𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 112

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH HARRY IS
CONVINCED OUT

. . .

Sirius was singing Christmas carols. Wizard versions that Jane only recognised the tune of, but Almost constantly now, smiling wider than anyone had seen him during the rest of their tme spent in Grimmauld Place - nothing could quite describe the happiness that came to him with knowing that he would have a full house for Christmas. His voice could be heard through the floorboards as he sang through what could only be an entire songbook, as Jane found out as she spent a small period of time with Harry that day.

When he had joined her in the room the previous night no words were shared between them. He was exhausted and driven by an overwhelming anxiety that pushed him into the arms of the only person in the house he was actually comfortable with because he knew, he knew she wouldn't treat him any different regardless, that she loved him and didn't care that he was being...

Nothing could quite describe how he was during the day. They didn't speak then, either, but Jane had knocked on his door with a silent smile and a small stack of books she thought he might enjoy. When Mrs Weasley called him for dinner and a look of horror flashed across his face she had suggested Buckbeak's room, and watched as he retreated further upstairs to hide himself away, knowing as well as Jane that many wouldn't visit that floor of the house. 

Hermione arrived just after the meal, and it was then that Jane suggested that she would fetch him and his best friends. A book in her hand and a sole sandwich taken from the pile Mrs Weasley insisted they took to take them, Jane had climbed the stairs up to the top floor. 

Stood behind the door, she took a deep breath and knocked. "Harry?" She could hear short, muffled movements behind the walls and she knocked again, not wanting to just barge and break his privacy. "Harry, it's me."

She heard an intake of breath, before footsteps and then the door opened. "Hi." She smiled, offering up the book and sandwiches. "I... I don't want to intrude," Jane added, "and... I know I can't really offer you much comfort in this; I don't know enough to be able to or to make reason or to offer ways of fixing it."

"That's okay." Harry managed a smile, although she was pretty sure it was forced for her sake. "You don't need to... I don't expect that of you."

"Okay." Jane didn't want to argue on it, and instead to thrust the sandwiches further forward. "I can, however, care thoroughly about your health and I do have to say that if you can stomach it... it might make things a little better."

"I can try." He promised her, taking the sandwiches. "Did Mrs Weasley make them?"

"No - I did." Jane smiled. "I got Angela to send some of that strawberry rhubarb jam from the summer. I thought it might be nice, given that it's almost like a whole different world from July."

And he looked at her with such care in her eyes she could almost forget that the horrors the wizard world had encroached upon her lives - although the pleasantries and wonder far outweighed them. She could almost forget the possession ordeal, yet there was a small hidden torture behind the tenderness that was spilling out without thought. 

"I don't think I could do this without you." Harry admitted quietly. "Knowing you're here makes Hogwarts worth leaving." Sometimes, now, he tended to forget the hatred he held in his heart for the end of term. "You make everything... easier."