The next morning Jade awoke early and felt as rested as if she had slept a thousand years. Madam Pomfrey vanished her bandage with a wave of her wand and released Jade from the Hospital Wing after a quick examination. It still was very early, so Jade had the time to walk up to the Gryffindor Tower and have a shower before breakfast. It was Sunday anyway, so she took her time and met up with the others in the Common Room. Harry and Ron's mood was still icy and Hermione already had other important things on her mind: the caretaker and Care of magical Creatures Professor Rubeus Hagrid had returned and Hermione was determined to coach him, so that he would not be sacked by Dolores Umbridge.

Jade enjoyed a very long breakfast with Harry and Ron (Hermione had already left), who told her about Hagrid's story in hushed voices and recounted everything, what had happened after she blacked out yesterday, in detail. Now that she knew what Draco had said word for word, she was even angrier with him.

The three of them had a huge amount of homework to do due to the time-consuming Quidditch practices during the last days. While Harry and Ron directly went up to the Common Room after dinner, Jade had brought her bag with her to study in the library. On Sundays she often met Roger and the other Ravenclaws there and they would go over their homework together.


On her way out of the Great Hall she ran into Blaise, who was just crossing the Entrance Hall and heading towards the marble staircase. He looked as dapper as ever in his tailored cloak and polished leather shoes. She jogged to catch up with him "Hey Blaise! Merlin, are you alright? You look a bit unnerved..." Actually she was being euphemistic. He looked as if he wanted to murder someone. As he caught sight of her he nodded, not even smiled.

"Yeah.. I was just on my way to look for you. Haven't seen you at breakfast and thought you might be still up there."y

"I was a little late at breakfast today. Did something happen?" Jade was getting worried now. Blaise nodded shortly. "Where did you want to go? I'll tell you on the way."

Jade nodded and mumbled "Just on my way to the library." She was a bit relieved. It couldn't be that grave, if it could be told on the way.

Blaise took a deep breath and began with his story "Actually, it is kind of good news. So.. Last night when I came back to the Slytherin Common Room it was still pretty full. There had been a post-game celebration, even though Slytherin lost. Somehow most of them were still in high spirits. Possibly the twelve bottles of firewhiskey, Pucey had smuggled in, were a cause for this. So I walk up to my friends and suddenly see my 'girlfriend' snogging Montague heavily over on one of the armchairs."

Jade turned towards him, her eyes wide open and her hand in front of her mouth. "Nooo! You're serious?" Blaise just nodded grimly and snorted. Then he said "It's not like I'm deeply hurt or something. But it still is pretty disrespectful and bloody humiliating. Suddenly everybody was watching me and waiting for my reaction. I hate drama and I hate people knowing about my business."

"So what did you do?" Jade asked after a moment of silence.

"I walked up to them, gave him a pat on the back and congratulated him to one amazing new girlfriend." Blaise told her, matter-of-factedly. "After that I poured myself a drink and had a conversation about politics with some seventh years."

"Huh?" This story puzzled Jade slightly; she had anticipated some sort of dramatic climax. "That is not the reaction, I would have expected in this situation."

The dark-skinned boy nodded. "It's not a reaction anyone would expect, I think. They wanted to see a fight.. Jade, you know, in Slytherin situations like these determine your standing in the pecking order. You lose your cool, you lose the respect. So, I just didn't give a damn about it. I'm not going to degrade myself any further. It's not that I was afraid to fight him, believe me. But what for? He's more valuable, when he owes me one."

Jade was not surprised to hear about the inner workings of the Slytherin house. You had to be a real strategist to survive in there.

Blaise went on now "Unfortunately, the story goes further. This morning I walked into the Common Room to find Astoria already waiting for me. But not to apologize... Let me tell you: Girls are crazy."

"I'm sorry, Blaise" Jade tried to calm him down. But he just shook his head and made a little hissing noise "Nothing to be sorry about, Jade. I didn't even trust her from the beginning. It is a good thing that it's over. And I promise you, I'm done with relationships for a while." He came to a halt now, staring out of a window. His face turned a little more to its usual expression and he asked "Could I lend your broom for a while? I think flying would really calm me down right now."

Jade nodded "Sure! Angelina told me at breakfast that they put it in the broom cupboard down at the Quidditch Pitch after my little accident yesterday. She wrote me down the password to open it; I have it in my bag somewhere." Jade searched her bag for a moment until she found the little piece of parchment and handed it over to Blaise. He thanked her and was gone in a swirl of his robes.

Jade continued on her way to the library. If she saw that stupid Astoria girl, should she put her into place? Or was that nothing of her business? Probably it was best to just give her an evil stare and ignore her the rest of the time. Jade cursed the girl in her head. Well, at least Blaise hadn't really been in love with her and wasn't heart-broken by now. A heart-broken Blaise, what a weird image.


