Once back in Wiltshire, at her house. Jade went straight to her room instead of joining her parents for breakfast. When she opened the door, she glanced at every corner of her room and she knew that it looked exactly how she left it. Some of her possessions were gone, things that she had taken with herself as they were important to her, but no one would notice those subtle changes. Her parents never went inside her room so they had no idea what she had or didn't have. Maybe the house-elves, who were the ones in charge of the cleaning of her room did notice but they wouldn't tell anyone as it wasn't really any of their business.
Jade put her backpack on her perfectly made bed. Inside of it, there was the object Dumbledore had given her, a book about being an Animagus, and all the ingredients she needed for that. She also had some of the special, meaningful things that she had taken with her since the last time she had been there. Those things had been inside that bag all year plus the gifts she got last night. She took those out and put them on the bed.
Being outside of Hogwarts made Jade think more about Harry's mission and wondering where he could be at the moment. Wondering how many Horcruxes he had found or if he had found any and if he had found a way to destroy them.
She also worried if he and Ron and even Granger were okay. She assumed that if she hadn't heard their names they were doing fine, or that's what she wanted to believe as anything could be happening out there.
In Hogwarts she worried about keeping her friends safe and teaching them things that could be useful, maintaining a friendship/relationship with Draco, there still wasn't anything official as none of them had actually talked about the topic yet, and trying to find a way to escape together. She also was pretending she still cared about Quidditch and classes so no one could suspect she wasn't there to study.
She kept herself busy at Hogwarts, she had so many things to do that she barely had time to think and wonder about Harry and Ron, but now that she had a bit of time for herself, she couldn't stop thinking about them.
That reminded her of other worries. She sat down at her desk and got out a piece of parchment. Jade wrote a letter to Draco, she knew that her time was approaching and if she needed to escape alone, she wanted to explain some things to Draco and tell him she would go back for him.
Jade's birthday was a bit more than two weeks away and being back home and having a brief talk to her mother about the wedding only reminded her that she had to escape and she had to do it soon. The letter was about three parchments long and she even wanted to say more but she decided it wouldn't be a good idea to say everything in case someone could get the letter before or even after Draco did. She called Ilvie into her room and she appeared a moment later.
"Ilvie, take this, hide it outside of this house in a safe place. If I'm forced to leave without Draco Malfoy, you must give him this letter. Only to him and make sure no one sees you," Jade told her, giving her the letter. "Keep this safe."
"Yes, Mistress Jade," Ilvie said and disappeared with the letter.
Despite having a very nice Christmas, the following days weren't as enjoyable. Jade actually laughed at herself for thinking things would still be good, but she was just being naive. Her mother talked every day about her future wedding and showed her pictures of dresses and decoration.
She claimed that she wanted everything perfect as her little perfect daughter was getting married and there couldn't be a single thing wrong. She would be the bride and as a Lias, things had to be impeccable, fancy and big… She wanted the wedding of her daughter to be remembered by everyone.
Every day there was something new to be discussed. The day before New Year Eve, Raven asked who would be the bridesmaids and Jade was a bit taken aback as she couldn't think of any one.
Ginny and Luna would be the closest to a best friend to Jade but there was no way she could actually pick them. Channel and Chantel were probably her closest female friends from Slytherin. If she actually could, she would choose Blaise as they were good friends and she would like to have him by her side, he would help with the nerves, maybe even giving her a drink or two before the ceremony, no one else would do that or even allow it.
The Lias family celebrated the thirty-first on their manor. They invited Lexion, Olisca and her parents, the Perseus family, Raven's brothers and sister-in-law, Finley's brother and his family, Jade's grandmother and surprisingly the Malfoys, with the exception of Lucius, who apparently was on duty.
Jade spent some time speaking to her grandmother, she could only speak Greek, and Jade was so rusty. Her grandmother scolded her because she could barely form sentences and based on the old woman she just couldn't afford to lose her roots and just forget her family's language.
"You cut your hair, Jade," Narcissa pointed out, something that no one had noticed. Jade was relieved that Narcissa had come to her rescue, her head was starting to hurt from thinking in Greek. "I like it. You look good."
