'Back again, Jane?' Madam Gerritsen, the librarian, raised an amused eyebrow. 'You've checked out more books this year already than the last two years combined.'
'Yes,' Jane scowled, hauling a small pile of textbooks onto the counter, hating that her increased presence here had been noticed.
'Jane, are you eating in the library?'
'No,' Jane lied, emphatically swallowing her Tooth Splintering Strong Mint from Honeydukes.
'Hmm,' Madam Gerritsen pursed her lips. 'These are due back in ten days. And don't doodle in them, or-'
'They'll attack me,' Jane finished for her as she turned to leave. 'I know. Learnt that one the hard way.'
The librarian silently apologised to the uppermost book on the stack in Jane's arms: Theories of Transubstancial Transfiguration, as the Gryffindor disappeared from sight. Committing her precious books to the temporary care of Jane Rizzoli did absolutely nothing to help her sleep at night. Being a high school librarian was certainly not without its stresses.
'Gerritsen's a whack job,' Jane complained to Maura the moment she located her in the Study Hall. It wasn't hard: there were only about six people in the whole room, and Maura was the only one who looked to be doing any real study. She was buried in a textbook, making notes with fervour, and so engrossed in her reading that she jumped an inch off her seat and made an involuntary squeak of alarm when Jane unceremoniously dumped her armful of books onto the table.
'Jane!' Maura spun around to face her friend, automatically placing a hand over her heart and chuckling at the fright she'd received. 'I wasn't sure if you were coming.'
'What do you mean?' Jane asked, climbing over the bench to join Maura at the table. 'Homework Sunday is my new favourite day of the week!'
'Really?' Maura looked hopeful. Jane hadn't appeared to enjoy their study last weekend.
She had suggested Homework Sundays after Jane had begun to fall a little behind in school with her twice-weekly Quidditch practices. Rowan had them up in the air for two or three hours every Tuesday evening and Saturday morning. On game weeks, they were to replace their Saturday practice with a Thursday, and if they lost, two sessions of one hour drills were to be held on Sunday. Rowan had a competitive streak, and she definitely wasn't going easy on anyone.
Jane gave a snort. 'No.'
'Oh,' Maura turned her attention to Jane's pile of textbooks. 'This is a wonderful read!' she indicated the theory textbook on top. 'What else have you checked out? Intermediate Transfiguration, A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration, Trans-Species Transformation, and an old issue of Transfiguration Today?'
'Yeah, well I've got that Transfig essay due Thursday, and I kind of have no idea what I'm doing. So I checked out everything I could find. And came here,' she smiled at Maura hopefully.
'I see,' Maura laughed. 'What topic were you assigned?'
'Um… something about theory,' Jane began to rifle through a pile of parchment. 'Here: Discuss the discovery and development of the theoretical principles that govern our modern practices of Transfiguration. Yawn. I don't even know where to start. What'd you get?'
'Outline the four most useful examples of switching spells and suggest a beneficial use of a switching spell in regards to an animal objective in the Year 3 Transfiguration curriculum.' Maura showed Jane her parchment where the essay was already completed.
'Three pieces of parchment?! Professor Harper only wanted twelve inches.'
'Yes, I know, but I-'
'Ha, that's what she said,' Jane interrupted, giving a snort.
Maura only gaped next to her. 'That is the most vulgar thing I have ever heard come out of your mouth! Do you want help with this essay or not?'
'Yeah, sorry,' Jane allowed herself a final snigger as she retrieved a quill. 'Where are we starting? Because I don't have a clu-'
'Jane Clementine Rizzoli!' an authoritative voice sounded at the other end of the Hall, and Jane turned slowly with wide eyes to see a stern-looking woman bustling towards her. Jane turned quickly back towards Maura. 'Professor Callahan!' she whispered as loudly as she dared.
By the time Professor Callahan reached them she was panting a little, and had fire in her eyes. She wore a black dress with a starched white blouse beneath it. The dress fell to her knee, and below that thick grey woollen stockings briefly appeared before losing themselves in black buckled shoes. She wore a black robe, and her short hair, the colour of which was best described as an orange-tinted brown, was mostly hidden beneath a black pointed hat. 'Do you know where you are right now, Jane?'
Jane sighed with impatience. She hated this game. 'Yes.'
'"Yes" what?'
'Yes, Professor Callahan.'
'And just where are we?'
'The Study Hall, Professor Callahan.'
'Indeed we are. What is the purpose of the Study Hall, Jane?'
Jane let out of a breath of annoyance. 'To study.'
