CHAPTER NINETY-NINE
The next day, Jane said goodbye to Sammy and Sarah for a little while as she ventured to her house to find clothes for Sean's party that night. When she was finished with that, Jane came down from her room and looked at her father, who was sitting in his office, hunched over his desk.
"You realise it's Sunday, right?" Jane asked, resting against the door frame of his office.
"Hmm?" her father asked, not looking at her.
Jane rolled her eyes. She almost just walked out of the house. However, she thought of a way to get him to say more than two words to her.
"I'm going to a party tonight," Jane said, trying to grab his attention.
Jane didn't care if he didn't let her go. At least if he did that, he'd have to acknowledge her to do so. She almost wished that that's what he would do—tell her she couldn't go.
"A party?" he asked, looking at her.
Jane almost smiled. She had made him look at her.
"Yeah," she said. "At Sean Bresson's house."
"Who's that?"
"He's a boy Sarah and Sammy go to school with," Jane said, happy that her father was talking to her.
"Where?"
"His house on Church Lane," Jane said, excitement growing with every question that he asked her.
"All right. Have fun."
Jane was crestfallen as her father turned back to his work. That was it? He was letting her go? He didn't even know Sean or his parents or if his parents were even going to be there.
Jane shook her head, trying to fight the tears that were springing forth, thinking that it was a stupid thing to cry over. She just said a quiet goodbye and walked away. And she continued to walk with her rucksack of clothes on her back.
Jane walked to the end of her street and then down Longstock Road, turning on High Street and coming to a stop at the Winton Hill Cemetery. She quickly found her mother's grave. There in the granite headstone was carved:
Mary Crawford Hensworth
14 January 1939 – 21 June 1975
Loving wife and mother
Jane just stared at it for a while. She didn't know why she had come here. Maybe it was because of her father. Maybe it was because she was hurt. Maybe it was because in just eight days, it would've been a year. A whole year since her mother took her own life.
Jane began to cry; not because she was sad, but because she was angry and hurt. This was her mother's fault. The whole past year of her life, which had undoubtedly been the worst, was all her mum's fault. It was her mum's fault that she had had to see a counsellor. It was her fault Jane had had breakdowns and meltdowns. It was her mum's fault that she had no parents because not only did Jane's mum take herself away from Jane, she inadvertently took her father away too.
Why hadn't she gotten help? Why hadn't she thought of her family? Had they not been good enough for her?
I hope you're happy, Jane thought bitterly.
"Hey, Jane, red or blue?"
Jane, who was still trying to forget how terrible she felt for blaming her mother for anything, looked at Sarah. She was holding up two different dresses. Jane forced a smile.
"Blue," she said.
Sarah smiled and quickly changed into the dress. Jane had already finished getting ready for the party, and she just lay on Sarah's bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"Hey, Jane, go open the window," Sammy said as she worked on something on Sarah's dressing table.
"Why?" Jane asked in a bored tone.
"Because I have just enough weed left over from last night for us to smoke before the party," Sammy answered, holding up the blunt she had rolled.
"I don't really feel like doing that right now," Jane said in the same bored tone.
Sammy rolled her eyes.
"Fine, more for me and Sarah. Could you still open the window?"
Jane sighed and forced herself off of the bed. She walked over to the window and lifted it open, letting in the cool night air.
"Thank you," Sammy chirped as she searched her pockets for a lighter.
Jane stayed at the window, just looking down at the dark street, lit up poorly by the street lamps. She was occasionally joined by Sarah or Sammy as they blew smoke out of the window. Jane finally lit up a cigarette, smiling as Sammy talked in depth about how Sarah's carpet was the softest carpet she'd ever felt.
Jane turned to look at Sammy, who was sitting on the floor and rubbing her hands over the carpet. Jane giggled at her, which caused the other two girls to laugh.
Jane shushed them.
"Don't wake up your parents," she said to Sarah.
Jane vaguely wondered if they'd ever make it to Sean's party with the two of them like this. They'd definitely be late. She shook her head and turned to look back out of the window, and she almost let out a yelp of surprise.
There on her street was a purple triple decker that hadn't been there before. Jane immediately recognised it as the Knight Bus. She watched as it pulled away and disappeared into the night, leaving behind a person.
"I'll be right back, okay, guys?" Jane told her friends as she stared at the figure on the street warily and picked up her rucksack.
"All right," Sarah said in a dreamy voice.
