August, 1st of 1991

Jade's summer with the Malfoy's was the best summer she'd ever had. They'd taken her to France mostly to teach her foreign languages. In addition, Lucius taught them spells she'd never learn at Hogwarts. She was happy not to be stuck in one spot as she had been with her muggle 'parents'. She'd hardly had any opportunity to make friends back then, especially with Mrs. Green's unnecessary hovering over everything she did. A few months into summer Draco had told her about his father sending one of the elves to stop Harry from returning to Hogwarts. At first, Jade was appalled but then she thought about Quirrell and Voldemort and thought maybe it'd be a blessing in disguise to help him not have to face such a guy again and didn't say anything to him about it. Now there was only a month till school started again. She and Draco had received their requirement letters for their second year at Hogwarts.

The list reads:

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

43 Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart'

After reading the list, she heard Draco groan in annoyance.

"What's wrong?" Jade asked with an arched brow.

"This list... the books are utterly useless and a waste of time and money if you ask me," Draco said with a grumpy look on his face.

Glancing back at the list and re-reading the book titles she could see how most of them would be a waste.

"Who is Gilderoy Lockheart?" Jade asked not looking up from the list. "Also why are we required to have and read his books? Seems utterly pointless..." She let out a sigh before seeing Lucius walk into the room.

"Are you serious?" Draco asked with a look that said 'You're kidding right?'

But she kept a straight face as she stared back at him.

"He's a wizard, most witches have a crush on him and he writes stories about encounters with creatures I personally believe he's never truly seen," Lucius answered as he took Draco's list from him and read it. "Why don't you two go to Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley tomorrow, hm?" He told them rather than asking.

Jade shrugged while Draco nodded.

"Why not? I don't have anything else to do that I know of." She said sarcastically but humorously as she chuckled. Draco stared at her bug-eyed.

"What? Am I not allowed to joke?" she asked.

"N-no it's not that... its-" Draco tried to explain but was stopped by his father.

"It's because strangely enough, I rarely react well to others' sarcasm," Lucius said with a serious look on his face. "You'd do well to keep it at a minimum when it's directed at me."

Jade blinks at him for a moment stunned.

'Really?' She thought to herself.

"How can I? Sarcasm is how I deal with stupid people... Uh, not saying you're stupid... I just-" She said as her face grew redder the more she spoke.

Lucius interrupted her by laughing at her reaction.

"I wasn't being serious." He said as his laugh turned into a soft chuckle. "Draco's just not used to people not being afraid of sarcasm when it's directed at me."

He smiled as he thought, 'If she remains friends with Draco, I could really enjoy her company.'

Jade didn't say anything further, just glared at him half-heartedly for making her believe he was serious.

'Yes, she'll be fun indeed.' He smirked.

~Time skip~

The next morning after eating breakfast, Jade and Draco used the fireplace in Lucius's study to take them to Diagon Ally. She thought it was odd to call and travel by a fireplace but didn't complain except when the powder stuck to her clothes. Luckily she'd learned the Siphoning Spell last year and was about to cast it upon her clothes to clean them of the powder.

Draco stopped her though. "You can't do magic, till we are back at Hogwarts... It's stupid I know but we'll be in trouble if anyone finds out... even for such a small spell." Draco whispered as he grabbed a duster from the fireplace mantel and dusted himself off then handed it to her.

Jade took it from him, doing the same before following him. However, Lucius soon came out of the fireplace and stopped them mere moments before they entered. He told them to follow him to Borgin and Burke since he needed to get rid of a few dark items. Jade followed the elder Malfoy eagerly at the mention of dark magic. Since she'd stayed for the summer she'd become highly interested in it, almost feeling like it was something she should already know... as though she was born from it or for it. When they finally reached Borgin and Burke's, Draco was the first to enter as he thought his father was buying him a present there. Lucius warned them not to touch anything in the store as he entered. Jade would have asked why, but as she stepped inside she saw that every item in there was a dark artifact. She also heard a door slam shut but brushed it off as though it was the wind or something like that.

She watched as Lucius's face changed from contentment to cold-heartedness. Jade wondered why but didn't ask since it was none of her business in her opinion. Lucius crossed the shop, looking lazily at the items on display.

He rang a bell on the counter before turning to his son and saying, "Touch nothing, Draco."

Draco, who had reached for the glass eye, asked, "I thought you would buy me a present?"

"I said I would buy you a racing broom," answered his father, tapping his fingers on the counter.

