Jane woke up with a pounding headache and loud voices around her. Her mind was still fuzzy, images and memories blurring, her head too much for her to pick them apart at the moment so instead she simply raised her hands to cover her eyes from the light and spoke loudly, "Would you all please clam it."
She almost breathed a sigh of relief at the momentary quiet but then there was a chorus of "Jane!" and a flurry of movement before the voices were all much closer, panicked, apologetic and –
"That is the exact opposite of quiet," Jane snarked, opening her eyes to the many faces and rolling her eyes, "Personal space?"
She closed her eyes and ignored the voices, when she opened her eyes again she took inventory, for lack of a better description. Xenophilius sat on the end of her bed knotting thread into a bracelet, Kai stood behind him, thoroughly amused by the crowd, the girls stood around on her right side, the boys on her left. Her eyes caught Lily's, than snapped over to James', and her expression hardened.
"Not that I don't love you all," Jane interrupted whoever had been speaking, "But please get out."
Emmeline was the first to nod, reaching over and placing a kiss on her friend's forhead, the action mimicked by Hestia before the two quickly exited what Jane now knew to be the infirmary. Dante and Dorcus both left quietly, with small nods and whispered well-wishes, Jane took note that they held hands as they left and smiled slightly. Kennedy had gone, Alice and Frank left together to no one's surprise. Xeno warned her about something called a Perchant attacking her in the woods and informed her he was making another bracelet to add to the magic of the one she had lost.
Leaving all of the Marauders stubbornly in place, with Kai, Lily, and Marlene sticking around. Jane looked between the seven of them and raised her eyebrows, "Honestly?"
"If the concussion hasn't damaged your memory you will remember what happened yesterday," Kai commented, he nodded to the other four males, "I'll leave when they do."
"Ditto to that," Marlene grunted, narrowing a glare in the males' general direction.
Jane rolled her eyes, "Compromise then, Peter and Remus leave with Marlene and Kai. Then you've got two and two." She refused to specify who made up the 'two' and 'two' as she knew they would come to their own conclusions. Marlene and Kai communicated silently before shrugging and walking out of the room behind Remus and Peter. The latter offering Jane an apologetic smile to which she nodded, letting him know she couldn't blame him. If she couldn't control her brother neither could Remus, it wasn't the other boy's fault.
Apparently comfortable with the much smaller company both James and Lily opened their mouths with, "Jane, I—"
"One at a time," Jane grumbled, running a hand through her hair, "I can't believe I'm honestly going to sort this all out here, my gods." When the pair simply both attempted to speak first again Jane held up her hand quickly gesturing for Lily to be quiet for a moment.
"I'm so sorry," James muttered, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair, "I don't know why I said those things I am a complete jackass—"
"Damn right," Lily interrupted, "You cursed out your own sister, do you have any idea—"
"What I was feeling?" Jane interrupted, turning her cold gaze to the redhead, "No he doesn't, but neither do you, Lily Evans. It is not your place to defend me to my brother just as it was not your place to speak of me to my brother last night. We had a promise, Evans. You would never stand for me speaking to Severus in your defence and you have no right to bring me up as a fall card when you're in a tiff with my brother. Yes he is a complete and utter jackass at times but you seem to forget; he is my brother. And no matter what he has done he was not deserving of your little speech last night."
Silence followed. Lily looked shocked, and slightly guilty, her head bowed, "I was trying to be a friend."
"You are a friend," Jane insisted, "But I don't do your homework for you, so don't fight my fights for me."
The redheaded Gryffindor nodded and swallowed, "I am sorry Jane. I – I was upset and angry and I kept thinking about how you two were so different, and why –"
Jane scoffed, "We're twins, Lily, not clones."
Finally Lily allowed a smile, "I'm glad you're feeling better, I've got a few things to sort out myself, so I'll leave you be." Straightening herself and rolling her shoulders back Lily faced James, and for a moment Jane thought her words had had no effect whatsoever but then, "And I'm sorry to you as well, James. I was rather rash in my response, and I shouldn't have brought up Jane." She nodded once more to Jane before leaving, the latter looking to her brother.
"Jane, I-"
"Leave."
Jane watched her brother freeze, as if he was trying to figure out how to take her words, if they had been directed at him, finally he shook his head with a disbelieving expression as if he truly believed she had meant that word for someone else, "Jane, you know that—"
"What I know is that you said you hated me. There is no taking that back. What I know is that you've been digging into the last three years—"
"I was worried!" James interrupted.
In return Jane practically growled, "It was none of your business!"
Glaring James shouted back, "I'm your brother!"
"Really?! Because you're acting a damn lot like my father!"
Jane's words broke the shouting into incredible silence. Sirius clearing his throat reminded them both of his presence but neither opted to break their eye contact, furious glares dying down with heavy breaths. Eventually James stepped back and appraised his sister.
"You mean that?"
Giving a tired sigh Jane gave her brother a half-smile, "Have I ever said something I didn't mean?"
