CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN
"I dunno. I still think that it's kind of wonky looking."
"Lennox," Jane said in an exasperated voice, "it looks fine. Everything you work on in this class looks great."
Lennox shook her head as she looked at the sculpture she had been working on since before the holidays.
"I just don't think it's showcase worthy, ya know?"
"Lennox, I've taken Art with you for three years now, and I've got to say that this is one of your best pieces," Jane said, carefully brushing paint onto her canvas.
Half of the art students in Jane's class were freaking out. Now that they were N.E.W.T. students, they were all required to submit at least one piece of work to the annual art showcase that was held in the Entrance Hall. Jane didn't think that anyone ever really stopped to look at it that much, but it was going to be nice to have something of hers on display.
"I think I gave it too many white spots. And the muscle structure just doesn't seem right to me," Lennox continued to critique.
Jane looked over at the sculpture of the fawn that Lennox had created. It was really great; she had just gotten to animating it so that it could walk about. But Lennox was right; something was a bit off about it. Jane stood from her stool and abandoned her canvas to stand beside Lennox.
Jane studied the sculpture. It was almost perfect. It's fur was just fluffy enough; it was the right colour; it had the right proportions, but as it walked about, it didn't look right. Jane folded her arms and looked at it sideways.
"See! You see it too!" Lennox said. "I told you something was off."
The teacher came to stand quietly behind the two girls and also took to looking at the sculpture.
"Change the way it's moving," she said, and Jane and Lennox both jumped at the sound of her voice.
"Ma'am?" Lennox said.
"It's walking too well," the teacher explained. "Baby deer tend to be a bit wobbly."
The teacher then walked away, and Jane watched as Lennox made the changes. Unsurprisingly, the sculpture was spot on afterwards.
Jane went back to her stool and sat down in front of her easel.
"I'm almost ready to animate mine," she told Lennox as she picked her brush back up.
"It's looking really good," Lennox told her. "Say, you never did tell me who they are."
Jane smiled a little as she looked at the woman happily pushing her child in a swing on the canvas.
"It's me and my mum," Jane said, pulling down an old photograph that had been taped to the top of the canvas for a reference.
Jane handed the picture to Lennox.
"She used to take me to this park near our house when I was little. My dad actually took this picture; I was probably about four or five."
Lennox looked at the picture and back at the canvas, comparing the two, before handing the picture back to Jane.
"Good luck on animating it," Lennox said. "It really looks great."
"Thanks, I'll need all the luck I can get. Animating paintings is tough."
"That's why I stick to sculptures," Lennox said.
Jane sighed and went back to painting. Sculptures were so much easier to animate than art on a two-dimensional plain. With sculptures, you just have to make the object move; with paintings, you have to make all the pigments on the canvas move at the same time and in such a way that they keep true to the object that you've painted as it moves. This means a lot of moving shadows around, and it, in Jane's opinion, was the most difficult part of the painting process when it came to magical art.
"So," Lennox said, "how're things with you and MacGregor?"
Jane smiled.
"Things are good. He's perfect, though I think he's a little stressed. Recruiters for the Yorkshire Quidditch team have been coming to watch him. His uncle has a friend who knows the coach, and Yorkshire needs a new reserve Keeper. If they like him, they might recruit him to the team."
"He graduates this year, yeah?" Lennox asked. "Aren't you worried about him being gone for so long if he does get recruited? I hear it's like a full-time job, isn't it?"
"Well, Will says reserves don't have to do as much as first line players. The Yorkshire team sends their main players to a training camp in some undisclosed location in Spain, for like, weeks at a time, and they travel a lot, but the reserves mostly just stay in Yorkshire, and James lives in Yorkshire, so Will won't be too far away," Jane said.
"You're staying with Potter?" Lennox asked.
Jane shrugged.
"I'm thinking I'll probably be over there a lot this summer. I haven't really decided yet, but even if I am home in Hampshire, I'll be seventeen; I'll drive to Yorkshire every weekend if I have to," Jane said. "We'll have all summer, and then, I'll see him on the holidays."
Lennox nodded as she listened. Jane looked at her wristwatch and began clearing away her things.
"You not gonna stay after class and finish it?" Lennox asked.
Jane shook her head.
"I'll come in and work on it tomorrow probably," she said. "I told the guys I'd hang out with them today. They seem to think I've abandoned them. We're probably gonna skip dinner and head down to Hogsmeade and get something to eat there."
"There's not a Hogsmeade weekend for another three weeks," Lennox said.
Jane smirked a bit.
"We have our ways of getting there without getting caught."
Lennox fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist.
"So, is Remus—? I mean, he'll be with you guys?"
Jane grinned.
"Yeah, he will. You know what? You should come along; it'll be fun."
"Oh, I don't know—"
"Come on. We'll go to the Three Broomsticks, and you can watch Remus kick my arse at wizard's chess while James tries and fails to teach me how to play and Sirius criticises me for every wrong move I make."
"It's all constructive criticism, of course."
Jane rolled her eyes and turned to see Sirius standing just inside the doorway of the classroom which wasn't too far from her work station.
"I don't understand how, 'Wow, you're the worst chess player alive,' is considered constructive," she said. "Where's everybody else?"