"What's the good in that if I'm not on the House team?" said Draco, looking sulky and bad-tempered. Jade rolled her eyes at him. "Harry Potter got a Nimbus Two Thousand last year. Special permission from Dumbledore to play on the Gryffindor team. He's not even that skilled, it's just because he's famous... famous for having a stupid scar on his forehead..." He bent down to examine a shelf full of skulls.

"He's not that terrible, I mean the first time he played for the Gryffindor team he caught that snitch with his mouth." Jade said before whispering, 'While trying not to be murdered.'

Lucius must have heard her because his left eyebrow rose slightly but he didn't say anything.

"...everyone thinks he's so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick..."

"You have told me this at least a dozen times already," Lucius said, with a stern look at him. "And I would remind you that it is not... smart to appear less than fond of Harry Potter, not when most of our kind regard him as the hero who made the Dark Lord disappear. Ah, Mr. Borgin."

Jade wondered if he meant Voldemort since that was who she'd been told attacked Harry as a baby. Then a mean-looking man appeared behind the counter, smoothing his greasy grey hair back from his face.

"Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you again," said Mr. Borgin in a voice as oily as his hair. "Delighted... and young Master Malfoy, too... charmed. Oh, and Bell-no, who are you, girl?" The man asked but Jade was disgusted with the man's appearance to the point she thought if she spoke she'd vomit instead so she ignored him altogether.

"Anyway, how may I be of assistance, Mr. Malfoy? I must show you, just in today, and very reasonably priced..." The man continued as he realized she wasn't going to answer him.

"I'm not buying today, Mr. Borgin, but selling," said Lucius.

"Selling?" The smile faded slightly from Mr. Borgin's face.

"You have heard, of course, that the Ministry is conducting more raids," said Lucius, taking a roll of parchment from his inside pocket and unraveling it for Mr. Borgin to read. "I have a few... ahem... items at home that might embarrass me if the Ministry called..."

Mr. Borgin fixed a pair of pince-nez to his nose and looked down the list. "The Ministry wouldn't presume to trouble you, sir, surely?"

Lucius's lip curled.

"I have not been visited yet. The name Malfoy still commands respect, yet the Ministry grows ever more meddlesome. There are rumors about the proposed Muggle Protection Act... no doubt that flea-bitten, Muggle-loving fool Arthur Weasley is behind it, and as you see, some of these poisons might make it appear..."

Jade had no idea what they were talking about, so she looked around the shop and noticed a hand on a cushion.

Evidently, Draco also had his eye on it as well and asked, "Can I have that?" He pointed at the withered hand on its cushion.

"Ah, the Hand of Glory!" said Mr. Borgin, abandoning Lucius's list and scurrying to Draco. "Insert a candle and it lights only to the holder! Best friend of thieves and plunderers! Your son has fine taste, sir."

"I hope my son will amount to more than a thief or a plunderer, Borgin," said Lucius coldly, and Mr. Borgin replied quickly, "No offense, sir, no offense meant..."

"Though if his grades don't pick up," added Lucius, more coldly still, "that may indeed be all he is fit for..."

"It's not my fault," retorted Draco.

Jade remembered Draco and Lucius arguing a few weeks ago about his grades, so she knew who Draco would blame and sighed.

"The teachers all have favorites, that Hermione Granger..."

"I would have thought you'd be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam, however, Miss Green received the same marks as her." Lucius snapped at his son while complimenting Jade.

Jade thought it was odd but took compliments whenever she received one.

"It's the same all over," said Mr. Borgin, in his oily voice. "Wizard blood is counting for less everywhere..."

"Not with me," replied Lucius, his nostrils flaring.

"No, sir, nor with me, sir," responded Mr. Borgin, with a deep bow that made Jade snicker.

'Ah, so he's a coward?' She laughed to herself.

"In that case, perhaps we can return to my list," said Lucius shortly. "I am in something of a hurry, Borgin. I have some business elsewhere today..." They began to haggle with one another.

Draco then examined a long coil of hangman's rope and read, smirkingly, the card propped on a magnificent opal necklace, Caution: Do Not Touch. Cursed - Has Claimed Nineteen Muggle Owners' Lives to Date. Draco turned away and saw the cabinet right in front of him. He walked forward and stretched out his hand for the handle.

But he was stopped when his father almost hit him with his snake-headed cane and told Mr. Borgin, "Come, Miss Green, Draco... Good day to you, Mr. Borgin. I'll expect you at the manor tomorrow to pick up the goods." Lucius said after Draco and Jade were out the door, soon following them to a shop for quidditch broomsticks.

