Chapter 23 – Anyone
I used to crave the world's attention
I think I cried too many times
I just need some more affection
Anything to get me by
Anyone
Please send me anyone
Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone
Janey didn't have time to process anything or even remotely begin to panic before she realised she was trapped. They had restrained her without magic, just using sheer brute strength, and grabbed her wand from her hand, roughly shoving her down the same stairs she was sure they had ascended to enter the illustrious manor house in the first place.
And if that were the case, Janey knew she was in a basement. And without a wand, what chance did she have of escape? But she remained calm. She was a Gryffindor after all. And so she assessed her situation.
As she squinted around the dingy cell of a room, peering into the darkness that seemed to fill an expansive void but that she knew must have walls to contain her, Janey almost gave a start when she realised she wasn't alone. A presence was certainly lurking, concealed from sight, but friend or foe, Janey couldn't be sure.
"Who's that?" she demanded, far more bravely than she actually felt. Wandless she might well be, but she certainly had sharp nails. And she wasn't afraid to kick a man exactly where it would hurt most.
But the figure that emerged, finally revealing themselves as they stepped forward into the little crick of dim light there was in the room, wasn't a man at all. It was far worse than that.
"Of all the awful people they could have bunged me up in here with," Jink said with great distaste, looking Janey up and down like she was covered in sewage.
Janey narrowed her eyes. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised that you went and got yourself caught," she snarled. "You were always a shit dueller."
It wasn't even true, but Janey was incredibly intimidated by how flawless Jinx looked right then. She might not have been covered in sewage, but there was a fair bit of dirt streaked on Janey's clothes from having trekked through the forest to get there, and she was sure she had a cut across her cheek. Rose had also, rather annoyingly, not let Janey pack any of her makeup in her magically-extending bag and removed any item she had managed to sneak in before they had left—much to Janey's outrage. So she had been bare-faced most of their little camping trip, entirely against her will.
Jinx, however, had not had the displeasure of entering the manor via the cursed woods, nor had she had to spend the last few days sleeping in a lumpy tent and without the luxury of a hot shower.
And whether or not she even bothered with makeup was irrelevant, because she had the unique privilege of being a Metamorphamagus—someone who could manipulate their appearance at will.
Jinx probably looked better than any of them, and with her hair full of voluminous curls and her flawlessly smooth skin, Janey hated her with every fibre of her being.
"They threw me in here because they thought I was Evangeline," Jinx protested in defence. "Merlin knows why the hell they'd bother keeping you around. You're not worth anything to anyone."
The hatred coursed through Janey's veins like fire. She had forgotten about their little backup plan—to have Jinx use her ability to mimic Evangeline as a decoy—but if she'd already returned to her usual appearance, they must have caught on pretty quickly that she wasn't the real deal.
It begged the question as to why they had spared her though. And Janey, too. Unless they were planning on rounding them all up, then what good was it to imprison two wandless seventeen-year-old girls? They could hardly use them as bargaining tools. As Jinx had so kindly pointed out, they weren't worth anything to anyone.
But it gave Janey hope. They hadn't disposed of Jinx once they'd realised she was an imposter, and they had chosen to imprison Janey rather than kill her instantly. Perhaps they would see to it later when urgency was less pressing, but at least for then, it seemed like they intended to keep them alive. And that was a good sign indeed.
But even that did little to dispel Janey's immense feelings of disgust for who she was trapped with.
"I take it you have no wand?" Janey asked in a cold voice, ignoring Jinx's taunt.
"Obviously I dont't have my wand," Jinx answered sarcastically, which Janey had anticipated. "I was hardly just hanging out down here by myself whilst everybody else got stuck into the action, was I?"
"Look," Janey snapped, irritated beyond belief—both by her imprisonment and by who she was imprisoned with—"neither of us wants to be here, so let's actually focus on how we're going to get out?"
Jinx just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, brilliant idea," she drawled. "It's not like I've been doing that for the last twenty minutes."
Janey shot daggers at her. At least she was trying to be resourceful and optimistic, rather than Jinx's approach of just taking spiteful jabs.
Ignoring her last comment, Janey began pacing the murky parameters of the room. "There's got to be another way out," she muttered to herself, inspecting the walls for any kind of indicator of a door or some such means of escape.
"There is," Jinx's unhelpful voice piped up as she observed Janey's lap of the cell, herself completely unmoving. "There's a trapdoor—the way I'm assuming you guys came in. But it's locked—obviously—and without magic, we don't stand a chance."
Janey bit her tongue. She knew Jinx was right, but she'd be damned if she'd ever openly admit it to her.
"Maybe for you," Janey said spitefully, "but with two of us—"
"It's not going to happen," Jinx interrupted.
"But—"
"There's no point even wasting our energy."
Janey scowled in the darkness. Was Jinx really suggesting they shouldn't even at least try? How could she bear it? Knowing all their friends were up there fighting, risking their lives, and they were trapped in some dingy little cell acting all helpless and pathetic?
"Wow," she said, unable to contain her fury for the girl. "I don't know what I honestly expected—but I suppose I shouldn't have thought any better of a Slytherin." She said the word like it was a slur. And to be perfectly honest, in Gryffindor, especially where James Potter had always been concerned, it almost was.
Jinx looked immediately riled, and Janey felt a smug sense of triumph swell within her.
"You Gryffindors think you're so much better than everybody else," she snarled. "Strutting around the castle like you're the greatest thing to grace the earth. There is nothing cowardly in being smart enough to know when not to waste your time and energy in a pointless effort to achieve nothing. There is nothing brave about diving headfirst into action without any forethought. That's all you idiots ever do—act first, think later."
"Because we have nothing to fear," Janey said coolly, not appreciating Jinx's little analysis.
"Which doesn't make you brave," Jinx mocked. "It just makes you dumb."
Janey launched herself at Jinx before she could stop herself, intent on nothing but striking the irritatingly knowing look straight off of her face and clawing her eyes out if she could. For once, it felt incredible not to have anyone hold her back.
Janey reckoned she could take Jinx in a fight. Without magic—which she'd not like to admit Jinx likely had the upper hand in—she thought she could probably take the advantage. It's not like Janey had much experience in catfights herself—how could she when either Rose or James always annoyingly held her back before she properly got the chance to make contact?—but she'd barter than she'd fare better than the wand-reliant Jinx. Janey knew she could deliver one hell of a slap if she could actually let it land.
Unfortunately, she didn't get the chance.
