CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIX
"You seem a little frustrated, James," Jane said, lacing up her Quidditch boots as they got ready for practice.
James only huffed in response.
"Come on, mate," Jane said, "what is it? Problems with Lily again?"
"Isn't it always?" Sirius asked rhetorically.
"She's being childish," James said, crossing his arms and looking rather like a pouting child himself.
Jane exchanged a knowing smirk with Sirius, and looked back at James.
"It's been almost a month, and all we do is argue. We haven't even figured out which potion we're doing! I mean, we had finally settled on Polyjuice, but apparently, someone else has already picked that one, and Old Sluggy says we have to pick another one."
"Oh, yeah, we picked that one," Sirius said, beaming happily.
"And we've already gotten approved for the book we need that's in the Restricted Section," Jane said. "Two points for Team Hensworth; zero for Team Potter."
"Why's it 'Team Hensworth?' Why not 'Team Black?'" Sirius asked.
"Because I said so."
Sirius sneered at her, and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"You two aren't helping," James said, grabbing his broomstick and walking out of the locker room and onto the pitch.
Jane rolled her eyes and grabbed her own broom before following James.
"Listen, after practice, I'll talk to her," Jane said. "She'll come around. After all, she loves her grades more than she hates you."
"Eh, I dunno, Janie," Sirius said. "Evans' love for school and her hate for Prongs might be on par with each other."
"Again: You're not helping," James said, glaring at Sirius over his shoulder.
"Why is it that you three are always the last players out of the locker room?" Will asked as they approached. "The rest of the team is always waiting on you."
Sirius shrugged as he flipped his hair out of his face.
"We look this good for a reason," he said.
Will opened his mouth to say something, but upon looking at Jane, who had an ill-concealed smirk on her face, he seemed to stop.
As he walked away, the trio caught him mumbling something about "next time they'd have extra laps around the pitch."
"He knows he's said that the last two practices, right?" Sirius asked.
Jarod Harris clasped Sirius on the back and smiled.
"Poor William doesn't want to give his girlfriend any punishments."
"She's not his girlfriend," Sirius said.
"Yet," Jane added, causing Sirius to roll his eyes.
"Come on, guys!" Will shouted back at them. "We have drills to do!"
Sirius clicked his tongue in annoyance and followed behind his friends as they made their way to their captain.
"I need. To lay off. The fags," Jane panted after practice was over.
"You and me both," James said.
"Why's he working us so hard? The Slytherin game is still a month away," Sirius said.
"It's his last year," James said. "That's what all the captains are like during their last year."
"Plus," Jane added, having caught her breath a bit more, "he says recruiters are supposed to be coming."
"Recruiters?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah, he wants to play professionally," Jane said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, and it kind of was.
"With who? The Chudley Cannons?" Sirius jested.
Jane went to smack him on his arm, but he moved away from her.
"Will's a great Keeper," she said. "And he's a great captain too."
"I consider your opinion biased," Sirius said.
"Well, I consider your opinion stupid," Jane said, knowing that he was only saying this stuff to get a rise out of her; Sirius knew Will was a great Quidditch player.
As the three of them went up to Gryffindor Tower, Lily walked past them with her books in her hands, more than likely headed to the library. James nudged Jane in the arm, and she sighed.
"I'm gonna take a shower before I do anything else," she told him.
"But you promised that you'd talk to her after practice," James reminded her.
"But I'm all sweaty and gross and I wanna take a hot shower and a nap," Jane complained in a rather whiny voice.
"But you said—"
"You realise that it's Sirius' fault that you're in this boat, right? Why don't you make him talk to her?" Jane said.
"Jane," James said in a pleading voice.
Jane huffed in slight irritation. Shoving her broomstick and gloves into James' hands, she mumbled under her breath before stalking off in the direction of the library.
"I love you, Jane," James said in an overly sweet voice.
Jane didn't turn around; she merely kept walking and lifted her hand back towards him, gracing him with an obscene gesture. She could hear Sirius sniggering as she turned a corner.
Jane was getting tired of the whole "talk Lily Evans into liking James" thing. It never worked. In her opinion, James should just move on. If he didn't actively chase Lily, maybe—well, she probably still wouldn't like him, but she wouldn't hate him as much.
There were plenty of other girls that James could've dated over their years at Hogwarts, but he was always holding out for Lily. Jane was really hoping he would move on. Not only would it make him feel better, but Jane wanted nieces and nephews one day—theoretical ones at least—and the thought of Lily ever even considering marrying James and having kids with him was a laugh.
Jane walked into the library and flung herself into the chair across from Lily. Lily looked up and then looked back down at her Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts book.
"Have a good practice?" she asked as she leafed through the pages.
Jane shrugged.
"It was alright. I think Will's trying to kill us all, but it'll be worth it when November rolls around and we kick Slytherin's arse," she said.
"MacGregor ask you out yet?"
"No," Jane said with just a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Not yet."
"Hey, have you had any progress on those nonverbal spells?" Lily asked.
"Eh, James and Sirius said they would teach me, but I might just end up trying to figure it out myself. They're horrible teachers."
Lily just looked back down at her book. Jane sighed.
"So, have you and James decided on your potion yet?" she asked, trying to bring it up in a nonchalant way.
Lily made a kind of disparaging noise before flipping the page of her book.
"You realise it's due before the holidays, right?" Jane said. "These advanced potions take a while, Lily. It's gonna take Sirius and I a little over a month before we finish our Polyjuice."
"Fine, what about Angel's Trumpet Draught," Lily said, snapping her book shut.
