The next morning, Jade made sure she was ready. Her clothes were folded neatly and put back into the luggage under her bed. She looked around, seeing the girls in her dormitory sleeping soundly and left. While she was walking down the stairs, Jade retraced her steps in her mind, hoping that she had made the bed the exact way she wanted and put her things away as neatly as possible. A few things irked her here and there but Xenophilius had always been strict on her for cleanliness.
'If you become a serial killer, you need to learn how to clean up after yourself so you will never get caught. You need to be in control and be as meticulous as you can be.' He would say to her.
The advice was worth every inch of it. Even the smallest detail left unattended to could send her to Azkaban. Jade wanted badly to kill an actual person but her father kept putting her off, telling her she wasn't ready yet. But Jade begged to differ. She wanted to graduate from killing animals to killing humans but was waiting for her father. There were certain principles Xenophilius had set up for her:
1. Never kill the innocent. This rule only applies to those who murder.
2. Always make sure that you have the right person.
3. Prepare ahead of time and make sure you are careful to leave nothing, not even a drop of blood behind.
4. Never get caught.
5. Never give anyone a reason to suspect you.
If she could only convince her father that she was ready for a kill, but he didn't want to hear it. He didn't think she was ready.
"Either your summer was so boring that you were dying for school to start or you're just…strange." A voice said.
Jade quickly turned around to see Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin boy making his way towards her. His father was preferred on her shining list to kill but it was only too bad that he had to be killed in the Great War between Voldemort and Harry Potter.
"I'm just a morning person…unless you consider that weird." Jade said, wondering if she made any sense. He cocked his eyebrow and his lip twitched slightly.
"No, not really. Considering I'm a morning person myself but not-" he paused, reading his watch. "Six in the morning." He said, looking back up to her.
Jade didn't explain herself. Instead, she looked at his arm where the Dark Mark was supposed to be. If he had become a Death Eater and still killed innocent people, he would make a lovely first kill on her table. Draco saw where her eyes wandered off to and he shoved his hands into his pockets.
"I'm not a Death Eater." He said.
"I didn't say anything." Jade said.
They heard a door open and close nearby. Draco turned back to Jade with panic streaked across his face.
"I think it's Pansy. You haven't seen me at all!" he said, hiding in a nearby corridor. Jade raised an eyebrow and saw Pansy Parkinson appear in front of her.
Common knowledge told Jade that almost everyone in Slytherin were complete and authentic creatures of hostility towards anyone who was not a part of their House. Pansy Parkinson decided that she would multiply that hostility by a few thousand times on Jade ever since they had entered Hogwarts.
"What the fuck are you standing there for?" Parkinson asked.
"Um…just exploring." Jade said.
"Shut the fuck up." Parkinson snapped.
"Okay…" Jade said cautiously.
"Where's Draco Malfoy? Did you see him around?" Parkinson asked. Jade shook her head, seeing Parkinson narrow her dark brown eyes.
"I don't believe you, you fucking weirdo." Parkinson said.
"I'm…sorry?" Jade said.
"Useless oddball." Parkinson muttered, walking away.
Jade watched her leave, reconsidering Xenophilius's rules to kill. She had learned her lesson before in her 5th year when one of their neighbors, a boy their age taunted Luna, calling her Loony Lovegood and Jade the original 'Weird Sisters.' It never bothered Jade up until when he crossed the line about Jade's mother, Pandora. That small remark about her mother's death sent Jade after Noah with an ice pick she took from the kitchen counter. She was quiet and planned to catch him off guard but luckily Xenophilius reached her before she could stick the ice pick into Noah's jugular.
"Are you out of your mind Jade?" Xenophilius asked when he pulled her into the house.
"Let me go Dad, he deserves it!" Jade said, struggling to break free from her father's grasp.
"There are millions of other children who taunt others. You're even going to have grown people taunting you when you get older but murdering them is not how you deal with them! You become a murderer just like the rest when you kill them, because believe it or not, they are innocent! Don't waste your life or your time to kill someone who hasn't taken someone's life away. Just because he said a few bitter things about you and us doesn't mean you need to kill him. That's just life and you need to know that they are not worth it." He said.
"That was a bit abrasive." Draco said, reappearing in front of Jade.
"I don't really mind." Jade said.
"Really?" Draco asked with a grin, seeing Jade nod back, forcing a smile.
"So, see you in a class if we have any together today." Jade said, starting to walk away. Draco started following her, not used to her awkwardness.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"The Great Hall. Where else?" Jade asked.
