CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THRITY

It had been exactly a week, and neither Jane nor Sirius wanted to be the one to tell James of their relationship. They both knew he'd be angry. In fact, the two of them frequently argued over who he'd be angrier with. While Jane knew the situation would probably be a lot worse for Sirius, she still argued her own points because she just really didn't want to be the one to tell him.

"I don't get why we even need to tell him," Sirius whispered to her during their Charms lesson. "It's been a week, and things are going great. We're happy together. James is happy that Evans is hanging out with him. You know what they say; ignorance is bliss. Why spoil his good mood?"

Jane frowned at the back of James head before looking to Sirius who was sitting beside her on the last row.

"I don't like keeping secrets," Jane whispered.

"Well, you know what I like? My life! Something I won't have any more if I tell him that we're together," Sirius said in a harsh whisper. "Besides, I kind of like the sneaking around to be honest."

Jane raised a brow as she doodled on a spare piece of parchment.

"Oh?"

Sirius leaned over, pretending to look at what she was drawing, really only using it as an excuse to move closer to her.

"Yeah, I think it's kind of hot," he said, smirking.

Jane rolled her eyes, but she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. Shaking her head, she replied:

"You would."

"You don't?" he asked.

Jane's mind wandered back to all the times the two of them were just sitting with their friends acting as though nothing was going on between them. Honestly, the whole secret relationship thing was a little frustrating. So far, dating Sirius was nothing like how it had been when she was dating Will. There was no holding hands, no cuddling in front of the fireplace in the common room. There were no goodnight kisses because what if someone in the common room saw?

However, there were other things. For instance, the dark and dusty vacant classrooms of Hogwarts seemed to be their new favourite haunts. If they found themselves alone for more than five minutes, Jane could automatically assume that a snogging session was about to break out. Not to mention, Sirius was a lot more– hands on than Will had been. Jane wasn't exactly sure how she felt about that quite yet.

Of course, Jane never had long to think on anything while they were snogging because they hardly got anytime alone to begin with. James had made it a point to pay more attention to Sirius ever since he'd made a snide remark about how he and James never hung out anymore because of Lily. While Jane was glad that Sirius had gotten his best friend back, she lamented over the fact that this took time away from them, time that they hardly had to spare in the first place.

But she had to admit, the rushes of adrenaline she got whenever Sirius pulled her into an empty classroom was quite exhilarating. Knowing that they could be caught at any moment added a sick kind of excitement to it all that the both of them loved.

Jane sighed, shaking her head and putting down her quill, a small smile playing at her lips.

"Okay, it is kinda hot," she admitted.

Sirius grinned, and he ran his hand over one of Jane's thighs underneath the table. Jane smiled at first but suddenly changed her demeanour. Clearing her throat, she tilted her head in Remus' direction, trying to be nonchalant about it. Sirius frowned when he saw Remus curiously looking back at them from a few rows ahead. Sirius reluctantly let his hand fall away from Jane's leg, and he slowly inched away from her.

The two of them had to be especially careful around Remus. Jane suspected that he was suspicious. However, she was sure that he couldn't possibly know that there was anything going on between her and Sirius. In her opinion, they were hiding it pretty well.

Remus turned back around and continued with his note taking.

"There's definitely something going on between those two," he said to Peter, dipping his quill into his inkwell.

Peter glanced back at Jane and Sirius who were both pretending to listen to Professor Flitwick. He looked back to Remus.

"Are you going to tell James?" he asked.

Remus shot Peter a look.

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't be the one to tell James even if they asked me to. I don't want to be anywhere near him when he finds out," Remus said.

"You mean if he finds out," Peter corrected.

Remus glanced back up at Sirius who had already slid back closer to Jane. Remus gave Peter a serious look.

"I mean when."

November fifth marked the first Quidditch match of the season. Things were a lot different this year. Not only was James now captain, but they had three new first line players. A sixth year, Holly Jacobs, replaced Jared as a Chaser, and a fifth year, Hillary Jackson, was their new Keeper. Jane knew both of them; they had been alternates before this year, and Holly had played for Jane two years ago in the Slytherin match when she'd been suspended from the game.

