My Time Is Yours

With her letter clenched tightly in her hand, she trembled before the headmaster.

“It is against the rules to allow a student to enter Hogwarts passed their eleventh birthday. However, given that yours is an extreme class, I would like to offer you admission to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

“I…I think you may be mistaken, sir.” the sixteen-year old mumbled. “Magic…that’s not possible…I mean…I’m not a…” The old man’s eyes twinkled.

“You are, Jazmine. But the choice is up to you. You may stay in the foster care center until you are eighteen or you may attend Hogwarts and learn the whole depth of your ability.”

“I’ll…I’ll attend.” she agreed as the letter crunched in her hand. She had found the letter as she went through her grandmother’s things. Grandmother had just passed away, leaving Jazmine with no one to turn to.

Then out of nowhere, she found a letter addressed to herself, telling her that she was a witch and that she was accepted to attend some school called Hogwarts. And then an older gentleman appeared at her door, telling her the same things.

Jazmine was shocked, surprised, and very confused.

“The school has already started and you are very behind in your schooling.” The older man—Professor Dumbledore—began again after he explained to Jazmine all about Hogwarts. “Would you like to be tutored by your teachers or your fellow peers? Perhaps the later will help you better assimilate to life at Hogwarts.”

“Peer tutors would be fine.” she replied.

“Marvelous.” the headmaster replied. “Let’s get you sorted.”

- - - - -

With a new wand, Ravenclaw robes, and second-hand books in hand, Jazmine was shown the way to the Ravenclaw dormitories; she found the puzzle password to be rather easy to solve.

Entering the dormitory, she was met with the curious gazes of various students. Once in her dorm with the other Six Year girls, Jaz was introduced to Mandy Brocklehurst, Su Li, Padma Patil, and Lisa Turpin.

For the next few weeks, Jaz found herself to be the center of attention. It seemed that new students were never admitted late to Hogwarts, and definitely not ones that didn’t even know what magic was beforehand.

When Jaz had been told that she would have peer tutors, she imagined multiple people whose names she’d end up forgetting. Instead, Jaz ended up with a total of three teachers:

Neville Longbottom for Herbology. He was a skittish, awkward Gryffindor who Jaz found she got along well with.

Harry Potter for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry was apparently a big deal but no one had explained why exactly.

Hermione Granger for…everything else: Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, History of Magic, Astronomy, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes. With Hermione’s help, Jaz was picking up on six years of learning very quickly.

Jaz found that the brown haired girl was quickly becoming her closest friend; they both had an obsession with reading. But Jaz still couldn’t find it within herself to confide in Hermione.

In Neville, Jaz found a friend who knew what it was like to live with an elderly grandmother; luckily for Neville though, his grandmother was still alive.

In Hermione, she found a fellow book-worm.

In Harry, Jaz found a friend who could share the pain of losing her parents at a young age. Jaz had very few memories of them.

Jaz never imagined she’d be this happy at Hogwarts. But still, she found that there was always that voice in the back of her head, telling her that something was going to go wrong.

Despite all of her friends, Jaz still butted heads with a few people at Hogwarts.

People like Draco Malfoy who felt they were entitled to everything. One morning during breakfast, Malfoy had sauntered over to her and asked her to Hogsmeade.

Gathering on the information she’d gotten from Hermione and the stories of harassment she’d heard from Neville, Jaz proudly pronounced that he was the last person in the world she would ever consider dating. Since then, Draco hadn’t been too friendly. In fact, he seemed to not know what the word, ‘No.’ meant.

There were people like Draco Malfoy and then there were people like Ron Weasley whom she could not understand for the life of her. Ron got along pretty well with everyone except the Slytherins and her. She didn’t know why. But every time they were in a room together, they started snapping at each other. They always insulted each other and she didn’t know why. She soon believed they would never get alone. That is, until he saved her.

Leaving the library for the Ravenclaw common room late one night, Jaz was weighted down with books so she never saw the blonde menace coming toward her until he had knocked her books out of her hands and had pinned her to the wall.

“Malfoy—” she bit out through clenched teeth. “So desperate now that you’re attacking girls—” Malfoy cut off her jibe with a hard kiss as he held her wrists together so that she couldn’t get away.

With one hand holding her hands tightly, Malfoy had one free hand to grip her waist tightly as he crushed her more tightly against himself. She couldn’t scream and she couldn’t get free. She opened her mouth to scream but the villain only used that opportunity to further his assault on her mouth. His free hand traced down her rib cage and caressed the side of her leg before his cold hand moved to go under her skirt.

He pulled back from the kiss for a moment to bite her lip hard; Jaz took the chance to scream as loudly as she could. Malfoy pulled his free hand away from her skirt and slapped her across the face. Knees weakened from the struggle she tumbled to the ground and stayed there in a shaking mess.

The boy leered down at her. He opened his moth to speak but was suddenly stopped by a fist slamming into his face.

Jaz’s savior advanced toward Malfoy with his wand outstretched as Malfoy whined on the ground.

