Chapter Nine

Sirius is Revealed

The date of the Yuletide concert had already been set, and the Ravenclaw House rock band was rehearsing all the time. They already had two songs of their own, and they had studied a few of the "Weird Sisters", so they knew what they were going to play. They just needed to improve their technique. Only one small detail had to be clarified – the band still didn't have a name.

'There was a band at my old school,' Lily said one afternoon when everyone along with Associate Professor Undead had gathered in the boys' room in Ravenclaw Tower. 'They were called Drillmachine, I'm not joking.'

'It's an electrical device used by the Muggles to drill holes,' August explained to the other boys with a laugh. 'It makes a lot of noise.'

'Yes, and just imagine what happened when the audience had to call them for an encore. How do you think one shouts "Drill-ma-shine"? It'd have been better if they had called themselves 'Tractor'!'

Just as Euphem was about to ask what a tractor was, there was a knock on the door. Jerry went to open it while the others continued sitting on the floor cushions, staring aimlessly out the window at the mountains.

'Hey, mates, does Euphem happen to be here?' Roger Davis's dark-haired head protruded from the crack in the doorway, and he looked around curiously. 'You are quite settled, you have not one but two girls.'

'We're rehearsing right now, Roger,' Jane, who was sitting on a small pillow on the floor, said with a smile. 'Besides, better not consider me a girl, I'm long past that age.'

'You may be older than us, Associate Professor Undead, but we already consider you part of our House, unless, of course, you've something against it.'

'Of course, I don't have anything against it, Roger. Come sit with us, we are currently looking for a name for the band.'

'Besides, we haven't progressed much,' Lily added. 'Maybe you'll come up with something.'

Roger looked at the two ladies and bowed theatrically.

'I'd love to sit with you if you'll wait ten minutes. I need to consult with the Quidditch team about the upcoming match.'

Euphem looked at Jane for permission to leave, to which she waved favourably.

'Go, go. We're stuck anyway.'

The boy got up agilely and went out the door.

'And, by the way, Associate Professor Undead,' Roger was leaning over the doorknob, smiling at his teacher, 'I have to tell you, you still catch the eye.'

Roger liked to jest, so Jane wasn't hurt. Besides, there was nothing hurting in his words. She liked that the students liked her, and the boy was merely trying to compliment her.

'I'll have to leave you at some point," she told the others shortly after the door closed. 'I have a meeting tonight that I must attend.'

'We have things to do, too' Jerry said. 'Some of us have to do our Divination homework.'

'In my time, this homework wasn't so difficult. Just predict a few disasters and you're ready. For example, it was popular back then to write that someone would get kidnapped by a Griffin.'

Everyone burst out laughing, even Jerry, who was seriously considering writing something like that in his essay.

'Our Divination professor was very distracted. I don't even know if he read the homework, but in the end, we always had grades.'

'Professor Trelawney must have been his student,' Seth said quietly as he tried to catch his breath. 'We suspect the same thing about her.'

'Perhaps it isn't quite fair to say that about my colleagues,' Jane began hesitantly. 'But I think I can tell you. I hope you don't spread it across the school, but I still doubt if your professor knows my name. Although we've been introduced at least three times.'

They continued in that spirit for a few more minutes, waiting for Euphem and Roger to return. Jane even inspected the Divination homework of those who attended the class and helped them finish it.

'Just don't tell my colleague I helped you. She may be affected.'

'If she's a real clairvoyant, she'll find out for herself,' Lily smiled. 'We'll just test her.'

At that moment the door opened again and the two boys entered, still discussing something.

'Have you pulled out the homework while we were gone?' Roger asked in surprise.

'We wanted to ask Associate Professor Undead about something,' Seth replied as if trying to protect his teacher from the curiosity of the Quidditch captain.

'Besides, she's much more willing to give consultations than Professor Trelawney,' Jerry added.

'As I see it, you'll overwhelm Associate Professor Undead with work, and she won't be able to rest at all.' Roger seemed surprised that quite often either the group went to the teacher or she hung in their room. Apparently, this wasn't the typical behaviour of teachers here.

'Don't fret about me, Roger, a little work won't hurt me. Besides, I have a lot of fun with you, students. Sit next to me and help us think.' Jane pulled closer to Lily, who was sitting to her right and conjured a small pillow on her left.

After he and Euphem had settled in, they gave the word to the Quidditch captain.