Likely anticipating what her taunting words would provoke in Janey, Jinx had dodged the blonde girl's attack with nimble agility, placing herself behind the Gryffindor in the blink of an eye and pinning her hands behind her back before she could land a single blow.
Janey squirmed within Jinx's grip, desperate to break free and show her what it meant to be brave, but the two girls were pretty evenly matched when it came to physical strength. Unless Janey resorted to stamping on her foot or wildly thrashing around, she was not going to be able to free herself from Jinx's captivity—and part of her had realised what an undignified waste of her time that would be.
"Alright," she snarled, when it seemed like Jinx had no intentions of relinquishing her firm grasp. "You made your point."
Jinx assessed the situation for only a few more seconds before deciding Janey was no longer a threat to her and releasing her arms.
Janey took a cautionary step away from the Slytherin, glaring at her with great distaste.
Jinx looked perfectly nonchalant about the situation, instead raising a perfectly arched eyebrow in silent condescension.
"Taking action is not stupidity," Janey countered, refusing to admit defeat.
"Being so arrogant and thoughtless in your actions without actually calculating what the smartest decision to make before you act—"
"Alright, alright," Janey interrupted bitterly. There was no point arguing with her. It was apparent that neither of them would concede, so why waste her energy?
Looking satisfied, Jinx made no more efforts to lecture her.
"So what is the plan then?" Janey asked, still bitter about her mild defeat. "If you don't like my approach of trying to get us out of here."
"The plan," Jinx said, knowingly calm, "is to be patient, save our energy, and wait."
Janey immediately wanted to protest, and Jinx perhaps sensed this, because she held up a hand to indicate that Janey should hold her tongue.
"Maybe they're picking us off one by one," Jinx considered. "And they'll throw a bunch more people in here. We'll have strength in numbers."
"Numbers with no wands," Janey mumbled, still feeling sulky about how utterly powerless she was.
Jinx ignored her. "We don't even know what they want with us—why they've kept us alive and shoved us down here. Maybe they'll use us as a bargaining tool," she said optimistically.
"You honestly think that?" Janey couldn't help but ask, fearing the worst. Optimism was great, but being realistic wasn't going to be detrimental if they were doomed for a worse fate. They had to prepare for the potential that they might not be making it out of the basement at all. "What good are we compared to Evangeline?"
"They could offer an exchange," Jinx suggested, but even she looked doubtful.
"Us for Evangeline?" Janey snorted. Jinx has to be deluded. "The Aurors won't make that trade."
As much as Janey respected James, Albus, and Rose's parents, and liked to think they were all somewhat fond of her and invested in her wellbeing, she knew it was ridiculous that they would trade Evangeline for them. They had been enlisted to protect the Countess' life at all costs—what were two lost schoolgirls sacrificed in the process going to impact anything? It would just be another tragedy, the likes of which Hogwarts had unfortunately seen many of.
And Jinx and Janey would barely feature as a footnote in the end, as completely insignificant as they were. They had not achieved anything great, they had not even put up a worthy fight or made a noble sacrifice. Their deaths would be meaningless. Their lives would have been meaningless.
At this realisation, Janey sank down to the floor.
Jinx eyed her slightly warily. "You alright?"
"Just getting settled," Janey sighed. "Like you wanted. We're just sitting and waiting."
Jinx silently joined her, both of them resigned to their fate.
"People were fleeing, you know," Janey said after a moment of tense silence.
"What?"
"We were supposed to be fleeing from the Manor—that's what James told me. Retreating back to Hogwarts. But they got me amongst all the chaos."
Jinx frowned. "No offence, but why would they go for you?"
Janey felt no resentment at her question. "They didn't target me or anything. I think they just panicked because they knew we were fleeing and snatched whoever they could."
Janey recalled what had happened barely ten minutes ago in her own mind. Everything had been so crazy and chaotic. Bobbin was revealed to be alive after they had been fed misinformation that she was dead in order to lure the students out of hiding, the Aurors were there to battle alongside them, everything was a whirl of colour and noise, and through it all, Evangeline had held herself with the air or bravery that only a true ruler could.
When James had grabbed her and told her that everybody was apparating back to Hogwarts immediately, Janey had only seconds to process his hurried instruction. She should have wilfully obeyed him, transporting herself to safety instantly. But she hadn't. She had looked, desperately, around the manor house like she was looking for someone in particular. Even she hadn't known who.
Rose, maybe. Any of her friends. She just knew she needed to ensure everybody was getting to safety before she herself abandoned the scene. But her momentary lapse had cost her, because that's all it had taken for them to seize her and drag her down to the cell.
"I let my guard down," Janey said out loud, feeling the utmost resentment for herself. "They got me because I was an easy target—weak and pathetic."
Jinx side-eyed the girl, and even through the darkness, Janey could see the edge of discomfort in her expression.
"It could have been anybody," Jinx said, and if she weren't so weary from their exhausting efforts in Rosewood over the past few days, Janey might have even thought she sensed some kindness.
"You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Jinx mumbled, looking away from Janey.
The Gryffindor didn't protest, but she noted that Jinx had avoided an easy opportunity to drag her. They must both of them have been exhausted if they no longer even had the energy to take easy jabs at each other.
But something unsettling seemed to have formed in Jinx's mind. Janey would never have presumed Jinx to be fearful—not of anything—but she certainly looked as though she was grappling with something deeply unnerving.
"If people were fleeing," she said slowly, "what are the chances that everybody's already gone?"
Janey paled as she considered this potential. If everybody was already gone—if she and Jinx were the only ones who had been captured—then what happened next? Would anybody have even noticed that the two young girls had been snatched? Wouldn't everybody have just assumed they'd returned to the castle too? It could be hours before anybody even really processed that they hadn't made it back—and further still to deduce that they had been entrapped in the basement. What if, in essence, they had been left behind?
Janey looked at Jinx, and she knew that the glimmer of anxiety she saw in her eyes would be reflected in her own.
"They'll come back," she said firmly, and she didn't know whether it was to reassure Jinx or herself. "James will bust us out of here."
Janey had thought of James first due to him being the self-appointed unelected leader of the whole operation. He could be a pretentious dick at the best of times, but underneath it all he was fiercely loyal—a fearless hero who would never let anybody be left behind, least of all Janey. But whilst it was true that Janey knew James would never sit idly by if he knew Janey and Jinx weren't safe, she also recognised that the chaos of the entire night could throw everything off course.
