"'What are the six steps to brewing a successful 'Draught of Living Death'," Sirius read loudly and abruptly, effectively disturbing Jane's concentration enough to cause her to spill ink across her page.

She let out a heavy breath, a habit both Potter's had when irritated, though her brother was more commonly quick to react. Speaking of her brother, it was his fault that Sirius was insisting to study with her, a few days prior Peter had been attempting –and failing—to be her shadow; but shadows didn't talk, and they certainly didn't smell like rats. Days before that she had accepted Remus' company, he was smart, intelligent, made good conversation, and wasn't the annoying prat his friends were. But even then she had only gone a couple days before making him explain his sudden presence. Of course it had been James.
After she had fainted in the hallway he had freaked out, and no amount of reassurances would make him let it go, he insisted on an explanation, she insisted he mind his own business. They had just ended an argument, James wasn't about to start another, so he had 'asked' his friends to keep an eye on her.

A paper bird flew just above Jane's work before flying up and landing in her hair, she bit her cheek and willed herself not to react.

"Jane, I'm bored."

As that memory began to surface Jane tightened her fist around her quill and finally met Sirius' eyes with a glare, "Then why don't you go find my dear little brother."

"Well, Love, I would, but you see your brother instructed me to not leave your side. He's worried about your safety, can you blame him?"

"Yes," Jane retorted, "Easily."

"Come on," Sirius reasoned, "He wants to keep you safe."

"I can keep myself safe."

"Well if you're so sure then why don't we test that?"

Jane sighed and rolled her eyes, "I'm going to regret all of my choices very soon, aren't I?"

"It'll be fine, just loosen up, have some fun," Sirius goaded, a large grin firmly on his face.

"If you say 'we should go swimming' I'm going to murder you," Jane muttered, luckily not loud enough for him to hear clearly.

Her comment earned her a strange look but nothing more, "A prank."

Jane gave the tall male an incredulous look, "You want me to help you prank someone?"

"It'll be fun," Sirius promised, though his wicked grin said otherwise.

"Exactly how sure of this are you?"

"Positive."

"But exactly—"

"Jane," Sirius exclaimed, quickly hushing himself so not to draw attention to the pair, "It'll work, I promise."

"And just how many pranks have you gotten away with?" Jane questioned once more.

At that Sirius cleared his throat, coughed and stepped away to examine their project (Jane refused to call it a prank). A bucket filled with Flubberworm Mucus sat on a ledge near the ceiling, rigged to dump its contents on anyone to walk under it, charmed to refill itself each time it was emptied.

Almost immediately they heard Filch's cat making it's way towards them, Filch cooing and encouraging it to find the troublemakers soon after.

Jane's eyes met Sirius' and within the second they each held their wands, Sirius' voice rang out first the second Filch came around the corner, "Petrificus Totalus!"

Before she had even completely realized what she was doing Jane waved her own wand, "Aufero evidentiam."

The pair looking to each other once more, holding back laughter, before booking it down the hall, turning a corner just as they heard the bucket dump for the first time, as soon as they reached the top of the staircase they both burst into laughter.

Jane was still giggling as she exclaimed with a finger pointed at Sirius, "You froze Filch!"

"You," Sirius shook his head for a moment, chuckling, "I don't even know what you did, but it was amazing!"

Jane gave her own chuckle, "It's a spell a friend taught me, it will have removed any evidence of our presence."

"You need to teach me that spell," Sirius stated.

"Not a chance in hell," Jane retorted, giving her new friend a grin, "I need to be of some use next time we pull a prank."

"Are you saying there'll be a next time?"

Jane tugged her lip between her teeth, her eyes twinkling, before giving a shrug, "There's always a chance, Black."

"Call me Sirius," Black stated abruptly after a moment.

"Hm," Jane tilted her head, quite clearly playing with him now, "That sounds rather serious."

The boy's jaw dropped but there was a smile in his eyes, a bark of laughter, and then, "Oh, you brat!"

