On Halloween morning, Jade woke to Pansy standing over her.
"How long have you-" She began to ask,
"Come on. It's Halloween!" She yanked Jade's blanket off of her and Jade groaned, "Can you smell that? They've started making the pumpkin pies for the feast tonight." Jade sat up and rubbed her eyes, "Let's go." Pansy fluttered around Jade as she got up and threw on a black sweater and a pair of soft gray pants. Jade threw her hair into a ponytail and allowed Pansy to pull her to the Great Hall for breakfast, the smell of pumpkin getting stronger as they got closer to the hall. As Jade took her seat for breakfast Pansy was babbling about how excited she was for the feast. Dumbledore was going around setting up decorations for the night,
"Do you think Flitwick will have a Halloween lesson today?" Pansy asked her and Jade picked up a pumpkin muffin from the center of the table. "That'd be pretty cool. Halloween's my favorite holiday. It's best to celebrate properly, seems Dumbledore's got that covered." She said and Jade nodded as she watched Hagrid go up to Dumbledore with a large cage full of fluttering black wings. They were quite loud actually, the creature's wings were small as they all moved around in a cage and made little squeaking noises.
"Are those… bats?" Jade asked, narrowing her eyes at the cage up by the teachers' table.
"What does he plan to do with those?" Pansy asked but then quickly changed subjects, "I heard Professor Flitwick let the Gryffindors learn Wingardium Leviosa yesterday. Do you think he'll teach us today?" This finally caught Jade's attention,
"I hope so. I want to start practicing instead of just learning terms and how to properly hold a wand." Jade grumbled. Breakfast went by quickly, she'd gotten a letter from her parents wishing her a happy Halloween and saying that they missed her dearly. She made a mental note to write them a response later today and then have Ezekiel send it to them. Pansy followed Jade back to the dormitory so she could change for class. As for class itself, Pansy was right, Professor Flitwick announced that he believed they were ready to make things fly. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice and she'd been paired with Blaise. She hadn't really spoken to Blaise in a while, she spent most of her time with Pansy. Pansy was her best friend but when it came to classes she liked to work with Blaise, they both focused on their work and with Pansy, she'd talk through the lesson and then need help after.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" Professor Flitwick nodded to a pair close to the stack of books he always stood on. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick." He performed the proper wand movement a few times and then Jade picked up her wand and mimicked him once or twice. "And saying the magic words properly is very important, too." Win-gar-dium Levi-O-SA, Jade thought to herself practicing the movement again with her wand.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Blaise said quickly, too quickly, he had ended the incantation before he finished his wand movement and nothing happened to the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa." He repeated slower but now emphasizing the i in Leviosa. She watched his face crunch in frustration.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Jade spoke clearly, finishing the incantation with a flick of her wand and the feather floated steadily into the air, Jade followed it with the tip of her wand and smiled to herself. She held her wand still and the feather froze in midair.
"Very nice, Miss Maddex!" She heard Professor Flitwick praise her but she didn't want to look away from the feather in case it fell as she broke her concentration. She gently and slowly lowered her wand and the feather sat itself back down in between her and Blaise. He was watching her and she offered a boastful smile. Blaise rolled his eyes but gave her a small grin,
"Blaise, you can't be the best in everything." She said teasingly and he gazed at her and then tried the spell once again, this time nailing it, copying Jade's tone and her wand movement.
"Mr. Zabini, well done." Flitwick praised him but instead of gently letting the feather fall, Blaise looked at Jade and dropped his wand and the feather fell onto the floor in front of their desk.
"Almost." Jade nodded, "I'd say… second best. Just right after me, of course."
"Of course." Blaise smiled and bowed his head and Jade laughed at his gesture. Jade and Blaise had performed the spell correctly before the other pairs in class. For the rest of the class period Blaise and Jade just took turns lifting and dropping the feather with their wands, Jade was fascinated with the spell, with the fact she could do it herself, with the fact she had performed it correctly the first time.
History of Magic class was boring that day, Professor Binns was going on about the Theory of Hocus Pocus and Jade found it hard not to fall asleep until someone threw a small ball of rolled-up parchment at Professor Binns and he didn't notice as it went through him. Jade lifted her head from where it was resting in her hand. Professor Binns was floating around the classroom and didn't see students looking at each other. Goyle ripped a piece of parchment and rolled it up and waited for him to be heading back up to the front of the class before he threw it through his legs. The class then went by quicker as the Slytherins took turns throwing little balls of parchment at Professor Binns.
