Disclaimer: I know that I keep repeating myself, but I really am sorry for taking so long to post new chapters. I can only hope that I have enough spare time in college to write as much as I can. This chapter was co written with me by HollyHobbit101, and the characters contained therein do not belong to either of us.
Jaime almost missed breakfast the next morning. She was woken by Padma Patil shaking her shoulder, her face full of kindness.
"Jaime? Breakfast's in five minutes. We thought we'd let you sleep in as long as possible, but you really have to get up now."
Her eyes heavy with lack of sleep, Jaime glanced around the dormitory. All the other girls were dressed, ready to leave with their beds neatly made. The grandfather clock in the corner read as 7:55. Fan-flipping-tastic. She rubbed her eyes then swung her legs out of bed and made her way to the bathroom, grabbing her robes on the way.
"Thanks Padma. I'll be there as quickly as I can."
With a nod, Padma turned and exited with the other Ravenclaws, leaving Jaime alone.
She practically flew to the Great Hall and managed to slide into her seat beside Oliver , just before Dumbledore greeted them. It was October so the castle had been decked out in Halloween decorations of every kind. The floating candles had been transfigured into pumpkins and Hagrid had managed to persuade some friendly spiders into spinning them beautiful cobwebs to hang from the ceiling. More ghosts than usual drifted among – and through – the hungry student. One of them decided to grab a pastry off the Ravenclaw table for no apparent reason, which involved sticking his arm through Jaime. That woke her up good and proper.
As the students were filing out the Great Hall, Oliver ran up to Jaime and tugged on her sleeve to get her attention. She turned to face him.
"What?"
"Are you okay?" he asked, studying her face. "You look really tired and you seemed spaced out during breakfast."
"Tell you later." She moved to walk away, but Oliver pulled her back.
"No. Tell me now."
Jaime sighed. "Meet me in the common room at lunch. I'll tell you what's going on then, I promise. But I really have to get to class now."
Oliver looked at her a second longer then released her. "Fine. See you then."
Jaime watched him as he threaded his way through the crowd. She shook her head at the ceiling and headed off.
The morning lessons passed in a blur. Most of her thoughts were focused on Draco and the previous night, so she wasn't fully concentrated on what she was doing. In Transfiguration she managed to cast an engorgio spell on her mouse instead of turn it into a goblet. However, she managed to rectify her mistake before Professor McGonagall noticed. During Potions, she spotted Draco stealing glances at her every five minutes or so. She flashed him a look that she hope conveyed 'STOP!' It must have worked, for he turned bright red and kept his eyes solely trained on his potion for the remainder of that lesson. She did, however, find another paper bird on her desk when everyone was packing their equipment away. She glanced round, making sure nobody saw, and slipped it into her pocket, resolving to open it later when she was alone. For now, though, she had to figure out how to tell her brother what had happened.
"Hey Oliver." She greeted her brother as she walked into the common room where he was already waiting. Nobody else was there; they must have been down in the Great Hall.
"Hey. What's going on?"
For a moment, Jaime was taken aback by Oliver's directness. Then she laughed. "Blimey, Ol, nice to see you too. No beating about the bush with you then?"
"No. What's going on?" he repeated.
Taking a deep breath, she sat down in one of the armchairs and motioned for Oliver to do the same. "Alright. You've noticed, I'm sure, how Draco Malfoy has shown a certain… interest in me. Well, he invited me to meet with him in the Astronomy Tower last night. Late. That's why I'm so tired."
"WHAT?" Oliver roared, shooting to his feet. "You told me you were going to handle this yourself and now you're meeting with him at some godforsaken hour? What were you thinking?"
"I am handling it!" she yelled back. "You think ignoring him would make the problem go away? I did what I had to, Ol. Now. Are you going to let me finish or have you heard enough."
The siblings faced off for a moment before Oliver eased himself back into his seat and motioned for her to continue.
"Right. He sent one of his friends, Blaise Zabini, to come and escort me there. He explained his difficult situation to me and why he'd been doing what he was. I listened to him and I found myself sympathizing with him. His words... They contained such raw pain, Ol. I think he meant what he said. Then he– he asked me if I would go on a date with him. And I said yes."