"That-that's a poison," Jane said, thinking about it.
"Exactly."
"So, I'm guessing James isn't too thrilled about that one," Jane said.
"Better than his stupid idea," Lily mumbled.
"Which was…?"
"Amortentia," Lily said with disgust in her voice.
"I can see where the poison would look appealing," Jane said.
Lily sighed.
"I'm gonna fail this project," she said, "all because I'm stuck with him."
"Listen, Lily, I know hanging out and working with James isn't very appealing to you, but he's really not that bad of a guy."
Lily made another disparaging noise, and Jane frowned.
"You said you wanna work in the Ministry, right? In, like, law enforcement?" Jane said.
"The Improper Use of Magic Office," Lily said.
"Look at that! You and James have something in common. He's going into law enforcement too."
"He is?" Lily asked in a less than enthusiastic tone.
"Don't worry; it's not in the same department. But you don't think that there are gonna be arseholes where you work?" Jane asked. "Because there probably will be, and you're gonna have to work with them sometimes whether you like them or not."
"I know," Lily said.
"Well, this is just one project. If you can't learn to tolerate James for one project, then you probably shouldn't go into a job that requires you to work with other people."
Lily slumped back in her chair.
"I know," she said.
"So, how about sometime after class next week, you and I and James and Sirius just get together and work on our potions, okay? It won't be so bad with me there, right?" Jane suggested.
"I guess not, but we still haven't decided on a potion yet," Lily pointed out.
"Well, I'd put down the Defence book, and open a Potions book if I were you," Jane said.
Jane stood up and stretched, scrunching her nose at the smell of her own sweat.
"I'm going to go take a shower now."
"Well, this is boring."
Jane and Lily both rolled their eyes at Sirius and continued to talk as they waited for James to get back with the seeds from a Belladonna plant that his and Lily's Alihosty Draught required.
"How long do these things have to stew before we actually get to make the potion?" Sirius asked, pointing at Jane's cauldron full of lacewing flies.
Jane glanced back at him and then down at Moste Potente Potions.
"Twenty-one days," Jane said. "Did you write down the date so we won't forget?"
"Eh, I'll remember," Sirius said, shrugging slightly.
"Write it down," Jane said. "I don't want to overcook these things. I can't imagine anything worse than testing a bad Polyjuice and end up looking like you for the rest of my life."
"You'd be the luckiest person in the world if that happened," Sirius said, snatching up Jane's notebook and scribbling October 7th inside.
"How can you stand being around him?" Lily asked. "He's so full of himself."
Jane shrugged.
"He grows on you. Kinda like a fungus, really"
"Okay, what's the next step?" James asked, walking back into the empty classroom that they'd gotten permission to use.
"'Add a handful of Belladonna seeds and stir five times counter-clockwise,'" Lily read.
James furrowed his brow.
"How much is a handful?" he asked, looking down at one of his hands.
Lily shrugged.
"Maybe we should find a different book," James said. "You know, one that actually gives us real measurements?"
Lily huffed.
"If you want to go back to the library and search all day for another book with the instructions for this potion, then be my guest."
Jane had to admit that the person who'd written the current book that they were using wasn't big on using exact measurements. It was always "a pinch of this" and "about a cup of that." It drove James mad with his perfectionistic ways.
In retrospect, Jane would realise that "a handful" was probably the worst description the book could've given. You see, people have different hand sizes. The woman that wrote the book obviously had smaller hands than James, because as Lily began to stir the potion, it started to bubble violently.
Jane peered over their cauldron and then backed away slightly.
"Is it supposed to be doing that?" Jane asked, watching as it turned from lavender to a sickly green colour.
Lily stopped stirring and looked back down at the book before taking a few steps back herself, shaking her head in response.
"Sirius, cover our lacewing flies," Jane said.
"Why?" he asked, oblivious to what was happening.
Suddenly, dark grey smoke filled the air, and before anyone could find shelter, the potion exploded, covering the four of them (and Jane and Sirius' lacewing flies) in gooey, green goo.
"That's why," Jane grumbled, trying to wipe some of the sticky substance off her face.
Sirius was spitting and coughing.
"It's in my mouth," he said.
"Maybe if you'd learned to keep your mouth shut, that wouldn't have happened," Lily said, right at the same time Jane said: "I hope it poisons you."
They both looked back at him, and couldn't help but giggle at the way he was frantically wiping his tongue with a clean section of his robes. James, who had just finished cleaning his glasses off, looked at Sirius and sniggered a bit as well. Soon, the three of them were doubled up with laughter at the whole situation. Sirius scowled at them.
"Yeah, glad you're having a good time," he said, starting to try and rake some of the potion out of his dark hair. "I hope you all sprout boils."
"Well, I hope you go bald," Jane said.
Sirius gasped a bit, trying harder now to get the stuff out of his hair.
"You take that back," he said.
Jane just laughed in response. Sirius scooped some of the green slime off of his robes and threw it at her. Jane ducked, causing the slime to hit Lily right in her ear.
James, Sirius, and Jane stared in silence as the goo dripped down the side of Lily face, waiting for her to react. She slowly wiped it away with her sleeve, and glared at Sirius. And then she did something entirely unexpected.
She smirked. Lily Evans actually smirked at Sirius Black before grabbing a handful of the green slime out of her cauldron and throwing it as hard as she could in his direction, causing an all-out slime war in which it was every person for him/herself.
Thus, started a new era in Hogwarts history in which Lily Evans learned to have a little bit of fun, and in which she didn't completely hate the likes of James Potter and Sirius Black.