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Jade winced at the words. The words tossed around like they were poison.
Smug ass girl. Worst house, everyone’s evil. Death Eater wannabe.
Those evil Slytherins.
When Jade had walked into Hogwarts seven years ago, excited and bright, she never would have thought her own classmates would say such things. She had heard the horror stories from the older years, but thought they were lying, until she started to hear them.
And she honestly wished she had never figured out what they were saying.
But then, the new school year started and some interesting new people had shown up. There were now more Slytherin Professors around the school, and the relief they gave to Jade and her classmates was immense, blinding most of the Slytherins on what was happening.
Jade had thought that the Slytherins wouldn’t have to be belittled anymore, now that some respectable teachers were from her house. She ate up the information they all taught, from Professor Amycus teaching them such advanced and hard to pull off spells, to Professor Alecto teaching them about muggles and all the harm they inflict upon the magical realm. She especially loved Potions with Professor Slughorn, who was as kind as last year.
What Jade never saw was how the other houses were faring. While her small family at school was doted and finally shown respect, the other houses were suffering. Students were always going to the Hospital Wing because they spoke out of turn or even attacked one of the Carrows.
It wasn’t until late at night that Jade was suddenly woken up by a startled Slughorn, telling everyone to get up and go to the Great Hall, that something was happening. She couldn’t understand what was going on, as she and her small family left the common room and huddled together as they walked quickly to the Great Hall, watching as several professors ran past them.
They soon reached the Great Hall where Professor McGonagall was speaking. Jade listened, her stomach slowly turning to lead as the woman spoke.
“What does she mean You-Know-Who is going to attack the school?” Ethan, a second year, whispered to the table.
None of the older students answered, too preoccupied by their thoughts. Jade wondered if that meant…
A cold voice suddenly interrupted McGonagall, and Jade cried out, surprised by the voice. It sounded like a snake, hissing and soft, but with a deadly ring behind it.
“You have until Midnight to give me Harry Potter.” The voice hissed softly, enticingly.
Jade frowned. Potter can’t be here. He wouldn’t dare…
Her friend, Pansy, rose with a shaky hand pointed at the Gryffindor House. “But… He’s right there! Potter’s right there. Somebody grab him!”
Jade whipped her head to where Pansy was pointing, eyebrows raised as she noticed the messy black hair and the scarred face of Harry Potter. She gaped at him, thinking he was mad before her eyes widened at the amount of hatred she saw before her as the other houses rose up and stared down at the Slytherin House.
The words came back to her. The simple words that hurt like poison to her ears.
Even the Head of Gryffindor didn’t bother to hide her distain as she glanced at Pansy, ordering her to lead the House out to the evacuation point. Jade and a couple of her friends got up before looking at one another, and they all sat back down, much to the surprise of the other houses. They cried out the poisonous words, flinging their hate like Jade and her friends were mindless animals that had done something wrong.
Jade had half a mind to flip them off, but looking at her two friends with her, decided against it.
She leant forward, keeping her voice low as she spoke to them. “If we are really going to do this, what if-”
“They won’t be here. No way.” Thomas shook his head violently. “Even if they were going to listen to the Dark Lord, they know we are here.”
“And besides.” Heather shrugged. “Everyone will be fine. When this is done, those bitches and bastards won’t be able to say we’re evil anymore. We’ll finally get the proper school wide respect we deserve, and they’ll have to stop bullying our family.”
Jade rolled her eyes. Heather always had been too optimistic, but… As she thought, Jade liked the idea of being praised by those hypocrites after this battle was over.
The three stuck together as the adults were dividing the teams. They were all assigned to work on the ground with a tall dark man named Kingsley.
What a weird name. Kingley. Jade thought as she and the others laid traps and prepared for the fight to begin.
Jade knew something was wrong as soon as she reached the second floor, almost running into a couple of cloaks.
She stumbled back, wand at the ready when she felt the outlines looked familiar. She lowered her wand, frowning as she looked at the two Death Eaters standing before her, and they seemed to have paused as well, as if recognizing her.
“Jade?” The slighter one, a woman from her voice, asked.
“Opal?” Jade’s eyes widened, and she stepped back.
“Jade, what the hell are you doing here?” The figure next to the woman commanded.
“Dad? I. What? No.” Jade raised her wand before lowering it again, unsure what was happening. “I could be asking you the same thing!”
“Why are you helping the enemy?” Her older sister asked, stepping closer to Jade, but Jade wheeled backwards.
“The enemy? Opal, Hogwarts is my school, our school.” Jade almost dropped her wand as she looked at her family behind the masks and dark cloaks. “Why are you trying to kill these people?”
“These people are the ones who started this war. Any who are willing to fight for that little brat should also know they will die trying to fight for him.” Her father sneered, the hatred in his tone powerful enough to make Jade take another step back, now in the middle of an intersection.
“We… We didn’t want to join the fight, Jade. But the enemy is too strong and must be stopped.” Opal spoke reasonably, lowering her wand as she approached her sister.
“I-” Jade was about to speak when a flash of green streaked past her, hitting Opal just a couple feet in front of her.
She didn’t make a sound, but crumpled, her mask cracking as her face connected to the floor.
Jade’s mind froze, as she stared at the body in front of her. She barely saw her father run past her, pushing her aside as he ran after the person who had cast the deadly spell.
She felt impossibly small, as she fell to her knees, crawling to her sister. She grabbed her shoulders and shook gently, turning her over to her back.
“Opal? Palla? Palla, wake up.” She whispered hoarsely, refusing to believe what she had seen. “Opal, please.”
She removed the mask, just to see if maybe her sister was just silent, but when she saw the wide eyes that looked so lifeless, she felt her mind shatter.
