Jade was still pale but that didn't matter, her smile and true happiness sort of hid that. Jade landed on the ground and went to hug Draco, who had the snitch in his left hand.
They had beat Hufflepuff 390-120 in a four hour match with rain and thunder. Travis showed how good he actually was and Crabbe and Goyle saved Jade from a third bludger that came out of nowhere but they all knew that it was a revenge from Miles.
Jade did break the record of most goals scored in a single year by five goals. So Jade was ecstatic.
Gryffindor was relieved Hufflepuff lost but they didn't think Slytherin would get such a high score, so now that was worrying them. They and the Slytherins knew the Gryffindors needed to score even more points if they wanted to win the Quidditch cup that year, which wasn't an easy task.
Jade was more than satisfied with their performance on their last match of the season. Draco took a while to catch the snitch but that allowed them to score more goals, and Travis showed he was better than Miles.
The following days, Jade was a bit more relaxed. She gave the team two weeks of rest but after the Easter Holidays were over they were going to keep practicing so they wouldn't be so rusty for next year. She also needed to find a new keeper and not one but two chasers, as it was the last year for Travis, Lewis and Graham but she was going to worry about that during the summer or at the start of term.
"Jade, can you please stay tonight?" Draco asked. She jumped in surprise as he sort of appeared out of nowhere. "Please, say you are sick of something, you still look sick so everyone would believe you."
"Why?" Jade asked, eyeing him.
"Please?" Draco begged.
"Is something going on?"
"Yeah... Umbridge knows... she is going to go after all of you tonight."
"What? Crap, I've got to tell them," Jade said quickly. She wanted to ask Draco how he knew that but there was no time, the meeting was going to start in ten minutes.
"Don't you get it? The least you will get is detention with her and you know how that is... you might get expelled."
"If I don't go, then what I did all year was for nothing. And they'll think I knew about it or told Umbridge myself. Sorry Draco, but this is something I have to do. Thanks for telling me."
Jade ran as fast as she could to the seventh floor. She was out of breath when she got there and she noticed the room was pretty full by the time she got there.
"Potter," Jade said as he approached him. "We need to go."
"What? Why?" Potter asked confused.
"Umbridge is coming, she knows." Potter's green eyes opened wide, he grabbed Jade by the arm and pulled her to a corner.
"How do you know?"
"Uh, I heard it..." Jade said, making up a lie. They couldn't know that Draco knew a bit of these meetings. "You know... what I told you a couple of weeks ago... about the mind."
"Whose mind?"
"I'm not sure. I just heard it and ran here to tell you."
"A Slytherin?"
"It doesn't matter, Potter! We need to get out!"
It was then when the rest of the students turned to look at the pair, who were only inches from each other. Everyone could see the urgency in Jade's face and the astonishment and fear in Potter's.
"Out? What do you mean out, Lias?" George asked.
"Umbridge is coming, we need to go!" Jade told him in a loud tone so everyone could hear her.
"Huh? Did you rat us out, Slytherin?" Zacharias exclaimed angrily.
"No, she didn't," Granger said before Jade could defend herself.
"All it matters now is run!" Jade said. "So what the hell are you waiting for? Go!"
Everyone started moving at once. Jade could hear their footsteps. The fifth year students and above could be out until 9:00 p.m. so they still had some time but not the younger students.
Jade was running, she didn't notice if someone was with her or not. She was trying to get to the library and pretend she had been there all this time but before she could reach it, she felt like someone had used a rope around her feet and pulled her towards them.
She fell hard on the ground. The tall student was shocked to see he had caught a fellow Slytherin, and Jade saw how he hesitated. He was thinking of letting her go but in that moment Umbridge got to them. She was followed by Draco, who was dragging Potter by his clothes.
Draco looked sorry and avoided her gaze. She now was wondering what the hell was Draco doing with that toad. But at the moment she had more urgent things to deal with.
"Hmm, look who we got here!" Umbridge said in a amuzing tone. She was enjoying this too much. "Lias."
"Good night, Professor," Jade said smiling, seconds later the tall seventh-year Slytherin pulled her up to her feet.
