CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Seeing as how Jane knew that she was going to have a lot to do throughout the rest of the school year, she decided to save herself a ton of guilt. She had written Sarah a couple of letters, and in the last one, after she was certain that Sarah wasn't mad at her, she told Sarah that she wouldn't be able to write a lot, possibly not at all. Jane had promised to make it up to her during the upcoming summer break.

Now, during the middle of May, with exams only three weeks away, Jane was starting to feel anxious again. If there was one thing that Jane hated more than anything else in the world, it was the end of term exams. Admittedly, the year prior, she had thought that they were going to be a lot worse than they actually were, but they still scared her. She took precautions this year, never letting her books out of sight lest the boys tried to hide them from her again this year. The only two places anyone would find Jane during this time of year was the library or the Quidditch pitch.

Presently, Jane was in the library with Lily, pouring over History books and the poorly written notes she had taken in History of Magic that year. And as always when Jane was away studying for too long, James came looking for her.

"Hellloooo, Evans."

"Sod off, Potter," Lily replied without looking up from her book.

"Aren't you done yet?" James asked Jane, completely unfazed by Lily's rejection.

"Aren't you tired of asking me that?" Jane replied.

"Nope," he said, sitting beside her.

"Go away," Jane said.

"I haven't done anything," James said, throwing his hands up.

"Not yet," Jane said knowingly, glancing at him. He smirked a bit.

"Who says I'm not here to study with you?"

"James, the last time you claimed that you were going to help me study, you ended up setting a book on fire for fun," Jane said, earning a hiss from Madam Pince who had overheard what she had said.

"Well, I can't help it that studying's boring beyond belief," James said. "Honestly, I 'm not sure how you manage it."

"Could you please go away, Potter? You're distracting us," Lily said in an irritated tone. James ruffled his hair and leaned back in the chair.

"Am I now?" he said. "I know it's hard to pay attention to anything else when someone as wonderful as I am is in the room."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"That was hardly my point," she said.

"Don't you usually study with Snivellus?" James asked. "What? Was he smudging your notes with all that grease practically dripping from his hair? Or is it just that Jane's more bearable to look at?"

Jane shook her head silently as Lily quickly gathered her things and left the library.

"I expect it's both!" James called after her, earning a shush from the librarian.

"For someone who likes her so much, you sure are an arse to her," Jane pointed out. James rolled his eyes.

"I didn't say anything about her, just that freak she hangs out with."

"That freak happens to be her friend," Jane said.

"Oh, don't tell me that you're defending him now," James replied. Jane laughed.

"Of course not, I hate the slimy git," she said, "but Lily is friends with him."

"Oh, who cares? It's all in good fun anyway."

"Can I study now?"

"You've been studying for hours," James whined. "It's almost time for dinner."

"Dinner's almost an hour away," Jane said.

"That's close enough," James said.

"Go away, James."

"Oh, come on, Jane. Take—"

"'Take a break; come do something with me and Sirius. I'm bored,'" Jane interrupted, mimicking his voice; she had heard it so many times before. "I can't," she continued. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"I do not sound like that," he said, crossing his arms. "Oh, I almost forgot!" James continued excitedly. "I have to tell you something!"

Jane just wanted to study. Why couldn't he just tell her at dinner or on the way to Quidditch practice tomorrow? Besides, she had a terrible headache right now.

"You can't tell Remus though because we haven't said anything to him yet, but the other night, Sirius, Peter, and I went to try and visit him in the Hospital Wing, but he wasn't—"

"James," Jane said, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples, "can't we talk about this later? I have a lot of stuff to do."

James stood up; a slightly disappointed look was plastered on his face.

"You always have a lot of stuff to do," he mumbled before walking away. Jane sighed as he left.

About the same time James walked out of the library, Lily walked back in and took her spot across from Jane.

"Did you really just wait outside the library for him to leave?"

Lily shrugged.

"I knew he'd leave eventually," she said.

"Why didn't you just go to the common room?" Jane asked.

"It's too noisy in there. The library's much nicer. What'd he want anyway?" Lily asked. Jane shrugged.

"The usual. He's probably just bored. He did try and tell me something about Remus I think, but I wasn't really paying attention. I just didn't have the time, and I'm sure he'll tell me later," Jane said. She sighed, thinking of the disappointed look on James' face.

"Do you think we over do the whole studying thing sometimes?" she asked.

"No," Lily said. "Potter only thinks we do because he never studies. I don't understand how he gets such good marks."

Jane looked at her book, but her head, by this point, was killing her. She closed the book.

"Maybe I do need a break," she said, laying her head down on a pile of books on the table. Lily pushed her own books aside and looked at Jane.

"My family's going to France this summer," she said.

"Sounds fun," Jane said, rubbing her head again.

"Tuney and I get to bring a friend each," Lily continued. "I was wondering if you'd like to come with us?"

Jane looked at Lily.

"Really?" she asked, not bothering to hide her excited tone. Lily nodded.

"Of course!" Jane said. "Just need to ask Mum and Dad. When are you going?"

"Last week of June. We're staying for about two and a half weeks," Lily said.

"That's a long vacation," Jane said excitedly, her headache being the least of her worries at the moment. She ripped a piece of spare parchment and wrote down a number. She folded it and handed it to Lily.

"That's our number. Have your parents ring us up. Mum's gonna want to talk to them if they let me go," Jane said.

"All right," Lily said, putting the number in her pocket.

They talked the rest of the time about the upcoming trip. Jane's headache was forgotten along with their studies. And the promise to make everything up to Sarah during the summer was forgotten as well.