After dinner Jade walked up to the Gryffindor Tower with her friends. In her mind she was already putting together an outfit for the night as she stepped inside her dormitory; she wanted to look prettier than usual. And so, after a hot bath and a small wrestling match with her own wardrobe, she was wandering through the corridors of the castle again as the curfew loomed closer.

Draco hadn't told her any concrete time, but Jade thought that he would probably not turn up before nine o'clock. And she was right about that. It wasn't until half past nine that Jade heard someone knock silently against the old wooden door of the study room. She stood up from her place on the couch, where she had been reading in one of her books, and walked over to open the door.

Without saying a word, Draco entered swiftly and closed the door behind him again. Jade noticed that he looked very worn out, but definitely a little more like his groomed self from last year again. He was still wearing his school uniform and his tie was hanging loosely around his neck, adding to the rather knackered impression. As he turned towards her, his grey eyes found hers and instead of saying anything, he raised his arm to brush back a piece of her hair.

"You weren't at dinner." She said, determined to talk to him before letting him kiss her again. Draco cupped her cheek in his hand for a small second before he let go and said curtly "Couldn't make it."
Then he turned and walked over to the couch, letting his school bag drop on the floor a few feet next to it. He sat down, propped his feet up on the couch table and leaned back. As Jade followed him and sat down to his side, his eyes were closed. He did not look like he wanted to talk right now... but he had promised it.

"So did you find what you were looking for?" she asked him.

Without opening his eyes, Draco's hand slid into the inside pocket of his cloak and pulled out a little glass flask. Inside was a muddy-looking liquid, Jade recognized instantly.

"Polyjuice?"

He nodded.

"What do you need it for?"

Draco tilted his head to the side and opened his eyes. "Let's make a deal." He said.

"I thought we already had one."

"A better one.. You give me half an hour and after that I'll tell you the whole story."

Jade opened her mouth to protest, so Draco quickly said "I need the potion for Crabbe and Goyle. And when I disappear I'm in the Room of Requirement."

He stood up and took off his cloak, as well as his tie, and as he turned again, he smirked at Jade's slightly baffled expression. Her brain was working at top speed as she tried to decipher all the possible meanings of his words. One secret was definitely unveiled now: Draco couldn't be found on the Marauder's Map if he needed the Room of Requirement to be unplottable for him.

He sat down next to her again and held out his hand; a little timidly, Jade took it. He pulled her over to him and wrapped his other arm around her to pull her against his chest as he turned and stretched his legs out on the couch. His arms were around her and Jade felt unusually nervous as she lay beside him and rested her face against the fabric of his shirt. They suddenly were so close now and her heart was beating faster than she would have liked, betraying her. She wondered if this felt as exciting for Draco as it did for her, but the boy had already closed his eyes. He really had to be extremely tired. She let one of her hands travel up and laid it down upon his chest. Only a moment later Draco moved his own hand to lie on top of hers.

For exactly half an hour he kept her in his arms like this, his eyes closed and his breathing steady, until they heard a bell somewhere in the castle chime ten times. Then his eyes opened again, telling Jade that he hadn't really been sleeping, and instead of sitting up, he pulled her a little closer to his chest.

"I think you need to ask me a question. I don't quite know where to start." He said after a moment of silence.

Jade propped herself up a little, so she was able to look into his eyes and said "The last thing I know is that you needed to... murder.. someone. And I'm fairly certain that Katie Bell wasn't your true target."

Draco's face had twitched slightly at the mentioning of Katie. "Who is it, Draco?"

For a second his eyes closed again and he pulled up his hand to press two of his fingers against the bridge of his nose. "Dumbledore." He stated silently.

"That's ridiculous!" Jade couldn't help but say. No student was able to kill the headmaster himself. The mere idea was simply ludicrous! But then she remembered what Draco had said last summer, that You-Know-Who expected him to fail. Now she got scared. "What is he going to do to you if you...?"

"Fail?" asked Draco. He didn't say it out loud, but there was a small movement of his eyes and a short nod of his head and Jade knew what it meant.

"Why?" her voice sounded feeble. "Because your father didn't get the Prophecy?"

