CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SEVEN
Around a month had passed, and Jane was, admittedly getting quite comfortable with her new life as a member of the Order. Granted, they had only had a couple of other meetings, and it was mostly people who worked at the Ministry conveying whispers and rumours that they'd heard about to Dumbledore. Jane had nothing to relay as she only ever spoke to her friends, her dad and the Potters and admittedly, Jane didn't really venture out much while alone. Overall, Jane's part in the Order had not yet been clarified, and while she was thankful for it, she could tell that James and Sirius were getting tired of waiting.
Both James and Sirius had both put their futures on hold so that they could be "fully devoted to the cause." James' parents nearly went mental when they heard James tell them that he was "taking a year off to find himself" before he decided to start his Auror training, not that it really mattered; Jane suspected that the Potters had enough money that if James decided that he never wanted to work a day in his life, he'd still be set. Sirius and Jane, however, were living off a dwindling inheritance from a dead uncle and Jane's savings. Suffice it to say that it wasn't going to last them forever, even with the Potters paying for Jane's schooling, which she hadn't been able to talk them out of. So, Sirius finally caved and got a job, though not an ideal one and not one that Jane liked at all.
"Where is this place at again?" Jane asked as Sirius talked about the job he'd found.
"Knockturn Alley," he said without a hint of worry in his voice, and Jane frowned.
"I don't like it," Jane said.
"Oh, come on, Janie. It's like you said, we'll run out of money eventually if we don't have jobs, and you're in school right now—"
"I can work on the weekends when I don't have classes."
"And miss our Sunday lunches with the Potters? That's a wonderful idea. James' mum will give us money so fast it'll make our landlord's head spin," he countered, knowing how Jane felt about taking their money when she could help it. Jane sighed.
"Are we idiots for moving out on our own?" she asked.
"Probably," Sirius said. "I know we still have money left over; we're not exactly struggling to make ends meet, but we shouldn't be spending all of our savings; we might need that money later, and this job pays pretty well, all things considered."
"It's probably because no one wanted to work there!" Jane said. "Knockturn Alley's sketchy at the best of times."
"Oh, calm down, it's the same place Moony works."
"I still don't understand why he's working in Knockturn Alley either; he could do much better," Jane said, remembering how Remus had jumped at the first job offered to him. Sirius just rolled his eyes.
"Janie, don't you see? This is a great opportunity. If we're going to hear any whisperings about Death Eaters and Voldemort—" Jane flinched at the name, "—The White Wyvern is one of the most likely spots. And if you're really that worried, Moony and I will be working most of our shifts together."
Jane frowned as she contemplated this information.
"I guess that makes it a little better," she mumbled, "but I'm still not happy about it."
As it turned out, Sirius didn't quite care all too much that it made Jane unhappy, which irked Jane a bit but wasn't surprising. In the end, she supposed he was right. As Order members, it would be nice if this placement proved to be a strategical advantage.
It was currently 9:45 in the morning on September fourth, and Jane was running around the flat, searching desperately for the paper with her scheduled classes.
"Sirius, have you seen my schedule? I really need it," she asked, digging through the bowl on the coffee table that always had random papers and receipts in it. Sirius flipped the page on the book he was reading before pointing to the kitchen counter. Jane quickly sorted through the stack of letters and bills and shoved the schedule in her school bag before moving back to stand in front of Sirius.
"Well, I guess I'm off; wish me luck."
Sirius tossed the book aside and looked up at Jane.
"You don't need luck; you'll be fine. However, I can see your bra through your shirt. I'm not sure if you were going for that look," Sirius said, smirking. Jane sighed, throwing her bag down and throwing her shirt off as she walked back into their bedroom and pulled a new one over her head.
"You couldn't have told me this half an hour ago when I asked if you thought I looked okay?" she complained.
"I always think you look fine," Sirius said. "Besides, I don't mind the show."
"Fine," Jane said as she walked back out of the bedroom. "Should I just go to school shirtless then? Maybe I'll find a new boyfriend," she teased. Sirius stood from the couch and walked over to Jane, putting is hands on her waist and pulling her into a quick kiss.
"Well, I was going to come up to Clitheroe to have lunch with you, but since you're being cheeky, I don't think I will."
Jane rolled her eyes before kissing him again.
"I'll see you at noon," she told him before she finally left.
