Jane and her father were in the car when the car slipped on an invisible sheet of ice. Jane closed her eyes until it stopped moving. When she opened them, she was upside down in the back seat, staring at her father's bloody body.
She closed her eyes, trying to block out the image. She trembled, and her breathing got faster, she started rocking back and forth. When she slammed her body to the side, into the cracked and cold window, she felt as if she had released something., so she did it again, and again.
When Jane awoke, the image of her father's dead body was the last thing that she could remember. She was hoping it was a dream, but she knew it probably wasn't because she was in a strange white room. Her mother was was by her side. When she looked down at Jane, Jane could tell that she had been crying. "You're going to be okay, Jane," she said.
Jane felt really strange, especially the left side of her face and neck, and her left hand. She wanted to ask why, but she could not get the words out. She reached her left hand into her line of vision and saw that it was bandaged.
"You're injured, but the doctor said it's not bad enough to be permanent."
Jane saw Tracey, sitting up in their mother's lap, and then Jane started sobbing. Jane had had her father in her life for eleven years, but Tracey would not. Neville's father was still alive, but he had never been able to be a father to him, and the closest Neville had to a father was his grandfather, who died when he was younger than Jane. Life was so unfair.
Jane tightly held her mother's hand, while she stared through the glass at Mrs. Snake.
"Oh no," Mrs. Snake cried. "What happened to you?"
Jane tried to speak, but nothing came out. Jane hadn't spoken since the accident, but she was hoping that she would at least be able to speak snake.
"What? You're so upset you can't talk to me? Well, shit happens, but you'll be okay in time. You always seemed pretty tough."
Jane was surprised by that comment.
Jane, her mother, Tracey, and her grandparents, were getting ready to leave for the funeral when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," her mother called.
Neville and his grandmother walked in.
Jane looked at them, surprised. Neville was supposed to be at Hogwarts.
"Hi Jane," Neville greeted, sadly. He wouldn't look directly at her, but he didn't seem surprised to see her in her current state. Maybe he had been warned. "They opened a flue network so I could come home for the day and go to the funeral."
At the funeral, Jane sat between her mother and Neville.
Jane's mother had been holding Jane's right hand, but she let go of it when she had to go up to speak.
Neville held out his hand, and Jane took it.
Jane's grandparents and Neville's grandmother were all looking at the two of them, but they didn't notice.
Jane's mother started speaking, but then she started staring into space as if she was totally lost. This wasn't the first time, since her father died, that Jane had seen her do that.
"Come on Mummy," Jane said. "We need you."
Her mother looked straight at her, for a few seconds, and suddenly she was fine.