The following day Ginny took care of Jade's appearance. Her long, semi-straight brown hair suddenly became bright red, as Ginny's but one shade lighter, and now it was in beautiful curls.
"Don't blink," Ginny said.
Jade felt a slight burn in her eyes that made them teary. She wiped the tears and blinked a few times. She turned to look at the mirror and saw she now had blue eyes, the same shade as Ron's and Mr. Weasley.
Ginny also added several freckles which helped to make Jade less recognizable. An acquaintance or someone that had only seen her a few times wouldn't recognize her, wouldn't even suspect.
"Hope you like it, now let's go eat breakfast."
Jade was eating some eggs, beans and toast with Ginny and the twins, who kept joking about George's missing ear. Jade also laughed as it was impossible to resist the urge, but if it was her who had lost an ear, she would still be in shock and not making jokes. As Jade laughed at the most recent joke, she stood up to grab an extra slice of toast.
"Excuse me, you… uh, can you pass me a fork, please?" Ron asked her. Jade turned around and passed him a fork. "Thanks, eh..."
"Ron!" Fred exclaimed. "Have you met our cousin, Chloe?"
"Eh... no."
Everyone started laughing then, Ron looked at Fred and then at George and then at 'Chloe'. He couldn't understand what was so funny and he didn't like that a 'stranger' was laughing at him. His pale face turned bright red in milliseconds.
"Ron, it's me, Jade!"
"No! Wait, what? Do you have blue eyes?"
"Yes, and freckles and a dimple and curls!"
"Blimey! That's amazing! You don't look like you!"
"That's the idea, genius!" George shouted, Ron glared at him and threw a dirty kitchen cloth right to his face.
Later that day, Jade went to the living room, where she found a redhead boy. She smiled at the boy. Granger was there too.
"Nice work," she said, nodding. Jade half smiled at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Harry, this is... Lias."
"Oh."
"This is Cousin Barny, by the way." Granger said, referring to Harry's name for the night. Jade wondered why they changed her hair and eye colour while they used Polyjuice potion on Harry, she could have taken it too. Maybe they couldn't find a redhead girl.
"And I'm cousin Chloe," Jade said awkwardly.
Jade had her hair down in the beautiful curls, they reached her middle back. She was wearing a long light blue dress that was showing her back. She was wearing some silver earrings and a necklace. And a silver ring with a jade in it. Even while looking different, she was stunning.
"Ha... Barny," Fred said, coming into the room, his hands busy, trying to fix his tie. "I see you've met your sister Chloe."
"What?" Jade and Harry asked. "Sister?"
"Well, we have two cousins nobody knows of... the most normal thing would be for them to be siblings, especially when you have similar features. Curly and red hair, blue eyes and the same glaring look. Anyway, just so you know, when I get married, I won't bother with all of this. You can all wear what you like."
"Good to know!" Jade said.
Way too soon, many guests arrived. The French arrived too. Eventually Harry and Jade, who felt way too awkward and out of place, ended up with Luna and they also met her father, Xenophilius. Ron was approaching them with an elderly woman clutching his arm.
"And who are you?" she barked.
"Auntie Muriel, these are our cousins Barny and Chloe."
"More Weasleys?" she exclaimed with a scoff. "Anyway, find me a good seat, Ronald. I am a hundred and seven and I can't be on my feet too long."
Ron was half listening. Jade noticed he was staring at Luna. He went red when he saw that Jade was looking at him and she winked with a knowingly look. He only got redder.
A few minutes later, they went to sit on the second row, Granger, then Harry, then Jade, then Ron and then the twins next to the aisle. In the first row were Ron's parents, and Aunt Muriel. Charlie was next to Bill at the front.
Then Fleur walked down the aisle with her father, her dress was so simple that it made Jade feel like she was overdressed. Ginny and Gabrielle were wearing golden short dresses. Ginny sat next to her mother after she walked down the aisle, Gabrielle went to sit with her parents.
Jade disliked weddings for the fact that all the weddings she had attended until now had been not genuine. All were arranged marriages even when everybody tried to hide it. And they were a reminder of her own arranged marriage, the last one was an even stronger reminder as it was her own brother's wedding. She was next.
After they kissed, Bill and Fleur went on to dance. Mr. Weasley danced with Fleur's mother, and her father danced with Mrs. Weasley. They were smiling and they were happy. Unlike what she witnessed at Lexion's wedding, where everything was fake, there all was genuine and true.
"I like this song," Luna said and then went to dance on her own. She closed her eyes and waved her arms while spinning. It was a weird dance.
"She's great," Ron said in an admiring tone. Jade grinned. Ron probably didn't even notice he had said that outloud.
