Shortly before the Quidditch final, Jade awoke with a rather heavy weight on her blankets. She hadn't slept well, and as she started to turn, she went to throw her blankets off of her.
*Don't you dare,* Ruby's voice crackled in her mind before she'd moved so much as a muscle. *If you harm even one of these precious bundles, familiar or not I will slit your throat.*
Jade froze instantly as her eyes flew open. Looking down along her blankets, she gasped in awe. Ruby was curled up on the blankets - leaving just enough room for Jade to slip quietly out of them - with four tiny varicolored kittens quietly suckling at her teets. Carefully, Jade slipped out of the blankets so as not to disturb Ruby's motherly care. "Ruby, they're adorable," Jade whispered breathlessly.
*Of course they are,* Ruby said calmly. *They're mine. Make yourself useful and get me some food, will you? Even the house elves won't be up for another hour.*
Eagerly, Jade rushed over to her trunk, getting Ruby's food out and filling her bowl before bringing it over. Her noise awoke the other girls in the dorm. While at first they were upset about the noise, the moment they saw the kittens all irritation was forgotten. Ruby looked on tolerantly as the third-years made much over her first litter. While they were all allowed to look, Ruby passed on her warning through Jade that anyone who tried to touch had best count their fingers afterward.
Before long, a house elf arrived with a carry basket just big enough to place Ruby and her kittens in so that she could easily be moved about. With help from the house elf - who made nearly as much over the newborn kittens as the girls had - Ruby and her kittens were transferred to the basket. As they did, Ruby gave her kittens another careful once over.
*This one,* she said at last, carefully licking the only calico in the litter. *She has the strongest magic. She will do well as a wizard's familiar. Once she is weaned, I will instruct her in what she needs to know to take care of freckleface.*
Jade smiled. *Thank you,* Jade said silently. As she carried the basket down to the common room - prepared for another bout of fuss over the kittens - she breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure Ruby would agree to that.
*I wouldn't make a liar out of you.* As usual, Ruby knew Jade's thoughts. *Besides, he needs a keeper, and I know he'll do well by her. Hmm...* She examined the other three carefully; a pure white male, a bright orange female, and a midnight black male. *The black one has weak inherent magic, but strong magic sense and powerful instincts: he should go with the bald eagle.* That was how Ruby refferred to Captain Black. *The orange one has a powerful connection to her chi; she will go to our gentle giant now that he has his own place as a chi wizard. The white boy has the most powerful sense of smell, and a powerful magical instinct; he goes with tall, pale and gloomy.* Jade grinned at Ruby's nickname for Professor Snape. As much as she liked the Potions teacher, she had to admit the description suited him. *You will take us with to the Quidditch match, of course, won't you? Don't worry about the kittens. I can sheild against the noise. But I'm not letting you out of my sight.*
Jade nodded. She wasn't about to argue with her cat.
After the Quidditch match - where the Gryffindors pulled off a spectacular victory - preperation for finals began. The finals for the more basic classes - Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Herbology - passed without incident. The finals for Jade's extra classes proved to be more...interesting. The first to come up was Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid had a surprise test for them.
"Now, you've all learned quite a bit about magical creatures, so this will be a practical test." He smiled as Norbert came in for a gentle landing. "Now, as you know, several magical ingredients are frequently harvested from dragons - blood, sclaes, saliva, and other internals. Now, blood, scales, and saliva can all be harvested while the dragon is still alive, and that's the preference, as the magic is more potent then. The preferred method is to make sure the dragon is asleep -"
Norbert promptly flopped onto his back, closing his eyes and letting off a comical snoring sound. This got a round of laughter from the class, who by now was used to Norbert's unusual antics and attention seeking behavior.