They hadn't seen James for days, and he would want to be fully filled in with everything he had missed in Rosewood and sharing details of what had transpired in Hogwarts in the Away Team's absence too. He would want to know that Evangeline was safe—assuming, of course, that she was. And, Janey realised with a sinking heart, he would be entirely focused on reconnecting with Ebony.
God, he would be losing his shit if he knew what she had endured in Rosewood. It was clear, in his absence, how much she depended on him—how much she truly, desperately needed him. More so than any of them had ever really realised. He would surely be doing all he could to keep her safe, physically and emotionally.
And as much as Janey had come to like Ebony, especially given how much her relationship with James obviously meant to him, she felt somewhat of a sinking sensation as she realised she would not take priority in James' mind. And not just James'—but anybody's. She was nobody's first priority. There wasn't a single person to whom her absence would be at the forefront of their mind, and as well-liked as she knew she was by her friends, it felt like a sense of loss hung around her. She knew it was entirely her own doing, of course—keeping everybody at a firm arm's length from getting too close to her in order to protect her vulnerable heart—but she couldn't pretend like the realisation didn't make her feel incredibly hollow.
"Rose would do anything for us," Janey said with quiet certainty. And it was true. All of her fellow Gryffin-Girls would. But once again, Janey didn't know what the circumstances were. She didn't know the fates of anybody else, she didn't know if things were just as chaotic back in the castle—if everybody else had even made it. She didn't know if there were injuries to be tended to.
With all that potentially going on, who was really that likely to notice so quickly that Janey wasn't amongst the returned?
"Sam will notice."
Janey was surprised herself that the words had come out of her own mouth.
Jinx cast her a suspicious glance, and for some reason, Janey felt herself blushing. At least it was dark in the cell.
"I just meant—he'll be shockingly aware of how I'm not ripping the shit out of him."
Jinx continued to stare at her, like she was trying to deduce something. "Right."
"I'd be the same," Janey said quickly, feeling like she had to defend herself for some reason. "With him, I mean. If he got kidnapped, I'd be suspicious of why there was nobody whining about how unfair it is that Rose doesn't love them back and criticising me for daring to have my Prefect's badge a millimetre askew." Why was she babbling so much?
When Jinx didn't reply and just continued to look at Janey with confusion, the blonde girl found herself clambering to her feet, desperate to free herself from such close proximity to the Slytherin.
"God, I'm thirsty," she said offhandedly, pacing the basement and inspecting every dusty corner like she might somehow find a previously unnoticed drinking fountain. But she had no such luck.
"If you happen to find a pizza back there, let me know," Jinx said sarcastically. "If I'd have known we were going to be imprisoned, I'd have overindulged at breakfast."
The thought of a Hogwarts fry-up only succeeded in making Janey realise how hungry she was too. Rose had done her best to pack as much sustenance as they could feasibly need, but Janey didn't much approve of her campfire-friendly menu options. But she supposed she couldn't be picky on an excursion to a cursed forest—as Sam had so snidely pointed out to her when she'd voiced a similar complaint earlier.
Janey frowned as she caught herself. Who cared about Sam and what he thought of her anyway? Idiot.
Janey cleared her throat. "No such luck," she told Jinx. "But there's a pretty big spider on this cobweb that might have a bit of protein. Or—ew, I'm pretty sure I just saw a rat!"
She could feel rather than see Jinx roll her eyes through the darkness. "Delicious," the Metamorphmagus drawled.
"Shh," Janey said sharply, as a noise caught her attention from the trapdoor she had so ungraciously been shoved through earlier.
"What?" Jinx asked anxiously.
"I said shh!"
Jinx fell obediently silent, and Janey strained to make out the noises she was certain she could hear.
It sounded like footsteps near the wooden opening, but it was difficult to figure out if they were near or far. Janey briefly considered what she should do if the dark wizards were to enter the basement. Would she be swift enough to slip past them and just make a run for it? But then, what about Jinx? As much as she might dislike the girl, Janey knew she couldn't just abandon her. She wouldn't do that to anyone.
Perhaps the two of them together, with the element of surprise on their side, could tackle at least one of them.
But, Janey remembered miserably, their opponents still presumably all had their wands. The two small girls really didn't stand a chance. And the longer they were held in their prison, the more sleep-deprived and hungry they would get, growing weaker with every passing second. No, Janey thought, the only real chance they would have was if someone from the outside was to set them free. Or, miraculously, they were released by their captors.
Despite bracing herself, nobody made any effort to enter through the trapdoor, but she could certainly hear voices. Several at that, all gruff, male, and Russian. Janey's stomach dropped as she eavesdropped on the frantic conversation that was taking place, unable to understand a single word.
She wondered if they were discussing her own fate.
After a few tense minutes had passed, the voices stopped, and Janey could only conclude that they had left.
"What's happening?" Jinx asked impatiently.
Janey trailed back towards the other girl. "I think they're gone."
"Gone?" Jinx demanded. "Gone where?"
"How should I know?" Janey snapped. "Five-star hotel down the road? Cosy little B-and-B for a good night's sleep after an exhausting day of being evil?"
"God, I wish they'd just killed you."
Janey couldn't help but snort in laughter. She almost thought she saw Jinx smile, but it was probably just a trick of the light. Maybe they were both getting a little delirious from being crammed up. Could there really be that much oxygen down there?
"Well, you might still be in luck," Janey said lightheartedly. "Either that or they'll just let us starve to death down here."
Jinx ignored her. "I take it everybody's gone?"
"That's what it sounds like."
And with the departure of the dark wizards too, it seemed as though Janey and Jinx were truly alone.
"Guess we're staying overnight then," Jinx sighed.
"Guess so," Janey agreed, none too happy about the arrangement.
"We should actually try and sleep, you know."
"What—and let our guard down?" Janey protested. That was the only thing they could definitely do to make themselves more vulnerable, surely?
"We're hardly going to be able to defend ourselves if we have no energy," Jinx countered. "And it's highly unlikely they're planning on coming back and offing us in the middle of the night, is it?"
Janey didn't answer, but she supposed Jinx was right. It wasn't like they would need the element of surprise to kill them if that was their intention. But how Jinx possibly thought either of them could get a decent night's sleep was beyond her. What were they supposed to do—just lie on the cold stone floor? Janey hadn't particularly been enjoying the horrible camp beds they'd been sleeping in, nor the scratchy blankets Rose had provided, but she'd do anything for one of them right then.