"Now, Draco, Elijah, you go try to find more, look everywhere, keep an eye for anyone out of breath, and fifty points to Slytherin for this. And now you two," Umbridge said pointing her wand at Jade and Potter. "Walk in front of me as we all go to the Headmaster's office."
As they walked, Potter looked nervous and defeated but Jade stood straight and he could only see the Lias he had always known, the heartless one. For a moment he feared she was going to get away from this for being a Slytherin and she might just blame him, that's why she wasn't nervous at all.
But Jade wasn't going to do that. A million thoughts were going in her mind, possible lies to get her and Potter out of this mess but if she couldn't, well, she would take whatever the punishment was, even being expelled.
When they got to Dumbledore's office, they notice there were a lot of people. Cornelius Fudge was there by the fire. Kingsley Shacklebolt and another wizard Jade didn't know were guarding the doors. Jade recognized Percy Weasley as he was a prefect when he was in Hogwarts. He apparently was there to take notes. She then saw McGongall behind Dumbledore's desk, looking very tense. She was on her feet, while Dumbledore was sat next to her, he looked too calm.
Cornelius looked pleased when he saw Potter, but his expression changed a bit when he saw the brunette girl. If anyone could see her, they wouldn't even guess she was there for something she did wrong. As her face couldn't be read. She didn't look worried even when she was.
"He was trying to get back to the Gryffindor Tower. The Malfoy boy seized him up. And this one was going the other way," Umbridge announced.
"Hm, I'll remember to tell Lucius about it," Fudge said and Jade rolled her eyes, which Percy noticed. "Now... Potter... and Lias... I expect you know why you are here."
"Ye..."
"No." Jade said quickly in a firm voice.
"Excuse me?"
What?" Jade asked innocently. "I really don't know what the big fuss is. I honestly don't know why I'm here."
"Harry, you don't know why you are here?"
"No. I don't," Potter lied quickly, following Jade's lead.
"So, you have no idea why Professor Umbridge brought you both to this office?" Fudge asked, incredulously. "Both of you aren't aware that you have broken school rules?"
"School rules?" Jade asked, surprised. Potter had to admit she was a good actress. "No."
"Or Ministry decrees?"
"What?" She looked so shocked Potter wanted to laugh but in these circumstances he couldn't. "No, sir."
"Are you sure, Jade?"
"I mean... I know Gryffindors and Slytherins aren't supposed to get along, but some do, you know?" Jade said and then she blushed and looked down, her pokerface was gone but Potter knew all was an act. But he didn't know what she was doing. "Is there a Ministry Decree that forbids me from dating Harry?"
"What?" Umbridge asked shocked.
"I'm sorry. Harry and I have to meet late at night because our friends don't understand and we don't like to kiss with people around." Jade blushed more but she wasn't the only one. Potter was even more red than Jade now. "We were about to head off when we heard steps. Our relationship is a secret so we didn't want to be found... Minister... you know my parents, they wouldn't agree..."
"Uh, yeah... how long have you been, uh, together?"
"We've been friends for quite a while," Jade said, suddenly regaining her confidence. "But we just started dating at the start of the year. My brother is gone now, so I don't have to worry about him anymore. He was Head Boy, you know? So, we waited until he was no longer here. Uhm, may I ask... is having a Gryffindor boyfriend against any Ministry Decree? Or school rule?"
"Uh, no, Jade," Cornelius Fudge said awkwardly. Potter wasn't sure how she was convincing the Minister of Magic. He was buying her story too even when he knew it wasn't true but the look in her eyes and her tone of voice were so... real.
"Will you tell my parents?"
"No, of course not. I'll let you do that when you feel comfortable."
"Thank you!" Jade said with a shy smile.
Jade was too worried and concentrated about her act that only Potter noticed the worried expression on Dumbledore at Jade's words and how shocked McGonagall looked.
"Enough!" Umbridge exclaimed. "Minister, should I bring my informant?"
"Yes, please do."
When Umbridge walked out of the room, Jade moved to her right and unexpectedly grabbed Potter's hand and intertwined her fingers with his. He was shocked and almost pulled his hand away but this was all an act, so he stayed like that for several seconds, holding what used to be her enemy's hand, pretending they were a couple.
