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"You- you can't kill my sister, Tom." I stuttered. "I won't let you."

"And how would you stop me?" Tom's dark eyes flared with rage. "I'm losing my patience with you Jade. If you disobey me one more time then I will-"

"Look, I won't. I swear I won't."

Tom stepped closer, his tall figure looming intimidatingly over me. "You better be sure." He said lowly, "Because I'm never usually this lenient, but for you I'm making an exception just this once. Don't make me regret it."

I swallowed, "You won't."

"Good." He murmured. "I'll be keeping a close eye on you just in case." He stepped closer to me menacingly causing me to fall backwards and hit the stone wall.

"Tom." Dolohov had appeared. "Let's get out of here."

Extremely tall like Tom, but with dirty blond hair and blue/green eyes, Dolohov was hot. If he wasn't such a bastard I'd probably have fancied him.

"You're in luck, well, for now that is." Tom's mouth curved into a smirk, clearly satisfied of how scared I was before he turned and stalked off, Dolohov behind him.

Being in Slytherin drove me insane. It wasn't like the other school Houses really understood what it was like, especially the snobby Gryffindors. Everyone was basically a rude git in this House and if you didn't like it well it wasn't like you could just beg the Sorting Hat to give you a transfer. If I got to choose, I'd have been placed in Ravenclaw, at least I would've gotten a moment of peace.

I walked in the opposite direction, trying to clear my head. It was terrible the way Tom could make me suddenly feel overwhelming amounts of fear. Now I had to worry about Hermione and the fact he might kill my sister. Great. I guess I wasn't going to get a peaceful nights sleep tonight.

He was a nightmare. And absolute horror. He was supposed to be one of the cool kids. I mean ok, maybe he was extremely popular amongst his peers but I hated him so much. I dragged a hand through my long black hair. I was extremely stressed out. Not having Hermione around wasn't really helping things they somehow were getting worse. It was weird, when Hermione was around it made everything feel... manageable. As if shit around here could actually get sorted.

"Jade!"

I looked up to see my best friend Isabella Rey running toward me.

"Was that Dolohov? Did I just miss him? Damn it!" She said breathlessly running over. "Why's he always in such a rush? I was going to try to talk to him!" Her pale face was flushed, her golden hair coming out of its ponytail. For a Ravenclaw, the pair of us were inseparable. It was a source of mystery to nearly everyone.

"Are you okay?" She looked at me closely with her big green eyes. "You look like something's off."

"I'm fine. How about you? You look... different, somehow."

"Oh, it's just Danielitis." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's a terminal illness. Side effects include weak knees and severe heart palpitations."

"Shut the hell up you idiot," I snapped, "You've been trying to talk to Dolohov for the past few months. Are you ever actually going to say anything? Or are you just going to drool." I made a disgusting simpering face.

"Please can you stop just calling him Dolohov? He's got a first name, you know."

"Yeah, I realise that I do actually share a House- Wait a second...." I stared at her, suddenly realising what was different. "Are you wearing makeup?" I demanded. "Izzy!"

"What? It's only that lash lengthening shit." She pulled a tiny mirror out of her bag scrutising each individual eyelash. "Haven't you noticed? He always goes for girls with big sweet doe eyes. It's basically his thing. You've got them actually. I don't. Do my eyes pop?"

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Yeah, I guess..."

Isabella Rey was about 5'5 with long strawberry blond hair and a fiesty attitude. Sometimes I wondered why she wasn't put in Gryffindor, she was one crazy girl.

"Is that all?" She demanded. "You guess?" Her perfectly shaped eyebrows shot up, "I should've just been best friends with your sister. She would've had more to say." She joked.

"Yeah? Well my sister also would've hexed you for being this annoying." I shot.

"Ha ha. You're hilarious, you know that? Oh, I almost forgot. Lip gloss. I need some. Don't look at me like that! It's in case he comes back. Please! It's an emergency." I fished around in my bag, before finally finding a random lipgloss I didn't even know I had.

