Jade was nervous. She was walking down a dark alley, deeply hidden in the maze of grimy streets and abandoned squares in the city of London. Even though it was a night in the middle of August, a thick fog lay over the entire city and only the blurred light of the street lamps was guiding her through the dripping mist. For a moment she thought she saw a figure flattening itself into the shadows and the young witch tightened her hand around the slender piece of wood inside the pocket of her cloak as every little noise or motion continued to send chills down her spine.

She wondered whether her fear was truly reasonable. After all, what were the odds of a Death Eater popping up along her way? But still, she simply wasn't used to travelling alone and these were dangerous times. A few weeks ago Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived, had seen You-Know-Who return back to life. And unfortunately the majority of the Wizarding World was not believing him, but instead ridiculing not only the boy, but also his headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, and anyone who would believe them.

During the First War Jade's family had been part of the Order of the Phoenix and there had been sacrifices: Her parents were killed by Death Eaters only a month before the Dark Lord fell. Ever since that day she had been living with her aunt and uncle, who had raised her like their own child.

Having lost his only brother, her uncle became overprotective and was not willing to send her to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when she was eleven years old. He never believed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had gone for good and was too afraid that something would happen to this little girl, that he loved so dearly.

She remembered how incredibly disappointed she had been back then. Having read "Hogwarts – A History" over and over again, she couldn't wait to see the castle, which had been a home to so many great wizards. She had been so terribly excited to leave for school with her best friend and to meet other young witches and wizards. She already knew some of them, seeing that she belonged to one of the very ancient magical families in the country. However, she was very keen to meet Muggleborns and learn more about the non-magical world.

Back then, arguing with her aunt and uncle about it had been to no avail. And so she had watched her best friend leave without her. She still remembered him standing in front of her on platform nine-three-quarters next to the red steam engine, giving her one last hug and promising to write to her each day until he came back again. It was a promise, he had kept, until this very year. Back then she had watched her friend leave, waving at him until the train had vanished from sight and little tears had spilled out of eyes in a mixture of sadness and childish jealousy.

And so, for the last four years, Jade had been homeschooled by her aunt and uncle. They had taught her everything that she needed to know according to the Howgarts' curriculum and even more, concentrating immensely on the Defence against Dark Arts. And even though her uncle would never perform dark magic himself, he showed her some books about the most evil and dreadful curses and Jade had imbibed them all in her young mind..."just in case", like her uncle always said.

But now it was the year she was supposed to take her O.W.L.s and finally her aunt and uncle had agreed that she was prepared to leave for school and take the exams there. Furthermore, now that the Dark Lord was back again for sure, maybe Hogwarts was a safe place to be as Dumbledore was securing the castle more than ever.

And so it came that on this August night she was walking down Grimmauld Place, clutching at a piece of parchment on the search of house No. 12. Her Aunt was already inside the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, probably watching her right now through a window. She had dropped her off just at the end of the street by side-along-apparition and then returned to their house to get her luggage into Grimmauld Place No.12 by using the Floo Network.

Jade couldn't travel there by Floo yet as she had never been told the location by the Secret Keeper until in a few seconds. Finally she reached No. 13 and held the piece of parchment up to her eyes:

"The Headquarters of The Order Of The Phoenix might be found at Grimmauld Place No.12, London"

Her head jerked backwards as the parchment burst into flames, as soon as she had finished reading. And as the glowing pieces of parchment sank to the ground, a light struggled out to her through the fog. A grimy house seemed to squeeze itself right were No.12 should be. It looked incredibly old and uncared for and somehow she could sense that it had a dark history.

Hastily, she took the few steps up to the entrance door and just as she was about to knock, it opened, revealing her aunt with a finger pressed across her lips. Motioning her to come in and closing the door behind her, her aunt led her through a dark corridor.

The first thing Jade noticed was the umbrella stand right next to the door, which was made of what seemed to have once been a troll's leg. This first impression was probably enough to tell her what kind of house this was. Along the walls many portraits were hung, which were now eyeing her conspicuously and muttering to each other. As she passed one of them, covered by old curtains, she could hear it snoring loudly.

Her aunt opened a door on the right of the corridor and led Jade into a well-lit kitchen. Inside there was a large group of people, obviously preparing dinner and chattering away loudly. She only recognized a few of them. There was Remus Lupin, an old acquaintance of her uncle's, Molly and Arthur Weasley, whom she had once met on her Aunt's thirtieth birthday party several years ago, Sirius Black, a face almost every witch and wizard would recognize after his escape from Azkaban, and of course Harry Potter, a dark-haired boy sitting at the far end of the room, trying to avoid being knocked over by a steaming pot, which was being shakily levitated by one of the many redheads in the room.