“Ron.” she whispered; her voice trembled dangerously. All thoughts of Malfoy left his mind as he looked at the broken girl on the ground.

“Come on.” he muttered as he helped her stand. He led her to an empty classroom and helped her rest against a desk.

“You alright?” he asked. “Anything broken? Cuts? Bruises—?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. Just a little shaken up.”

“I can see that.” he mumbled as he wiped dirt off of her cheek tenderly.
Silence filled the room as Jaz tugged self-consciously on the shelves of her shirt.

Noticing the movement, Ron wondered if she own anything but long-sleeved shirts. He had never seen her in anything but, even during the heat spell they had had in September.

“Thanks.” she said suddenly. “I uh…I couldn’t stop him…so I appreciate your…thanks for saving me.”

Ron flushed red. “N-no problem.” he shrugged. “Come on,” he said holding his hand out to her, “I’ll walk you to your common room.”

Jaz hesitated before taking his hand and letting him led her to the common room.
- - - - -
“Hey Jaz.” Ron smiled at her as they stood outside of the Potions classroom, waiting for Slughorn to let them in.

“Hey Ron.” she replied as she pulled the sleeves of her shirt down more. Over the winter holiday, Jaz had taken her O.W.L.S. so that she could take classes with her fellow peers. Everyone was pleased and surprised by how quickly she had picked up the material.

“I was—”

“It was pathetic really.” The cold voice of Draco Malfoy cut through their conversation and resonated off the halls. “The filthy little mudblood,” he shot a pointed, and obvious, look at Jazmine, “tried to force herself on me. Disgusting.” he spat out. “As if I would waste my time on something as worthless as she is.” Malfoy and his little minions laughed.

Had they been laughing about anything else, Jaz would’ve put them in their place. However, saying she was worthless struck a deep chord within her. Tears brimming in her eyes, she turned away from her tormentors.

“Jaz.” a warm arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. She opened her eyes as a forehead rested against hers. She was met with the blue eyes of Ron Weasley.

“Hi.” she said weakly.
“Let’s go.” he said taking her hand and pulling her away.

“Go? Where?” she asked as they left their peers behind. “We have class.”
“Not anymore.” he mumbled as he pulled them out of the front doors and down by the lake.

“Sit.” he said, pointing to a spot of shade underneath the tree.
“Ron—?”
“For once, Jaz, don’t think so much.” he said as he unceremoniously plopped down to the ground and lay on his back.

With a small smile, she laid down in the grass with her head resting on his stomach. Her head moved with the rise and fall of his breath.

“Jaz?”
“Yes, Ron?” she asked as his fingers traced circles on the side of her face.

“I like you.”
She laughed. “I like you too, Ron.”

“No.” he said, slowly sitting up as she did the same. “I like you.” he said quietly.

“I…I…Ron…I’m sorry,” she whispered as her head muddled everything in her mind. She liked Ron. But she couldn’t tell him that. She couldn’t. She was worthless.

“Sorry?” his face fell. “Why?”
“I-I can’t.”

“Jaz!” he yelled after her as she ran away from him.

She dashed into the castle and ran to the second floor bathroom where no one would find her expect Myrtle. But the ghost had kept Jazmine’s secret so far.

Tears ran down Jaz’s face as she repeated to herself how worthless she was. She didn’t understand how Ron could like her. She was worthless. She didn’t matter to anyone. She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and pulled the razor from her sock. Jaz always kept it close by.

Assuring herself of her own worthlessness, Jaz sliced the razor into her skin, letting the pain verify that she didn’t deserve happiness. Jaz knew she didn’t matter. She deserved to suffer. The door to the bathroom opened but Jaz didn’t hear it over the sound of her own crying.

“Jazmine!” the voice was broken and hurt and she didn’t understand why it was concerned as well. “What are you doing?” the voice said as a warm hand, as warm as the blood that fell from her arms.

“I’m sorry.” she cried. “I’m worthless. Don’t waste your time on me.”

“Jaz—” he was at a loss for words. “You’re not worthless. I like you—”

“No—”
“Yes! I like you because you’re smart and funny and clever and you don’t take anything for anyone and you’re brave and…I like you.”

“I like you too but—”
“No buts. That’s all that matters.”
“I’m not worth the time.”
“Yes, you are. You’re worth all of my time. So tell me what happened.”

“Ron—”
“Tell me Jaz.”

“I was five when my parents died. I wanted ice cream so we left the house to get some. We got hit by a drunk driver. They died pretty quickly but I can still hear my mother’s screams of pain.” she shivered as tears fell from her eyes while Ron healed the slices on her arms. “I bounced around from foster homes until I was ten. None of them really cared about me. I was worthless. I was just a burden on them all. Then I got to live with my grandmother. And that was good for a while but I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was just a burden on everyone so…I started cutting to getting away from it.”

“Not anymore.” Ron said as he placed gentle kisses on her scars. “If you ever feel like that, come talk to me—No. I’ll do you one better. I’ll make sure you never feel like that again.”

“Ron, you don’t have to waste your time—”
“My time is yours, Jazmine.”