CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE
"And you know, at the reception, he wouldn't even talk to me, avoided me at all costs!"
Jane rolled her eyes as she listened to James tell Remus and Peter exactly what happened while he was at Lily's sister's wedding as they all rode the train back to Hogwarts.
"And then—and then, you know what he called me?!" James continued angrily.
"'A bloody magician,'" Jane mouthed sarcastically, having heard James rant about it ever since he'd gotten back from Lily's.
"A bloody magician!" James continued. "Like one of those Muggles that pull rats out of hats!"
"You mean rabbits," Peter corrected.
"Doesn't matter!" James said. "And then—"
Sirius heaved a loud sigh.
"Oh, give it a rest, Prongs! I've only heard this story about five hundred times already!" he groaned.
James looked a bit affronted.
"Yes, well, I wasn't telling you, now was I? I was telling Moony and Wormtail," he said.
"Well, could you lighten up a bit? Janie and I are tired of hearing about it."
"Lily is too," Lily added as she turned the page of the book she was reading.
James crossed his arms and shook his head, looking like a sulking child. Jane had to bite back a giggle at his expense.
"So, did anything else happen over the holidays?" Remus asked.
Sirius shrugged.
"Prongs and I got chased by a few Death Eaters," he said in the most nonchalant way possible.
"What?!" Lily exclaimed, snapping her head in James' direction. "You didn't tell me that!"
"I didn't want to worry you," James told her, glaring at Sirius.
Jane half-heartedly listened as James and Sirius regaled them all about their encounter with the Death Eaters. It wasn't a story she really liked hearing because it just reminded her of what was to come as soon as this new term ended.
Jane leaned ever so slightly into Sirius' shoulder and looked out the window, watching the rain pound hard on the glass, somewhat obscuring her vision from the landscape outside. She pictured it how it was whenever it was sunny and bright. How nice it would be to live there between the rolling hills of green. However, the idea of the city still appealed to her; she wouldn't be so isolated.
Soon, Jane fell asleep, and when she awoke, the train was coming to a stop at Hogsmeade Station. Opening her eyes, she saw James grinning at her.
"What?"
James just shook his head.
"Nothing."
Jane frowned. Stretching, and sitting up straight, a lock of hair fell away from behind her ear. Just as she was about to tuck it away, she looked at it and rolled her eyes.
"Change it back," she demanded.
"Aw, come on, Janie, you look great with pink hair," Sirius said.
Jane gave him a dead stare, and he sighed before changing her hair back to its natural colour.
As they all clambered out of the compartment, Peter smiled at Remus.
"You owe me two Sickles," he said when everyone else was out of earshot. "You said they wouldn't make it through the Holidays, but James obviously still has no clue."
Remus frowned at the almost smug look on Peter's face.
"Oh, shut up."
Wednesday marked the first day of classes since the break, and Jane was rather happy about that since she only had to suffer through one class that day. Once Transfiguration was over, she had the whole day to do absolutely nothing. That nothing included sneaking away from her friends with Sirius to snog in a rather dusty and neglected classroom.
"I need a smoke," Jane said, pulling away from Sirius.
"Honestly? Right now?" he asked.
Jane rolled her eyes and hopped off of the old table she had been sitting on.
"What? We've been in here long enough," she said. "Besides, everyone will wonder where we've gone off to if we don't get back soon."
"Well, everyone can wonder all they want," Sirius said, pulling her back to him and kissing her again.
Jane smiled into the kiss before pulling away once again.
"Come on, we'll both have a smoke, then we'll go back to the common room."
Sirius sighed in a defeated sort of way as Jane dragged him from the classroom.
Almost immediately, a group of people rushed past them in a hurry, heading towards the courtyard.
"Must be something exciting," Sirius commented.
Another group of students moved past them, and Jane spotted Alice in the mix. Jane and Sirius followed the students.
"Alice? What's going on?" Jane asked as they all hurried towards the courtyard.
"I dunno," Alice said.
"Heard there was a fight," Frank continued for her.
With that being said, they all quickened their pace just a bit, wanting to be the first to know, wanting to get a good look before it got broken up. When they reached the courtyard, they almost all slipped on the ice under their feet as they hurried towards the growing crowd of students on the far right side.
"I can't see anything," Jane complained once they joined the group. "We're too far back."
Alice pushed her way forward between a few students, Jane holding onto her arm so she could get through as well. When Alice finally stopped to see if she could see through the gaps of the crowd, Jane tried jumping up to peer over people's head.
"Do you see anything?" she asked Alice.
"I see Carrow," she answered, spotting the big Slytherin boy who was just a year younger than them.
"Which one?" Jane asked. "Ugly One or Ugly Two?"