She sat back in her chair and looked over at her brother. He was staring at her in shock with his mouth hanging open almost comically and his eyes as wide as saucers. Silence reigned for a minute as Jaime awaited her brother's response to the news. Just as the tension became uncomfortable, Oliver pulled himself out of his reverie and rounded on her.
"What, in hell's name, did you think you were doing?! You could have been caught, thrown in detention for the entire term, scratch that the entire year. Or…Or Malfoy could have been setting you up. Or he might be using you. Did you even think about anyone other than yourself last night? Do you think this is what our parents would want?"
"Don't you DARE bring our parents into this! This is MY decision, not yours and not theirs. Mum and Dad are gone, Ol, and I don't think the rest of my life should be taken up by what they would want."
"You don't understand!" Oliver yelled back. "Before the fire, I promised Dad that I would keep you safe. I PROMISED HIM ,JAIME."
"That's a two way street, Ol. You're my younger brother. Don't you think I want to protect you too? You think I didn't make a similar promise? I can take care of myself. Let me do this and if it's a mistake then I'll back out. But I don't think it is."
Oliver looked at her in surprise. They had never had a fight like this before and even Jaime was appalled. There was an uncomfortable moment between them before Oliver turned away and stormed out of the common room, fuming in silence. As much as Jaime's heart wanted to chase after him, her mind told her to let her brother cool down and come back on his own time. Chances are, he was going straight back down to lunch. In the meantime, Jaime removed the paper bird from the inside of her robes and sat down to begin reading it. Knowing that it was from Draco, she wasted no time in opening it, and reading what was written. As usual the penmanship was in beautiful Italic, something that Draco seemed fond of doing as opposed to just normal cursive.
Good Morning, Jaime
I hope that you are having a good day thus far. I wanted to start by apologizing for staring at you again in Potions today. You looked exhausted, as if you hadn't slept very well. Though I must apologize again as that is my fault for keeping you up at such an ungodly hour last night. To make it up to you, I have enclosed in this letter, another batch of edible coffee beans to get you through the rest of the day. When the time is right, I shall endeavor to give you something befitting our current status. For now, I just wanted to say thank you again for giving me a chance where no one else would. When it does come, I promise that you won't regret a single moment of our time together. Until then, stay beautiful, keep doing what you're doing, and I'll be here for you, always.
Yours truly,
Draco Lucius Malfoy
P.S. I know that I shouldn't be telling you this, but seeing as how honesty is the best way to build a relationship, this coming Friday, I won't be attending school as there will be an important meeting that my father is insisting that I attend. I'm sure you're already aware of the nature of said meeting. Come Monday, I may feel and look a bit out of character, but I will still endeavor to contact you when I can and somehow plan our first date.
As Jaime finished reading the letter, she placed it on her lap, rolled her eyes, and let out a sigh of frustration. It was only Monday, and already he was showering her with sweet words, and making plans to go out on a date, unaware of the damage that he was unintentionally causing. She could only imagine what he would be like if they were ever alone together. Though on the other hand, if he meant what he said, it would be nice to receive the same love and warmth that she was raised with in her parent's home. Just the though of her parents knowing about her involvement with a Malfoy, who was a death eater, was enough to send a chill down her spine, and make her shake her head quickly; as though it would help her clear the thought from her mind.
Jaime quickly stood from her seat, and went up to the girl's dormitory to deposit the letter alongside the other one in her bedside table drawer. But not before finding the aforementioned coffee beans, concealed in the same manner as the other one, and eating a small handful. She looked up at the grandfather clock that sat in the corner of the room, and saw that she a little over 10 minutes left in the lunch period. Deciding to make up for lost time she made use of the moving staircases, and managed to get back to Ravenclaw table in time to hear Professor Dumbledore give a brief speech about a grand Halloween feast that would come on the official day.