After she had found a secluded corner in the library, she studied for a good three hours until she felt the need to take a little break. She had seen Draco walk into the library about half an hour ago, but he hadn't seen her and had sat down somewhere in the back of the place. She got up, packed her things and brought the books back to their shelves. She noticed she hadn't seen the Ravenclaws around today. Maybe they would come here later during the day.

She had just passed the doors, when a voice called her back; immediately followed by a second one hissing "No shouting in the library!". Unmistakeable the former was Draco's slightly raspy voice; she felt her insides cringe. She was mad at him and she knew that this conversation probably would end in a fight. And she didn't want to fight with him. But she had to tell him that he had angered her, hadn't she?

"Jade, wait a moment!" he jogged forwards, shaking his blond hair out of his eyes. Jade turned and crossed her arms in front of her chest, watching him expectantly.

When he had reached her, he said "I tried to visit you in the Hospital Wing yesterday, but they didn't let me through. I hope you're alright again. I hadn't even seen that you got hurt, until they carried you up to the castle."

Jade shot him a dirty look. "Yes, I guess you were too busy with something else at that time."

Draco suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable; his gaze did not even meet her eyes now. "I.. Well, I got into a small fight that's true.."

Jade furrowed her brow and said in an irritated voice. "A small fight? Really..Congratulations Draco! You must be so proud that your horrible behaviour got them kicked out of the team!"

Apparently Draco really did not like being scolded; he pushed his hands into the pockets of his trousers and a slight pout was visible on his face now. Sounding as if he was the true victim here, he said "Well, they did attack me after all.."

Jade rolled her eyes at him. "Oh please, don't even try to talk your way out of it! I know exactly what you said to them. And also I do know that you must have expected them to attack you! Saying things like these is just bound to get rewarded with a good punch in the face! You're really lucky that this was all you got!"

Draco sighed now and ran a hand through his hair. He looked quite exasperated. "Jade, I can somehow understand that this whole thing upsets you; you are part of the team after all. But to be honest, you have no right to be this angry with me! I agitated some Gryffindors.. Big deal! That's practically what I did my whole school time! And I never promised you anything, Jade! I never said I was going to change the way I was for you!"

That last statement somehow knocked the wind out of her. It had hit home. She knew she was not just angry at him for being rude to her friends. Also she was so disappointed that apparently she did not mean enough to him to make him treat her friends with some more respect. If he really cared about her, he would leave them alone, wouldn't he? So maybe, he did not like her as much as she liked him. There she had it.

Now she hurt even more. But she did not want him to see it. So she tried to cover up her sadness with anger and looked out of the window, saying much calmer, than she really felt like "You know what Draco, I never promised you anything either. I never said I was going to be your friend no matter what. And if you treat the people, I like, like crap then maybe I have a problem with that... Oh, I knew from the start that the whole thing was a bad idea." She had turned around by now and started to walk away. She just wanted to get away from him before her own facade started crumbling down.

"Hey, wait a moment! Don't just walk off like that!" He had grabbed her arm and tried to hold her back. Yanking it out of his grip, she hissed at him "Oh, shove off, Malfoy!"

But he did not give up so easily and in a second attempt to hold her back, he succeeded and turned her around to face him. "Jade, come on! I really don't want to fight with you about this. And I'm sorry it upset you." Sensing that she wouldn't run away anymore, Draco loosened his grip and removed one hand from her arm to brush back a strand of hair, which had fallen into her face. Now Jade was the one with the pout. "You know, after I heard what Warrington did to you, I got so angry I even attacked my own team mate. Don't walk out on me, now!" he spoke in a soft voice to her.

"You did that?"

Draco only nodded and looked down into her deep brown eyes. Jade had a huge whirlwind of emotions inside her. She still was in a bit of a huff and wished he would show that he cared about her more clearly; besides she really did not like the way he treated her friends; but then there was this huge longing inside her to just forgive and forget and throw her arms around his neck.

"I'm still mad at you!" She knew she sounded defiant. But he smiled at her now, knowing that she would forgive him eventually. Evidently he couldn't resist the temptation and cupped her cheek with his hand, caressing her face tenderly. "Don't be.."

Jade wanted to melt into his touch; but she should not get diverted by his physical closeness. If they did not talk properly about what had happened, it was bound to happen again! So she took his hand in hers and removed it from its place. It just was too distracting. Was he doing this on purpose?

Her voice sounded much softer now. "I'm sorry, Draco. I know you never promised me anything. But when you try to hurt my friends, it just hurts me even more. I think I cannot deal with this after all." Still holding his hand, she looked down on the floor. She just prayed to Merlin that he would say something that made everything alright again.

Draco entwined his fingers with hers. "Jade, what if I did promise you something.. I guess it wouldn't hurt, if I left them alone.. at least for a while.. Or if I just tease them very lightly..Or maybe you would even allow me a few snide comments when you're not around? Teasing Saint-Potter and the Weasel just always makes my day.. It is mean of you to take that away from me now.."

Jade just shook her head, smiling. He knew that he sounded like a big child, didn't he?

"I'll think about it."

Draco smiled one of his big smiles. "That's all I ask for."