Jade Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by Queen Serenity

Ok, now I know this has probably been done before, but this is my take on it... what if the Potter child had been a girl instead of a boy? A femharry / girl-who-lived story.

3. C3: Depression and Letters

Title: Jade Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Author: Queen Serenity

Fandom: Harry Potter

Chapter: Three – Depression and Letters

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor haunted Jade for quite a while, along with thoughts of how people could have been hurt, and how it would have been all her fault…

In fact, she refused to go to school anymore, or go to her martial arts classes, or leave the house period. Aunt Petunia hadn't been able to talk Jade into coming out of her room, except to use the loo, no matter how hard she'd tried, so she continually called in sick for Jade, her worry increasing each day, until school had finished up three weeks later. For you see, Jade had fallen into a deep depression, and didn't even want to get out of bed anymore; there just seemed to be no point to anything. She barely touched food that Aunt Petunia brought into her room, her face drawn with worry, and had started to gradually drop weight.

Each day, each of the family members came in in turn and just talked to Jade, telling her that it was okay, that it wasn't her fault, etc. Anything to get that depressed, empty look off of her face.

Finally, after a month had passed in total, just when Vernon and Petunia had been considering psychiatric help, Jade came out of her room. It wasn't because she felt better, but rather because she'd seen the toll she was taking on her family.

And so she went through the motions of daily life, doing what she was supposed to do, but it didn't change the fact that that was all she was doing: going through the motions. It was like she was just playing a part in a play. Even though she acted happy, Aunt Petunia noticed that something was wrong.

Once out of her room, Jade didn't want to stay in the house… every day, Dudley's stupid friends visited. Piers, Dennis, Malcom, and Gordon were their names, and they were all big and stupid jerks. Whenever Piers passed by Jade, he'd quietly hiss an insult at her. "Freak…" To pass the days, Jade wandered around, walking wherever her feet would take her. Eventually, she started finding that they more often than not took her to the library, where it was nice and cool and there were few visitors, so she could be alone. And so she spent her days there, immersing herself in the fantastic worlds offered by books for hours on end, particularly enjoying the vampire books, for some reason. As inappropriate as it seemed for her age, Jade especially enjoyed Anne Rice's books… the books that actually were appropriate for her age were just too boring. Another of her favorite types was those dealing with dragons, such as Anne McCaffrey's "The Dragonriders of Pern". All in all, she just couldn't enough of books, it seemed. Anything to drown out her thought of the real world.

Each day, she'd arrive at the library around noon, and then stay there until closing time or until she had a martial arts class. Sometimes, though, she'd visit Mrs. Figg in the mornings. The old woman was glad for the company. She wasn't quite as fond of her cats as she'd used to be, though; it seems that she broken her leg tripping over one of them! Jade playfully admonished the calico who was responsible, earning a chuckle from Mrs. Figg.

Jade didn't know whether to look to the end of the holidays with dread, or with hope. Dread, because she'd have to go back to being around lots of people, and she'd be away from her cousin, who was her only friend; Dudley was being sent off to Vernon's old private school, Smeltings, and Jade would be going off to the public secondary school. Hope, because maybe now she'd have the chance to start over, since there'd be so many more kids. Maybe she could stop being the 'freak' of the school. Maybe she'd actually be able to blend in this time, if not have a friend or two. Jokingly, Dudley teased Jade.

"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he said to Jade as they were sitting on the couch one evening, watching the TV. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"

"No thanks," Jade answered, then continued, just as playfully, "the poor toilet's never had anything as horrid as your head down it – it might be sick." She sat there a moment, watching her cousin, then, just as she saw comprehension dawning in his eyes, she stuck out her tongue and ran, only to hear the usual elephant stomps of him chasing her once more.

Later, though, Jade came to a decision once she had done a LOT of thinking on it. She called Petunia and Vernon into the living room.

"Aunt Petunia? Uncle Vernon?" She asked, her voice sort of timid. She knew they wouldn't like this, but it would be for the best. "I have something I need to ask you about…"

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were seated side-by-side on the couch, and she was standing in front of them, facing towards them. Petunia spoke. "Yes, Jade, sweetums, what is it?"

"Well… I wanna be home-schooled."

"What!" It was Uncle Vernon that spoke here, his mustache bristling at even the suggestion. But before he could say anything further, Jade continued.

