The next few weeks passed as normal, but with a cheerful attitude due to
the newest ornament of their posse. Jessica turned out to have a great
sense of humour (one such instance, involving Percy and a handful of
Lorkhart's Pixies lead Ron to gain a whole new level of respect for her)
and a brain to rival and (to her great annoyance) beat Hermione's. Though
she tried her utmost to hide her frustration, Hermione was getting
increasingly flustered, as more and more often, it would be Jessica's hand
first in the air and Jessica with the more precise answers and Jessica who
earned Gryffindor more points on average. She seemed to have a strange
understanding with the teachers, as though she knew them personally,
especially Dumbledore (whom she had fondly christened "Dumblebee") whom she
was asked to visit once a week to have a quiet chat with. Whereas Jessica
said that all they ever talked about was how she was settling in her new
house and various types of jam most of her fellow students seemed to
believe she knew Dumbledore personally, or that he just favoured her over
others as Ernie Macmillan suggested one day after Herbology as Jessica
hurried away from them towards the castle, related. Hermione scoffed at
this and said frankly,
"She probably does know them personally, I mean her Mother was a teacher too, remember? Maybe Dumbledore knew her parents?" But Ernie was still looking unconvinced.
"Well then, why doesn't she tell us openly? I mean it's not really something you have to hide, unless he's her long-lost great-great- grandfather or something" But he was giggling now and Hermione just smiled
"She probably doesn't advertise it so that people don't go jumping to conclusions and start thinking that she's being favoured over others". This seemed to put everyone's minds at ease and the meetings continued, but people stopped commenting on them.
On the day of their first potions lesson with Snape, the quartet were to be found dragging their feet reluctantly towards the dungeon only, to their great disappointment, to arrive a minute early.
"Why can't Snape just turn into the over-large bat that he is and fly away?" said Ron wistfully as he leaned his back casually against the wall of the dungeon, queuing up outside Snape's classroom. Harry sighed.
"Yeah, that would be- what's up?" Jessica had just bent double her hand over her right eye.
"Oh, it's-nothing." She was looking annoyed "bloody lenses falling out. It's OK" Ron was staring at her with fascination.
"Ooh! You wear those muggle deelees? Concept lenses?" He was captivated.
"Honestly, it's contact lenses Ron. You'd better take muggle studies next year, It'd do you a lot of good." Ron rolled his eyes as Snape coiled himself around the door of the classroom with a sneer
"Yeah, right" said Ron unenthusiastically "what the- Oi! Watch it Malfoy!" Malfoy had just shoved passed them, whacking Ron on the arm with his bag as he did so "bastard" muttered Ron. Malfoy sneered over his shoulder and stuck his finger up at, not Ron, but Jessica. Ron was spared retaliating as she pushed him hard in the back, right into the dungeon. Still fussing over her lenses, followed them to the back of the room and as she poked around with her eye. She was so distracted that she dropped a heavy book on Ron's toe (his profanity caused Snape to deduct ten points from Gryffindor) it fell open on a marked page
"Vanish unwanted items with one flick of your wand, the vanishing charm is
very useful and is simple to perform..."
And
"Hide unsightly acne, freckles, scars or any other blemishes with the easy
concealment charm. Step 1: hold your wand lightly in your fingers..."
"Someone really should tell Eloise Midgen about that concealment charm, it would do wonders on her skin!" Harry, Dean and Seamuss laughed, but Hermione and Jessica looked reprovingly at them.
It had seemed to take forever, but October had finally arrived and the school was preparing for a particularly magnificent Halloween, but Harry, Hermione, Ron and Jessica found themselves hopefully hurrying to what they desperately wished would be the remnants of the Halloween feast, after a particularly cold and uncomfortable ordeal at Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party. Ron was just voicing his wish for some of the tantalising pudding they could smell wafting from the Great Hall, when Harry came to an abrupt and none-too graceful halt.
