A few days later, Jade was in the back of the class of Charms. She looked bored and like she wasn't really paying to Professor Flitwick as he tried to explain them how to do a new spell. Surprisingly, Ron sat next to her. The only other available seat was next to Potter and he actually chose to sit next to a Slytherin rather than Potter. People noticed but they also knew of the tension between them and now everyone was against Potter, so no one really cared or thought too much about Ron Weasley sitting next to Jade Lias.
"Okay, I think I'm ready to tell you my third guess," Ron whispered to her, sort of interrupting her train of thoughts.
Jade smirked at him. She knew he would never get it. Not even if she gave him twenty more clues and told him the guy's first name. She was confident. But she was also amused Ron would go along with this... to get a kiss. Jade didn't like him but she was a bit disappointed Ron wasn't going to get it right and therefore, she wasn't going to kiss him.
She hated the idea that she was going to finish school, and any time between being eighteen and twenty-two, she was going to marry a guy and have her first kiss in front of lots of people and to someone she didn't like or love.
She didn't like Ron but at least she found him funny, and the idea of going against the rules made her feel a thrill. And she knew that despite all, he was a nice guy and wouldn't take any advantage, or mock her for her lack of abilities, or tell the whole school. She sort of trusted him.
"Okay, tell me," Jade challenged him.
Ron gulped. He got slightly closer to her, so he could whisper in her ear. Since they were in the very back of the room no one noticed this weird exchange between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, and more specifically, between Weasley and Lias.
"Cassius Perseus."
Jade didn't look shocked. She didn't show any emotion so Ron was confused. Then he thought he had actually gotten it wrong. But then she saw her biting her bottom lip and he knew he had actually guessed it right.
"Actually, Weasley..."
"Don't play dirty, Lias," Ron said quickly. "I know it's him, don't cheat. You know I hate cheats."
"Very well," she simply said, looking at him. "You are... right."
After the class was over, Ron and Jade were the last to leave. Jade stopped and looked straight at the redhead, Ron thought she was going to kiss him right there but she had other plans.
"How did you even get it?" she asked. "You sounded so sure, like you actually knew... what gave it away?"
"To be honest, it wasn't you. You treat everyone the same, you are the same sarcastic, annoying girl to everyone. It was his attitude... and even your brother's."
"What do you mean?"
"They are best friends and when you really watch them, you notice that there's more. There's weird respect between the two of them, something beyond their friendship," Ron explained. "And then there's the way he acts around you."
"Yeah, how?"
"You roll your eyes at him and make sarcastic remarks, like always, but he, instead of telling you to piss off or even showing any sign of annoyance... he doesn't. He seems concerned instead. He shows he cares about you, which is weird. I mean... it's obvious he doesn't love you or has feelings for you but he does care, more than he should... and that gave it away."
"Wow... I never thought about any of that. He's just been like that since we were kids so I'm used to it. I was lucky I guess. He is my brother's best friend and I actually sort of like him... as a friend... he is alright. And he is handsome too, I won't deny that."
"Still, you don't want to marry him."
"I can't make myself like him in that way..." she whispered sadly.
They agreed to meet in the Astronomy Tower later that night, Jade could be pretty much anything but if she bet something or if she promised something, she would do it. So here she was, in front of Ronald Weasley, as they looked at the Hogwarts grounds, avoiding each other's eyes at first .
"What do we even do?" Jade asked, she sounded nervous for the first time and Ron couldn't help but grin. "Do we just lean in and you know...?"
"Uh, I guess?" Ron replied.
Ron looked at her now brown eyes, she was scared and nervous. And he was too. But he was also anxious and looking forward to it. The two teenagers closed their eyes and leaned in, but instead of feeling each other's lips, their foreheads crashed.
"Damn it, you Weasley!" Jade exclaimed, rubbing her forehead.
"Sorry..." Ron said quickly. "Maybe we should do it slower."
They did that. Very slowly leaned in and soon they both felt the other's lips against their own. They had never felt that sensation before and it was weird... but not bad. Jade pulled away a bit but Ron got all his courage and kissed her again, this time for a few more seconds. He hadn't realized he had his hands around her waist.
Jade looked down at the floor as they pulled away, Ron smiled but also looked down, his cheeks flushed. With the exception of crashing their foreheads at first, this was what Jade had hoped her first kiss to be like. But she was a bit ashamed... thinking she wasn't good at kissing, as she had never done it.
