Jane Fizzle and the Philosophers Stone

Chapter 2

    Nearly ten years have passed since the Henrys woke up to find their niece on their porch. The sun rises on the same tidy front gardens and lights up the inside of the house, creeping into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Henry had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time has passed. The only thing that has changed is that Mrs. and Mr. now work as spies for the Death Eaters to share what's happening in the Muggle world.

    Ten years ago, there was lots of pictures of what looked like a string bean in different clothing, but Jacob Henry was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a bigger preteeen boy with wavy, chestnut brown hair, and brown, cold eyes, just like his mother. The pictures are of him riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father watching behind him, and being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room holds no sign at all that another person lived in the house, too. There's no sign of Jane anywhere, other than the Christmas card she stole and copied to have for herself. The Henry family only puts that card out during the winter holiday and avoids all questions Jane asks about it. They didn't know she knew that the people in the card are her parents and herself.

    Yet, Jane Fizzle is still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Maria is awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day. "Up! Get up! Now!" The door handle rattles angrily as it always gets stuck when closed for a long time. She gives up and started to bang on the door. Jane sits up in her mattress on the floor, blinking her eyes at different times. Her aunt raps on the door once more, her final warning. "Up!" Jane hears her walk away, taking the chance to stand up slowly, her long, old t-shirt falling just to her middle thighs. All of her clothes are hand-me-downs from her family's wardrobe. She's only allowed to wear her fancy clothing during house parties or if she has to go to an event for her uncle's work. Even so, she can't tell anyone who she is, having to cover her whole neck with a necklace or a shirt.

    She waddles over to her small mirror and looks at her choppy, light strawberry blonde hair, moving it out of her nature green eyes. Her necklace dangles down her neck, which she grabs and squeezes tightly. Jane's shirt is brown with some yellow paint on the bottom of it, wearing pink shorts underneath. She's a little shorter than other 10 year olds and is very underweight. The Henrys never give her a full meal, leaving her with their leftovers, which is normally cold.

    Jane can hear the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. She then realizes that it's Jacob's 12th birthday, making her sigh in annoyance, as he always got what he wanted and more. He would always make fun of Jane when she only gets a rock from her aunt's room. She drops her necklace and brushes her hair with the broken hairbrush Jacob gave her when he broke the handle off it, her hair brushing out neatly enough. Once done with that, she opens her door with a powerful tug. Her aunt was standing right on the other side, about to knock again.

    "It's about time you got up. Get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare burn it, I want everything perfect on Jacob's birthday."

    Jane groans, muttering an angry response.

    "What did you say?" Aunt Maria snaps at her as Jane closes the door behind her.

    "Nothing, nothing..." Jane sighs.

    When she is dragged down the stairs by her aunt and shoved into the kitchen where the bacon was sizzling away, Jane ignores the enormous pile of birthday presents. The table is almost hidden beneath all of Jacob's birthday presents. It looks as though Jacob had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television he got this year and the racing bike he was begging his parents for, as all of the kids in the neighborhood were racing their bikes up and down the street. Jane always wanted to join them, but no one invited her because of Jacob and because she didn't have a bike of her own. Jane wants to ask Jacob if she could maybe ride the bike up and down the street at least once, but knows he'll laugh and yell names at her, most of them she doesn't understand.