CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
"No! We're already late enough because James forgot his homework. We're not stopping by the kitchens first."
"Aw, come on, Janie! I'm starving!" Sirius whined.
"We just ate breakfast. How can you be hungry?"
"I just am."
"The kitchens aren't even on the way to History of Magic."
It was now February, and Jane was over feeling guilty for the time being. Right now, she, James, and Sirius were rushing to get to History of Magic. Halfway to class, James had realised that he left his homework up in his dorm. Remus and Peter had went on to class while Jane and Sirius had agreed to go back with him. Jane was currently regretting that decision.
"Would you slow down?" Sirius said to Jane, who was practically running. "We're already late, no matter how fast you get there now."
Jane sighed and slowed down a little bit.
"I should've went with Remus and Peter," she mumbled to herself.
"What was that?" Sirius asked.
"Nothing."
"Well, well, well," came a voice from behind them.
They all stopped in their tracks. Jane closed her eyes and sighed. Professor Connolly, by this point in the year, was the most hated teacher at Hogwarts; it was like he was always out to catch students doing something that they shouldn't be. And ever since the exploding inkwell incident back in November, James and Sirius were his favourite targets. And there he was, standing behind them when they should have been in class.
"What do you three think you're doing?" asked Professor Connolly.
"Going to class, sir," Jane said, hoping that the two boys wouldn't say anything.
"You're a little late," he said.
"I know, sir. See, James accidenta—"
"No excuses, Miss Hensworth. Thirty points from Gryffindor," he said.
"Thirty?!" James exclaimed.
"Thirty-five now."
Jane stepped back onto James' foot. It was bad enough that they had gotten any points taken, but he was only making it worse.
"Now, go to class," Professor Connolly said, walking away. Jane was about to respond with a "yes, sir," but unfortunately, Sirius spoke first.
"What do you think we're trying to do, arsehole?"
Jane inwardly groaned and covered her face with her hand.
"You've just earned you and your friends a detention, Mr. Black," Professor Connolly said.
"But, Professor—" Jane started with wide eyes.
"This Saturday, seven in the morning, my office. Now, go to class," he said.
Jane just kind of stood there with her mouth open. Despite the fact that James and Sirius had had plenty of detentions during their time at Hogwarts, Jane had never gotten one. And the school was going to write her parents about it, so there was no hiding it.
Jane glared at Sirius.
"What?" he said.
"You like ruining my life," she concluded aloud. "It's fun for you, isn't it?"
That Saturday, when Jane should have been sleeping in like everyone else in her dorm, she, James, and Sirius dragged themselves down to Connolly's office.
"I can't believe you got me a detention," Jane said, arms crossed, not looking at Sirius as they walked. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"You've been saying that since Thursday," he said.
"And it's still unbelievable."
"Well, he is an arsehole; the whole school says so."
"Not to his face!" Jane scolded.
"It won't be that bad," James assured her. "He'll probably have us clean one of the classrooms without magic or something."
"That's not the point," Jane said. "My parents already think I'm turning into some kind of rebel without a cause, and now, I have a detention!"
"You? Rebellious? That's a laugh," Sirius said.
"Shut up," Jane said, knocking on the door to Connolly's office.
James hadn't been too far off when he guessed that they'd have to clean the classroom. They had to clean the trophy room, which wasn't strenuous labour, but it was still going to take them a while. The good thing about it, if there was one, was that it was virtually unsupervised. Professor Connolly had just told them to start cleaning and left; Jane supposed that while he didn't want them to enjoy their Saturday, he still wanted to enjoy his. He had said he'd come back to check on them, but James, who had had many detentions with Connolly, said that he was lying.
For the first half of polishing trophies and dusting shelves, Jane just listened to James and Sirius talk. She was still kind of sore about Sirius landing her in her first ever detention. What were her parents going to think when they got the letter?
"Mum wants to know if you're coming over for Easter this year," James said to Sirius after a while.
"Of course," Sirius said as though it should have been an obvious answer. "What am I supposed to do? Stay here?"
Jane groaned at the mention of the Easter holidays.
"What's wrong with you?" James asked.
"Mum and Dad are going to have a fit when I get home because of this stupid detention."
"That's two months from now," Sirius said.
"Doesn't matter. Mum remembers everything when she's not—"
Jane cut herself off, remembering that they didn't know about her mother's issues. Sirius looked like he was about to question her, but James spoke first.
"You could come to my house," he said excitedly.
"Believe me, I would if I could, but my parents probably wouldn't let me, especially not after they learn I've got a detention."
"Tell them that you're staying at school," he said.
"I have no reason to stay at school," Jane pointed out.
"Lie to them. Tell them you've got an extra credit assignment to work on or something," James said. "Then, you could just come home with me and Sirius."