"Remember that this doesn't mean anything," Jade said looking up at his blue eyes, sounding a lot like her Slytherin self that Ron hated but a bit different, more caring. "We both wanted to have our first kiss, we did it and now we go back to normal. No feelings attached, okay, Weasley?"
"No worries, Lias. I won't have feelings for you. But I wouldn't mind another kiss...Ouch!" Ron exclaimed, rubbing where Jade had punched him.
"I said one kiss and you already got two..." Jade pointed out. But then she smirked and quickly pecked his lips, making Ron feel a bit stunned and mostly confused. "Don't ask for another."
Jade and Ron sat down as they weren't ready to leave yet, and they looked at the dark lake and the forbidden forest. For a moment they forgot who they were and that they were supposed to hate each other.
"Can I ask you something?"
"No."
"I understand you aren't happy," Ron said, ignoring what she said. "But you said it yourself. You are lucky to have Perseus as your future husband... And that he is handsome."
"Don't ruin this, Weasley."
"Just help me understand and I won't bring it up again."
Jade only allowed it because she had no one else to talk about these things with. Her friends, the twins were also in arranged marriages and her best friend Draco also was, but this was such a taboo topic that usually no one talked about it, at least not in that way.
"I saw how sad you got when you explained it to me by the lake, and it's not typical of you to look sad. I also noticed how against you are about this whole situation and most importantly, you looked almost miserable when I explained to you why I figured out why I guessed it right. You know he is good for you but..."
"But he is not the one for me." Jade said quickly, interrupting him.
"You both are one of the most attractive people in school, or at least in Slytherin. He cares about you... You both play Quidditch. Your brother and Perseus are best mates... Why are you this miserable?"
"You make it sound like I don't appreciate things when others have it worse than me," Jade said in a low tone. "I know I'm lucky, like I said earlier. I admit that all you said it's true and that we get along... some of us... well they don't have that. They don't even talk to each other until they are married and usually one or both are ugly, can you imagine having to marry Crabbe or Goyle?" At that Ron made a face and got paler. "And I know he will take care of me really well, as a husband should but..."
"But what?"
"You said it yourself... it's obvious he doesn't love me. I will spend the rest of my life with a man who doesn't love me. We will go out to events or just down the street and he will check other girls out. He won't ever hug me or hold me if I need it... He could listen to me but then nothing. And I will have to have a kid with him so his precious last name can go on... And despite everyone knowing it was arranged, we still will have to pretend to love each other. Hug, even kiss in front of people and once back home, go back to being strangers. You don't get it because you haven't lived it... I see it in my parents. How empty they are. How unhappy they are. And it doesn't matter how good Lex and I are, it will never be enough."
"I don't get it or imagine how it feels but I can..."
"Feel pity for me?"
"No."
"And at first I was okay with it," Jade said, continueing, not being able to stop. She even shed a tear, which she quickly wiped. "Like everyone is. We know since we are kids so we get used to the idea. My marriage was agreed when I was three years old. I've known and accepted it all my life. But it has been maybe two years since I started to notice how fake and empty our lives are and I started to not be so okay with it... Before Hogwarts we live in this kind of bubble. We only share our time with Purebloods who have the same mentality. But when I came to Hogwarts and saw all these other people... I started to realize they were genuily happy and I wanted that."
"But you can have that too."
"No, I can't. My future is written out for me," she said coldly. "And... I find this bullshit even worse now..."
"Why?"
"Why do you think?" Jade asked, being sarcastic for the first time in a long time. "You were right, for Merlin's sake... I do like someone but I pretend I don't because it's forbidden and we aren't meant to be together."
Jade had had a crush on someone for about a year now, and it wasn't until tonight that she had finally accepted it. She refused to ackowledge that she liked a boy, she told herself she didn't know how that felt and the only person she could like in that way was Cassius.
But after speaking with Ron since the start of the year, and actually kissing him, she couldn't keep pretending she didn't have these hidden feelings. And she knew it would only mean heartache as she couldn't even have a relationship with the guy.
"Who is it?"
"That's something I will never say... to anyone," Jade said. "But don't worry... it's not you," Jade added quickly in an effort to lighten the mood but it didn't work.