"As you both know, my … my powers have been known to sometimes manifest themselves when I become emotional, or scared, or things like that. And the way they show themselves can't be predicted, like… like with that snake incident. And so I don't want to go to school anymore. There's far too much risk of kids getting hurt, since I don't know how to control my magic. Come on, you both should be able to see that this is the most logical explanation!" She stopped here, out of breath from the long-winded speech, waiting for their reaction.

Aunt Petunia frowned in a worried way. "But, but Jade, dear… all this solitude, it can't be good for you!" She looked at Vernon, then, and they spoke to each other in low murmurs. Jade tuned them out, respecting their privacy.

Finally, Uncle Vernon spoke. "If that's what you want, Jade, it's your choice. You're sure?"

Jade considered, then nodded. "Mmm hmm."

"Then we'll make all the arrangements required when Dudley goes back to school."

And so that's how it was to be, and Jade felt that weight lifted from her.

One day in the middle of July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley and Jade to London to buy Dudley's uniform for Smeltings. While they were out, Petunia also bought some stuff for Jade, including several green shirts that brought out her eyes, some cute hair accessories, some skirts, and some other stuff. Petunia obviously felt bad because Jade had been so depressed lately, and wanted to cheer her up. For lunch, Petunia even took them to Jade's favorite place to eat, and it was painfully obvious to Jade how hard Petunia was trying, and she felt a stab of guilt.

That evening, as Dudley paraded around in his new uniform, it was obvious that Uncle Vernon had never been prouder. Aunt Petunia wailed that her baby was growing up, and as for Jade… Jade had never had to restrain such an amount of laughter in her life; to her, Dudley looked like a clown in his ugly new outfit.

When Jade wasn't looking, Dudley poked her rather hard with his stupid Smelting stick. In reaction, she whipped around, grabbed the knobbly stick from his grasp and, not giving him time to react, she whacked her cousin rather hard across the shins, leaving him howling with pain. She smirked and rolled her eyes. "Don't poke me and you won't get hurt, Dud."

And with that she went upstairs and turned in for the night.

The next day, as they sat at the breakfast table, they heard the click of the mail slot as letters were pushed through.

"Get the mail, Dudley," grunted Uncle Vernon without looking away from his paper.

"Make Jade get it."

"Get the mail, Jade,"

"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke her with your Smelting stick, Dudley."

Before Dudley could do so, Jade spoke, not even looking up from her cereal. "Want whacked again? Didn't think so. Get the mail, Dudley." She looked up from her cereal at him with an innocent look. "Please?"

Dudley obligingly went to get the mail, grumbling along the way. When he came back with it in his hand, he had a rather surprised look upon his face. "Jade, you got a letter…" He held it out to her.

Jade took it with a bewildered expression upon her face. "A letter? But… who would be writing me…?" She started to open it, but Aunt Petunia surprised her by uncharacteristically ripping it from her grasp. She turned to face her aunt in surprise. "What…?"

Aunt Petunia's hands trembled so badly that they fumbled as she attempted to open the envelope. When she finally got it open and was able to reach the sheet of paper that had been folded within, her face went white. Abruptly, letter clutched so tightly that her fists were white, she grabbed onto the arm of Uncle Vernon's jacket and pulled him from his chair and out of the room, where they locked themselves in the other room.

Jade sat numbly at the table, wondering what the heck was going on. For a minute, there was silence, and then, out of nowhere, Uncle Vernon's yells began booming out, so loud that Dudley, wincing, moved away from where he'd been listening at the keyhole. "NO! NO! NONONONO NO!She's NOT going! I agreed we could take her in as a baby when you found her, Petunia, only because you'd so desperately wanted to, but I said then and I say now that under NO CONDITION would she have anything to do with that funny stuff! She'd live here on Privet Drive and grow up as a normal, happy, well-adjusted girl!"

Jade crept to the door beside Dudley so that she could hear Aunt Petunia's answer. It came a moment later, and it sounded almost as though the woman was holding back sobs. She also sounded a bit cross with Vernon. "But she's NOT a well-adjusted girl, Vernon! I've had to deal with it for years, now, and it's only gotten worse since the snake incident! Jade… she doesn't want to hurt us, she tries… she tried so hard to act as though she's happy, but she's not, Vernon! As hard as she tries, her eyes give her away. I've already had to sit here and see this sadness in her eyes for years now, and I'm not going to just sit by and watch it anymore! No MORE, Vernon!"

