"Look, I don't want to go back to not talking," Draco told her Monday morning. "So, just forget what I said."
Jade nodded at Draco but couldn't bring herself to smile. She wanted to tell him he was the best that could have happened to her but she wasn't ready. Was she in love with Draco? Did she really love him? Jade hadn't stopped thinking about it. Most likely yes, but she wasn't ready to admit it to herself or to him...
The next night, Jade felt a bit bitter as most people at the D.A. meetings had mastered the Patronus charm by now. Some got it right every single time. And a few of them had even managed to do corporeal Patronuses. Granger's was an otter. Luna's a hare, Ginny's a horse. And even fewer, that still couldn't do it at all. Neville was still struggling.
Jade didn't even bother, she kept circling the room and sometimes adviced people here and there as she theoretically knew the spell.
"We won't let you leave until you try it, at least," Ron said that night as he stepped in front of the door so Jade wouldn't leave.
"I don't want to try."
"Close your eyes," Potter instructed.
"What?"
"Just do it."
When she did close her eyes, instead of seeing pitch black, she saw for just a moment, a blurry image of a girl with brown hair and along with that she heard Ron's voice. She shook her head and opened her eyes. Ron was just there looking at her and Harry was starting to give her instructions. When she closed her eyes again, she didn't see anything that time.
Jade tried six times, as she predicted nothing, not even a spark came out of her wand. She felt frustrated and ashamed for not being able to do something. She took a deep breath and started to pace the room to calm down.
"Okay, Lias, I know you feel angry, let it go. Clear your mind. Don't think about not being able to, don't think of not being capable, let defeat and negativity go. Just think of a memory and let that be the only thing that is in your mind."
Jade concentrated on one thing. She closed her eyes and only thought about that. She took a deep breath and raised her hand ready to try again. She said the spell and she expected nothing to happen once again, she was about to drop her hand when she heard Ron's voice.
"Jade, you are doing it!"
She opened her eyes and was surprised to see a light blue light coming from her wand. She got so distracted thinking about it that the light vanished but she had done it. She actually did it.
"Well done, Lias," Potter said with a smile. "Keep practicing and you'll get better at it. You did it!"
"What were you thinking?" Ron asked when Potter left the room.
"Something that happened a few days ago," Jade said with a smile and blushed a bit. She was thinking of the moment when Draco told her he loved her. "But won't tell you yet."
A few days later, Jade was in the library doing her Transfiguration homework. She was by herself. Draco had left five minutes ago.
Then out of nowhere she saw an image in her head. It was an Asian girl, she could tell it was Cho. She saw her crying and saying some things to someone, but whatever she was saying wasn't clear enough. Then suddenly she heard another voice saying 'Out!'.
Jade blinked twice and the image had vanished. She was back in the library. She looked around and saw Potter looking a bit agitated. There were two or three more people around but Jade knew Potter liked Cho, so she knew the image was from him.
Jade grabbed her books and put them inside her bag and then made her way towards Potter. He looked a bit shocked as the brunette sat in front of him. He was even more surprised at how she opened her mouth, then closed it and then opened it again but she wasn't saying anything.
"What is it, Lias?"
"I don't know how to even say this," Jade said at last, looking down at the table. "Can we talk?"
"Aren't we talking already?"
"Outside?" Potter nodded.
He and Jade left the library together, Potter followed her to a corner nearby where she knew they wouldn't be interrupted. Jade looked nervous and anxious and Potter could only wonder what was going on.
"You pushed me out," Jade said looking into his green eyes. "You stopped me, how?"
"What are you talking about?" Potter asked confused.
"You were thinking about Cho and you knew I could see it and you stop..."
"Wait... was that you?" Potter asked, getting a bit angry. Jade sighed.
"I didn't mean to, okay? Look, please don't think I'm crazy because I'm not... or at least I think I'm not... actually, I might be..."
"Lias, go to the chase."
"Sometimes I can hear people's thoughts," Jade admitted looking away. "And for some weeks I've been able to see what they think."
"What?"
"I don't mean it, okay? It's random. Sometimes I go days without anything happening, or sometimes it can happen several times in a day. I can't control it. It just happens! And at first it was just listening to their thoughts so I didn't even know what was going on... I thought they were actually talking and then I started to see images... They were blurry at first but with time they got less and less blurry, and I didn't want to tell anyone, I mean, I wanted to, but I couldn't. They would think I'm mad... and you... you knew I was in your head, how? Can you help me?"