"It doesn't matter," Ron said. "I never thought it was me... I mean, who would like me? Uh, anyway, isn't he like... you know, the same status as you? And maybe you could convince your parents?"
"No. When they agreed on my marriage, they and my future parents-in-law were so happy. They keep saying they made the perfect match. They say it every year when we are at an event or something and they see Cass and I together. They can't wait for us to get married. Cassius is four years older than me and he has to wait until I graduate Hogwarts... I'd like to wait a couple of years but I'm sure his mother and mine will start making the preparations as soon as I start my seventh year... I don't have a say in this. It doesn't matter who I like... they would never accept him over Cassius."
"Does he like you?"
"Who?"
"Whoever you like..."
"That's the funny thing," Jade said with a sarcastic laugh. "I doubt it so much. Even if he does he would never show any sign of it. I'm suffering for someone who might never like me back... He also has a fiancé and even when he sometimes makes remarks about being unhappy about his parents' choice because the girl is quite ugly and annoying, he would never... you know... You are right... he doesn't like me and I should stop being so pathetic, like what is wrong with me?"
"It's okay to feel something, you know? It doesn't make you pathetic or weak... or whatever you were told. It makes you a normal person."
"I want to be extraordinary, though," she whispered. "Weasley?"
"Yeah?"
"If you tell anyone about what I've said tonight I won't hesitate to kill you, in a slow way," she said looking straight into his eyes without hesitation. He gulped. "No one, absolutely no one knows and no one can know. Ever. As far as you know I'm Lias, the unsufferable, annoying Slytherin you hate, not this pathetic version of me."
"I would never tell anyone, even if you hadn't asked," Ron said. "And I won't tell anyone you were my first kiss." At that she smiled. "As far as I know... I have never kissed anyone."
"Same here," Jade said with a shy smile.
They both stood up and as they did Jade decided to just kiss him one more time, something that Ron didn't reject. He kissed back. What could she say? It felt nice and she knew she wouldn't get another chance like this.
"I think I'm getting used to this," Ron commented as they both pulled away.
"Shut up!" Jade exclaimed, punching him again but this time way softer.
Ron didn't have a problem going back to the Gryffindor common room as it was basically only one or two minutes away. And no one was there at the time, so he just got into bed, trying to process all Jade had admitted and trusted in him.
Jade though, she had to go all the way down to the Dungeons. She had to hide from prefects, Snape, a Hufflepuff couple snogging in one corner in the fourth floor, Peeves, and of course, Cassius and Lexion.
"She is acting weird." She heard her brother say. "I'm thinking of writing my father a letter about Jade's behaviour. How dare she humilliate me like that?"
"She is like that and you know it, she didn't really mean it," Cassius said softly. "She speaks without thinking and tries to hide everything behind sarcasm and jokes but she didn't mean it, Lex. She's just a bit frustrated... Quidditch helps her a lot with that bitchy attitude but now she doesn't have that."
"None of us do," Lexion exclaimed.
"Look, I'll have a talk with her. Don't send a letter to your father, you know that won't be good. And remember that she is also frustrated because you have people following her everywhere... she feels trapped."
"She is my little sister! I have to look after her."
"Not spy her, though," Cassius said softly. "Try this. Tell the people to back off, try spending some time with her instead. Maybe offer to help her with school... I don't know. Be the brother she needs and I can guarantee you she will be more careful... she won't resent you as much as she is doing now. Give her the freedom she doesn't have at home, she's a good girl. If you are spying on her or not... She will still do the same stuff... except that when she feels as trapped as she does now, she might do something stupid to get back at you."
"This is my last year here and I just want to protect her," Lexion said, running her hands through his blonde hair.
"Lex, nothing will happen to her. Draco Malfoy is always looking after her, they are best friends. Pansy and the twins also got her back, mostly because they are crushing on you and Lex... she is my future wife..." he whispered the last part. "Don't you think I want to protect her too? I know you want her safe but don't go to the extremes... you might force her to rebel against you. And you two are so close... don't ruin it, Lex."
"I'll try, okay?" Lexion murmured with a sigh.
"Okay," Cassius said with a grin, his blue eyes looking straight into Lex's green ones. "She'll be okay, you'll see."
Posting again because why not? Today has been good. Woke up early, exercised. Broke a record on the bike. And hopefully will start a book later on.
What do you think of Ron kissing Jade?
Who do you think Jade is crushing on?