"I don't –"
"Intend too." Jane finished her brother's sentence, just as she had done so often as a child, "I know, James. But that doesn't mean you aren't. You still think of me as the little thirteen year old girl terrified to go to leave home, always in her brother's shadow. The last time you truly knew me I was always behind you James, you were my shield from the world." She shook her head and took a deep breath, meeting his eyes with more emotion then she had intended, a lot of things had been left unsaid for too long, "But I'm not that little girl anymore than you're the little boy that ran to his sister crying the first time he got detention. I'm that little girl about as much as you're the little boy that refused to go anywhere without his sister, that was devastated when his sister was put in Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor. James, we both changed in three years, you have to accept that I don't need you to be my shield, my protection. I need you to be my brother, my equal."
James ran his hand through his hair, watching Jane with the same expression she would get while in deep thought. Her head tilted to the side while she wondered what was going through her brother's head, she honestly missed being able to read him like a paperback novel. Soon he nodded, "One condition."
Jane rolled her eyes despite the small grin on her lips, "Of course there is."
Sitting in Divination Jane listened to her Professor explain the same things she had said so many times before. The Ravenclaw girl was glad to be on better terms with her brother once again but at this point she couldn't help the wariness she felt, a little voice in the back of her head telling her it wouldn't last. Somehow she and her brother always ended up on opposite sides of the fence, she could still hope, but her hope was drained. She was tired of just hoping.
Jane took the cue of the Professor's voice finally trailing off and dipped her head back, letting a drop of the potion fall onto her eye. It was supposedly meant to bring out the 'inner psychics' in any 'gifted' students, in all honesty Jane didn't know how many more 'visions' she could take and for that she wished that the potion would have no effect on her.
What happened was the exact opposite of her wish and when Jane's eyes snapped open she wasn't in her classroom any more. Unsure of her footing she staggered back a bit, only to fall right through a tree. She tried to call out but her voice failed her, from what she could tell the passersby couldn't even see her. Finally she focused on her surroundings, stepping forward tentatively until she was sure the ground wouldn't disappear beneath her feet. She recognized the area around her, somehow she had travelled to the greenery surrounding the castle, a few students were milling around but the ones that caught her attention clearly should have been in class. Again she tried to call out, tried yelling her brother's name; again it did nothing. Still she walked closer, learning that at least she could hear them. Sadly their conversation was boring and mundane, something they would talk about any other day just as so.
For a flash second she met Sirius' eyes,
Finally her eyes refocused on the classroom. She was back where she was supposed to be, and it was as if hardly a few minutes had passed. Jane would have written it off as a silly and strange daydream, if not for the way her Professor was so very focused on her now.
Dinner had long since finished once Jane was permitted to leave the Headmaster's office, and the conversations continued to run through her head. It couldn't be—she hadn't…, continuously she attempted to shake off the thoughts that didn't make sense. All it lead to was her collision with a very familiar body—boy! Familiar boy.
"Not that I'm against you falling for me—"
"Shut up, Black," Jane grumbled, smacking his shoulder lightly.
"Oh you love my voice," Sirius retorted swinging an arm around her shoulders as she began to walk again, "Why else would you always be around me?"
At this the Ravenclaw scoffed, giving the Gryffindor a pointed look, "Don't flatter yourself, Love."
"So about yesterday," Jane stiffened almost imperceptibly but Sirius continued, "I've been thinking it over,"
"An honest disquiet, I'm sure," Jane mumbled, not sure how to deal with her building anxiety over what she had told him.
Sirius continued as if she hadn't spoken, "And I've come to the conclusion that there's really only one reasonable explanation as to why you left."
In all honesty he had thought it over, Sirius knew she only would have left friendships like that if something had happened, something had happened to that family and that was why she refused to speak of her time there. It was too painful, and while he had intended to inform her of his discovery he couldn't. He met her eyes and recognized the hidden layers; distrust, hurt, anger, he knew the emotions she was hiding and he knew she would never even think of pressuring him to tell her about his family. Which all led to his answer instead being,
"You missed me!"
"Of course," Jane rolled her eyes, relief visibly washing over her expression, "You're a genius, Sirius Black. That is most certainly the sole reason I returned."
"George you are utterly exasperating."
"Jane you use a lot of really big words."
"Would you two stop flirting?" Mary interrupted reasonably, they did need to actually do their homework.
"Mary," Jane began, tilting her head to the side, "If we stop 'flirting', as you say, will you tell us who it is?"
Mary sighed in exasperation, "Who who is?"
"The person you're clearly in love with," George answered with a devilish grin.
Mary's eyes darted between her close friend and her brother before she groaned, "I liked it better when you were flirting."
"But then who would bother you?"
In honor of getting over 1,000 views (thank you all that's so exciting! i love you guys!) next chapter would you rather an entire chapter from jane's time away with more information about the people she met and what she went through, a super shippy jane/sirius chapter, or a chapter with lucius malfoy severus snape and a bit of james/lily shipping?