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Theo let out a loud snort and ripped the bracelet off Sky's wrist. "Girlfriend? Her? You must be out of your unicorning mind. Here... take back your cheap piece of metal. It makes her look like a tacky Hufflepuff."

The metal cut into her skin as it was ripped away. She just gawked at the scene wondering who would be the first to throw a punch. Glancing around, she calculated where she could move to in that case to avoid being hit. A black eye on a girl wasn't the prettiest thing to sport around.

"In case you didn't know, Halfblood... Sky and I are going to be married one day. An arrangement is in the works."

Sky closed her eyes and inwardly groaned. Not this again. Hadn't she spelled it out clearly enough that was never /ever/ going to happen. She would run away first.

"Still. Hurting. Me." She gritted her teeth, and attempted to reach for her wand that sat mere feet away.

This isn't going to end well. That was all he could think as he stooped to pick up the bracelet that Theo'd let fall to the floor. Crouched down, he took a breath. Son of a... Standing quickly, Jet threw a left hook at Theo. Most guys never expected a hit from the left, and when that happened, Jason was always glad he was a leftie.

The force behind Jet's punch sent Theo stumbling back a few steps, dragging Sky with him. She attempted to maintain her balance to avoid tripping over the long benches. The commotion began to draw attention to them as a small crowd began to form around them. Theo at last released his grip on her arm, making his way back towards Jet. In all the fuss, it didn't take long for the professors to start making their way over. Her eyes first landed on Snape.

"Jet..."

His eyes slid to Sky when she said his name. Jet wasn't stupid. He knew he shouldn't take his eyes off Theo, he knew what was coming, and he didn't even try to stop it. It didn't matter, he just wanted to make sure she was okay. The scuffle had at least succeeded in doing what he'd hoped: getting Theo to let her go. Closing his fingers around the bracelet in his palm, he kept his eyes on Sky as the first punch connected with his jaw.



"What is the meaning of this?!" He heard McGonagall's shrill voice through the fog that swam around his head. His ears rang and his vision dimmed. He'd bit the inside of his cheek and was bleeding too.

"That will be... quite enough, Mister Nott." Snape addressed the Slytherin. "Jetson. Fifty points from Hufflepuff and detention with me. This week."

"And as for Mister Nott-" McGonagall began, but was cut across abruptly.

"As for Mister Nott, he is in my house and I shall deal with him as I see fit. It's clear this was self defense. Jetson threw the first punch."



Jason let them talk around him, the voices swirling into a tangled knot that throbbed behind his eyes.

"Professor Snape that isn't fair! You didn't even see what happened!" Sky couldn't hold back her barking attitude. It was no secret he hated her anyways. She was probably the one Slytherin that he honestly couldn't stand. That definitely made class enjoyable. It was because she had too much of an attitude and argued with him whenever she could.

"Miss Baddock. Detention as well for speaking out of turn."

Her jaw dropped own and she watched as a smirk crossed Theo's face. Drawing her arm back, she brought her hand across his face and glared.

"MISS BADDOCK!" McGonagall screeched at her. "ONE WEEK OF DETENTION! NOW CONTROL YOURSELF!"

The professors cleared off, satisfied with their benevolent punishments handed down. There was talk of forcing Jason to the nurse, but he declined and they didn't push it. Theo, apparently deciding he'd got his way, shuffled off too. Putting a hand to his jaw, Jet winced.

Reaching up, she touched his face gently with the tips of her fingers. The hit had been hard, Merlin knows how bad it must have hurt. Just the cracking sound alone was enough to make Sky cringe.

"Are you okay?"

Letting her eyes drift for a moment, she noticed the large bruise forming on her wrist. Pulling her arm away quickly, she folded her arms behind her back. Hopefully he hadn't noticed by being too distracted by his own pain.

"You shouldn't have done that," he responded. Seeing her questioning look, he elaborated. "Hit Theo like that. You could've gotten away without detention..."

Taking a breath, he rolled his shoulders and looked around. The crowd had dispersed, but they were the renewed focus of whispers and glances. Great. Just what Sky didn't want.

She scowled at him. After everything that had just happened, he had the nerve to lecture her on stepping in. She considered pointing out whose fault it was that the situation had occurred in the first place, but decided to bite her tongue on that argument.

"Not the first time I have had a detention."

Turning, she took a seat at her house table while a brooding look overtook her features.

"No... that's true," he smiled slightly, though it twinged a bit, and sat straddling the bench, facing her. Holding up his still-clenched fist, he uncurled his fingers and the bracelet dangled between them.

"Should be a simple fix..."

"A mending charm should fix it right up. Metals are fairly easy to put back together when it comes to jewelry."

She reached out and took the bracelet from him, sliding it into her pocket for safe keeping until she was able to take care if it later.

Jet ducked his head, trying to meet her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

He knew she wasn't, but hadn't figured out why she would be short with him. Maybe she was just embarrassed by the whole situation. Maybe she was mad he punched one of her housemates. Or that she'd gotten detention. Jason had gone from amazing to cold-shoulder in no time flat. It made his head spin.