Jane walked down the dark hallway and down the stairs. When she reached the door of the house, she slowly pulled her wand out of her rucksack. Sarah's dog, Max, cocked its head at Jane.
"Come here, boy," Jane called in a whisper, and he immediately wagged his tail and heeled to her.
Jane walked outside with Max sticking right beside her. As she got closer to the figure, she raised her wand. However, when the stranger walked into the light of the street lamp, Jane almost dropped her wand in surprise.
"Could you not point that thing at me, Janie?"
"Sirius?" Jane asked, completely baffled.
"Hi," he said.
"What are you doing here?" Jane asked as she put her wand away. "What happened to your face?"
As she had walked closer to him, Jane noticed the bruising around his eye.
"Oh, that? That was my father's doing. Charming fellow," Sirius said sarcastically.
Jane gave him an incredulous look, not knowing how to respond.
"Hey, Jane. Who's that?"
Jane turned to see that Sammy and Sarah were walking out of Sarah's house.
"Here, come inside," Jane said, ushering Sirius into Sarah's house.
"Who's he?" Sarah asked again, once they were in the sitting room.
"He's a friend from school," Jane said, turning on a lamp beside the couch.
"Holy shit, he's fine," Sammy said, which threw her and Sarah into another fit of laughter with Jane shushing them once more.
Sirius cocked an eyebrow at Jane's Muggle friends.
"Are they all right?" he asked.
"They're kind of extremely high right now," Jane said, shaking her head at the girls.
Sirius smirked at Sammy and Sarah as Jane disappeared into the kitchen. When she emerged again, she was holding a bag of frozen peas.
"Sit down," she told Sirius.
He did as instructed, but he eyed her warily.
"What is that, and what do you plan on doing with it?" he asked.
"You need to ice your eye," Jane said, quickly placing the bag of frozen peas on his face.
Sirius immediately turned away.
"That's cold!" he said, and Jane almost rolled her eyes.
"Of course it's cold; it's frozen," she said, placing the bag back over his eye.
"Is this how Muggle's handle all injuries?" he asked.
Jane let out a small laugh.
"Sorry, they can't just zap the bruise away," she said.
Jane then frowned as she stood over him, holding the bag of peas to his eye.
"What happened?"
"Well, you know how my family is—"
"You never told us that they hit you," Jane said in a quieter voice, glancing at Sammy and Sarah, who were both laying on the floor and petting Max, oblivious to the rest of the world.
"Well, they don't, not usually at least. Mostly it's just screaming matches and a few curses now and then, but it's not a big deal," Sirius said.
"It's a very big deal!" Jane said.
"I mean, it's been taken care of," he said.
"Stop being so damn cryptic and tell me what you're talking about," Jane said.
"I left," Sirius told her. "Packed my bags and just left."
"And you came here?" Jane said. "How'd you even know where I live?"
"Please, I had to listen to you complain about this place for five consecutive school years. How could I not know?" he said.
Jane sat down on the arm of the couch, still holding the bag in place over Sirius' eye.
"Anyway, I came to ask you if you want to come with me," Sirius said casually.
Jane lifted the bag away from his face and gave him a curious look.
"What? You mean run away with you?" she asked.
Sirius shrugged.
"I mean, I know how your old man ignores you and all, and you used to talk about running away a lot."
Jane tried to remember a time in which she had ever told Sirius that she wanted to run away, but she couldn't think of any. Then, she realised that she had told him over the Christmas holidays while he was in his Animagus form. Jane was surprised that he remembered.
"Where the bloody hell would we go?" Jane asked.
"Not far. Just to James'," Sirius said, brushing his dark hair out of his face.
"I can't," Jane said.
"Why not?"
"I can't just pack up everything and leave. I can't just run away from home," she answered.
"Sure you can; it's easy," Sirius said. "I'm doing it."
"That's different. You have a reason to."
"So do you."
"A shitty one," Jane replied. "My dad ignoring me isn't solid ground for me running away. There are a lot worse things that parents can do to their children other than ignore them."
"I'll never understand why you use other people's pain to make your pain seem unimportant," Sirius said. "You really need to stop doing it; it's starting to bother me."
"I wasn't doing that," Jane defended. "I was making a valid point. My father ignoring me isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things."
"Have you ever heard of emotional abuse?" Sirius asked.
Jane rolled her eyes.
"Have you ever heard of over exaggerating? Because that's what you're doing," she said, putting the bag of peas back on his eye.
