Yes, another update!! Finally! Sorry about the wait D: It's literally been a year and a half, yikes. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up in not too long.

Enjoy the chapter (hopefully) and don't forget to vote and comment! Thanks for all the support! xo

***

I woke up feeling a lot better than I had yesterday. Mostly because I hadn't woken up, screaming, at 3 AM.

Today I had Divination second - well, third - after Muggle Studies/Arithmancy at the same time. I decided to go to Arithmancy first, only because I knew a couple people in that class, such as Hermione Granger.

We had to hand in a foot-long essay about what our favourite number was and its Arithmatic significance. Due to my other concerns, I'd only written a couple inches and then forgotten about it until this morning. I'd ended up writing it at the breakfast table that morning with Blaise looking on in amusement. I'd just said that my favourite number was 11 because it represented the month in which I was born. Anyway, I knew the material (or so I hoped).

After the lesson, I gathered my things and returned to their place in my bag. Once outside, I nodded to Hermione, who unlike me no longer needed a Time-Turner after dropping Divination and Muggle Studies, and headed off towards a place where I could go back in time without anyone seeing me. Then I rushed off to Muggle Studies.

Muggle Studies was a very interesting class in terms of demographics. No Muggle-borns took the class. It was mostly half-bloods who had been raised magical, with a couple of purebloods in the mix.

I had been raised by Muggles, but I still thought it would be a good idea to take the course so that I could keep up-to-date with any developments. I also happened to be the only Slytherin in the class, but that didn't concern me too much. After all, I did have friends from other houses.

All through the lesson, I was full of anticipation for my next class. I really enjoyed talking to Kaya and Holly - they definitely knew how to brighten up my day. And not only that, we had shared genuinely significant events together, like our experiences at Hogwarts last year.

***

In Divination, we were moving onto dream interpretation due to Trelawney's unbelievable disorganisation when it came to following the prescribed course structure. This meant, of course, that Kaya and Holly had a new way to mock Divination, Kaya with words and Holly more subtly with ridiculous made-up stories about strange dreams that had completely illogical meanings. As for me, I just enjoyed analysing everything. It was interesting to see how many different ways I was expected to die or otherwise suffer.

And judging by the dream I'd had only two nights ago, there was a lot that I could interpret about my future from Divination. If only it was more believable. If only it had a slightly more believable professor.

I sat down at my usual table, with the two Ravenclaw girls a few moments behind me. As soon as I'd gotten my ink and quill out of my bag, I looked up and saw Holly and Kaya fixing me with intimidating and expectant stares.

"...Well?" Kaya was the first to speak. I frowned in confusion. What was going on? Had I accidentally said or done (or thought, I wouldn't put it past a Ravenclaw to know what was going on inside my head) something offensive? Had I said something against Ravenclaws? Maybe I'd just forgotten an essay and a teacher got mad and told them to tell me. Or not.

"What?" I asked in worry. I hoped my confusion showed genuinely, and apparently it did since the girls exchanged a look of bewilderment.

Holly waved her hand in front of my face and clicked her fingers. "Hello? Do you remember nothing important? Theo told us that he asked you to be his girlfriend," she said impatiently. I blushed. Oh.

"And that you said yes," Kaya added. "True? Or was he just dreaming?"

I blushed even more. "Uh, yeah. He did. Why did he tell you?"

Kaya rolled her eyes. "We're his best friends, remember? Aside from the other Slytherin boys, that is. He tells us pretty much everything."

Holly leaned forward, a smirk across her pretty features. "Honey, we convinced him to ask you out. Thank us."

Wait, what?

"We weren't supposed to tell her that!" Kaya hissed in concern, but at the sight of my mildly alarmed expression, she burst out laughing. I frowned at this new information, but it wasn't totally surprising because I knew how close Theo was with these girls.

"So, what if I'd said no?" I asked, thinking that my friendship with Holly and Kaya would have been destroyed.