Seeing as how the train to Clitheroe took over three hours, Jane opted for the Knight Bus; she wasn't sure why the wizarding world hadn't figured out how to make their trains move significantly faster than Muggle trains. As she took her seat, Jane pulled her student packet out and leafed through it again. She had gone to the orientation a few days ago, and she was pretty sure she knew the best ways to and from the campus, but she was still nervous and didn't know what to expect. The Bus made a few quick stops around London, picking people up and dropping them off, before it finally left the area.
Jane quickly learned that reading anything on the Knight Bus was next to impossible without getting motion sickness. The racing speeds and frequent stops made it hard to focus on the words, so she folded the papers back up and stuck them in her bag before closing her eyes and waiting for her stop to be announced, which didn't take very long at all. Before she knew it, she was walking into a small Tea and Butterbeer shop that was nestled right in-between a Muggle bookshop and a bar.
Jane walked into the shop and started making her way for the small room in the back. She noticed that there were already students pouring over books, mindlessly downing their drinks as they studied or wrote essays. Classes had technically started on the previous Friday but seeing as how Jane tested out of Healing Theory with her N.E.W.T.s, she didn't have any Friday classes; she was sure she probably wouldn't be so lucky the following term. Jane looked at her wristwatch, decided that she had some time to spare before her first class started, and walked towards the counter to order one butterbeer to-go.
As she waited on her order to be filled, Jane pulled out her map of the campus and studied it some more. This was more to have something to do rather than for actual directional purposes. She had studied the map days ago and marked off the rooms that her classes were in. Plus, she figured that if she could figure out how to navigate her way through Hogwarts, then Pendle Hill would probably be a breeze. As she was looking at her map, a boy walked up to place his own order. He spotted Jane out of the corner of his eye and smiled a bit at the map.
"First term?" he asked, and Jane looked up from her map and into the brown eyes of possibly one of the most beautiful people she'd ever seen. The bone structure in his face was almost too perfect, and his tan skin seemed to radiate. Jane just stared at him, wondering how and why he was talking to her and wondering how he got his teeth so damn white before she realised that he was expecting an answer.
"Oh, yeah," she said, looking back down at her map, figuring it was a safer place to let her gaze drift.
"Hogwarts student, right?" he asked, and Jane just nodded, taking note in his accent, which he also seemed to make sound heavenly. "Ah," the boy said, "I'm from Castelobruxo myself, I'm on my third term right now. I'm Silva, by the way. Matheus Silva."
"Jane Hensworth," she replied. "So, do you like it here?"
"It's all right. It's a good school. My biggest complaint is that I miss home a lot."
"Any professors that I should watch out for?" Jane asked as the woman behind the counter brought her butterbeer to her. Matheus pondered for a moment.
"Most of the teachers are great. There's Professor Marlowe, but you shouldn't have to worry about her until your next term. You have to complete some prerequisites before taking any of her classes. Professor Bailey is good; he's just kind of boring, so you might want to drink some coffee before going to any of his lectures," Matheus responded as his order was brought to him as well. Jane looked at her watch and put her map back into her bag.
"Well, I've got 10:30 class, so I should get going."
"Well, let me walk you. I've got a class at 10:45 anyway," he said, but Jane shook her head.
"I think I can manage. I wouldn't want you to have to go out of your way."
"Well, at least let me show you how the door works," he said, causing Jane to furrow her brow.
"At orientation they just said to tap the knob with your wand," she said.
"Yeah, the people that run student orientation do the bare minimum. That'll only get you to the front of the school. Come on," he said, and before Jane could inquire further, Matheus had already walked to the little back room of the shop.
"Now, tapping on the knob puts you right outside the front of the school. However, if you tap on this weird-looking spot here, it'll take you to the cafeteria," he said, pointing to a dark spot in the wood on the upper right-hand side of the door. "And if you swipe your wand along this crack, it'll take you right to the West end of the second-floor hallway. And if you tap three times on the middle hinge, it takes you to Finley Hall."
"What's Finley Hall?" Jane asked, and the boy smiled.
"That's my dorm hall, in case you wanted check it out someday," he said before giving her a wink. Jane blushed furiously before muttering something about being late for class and just tapping on the door knob before escaping through the door and ending up on the front lawn of the campus.
Jane stared up at the building, before looking behind her to see that the door had already vanished into thin air. She quickly walked towards the front doors lest the boy suddenly popped up beside her. It wasn't that she minded the flirtations, on the contrary, she was quite flattered, but she felt somewhat guilty for thinking the boy was attractive while she was with Sirius.
