The Slytherin Gem

79

Just after sunrise, Harry woke up and spotted Jade by the entrance of the tent. She was keeping watch. He went to sit next to her, he was still overwhelmed about all the information and barely slept.

"So, there are two Prophecies about my possible death? Cheerful, right?" Jade chuckled.

"Right."

"So... Leo, huh?" Harry said and Jade looked down. "I actually like it. Simple but meaningful. I think I'm good at choosing names. Jade... why didn't you tell me? I think I had the right to know way sooner."

"Dumbledore said you weren't ready yet. I wanted to tell you."

Harry couldn't understand why Dumbledore told him so many things and even took him to see Tom Riddle's memories, but wasn't okay with Harry knowing he had a son while still being in school in another reality. It wasn't his reality, but it sort of involved him, so why couldn't he know? He got upset every time he thought that information was kept from him. He wished he could ask Dumbledore.

"You didn't answer me earlier. Did you avoid me because you liked me too?"

Jade took a deep breath and looked down at her legs, her short hair blocking Harry's view. He ventured to tuck it behind her ear. Jade looked a bit embarrassed and unsure. It wasn't often when Jade looked like that.

"I think I did," Jade finally admitted, knowing Harry wasn't going to give up. "I was feeling so many things at the same time that it was confusing, it's still confusing. I was scared of actually liking you... and when you kissed me at the wedding... I felt it... this connection. It felt right. Like I finally found you. It's hard to explain. But at that moment I knew Dumbledore was right. About being soulmates no matter the reality, the time, or anything else."

"So, do you like me, Jade?"

"Why do you ask? Don't you see? We shouldn't be together." Harry sighed in frustration. He wanted a simple yes or no answer.

"But Jade..."

"I tried not to like you, I knew it shouldn't happen."

"Why?" Harry asked loudly, losing his patience. "Because Dumbledore told you? We could make it work somehow! We know things, we can work with the information we have now!"

"It's not only that! You also got to understand that my life was completely changed from what it should have been. My last name would change, I'd be adopted, I'd be in another house at Hogwarts... I was supposed to fall in love with another person. The life I have now, it shouldn't have been," Jade said, meeting Harry's gaze for a couple of seconds before looking in front of her, at the trees. Finally, Jade was saying what she had buried and hid from everyone. "I have been living another life. I love someone and it's terribly confusing to love him knowing that I belong with you and that if I gave us a chance, I'd probably love you more than him as that is how our lives should have been... us together. I feel confused, guilty, trapped... I don't even know who I am at times."

Jade, for months, had been feeling a certain way, she couldn't quite understand what it was. She just felt odd. She had so many things to worry about that she pushed away those feelings. But now that things were coming out and she was sharing all the information she was given, she was finally understanding those odd feelings and words just came out of her without being able to stop. As she said the words out loud, she realised her unconscious mind did know what those feelings were. She was basically explaining not only to Harry, but to herself, how she had been feeling and what those feelings were.

Confusion. That was the biggest one. The odd feeling that had hunted her for months. She knew that whoever she was, all the things she had achieved and done, were only a result of the manipulation of the main reality. This was her reality, but it shouldn't even exist. She felt like she wasn't real sometimes.