"This has probably been the weirdest but most memorable date that I've ever been on. I'm sorry, Ass. I didn't mean to date Draco. Now I just feel stupid, talking to myself." Jade said.
"Don't be. She was the one who practically pushed you to my face." Draco said.
"Why would she do that?" Jade asked.
"She bullied Fred into being okay with the idea and then tried to subconsciously get me to start thinking about you. You won't believe the levels of manipulation she's achieved with the both of us." Draco said, seeing Jade shake her head and laugh.
"Classic Ass." Jade said, seeing Draco smirk. "So…they can see me right now? They've been seeing me all this time?" Jade asked.
"Since I found you in the rainforest. They were more surprised than I was only because I came all the way there to find you and they had no idea." Draco said.
"Wow…uh. It's a lot to deal with. A lot of information to process." Jade said. "So Astoria doesn't want us to…be close?" Jade asked.
"No, Astoria does not want that." Astoria said, sounding out her words slowly and clearly. Draco shook his head.
"She says no but it doesn't matter what she thinks." Draco said.
"Yes it does." Astoria snapped.
"Yes it does, Draco." Jade said. Astoria looked back at Jade.
"See? Best friend." Astoria said.
"Actually…I shouldn't even be doing this. I'm supposed to marrying Cormac." Jade said.
"I can't even begin to tell you what Fred thinks of that but I don't agree with you. Why are you still thinking of marrying Cormac?" Draco asked.
"You know what, Fred? It's been really hard accepting what's happened and I'm glad I can't hear you. Draco, I can't think clearly with all of this thrown into my face at the same time but I already accepted Cormac's proposal and he sent out the invites the same day." Jade said.
"Love potion for sure." Fred growled, pounding his fist into his hand.
"Astoria doesn't think it's a good idea and I definitely won't do what Astoria isn't comfortable with." Jade said, shaking her head.
"Astoria has nothing to do with this right now." Draco argued.
"She's dead. Somebody needs to advocate for her." Jade said.
"And me?" Fred asked.
"What about Fred?" Draco asked.
"What about Fred?" Jade asked.
"I bloody don't want you to marry Cormac fucking McLaggen. He drugged you and made you think that you slept with him and broke us bloody apart." Fred yelled.
Draco repeated what Fred had said.
"I understand how you feel but he's been there for me. He's been a really good friend and would do anything to keep me happy. Don't you want me to be happy?" Jade asked.
"I think you have a higher chance of being happy with Harry's old Nimbus than McLaggen. His words, not mine but I couldn't agree more." Draco said.
"Both of you shove it." Jade said, walking away.
A week later, Jade went to the park with Ginny, Hermione, James and newborn Rose. James couldn't go very far as he was still learning how to walk. He wobbled, fascinated at the birds in the air.
"Duck! Duck!" was all he could say.
"We got the invitation to your wedding last night." Hermione said.
"Really? When is the wedding?" Jade asked. Hermione laughed but Jade didn't.
"Are you kidding me? You don't know when you're getting married?" Ginny asked.
"Well it's not really something I'm completely interested in. Cormac's doing all the work. All I have to do is just show up in a dress." Jade said.
"Wow. You sound like Ron when I was planning my wedding to myself. He just slipped in somehow and took half the credit." Hermione said.
"I know if it were between Fred and me, he would have been the one planning the wedding too." Jade said, seeing them smile sadly.
"Can't believe it's been two years already. Just seemed like it was yesterday." Hermione said, touching her stomach.
"I am so excited about everyone having kids. It's like I leave for a few months and my two boys get to work and never let me down when I come back." Jade said.
"Is that Malfoy?" Ginny asked.
Jade turned around to see Draco walking side by side with another woman. Scorpius and a little girl who was maybe a year or two older than him were ahead of them, pointing excitedly at the playground.
"Who is she? I've never seen her before." Jade said. Hermione and Ginny shrugged, shaking their heads.
"I've never seen her before either. Maybe they're dating?" Ginny asked. Draco saw them staring at him and smiled, waving his hand.
