Jade hadn't seen much of her Gryffindor friends until Christmas Eve. Draco had said something to Ron after dinner about Hermione being able to get a date before him. Jade had gone with them back to the Gryffindor Common Room to catch up but just as she expected, Hermione had been doing her school work and the boys had been enjoying their time off. She felt like something was off, Harry didn't talk to her but other than that he was acting normally. Hermione and Jade watched Ron and Harry as they played a game of Wizard's chess in front of the fireplace. Their Common Room was just as rowdy as the Slytherins'.
"I play whoever wins," Jade spoke up once it looked like their game was coming to an end.
"I'm pretty good, Maddex," Ron told her confidently.
"You haven't won yet." Harry reminded him but Ron then moved his Queen.
"Checkmate." He announced.
"Dammit," Harry mumbled as he got up from his spot and switched with Jade. Their game was a long one and Ron had been sure he would win the whole time, until Jade beat him.
"I didn't know you played Wizard's chess," Ron said as she began resetting the board.
"Well, I had a good teacher."
"Jade!" Something soft hit her in the face and Jade groaned.
"It's not my birthday, Pansy." Jade sighed as she opened her eyes to find Pansy bouncing at the end of her bed with a large thin box in her hands. "What's that?" Jade asked, rising from her bed and yawning.
"It's your dress!" She squealed.
"What?" Jade got up from her bed and took it carefully from Pansy's hands.
"It came at breakfast! I grabbed it before the boys could get a look at it!"
"I missed breakfast?" Jade asked sadly. "Why'd you let me sleep in?"
"You didn't get back till late last night. Merry Christmas!" Pansy added. "Now, open it." Jade picked up the pillow Pansy had thrown and tossed it onto her bed before setting the box down and flipping open the lid. "Gods!" Pansy gasped.
"It's gorgeous." Jade breathed as she lifted it out carefully and held it up to herself.
"Put it on! Put it on!" Pansy shrieked and Jade began undressing before slipping into the dress.
"Just for a moment, make sure it fits." She mumbled.
"Wait, hang on." Pansy grabbed the pair of black heels that came with the dress and handed them to Jade. She quickly slipped into them and tightened the clasp around her ankles. The dress was made of satin and burgundy in color, the sleeves sat off her shoulders and the top was a corset, Pansy immediately began tightening and tying the silky strands into a pretty bow in the back. "Malfoy's going to go crazy when he sees you." Pansy smiled. Right, Draco. Her stomach flipped nervously.
"It's red," Jade said. "Draco hates red."
"How do you know Draco hates red?" Pansy asked.
"Gryffindor."
"If it makes you feel better this isn't the same shade as the Gryffindors' red. And he only hates Gryffindor because of Potter."
"He's a big reason but I feel like if Harry wasn't in Gryffindor he would still hate it."
"Jade, don't worry, he's going to love it. Oh, hang on." Pansy saw something in the box and picked it up carefully. "'For Draco'." She read from the small card inside the box. It was a red rose, the same red as her dress. Jade didn't tell her parents who she was going with, she just told them that she was going with a friend. Her face burned slightly, they already knew that she would go with Draco. "Box of goodies for all, I guess." Pansy hummed as she lifted a diamond bracelet from the box and wrapped it around her wrist. "I think your mother wants you to wear this tonight."
"No," Jade mumbled, swaying slightly to watch her dress follow after her in the mirror. "You wear it." She turned then and grabbed her bracelet made of diamonds and emeralds that Draco had gotten her for her birthday. "I can wear this one. A pop of green for Christmas."
"Well, thank you, but I think the bracelet and the necklace are a bit much." Pansy pointed to the diamond necklace around Jade's throat. "If you wear this bracelet though, it'll look better with the necklace." Pansy offered, flashing her wrist at Jade.
"They do clash a little…" Jade turned back to the mirror. The bracelet was fancy and colorful while her necklace was slim and could pass for casual or elegant. The diamond necklace and the diamond bracelet would work better together. She set Draco's bracelet back on the desk next to the silver ring he had given her.
'What would people think if I wore a Malfoy ring?'
'Doesn't have to be a Malfoy ring. It could be for Maddex… Or it could stay a Malfoy ring, whichever you prefer. But I think that makes us something of an item, then.'