"It's freezing in here," she criticised, furious at the absence of so much as a pillow. Seriously, if the evil Russian wizards weren't going to just kill them, the least they could do was provide a nice duvet or something.
"Well, we'll just have to cuddle, won't we?" Jinx said sweetly.
Janey scowled. Although she knew Jinx had been joking, she also wasn't entirely wrong that the best course of action would be to share each other's body warmth as best as possible. Somewhat reluctantly, Janey settled back onto the dusty stone floor beside her fellow prisoner.
"I don't know how you honestly expect to be able to sleep in here anyway—knowing someone could come and attack us at any moment."
"Well, fine," Jinx said impatiently, "we can sleep in shifts, can't we? I'll even let you go first, Princess."
Janey didn't have the heart to bite back. "I don't suppose you can use your ability to morph into a blanket?"
"Best I can do is grow my hair super long and dense."
Obligingly, Jinx's already curly mane suddenly grew down towards the floor even thicker than it already had been, like she had all of a sudden gotten an instant-perm.
Janey just watched, mesmerised. "You know," she said, once Jinx was done, sitting amongst her own sea of curls, "that style hasn't really been in since the eighties."
"At least I'll be warm."
Janey was envious once more. "Could you grow your body hair too?" she asked, deeply curious. "Like covering yourself in a layer of fur?"
Jinx looked disgusted. "Even if I can, I am absolutely not going to be doing that."
Janey smiled, amused by the thought of Jinx's entire face and body being covered in the same thick curls as her head now was.
"You're mistaking me for a werewolf," Jinx said playfully, and perhaps it was the delirium of their imprisonment, but for one brief, carefree moment, both girls laughed together like there was nothing more pressing in their lives than sharing a moment of lighthearted relief.
At the same time, both girls became highly aware of what was happening and awkwardly cleared their throats.
"I think I will try to sleep," Janey eventually mumbled, the silence that followed the sudden ceasing of laughter feeling haunting and eerie. "Unless you want to go first."
"No, it's fine," Jinx insisted. She offered a small shrug. "You've had it worse than me."
Janey supposed she was referring to the last few days in Rosewood. And as much as she wanted to protest and insist that Jinx deserved the sweet release of slumber too, her eyes did feel incredibly heavy, and her body incredibly weary.
Jinx all of a sudden looked hesitant, and once she spoke, Janey realised why. "You, err, you can lean on me," she said awkwardly. "If you want."
Janey wasn't sure what to say. As much as she absolutely didn't want to sleep on the floor, it seemed bizarre to share such intimacy with Jinx. It would be a weird situation to be in with any of her friends, but especially with a girl she had very vocally rivalled for the past six years.
"We could go back-to-back," Janey suggested. At least then they'd have the support of each other, neither of them having to lie on the stone. And as they were pretty much the same size, their body weight should be balanced pretty evenly.
"Alright," Jinx agreed, and the two of them shifted into their new position.
As weird as it was, Janey was actually kind of grateful for Jinx's new dense hairdo for providing somewhat of a soft and warm backdrop to rest her head. "Let me know when you want to swap and sleep."
"Oh," Jinx said, recalling their agreement. "Yeah. And I'll, err, let you know if we're suddenly under attack."
Janey let out a weak snort. She really didn't want to too deeply ponder exactly what might lie in store for the two forgotten teens in the dark, dank cell. But the future and her fate were out of her hands.
As unideal as the sleeping arrangements were, Janey found it actually wasn't too difficult to drift off to sleep. But it was far from blissful. As she slipped in and out of consciousness, she was frighteningly disoriented, one moment hyper-aware of what was happening and where she was, and the next in some state of delusion, unable to differentiate between what was real and what her weary mind had conjured.
She pictured each of her friends' faces in turn with varying clarity, wondering if she might ever see them again. Rose, Gwen, Taylor, James, Mason, Albus, Ebony… Even Albireo and Scorpius. Even Evangeline and Jinx.
But the last face she remembered, so bizarrely clear that she could have sworn she was genuinely looking into his eyes, for some incomprehensible reason, was Sam's. And the arms she felt around her as she finally fully succumbed to the clutches of sleep, couldn't possibly be real. They couldn't possibly belong to Jinx, given that they felt broader and more masculine than hers could surely be.
But real or not, Janey couldn't shake the sense of sudden safety she felt, and as she cleared her mind of all faces but one, it was that fictitious memory that she clung to in order to get her through the night.
Perhaps if she dreamed hard enough, she could will it into existence.
The look of absolute terror on Sam's face made Janey's insides feel as though they had been suddenly plunged into icy water. Eyes wide, face paled to the colour of chalk, and the dagger glinting at the base of his throat, Janey could do nothing but hold her breath as she watched him tense in his captor's embrace, her mind whirring a mile a minute.
Rose had been their unofficial leader in James' absence, but Janey felt compelled to intervene with a force stronger than anything she'd ever felt before. The terror she felt within seemed to rival that on Sam's own face, but outwardly she forced herself to remain completely calm—stoic and disinterested, though her heart had never raced more wildly.
When she spoke, it was almost like she was hearing her own voice underwater. Like it had not come from her own lips.
"Kill him. We don't want him."
Janey saw the sharp twist of Rose's head as she stared at her friend in absolute horror. Sam, too, beads of sweat forming on his brow, looked at her with the utmost look of betrayal.
Janey's stomach squirmed once more, but she remained calm. It was the perfect bluff—a guarantee that he wouldn't be harmed.
It had to be…
The girl with wild hair and even wilder eyes looked at Janey with suspicion, perhaps trying to weigh up her options at Janey's instruction, her forearm firmly locked around Sam's neck and the dagger pressing dangerously close to the base of his throat.
Sam looked Janey dead in her eyes, and there was no hurt or betrayal there. There was just pure and utter fear.
Half a second passed, and his captor moved with graceful disinterest, slitting his throat in one, easy movement.
Janey knew the scream she must have released would be guttural and deafening, but she couldn't hear a thing, instead collapsing to the ground in a mess of uncomprehending despair, seeing nothing but deep, flowing scarlet.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Somebody was shaking Janey, and all of a sudden, she could hear everything again, including her own, very real wail of anguish.
But where there had been forest, and night, and so much blood, Janey found she could barely see anything at all, and it took several terrifying moments for her to place herself. The slight chink of moonlight available to her barely illuminated anything at all, but she knew she was somewhere dark, and cold, and made of stone?
