She had a good dream last night, a very good dream, one she hoped wouldn't fade from her memory as the day went on. She thought about it as she dressed for the day, hummed to herself quietly as she brushed her hair.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Pansy yawned as she got out of bed, automatically brushing her hair out of her face with her fingers. Jade smiled as she met her friend's eyes in the mirror. She hadn't washed her makeup off from the night before, it looked like she'd been rubbing at her eyes in her sleep because she resembled a raccoon with dark marks around her eyes.

"You might want to visit the bathroom before breakfast." Jade offered as she continued brushing. She began humming again and Pansy stood still in front of her trunk, watching her, eyes narrowed.

"Why are you humming? You rarely hum."

"Why are you so suspicious of my good mood? Didn't you have fun last night?"

"Oh, I did." Pansy finally smiled, walking over to the mirror on her side of the room. "I'm happy Blaise asked me to go with him." Jade saw a similar sparkle in Pansy's eyes but it was gone the next second. "How was your night with Malfoy? I saw you two dancing awfully close together." She teased as she threw her hair up in a ponytail.

"It was good." Jade's smile widened. Images flashed in her head of the previous night, how close they danced, how handsome he was in his suit, how serious he was when he had told her how he felt about her, how his lips felt against hers.

"Your hair's waves of silk, you can stop brushing it now." Pansy interrupted her mind's recap as she took the brush from her hand and set it down. She wanted to tell Pansy about last night but by the time Jade got back to their room she had already fallen asleep and now… now she thought it'd be more fun for her to find out on her own. Jade was eager to see Draco but also nervous. How was she supposed to act? She was his girlfriend now. Draco was her boyfriend. Draco Malfoy. A parade of unwelcomed thoughts floated to the front of her mind. What does that say about me? What will people think of me now? How will Mum and Dad react when they find out? Will people treat me differently? Everybody knew the Malfoys' history with the Dark Lord. Correction, everybody knew Draco's parents' history with the Dark Lord. Draco wasn't his parents. She rubbed the cool metal on her right ring finger as she looked over herself one last time.

"I'm going to get something to eat."

"I'll be up in a few minutes," Pansy told her and Jade nodded as she left the room and met Gretta in the Common Room, joining her on the walk to the Great Hall. Whatever people thought about the Malfoys could now drift onto her. Here she was, wearing a Malfoy ring, claiming the title of Draco's girlfriend. Word would spread at school, Jade would eventually tell her parents. Her parents. Her parents always talked to her about the importance of their family's reputation, their prestige.

A family of Gryffindors and the one Slytherin. Her parents, holding up the Maddex name with their charity benefits and strong relationships with important figures in the Wizarding community of England. Her brother, holding up the Maddex name by becoming a Healer at St. Mungo's to help the people in need. And her, dragging the Maddex name in the mud by becoming the Dark Lord's second in command's son's girlfriend. She sat down at the table, feeling the last of her appetite leave her as she looked at the fruit bowl in front of her with little interest. "I was gone for maybe five minutes. What could've ruined your mood in five minutes?" Pansy asked as she sunk down in the seat across from Jade.

"You okay?" Theo asked from Pansy's side and Jade nodded.

"Fine." She mumbled. A figure appearing at her right side caught her attention and she looked up, Draco was grinning down at her and the thoughts that had been troubling her mere seconds before, vanished. The fact he could brighten her mood by simply existing next to her didn't go by her unnoticed.

"Hi." He greeted her as he sat down in the open seat next to her.

"Hi." She smiled, cursing the heat rising to her cheeks. He watched the slight flush of her face as she reached for an apple and took a small bite from it before glancing back over at him. "What?" She asked, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear self consciously.

"Nothing." He told her. He waited for her to tell him to stop looking at her, like she always did, but it didn't come. He woke up convinced last night was a dream, all of it, and today was actually Christmas but after a minute of disbelief, he remembered that she was now his girlfriend. She was with him. His eyes fell to her lips, remembering how they had latched perfectly to his hours before.

"Wait." Pansy dropped the fork in her hand. "Wait. No. I know bloody well that if something happened you would've told me, Jade Maddex." Her eyes flicked between Jade and Draco. She already noticed Jade's odd behavior but Draco had brought her the other piece of the puzzle when he joined them. Their simple hellos seemed off, something passing between them that the others weren't in on. The thing that made everything click was the silver ring on her finger with the large 'M' engraved into it. She'd noticed it before, she thought it stood for Maddex, but when she tried thinking of if she'd seen it before she couldn't recall ever seeing it, until recently. The finger the ring hugged was a clear sign that Pansy didn't notice until Jade took a bite of her apple. Jade's face blushed again and Pansy's eyes went wide. "How could you not tell me?" She shrieked and a few people glanced in their direction.