"I've been taking Occlumancy lessons," Potter whispered. "So I can block my mind. I still can't, though. I suck at it. I'm sorry but I can't help you, like, I'm learning the opposite of what you are doing... I don't want people invading my thoughts. When did this start?"
After a long time of suspicions and being afraid of what was going, Jade finally told someone. She would have never imagined that someone would be Harry Potter but she felt relieved and like if a worry had been taken off of her.
"Around the Christmas holidays."
"When did you realize what was happening? You said you didn't know what was going on at first."
"I still don't know what's going on," Jade exclaimed. "But I sort of had suspicions when I heard Granger saying I couldn't be trusted. She said it in the open like if what we do isn't a secret! And then I finally knew when I heard Miles Bletchley... he said... thought of ruining our match against Ravenclaw so I wouldn't be the captain anymore. I looked at him, he wasn't talking to anyone. He was concentrated on his homework, on his own, and no one else heard. And sometimes I ask people about what they are saying and they are shocked when I ask, or the people around say they haven't heard anything."
"Have you heard anything important?" Harry asked.
"Zacharias wants to hex you," Jade said.
"Anything more important than that?"
"He wants to hex me too."
"More important than that?"
"Yes, but I can't tell you yet," Jade said looking away.
"Whose thoughts have you listened?"
"I've heard most of my Slytherin friends' thoughts. I've never heard Draco's. And when I discovered what was going on I tried to do it on purpose. I tried to listen to Pansy's thoughts but nothing. Blaise, Bletchley, some people at the meetings but nothing. When I actually try I can't listen to anyone's thoughts. I heard Luna's at one of the meetings by accident, and let me tell you, her mind is a mess, I didn't even know what she was thinking, I couldn't really make out anything and it was so loud."
"Have you heard Umbridge, for example? Or a teacher?"
"I don't think so, no," Jade said unsured.
"Snape is teaching me Occlumancy, maybe you should talk to him," Potter told her.
"Snape?" Jade asked shocked. "Snape is teaching you?"
"Well, he is the only one that can teach me, apparently. Why haven't you told anyone?"
"At first because I didn't know, and then I was scared of being labelled as mad. Or like a danger. If someone can get into your head, especially without you noticing, is a danger. You noticed but you are the fir... actually, you are the second. But I didn't know what was going on back then."
"Who was the first?"
"Snape," Jade said with an ironic tone.
"What did you hear?"
"Nothing... I saw a blurry image of a redhead woman. Then, he sort of expelled me from his mind. He knew someone was in there."
"Hmm. Well, you should tell him, he might be able to help."
April came and Jade still hadn't spoken to Snape. She chickened out every time she tried. Was if she was doing something that was illegal? She didn't want to get into trouble.
She realized she could hear lots of people's thoughts and see what they were seeing inside their head, but she never listened to Ron's or Potter's thoughts again and still she hadn't heard Draco's. But she heard Umbridge's thoughts once and they were perturbing.
"Maybe I can sit next to Granger for our O.W.L.s and I can listen to the answer of the tests," Jade said jokingly one day to Potter as he was the only one that knew.
"Come on, you are bright enough. You don't need to listen to her," Potter said without noticing he was complimenting her for the first time ever. Jade opened her eyes in surprise.
"Wow, thank you," Jade said smiling. "But if I got to live with this, it's better to use it for something useful."
Jade then saw Fred and George walking towards them, she bit her lips. Potter didn't know Jade well, so he didn't notice that but Ron always did and usually knew what it meant.
"Hello," Fred and George greeted.
"Would it be such a big coincidence if Bletchley gets sick again for our next match?" Jade said not being able to keep her mouth shut.
"Obviously," the twins said at the same time.
"Damn!"
"What?" Potter asked, confused.
"Lias has been a good customer," Fred said.
"Even paid us double," George added.
"For what?" Ron asked, looking from Jade to his brothers.
"Puke pills," Fred said casually. "Turns out this girl made her own keeper sick on match day, we didn't believe it until we saw it."
"Why would you do that?"
"He was going to make us lose on purpose..." Jade said shrugging. "I heard him..." Jade said emphasizing the word heard. And Harry suddenly understood what she meant. And he remembered she had mentioned it when she confessed her little problem to him.
"If Hufflepuff beats you, they might win the Quidditch cup. If you win we might have a chance, though," Fred said. "It all depends on the points."
"So you are saying, you hope we win...?" Jade asked confused.
"Sort of... it's better for us if you win," Fred said. "That also depends on our result with Ravenclaw. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend making him sick again. Think of something else. Get him into detention? Or..."
