CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

As the days passed and September turned to October, Jane had, yet again, been immersed in Quidditch practice and schoolwork. She was no longer focused on the boys and their seemingly secretive ways; she had other things on her mind. There were things that made her happy, like the fact that her bra was getting too small, and she was going to have to go up a size soon. However, there were things that made her worry as well. Remus' copies of the Daily Prophet seemed to bring bad news almost every week now, with headlines like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Strikes Again and Death Eaters Terrorise Muggle Neighbourhood.

It seemed as though the problems with this dark wizard and his followers were getting worse, and no one had been able to capture him yet. Some part of Jane began to doubt that they ever would catch him, but the other part still ignorantly placed faith in what James had said over summer. She just wanted to believe that it was going to get better.

However, even James and Sirius themselves began to secretly doubt the Auror Office after days of terrible news. Of course, they never said anything, and they surely didn't call Voldemort "You-Know-Who;" they thought it was ridiculous the way people acted as though the silly name itself could cause destruction. It irked them that their own friends were among the very people too scared to say Voldemort's name.

"What do you think's going to happen?" Sirius had asked Jane as they got ready for Quidditch practice. "Do you think he's gonna pop out from behind a shrub?"

"Of course I don't," Jane said, lacing up her Quidditch boot, not really comfortable with the topic of conversation.

"Then why don't you just say his name?" he pressed.

"Because I don't want to," she said.

"Just say it."

"No."

"Leave her alone, Sirius," James said.

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It gets on your nerves too; don't act like it doesn't," he said to James.

"Yeah, but listening to you two bicker is gonna get on my nerves even more," James said as he strapped on a Quidditch glove.

"Yeah, go bug Remus or Peter about it," Jane said, giving Sirius a little shove as she walked past him to get her broomstick.

Sirius lightly swung his Beater's bat at her, and it made contact with her elbow. A kind of shock was sent up her arm.

"Ow!" Jane said, grabbing her arm. "That was my funny bone you arse!"

Sirius just laughed.

"Have I told you I hate you lately?"

"Mm, not today," Sirius said.

"Well, I do," Jane said, still clutching her arm.

"Well, that's nothing new," said Jarod Harris as he walked into the locker room.

Jane smiled and shook her head as the rest of the team walked in. The team had virtually not changed from last year, seeing as how no one on first string had graduated; the only real changes had been made on second string.

"And she should. He's intolerable at the best of times," Brenton teased.

"That's not what your girlfriend says," Sirius retorted.

"Really funny," Brenton said sarcastically.

"I wasn't joking," Sirius mumbled under his breath with a smirk on his face.

Luckily, Brenton hadn't heard, and Candice went on to talk about their strategy for the upcoming Slytherin game.

Jane couldn't wait for the first Quidditch match. It had only been a month, but Avery and his little gang of friends had already managed to severely piss her off, trying to dredge up the old rumours that Aaron had started the prior term. She couldn't wait to have a reason to do some kind of damage to Avery. Besides, she had never got to personally repay him for her broken ankle.

"Okay, so first thing's first, Slytherin has a new Keeper," Candice said. "Now, I've heard he's a lot better than Nott, but I haven't actually seen him play for myself. Of course, we're not about to go into a game with Slytherin assuming that their Keeper is just 'okay'

"Gryffindor's won the Quidditch cup for five years straight now. I'm really hoping to make it six, especially since this is my last year."

There was a collective sigh from the team. They were going to miss her.

"Okay, so I want our Chasers to be on top game."

"The J-Team is always on top game," James said, slapping Jane and Jarod on their backs; the three Chasers had taken to calling themselves that last year because every one of their names started with a J.

"I mean," Candice continued, "I don't ever want just one person taking the Quaffle up the pitch. I want all three of you in-sync with each other. All of you need to come at him at once."

"But only one Chaser's allowed in the scoring area at a time," Jane said.

"Yeah," Jarod continued for her, "we'd be called out for Stooging before we ever shot the ball."

"Will anybody let me finish?" Candice asked, started to get annoyed with the three Chasers. "I want all of you going down the field at once. Constantly crossing over, constantly passing the ball until that very last moment where one of you has to enter the scoring area. Hopefully, that'll throw him off his game a bit."

Candice talked for a while more before they finally started practice. By the end of practice the "J-Team" was dead. They had had the worst practice out of anyone. Candice had kept yelling at them, telling them do redo things over and over. Jane was happy when practice was over.

"Since when did Candice turn into a female version of you, James?" Jane had asked as they walked up to the common room.

"Oh, come on. I'm not that hard on anyone," he replied as Sirius opened the portrait hole.

"Please, mate, if you were captain, you'd be ten times worse than Candice was today," Sirius said.

Jane climbed through the portrait hole and fell onto the couch. Something crinkled underneath her, and she lifted herself up to pull out a copy of the Evening Prophet. She looked at the page it was turned to and noticed a section entitled: List of Known Missing or Dead

She read down the list. It seemed to go on forever. Halfway through, she tossed the paper aside, and a pit formed in her stomach. That was only a list of known missing or dead. How many more were left unknown? How could life at Hogwarts seem so normal, with Quidditch and schoolwork and friends, when the world outside was facing something so terrifying?