He nodded. "I suppose so. Initially he gave me until Christmas. I guess you remember that one night.. "

Draco stopped as Jade pushed herself up into a full sitting position. Hearing those things was much worse than only imagining them. She remembered the way Draco's face had looked after the holidays. He had been tortured for his lack of success. Suddenly a huge lump was forming in her throat. This was so much worse than anything she herself ever had to go through. She remembered how she had treated him that night in the dream, still being angry about Parkinson; when he had been punished by him. She felt guilty and a few tears rolled down her cheeks at the image of the boy being abused. Quickly Draco pushed himself up, too.

"It wasn't that bad, Jade. I.." His words only made it worse. Of course, it had been bad. His face looked as if someone had tried to smash it that week. Jade looked up at him. The thought of him in pain was unbearable to her. How was he able to stand all this? To go through this alone and not crack?

Slowly she wiped her tears away as Draco stroked her hair softly. Weirdly enough, he was smiling at her. And Jade wanted nothing more than to hug him, to squeeze him so tightly that he wouldn't be able to breathe anymore... and just not let go again. But she thought that would be a little childish.. She could do things like that with Blaise, but not with him.

And so she leaned forward and tried to take the grown-up approach to showing him her feelings. Slowly she kissed his lips and felt Draco's hand travel a little down and bury itself in her hair. She knew she hadn't said it yet, but she loved him.. very much so. And she knew that sometimes a kiss could say just as much as words could.

It was a loving and tender kiss and Jade ended it before it started getting more heated. This wasn't the right moment for that. And so she pulled away again, even though something inside her didn't want to.

And after a moment she asked "What are you trying to do now? How are you going to do this?"

The fact that she was currently talking about the death of Albus Dumbledore only occurred to Jade distantly. She needed to find a way to make Draco survive this. Should she herself go to the headmaster and ask for help? Or would that only worsen the whole situation? If You-Know-Who found out, Draco's mother would be in terrible danger... Was Dumbledore's death the only way for Draco? And hadn't Snape done the Unbreakable Vow? Had he vowed to kill Dumbledore if Draco failed to do it? Oh Merlin.. This was really, really bad. What should she do now?

Draco had leaned back against the armrest of the couch and as he began to speak, he stirred Jade up from her trail of thoughts. "Well, what can I say? I guess I'm a pretty lousy assassin. So I'm trying to.. fix a certain object that will help me do it."

"An object?"

"Jade, I think I shouldn't tell you all the details. You know I do trust you. But believe me, you don't want this one on your conscience. It suffices if I tell you that I try to fix that object in the Room of Requirement. Crabbe and Goyle act as lookouts, disguised with Polyjuice Potion. But I'm having trouble repairing it. It was pretty heavily damaged, almost destroyed. And no one ever taught us how to do something like this. I mean, I'm from a family of diplomats, not artisans. Nobody can really tell me what to do and the library isn't helping either. So I'm spending all of my time in that blasted room without making any progress.. for months now." His voice sounded more and more frustrated as he spoke.

"If you told me what it was," Jade said, feeling pretty desperate suddenly, "maybe I could help you. My uncle is an inventor and I'm not bad at stuff like this either."

"No, I don't want you involved in this." Draco said determinedly. "And I don't think you really want to be responsible for something like this either. I just don't want you to do this for me. It's my burden and I won't unload it onto you of all people."

Jade nodded; she respected him for this decision. It was the way any real man would decide. Draco's left arm was still resting across her thighs and as she shifted a little in her position, she saw him twitch involuntarily. Her eyes fell down upon his arm and slowly she took it into her hands. Without really thinking about it, she carefully rolled up his sleeve and Draco let her. There it sat on his creamy white skin, dark and ugly. At the edges of the skull, Draco's skin looked flaming red.

"Does it hurt?" She asked him silently as she laid her small hand into his larger one and looked at him.

"Bloody agony." He said, shrugging. "Wasn't that bad at first, but then.." he stopped mid-sentence and his eyes left hers.

"What happened?"

"I.. tried to cut it out. It was stupid in retrospect, but I was feeling slightly self-destructive at the time. Needless to say it didn't work."

Jade's eyes grew wider. He had cut out his own skin? "When did you do that?" she whispered.

"First week of school. But I accepted it now." He added. "I guess I'll always carry that skull on my skin. And I am what they call a Death Eater." He spat out that last two words as if they were repulsive to him.