It was their new Seeker Jane had been worried about. Dora Mitchell had been the one to replace Brenton, and she was also a third year. Sirius had criticised James for picking her over the other students that had tried out, but James swore up and down that she was the best, that she just needed to be coached properly. Jane figured that if anyone could coach "properly," it'd be James, but she had still been nervous to see how the girl was going to do.

As it turns out, Jane didn't have to worry about a thing, quite literally. None of the Gryffindor Chasers even had to score a goal. Dora had caught the snitch before anyone on the pitch could make a goal. It had been one of the quickest games Jane had ever played in, ending within the first ten minutes. Dora said it had been luck. Jane figured the fact that the girl was so small and fast had a lot to do with it. Of course, James chalked it up to his outstanding coaching abilities (though admittedly, he'd been a bit sore at not getting to score a single goal in the first game of the season).

Jane decided that one of the best things about being on the Quidditch team was that she didn't have to be the one planning the victory parties. She had let that duty fall to Alice, who had happily accepted it and forced Frank into helping her.

Almost everyone was congratulating Dora on a job well done, bombarding the poor girl with compliments and congratulatory hugs. Jane smiled, remembering what that had felt like, and she even thought that maybe this new girl could give James a run for his money with the way she flew a broom. Of course, Jane thought it best not to voice this.

She had sat and talked to her friends for a bit, wedged in between James and Peter on the couch in the common room, watching Sirius kick some poor kid's arse at a drinking game. He'd occasionally look over and grin at her, adding a small wink whenever James and Peter didn't seem to be paying attention.

Soon, James disappeared to find Lily. The drinking game ended. Everybody turned their attention to other things. And Jane found herself alone on the couch, staring into the fireplace.

"I brought you a drink."

Jane smiled at the all too familiar voice as Sirius sat down beside her on the couch, handing her a cup of Firewhiskey.

"Oh, Sirius, why can't we just stay young forever?" Jane asked, looking around at the party.

Sirius smiled.

"Everybody's gotta grow up sometime, Janie."

"Some faster than others," Jane commented, briefly letting her mind flash to the war.

Sirius sighed and slid closer to her as she sipped slowly on her drink.

"Hey, I know what'll lift your spirits," he said.

"I thought that's what the drink was for," Jane said, smirking at him a bit.

"The drink was an excuse to come over here," he said, carefully brushing some hair behind her ear.

Jane rolled her eyes, and he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. Her eyes went a little wide, and she spilt her drink on her lap as she jerked away from him.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, looking around anxiously.

Sirius rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"No one's paying any attention to us in here, love. They're all having too much fun. That's the best thing about crowded rooms; no one's looking at you because there's so much going on at once," he told her.

Leaning over, Sirius buried his head into her neck and placed a kiss there as well. Once again, Jane pushed him off.

"Have you gone mad?" she asked, looking around again.

Sirius huffed, leaning back into the couch and crossing his arms like a pouting child. Jane shook her head at him.

"Okay, well, we could go up to the dorm," he suggested.

"No," Jane said. "Remus would surely catch us then. He never stays at these parties for long."

"Well, we could go anywhere," Sirius said. "Almost everyone's here."

"Sirius, just enjoy the party for a bit. Do you think you can manage that? Besides, James would notice we're gone sooner or later; he might come looking for us."

"You're so paranoid," Sirius told her.

"And I will be until we tell him," Jane replied.

Sirius sighed.

"Well, what the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Act normal. That shouldn't be too hard," Jane told him, standing from the couch and walking over to talk to Mary and Marlene.

"Normal," Sirius repeated to himself. "I can do that."

"Oh, Jane, how nice of you to join us," Marlene said sarcastically, smiling.

"Yeah, thought you'd stay forever on that couch," Mary added.

Jane let out a nervous laugh, fearing for a moment that maybe they had seen Sirius kiss her. However, if they had, they made no mention of it.

Jane wondered how they did it. It'd been almost two weeks that she'd been in her secret relationship with Sirius, and it was already driving her mad. Who knew how long Mary and Marlene had been pretending? Or even if they still were? Were they still together? Who knew? Not Jane because they hid everything so damn well.

"Are you okay?" Mary asked. "You seem a bit tense."

"I'm fine," Jane assured.