Eventually, other people started dancing too, including Granger and Krum, he was Fleur's guest. Their table was suddenly empty, leaving only three bored redheads there, with Jade in the middle. Jade grabbed a floating bottle of champagne and accioed a glass and started drinking.
"I thought you were still underage," Harry said when he noticed half the bottle was already gone.
"And I thought you weren't talking to me."
Ron then stood up and went to join Luna and danced with her, leaving only Harry and Jade at the table. Jade took another sip and this time Harry took the bottle from her and tasted the liquor. He made a face but took a second sip.
"Want to dance?"
"You can't dance."
"Let's find out."
Harry grabbed Jade's hand and led her to the dancefloor. They just stood there, looking at each other. They could be disguised as other people but looking into each other's eyes, they could recognize the other. It was weird. Jade was the first to look down. The intensity was too much.
Jade would have thought that Harry would like to scream at her, tell her all the things she had done to be the worst human being ever, or even hex her or just avoid her and pretend she didn't exist, before asking her to dance with him. Jade couldn't understand.
They slowly started moving, it was awkward. It was weird and unexpected. But none of them stopped or voiced their questions or walked away. They just stayed there in silence.
"Chloe, you just have to move more freely," George, who had been watching, approached them, put his hands on Jade's waist and sort of guided her on how to move, which made Harry feel a bit more awkward. "Now this," George said as he grabbed Harry's hand and made him put them on Jade's waist and Jade's hand on Harry's shoulders. "Good."
"We are supposed to be brother and sister," Jade said after a few seconds of actually trying to dance. George kept urging them to get closer and closer, and they were already too close, or that's what Jade felt like.
"So?"
"This is too... eh, I don't know," Jade said as she let go of Harry. "Too close?"
"So? Everyone is drunk and no one will remember," Gorge said with a smirk. "Keep trying though. You almost got it. Just relax."
George went to talk to one of Fleur's cousins and Jade and Harry did stay a few more minutes at the dancefloor together, and for just a moment they forgot their problems. Forgot why they were angry but then Jade froze. Harry noticed, he turned around to see what Jade was looking at, he glanced at their table.
"We can find out what's going on," Harry offered. Jade nodded.
"You talk, please," Jade said. "If I speak, he will recognize my voice."
"Okay."
Both redheads walked to what used to be their table, there they saw two young guys. One blond and one brunet. They were slightly older than Harry and Jade. One seemed to be weary and uneasy and the other seemed to be upset.
"This is our table," Harry said. He didn't sound angry or rude, but intrigued about why they were there. Jade knew that if she had said those same words, it would have sounded rude and unwelcoming.
"Oh sorry, we saw it empty," the blond said, taking a long gulp of his drink. He didn't sound angry but he seemed to be and Jade knew him too well to know he was indeed upset. "Anyway, my name is Cassius Perseus, nice to meet you."
"I'm Barny Weasley and this is my sister, Chloe."
"Are you twins?" he asked, shaking their hands.
"Yes," Harry said, even though he was unsure of his answer. "Are you a friend of Fleur? I assume you are a bit too young to be Bill's friend."
"Sort of. But after tonight we won't be friends anymore," he said, finishing his drink and immediately getting another one. Harry wondered what was up with the Pure-Bloods and alcoholic drinks. "Do you go to Hogwarts? I don't remember seeing any of you there."
"Yes, we just finished our fourth year. We are in Hufflepuff."
"Wonderful," Cass said as he took a big sip of his drink, while Jade nudged Harry. He turned to look at her, and she gave him a look. Somehow he knew what she wanted him to ask. "Do you want some? This is good."
"Uh, no. Thanks. Uh, why won't you be friends with Fleur anymore? She's a nice girl."
"Hmm, she's a hag," he said with a sarcastic laugh as he shook his head. "Invited me with hidden motives. Getting into my life, my private issues as if she knew any of it, as if she actually knew me. Have you ever dated, Barry?"
"Sort of," Harry said uncomfortably. "And it's… Barny."
"Well, you don't want people getting involved in your relationship and actually interfering, do you?"
"How would they interfere?"
"Cass... I think you've drunk too much," his friend said and Harry silently agreed but that was in their favour now. "Maybe we should go."
"He's just being a little bit nosy, nothing bad with that," he said while looking at Harry, ignoring his friend. "Besides, it was me who led the conversation there."
Cassius didn't say what had happened between Fleur and him as he took a pause to drink a bit more but suddenly Jade's expression changed. Harry didn't notice as he was looking at Cass, but Cass noticed.