Hagrid glowered up at Norbert. "I'm trying to teach about how dragons ACTUALLY behave, Norbert." Norbert promptly rolled onto his stomach. "Anyway," Hagrid continued, "once the dragon is asleep, the harvesting is done thusly." Walking up, Hagrid ran his hands over Norbert's scaly hide until he found one that was near to being shed, and gently worked it free. Walking up to Norbert's mouth, he held up a vial and collected some saliva dripping from the teeth. "If you can't find enough saliva on the teeth, you can also squeeze a little off the tongue with a set of tongs. Now, blood's the tricky part. The only part of a dragon soft enough to draw blood from is right here." He pointed to Norbert's gums. "Now, as you can imagine, having a needle there would hurt like all get out, and if you don't go at it carefully, you're dragon food. So, here's how you do it. First, you take a swab of this stuff-" he held up a green bottle "-and wipe it on the spot you're gonna work on, right between two teeth. Then, you take the needle, slip it in slowly and carefully so as not to wake the beastie, and draw the blood." Hagrid demonstrated these steps carefully. Norbert didn't so much as twitch. "Now, here's today's final exam. Norbert will be in the nest I've made for him, feigning sleep. I will be watching. Each of you are to collect one scale, one vial of saliva, and one ounce of blood. Syringe's and vials are already set up. If you're pushin too hard with the syringe, Norbert will let you know by raising a claw by his mouth, so keep an eye out for it. If he opens his eyes, you've woken up the dragon, and you flunk that part of the exam. You can collect a scale from Norbert or a discarded one from his nest if you ain't so confident. Alright, whenever you're all ready."
The exam passed without incident, with most of the students managing to collect the required samples without problems, although a few of the Slytherins pushed too hard with the needle and flunked the blood collection. Malfoy, however, proved to be too impatient at his turn. Having seen what looked like easy successes, he skipped the anesthetic and jabbed the needle into Norbert's gums. With a roar, Norbert snapped him up in his mouth.
"Norbert!" Hagrid called. "Spit him out right now!"
Norbert looked down at Hagrid, then spit Malfoy out. As Malfoy started to complain, Hagrid spoke up. "He didn't even break the skin anywhere on ya. I gave ya fair warning what to do here, and you blatantly disregarded 'em." Hagrid grinned. "While ya didn't get no blood, you sure got plenty o' saliva."
Malfoy glowered around before stomping off as everyone laughed.
Jade's Divination final also passed without anything of note. She sat at the crystal ball as she was supposed to, staring into it. Trying to shut out Professor Trewalney's mysticism, Jade focused all her mind on the crystal ball.
A face leapt out from within the mists. Pale skin, green hair, blood red eyes glowing with hate. A wand tip appeared in the image, and green light leapt from the tip...
Jade pushed back from the table and the crystal ball, breathing heavily. As she told Professor Trewalney what she saw, she was told that she had forseen her own death at that man's hands. She recieved full marks. Jade decided she didn't trust Trewalney's interpretation.
In Ancient Runes, Jade was asked to interpret the meaning and usage of several advanced runes. As each of these were ones she had used in crafting the seventh level seal on her right arm, she was able to accomplish this with ease.
Her Occlumency final was a bit more tricky. As she was tackling magic normally reserved for sixth years, there wasn't a realistic way to test her aptitude...especially as she had already managed a fourth level defense, and could mantain third level without strain. "I think," Snape said as he looked at her carefully, "that instead of a final exam, we shall see what can be done about seperating the fire demon crystal's influence from your thoughts. I don't know how succesful we will be, but as that is why you took this class in the first place..."
Jade nodded, ready for it. On a nearby table, Ruby's basket sat, the kittens curled up fast asleep for once. The kittens were now six weeks old, and had begun the weaning process. Ruby gave Jade instrunctions on how to assist, which generally boiled down to, *Fetch.* One of the kittens - the pure white male - had awakened upon arriving in Snape's classroom, and watched the proceedings with wide eyed fascination.
Snape glanced over at the kitten, smiled briefly, then turned back to Jade. "Now, is there any point at which you are certain that the crystal had no influence on your thoughts whatsoever?"
Jade nodded. "When I had my Patronus summoned. My mind was completely clear then."
Snape nodded. "Makes sense. Since the dementors generate the greatest impact from the crystal, their opposite minimizes it. Now, what image or memory did you use to conjure your Patronus?"
Jade looked down, fiddling with her wand. "Umm...it was a series of memories that coalesced...into an image of Harry." Looking up, Jade saw a sad but knowing smile on Professor Snape's face. "That tells you something, doesn't it?" Jade demanded. "What is it?"
