Chapter 10
Jade woke up with a yawn. It had been the best three days of her life, and she would never forget it. No expectations were heaped upon her, or better, no beatings or Death Eater meetings. If there was one thing she despised, it was death eaters and the meetings. She could not help but be disgusted with what they did and who they were. All apart from one exception; Severus Snape. But he was not a true Death Eater, he was a spy. It made all the difference in the world, only because she knew that he did not truly enjoy it.
Getting up, she walked to the bathroom, putting cold and hot water into the bath; more like a mini pool or a large tub. She put some bubble bath in it; she loved the bubbles. With a content sigh, she stepped into the tub and slipped into the warm water. Sometimes she scrubbed herself until she was raw, she hated the feeling of being dirty and it never seemed to disappear. It was always there following her around reminding her that she was used goods.
More than anything, she hated the mark on her arm, and today Severus was going to realize just how much. After getting out of the bath, Jade walked over to the mirror, looking at herself. She saw the mark in the reflection, she hated the thing. Wondering idly if it would hurt if she cut it off, she would not be a Death Eater if she got it off her skin. Surely the skin would heal again; after all, they were magical.
Conjuring a knife, she cut a small bit of her skin and gasped. It hurt, she watched, fascinated as the red blood flowed from the wound she had just made. Cutting another bit she stared in shock as the wound healed before her eyes, the snake tongue licking it. She realised the mark was not allowing her to cut it away, she suddenly felt the need to rid the mark from her skin and urgently.
She scrapped and scraped at her arm, screaming and shouting how she had to get it off her skin. "Get it off! Get it off! I hate it! I hate you! I do not want this damn thing on me, get it off! Get it off," was all she could say. She began rocking back and fourth, scrapping her arm raw. Nothing she did seemed to work, the mark seemed to stay there.
Severus heard her screams, and ran to the bathroom. He saw a slumped form on the floor next to a knife. Running over, he realised what was wrong with her, and knew how she felt, for he had tried to do it too; it seemed everyone did otherwise the Dark Lord would not have known to put spells around it so you could not cut it off.
"It won't come off, love, you need to accept it," said Severus, as he pulled Jade in a bone-crushing hug.
"NO! I want it off! Please, get it off," she begged, still trying to get her fingers to the mark. Severus had made sure she could not reach it.
"It won't come off love, please, stop this! Otherwise I will have to resort to drastic measures," said Severus his voice still pleading with her to understand that the mark could not be removed.
"It has to come off, I will make it. I'll make it! I will! I'll make it," muttered Jade repeatedly. It was clear she was hysterical and would be go into shock soon if she did not calm down. Severus had a feeling this was the first time she had tried to remove the mark, and it was not nice finding out you could not remove it.
The sound of a slap echoed around the bathroom.
Jade came out of her shock, clutching her stinging cheek. She had finally stopped her insane mumbling. Severus had not enjoyed seeing Jade like that at all. With a sigh, he pulled her towards him. In his own way, he was apologizing for hitting her, but in a way, saying 'you deserved it' or 'you know you needed it'.
Finally, she broke down and wept. The pain was killing her, and the thought that the mark would never be removed made her break down. Jade seemed to be in some kind of trance the rest of the day. Severus sighed, this was not what he had wanted for the time he spent with Jade, but he shrug his shoulders. He did not care, at least he had Jade, if only for a while.
Jade was not aware that she ended up missing lunch or dinner, or even aware she was put to bed. In fact, she was not aware of anything at all. Severus, having just fed Jade a sleeping potion, hoped Jade would be back to normal tomorrow, and that she was not angry with him when she remembered that he had hit her. Nathan, Severus knew hit her, but there was nothing he could have done, the man had a magical barrier over his potions to protect them from potions accidents. Therefore, Severus could not summon a calming draught to calm her down.
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Waking up, Jade felt confused and startled. The memories of yesterday hit her faster than a train could hit you. How could she have done that? Would Severus still want her even though she was going insane? She sure felt like she was. With a sigh, she got up from her bed. She avoided the bathroom before going down the stairs after she took enough time to actually get dressed. She was going to Gringotts whether Severus let her go or not. She knew what the floo address was, and she would be back; she would never let Severus get killed or be punished because she wanted to be free.
