. I'll say you just played a mean prank, but nothing involving the Dark Arts." Jade could practically see how a plan formed in Hermione's head.
"Hermione, I can't say how thankful I am that I have you." She hugged her friend.
Nodding, Hermione left the lavatory, but turned before she left. "And five points from Gryffindor for performing magic in the hallways!"
Jade had expected Professor McGonagall to turn up during the day to tell her how she was going to be punished, but somehow nothing happened except she was slowly getting the feeling that the whole school was talking about how she had hexed Pansy down in the dungeons. She even heard some third-year girls, who vowed to their friends that they had seen Pansy crawl out of the dungeons with huge boils all over her body. Hogwarts' students really had a weird sense of imagination.
At dinner she finally saw Hermione again. She sat down next to her and once more thanked her for her help.
"Actually, I didn't need to do much. When I got back, Blaise Zabini approached me. He told me that he had already dealt with everything and that Pansy wouldn't tell anyone. Don't ask me how he did it though. But Jade, you cannot do something like this again! It was sheer luck that you didn't get expelled. And you saw what it did to you!"
"I know, Hermione! It was a mistake. I won't do it again, I promise."
Now Ron butted in the conversation. "Actually Jade, Parkinson really deserved what she got. She had it coming for her a long time."
Hermione snorted, but did not say anything to object.
Jade looked over to the Slytherin table, catching the eye of her former best friend. She missed Blaise terribly and she knew that she really owed him now. She nodded in his direction and she thought she caught the glimpse of a smile on his face.
