CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The next three days went by far too slowly for James Potter's liking. Even after he had apologised many times over, Jane still would not forgive him. Once Remus was back from the hospital wing, James implored him to talk to her for him.
"Why would she listen to me?" Remus said.
"Because she's not mad at you," James replied.
"That doesn't mean I'll be able to change her mind. What Sirius did really hurt her—"
"Oh, come on!" interrupted Sirius, having grown tired of all of this. "It was just a joke. It's not my fault if she can't handle it. She'll get over it; she always does."
Sirius said that last part as reassurance to himself more than anything. Jane had never stayed mad at him this long before. But despite the little voice in the back of his head telling him that he may have gone too far this time, he refused to apologise on principle.
Remus had reluctantly agreed to try and persuade Jane to forgive at least James, if not both of them. So, at lunch, he found Jane sitting with her roommates.
"Hey, Jane, can I talk to you?"
She looked up at him.
"If you're trying to get her to forgive Potter and Black, then you're wasting your time," Marlene said coldly, having already heard all about Jane's plight at the hands of Sirius Black.
"Yeah, you can tell them that Jane has no interest in being friends with arrogant gits like them," Lily said.
Though Jane was furious with the two boys, she still felt a slight twinge at Lily's remark.
"What do you want?" Jane asked, as though she didn't already know. Remus sat down beside her.
"You know James is really sorry, right?" he said. "He's done nothing besides try to get on your good side ever since this whole thing happened."
"I know he's sorry, and I don't care," Jane lied; she missed James' company.
"Come on, Jane. They're your best friends. Just try and give them a second chance. Everyone deserves a second chance," Remus continued. "And James is being quite dramatic about it all; you know how he can get."
For a while, Jane was silent. James had apologised with every breath he took for the last three days. He really was sorry; Jane could tell. She sighed.
"I'll forgive James, but he should know that I'm never telling him anything else ever again," Jane stated. Remus smiled. One down, one to go.
"And Sirius?"
"What about him?" Jane asked coldly.
"Do you forgive him?"
Jane let out a harsh laugh.
"Why on earth would I do that?" Jane asked. "He hasn't even apologised yet. He doesn't even care if I'm mad at him or not. He thinks he did nothing wrong."
"Yeah, I know. But with Sirius, he just doesn't understand boundaries is all. I don't think he actually meant to hurt you," Remus explained.
"Well, he did, and he doesn't even care. So no, I won't forgive him. Not now, not ever. Don't ask again," Jane said.
"All right, well, shall I tell James?" Remus asked, standing back up. Jane nodded and smiled a bit before Remus walked down the table to join the guys.
"Well?" James asked hopefully.
"She forgives you," he told James. Then, Remus saw Sirius smirking a bit. "But not you," he continued.
The smirk was instantly gone.
"And why not?" Sirius asked, offended.
"She doesn't seem to think you're sorry," Remus said, fixing himself a plate of food.
"Oh, come on. What does she want me to do? Apologise?" he said.
"That's exactly what she wants you to do," Remus said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice as though this should have been the obvious conclusion.
"Well, she can stay mad. She's just being oversensitive is all."
"You don't get it, do you?" James said out of nowhere. Sirius just stared at him.
"Did you even listen to any of the stuff she said about her old school? You're treating her exactly like those Muggle kids did."
"I don't treat her that bad," Sirius argued defensively.
"Yes, you do. You just don't see that because you don't understand when enough is enough," James said. Sirius remained silent.
"Look, all I'm saying is that she's our friend, and you shouldn't have done what you did," James said, going back to eating.
Sirius didn't say anything for the remainder of lunch. At first, he was mad. All those times he stood up for her, and he makes one mistake and suddenly, she hates him. It wasn't fair. He looked down the table to see Jane looking at him. She turned away quickly and tried to preoccupy herself with her food. Why hadn't she forgiven him yet? Maybe he had crossed some sort of line.
Still, he wasn't going to apologise.
Two more days passed, and Sirius was getting angrier by the second. Jane would talk to James, Remus, and Peter just fine, but she completely ignored him. It was like he didn't even exist.
He didn't like it one bit.
He did everything in his power to try and get her to acknowledge him, and none of it worked. He wasn't used to being ignored like this; usually, he was in a spotlight. So, on Friday afternoon, he decided to swallow a bit of his pride. He found Jane sitting by herself under a tree next to the Black Lake, studying. With his hands in his pockets, he strolled down to where she sat and placed himself in front of her.
"Hi, Janie," he said warmly.
No response, but she didn't move either.
"Hey, um, how long are you gonna stay mad at me?"
Silence.
"Hey!" he said, snatching her Charms book away.
Finally, Jane looked up at him with a very dull, very bored expression on her face.
"Give it back."
"No," he said, placing it behind him. "Why won't you talk to me?"
"You know why," Jane stated.
"Come on, that was five days ago, and it—it was just a joke—"
"Well, it wasn't very funny," Jane said angrily.
"Look, I-I'm sorry, okay?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes a bit; he wasn't very well-practised at apologies.
"No, you're not. You just want me to stop ignoring you because it gets on your nerves. You don't care that you hurt my feelings," Jane accused.
Maybe Jane was right about her ignoring him getting on his nerves, but as soon as she said that, Sirius really did kind of feel bad. Kind of.
"That's not true," he said.
"Yes, it is. You're probably only apologising because James asked you to."
James had asked him to apologise, multiple times actually, but that wasn't the only reason he was doing this. Jane folded her arms and leaned against the tree.
"Look, Janie, I really didn't mean to actually hurt you. It was just a joke. I tease you all the time, and you've never gotten this sore before—"
"That's different. You can't just go telling my secrets to everybody. You made me look like a complete fool, and in front of Blake," Jane said.
"Why do you like him anyway?" Sirius asked.
Jane shook her head.
"It doesn't matter anymore. He's never going to like me now. He's probably never going to talk to me again," Jane said quietly.
Jane started picking at blades of grass and tearing them apart. Sirius just looked at her for a while. He could tell that she was trying not to cry.
Suddenly, Sirius didn't feel kind of bad anymore, he felt really bad. Had another person done what he had done to Jane, then he and James would be out to make their lives a living hell. And he really did feel sorry now, but he sucked at apologising; he'd never had to do it before.
"That's his loss then because you're a really great person," was all Sirius could think to say.
"You're just saying that so I'll forgive you," Jane mumbled.
"Maybe just a little," he said truthfully, "but you really are a great person; I mean I like you well enough."
He gave Jane her book back, and she just stared at him.
"I really am sorry though," he said. "You don't have to forgive me, but I am sorry."
Sirius stood up and started to walk away. Jane looked down at her book but didn't open it. As much as she hated to admit it, she missed being friends with Sirius. After all, he and James were the first friends she'd made at Hogwarts. Besides, she was almost as bad at holding a grudge as Lily was.
"Wait," she called after him, jumping from her spot on the ground. Sirius turned around and smiled as she approached him; not smirked, but actually smiled.
"I'll forgive you," she said, "but if you ever do anything like that again, I won't ever talk to you for the rest of our lives."
"Understood," Sirius said. "Now, how about coming to Hogsmeade with James and I?" he asked, slinging an arm around her shoulders.
"What is it that you two don't understand about study time?"