"I know who betrayed us," Jade whispered as she moved her head close to Potter so no one else could hear. "You won't like it."
Just a minute later Umbridge came back with a black-haired girl, she was covering her face but Jade knew who she was and Potter eventually knew too. It was Cho Chang.
As Fudge approached her, and Umbridge tried to sooth her, Cho stopped covering her face for a bit, making Fudge stumble backwards. Before she covered herself again, her eyes widened when she saw Jade holding Potter's hand.
Jade smiled at her reaction. Her face was covered with what looked like really bad acne, except the pimples formed the word SNEAK.
"Well, I'll tell you what she told me," Umbridge said after Cho refused to talk and instead she started sobbing. "Told me about this room on the seventh floor called the Room of Requirement. Told me a meeting was being held there... but then this hex just appeared... and then she got too distressed at how she looked that she didn't tell me anything else."
"WIll you tell me what happened at the meetings? What was the purpose? Who was going to go to the meeting?"
"I can explain it all, Minister," Jade said quickly, letting go of Potter's hand. "You see, I'm sorry this has gotten so out of hand and made you come all the way here and waste your time on teenage drama. Well, Cho has a crush on Harry and she thought I wasn't worth it, so she probably made this up as a revenge."
"I thought no one knew about your relationship," Umbridge said quickly.
"Except for Cho... She stalks Harry and she saw us when we were together for Valentine's. She is unstable... I mean, after Cedric's deat..."
"Don't get Cedric into this!" Cho finally spoke.
"See? Obviously, she hasn't coped and now is after Harry and won't accept I'm a Slytherin."
"I see... anyway, don't we have a couunterjinx for this?" Fudge asked, referring to Cho's face.
"I haven't been able to find one yet," Umbridge said. Potter and Jade both smiled. But soon those would fade. "But no matter... I can keep the story from here."
Umbridge then went on to talk about the meeting they had back in October in the Hog's Head. And the purpose was to inscitate students to join an illegal society.
"I think you'll find you're wrong there, Dolores," Dumbledore said, speaking for the first time.
"Yes, do let's hear the latest cock-and-bull story designed to pull Potter out of trouble! Go on, then, Dumbledore. Willy Widdershins was lying, was he? Or was it Potter's identical twin in the Hog's Head that day? Or is there the usual simple explanation involving a reversal of time, a dead man coming back to life, and a couple of invisible dementors?"
"Cornelius, I do not deny — and nor, I am sure, do Harry and Jade that they were in the Hog's Head that day, nor that he was trying to recruit students to a Defense Against the Dark Arts group. I am merely pointing out that Dolores is quite wrong to suggest that such a group was, at that time, illegal. If you remember, the Ministry decree banning all student societies was not put into effect until two days after the Hogsmeade meeting, so he was not breaking any rules in the Hog's Head at all."
Percy looked as though he had been struck in the face by something very heavy. Fudge remained motionless in mid-bounce, his mouth hanging open. Jade smirked, Dumbledore was right. They created the group before it was illegal. It was Umbridge who recovered first.
"That's all very fine, Headmaster," she said, smiling sweetly. "But, we are now nearly six months on from the introduction of Educational Decree Number Twenty-four. If the first meeting was not illegal, all those that have happened since most certainly are."
"Well, they certainly would be, if they had continued after the decree came into effect. Do you have any evidence that these meetings continued?"
"Have you not been listening, Dumbledore? Why do you think Miss Chang is here?"
"Oh, can she tell us about six months' worth of meetings? I was under the impression that she was merely reporting a meeting tonight, and apparently her actions were dictated by jealousy."
"Miss Chang," Umbridge said at once, "Tell us how long these meetings have been going on, dear. You can simply nod or shake your head, I'm sure that won't make the spots worse. Have they been happening regularly over the last six months?"
Potter felt a horrible plummeting in his stomach. Jade held on to Potter's hand again but more tightly, without realizing it. This was it. Jade still was thinking of a million things to say to get them out of this one... but her brain was working too hard that she didn't know what to say exactly.
"Just nod or shake your head, dear," Umbridge said in a not so friendly way.