It was weird that her family was being so social, normally they were invited to gatherings or they would do very big gatherings as that was expected from society but inviting only relatives was never the way they did it. That was way too personal for the Lias family. Jade hadn't seen her grandmother for at least five years and she hadn't seen her Greek uncle since they travelled to Greece.
"Jade, I was thinking," Finley suddenly said as they were sitting in the living room, drinking wine and champagne. Finley, his brother and his mum were sitting on one couch together. "A wedding between summer and spring would be perfect."
"Spring?" Jade asked, shocked. She actually almost choked on her drink. She was sitting on a couch with Cass on her right and Rabastan to her left. "Isn't that like May?"
"Yes, around that, or April or June if it seems more fitting."
"Uh yeah, sounds good, that way we'll have more than a year to plan everything," Jade said with a fake smile. She felt extremely awkward and uncomfortable to be discussing such things in front of everyone, including Draco and his mum. "Right, Cass?"
"No, you aren't understanding me. I meant this spring," Finley said.
"Isn't Cass supposed to propose to me? And sort of like make an announcement of our engagement before setting dates and all that?" Jade asked, suddenly feeling both hot and cold at the same time. Draco had suddenly gotten paler as well.
"Well, we can always say he proposed on New Year? How perfectly romantic would that be?" Finley said with a twisted smile. "You can go back to Hogwarts wearing a ring. I bet all your friends will be so jealous of you. Specially that Parkinson girl."
"What about school? I don't want to go to school and be married!" Jade exclaimed. "I should finish that first and then I can fully concentrate on the wedding."
"It will only be for a month or two, then you'll finish school" Finley said. "It's not a big deal."
"That would be splendid!" Raven exclaimed with a couple of claps. "Imagine how beautiful that would be! A wedding in spring, with nice temperatures! We can even go down to the beach and do it there! Instead of having to wear coats and hide our dresses and all that."
For a second, Jade glanced from her father to her mother with a disapproving look on her face. She couldn't believe all she cared about was fashion and how she would look. She shook her head slightly and turned to look at her father again.
"I agreed to marry him when I turn seventeen but I thought I would graduate first," Jade admitted. "And isn't it supposed to be our choice?"
"Don't be rude, Jade," Finley warned, suddenly his icy blue eyes got a bit darker. "We have guests. A summer or spring wedding would be better than a winter one. Besides, Cassius already agreed. So, basically, it was his choice, therefore, your choice as well. Isn't it so exciting, Jadie?"
Jade turned to look at Cass, looking for answers but he only looked down at his hands. He was nervous too, Jade could tell. He was afraid of Jade revealing his secret. She wasn't going to do it, for Fayette's safety and because Draco and Ron were right. Cass was perfect... if he had made a mistake but no one else knew about it, they would pretend it didn't happen and Jade feared that to assure that it stayed like that, they could do something to Gérard. So she stayed quiet.
Nevertheless, she imagined herself, standing up and just spilling the beans to everyone. Saying her perfect future fiance had messed up and now had a Half-Blood kid and that she couldn't marry him when something so scandalous had happened. She then imagined his parents going pale, frozen in their spots and dying from embarrassment. She could also see the expression of disgust on Bellatrix Lestrange's face and telling Raven how she couldn't allow her daughter to marry Cass. In the meantime, Finley and his mother would be speaking in Greek very calmly, which would be interrupted by Lexion punching Cass.
Olisca would try to break the fight, Draco and Narcissa would just sit there watching, feeling very awkward, but Draco would be dying to join Lexion punching Cass. Rabastan would fill his glass and drink as he enjoyed the show and Rodolphus would eventually stop it all as he was a man of little patience. It wasn't a surprise really, after being married to a woman like Bellatrix for more than fifteen years..
Then they would probably go to Finley's study and discuss what to do, and it would all be super awkward and tense. Then they would probably choose to 'forget' the information given and probably do something to not let anyone else know about that, and things would just continue the same path anyway, so it wasn't worth it to put a baby's life in danger.