"I've got this." I offered it out to her, "Never used it before in my life."

Isabella's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"You never told me you got one of Witch Weekly's WonderWitch Lipcare Collection!" She squealed.

"Witch Weekly's Wonderwhat?" I didn't really keep up to date with the latest wizarding cosmetics because I didn't really care. "You can keep it, it's not like I'm ever going to need it..."

"Thank your sister for me." She plucked the tube of lipgloss cleanly out of my fingers before sweeping a generous amount of it over her lips.

"What do you think? Do I look good?" She smacked her lips together pulling the mirror back out again. "Oh, wow. Red is SO not my colour. And I used way too much. Great. Just what I need, to look like some kind of prostitute."

"Well," I said reasonably, "You are trying to attract a Slytherin guy, aren't you?"

There was a quiet moment. Isabella looked furious.

"Shut up!" She tried to whack me with her bag but I darted out of her reach. "Quit laughing at me, asshole. You're totally wrong, anyway."

"Oh, yeah?" I laughed.

"What about that new Slytherin girl? That one that shares your Dorm? Hermione Granger. She got Tom falling for her, didn't she?"

"So?"

"So? She's the biggest nerd since Rowena Ravenclaw went to Hogwarts."

I felt a twisting feeling of guilt. Hermione also thought I was a liar. Even though I wasn't.

"...you're so lucky you've got such good genes," Isabella was saying, "I feel like a sack of potatoes."

I blinked. "Are you serious? You know you don't look like a sack of potatoes so shut up!"

I considered what she'd said earlier, I mean being Shalini's twin sister did have its perks, we shared large dark eyes to our long black hair (the right side of my head was shaved). Although Shalini really made the most of all the male attention, I didn't really care. I didn't like the guys here anyway.

"You look great," I admitted. "He'd be a proper idiot not to notice you." I eyed her long hair which was looking more or less ombré now, which suited her and really brought out her honeyed complexion, and the flecks of amber in her green eyes.

"Hey! Earth to Jade!" She snapped her fingers near my face causing me start, "I just said since Hermione isn't here it's my turn to shine." At the word shine she did jazz hands making me roll my eyes again.

"Seriously, If I don't get to kiss Daniel this semester I think I'm going to kill myself." She sighed. "I'm sorry if I'm being dramatic but seriously. He's so hot. He's got like, Tom Riddle cheekbones," She made a sort of cutting motion on her cheekbones. "I need me a man like him, since he really is the only other sexy beast around here. Even if he's a Slytherin. Be my spy Jade, update me on everything he does."

"I'm not fucking doing that." I grumbled.

"Please? Pretty please?" She made puppy eyes.

"No."

"Oh my god Jade. PLEASE?"

"No!"

"Shalini would do it."

"Do I look like I care?"

"Come on-"

"SHHH- No seriously someone's coming shut up-"

Voices were drifting from around the corner, familiar voices that sparked a panic inside me.

"It's not the same, as soon as they're out of the way..."

"...and that stupid bitch-"

We froze, there was barely any time to run or to even think. How the hell out of the entire school did it have to be these two particular students? Isabella breathed out loud enough for me to hear, and a few seconds later I saw them for myself.

Tom Riddle appeared with Daniel Dolohov walking in the hall toward us both talking about something along the lines of Hermione.

My mind seemed to be completely paralysed, all logical thought scattered. Whatever Dolohov had said made Tom frown in consideration. They hadn't seen us yet. Just when I thought I could potentially run off without them seeing me Isabella smacked her lips together, an innocent action with a disastrously loud echoing effect.

Tom noticed us first, and then Daniel. It was literally just the four of us in the hall staring each other down.

"Oh... Hey Daniel." Izzy said, rather breathlessly if I admit. "Hi Tom." Tom didn't answer.