'That is correct. Do you think it is easy for other students to study while you enjoy a social conversation, Jane?'
'No, but nobody's even doing any real study in here!'
'I was just about to give Jane a Transfiguration tutorial,' Maura donated a sentence to the conversation.
'I've no doubt she needs it,' Professor Callahan sniffed. 'If that is the case, you must find an empty classroom, or else sit and study at separate tables. Five points from Gryffindor for your insolence, Jane. And five points from your House – Ravenclaw, I see – for poor judgement. Go!'
Jane collected up her things and marched past the professor defiantly as Maura scurried after her with a haphazard armful of books and parchment, looking horrified that she'd lost points for her House.
'Were you serious about that tutorial?' Jane asked after they had left the room. 'Because as much as I hate that old bag, I think she's right about my needing help with Transfig.'
'Yes, absolutely!' Maura beamed, always happy to offer her academic services. 'But who on earth was that? I've never had house points docked for my actions before.'
'Professor Winifred Callahan, Jane visibly shivered. 'She teaches Divination. Divination's an easy pass, but when she's the professor, taking on a harder subject is definitely the lesser of two evils. She takes house points all over the show, from everybody, so don't worry. Besides, you won like, thirty house points in Herbology last week alone. If you get any flak from the Ravenclaws, they deserve a hex where it hurts.'
Maura smiled at that. She felt very protected by Jane, which might have been considered a little odd, given that Jane had not yet had any cause to defend her from bullies. She got the instinctive feeling that if need be, the hex Jane had described seconds before would come from her wand in an instant if Maura was ever taunted. She had been at Hogwarts a month now, and had learnt that while Jane wasn't one of the popular kids, she still managed to command a substantial amount of respect from their peers, through her confidence and complete lack of regard for conformity. As her friend, Maura had also garnered a little respect by association, and she wasn't teased like she might otherwise have been. In fact, sometimes, she felt like she might be collecting snippets of respect on her own merits, for the encyclopedia of information she carried in her head.
Jane and Maura sat in an empty classroom on the second floor, after Jane had been ordered back to the library to return some unnecessary loans. ('Transfiguration Today isn't going to be any help right now,' Maura had advised her.)
'Transfiguration is the branch of magic concerned with changing forms,' Maura began. 'And there are four major categories: transformation, vanishment, conjuration, and untransfiguration.'
'I know what Transfiguration is!' Jane protested. 'I know I'm not great at it, but I'm not completely thick!'
'I've never thought that about you!' Maura was horrified that that would even cross Jane's mind. 'I just thought it would be good to build a quick foundation, that's all. It might be an idea to include this in your essay, too.'
'Sorry, keep going,' Jane looked guilty. 'There's an equation I have to talk about too, isn't there?'
'Yes, you're going to need to talk about the natural laws and limitations placed on Transfiguration, and that's where your Transfiguration equation comes in.' From her seat, Maura charmed a piece of chalk, and wrote on the blackboard:
t = (w x c) x Z
(v x a)
'So your intended transformation, t, is equal to your wand power multiplied by concentration, divided by your viciousness multiplied by your body weight, and then all that multiplied by the unknown variable Z.'
'Oh Merlin,' Jane sighed.
'No, Jane, don't give up yet!' Maura implored. 'Once you get your head around it, it isn't so intimidating.'
They sat glancing between Jane's textbooks and the blackboard for close to two hours while Maura broke down the equation, and they laid a framework for Jane's essay. The blackboard was filled with diagrams and numbers and figures, organised into transfiguration subcategories, and Jane was feeling fairly baffled that she could spend so long on Transfiguration without so much as touching her wand.
'So… here I could talk about, if you had a weak wand, you could make up for its lack of power with the power of your mind, by concentrating?' Jane queried.
'To a certain degree that's true, yes,' Maura confirmed. 'Though, you might want to note in your essay that even if you have the most powerful wand in the world, but you don't concentrate, then the results will not even come close to being as good as what you'd get if you performed only averagely in both domains.' She illustrated her point with some numbers. 'See here, if your wand was a ten out of ten, but you gave the spell very little concentration, say only a one out of ten, then this top line would only equal ten. But if your wand and concentration were both average, each a five out of ten, then this top line would be twenty-five. And, if you kept that same average wand, but gave maximum concentration, then you double this figure to fifty.'
'Oh, I get it!' Jane eyes grew a little wider in surprise. 'That's actually really cool! Why don't they teach it like that in class?'
