Christmas holidays were soon over with, and everyone was headed back to King's Cross station to climb on board the Hogwarts Express. Jillian had received a sweater from Mrs. Weasley, it was blue in color and had a bronze 'J' in the middle. It was quite warm, and Jillian was thankful for it, because the day that they went back to King's Cross station, it was actually quite cold.
Ginny still refused to say a single word to Jillian, leading Jillian to believe that indeed it was related to Harry, as Jillian was seated with Ron, Harry, and Hermione, and as soon as Ginny had seen that the three of them were seated together, she had turned and left the compartment.
"Where's Luna?" Hermione asked Jillian. Jillian was pleased to note that Hermione hadn't called her 'Loony Lovegood', she was getting a little bit better about that.
"I haven't seen her since we got onto the train," Jillian responded. "The last time that I saw her, she was talking to one of the Patil twins." Jillian didn't know whether it was Padma or Pavarti, she had a hard time distinguishing between the two of them. She just hoped that Luna wasn't getting bullied by Draco. When Jillian was around, Draco would probably leave Luna alone after their last little meeting, but if Luna was alone, then there was no telling what Draco might do to her. "Actually, I think that I'm going to go and look for her."
"I'll come with you," Hermione offered, and Jillian nodded her head, the two girls leaving the train compartment together.
"What's going on with you and Ginny?" Hermione asked in a whisper once they were out of earshot of the boys. "She didn't talk to you all Christmas Eve when everyone was at the Burrow, and every time that you were talking to Harry, it was like she was giving you the stare of death."
"Don't ask me," Jillian responded, shrugging her shoulders. "I honestly have no clue what her problem is, it's not like I've fought with her about anything."
"I bet that she's jealous."
"Oh come on, 'Mione, not you too. It's bad enough that Luna is insisting that Harry has a crush on me, and if you're going to say that Ginny is mad at me because Harry likes me-"
"It makes sense though, Jill! Why else would she be upset with you when the two of you haven't even gotten into a fight about anything?"
"Hermione, there's no way that Harry likes me, unless there's something you know that I don't. If that's the case, please clue me in so that I'm not totally lost."
Hermione simply let out a hum in response, leading Jillian to think that there was indeed something that Hermione knew that she didn't.
"There's Luna!" Hermione suddenly said. "It looks like she's talking to Blaise Zabini."
"I wonder what about." As far as Jillian was aware, Luna and Blaise weren't friends, but she could have been mistaken. While Blaise was a Slytherin, he wasn't as bad as Draco was, and Jillian had never really had any problems with him. He was quiet and mysterious, not really talking to anyone outside of his house, so Jillian wondered what made him start talking to Luna all of a sudden.
When Blaise saw Hermione and Jillian walking up to Luna, he whispered a couple more words to the blonde girl before walking away.
"What was that all about?" Jillian asked Luna, who sighed dreamily. "Blaise needs a tutor for Care of Magical Creatures, I told him that I would happily help him."
Somehow, Jillian was having a hard time believing that Blaise actually needed a tutor, he did well in all of his classes, as far as she knew, anyway. She could have been wrong of course, but she didn't think that she was. "Well, I just hadn't seen you for a while, so I wanted to make sure that you were alright and that Malfoy wasn't giving you any trouble."
"Oh, he was, but then Blaise came up and said a few words to Draco, and Draco stormed away, wasn't very happy with him."
Okay, there was definitely something else going on here, and Hermione and Jillian exchanged knowing looks with each other. Luna was looking extremely happy as she looked off in the direction that Blaise had gone. Oh yes, there was definitely something else at play here.
When Jillian entered the castle, she was immediately pulled to the side by Draco Malfoy.
"Don't touch me!" Jillian yanked her arm out of his grip, which surprisingly wasn't all that tight. "What the hell do you want, anyway?" She noticed that he was alone, Crabbe and Goyle weren't with him, which was unusual.
"Why was Lovegood talking with Blaise on the train?"
"Don't ask me, I have no clue. All that Luna told me was that Blaise wanted a tutor in Care of Magical Creatures. She also said that he said a few words to you because you were trying to antagonize her."
Draco scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Blaise doesn't need to be tutored in anything, I know for a fact that he's getting top marks in everything. Honestly, it's amazing that he wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw."
"Look, what the hell is this even about Malfoy?"
"Make sure that Loony Lovegood stays away from Blaise, he doesn't need to be associating with her kind."
"Malfoy, who the hell do you think that you are? It's not up to you who Blaise gets to hang around with."
"Maybe not, but I'm sure that his mother wouldn't be very happy to hear about the sort of people that he's been spending his time with. All of her husbands have disappeared under mysterious circumstances, who's to say the same thing won't happen to Blaise. Give what I said some thought, Mantle."
Draco turned and strode away, and Jillian glared at his back. Was...was he threatening to make sure that something happened to Blaise if Luna didn't stay away from him? What was wrong with Luna and Blaise hanging out together anyway? Well, one thing was for sure, Jillian was not going to make sure that Luna kept her distance from Blaise. Quite the opposite actually. What Jillian was going to do was make sure that Blaise and Luna spent even more time together.