"Funny, you make the same expression that someone close to me does when she is overthinking and gets concerned," Cass said. Immediately, Jade's face went expressionless. "Funny, she does that too when I point it out.. Hmm. Weird. You probably know her, she still goes to Hogwarts."
"Right, we, uh, we need to go now but it was a pleasure to meet you Cassius, see you around," Harry said.
"Of course, nice meeting you Chloe, Barry."
They stood up and walked to a quiet area, away from the dancefloor, away from the tables, away from the house. Jade was obviously upset. Harry was being extremely friendly to her and she was confused about it.
"I'm sorry, I just couldn't stand him and I was afraid that he could figure out it was actually you. I mean, you might look different but if he had been a little bit more sober he would have been able to tell it was you. I didn't want to stay and risk it."
"I know... and it's okay. I know what happened. Thanks for doing this for me."
"How...?" Then Harry stopped and smiled. "Of course... you read his mind. Why is he upset? I mean... if you want to tell me."
"Fayette is here... Fleur wanted her to have a chance to talk to him. He's been ignoring her. So he got ambushed, sort of. He argued with Fayette, told her no one could know about the baby because it would ruin everything for him. Fayette threatened to leave the baby on his doorstep because she is broke. He's terrified of that. He kept thinking about it."
"Wow," Harry said. "Uh, I don't know what to say."
"It's okay... and the friend... well, he's someone from work. Only came because we aren't supposed to go places alone, right? Don't know who he is, though."
"So, what's going to happen?"
"I don't know. He kept thinking of several ideas. He is thinking of paying her a lot of money to keep her quiet. That was the idea he thought of more often."
"Are you... you know... marrying him? Perseus?"
"No," Jade admitted. "I'll run away before that happens."
"Where will you go?"
"I don't know... I don't have a plan. I just know that I can't go back home next year."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out, you always know what to do."
"No, not always," Jade said sadly. "We uh, we should go back."
"Look, there's Elphias Doge, member of the Order, we should sit with him. I'm sure you don't want to go back to Perseus."
"You're right," Jade said as she glanced at Cass. "And I don't want to go back to the dance floor."
"Yeah, me neither," Harry said with a chuckle.
"Uhm, Ha - I mean Barny?"
"Yes?"
"Granger was right... The second guy I wanted to save was you."
"By killing Dumbledore?"
"It doesn't make sense, I know. I mean, if you take Draco from the equation, there can't be an explanation, a rational one, can it? To why I tried to do that and how it could save you. But in my stupid brain, everything made sense in that moment."
"Why did you want to save me?"
"Because you are Harry Potter," she whispered sarcastically and he gave her a look. "I mean... to an extent, that's true. Because Harry Potter was supposed to be my friend. And I wanted to save my friend. I'm not telling you this so you can forgive me, I know I tried to do something awful and I don't deserve to be forgiven. I'm telling you because I know you'll be gone soon and I don't know if I'll ever see you again. So... wanted you to know."
"Why... what were you trying to save me from?"
"Death," Jade said simply. "I can tell you a bit more after the wedding. It's only fair, but let's join Elphias Doge for now."
"Chloe?"
"Yeah?"
"You look good but I sort of miss your real eyes," Harry said and Jade turned as red as her hair.
"Basically, these are my real eyes," Jade said with a shrug. "Ginny just 'coloured' them. I always wanted blue eyes, so this is cool."
"Yours are way better than blue." Again, Jade blushed. "Chloe?"
"Yeah?"
"I... I - I guess it can wait until the wedding is over," Harry said as he looked frustrated at the ground. "Let's go then."
The two went to sit with the old man, he was alone at a table. Harry told him he was actually Harry Potter and the man admitted he knew he was somewhere as Mr. Weasley had told him. For now, they didn't say Jade was Jade and the man didn't ask.
Their pleasant talk was soon interrupted by Aunt Muriel, who apparently was a fan of Rita Skeeter. She also let it slip that Dumbledore had a Squib sister, which was a surprise to Jade, who had never thought about Dumbledore's family.
"I thought she was ill," Harry commented.
Aunt Muriel had this theory that Kendra, Dumbledore's mother, had kept her locked up as she didn't want anyone to know that she had a Squib daughter, but Elphias insisted that her health was poor and that's why she kept her in the house.
"I don't get it," Jade said, speaking for the first time. "If she was actually muggle-born, what was so wrong about having a Squib kid? I could understand that attitude if she was a Pureblood."
"That's just how Kendra was," Muriel said simply. "She wanted everything to be perfect."
"She wasn't a Squib!" Elphias exclaimed, turning red.