Jane's moment of enlightenment had come at a very opportune moment, because several seconds later the 8.20 bell sounded, signalling that all second and third years needed to be in their dormitories in the next ten minutes.
'Will you be okay to fill in the framework from here?' Maura asked, packing things back into her satchel. 'Don't forget to include the Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.'
'Yes, ma'am,' Jane saluted her with a big smile. 'Seriously though, Maur, thanks so much for this. This essay probably would have come back with a Dreadful if you weren't around.'
'I highly doubt that, but you're welcome,' Maura smiled, and as she and Jane exited the classroom and made for the main staircases, she was filled up with the wonderfully warm glow of friendship. Nobody had called her "Maur" since she and Ian had fallen out. If her mother used a pet name it was "darling", and her father, to her eternal embarrassment, would still sometimes bring out the old "Maura Moo" from a childhood incident she'd sooner forget. And even when Ian had called her Maur, he'd asked her first if that's what she'd prefer to be called. Jane hadn't even been conscious of shortening Maura's name. It had just flown from her mouth with ease, as though she'd said it a hundred times before.
'Jane?' Maura asked seriously as they approached the fifth floor landing.
'Mhm?' Jane glanced over.
Maura giggled, in spite of herself. 'Your middle name is Clementine.'
Jane's lip curled in disdain. 'My mother thought it was "pretty". You gonna tell me yours?'
'Dorothea,' Maura stated, her features unchanging. 'After my grandmother, I'm told. Clementine isn't so bad, really. You needn't be embarrassed.'
'Yeah, well, if you tell anyone, you're dead,' Jane comically pointed a finger at Maura in empty threat as they prepared to part ways. 'I've got a burgeoning reputation of badassness to uphold, you know.'
'It's not burgeoning,' Maura smiled. 'You're already a badass. But cross my heart, I won't tell a soul.'
Jane grinned, pleased at the unexpected compliment. 'Good! Night, Maur.'
'Goodnight, Jane.'
'What are you so happy about?' Runa asked with a grin as Maura practically floated across the dormitory, feeling light as a feather.
'Oh, I've just been doing some study with Jane,' Maura couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face. 'Aren't the complexities of Transfiguration astonishing?'
'The complexities of something are astonishing,' Cerys remarked with an amused laugh.
'What do you mean?' Maura asked with a puzzled look as she settled herself on her eiderdown. All of the girls were in the dorm at the moment, half undressed, or changed into pyjamas, spread out on their beds, chatting. Maura was beginning to learn that Sunday Night Girl Talk was an informal tradition in the third year dorm, and she found she quite enjoyed it.
'We've just never seen Jane warm up to somebody so fast,' Runa explained, after shooting a frown that was bordering on a glare at Cerys, unseen by Maura. 'I don't think she even spoke to me until after Christmas our first year.'
'I still don't think she's spoken to me,' Arwen thought back, and several of the girls laughed.
'Does she not like you?' Maura queried.
'Oh, I don't think it's that,' Avalon volunteered. 'Jane's an odd one. She keeps to herself a lot of the time, but she's not shy. She's… selectively loud, if she's around the right people, do you know what I mean? She's confident, but you wouldn't know until you spend a bit of time around her.'
'Barry says that you'll know if Jane either really dislikes you, or really likes you,' Anna piped up. 'To everyone else she's either indifferent or oblivious.'
'That sounds pretty accurate,' Vivienne nodded. 'Last year Moon somehow found his way into the Gryffindor common room. Jane found him and took him to Professor Korsak, who brought him back up here-'
'I love Professor Korsak,' Illy interjected. 'I swear he knows every pet by name, and knows who they belong to.'
'Probably,' Viv agreed. 'But the next morning, I went to find Jane to say thanks, and she had no idea what my name was, or that I had a cat, or that I sat behind her in Charms all of first year!'
'The funny this is,' Runa flipped over onto her stomach, 'Is that pretty much everybody knows who Jane is, but she probably couldn't name half the people in our year. I don't know what you did to make her like you, Maura, but whatever it was, you must've done it pretty damn well.'
Maura tried not to beam, but her efforts were futile. She was unsure of how to respond, but Elowyn saved her.
'To the first, and most important, order of business, then,' she began suddenly. 'Gillian McIntosh, I believe you were on candy duty this week?'
'I sure was,' Illy smiled, retrieving a paper bag from a drawer in her bedside table. 'Exploding bonbons!'
'Ooh, are those the ones made with coconut dynamite?' Viv asked eagerly. 'Yes, please!'
There was a flurry of activity as wands were retrieved and eight different cries of 'Accio bonbon!' were made.