They fell silent as they saw the newcomer and Jade quickly started to feel quite uncomfortable, being the centre of everybody's attention. Molly Weasley came forward, a very motherly look on her face.

"Jade, my dear, it is so good to see you again! Let me introduce you to everybody!" she smiled at her and rubbed her upper arm reassuringly; obviously she could sense that Jade wasn't used to being in a group of strangers. "Well, I guess you remember my husband Arthur…" Mrs Weasley went on and Jade followed her around the table shaking hands and exchanging some words of greeting.

In addition to the people she had already recognized, she was introduced to Nymphadora Tonks, who made a face at the sound of her full name and insisted that everyone should just call her Tonks. Then she met several Weasleys including the twins Fred and George, who eyed her with a curious glint in their eyes, Ronald or "only Ron" as he said, a very tall boy with a long nose and a freckled face, and finally the only daughter Ginevra, who also didn't like her full name as much and offered "Ginny" with a small smile. Next she met Hermione Granger, a girl with bushy hair and very clever-looking brown eyes, who stood up straight as she was introduced and offered a confident handshake.

After meeting everybody, Jade took her seat as directed by Mrs. Weasley right between Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. Hermione immediately started the conversation:

"Jade, now that you are starting Hogwarts, do you already know which year you will be placed in? I guess it would be fifth year, as that is O.W.L. year, and you are going to take the exams this year, isn't that so?" The words were spilling out of her mouth at mind-boggling speed and Jade turned to face her while answering. "Well, actually two weeks ago I had some exams sent to me by Professor McGonagall, so they could figure out if I really fit in fifth year. But I won't get my results until the term starts. I hope I didn't fail. I really don't want to be placed below fifth year."

Hermione nodded sympathetically and said almost with a hint of envy "Well, if I were you, I wouldn't wouldn't worry too much about it. I mean, you basically had a private tutor for the last years, which means that you could go through a lot more at a higher speed than we did in our large classes."

"Well, I guess you're right. I just fear that maybe my uncle had other priorities than those in the curriculum. I know that there were several books I actually never read in the first place..." Jade's dark brows furrowed as she tried to remember their titles " ..it was something from the second year literature by that Lockhart bloke. My uncle really didn't approve of his books."

"Oh, in that case you didn't miss a thing. His books rather resembled fiction that actual own experience." Hermione said with a knowing smile. As the dinner went on, Jade and Hermione shared an animated conversation about Hogwarts, the castle and all its inhabitants. Jade was relieved. She had been a little anxious about being the "new girl" and not finding any friends at school. But as she sat at the table, chatting with Hermione and laughing at the jokes, one of the redheads would sneak into their conversation now and again, she knew the time to come would not be a lonely one.

During the next few days Jade and the other occupants of Grimmauld Place helped Mrs. Weasley in her quest to make the house inhabitable again. It was full of dark and rather dangerous objects and cleaning it was a very difficult task. Slowly she got to know everybody more and more.

She slept in a room with Ginny and Hermione, and although she wasn't sure whether she really got along with Ginny yet, she loved Hermione already. They had many things in common: they were both studious, interested in the same fields and bonded heavily over shared beliefs on house-elves, even though Kreacher, the Black's house-elf, was a very unappealing representative of his species.

The twins were very nonchalant companions and often made her laugh so hard that the muscles in her stomach would be sore the next day. Sometimes it was like a real competition between them to prove who the funnier one was. If she had to chose, she would say Fred, as he was a hint more sarcastic and she really loved his dark humour.

The only person, she had not yet really talked much to, was Ron. Somehow he was kind of silent around her and most of the times when he did say something, the twins would make fun of him. Well, Jade thought, in that case she really wouldn't want to talk too much either. Their jokes could be biting, bordering on insulting, at times.

With Harry she had shared some rather serious conversations. About some things that were going on and somehow she already trusted him. He was a guy, who seemed to be much older than he really was, probably due to the heavy burden he was carrying. She had made a promise in her heart that she would support this young man until the end. She knew how serious everything would be eventually. And she hadn't read all those books and secretly practiced all those dark spells for nothing. Deeply hidden in her heart, there was the thirst for vengeance. And when the time came, she would seek it.