Snape shook his head. "I take it Professor Lupin didn't tell you either?" Jade shook her head. "I'm sure in your research and studies you have come across magic that cannot be taught, only learned?"
Jade nodded. "Yeah. It makes sense. A lot of the magics mentioned, I get the impression that a large part of the magic involves a leap of faith of some sort to fully unlock. This applies to most of the ancient and powerful magics that are nearly forgotten to time."
Snape nodded. "This is one of those things. You can only come to understand this on your own. If I were to explain it to you, it would invalidate the explanation."
Jade nodded. "Strange...but I think I understand."
Snape smiled. "However...how did you come to use that sequence of images?"
"I shaped the spell weave of the Patronus like a net," Jade explained, "and cast it through my thoughts to collect that which would give it the most power."
Snape sat up, his eyes wide. "You...shaped the Patronus Charm?"
Jade nodded. "I could feel the shape it was trying to take in my wand, and expanded it into my head to gain power."
Snape held up his wand. "Show me." He initiated the spell to probe Jade's thoughts.
This probe wasn't painful, as it was simply there, waiting for Jade to guide it. Focusing on the Patronus Charm, Jade called up the spell weave. In her thoughts, it appeared as a ghostly silver web, just barely there, waiting for a powerful image to ignite it to silver white fire. Carefully, Jade expanded the web into the net she had used before.
Snape watched carefully, an idea forming in his mind. *Where does the crystal's influence come from?*
The mindscape shifted, and Snape stood on a barren field, a pulsing red crystal in its center. Jade's face - contorted demonically as in Jade's dementor visions - stared out in defiance from the crystal's depths. The ground around the crystal pulsated as the red light attempted to convert it to crystaline formations.
Snape stared at the image, thinking. *Can you shape the web around the crystal? And layer it?*
The Patronus spell web floated over to the crystal and wove itself around it, over and over again, forming a pale white shimmer of layered light between the crystal and the mindscape. Though the crystal continued to pulse with red light, that light no longer went beyond the silver web.
Snape stared for a time. *It needs to be anchored...*
Three statues rose out of the ground surrounding the crystal. One statue looked exactly like Jade's uncle, Jackie Chan. Another looked exactly like Harry Potter. The third was an exact replica of Serverus Snape. The three layers of Patronus magic anchored themselves to the three statues.
Snape watched as the light pulsed for a time, the magic holding steady. He smiled. *Short of being swamped by a horde of dementors, I think this will hold quite nicely.* He released his spell.
He was back in his own body, in his classroom. Jade was breathing heavily. He smiled at her. "Very well done, Jade. I think I can safely give you an excellent grade."
"Thank you, Professor." Getting up, Jade carried Ruby's basket out of the room.
Two weeks after the end of Finals, as term was winding down, Ron received a note from Hagrid asking for the four friends to stop by his hut, as he'd found something of interest to them. Ruby felt confident enough in her kittens stability at eight weeks old to leave them behind in the Gryffindor common room in a fenced off area the Weasley twins had devised...although Jade privately suspected that Ruby was just desperate for some time away from four mewling younglings always wanting their mother's attention.
When they reached Hagrid's hut, he waved them in eagerly past where Buckbeak was tethered. "Any luck finding him a new home?" Jade asked hopefully.
Sadly, Hagrid shook his head. "Few wizards are rich enough to take in a Hippogriff, and those that are aren't interested." He shook himself off and grinned. "But that's not why I brought ya all here. Look who I found!" He pulled out an overturned milk jug, reaching under it and quickly grabbing the scrabbling creature within.
"Scabbers!" Ron called out happily as he took his rat back into his arms. "There you are! Where you been, buddy?" He began petting Scabbers happily.
Ruby, however, kept her eyes on Scabbers, her tail swishing angrily. *I thought he had left for good,* she grumbled in Jade's mind angrily.
Scabbers, seeming to sense Ruby's hostility, began to scramble around in Ron's hands. Jade picked Ruby up. "Easy, Ruby. Scabbers is no threat."
*Yet.* Ruby continued to watch Scabbers, but made no other show of hostility. Scabbers slowly calmed down.
