It Was Probably Green

Chapter 3

Millicent Bulstrude was walking around naked again.

Jude was standing at the washbasin in the Slytherin girl's washroom, brushing her teeth and trying to avert her eyes from the hideous sight reflected in the mirror in front of her.

Unlike Jude, who wrapped herself modestly in two large bath towels when entering and leaving the shower, Millicent apparently felt no compunction strutting around without a stitch of clothing. The fourth year covered herself only when she walked out onto the landing to access her dormitory.

Rinsing her mouth quickly, Jude muttered "I'm going to sleep" to Fama who was concentrating so intently on the beauty charm she was trying to work that she seemed oblivious to the hairy (ugh! very hairy) figure plodding past the washbasins to the showers.

"Do my eyelashes look longer?" Fama asked Jude's retreating figure.

"Huh, I mean, yes," Jude answered over her shoulder.

While Jude had been stuck in the library working on her essay for Professor Snape, Fama and some of the other girls had been swapping gossip and cosmetic charms. At least I didn't miss anything interesting, Jude thought as she walked down the stairs to the room she shared with the other third year girls.

Jude pulled the curtains around her bed. The argument she had with Laura earlier that day kept nagging at her. While she was still upset at Laura for talking to people about their father, Jude felt guilty for snapping at her younger sister.

She didn't know how people here feel about these things, Jude told herself.

Jude wondered how the other students in Laura's house reacted when she told them about her father. Maybe they weren't mean to her. Maybe that's why she didn't understand why I wanted to keep it secret. Jude could only imagine how the other Slytherins would have reacted had she told them about her father. Pansy Parkinson's behavior in the Great Hall left her no doubt that their reactions would not have been positive. Yet it didn't seem that the Hufflepuffs had even cared when Laura told them that she didn't have two magical parents.

If only I had been thinking about something else when I put that silly hat on my head.

That day, two years ago, was still fresh in Jude's mind. On the train from Kings Cross Station, Jude had been nervous. She hadn't known any of the other students sitting in her compartment and had pretended to read a book while the rest of the students had chatted easily.

When standing in line before the Sorting, Jude heard the two girls behind her whispering to each other about Jude's bedraggled looking robes. Her mum had bought them second hand, and although the robes fit, the hem was frayed and the color had begun to wash out, leaving the robes a dull gray color. Jude had been embarrassed to see the other students wearing brand new robes and carrying new trunks. When she heard the girls whispering, Jude's face began to burn. Those girls think they're better than me, she had realized.

"Madley, Judith" rang out loudly in the hall, but Jude could hear the girls sniggering.

Hmmm . . . I'm not really sure where to put you, the disembodied voice of the Hat echoed in Jude's head. What do you think would make you happy?

"I'll be happy when those silly twits stop thinking that they are better than me," Jude raged at the Hat. "Just because they have new robes doesn't mean anything. I -- I'll show them!"

Ahh, the voice had said, that makes it easy -- "SLYTHERIN!"

* * *

The next morning, Jude had her first Ancient Runes class.

Walking to class by herself after breakfast, Jude started to wonder whether her elective choice had been such a good idea. Fama wasn't taking Ancient Runes because she had signed up for Muggle Studies. Jude and Fama had always taken all of their classes together, and even though they didn't always sit next to each other, Jude was worried about being in a class all on her own. What if the professor asks us to work in pairs? she worried. I don't want to be the pillock stuck by herself.

She sat down in the back of the classroom, opening her textbook so that she didn't have to look at all of the students trickling into the classroom in pairs of two or three. It seemed like no one else had chosen to take an elective without a friend.

The truth was, had Fama chosen any elective other than Muggle Studies, Jude would have signed up for the same class. But Jude just could not stomach the thought of spending the next few years learning about televisions and the Underground, all the while trying to pretend that such things were completely foreign to her.

"Oh hi," a voice said. Jude looked up to see Ginny Weasley, the girl from her Transfigurations class, standing in front of her. "Is anyone sitting here?" she asked, gesturing to the desk next to Jude.

"Uh, no. No one," Jude said. Ginny smiled at Jude at slid into the seat.

As the professor walked into the room, Jude realized that she was no longer nervous.

Ancient Runes proved to be a very interesting class. Runes served not only as an alphabet for a writing system, but the symbols themselves carried meanings. Professor Chomsky Phoneticus explained that many ancient civilizations used runes as a means of obtaining answers from a "Higher Source."

Professor Phoneticus spent the first lesson showing the class several runes. He used his wand to draw the rune in front the class. Then, while the rune sparkled in the air, he told the name of the rune, as well as the sound it made, and its meaning.

Jude scribbled down everything that the professor said, trying her best to copy the shimmering shapes onto her parchment.

At the end of class, Professor Phoneticus told the students to find the rune that most resembled the first letter of their names and to research the history and meaning of that rune.