"Well, here's a thought," Marlene said, "act like it. We were actually about to start a game of Exploding Snap, the drinking edition. Care to join us?"

"Maybe if I wanted alcohol poisoning," Jane teased. "You and everyone else knows I'm terrible at that game."

"You're not that bad at it," Marlene said.

Jane have her a questioning look.

"Marlene just doesn't want to be the first one to get wasted," Mary explained.

"As tempting as that sounds, I think I'll pass. But I'm not opposed to watching you two make drunken arses of yourselves," Jane said, laughing a bit.

Jane helped Mary and Marlene gather willing participants, and then she sat back and watched. Marlene was quite terrible at Exploding Snap, better than Jane was but still terrible. Jane was in charge of refilling the cups that went empty, and she'd already had to refill Marlene's twice. Jane laughed when she saw that Marlene's cup was running low once again.

"Marls, maybe you should call it quits."

"Don't listen to her, McKinnon," said Coleman Vane, a Ravenclaw in their year. "You're doing great."

"Ha ha, very funny," Marlene said sarcastically, swaying just a bit in her seat. "Jane's right. I should stop."

"I'm always right," Jane said, smiling and taking Marlene's drink out of her hands.

"Good going, Hensworth," Coleman said, digging around in his robes. "You just cost me five Sickles!"

"What?"

"I bet Parker that she'd keep going till she got sick."

Parker Tollison leaned back in his chair and smiled.

"You might get to keep your money," Marlene said, looking a little pale in the face.

Everyone with the exception of Mary sort of moved away from Marlene.

"All right, that's enough fun for you. Let's go to the dorm," Mary said, helping Marlene up and putting an arm around her as she walked her to the stairs.

A small smile tugged at the corners of Jane's lips as she watched the two walk away. Jane thought of Sirius, and she instinctively looked around the room for him. Her expression immediately hardened when she found him leaning against the wall across the room, talking to a group of giggling girls.

She scowled and turned back to Coleman and Parker. Parker raised an eyebrow as he watched Jane down her own cup of Firewhiskey.

"All right there, Hensworth?" he asked, shuffling the Exploding Snap cards.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jane said, racking her brains for something to talk about before remembering that there was something she'd been wondering about ever since Kevin Fawley had followed Sadie when she'd stormed out of Dumbledore's office. "Tollison, you're friends with Kevin Fawley, right?"

Parker sort of shrugged.

"I was," he said. "I'm not sure anymore."

Jane furrowed her brow at this new information.

"Why? What happened?"

Parker shook his head and sat the cards on the table.

"I don't feel like talking about it. Especially to you," he said, standing from his chair and walking away.

Coleman frowned at his friend's retreating figure and shook his head.

"Did I do something?" Jane asked.

"No, he's just a bit touchy about Kevin lately. I've tried to get them talk to each other again, but Parker doesn't want to," Coleman said.

"What's that got to do with me?" Jane asked.

"Nothing, it's just, well, almost everyone knows by now. You and your friends, you joined Dumbledore's group or whatever he's calling it," Coleman said. "I heard Caradoc Dearborn and Vikram Patil arguing about it one night. Caradoc's already got Emmeline Vance and Hestia Jones to sign up as well."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Jane asked.

"Kevin's been going around and trying to convince all the Hufflepuffs that are old enough to join," Coleman said. "About a week ago, Kevin almost got Alicia Campbell to sign up."

"Tollison's girlfriend?" Jane asked.

Coleman nodded.

"Parker begged her not to. I think he was scared for her. I don't blame him; I wouldn't want Cassie joining," Coleman said. "And there's a whole group of you going around the school, trying to get people to join—"

"I haven't tried to get anyone to join," Jane defended. "That's not my place."

"Kevin doesn't feel that way. He thinks people should want to join."

"I didn't know for sure if he had even joined," Jane said. "He left with Sadie Selwyn when we were in Dumbledore's office."

Coleman made a disparaging noise at the mention of Sadie.

"There's one person he can't get to join," Coleman said. "Doubt he gives her a hard time about it, but I guess it's different when it's someone you love."

"So, they're together then?" Jane asked.

"Don't know why," Coleman remarked coldly. "I never did understand what he saw in her."