In addition there would be a field trip to Hogsmeade, for all students, including first and second years. Chances are this was when Draco planned for their date to be, since he's been attending this school a lot longer than she had. None the less, Jaime's main focus was making sure her brother was in one piece. From where she was seated, she could see just about every wizard sitting at the Ravenclaw table, but Oliver wasn't one of them. Seeing her distress, Padma leaned forward toward Jaime with a kind smile on her face.
"If you're looking for your brother, you missed him about two minutes ago. He said that he was going the bathroom". Jaime looked at Padma wanting to hear more about her brother's whereabouts, assuming she knew anything more.
"How did he look? Was he upset? Did he say anything when he came back down here?" The kind expression that Padma wore slightly faltered, but didn't completely leave her face.
"Yeah. He looked pretty angry, and didn't really speak to anyone. He even put his head down for a good minute, and when I asked him if he was okay, he got up and said he was going to the bathroom". If you need to find it, then go to the right as soon as you leave here, walk straight until you see an opening, make another right, and you're there". Once she fell silent and turned her attention back to her meal, Jaime knew that was all she would get out of Padma. Still it was better than nothing. With that in mind, Jaime prepared to stand up and leave, just as it was time for lunch to be over.
"Thanks Padma". She said quickly. Not wanting to wait another minute, Jaime got back up and left, following the directions that were given. The hallway was void of people save for the talking portraits that quietly conversed with each other. Just as she was reaching the opening that Padma mentioned, her right shoulder came into contact with something so hard that it knocked her right onto the ground. Fortunately, Jaime managed to stick her arms out to break her fall, but that didn't make the collision any less painless. She hissed in pain, as her wrists bared the brunt of her fall, throbbing in agony, at the amount of pressure that she was putting on them until she was laying belly down on the stone floor. From behind her, she heard a voice that she knew all too well.
"Dammit. Are you okay? I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do that." Said Draco anxiously. As much as Jaime was inclined to believe him, the first time that he said those words, he was on the verge of meeting the end of her wand, given his reputation. Just as she was prepared to lift herself off of the ground, Draco beat her to it, and hooked his hands under her armpits, pulling her to stand on her feet.
"Here, I've got you. How are you feeling?" He asked. Jaime quickly turned around to face, him, but was also faced with the surprise of seeing Professor Snape standing alongside him. As always his expression was purely apathetic, but something in his eyes told her differently as they burned holes in the back of Draco's head. As if there was something he desperately wanted to say to the blond wizard. The look that he sent her way when he noticed her staring quickly went back to apathy, but was partially blocked, as Draco felt the need to push back thin strands of her hair that he believed were in front of her face. Jaime wrapped her hand around his wrist as he tried to do it a third time.
"You can stop that. I'm okay, seriously". The expression that Draco wore was as worried as they come, and wanted to question her further, but knowing that Professor Snape wasn't a patient man, he released a short sigh, remove his wrist from her hand, and pulled it into his own to place a chaste kiss on her knuckle. Shock quickly painted Jaime's face as she pulled her hand away, and made her way down the hall to look for Oliver. It wasn't the gesture itself that threw her off, but the fact that he had the boldness to do it in front of one of the professors. While Professor Snape, being the man that he is, couldn't have cared less if they were dating, it was the principle of it that had Jaime's mind reeling.
He was practically violating a very simple rule that she'd only given him hours ago. As if the day wasn't hectic enough already. As Jaime approached the bathrooms, she now saw that it wasn't just a boy's bathroom, by itself, as it had a girl's bathroom accompanying it. Even though the hallway was empty save for Draco and Snape who were now gone from her sight, Jaime still felt the need to turn around and look out to see if anyone was in the hallway. Not that she had any intention of actually going into the boy's bathroom, but merely stand in the doorway and shout Oliver's name as quietly as humanly possible. Which is exactly what she did for the next 30 seconds, before students began to fill up the hallway and move to their next class.
As much as Jaime hated to be beaten, she could only hope that Oliver wasn't stupid enough to let his temper interfere with his studies. So with a grit of her teeth, she shoved herself away from the bathroom, doorway, and stalked off to her next class.