Sirius pushed the bag off of his face and looked at her.
"Why are you all dressed up at this time of night?" he questioned.
"Well, we were supposed to be going to a party, but given the circumstances—"
"Will there be alcohol?" Sirius asked.
"You can't be serious," Jane said. "You're running away from home, and you're thinking about partying? Do you have any priorities that aren't completely fucked?"
"Hey, I've had a rough day and a rough night. My dad used me as a punching bag, and I'm pretty sure my mum's already blasted me off the family tree. I think I deserve some alcohol," Sirius said, standing up and stretching.
"You need to keep this on your eye."
"Janie, I'll fix it when I get to James', but right now, you're taking me to a Muggle party."
"So, would you be completely against me shagging one of your friends? Or both?"
"Sirius, I swear to Merlin, I'll blacken your other eye," Jane said as they walked up Longstock Road with Sammy and Sarah straggling behind them, coming down from their high.
Sirius rolled his eyes, and Jane led them down a road to their left as they reached a church called Saint Mary's.
"How much further?" Sirius asked.
"Four to five minutes. Depends on how fast you walk," Jane said.
Jane cast a sideways glance at him, as she had been doing for the past ten minutes as they walked. She continued to feel bad for him. She'd never known anyone whose parents were abusive towards them.
"I wish you'd stop doing that," Sirius said, getting slightly annoyed with her.
Jane stopped looking at him and looked at the ground instead.
"I'm sorry. It's just—I mean, what were you even arguing with them about in the first place?"
Sirius smirked and slung an arm around Jane's shoulders.
"Aw, look who's all concerned for me. It's sweet," he mocked.
Jane rolled her eyes.
"I care about all my friends," Jane said. "And you didn't answer the question."
Sirius shrugged a bit.
"Same old stuff. They went on about how I'm this big disappointment and how Regulus is the perfect child. They basically just talked about how I was besmirching the Black family name," he said.
Jane frowned. Sirius, though arrogant and narcissistic he was at times, was a good person. He was really smart and funny. He was a spectacular Beater. He was also a great friend (whenever it really mattered). He was far from a disappointment. Any parent should be lucky to have him as their son. Jane knew Mrs. Potter sure loved him well enough.
"Anyway, they started talking about how I needed to be thinking of more important things," Sirius continued, "like making a 'respectable, pure-blood marriage.'"
"And what'd you say to them?" Jane asked, amused at the idea of Sirius ever marrying anyone.
"I told them I'd marry you if I bloody well felt like it and that there was nothing they could do to stop it."
"You told them what?"
Sirius chuckled.
"Don't flatter yourself; it was only to make a point."
"Why must you bring me up in your family discussions? I'd rather your family forget that I exist," Jane said.
"I only bring you up whenever I really want to piss them off," Sirius said.
"Which is how often?"
"Nine times out of ten," he said, smirking.
"Your family's gonna hunt me down and kill me one day," Jane said, turning down a driveway to her left and lighting a cigarette.
Sirius just continued to grin as he took Jane's cigarette out of her mouth and took a long drag of it before keeping it for himself. Jane shoved his arm off of her and lit another cigarette as they arrived at the party.
"So, Jane, if you aren't shagging him, can I?" Sammy asked brazenly, catching up to the two of them.
Sirius raised an amused eyebrow.
"Sirius Black," he said, holding out his hand.
"Sammy Gilmore," Sammy said, shaking his hand happily.
Jane looked at the grins on their faces.
"No," she said. "That is so not happening."
"She's no fun, is she?" Sammy said to Sirius.
"Nope," he replied.
"I need a drink," Jane said, walking off to find the alcohol.
Jane walked around the bonfire and through the crowd of people until she found who she was looking for. He was sitting next to a Beolit 600 radio, changing the station it was on.
"It's got great sound for a portable," Jane complimented the radio.
Sean, who was still tuning it, didn't look up at her.
"Yeah, it's a Bang and Olufsen. One of the best," he said, finally settling on a station.
He turned to look at her, and a small little smile tugged at his lips.
"You probably don't remember me," Jane said.
"Jane Hensworth," he said. "The girl who hates Stockbridge more than I do."
Surprisingly, he stood up and gave her a hug, which Jane hadn't been prepared for. He had gotten taller over the years, and he was still as handsome as could be.
"So, what have you been up to? Who'd you come here with?" Sean asked.