"You should know, you've spent time with him in a jungle right?" Hermione asked.
"Er…no we didn't really talk about…her." Jade said.
"Good to see all of you together." Draco said, looking at Hermione and Ginny. "Scorpius say hello to James." Draco said. Scorpius reached out to James, holding his wrist.
"Hello." Scorpius said, gently shaking James's wrist who drooled.
"Duck!" James repeated.
"Hey Score. Look how big you've gotten." Ginny said, hugging him.
"This is Anna. Her daughter goes to the same nursery school that Scorpius goes to." Draco said, quickly looking at Jade.
"Her ears are burning. She might slap your nursery friend in two seconds." Fred warned, making Draco smirk.
"Hello, I'm Anna. You must be Draco's friends." Anna said.
"Ha, ha. Not really. I mean we're not Draco's friends…Draco doesn't have any friends…we have a lot of friends…we're all friends…he's…no…no friends." Jade rambled, feeling herself sink into a deeper hole. The fact that she was acting like this and Anna was staring at her confused made her want to punch her.
"Okay…" Ginny said, making Fred laugh. Jade felt embarrassed and looked down at her feet, deciding not to say anything else in this conversation.
"How have you been Draco?" Hermione asked, seeing him nod.
"I've been well. Working and taking care of Scorpius." Draco said.
"It must have been interesting bumping into Jade in a rainforest." Hermione asked. Draco smiled, looking at Jade.
"We were both really surprised to see each other there." Draco said.
"Liar, liar, pants on bloody fucking fiendfyre." Astoria barked.
"Calm down. Look how cute Jade is when she's frustrated. That's my girl. Never knew the right thing to say when she was so upset." Fred said. Astoria sighed.
"Hey, why don't you join us tonight? My family is having a dinner party. You should come since you're part of the family. I mean we hate you but we don't hate Score." Ginny said.
"No, no, no, no!" Jade interrupted, shaking her head. Everyone looked at Jade who was terrified. "I mean. It's just a lot of people. Too many and no. I mean we don't like him…not like that. Just…we don't like you." Jade said.
"Nonsense!" Hermione cut in, trying not to make things awkward.
"What is the matter with you?" Ginny mumbled to Jade who shook her head, looking back down.
"You should definitely come along. We're more than happy to have you there. You could tell us how your adventure went and you can bring your date as well." Hermione said.
Jade bit her lip, looking at Hermione who ignored her. Jade couldn't even look at Draco right now because she knew how smug he looked.
"If Anna doesn't mind to accompany me, I'll definitely be there." Draco said.
"I don't mind being there." Anna said.
"Great! Then we'll see you at seven at The Burrow." Ginny said.
"Thank you for the invitation. Sorry about that, Longbottom." Draco said.
Jade tried her best not to make any faces at him. She could tell that Anna was already put off by her. When Draco and Anna left, Ginny and Hermione turned on Jade.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ginny asked.
"What? I thought we didn't like him!" Jade said.
"We don't hate him." Hermione said.
"But we don't like him enough to invite him to dinner parties. He was so weird when he used to come over with Ass." Jade said.
"Look, I know you two don't get along but he's lonely and he doesn't have any family. At least for Scorpius, just do it." Ginny said.
Later in the evening, Jade changed into a sleeveless maroon dress. She couldn't keep her anxiety down knowing that Draco was coming any minute. Jade sat in Fred's old room. Most of the things from his flat with George was moved back into their old room. Now, Jade was sitting on the bed, drinking from a glass of wine. She placed the glass of wine on the nightstand and fell back, looking at the ceiling. She swung her foot back and forth from the edge of the bed, thinking about Fred and wondering if he was with her right now.
"Pookie!" Cormac interrupted, making Jade's insides shake violently. Jade squeaked and looked at the doorway to see Cormac walking in, looking handsome in a midnight blue button down shirt.
"Look at my beauty." Cormac said.
"Get out Cormac. Not right now." Jade said, placing a hand over her eyes.
