"I'm sorry, but the Hospital isn't accepting any visitors at the moment." Madam Pomfrey told Jade, Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle as they knocked on the locked door to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey only opened the door wide enough for the children to see her face.

"Why not?" Jade asked, she heard a groan from behind Madam Pomfrey and they all looked behind Madam Pomfrey to try and find the source of the noise.

"I'm a bit busy." Madam Pomfrey addressed the sound.

"You have to let us see him," Pansy argued, Madam Pomfrey frowned at them.

"I don't have to do anything except help my patients and since you three are keeping me from doing that, I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me." Madam Pomfrey closed the door on them.

"Well, what now?" Blaise asked as they turned and began walking down the corridor. They ended up waiting in the Common Room until dinner, rumors about Draco's current condition were flying around. Jade had heard from Gretta that she had been told his arm was dangling off at the elbow, another rumor stated that Draco hadn't gotten scratched at all, another was that he got into a fight with the hippogriff during class. By the time they were walking down for dinner, they were still telling people that the things their other Housemates had heard were not true.

"Crabbe, you were there." Jade reminded him when he came up to her asking what was true.

"Yeah, but I didn't get a good look at it like you did." Jade rolled her eyes and ignored him as they took their seats.

"I thought he'd be back by now," Blaise told them later as they ate.

"How long does it take to fix an arm?" Theo asked.

"It must've been pretty bad," Jade stated, absently clinking her fork against her plate. She kept replaying it in her head, the blood leaking onto his robes and the grass. "I hope he's okay."
"He's fine." Theo sighed,

"You don't know that." Jade snapped on him, Theo held up his hands.

"Sorry, you're right." Jade could remember how Draco's arm dangled over Hagrid's, blood dripping off of his fingertips, how the color had drained from his cheeks. The others tried to make small conversation but it felt different since Draco wasn't there, a pronounced emptiness. When they got back to the Common Room Jade didn't bother staying to talk like they did most nights, she retreated to her room and tried her best to get some sleep.

Draco didn't come back the next day, or the next, he stayed in the Hospital Wing until Thursday and made a grand entrance during Potions class that morning. His arm was in a sling and he held his head high as he walked towards his seat next to her, the class hissed with whispers.

"Are you okay?" Jade asked him quietly once he took his seat and he sighed, she couldn't see the gash from before, his arm was covered in bandages.

"It's agonizing." He told her, "Madam Pomfrey gave me something for the pain, but it still hurts terribly."

"Do you need anything?" She asked him, despite his entrance, he looked awful. He had large bags under his eyes and he moved slowly as if each reach or twist hurt him.

"Settle down, settle down." Professor Snape called to his class. He had been in the middle of explaining that they'd be making a Shrinking Solution today. Even though Draco wasn't fully himself, he still took any opportunity to jab at Harry. He grabbed their cauldron and set it up at the same table right next to Harry and Ron.

"Sir," Malfoy raised his good hand and Snape turned, "Sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm."

"It's okay, Draco. I can do it." Jade smiled at him, she usually let Draco prepare their ingredients in fear that she might mess something up but she'd happily do it and let him stir.

"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," Snape stated as he turned again and continued to walk around the classroom. Harry and Ron looked over at them and Ron's face had gone red.

"Don't worry, I'll do it," Jade told them, understanding why Draco made a big deal about cutting up some roots when he knew she would do it herself, she reached for the knife but Draco moved it out of her reach.

"Don't be silly, Maddex." Draco told her, "Professor Snape said Weasley could do it."

"You have a perfectly capable partner." Jade tried again but Draco shook his head,

"You wouldn't go against the words of your Professor, would you?" He asked and she glared at him. His arm might've been in pain but it didn't change how he acted. Jade let her arm fall onto the table and she gave her friends an apologetic look.

"There's nothing wrong with your arm." Ron hissed at Draco.

"Weasley, you heard Professor Snape, cut up these roots," Draco smirked. Ron grabbed the knife out of Draco's offering hand and began roughly chopping the roots, all of them coming out different sizes.

"Professor," Draco drawled again and Jade hid her face in her hands as everyone looked towards them. "Weasley's mutilating my roots, sir." Professor Snape came around to their table and looked down at the roots for a few seconds.

"Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley." He declared.

"But, sir-" Ron started to object.

"Now," Snape said loudly, Harry had been carefully cutting their roots for the past half hour and he looked down at them for the last time before Ron shoved them towards Draco.

"And, sir, I'll need this shrivelfig skinned," Draco said, barely containing his laughter. Jade peeked through her fingers, hoping he might allow Jade to do it instead but Snape didn't even look at her, his eyes settled on Harry instead.

"Potter, you can skin Malfoy's shrivelfig," Snape told him as he began walking away. Harry grabbed the shrivelfig in front of Draco and Jade immediately grabbed it back from him.

"Jade." Draco sighed.

