CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO

Jane had to wait till Monday to get a letter back from Sarah, seeing as how Muggle post didn't deliver on Sundays. The Potter's had been very confused to see the Muggle mailman standing outside their front gate, and Jane had to explain why he was there and what he was doing. Jane had just been happy he'd found the house as she was sure that was his first delivery there.

Jane had ripped open the letter. She didn't know what she'd been expecting. She didn't know why she'd thought Sarah and Sammy telling her to stop freaking out would make her feel relieved in any way. She supposed they were right though; there was nothing to really do besides wait for her period to come. It wasn't due for another week, and waiting for it was going to be like torture.

Jane folded the letter up and stuffed it back into its envelope. She slid it under the jewellery box on her vanity dresser and slumped back into her chair. She looked at her reflection and shook her head and sighed.

"I'm an idiot," she said aloud before finally getting up from her chair.

She grabbed her smokes and walked out onto her balcony. Lighting up a cigarette, Jane leaned against the parapet and looked out over the back garden. Jane sighed as she thought about what Sarah had written.

There are always other options, and no one even has to know.

Jane knew what she had meant by that. What scared Jane the most was that if she wound up pregnant, she might not have the courage to actually go through with that "other option." It would ruin everything.

If she was pregnant and Will found out, he'd come home in a heartbeat; Jane knew he would. Plus, she'd become Hogwarts' new Lena Howard. She'd be the centre of a lot of gossip whenever she started showing. And when she left to have the baby and be home-schooled like Lena had, it'd fuel even more gossip. Not to mention, there'd be the disappointment she'd bring to James' parents. Jane wasn't sure she could deal with that.

Jane closed her eyes and took a long drag of her cigarette. As she tried to think of something else, she heard the faint sound of an engine. She snapped her eyes open and looked around.

Jane put out her cigarette and headed downstairs. Rushing outside, Jane rounded the side of the house.

"Oh, dear lord," she said before coming to a stop and running her hand through her hair.

There it was, that damned motorcycle, all sleek and blue with its black seat and handlebars. And of course, who should be sitting atop it other than Sirius Black, grinning as though he'd won something. Jane stared at the bike for a moment before raising her eyebrows at him.

"Seriously?"

"Why are you so surprised by this? I told you I was gonna buy it," Sirius said.

Jane opened her mouth but shut it again. He had a good point. Things like this shouldn't still surprise her after all the years she'd known him. James, who'd been standing off to the side, admiring the bike, walked over to Jane and slung an arm around her shoulders happily.

"Isn't it amazing?" he said.

Jane crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. Trying, and failing, to conceal the small smirk on her face, she inspected the bike. She had to admit, it was kind of cool, but of course, she wasn't going to tell Sirius that.

"You're an idiot," Jane said in a way that was a cross between playfulness and honesty.

Sirius cut the engine and hopped off the bike.

"You're just jealous," he said, flipping his hair out of his eyes. "But that's all right, Janie. I'll let you have a go on it later."

"Like that's gonna happen," Jane said sarcastically.

"Yep, she just needs a little work, and then, she'll be perfect," Sirius said, patting the top of the headlight lovingly.

"Work?" Jane asked. "Oh, don't tell me you've broken it already."

"Of course I haven't," Sirius said as though the thought alone offended him. "I just have a few ideas to add is all. James and I were actually about to start on it, if you wanna help. Or are you going to sit in your room all day, reading that letter that you won't tell us about?"

Jane ignored the question, and she looked at Sirius' wand and shook her head.

"Tampering with Muggle things using magic? Isn't there a law against that?"

"Yeah, so?" James said in an unfazed sort of way.

"Come on, Janie, it's not like Prongs and I haven't broken the law before."

"Yes, but I am not yet a criminal," she teased. "Besides, you'd really let me work on your precious bike? Aren't you the one who says my spell work is shoddy?"

"Oh, you know I don't mean it," he said. "But you're right; I wouldn't let you touch Bonnie."

"Bonnie?" Jane asked in an amused voice.

"Well, she needed a name, didn't she?" Sirius said, proceeding to polish the front fender with a rag.

James and Jane sniggered a bit.

"Do we need to leave you and Bonnie alone, Padfoot?" James teased, making Jane laugh even more.

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Very funny, mate. Now, come help me, will ya?"

Jane sat in the grass and watched the boys tinker with the bike for hours. Occasionally, she'd throw in some sarcastic or witty commentary that made one of the boys laugh or grin. It was something to take her mind off of things for a while, and it worked very well.

However, the next day, it was less effective. The day after that, it hardly worked at all. And the day after that, Jane finally decided that she needed something else to take her mind off of things. So, she wrote letters to her school friends, wondering what they were doing with their summers. She walked around the nearby Muggle town by herself. And afterwards, she took a ride on her broom, just above the treetops of the forest behind the Potters' home.

Once the sun started to sink into the horizon, Jane flew back to the house. She was very frustrated with herself because no matter how hard she tried not to think about it, it was still there in the back of her mind. She was sufficiently ready to explode.

Jane lay on her bed and stared up at the canopy. And for a spilt second, a thought flew into her mind. Exactly how bad would it be? The last Jane had heard, Lena Howard seemed to be doing pretty well. And Jane would have Will back…

Jane immediately squashed the idiotic idea. It would ruin everything. She could say goodbye to her career as a Healer because there would be no way she'd have time to go to a Training School. Will's life-long dream of being a professional Quidditch player would be cut terribly short. And there was no telling how hard they'd have to struggle just to make ends meet.