That's not a bad first assignment, Jude thought as she started gathering her books.

"So do you think that we'll end up with the same rune?"

Jude turned to Ginny Weasley. "Ah, well, our names don't start with the same letter," Jude said slowly.

"I know that," Ginny said, smiling, "but our names do start with the same sound. The assignment is to find the rune that is similar to the first letter of your name. So, it might be the same rune for us."

"Oh, right," Jude said.

Ginny looked like she was expecting Jude to say something else. She looked away, and said in a low voice, "I should go."

"Er -- wait," Jude said, feeling stupid. "Do you want to, um, do this assignment together? We could meet in the library later this week."

Ginny looked back at Jude and smiled. "That would be great!"

* * *

The next few days passed quickly.

Jude was enjoying most of her classes -- even Transfigurations and Charms. She had always dreaded those classes in her first two years, but now, with her new wand, Jude was no longer one of the slowest students. In one lesson, she had even been the first student to successfully perform the Sonorus charm, projecting her voice from one end of the Quidditch pitch (where the special Charms class was being held) to the other.

All of her recent successes were giving Jude self-confidence she had never felt, making her think that she could excel in any class -- until the next Defense Against Dark Arts class.

Much to everyone's surprise, Moody announced to the class that he would be putting each of them under the Imperius Curse to demonstrate the curse's power and to see whether any of the students could resist the curse.

I can do this Jude told herself, as the first few students tried to throw off the curse and failed. I can definitely do this.

But when Jude's turn came, she was surprised by the contented floating sensation she felt. Moody told her to hop on one foot and she happily complied. A small voice in the back of Jude's head told her to stop hopping about, but she felt so warm and contented that she ignored the voice.

Once the curse was removed, Jude sank down in her seat, angry with herself that she wasn't able to resist. That anger soon turned to despair, as Jude's subsequent attempts to throw off the curse were entirely unsuccessful. Every time Jude walked to the front of the classroom, she swore that she would try to fight the curse, but as soon as Professor Moody turned his wand on her, Jude forgot her resolve. She loved the happy almost dreamy feeling that the curse gave her, as she was oblivious to turning cartwheels and the other various indignities that Moody made her perform.

And while all of the other students were able to make some sort of progress, Jude never even hesitated before following Moody's commands. Jude's self-loathing did not escape Professor Moody, who asked her to stay behind at the end of class.

"Having a little trouble, Miss Madley?" he asked, fixing both of his terrible eyes on her.

Jude felt a prickling sensation on the bridge of her nose. Oh no, she thought, please don't let me start blubbering -- not in front of a teacher.

"It's a difficult spell --" Moody said in a voice that wasn't unkind.

"Well no one else seemed to think it was that difficult," Jude said. "Even Susan Albern, who had failing marks last year managed to stop singing 'God Save the Queen' after four tries."

"And about bleeding time! That girl must be completely tone deaf."

Jude had never heard a professor swear before. She was surprised and grinned in spite of herself.

"Besides, she kept humming the tune -- well, almost the tune. It's not as though she actually defeated the curse," Moody told her.

"But I couldn't fight it at all," Jude said in a flash of truthfulness. "I don't want Susan Albern to think that she is better than me -- I don't want anyone to think that they are better than me!"

Suddenly regretting her outburst, Jude looked down at the dirty trainers poking out from beneath the hem of her robes. She could feel Moody's eyes staring directly at her, as if they could see right into the blackest part of her mind -- the part where she worried that she was just as shabby as her clothes and her mother's flat.

"Don't you give a worry to those silly arseholes," Moody said gruffly. "If you want something badly enough, you can overcome anything or anyone who is in your way." Moody paused for a moment, and then said: "And don't worry about today's class. If you want, I'll give you an extra assignment -- some research for me -- and you'll get full marks for today's lessons."

"Um, thank you," Jude said, hoping that the professor wasn't just feeling sorry for her.

Moody scribbled on two pieces of parchment and handed them to Jude. "Here's what I need you to find. You'll need to give this note to that old battle-axe in the library to get the book you'll need. Once you've read the book and write out every step that you need to complete this task, you let me know. It won't be easy, but you're clever. You'll figure it out"

"OK," Jude said, able to look Moody in the eye once again.

* * *

Jude rushed to the library as soon as she finished dinner. She wanted to find the book for Moody before meeting Ginny Weasley to work on the Ancient Runes assignment.

Madam Pince gave her a very harsh look when Jude handed her the pass from Moody authorizing her to take Enchanting Travel: Broomsticks, Floo Powder and Portkeys out of the restricted section.

"Why do you need this book?" she demanded of Jude. "The creation of magical travel instruments is highly regulated. You cannot charm a broomstick for flight unless you are certified by the Ministry of Magic. All Portkeys have to be registered with the Department of Magical Transportation. And do you know what can happen if the wrong combination of Floo powder ingredients is exposed to fire?"