'Don't you like bonbons, Maura?' Illy asked in surprise, noticing she was the only one in the room not chewing.
'No, I do, bu-'
'Is this your refined sugar thing again?' Avalon teased. 'Because it's a weekend, you know!'
'Yes, I just… It's… Okay!' she surrendered, unable to come up with an adequate excuse. 'Yes, thank you, I would love a bonbon.'
There was a small good natured cheer from several of the girls, and Maura laughed. These Ravenclaws had really made her welcome in their circle over the last month, and she was very grateful for their acceptance.
'Second order of business,' Runa spoke with her mouth full as the muffled sound of bonbons exploding in oral cavities continued at random. She turned suddenly to Anna with a mischievous glint in her eye. 'Are you or are you not dating one Barold Frost, increasingly handsome and intelligent third year Ravenclaw who is probably at this moment residing somewhere not too far from here?'
Anna tried to look unamused at the directness of the question, but failed as her pursed lips broke into a smug grin. 'Not officially, but ask me again next Sunday and you might get a different answer!' Her response was met with the excited squeals of several other girls.
'Dish,' was Runa's only response.
'He is… cute, and smart, and funny,' Anna looked dreamily up at her canopy. 'And he's sensitive, but he's not girly. He's such a good listener, and he gets that my parents are certified whackos. We can stay up all night talking about everything, and not get bored. We were studying in the library last night, and I swear we were about to kiss, but then the curfew bell went.'
'Planned your wedding yet?' Seraphina, who was still a bit miffed at being suddenly ignored by Anna in favour of a boy, said a little harshly.
'Like you're any different with Michael,' Anna retorted.
'So, if you're about to run off into the sunset with Frost,' Cerys asked, 'Why aren't you dating yet?'
'It's only been a month since we got back to school,' Anna paused. 'And… what if he doesn't feel the same way?' She turned to Maura. 'Has he said anything to Jane? Does he want me to be his girlfriend?'
All eyes turned to the new girl, and Maura realised all of a sudden that in this circle at least, she was the authority on Jane Rizzoli. She'd been here only four weeks, and yet, already she was more qualified than anybody in the room to speak on Jane's behalf. 'Uh…' she began. 'Jane and I haven't really discussed the status of your relationship in depth, but I get the distinct impression that Frost is attracted to you. It's quite improbable that you would meet rejection should you broach the subject of dating.'
'You know who I heard are dating now?' Elowyn paused for effect, and looked around the room. 'Those sixth years, Katie Randle and Mel Gaynor!'
'Really?' Seraphina asked, not believing gossip this juicy had not yet reached her ears. 'I've seen them around together, but I never realised they were hot for each other!'
'Are you kidding?!' Runa scoffed. 'I saw that one coming a mile off. Besides, that's old news. Apparently they've been dating in secret for a while before now.'
'How long's a while?' Viv asked, petting Moon, who was curled up in her lap.
'Oh, I don't know, for a couple of months at the end of the last school year, then through the summer. I guess they got tired of hiding it,' Runa shrugged.
Anna looked suspicious. 'How do you know?'
'Katie's friends with Keyte McKay, who's friends with Brandon Lewis, who's dating the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain Danielle Davis, who knows Rowan though Quidditch and was hanging out at my house a bunch this summer. They gossiped a lot, and I happened to be passing by her bedroom door at opportune moments a lot,' Runa shrugged. 'And by "passing" I really mean "standing outside for long stretches at a time."'
'What are they like?' Illy asked. 'I don't think I know anything about them.'
'I don't know much about Mel, but apparently Katie's really nice. She's a true Hufflepuff, not just surplus,' Runa began.
'Surplus,' Sera snorted.
'Oh, you know what I mean! You've got the ones who are Hufflepuffs because just and loyal are their biggest attributes, and then you've got the ones who are Hufflepuffs because their attributes don't fit anywhere else. But Katie's a legit Badger. I was a little surprised to hear she was head over heels in love with a Slytherin, but I suppose they're not all bad,' she gave a cheeky grin. 'My summer exploits lurking outside my sister's bedroom have told me Katie's boss at charmwork, she spent a bunch of time in St Mungos when she was twelve while they were figuring out she had diabetes, she's had a thing for Mel since third year, and she's totally banging.'
'Are you trying to tell us something, Runa?' Cerys teased.
'I'm not saying I'd shag her,' Runa considered. 'Though getting it on with a lady is on my bucket list, not that I expect to tick it off any time soon. I can appreciate a hot chick when I see one, and I'm telling you: someone needs to shake Mel's hand in that regard.'