"Hard to tell," Alice joked, cracking a grin at Jane. "They both look like they've been hit by the Knight Bus."
The girls laughed, and Alice went back to trying to peer through the gaps. Frank and Sirius finally managed to join them.
"What's up?" Frank asked.
"Carrow's having a go at someone," Jane said. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Ugly One or Ugly Two?" Sirius asked just as Jane had, causing her to laugh.
"Looks like there's someone on the ground," Alice commented.
Suddenly, her eyes went wide with horror. All traces of amusement were washed off her face, and she gasped out loud.
"That's Mary!"
Jane snapped her head at Alice who was already trying to push her way to the front. Jane pulled out her wand, pushing people out of her way as she followed Alice.
When they got to the front, it was a sight to see. Not only Amycus, but his older sister, Alecto, who was in the same year as Jane, both had identical, ugly smiles on their faces. Mary was on the ground, doubled over with pain at some hex the Carrows had fired at her. Then, the sickening realisation hit Jane as to what this was about when she heard a few of the Slytherins in the crowd chanting:
"Smear the queer! Smear the queer!"
Alice took one horrified look at Mary on the ground, and she saw red. She could hear the blood rushing in her ears, and her face contorted into an expression that Jane had only ever seen once, and that was in their fourth year when Alice had helped Jane and Marlene jinx Mulciber. Jane immediately rushed to Mary's side.
"Well, well, well," came Alecto's voice, "Hensworth. Why am I not at all surprised to find that you're friends with this dyke? Are you a rug muncher too?"
Jane was far too worried about Mary at the moment to care about anything the Carrows were saying about her right. However, she did look up just in time to see Alice making her way towards Amycus with balled fists and a fury in her eyes that would've sent the devil himself running for the hills.
Amycus, being far too stupid to run, only grinned.
"Hey, Hanson. Come to smear the queer?"
Those were the last words he said before Alice clocked him one right in the jaw.
After that, all hell broke loose. Alecto jumped in, so did Frank and Sirius. Suddenly, it was a riot in the courtyard. Slytherins against Gryffindors. Jinxes were being shot in every direction. Fists were flying. None of the shouting was even remotely comprehensible. Jane figured that some of these people probably didn't even know what they were fighting about.
A hand suddenly flung out and grabbed a fistful of Jane's hair, pulling her into the fracas. Jane yelped and clawed so hard at the hand in her hair that she drew blood. The hand retracted, and Jane immediately turned and punched a fifth year Slytherin girl in her mouth.
Jane whipped back around to look for Mary, shaking her hand to try and stop the ache in her knuckles from where they'd clashed with the other girl's teeth. She caught a glimpse of a fifth year Gryffindor helping Mary to her feet.
Thank god for Violet, Jane thought before being knocked to the ground.
The jinx that had hit Jane made her feel as though all the air had been knocked out of her lungs, and she gasped for breath as she clutched her abdomen. She tightened her grip on her wand and forced herself to stand up. Spotting Alecto in all the chaos, Jane fired a Stinging Jinx at the girl, causing her arm to immediately swell in what, Jane could only assume, must've been a painful way.
Jane saw Frank and Amycus rolling around on the ground, and she was about to aim a kick at Amycus until she saw Sirius struggling with two rather large, burly sixth year Slytherins. Jane pointed her wand at one of the boys, but the curse she'd fired missed when another student was pushed into her.
Oh, fuck this, Jane thought, tucking her wand back into her robe pocket.
Getting a running start, Jane leapt onto one of the Slytherins' backs and clawed at his face. The boy yelped and swatted at Jane, turning and trying to throw her off of him. One of his hands came back, grabbing her face. So, of course, Jane did what came naturally; she bit down hard on his hand.
The boy howled in pain, and he finally managed to shake Jane off of his back, throwing her on the ground. Jane landed with a little thud, and when she looked up, the boy was stalking towards her.
"I ain't afraid to hit no girl," he said, pulling her up by the front of her robes.
"That makes two of us."
As soon as the boy turned to see who'd said it, a fist collided with his face, and he let go of Jane, who fell back to the ground.
Jane looked up at her rescuer, and she smiled when she saw Alice's face, which was already bruised in a few spots. Alice held out her hand, and Jane took it, pulling herself up.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Alice said.
"Look, Reg," came a voice. "A blood traitor and her pet Mudblood."
Alice and Jane turned just in time to see Avery fire a jinx that hit Alice and blasted her backwards. Jane ran at Avery, knocking him to the ground as well. Raising her fist, Jane almost smirked.
"You never learn, do you, arse-wipe?"
Jane only got to hit him once before someone grabbed her around the waist and threw her to the ground.
"Fuck off, Hensworth."
Those were the first words that Jane had ever heard Regulus Black utter.