Janey's heart was thumping so loudly that she could barely hear Jinx's concerned utterances.
And then she remembered. The events in Rosewood's supposedly haunted forest had occurred days ago. Piper hadn't been a threat, not really. And she certainly hadn't slit anybody's throat.
No, they had survived the woods, they had made it to Rosewood Manor, and now…
Now, Janey was trapped. Imprisoned but safe with Jinx in the manor house's basement.
But no matter how much she tried to assure herself in her own head that she was safe—that nobody was in imminent danger—her heart had apparently not gotten the memo. She could not un-see the sickening vision of Sam's slit throat and felt like she was about to start hyperventilating.
"Calm down," Jinx ordered fiercely. "Do you want the whole of Rosewood to turn up?"
Janey took in what little she could of her surroundings. She vaguely remembered having tried to have gone to sleep, and had apparently succeeded so succinctly that she was experiencing a deep enough slumber to be having nightmares. She and Jinx had been back-to-back in order to prop each other up whilst they slept in turn, but Janey realised she must have selfishly been asleep the whole time.
But given the position their bodies were in, and the dishevelled look of Jinx's comically huge mane of hair, Janey could only conclude that somehow during her slumber, Jinx had fallen asleep too, and the girls had been—for want of a better word—snuggling. Like they were friends or something. Or family.
Janey blushed, her breathing finally starting to even out. If Jinx had fallen asleep too then she must have been doubly alarmed to have been so abruptly awakened by Janey's frantic screaming.
She was looking at her right then with concerned sympathy. "You want to talk about it?"
But Janey wasn't sure. "I don't know what happened," she mumbled awkwardly, feeling incredibly self-conscious. "I just… had a nightmare," she dismissed, not wanting to relive the horrifying details. "About Rosewood."
She absolutely didn't want to go into the specifics of it.
Maybe under different circumstances, Jinx would have made some mocking taunt at Janey's admission, but it seemed her defences were down, likely due to the physical and emotional exhaustion they had both been through, and Janey was grateful.
"I guess it's been pretty rough—what you guys have gone through," Jinx said with sympathy.
Janey thought about it. She hadn't really appreciated how lucky they had been, what with Piper having turned out to be an ally and offering them protection. She very easily could have killed any one of them without warning. She so easily could have called Janey's bluff and brought her nightmare to life.
Janey did not want to think about what would have happened had it actually come to fruition. If the last thing Sam ever saw was the cold, emotionless look on Janey's face as she ordered his own execution.
How could she have ever lived with herself? How could any of their friends have ever looked at her in the same way again? Sam's pale look of terror would have been emblazoned on her eyelids until her own dying day, and she would be forced to live in the knowledge that his life had ended because of her callous selfishness—no matter what her intentions might have been. And not only that, she realised in shame—that his whole life she had only ever taunted him, mocked him, belittled him… Had been nothing but absolutely awful, never a kind word shared or any sense of gratitude or kindness expressed in six whole years of being in each other's lives.
Janey felt a prickle of tears, and she was grateful the cell remained dark enough to hide it from Jinx whilst she quickly forced herself to recover.
"Yeah," she finally said in a shaky breath, answering Jinx's query. "It's been pretty rough."
But that seemed like an understatement. And Janey didn't want to particularly feel sorry for herself whilst her future lay in uncertainty.
It seemed neither of them really knew what to say.
"You can sleep now if you want to," Janey eventually said, even though she was pretty sure Jinx had also fallen asleep during the last hour. It was hard to tell how much time had even passed. Given how dark it remained in the cell, a tiny sliver of moonlight all there was to indicate what time of the day it might be, Janey concluded it was likely still late into the night.
"I'm fine," Jinx dismissed politely.
"Oh," Janey said. "Well, if you're sure, because I don't think I'll be able to go back to sleep…"
"Really?" Jinx asked sarcastically, but this time she was being friendly. "You mean you're not enjoying your night in the creepy, dank cell?"
"Zero stars," Janey said drily.
Jinx laughed. "What I'd do to be able to whip up a super strong Sleeping Draught right now," she said wistfully.
Talk of Potions only made Janey wrinkle her nose. "You'd only screw it up," she couldn't help but say, like her instinctive response was to be cruel to the Slytherin. She hoped Jinx realised she had only been joking.
But Jinx didn't seem perturbed by the comment. "I'm not bad at Potions," she said thoughtfully. "It's just that Ebony's so good, she makes everybody look bad. I'm just more of a dueller."
"You're telling me," Janey snorted.
She could no longer count on her hands how often she and Jinx had engaged in a spontaneous duel in the castle—nor how many detentions they had been forced to serve together as a result. It was the only time Janey really enjoyed doing magic.
"I'm kind of pissed that I got thrown in here before I even really got a chance to fight anybody," she mused. And then her tone darkened as she set into a scowl. "They better give me my bloody wand back."
As much as Janey wasn't into the whole magic thing as much as her peers, she did also feel incredibly vulnerable without it and wouldn't like to replace it. That was, if they even made it out of the cell alive. A new sense of dread descended upon her, and she felt incredibly small all of a sudden.
"Are you cold?" Jinx asked with concern, noticing how Janey had hunched herself into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest.
"No," Janey said quickly, but she didn't want to admit that she felt… scared. "Don't worry, your insane perm is keeping me plenty warm."
Jinx shook her head with gentle laughter.
"It took me a moment to realise I was actually out of the nightmare and not in an entirely new one," Janey went on, unable to help herself.
"Ha-ha," Jinx said with a roll of her eyes.
"I really think you should keep this look when we go back to Hogwarts." If we go back to Hogwarts, she thought darkly.
"Yeah?" Jinx played along.
"Yeah," Janey agreed brightly. "It's sure to garner a lot of male attention. The clown look is incredibly popular, I'm sure."
"Yeah, well, I have a boyfriend," Jinx said, though her eyes were shining with continued amusement.
Janey felt a little awkward at the unacknowledged mention of Albireo. All the shared hatred for each other over the years had very much come to a head when Janey had vindictively kissed Albireo when he and Jinx had been on one of their frequent breaks from each other.
The Gryffindor Girls had been entangled in an all-out war with the Slytherins during the start of their fifth year amidst the messy love triangle Scorpius, Ebony, and Rose had managed to get themselves in, both sides wreaking havoc on each house with relentlessly nasty tactics. Janey had known how hurt Jinx would be if she were to use Albireo against him, and she'd felt a mingled sense of shame about the kiss ever since, no matter how much she continued to dislike her Slytherin rival.