Maura spoke up then, not entirely sure why her heart was about to pound out of her chest. 'Are there many… gay students here?' she asked hesitantly.
'I only know of five,' Arwen answered. 'Though I'm sure there are loads more in the closet.'
'You're missing a few,' Runa mentally listed off the students she knew of, using her fingers. 'I count eight.'
'Who're the extra three?' Sera asked, confused. 'I only get five, too: Mel and Katie, Luca, Martine, and Beckett.'
'Uh... Kana, Elias, and... Jep.'
'Eli's gay?' Avalon was surprised. 'I had such a crush on him last year!'
'Bisexual, I heard,' Cerys corrected. 'So you might still have a chance!'
Maura sat back a little after that, her head too full of thoughts to really listen. When Illy offered more bonbons around soon after, she took one without comment, and continued to chew thoughtfully. A part of her was relieved that there were other gay kids in the castle, who were proud and open about who they were. Then she paused, realising she had used the word other, implicating herself as one of them. She wasn't gay. Was she gay? Was she a little bit gay? Usually she didn't like to put too much trust in her feelings, but she couldn't shake that intrinsic knowing that told her whatever she was, she definitely wasn't a hundred per cent heterosexual. That was true even if she removed Jane from the equation.
The part that both unsettled and thrilled her though, was that Jane was very much a part of the equation. Maura's feelings towards Jane were steadily creeping down a path of no return. Not that she wanted to return. Jane's mere presence put a skip in her step and a smile on her face. She wasn't bursting to tell Jane her feelings towards her were more than friendly. She had a secret crush, and that was as much as she was willing to admit to anyone –including herself – for the moment.
She was also pleased that her Housemates didn't seem to think that being gay was something worthy of ridicule. Runa especially seemed very open minded. But it was apparent that sexuality was definitely a source of juicy gossip, and if she ever was to come out, which she wouldn't, because she wasn't gay, there was sure to be a lot of whispers behind closed doors. She felt a prickly kind of itch on the side of her neck as she forced herself back to the conversation, and began to realise that perhaps even telling white lies to herself wasn't going to end well.
Upon return to her common room, Jane had immediately traded her uniform for her usual Holyhead Harpies shirt and cotton boxer shorts. She was still smiling as she made her way to the bathroom, passing by the announcement her neighbour Marisa Rodriguez had swiped from the common room and tacked up in their dormitory in an act of victory.
GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH TEAM 2013-2014
Chaser – Rowan Silk-Ashby (c.)
Chaser – Rebekah Piper
Chaser – Andreas Taunt
Beater – Joren Baker
Beater – Jane Rizzoli
Keeper – Rudyard Pearson
Seeker – Belle Becker
Reserves – Paul Feldman, Phineas Boomer, Matilda Thomas
Even though it had been up for two weeks, seeing her name on this list made her smile harder. She ran into Abby Sherman in the bathroom, a friendly girl who also shared her dorm. As Jane stationed herself at the basin next to Abby, the girl looked up from spitting a mouthful of toothpaste foam into the sink, and caught Jane's eye in the mirror.
'What's got you smiling like that?' Abby asked curiously.
'Oh, just, you know… Quidditch,' Jane shrugged, looking down as she squeezed some toothpaste onto her brush. 'And I'm about to nail this Transfig essay. Maura helped me,' she blurted quickly before clamping her lips around her toothbrush.
'I like Maura,' Abby smiled, seeing Jane's cheeks had turned a little pink. 'She seems nice, and she helped me with some History of Magic last week. She's a very good teacher.'
'She is,' Jane nodded, speaking through a mouthful of foam, before spitting. 'I wish she'd teach our entire class. Professor Kravitz is weird.'
'He is a little… eccentric,' Abby agreed with a laugh. 'When are you going to bring Maura to eat at the Gryffindor table for a change? I never see you anymore!'
'You see me every night!' Jane protested, before adopting a sly grin. 'Are you saying you miss me or something?'
'What an outlandish idea!' Abby teased back as she packed up her things and turned to go. 'What do we have tomorrow morning?'
'Defence Against the Dark Arts,' Jane tried to keep her new mouthful of foam contained as she spoke, but ultimately failed as a bubble burst and spattered toothpaste all over the mirror. 'Aww, crap,' Jane frowned.