The Ravenclaw laughed, "Did you just call me a brat?"

"What do you prefer," Sirius drawled, leaning forward, "love?"

Jane scoffed, rolling her eyes, "I prefer my name."

"As soon as you call me by mine," Sirius challenged, with a self assured grin.

"Well," Jane replied gracefully, stepping away before meeting his gaze over her shoulder, "I do suppose we're at a standstill then, Darling."

The fireworks were brilliant, beautiful, amazing... and possibly quite dangerous. Which was the exact reason that the moment the Professor spotted the two at the back they bolted. It was Jane's fourth year, George's as well, but it was her first year at Mariland. And even running through unfamiliar halls with an almost stranger at her side; Jane was ecstatic. Their footsteps echoed almost as loud as their laughter as the pair eventually slowed.

"You're going to get me expelled and it's not even been a week," Jane stated, huffing at the boy beside her who promptly rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on Jane, the worst they're going to do is give us detention," George retorted, bumping her shoulder with his own, earning a glare.

"That's still worse than anything I've done before!"

George snorted, "You really need to have some fun, Potter-ow!" He brushed at the arm she had hit rather forcefully before sighing, "It's not like we'll even get caught!"

"You're holding the evidence!"

George seemed to realize that exact thing himself and stopped walking, he placed the box of used fireworks on the floor, "Aufero Evidentiam."

"How did you do that?"

The only response Jane got while she stared at the box now filled with scrolls was a grin.

"You did what?" James shouted, jumping from his chair.

"Prongs, for the love of Merlin, relax," Remus stated, not looking up from his book, "Jane can take care of herself."

"No! You didn't see it, Moony, she fainted!" James explained in exasperation.

"Mate," Sirius shook his head, "She's not gonna drop dead, have some faith in your own sister, would ya?"

Prongs groaned, running a hand through his hair, the other hand on his hip, for a second Sirius could easily see Jane employ the same motions in her own stress, "But she ha—" James abruptly stopped himself, eyes going wide before stuttering out an attempt at an explanation for his worry.

But Sirius and Remus were already paying attention, by association as was Peter. Remus studied the male Potter curiously, "James," he began, "Is there something you're not telling us?"

"Nope," James answered all too quickly, "It's—there's nothing. Just a –never mind."

"Prongs," Sirius tried, he caught his friend's gaze, "Did something happen to Jane?"

"Yeah," Peter added the moment James' mouth actually began to form words, "What happened?"

Swallowing a lump in his throat James sat back in down and dropped his head into his hands, Sirius was beginning to see all the little things that were the same about the twins, before sighing and sinking into the chair. "I have no idea." He finally looked up, lifting his shoulders and dropping them once more, "She's… During fifth year, you remember when I got all antsy? Stopped talking for a bit, kept sending out letters? She, Jane, promised to come home, come to Hogwarts, for All Hallow's Eve. When she didn't I asked Nonna to check up on her, just in case…" Prongs let out a slow breath as if trying not to remember the story he was telling. "Nonna couldn't find her, she even asked some of the students but none of them could—none of them would tell a house elf where to find my sister. When Nonna came back with nothing but worry I almost called my parents, didn't want to ruin their business trip though. The next day her owl delivered a letter." At this James reached into his bag, digging through it until he pulled out a small leather satchel, he pulled out a worn piece of paper and read;

"~James,

My apologies, I couldn't make it to Hogwarts this Halloween. I had business to take care of. I hope you had a nice night. I likely won't write again for a while, please do not worry yourself over it; the work load is much harder here.

-Jane."

"The one time I called 'All Hallow's Eve' 'Halloween' in front of Jane she slapped me," Peter muttered, seeming unaware that that was what was on the other boys' minds as well.

"She would never complain about a workload," Remus added.

"And the day that girl writes a letter that simple is the day Lily stops defending Snape," Sirius finished.

Finally James looked from the letter to his friends, "We need to know what happened."