Jane's heart pounded in her chest, and she leapt to her feet, aiming a punch right at Regulus' face. Surprisingly enough, he countered it with ease, grabbing Jane's hand and twisting it painfully behind her back, pushing her back into the ground. Jane struggled uselessly against him.
"You're so pathetic," he muttered into her ear.
Letting her go, he stood over her. Jane rolled over onto her back and tried to get up only to have him place a foot on her chest and push her back down.
"You and all your friends ruined my family," he told her.
"It was already ruined," Jane spat back, and Regulus pressed a little harder with his foot, causing a pained breath to escape Jane's lips.
He leaned down, and Jane was almost frightened by the look in his eyes.
"I'm not gonna have a Mudblood like you touching any of my friends," he seethed venomously.
Against her better judgement, Jane gave a twisted smirked.
"That's a shame, because I sure do touch your brother an awful lot," she sneered.
Regulus raised his wand, and Jane closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact of a curse. However, it never came. Quite suddenly, the weight was removed from her chest, and she could breathe properly again. She openly her eyes to see Sirius now standing between her and his brother.
Jane pulled herself to her feet, and watched them both warily.
"You touch her again, I'll make you wish you'd never been born," Sirius threatened.
A dangerous glint flashed in Regulus' eyes.
"Like how Mum wishes you'd never been born?"
Sirius lunged at Regulus, and they both grappled on the floor. Jane tried her best to pull Regulus off, but all she'd managed to do so far was get hit in the face by his elbow. Jane staggered back, a little dazed and confused.
Suddenly, students were scattering, running away as fast as they could. Jane could just make out the word: "Teacher!" being yelled over and over again as more people ran past her. And looking up, she saw McGonagall staring right at her with a severe look on her face, accompanied by none other than the headmaster himself.
There had been about twenty students in Dumbledore's office after the fight finally broke up completely, all Slytherins and Gryffindors. Jane figured that they were all lucky to not be expelled on the spot. Dumbledore had taken so many points from both houses that Jane wondered if Gryffindor and Slytherin were now in the negatives. Dumbledore had left McGonagall and Slughorn in charge of the actual punishments. Jane didn't know what the Slytherins were going to have to do, but as for her and the other eight Gryffindor students, they were going to have to spend two whole weeks cleaning out the Owlery after classes and on weekend mornings.
Then, she'd went to the Hospital Wing to check on Mary, to see what had happened. There, she had found an irate Marlene, who had been studying in the common room when everything had started. Mary had been worried, since Alecto had basically outted her and Marlene.
"She said she saw us kissing on the train," Mary said quietly to Marlene.
Mary couldn't seem to meet the eyes of any of her friends, fearing that after this she and Marlene would be on their own. Marlene just held tighter to Mary's hand, trying not to think about how by the next morning the whole school, including her younger brothers, were going to know her secret.
Jane looked at both of them before glancing at Alice, who seemed rather unaffected by the girls' secret, as though maybe she'd already known. It wouldn't have surprised Jane if she had.
Alice sat down on the edge of Mary's bed. Placing her hand over both Mary and Marlene's hands, she finally got Mary to look at her.
"We're with you," she told them. "No matter what, we stick together. We're gonna see you through this."
Jane was sitting up in the Astronomy Tower with a blanket pulled around her and a cigarette in her hand.
"I heard what happened," came James' voice. "Knew I'd find you up here."
Jane stayed quiet. Taking a drag of her cigarette, she looked up at James and gave a small smile. He sat down beside her.
"It's kind of unbelievable, huh?" he said. "Mary and Marlene, that is."
Jane shrugged.
"Actually, I don't find it all that hard to believe," she told him. "In fact, I knew a long time ago."
"Really?" James asked. "How come you never told?"
Jane chewed the inside of her lip and shrugged.
"Same reason you guys didn't tell me about Remus I guess," she admitted. "They're my friends; it was their secret. It wouldn't have been fair to them."
James nodded in understanding.
"A lot of people are gonna treat them differently now," he commented.
"We're not," Jane said immediately in a sort of accusing voice.
"No, you're right; we aren't. I was just saying—the whole school's gonna know by tomorrow, and well, everything's going to be different now."
"So?" Jane said. "That's just even more reason to stick by them. They'd do it for us. They already have; they signed up for Dumbledore's group with us," Jane reminded him.
"I know," James said, not really sure where he was trying to go with this conversation.
Jane sighed, flicking away her cigarette.
"It's not gonna be the last time something like this happens to them," she said. "We need to be there for them."
"And we will be," James said. "Gryffindors stick together for life."
Jane smiled a bit, and leaned against James' shoulder.
"Besides," James continued, "with the way the world is now, we're all each other have got."