'Evanesco!' came from a voice somewhere to the right, and Jane and Abby turned from the vanished toothpaste to see Rowan wrapped in a towel and holding a wand, having just emerged from a shower cubicle. 'Gotcha covered, Baby Beater,' she winked, carrying an armful of used clothing back to her dorm. 'I hear you're not too bad on a broom, either, Sherman,' she glanced back to Abby as an afterthought. 'I won't be around, but take a shot at making the team next year. You might surprise yourself.'
'Do you think I actually have a shot at making the Gryffindor Quidditch team next year?' Abby asked later that evening as Jane lay in bed, hands behind her head, staring up at her canopy.
'Huh?' Jane felt something settling on the end of her bed, and craned her neck to find Abby there, hugging her knees and looking hopeful. 'Yeah,' Jane relaxed and returned her gaze skyward. 'If Rowan reckons you're good enough, you definitely have a chance. What do you play?'
'Chaser. Though, I'm not bad at Keeping.'
'Well, Rowan and Bek are both Chasers, and they're both leaving next year. The Keeper's a senior too, but the reserve Keeper's a sixth year, so he'll probably make the team next year. Practice your Chasing for now; it's your best bet.'
'Jane?' Abby asked after a short silence. 'Do you think… Gary will be impressed if I make the team?'
'Gary?' Marisa poked her head through her drapes from the adjacent bed, unable to stop herself from eavesdropping. 'You're still drooling over him? It's been over a year and a half!'
'Yes,' Abby blushed a little. 'And I think if I made the Quidditch team, he might notice me.'
'You don't need to be a top sportswoman to get a guy's attention!' Marisa said in a coaching tone.
'Why don't you just ask him to the Noel Ball, before the Christmas holidays?' Jane suggested idly, not terribly concerned about Abby's love life, and realising her foot was partially trapped under Abby's bum.
'I couldn't!' Abby gasped. 'We're only allowed to go if we're the date of a fifth year or above!'
'Yeah… and Gary's a fifth year!' Marisa urged her. 'So if you ask him, and he says yes, then there's no problem!'
'I don't know…' Abby trailed off, biting her lip. 'Who would you take, if you could take anyone?'
'Paul Feldman,' Marisa stated without skipping a beat. 'I know my chances are like, worse than zero, but I'm not kidding, if you gave me a big enough waffle cone, I would eat him up like french vanilla.'
'He's got pretty good abs,' Jane told her, wondering how Marisa's brain could turn to mush over Feldman, who only changed his school socks once a week. 'He always leaves the changing rooms shirtless after a Quidditch practice. I hate to break it to you, but he's kind of an ass.'
'I bet he's got a great ass, too,' Marisa sighed dreamily, and Abby giggled.
'How about you, Jane? Who would you take?'
'Me?' Jane tried to buy time. 'I don't know, I hate balls. And dresses. I wouldn't take anyone. I wouldn't even go.'
'C'mon, Jane,' Marisa rolled her eyes. 'One person, out of the whole school, who'd you wouldn't mind dancing with in fancy dress for a few hours.'
Maura. 'I don't dance,' Jane said resolutely. 'I'd take my brother. We'd nick a bunch of food and bugger off and stuff our faces while the rest of you spend the evening trying not to get crumbs on your ball gowns.'
'One day, Jane Rizzoli, I will get a real answer out of you,' Marisa narrowed her eyes. 'I'm going to sleep. Night, you two.'
'Same for me,' Abby bounded softly from Jane's bed. 'See you in the morning.'
Jane yawned as she sat up and reached to pull her drapes shut. Sleep did not come instantly, but her pillow was soft, and in her small prism of privacy, she felt safe enough to let her mind wander. Staring into the crimson walls around her, she pictured the Noel Ball in her mind's eye. Maura's arm was wrapped around her own, and they descended the stairs leading to the castle's atrium, and then to the Great Hall. Maura wore a floor-length gown, coloured a midnight blue, or no, maybe a green, to match her eyes. Jane's eyes closed as she pictured her own attire. Probably not a dress; maybe a suit, with black dress robes, and a tie coloured to match Maura's gown. And a pocket square. She had always wanted a pocket square. They would drink glasses of amber liquid – non-alcoholic, probably – from champagne flutes, and eat cannoli. The bewitched ceiling would have falling snow, and they would gush at all the Christmas decorations before mingling with Frost and Anna, and Abby and Gary, and Marisa and Paul. On the verge of sleep, Jane smiled at the Christmas music playing in her head, and before she knew it, her mind had taken over the fantasy. That night she had easy dreams of twirling and spinning and laughing for hours with Maura on the dance floor, not caring for a minute what a single other person thought.