"Can't you see she is coaxing her!" Jade exclaimed, looking at Dumbledore and McGonagall and then at the Minister.
Seconds later, to Jade and Potter's utter amazement, Cho shook her head. Umbridge looked quickly at Fudge and then back at Cho. Jade smirked.
"I don't think you understood the question, did you, dear? I'm asking whether you've been going to these meetings for the past six months? You have, haven't you? What do you mean by shaking your head, dear?" Umbridge exclaimed, losing her patience.
"I would have thought her meaning was quite clear," Professor McGonagall said harshly. "There have been no secret meetings for the past six months. Is that correct, Miss Chang?" She nodded.
"But there was a meeting tonight!" Umbridge said furiously. "Miss Chang, you told me about it, in the Room of Requirement! And Potter was the leader, was he not? Potter organized it, and Lias — why are you shaking your head, girl ?"
"Well, usually when a person shakes their head, they mean 'no.' Unless Miss Chang is using a form of sign language as yet unknown to humans." McGonagall said coldly.
Professor Umbridge seized Cho, pulled her around to face her, and began shaking her very hard. A split second later Dumbledore was on his feet, his wand raised. Kingsley started forward and Umbridge leapt back from Cho, waving her hands in the air as though they had been burned.
"I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores," Dumbledore said, and for the first time, he looked angry.
"The meeting tonight, the one we know definitely happened..."
"It didn't happen," Jade said quickly, interrupting the Minister. "It was just the two of us!"
"Minister Miss Chang tipped me off and I proceeded at once to the seventh floor, accompanied by certain trustworthy students, so as to catch those in the meeting red-handed. It appears that they were forewarned of my arrival, however, because when we reached the seventh floor they were running in every direction."
"That doesn't mean anything. There was no meeting," Jade insisted.
"However," Umbridge continued. "I have all their names here, Miss Parkinson ran into the Room of Requirement for me to see if they had left anything behind. We needed evidence and the room provided it."
And to their horror, she withdrew from her pocket the list of names that had been pinned upon the Room of Requirement's wall and handed it to Fudge. Jade's smirk and even calm look vanished as she looked at the paper. What could she say now? They were getting married and that was the guest list? Could that work?
"The moment I saw Potter's name on the list, I knew what we were dealing with," she said softly.
"Excellent," Fudge said, a smile spreading across his face. "And...See what they've named themselves, Dumbledore's Army."
Jade cursed in her head, she needed to kill Ron's sister for the brilliant idea of that name. What could she say now? 'Sorry Minister, you can't read well, it doesn't say that in there.' Yeah right.
Dumbledore reached out and took the piece of parchment from
Fudge. He gazed at the heading scribbled by Granger all those months ago. Then Dumbledore looked up, smiling. Jade frowned at it. Why was he smiling?
"Well, the game is up," he said simply. "Would you like a written confession from me, Cornelius or will a statement before these witnesses suffice?"
McGonagall and Kingsley look at each other. There was fear in both faces. He did not understand what was going on, and neither apparently, did Fudge or Jade.
"Statement? What — I don't...?"
"Dumbledore's Army, Cornelius," Dumbledore said, still smiling as he waved the list of names before Fudge's face. "Not Potter's Army. Or Lias' Army. Dumbledore's Army."
Fudge took a horrified step backward, yelped, as he understood what was going on.
"You?" he whispered surprised.
"That's right," Dumbledore said pleasantly.
"You organized this? You recruited these students for — for your army?"
"Tonight was supposed to be the first meeting," Dumbledore said, nodding. "Merely to see whether they would be interested in joining me. I see now that it was a mistake to invite Miss Chang, of course."
"Then you have been plotting against me!" he yelled.
"That's right."
"NO!" Potter shouted.
Kingsley flashed a look of warning at him, McGonagall widened her eyes threateningly, but it had suddenly dawned upon Potter what Dumbledore was about to do, and he could not let it happen.
"Be quiet, Harry, or I am afraid you will have to leave my office."
"Well, well, well, I came here tonight expecting to expel Potter and instead..."
"Instead you get to arrest me," Dumbledore said smiling. Jade shook her head in horror. "It's like losing a Knut and finding a Galleon, isn't it?"