"We knew you wouldn't," Holly answered confidently, with an air of finality to her words.

Wow. Had my feelings for Theo really been that obvious? Apparently, I thought.

Kaya coughed meaningfully, and I looked up to see Trelawney making her way over to our table. She smiled cheerfully at us all. "I hope you have all been discussing your dreams and their significance. I, myself, have seen terrible visions of a dark and violent death for someone in this room," she said gravely, eyes (unsurprisingly) flicking to Harry Potter. Then she turned to Holly. "Miss Burton, would you care to share?"

Holly grinned gleefully. That grin was terrifying. "Of course, Professor. The other night, I dreamed that I was sitting in a cloud. There were hedgehogs in the clouds with me and they were dancing. Then a leprechaun appeared and I followed it along a rainbow to its house and then a unicorn gave me money and then the leprechaun turned into the sun and I flew away with the unicorn."

I looked at Holly in bemusement. Trelawney's mouth was open. Kaya was just smirking and shaking her head, amazed. The best part of all this was that I couldn't even be sure that Holly was lying. I wouldn't put it past her to literally dream about sunshine, unicorns and rainbows.

"And, er, what was your interpretation of this dream?" Trelawney enquired, once she had regained dignity.

"That Holly has well and truly gone insane," Kaya muttered, quiet enough that our inept professor couldn't hear us. Holly struggled to keep a straight face. I coughed loudly into my sleeve to mask my hysterical laughter.

"We actually interpreted each other's dreams, Professor. Kaya did mine."

Kaya looked at her textbook, pretending to know what she was doing. "Clouds represent peace, but hedgehogs represent pain. So she will experience pain while achieving peace. Unicorns mean freedom, leprechauns mean wealth, and sun and rainbows both represent joy or happiness. That means that...Holly will have freedom and be happy, which will lead to money and more happiness. Possibly because of the wealth." She grinned wryly at me.

After Trelawney left, we became distracted, talked about Theodore a bit more and then discussed our plans for the rapidly-approaching Christmas holiday break.

***

After a busy day of classes with only two quarter-hour breaks, I was well and truly ready to go to sleep, despite it being only 3:30 and me having homework to do. However, I found myself sitting in the Slytherin Common Room, half-asleep, next to Theo with my head on his shoulder and our hands interlocked.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment of this was minimised by my imminent meeting with my father, which I would soon have to leave to attend.

Looking around, I saw my twin sister talking in hushed tones with, once again, Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson. I frowned. The two girls may have been my housemates, but I wouldn't trust them with my problems. Or much else, really. Both of them were very popular and I doubted that their newfound friendship with Anja was for anything but their own gain. Especially considering that Pansy Parkinson (and Daphne, but to a lesser extent) was a blood purist - I'd seen her call many of the Muggle-born students, particularly Hermione, 'Mudblood'.

Honestly, I was concerned for Anja. I didn't want her to get hurt. Even though we were fighting, she was still my sister. Of course, my mistrustful attitude might turn out to be completely unfounded. Daphne the Ice Queen, pale hair and pale blue eyes, might turn out to have a heart after all. And maybe Pansy might turn out to know loyalty in the end.

Probably not, though.

As I was thinking about this, I heard a soft voice from beside me. "What time do you have to leave again?" Theo mumbled into my hair.

I sighed. "I have to be there at 4:30, so I should leave at 4:25." Then I looked up at the clock. 4:20. How had that happened? "Did I fall asleep?"

He laughed, and I could feel the sound echoing right down into my heart. Ouch. "Yeah, you did, for about half an hour. You were muttering something. It was quite endearing, don't worry." I blushed. Endearing. Okay.

"Uh...right. Well, I won't be doing that again. I'll have to go soon anyway."

He grinned. "Alright. Try not to fall asleep in the meeting."

I rolled my eyes. "Should be difficult. Anyway, bye Theo. I'll see you later."

He pouted but released my hand. "Bye, Jade."