"Are you not feeling well, Pookie? What hurts? If you're going to drink all this wine, of course your tummy is going to hurt because-"
"CORMAC PLEASE GO AWAY." Jade yelled sternly.
"Okay Pookie, no need for violent yelling! I love you! I'll be downstairs. Molly's making meat pies and she became upset because I told her that I could make better meat pies because of the horrid egg wash that she uses-"
"Merlin on a stick, someone please kill me." Jade whispered.
"Cormac, I overheard the gnomes telling each other how exceptionally handsome you look tonight." Harry said from the doorway.
"Are they really? Did you hear that? The gnomes are talking about me!" Cormac gasped. He ran out and Jade heard him thumping all the way downstairs.
"Thanks love." Jade said.
"Anytime sweetheart. I'm definitely not an expert and it's really probably not any of my business either but don't marry him." Harry said.
"Life is so complicated, Harry." Jade said, sitting up.
"Tell me about it." Harry said, taking a seat next to her.
"Well…you've had the most complicated life known to the entire world but you're still married to your best friend at the end of the day. Do you think it's possible to find love again?" Jade asked.
"I don't believe that you can find the same love twice but I do think it's possible to find love anywhere." Harry said.
"It's a little confusing." Jade said.
"I think you'll understand when you take Cormac out of it. If you're forcing things, you won't be able to see it because you're too busy trying to make yourself see something else." Harry said.
"I may be in love with Draco." Jade said.
"What?" Harry asked. Jade hummed.
"We spent a few days in Costa Rica and became close. Now I can't stop thinking about him and he tells me he can see Fred and Astoria." Jade said. She started laughing, looking at Harry's expression.
"You have the weirdest imagination. Well, come downstairs. Stop spending all your time in Fred's room." Harry said, helping Jade up.
They walked down the stairs and outside to see that the table had already been set up. Jade took a seat as everyone else settled in.
"Where's Cormac?" Ginny asked from across Jade.
"Fetching gnomes with his teeth." Jade said. Jade felt someone sit at the seat next to her.
"Hello everyone. Sorry I'm late." Draco said.
Jade turned her head to meet his eyes and turned back around, feeling her cheeks pound with hot blood. She could even hear her own heartbeat. Seeing Draco every other day made her reactions toward him, worse.
"No, you've just arrived at the perfect time!" Molly said warmly.
"Everyone, this is Anna. Anna this is the Weasley's." Draco said.
"Hello everybody." Anna said. She went to sit down but found that Draco had taken the end seat.
"Oh I'll move for you-" Jade went to say but Anna shook her head.
"No, that's quite all right. I'll sit right here." Anna said, sitting across the table from them. Everyone had settled in, looking at the food, complimenting Molly.
"Hello there." Draco whispered to Jade.
"Hey…you." Jade said.
"Sorry you don't like me so much." Draco said, seeing her blush deeply. "You look like a boiled beet. Have you been drinking?" Draco asked.
"Why did you come?" Jade asked him, looking around and smiling. Draco put an arm around her chair and edged closer.
"I had to see you and torture you. You look very pretty by the way." Draco murmured.
"Shut up. Not here." Jade said.
"Picnic in the forest again? Or are you too paranoid about Fred watching?" Draco asked. Jade felt his foot rubbing her leg and Jade gasped softly, looking around. "Fred has no idea what I'm doing. Try to relax, will you?" Draco asked.
"Hello everyone. Malfoy? You're here? Why?" Cormac asked.
"I was going to ask you the same question!" Draco said, shaking his hand while he was rubbing his foot against Jade's leg.
Cormac sat down and immediately started eating. Everyone looked at him and Jade felt like she was going to melt into her seat and die. Molly wanted to say a few words before starting but Cormac didn't wait.
"Well I suppose-"
"McLaggen. I think Mrs. Weasley wanted to say something." Draco said.
"Hmm?" Cormac asked, his mouth filled with food. He gulped.
"Say what? The food's delicious." Cormac said, reaching over and trying to pull off the turkey's leg.
"No, I meant Mrs. Weasley wanted to say a few words before letting us eat. It's customary and the polite thing to do." Draco said.
