When Jade went up for breakfast on Friday morning, Harry and Ron had gestured for her to come sit with them. She gave the Slytherin table a quick glance before tentatively walking over to the table of red robes. She still found it strange to sit at the Gryffindor table, the one green robe in the sea of red. No one around them minds but she knew her friends in her House had taken note of where she was sitting. As she made a plate for herself, Harry retold the events of the previous night. It was the first time Hermione and Ron were hearing it as well, which helped Jade feel better, she felt like she was always hearing about something last.

"He let you use the Prefects' bathroom?" Hermione asked disapprovingly.

"Was it nice?" Ron asked and Hermione gave him a look.

"Yeah, but that's not the point," Harry told him quickly. "I put the egg in the water and the screeching turned to singing."

"You've solved it?" Hermione gasped, her previous caution left behind. "What did it sing?" Harry swallowed and then looked down for a few seconds, seemingly trying to remember what the egg had sung.

"Come seek us where our voices sound. We cannot sing above the ground. And while you're searching ponder this, we've taken what you'll sorely miss. An hour-long you'll have to look, and to recover what we took. But past an hour, the prospect's black. Too late, it's gone. It won't come back."

"Not very cheery, is it?" Jade mumbled into her goblet of orange juice.

"It's mermaids, merpeople, in the Black Lake." Harry continued on excitedly but then his smile faded. "That's all I've been able to figure out."

"It's closer than you were before!" Ron added confidently.

"In the Black Lake for an hour…" Hermione mumbled, her eyebrows knitting together in concentration, her food forgotten about. "Look for something you'll sorely miss?"

"That's not all. When I left, I got stuck on a trick step on the staircase-"
"I hate those." Ron interrupted.

"I dropped the egg and Snape and Filch came out to inspect the sound, I had the cloak so I wasn't too worried at first, I could see them coming from the map… but I saw another name in the dungeons, in Snape's office."

"Who?" Jade asked.

"Mr. Crouch."

"What's Crouch doing at Hogwarts in the middle of the night?" Hermione asked and Harry shrugged. "I thought he was too sick to make it out here."

"That's what I thought," Harry told her. "But Snape noticed someone had broken into his office and the two of them went off to investigate and Moody came along and helped me out of the quicksand stair."

"What was Moody doing out that late?" Jade asked but Harry shrugged, thinking nothing more of it.

"He asked to borrow the map and then I went back to my room."

"You gave him the Marauder's map?" Hermione hissed quietly. "You really shouldn't be letting anyone borrow it."

"It's not just anyone, it's Mad-Eye."

That day in Charms class they were practicing the Banishing Charm. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions to practice with in case someone were to get hit by another's misguided charm. Jade sat in the middle of Pansy and Draco. Theo and Blaise sat behind them, competing with each other to see who could get their cushion the furthest across the room instead of into the boxes where they were supposed to go. Jade flicked her wand toward the boxes and her cushion effortlessly made the distance and gracefully landed into the box.

"Curse your natural talent for Charms," Pansy muttered as she grumpily tried to copy Jade but her cushion took off and thudded softly against the opposite wall.

"You're trying too hard." Jade grinned at Pansy's irritated pout. "Just…" Jade demonstrated it again and another cushion followed the first perfectly.

"Right, that helped, thanks." Pansy narrowed her eyes at Jade as her grin grew. Draco mimicked Jade and the three of them watched as the cushion landed on top of Jade's nicely.

"Show off," Pansy muttered, flicking her wand in their direction and Jade ducked quickly as the cushion hit Draco in the face.

"Professor Flitwick!" Draco called and gestured towards Pansy.

"Miss Parkinson, aim for the boxes please." He announced.

"Yes, Professor." Pansy nodded but then glared at Draco when his back had turned. "You're such a prat." Draco chuckled and threw the cushion back at Pansy. She reached over Jade to try and hit him but Jade lightly caught her arm and gave her a look.

"Just ignore him," Jade told her and Draco leaned over.

"Yeah, just ignore him, Parkinson."

"You're not helping." Jade turned on him and he smiled, amused with himself.

"Sorry, darling." A cushion zoomed above their heads and landed in the box with enough force to scoot it back a few inches.

"A bit softer, Mr. Nott." Professor Flitwick offered. "But a good try… if everyone could stop for a moment." He rose his voice to get their attention and the cushions ceased their journeys around the room. "Miss Maddex, your Banishing Charm is perfectly executed, could you demonstrate for the rest of the class?" Jade felt the heat rise to her face as every pair of eyes in the room focused on her. Jade nodded at her teacher and then adjusted her grip on her wand, her hands slightly sweaty as her nerves tried to distract her. What if she messed up in front of the class? What if she accidentally hit someone?