Jade shook her head to stop her train of thoughts and looked around the room, at everyone, and then she excused herself and walked out to the garden. She looked at the river, no swans could be seen now. But the moonlight was reflecting on it. It looked pretty nice.
She expected Draco to go after her, or Lexion or even Olisca but she was shocked to see Cass, standing next to her a few minutes after she left the room. She wiped her tears quickly, not wanting Cass to see her cry. Hesitantly, Cass wrapped his arms around her shoulders, she was taken aback by his actions, so she took a while, but she eventually rested her head against his shoulder and let him embrace her.
"I'm sorry. I tried to tell him it was too soon but he wouldn't take a no for an answer. I know the date should be at least our choice," Cass said. "I don't know what his urgency is. Three months don't make a difference. It shouldn't to him at least. I'm sorry, Jade."
"I don't want to get married before school ends," Jade admitted, failing for the first time to keep her tears from falling and her voice firm. "And it's so stupid. People are being murdered and tortured and we are going to get married. How ridiculous."
"I can't do anything about it, Jade. I tried to negotiate with your father and he wouldn't accept anything I said. But this is what I can do… I'll let you choose our house..."
"As far away from here," Jade said quickly.
"And the type of wedding and anything else you want."
Jade nodded. This had changed everything, she thought she had more time but she didn't, she had run out of time. She wanted to run away that very night but she couldn't yet.
"Just promise me you won't ever join him," Jade said and Cass nodded, knowing what she meant. "I don't want you to go through what my brother went through."
"I don't want to go through that, put my parents through that suffering, put you through that embarrassment as well. It's not what I want for my life either."
"If our parents ever pressure us to do anything like that, we go. We disappear," Jade told him, Cass said nothing but he nodded again.
"Jade... they want to capture the moment I propose," Cass said, his tone of voice had changed completely. It sounded business-like at that moment.. Jade broke the embrace to look at him and made a face of disbelief. "Exactly at twelve... smile. Kiss me and get it over with?"
"Kiss? My brother didn't have to do any of that!"
"Your father's special petition. He wants us to kiss exactly as fireworks start going off. Stupid but let's just do it. I don't want him to Crucio you for not doing it that way. I won't allow that, Jade. So, now, put on a strong face, like only you can and come with me inside."
Jade looked at Cass, who was trying to give her strength, but Jade just broke down one more time. Cass embraced her once again, this time Jade buried her face in his chest while Cass was rubbing her back, soothing her. Cass let her cry, get those emotions out. And then he did something he had never done, he kissed her on the top of the head, and his kindness, his understanding, just made Jade cry harder.
Once he left like she had calmed down, he let go of her, looked down at her and wiped her tears. Then Jade shook her head, took a deep breath and with a spell she made her eyes less puffy and red. In seconds, there were no traces of her crying, at least to most people. Draco and Lexion could notice how broken she was.
Cass offered her his hand and hesitantly Jade took it and they joined the others, hand in hand. Jade felt weird, she didn't even know what they were talking about, her mind was somewhere else.
They sat together on that same couch, but they were closer to each other. Finley grinned when he noticed they were holding hands, Jade wanted to let go of it, but Cass just tightened the grip on her hand when he felt like she was letting go.
As they resumed their talk, when they all stopped looking at the pair, Jade couldn't look at Draco, she looked at everyone, except him. She kept her gaze mostly on her hands and she participated in the conversation to the minimum after that.
Rabastan offered her a glass of a dark liquor and Jade accepted it, she let go of Cass' hand there, but he put his arm around her shoulder, something that Finley approved. Jade could easily tell by his body language. At least someone was being smart. She was too emotionally wrecked that she had lost the ability to think smart and act on it.
She didn't eat any snacks after that, but she did keep drinking the champagne and whatever Rabastan had given her. Draco kindly told her it was enough when both got up to get some more, even when they could easily do it with magic.
"Jade, it's alright," Draco whispered. "Stop drinking."
"I'm not drunk enough yet," Jade muttered. Draco noticed she sounded a bit manic.
"You don't need to get drunk, Jade," Draco said kindly, trying to take the glass from her hand. "It is enough."
"I'm kissing Cass," Jade blurted out. "My father wants me to kiss Cass… Tonight."