"No. You know, I don't need you to act like my father. If I wanted to hit someone and get detention then I can. Perhaps it was you that shouldn't have stepped in. Had you not of hit Theo neither of us would have detention. Yes, he is a giant quaffledent... but I'm used to handling it. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. I appreciate you wanting to help... but I am not the damsel in distress."

She rested her head on the table and sighed.

"You realize you called me your girlfriend in front of my entire house... right? I thought you wanted to take things slow..."

Her father? If /he/ hadn't hit /Theo/? Was she serious? She really wanted him to just stand by while some jerk with an attitude problem hurt her and spit all over... whatever it was they were trying to do here. This relationship, if that's what it was, was going to be hard enough with everyone else attacking them.. they didn't need to start fighting too. He wanted to though. Oh.. he so badly wanted to fight back. He wasn't used to having to put up with stuff a girl was saying. When someone got bitchy they usually got dumped.

Running a hand over his face, he took a breath.

"I know you're not a damsel in distress." Thinking about this, he smiled slightly. "You're the knight in shining armor, remember?"

He let the last comment slide. He did want to take it slow. The girlfriend thing had just kind of slipped out. He didn't know what they were, he just knew he wasn't ready for it to end so soon.

"Yeah. Knight in shining armor."

Closing her eyes, she took in a few deep breaths. She wasn't used to having to worry about someone else. Seeing Theo hit Jet had bothered her. Especially knowing it was because of her. She could fight her own battles.

"I'm sorry..."

"Do you want to get out of here?" He asked abruptly.

His abrupt question caught her off guard as she awkwardly stared at him. Did she want to get out of here? More than anything. Whenever they got around other people there always seemed to be some sort of chaos that broke out. She hated arguing with him. She hated the thought of this ending so soon. When they were really still just getting to know each other.

"Yeah..."

Nodding, he stood and grasped Sky's hand, pulling her with him. Once they were out of the Great Hall, he crouched slightly in front of her.

"C'mon, hop on."

She stared at him as he crouched down, wondering what in Merlin's name he was doing. That was when he told her to hop on. Hop on? To what? Him? Stepping forward, she cautiously climbed onto his back. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held on and waited for him to start walking.

"Where are we going?"

"Outside," he said casually. He didn't really have a destination in mind, just... away. "Where do you want to go?"

Jet bounced Sky slightly on his back, adjusting her weight and his grip under her legs. He lopped across the Entrance Hall and pushed the door open with his foot, striding into the gray afternoon that awaited them.

"We've been to the greenhouses... the quidditch pitch... the forest... we could go feed the owls?" he offered.

"Birds freak me out." She laughed and held on tighter as he bounced her up. "They have pointy eyes... and a beak... and they are kind of scary. I can introduce you to my owl though if you like. His name is Killer. He is a screech owl. He bites."

She was pretty sure her owl was evil. He had never bit her, but enjoyed terrorizing the other birds in the owlry. Hagrid had fussed at her on more than one occasion for her bird bothering his animals as well. Plus, sending letters. Merlin knows that Killer had bitten every person she had ever sent him to deliver something to. He liked her well enough, but mainly because she fed him live mice. Kind of a gross event to watch though.

"It's up to you. I don't really care where we go."

"Pointy eyed demons," he commiserated with a smile.

"Alright.. so.. we'll only feed two owls. Killer," he nodded to her, "and my owl. Prometheus."

Grinning, he started up the owlery steps, taking care not to slip on the owl droppings. Reaching the landing, he put Sky on her feet and looked around, holding out his arm and whistling. In a flapping of wings, a great tawny owl sailed down and landed on Jet's forearm, nipping his cheek affectionately.

"This..." he turned to Sky, stroking Pro's feathers. "Is Prometheus."

She smiled as the bird loved on Jet. He was in for quite the surprise when it came to Killer if this was what he was used to from owls. She rubbed the bird's feathers quickly and smiled.

"Sweet. My turn." She smirked slightly before putting her fingers to her lips. Letting out a loud whistle, she held out her arm and watched for the screech owl to dart towards them. Within seconds, the large bird swooped down and perched. She winced slightly as it's talons dug into her skin.

"This... is Killer."

Jet couldn't help but smile at Sky's whistle. He had to shake himself mentally, what was it about this girl that made him take interest in even the tiniest little thing about her?

"Hey Killer..." he said in a friendly tone, though he noticed Sky's wince.

Prometheus did not seem impressed. Though he was generally a pretty laid-back bird, he seemed agitated, clicking his beak and pacing on Jet's arm.

Sky noticed the smile forming on his face and raised an eyebrow. To her knowledge, she hadn't done anything amusing in the slightest.

"What?"

Killer shrieked slightly at Jet's greeting, glaring at both him and Prometheus. It was amazing how ill tempered the owl was with other creatures. If it could live alone for the rest of it's life, it would be satisfied. Though it did love to cause trouble. Killer was a Slytherin at heart.

"Yeah... maybe this wasn't a good idea. Your owl seems a bit distressed..."