a/n: Someone requested a Roy/Jade Hogwarts AU in the anon meme's one-sentence fill thread. I obviously let the prompt get a little carried away with me.

They circle one another in the chaos of the Great Hall: she, dressed in Death Eater robes, he in the spangled red-and-gold colors of his house. It's impossible for Roy to see her face behind her mask, but he knows her by her movements, the catlike steps and the subtle way she curls her fingers around her wand when she's excited. A year ago, Jade was a student like him—taunting, insufferable, utterly intoxicating. They would meet in shared classes, on the Quidditch pitch, in darkened hallways where no one could see their facade as rivals slip away.

Now, Jade is a criminal, and she and her cohorts have staged a full-blown invasion of the castle. The Head Boy badge on Roy's chest is tarnished with soot and dust from battle, but he hasn't forgotten his duty to protect the young witches and wizards who call Hogwarts their home as he does. They are counting on him. He must keep them safe.

"It would be such a shame if something happened to you tonight, Speedy," Jade says, her tone familiar in its playful condescension. "I've grown to like you too much to see you die."

Roy grits his teeth, more at the use of his old Quidditch nickname than the threat. He fires a warning spell to drive her back. "I wish I could say the same for you, traitor."

She laughs. "Sometimes, I wonder what life must be like, in that black-and-white world of yours," she says, deceptively relaxed. "You're just like Professor Queen, and his little band of Merry Men...so full of high-minded ideals."

She lunges forward and shoots off a nonverbal disarming spell. Roy barely manages to counter it in time to keep a hold of his wand. She sidesteps his next hex.

"It's a pity, you know. In another world, you and I could have been on the same side," Jade says in sultry tones as she races around him, trying to get a shot at his back. "Imagine what a match we could have been, if only you'd tried your hand at my life."

"What? You mean as a Slytherin? Or a murderer?" Roy snaps, slashing his wand through the air with enough force to shatter the cobblestones she'd been standing on seconds before. "I don't think so, Jade. You were just playing me all along—you've been with them from the start, haven't you? You were never worth the the time I spent trying on you!"

"Never?" she asks, amused, parrying his spells easily. "Why, I never knew you of all people could be so heartless! And they say I'm the villain."

"Heartless or not, I'm not working for the bad guys. And I never would." Roy's tone is warning, the last warning he's going to give her—though a part of him already knows she won't take it. "You chose this, Jade. You chose to follow your family's path. You could have been on our side, too. My side. Or at least, not on theirs..."

Without warning, a spell from the other end of the hall ricochets nearby, missing his ear by inches: he whirls around without thinking, not recovering from the moment of disorientation until it's too late. Jade cries a curse and Roy's body suddenly goes rigid, collapsing immobile down onto the cracked floor. He can't move at all.

Jade leans over him on the ground, plucks his wand from his unmoving hand, then kisses him on the lips. Roy's eyes widen in surprise, but other than that, he is helpless to react at all. She pulls back, smiling at him in a considering sort of way. Angrily, he wonders what it is that she's waiting for. Even if he could talk, there isn't much left to say between them.

He was foolish. She got lucky. That's all they've ever been.

Finally Jade lowers her mask again. She lifts her wand in her hand and steps back.

"What a stubborn little lion you were. My poor, broken arrow," she purrs from above. "You were always brave, Roy, but there was so much more to you than that—even if you don't want to admit it. In another life, I think you and I could have been on the same side."

In another life, I might have said the same for you, Roy thinks behind his sealed lips.

Jade's body stiffens, and Roy sees resignation and acceptance in her movements plain as day. He closes his eyes, knowing what's to come well before she utters the curse.

I'm sorry for how I acted, Oliver, Roy thinks tiredly, wishing his last moments weren't spent on regret. I guess we were both wrong.

The darkness behind his eyelids doesn't protect him from the oncoming flash of green.