Janey opened her mouth, unsure what she was even going to say, but feeling like she needed to address the elephant in the room.
"Don't," Jinx warned, perhaps sensing Janey's intentions.
Janey was affronted, blushing slightly. "I was just going to say—"
"I don't want to hear it."
Janey fell silent, which was probably for the best. She had kissed lots of guys in her time at the school, often for little more than a quick, easy thrill. And really, most of the male population was incredibly receptive to her temptations, but she didn't like to entangle herself in relationship drama.
No guy meant enough for her to enter into her own love triangle. She didn't like to break couples up or be anyone's piece on the side. She didn't want to be a pawn to make anybody jealous or help someone get back at their ex—even though she had unintentionally found herself in all of those situations.
So when she had kissed Albireo, she had felt immensely guilty, knowing she had only done it to seek revenge on Jinx. He was an attractive guy, sure, and he hadn't been exactly reluctant to fall prey to her wiles, but she didn't like to use anybody like that. And given how intensely Jinx and Albireo had been intertwined over the past four years or however long it had been, she knew she had been sticking her foot in something very real, and therefore very messy and hurtful. One fleeting moment of vindictive triumph might have had catastrophic repercussions in somebody else's life, and she had been incredibly selfish to willingly make that decision without much prior forethought.
"I was being selfish," Janey confessed in a small voice. She knew Jinx didn't want to hear what she had to say, but with their fate so uncertain, Janey didn't want to leave such lingering resentment between them.
Jinx just let out an aggravated sort of snort.
"And I crossed a line," Janey went on.
"You didn't owe me anything," Jinx said, taking Janey by surprise.
"Yeah, but it was still really shitty of me," Janey said weakly.
Jinx just shrugged, like she couldn't care less, but Janey could see how much it still clearly aggravated her. She could hardly blame her though.
"We were all being petty and vindictive," Jinx said, looking as though it pained her to offer Janey any kind of grace. "I'm hardly proud of what I did either."
Well, Janey thought, It certainly hadn't been any of the girls' best moments, that was for sure. But she knew she and Jinx had mostly been the ringleaders. They had used Rose and Ebony's situation as an unsubtle excuse to hurt each other.
"I just feel guilty," Janey admitted.
And whereas it had seemed as though Jinx had been softening to Janey, the two of them forming a sort of tolerable truce, her entire demeanour seemed to harden without warning.
"And you want to redeem yourself," Jinx said nastily, glaring daggers at the blonde girl. "But it doesn't. You did shitty, spiteful things, because you're a shitty, spiteful person—and no apology will undo that."
Janey blinked in surprise, completely shocked by Jinx's abrupt one-eighty. She felt the familiar fire rising back to the surface. "I don't believe I did apologise," she said back just as nastily.
How dare Jinx turn on her like that when Janey had been showing a rare glimmer of vulnerability and accountability? Who the hell did she think she was?
"Yeah, because you don't intend to—not really," Jinx bit back. "You feel guilty, but you don't feel sorry."
Janey wanted to protest, but she now almost certainly didn't want to apologise to Jinx.
"Well, you never apologised to me either," Janey countered. "I was just trying to be the bigger person, but like you said, you hurt us all too."
Jinx just shook her head in fury, her comically voluminous curls dancing around her. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Princess."
As the fire continued to build within Janey, and so too the desire to hurt Jinx, she recognised that she should stop. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, the mind-altering darkness that seemed to emanate throughout Rosewood, or the fear that she still very much felt when she regarded the uncertainty of her fate, but whatever it was, there was utter spite in her tone when she next spoke.
"What helps me sleep at night is the memory of your boyfriend's tongue in my mouth."
Jinx looked like she might genuinely throttle Janey to death, and in a weird way, the Gryffindor supposed that might be preferable to what the dark wizards potentially had in store for her.
"At least I have love in my life," Jinx instead snarled in response, demonstrating remarkable grace in her ability to hold back from physical violence.
She was probably just as exhausted as Janey was, the blonde girl considered. It would be stupid of them to waste their energy on something as dumb and petty as a physical fight anyway.
"At least I know that Alby will be waiting for me when I get out of here," Jinx bit back all the same. "That he'll actually be happy to see me. Who do you have?"
The question stung Janey in a way far more sinister than a physical slap would have. "Plenty of people will be happy to see me. They'll all be losing their minds that I'm missing," Janey insisted despite her prior anxieties that no one would care or notice.
And she knew it was true. If the worst were to happen, and Janey never made it back to the castle, her friends would be devastated. Her peers, her exes, her teachers—people would certainly be shocked and would certainly lament her passing. But would anybody really, deeply, profoundly feel a loss in the way Albireo would experience if he were to lose Jinx?
Janey had no choice but to conclude that every single person who cared about her would be more deeply impacted by the sudden loss of another. She would be nobody's first choice in any situation. To each one of her friends, there would be somebody above her in every situation, she was certain of it. A more tragic loss. A more devastating grief.
She would be missed, sure. She would be mourned. But nobody would truly be that impacted by Janey Davington's death.
She had ensured that she kept everybody far enough away from her heart to ever really, truly know her. And for what?—she suddenly realised with deep depression. What kind of life was she living if all she'd leave behind was just a pretty corpse? Why didn't she want to pursue a more meaningful connection with anybody?
Was she proud of the life she had led?—she had to consider. Would she be happy with the legacy she would leave behind? She hadn't excelled in anything—not magic, not Quidditch. She hadn't really achieved anything much at all. And even if none of that really mattered, she had never let herself be truly seen, nor been truly loved, by anybody.
She had nothing but the reputation of a great snog—a girl who was up for anything. That's all she was to anybody. And that's all she might ever be.
Jinx seemed to have sensed the internal tone change within Janey and looked uncomfortable once more, despite the only thing she'd done wrong being to match the vitriolic energy that Janey had been dishing out just the same.
"Look, I didn't mean—"
"You did mean it, and it's fine," Janey cut across her. "It's true."
"People will be losing their minds that we're missing—both of us," Jinx assured her.
"Yeah, but you're still right," Janey said sadly. "It's different. You have someone who actually… cares for you. More than anything else in the world. I've… never had that."
Jinx looked deeply uncomfortable that it had gotten so profoundly emotional once more, perhaps because it had been her cruelty that had brought it about. But Janey couldn't undo what had been set into motion. It was like her whole world had been flipped upside down, tumbling into an existential crisis she had never really had to confront too much before. She supposed life-threatening situations would do that to a girl.