Draco's face got pale and his hands turned into fists but he calmed himself. Watching Jade kissing someone else wasn't going to be easy.
"Well, kiss him quickly and forget about it. We'll be back in Hogwarts soon."
Was she even going back to Hogwarts? Nevertheless, Jade nodded but she did grab another glass and emptied it before filling it once again. Draco knew how she felt so even when he wanted her to stop, he let her.
Midnight was approaching quickly, the seventeen guests, Raven, Finley and Jade walked outside to their beautiful huge garden after Finley announced the fireworks were about to start.
Jade and Cass had to walk further, Jade felt paralyzed so Cass had to put his arm around her waist and dragged her with him, they stopped close to the river that Jade loved so much. Jade heard a clock, meaning it was midnight. Fireworks started to display in the sky soon after that. Cass, still not letting go of her hand, knelt down on one knee.
In other circumstances, it would have been magical. It would have been something so romantic, everything was just perfectly timed. But Jade couldn't find the romantic or magical part of the situation of that moment.
Jade heard him say the words but she didn't say yes. She stared at him and forced a smile. Cass knew she wouldn't speak so he stood up, slipped the beautiful ring in her finger and after a couple of seconds of Jade not moving at all, Cass leaned in and kissed her on the lips. It was just a long peck, nothing else.
Jade did kiss back but she didn't feel anything when she did. Even when she had kissed Ron all that time ago, she had felt something.
Cass pulled away and embraced her, picked her up and pretended they both were so happy. They looked at the fireworks that kept going for a while and then they faced their family when the fireworks were finished. They stayed that long away from everyone else on purpose, even when Cass seemed to have it all under control, he still was struggling with everything and wanted some time away from all of them. Jade had never found it so difficult to pretend... she didn't even know if she had been successful at smiling.
People congratulated them both, even Bellatrix. The last one was Draco. He shook Cass' hand and then turned to Jade. He hugged her tightly and Jade wished she hadn't as she almost broke down in his arms. She didn't want to let go but Draco broke the embrace and then gave her a nod to reassure her everything was going to be okay.
About an hour later, people started to say their good-byes. The first to leave were Narcissa and Draco, followed by Finley's brother, who was supposed to take their mother home. And then his own family followed. Bellatrix and Rodolphus left then but Rabastan stayed. He was smoking something in the garden when his brother and sister-in-law left.
Olisca's parents were the next to leave but Lexion thought that it would be nice to stay at the place that was his home for so long. So he and Olisca did say good-bye to everyone but instead of going to their house in Liverpool, they went to what used to be Lexion's room when he was a kid, which was exactly the way he had left it.
Then, Amberie and Talbott left, saying good-bye to the Lias family. Jade actually had to hug her future parents-in-law and Cass and then he kissed her cheek before leaving. All those little actions and details were making Finley satisfied, Jade was so grateful that at least one of them was good at acting and pretending, as she was unable to at the moment. Jade slowly closed the door after he and his parents disapparated.
Jade went up to her room quickly after that, she closed the door and locked it with magic, nothing her parents wouldn't be able to break but would give her time. She took off the ring as quickly as possible, as if the object was burning her fingers, and tears started to fall once again. Engaged at sixteen? What was wrong with people? Her birthday would be days away but she was still sixteen.
She leant against the now locked door with like five different spells and slowly she slipped down to the floor. She hugged her knees tightly to her chest as she cried.
Did that mean she had to escape now? Or could she go to Hogwarts and escape when she was more prepared? Could she risk that? She knew Snape would let her go, and even if he didn't, she could find a way out.
She had her backpack there and everything she needed was inside that backpack. She could do it that very night but her Animagus turn wasn't complete. And she didn't even know when that would be. The next full moon was in nine days but she needed a thunderstorm to finish the process and take the potion. When would that be? It could be months until then.
Slowly, she stood up and was going to get into the blankets and pretend everything was only a nightmare, when she saw a tiny box with a wrapped green ribbon around it.
Hello guys!
What do you think Jade will do now?
Run away soon or go back to Hogwarts and risk it?
Where do you think she will go?
