CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Jane couldn't wait for next Friday to come, and when it did, she was very excited. She had crammed her suitcase in the back of the car, and off they went to Diagon Alley.
James and Sirius were already there, waiting for the others to arrive. Jane smiled and walked up to them, giving them both hugs.
"It's good to see you," James said.
Jane immediately frowned at him and started hitting him with her purse.
"Ow! Ow! Jane, stop it! Ouch!"
"You. Will. Leave. Lily. Alone!" she said as she continued to beat on him.
James turned to Sirius for help, but Sirius only smiled.
"Sorry, mate. As much as it pains me, I'm with Janie on this one. Evans is way past her breaking point, and as entertaining as I find this, I prefer to stay un-hexed and curse-free," he said.
"All right! All right! I'll leave her alone!" James said, throwing his hands up in surrender.
Jane stopped hitting him.
"I mean it, James. If I get hexed because of you, you won't know what hit you. I know where you sleep. Don't think I won't hurt you," Jane said.
"All right!" he said, rubbing his arm. "What do you have in that thing? Bricks?"
"Books."
"Notice how they sound alike?" Sirius said. "They have so much in common. They're roughly the same size. They're both dreadfully boring—"
"The books I read aren't boring," Jane defended.
"I'm sorry, but The Wizard's Guide to Magical Plants and their Uses sounds like a snore-fest," Sirius said.
"Mm, maybe, but at least I know which plants would kill you fastest if I were to slip them into your food," Jane said.
"She's threatened both of us already," Sirius said to James. "Un-invite her!"
"Sorry. No getting rid of me beyond this point," Jane said, grinning.
"So, what were your parents so worried about that you needed to convince them to let you come?" James asked as they waited for Remus and Peter to arrive.
"Ugh! That was the worst day of my life!" Jane said.
"What happened?" Sirius asked, smirking.
"Thanks to both of you being boys, I got to have the sex talk with my parents," Jane said disdainfully, as though they could help their gender.
"What?" James asked, horrified at the thought.
"Wait," Sirius said, "they thought we would actually shag you?"
Jane rolled her eyes at him and smiled a malicious smile.
"Actually, I told them that you wouldn't have the time, seeing as how you're too busy doing that with yourself," she said to Sirius.
James busted out laughing as Sirius glared at her.
"I'm gonna get you back for that one," he said threateningly.
"I am terrified," Jane drawled sarcastically as Remus finally got there, later followed by Peter.
The friends walked and talked about James and his very unhealthy obsession with Lily Evans as their parents did their school shopping.
"I don't obsess over her," James said.
"She threatened to hex all of us because you wouldn't leave her alone. Sounds a bit obsessive to me, mate," Peter said.
"Oh, shut up," James said, crossing his arms.
Jane looked at Peter.
"How come you never wrote me over summer? Everyone else did. In fact, you've never written me," she said.
"How come you don't write to me?" he countered.
"I don't have an owl," she answered.
"Well, my family has an owl, but I'm scared use it," Peter admitted.
"How come?" Remus asked.
"It doesn't like me very much," Peter said. "So, I just use everyone else's owls."
Jane nodded. Made sense. Peter didn't usually have luck with animals. Especially ones with sharp claws. Bad things happened. She had learned this last school term during one of their Care of Magical Creatures classes which had resulted in Peter being sent to the Hospital Wing with no less than seven bite marks.
The friends walked down the crowded street, watching witches and wizards do their daily shopping, watching children run around with toy wands. It didn't take long before James and Sirius had to ruin the great time they were having.
As they passed the dark entrance to Knockturn Alley, James eyed it carefully.
"Have you ever been down there?" he asked Sirius.
"No. I don't have to. My own house is probably much worse," he answered.
"Mum says I'm not allowed," James said.
Jane watched as James and Sirius formed equally mischievous grins on their faces.
"No," Jane said. "Absolutely not!"
"Aw, why not?" James asked.
"Because I value my life. I'm not about to go down there in the middle of all these blood purists that are into the Dark Arts! In case you've forgotten, I'm a Muggle-born," Jane said.