'Oh, really?'
The memory flitted through her head quickly as she picked up his ring and turned it around in her fingers. Draco had been different lately, and yet not different at all. It was just she now was able to see what everyone was talking about. It made her feel differently, it was all terribly confusing and she often pushed the thoughts away… but she stood there with his ring in her hands and she came to the realization that the feelings she had, the thoughts she had, the things she didn't know she wanted, revolved around one person. She slipped the ring onto her right ring finger and stared at it. She hadn't worn it since he'd given it to her but other girls wore their boyfriends' rings on their right ring finger all the time. But, Draco wasn't her boyfriend. She hastily took it off and slid it down her middle finger instead. Just wearing it at all felt like more than enough.
"Can you help me out of this?" Jade asked, turning back to her friend who was unclasping the bracelet from her wrist. Pansy loosened the silky strands and helped her step out of the dress. Jade sat on her bed in her underwear and worked on the clasps around her ankles. A knock came at their door and both girls looked at it curiously.
"Who is it?" Pansy asked.
"Draco and Blaise." Draco's voice came muffled through the door. Both girls immediately hurried to clean up their room.
"And Theo!" Theo added.
"Just a minute!" Jade called to them, shaking her shoes off and hurrying to her trunk to throw some clothes on. Pansy gently picked up Jade's dress and folded it to fit back in the box and kicked Jade's shoes under her bed.
"Can you open the door?" Draco called again.
"Hang on, I'm changing!" Jade yelled back as she threw a sweater over her head.
"Sorry!" She heard Blaise say. She hopped around and she tried to pull up her jeans as they scanned the room before Jade opened the door for them.
"Hi." She said breathlessly.
"Hello," Draco smirked. "You weren't at breakfast and Parkinson ran off with a package before we could ask her about it." He added, narrowing his eyes to the girl behind Jade's shoulder.
"You asked plenty." Pansy hissed back.
"So, what was it?" Blaise asked.
"Come on, let's go open presents." Jade changed the subject and Pansy followed quickly behind and shut the door.
Presents took up a good chunk of what was left of the morning and when lunch came, Jade's stomach was knotting up in hunger. The Great Hall was decorated differently than her first year when she stayed at Hogwarts, and the decorating wasn't done. Professor Flitwick was up on a ladder, waving his wand around and producing magical icicles that didn't melt and adding some kind of charm to the huge white Christmas tree in the corner near the staff table so it constantly shimmered. The lunch itself consisted of dozens of turkeys and a wide array of puddings, savory and sweet. Piles of Cribbage Wizarding Crackers sat at each of the House tables, Jade happily accepted the small stuffed bear that had a green bowtie that popped out of her Wizarding Cracker. After lunch, there were only eight hours left until the dance, six until the girls began to get ready. Jade's nerves were creeping up on her as the hours ticked by, tightening her stomach and making her palms sweaty. She, Pansy, and Gretta were talking on the couch, blowing bubbles with Drooble's Best Blowing Gum and talking more about the evening ahead while the boys threw a ball around the Common Room.
"I've been looking forward to the Weird Sisters' performance," Gretta told them after a big pop of her chewing gum. "It feels strange, everyone dressing up for a ball at school."
"Well, you're right about that." Jade agreed. "I've gone to some of my parent's events before, there's fancy dresses but everything else is boring."
"Speaking of dresses," Pansy announced after a pop of her gum. "Just wait until you see Jade's." She told Gretta.
"Talking about Jade's mysterious dress?" Draco asked, throwing the ball to Blaise and then taking a step towards the girls.
"Oh, Malfoy, you're going to die." Pansy chuckled.
"Stop it," Jade told her. "Don't over exaggerate or he'll end up disappointed."
"I can guarantee you, I won't be disappointed." He smiled at her. "You could show up wearing your pajamas and you'd still be twice a sight more than the other girls."
"Hey!" Pansy and Gretta said in unison.
"Your hair could be all frazzled out, messy from sleep, and you'd still look better. You could have a stain of drool going down your-"
"Okay, Draco!" Jade interrupted him. "Stop making fun of me."
"I'm not!" He chuckled. The grandfather clock chimed loudly and caught their attention.