"Just because people call you that, it doesn't make you one." Jade said wisely and Draco looked consoled at her words. He leaned forwards and kissed her forehead.

"I really missed you, you know." He whispered and then he leaned back again. "Let's stop talking about this. I'd love to get my mind off it for a moment." Jade nodded; she could understand that.

"So what's up with the Weasel King and the bookworm?" he asked now. "I always wondered about that."

Jade smiled, Hogwarts' gossip seemed so stupid and meaningless, but it would take his mind away from his problems. "Well, Ron got together with Lavender.." she said.

"Why did he do that?" Draco asked "Didn't he appreciate the.." He mimicked having giant front teeth, earning a slightly scathing look from Jade.

"No, he's just ... a boy."

Draco's eyebrows rose, but wisely he didn't choose to comment on this. So instead he asked "And what happened to Zabini's girl? I can't believe he really picked a Gryffindor, who's not even pureblood."

"Well, he didn't exactly pick her. I did. For the Christmas Party, you remember?"

"Vividly." He smirked.

"Blaise didn't bother to get a date. So I asked her and he couldn't deny that she was exceptionally pretty." Draco let out a little fake cough at those last words and Jade furrowed her brow.

"You don't think she's pretty?" she asked.

"Well, let's put it like that." He said diplomatically. "I prefer brunettes."

Jade laughed a little at that. Of course, Chloé and Jade were very different types of girls and she had indeed looked out for a blonde, knowing that Astoria, Blaise's only girlfriend, was blonde, as well. Thinking of Blaise, she said "I got into a major fight with him today. About you.. But we did make up afterwards."

"What a shame." Draco said, still smirking.

"Oh, you can wipe that smirk right off your face again, because he wants to talk to you now." She said, but Draco's smirk only grew haughtier.

"Talk to me? And why should I worry about that? You do realize that I only put up with him all those months, because I knew I deserved it.. the hexes in the hallways, the time he.." (he made a quick hand gesture)".. my face. But please.. if I ever took out my wand against him.. I know curses that would sent him running to his mummy. He's just a big talker. No fighter. He never had to take the walk."

"There won't be any fighting." Jade said, feeling slightly alarmed at Draco's words. "He just wants to make sure that you take things seriously with me this time."

Now Draco looked suspicious. "Then why worry about it? What are you afraid of?"

"I'm just .. scared that he'll say things that make you leave me again." She said sadly. "Blaise is good at manipulating people. And I.."

But Draco interrupted her. "I know you don't trust me yet, Jade. But believe me, there's no need for you to worry. I will never leave you again. I promise. There's nothing that anyone could ever say or do to make me let go of you."

Well, now Jade simply had to kiss him. Slowly she swung one leg over him and turned to sit on his lap. Her hands took hold of his shoulders and he wrapped his arms around her waist as she leaned closer. They started with cute, small kisses that left Jade wanting more. And so she opened her mouth a little and let Draco really kiss her. She almost had forgotten what an amazing kisser he was...

Half an hour later, Jade put the brakes on it. She had promised herself to take things slowly, but the way she and Draco had been going at it couldn't exactly be considered that. And so she put a stop to it and pushed against his chest. At some point their positions had shifted and she was lying on her back on the couch while Draco was above her. He stopped kissing her as he felt her hands pressing against him and as his grey eyes swept over the girl underneath him, he seemed to be contemplating for a second whether to ignore her actions and continue kissing her.

But then he shook his hair out of his eyes and moved to lie next to her again, snaking an arm around the back of her neck to hold her to him. Both of them needed a moment to steady their breathing and Jade felt the butterflies in her stomach running wild again.

It was a bit of a challenge, but for the rest of the night they managed to just talk to each other. And Jade could tell that Draco actually enjoyed that almost as much as the kissing. After all he hadn't really talked to anyone all those last months.

At some time during the night Draco summoned a blanket for the two of them and as the fire in the fireplace burned down, Jade slowly fell asleep.

The sky outside still was a deep dark blue as Jade awoke again. It was very dark inside the room, but in the light of the moon and the stars Jade saw that Draco was still asleep. His arms were both around her and his breathing steady and calm. His face looked a lot more relaxed than it did while he was awake.