'So, Rodge, what's on your mind?' Lily asked, leaning in front of Jane to see him better.

'Actually, nothing comes to mind. How about "Dragon Fire"?'

'Doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't fit the music we play.'

'Okay, "Full Moon" then?'

'No, it's too feminine,' Jerry answered this time, leaning aside to avoid the flying pillow that Lily had immediately thrown at him.

Others also joined the proposals. Many names were said, but none of them could satisfy everyone.

'I don't think we'll ever be able to reach an agreement on this,' Lily sighed at last and began conjuring a blue ribbon in the air. 'Maybe we should come up with something about Ravenclaw?'

'Such as?' asked several voices.

'For example, "The Ravens" or "The Eagles".'

'"The Ravens" is very gloomy. I like "The Eagles", but it's kind of too formal.'

'Besides,' Jane added, 'there's a Muggle band with that name.'

'Pity.'

The discussion continued. Someone even conjured a light fluffy ball and the others began passing it to each other. The one who caught it had to say the first thing that came to mind, and the others had to decide if it was fit for the band's name. In the end, however, no one could concentrate, and things like "Goblin Snot," "Falling from the Broom," and even "Dirty Kneazle" were heard more and more often.

'We don't have to decide anything just now,' Jane tried to reassure them. 'We have about a week until we start making posters.'

'I wish I could think of some wind magic,' Lily whispered in frustration as she tried to swing the ribbon she had just lifted from the ground.

'Please repeat that.' August rose from his seat, crossed the circle, and grabbed Lily by the shoulders as if to make her remember the ingredients of a life-saving decoction.

'I said I don't remember any wind spells.'

'You didn't say that,' August insisted, barely restraining himself from shaking her hard.

'August, what happened to you, mate?' Jerry wondered. 'Shall we get you some water or pumpkin juice?'

'Shut up, Gerald, I don't appreciate your jokes right now. There's nothing wrong with me, I just wanted Lily to repeat what she said. It sounded interesting.'

'I said "wind magic". What's so interesting about that?' Lily was resenting.

'That's it!' August exclaimed enthusiastically and lifted Lily from her seat under the confused gazes of everyone else.

'If you have your eye on our Lily, I must tell you that you'll have to line up,' Euphem spoke for the first time after a long silence. 'Let me remind you that she already has admirers, especially since they saw her training for a solo in the Common Room.'

'No, you idiot,' August said a little faster than he should have. 'It's about the band. That's what we'll call it. "Magic Wind".'

'It's not totally bad,' Seth said thoughtfully. 'There were worse ideas.'

'The others, what do you think?' Jane quickly took on the role of an arbitrator.

'I don't mind it,' Jerry replied.

The others also agreed one by one, even Roger approved.

'We should celebrate it,' Jane said, conjuring glasses of pumpkin juice for everyone.

Just as they were taking their last sips of pumpkin juice, there was a knock on the door.

'I'll open it,' announced Roger, who had apparently decided to take on the role of a concierge, since he was sitting next to the door anyway. Everyone turned toward it and heard a familiar voice.

'Is Jane here?'

'Yes, Professor, come in.'

The door opened silently, and Professor Flitwick stepped inside, looking around.

'Ah, Jane, I'm finally finding you.'

'What's up, Professor?' She hurried to set her glass aside and stood up with a questioning look on her face.

'Professor Dumbledore has ordered me to track you down. He said we should leave for the meeting earlier.'

'How much earlier?'

'I'm afraid we should be gone in ten minutes.'

'Okay, I just need to get my coat from my room. I think we'll succeed.'

'Don't worry, it's not so urgent. If we're late, they'll just have to wait for us.'

The young teacher was already clearing the glasses of pumpkin juice with the help of her students and fixing the pillows.

'And, Jane.' She turned to Professor Flitwick, still clutching her wand. 'Professor Dumbledore instructed me to tell you, in fact, to tell you all, the outcome of the invitation for the Yuletide Ball.'

At first, nobody could figure out what it was all about. Who was invited to the ball? Then it dawned on Jane. She had spoken in person about a month ago with the "Weird Sisters'" guitarist, with whom she was acquainted for a long time, whether they would be able to come and play at the ball. Since they had decided to send an official letter to the school, that could only mean one thing.

