CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
A couple days later, Sarah left for Birmingham without any reconciliation between herself and Jane. Jane decided that when they both got back from their trips, Sarah wouldn't be mad or hurt anymore; she'd be too excited about showing Jane the things she had gotten and asking Jane never-ending questions about Paris.
Between that time and the time that Jane would leave for Lily's house, Jane spent her time as best as she could in a place like Stockbridge. She walked down to the River Test; she had her mum go buy her makeup of her own; she packed; she listened to music. Basically, she did anything she could to keep from imploding in on herself out of sheer boredom.
Luckily, Lily had rung her up a few times, and excitedly talked to her about how they were going to get to fly on a plane and see the Eiffel Tower (both being things that neither of them had ever done).
Jane was thrilled at the idea of Paris; she had always wanted to go. She was so happy about her parents letting her go with Lily that not even their prying, as it seemed they had been doing of late, could make her annoyed with them.
Agreeing on a place for the two families to meet, the girls and their mothers finally got together and had lunch before Jane departed for the Evans' house in Cokeworth, Surrey, which was just the next county town over from Hampshire, in which lay Stockbridge.
Upon arriving at the home of the Evans family, Jane saw a girl, probably only a couple years older than herself, staring down at her from one of the upstairs windows, with a look of contempt upon her face. Jane cast her eyes elsewhere to escape the scornful stare and walked over the threshold of the house with Lily.
"Petunia," called Lily's mother, "we're home."
The girl from the window appeared at the top of the stairs, and Jane, once again, cast her gaze elsewhere. The stare of Lily's elder sister was formidable enough to make Jane remain very close to Lily's side.
"Has your friend not arrived yet?" Mrs. Evans asked Petunia.
"None of them could go," was Petunia's cold reply.
"Well, this is Lily's friend, Jane," Mrs. Evans said. "I expect you to make her feel welcome," she added in a lowered tone, but it still reached Jane's ears.
Lily gave Jane's arm a little tug.
"Come on, I'll show you my room," Lily said.
Jane followed Lily up the staircase as she pulled her rather heavy suitcase behind her. Down the hallway, through the second door on the left, Jane found herself in Lily's room. Jane was immediately envious of it. It was not as luxurious as the rooms in the Potters' house, in fact, it was hardly bigger than her own, but it still had an air about it that made Jane wish that she lived in it.
Lily, so it had seemed to Jane, had managed to put the whole of her personality into her room. Jane hardly took notice that it was painted red with gold trimmings because Lily had plastered her walls in so many posters and banners that they nearly covered all of the wall space. There were many books, of Muggle and Magical origin, lined on the bookshelf on one side of the room, and Jane guessed that they were probably all alphabetised. On a desk sat Lily's typewriter, and on the wall above the desk there was a map with a couple of red pushpins in it.
Lily picked up one of the pins from a box on the desk and rolled it carefully in her palm.
"It's for all the exciting places I visit," Lily informed her. "It's not much now, Mum and Dad have to save a lot for trips like this, but it'll be full of little red pins one day."
Jane looked up at it and thought of how great an idea it was and planned to hang a map in her own room when she got back home. Her first pin would be placed in northern Scotland because Hogwarts and Hogsmeade were two of the most exciting places that she would ever see.
Lily threw the little pushpin back into its box and fell back onto her small bed.
"How come none of your sister's friends could come?" Jane asked, wondering if maybe the reason that none of them could go was because none of them existed; it was hard to think that the girl she had just encountered had any friends at all.
Lily sighed and rolled over to her stomach and propped herself onto her elbows.
"She's lying," Lily said. "She didn't ask any of them. She doesn't want any of her friends to think that she has a freak for a sister."
"You're not a freak," Jane said, sitting down in the chair at the desk. "If anything, she's the freak, staring at people out of windows, glaring at them and not saying a word."
"That's mean, Jane," Lily said.
Jane shrugged a little bit, and Lily sighed.
"I don't know what I did to make her not like me so much. I'm always so nice to her," Lily said.
Suddenly, Lily's owl flew through her bedroom window and landed in its previously abandoned cage. Lily stood up and fed the bird some treats.
Jane shrugged again.
"Maybe she's just jealous," Jane offered as explanation. "Have you heard from anybody from school yet?"
"Not yet," Lily said. "I expect we'll get letters in France. It's a shame that I'm not bringing my typewriter."
Suddenly, Petunia was at the doorway of Lily's room. She refused to step through the threshold, as though it were a disgusting and repulsive place. Her countenance had not changed from before, though she did not seem acknowledge Jane's presence, to which Jane was most thankful.
"The freak is here," said Petunia in a dreadfully dull voice.
Jane, at first, was taken aback at the thought that Petunia would say such things about her, and to her face nonetheless! But as Lily looked out of her window, Jane realised that Petunia was not talking about her.
"He has a name, Tuney," Lily said to her sister.
Jane walked over to the window and made a disparaging noise out of little less than habit. Out on the small front lawn stood none other than Severus Snape himself.
"Don't do that. Don't make that noise like that," Lily said.
"Sorry, it's a reflex," Jane defended rather truthfully.
"Come out and say hello with me," Lily said, crossing the room.
Jane looked out of the window once more, the contempt that she held for the boy painfully evident on her face. She looked to Lily with a less than amused expression gracing her features.
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Oh, you only don't like him because Potter and Black hate him," Lily said.
This had been the case at one point, but was now almost entirely false. While Jane had gotten used to the fact that James and Sirius had made it their mission to make Snape's life miserable, and had even began to assist in this, Jane did not originally hate the boy. Over her two years at Hogwarts, Jane had formed her very own opinion of Snape, and it was cruelly matched by the opinion he held of her. Jane found him to be overly pretentious without reason, and he made it painfully obvious to everyone, save Lily, what he thought of people of Jane's own blood status. Snape was of no higher merit than herself, in fact, Jane saw him lower in status, but he so arrogantly believed himself above so many of his peers that Jane found him unbearable and vile.
"Never mind," Lily said, walking out of the room.
Jane stared down at Snape through the open window and watched as Lily joined him outside. The contempt for him swept over her features once more. Oh, how she hated him and the lot of friends (if one could call them that) that he so anxiously followed around like a lost puppy. No, she did not hate him just because her friends did; she had merely come to understand and share their hatred for the boy who, Jane had no doubt, would walk through his life with a false sense of importance if someone did not put him in his place now. Therefore, Jane felt that James and Sirius were doing everyone a huge service whenever they targeted him; Snape needed to learn that he was not as significant as he so self-proclaimed he was.
At this moment, Jane realised that Petunia was still in the doorway. She turned to look at her, and in hopes of getting in the girl's good graces, said:
"I agree with you. He is a freak."
However, Petunia was not any more inclined to like Jane after her admission than before, and she promptly turned on her heel and walked away.
Here, thought Jane, is yet another arrogantly pretentious person that needs to be put in her place.