For a moment she just watched him; he really was a very handsome young man. Somehow you could just tell that he came from a noble family; his face had a certain delicacy to it. And as she watched him, she realized that he was more similar to Harry than he himself would have liked to admit. Both of them were marked men in a way, branded, and their paths were determined by the same cruel monster. People called Harry a hero... and they called Malfoy the bad guy. But he had those qualities as well.. perseverance and bravery. He protected the ones he loved and he had certainly gone through some pain on his way. Jade knew that she was possibly the only person that would ever see this side of him, but she was incredibly happy that she was able to.

She caught herself staring and had to smile, grateful that he couldn't see her. She nuzzled her face against his chest and even though he was asleep, she felt his arms around her tighten again and it made her heart do a little flip. She knew she had to do something to help him. Maybe she should just ask him to go with her after she graduated. He would be safe at their house. Jade knew that Draco wanted to do this on his own and maybe he even had the hope to restore the name of his family among the rows of Death Eaters. But if he failed, Jade wouldn't let him return to his home.. and if she had to hex him on order to save him. She would.

Only an hour later Jade wandered down the corridors of the school, headed for an early breakfast. Draco was already sitting at the Slytherin table as she entered the Great Hall; he had left first so she could take the key with her again. Before they had said Goodbye to each other, he had asked her if they could meet again on Friday and she had happily agreed. Her good mood only sank slightly as she realized that Draco wasn't the only Slytherin at the table, who had obviously not gotten much sleep this night.

Blaise sat at the other end of the table, his eyes sweeping across the hall, and he looked as if someone had just vomited into his bowl of cereal. Clearly he knew that Draco and Jade had spent the night together and he did not seem to approve at all.

As Draco stood up to leave, Blaise mimicked his actions and with a nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach, Jade watched how the dark boy followed Draco out of the Hall. She knew that if they fought this time, Blaise would be the one ending up in the Hospital Wing.

By lunchtime Blaise's mood had apparently only dropped further. Jade was waiting for him in the Entrance Hall and as he rushed out of the dungeons, she stepped forward to ask timidly how it went. To her surprise Blaise simply said "Let's not talk about it anymore." And lead the way into the Great Hall.

Smiling, Jade followed him. So Draco had proven himself to Blaise. She had no idea how, but the fact that he had made her trust him a little more. She wondered whether she shouldn't have doubted him in the first place, but doubt was probably normal after everything that had happened. And to regain her full trust again, Draco simply had to work a little harder this time.

The rest of the day was spent inside the library with Leanne. The two girls had to do the last finishing touches on a presentation they were supposed to give in Transfiguration the next day. Jade was writing down their final structure with all the keywords on a scroll of parchment as Leanne kept double-checking a few facts. Jade realized that her friend had no idea that she hadn't slept in her own dormitory that night. Thank Leanne's deep sleep for that...

The next day at breakfast Jade sat down between Hermione and Ginny, who still was treating her icily. She watched how the redhead slid a few inches further down the bench and away from her as Hermione turned towards her.

"You're already nervous about your presentation today?" she asked as she loaded up her plate.

"A little." Jade admitted. "It just is very important for our N.E.W.T.s. And McGonagall always has such high expectations."

Right in that moment Leanne arrived in the Great Hall and approached Jade, who already excused herself and stood up from the table to meet her. It only took a few minutes and Jade sat down at the table again; Leanne just had had a few last minute questions.

Jade noticed that Ginny turned her back on her the moment she arrived. The girl's behaviour seemed a little extreme and Jade realized that she would have to talk to her eventually.

A few hours later she stood in front of her Transfiguration class and as Leanne wrote the topic of their presentation down on the blackboard, Jade pulled out the scroll with all of their notes from her bag and stared down at it in shock. It was empty!

Quickly she pulled out her wand and did a few spells on it, but nothing happened. She swore inwardly as her palms were beginning the get sweaty. How could this be possible? This was the right scroll, wasn't it? Or had she packed the wrong one this morning? No.. she was sure she had checked before she had left the Common Room. This was too important for her.

"Is everything in order, Miss Heywood?" Professor McGonagall asked her. Jade felt as if she had just fallen into a nightmare. Failing in class was definitely one for her.. especially because Leanne depended on her as well.