"What are you on about?" Blaise asked.

"Them!" She pointed her finger at the pair, knocking an orange off the fruit bowl that Draco caught before it could roll off the table.

"You don't need to yell, I'm right here," Blaise said, grimacing slightly.

"Wouldn't you be upset if your best friend didn't tell you they were dating someone?" She asked, lowering her voice. Blaise and Draco looked at each other and Blaise shrugged. "What? Wait, you know already?" Pansy turned on Jade angrily, "He knows? Why does he know before me?"

"Why are you saying it like that?" Blaise asked.

"I didn't tell him," Jade said.

"Wait, you two are dating?" Theo asked but before either could respond, Pansy did.

"Yes! Yes, they're dating and you didn't tell me." Pansy's head turned from Theo to Jade. "Why not?"

"Honestly?" Jade asked and Pansy nodded. "I thought this would be more amusing," Jade smirked, Pansy's eyes narrowed but Blaise laughed.

"You were right." Draco smiled at Pansy.

"Bite me, Malfoy." She hissed.

"I'm good." Owls flew into the Great Hall before Pansy could throw an insult his way and Ezekiel and Hunter landed simultaneously in front of their owners. Hunter brought Draco a copy of the Daily Prophet, Ezekiel brought Jade a letter from her parents. Her earlier worries flooded her for a moment but she pushed them down. She was thinking worst-case scenario, she needed to look at the facts. Her family knew Draco was already one of her best friends, they knew she was going to go to the ball with him, her brother constantly teased her about being Draco's girlfriend anyway, her parents seemed to like him. Besides, she didn't need to tell them right away, she could test the waters a little. She didn't open the letter though, she'd wait till later today, when she had time to write them a response right away. She turned her attention to Ezekiel, scratching the top of his head as she took another bite of her apple. His eyes slowly fell shut, enjoying her touch and she smiled at him. "This is interesting," Draco announced after a minute or two.

"What is?" Jade asked, not taking her eyes off of her owl. Draco folded up the paper and placed it in front of her.

"Read it for yourself."

"No, thanks." She scoffed, glancing at the headline for the day. It was apparently a Yule Ball special, she didn't need to hear what Rita Skeeter wrote about the night, she'd lived it.

"You sure?" Draco smirked, grabbing the paper for himself again and flicking it open.

"Yes?" Jade finally looked away to glance at Draco but he was just grinning as he continued to read. She thought he'd drop it at that but he kept pestering her about reading the paper all the way back to the Common Room. She sighed as she finally grabbed the paper from him and began reading once she sat down. She flicked through the first page, which was a history of the ball and a picture of the event. The second and third page was a retelling of the champions' clothing choices and their partners, each champion got a picture next to their paragraph. Harry and Parvati danced stiffly in their moving photograph, Krum and Hermione looked nervous as they smiled and went through the moves, Cedric and Cho looked equally perfect as they stared longingly into each other's eyes, and Fleur had gone with an older Ravenclaw student, Roger Davies, and they were a beautiful match. She flipped to the next page and Draco leaned in closer to see himself. She only skimmed a picture of Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall dancing for a second before Jade's eyes widened as she saw a photograph of her and Draco dancing. They were swaying and her head bent back to laugh at something he had whispered in her ear. The picture took up a quarter of the page and next to it was Jade's and Draco's own article. " 'Jade Maddex, a fourth-year Slytherin, and a close friend of Harry Potter's, is seen dancing with her Yule Ball date, Draco Malfoy, a fellow fourth-year Slytherin. When asked about the relationship between the two of them, Blaise Zabini, a friend of both Maddex and Malfoy, says, 'It was about time they got together.' The two make a pretty pair, the Slytherin prince and his princess.' Blaise?!" Jade shot up from the couch and glared at Blaise, who looked very confused. "You talked to Rita Skeeter about us?" Her voice turned shrieky in a very Pansy-like way.

"No!" He looked from Jade to Draco, who was smirking. "No, I didn't! I didn't even see her last night!"

"How'd she get you to give her a quote for her pathetic little article then?" Jade asked, throwing the paper down on the coffee table in front of them.

"I don't know! I didn't say that to her."

"Who'd you say it to?"

"Pansy! When we were dancing." Jade looked to Pansy who sat at his side and she nodded.

"It was just the two of us." She confirmed. Rita Skeeter and what she thought were juicy little tidbits had run more of a gossip special more than anything else.

"Slytherin prince and princess is what she's calling us," Jade said again, enraged.

"It's got a nice ring to it." Draco stood at Jade's side and smiled down at the moving photo of them dancing. It was a flattering picture, they both looked great.