"It's for an assignment," Jude insisted, but secretly wondered what horrible stories Madam Pince could tell her about Floo powder.

Madam Pince stormed over to the restricted section to retrieve the book, muttering to herself all the while. Jude heard the words "irresponsible," "half-mad," and "bloody Aurors" and was happy to retreat to a far corner of the library with Enchanting Travel.

How are Portkeys made? List every necessary step. had been scrawled on the note that Moody had handed to her. Jude flipped through the book, noticing that the section on Portkeys was more than sixty pages long and contained words that Jude didn't even recognize. Well, he must really think I'm clever if he believes I can figure this out, Jude thought. I hope I don't prove him wrong.

"Hey Jude," Ginny said slipping into the seat across from her, "you don't look very happy."

"Oh, I was just looking at another assignment. It looks like it may take a long time to complete."

"Oh. Well, do you want to work on Ancient Runes some other time?"

"No, not at all," Jude said quickly, slipping the book for Moody into her satchel. "Besides, it will be so much easier with the two of us working together."

Jude thought she saw Ginny's face turned a light shade of pink, and she quickly pulled out her Ancient Runes textbook. "Well, I did a little work this afternoon, and I think that we actually have to look at different runes. You should look at jera, which is also called ger. I need to research gebo."

The two girls pulled out their textbooks, and soon became engrossed in the assignment.

"Look, my rune means 'gift' or 'partnership.' What about yours?"

Jude flipped to the table that Ginny had shown her. "It says here 'harvest' or 'fertility. I wonder what that means.'"

"Oooo. Maybe you'll have loads of babies, then." Ginny said.

"So which of your parents' names begins with a J?" Jude teased back.

Ginny blushed again, but was giggling right along with Jude. The two girls barely noticed when an older student walked over to the table.

"Ginny," the girl scolded, "you don't seem to be studying very hard."

"Hallo, Hermione," Ginny said. "Actually, we are studying."

The older student still looked unconvinced. "Well, since you seem to be taking a break, I want to talk to you about joining an organization for elvish welfare. The organization is called S.P.E.W. The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."

"That's a rather unfortunate acronym," Jude couldn't help muttering.

"Ginny," Hermione said turning her back on Jude rather decidedly, "who is your friend? I don't know her."

"My name's Jude. Ginny and I have Ancient Runes together."

"Oh, that's a wonderful class," Hermione said, looking as though she was willing to forgive Jude's comment about S.P.E.W. because she was taking a difficult class. "I sat next to Padma Patil. Do you know her?"

"No. Which house is she in?"

"Ravenclaw," Hermione answered, with an almost quizzical look on her face. "Are you in Hufflepuff?"

"I'm in Slytherin."

As soon as the words left Jude's mouth, she saw the expression on the older girl's face change. Hermione's eyes flickered to Ginny, and Jude could almost hear the unspoken question: Why would a nice Gryffindor girl like Ginny be studying with a slimy Slytherin?

Hermione must have said something before walking away from the two younger girls, but Jude couldn't hear past the roaring sound in her ears.

All of the things Jude wanted to yell at Hermione's retreating back were jumbled in her head: Fucking Gryffindor holier-than-thou -- pigging House bullshit -- blinkered generalizing fanny --

"Jude?"

Slowly the red hair and freckled face of Ginny Weasley came into focus. Jude wondered how many times Ginny had called her name.

"Are you feeling well?"

"Uh -- sure. Just thinking about something else."

They stayed in the library for another hour, working on the Runes assignment, but Jude was no longer enjoying herself. She and Ginny barely spoke, and when they were leaving the library, Jude barely nodded in response to Ginny's question of whether she wanted to meet the following week to do the next assignment together.

Walking down the stairs to her dormitory, Jude wondered why Ginny wanted to work with her. There were other Gryffindor students in the class, but Ginny hadn't sat with them. Of course, Jude wasn't sitting with the other Slytherin students, but aside from Fama, Jude wasn't friendly with any of the students in her house.

I wonder if Ginny feels the same way. For some reason, the thought that Ginny could feel as lonely and out of place as Jude made her angry.

Jude never had understood the House system. Hogwarts had so few students in each year that it seemed silly to create a system that kept them isolated. There were only four other Slytherin girls in the same year as Jude, and only thirty-seven third year students in the entire school. Yet, those students were split between the four Houses and rarely formed friendships outside of those boundaries. Stupid magical rubbish, Jude thought angrily as she tried to fall asleep.

* * *

I wonder where Draco Malfoy goes on holiday? Probably some posh hotel with his parents. I can't really imagine him at the beach; his skin is so pale that he would get a horrible burn. Though, if I concentrate hard enough, I'll bet I can imagine him in swimming trunks -- short ones with little golden snitches --

"Doesn't anyone know the fourth property of newt's eyes?" Professor Snape demanded, ruining Jude's reverie.