"You've dated loads of guys," Jinx pointed out, confused.
Janey felt only further depressed. "Yeah, but dating's not… love," she finished weakly, and her heart twisted as she said the word out loud. It was not something she had ever really dwelled on too much or sought for herself.
She thought it stupid that anybody in their teenage years could consider any kind of relationship to equate to that of love. And furthermore, she was certain a lot of adults couldn't ever really say that too. Not even the married ones.
It had been utterly cringe-inducing to hear people like Rose and Gwen speak of their prior boyfriends in a way that suggested they could in any way comprehend what love was, as young and naive as they all were. And look what had happened to both of them? How was love serving them now? Single, heartbroken, and too tainted by the experience to pursue anything new.
Jinx certainly looked alarmed. "You're only sixteen," she reminded her.
And I might forever be sixteen, Janey thought darkly.
The one time she had actually let herself consider that maybe she could have more than her usual casual hookups had been so demoralising that she hadn't even so much as kissed anybody for almost an entire year after. Her disastrous entanglement with Deneb Jacobson, the douchebag Slytherin Quidditch Captain, had coincided with both Rose and Gwen's messy breakups, and all three of them (plus Taylor, though that had been more of a courtesy) had vowed not to date whilst they firmly prioritised their upcoming OWL exams.
And it had actually been kind of nice, Janey recalled, to not have the near-constant distractions of her latest unfulfilling fling and just focus on her studies and her friends. But as she'd neared the year mark, she had felt that craving stir up in her stomach once more. A physical urge, but an emotional one too. She wanted to feel wanted.
And even then, even when it might seem like there was nothing left to do but ponder on every step of her life that had led her to where she was right then, Janey was not going to waste a second thinking about that even more disastrous chapter of her dating life—the agonisingly chaotic months that had formed the start of her sixth year. Roman… The Fontaynes…
Sam.
Janey gulped and looked hurriedly away from Jinx as she felt a slight prickle in her eyes. She was hardly going to cry—what a waste of tears that would be.
"I know we're young, and it's stupid, but part of me feels like… What if I wasted opportunities to actually be…" But Janey wasn't sure what she was saying, nor why she was confiding in Jinx of all people. "More committed," she said weakly. "More… open with my heart."
"I'd say you've been pretty open," Jinx couldn't help but say, smiling slyly. "With most guys in the school…"
"Not most guys," Janey snapped in defence, even though she knew Jinx wasn't being cruel. "There are plenty of guys I've never even spoken to—let alone kissed!"
"Yeah?" Jinx asked, now looking deeply intrigued.
Janey was affronted. "Well, yeah—obviously!" What did Jinx think of her?
"Who?" Jinx demanded.
"What—you want me to give you a list of every guy I've not kissed?" she asked sarcastically.
"Well, it would be quicker than listing the ones you have, surely," Jinx teased. "But that's not what I meant," she said before Janey could protest. "I meant who's the guy you're thinking of that you regret not having 'opened your heart' to?"
Janey took a few seconds to process what Jinx had just said. "What?" she eventually asked, deeply confused. When had she ever suggested that…?
"Well, obviously, you're thinking of one person in particular. One guy you regret not having pursued something with—and something serious at that."
"That's not what I was suggesting at all!" Janey spluttered, heart suddenly pounding. Was Jinx insane? She had clearly completely missed the point of what Janey had been saying. "I wasn't thinking of anyone specific," she denied. "I just meant, generally, what if I missed out on opportunities with someone—anyone—because I was too afraid of letting myself be more vulnerable. I wasn't suggesting that… I didn't mean…"
But the lie was hard to speak out loud. It was hard to admit, even to herself, that she knew she was lying. Janey gulped again, not just because she was so desperately dehydrated, but because she felt somehow that Jinx might be able to read her mind if she even allowed herself to think about who she was desperately trying not to think about. Who she had not even allowed herself to entertain the idea of for the past six months. Because it was stupid… embarrassing… impossible.
"Alright," Jinx said, but the way she was side-eyeing Janey with the most obnoxiously knowing smirk was aggravating.
She didn't know anything. Nobody knew anything. Nobody even suspected. Janey had not let them. She had not let herself.
"If I guess right will you tell me?"
"There's nothing to tell!" Janey protested. This was stupid, absurd. Jinx was acting like Janey was harbouring some deep-rooted crush. Like they were stupid, little girls.
"It's got to be someone you know well enough. Not just a passing attraction or you'd have already acted on it, but someone you frequently run in the same circles as—and have therefore created this sort of barrier that you don't dare to cross."
Janey just scoffed.
"Someone in Gryffindor, for sure. I don't think you'd care this much about someone younger than you, so either someone older or in the same year as us."
Janey shook her head in amusement. Jinx was deluded.
"In fact, I bet it's someone in your inner circle," Jinx continued to muse out loud, like she was solving a Sphynx's riddle. "Someone who it would be noticeably awkward for you to confess any attraction to because you already have a pre-established relationship with them. It would change the dynamics—not just for you, but for everybody else too."
Janey was starting to sweat. Had it gotten hotter in the basement?
"You can't cross that line because it would be irreversible. And you can't know they'd ever reciprocate because it's not something either of you have ever entertained. You're already too close to them to want to risk compromising anything."
Janey hadn't even realised she was holding her breath.
"Now, I doubt it's Potter. You guys have either already hooked up and prefer yourselves as friends, or it's just always been perfectly, comfortably platonic. But I don't think either of you would be this self-conscious around each other if you wanted to have a snog, and I honestly never got the vibes that either of you were interested in the other like that. There's also the glaring Ebony-shaped problem in that scenario," Jinx went on, "but from the way you've been speaking, it sounds like there's the potential for romance with this mystery guy—not a desperate, pining sense of loss because they're already with somebody else. You're struggling with the potentiality that they might not reciprocate how you feel—not that they're entirely unavailable. So I think we can conclude that they're currently single."
Janey almost wanted to point out that being in a relationship already didn't necessarily mean that anybody was off the table, but thinking about how angry Jinx had gotten over talks of Abireo, held her tongue. And besides, she wanted to see where she was going with this…
"So it's not Big Potter, but I suppose it could be Little Potter," Jinx continued thoughtfully. "I reckon it's got to be someone you have to see even more often than you would choose to—forced proximity forcing you to confront your feelings more frequently than you'd ever be comfortable with. Not just someone who's in your house, and your common room, and your classes—not just someone you're already friends with and share mutual friends with—but someone you have to see even when you might not necessarily want to. And that's what's driving you crazy."