"I'm sorry, Professor.. Leanne.. Our notes."

Professor McGonagall approached with quick strides and took the scroll out of Jade's hands. She waved her wand over the parchment, looked surprised for a moment, then tried again. This time Jade's handwriting reappeared.

"You need more than this little jinx, Miss Heywood, to get out of this." She said sternly as she handed back the scroll. "Now, please begin!"

As Jade packed her things together at the end of class she was smiling to herself. After the rocky start Leanne and her presentation had been flawless and the Professor had been very pleased with them. But Jade still wondered about how her writing could have disappeared like that. It had been there this morning as she had packed her bag. And nobody could have gotten their hands on it when she always carried it with her.. Only once she had left it unattended. At breakfast when she had spoken to Leanne. But Hermione and Ginny had.. Ginny!

The girl was angry with her and she was the only one (except Hermione) that could have done it. But would she really do something like that to her?

Jade told Hermione about her suspicions that night in the Common Room and her friend looked a little concerned.

"I think you could be right." She said. "After all Ginny grew up with Fred and George. Pranks and jokes almost run in her veins. But this is really taking it a little too far. This was about your and Leanne's N.E.W.T.s after all! I think you need to talk to her."

Jade nodded in consent, but right now she was supposed to wait for Chloé for their first tutoring lesson together. After the girl arrived, Jade spent an hour explaining the basics of potion brewing to her and she listened intently and understood fast.

Afterwards they sat together for a while, talking about this and that. Blaise didn't come up in their conversation and neither did Chloé's new boyfriend. But even though the blonde kept smiling a lot and was rather bubbly, Jade was enough of a Legilimens to see that there was something on the girl's mind. What it was, she could not say.

The next day at school passed rather quickly. Classes were getting more difficult as the exams approached and a cold breeze was still flowing through the castle as February was nearing its end.

That night it was time for Quidditch training and Harry let them practice longer and harder than usual. Jade wanted to give her best, but today she just couldn't. As she played with the other Chasers she almost never got the Quaffle. Ginny didn't pass it to her once and every time Dean had it, the other girl called her boyfriend's name to catch his attention. The only times Jade ever had the Quaffle, Ginny suddenly lacked behind and only Dean was there to her side. Ginny's behaviour really started to annoy her and she felt even more resentful as Harry called her back to stay after the training had ended.

He was watching the Beaters return the Bludgers into the large wooden chest as Jade soared down to his side.

"What was that today, Jade? The match is in fairly more than two weeks and I've never seen you play worse! Whatever you and Ginny are fighting about, you need to stop it!" he chastised her.

"Harry, you don't need to tell me this!" she said angrily. "I'm not the problem here! I.." In that moment something hard hit the back of her head. Ginny had let the Quaffle drop right above her and was soaring over them as Jade felt a lump form on top of her head.

"Oi! Ginny!" Harry shouted up at her.

"Sorry, Captain!" she yelled innocently down at him. "I thought you guys saw me!"

Incredulously Jade stared after the girl as she shot off to the Changing Rooms.

"You're alright?" Harry asked and Jade nodded.

"I'll check with Ginny right now." She said grimly and Harry clapped her on the back as she swung her leg over her broom again and set after the redhead.

As she arrived in the Changing Room Ginny had apparently already gotten dressed at top speed. But Jade wouldn't let her get away this time.

"Alright, that's enough!" she said decidedly as she approached the other girl.

"Excuse me? I have no idea what you're talking about." Ginny shot a false smile up at her as she bent down to tie her shoelaces.

"Oh, please Ginny! First you sabotage my school work and now you start hurting me physically?"

"I told you I thought you saw me aiming at you!" the redhead said in an exasperated voice; then she turned and walked towards the door.

Before she opened it, Jade called after her. "What's the point in denying when we both know you are lying? What's your problem, Ginny?"

The other girl turned around again, annoyance clear in her face. "What my problem is? Well, maybe the slutty girl in my face is my problem!"

Jade had to prevent her mouth from falling open. Had Ginny just called her a slut? Even though she felt anger rise up inside her, she tried to take the high road for now. "You know there never was anything between me and Harry." she said in a calm voice.