"Wait! I have to deal with her over Easter now too?" Sirius teased. "Don't I get a say in this at all?"
"Be quiet," Jane said, throwing her polishing rag in his face.
Jane thought about it for a second. Her parents, not to mention, Sarah, would probably be upset if she didn't come home. On the other hand, James and Sirius were two of her best friends, and she'd get to be around an all wizarding family, which would be infinitely more interesting than home. She wouldn't have to hide anything, and she could put off her parents' frustration for a while longer.
"Would your mum let me?" Jane finally asked.
"Of course she would," James said. "I just have to tell her is all."
Jane thought about the possibility of her parents finding out, but how could they? They weren't at the school, so they wouldn't know if she was wither. She nodded.
"All right," she said, smiling.
"Good," James said.
"Yeah, great," Sirius said, throwing Jane's rag back at her. "But on an even better note, Hufflepuff's Quidditch team sucks this year. I can't wait to flatten them next weekend."
Jane shook her head and went back to cleaning. She went from dreading the Easter holidays to wishing that they would hurry up and get there.
A few weeks later, at the beginning of March, Professor McGonagall had them all sign up for electives for their third year. Jane sat in the common room, staring at the list of new classes. She was required to pick at least two, but she didn't know what to choose.
"What are you guys picking?" she asked, peeking over at Remus' paper. James and Sirius both shrugged. Peter was glancing at James' paper, waiting for him to mark some classes. Remus looked as though he was having the same problem as Jane.
"What's Arithmancy?" Jane asked, looking through the list.
"Numbers," Sirius said.
"That sounds easy enough," she said, picking up her quill.
"If you value your mental state, I wouldn't mark that," James stated. "Sirius is being a git. Arithmancy is about the magical properties of numbers. There are a lot of essays and complicated number charts. You don't want to take that."
"Oh," Jane said, putting her quill back down in disappointment.
"All right," Sirius said. "I'm taking Care of Magical Creatures and…"
He didn't say anything. Jane stared at him.
"And?" she pressed.
"Hold on a minute; I'm thinking," he said, looking down at his paper. "You know, I've been thinking about taking Muggle Studies just to piss off my mum."
Jane watched James mark down Care of Magical Creatures, and she did the same. She liked animals well enough.
"I think it'd be interesting," Remus said.
"Trust me, there's nothing interesting about Muggles," Jane assured.
"Not when you've grown up as one," James said.
"You don't seriously find Muggles interesting, do you?" she asked him. James only shrugged.
"A little," he said. "Besides, it'd probably be an easy grade, especially when we've got you to answer all our questions."
"Well, you guys go right ahead, but I've had enough Muggle Studies to last a lifetime," Jane said, looking through the list yet again.
"What about Divination then?" James said. Sirius groaned.
"Not that," he said. "Do you know how rare it is for someone to actually be able to predict the future? Divination's a load of crap."
By this point, the five friends had all checked Care of Magical Creatures on their parchments. They all looked at each other for some sort of guidance.
"That's it," Remus said after a moment of complete silence, "I'm taking Muggle Studies."
Jane watched as he marked his paper. The others followed suit. Jane really didn't want to take that class.
"What's Ancient Runes? That's just like translating things, right?"
"Kind of," James said.
"Well, I'm taking that," she said, checking Ancient Runes on her parchment. "I am not taking Muggle Studies."
Sirius shrugged.
"Suit yourself," he said, rolling up his parchment.
"What are these down here?" Jane asked, pointing to the list of other classes down below the list they had chosen from.
"Oh, that's extra-curricular stuff, like Art and Music," Remus said.
"What's Ancient Magic?" Jane asked.
"Kind of like History," James said. "Tells you all about the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge and the wizards that built them and stuff."
"What's the difference between Art and Muggle Art?" she asked.
"You just never run out of questions, do you?" Sirius said, getting slightly annoyed. Jane rolled her eyes at him.
"Can I sign up for one?" she asked. Remus shrugged, nodding his head a bit.
"Why would you want to do that?" Sirius asked. "That means after classes are done, you'll have to go to another class, while normal people are out enjoying the day. And you don't even get real credit for it."
"Says here that Art only meets on Tuesday afternoons from four to five," she said.
No matter what Sirius said, Jane had decided that she wasn't going to let him bully her out of taking it. Jane loved art. She wasn't the best at it, but she wasn't terrible either; she just needed a bit of work was all. Besides, she was interested in what this new, magic art class had to offer, seeing as how Muggle Art was an entirely different class of its own.
"Well, I'm taking it," she said, checking Art on her parchment before rolling it up.
"You're so weird," Sirius stated. She pushed him aside to go turn in her parchment to McGonagall, happy with her selections regardless of Sirius' opinion.