'The "Weird Sisters" have agreed to play at the school's Yuletide Ball," Professor Flitwick announced in front of everybody. 'You'll warm up for the "Weird Sisters", chaps.'

'Hooray!' Cried the students, almost in unison, and started embracing each other, as well as Jane.

'Why didn't you tell us earlier, Associate Professor Undead?' Jerry asked in surprise. 'You invited them, didn't you?'

'Because I wasn't even sure they would come,' Jane replied. 'You know that at this time of year their schedule is quite busy.'

'The important thing is that they're coming!' Lily hurried to say. 'Now we'll have to rehearse even more. In addition, we'll have to put again the 'Magic Lesson', which was dropped. I'm sure they'll like it.'

'Maybe you should help us research another one. We'll need a serious repertoire for the "Weird Sisters".'

Professor Flitwick had been watching them with a smile, but he was now looking anxiously at his watch. After a while, he said, 'Jane, the meeting.'

Those words were enough to make the teacher jump.

'Excuse me, Professor Flitwick. We're going in a second. Lily,' she said as they were leaving, 'maybe it's a good idea to rehearse a little more today. And look at the vocals of that song, you remember which one. Tomorrow I plan to convince you to sing at the concert.'

The girl nodded politely and went with the others to walk the teachers to the door. Maybe she would really agree to sing, Jane thought hopefully.

When Jane went outside, closely following Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick through the castle front door, she shivered. The weather had finally got bad, and now a strong wind was blowing snowflakes over their heads. The other teachers had obviously left before them, so as not to be late, and there were only the three of them left, which meant they had to hurry.

Although she was trembling from the cold as she was wrapping herself more tightly in her coat and holding her hat so that the blizzard wouldn't blow it away, Jane couldn't help but rejoice. She had gone to many "Weird Sisters" concerts, for most of which she didn't even have to pay for a ticket, but that was a long time ago. Besides, the children were big fans and were very happy about the concert.

Maybe a hundred years later, when they finally left the castle grounds, the three of them apparated. It was snowing in London, too, but the snow had no intention of lingering. As soon as it touched the ground, it turned into a muddy mash that stained the shoes and penetrated even the strongest boots. Jane cursed in her mind as she managed to step into a large puddle and get all wet. Surely they wouldn't discuss funny things at the Order's meeting, so it would be good for her to come down to earth before then.

Indeed, she hadn't been deceived. As soon as everyone came in and left their wet coats and boots to dry in front of the fireplace, Professor Dumbledore led them anxiously to the living room, where the others must have been waiting for them for a while.

The news was not good. According to a person sent specifically to spy on the Death Eaters' camp (here Jane tried to glare at Snape, but he just pretended not to notice), the Dark Lord had begun gathering all his subordinates – he was obviously up to something. Professor Dumbledore assumed that the Order of the Phoenix would soon have to face the enemy closely. For Jane, this would be the first such clash while with the Order, and the thought of it quickly made her nervous. She knew she was a coward, and she definitely didn't like the duels with the Death Eaters.

So when Sirius Black asked her after the three-hour event if she wanted to stay and talk, she wasn't in the mood. However, she decided to stay for no more than half an hour to respect the host.

Sirius asked her mostly about the school, how the new students were, who was leading in the Quidditch championship, and most of all, what his godson was doing. The boy in question proved to be quite popular at school, especially with the troubles that swirled around him. Harry Potter, whom she had watched during the Ravenclaw match, was the Quidditch star of the Gryffindor House, and he got involved, at least according to Professor McGonagall, in a Dark Force event every year, and barely escaped with his life, leaving a mess that someone else had to clean up. The boy himself hadn't made much of an impression on Jane – true, he was courageous and eager to try new things like the exercise with the straw Death Eaters but he wasn't persistent in what he did. The most interesting of his friends was the red-haired boy named Ron. There was always something funny going on around him. As for their female friend Hermione, she was a real bookworm, but she wasn't as resourceful as her Lily. Although if Lily became lazier, Hermione would overtake her in terms of grades.

Of course, Jane didn't share this with Sirius. For him, they were flawless and no wonder – she was surprised to learn that a few years ago they had saved his skin at school. So she tried not to look down on them, at least for Sirius, and she even remembered a few events with them and told him about them.