"It's that voice again-shut up a minute" Ron looked back at a quite un- nerved Hermione as she whispered gently,
"Harry, is everything OK?" when suddenly, he sprinted off beckoning them to follow. Ron did so without waiting, but only Hermione had the presence of mind to cast around for Jessica. She was nowhere in sight and, assuming she had gone with Ron, Hermione legged it after them, only stopping to gasp loudly at what she saw in front of her. All the three of them could do was to stand and stare for a minute or so until what seemed like the entire contents of the Great Hall spilled into the corridor they happened to be occupying. Hermione felt something at her elbow and as she turned-it was to find an extremely pale looking (paler even, than usual) Jessica. "Jess where the hell-" but she was stopped in her tracks by a shout out of the silence, "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next Mudbloods" Draco's eyes were fixed, with hard steel on Jessica's.
When Harry woke on the following Saturday, it was with a great sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach. It was the day of his first Quidditch match of the year- it was against Slytherin. It was against Malfoy. But on top of all this, Wood still hadn't found a replacement Chaser. As he entered the Great Hall, (early, as he had seen no point in hanging around the common room) he saw the rest of the Gryffindor team sitting closely bunched, pale and rather frazzled to say the least but there was an aura of pseudo-confidence about them that didn't actually fool anyone. Harry sat down and within minutes realised that nobody was forcing ridiculous amounts of food down his throat.
"Where's Wood?" He couldn't fail to notice the nervous glances everyone was throwing around at each other.
"Dunno mate," Said George frowning" Probably on the pitch making sure his arse is securely glued to his broomstick just in case he falls off" There was some scattered, shaky laughter from the team. As if this had been his cue for a dramatic entrance, Wood burst through the door into the Hall with a flurry of triumph and frustration followed by Jessica, hear to wish them luck, Harry supposed. The rest of the team's faces visibly relaxed at the sight of their Captain.
"Wood! Where on earth have you been?" But Wood silenced Fred
"No time for questions" He sounded very highly strung indeed "Team, I know you're all thinking we can't win this game with one Chaser missing-but you're wrong! We can and maybe now we will." He was very flushed and he had a manic glint in his eye "Team, I found you the most excellent Chaser the school could get its hands on. She's exceptionally good outstanding, even- and keen too. Now none of you piss me around by forgetting formations, 'cause I've been up since four with her teaching them to her one by one" At this moment, Harry found himself looking around the Great Hall for the Burly six footer with muscles the size of grapefruits he was imagining. He was rather taken aback when Jessica stepped forward with a tired wave and a slight yawn.
"Aha" said Harry distantly "We've won."
"She probably does know them personally, I mean her Mother was a teacher too, remember? Maybe Dumbledore knew her parents?" But Ernie was still looking unconvinced.
"Well then, why doesn't she tell us openly? I mean it's not really something you have to hide, unless he's her long-lost great-great- grandfather or something" But he was giggling now and Hermione just smiled
"She probably doesn't advertise it so that people don't go jumping to conclusions and start thinking that she's being favoured over others". This seemed to put everyone's minds at ease and the meetings continued, but people stopped commenting on them.
On the day of their first potions lesson with Snape, the quartet were to be found dragging their feet reluctantly towards the dungeon only, to their great disappointment, to arrive a minute early.
"Why can't Snape just turn into the over-large bat that he is and fly away?" said Ron wistfully as he leaned his back casually against the wall of the dungeon, queuing up outside Snape's classroom. Harry sighed.
"Yeah, that would be- what's up?" Jessica had just bent double her hand over her right eye.
"Oh, it's-nothing." She was looking annoyed "bloody lenses falling out. It's OK" Ron was staring at her with fascination.
"Ooh! You wear those muggle deelees? Concept lenses?" He was captivated.
