Summer storm
I had, as always, no opportunity to talk to her at Grimmauld Place, since she was always escorted by her two personal guards and didn't stop to talk to anyone, unless Jane was around. I wondered if she went straight back to France when she left, or if she had a place to stay over on Sundays. But, must of all, I wondered about what she had said to me on how difficult it was to give it all up. To give us up.
On Saturday, Jane and Snape exchanged vows at a ceremony around the lake at Hogwarts, where a lot of white tables and chairs were placed to welcome their guests. Jane had already a small bump in her usually flat stomach, and they looked so happy together it was a little contagious. Or maybe it was the enormous amount of alcoholic beverages available, or because it was a beautiful summer day to be outside under the shadow of the trees. The fact is, everybody seemed cheerful.
Jade was, as expected, stunning in her long bridesmaid dress, and made a touching toast in honor of her dear cousin and her head of house. I was anxious to have an opportunity to talk to her. Once I had enough wine to feel brave, I stopped by her side, staring at the dancing crowd.
'You look beautiful' I managed to say before blushing furiously.
'You look very handsome yourself' she turned her head and looked me up and down 'I reckon Miss Havenock would probably faint seeing you in this suit' she grinned, while I almost spilled my wine chuckling.
'I have to admit they look great together' I jerked my head towards the newly married couple. And then, with all the courage I could muster, I asked her 'and do you have a boyfriend or a husband in France?'
She pressed her lips together, as if trying not to smile at my question. 'No' she replied. I just nodded, trying to conceal the warmth in my chest from hearing that. She took a sip from her glass. 'What about you?'.
'Ah, no'.
We kept in silence for a while, and I felt the air heavy with tension. After a moment, she spoke.
'I remember when you used to swim on the lake every weekend when the weather was good' she took another sip and added 'well, I reckon me and every other girl at the school' she once again tried to muffle a smile.
'Do you?' I raised an eyebrow. I was a Hufflepuff, and two years older than her. I thought she didn't even know I existed before we met at her graduation and spent eight perfect weeks together before she disappeared.
She nodded.
'In that case, I wish I had asked you out by then. So we would have had more time together.'
I knew I shouldn't've said that. But I didn't care playing a fool anymore. I just wanted to let her know how I felt.
She didn't say anything. I turned my head and saw a tear glimmering in her eyes before she mumbled she should say hello to her old classmates and left me there alone.
...
The next day, I was unease during my shift, waiting for her to show up. The sultry afternoon had triggered a summer storm, the noise of the rain lashing against the windows muffling every other sound. I was going to confront her. To tell her that it didn't matter what happened in the past and that I understood she had to follow her own path, but that I hadn't given up on us and if she still had feelings for me, then…
'THEO! AUBERT!' someone shouted. I heard people screaming, running, and explosions coming from the courtyard next to the section we were patrolling. I dashed towards the tumult and came to a halt behind the door, Aubert by my side, to find two out of the four wizards of our shift already surrendered. One of them was an Auror and was knocked out, and the other one was the protecteur that had just called us. Both of them were disarmed and held by four black-clad hooded figures. Death Eaters. One of them was raising its wand, pointing to the still conscious French guard, when another one yelped 'don't kill them, you fool! We need hostages!'.
Me and Aubert exchanged looks and nodded. There were four of them against two of us. We could handle this. We stepped into the water curtains and struck.
And we were handling it, but when they started looking frightened and stepping back, four more hooded shadows appeared around us. In thirty seconds, Aubert and I were both disarmed and tied together. The tallest of the Death Eaters snarled 'where is she?'.
'I'm here' a calm voice replied. My heart sank. Jade had just arrived at the scene. We had managed to put down two of them, but it was still six against one. I could not believe I was going to watch the love of my life being kidnaped, tortured, or even killed. But before I could ask her to run, six flashes of light stopped just one meter from hitting her. I knew she must have been well trained as a Vangarde leader, but what I saw during those following seconds was some kind of magic I had never seen nor heard of. She had conjured some kind of energy field to protect herself that nothing could penetrate, and when she whipped her wand, her enemies started falling one by one. One minute later, they were all scattered around the courtyard, motionless.
She freed us and we found back our wands. The protecteurs didn't seem surprised, although there was gratitude and admiration dancing in their eyes. I reckon Jade would be even more worshiped from now on between her guards. I, however, felt dazed from what I had just witnessed. She handed Aubert a bundle of wands taken from the Death Eaters.
'Aubert, call for back up, now. Martin, take him to the healers' she pointed at my unconscious colleague 'Theo and I will tell the Order about this right away. Come on'. She strode back into the building, followed by me, leaving a trail of wet footsteps behind us. She entered the small room where she always changed, empty but for a wooden desk and a metal locker. She started taking off her boots.
'Now, what happened?' her voice was stern.
'They disarmed two of us, and when Aubert and I got there...' she started pulling off her black robes '...they were only four, so it was going alright, we were handling them, but when four more came…' suddenly I couldn't even remember my name. She had taken off her uniform, revealing a tight pair of underlying trousers and a white shirt, glued to her body, soaking wet from the storm. The curve of her breast perfectly drawn, her nipples hard under the drenched see-through material.
'When four more came?' she insisted, sniggering. She retrieved her wand and in an instant her clothes were dry and she started dressing her purple robes.
I shook my head, trying to clear my mind, and carried on.
Two minutes later we were knocking at number 12.