Their voices grew quiet then, and Jade could hear no more. She moved back to her seat at the table, along with Dudley, and Jade quietly ate her breakfast without even really tasting it, thinking. What could that letter be? Why's Uncle Vernon so mad? What did I do?

Several minutes later, the door opened and a still-pale Aunt Petunia poked her head out. "Dudley, sweetums, go to your room." Her voice cracked slightly as she continued, "Jade, please come in here. Your uncle and I need to speak with you about something very important."

Jade obligingly followed Aunt Petunia in and seated herself in an armchair that had been positioned across from where her aunt and uncle were sitting.

When they didn't say anything, Jade looked questioningly at them, her bright green eyes full of curiosity and worry. Without a word, Aunt Petunia handed the envelope to Jade.

Jade looked at the envelope closely. It didn't look like your typical envelope… it was thick and heavy, was yellowish-colored, and seemed to be made more of parchment than paper. Written on it in shining emerald-green ink was:

Ms. J. Potter

The Kitchen

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

She turned it over, and saw that there was an already-broken purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake. She had a feeling that this letter… that it was somehow to be a HUGE turning point in her life. She looked at it with apprehension, and then looked at her aunt and uncle, both of whom were staring at her. Vernon, at least, did not look happy. Looking at them, Jade swallowed the lump in her throat before speaking. "This letter… it's really important, isn't it? It's going to change everything… won't it?"

Vernon remained silent, but Petunia found her voice enough to speak. "Yes, Jade, dear, it is important… it's –"

But Jade silenced her with a wave. "Please don't tell me… but do tell me this… does it have anything to do with just the next week or two?"

Aunt Petunia shook her head. "No, it's –"

Jade spoke, not letting her finish. "Then I think I'll wait just a bit before opening it." And so she would; she knew that this letter would mean big changes, and now, with those changes staring her right in the face, she suddenly found herself to be feeling warm and safe where she was, and just a bit scared of the letter, as foolish as it sounded. And so she'd give herself a little time, and not open that letter until she could admit to herself that she really was ready.

With that, Jade walked out of the room with the envelope in her hand, leaving both Vernon and Petunia with very surprised looks on their faces.

And so that's how it was. Vernon and Petunia both respected Jade's wishes and tried to act as though everything was normal, as both of them knew that these would be the last few absolutely 'normal' weeks of their niece's life, and Jade tried to forget the letter sitting on her dresser upstairs.

The next morning, when the mail came, Uncle Vernon had Dudley go and get it. A moment later, they heard him shouting, "Here's another one! Jade's got another letter just like yesterday!"

"Just put it on the mantelpiece, son." Uncle Vernon growled.

"But –"

"Just do it."

And so he did. The letter, a twin to the one received yesterday, sat there innocently on the mantelpiece.

The next day, Jade didn't stay around for breakfast (or mail). Instead, she just grabbed a piece of toast and ate it as she walked to the library. Once there, however, she found that she couldn't drown herself in books as she usually did! For some reason, she just couldn't concentrate… she just couldn't get her mind off of that letter.

And then, to make matters worse, there was a big commotion, and a librarian shrieked. As Jade looked up to see what was going on, she saw three owls fly into the library. The lead one, a large screech owl, dived straight at her; she ducked fearfully, expecting to feel talons in her hair any instant, but instead felt something light fall on her head, follow by two other somethings. As she looked up, she saw the owls flying back out of an open window. Baffled, she looked to see what had been dropped on her; more of those letters! These ones were addressed as so:

Ms. J. Potter

The Library

Table 3

Little Whinging

Surrey

She stared at the letters in disbelief before stuffing them hastily in the bookbag she always brought with her to the library.

She had a feeling that she knew what these letters had to do with… after all, what else could it be?

On Saturday, Jade woke up early, so she decided to make breakfast for everyone when the milkman dropped off their eggs. Setting the bacon to fry, Jade then expertly cracked open two eggs at once in one hand, letting the insides drop into the pan.

Wait a minute…

There were no yolks or whites! Instead, out popped little crumpled yellow balls that expanded quickly to full-sized envelopes. Turning off the stove in haste, she cracked open the rest of the eggs to find that they all held the same.