"Hi," Daniel answered first looking mildly irritated, his light eyes narrowing in suspicion. To be honest, I wasn't really paying any mind to Dolohov, Tom had locked eyes with me and neither of us was looking away. It wasn't as if he was revealing any emotion, instead his handsome features were merely thoughtful as his eyes bored into mine. Even from this far away he didn't look like he was up to any good just by the way his eyes were shining.

Luckily at that moment Horace Slughorn had chosen the perfect moment to walk down the hall.

"Tom my boy! Just the one I needed to see!" His loud voice exclaimed. He turned to the rest of us as if he'd only just noticed we were there.

"Hey, Professor..." I said faintly. Slughorn's eyes roved over my partially shaved head and single hoop earring in blatant disgust.

"Merlin, I dare say if any of the other teachers caught you three standing out here there would be points deducted from your Houses.... Consider yourselves let off the hook just this once." He said gravelly.

"What is it you needed to speak to me about, Professor?" Tom's quiet voice asked. I watched him closely, his handsome face was unreadable as they walked away up the hall together. Ah yes. Tom, the teachers pet as always. That just left me, Daniel and Izzy standing there like idiots.

I realised at that moment that this was basically my queue to leave. I walked back up the hall; as I left I managed to catch Isabella's eye.

Bye I mouthed.

Don't leave me Her eyes demanded but I was already out of the hall. Why would she want me to stay anyway? I kept walking, the more I thought about her and Daniel Dolohov the more that familiar mixture of sadness and anger crept up inside me. I didn't know why. Was it because he was a Slytherin? Was it because he was some arrogant guy? I didn't know. Was there something wrong with me? It wasn't like I could control whatever it was, anyway. Thinking of them both together was bothering me, somehow. I hurried off down various hallways, starting to feel like I was trying to escape without really understanding why.

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"Lots of the guys think that Ravenclaw friend of Jade's is hot. What's her name? That short curvy one. Isabella something." Xavier Malfoy tilted his head black, his cropped white blond hair catching the light above him. "What do you two think."

"Isabella Rey." Daniel said suddenly. "Her last name is Rey."

"I never really thought about it." I said coldly. Dipping my quill back into the ink, I finished off the last paragraph on Slughorn's Potions essay. It wasn't even due until next week but I felt it was better to get it out of the way.

"Why should I even care," I shot him a look. "I already have a girlfriend."

A time travelling pain in the neck who's cursed because of me I felt like adding.

"You can have a girlfriend and still think other girls are hot," Xavier pointed out. I smirked. We were all players, but Xavier was one of the worst out of all of us. He went through girls like Moaning Myrtle went through toilet cubicles. I never really focused on girls at least not as much as they focused on me. For the most part, they were good to use but other than that they were mainly over dramatic and annoying. Shalini was the worst. She was one of the ones I had enjoyed tormenting the most. Well, before Hermione.

Making Hermione my girlfriend had been a somewhat spontaneous decision I'd made to get Shalini to back off and find a different boyfriend. Even though it was all a show.... I had been thinking about Hermione a lot lately. Without even trying to. When I wasn't thinking about my studies I was watching replays in my head of her cherry red lips opening in a gasp as I had held her against the wall by her neck, or her eyes rolling back as I stood close to her frozen body. It had made me imagine doing a lot of other unspeakable things to her. Things that innocent little mind of hers had never even dreamed of.

It was a hassle she had been temporarily relocated. It made me feel annoyed when she wasn't in my grasp. Had I considered that little flaw in the plan I wouldn't have cursed her at all. It was stupid of me to even have told her I had cursed her forget her memories. What if she remembered I had told her that? What if the Curse I'd used to destroy her memories hadn't been strong enough? It wasn't unheard of for certain minds to overcome Curses like that. It all depended on how stubborn the mind was, Timelore was an extremely complicated and mysterious branch of magic.

She'd have been gone now for a day. I didn't have long before St Mungo's realised what the hell I'd done to her. I had thought if I had erased her memories she'd want to stay with me. I finished Slughorn's essay quickly, rolling up the parchment and placing it in my bag. I had to reverse the curse, to stop her being so agitated and to save my own damn ass from being caught performing illegal magic. I was a fool. I was too busy trying not to get her to have a reason to leave this current time that I didn't bother trying to find out why she was Time Travelling to begin with.