Jude glanced around the room before raising her hand. Snape looked startled to see her volunteer.

"Yes, Miss Madley."

"Unless thoroughly boiled, don't they cause hallucinations?" Jude offered, sounding so hesitant that her comment was more a question than an answer.

"Yes. Yes indeed." Snape looked at Jude a moment before continuing.

Snape gave the class several additional instructions before allowing them to begin the sleeping potion for that day's lesson. The students all began chopping their ingredients and talking to one another in low voices.

Jude blew on her hands, trying to warm up her fingers. Why does Snape keep us in this awful dungeon? No matter how warm it is outside, it's always bleeding freezing down here.

As if hearing her mental query, Professor Snape appeared at Jude's table. Rather than asking her questions, the professor just stood there for a few moments watching her progress. Jude tried to act nonchalant and proceeded to add the newt's eyes to the water boiling in her cauldron. After a few minutes, he walked away from her table to criticize some students whose cauldron had begun to emit yellow smoke.

Jude realized that she must have caught Snape's attention by answering a question in class. She had kept very quiet in his class since the beginning of the term. Aside from when she handed in her essay on the underage use of magic she had not spoken to Professor Snape since that terrible first day of the term.

Since classes had begun three weeks before, Professors Moody and Trelawney had been calling on her often. When she grew accustomed to speaking in class, Jude had begun to speak up with some regularity in all of her classes. She didn't sit around with her hand constantly waiving in the air; after all, she reasoned to herself, I'm not a bleeding know-it-all. Jude would only raise her hand when no one else seemed to know the answer.

Can't believe it's taken this long for Snape to stump everyone. Guess that's just one of the many disadvantages to having Potions with the Ravenclaws.

Jude couldn't believe the amount of time that the Ravenclaw students spent in the library studying. They would pour over their books, taking copious notes and quizzing each other before each class. Jude knew that her marks would never put her at the top of her class, so she had never spent very much time studying.

Jude had spent more time in the library this year than any of her previous years at school. Even though she was spending a lot of time in the library, Jude wasn't actually studying per se. She and Ginny Weasley met to work on their Ancient Runes assignments together every few days. They worked quickly together and were able to spend some time talking. Ginny told Jude all about her brothers and her parents -- she hated being the only girl in her huge family -- and Jude told Ginny about her parents' divorce. Although divorces were very uncommon in the wizarding world (a marriage contract was considered a covenant, which was very hard to dissolve), Ginny had reacted quite well to Jude's revelation, asking how Laura felt about the divorce and telling Jude that she was justified in being angry at her father.

Jude also spent a lot of time in the library working on the assignment for Professor Moody. Although the book that she had taken out of the restricted section gave some instructions on how to prepare a Portkey, it referenced a number of other difficult spells and potions. Some of the references were rather obscure, and it was rather difficult to prepare a scroll with all of the necessary instructions.

When Potions finally ended, Jude tried to quickly escape the watchful eyes of Professor Snape, but his voice stopped her just a few meters from the door.

"Miss Madley, a word please," he beckoned her to the front of the classroom.

With no small amount of trepidation, Jude walked slowly towards him.

"I see that you are taking an interest in your studies this term."

"Er, um yes."

"I understand from your other professors that your performance has improved, especially in Charms and Transfiguration. Your mother must be pleased."

"Who? I mean, I suppose yes," Jude said. What does he know about my mum? Jude wondered.

"Yes, well," Snape continued, "I read your essay on the underage use of magic. It seems that you question the wisdom of those laws."

"Ah . . .," Jude was worried that this conversation might yield an additional assignment, so she chose her words carefully, "I just was surprised that other places don't have the same restrictions. I don't know that one system is necessarily better than another. I just thought it was, er, interesting."

"Hmm," Snape said, in a voice suggesting that he wasn't entirely certain whether to believe Jude, "interesting indeed."

An awkward silence, which only Jude seemed to notice, descended. Then, abruptly, Snape turned away, dismissing Jude with a wave of his hand and disappearing into his office.

* * *

Sitting at his desk, Severus looked at the bottom drawer of his desk. The drawer was closed, but Severus knew exactly what would greet him if he opened it - a smiling face framed by blonde curls.

He couldn't bring himself to open the drawer and see that face smiling at him the way it used to. Besides, there were other pictures in that drawer, pictures not only of Cassandra, but her father as well. Severus could not look at pictures of that man - at least not without several glasses of Old Ogdens.

The hair is different he thought. No curls, and it is a different color than Cassandra. Her father must have had brown hair.

But the thought that Cassandra Unschuldig had married and borne children with another man was too much. He hurried to the store closet, looking for a bottle.

* * *