"Cormac just stop eating. No one else started, why are you eating?" Jade asked.
"Oh, I just thought everyone ate before they arrived. Okay, I can wait but make it quick will you? I don't like it when my food gets too cold." Cormac said.
"Oh my lord." Jade said, hiding her face.
"He hasn't changed a bit." Astoria laughed. Fred was already weeping in his own laughter, feeling like he can die all over again.
"Well…he's right. Let's just eat." Molly said, sitting back down.
Everyone started on their food and had to be patient with Cormac who stabbed his fork into any dish that anyone wanted to take or pass along because he wanted to have some on his plate.
"She picked a real charmer." Fred said. Draco grinned, cutting into his turkey.
"Didn't she?" Draco asked.
"I don't want to hear the two of you talking." Jade said.
"Oh, you don't hear him but if you did, you would have died from embarrassment. Plus he said that he has a few emergency pranks around the house that you can use to drive McLaggen away. Just in case." Draco said.
"Leave me alone." Jade whispered.
Draco slid his hand into hers underneath the tablecloth.
"Draco. You're going to get us in trouble." Jade said, feeling him squeeze her hand lightly.
"How about you go into the bathroom and I follow five minutes later? Or do you prefer to snog in the trees?" he asked. Jade chuckled, looking at him. "There are those gorgeous brown eyes that I've been looking for." He said.
"Why are you doing this?" Jade asked, looking at his lips.
"I thought it was obvious why. I'm in love with McLaggen and I'm trying to make him jealous." He said.
The two burst into hushed laughter, trying to quiet down but the more that they tried to act normal, the more that they would laugh out of control for no reason.
"What's so funny?" Ron asked, smiling when they looked at him, starting to shake their head.
Draco tried to adjust his sleeve but he ended up knocking his wine glass and wine spilled all over him which made Jade bark in laughter and start clapping. Draco swore, still laughing, picking up his glass and patting his towel on his thigh.
"I didn't know you could get off just by holding hands. How sweet are you?" Jade asked quietly, pinching his cheek.
"Hey. You think you're funny, don't you?" Draco asked.
Harry, who had been watching them, realized that there was truth to what Jade told him upstairs. Ginny and Hermione were watching them suspiciously but were happy that they were laughing and flushed. They rarely ever see Draco this carefree and smiling but they hadn't seen Jade grinning ear to ear in two years. Everyone was conversing and would occasionally glance at Draco and Jade and smile. Even Ron at some point chuckled at them and went back to his own conversations. Harry especially kept his eye on Cormac who tried to follow their conversation but Jade had her back turned to him, focusing all her attention on Draco. Anna even looked uncomfortable to be there because Draco wasn't paying any attention to her at all. Harry didn't know how he was going to tell Ginny about this.
"So how did you two bump into each other in Costa Rica out of all places?" Hermione asked.
"Uh…should I tell them? You tell them." Jade said.
"No, I'll tell them because you'd just mess it up. So I wanted to go exploring-"
"No here's the short version. We saw fireworks go off in the middle of the jungle and almost shit our pants because we wondered what the hell it was. The natives were terrified and some even were prepared to go to war. This was nearly a kilometer away and I along with my team volunteered to find out what happened." Jade said.
"Why were you shooting fireworks in the middle of a jungle?" Hermione asked.
"I got lost." Draco said. Jade shook her head.
"He was dying. I don't even know what happened. When we got there, he was unrecognizable. Covered in mud, broken everything and almost mangled. You would think that he fell off of a mountain with a hippogriff." Jade said, hearing everyone laugh.
"See that's just mean." Draco said.
Jade placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. "No, in all seriousness, he was badly injured and really could have died." she said.
"How did you end up that way?" Molly asked.
"You should have at least went with someone. Going into a jungle by yourself? Are you mad?" Ginny asked.
"Well I fell down a steep. I really couldn't see it because you really couldn't see the ground. I think at that point I was dehydrated and it was getting dark. Completely unprepared." Draco said.
