Jade had slept late on Christmas day, when she finally woke up she made her way into the Common Room to find it completely decorated. There was a large Christmas tree in the corner with gifts under it, lights strung up on the walls, and the table near the fireplace had plates of snacks on it. Jade went over to the tree and scanned the gifts below, she had asked her parents to send her a gift for Blaise and to send one to Pansy for her, she saw a few gifts for Blaise and a few for herself and she sat down.
"Merry Christmas." She smiled at Blaise when she heard him come into the Common Room,
"Merry Christmas." He repeated with a smile of his own and he sat down next to her and grabbed his gifts. They went through the gifts happily, looking at what they got, Jade had gotten Blaise a homework planner. He started writing down what work he had left to do in it. Blaise had a renewed desire for doing the rest of his work, they only had a few days left but Jade wasn't worried, Blaise had been a proper study partner for her and they didn't have much left. Pansy had sent her a letter saying she missed her and how her family had been driving her crazy with a box of chocolate frogs and a box of Bertie Bott's every flavored beans. Blaise had asked his mother to send them both a batch of her homemade nut brittle. Surprisingly, she found another gift she didn't expect from Draco. When she opened it, she found a sneakoscope inside with a letter explaining how it worked. She'd keep it close to her, it might come in handy in case someone was ever being sneaky around her, and at Hogwarts, you never knew. Finally, her parents had gotten her a green and silver quilt. Jade smiled at it as she unfolded it, she no longer felt like they were ashamed of her for being in Slytherin. They apologized for not spending Christmas with her but Jade wasn't upset about it anymore. When Jade and Blaise went down for Christmas dinner they were in high spirits, at the Slytherin table there were two small bags of party favors sitting next to each other. Jade opened it and dug everything out. Jade went to play with a wizard cracker but a loud boom stopped her and she looked around for the source of the noise. The Gryffindor table was being shrouded by a cloud of blue smoke, the boys leaned back, trying to wave the smoke away from their faces. Dumbbells smiled at them from up at the Professors' table. He had switched his normal wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet. A Christmas feast appeared in front of them, turkeys, potatoes, vegetables, stuffing, tons of gravy, and cranberry sauce. Blaise was telling Jade more about his step-father while they ate. He worked somewhere in the Ministry of Magic, he didn't have any kids of his own, he seemed like a nice guy. Blaise thought he was okay, his mother and father separated three years ago and Blaise's father had kept away from him for the most part, only showing up on birthdays. Flaming Christmas pudding appeared after the feast and Jade smiled at it,
"What about you?" Blaise asked as she got a slice for herself. "Tell me about yourself."
"My mother and father are together. I only have one brother, Rodrick." Jade shrugged as she scooped some pudding into her mouth,
"The one who was in Gryffindor?" Blaise asked and Jade nodded, "I'm an only child, what's it like having a brother?" Jade laughed,
"Annoying." Blaise smirked, "But, I love him. We haven't really spent much time together because he's always been here so I only saw him on holidays. We get along really well." Jade paused, feeling a wave of yearning for her brother. "Now, I'm here. I'll only see him on holidays for the next seven years. We never spend more than a few months together in the same place but I feel like that makes our relationship stronger."
"You never fight with your brother?" Blaise asked and Jade laughed again,
"No, we do. But I like that part too, it's not all perfect, you know? It's completely normal for not growing up around each other like other people." Jade didn't know how to explain her relationship with her brother, to her it was perfect and she missed him the most even though she's spent the least amount of time with him, that was probably why she missed him most. Her brother understood her, she was able to tell him things she couldn't tell her parents and vice versa. He always treated her older than she really was and she appreciated that, like he saw her as an equal, not a little kid. A loud low rumbling broke into a laugh and Jade looked up to see Hagrid laughing and finishing another cup of wine. She looked at Blaise and he was looking down at the table, he looked upset, which was odd because she never really saw Blaise look like anything other than annoyed, focused, or happy. "I can be your sibling." She nudged his shoulder with hers playfully and he gave a small smile,
"I'm not sure that's how it works." Jade left it alone, she had a feeling he didn't want to talk about it. When Jade got back to the Common Room she said goodnight to Blaise and made her way to her bed where she pulled the blankets tight over her. She quickly fell asleep with a full stomach despite her mind playing Blaise's reaction of her talking about her brother. He normally never talked about himself and she didn't want to stop that by upsetting him with her own life. She'd try to make him feel better tomorrow, that was her job as his friend.