As she had decided earlier, the teacher didn't stay long with her new acquaintance. She apologized that she had work to do and left less than an hour after the meeting was over, thinking of the Gryffindor kids. She couldn't understand how three thirteen-year-old children could deal with Dementors, free a Hippogriff, then use it to help the alleged criminal Sirius run away from school. Of course, Black hadn't told her any of this, but he kept thinking about it, so it wasn't hard for her to see it.

She was ashamed. While she hid for months in the woods and dared not stick her nose in civilization, these kids feated around school, rescued Sirius, and even met, as far as rumours went, the Dark Lord himself. Or maybe, Jane thought, their age was the reason they weren't afraid of anything – they hadn't seen the death and destruction that Voldemort caused, they'd just heard about it as if it was a scary tale. Whatever the reason, however, she had no excuse for fleeing.

A few days later, Jane was invited again to visit Sirius. She was beginning to worry deeply. She couldn't afford to go there anymore unless she was absolutely sure she could trust him. And she had no idea exactly how to test him. However, she decided to go and, having prepared her magic wands and a few other small things that could be used as weapons in case of danger, set off for London.

The snow had finally cooled the ground enough and made a thin blanket when Jane arrived in Grimmauld Square in the late afternoon. She walked to the front door and knocked cautiously. The idea was that the house should be invisible to those who hadn't seen it, and now she could ruin the whole cover if she was noticed. However, Sirius quickly opened the door and she went inside, looking over her shoulder.

The two went upstairs to Sirius's room, where, unlike the rest of the house, a fireplace was burning and it had become quite warm.

'Where's Kreacher?' Jane asked as she put her coat on the hanger by the fireplace.

'Kreacher? As soon as he heard you were coming, he hid somewhere', Sirius explained contentedly. 'He's still scared of you, even though Professor Dumbledore had to take him to a specialist to readjust his memory.'

Jane stared at him in surprise.

'To readjust his memory? Why?'

'Ah, nothing special. I have known for a long time that he passes information to my cousin's family. Malfoy, if you know them. They're Death Eaters.'

This made Jane shiver. Why was Sirius telling her all this? Maybe he was trying to convince her that he was on the Order's side. Or he was simply answering her question, and she was too paranoid and imagined things.

'Let's have some tea with rum, what do you say?' Sirius pulled her out of her thoughts. 'It must be cold outside. Or if you want, we can skip the tea.'

'Tea with rum is nice,' Jane said. 'Can I help you with anything?'

'No, I'll take care of it myself,' Sirius waved and headed for the door. 'I'll just get the kettle.'

He closed the door behind him, but he didn't go down the stairs. Instead, she heard him casting fetching spells, and half a minute later he returned to the room and set the kettle over the fire.

They talked about insignificant things while waiting for the water to boil. Jane told him about the upcoming school concert and asked Sirius if there was a way to attend. He replied that he would very much like to, but unless he used some kind of disguise, he was unlikely to succeed. However, his voice was so gloomy that she tried to think of a way to get him to the ball.

'How about a Polyjuice Potion?' she finally asked.

'There's no time to make it.' Sirius shook his head. 'It needs a month to brew.'

'True.' Jane let out a slight sigh. It would be nice to have someone to dance with, someone who wasn't Professor Snape. 'Or maybe they're selling it at Diagon Alley? Would you drink a potion bought from there?'

Sirius seemed thoughtful.

'Yes, why not?' he finally replied. 'I have a friend who worked in the Ministry. One of my few remaining friends, anyway. He knows a lot about potions, and although he probably can't find me one, at least he can check if it's poison if I send it to him by owl.'

'In that case, I'll try to find you some as soon as possible.'

Sirius's face lit up. Apparently, nobody had offered him to leave the house for at least one night in the near past. But before she could do anything, she had to test him. They were already sipping the hot tea when a thought suddenly occurred to Jane. If she got him drunk tonight, she would be able to apply Legilimency on him and it didn't matter whether he could hide or not. She remembered that for the same reason, she and Snape were able to peek into each other's thoughts effortlessly on the first day of school. And if she got him properly pissed, he surely wouldn't remember anything the next day. Jane looked at him with some remorse. It wasn't nice for somebody to rummage through you that way, but in this case, she didn't have a particular choice.

