Chapter 36

"You going to class anytime today?" James nudged Sirius' leg, tugging his tie on straight.

"Meh." Sirius groaned, gripping his pillow tighter.

"Get up!" James laughed, yanking the blankets off of him. Sirius let out a sharp whine as the cool air hit him. "Don't be such a baby, you went to bed before I did."

"And you snored more than I did, so what?" Sirius complained, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Don't pay attention to him James, he's just tired. You went down and talked to Jane, didn't you?" RJ asked loading up his bag.

"You woke Jane up to talk about…that?" James frowned. He hated to think about his best mate and his sister in anyway that wasn't platonic.

"I didn't wake her up, she couldn't sleep either. We talked though, and she's cool about it. She's great an all, but we'd kill each other. It'd be like you and Evans hooking up." Sirius laughed, getting ready himself.

"Hey, me and Evans would be awesome together. Her brains, my brains-" James laughed, tossing a sock at Sirius' head.

"Don't you think it'd get crowded with that big head of yours?" Jane smiled, leaning against the door way. The boys jumped, turning to face her.

"Don't you knock? I could've been naked." Sirius scoffed, buttoning his shirt.

"Nothing I haven't seen before. Did you finish your History of Magic homework RJ?" Jane asked him, her voice as cool to Sirius now as it had been when they first met.

"Yeah, I'll give it to you in the Common Room." RJ nodded, letting her lead the way down.

"She's okay about it?" James raised an eyebrow at his best mate.

"She seemed okay about it…" Sirius shrugged, grabbing a tie to replace his missing belt.

"You're mad at him, aren't you?" RJ laughed, flopping onto the couch and fishing out his homework.

"Drunk doesn't count? What kind of bogus reasoning is that shit?" Jane shook her head, taking the parchment from him and filling in the missing information on her own homework.

"His." RJ sighed. He knew Sirius had a tendency to cop out whenever he could, but he also figured Sirius cared enough for Jane to give her an actual reason and not just the same spiel he gave every other person after he drank too much. "James is pretty squeaked by the thought of his sister and best mate, you know. That might be part of what's got Sirius so lost for words."

"James is grossed out by me and Sirius, but I'm supposed to be okay with how he acts about Lily? Real mature." Jane scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Even more than that, though…Sirius would rather stay friends with James than be with me. I'm hearing that loud and clear. Sirius doesn't like me, so I should stop liking him. Easy as that."

"Janey…" RJ frowned, touching her knee lightly.

"Thanks for the blanks, Remus. I'll let you copy my Dark Arts homework tonight." She forced a smiled, quickly gathering her things. She shouldered her bag and ran out of the Common Room as she heard footsteps coming down from the Boys Dorm.

"See ya in Potions Janey Bird!" Sirius waved after her.

"Don't call me that, prick!" She cursed at him over her shoulder.

"What'd I do, Birdie?" He frowned.

"Bugger off!" She yelled as the door shut behind her.

Sirius stared at it for a while, before looking at James for the answers. He shrugged.

Their free time quickly dwindled as OWLs approached. Jane spent every moment she could either studying what need to be reviewed or slipping out the Girls' Dorm window and down to the Grounds using a levitation spell she quickly mastered, out of necessity. The Prophet spoke more and more of 'Vixen'-and more and more often their words weren't always the best choices.