After chatting with Hagrid for a bit longer, they bid goodbye as they needed to get back to the castle. As they walked up towards the castle, Jade glanced towards Hermione. The strain Harry and Ron had mentioned was plainly visible. Jade didn't know what was causing it, but she hoped Hermione found a way to fix it, as she was obviously beginning to fray at the seams.
As Jade felt a sudden surge of hostile energy, she turned her eyes forward. Plainly visible in the fading light was the large black dog Jade had first sensed at the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. Like before, his magic felt very human to her. However, before she had a chance to react, the dog had leapt at them, seizing Ron and dragging him off. They tried to catch up, but were blocked as the dog ducked into the passage beneath the Whomping Willow.
As they struggled, Crookshanks arrived, ducking between the branches to touch a knot at the base, freezing the tree. They followed the passage through up into the Shrieking Shack. When they got there, they received Ron's warning too late, and were ambushed by Sirius Black.
Jade managed to retain her wand, but could see Harry's rage wouldn't be contained so easily. However, the revelation of Sirius as the dog - as an Animagus - answered several questions for Jade, and she laid a calming hand on Harry's arm. "Harry," she said quietly, "there's more going on here than you know. I've just put it together myself. Please, calm down, and wait to hear what I have to say?"
Sirius watched calmly as Harry's rage slowly cooled. "Alright Jade," he said calmly. "Let's hear it."
Jade smiled. "Not just yet. We need to wait for two more people who will be here soon." Walking over to a shelf nearby, she reached into her pocket and set a loresphere on it.
"Who?" Harry asked.
"Professor Lupin and Professor Snape. They're both on their way here already; Lupin just outside the door, and Snape at the Willow."
As she spoke, Professor Lupin stepped in. "I really must learn to stop underestimating you, Jade."
Sirius looked up. "Remus, listen-"
"Story time can wait until Professor Snape gets here," Jade said calmly. "If you truely want the truth told, you'll behave till he gets here."
Sirius looked at Jade with raised eyebrows...then sat calmly in the corner. Turning, he tilted his head and wiggled his ears at Lupin. Lupin responded by laughing and nodding.
*They were speaking wolf,* Ruby said in Jade's mind. *They must know it from dogboy being dogboy and wolfman being a werewolf. Apparently, tall pale and gloomy isn't the only one who thinks you're a lot like scarboy's mom.*
Jade managed to glower at this, but at that moment, Professor Snape burst in. His eyes took in the scene rapidly, but before his temper overtook him, he noticed Jade standing there - somehow in control of the situation - and the loresphere on the shelf. "Miss Chan, explain."
"Only a small part of the truth has been known until now. It's time it was all known. Professor, I know you don't like either of these men, but I have one thing to tell you before you decide what to do, and know what I have to say to be true." Snape remained silent, and Jade spoke. "My magic sense reveals surrounding me: one fully trained wizard; two half trained wizards; one half trained witch; two cats; one werewolf; and two Animagi, one in human form, one in animal form."
As Sirius' eyes widened at Jade's proclamation, Snape lowered his wand. "I would like to hear this explanation, if you please."
Jade turned to SIrius. "I believe it's time for you and Professor Lupin to explain everything. Start when Lupin's lycanthropcy led you, Peter Pettigrew, and James Potter to become unregistered Animagi, if you please."
As everyone's eyes widened, Lupin cleared his throat and began the tale.
Harry listened in relative shock as first Lupin and then Sirius explained the full story. Out of respect for Jade, he kept his silence, despite how unbelievable he found the story to be. However, as he listened, it all began to make sense, and Jade's assertion that there was another Animagus in the room added verisimilitude to the tale.
At long last, as Sirius finished the tale with how Peter Pettigrew escaped and made it look like Sirius was the true Death Eater, Harry spoke up at last. "So you're saying Ron's rat...is Peter Pettigrew? And has been all along?"
Jade responded before Sirius could. "Ruby knew when she first saw him that he wasn't an ordinary rat. It's why she hissed at him when she first saw him."
"Clever cats, the both of them," Sirius said calmly. "They've been helping me move around undetected at Hogwarts this semester...although your Ruby would only give her help if I obeyed her rules. I could speak to her while in animal form, and she made it clear she'd gouge out my eyes if I hurt someone in her care."
