It was on Monday that Draco finally left the Hospital Wing and Jade had a talk with him. She was so angry at him that she could barely keep her voice down. Jade told him she understood that he was angry but there was no excuse. They didn't lose. They ended up tied, which was a first for everyone, so his behaviour was even more unacceptable.
"You don't get it!" Jade yelled after they had been arguing for an hour or so. "They might not have money but guess what? They don't need it to be kind and friendly and happy. I would rather spend time with them and be in their stinky house as you said, than at any fancy manor with people that are just assholes. They helped me when I needed help and just because of that, you should at least show some respect."
"They helped you not me..."
"Yeah, but I thought I meant something to you. I'd be grateful if they had helped you," Jade said in a quiet tone and turned to leave. Draco didn't say anything else, at least not to her but he did curse loudly.
During Potions after lunch that day, Jade didn't sit next to Draco. She sat alone in a corner, she was joined by Blaise.
"Hey, Jade, can I talk to you?"
"Sure," Jade said as she read her book but not really paying attention to it. She couldn't concentrate with everything that was going on.
"You know that Draco is a sore loser. The worst that can happen to him is lose or that someone is better than him, especially Potter," Blaise started and Jade just sighed deeply. She had had enough of the topic already, their argument earlier wasn't good. "And he isn't stupid, he knew every teacher was there. He said those things to make them explode. Now can I ask you, who are the biggest gossipers in school?"
"What? What does that have anything to do with what happened at Quidditch?" Jade asked, looking at Blaise for the first time.
"Just answer."
"Channel and Chantel, why?"
"Well, there's a rumour around that you are going out with Weasl..."
"What?" Jade yelled, interrupting Blaise and making everyone look at her.
"Is there a problem, Miss Lias?" Snape asked her.
"No," Jade said while shaking her head and then turned to Blaise again. "What the hell?"
"This Hufflepuff guy... Smith..."
"Zacharias Smith?"
"Yes, that's the one, sort of told the twins that you and the younger Weasley were together... that he had seen you kissing him and spending time with him. And that you also spent lots of times with one the Weasley twins."
"I'll kill him!" Jade exclaimed in a low tone as she shook her head. "But... I still don't understand."
"I know our lives are complicated... having to marry someone and all that but that doesn't stop us from liking someone. Right?"
"Right... Are you implying that I do like Weasley?"
"No, you are not getting it, Jade," Blaise told her. "Draco likes you. He has for years, even before Hogwarts. He went crazy when he was told by Channel and Chantel about what Smith said, I was there when it happened. He understands you have to marry Cassius at some point after you graduate but he lost it at the thought of you being with Weasley."
"You are trying to tell me that Draco was so nasty because he was told I'm with Weasley... like, romantically."
"Yes and it wasn't good that they added the fact you also fool around with his brothers... or at least one of them. I can't remember if it was just one twin or both."
"I'm not fooling around!" Jade yelled again, not being able to keep her voice low.
"Miss Lias?"
Snape was glaring at her from his desk. He normally was good to her, letting slip certain stuff but he didn't like his class to be interrupted. He also didn't like people not doing their work and spending the time talking, like she was doing, she had barely touched her potion.
"I'm sorry professor," she said quickly, blushing a bit.
"One more time of this nonsense and you will get detention."
"It won't happen again."
Snape kept looking at her for a few seconds before he turned to look at Neville's potion. She could still feel the gaze of all her classmates. Draco was pretending he wasn't looking at her but she caught him eyeing her from the other corner of the room at least twice.
"Look, Jade. I know you might not see this coming... about Draco having feelings for you."
If only he knew...
"I just told you so you can understand what happened and to not be as severe as you were with Crabbe. And don't feel awkward around him or push him away. The two of you have a great friendship, would be a shame if anything ruins it."
"So, he was jealous?" Jade asked in surprise. "He was nasty to Potter and the Weasleys and Potter because he thought I was dating one of them?"
"Yeah," Blaise said nodding. "Pretty much."
"I'll kill that damn Hufflepuff. He basically said I was a whore for being with someone and his brothers... at the same time. What the hell?"
"The thing is... why did he say that? And why did he specifically told the twins? He's a weird lad. It's like he intentionally did this to hurt you."
The next day they had Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid, who had come back. He took them inside the Forbidden Forest for the class.
"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark."
"What prefers the dark?" Draco asked sharply to Crabbe and Goyle, Jade and some other students could notice the panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark — did you hear?"
Ron and Potter laughed slightly despite also wondering what creature was going to be in the class. Jade wanted to laugh too but she only bit her lip, trying not to cause more tension between them. And there was also the fact that she couldn't take her eyes from the dead half cow that was over Hagrid's shoulder.
"Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em."
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" Draco asked, this time Jade did laugh a bit as the panic was more than obvious now. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
They walked for about ten more minutes, further into the forest, until they reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there was no snow on the ground at all. Hagrid put his half cow on the ground, stepped back, and turned to face his class again, everyone was nervous, expecting to be ambushed by some terrible beast.
"Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em
a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me."
A minute passed. Everyone kept looking at every place to see what was coming, but so far no one was seeing anything.
Jade saw Potter pointing between two trees, but she saw nothing. She moved closer to Potter and Ron but still, she didn't see anything.
"Why doesn't Hagrid call again?" Ron asked.
"Oh, an' here comes another one!" Hagrid said proudly.
"Another one?" Jade found herself asking. She was confused now.
"Put yer hands up, who can see 'em?" Hagrid asked when he heard her question. Three people did, it was Harry, Neville and a Slytherin boy. "Yeah, yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry. An' you too, Neville."
"Excuse me." Jade heard Draco say behind her. "But what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"
Hagrid didn't answer him, instead he pointed at the cow carcass on the ground. The
whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped. It wasn't good seeing how bits of the cow's body disappeared after being ripped.
"What's eating it?" someone asked.
"Thestrals," Hagrid said. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows...?"
"But they're really, really unlucky!" Parvati interrupted, looking at the almost gone cow. "They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them."
"No, no, no," Hagrid said, chuckling, "They're dead clever an' useful! 'Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages, an' here's another couple, look!"
"I think I felt something, I think it's near me!" Parvati squealed.
"Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh," Hagrid said patiently. "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?" Granger and Jade raised their hands at the same time.
"The only people who can see them are people who have seen death," Jade said when Hagrid hesitated for too long, wanting to choose Granger but not wanting to show favouritism.
"Right, that's correct Lias."
Jade did want to see them, she was curious but she didn't want to pay the price to see them. She only knew they looked like skinny horses with bright eyes and big wings because of what she had read.
It was then when Umbridge came to inspect Hagrid. Jade who had worked hard to ignore her and being able to stand her, had gone back to hating her since the Quidditch incident. She literally had to bite her tongue when Umbridge had the nerve to ask Neville who he had seen dying.
The rest of the class didn't go well. She kept writing bad notes about Hagrid and how the class was being taught.
Pansy and some other Slytherins obviously didn't help. She even twisted what Neville said to her. Jade knew Hagrid was going to be on probation like Trelawney.
If only the Thestrals could eat Umbridge... but not even them had such bad taste.
Not much happened in this chapter but hope you liked it!