Nevertheless, she did want Lily to know what had happened to her, and who she really was. Severus and Lily would be the only two to ever know the truth; even then, they would not want to help her. It didn't matter that she was helping save lives or not, she was still a Death Eater, and still committed atrocious crimes.
"Severus, will you take me to Gringotts?" asked Jade.
"No!" said Severus. He knew better than anyone that there were spies everywhere, and they would more than likely be caught if they went out. He knew the Dark Lord was interested in curse breakers as well as the goblins.
"I'm going with or without your permission, Severus," said Jade acting a lot braver than she felt. She did not want Severus to hurt her for disobeying him, however, this was something she had to do, and by herself.
"Your not going. If you do, you won't see the light of day again," said Severus. He knew he would never hurt Jade, but he had to show her just how serious it was that she did not go to the bank.
"I'm sorry, Severus, I'm going," with that, she fled from the room. Already having the floo power, she was in Gringotts in a flash of green flame. The last thing she saw before landing in Gringotts lobby was Severus' shocked face as she disappeared.
"Can I help you?" asked an ugly looking goblin. Jade made sure she had her face covered. She did not want to be recognized, not even by the goblin, but she knew he would have to see her eventually.
"I would like to speak to someone about my accounts privately, please and quickly," she said. She wanted this done as quickly as possible, and be back before anything happened - like Severus going to Voldemort, or worse, her being caught.
"Right this way," said the goblin.
"Can I help you, Mrs. Nott?" asked the goblin as he silenced the room so no one could hear them.
"Do not call me that! Its Miss Avery to you," spat Jade. She did not want any more reminders that she was married to a cold, sadistic Death Eater than she already had.
"Very well, Miss Avery, what can I do for you?" asked the goblin.
"I want my will changed, and make sure that my 'husband' cannot touch my money," she said, sneering the word husband. As far as she was concerned, the man was no husband of hers.
"Very well ma'am," said the goblin.
"Here is the paper and ink. Write the will and sign it, and there will be nothing anyone can do," said the goblin coming back from the cupboard he had just gone into.
"Thanks," said Jade. She quickly began writing what she wanted to say to Lily. Looking up, she said to the goblin, "Do I have any Pensieves in the vaults I own? And I would also like to know how many vaults I actually have," she said.
"Place a drop of blood here, please," said the goblin.
Jade held her finger out as the goblin drew blood, cutting her finger with a dagger. She did not so much as wince as he did so, making the goblin look at her with respect. It was something she did not expect, but she looked down. She did not deserve the respect they were giving her; she was just a Death Eater.
"You control the Ravenclaw vaults, being the youngest of the Ravenclaw line. You also control the Nott vaults, the Evans vaults and the Avery vaults. There are three vaults that have Pensieves in them," said the goblin.
"Then please have one taken from the Evans Vaults or Ravenclaw vaults," said Jade quietly.
"Right away, ma'am," said the goblin, which then started yelling in gobble hook, and another goblin appeared. The first goblin, that Jade learned was called Grinch according to the name plate on the desk, sent the second goblin off to complete her request. He returned with the promised Pensieve for Jade, who was glad she would not have to go to her vaults, not having a key on her at the moment, she realized then that she had never had one either.
"Thanks," she said softly to the second goblin that Grinch had called Griphook.
"Welcome," said Griphook grunting he left. He was surprised that a pureblood had thanked him for anything, but had not allowed the emotion to show.
Jade spent the next half hour taking memories from her mind and putting them into the Pensieve. The swirling silver mist giving her the ones she needed to show Lily. She felt much lighter by the time she had finished putting the memories into the bowl, and with a sigh, she wrote Lily Evans on the back of it before sealing it up.
"There," she said with relief. "There are two letters, one for Severus Snape and one for Lily Evans, as well as this Pensieve for her. Moreover, I have left money for a building I would love to have built; one for abused children, I have all the money they could need. The rest of the money goes to Lily and Severus. I do not want even a knut to go to Nathan," said Jade.
"Have you written it down?" Grinch asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Well, there is no need to tell me," said Grinch.
"Fine" she said, her face flushed a little.
"Can I use your fire please?" Jade asked.
"Very well," said Grinch. Getting up, he showed her to his own personal floo before leaving her alone. Obviously giving her the privacy to go where she wanted to go, and she did just that.
"Snape manor, draught of the living death," she said.