"Oh, nothing much, and I came with Sammy Gilmore," Jane answered.
"Sammy, huh? Am I correct to assume that Sarah's not too far behind either?" he asked bitterly.
"Yeah, I just wasn't gonna say that," Jane said.
"So, I take it that you know," Sean said.
"Yeah, but I'm sure that we can find something else to talk about," Jane said. "Got any drinks?"
Sean laughed.
"Right this way," he said, leading Jane inside the house.
Sirius watched from a little distance as Sean led Jane inside, and he followed, listening to the two talk and laugh. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen as Sean poured Jane a drink. When Sean turned around, he just stared at Sirius. Jane turned to see what he was looking at.
"Oh, Sean, this is Sirius. He goes to school with me," she said as Sirius walked up to stand beside her.
Sean nodded.
"Mind if I help myself, mate?" Sirius asked, pointing to the drinks.
"Go ahead," Sean said, handing Jane her drink. "So, how long have you two been dating?"
Jane let out a laugh.
"Oh, no, we're not—no, no, no. We don't date; we're just friends," Jane said.
"Oh," Sean said, relaxing a bit. "So, he wouldn't mind if I asked you for a dance later?"
"If you want to keep your hands, you best keep them to yourself," Sirius said as he poured himself a drink.
"Sirius!" Jane said, surprised by his outburst.
"What?" he asked, feigning innocence. "He knows I'm joking, right?"
Sirius slung his arm around Sean in what would have been a friendly way if he didn't have a vice-like grip on his shoulder. Jane watched as Sean wrenched his shoulder out of Sirius' hand, and she frowned.
"Sirius, may I have a word with you?" Jane asked.
"Certainly," Sirius said in an amused manner, following her into Sean's sitting room.
"What the hell?" Jane yelled in a whisper at him.
"Oh, I was only having a bit of fun, Janie. If that had been James, he would've—"
"Yes, but you aren't James, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't act like him," Jane interrupted. "This is my life outside of Hogwarts; it'd be nice if you didn't screw with it."
Sirius chuckled at her.
"Why are you laughing? I'm not joking!"
"You have this weird little vein that pops out of your neck when you're mad," he said, grinning at her.
Jane huffed and pushed past him to join Sean again in the kitchen. She downed her drink before saying:
"I'd like that dance now."
For a long time, Sirius stood outside, sipping on his drink and watching Jane dance with Sean with music from Muggle bands he'd never heard of before playing in the background. Then, it came to his attention that this was very weird for him. He wasn't used to seeing Jane interact with boys outside of their little group. James would have a conniption fit if he could see how closely Jane and Sean were dancing.
After a while, Sirius grabbed a random girl to dance with, pushing Jane out of his mind. While Jane's life outside of Hogwarts was far from what he had expected it to be, he wasn't about to let it shock him to the point of not having a good time when there were just so many girls in his sight.
After a couple of hours passed, and Sirius bored of the party, he went to find Jane again. She was at a makeshift table made out of boxes, playing a card game with a few guys. Sirius was shocked to find that she seemed to be winning. The only card game he had ever seen her play was Exploding Snap, and she was dreadful at it. She seemed quite pleased with herself at the moment.
"Hey, Janie, I'm gonna head on to James', all right?"
Jane abandoned her game and walked with Sirius to the end of Sean's long driveway.
"You sure you don't want to come?" Sirius asked.
"And leave all this?" Jane asked sarcastically. "I'll come over later this summer. It's not like my dad will care."
"Or," Sirius said, "you can pack your things now and never have to come back."
Jane smiled a bit.
"I'm not the type of girl that just runs away from home," Jane said.
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Oh, and one tiny favour," Jane said. "Let's keep the whole partying with boys thing a secret from James, yeah?"
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Sirius said, smirking.
"Come on, Sirius. I don't need him on my case," Jane pleaded.
Sirius chuckled.
"All right," he said.
Jane smiled and gave him a hug.
"Thank you," she said.
When Jane pulled away from him, she looked at his black eye and sighed as pity for Sirius swept over her again.
"Sorry about your parents," Jane told him.
"Yeah, me too," he said in a voice that made Jane laugh a little.
Jane looked at a smudge of colour on his neck and wiped at it with her thumb.
"You have lipstick on your neck," she informed him.
Sirius flashed her a wicked grin.
"I probably have it a lot of other places too," he said suggestively.
Jane pushed him away from her.
"You're such a pig," she said, though a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth when she said it.