Sorry this took so long :P
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Jane
Thanks to Shattered Thoughts for the editing (even if it did take a long time :P) (don't worry I forgive you:))
Chapter Nine: To Defenestrate
Jane spent several lonely weeks in the hospital wing with absolutely no visitors; not even Malfoy. The only contact with anyone other than the patients, who never really said much anyway – seeing as they were never there for much longer than a couple of days – was the occasional passing-through of Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore's visits didn't really satisfy Jane's loneliness, because although his presence was calming, he never said much since he was always in hurry.
She was fed up with the hospital and wanted to go back to her dormitory. The only thing Jane wanted to do more than go back to the Gryffindor common room was go to her room: her home with her nice comfy bed, in a secret place that no one could find. If she hadn't been forbidden from visiting it while staying at Hogwarts, she probably would have been spending almost all of her free time there as opposed to the library where anyone could find her.
As Jane was brooding over her imprisonment in the sick ward, Madame Pomfrey walked over. "Well, good morning Jane; I have some very good news for you."
Jane perked up, " Am I allowed to leave now?" she questioned eagerly.
"Yes!," Madame Pomfrey face wrinkled up into a smile, "The Headmaster has said that from what he has seen, you are fit to return to your dormitory; he would also like you to visit him in his office tomorrow afternoon once you finish your classes."
"Am I allowed to leave now?" Jane asked, excited at the thought of being free to wander the halls of Hogwarts again.
"Yes, I think that would be alright; I'll send your things up to your dormitory, so you needn't worry about carrying them. Here is a set of clean school robes and your book bag; if you hurry yourself up you can make it to the Great Hall in time for breakfast and attend your classes as usual," Madame Pomfrey dismissed her with another kind smile.
As soon as Madame Pomfrey left, Jane jumped up cheerily, stretching her stiff, disused muscles before drawing the curtains around her bed together so she could change. She changed into her robes, faster than a boggart changes shape. Jane pulled her hair into a hasty ponytail to keep it out of her face, before deeming herself decent. Jane grabbed her book bag and shoved all her untouched homework, which Dumbledore had been delivering into it, and briskly walked towards the doors of the hospital wing; she secretly vowed in her head never to get sick again, or at least never for as long as this.
Jane pulled open the door with force and marched out; sighing with relief as she left the threshold of what had been her prison these past weeks. Distracted by her joy, she failed to look up in time, and ran straight into someone, getting knocked off balance and dropping her book bag. She looked up at who she ran into as she steadied herself and picked up her bag, "Oh; hello," she said to Harry and Ginny. Even though she was a bit miffed about them not visiting, she was determined not to be put in a bad mood.
They looked a bit ashamed, and for a moment, Jane couldn't figure out why and then she realized that they felt bad about not visiting her.
"Hey Jane," Ginny said, recovering from her embarrassment first, behind her Harry nodded without making eye contact with Jane.
"So.." Jane said awkwardly.
Ginny started fidgeting then looked at Harry, "Look, Jane," she paused to take a deep breath, "Harry, Ron, Hermione and I are really, really sorry about what happened to you and we feel really, really bad about not visiting as much as we should have. We went a couple times but you weren't getting any better so we stopped and then by the time we bothered to visit again, Madame Pomfrey said you were almost ready to leave, or whatever, and I just – we're really sorry," Ginny paused but before Jane could react Ginny started up again, "And if you never want to speak to us again we will all understand, just thought I should say that."
Jane looked at Harry, who received a sharp, elbow to the ribs from Ginny, "Yeah, Jane, we're really sorry," he said, barely looking at Jane.
"It's okay," Jane said calmly, "I understand, although you did say all that awfully fast," she smiled, "I'm not mad at you, what kind of a friend would I be if I were? You guys were busy with school and each other, don't worry about it, I'm fine, we're cool."
"Thank you so much!" exclaimed Ginny with relief as she threw her arms around Jane's neck, Jane gently patted Ginny's back. The look of surprise on Jane's face made Harry laugh loudly which earned him a harsh glance from Ginny.
"Um, well, I have to go get my schedule from McGonagall," said Jane, breaking the silence, "I'll see you guys later," she waved to them as she strode off in the opposite direction, towards the Great Hall.
After a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs, Jane set off to her first class of the day, Herbology.
Once she arrived at the greenhouse, a tall, gangly boy with brown curly hair approached her, "Hello, I'm Neville," he said in a nervous voice.
So this is the boy Professor Sprout raved about so much during our lessons last summer, Jane thought to herself. Then she remembered what Dumbledore had said about his poor parents and shuddered in disgust.
"Longbottom?" she asked.
"Yes," he said, taking a step back.
"Wow, I've heard so much about you from Professor Sprout; she says you're absolutely brilliant. I'm Jane by the way, Jane Dilerd," she said as she smiled and shook his hand.
"Thank you," he blushed, "So, um, do you like Herbology?"
"Oh yes, I love it, I heard you have a Mimbulus Mimbletonia; they're so neat," she said, making conversation.
Before Neville could reply, Professor Sprout came in and made everyone pair up for their assignment.
"Hey Neville," Jane said, taking a step closer to him, "Would you be my partner?"
Neville blushed, and nodded. They finished the assignment together in record time and when they showed the Professor, she was very pleased. Once class was dismissed and everyone was leaving, Sprout called Jane, who waved at Neville and walked over to her.
"Professor Snape warned me that you did a whole Potions assignment without getting your partner to do anything. Now, I know you're a bit ahead of everyone because of, well," she gave Jane a meaningful look, "You know why, but I want to make sure you and Neville both did the assignment."
"Oh, of course Professor, you were right, Neville's very good at Herbology and figured most of it out on his own. Don't worry; what happened in Potions was a one time thing, mostly just because I didn't get along with my partner."
"I sure hope so. Now run along, you don't want to be late for your next class," she said with a wave of her small, dirt-covered hand.
After all of her classes, none of which were very interesting, Jane tried to decide what to do. In the library, Seamus or Malfoy could find her very easily and in the girl's dormitory, she had no privacy, she needed to be alone, to think.
Her mind instantly drifted to her other room on the third floor, and after a bit of an internal argument, Jane decided to go, despite the fact that Dumbledore forbade her.
Soon, Jane found herself standing in front of the large, enchanted tapestry of the beautiful blonde witch, whose face she knew so well.
She thought the special password, which she had changed at the beginning of term for security reasons; it was a verb for throwing something out of a window. Defenestrate, and the blonde lady bowed her head; the tapestry melted into a door; Jane looked over her shoulder, down both hallways and entered swiftly.
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