“Opal, no. Opal!” She shouted at the body, but her voice was drowned by a vibration as if an earthquake was going on, before she saw far ahead of her the walls and ceiling crumbling.
After the war
Jade gazed around the broken Great Hall, but couldn’t actually see. Her sister wasn’t allowed in the Hall with the others that had died, many scorning Jade for even thinking of ‘dropping the corpse of the enemy with actual heroes.’
She hadn’t seen her father since then. She didn’t know if he was alive still or not.
Mum must be so worried. She thought as she distantly recognized a couple of students limping into the room, each helping the other.
Thomas saw her first, and the two hurried to Jade, sitting across from her.
“You okay, Jade?” He asked, snapping his fingers when she didn’t answer or look like she heard him.
She shook her head slowly, not realizing she was already leaking tears as she turned her attention to her two friends.
“You didn’t see anyone you knew, did you?” Her voice cracked a couple times but Jade didn’t seem to care anymore.
The two shook their heads, deep frowns on their faces.
“But you did… Didn’t you?” Heather asked, and when Jade nodded, both their faces paled.
“Who?”
“Op… And Dad. She’s…” Jade’s head fell forward, her hands covering her face as she sobbed. “I don’t even know what happened to Dad.”
Heather quickly came around to sit next to Jade and hugged her tightly, petting her hair.
“It’ll be fine, I’m sure he’s okay. You’ll see him again. I know you will.” She sounded desperate to make Jade feel better, but instead of hope, it filled her with anger.
She pushed Heather away with a growl, baring her teeth at her.
“No, it won’t be okay!” She raised her voice. “My sister is dead and I can’t even let her in here because she was a Death Eater. My dad is nowhere to be found, and I don’t even know where my mum is in all this. She doesn’t even know about what they are! How am I supposed to explain this to her?!”
Heather looked conflicted, as if she didn’t know what to do. Thomas was still silent, watching them.
“Yes, we may have proved our house, but at what cost? Half my family might be dead because of it, and it’s because of that Potter kid deciding to be a git and return to school! He caused my sister to die, for my father to fight in this war, for us to fight against our family and friends!
“I hate Harry Potter!” She shouted, standing up and storming out of the room, knowing full well everyone was staring at her as she left.
She made it maybe to the first row of greenhouses when someone grabbed her arm. Flinching, she turned around and saw the top of a blonde head.
Looking down a bit, she saw Looney, the Ravenclaw girl with the idiotic father that wrote slander in his magazines. The girl had a sad look on her dirty face.
“I know I never talked to you, but I feel like I should.” She said, her voice very light and airy, like a fairy’s.
“Why the hell would I want to hear from you? I don’t even know you, Looney.” Jade growled, meaning to continue walking but the hand on her arm tightened and held her fast. “Let me go.”
“No. You insulted my friend who stopped this war.” Looney said, frowning slightly.
“Because your friend started this war! My sister is dead! My dad could very well be dead as well, murdered for following orders!” Jade screamed at the younger girl, hoping she would let go of her.
“Your family, which side were they on?” The girl asked, almost sweetly which made Jade even more furious.
“They were following You-Know-Who. They were only following orders because they had to, you ass. Now let me go!” Jade struggled to loosen her arm from Looney’s grasp.
“Yet you fought against Voldemort? Knowing your family was siding with him?” She asked.
“Yes! To get asshats like the Gryffindors off my House’s back for always siding with him! But look where that led me?” Jade fought back tears as she continued to jerk her arm away, but now she was losing energy to try.
“You didn’t kill them by accident, did you?” Looney asked, sitting on a bench and taking Jade with her.
“Of fucking course not! Someone else behind me did. We just saw each other, and then… Green light… And she was gone before she hit the floor… My protector…” Tears slipped down Jade’s face as she thought about seeing her sister fall, as if in slow motion, after being hit by the green light.
She felt the hand on her arm loosen and she turned to see Looney look at her with compassion written across her face.
“What was your sister like?” The question surprised Jade.
“She… She was kind, daring, and protective of me. I was very close to being a squib, and had many health problems when I was born. She loved me like how siblings love each other, and we looked out for each other. She was ten years older than me, but I always felt like we were twins, she was always small for her age until she hit her late teens.”
Jade bit her lip before continuing. “She wanted me to live in a world where I would be fine, where I didn’t have to feel bad for my house. She joined my Father as a Death Eater because my family thought he would bring us to a better wizarding age. An age when we wouldn’t have to hide and be as great as Merlin all those years ago.”
“Did they blindly follow his laws? Did they really believe everything was going to be okay, especially with how things were going at school?” Looney’s voice was soft, caring, and made Jade want to confide to her.
“I don’t know. They approved of his ideals, but maybe they became twisted by some of his other followers. They weren’t killers. They were protesters. My father opposed the Muggle-obsessed Weasley almost daily, and talked a lot about it during the summers.” Jade sighed shakily. “We just wanted to see what it was like to not be feared.”
“But if Voldemort had gotten away with what he wanted to do, he would have killed thousands, millions, of innocents, muggles and magic folk alike. He just wants power, and to be feared. If he had won, your family would have been feared forever. Your family might have become killers if he had won. If you don’t want to be feared, be more open.” Looney said.
Jade looked up, confused as she saw Looney give a tiny smile. “You are brave and smart. I am sorry about your sister and father. But I think he is okay.” She stood up and offered her hand to Jade. “And I’m Luna. Luna Lovegood. It would be nice to talk to you more, under happier times.”
Jade narrowed her eyes as she took the hand, but thought maybe the girl wasn't so bad. “Alright. Maybe. I’m Jade Morgan.”
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