𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY REUNITE

. . .

Washing his bacon sandwich down with a glass of lemon water - Angela had a huge pitcher of it in the fridge, and the surface was scattered in the yellow of the fruit and certain pink flower petals infusing the liquid -  Harry was directed towards where Jerry had told them that Jane was.

In his hand was a plate of biscuits - they were heart shaped and covered in the sticky icing that Harry recognised from various Hogwarts desserts (and what Dudley tended to eat at the end of almost every meal) - and supposedly one of her favourites.

"Potter!" Her voice was cheerful as so saw him approach, the green eyes hidden by round wire frames flickering over the scene. It was fair to say that Harry completely understood why Jane tended to favour this corner of the rather vast back garden of Florence Adley's manor. And it wasn't just the sun to shade ratioo either. 

The corner that Jane had chosen to sit in was completely overrun with wildlife. She was sat in a small circular corner of it, but above her was a willow tree that swayed ever-so-attractively in the breeze. In what Harry thought would be once very well-kept gardens, flower bushes spilled out in variations of pink, purple, white, blue and yellow. 

The girl's features were shadowed by the outlines of the willow leaves, one of the pink flowers that sat closest to her hand tucked behind her ear, several others smaller ones woven into the plaits that held two chunks of her hairr near her face back. She was sat upon a red and white checkered picnic blanket, and Harry felt a sudden surge of something when he saw the two kittens on her lap.

One of them - a chocolate brown one which seemed fluffier than the other - rested in in the curve between her calf and her thigh where she crossed her legs, basking in the sunlight with it's eyes closed. The other was white and ginger, and clearly a lot more playful than it's sibling, as it tried to crawl up Jane's torso.

"Hey." Harry replied, sitting down and placing the plate of biscuits in a curve of the shade from the tree, watching as the girl carefully extracted the ginger kitten from her shirt, placing it down on her lap and laughing as it just retturned to where it was before.

"You wouldn't think they were siblings, would you? According to Jerry they're the two opposites of the litter, carbon copies of the mother and father. The other.. I think four, I think he said four?" She paused, clearly thinking it over. "Four." She confirmed with a nod of her head. "They're mixes of the two." 

"They're cute." Harry commented. "My friend has a cat - but he's nothing like these two. It has more of a squashed face and is actually pretty smart." 

"Cats can be pretty intelligent." Jane mused. "Did you get here fine?" She asked, Harry nodding. "Can I ask you a question?" A second question came, and Harry nodded once again, watching as Jane moved the kitten back into her lap and catching it as it fell off her knee. 

"You always talk about your friends. But you rarely talk about yourself." The Everleigh girl began. "Is there a reason for that?" Harry froze in place, barely even moving as the adventurous ginger kitten scrambled over to him and up his knee. It reminded him of her. 

But even despite the kitten crawling on his lap, Harry's attention didn't move away from Jane. He didn't even know how to answer the question, but he would be lying if he said that he wasn't a lot more closed off than he would be around others. He couldn't talk to Jane about things that he usually did with Ron and Hermione. He was so used to talking about magical things that he wasn't convinced on what topics he could talk to her about without letting something spill.

And he knew that Flora trusted him with being around Jane, even if he was a wizard, and the 'chosen one' at that. So he couldn't betray her trust like that and somehow tell Jane about the wizarding world.

"I.. don't know." He began. "I'm not used to it I suppose. Whenever I'm at school I usually talk about school.. and when I'm here I tend to avoid human contact because human contact generally means my family. It's not excuse.. but it's all I can think of." Harry shrugged. "I'll try not to mention them." 

"I wasn't saying that." Jane rushed to reply, leaning closer to Harry and wrapping a hand around the ginger kitten's middle, a second hand carefully tugging it's tiny claws from his shirt. "You can talk about them all you want, just think about telling me something about yourself next time. For example, how do you feel about cats in general, rather than your friend's clever, squashed-face one."

"I like them." Harry nodded. "They're.. cute and fluffy and I find them calming. I was never much of a dog person." The Potter boy shivered, remembering the dog that had attacked him at the park when he was younger, after he had accidentally set of some of the swings. "There's only one dog that I know - if that makes sense. It's weird, because it's gigantic and covered in fluffy black fur - not a dog that someone who didn't really like dogs would favour."

"Did you know that that is the most you have told me since we've met?" Jane cocked an eyebrow, finally managing to pull the last claw from his shirt and giggling as it tried to bite her fingertip. "Who's dog is it? I'm assuming it isn't your uncle and aunt's?"

"You're right, it isn't. It's.. my godfather's - Sirius, and the dog is called Padfoot." Harry nodded, hoping that it wasn't too much information and he hadn't given away too much.

"Sirius?" Jane paused, holding the cat in midair for a moment. "Oh - that's.. funny I suppose. Unfortunate name, in one way - the same as that mass murderer who broke out of that prisoner a few years ago." She mused and Harry froze. "But in the other, funny." She nodded, the mood lightening. "You wouldn't happen to learn astronomy at this boarding school of yours?"

"I do, actually." Harry replied, nodding his head as he simultaneously tried to shake away the mention of his godfather's escape and wrack his brains to think back to his actual astronomy lessons. "Sirius is the.."

"Dog star." Jane finished. "Also known as Canis Major - the Greater Dog, it is the brightest star in the night sky and a little away from Orion's belt." 

"You know your stuff." Harry sounded impressed, and he genuinely was. "Did you learn it at school - or on your own or?"

"I had a phase. I had a lot of phases actually. Greek Mythology.. then Roman and Norse Mythology. I had a lot of history phases, then I went on to drawing and then writing - I read a lot so that stuck. Then I wanted to know about the stars because you could see them from one of my old family's balcony. So I read a book, and then Flora found another one in the library and gave it to me." Jane began, Harry listening with wide eyes.

"My room - it's the attic one, see where the roof flattens out, it's a skylight, and it's right over my bed." She continued, pure admiration and love for whatever she was explaining. "I've been using the book and studying them. We're far enough from the village to get no light from it, so it's perfect."

Neither of them said anything else, smiles on their faces as they thought things over. A squeak interrupted them, and they looked over to the chocolate-coloured cat in Jane's lap, smiling when they saw it yawn. 

"Now Harry, what do you say that we name these two?" Jane asked, scooping up the two kittens. "I don't even know if I can name them - but you'll help, right?"

And the Potter boy nodded.

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