"Yeah, James. I mean, with all the things that have been in the Prophet, all those disappearances, maybe it's not such a good idea to wander into places where dark wizards might hang about," Remus said.
"And you just said your mum won't let you," Peter added in a small voice.
"Oh, where's your sense of adventure?" Sirius asked them.
"Sense of adventure? Where's your common sense?" Jane asked.
"You know what? We don't care. If you're too scared, just stay here," Sirius said as he and James started to walk towards Knockturn Alley.
Jane sighed. This was the Shrieking Shack all over again. Those two idiots were going to get themselves into big trouble. She rolled her eyes.
"Come on," she said to Remus and Peter as she followed James and Sirius down the dark alley.
"I knew you'd come around," Sirius said, draping an arm over her shoulders.
"Shut up," she said.
Normally, Jane would've pushed him off of her, but in a place like this, she felt a lot safer with someone's arm around her, even if that arm belonged to someone as ignorantly arrogant as Sirius Black.
"I don't like it down here," Jane said as they walked past a shop with a severed hand in its shop window.
"Yeah, we've seen it, can we go now?" asked Peter, who was sticking really close to Jane, like that would've done him any good had they actually been attacked.
"I second the motion to get the hell out of here," Remus said, looking around at everyone as though they were going to all come after him at any moment.
"All three of you need to shut up," Sirius said. "Nothing's going to happen to us. Oh!"
"What?" James asked.
"That's Lucius Malfoy. He's engaged to my cousin, Narcissa," Sirius said, pointing to a man with sleek blonde hair and a pointed face.
"What's he doing down here?" Peter asked.
"What's he doing marrying a person like Narcissa?" Sirius asked rhetorically. "There's a lot of good questions here."
Sirius retracted his arm from Jane's shoulders, and she immediately slid closer to Remus. She didn't like this place one bit, and maybe she was just being paranoid, but she could feel people watching them.
"Maybe we should get out of here before he sees you," Jane whispered.
"Mm, yes, Sirius, maybe you should listen to your little friends."
A chill ran down Jane's spine when she heard the cruel, cold voice. They all turned to see a dark-haired woman with heavily hooded eyes.
"Bellatrix," Sirius said curtly.
"Why am I not surprised to see you with blood traitors and Mudbloods?"
As she asked this, Bellatrix's eyes landed on Jane. James instinctively stepped in front of her, and she hid her face behind him.
"Bella, let's not make a scene," said a woman with blonde hair.
"Of course not, Cissy," Bellatrix said. "Just saying hello to our dear cousin."
Sirius made a disparaging noise before his two cousins walked away.
"Can we get out of here now?" Jane asked, her voice muffled by James' back, which her face was still buried in.
The five friends couldn't get out of Knockturn Alley quick enough, but that didn't save them from the wrath of Mrs. Potter who had seen them all walk out of there.
"James Charles Potter!"
James flinched at his mother's voice.
"What on earth were you doing down there?!"
"I—ah!" he said as Mrs. Potter grabbed him by his ear.
"What were you thinking?! Were you even thinking!?" she was shouting at him.
"Janie," Jane's mother said. "What were you doing?"
Jane immediately downcast her eyes.
"Oh, no, Mary, this was this one's idea, I can tell it," Mrs. Potter said, yanking on James' ear, causing him to yelp. "And this sort of thing is not going to happen again. Right, James?"
"Ow! Yes! Okay!" he said.
"Good," Mrs. Potter said, relinquishing his ear.
James scowled and rubbed his ear, and Sirius was trying not to laugh. James elbowed him in the side.
Jane's mum looked unsure about the whole thing, but Mrs. Potter spoke up.
"Aren't you going to show Jane what you bought her?" she asked Jane's mum.
Jane looked up long enough to notice what her mother was holding. She almost leaped for joy.
"An owl?" Jane asked excitedly.
Jane's mum smiled and nodded.
Jane examined the beautiful bird as it slept in its cage and smiled. Her summer had finally come to a turning point.