CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
November fourth marked the first Quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Though Jane would not get to play, she had always enjoyed watching the matches. She loved it even more now that two of the players were her best friends. She cheered as the Gryffindor team flew out onto the pitch in their red and gold Quidditch robes. However, her cheers quickly turned to boos when the Slytherin team rushed onto the pitch.
Jane hated the Slytherin team. They were all big and ugly, and they were also the only team at Hogwarts that wouldn't let girls play. So, it wasn't bad enough that they were all arseholes; they were sexist arseholes as well. Unfortunately, they were good at the game. However, Jane was confident in the Gryffindor team; she was confident in her friends. James was the best Chaser on the team despite being the youngest; he was just that good. And Sirius was a great Beater. Jane suspected that they could play professionally one day if they so chose it.
"Hey," said a Hufflepuff girl beside Jane. Jane recognised the girl from Transfiguration and History of Magic.
"You're Jane Hensworth, right?"
Jane nodded.
"Alicia Campbell," the girl said.
Jane wanted to tell the girl that she knew who she was. Alicia had been sitting in front of her in History of Magic for two months now.
"You're friends with Potter and Black, aren't you?"
Jane smiled and nodded.
"You're so lucky. They're the most popular boys in our year," Alicia said. "Are you Potter's girlfriend?" she continued. Jane laughed.
"James? No. No, no, no. He's like a brother to me," Jane said, still laughing.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I just always see you with him."
"No, I don't have a boyfriend," Jane told her.
"Oh, well, they're totally fit," Alicia said, staring dreamily at Sirius as he flew by. Jane looked at the girl strangely.
"Uh, yeah, I guess."
"You don't think so?"
Jane shrugged.
"I've never really thought about it," she said truthfully.
Jane was eager to leave the conversation, so she turned to talk to Remus, who Jane could tell had overheard the whole thing because she could tell he was holding back a smile.
"Shut up," Jane said.
"I didn't say anything," Remus defended.
Jane really hadn't thought about it. James and Sirius? Fit? Cute? Maybe she just didn't think about it because she was always around them. That being said, she was certain she'd never like either of them in that way. It'd just be too weird.
Gryffindor ending up beating Slytherin by a very large margin. James scored so many goals that Jane had lost count, and Sirius had managed to injure Slytherin's Seeker with a Bludger. Gryffindor always held huge parties in the common room after the team won a Quidditch match. The Prewett twins always snuck food and Butterbeer from the kitchens, and sometimes, they even managed to get Firewhiskey, which a lot of people thoroughly enjoyed. Jane, thus far, had been able to avoid it without conflict. Unfortunately, Sirius noticed this.
"Hey, Janie," he said, walking over with a cup in his hand; Jane could just smell that it was Firewhiskey.
"Here, drink some of this," he said. Jane held up her cup of Butterbeer.
"I'm good, thanks," she said.
"Aw, come on, Janie," Sirius said, sitting next to her on the couch.
"No, thanks," she said. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"It's not so bad," he said.
Jane honestly wanted to say something to the effect of "I'm not supposed to," but she figured that would sound lame. So, she just stayed quiet.
"Come on," he said. "Live a little. Break a few rules."
"I break rules all the time!" she defended.
"Just take a sip."
"No!"
"Oh, you're turning into Evans."
"I am not!"
"Are so."
Jane glared at him. Maybe she didn't want to try it. That didn't mean she was as much of a goody-good as Lily was. But she rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat anyway. What harm could one sip do?
Sirius smirked as Jane took the cup from him and put it to her lips. The drink burned Jane's throat as it went down, making her insides feel all warm. It didn't taste to bad; in fact, she kind of liked it.
"See? That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" Sirius teased. "Now, drink that. I'm gonna go get another one."
Jane sat by herself on the couch, carefully sipping on the Firewhiskey and watching the party. She didn't usually get really into these kind of affairs. She liked to just watch. Usually, Remus would be sitting right beside her, doing the same thing, but he was up in his dorm studying for a quiz that they were going to have in History of Magic on Monday. After a while of sitting and having no one to talk to, seeing as how James and Sirius were off having a good time, Jane decided that she'd join Remus. She needed to study anyway.
When she finished her cup of Firewhiskey, Jane stood up, and a weird kind of warmth pumped through her body. She felt good, great actually. Then, she had a great idea. Studying for History would be a lot more bearable with another cup of Firewhiskey.
She walked up to one of the Prewett twins. The Prewett twins were very sociable and definitely the only sixth years that had ever bothered to learn her name. She loved them. They were vivacious, and they always made her laugh and called her sweetheart. They were great. People usually couldn't tell the twins apart, save for their girlfriends, but Jane had a trick. Fabian always wore this gold watch. She had yet to share this information with Peter who always begged her to tell him how to tell the twins apart because he always guessed wrong.
"Hi, Gideon," she said.
"Well, hello, sweetheart. What can I do for ya?"
"Firewhiskey?" she asked nervously.
"Since when did little Miss Hensworth start drinking?"
"Since today," she said her tone turning more confident.
"All right then," Gideon said, grabbing one of the bottles and pouring a cup.
"Gideon Prewett!" came the shrill voice of a sixth-year girl, whom Jane recognised as his girlfriend. "You better not be giving her that."