Jane managed to make it through her first class just fine before heading back to Clitheroe to meet Sirius for lunch at Finnigan's Pub. She filled him in on the class she'd had but didn't talk too much on it because she could tell that he just wasn't interested in Healing Fundamentals. She opted not to tell Sirius about Matheus Silva as she figured that would be a bad idea, so she let him take over the conversational topics from there, which meant they eventually ended up talking about the Order.
"I just don't get it," Sirius said, keeping his voice at a whisper. "We haven't heard from them in a solid fortnight. I thought the Order was about being proactive."
Jane shrugged.
"Maybe it's a good thing that we aren't doing anything right now. That just means that there's not a lot of rumours about You-Know-Who floating about, right? Maybe this whole thing's finally fading out," she said, though she hardly believed her own words, and clearly Sirius didn't either as he scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"I'm bored," he complained.
"So, you want to fill your time by fighting a war? Why are you so anxious to put yourself in harms way?" Jane asked.
"It's not that, it's just—Oh, forget it; you wouldn't understand. I mean, you're going to school, Frank and Alice are training to be Aurors, and the most important thing I'm doing is wiping down tables in a pub with Moony and hoping to hear something useful that may or may not even be true," he said, frowning as he leaned back in his chair.
"Well, maybe you should go to school too or look into an internship at the Ministry," Jane offered; she still didn't like the fact that he was working in Knockturn Alley. Sirius only shrugged.
"Yeah, maybe. I'll think about it," was all he said.
After their lunch was over, Jane went back to Pendle Hill, and Sirius went to start his shift at the White Wyvern. Jane got to her class a little early and chose to sit in the front rather than the back. She had already leafed through the pages of her textbook for her Medicinal Herbs class, and she was certain that it was going to be her favourite class this term.
As she waited, other students filled in the empty seats. Jane didn't really pay them much attention until a familiar-looking face walked in. Jane stared at the black-haired girl as she scanned the room for empty seats. Once her eyes met Jane's, a look of brief confusion as to why a random girl was staring at her washed over her face before it was replaced by a look of semi-recognition. The girl walked over and sat down in the empty seat next to Jane.
For a while neither said anything, as though they were wondering if the other person was actually who they thought they were. They kept stealing awkward sideway glances at each other, pondering on whether or not they should say something. It was the girl that finally spoke up.
"I'm sorry; you just look so familiar. Didn't we meet on the trip here back in March?" she asked. Jane nodded and smiled, happy that her gut feeling was right and happy that the girl remembered her.
"Your name's Keiko, right?" Jane added for reassurance, and the girl nodded.
Keiko hadn't changed much since Jane had last saw her. Her cheeks were slightly less full than Jane remembered, but she was still very pretty, her black hair shining in a way that made Jane feel just slightly self-conscious about how dull her own seemed in comparison. As they talked Jane was reminded of what had made her like the girl so much in the first place. She was especially kind and surprisingly easy to talk to despite the fact that Jane really didn't know her all too well.
Jane found out that after graduation, Masaki had been accepted to the healing school in Tokyo, and Toma was currently interning with the Japanese Ministry of Magic. Keiko, who had loved Pendle Hill the moment she first visited, had had a heart-to-heart with her mother, who'd been set on Keiko going to the healing school in Tokyo, and as Keiko told this to Jane, Jane couldn't help but wonder if news of what was going on across Europe regarding You-Know-Who had reached other parts of the world. Maybe Keiko's mum had been right; maybe Keiko shouldn't have come here.
Part of Jane wanted to tell Keiko this, if only to keep the girl on her guard, but considering that this was their first conversation in around six months, Jane decided that that was best left for another day. Besides, Keiko was living on campus and didn't travel very much outside the towns surrounding the Hill. Jane had convinced herself that the girl would be safe, so she stayed quiet on the matter.
Jane made it through her first week of classes without a hitch. She and Keiko had also braved through Professor Bailey's Anatomy and Physiology classes on Tuesday and Thursday, managing to keep each other awake and focused through his monotoned lectures, which Jane could only describe as the most tedious torture device in the world.
When Friday rolled around, Jane set to work reading her assigned texts and starting on her homework. Sirius had left for work around lunchtime, leaving Jane alone in the quiet of their flat. Jane had once worked up the courage and made it a point to go visit Sirius and Remus at their job, only to be subsequently scolded by the two for venturing into Knockturn Alley alone. She had replied something to the effect of, if she couldn't come visit them there, maybe they shouldn't be working there.
