CHAPTER FORTY

That was the last time Jane saw or spoke to Sarah before she left for Kings Cross. Who did Sarah think she was anyway, calling her a bitch? Every time Jane thought of it, it made her blood boil, and she wanted to punch Sarah all over again.

Jane's parents were very disappointed in her. They had wanted to know what had "gotten into her," as though she had been infected with something. Jane didn't care though. In fact, she was kind of proud. For a girl that had never been in a fight before, she held her own. She had been able to make Sarah's nose bleed; Jane doubted that she had broken it, but drawing blood was good enough for her.

Of course, Sarah had got a pretty good hit in as well. Jane's left cheekbone had some bruising to it. Her powder covered most of it, but anyone with decent eyesight could still see the bruise a little bit.

By the time she got to Kings Cross, Jane was almost ready to fight Sarah again. She quickly said goodbye to her parents and slowly lugged her suitcase and Nimbus 1500 onto the train. She found an empty compartment and just sat there.

A part of Jane was relieved; she was finally free of Sarah. But the other part of her felt so guilty. Sarah was right; Jane had replaced her, and Sarah hadn't really deserved that. But then again, Sarah had called her a bitch, and Jane hadn't deserved that either.

Jane knew that James or someone was probably already sitting in a compartment somewhere (she was never the first one there), but she figured that they'd come and find her if they really wanted to. She wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone anyway. But after a while of sitting and contemplating about being angry and sad at the same time, a little after the train started to move, Sirius found her.

"There you are," he said. "What are you doing? We never sit this far back on the train."

Jane shrugged.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," Jane said, getting up from her seat and starting to tug on her suitcase.

Sirius put a hand on her suitcase to stop her.

"Seriously, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I said nothing," Jane said.

"What happened to your face then?" he asked.

Jane's hand instinctively reached up to the bruised portion of her face, but she shrugged and tried to pull her suitcase off of the luggage rack once more.

"I got into a fight," she said in a nonchalant tone.

Sirius pushed her suitcase back onto the rack once more, and Jane threw up her hands in exasperation.

"You got in a fight? With who?" Sirius asked.

Jane saw the hint of amusement on his face, and she almost didn't tell him. But she decided just to humour him.

"With Sarah."

Sirius' brow shot upwards in surprise.

"Isn't she your best friend?" he asked.

"Not anymore," Jane said as she started to tug on the heavy suitcase again.

"You at least got a hit in, didn't you?" Sirius asked in a criticising tone.

Jane nodded.

"Right in the nose," she said.

"Break it?"

"No. Busted it though," she said, unaware of the smirk that had formed on her face.

"Nice," Sirius said.

"Mm, glad you approve," Jane said, "because everybody else at the wedding reception did not."

Jane had been so close to finally lugging her overweight suitcase off the rack when Sirius slapped his hand back on it and pushed it back into place. Jane wanted to break his hand off.

"You got into a fight at a wedding? Why, the Janie I know would never do something like that," he said in a manner of mock surprise.

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do," Jane said.

Sirius just grinned at her and shook his head.

"Now, can you help me move this thing? Or are we just going to stay in this compartment?"

Sirius pulled the suitcase off the rack in one great heave which made Jane jealous. She had basically no upper body strength whatsoever.

"You've been practising your flying, right?" Sirius said, his eyes flashing towards her broomstick.

"Of course I have," Jane said. "I didn't want to look like an idiot at try-outs, did I?"

"Nervous about try-outs?" Sirius asked as they walked down the aisle of the train.

"Nope," Jane said.

This was a lie. She was nervous, but she wasn't as nervous as she had been the previous year, and if she had admitted to being nervous, Sirius just would have teased her for it anyway.

"Good," Sirius said, walking into the compartment with the rest of their friends.

"What's good?" James asked nosily as Jane sat down beside him.

"Janie's making first string this year," Sirius said, sitting across from them in between Remus and Peter.

"Tell me something I don't know," James said arrogantly.

"Well, Janie got into a fight yesterday," Sirius said.

"What?" James exclaimed.

So, Jane went into detail for them about her fight with Sarah, and she didn't notice it, but she smiled the entire time.