On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Pansy had taken Jade by the hand and was pulling her towards the Great Hall.
"I'm coming, Pansy." Jade smiled as she started a light jog to keep up with Pansy. Jade could hear the other students all talking together loudly in the hall. When they got there, a thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling, a few swooped down over the tables. All of the candles that usually floated mid-air now had pumpkins around them and their strong scent wafted through the hall. As they took their seats, the feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it did at the start-of-term banquet. Jade grabbed a slice of pumpkin pie, "Were you able to make your feather float today in Charms class?"Jade asked as she took a bite. Pansy sighed,
"Eventually, not as quick as I would've liked. I thought it'd be easy." Jade nodded, for her, it had been easy but that was because she was focused and eager to learn, Pansy probably thought all she had to do was say the words and do the movements, but if done wrong nothing would happen. The thing with Pansy was if she didn't want to do something she did everything in her power not to do it, which includes performing spells correctly when she didn't want to be in class in the first place.
"Weren't you and Goyle the last pair to get it right?" Jade heard Draco ask and she looked around the table and saw him poke his head out from behind two people down. Pansy rolled her eyes, Draco got up from his seat and moved to Jade's other available side. "I suppose you still did well, I heard not all the Gryffindors got it done."
"It took you a while to get it, right, Draco?" Jade feigned confusion and Draco's smile fell,
"It took me a normal amount of time to cast it. Flitwick put the two smartest Slytherins together and you expect them not to excel first?" Jade smiled at him,
"You think I'm one of the smartest Slytherins?" Draco rolled his eyes,
"Well, you're not particularly good at potions… or transfiguration… astronomy's a bit difficult for you, isn't it?" Jade narrowed her eyes,
"I'm better at Transfiguration than you are." She turned up her nose and Draco snorted,
"Only because I don't really try."
"You can always use that excuse." Pansy stepped in, Draco had never failed at creating a potion just the right way, Snape often praised him for such good work, and Jade thought they performed about the same in astronomy.
"All I'm saying is, there was bound to be one class that you excelled in quicker than others." Jade turned back to her plate, she thought she'd been doing well in her classes, she got good marks, there must be students who are doing better than her. Draco noticed her change in attitude, "Don't be sensitive. You're brilliant." Jade looked at him, his hard gray eyes had softened. Before Jade could say anything the large hall doors opened and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor came sprinting past the tables. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, gasping, "Troll...in the dungeons...thought you ought to know." Professor Quirrel slumped to the floor, he had fainted. A troll? In the dungeons? Everyone began screaming, a few students got up and tried to run out of the hall but Professor Dumbledore's wand lit off purple firecrackers and the students quickly fell silent.
"Prefects," he announced, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
"Our dormitories are in the dungeon!" Pansy cried, "Where the troll is!" The two Slytherin prefects started to gather all of the students in their house.
"Follow us, no need to worry!" They called as they wrangled all of the kids together.
"How did a troll get into Hogwarts?" Pansy asked, "Aren't they like, stupid?" Jade didn't feel like talking at the moment, she got as close to the prefects as possible, it made her feel safer. They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. The prefects turned before reaching the dungeons and signaled all of them to be very quiet. Jade listened for any sign of a troll but as they snuck their way into the Common Room she hadn't heard anything suspicious.
"You're safe in here." The girl prefect had grinned with a sigh of relief as if she was telling it to herself as well. "Everyone just relax, stay calm. Headmaster Dumbledore and the Professors will have this taken care of by tomorrow." Some students went into their dormitories while others stayed and talked in the Common Room. Jade had taken a seat on the couch by the fire, she was sitting with Blaise and a few other Slytherins, they were talking about… something. Jade wasn't really listening to them, she was keeping her ears open for any sign of a troll outside of their Common Room. In case a giant troll broke through into their dormitories she didn't want to be caught off guard. She spent the rest of her night thinking about what she might do if that happened. She didn't sleep at all, Blaise had stayed with her for a little while when the rest of the Slytherins eventually went to bed but he grew tired and left her to get some sleep before the next day. Jade watched the fire die to simmering coals throughout the night and barely noticed when it was morning. She wouldn't have noticed at all if students hadn't started coming out to the Common Room. Well, this would be a very eventful letter for her parents.