Over a month had gone by. Jane continued to serve detentions with Snape in the same manner. She enjoyed it, a lot. She had to laugh that this was how she was being "punished" for telling him off. Her friends had stopped asking her if she hated her detentions, eventually realizing that she did not hate the detentions, or Snape himself, as they did. A part of her wanted to tell them how wrong they were about him, but she knew she couldn't. Telling them about their relationship would only hurt her – they wouldn't understand and would reject her. Plus, if they knew, then they might tell someone else – she might get expelled, Snape might lose his job, and their relationship would have to end. She had remained quiet about it.

Her schoolwork had made significant improvements. With the help of Neville and Hermione she was no longer behind her fellow fourth years. In fact, she was actually better at some subjects than other fourth year students. She was better than Neville at History of Magic and at Potions, but he didn't seem to mind. Though even he had improved at Potions since Snape had stopped humiliating him. There had been a few times when Snape had clearly been tempted to attack Neville, but each time Jane had been there, given him a warning look, and Snape had backed down. Neville's confidence had improved in other aspects too.

With the tri-wizard tournament's ball coming up, the entire Gryffindor house had been taking dancing lessons where Neville was by far the most graceful and enthusiastic boy. He had asked Jane to accompany him to the ball (as friends) but, seeing as the ball took place on a Friday evening, she had detention. But she told him that if he didn't find someone else that she would ditch Snape to go with him. He had been a little disappointed, but understood. He still blamed himself a little for her having to go to a year's worth of detention, and considering that he had no idea as to how she was spending her detentions, he thought she hated them. A few hours later he had asked the younger sister of Fred, George and Ron to go with him. At first she declined, claiming that she didn't have a dress, but after Jane had offered to help her sew one, Ginny accepted. Jane didn't particularly want to help the younger girl sew a dress, but she wanted to see Neville happy, and she had the experience, so she had offered. They had already done a few fittings and had come up with a pattern. Earlier that week, they had managed to transfigure some old drapes Professor McGonagall had donated to them into a delicate pink satin. They still had plenty of time to make the dress, but Jane wanted to finish it sooner rather than later.

It was a Friday afternoon. Later that evening she would have a "detention" with Snape. Classes had been cancelled for the first tri-wizard challenge. Jane sat with Ginny and Neville now in the podiums in the outdoor arena. They were waiting for Harry to perform the first challenge. He had faced a lot of criticism from the rest of the school. Most people thought that he had manipulated his way into the dangerous challenges and that the only rightful champion was Cedric. Even Ron, Harry's best friend, seemed to doubt him. They had not yet resolved their fight. There were very few students that supported Harry at this point in time, and three out of four of them were there at the moment. Ginny seemed to care about Harry more than she let on. Jane wondered how long her crush had been around, but knew better than to ask. Neville had been proud of his friend from the moment that his name had been called, but was not bold enough to publicly defend him. And Jane, well, she knew that something was wrong even if she didn't know how she knew it.

As they sat shivering partly from cold, partly from anxiety, Hermione made her way up the stairs to sit with them, walking past Ron, who sat with some other boys. He looked after her, clearly offended. She sat next to Ginny.

"He's got to face the Hungarian Hornback. The worst one." She couldn't hide the concern from her face.

"I'm sure he'll be alright Hermione. Even if he isn't that good, there are safety precautions." Said Neville, reassuringly.

"Just like there were precautions around age?" She asked, questioning his calmness.

Ron had returned his gaze to the arena, but continued to look back over his shoulder at Hermione. She was either ignoring him, or was too worried for Harry to notice Ron at all. His annoyance at her dissipated into concern as he kept glancing back at her.

Looking at her friends, Jane realized that she was the only one that noticed Ron.

She had been feeling sick all day. Her stomach had been doing flip-flops since she had woken up that morning. She tried to sleep it off, but it hadn't worked. It was so bad that she had contemplated going to see the school nurse, but had thought better of it. She didn't want to seem like a wimp complaining about a bellyache. Especially not on the day that four students were going to be fighting dragons.

Harry is going to fight a dragon.

The statement hit her, sending a new wave of nausea through her body. She glanced over at Hermione, wondering if she was feeling the same way. If Jane was this worried for Harry, who was still barely more than an acquaintance, then what must Hermione be going through?

The first student was released into the arena and the attention of the mass was directed to the events that happened there. Jane watched, but didn't let any of it sink in. Her stomach wouldn't let her concentrate.

Something is wrong. This is not right.

After a few minutes, the first student was complete. Jane only noticed this when she heard the audience around her burst into applause. She glanced down. Ron was staring at them. Jane looked to Hermione. She was near tears.

Several moments passed, and the second competitor was brought into the arena. Pain suddenly hit her in her gut. She grabbed her side, blurring her eyes. It seemed like seconds but must have been longer. Before she could even begin to pay attention to the tournament, she heard a tremendous round of applause erupt. The second competitor had completed the challenge.

She managed to look ahead of her, focusing her eyes. The dragon was being exchanged with another. Closer to her, Ron was staring back at them, clearly uncomfortable with the distance between them.

Something is really wrong.

The pain in her gut grew as the next competitor entered the arena. She closed her eyes, focussing all her attention on not letting herself be sick. Her eyelids forced shut, she missed the events unfolding in front of her, but heard the cumulative gasp as something went wrong. Unable to open her eyes, she waited until the feeling passed. At long last the crown around her cheered. The third competitor had completed the task.

No. This is wrong.

"Excuse me."

Jane looked up to see Ron pushing his way down the aisle. He reached Hermione. She was clearly distressed, tears brimming in her eyes, the colour drained from her face. He sat next to her, putting an arm around her.

NO!

Pain overwhelmed Jane and she could not prevent herself from hunching forward, grasping her sides.

"Are you okay?"

She tore her eyelids open. Neville was leaning next to her, concern on his face.

"No. It's not okay." She responded, espousing honesty rather than courage.

"Let's get you out of here."

He leaned over further, putting her arm around him, and stood. She allowed herself to place some of her weight on Neville as they began their way down the steps. He looked forward to the arena where Harry had just entered. I shouldn't make him come with me. He wants to stay.

As she thought it, another wave of pain came over her. Not expecting it, she almost fell over. Neville averted his eyes from the arena back to Jane.

"You're really not okay." He said it with worry in his voice.

The two of them made their way down the steps as quickly as they could. Finally, they made it out of the arena. As they walked away from the crowd, underneath the bleachers, a wave of pain came over her once more – but different than before. Instantly, she flung her arm close to her torso, trying to deny the scorching pain that seared it, but couldn't. Falling to her knees, she screamed out, but it was overwhelmed by the cumulative gasping of the crowd above them. Something bad had happened to Harry. Almost immediately after, the same crowd erupted in cheers. He had completed.

"Oh my God! Are you okay?" Neville shouted, dropping to her side.

Jane extended her arm delicately forward to examine the damage. Her shirt sleeve had been torn off, her skin blackened and radiating with heat. As they watched, the last bit of flame on the corner of her sleeve extinguished.

Neville looked at the injury and then at her, confusion and fear on his face.