"I'm going there too." Draco said.
Jade didn't understand where he was going with this. What did she care where he was going or not going? Instead she played along.
"That's nice…I guess." Jade said, walking off with him still behind her.
"So, what did you do this summer?" he asked. Jade gave him a sideways glance, wondering why he wanted to ask.
"Bonded with my father." Jade said, seeing him nod.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"Hunted."
"For?"
"Do you really care or are you always this curious?" Jade asked, stopping in front of the Great Hall. The tips of Draco's ears turned red and he was caught by his tongue, unable to answer her question.
"I was just trying to be nice." He said.
"Oh…" Jade said.
"Hi Draco." A girl said, walking by with a friend. They both giggled and smiled, seeing him raise his eyebrows and greet them.
"Hey girls, I trust that the morning has been treating you right?" he winked, seeing them giggle even harder.
"Seeing you makes the morning even better." They said.
They walked away and Draco grinned looking back at Jade who was expressionless.
"Women find me charming." He said, seeing her take a short sigh.
"Have fun!" she said. She walked away to her table, leaving him alone and befuddled.
Not only did she know how to interact with the opposite sex, she wasn't even interested. Sex wasn't even a big deal for her. What good was sex when she couldn't feel anything? It also kept from deeply offending them, making them think that they were incompetent. Men had a bigger and more fragile ego than women from Jade's experience so she avoided them altogether.
"Miss Lovegood." Professor Flitwick said, handing her, her schedule.
"Thank you, Professor." Jade said.
"I've heard you wished to study for healing school? Should I start calling you Healer Lovegood from now on?" Flitwick asked.
"Healer Lovegood sounds strange…like I'm offering something illegal." Jade said.
Flitwick burst out laughing, knocking down the stack of schedules. Jade wondered if he was going to be okay, never fully understanding why people laughed so hard to something she didn't mean to be funny.
"Something…illegal!" he said, in between his laughs.
Jade tried to laugh along with him, but ended up scaring herself, so she backed off and walked away unless Flitwick had a heart attack and died on her. Then who would she kill if they were to send her off to Azkaban? Jade met with Luna and ate her breakfast. She took her time, looking around, observing people until it was time to leave for their first class. Luna insisted that they wait for Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Jade never usually spoke to anyone except for Luna but wondered why the four, especially Hermione and Ginny considered her as a close friend.
"Jade! Luna!" Hermione exclaimed.
If Jade were normal, she would have hugged back but when it came to hugging, kissing, any act of affection at all, she preferred to kill herself.
"Hermione!" Jade said, trying to sound bright.
"How was your summer? You never wrote back to me." Hermione said, seeing Jade nervously scratch her forehead.
"Seems like the owl killed itself again." Jade shrugged.
"Poor owl. Why do your owls die so quickly?" Ginny asked.
"It's been months and you girls are hung up about owls. Ready for the first class?" Harry asked.
The entire day, Jade went around from class to class, mostly having classes with Hufflepuff and some with Gryffindor and Slytherin. Some Professors taught their classes differently, preferring their students be paired with another student from a different House. Jade didn't mind that she had to share table space with another girl from Hufflepuff and neither did Luna but the rest of Ravenclaw treated their partners badly. The poor Hufflepuff girl next to Jade couldn't even look her in the eye for the very first time.
"It's all right Jeanine; I won't kill you." Jade joked around.
Her classes breezed by, promising enough work to keep her mind off of the urge for a while.
'I will not kill Trelawny. I will not kill Trelawny. I will not kill Trelawny.' Jade thought fiercely.
"And so your cup means…that you will DIE!" Trelawney hollered, pointing a finger at Harry.
Everyone suppressed their giggles but Jade felt more annoyed then amused. Hermione was right; this class was bogus in a crystal ball. Nothing proved anything and Trelawny had nothing better to do than to remind everyone of Harry's impending death.
"You will die…someday!" Trelawny shrieked.
"We all will. Some faster than others." Ron whispered to Jade. Jade didn't expect to laugh but she did and Trelawny turned towards her.
"Miss Lovegood! Are you mocking Death?" Trelawny asked.
"Er-"
"You must take Death seriously! You cannot treat it lightly! It's such a daaaaark-" The bell rang and everyone shot up, scattering for the door. "But…wait! I'm not finished with Death! Read chapter…why does everyone leave before I assign the homework?" Trelawny asked herself.