"So Jade saved your life?" Hermione asked, seeing Draco nod, looking at Jade.
"Pretty much." Draco said.
"Draco at one point saved my life too. Do you see this scar here?" Jade asked, showing them the scar where the arrow struck her.
"That story was mad." Ginny said.
"I've never heard it. What happened?" Molly asked.
Ginny went to reach for the fork but it fell to the ground. She pushed her chair back and went to pick up her fork. Her attention immediately caught Jade's legs tangled around Draco's legs. One of his hands were stroking her knee and Ginny saw Jade's hand covering his hand. Ginny's jaw dropped and she yanked on Harry's pants, still hearing Jade and Draco retelling their stories.
"What?" Harry asked Ginny who put a finger to her lips and pointed to Jade and Draco. Harry looked over and his eyes bulged. Ginny gave him a furious look and got up, sitting back on her chair.
"What the hell is going on?" She whispered.
"Jade told me she was in love with him." Harry said in a low voice.
"WHAT?!" Ginny asked out loud.
Everyone turned to her and Ginny smiled, shaking her head.
"Nothing. Continue! Shocking story, isn't it?" Ginny asked. Draco and Jade continued their story and Ginny turned to Harry, trying to be as normal as possible.
"What the hell?" Ginny asked.
"Love, drink some water, you look like you're about to self-combust." Harry said.
"You drink some bloody water. When did she tell you that?" Ginny asked.
"A little while ago upstairs. I don't know why she told me. Probably because she's had enough of McLaggen." Harry said.
"Why wouldn't she tell me? I'm her best friend!" Ginny said.
"I don't think you'd take it well…like right now. Please look normal. Your Mum looks like she's about to jump out of her seat and take your temperature." Harry said quickly.
"That is remarkable. Every time I hear it, I get goose bumps." Hermione said.
"That was sweet of you to give her your shoes." Molly said.
"Yeah, I really can't imagine you would do something that nice." Ron said as everyone chuckled.
Throughout the dinner, Ginny tried to maintain her cool, trying to think about how to react or talk to Jade. Everyone helped Molly clean up after dinner. Cormac retired on the sofa, moaning and holding his stomach. Ginny cornered Hermione as Jade helped Molly put away the plates.
"We need to talk." Ginny said.
"About what?" Hermione asked. Ginny took Hermione's arm.
"Jade, are you all right?" Molly asked.
Jade threw up in the garbage bin and Hermione walked over, immediately tying her hair.
"I took too much to drink before. I'm sorry Mum, the food was so good." Jade said, wiping her mouth.
"Don't be ridiculous." Molly said, grabbing a potion.
"Is she all right?" Draco asked, walking into the kitchen.
"She needs to lie down for a bit." Hermione said. Molly gave Jade the potion to drink and handed her a glass of water.
"Thank you Mum." Jade said.
"It's quite all right, dear. I know you've been working very hard these days. It's nice to see you loosen up a bit." Molly said. Jade drank the water and sighed.
"I should go home." Jade said.
"You're not apparating anywhere by yourself, young lady." Molly said.
"I'll apparate her back to her home." Draco said.
"Yes, I think it's better if you see her off safely." Hermione said.
"You don't have to drop her home. Cormac can do that." Ginny said.
"Cormac can do what? Sleep? Because he is in a coma right now." Harry said, walking into the kitchen.
"Don't disturb him. I'll take her home safely." Draco said.
"Then who's going to take him home? He can't just sleep on our sofa!" Ginny protested.
"Ginny!" Molly said.
"Thank you so much for dinner, Mum." Jade said, hugging Molly.
"Of course sweetheart." Molly said. Jade hugged Ginny, Hermione and Harry and said goodbye to everyone else.
"Thank you for having me, Mrs. Weasley." Draco said.
"My pleasure." Molly said.
Draco and Jade walked out of the kitchen into the backyard and apparated. Ginny shook her head, seeing Hermione look at her.
"What did you want to tell me?" Hermione asked.
Anna walked into the kitchen, smiling.
