Jade Evans, Death Eater {Jade Book 4}

Chapter 7

Well, guys, I'm back.

Freaking finally.

I missed you all. A lot.

Okay, go check out the covers of 'Jade', 'The Parselmouth and the Basilisk' and 'Black's Return', which have all been changed. Thankyou to the ever-amazing @Atlantari who made them for me.

Sorry I haven't updated. I've had this chapter in my notebook for ages, but I only just pulled together the motivation to start typing this up.

Which is what I'm doing now.

*waves sarcastically*

Anyway, enjoy this thing. This chapter, I mean.

(Zinnia Black is a character created by @katzonnia).

***

Before long, it was time for the Goblet of Fire to select the three Triwizard champions.

There had been a few mishaps in the process of name-entering. Fred and George Weasley, who I'd only had a few brief conversations with since my first year, were now sixteen. They had used an Ageing Potion to get through the circle around the Goblet, but it had backfired on them and caused the twins to grow beards.

Anyway, back to the present. We were all seated at our House tables. Dumbledore spoke briefly about the Tournament and then walked over to the Goblet.

He took out the first piece of paper. It turned out to be the Durmstrang student.

"Viktor Krum!"

Krum. What a surprise.

The next piece of paper was kind of frilly, and was smoking. I guessed from the shape of it that it was the Beauxbatons student - probably a girl.

"The Beauxbatons champion is...Fleur Delacour!"

Gabrielle's sister got up gracefully and went to shake hands with Dumbledore. I applauded, but Gabrielle was clapping the loudest by far. Many of the French didn't seem very surprised that Fleur was their champion - she must have had a good reputation back at Beauxbatons Academy.

But a bigger surprise was yet to come...

"And finally, the Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"

From the Hufflepuff table, a seventh-year boy stood up. He had a striking face, for sure, and I could see heads turning to look at him. I could see why, too. Cedric Diggory had light brown hair and very pale skin.

I had never seen him before, but I could tell that he was a Hufflepuff Prefect - he had a Prefect badge pinned to his robes.

Hufflepuff robes.

Suddenly, I remembered what had happened in my recent Divination lesson.

I turned to my twin sister and mouthed "He's a Hufflepuff. Remember Divination?" Anja's eyes widened as she turned to repeat my thought to Blaise. He looked over at me. "You really think your half-brother is going to kill this guy?"

I shook my head firmly. "No! Harry's not capable of murder! It's just that I saw a Hufflepuff dead, next to the Triwizard Cup, with Harry there. All I'm saying is that -"

But before I could finish my sentence, everyone turned as one to face the Goblet of Fire, which had begun hissing. Another piece of parchment flew out of it, fluttering slowly and ominously into Professor Dumbledore's hand.

His eyes scanned the parchment and his face turned white. Dumbledore looked across at the Gryffindor table.

"Harry Potter."

Harry was fourteen years old...what had he done?

Slowly, the boy stood up and made his way to the front of the Great Hall where Dumbledore stood, waiting. The Headmaster didn't shake Harry's hand like he had all the others, he just directed him out the way the others had gone.

My mouth was hanging open slightly and I shut it hastily. I looked around the table quickly, noting the sullen faces. All the Slytherins seemed very subdued. In a small voice, I broke the silence by asking, "How did Harry get into the Tournament?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a couple of teachers stand up and leave the Hall.

My attention was drawn back to the Slytherin table as someone answered my question - Theodore.

"Jade, none of us know what happened, but they can't allow him to compete, can they? There's only meant to be three Triwizard champions - and besides, he's too young," he said gently, reaching his hand across the table to hold mine. I risked looking up into Theodore's hazel-brown eyes. I could see the sincerity and the intensity in his eyes.

In that moment, I didn't know exactly how I felt about Theodore, but I knew I'd never felt this way about anyone else before.

Finally I regained my voice. "Um, thanks, Theodore."

A third-year sitting next to Draco - Zoe Malfoy, I remembered - laughed. Well, giggled.

Many of the teachers had left the room, so people started getting up and wandering around - talking to their friends from other houses. The remaining professors didn't seem to care.

I glanced towards the Ravenclaw table, looking for Alex Johnson. I saw Luna Lovegood waving at me. I waved back, feeling guilty. I hadn't spoken to the friendly blond girl since my second year.

Giving no explanation to anyone around me, I rose from my seat and went over to Luna. She was sitting next to a pretty girl with raven-black hair who I hadn't seen before.

"- they're called Thestrals," Luna was saying, then she looked up at me and smiled. "Oh, hello, Jade."

"Hi, Luna," I greeted her, smiling. "Who's this?"

The girl answered me, "I'm Zinnia Black. Luna's best friend," she added proudly. Luna looked a bit astounded that anyone was proud to be her friend.

I nodded and smiled at her. "Nice to meet you, Zinnia. I'm Jade Evans - a fourth-year Slytherin." I turned to Luna. "What were you saying about - uh - Thestrals?"

She explained, "They're horse-like creatures that pull those carriages to school. However, you can only see them if you've seen someone die. Otherwise, they're invisible."

I blinked. "So that's what those horse things are!"

"You can see them too?" Luna asked in mild surprise.

I nodded. "Only seen by someone who's seen someone die, you say...? Hmm...who would that be?" I frowned, trying to recall. "Well, I've seen them since second year. Oh."

"What?" Luna and Zinnia asked together.

"I saw Lord Voldemort die...well, his ghosty thing. I guess that counts." I grimaced, because the thought of Lord Voldemort reminded me of his return, which reminded me of my Occlumency, which reminded me of my imminent Death Eater-ness.

Zinnia cut into the conversation. "I can see them too."

"Really? Who? Not to be insensitive, of course..." I asked.

"No, it's fine...it was my aunt. She was very ill, so we went to visit her. She died while we were there... I was ten."

"I'm sorry." I wanted to say more, but I couldn't think of anything that sounded genuine.

Which, as it turned out, was actually a good thing, because right at that moment, the four people that the Goblet of Fire had selected, along with the teachers, re-entered the Great Hall.

"Bye, Luna, bye, Zinnia," I said quickly. "I'd better get back to my seat now."

"Bye, Jade," they said together. I smiled, waved and left the table.

When I got back to my seat, we were told that all the Triwizard champions selected by the Goblet of Fire would be competing in the Triwizard Tournament.

All four of them.