The thought had been foolish, and Jane had no idea where it had come from; she was smart enough to know how it'd really be. Though, it more than likely spawned from the desire to have an actual family of her own and of course, her desire to see Will again.

Jane rolled over and looked to one of her pillows where Will's jacket lay, folded up perfectly. She sighed and buried her face into it, inhaling deeply through her nose.

I miss you so much, Jane thought, and after a while of pouting on her behalf, she fell asleep.

"Jaaaaanie."

Jane flinched when someone poked her on her cheek, waking her from her nap. Feeling a little disoriented and wondering how long she'd slept, Jane sat up and rubbed at her eyes.

"You best have a bloody good reason for waking me up," Jane said to Sirius.

He only grinned widely at her in response.

"Bit early for bed, isn't it?" James asked. "It's hardly dark out."

Jane looked out her window and deduced that she hadn't been asleep for very long because it was only just twilight.

"Well, what do you want?" she asked.

"You're gonna love it," was all Sirius said.

Jane gave him a blank stare before turning to James.

"What's he on about?"

James rolled his eyes and leaned against her bedpost.

"The same thing he's been talking about non-stop for the past three days."

"So, you've finished it then?" she asked Sirius, and he nodded happily.

Jane slid off of her bed and stretched.

"All right. Let's go see how terrible of an idea this was."

Jane let the boys lead her out of the house to where the motorcycle sat. For all intents and purposes, it still looked like an ordinary motorcycle. However, when Sirius started it up, he flashed her a toothy grin and took off, not on the ground but in the air.

By the time he'd landed and turned the bike off, Jane was shaking her head.

"Congratulations," she said. "You've managed to make it more dangerous than it already was."

"It's no different than riding a broomstick," James told her.

"Yeah, but if a broomstick falls out of the sky, it's likely to do less damage than a huge hunk of metal," she shot back. "Then again, I suppose there are less things for you to crash into in the air."

"I'm not gonna crash it," Sirius said, getting off the bike. "I know how to drive; I've been practising."

"Not on an actual road I hope," Jane teased, smirking. "Do you even know which side to drive on?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and gave Jane a tiny shove. Jane elbowed him slightly. As she turned around to walk back to the house, she saw a helmet lying on the ground. She shook her head and picked it up.

"Sirius, the helmet's supposed to go on your head, not the ground," she informed him.

"Oh, that's not for me."

Jane have him a puzzled look, and glanced back down at the helmet. She looked back up at him to see him staring at her expectantly. When realisation hit her, she shook her head.

"No. No way am I getting on that metal death trap," Jane told him.

"You have to," Sirius said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I told you that you'd be the first person I'd take on a ride, remember?"

"Well, I release you from your promise," Jane said. "Besides, I made it perfectly clear how I felt about the whole idea."

James made a disappointed sort of noise.

"Come on, Jane. He won't let me on it until you have a go, which is complete rubbish because technically I knew him before you did," James said.

"By a whole five minutes," Jane told him, rolling her eyes. "Besides, it's not my fault he won't let you ride it; I just told him I didn't care about his bloody promise."

"Oh, don't be such a pansy," Sirius said. "I got you a helmet and everything. You'll be perfectly safe."

"Somehow I highly doubt that," she replied, turning on her heel and dropping the helmet to the ground.

"Coward," Sirius mumbled, and Jane stopped dead in her tracks.

Turning to face Sirius, she stood just a bit taller. With a fierce look on her face she asked:

"What?"

Sirius concealed a smirk, knowing he'd gotten to her.

"You heard me," he said, walking towards her. "I never will understand how you got sorted into Gryffindor."

Sirius bent down to pick up the helmet. Jane scowled at him.

"So, I'm a coward because I don't have a death wish? Is that it?"

Sirius looked at the helmet thoughtfully before stopping right in front of Jane. He looked down at her and shrugged.

"Suppose the Sorting Hat just made a mistake," he continued as though he hadn't heard her.

Jane looked up into his smug looking face which was only mere inches away from hers. Her nostrils flared as she glared at him. Sirius smirked at the flustered look on her face. Jane snatched the helmet out of his hands.

"Start the bloody engine."

Sirius grinned so widely at Jane that for a split moment she forgot to act like she wasn't enjoying this. Sirius hopped onto the bike as Jane strapped on her helmet. Jane climbed onto the bike too as Sirius turned the key over in the ignition.

The engine roared to life, and Jane desperately looked for a place to grab hold of on the bike. Finding nothing, Jane tentatively wrapped her arms around Sirius' middle. Sirius looked down at her hands, and another smirk formed on his face.

"Hold on tight," he said before taking off.

Jane held onto Sirius for dear life as they rounded the corner of the house, speeding down the front pathway. Jane's eyes widened when she saw they were headed directly for the closed front gate with no sign of slowing down.

"Sirius!" she exclaimed in a fearful tone as they got closer to the gate, but her voice was lost in the wind rushing past their ears.

When Jane was certain that they were going to crash, she hugged herself to Sirius tightly and squeezed her eyes shut. Jane braced herself for impact, but it never came. She peeked out of one of her eyes and looked down as they left the Potters' residence far below them.

Jane lifted her head away from Sirius' back to get a better look around. She watched as they passed over trees and fields and a lake. She let out a small laugh as she smiled happily. And though her eyes stung and watered from the wind, Jane kept them open.

All of Jane's worries seemed to melt away one by one as she forgot about them. Right there in that moment as she soared around in the sky with her arms wrapped around Sirius and the wind whipping all around them, Jane felt better than she had in weeks. And for that, she was thankful for Sirius and his stupid ideas.