"Going to tattle on me?" Jade asked but Draco just relaxed in his seat and let her go. "I can't believe I actually missed you while you were gone." Jade huffed as she grabbed the knife off their side of the table, "I worried about you and you were probably just chatting it up with whoever else was in the Infirmary for three days." She skinned the shrivelfig violently. Draco watched her with a small smirk and she glanced over at him when he didn't say anything. "What?" She asked angrily.

"I missed you too." Jade groaned in frustration but it only made him smile. He turned his head back towards the boys, "Seen your pal Hagrid lately?" He asked.

"None of your business," Ron growled without looking up from the roots he was trying to repair.

"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," Malfoy said in a fake upset tone.

"Wait, what?" Jade set the skinned shrivelfig on the table.

"Father's not very happy about my injury." Draco went on.

"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury." Ron glared up dangerously from the daisy roots.

"He's complained to the school governors and to the Ministry of Magic. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this," Draco sighed as he nodded his head at his arm. "who knows if my arm'll ever be the same again?"

"So that's why you're putting it on," Harry spoke, "To try to get Hagrid fired."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Draco waved off Harry's suspicions about his arm, Jade didn't believe that Draco was faking his injury but she agreed he was definitely milking it for all its worth. "Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me." Before Ron could respond to him, Professor Snape's voice caught their attention from across the room.

"Orange, Longbottom," Snape was ladling some of Neville's potion up and allowing it to splash back into the cauldron so that everyone could see. "Orange." The color of the Shrinking Solution was supposed to be a bright green. "Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one cat spleen was needed?" Jade felt bad for Neville as he turned pink from embarrassment. "Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?" Neville looked as if he was on the verge of tears.

"Please, sir," Hermione said, "please, I could help Neville put it right-"

"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," Snape replied coldly. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly." Snape walked away from him and returned to his rounds.

"Hey, Harry," Seamus Finnigan caught their attention away from Neville, Seamus was leaning over to borrow Harry's brass scales. "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning, they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted." Jade's ears perked at the mention of the name.

"Where?" Harry and Ron asked in unison, Draco looked up at Seamus, a more obvious way of listening closely.

"Not too far from here," Seamus for some reason looked excited. Jade didn't understand why. Why would you be excited knowing a murderer was close to the school? "It was a Muggle who saw him. 'Course, she didn't really understand, the Muggles think he's just an ordinary criminal, don't they? So, she phoned the telephone hotline but by the time the Ministry of Magic got there, he was gone."

"Not too far from here…" Ron repeated, looking significantly at Harry. Jade thought back to their first Divination class. Harry turned around and saw Draco and Jade watching a little too closely.

"What, Malfoy? Need something else skinned?" But Draco's eyes were shining malevolently. He leaned across the table.

"Thinking of trying to catch Black single-handed, Potter?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, that's right," Harry scoffed. Draco's mouth began curving into a mean smile.

"Of course, if it was me, I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out there looking for him."

"What are you talking about?" Jade asked.

"Don't you know, Potter?" Draco seemed almost annoyed, his gray eyes narrowed.

"Know what?" Harry asked.

"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," Draco shrugged, "want to leave it to the Dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself." Jade had no idea what he was going on about and from the looks of Ron and Harry, they didn't know either.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, Draco was chipping away at the last of Harry's patience, but at that moment Snape called,

"You should have finished adding your ingredients by now; this potion needs to stew before it can be drunk, so clear away while it simmers and then we'll test Longbottom's…" Snape looked over towards Neville and Crabbe and Goyle laughed openly in the corner of the room, watching Neville sweat as he stirred his potion feverishly. Jade couldn't hear Hermione but she could see her lips moving subtly as she looked down at her book so that Snape wouldn't see. Harry and Ron packed away their unused ingredients and went to wash their hands and ladles in the stone basin in the corner. Jade leaned in towards Draco,

"What did your father say about Hagrid?" She whispered.

"That hopefully he won't be a teacher for much longer. He should never have been made a teacher in the first place, the big fool doesn't know what he's doing."

"If you actually gave him a chance instead of questioning that he knows what he's doing, you would've remembered him specifically saying that Hippogriffs don't like to be insulted. What do you do? Go and insult them."

"Hippogriffs are dangerous." He claimed.

"They're fascinating! That's why Hagrid chose them, he just wanted to give us something exciting to learn about." Harry and Ron had made their way back to the table and quietly watched as Draco and Jade argued with each other.

"Everyone gather 'round," Snape called to the class and everyone simultaneously got up and circled Hermione and Neville's desk. "Watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned." It seemed a little extreme, Jade believed Snape was just toying with Neville because he knew that Neville was terrified of him. The Slytherins looked excited. Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion, which was now green. He slowly dropped a few drops down Trevor's throat. Everyone was silent as they waited for Trevor to react, after a few seconds there was a quiet pop and Trevor disappeared. Snape opened his hand and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm. The Gryffindors burst into applause and Jade silently praised Neville, she didn't think he'd be able to do it, Neville often struggled in Potions. Snape looked sour as he pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown again. "Five points from Gryffindor," Snape announced, which wiped the smiles from every face. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger." Hermione looked up from the table. "Class dismissed."