Janey couldn't remember the last time she'd taken a breath.
"Someone on the Quidditch team," Jinx murmured to herself, her mind desperately whirring as she fought to solve the puzzle. "Or a fellow Prefect, maybe. Or…" Her eyes lit up as she turned to look Janey dead in her eye, mouth parted in breathy delight. "Both."
Janey swallowed, prepared to deny, prepared to lie within an inch of her life.
"Oh my God!" Jinx exclaimed, looking absolutely thrilled. "It's so obvious. It's—"
"You don't know what you're talking about," Janey snarled, refusing to have it spoken into existence. Not by Jinx, not by herself, not by anyone.
No, no, no. It wasn't happening. It was not happening.
"Alright," Jinx said, calm and submissive but oh-so irritatingly smug.
If Janey had more energy, she'd feel compelled to pounce and erase Jinx's taunting expression in an instant. Instead, she settled for a hardened glare, letting the girl know if she dared breathe the name on her lips, she absolutely would be resorting to violence.
"All I'm saying is—if we get out of here—you should act on it," Jinx said with a casual shrug.
Janey refused to answer.
"You never know which moment might be your last—what have you honestly got to lose?"
Everything, Janey said only to herself. Jinx didn't get it. She had always had Albireo. She had never known what it was like. This desperate craving that lurked in the pit of Janey's stomach and persisted at the back of her mind—no matter how much she tried to ignore it and act like it wasn't constantly lingering.
But Janey wasn't going to give in. She wasn't going to embarrass herself like that. She would go to her grave with it buried deep inside of her.
"What if he feels the same way?" Jinx asked in a gentle voice, apparently refusing to accept Janey's silence as a sign that she wasn't going to speak about it.
"He doesn't," Janey said quickly, and then immediately winced. She was supposed to be pretending that she had no idea what Jinx was talking about it. "And anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm fine being by myself," she backtracked.
"Right," Jinx said, apparently finally taking the hint.
Neither of them acknowledged Janey's mournful regrets of barely five minutes ago, lamenting the fact that she might have robbed herself of the opportunity to experience a deeper connection because of her reluctance to open her heart up even a fraction. But she had, Janey reminded herself. She had somewhat tried with Deneb, and she had somewhat tried with Henry after him, and both of them had been thrown back in her face in the most mortifying of ways.
And Jinx was right. They hadn't meant anything to her. Not really. Not in the long run. Not in the deeply meaningful way that…
No.
She wasn't going to think his name. She wasn't going to picture his face. She wasn't going to wonder what would happen if she broke free from the basement, flung herself into his arms, and told him how she really felt about him. There wasn't even the remotest chance that he might reciprocate how she felt—and if she dared show her hand first then he would have a part of her that she could never get back. It wasn't worth the risk.
But just suppose…
Suppose he surprised her. Suppose the mutual resentment they had long held for each other was rooted in an even deeper and mutual passion. Suppose she was granted one more chance at life, at freedom, and she didn't squander it away by hiding her heart's true desires because she was afraid of rejection.
Janey was so lost in her own mind's wanderings that she had quite forgotten she wasn't alone.
"I reckon," Jinx piped up, her tone kind and supportive, "that as soon as we bust out of here, first thing you should do is snog the life out of him. Live a little, you know? Make a statement. You can always pass it off as delirium from being stuck down here for so long…"
Janey almost smiled, but she found she didn't even have the energy to do so. God knows how long they might still be imprisoned in their dingy little cell.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Yeah, and then you can stop going after other people's boyfriends," Jinx said critically, but it was clear that all the prior resentment was long since gone.
What an odd experience they were sharing, Janey couldn't help but think. But she was glad that it seemed as though she and Jinx had formed some sort of truce, even if it was only temporary. She supposed there were better uses of her energy than channelling it all into anger and hatred.
"I reckon I'll snog the life out of whoever next comes down those stairs to set us free," Janey mused.
Jinx snorted. "Well, I can't wait to see that."
For hours, Jinx and Janey co-existed in a weirdly intimate way that neither of them could say they ever had before—nor would hopefully have to again. For years, the girls had been at odds with each other, and it seemed only forced proximity would reveal how remarkably similar they actually were. Though whether the familiarity they had forged would persist on the outside remained to be seen.
For the two weary teenagers, sleep was no longer an option, no matter how truly exhausted they were. Their minds were in a state of unease, not to mention the physical discomfort, and so they whiled the hours away through intermittent conversation, revealing more of themselves than they ever had before, and in turn learning about the other in a way they never would have thought they could given their fraught history.
It was remarkably cathartic.
And by the time they sensed movement above them, and heard the unmistakeable noises of life within the Manor once more, they found they almost didn't want the bizarre experience to end. Although, it had to be said, Janey was bursting for a pee the likes of which she had never quite experienced before.
Perhaps it was the prolonged state of delirium, but as the undeniable sound of approaching footsteps could be heard approaching the trapdoor, Janey could not shake the joking promise she had made to Jinx all those hours ago—that she would snog the life out of whoever should happen to appear. And maybe she would, she thought in amusement, completely unaware if they might be friend or foe.
But God, let it be someone there to spring them from their hell hole, she begged. It could be one of their friends, a Hogwarts professor, or Harry freaking Potter himself, but Janey was fully prepared to show her gratitude. Although, heart thumping so loudly in anticipation that it was drowning out all other sound, there was only one person she could really envision wanting to snog right then, and maybe if she willed it to happen enough then the face she had been clinging to as she drifted in and out of consciousness would really, truly appear.
But it wasn't him. And it wasn't Harry Potter.
In fact, it was his son.
And although Janey didn't snog him, she had never felt more elation in her entire life to see James' dumb face, and even more so to notice that he held both Jinx and Janey's recovered wands in his hand.
God, she was so happy, and so incredibly sleep-deprived, that she felt like she might burst into tears right there and then.
James looked just as idiotically happy. "Alright?" he greeted the girls, like they were just passing each other in the castle's corridors and not being sprung from a cold, dirty basement. "I heard there were some distressed damsels in need of rescuing?"
Author's Note: Title and epigraph inspired by Demi Lovato's 'Anyone'
From flashforwards to flashbacks, I promise we will now be returning to the present! And to prove it, have the next chapter too...