𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 99

CHAPTER NINETY NINE
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-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY LEAVE 
HOGSMEADE BEHIND

. . .

Whatever Hermione had told the crowd to get all those people to come and listen to what he had to see, it had worked. Harry had explained what was planned, with anyone facing the wrath of his unrelenting and very pretty girlfriend, Jane and Hermione Granger as well should they speak up in anything shockingly against him. 

They had seemed all the more impressed when they found out that he could cast a corporeal patronus - he had Madam Bones' niece, Susan to thank for that - and after finding that out people began to ask the truth of various other rumours that had spread of his activities at Hogwarts since he had started there. About second year in the Chamber and the Philosopher's Stone, and Cho brought up the year before and the activites with each task. It seemed to be the truth of his experience got him brownie points rather than his previous admissions of what had happened. 

There was something that Jane had said about the masses only trusting sources within an audience - and the Daily Prophet was just that. It was a newspaper with an audience, and it had manipulated it against him. But with the truth coming right from the source - and this case it was hiim - they managed to believe it. 

And not to mention that Jane, Hermione and Ron seemed to be getting the same effect from the growing confidence within the group. A smile was budding on Jane's face as she watched the crowd, most of whom were unsupportive upon entrance, become more and more aggressively supportive of Harry, and she knew that whatever plan Hermione had come up with that prompted this meeting; to take a group of like-minded people and actually allow them follow the curriculum they needed for that year, would be successful. 

Zacharias had provided his fair share of trouble, but with Jane, the twins and Ron it was squashed instantly and by the end of the meeting, after they had scheduled around various Quidditch practise and found out more Luna's theory on Cornelius Fudge's secret army of Heliopaths (what they were, Jane didn't know), even he was signing the piece of paper Hermione produced.

And eventually, after what seemed forever, Harry was able to take his bottle of butterbeer and joined Jane in leaving the musty inn, their goodbyes to various people shouted. They passed Lee, Fred and George on the way who were in just as much of a hurry as they was - something to do with their business, Harry reassured her - and after he had pulled her around Hogsmeade, stopping in the Three Broomsticks for sandwiches and then Honeydukes for sweets and that cherry drink he thought she would like, they climbed the hill up to the Shrieking Shack.

"This is where Sirius hid out?" Jane pushed open the creaking front door carefully, as though it would fall off of it's hinges with only a touch. It most likely would; it wa a miracle it was still standing. The door only opened so far until it wedged against something and Harry watched as she stuck her head din, squinting in the half light. "The poor guy." 

"Yeah. He hid out here for quite a while before the whole Werewolf-Undead-Rat-thing." Harry nodded, spreading his coat out of the steps attached to the front porch. "Hey - um - I'm sorry about Zacharias." 

Jane pulled her head out of the door, her eyes watering from the amount of dust that had risen from the disruption. "Why are you sorry?" She asked, her eyes flickering with fondness as she saw the coat sat on the step, legs curled under her as she sat down, knees brought together in and hands folded on top of it until she reached across and took one of his hands too. "It's not your fault, Harry." 

"Yeah, but I also forced you to sit in on that meeting and have to see all that..." Harry waved his spare hand around before she reached up and grasped that one too. "Jane. Please."

"No - Harry, that meeting was successful, you've got a plan to fight against this woman." Jane smiled at him, far too happy just to see him again. She hadn't quite anticipated exactly how relieved and happy she would be to see him. "I mean, you've been coming down from the school just to write letters to me, I can listen to a load of people asking you questions about your past."

"But we were there for ages and-" Harry was silenced with the press of a kiss to his knuckles, Jane reaching into her bag to pull out the food he had bought for them. "I think you'll really like the cherry." He added, somewhat meekly, knowing that he wouldn't exactly get anywhere else with it. 

"I think I will too." Jane replied, taking one of the prettily patterned bottles and turning around on the step, hooking the sturdiest-looking part of the step under the bottle lids and pulling it down until it came off. "Here." She handed it over to him and repeated it for herself, before taking a sip. "Oh." She breathed out, when the bottle was pulled from her lips. Harry's eyebrows rose as she took another sweet. "It's good - it's sweeter than I thought it would be." 

"See." Harry nodded, approvingly. Next came the sandwiches, their bottles resting amongst the grass below as  they unwrapped the paper from around what Harry considered one of Madam Rosmerta's better concoctions - she had tried to make extra sweet Butterbeer once and Harry had almost thrown up at the smell alone. "How's the new school?" He asked, once they had gotten into it.

"It's good. It can't possibly be as good as Hogwarts, but it's good." Jane confirmed. "here - some of my sketches." She continued as she pulled her sketchbook out of her bag. "My textiles class is good - Tonks is letting me dress her up for my projects and I've made Sirius a velvet shirt, so far. He's worn it to precisely two order meetings just so people could ask where it's from." 

Harry studied the page in front of him, scanning of the designs and wondering why the hell he didn't know she could draw like that. "Did he get into trouble after the train station?" He asked, far more interested in the page in front of him and the scrap of velvet attached to the page that showed the shirt she was talking about. "They're amazing, by the way."

"Thanks." Jane grinned. "And yeah, he got in trouble. I suspect he was quite used to Professor McGonagall telling him off."

"Has Dumbledore been there?"

"If he was, I didn't see him." Jane replied.

"Sorry - sorry." Harry swallowed. "Back to you, your school?" 

"Mhm, mhm." Jane returned back to the smile she had shown before. "It's good - the teachers are all pretty nice, I'm still not good at maths or sciences. And there's this guy in my History class that seems like an actual decent guy - oh, and there's this girl in my form as well." 

"Yeah?" Harry nodded. "Good." But he couldn't help but notice that she was acting a little odd about it. He supposed, though, that whilst she knew a lot about his world, he would never know about her's even if he asked. It just wouldn't be something he could experience. 

"Thank you, by the way." Jane hummed, taking another bite out of the many layers of fillings. Harry looked confused in the change of subject and she expanded. "For the letters. You make so much effort in sending them and I just send them from my room."

"Don't worry about it." Harry snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him on the step. "I don't mind it so much, this makes it worth it, you know?"

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a/n
if anyones interested i 
have a couple steve harrington 
fics up on J4EHYUNS