"Honestly, it's contact lenses Ron. You'd better take muggle studies next year, It'd do you a lot of good." Ron rolled his eyes as Snape coiled himself around the door of the classroom with a sneer
"Yeah, right" said Ron unenthusiastically "what the- Oi! Watch it Malfoy!" Malfoy had just shoved passed them, whacking Ron on the arm with his bag as he did so "bastard" muttered Ron. Malfoy sneered over his shoulder and stuck his finger up at, not Ron, but Jessica. Ron was spared retaliating as she pushed him hard in the back, right into the dungeon. Still fussing over her lenses, followed them to the back of the room and as she poked around with her eye. She was so distracted that she dropped a heavy book on Ron's toe (his profanity caused Snape to deduct ten points from Gryffindor) it fell open on a marked page
"Vanish unwanted items with one flick of your wand, the vanishing charm is
very useful and is simple to perform..."
And
"Hide unsightly acne, freckles, scars or any other blemishes with the easy
concealment charm. Step 1: hold your wand lightly in your fingers..."
"Someone really should tell Eloise Midgen about that concealment charm, it would do wonders on her skin!" Harry, Dean and Seamuss laughed, but Hermione and Jessica looked reprovingly at them.
It had seemed to take forever, but October had finally arrived and the school was preparing for a particularly magnificent Halloween, but Harry, Hermione, Ron and Jessica found themselves hopefully hurrying to what they desperately wished would be the remnants of the Halloween feast, after a particularly cold and uncomfortable ordeal at Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party. Ron was just voicing his wish for some of the tantalising pudding they could smell wafting from the Great Hall, when Harry came to an abrupt and none-too graceful halt.
"It's that voice again-shut up a minute" Ron looked back at a quite un- nerved Hermione as she whispered gently,
"Harry, is everything OK?" when suddenly, he sprinted off beckoning them to follow. Ron did so without waiting, but only Hermione had the presence of mind to cast around for Jessica. She was nowhere in sight and, assuming she had gone with Ron, Hermione legged it after them, only stopping to gasp loudly at what she saw in front of her. All the three of them could do was to stand and stare for a minute or so until what seemed like the entire contents of the Great Hall spilled into the corridor they happened to be occupying. Hermione felt something at her elbow and as she turned-it was to find an extremely pale looking (paler even, than usual) Jessica. "Jess where the hell-" but she was stopped in her tracks by a shout out of the silence, "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next Mudbloods" Draco's eyes were fixed, with hard steel on Jessica's.
When Harry woke on the following Saturday, it was with a great sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach. It was the day of his first Quidditch match of the year- it was against Slytherin. It was against Malfoy. But on top of all this, Wood still hadn't found a replacement Chaser. As he entered the Great Hall, (early, as he had seen no point in hanging around the common room) he saw the rest of the Gryffindor team sitting closely bunched, pale and rather frazzled to say the least but there was an aura of pseudo-confidence about them that didn't actually fool anyone. Harry sat down and within minutes realised that nobody was forcing ridiculous amounts of food down his throat.
"Where's Wood?" He couldn't fail to notice the nervous glances everyone was throwing around at each other.
"Dunno mate," Said George frowning" Probably on the pitch making sure his arse is securely glued to his broomstick just in case he falls off" There was some scattered, shaky laughter from the team. As if this had been his cue for a dramatic entrance, Wood burst through the door into the Hall with a flurry of triumph and frustration followed by Jessica, hear to wish them luck, Harry supposed. The rest of the team's faces visibly relaxed at the sight of their Captain.
"Wood! Where on earth have you been?" But Wood silenced Fred
"No time for questions" He sounded very highly strung indeed "Team, I know you're all thinking we can't win this game with one Chaser missing-but you're wrong! We can and maybe now we will." He was very flushed and he had a manic glint in his eye "Team, I found you the most excellent Chaser the school could get its hands on. She's exceptionally good outstanding, even- and keen too. Now none of you piss me around by forgetting formations, 'cause I've been up since four with her teaching them to her one by one" At this moment, Harry found himself looking around the Great Hall for the Burly six footer with muscles the size of grapefruits he was imagining. He was rather taken aback when Jessica stepped forward with a tired wave and a slight yawn.
"Aha" said Harry distantly "We've won."