"Aren't you the captain, though?" George asked, interrupting Fred, who looked frustrated about it. "Can't you kick him out of the team?"
"Yes and no... if he goes to Snape and he tells me there is no reason for what I did, then I'm screwed. And his family is friends with mine... I don't want to cause any trouble."
"Screw them," George simply said. "This is Quidditch. You gotta do whatever is necessary to win, right?"
"Yeah."
"So, do it."
The following night, Jade was in the common room doing her homework, but she wasn't really doing it. She was lost in thought. She had decided to talk to Snape about Miles but she also needed to tell the whole story and she was nervous.
"If I tell you something, and if you thought I was mad, would you still care about me?" Jade asked Draco.
"I would care more," Draco said with a chuckle. "But I would never think you are mad. What is it?"
"I've got... a problem... well not a problem. I don't know how to call it. For a long time I didn't know what was going on but then I did and I don't know how to stop it... so I will go to Snape, talk to him, maybe he can help me but as... you know... my best friend and... more than that," Jade said nervously, not wanting to say the word boyfriend out loud. "I wanted to tell you first."
"Okay," Draco said closing his Transfiguration book. "You can tell me. What is going on?"
"Do you remember when you were confused when I thought I heard Miles say something but you assured me he didn't?" Draco nodded. "And when I also thought those girls from Ravenclaw were talking shit about me and I made a scene and apparently they said nothing?"
"Yeah," Draco said nodding.
"Well, I didn't know back then but... they didn't say it out loud... they rather thought about it... you know?" Draco looked so confused. Jaded was rambling. "Okay, sorry. The thing is I sometimes hear people's thoughts or see what they are seeing in their head. Like if someone is thinking about their cat I can see it too. The images were blurry at first but now they aren't so blurry."
"Wait... what?"
"It's crazy, I know. But it's true. I hear people's thoughts," Jade said with a nervous laugh. "Lately I can tell apart words that are actually spoken aloud or just ... you know, thoughts. They sound differently."
"Uhm, have you heard mine?" Draco asked at the same time as he got a little bit paler.
"No, so don't worry," Jade said with a smile.
"Can you actually hear other people's thoughts?"
"Not all the time and not at will, but yeah, sometimes I hear what people think."
"When did this start?"
Jade looked down, at her trembling hands. She didn't want to tell Draco because she didn't want him to think she was crazy and because she didn't want him to feel guilty. Mostly because of the last part.
"The first time it happened was when I woke up in the hospital and I heard the healer say something... except she didn't say it... she thought about it."
"What did you hear?"
"That she was surprised I was awake. And that I probably would fall back into the coma."
"Did she really say tha...?" Draco said loudly in anger but then stopped as realization hit him. "Wait... did this start after you woke up?"
"Yeah," Jade said with a sigh. "But I don't blame you. It's nothing bad... like if it wasn't for this I would have never known Miles wanted to make us lose."
"Wait... is that how you found out?"
"Yeah. For some reason I can hear him a lot," Jade said out loud, realizing that.
"Why are you going to tell Snape?" Draco asked. "If you think it's not bad."
"Honestly? Because if I can't get rid of it, I want to control it," Jade said looking at his grey eyes once again. "I don't want to invade your mind, your privacy... I haven't heard you but I'd feel awful if it happened."
"Well, got nothing to hide, you know? You already know I love you..." Draco said and then blushed. "But yeah, I suppose it would be weird. If you can't help it I wouldn't be upset."
"But that's what I want, being able to stop it, to control it," Jade said. "Or get rid of it."
"Do you really think he can help?" Jade nodded at his question. "When are you going to talk to him?"
"Tomorrow before or after class."
"Why hadn't you told me before?"
"Because I didn't want you to feel guilty... and I don't need to listen to your thoughts to know that... like, it's written all over your face. And it's not your fault."
"Well, this never happened before and I sent you to the hospital, got you in a coma and this... whatever it is... it's a consequence of that," Draco said. "So yeah, of course I feel like it's my fault."
So, Jade finally spoke about her little secret. What do you think?
And I didn't sleep well last night, so if there are any mistakes I'm sorry. I also wanted to ask... is it listening to thoughts or hearing to thoughts? Which one is the right way?
This might be a weird question, but I didn't sleep, right? I noticed no birds were chirping and it was 6am. Already getting light. A few months ago I could hear hundreds, at sunrise and sunset and well, today, I heard just a few. Has anyone noticed that? Like a decrease in birds?