"Ah, Lindy, come on. Lighten up," Gideon said.
"She's, like, twelve, Gideon," Lindy said.
"Had my first Firewhiskey at eleven," he protested. "It's like a Gryffindor rite of passage."
"Gideon," Lindy said in a warning voice.
"All right, all right," he said as he started to down the cup himself. "Sorry, kid," he said, though he winked at Jane when he said it.
Jane smiled. She walked away, watching from a corner of the room until Lindy had finally left Gideon. Then, she walked right back up to Gideon. He grinned.
"Here ya go, sweetheart," he said, corking a bottle and giving the whole thing to Jane simply to spite his girlfriend. "For the trouble," he said.
"Thanks, Gideon," she said happily.
"Now don't drink all that by yourself. Don't want you to get sick," he said, still smiling.
"I won't," she promised before walking up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
She found the door with a sign that read: Second Year Boys and knocked.
"Come in," Remus' voice floated through the door. Jane walked in and closed the door behind her. Remus was sitting on his bed with his textbook and notes sprawled everywhere.
"You're missing the party," Jane stated. Remus looked up at her and then back down at his notes.
"Shame," he said sarcastically.
"I was wondering if I could study with you," she said.
"Oh, yeah, sure," he said, manoeuvring things to make room for her at the foot of his bed. Jane happily crawled onto the end of the bed and sat down.
"What's that?" Remus asked, noticing the bottle in her hand.
"Firewhiskey," she said. "You ever tried it?"
"No."
"Do you want to?"
"Not particularly."
Jane laughed a little.
"That's what I thought, but it's really good; just try it," she said, holding out the bottle to her friend, shaking it a bit, the amber liquid sloshing around inside. "Just one taste."
Remus shrugged and took the bottle from Jane. He supposed one sip couldn't hurt anything.
"Not bad," he said after taking a sip and handing it back to her.
#
"No, no, no, no, no," Jane said, trying to stop laughing. By this time, the two had almost depleted the bottle of its contents, a combination of poor decision-making and the lack of having someone there to tell them not to.
"Yes, it is!" Remus said, smiling. "You're wrong; I'm right. Here! I-I have it in my notes; I'll show you."
"Well, you wrote it down wrong," Jane argued in a slurred voice.
"Well, I saw it in the book too," he said.
As soon as he opened the book, however, he seemed to have forgotten how to read, and the words were all jumbled. He shut the book back and threw it off the bed.
"Well, it's in there," he said. "You just have to trust me."
Jane laughed again.
"I think we're done studying."
"I agree," Remus said.
The two had been like this for a while, stumbling over their words and laughing at nothing and at everything all at the same time. Five minutes beforehand, Remus had stated, "I think we're drunk," to which Jane had responded with a laugh and another sip of the Firewhiskey. They were still sitting on Remus' bed, though most of his notes, and now his book, were on the ground. Jane had never felt so happy. Why hadn't she been drinking this stuff her whole life?
"Oh, guess-guess what Sirius told us last n-night," Remus said through hiccups.
"Wha'?"
"That he snogged Helen McDowell," he said.
"That girl from-from-from…" For some reason, Jane couldn't remember the name of the house.
"Ravenclaw," Remus supplied. Jane snapped her fingers and nodded.
"Yeah, that's it, innit?" Jane said, and then a thought popped into her head, as so many were doing at the moment. "'ave you ever kissed anyone?"
"Have you?"
"Tha's-tha's not fair. I asked you first," Jane said, shaking her head slowly and wagging her finger at him.
"No," Remus answered. "Your turn."
Jane started laughing again, though she didn't know why. She shook her head. Then, her eyes got wide as yet another thought popped into her little intoxicated mind.
"Oh, Merlin! I 'ave a bloody brill idea," she said in a very serious voice. "You 'aven't ever kissed anyone, and I 'aven't ever kissed anyone. So, we should jus' kiss each other and get it over with!"
It was completely rational inside of her head right then.
"Th-that is a good idea," said Remus, who was as equally intoxicated, "'cause we're really good friends and all."
"Merlin, I'm a frickin' genius," Jane said, congratulating herself on her wonderful idea.
"Yeah."
"Okay. Okay. Okay," Jane said, trying to think of how they were going to do this, because all of the sudden, something as simple as kissing seemed very complicated.
"So-so I just, I just kiss you?" Remus asked. Jane took a second to process the words because, suddenly, there were two of him.
"Oh, right! Yeah," she said.
"Okay," he said.
Jane sat on her knees as Remus moved a little closer, knocking the rest of his notes off of his bed. And before either of them thought anything of it, they kissed, just a sweet and innocent peck on the lips. As soon as they pulled apart and looked at each other, they both doubled over with laughter.
"Oh, my god," Jane said between girlish giggles. "I can't believe we actually did that!"
For some reason, it kept getting progressively funnier until they literally could not breathe for laughing so hard. Finally, they managed to calm down long enough for Jane to realise how tired she felt.
"I'm gonna take a nap," she said.
Jane got slowly off of Remus' bed and almost fell flat on her face. She grabbed tight onto one of the bedposts. The room was tilting beneath her. James' bed, which was not even ten feet away, suddenly seemed like a very long walk. Fortunately, though she stumbled a few times, Jane was able to make it to the bed and fell onto it, letting darkness consume her.