| “ | Love doesn't exist, friendship doesn't exist between a Nought and a Cross. | „ |
| ~ Jude's most famous quote |
Jude McGregor is the secondary antagonist in the Noughts & Crosses book series appearing as the central antagonist in the first book, the main antagonist of the second book and secondary antagonist in the third book. He is the leader of the terrorist group Liberation Militia and despises all crosses (black people) due to the hatred and persecution he has received all of his life for being a nought (white person).
Personality
Jude was a very odd and complicated teenager, he usually shut almost everyone except his father outside of his life. He loved his brother Callum but constantly teased and annoyed him although he became very bitter and jealous when Callum went into a secondary school for Crosses (or Daggers as Jude calls them). When Callum reconnected with Sephy Jude became unbearable to Calum due to his constant ranting and complaining at him for it. He was quite short tempered and had little patience for his mentally unstable sister Lynette and completely lashed out at Calum after he had had sex with Sephy with Jude misunderstanding and thinking he raped her since she began crying. He deeply despises all Crosses/Daggers and has a personal vendetta against Sephy due to her being the first piece of the puzzle leading to his brother's execution, he shared a similar vendetta against Kamal Hadley but he set his focus more on Sephy instead of him.
History
Before Noughts & Crosses
As a child Jude along with the rest of his family lived in the Hadley household due to his mother Meggie being a maid there. His brother Callum first met Sephy here and they always played together and had fun with Jude normally keeping to himself instead. His mother was later fired however due to unconfirmed reasons.
Noughts & Crosses
Jude appears in the first novel as the leader of the terrorist group Liberation Militia along with his dad Ryan and shortly after his father was imprisoned an enraged Jude forces Callum to assist him in kidnapping Sephy due to her being the daughter of the prime minister and would draw attention to the group. After Callum has an affair with Sephy Jude misunderstanding what had happened calls his brother an idiot for raping her and even questions his loyalty to the group. The two get into a heated fight leaving Sephy enough time to escape. A furious Jude goes to search for her with another member of the group, however unknown to Jude Callum is already on his way to find her. By the time she and Callum found each other the group was betrayed by Andrew Dorn who worked for Hadley all along. Dorn tips off the authorities and Callum is arrested and sentenced to a hanging for assisting in Sephy's capture and raping her causing her to be impregnated.
Knife Edge
In the sequel Jude appears as the main antagonist and has a vendetta against Sephy and has been wanting her to suffer ever since his brother's death however he is not trying to kill Sephy since he knows he would only be doing her favour so he decides to take a more psychological approach and attempts to make Sephy suffer the loss of family deaths (since Callum, his father Ryan and his sister have all died by this point). He succeeds in this physiological torture by manipulating Sephy and Callum's now teenaged daughter Callie Rose McGregor into becoming a member of L.I
Checkmate
In the third novel Jude appears as the main later secondary antagonist and still desires to make Sephy suffer, however this becomes difficult when Jasmine Hadley (Sephy's mother and Kamal's now ex wife) who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer steps into the picture. Towards the end of the novel Jude's niece Callie had hidden bombs in the hotel he was staying in, and a dying Jasmine convinces Jude's mother Meggie to set off the fire alarm letting all of the innocent people escape, in order to stop the pain and suffering Jude has endured on her family Jasmine trapped the two inside. Jude is killed along with Jasmine when Callie's bombs go off.