Jessica James
Granger and Potter came by an hour after Draco had sent off his message. Granger cast an abundance of memory charms while Potter did some investigating, learning that Jessica James had a caseworker who he was able to contact with a device the Muggles called a phone.
While Potter and Granger pulled their authoritative strings, Draco wandered around looking for his charge. After a while, he found her, sitting at a bench hunched over a tray of food. When someone got too close to her, she pushed them roughly out of the way.
Draco watched as a group of six older girls gathered on each side of her and teased her. Since all the adults were busy inside with Granger and Potter, they had been left unsupervised.
One girl in particular, who Draco noted was the leader of the pack, picked up a bag of snacks from her tray and rudely started eating from it.
"You're such a hooligan, Jessica," the girl said, talking with her mouth full of food, spraying Jessica with chunky spittle. "No wonder your parents abandoned you."
Jessica hurled up from her seat and swung a fist at the girl's face, knocking her down to the ground. The girl howled in pain, clutching her bloody nose.
"Miss Beth!" the girl screamed out. "Jessica hit me. Oh, God, I'm bleeding! MISS BETH!"
Jessica snatched back her bag of snacks and took off, unwilling to face her punishment. Draco followed her back into the home where she ducked into a classroom and hid into a cubby.
"Jessica," he called out gently. He bent down, knocking on the cubby's door. "It's okay. You can come out now." She didn't answer, but he could hear her puffs of shaking breaths.
He pulled the cabinet door open, peeping inside. She was scrunched up at the back corner of the cubby, watching him with wide eyes.
"Go away!" she whispered with trembled lips.
"We need to talk."
She kicked at him, and he caught her foot to avoid being hit in the face. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Instantly, he released her and backed away from her. "You don't have to be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a teacher from a school for wizards and witches, and I need to make sure you get everything you need for it for the year. Do you remember the letter you got from Hogwarts?"
Jessica lowered her foot, softening her stance some. She wiped tears from her eyes, but she wasn't quite convinced he was who he claimed to be. "Show me your I.D.," she said.
"I.D.?"
"Yeah, your identification," she huffed out with a roll of her eyes. "Show me it!"
Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out a card that Professor McGonagall had given him to use at the shops in Diagon Alley.
"F.E.R.R.E.T?" she asked after examining it. "What's that mean?"
Draco stopped himself from sighing. "Nothing."
"So it's just a reference to the animal then?"
"I suppose," he admitted grimly.
"What do you teach?"
"I'll be teaching little boys and girls like yourself how to adjust to their new life in the magical world."
Jessica raised an eyebrow, skepticism was written all over her face. "Magic? Honestly, if you wanted to kidnap me, you could have just told me you had a flying pig in your car. I'd believe that first."
"Why would I want to kidnap you?" Draco was horrified with the thought.
"Well, you could be a pervert—"
"I am not a pervert!" He was highly insulted to even be accused of such a monstrosity!
"Well, magic doesn't exist—"
"Why were you abandoned then?" He cut her off, challenging her claim.
Her eyes fell to her hands. "Nearly killed my uncle," she quietly confessed, lifting her chin but keeping her eyes off him. "Wouldn't be upset if he had actually died, really."
"Why would you want him dead?"
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Just leave me alone, okay? I'm not going to that dumb school!"
"You have no choice," he told her firmly. "You need someone to teach you how to control your magic so that you don't accidentally kill someone— which may just end up being yourself."
She finally looked up at him and fresh tears layered her eyes. She took in a quivering breath. "For real? I could end up killing myself?"
He nodded. "For real," he purposely used her Muggle slang to get the message across.
"What do I have to do to avoid that?" Jessica asked warily.
"Today we are just going to go shopping for the supplies you'll need for your schooling. Do you still have the letter from Hogwarts?"
Jessica looked away, lowering her head. "No, the other girls took it and tore it up. In this place, nothing stays in your hand for very long… You shouldn't waste your money on those supplies. They'll just steal and destroy them."
Draco nodded. He believed her, after seeing what the older girls did earlier at the lunch tables.
"Well, we are going to have to do something about that."
"What can you do?" Jessica asked hopelessly.
"I'm not sure yet, but I'll think of something." Jessica certainly couldn't show up at Hogwarts without supplies.
Granger stepped into the room then. "Everything's fine now. How about in here?"
"We need to do something about the other kids destroying Jessica's school supplies. Apparently, they don't respect anyone's property here."
A mischievous glint glittered in Granger's eyes. "I have the perfect idea."
Draco waited for her to explain, but she wasn't going to. Her facial expression had Slytherin written all over it, and for a moment, he could actually admit to admiring the smirk that had painted to her lips.
"Are you a witch too?" Jessica asked, crawling out of her hiding spot.
"I sure am!"
"Are you going to go shopping with us?"
Granger glanced over at Draco a moment before she considered the idea. "That's actually Professor Malfoy's job, but if you'd like, I can tag along."
Jessica wet her lips, shifting her eyes to Draco for a quick look. She still didn't at all trust him. "Yeah, I'd like that, thank you."
