CHAPTER EIGHT

The crowd of people coming in from dinner woke Jane up that afternoon, and she and the boys stayed there a bit longer before she decided that she was going to head up to bed early.

The next morning, Jane was awoken by Mary's cat, Henry.

"Ugh," Jane moaned, "get off, Henry."

She pushed the cat away and rolled over.

"Don't be mean to him," Mary said. "It's time to get up anyway."

Jane reluctantly sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She didn't want to go to class; she just wanted to sleep, but she rolled out of bed anyway.

She took a little longer getting ready than she usually did, even Marlene got done before her, and that was saying something.

"Merlin! Could you have taken any longer?" Jane heard Sirius say as she met up with the boys in the common room.

She glared at him. He took a step back from her.

"Wow, you look terrible," James stated.

"Thanks, James. You're such a charmer," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Are you okay, Jane?" Remus asked.

Jane shrugged.

"I'm just tired is all. I think all that sugar from yesterday is making me a little slow."

"Well, let's go. I'm starving!" Sirius said.

"You're always starving," Remus said, laughing.

The rest of the day was kind of slow. In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Ashworth practically called Jane out for not paying attention. In History of Magic, Marlene got tired of kicking Jane's seat and just let her sleep. Which caused a lot of problems when Professor Binns decided to give them an essay due that coming Friday, and Jane had no notes. Luckily, Lily was talking to her again, so she could always use Lily's notes.

At lunchtime, Jane decided to skip and take a nap instead; she wasn't that hungry anyway. She could at least be rested up for Charms class, and luckily on Tuesdays, first years got last block off, so Jane only had to suffer through that one class. So, she walked up to Gryffindor Tower and curled up in her four-poster, falling asleep almost immediately.

After a while, Jane felt someone gently shaking her awake.

"Jane, wake up."

Jane stretched, yawned, and opened her sleepy eyes.

"You slept through Charms," Lily informed her.

Jane's eyes went wide. She had missed a class? That was her first time missing a class at Hogwarts. How could she be so stupid as to forget to set the alarm on her clock?

Jane shot up in her bed as though she could still make it to her already ended class. Lily filled her in on the things that she missed as they went down to the common room.

"There you are," Jane heard James say.

Upon seeing Lily, James ruffled his already messy hair. Lily took no notice in this, but Jane rolled her eyes at him.

"Well, look at you," said Sirius, smirking, "skiving classes."

"No, I-I didn't do it on purpose," Jane said worriedly; she hadn't thought of it as skipping class.

"Relax, Janie," Sirius said, resting his elbow on Jane's shoulder. "I'm proud of you."

"I told you it was an accident," Jane mumbled as she shoved Sirius off of her.

He rolled his eyes.

"Accident or not, you still skived off," he told her.

"Here," Remus said, handing Jane two wrapped up sandwiches. "We thought you might be hungry."

Jane's stomach growled in response. Remus laughed.

"Thanks, guys," Jane said, unwrapping one of the sandwiches and biting into it.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" James asked, falling into a chair.

In all honesty, there was nothing to do. It was too cold to go outside, and as much as Jane loved to roam about the castle, it did get boring sometimes. Their time would be better spent in the library in Jane's opinion (though she decided not to voice this).

So, they spent the time wondering parts of the castle that they had never been to. Every time they found a new room or corridor, Jane was reminded of the castle's enormity. Five months at Hogwarts and she still hadn't seen all of it.

"Someone needs to make a map of this place," Jane said as they turned down a dark corridor that she hadn't known existed.

And thus, an idea was born in the minds of Sirius and James.