𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 126

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX
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-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH THERE'S A CELEBRATION

. . .

When Jane Everleigh awoke on the 8th of March 1996, there didn't seem to be anything entirely special about the day. It was a Friday, of course, but that seemed to mean nothing under the guise of the fact Jane was working towards her GCSEs with a year taken out from her school. She was playing a dangerous game of catch-up and whilst there was an easy catch-up with the small amounts she had missed in typical subjects like Maths, Biology and History, her old school was doing an entirely different Shakespeare text to the one she studied now and a different focus for Art - and such she was a year behind in her projects.

Thus, the night before she had fallen asleep with a copy of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' over her chest and a piece from her Textiles work across her legs, needle and thread hanging from it as though she was about to lose it - surely, a nightmare. 

On the bright side, she had woken before her alarm - not particularly long before, but enough to grant her an extra few minutes - and to wake naturally only meant that she had slept as much as she had need to. She set about cleaning up her mess - bookmarking the page, draping the fabric best she could in the shape it should be around the mannequin set in the corner, tried to reorganise the mess on her desk - and got dressed for the day, putting on the uniform she had neatly folded over her desk chair and pulled on the extra thick creamy-coloured socks that let her leather boots sit comfortable over her feet without blistering. 

There was a list of the school uniform rules pinned up above her collection of jewellery that allowed her to pick out the perfect set of earrings, necklace and bracelet that would violate the rules. She settled on several of each; mismatched earrings that all matched with the dangling chains that swung from her ear lobes. 

She selected the school books necessary for the day, including finding the rather large extra bag she needed to bring an extra piece of coursework in - it was a fabric torso of a mannequin, one which she had managed to create a papier-mâché shirt upon, and needed advice on how best to add the decorations of butterflies she had shaped of some wire. 

Jane stuck to a routine in the mornings; it allowed for her to remember everything she needed - which certainly meant she had almost left her copy of An Inspector Calls on her bedside table, and a half finished letter to Harry that she planned to finish during form time that day. As a last minute decision, because the 8th of March was a Friday, she decided that she could afford a little more excitement and pinned one of the little compass badges she had gotten from a shop Flora had taken her to that spun merrily in the direction of north when tapped by a wand, and used colourful butterfly clips to pin back the front curls that framed her face.

And somehow, just like that, and with more than enough time for her to eat breakfast and ready to leave when 8:20 came, Jane was ready. She shouted her good morning to Buckbeak as she stepped out onto the landing, hurrying down the stairs to reach the kitchen a couple floors below. 

Leaving her bags by her unlaced boots beneath coat stand, Jane turned to step down into the kitchen, only she came to freeze as she entered the dimly-lit space. 

"Well what do expect to have for breakfast on your birthday but cake?" Sirius stood, a smile on his face, as he watched Jane's reaction. There was something so heartachingly endearing to see him grinning like that, expectant of her reaction to the messy, slightly wonky chocolate cake covered in rainbow-coloured sprinkes to the point the icing was hardly visible. Exactly sixteen candles lined the outside, with a sparkler in the middle spelling out her name. 

"Sirius..." Jane could hardly find the words; they all caught in her throat with ease, a certain stickiness there that she hadn't anticipated. "Thank you so much." 

"It's tradition." Sirius smiled. "Used to do it for your dad, used to do it for Rem and Peter and James when we all shared the dorm. Nothing better than waking up to cake on your birthday." 

"I definitely can't think of anything." Jane shook her head, letting him rush her into the seat before it. "Did you bake it yourself?"

"Of course. You think I would let Kreacher anywhere near it? Means way more when it comes from someone like me than a house-elf who would rather poison a squib than make her happy." Sirius shrugged. "Here - hot chocolate - no, wait, candles!"

"Of course,  of course." Jane nodded, and she held her hair back as she leaned forward to blow them out, in one breath. Miniature fireworks shot to the ceiling once the last one went out and she watched them, amazement in her eyes as they formed celebrations and stars. "Thank you, Sirius. This is amazing." 

"It gets a little lonely here, I know." Sirius nodded, the smile on his cheeks sagging slightly, despite his best efforts. "It's the least I can do to make sure you have a good birthday. Now, we used to do presents after school because it's something to look forward to, but-"

Jane wasn't listening to his reasoning. She was too busy trying to hide the tears in her eyes as he haphazardly cut her a slice that was almost a quarter of the cake. 

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a/n
this chapter made 
me cry, can't lie