The rest of the evening was fun. They drank, sang, danced until at last, they couldn't stand on their feet from exhaustion. As planned, Sirius was the first out of his tree. As he sat in his armchair telling a joke, his head tilted to one side and he fell asleep. With some difficulty, Jane got up from the bed where she was sitting and sat on the carpet right in front of him. With her magic wand, she made him open his eyes and began looking for something interesting. He had a lot of memories of Azkaban, which Jane glanced at. There was nothing good about them, though she could at least understand how he had gotten away – he had transformed himself into a dog and passed the Dementors that way. His memories have been circulating in the house lately, though there were some from Hogwarts from when he was looking for the little Potter. Apparently, she had to look deeper. Before Azkaban – he had met Pettigrew, Pettigrew blew up the street and fled. Jane was choosing carefully what to watch. Sometimes people lied to themselves about various things, and the Legilimens could not distinguish truth from fiction. She looked for something about the Dark Lord, but there was none. No close encounters, no Death Eaters, except when he had fought alongside the Order. He hadn't betrayed the Potters. She decided to delve a little into his feelings – they harder, almost never, did lie. He respected Professor Dumbledore, loved little Potter, and hated Voldemort and his ex-friend Peter. That was enough for her. Jane tried to pull away, but then she saw something for herself. Sirius obviously liked her. Which wasn't improbable but she was a little worried. She didn't like him that much and didn't want to break his heart.

That was enough for now.

Still, there was a chance that someone had changed his memories, she told herself. But for what purpose? She wasn't important enough to deserve such a complicated plan. She considered this possibility briefly with her alcoholic brain. Although it was possible, Jane didn't believe that the memories were changed. Her intuition and Legilimentic abilities suggested that no one had dug into Black's head to replace his memories. And, she reassured herself, if anyone had succeeded, Professor Dumbledore would have known. He was an excellent Legilimens.

As she sat on the floor, Jane realized she was exhausted and leaned her head against the armchair. The next moment she was asleep.

She woke up in the middle of the night from a strong shake. She opened her eyes slowly and saw Sirius leaning over her, waking her with an anxious expression.

'Jane, are you okay?' He asked as he leaned on the floor. He was clearly dizzy.

'I must have fallen asleep here, although I don't remember why I'm on the floor,' she lied.

'You may have fallen out of bed. Let me help you up.' And he pulled her to the bed, upon which several blankets were thrown.

'We need to stop drinking,' Jane said gravely as she tried to put the blankets over herself. She didn't remember drinking that much but felt tipsier than he looked.

Sirius muttered something, picked up his blanket from somewhere, and curled up in his armchair.

Jane pulled the blankets up to her chin. "Now I can sleep here peacefully," she told herself with relief and fell asleep again.

Overall, Jane was pleased with the development of Sirius' impromptu interrogation. She could see only what interested her, without distracting herself in insignificant things, which was an achievement. Sirius himself was excited to visit Hogwarts, albeit disguised, so Jane decided to look for the potion as soon as possible.

She had gone to Diagon Alley with Professor Hagrid, who, as usual, spoke a great deal in his dialect and hardly wanted to be answered. He wasn't looking for anything specific at the market. He had come to look around and it wasn't easy for him to be diverted while Jane looked for the potion. Eventually, she told him she was looking for some feminine potion, and Hagrid left her alone. However, he didn't refrain from commenting, A love potion, ah, Miss Undead? You don' need it if you ask me. Men will fall at your feet just like that pretty as you are.'

'What men are you talking about, Professor?' Jane decided to pretend she didn't understand.

'What men, you say?' Hagrid's honour seemed affected. 'I may have known you since recently, bu' I can see that Professor Snape has been looking after you since the beginning of the school year. An' now Sirius Black. Don't play wi' them too much, miss. They've feelings, you kno'.'

'I promise you, Professor, I won't play with anyone's feelings.' That promise was easily made, but Jane believed it. Even if Snape had still fallen for her, which she didn't believe, and Sirius really liked her, she had to be firm. "You're just helping Sirius to visit the school," she thought. "And he could find someone else there, at the ball." There really was such a possibility, because many people outside the school would be invited to the concert. As soon as they made the posters they would send out the invitations as well.

Jane left Professor Hagrid waiting for her in front of the owl shop and went to the nearby potion shop, where she liked the prices most.

'Polyjuice Potion, please.' The salesman looked around cautiously before pulling it out from under the counter. The potion wasn't yet banned for sale, at least not in small quantities, but the man was cautious. Jane paid the required sum, although it looked a bit high and left. She put the vial in her robe pocket and only then went to Hagrid.