𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN
✧
-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY LEAVE
 LITTLE WHINGING

. . .

It just so happened that the clothes would be ready the very next day, as Jane and Harry found out when they walked back to the Adley manor, just briefly before the Potter boy walked home. 

And the next morning instead of walking to the tree or to the manor, he walked to the bus stop they had arranged to meet at. It wasn't too far from Number 4 Privet Drive - just at the end of Magnolia Drive, and Harry was rather nervous that Dudley or his Aunt or Uncle would find him there.

But he wouldn't find him there alone, the shock of red hair that he spotted almost instantly telling him otherwise. Jane was already there and waiting, a book held up by her nose.

Despite her difference in plans for the day, that hadn't urged her to dress in any other way than how she usually did. Today she wore a yellow dress, it flowed down to her ankles where a pair of converse were tied, a slit travelling up her leg. The skirt pulled in at her waist, and the top was rouched in the centre with a rectangular neckline, sleeves shaped like bluebells clinging to her shoulders. 

Her usual threaded bracelet covered her wrists, and just above where her white socks rumpled was an anklet. Around her neck hung a locket, the charm heavy against the simplicity of the dress. Her hair hung in long red curls, white and pink flowers decorating thin plaits tied there.

Harry couldn't help but wonder how early she had gotten up in order for her to do her hair like that, wonder if she had asked Flora or Angela to help attach the flowers. A bag was slumped against her side, and she pulled it closer to her without glancing upwards as Harry sat down.

"Hey." She murmured, her eyes darting over a few more lines of text before she placed a flower between the page - it was purple and halfway dried, pale green mingle amongst the beige. "Hi Harry." She repeated when her attention was all on him.

"Hey." Harry nodded. "So when is this bus supposed to be getting here?" He asked, watching as Jane jumped up from her seat and moved to study the timetable.

"In around.. well in a couple of minutes." She replied, sitting back down a little closer to Harry and making sure her skirt wasn't folded in a way that would leave a crease. "I know this is a little different from what we usually do, and you didn't really sign up for this at the beginning."

"It's no problem." Harry shrugged. "If I'm honest I'm actually glad that I can leave Little Whinging.. I don't think I would get to leave until I go back to school otherwise." 

"Really? You know I came into this thinking you would at least miss one or two days due to your family wanting to go somewhere.. but that doesn't seem to be the case." Jane's eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"They don't tend to go anywhere anyway. Uncle Vernon prefers not to make the awfully-long journey to the car unnecessarily, Aunt Petunia is too busy peeking out of lace curtains and making disgusting desserts and Dudley.. well he weasels his way into the Polkisses' family trips and spends the others day bullying younger kids, smoking on street corners and throwing rocks at passing cars." Harry explained, Jane listening with quite the interested look on her face.

"I'm sorry Harry - they sound like absolutely awful human beings." She said softly. Harry hadn't even talked about his parents to her - but the fact he lived with his aunt and uncle and was sent off to boarding school said enough for Jane to understand. And just like she knew about his situation, Harry came to understand hers as well, with the help of Flora and Angela.

Jane came from a foster home, she had been abandoned there at a young age. Since then she had been fostered twice and since returned after circumstances changed. And then, Flora came along and took her away from all of that. Nobody knew why she had been abandoned, and Flora wasn't too sure on why she had come back to the home both times - it was clear that it wasn't for bad behaviour.

"Hey - what can I do about it." Harry shrugged again, trying to make light of the situation. "I've been living there since I was a baby, so I'm pretty used to it. And it's much better now than it was - now I have the ability to spend the days of summer actually doing something worthwhile."

"That's good. I'm glad.. glad that we can both do that." Jane nodded, looking up as she saw a bus approach. A red single-decker bus with cream and yellow stripes chuntered to a stop in front of them. 

Instantly, Jane and Harry got up, the Everleigh girl pulling out a velvet drawstring bag clearly full of money out of her bag, paying for their tickets and pulling Harry right to the back of the bus, sitting down beside the window.

The bus pulled away from the stop, heading down to the small roundabout at the end of the road. But as they approached it, Harry felt his heart drop. Dudley and his gang were stood there, rocks in their hands.

And just as they drove past, it seemed that the son of Petunia and Vernon Dursley saw him, sat right beside Jane and on a bus to the next town over. 

It created a sinking feeling in his stomach, that he could only try to ignore as the day progressed.

✧