CHAPTER SIXTEEN
During the next week, Jane was a wreck. Before every exam she took, she nearly gave herself panic attacks, and after she took them, she frantically looked through her books for things she might have gotten wrong. She wasn't a very good test taker, and it tended to give her major anxiety.
Even after listening to almost everyone, including Lily, telling her to calm down, Jane just couldn't; she was somehow convinced that she was going to fail out of her first year at Hogwarts. Even on Thursday, after the last exam was over, she still felt the need to dig through her notes and books. This was followed by James and Sirius hiding her school bag in a secret location that only they were privy to, which Jane did not find funny in the slightest. She had promptly marched up to Remus and demanded that he tell her where her things were because, surely, they had told him. To which his response was:
"What do you hope to accomplish? Exams are over. They're being graded as we speak. There's nothing we can do about it now."
By that Friday, Jane had finally calmed down enough to enjoy the fact that there were no more classes, and they were free to do whatever their little hearts desired. And since exams were over, and she had no more studying to do, she happily agreed to a trip to Hogsmeade with her friends.
They had walked down High Street and talked about how they couldn't believe the school year was already over. It seemed like only yesterday that they were all meeting each other for the first time. They walked and walked until they reached the small cottages of the town's residents.
Hogsmeade, save for Hogwarts, was Jane's favourite place. She had fallen in love with it the very first day they had brought her there, and her feelings had yet to change.
"I'm going to live here one day," she had told Remus in a matter-of-fact voice as they all sat in the grass under the shade of a tree.
"I thought you wanted to live in London," he had reminded her.
"That's for after I graduate," she said dismissively. "When I get older, this is where I'm going to live," she had explained.
It was odd to think about. Stockbridge had made Jane grow up to detest small towns, but Hogsmeade, it was just different; it had a feeling of comfort that she'd never felt in Stockbridge. Perhaps it was because she felt welcomed in Hogsmeade as she sat there, surrounded by her friends. Stockbridge had never been very kind to Jane outside of her family and Sarah Camden.
Oh, Stockbridge. How Jane hated it there. There was never anything to do, and there were just so many bad memories—ones she normally kept tucked away. Still, there were good memories too; her and Sarah had made plenty of those to make up for the bad ones.
Jane had thought about how within the next week, she'd be on the train home, and she had been confused to find herself both happy and sad at the same time. She was happy because she'd get to see her family and Sarah. Sad because she'd miss Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and all of the new friends she made. But in that moment, she had been content.
Sirius and James kept talking about practising their flying over the summer. Lily and Remus had promised to write. Even Peter was a lot more talkative than usual. Recently, Jane had found him a bit more tolerable for longer periods of time. He was finally learning to be his own person it seemed, and though he still had trouble standing up to Sirius, he tried sometimes, and Jane knew that was a great feat for him. She'd grown quite fond of him as she taught him some of her most-used comebacks she so readily fired off at Sirius whenever he chose to be a prat.
Jane had asked Sirius and James if they planned to write to her. James had said that he would, but Jane suspected that he'd forget as soon as he got home, and Sirius had promptly told her "No," though he smiled when he had said it, so Jane wasn't really sure what to expect from him.
That Friday had been one of her favourite days.
The next week, the day before the train ride home, exams grades came out. Much to Jane's relief, she scored exceptionally well on all of them. She could've done better in History of Magic, but she was okay with what she had received. That night, after the End-of-Year Feast, Jane and the boys sat together and just talked. Jane talked about how she couldn't wait to see Sarah, but that she'd miss them all. Remus talked about how schoolwork over the summer just wasn't fair. James was excited about the rumours predicting a new Nimbus racing broom this summer. Sirius mostly complained about going home, and Jane didn't blame him. And Peter, talked about the prospects of the family vacation his parents had been talking about recently in their letters to him.
They stayed like that, wrapped up in their conversations, until everyone else had cleared out of the common room and went to bed. Maybe they were all trying to delay the coming of tomorrow. If they could do that, then they wouldn't have to leave each other. Jane didn't think any of them liked the idea of not seeing each other for so long. But the next day came, as it always did, and they all loaded their suitcases onto the train and found a compartment. They talked and laughed and remembered good times. And when the train stopped, they were almost reluctant to get off, save for Sirius, who was very reluctant to get off, and they all put on quite the show, pretending they were at a funeral as he took a dramatic step off of the train, causing them all to burst into fits of laughter.
They hugged each other and said their goodbyes, and Jane and Sirius were caught by James' mother, who was delighted to see them both again. And after a good farewell to them all, Jane walked through the barrier to join her awaiting parents.