As Jane opened the top of her highlighter to run over something in her Medicinal Herbs textbook, a sudden screeching noise sounded from her and Sirius' bedroom, causing her to jump up and grab for her wand on the coffee table. Her panic was short-lived once she realised what it was. She walked into the bedroom and grabbed her screeching pocket watch off of her dresser, clicking open the case.
"Be quiet," Jane said to the little eagle, which paused for a moment to acknowledge her before continuing to screech.
"But I'm not even late for—Oh, shit!"
Jane had completely forgotten about her promise to have tea with James' mum. She looked at the time; she wasn't too late leaving. She ran around the apartment, quickly getting ready and disappeared out the door. She arrived at the Potters' by Knight Bus shortly after, the front gate opening for her as she ran down towards the entrance.
Jane opened the door and stopped to catch her breath, hearing footsteps approaching her. Looking up to see Mrs. Potter, Jane almost gasped aloud; luckily, she was so out of breath that she could do no such thing. Since their last Sunday lunch, where she was already looking frailer than usual, Mrs. Potter had seemed to have gotten worse. Jane was sure if the woman got any thinner, she would disappear completely. Her eyes, though they still shone with a playful glimmer had dark bags underneath them that makeup just didn't seem to cover completely. Despite this, Mrs. Potter had a smile on her face.
"Running a bit late, are we?" she teased, and Jane offered an apology, but Mrs. Potter waved it off. "Oh, don't worry. I know your mind's busy with school, unlike those boys. I honestly don't know what we're going to do with James. Taking a year off; who ever heard of such? I think we've spoiled him just a tad too much."
"I'm perfectly fine, thank you," James said from the stairway as he made his way down.
"Joining us for tea?" Jane asked, and James shook his head.
"Going to meet up with Lily. She gets off early on Fridays."
"Perhaps, if you would start an internship at the Ministry, you'd see a bit more of her," Mrs. Potter proposed.
"Mum, don't start," James complained, giving her a quick hug and kiss goodbye before ruffling up his black hair and leaving. Mrs. Potter sighed.
"And here I thought that she might have had a better influence on him."
"Oh, she has, but there's only so much influencing you can do with James," Jane said, smiling a bit.
"And what about Sirius?"
"Oh, no, he's completely impervious to influence of any kind," Jane teased, and Mrs. Potter smiled as they walked towards the drawing room.
"I wouldn't say that. I believe that he has been thoroughly influenced by you, dear."
They settled into the drawing room where they talked for a long time about Jane's classes, Sirius' job (Mrs. Potter wasn't too thrilled about the White Wyvern either), and the latest gossip from Mrs. Potter's friends while they drank their tea and snacked lightly on small sandwiches. Jane never mentioned the fact that Mrs. Potter looked awfully sick; she was sure the topic would be brushed off. Mrs. Potter had never been the one to burden Jane or Sirius or James with any news that was less than pleasant unless it was absolutely necessary. Since Mrs. Potter hadn't said anything on the subject, Jane assumed that Mrs. Potter would get better. Afterall, she was sure that Mrs. Potter would tell them if something was seriously wrong with her.
After about an hour had passed, Mrs. Potter excused herself to the loo, and Jane was left with her thoughts. She stood to stretch her legs and walk around the room, admiring the artwork that hung on the walls and the small trinkets Mrs. Potter had placed about. Jane stopped in front of one of the console tables and picked up a picture frame, smiling fondly at the picture within it. It was a picture of her, Sirius and James, taken right before the Easter party that they'd attended at the Longbottoms'. She and Sirius were sniggering as James was sporting the fakest, most tense smile in the world; he wasn't quite rolling his eyes, but his expression gave off the same air of annoyance.
Jane laughed a bit. On the one hand, it was hard to believe that they had ever been that little, but on the other, she remembered taking this photo and remembered the party afterwards. Sometimes, it was hard for Jane to remember that she had changed over the years. She placed the picture back in its spot and walked around a bit more before wondering what could be taking Mrs. Potter so long.
After about five more minutes, Jane walked to the bottom of the stairs and called out for Mrs. Potter and waited for a response, but there was none. Jane furrowed her brow and walked up the stairs, calling out for Mrs. Potter once more. However, as she made it to the top of the stairs, she saw Mrs. Potter lying on the floor of the hallway, completely unresponsive. Panic immediately filled her as she rushed to the older woman's side.