"Depulso." She said clearly and moved her wand correctly. The cushion zoomed towards the box and fell into it, neatly stacking on top of another flawlessly. Professor Flitwick clapped after the demonstration, encouraging a few other students to clap as well. Draco sat at her side, clapping loudly with a smirk on his face, enjoying the blush that crept onto her cheeks. The class resumed but Jade had gotten rid of the stack of cushions placed in front of her. She watched Professor Flitwick make his way around the room. "Professor Flitwick was a Duelling Champion in the past, wasn't he?" Jade asked suddenly, recalling the fact Gilderoy Lockhart had said a few years ago.

"Yeah, so?" Draco asked, sending another cushion into the box.

"And he's a Charms teacher now, so it would be safe to assume he probably knows a lot about magic."

"Well, yes," Draco said slowly, still not understanding why they were talking about their teacher.

"I was just wondering, he might know more than the other teachers would about charms and dueling spells… defensive spells, other types of magic."

"Like what?" Pansy asked, no longer interested in the lesson as she gave her wand a flick and the cushion nudged off the desk and flopped to the floor.

"Hm?" Jade hummed, looking away from Professor Flitwick. "Oh, I don't know." She said lamely. When the class ended Jade stayed back to talk with her teacher. "You guys go ahead, I'll catch up." She told them as they waited at the door. She turned to where Flitwick was gathering the stray cushions around the room that hadn't made it into the boxes. He waved his wand effortlessly and wordlessly. "Professor?" Jade spoke softly in the now silent room. "May I trouble you for a moment?" She asked, nervously approaching him. He smiled and nodded, encouraging her forward.

"How can I help you, Miss Maddex?"

"Um, I've been experiencing some… outbursts." She tried explaining. "My magic sometimes flares up unintentionally when I become upset." He nodded.

"That can happen, you're not the only students who's had this trouble." He tried comforting her but she shook her head.

"It's a little different, I think." Remembering the odd way the water moved that one time when she had tried to shower after she thought Draco was going to ask Ava to the dance. "Candles light themselves, water avoids my touch, one time my parchment caught on fire from the inside out. The last time it happened I was able to work with it a bit." His eyebrows furrowed.

"Could you demonstrate what you're referring to for me?" He asked. Jade's eyes flicked from his to his desk where a candlestick sat on its holder. His eyes followed hers and looked between her and the candle. She tried to focus, she'd never done it in front of anybody before but that shouldn't make much of a difference, she just had to ignore him. She stared for a few seconds but nothing happened, she didn't think anything of it, sometimes it took a minute or two. But as the silence began to ring in her ears she became more frustrated with her lack of progress. She felt a gust of wind brush past her legs, she regretted wearing her skirt today instead of her pants, she thought it was getting warm enough to start wearing it again but she guessed wrong. What she thought was a gust was now an airflow, maybe she was standing in the right place where she was catching the draft from the doorway. She focused harder on the candle.

Why won't the damn thing light? The air grew stronger and ruffled her skirt. Flitwick watched her, the candle forgot about. Jade sighed angrily as the wind moved her hair to slightly tickle her chin and she looked at Professor Flitwick.

"I'm sorry, Professor, it usually works."

"I think it did." He told her after a moment of contemplation.

"No, the candle usually lights-"

"Do you notice anything different, Miss Maddex?" He interrupted her and she looked at the candle again and then around the room.

"No."

"The wind has stopped." He noted and Jade looked back to the classroom door to find it closed.

"Oh… I thought it was just a draft."

"No. That was you." Jade sighed, so now she had another thing she couldn't explain.

"Brilliant."

"I agree." She looked back at her teacher who was examining her with great interest.

"I'm sorry?"

"Very interesting, indeed." He waved his wand and the boxes filled with cushions began sliding across the room to where his supply room was in the back corner of the room and the door shut behind them as they went in. "Could you come back tomorrow? After breakfast?"

"But tomorrow's a Saturday," Jade said lamely, confused by her teacher's previous words.

"Yes, it is."

"Yes, sir." She nodded after she realized he was waiting on her reply and he smiled. She turned and headed for her next class but his voice caught her attention once she reached the door.

"Miss Maddex?" She turned back to see him holding up a small slip of parchment. "A note for your next teacher explaining your tardiness."

"Oh, thank you." She smiled politely and hurried towards him to grab it.

"Does anybody else know you've been experiencing these odd events, have you told anyone?"

"No, sir."

"I would prefer if you kept it between us, until we figure out a solution." He explained and Jade nodded again.

"Of course, sir. Thank you, again." She glanced down at the note that explained she had stayed behind to ask a question about the lesson for her next teacher as she left the Charms classroom. She hoped it was nothing serious, he hadn't really told her anything, given her any relief in her worries, but maybe he would the next day.