"...I bet Riddle would fuck those twins." Xavier joked.

"What twins." I asked sharply.

He rolled his eyes. "I knew studying Ancient Runes would affect your head. What other twins can you see around here?"

I stared around in sarcastic confusion. "Bulstrode. Levery. Literally both of those girls have twin sisters."

"Bulstrode and Levery also look like trolls mate, so they don't count." Xavier dragged his hands through his hair, making it appear more messy than before.

"Well, I've already fucked Shalini." I said carelessly, Xavier shot up out of his seat at once- "As for Jade, I was under the impression she was more into girls so I didn't bother."

A dreamy look came across Xavier's face giving me the sudden impression of one hit with the full effects of Love Potion.

"Jade's a lesbian? Hot..."

There was a moment of silence, I could almost hear what type of pornographic montage was going though his head.

"Do you think she gets it on with her sister?" He asked suddenly.

Daniel, who had taken a sip of oak matured mead began choking. "Mate-" He coughed, "What the fuck?"

"What? It's just a question." Malfoy said defensively. "What do you think, Tom?"

"I didn't think incest was all too common," I said quietly, "Well, at least not in this day and age..."

Daniel snickered, Xavier looked thoroughly annoyed.

"No, but if they're lesbians it's different isn't it?" I stared at him. How one person be so thick was beyond me.

"It's a fetish thing, so it cancels out the weirdness, right?" He barrelled on stupidly. "I mean, if it was two brothers it'd be different. That'd be.... gay. But since it's two chicks, I mean, it's sexy."

"You're an absolute imbecile." I advised him. "Shut up."

Malfoy mumbled under his breath about going to fix himself another goblet of Mead.

"Isabella Rey," Daniel said softly. Leaning forward on the sofa he stared deeply into the fire. "I think she's cute. I mean, for a Ravenclaw."

"My main man!" Xavier Malfoy actually clapped him on the back. "It's good to have a smart bitch. They can think of all sorts of ways to please you."

"I wasn't really thinking along those lines." Daniel said coldly. "I enjoy her for other reasons."

Xavier looked confused. "What, her brains? Brains don't suck dick, mate."

I was well aware that entire conversation was a walk on broken glass, and I was right. At that exact moment Daniel stood, grabbing Xavier by the neck of his robes he lifted him backwards causing him to go crashing over the side of the couch.

THUD!

He hit the ground with a roar of pain, his goblet of Oak Matured Mead flying through the air it upturned as it hit the ground, splashing along the floor and hissing upon contact with the fire.

What the fuck Dolohov-" He bellowed. "What'd you do that for?!"

"Don't fucking talk about her like that. It's not cool, man." Daniel adjusted his collar turning to walk out of the Common Room. There was something on his neck, a bruise of some sort. I frowned. A hickey?

Xavier wasn't giving up. On the contrary he seemed to think he'd got him at a good time because he scrambled after Daniel clearly looking to catch him while he had his back turned but once again he was too fast and got him in a headlock.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you." He said lowly. Crash! He threw him bodily against the wall.

"What's- your- fucking problem?"

Xavier yelled, he was wrestling Daniel and by the looks of things he'd only just managed to shake him off. I looked on in mild amusement, locking fingers together.

"I would've thought it was obvious." I said idly, leaning back in my seat I contemplated both of them. "He's in love."

The bitter tone in my voice revealed only too clearly what I thought about that. As if realising the impending danger Dolohov and Malfoy looked up suddenly as if they'd only just remembered I was still there; they stopped what they were doing instantly.

"I'm not in love." Daniel said quickly. "I just said she was cute."

"You also tried to knock out your friend Malfoy for speaking of her crudely." I pointed out.

"He's not my friend." Daniel said heatedly. "And I don't like her, Tom."