A couple of people looked up as I left, but most continued on with their conversations or schoolwork. Which was perfectly reasonable. I wasn't important.

As I walked towards my father's office, I began to worry. Had he found out about me and Theo and become angry? Had he learned more about Voldemort? Was it time for another painful Occlumency lesson? I felt sick to my stomach and decided to stop panicking before I threw up. What would happen would happen.

I knocked hesitantly on the door. The sign on it read: 'Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master - DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT KNOCKING'.

The door was pulled open to reveal my father, looking irate, escorting an equally annoyed-looking Headmaster Karkaroff of Durmstrang Institute out of the office.

Karkaroff stared me down as he left the room. My father nodded at me as I entered.

"Father," I greeted him shortly.

"Jade. You are likely wondering why I asked you to come here."

"Yeah," I nodded, "did I do something wrong? I mean, I don't think -"

"No." My father cut off what was probably about to be a long ramble about nothing in particular. "No, it's nothing you did. The issue is, uh, actually, it is perhaps better I show you - "

And my father pulled up his sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark, the gray colour closer to black. Shuddering at the thought of Voldemort being even closer to rising from near-death, I returned my gaze to my father.

"This is... this is bad news, Father. What are you going to do?" I asked in concern.

"I have already informed Headmaster Dumbledore of this development," he assured me, though he still (unsurprisingly) looked somewhat distressed. "Igor Karkaroff just came and spoke with me about his concerns regarding the situation, and his plans, to, well -" he paused, probably realising that there were some secrets that were secret for a reason, "his plans. I'm sorry I cannot tell you more." And I knew I would have to respect this secrecy, because no matter how much I hated the fact, Father and Karkaroff had a shared history of being Death Eaters, and though both had turned from the dark, they had both once been truly evil.

Now, I just had to be glad that I had never known that version of my father, for I feared that I would never be able to forgive him for some of the things he had done.

I sighed, and turned back to my father. "So, I'm one step closer to becoming a Death Eater spy. Great. Is that all?"

My father shook his head sadly. "I am sorry for the trouble this is causing you in your own life."

Panicked thoughts raced through my head. Does he know about my fight with Anja? The worst thing about that argument was that Anja was right to be angry. Sure, I didn't think that Father favoured me over her, but yes, I was keeping too many secrets from her and my other friends.

"What do you mean?" I said, trying to keep my voice steady so I didn't give away my concern.

"Your schooling," he responded. I breathed a sigh of relief (subtly, I hoped). "I am aware of the arrangement made with Professor McGonagall regarding the large number of subjects you are taking."

"Pretty much all of them, in fact," I huffed, mostly just relieved that my father wasn't going to call me out on my argument with Anja - or, for that matter, my relationship with Theo, which I knew would be awkward to talk about. "But what do my classes have to with Voldemort returning?"

He looked regretful. "Mostly, nothing. However, I am sure that you are aware of the Dark Lord's hatred towards Muggles and Muggle-born people."

I nodded. "Yeah, obviously..."

"This prejudice carries over to his followers. All Death Eaters are expected to perpetrate it. Unfortunately, it's something you will have to involve yourself in. And the fact that you take Muggle Studies would be seen as abhorrent and shameful, which is why I am sorry to tell you that you'll have to drop this course."

I nodded, and then my father dismissed me. The conversation was over, and I began the walk back to my dormitory.

I didn't know what to think. Obviously, my father's logic was sound - in fact, it was a good idea for me to avoid being exposed as pro-Muggle to the monster who had killed my mother - it was just that I had expected that I would be living two lives - one as myself and one as an ex-Death Eater's daughter pretending to hate Muggles as much as her father once had. But these two lives would never be able to remain separate. Dropping classes, lying to my friends and boyfriend, these were just the first signs of a truth that was quickly becoming apparent.

Soon, I would no longer be able to live as only Jade Evans. I would have to become Jade Evans, Death Eater.