"Really? So what were you doing in his bed then? You do that with your other friends as well? The whole castle talks about you and Zabini.. I just never believed it was true. And now you try the same with Harry! He doesn't deserve that, Jade!"

Jade's eyebrows shot up high; she could sense that Ginny was being dishonest in her apparent concern for Harry. The redhead only tried to mask her own jealousy.

"Really, Ginny? You know exactly that I never even liked Harry in that way! But even if I did, what's it to you? You have a boyfriend, haven't you? You've got no right to determine if Harry can see other girls. And I'm not speaking for myself here!"

"Stop acting so noble, Jade! You know why I don't want to see the two of you together! I told you about it! My feelings never changed! So what kind of friend are you, Jade, that you go behind my back like this? Sometimes I really wish the Sorting Hat would just have put you into Slytherin. That's where you belong!"

Jade's eyes narrowed slightly, making them appear more cat-like than usual. She felt as if Ginny had just pushed their friendship off the cliff. Jade had never done anything to deserve this and this injustice made her angry. "So if you got feelings for Harry, then what are you doing with Dean? !" she said in a cold voice. Ginny looked at her as if she had slapped her. And feeling slightly aggressive, Jade added. "So who's the real slut here?"

Ginny moved fast, but not fast enough. The moment she cried out her incantation Jade had already gotten out her own wand. And as giant Bogeys started flying at Jade to attack her, she swirled it through the air and turned them into little puffs of green smoke.

"Please, Ginny.. you couldn't hex me if your life depended on it!" she said disparagingly. She knew she was only provoking Ginny further, but she really was angry at the girl.

"Furnunculus!" the redhead cried out, but Jade deflected it easily. You couldn't really surprise someone in a battle if you cried your spells out that loudly anyway. Ginny was just wasting their time. Another set of hexes came flying at her as Ginny was getting more in rage with each one. It took a lot for Jade to contemplate hexing someone she considered a friend, but Ginny's behaviour was insulting her on so many levels.

For a second she thought about which Charm to perform. She didn't want to use any simple standard Defensive spell; she wanted to show Ginny that she was far more accomplished than that. Then she closed her eyes, concentrating, and moved her wand through the air, thinking of the incantation in her head. She felt the air moving around her ankles as a miniature tornado built up around Ginny's body. Jade liked this spell in particular. It made the opponent unable to move or see clearly, but didn't really hurt them. The air around Ginny was spinning fast and turning a smoky violet colour as muffled screams of anger reached Jade's ears. Smirking, she added a small Frost Hex to it; after all Ginny really needed to cool down a little.

Over the noise of the small storm, she had created, Jade quickly heard other noises.. steps. Immediately she stopped her Whirlwind Charm and the air around Ginny turned to its ordinary state again as the door behind her flew open. Harry and Dean had come back.

"What is going on here? We heard Ginny's voice and saw sparks flying through the window!" Harry said, looking concerned.

As Ginny was still spitting out hair that had got caught in her mouth, Jade took the opportunity to answer first. "Ginny tried to hex me."

"What?" Dean sounded slightly shocked and Harry asked "Why?"

Jade looked at Ginny as she approached the boys. "I think you'd better tell them on your own. Start with Dean." She said to her quietly before turning towards the boys. "Harry, would you mind walking me up to the castle?"

Harry nodded and laid his hand upon Jade's shoulder as he guided her through the door; Jade could practically feel Ginny's eyes burning a hole into the back of her skull before the door swung close behind them again. She hated fighting, but the girl really had asked for it, hadn't she? And Jade didn't want to back down. She hadn't done anything wrong; she had even tried to approach Ginny after the girl had thrown a Quaffle at her head... No, she was sure she wasn't the one at fault here. It would be Ginny, who had to make the next move.

A/N: Thank you again for all your reviews :) And I'd also like to thank all the people that added my story to their favourite list :) It really makes me happy!

I hope you liked this chapter.. I got a little complaint about my bad grammar/spelling and I promise you, I do my best.. But I'm German and only learned English in school, so I hope you forgive me ;) I promise you though that as soon as this story is finished, I'll print it out and go over it really thoroughly.. But right now I think you'd appreciate further updates more than if I went over the first chapters for the 101st time to correct them yet again..