The next day, Jade was exhausted. She'd stayed up all night, considering opening that letter, wondering if she were ready for this step yet…

It was Sunday, and she felt happy for that, at least, as Petunia served her an omelet, urging her worriedly to eat. Dudley and Vernon were watching TV in the family room. Maybe today she wouldn't get any letters, since there wasn't any post…

Or maybe not.

Just as she was cutting a piece of her omelet to take a bite, something flew out of the chimney and over her head. Next thing she knew, an avalanche of letters came flying out of the fireplace, raining around her in torrents, going everywhere like a crazy storm.

As Aunt Petunia let out a shriek, Jade jumped up, a determined look on her face, arms raised, green eyes blazing, as she shouted:

"Alright! ALRIGHT! I"LL OPEN YOUR BLOODY LETTER!" Stumbling through the letters out of the room, she could be heard muttering. "Honestly, what's a bloody girl gotta do to get some bloody peace around here! I wanted some bloody time, but I can't even bloody have that! Honestly…"

She sat on her bed, glaring at the innocent-looking envelope lying there on her desk. I mean, sure, it's probably to do with the type of thing I've been bloody waiting for, but I just wanted a little bit of bloody time! Could nobody respect that?

Shoulders slumped in defeat, she came forward and picked the envelope up, tracing her fingers lightly over the coat of arms thoughtfully. Such a lot of trouble over such an unimportant-looking thing…

Finally she delicately pulled the parchment from inside the envelope and unfolded it. This is what it read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards

Dear Ms. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted

at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please

find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no

later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

Jade stared at the letter for a while, and felt as though a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders; she had known that the letter was from the Wizarding world, but she'd been terrified that they were going to take her from here and then she'd never be able to come back. She just hadn't been quite ready to just abandon her family for a whole new life. Guess she'd read one too many books lately…

A slow smile crept its way onto her face. This was what she'd been waiting for for so long! Finally, she could not only be with her own kind, as she'd hoped, but she'd be trained to use and control the magic within her!

Happy tears welled up as she sat down the letter; she'd no longer have to worry about being different from everyone else… she didn't have to be afraid of being herself anymore!

A tapping at the window jerked her out of her reverie. She looked up to see an owl outside, hooting anxiously at her. Hesitating only a moment, she opened the window and the owl fluttered inside to land on her dresser. It held out its leg, and Jade took the little parchment which she saw attached to it.

Dear Ms. Potter,

I am sure that you received your letter days ago, so this letter now should

not be very shocking…

Jade stopped for a moment after that paragraph and rolled her eyes; she had the distinct feeling that the writer of this letter knew very well that she had only just opened her letter. This thought in her head, she continued reading the letter.

Obviously, since you were raised by your muggle family, you

know very little of the wizarding world, except, of course, that your

parents were murdered by the greatly feared dark wizard, Voldemort,

when you were but a baby. You should also know from the same let-

ter in which you read that information that when he tried to kill you,

his spell mysteriously rebounded and he was, it seems, done in by his

own spell… Thus making you the girl who lived.

There is something very important that you should know, Jade,

And that is this: your name is known clear throughout the wizarding

world, seeing as how you defeated the most evil wizard of our time

when you were but a baby! Almost all wizards, even those who served

him, feared him, and yet you beat him.

So, obviously, as you enter our world you will be a celebrity;

you've been locked away from our world for all these years, and now

everyone can finally see the miracle for themselves! Jade Potter, the

Girl Who Lived!

As I was saying, except for the facts already mentioned, you

know very little of our world. Since you will be needing to buy your

supplies, anyway, I have taken the liberty of assigning you a guide to

take you shopping and to answer any questions which you may have.

The guide I have assigned you is a professor from Hogwarts, so

you will also be able to acquaint yourself with one of your professors

before you even enter the school grounds! You should consider your-

self lucky in this.

The professor shall arrive to pick you up on the morning of your

birthday. Please be ready.

And, Jade, it is nice to be able to finally welcome you into our

world.

Sincerely,

Professor Albus Dumbledore

Hearing a fluttering, Jade turned to watch the owl fly off, its job done.

Feeling quite tired after all of the excitement, Jade laid down in her bed, paying no attention to how early it was in the day… Finally. Finally, she wouldn't have to worry.

QS: Heh, I think it was funny how mad she got over the letters.