Draco let Granger take the lead. Jessica was more comfortable with her and the swot liked being in charge anyway. He was only there because it was indeed his job, but Granger was perfectly okay with being the know-it-all that she had always been for as long as Draco knew of her.
He packed around the books Toogy had purchased for Jessica and stood back as the young Muggleborn went through wand after wand, growing frustrated because none of them would choose her hand.
"Don't worry, there's a special wand for you," Draco assured her when she looked ready to cry. He slightly pitied her and couldn't imagine the feeling of a wand not choosing his own hand. He remembered only being rejected twice before one had chosen him.
Three more tries later, a hot, yellow streak flew out from a wand and ricocheted off the walls a couple of times before dissipating. The light momentarily blinded Draco's vision.
"Ah, there we go," Granger said in relief. She had also gotten a little nervous.
Jessica didn't want to put her wand away after that. She held it firmly in her grip, smiling from ear-to-ear, proud of her newest possession.
Next was getting Jessica her familiar, but she instantly rejected the idea. "We aren't allowed pets at the home." They had entered the shop and her eyes instantly fell upon a tiny, pure white piglet.
"It could stay at Hogwarts," Granger suggested as the girl approached the piglet without taking her eyes off it.
The piglet let out a small snort before it waddled to the front of the cage and stuffed its snout through the wire. It wiggled its slimy nose, loudly puffing out breaths of air, as if excited over a particular scent.
Jessica gently scratched between its eyes with a finger, and her lips formed a delighted smile. The piglet pulled away and jumped around, kicking its back feet, squealing exuberantly.
"Looks like he likes you," Draco stated indifferently. He wasn't going to openly admit that it was awfully cute.
"I want this one," Jessica decided, giggling at the cuteness, forgetting that she had just proclaimed she wouldn't be allowed to have a pet.
"He's adorable!" Granger laughed, approving Jessica's choice. "We'll register him at Hogwarts so he can stay there until you start the year."
"Oh goodie!" Jessica brought her hands together, clapping them lightly together, barely making any noise doing it. She took the piglet out of the cage and cuddled him to her chest. The bloody thing snuggled against her, releasing disgustingly adorable grunts.
Draco rolled his eyes, slightly annoying that he found the thing too likable.
"I'm going to name him Pigwarts, since he's a piggy and he'll live at Hogwarts."
"Brilliant name," Granger complimented.
Draco thought it was a dumb name, but it wasn't his pig, so he shrugged it off.
"One last stop," Draco spoke up as they exited the pet store with Jessica cradling her new animal friend. "The candy store."
"Oh?" Granger wondered, surprised. Candy wasn't an approved item on the school's tuition list.
"Spearmints," Draco simply explained, ignoring her curious stare.
"What are they for?" Jessica asked the question that Granger so desperately wanted to ask.
"Our cures come in the form of brews called potions. Unfortunately, they taste like absolute scat. I find spearmint candies quickly cover up the taste. All my charges get a bag to last them the year."
"That's sweet of you," Jessica said.
"Part of my job is to be sweet," Draco grunted.
"I know what F.E.R.R.E.T means now!" Jessica exclaimed, her eyes lit up brightly.
Granger bit back a smile as Draco pursed his lips. The tips of his ears grew hot. He deeply hated the title of his job.
"What's it mean, dear?" Granger asked, thoroughly amused with the topic.
"Fairly Extraordinarily Reasonable and Really Extremely Thoughtful!"
A lump swelled in Draco's throat. If she knew of his past and what he used to think of her kind, Jessica probably wouldn't be saying this.
Granger nodded. "I suppose you could be right," she agreed politely, not wanting to dampen the child's spirit.
She avoided Draco's eyes.
?!
"How was your day?" Narcissa asked Draco when he stopped at her place for dinner later on that night.
"Met my last charge, Jessica James. Strange girl. At first, I thought she'd make the perfect Slytherin, but now I'm undecided. She's also the first one who was petrified of me at first— and she's the only eleven-year-old I've ever met who has almost killed a person and doesn't care that she did it. She was abandoned for it."
Narcissa paused her eating, lifting up an eyebrow. She said nothing as she chewed the food that was presently in her mouth. Then she stood up, forgetting about her meal.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked in alarm, following his mother out of the tiny kitchen and into the living room where she stopped at a desk.
"I know how I can make a difference," she announced, and began writing a letter.
"How?"
Narcissa shook her head. "Not yet. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up."
Draco scrunched up his face wondering how the subject of Jessica James could get his hopes up. Alas, his mother kept her thoughts to herself.
He sighed, irritated that she wasn't going to tell him her idea. With a grunt, he turned around to go finish his dinner.
The rest of the summer was calm and dull, giving Draco some time to study for the N.E.W.T.s (or at least as much as he could, without knowing the exact curriculum that the professors would assign him with). He had unlimited access to Hogwarts' library, which was one of the bonuses of being a professor.
All was fine until he got an alert from Granger who informed Draco that Jessica James had been reported missing early in the morning on September 1st, the day she was supposed to board the Hogwarts Express.
Draco massaged his temples. If this girl wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, he'd be heavily surprised. Only a Gryffindor would cause him this much trouble.