"It's not funny, I wouldn't expect anything less if everyone starts to call us that." And her parents! Her parents would see it. She thought about the letter in her pocket, they probably had already seen it.

"I don't mind." Draco shrugged as his arm went around her waist and Jade sighed. She should take Draco's approach at it, he didn't care what others thought of him. He wasn't freaking out about what his parents might say. It wasn't really a big deal, Jade was just caught off guard seeing herself in the paper, she didn't even know Rita Skeeter had been at the dance.

"I have to go, my parents will be wanting a response to this." She slipped out of Draco's grasp and silently made her way down the dormitory stairs. She knew that's what the letter was about. She was trying to think of what she was going to write as she sat down at her writing desk. Her fingers unsteadily picked at the envelope and ripped it open.

'Well, that's one way to find out your daughter is dating.' She immediately recognized her mother's elegant handwriting. 'I wish you would've told us first, your father was very perturbed when he read this morning's paper. You were beautiful though, and Draco looked very handsome! It looked like the two of you had fun, not too much fun, I hope. If something did happen, I'm optimistic that you would tell me, I still believe we can be honest with each other. I'm sure seeing yourself in the paper was a bit of a shock to you as well, if there's anything you'd like to write about, always feel free to, dear. If I know you at all, you're probably worried about what we think but

Tell us what happened last night.' That was her father's less fluid writing. 'As I said, your father's a little flustered. Write to us when you can, we'll be waiting for Ezekiel.

Love, Mum

Her stomach tightened when she set the letter down and grabbed a spare piece of parchment and her quill. Again, she paused, not sure how to start her letter. She didn't want her mother thinking she intentionally tried to hide it from them. Yes, she had thought about waiting to see how they'd react to her getting closer to Draco but she was going to space it out, so it came as a natural development and an expected outcome instead of, boom, they're dating! She didn't want her mother to think she didn't want to share things with her, it wasn't that it was some big secret or anything… it's just something a daughter feels awkward talking to her parents about. There was no mention of Rodrick, though she understood why, she was surprised she got a letter the same morning as the paper coming out. Rodrick would check the paper soon enough though, and then she was sure she'd hear from him, busy with work or not. A small flame sparking to life at the center of her parchment made her jump and she quickly grabbed her cloak from on top of her trunk and smashed it down onto the parchment. Jade rose the cloak from the parchment to see the small fire had burnt a hole through it.

"I'm not in the mood for this!" She groaned, glaring down at the parchment. The candle on her desk flickered. She grabbed it and dusted the forgotten parchment off her desk to set it down. "Okay, okay." She breathed, staring into the glowing flame. This had been the second occasion where the red candle on her desk lit itself. She didn't know why or how it happened but she wanted to understand it. She blew out the candle and stared at the black wick, picturing it as it was seconds ago, the candle sparked back to life in response. She could light candles without saying anything. It seems like a small thing but witches her age weren't supposed to know how to do wordless magic for years. She focused on the flame, imagined it dying out until there was nothing but wisps of smoke and as she centered on that thought, the candle in her hands followed her mind's command. "Geminio," Jade muttered and a second candle appeared on her desk. She practiced with the candles for a long time, once she found out it was successful with two candles, she went up to three, and then four, she would've tried another but Pansy came into their room to grab her for lunch.

"What's up with all the candles?" Pansy asked, noticing how Jade was hunched over the small circle of them. Jade jumped at the sudden entrance.

"Just practicing my doubling charm," Jade said after a few seconds. She blew out the candles and threw her cloak back onto her trunk as she stood from her desk.

"What happened there?" Pansy asked, gesturing towards her burnt parchment. Jade had gotten caught up with her new talent and forgot about writing back to her parents.

"Oh, a candle accident." Jade grinned awkwardly. "So, lunch?" She asked, passing Pansy and letting out a breath of relief when she heard the door shut behind her. Pansy didn't question her. After lunch she would write to her parents, she had to, her father would be tense until he heard from her and she didn't want them to think something was wrong. She thought about what to write all through lunch and when she got back to her room, she set the candles at the top of her desk and began writing. When she finished, she scanned it twice, making sure she addressed everything her parents could be worried about, and then folded it and slid it into an envelope. The walk to the owlery was a cold one, she shivered in her winter cloak as she climbed the tall stairs but when she called for Ezekiel, he swooped down quickly, happy to see her twice in one day. "Deliver this back home, will you?" She asked, kissing him on top of his head as she handed it to him. He took off out of one of the large windows but Jade didn't stay to watch him fly off, she just wanted to get back into the castle, where she could sit in front of the fire and try to rub some feeling back into her fingers.