~Time skip~ At Flourish and Blotts

After leaving the broom store where Lucius had bought custom-made brooms for the entire Slytherin team, he told them he would meet them at Flourish and Blotts in a bit as he had something more pressing to do. So by noon Draco and Jade had walked into the bookstore and bought all the books they needed. After a while, Draco got bored and leaned against the railing and looked below him as people gathered for Lockheart. He saw a sign that read:

'GILDEROY LOCKHART

Will sign copies of his autobiography

MAGICAL ME

Today 12:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M.'

Jade sat down in a nearby chair and read Lockheart's book on vampires. She compared it to what muggles thought of them so she didn't notice when Draco practically ran down the stairs.

~~With Draco~~

Draco ran down the stairs when Lockheart said Harry was taking photos for the daily prophet with him. The blonde was now livid with anger.

'Lockheart should ask me to take photos with him, not Potter!' He thought bitterly.

He watched as the crowd cheered and clapped as Lockheart gave Harry his entire book collection. As Potter left the crowd, he stood next to an unfamiliar red-headed witch Draco assumed was a Weasley due to the poor excuse of a cauldron she'd been standing next to.

"You can have these," Harry mumbled to her, tipping the books into the cauldron.

"I'll buy my own..."

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said Draco with a sneer. "Famous Harry Potter," he continued. "Can't even walk into a bookshop without making the front page."

"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" said the redhead, whose name he learned was Ginny, defending Harry. She glared at Draco.

"So Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Draco taunted him with a smirk.

Ginny turned scarlet as Ron and Hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of Lockhart's books.

"The same could be said about Jade," Harry muttered under his breath looking behind him, where Jade was now standing.

Draco was about to speak against the acquisition but stopped when he saw Ron.

"Oh, it's you," said Ron, looking at him as if he were something unpleasant on his shoe sole. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," retorted Draco. Jade snickered, briefly causing Draco to glance behind himself, not thinking she'd actually been standing there. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those." He said cheekily.

Ron was as red as Ginny. He dropped his books into her cauldron, too, and started toward Draco, but Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of his jacket. Draco just smirked.

"Ron!" said Mr. Weasley, struggling with Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."

~~Jade~~

"Well, well, well, Arthur Weasley." Jade heard Lucius say before standing with his hand on Draco's shoulder, sneering like Draco just moments before.

"Lucius," said Mr. Weasley, nodding coldly.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Lucius. "All those extra raids... I do hope they're paying you overtime?"

He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from among the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.

"Judging from the state of this... Obviously not," Mr. Malfoy said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of a wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"

Mr. Weasley flushed darker than Ron or Ginny.

"Wait, he's a disgraced wizard?" Jade whispered to Draco as she walked down the stairs who only nodded at her.

After a few moments passed she remembered Lucius's owl telling her about the Weasley's being blood traitors and mentally smacked herself.

'If the owl told the truth, no wonder he's disgraced!' She told herself as she frowned at the red-headed man talking to Lucius.

"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of a wizard, Malfoy," Mr. Weasley said.

"Clearly," said Lucius, his pale blue eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who watched apprehensively from afar. "The company you keep, Weasley... and I thought your family could sink no lower."

Jade then looked in the same direction to see if she could understand what he'd been talking about.

After only seeing Granger's parents she muttered; "What's wrong with them?"

"They're muggles, father hates them more than muggle-borns." Draco whispered.

"Oh..." She said suddenly feeling self-conscious of her own upbringing.

"Don't worry, he won't belittle you for being raised by muggles yourself," Draco said reassuring her, knowing she liked his father as much as she liked him.

Then suddenly there was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Lucius, knocking him backward into a bookshelf.

Dozens of heavy spellbooks thundered down on all their heads, and a yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from one of the Weasley twins.

Mrs. Weasley shrieked, "No, Arthur, no!"

The crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over.

"Gentlemen, please... please!" cried the assistant, and then, louder than all. "Break it up there, gents, break it up..." Hagrid waddled toward them through the sea of books.

In an instant, he pulled Mr. Weasley and Lucius apart. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Lucius was hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. He still held Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice. Jade noticed he'd given her an extra book without anyone noticing. She wondered why but said nothing as she figured she'd find the answer eventually anyway.

"Here, girl... take your book... it's the best your father can give you..." Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned Draco and Jade as he swept them out of the shop.

As they were about to leave, Jade overheard Hagrid say something about the Malfoys that made her blood boil instead of reacting like she desperately wanted to she bit her tongue and followed the Malfoys.

"Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that... no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter... bad blood, that's what it is..." She didn't catch the rest but didn't want to either.