"She never went to Hogwarts! And if she was so ill, why was she never taken to St. Mungos?"
Enjoying the effect she was making, Aunt Muriel got more champagne, Jade couldn't say no when she offered her a glass. Harry just gave her a look. She had already had enough. Jade looked away from him and took a long sip.
"Oh and you were at the funeral, Elphias?"
"Yes, Albus was heartbroken."
"His heart wasn't the only thing broken. Aberforth broke his nose, didn't he?" Muriel exclaimed and Elphias got even redder and angrier. "My mother was friendly with Bathilda Bagshot, she told the whole thing to Mother. I eavesdropped. Aberforth blamed Albus for her death. And I bet she's the one who spoke to Rita Skeeter... she knew the Dumbledores for years, they all lived in Godric's Hollow."
"What?" Harry asked perplexed as Jade opened her blue eyes wide in shock. "Bathilda Bagshot lives in Godric Hollow?"
"Oh yes, always. The Dumbledores moved there after Percival was imprisoned. They were neighbours."
Jade didn't have to read Harry's mind to know what he was thinking. He lived there. His parents were murdered there and Dumbledore never told him he also had lived there. He looked devastated. Jade tentatively put a hand on his shoulder.
Whatever Aunt Muriel said after that, Harry didn't hear. He was too focused thinking about Dumbledore's house. Then Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a big silver light falling on the dance floor, it took the form of a lynx. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the patronus.
"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."
It took a moment or two after the patronus disappeared for everyone to react. People started to scream and run. Some were disapparating from the seats, somehow, the protective enchantments around The Burrow had been broken.
Harry and Jade just stayed there, looking at the chaos. Some members of the Order were trying to re-do the protective enchantments and be ready for an attack.
Harry turned to look at Jade and Jade immediately looked at Harry. Both forgot for a second what was going on. Jade nodded knowing he had to go and soon.
Without a warning, without seeing it coming. Harry put his hands on either side of Jade's face and kissed her lips urgently. That wasn't how Harry planned to have his first kiss with her but he wasn't sure if he was going to have another chance. To be honest, he didn't feel anything towards her after Dumbledore died, but spending those last few days with her made those feelings come back and way stronger than before.
Jade was shocked. She didn't know what to say or do when Harry pulled away. She knew it was wrong but at the moment the prophecy wasn't in her mind.
"Take care, okay?" Harry said and Jade nodded.
"You too."
Then without another word, both ran around the place, they first found Granger, who had been dancing with Krum all night. A few seconds later, Jade could see Ron running to them, his hair was a mess, some of his shirt buttons were undone and his jacket was missing.
The three of them held hands when Ron finally got to them. Harry managed to nod at Jade before they disapparated. As soon as they were gone, she tried to join the Order's members. She fought two Death Eaters when Mrs. Weasley asked her to go inside the house and take Ginny with her.
Without protesting, Jade took Ginny by her arm and dragged her inside the house, where some enchantments still worked. Both girls helped to defend the Burrow from there.
Then out of nowhere, Luna appeared behind them, making them both jump, scream and point their wands at the blonde, petite, girl. She looked like she didn't know what was going on and Jade noticed she was wearing Ron's jacket.
"Where did you come from?" Ginny exclaimed as she put her hand over her chest.
It didn't matter. She was okay and that was all that mattered. Luna took her wand and helped battling the Death Eaters. It was always a bit overwhelming to be fighting people that you know. Jade could recognize at least half of the Death Eaters. Some were friends with her parents, some were just classmates' parents and some were family.
Apparently, they weren't there to kill but to get information. Once they got control of the situation, they searched the entire house and nearby area. And they asked questions to everyone who remained there. Fred and Jade were taken to a room and were interrogated by Dolohov. They wanted to know if Harry was there.
Hours and hours passed, it was already light outside but eventually they left. Dolohov smirked before he also left, Fred got closer to Jade, he took his jacket off and put it on Jade and then put an arm around her, she hadn't noticed she was shaking until then. She was both cold and overwhelmed.
Three people stayed up that night, Lupin, Mr. Weasley and Charlie. After Luna left with her father, Jade and Ginny headed to the twins' room. None of them wanted to be on their own.
"To be honest, I'm glad I'm not alone tonight," Ginny said just before they opened the door.
"Yeah, me too," Jade replied as she gave a quick hug to Ginny and then got inside the room. The twins shared a bed and Ginny and Jade shared the other.
I'm soooo looking forward to read what you have to say about this chapter and the events that happened. Please let me know what you think :)
I was actually going to update yesterday but the internet I use stopped working nationwide. :/ Only facebook and youtube worked. But here it is :)