"But sir!" Jade said to Fudge but he didn't listen.
"Weasley! Weasley, have you written it all down, everything he's said, his confession, have you got it?"
"Yes, sir, I think so, sir!" Percy said eagerly.
At that, Jade had a thought, it wouldn't save them of course, but doing some mischief was alwasy something Jade was up to. While Fudge kept rambling about how Dumbledore was trying to build up an army against the Ministry, Jade got her wand with only Mcgonagall noticing and mumbled a spell. Nothing happened... yet.
In only a few minutes Percy's quill was going to start doing all kind of patterns in a uncontrolled way, making all of Percy's note's a complete waste, and sadly for them, there was no spell to fix that.
"Duplicate your notes, Weasley, and send a copy to the Daily Prophet at once. If we send a fast owl we should make the morning edition!"
Percy dashed from the room, slamming the door behind him, Jade smiled, knowing Percy wouldn't be fast enough and that copy would't make it to the papers tomorrow.
"You will now be escorted back to the Ministry, where you will be formally charged and then sent to Azkaban toawait trial!" Fudge said, turning to Dumbledore.
"You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I am going to... what is the phrase? 'Come quietly' I am afraid I am not going to come quietly at all, Cornelius. I have absolutely no intention of being sent to Azkaban. I could break out, of course, but what a waste of time, and frankly, I can think of a whole host of things I would rather be doing."
Fudge who looked like something had hit him, just nodded towards the man whom Jade and Potter didn't know. He nodded and moved forward a little, Potter saw his hand drift, almost casually, toward his pocket.
"Don't be silly, Dawlish," Dumbledore said kindly. "I'm sure you are an excellent Auror, I seem to remember that you achieved 'Outstanding' in all your N.E.W.T.s, but if you attempt to 'bring me in' by force, I will have to hurt you."
The man called Dawlish looked quite scared of that threat. He looked
toward Fudge again, but this time he seemed to be hoping for a clue as to what to do next.
"You intend to take on Dawlish, Shacklebolt, Dolores, and myself single handed, do you, Dumbledore?"
"Merlin's beard, no," Dumbledore said to Fudge. "Not unless you are foolish enough to force me to."
"He will not be single-handed!" McGonagall said loudly.
"Enough of this rubbish!" Fudge said, pulling out his own wand. "Dawlish! Shacklebolt! Take him!"
A streak of silver light flashed around the room. There was a bang like a gunshot, and the floor trembled. Jade and Potter felt like being forced down on the floor as a second silver flash went off. He looked up for a bit as he coughed and saw Jade in the same position as him.
Then they both heard someone falling to the ground with a crash quite close to was a shriek and a thud. Then the sound of breaking glass, frantically scuffling footsteps, a groan and then silence.
Potter struggled around to see who pushed him down and saw McGonagall crouched between him and Jade. She had forced both out of harm's way. Dust was still floating gently down through the air onto them.
"Are you all right?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes!" McGonagall said, getting up, Potter and Jade doing it as well.
Fudge, Umbridge, Kingsley, Dawlish and even Cho, lay motionless on the floor. Fawkes the phoenix soared in wide circles above them, singing softly.
"Unfortunately, I had to hex Kingsley too, or it would have looked
very suspicious. He was remarkably quick on the uptake, modifying Miss Chang's memory like that while everyone was looking the other way thank him for me, Minerva?"
"What?" Jade asked surprised. "He changed her memories?"
"They will all awake very soon and it will be best if they do not know that we had time to communicate — you must act as though no time has passed, as though they were merely knocked to the ground."
"Professor Dumbledore..." Potter began.
He did not know what to say first, how sorry he was that he had
started the D.A. in the first place and caused all this trouble, or how
terrible he felt that Dumbledore was leaving to save them from expulsion? But Dumbledore cut him off before he could say another word.
"Listen to me, Harry," he said urgently, "You must study Occlumency as hard as you can, do you understand me? Do everything Professor Snape tells you and practice it particularly every night before sleeping so that you can close your mind to bad dreams — you will understand why soon enough, but you must promise me." Potter nodded. "You too Jade. You must practice as much as possible and learn to control your mind, do you understand me?"