"Hello everyone. Has anyone seen Draco?" she asked.
"Did you get it?" Jade asked, watching Draco try different keys to unlock the door to her home.
"If you would just tell me which key it was. There's a million of them that look the same!" Draco said. Jade had her arms wrapped around his waist and hugged him tightly, resting her head on the back of his shoulder.
"I like watching you suffer." Jade said, hearing Draco laugh. He opened the door and turned around, putting an arm around her. He swept her up and carried her into the living room.
"We've created monsters." Astoria said.
"You did. I helped." Fred said.
"That doesn't bother you, one bit?" Astoria asked.
"It gets irritating but the more I look at it, the better I feel." Fred said, watching Jade giggle and chat with Draco as he took her up the stairs. "She looks so happy." Fred said.
"Can you see Fred and Ass now?" Jade asked softly, playing with Draco's fingers. They were both lying on the bed, their feet hanging off of the edges.
"Uh..." Draco said, looking around. "They're not here. I don't know where they are." Draco said. Jade kissed him quickly and pulled back.
"Did they see that?" Jade asked, seeing him smile. Draco moved his head closer, kissing her.
In the morning, Jade woke up to see Draco sitting at the edge of his bed, putting his shoes on. He looked tired and probably got only two hours of sleep. He turned around and smiled at her.
"Good morning." He said. Jade only smiled and groaned at the clock.
"It's so early. Why are you up?" she asked.
"I have to pick up Scorpius from his grandparents. I was supposed to get him last night after dinner so they'll be worrying." Draco said.
"Won't his grandparents be sleeping?" Jade asked.
"It's almost twelve in the afternoon, love." He said, getting up. He leaned over and placed a kiss on her head. The doorbell rang and they both looked at the door.
"Are you expecting any visitors?" he asked.
"I don't think so but if I am, could you go out of the back door please?" Jade asked.
"Why do you make me feel like I've done something dirty?" Draco asked.
"Because you're in the same clothes and people are going to think we're a couple of heathens." Jade said.
Draco playfully narrowed his eyes, brushing his fingers behind her ear. The doorbell rang again and Jade pushed him, getting out of the bed.
"Go!" she said. She said goodbye to Draco who took the backdoor exit and opened the front door to see Hermione and Ginny.
"Hello there. We just wanted to stop by to see how you were doing." Hermione said, walking in.
"I just woke up." Jade yawned, closing the door behind them.
"Really? Malfoy just dropped you off and went home?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah, I think so. Wow, I drank a lot that night, didn't I?" Jade asked and Hermione giggled.
"I can't even remember the last time you drank that much. You look like you had a lot of fun too." Hermione said, seeing Jade grin.
"It was so much fun watching Mum's face when I told her I got shot in the arm with an arrow that could have been poisonous." Jade said.
"And people here thought you went to another country to stare at some leaves." Hermione said.
"It was an unintentional adventure and a happy one at the end." Jade said, seeing Ginny go upstairs. "Gin? Are you okay?" Jade asked.
"Peachy. Just needed something in your room." Ginny said.
Jade was downstairs, talking to Hermione and Ginny went into Jade's room, looking around. It didn't take Ginny long before she found Draco's watch on Jade's bed stand.
"It's like they want to get caught." Ginny said, looking around. She couldn't find anything else and pocketed the watch. She went downstairs to see Jade and Hermione laughing. "You finally warmed up to Draco last night, didn't you?" Ginny asked.
Jade turned around, looking confused.
"Er…what do you mean?" Jade asked.
"I mean yesterday you were telling us to not invite him and then all of a sudden you're laughing and bonding with him at the dinner table. And you two bonded so well that he left Anna back at the Burrow and didn't even come back for her!" Ginny said, throwing her hands up and laughing.
"Oh…right, Anna. Um…so he never went back to pick her up?" Jade asked, seeing Hermione and Ginny shake their heads.
"We found it so odd but it is Malfoy. Poor Anna. She was so upset." Hermione said, watching Jade turn several shades of red.
"That jerk." Jade said, shaking her head.