Jane shrunk back into her seat and poured herself another cup of Firewhiskey. Glancing back to where Sirius was, Jane scowled at him again.

"Come on, let's play," Jane said, picking up the Exploding Snap cards from the table.

"I thought you said you were terrible at Exploding Snap," Coleman said.

"Well then, you have the pleasure of watching me get so drunk I pass out," Jane said in a somewhat bitter voice.

The last time Sirius had glanced over at Jane, she'd been with Mary, Marlene, Parker, and Coleman. Now, it was just her and Coleman, and they seemed to be playing a drinking game. Sirius frowned just a bit before turning back to the girls who were chatting away in front of him.

He tried to push Jane out of his mind for just a little bit. However, when he heard her familiar laugh, he looked back over at her. She seemed to be laughing far too hard at something that Coleman had said, and she had even reached over and touched the boy's arm.

Sirius clenched his jaw in an irritated way, and when he saw Jane glance back at him with a slightly cold look on her face, he just knew she was doing it on purpose. Sirius waved off the girl that had been talking to him before walking over to where Jane and Coleman were sitting.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked, and semi-smug look spread over Jane's features.

"Whatever about?" she asked in a faux innocent-sounding voice.

"Get up," he said.

Jane rolled her eyes. Waving goodbye to Coleman, she stood from her seat and looked up at Sirius.

"What?" she asked.

Sirius pulled her towards the staircase that led to the boys' dorms. Halfway up the stairwell, with the common room out of sight, Sirius stopped walking.

"What are you playing at?" he asked.

"Me?" Jane said. "I'm not the one who was flirting with a bunch of slags!"

"You told me to act normal. That might require me to talk to a few girls," Sirius said. "And I wasn't flirting with them."

"Well, I wasn't flirting with anyone either then," Jane said.

"Are you seriously jealous?" Sirius asked with a small smirk on his face.

"I don't what you're smirking at. You were more jealous than I was," Jane said.

Sirius wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"How could I not be?" he asked before kissing her.

When he pulled away, Jane sighed. She rested her head on her chest.

"This isn't going to work," she said. "We need to tell James. I'm tired of hiding."

Sirius sighed as well and rested his head on top of hers.

"I'll tell him," he said in a resigned voice. "I'm his best mate; I reckon he should hear it from me."

Jane sighed in relief just a bit. However, she was still nervous about how James would react.

"I'll tell him tonight," Sirius told her.

Sirius lay on his bed, waiting for James to finally come up to the dorm. Everyone else was already up there. Well, everyone except Frank because Alice had forced him to help her clean up. Sirius had never been so nervous about anything in his life.

When James walked into the dorm, Sirius' heart felt as though it missed a beat. He forced himself to sit up and look at his friend. Taking in a deep breath, Sirius stood up. Remus and Peter both listened intently, waiting.

"Prongs, I gotta talk to you," Sirius started, but he furrowed his brow when he saw the look on James' face. "Are you okay?"

James just sort of smiled dreamily.

"I did it," was all he said.

"What? What did you do?" Sirius asked.

"It took over six years, but it finally happened."

Remus put down the book he'd been pretending to read and gave James a weird look.

"Well? What was it?" he asked.

"She said yes," James said slowly with that goofy grin still on his face. "I asked Lily Evans out on a date, and she said yes."

"What?" Peter asked, shooting out of his bed; Remus and Sirius had matching looks of shock on their faces.

"We were just sitting there, talking. And she was just so beautiful, you know? And I just asked her, and she said, 'I think I'd like that,'" James told them.

None of them said anything for a while. They all just stood there, staring at James who couldn't seem to stop smiling.

"Well, that's great, mate," Sirius finally said, still a little in shock.

"It's more than great!" James said to him. "It-it's amazing! This is the absolute best day of my life. I don't think anything could bring me down right now."

Sirius looked at his best friend with a nervous expression. He had a feeling that he knew of something that could ruin his day. And honestly, Sirius just didn't have the heart to tell him right then, not when he was so happy.

"You wanted to talk about something?" James remembered.

Sirius blanched, and Remus and Peter snapped their heads to him expectantly as though they were watching a particularly drama filled television show.

"Never mind," was all Sirius could choke out.