Jade was shocked that Dumbledore knew about her secret but Snape must have told him. Jade surprised, just nodded.
"Remember, you close your mind and you control yours," Dumbledore told them.
Fawkes circled the office and swooped low over him. Dumbledore raised his hand, and grasped the phoenix's long golden tail. There was a flash of fire and the pair of them had gone.
"Where is he?" Fudge yelled, pushing himself up from the ground, repeating the same question again and again.
"I don't know!" Kingsley shouted, also leaping to his feet.
"Well, he can't have Disapparated!" Umbridge cried. "You can't inside this school."
"The stairs!" Dawlish exclaimed, and he flung himself upon the door, wrenched it open, and disappeared, followed closely by Kingsley and Umbridge. Fudge hesitated, then got to his feet slowly, brushing dust
from his front. There was a long and painful silence. He looked around at the
wrecked office. A few of the portraits hissed at him; one or two even
made rude hand gestures.
"You'd better get those three off to bed," Fudge said, looking back at
McGonagall with a dismissive nod toward Potter, Jade and Cho.
She said nothing, but marched them to the door. As it swung closed behind them, Potter and Jade heard Phineas Nigellus's voice.
"You know, Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many counts but you cannot deny he's got style." Jade smiled as he turned to look at Potter, who allowed himself to return the smile.
Jade was astonished at what she had witnessed, and just something made her break from that sort of trace that she was in. Draco.
Jade didn't care that it was quite late, she went up the stairs to the boys' dormitory and went straight to Draco's bed and pulled the blankets off of him. Draco wasn't sleeping and he heard when the door was opened but he thought it was one of his roommates that had gone to the bathroom or something not Jade.
"What the hell, Jade?" Draco exclaimed, making Zabini look at them.
"Do you work for her? You know what she did to me!" Jade yelled, she didn't care that she was waking up the rest of the boys. She couldn't care less, actually.
"You didn't let me finish before you left earlier," Draco said in a much more quiet tone. "My father as embassador of Hogwarts talked to her and made me join her squad."
"Her what?"
"Squad. We basically work for her. I don't want to, okay? I only went tonight because I wanted to find you and get you out of there!" Draco said standing up.
"Yeah right, or to catch Potter?"
"Well, I couldn't help myself," Draco admitted with a sneer. "What happened?"
"You'll know in the morning," Jade told him coldly.
Jade walked out of the room, four pair of eyes following her every move. While the fifth person, ran after her and caught up with her in the middle of the stairs.
"I'm sorry, my father got me into this. I told him what she did to you but he didn't believe me. He made me, Jade," Draco said and Jade knew it was true. "What happened, Jade? Are you in trouble?"
"Probably, I don't know yet. But since only Potter and I were caught, and I was desperate to get an excuse to why I was there, well, I had to tell the Minister that Harry was my boyfriend," Jade said, making a face as she said his name.
"What? Why? You didn't kiss him, did you?"
"Of course not! But I had to call him Harry and be close to him, it was that or nothing. And I'm telling you for two reasons, Draco. One, you are my real boyfriend, so I'm being honest with you. And two, I'm not scared of the detention I'll get if I get it, I'm scared of the Minister talking to my parents," Jade said, looking down at the almost dead fire by the chimney down in the common room. "What if he tells them that I was involved in this group against the Ministry? Or... me dating Harry, which is not true?... Or both? They'd definitely kill me."
"Can you stop calling him Harry?"
"Sorry," Jade said rolling her eyes. "But Draco, if he does tell them anything, I'm doomed."
"Everything will be okay, Jade," Draco whispered as he pulled her closer to him and embraced her, kissing the top of her head. "You'll be okay."
Long chapter :)
What do you think of Jade having to pretend Harry was her boyfriend?
By the way, I'm very happy as I just finished another video :D I just need to work on the colouring, which will be fun (not).
My last Merlin video was sort of an Alternate Universe but it didn't require much, but this new one is a crossover and I'm glad I could actually do it. I just love making crossovers. I should make one about Arthur soon.
I will post the link in the next chapter, if you watch it, I hope you like it!