Harry smiled as Jade laughed. "She's a bit overprotective," Jade said depreciatingly.
At this point, Ron was looking at Scabbers askance. While the story itself was hard to swallow, Jade's insistence that Scabbers was really a human had him half convinced. "So...how are you going to prove it?" Ron asked.
"Like this," Lupin said, taking Scabbers in his hands. With Sirius, he touched his wand to the rat. With a flash, it transformed into Peter Pettigrew.
The truth quickly came out, as the terrified Wormtail revealed everything as he begged for his life. Even Snape was viewing Pettigrew with barely concealed hatred. As Pettigrew begged each of them for his life, he finally came to Jade. "Sweet girl, clever girl," he said, crawling over to her. "You figured it all out, surely you can see I had no choice? You won't let them kill me, will you?" He clutched at her robes in a strange supplication.
"You dare!" Snape snapped, his voice dark and furious, a few degrees removed from the crack of doom. WIth a snap, his magic lashed Pettigrew, knocking him head over heels away from Jade. Snape had his wand out and leveled at Pettigrew.
In the end, Harry convinced Sirius not to kill Pettigrew, to instead take him up to Hogwarts to prove Sirius' innocence. Eventually, everyone agreed to this course of action. Snape picked up the Loresphere. "I wouldn't try to run, Peter," he said calmly. "Even if you do escape, the truth will still out." He slipped the sphere into his pocket.
Snape and Lupin bound Pettigrew up and between them, walking him carefully out the passage. Harry walked with Sirius, slowly coming to grips with what had happened. When Sirius mentioned that - as his godfather - he was Harry's legal guardian, and Harry could move in with him, if he wanted to. Harry's enthusiasm at this suggestion brought laughter back into Sirius, and Harry could see it made Jade smile as well.
However, when they made it out, Lupin caught sight of the full moon. "Idiot!" Snape hissed as Lupin shuddered. "You didn't take your potion, did you?" He tried to cut Lupin free, but as Lupin changed a stray backhand knocked Snape aside, thankfully not cutting.
Sirius shifted to his animal form to keep Lupin in check, and Ruby lended a paw, leaping onto Lupin's back and...sparking. Harry wasn't sure what that was about, but it plainly caused Lupin minor pain, as he quickly fled. In the confusion, however, Pettigrew made his escape. Sirius, Harry, and Jade chased after him, Snape coming close behind as Hermione tried to tend to Ron.
Harry was gasping as Jade outpaced her...but then he heard her scream, and he couldn't run fast enough.
He arrived at the scene, seeing a swarm of dementors descending on Sirius and Jade. Sirius was back in his human form, already shaking. Jade had her wand out. "Expecto Patronum!" she called out, and her Patronus leapt forth from her wand, keeping the dementors at bay.
Harry also conjured his own somewhat pathetic Patronus, but both were beginning to fail from the sheer mass of dementors. Suddenly, the crystal around Jade's neck pulsed, and she screamed. Her Patronus vanished, and she fell to the ground, shuddering.
"JADE!" The sound ripped from Harry's throat as his own knees collapsed and his Patronus vanished. He could see the dementors approaching and he saw Jade and Sirius shuddering in their presence. Then...Jade's shudders slowed...and stilled.
The world was overcast with a white sheen. Harry could see quite clearly. Jade was dying. The dementors were causing it. The dementors had to be removed. Harry's mind went blindingly clear. Failure wasn't a possibility. He would succeed.
As his head snapped up, the dementors pulled back, seemingly afraid. He raised his wand to the heavens. His voice echoed around the grounds as he cried, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
The silver light erupted...not from Harry's wand, but from his entire body as the white sheen of the world solidified as a massive silver-white stag that lunged for the dementors. Not content with driving them off, the Patronus was plainly trying to destroy them if they didn't flee fast enough. An unearthly keen erupted as the silver stag's horn tore a long gash on one of the dementor's, spilling a strange, blue gray substance that smoked as it fell. The dementors fled.
At long last, with all the dementor's gone, Sirius and Jade's breathing returned to normal. As the Patronus vanished, his vision went completely white. He then fell over, his arm falling protectively over Jade before everything went dark.