On a Friday night Ron and Jade met in the Astronomy tower, the place where they had their first kiss but this time they were only there to talk, as they hadn't had the chance to do it all year.
"Wow, Ron. You are a prefect now and got in the Quidditch team," Jade said as she saw him come and he went to sit next to her. "Very impressive."
"Thanks," Ron said with a smile. "And you are captain. You are the first ever female captain of the Slytherin team. I think that's very impressive as well. How was it after you left my house?"
"Eh, it was okay during our trip. But it was worse in the sense that I spent time with your family and got to see how real families are. How they interact with each other so when I went back, I felt more alone."
"But they didn't do anything bad?"
"To me? No, but the difference was more obvious. Like, you can see the love in your parents' eyes. When you all played Quidditch together and had fun as a family. Your parents actually kiss and your mum wishes your dad a good day when he goes to work. And you sit together for almost every meal and your mum cooks that food... I had never tried food that tasted so good."
"Who cooks in your house?"
"The house-elves," Jade said in an obvious tone. "I think my mother has never been in the kitchen... now that I think about it, I don't know what my own kitchen looks like."
"You are kidding, right? What if you are hungry in the middle of the night? Or want a glass of juice or something?"
"A house-elf gets it for me," Jade said with a shrug. "Anyway, do you know what your father did when we parted ways?"
"What?" Ron asked with an eyebrow raised.
"He gave me a hug," Jade said softly. "My parents have never hugged me... No one had ever hugged me."
"You are trying to say that I gave you your first hug?" Jade nodded sadly.
"Three people have hugged me in my entire life. And those three people aren't my mother, father and my brother, as it should be. They are you, your father and Draco. And... to be honest it feels good to be hugged."
"Wow! So I got to be your first hug and your first kiss... what else can I ask for?" Ron joked, trying to cheer her up.
Ron felt bad for the hazel-eyed girl. He didn't know what to say. Hugs were a normal part of his life, his mother was a big hugger, but to Jade it was something new. Ron felt like giving her a hug in that moment, so he did that. He could tell she tensed a bit and didn't know what to do exactly. She barely put her hands around him and she was still tense, Ron found it sad and odd that she didn't know how to hug and that it felt so strange and awkward to her.
"You'll get used to it," Ron assured her as they pulled apart. "By the end of the year or even sooner, hugs won't feel weird."
Jade smiled a bit at Ron. She had admitted hugs felt nice, but she hadn't admitted that it was still a strange feeling to her, having someone so close and caring for her. And she wasn't even sure how to hug back, like where to put her hands or how tight they should be. She worried way too much. It was sad that it didn't come natural as it should be.
"By the way, Draco knows I spent time at your house during the summer," Jade said to change the subject. "He was surprised."
"Do you really trust him? Won't he tell your parents?"
"if I trust someone, it's him. We've been friends since we were babies. We shared the same crib during nap time and spent almost every day together. We are almost neighbours."
"If you really trust him, that's alright. Oh, I also wanted to tell you to be careful. Those detentions with Umbrige can be very nasty as you found out," Ron told her without getting into details.
"Yeah, I know. Only being in the same room with that Toad is enough torture for me, but I'm fine."
"Harry told me you healed him the other night but didn't do it to yourself. He also told me how shocked he was at seeing how you were there as if nothing was going on. He couldn't get over it for days."
"What's the point in whining? She enjoys that. And it didn't hurt that bad. It's more at the start when you don't know what is going on. You just think about something else, concentrate on that and that helps..."
"Harry doesn't like to talk about those detentions and usually avoids the topic, at first he didn't tell us. We confronted him when we saw his hand, it's horrific. But he talked a lot about you and how you behaved in there, he was amazed and puzzled. He also didn't stop mentioning the fact that you healed him, he kept checking his hand as if he still couldn't believe it had happened."
"Well, what can I say? I hate the toad way more than I hate Potter and for once I think that he doesn't deserve what he is getting," Jade said with a small shrug. "What I did was nothing, it took probably two seconds. It wasn't important."
"Two years ago Jade Lias wouldn't have helped Harry, she would have probably made the pain worst," Ron told her and Jade looked away, actually feeling bad. "And what you did wasn't nothing. Harry was and is still very grateful. It mattered."
Jade didn't know what to say or do. She had never been complimented on how she acted. She didn't even think about helping Potter, she healed him and that was it. When she got to her common room the event wasn't in her mind anymore and she hadn't thought about it since then. She didn't consider it a big deal but apparently she had been wrong.
"There's one more thing I wanted to tell you but you can't tell anyone about this..." Ron said nervously.
"Okay, what is it?"
"You are as upset as us with what Umbridge is doing and not being able to actually learn. You made it obvious that day when you kept saying things to her."
"I think it's ridiculous they won't let us do magic... especially now. If they don't want us doing any magic they should just close Hogwarts and send us to Muggle schools."
"Well, we are thinking of creating a group to practice defensive spells and learn to protect ourselves. Would you like to join?"
"Do you want me to be your teacher?" Jade asked with a smirk and an arrogant tone, but she was just joking.
"Well, if you've got stuff to teach us all, sure," Ron said.
"Thanks, Ron, but I doubt that will be a good idea," Jade said looking over the lake. "I don't know who is in that group but a Slytherin won't fit in and I'll only cause problems. You accept me but no one else does."
"That's not true. Fred and George accept you too. Ginny is almost there and Harry at least stopped hating you," Ron said. "They know you aren't bad, Jade."
"Sometimes I wonder if I'm bad or not."
"You aren't bad. Don't think that. I would want you there, so, at least think about it. Okay?"
"Okay, I will think about it."
Still locked up! Good news is that there had been less people infected per day so I do hope that these stupid rules get lifted, because it's really messing me up.
I bought plants by the way, I'm so excited! I have two strawberries plants! Any advice, if you know about plants? It's been raining for the last 3 days so they are still they way I bought them, not been able to replant them or anything. The weather has been horrible.
So, Anyway, I thought there had been too little of Ron lately so yeah! I had to bring him back for a bit. Let me know what you think! :)
