𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 81

CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE
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-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH JANE IS INVITED
TO LUNCH

. . .

Jane was sat on the windowsill when Harry pushed the door into her room open. The panes were all pushed wide open to allow as much air into the room possible, August sun gleaming through into it. Half her legs were swinging over the edge and her dress skirts were pulled upto the tops of her thighs and shining in a sheen of hardly-there sun cream. 

The window seat's cushions were stacked high with books; a sketchbook; empty cups of iced tea or lemonade, a small pile of stacks, material and bottles of suncream. She seemed prepared for everything, even the weather getting colder. Harry noticed that as he got closer, the book grasped between her fingers sat loosely in her lap, teetering towards the edge of falling. And her gaze wasn't on it, grey irises focused instead on the street below.

He wasn't sure if she could be seen - Grimmauld Place was invisible to the naked eye, but would magic conceal half a body lolling out of a window? Harry supposed the answer was yes; the house was invisible, and anything else relating to it should be. 

"Hi." Harry said softly, so as to not startle her. She hardly jumped. Her shoulders only jolted slightly before Jane turned to look up at him, smiling and moving the cardigan she was saving in case the gentle breeze blew clouds over the sun. He sat down there, back pushed up against the wooden windowsill, head leant back against the frame as he looked up at her.

She was distracted again, and when Harry adjusted his gaze once more it landed on a group of children playing on the green. She had looked like that on the morning that Harry told her about Cedric. Maybe that was what she had been look at then. Maybe it was one and the same. 

It was no surprise that she felt like that. She missed the outside. Jane had never, ever been couped up like that in her life. Not when she lived in Little Whinging, not when she was at the home. Even the various other households she had lived in before being placed with - no, chosen by - Flora, Jane had spent as much time she could outside, come rain or shine. Shine was preferable, her bias clear from how she had chosen to spend the summer. 

It was no surprise at all that Jane was never going to be happy spent couped up indoors for a month. That wasn't her, and Harry hated that he was the one who made it that way. And so, he was going to fix it. 

"Do you want to have lunch with me?" Harry asked. 

"Pardon?"

"Lunch, with me." He could understand her confusion. Day in and day out there lunchtimes had been spent solely in the dining room or kitchen being stuffed full of sandwiches, soup or leftover pasta before returning to whatever activity was supposed to keep her occupied. He almost always sat next to her, or she sometimes sat with Hermione or the twins. But every time that Flora was present for the meal and not hidden away in one of the studies with any of the order members, he had heard her asking if she could leave. To which the answer was always a gentle 'no'. Lunchtimes had become disappointing, except from when she was engaged in conversation with someone. And their conversations were always filled with smiles.

Jane looked even more bewildered. If anywhere else, her mind could have perhaps figured out the answer. But here... that was different. "You mean sit next to you? Because Ginny won't mind-"

"No - no." Harry was smiling, holding out his hand. He had worked hard on this. He and Sirius had taken several days to compile several items to then transport onto the rooftop, and Sirius had enlisited the help of Remus -who was apparently the only one of the three that could cook.. or get food away from the kitchen without anyone noticing - in order to put this 'date' together.

Jane had taken his hand and now he pulling her out of her room, making  sure to close the windows so nothing floated out. "Not like that." Harry said. "I was talking to Sirius in Buckbeak's room - he's a Hippogriff.. I didn't know if introducing you would be a good idea in such close quarters but this afternoon you could try." 

"Please." Jane nodded. Despite her frivolous and undeniably deep research into many creatures, she didn't know if she had thhe guts to actually meet one. But she wanted to, she really did. To her, they were the physical embodiment of magic. She had seen spells, read books, heard about anything and everything related to the world. But she had never seen magic. Creatures that shouldn't exist, creatures made up from mythology. To Jane, those were magic, and one day she was going to have to meet one.. so why not then? But before that, she had to find out what Harry had planned.

"Good.. he'll like you." Harry nodded. "Anyway.. I.. I had an idea. That, y'know, after you did everything all summer.. got attacked by a Dementor.. helped in my trial.. listened to everything I had to say.. I wanted to thank you."  

And the smile on Jane's face was so pretty Harry knew he would see it in his dreams that night.

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