"James and Peter went to the library to get Remus," Sirius said, walking over to where Jane was. "What're you working on?"
Jane shielded her canvas with her body.
"You can't see it; it's not done. You'll see it in the showcase in March," she said.
"My time is valuable. Why would I waste it by going to a showcase?"
"Because you love me," Jane teased in an overly sweet voice as she turned the easel away from him. "Plus, James said you would all go on opening night."
"Just because he said that, doesn't mean I'm going."
Jane poked out her bottom lip in a mock pout expression. Sirius let out a laugh and threw an arm around her shoulders as they headed out of the room. When they got to the doorway, they stopped and looked back at Lennox.
"You coming?" Sirius asked.
"Move your knight."
"But why would I do that when I could move this one and knock off one of his pieces?"
"Because if you use your bishop to get that pawn out, then his queen will take out your bishop, and that would be a stupid thing to do over a pawn," James explained in an exasperated way.
Jane sighed and rested her head on her hand before rubbing her eyes.
"This is a stupid game," she said, moving her knight. "My eyes are tired from looking at all these pieces. How does anyone play this? I'd honestly rather play Exploding Snap."
"You're such a sore loser," Remus teased as he moved his rook over three spaces. "Check."
Jane sighed.
"I suck at this."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Sirius said.
Jane elbowed him in the side.
"I quit," she said. "Somebody else can play."
"I'll give it a shot," Lennox piped up.
"You know how to play?" Remus asked as the pieces moved themselves back into their correct squares.
"Yeah, my brothers taught me."
"I have to warn you," Remus said, a smirk playing at his lips, "I'm pretty good. I just dumb it down when I play Jane."
Jane scoffed in an offended sort of way, but Remus ignored her.
Lennox let out a small laugh.
"I think I can handle it."
"So, where's MacGregor at?" Peter asked as Remus and Lennox started their game.
"I think he's going over game strategies for the Hufflepuff match," Jane said as she shrugged her shoulders.
"So, is that why you're able to spend time with us today? Because you can't spend it with your boyfriend?" Sirius sneered.
Jane rolled her eyes and frowned at her empty Butterbeer cup.
"Careful, Sirius. People might start to think you actually miss hanging out with me," she said in a teasing way as she tried to take Remus' Butterbeer without him noticing.
"That's mine," he said as he slapped her hand away without looking up from the chess board.
Jane scowled at him.
"What's there to miss?" Sirius asked, smirking.
"Only my strikingly beautiful face and witty commentary," she said jokingly as she settled for taking James' Butterbeer instead as he watched the chess game.
Sirius' smirk gradually turned into a small smile as he watched Jane carefully slide James' Butterbeer towards herself without him noticing. She had this triumphant little grin plastered on her face before she took a sip of it. Jane wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her robes before looking back at Sirius.
"What?" she asked when she saw that he was smiling at her.
Sirius' smile turned back into a smirk as he shook his head.
"Nothing," he said. "I'm just thinking of how disappointed you're going to look when I tell Prongs that you stole his Butterbeer."
James immediately looked up from Remus and Lennox's game and looked around for his drink.
"Go get your own," James said as he took his Butterbeer back from Jane as she sighed.
She stood up and thumped Sirius in the back of the head.
"You're such a wanker."
"If I was a wanker, would I be paying?" Sirius asked, digging some money out of his pocket.
Jane rolled her eyes.
"You just want me to get you one too," she accused as he put the coins in her hand.
Sirius pointed at her and winked.
"You are correct."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
"Checkmate," Lennox exclaimed happily.
"Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen anyone actually beat Remus at chess," Peter said.
"I could beat Remus at chess," Sirius argued.
"Right, and I could actually win a game of Exploding Snap," Jane said sarcastically before leaving to buy the drinks.
Later, they all took to walking around the little village. Jane kept sneaking glances at Remus and Lennox who both seemed to like each other.
"They'd be adorable together," she kept whispering to Sirius, James, and Peter.
However, none of them seemed to really care. But that didn't bother Jane; she'd just tell all her roommates about how cute Remus and Lennox were, and they'd all stay up late talking about it.
"Would you like a cigarette, Janie?" Sirius asked as he lit one up.
Jane frowned at him.
"You know I'm trying to quit."
"Oh, right. MacGregor doesn't like it," he teased.
"That's not the only reason," Jane lied.
"You shouldn't be with someone who makes you change," he continued.
Jane rolled her eyes.
"He's not making do anything. It's my choice. Besides, it's not a negative change."
Sirius held his cigarette out to her.
"You know you want one."
Jane finally gave in and took the cigarette from him, taking a long drag.
"I hate you," she exhaled.
"No, you don't," he said, lighting another cigarette.
"Well, it depends," she said. "Are you really not going to the showcase on opening night?"
Sirius chuckled a bit before draping his arm around her shoulders.
"While I'm sure that there are better things I could do with my time, I wouldn't miss it, Janie."
Jane smiled.
"James said you had to, didn't he?" she guessed.
"He sure did."
"Good," she said. "Because the painting I'm working on now isn't going to be the only one I'm putting in the showcase."