"I think it's time to start getting ready!" Pansy sang as she got up from the couch, Jade's stomach gave another uncomfortable lurch.
"It's five-thirty." Theo pointed out.
"Yes, plenty of time for us to get ready," Gretta added.
"You need over two hours?" Draco pressed. Jade reluctantly got up and followed after her friends.
"I just want to look my best for you, Malfoy." She batted her eyelashes jokingly as she reached the top of the girls' dormitories steps.
"You already do." He smiled and Jade looked at him for a moment, a familiar blush creeping up onto her cheeks.
"Just go or we're gonna throw up!" Blaise told her as he threw the ball back at Theo. Jade slipped down the stairs and grabbed the box that her dress came in and grabbed her shoes from under her bed before joining the rest of the girls in the bathroom. Every fourth-year girl was there, plus girls from other years that were friends with fourth-year girls that wanted to get ready together. The room was alive with fast chatter and the smell of hair products and perfumes mixed in the air. Jade found Gretta and Pansy near the far end of the bathroom and excitedly slipped into her dress.
"Jade, it's beautiful!" Gretta gasped as Pansy helped tie her dress tight again. Now that Jade remembered that Draco would be dancing with her she took note of the way her dress lifted her breasts and made them more… noticeable.
"Thank you." She replied nervously. Her heels gave her four inches but she would still be shorter than him. She fiddled with her necklace as she stared at her reflection and thought about what to do with her hair. Gretta mumbled a spell and flicked her wand towards her head and her hair pulled itself back and braided itself into a complicated-looking but elegant bun. "That's quite good, Gretta." Jade looked over it appreciatively. "Can you do that for me?" Jade asked and Gretta nodded, humming the same spell she had previously used.
"I'd pull these out though," Pansy added, coming to Jade's other side once she was dressed. She pulled loose a few small strands around Jade's face. "There." Jade hadn't used makeup much in the past and she'd always done it the muggle way, applying it herself instead of using magic to do it. Pansy was very good at it, she drew a thin line of black onto her eyelids. Very, very close to her eyelashes, before coating those with black mascara. Jade blended a dark shade of red onto her eyelids from Pansy's large palette of colors and then followed it with eyeliner and mascara. It was the best Jade had ever done, she was happy she got into her mother's makeup when she was younger. Pansy used a deep red on her lips but Jade went with a natural pink, close to her normal lips' color. She stepped back with a sigh and examined herself closely. The makeup made her look older than fifteen, and she held herself with more grace and confidence than a normal fifteen-year-old would.
"Okay, now you help me," Gretta grumbled as she looked down at the makeup, she knew frighteningly little about it. Jade and Pansy worked together on Gretta and when it came to an end, they went for a more natural look instead of going all out with glam. A little blush to slightly point out her naturally rosy cheeks, a gloss on her lips and Jade let Pansy do the thin eyeliner.
"Quit moving you'll mess it all up." Pansy sighed as she brought the mascara's brush close to Gretta's eye.
"Do you want to try it?" Jade offered and Gretta looked between the two girls.
"Sure." She said.
The reason it took them so long to get ready was because they messed about, giggling and talking and gossiping. They had fifteen minutes until eight and most of the girls had left already to find their dates when they finally emerged from the bathroom. They stopped momentarily so Jade could put on her mother's bracelet and they could both apply a touch of perfume. Jade grabbed the rose her mother meant for Draco in a rush and hurried up the stairs to find the Common Room empty.
"They must've gone to the Entrance Hall already," Jade told them.
"We're not going to be late, calm down," Pansy told Jade as she tried to hurry them towards the dungeons.
"I am calm," Jade said quietly, to remind herself more than to tell Pansy. Her stomach was turning, she wiped her sweaty palms on her dress and let the cool air in the dungeon take care of the slight sheen of sweat on her forehead. The cool air felt refreshing to her but Pansy wrapped her arms around herself.
"Why did it have to be in winter?" Jade could hear the voices from the Entrance Hall echo through the dungeons, she looked down at the rose in her hand. It's just Draco. She told herself. Just Draco Malfoy. She repeated as she looped her arms with Pansy and Gretta and they climbed up the stone steps that would lead them up to the Entrance Hall.