prewett

Over the next few days, Jane was actively avoiding Sirius. At first, it was accidental, and she genuinely left seconds before Sirius arrived in the Library to find her. Soon after, she heard from one of her dorm mates, Penny, that Sirius had stopped her in the hall and asked where he could find Jane.

She appreciated that Penny told Sirius she couldn't help him. Honestly, she didn't want to deal with the aftermath of whatever that night at the Three Broomsticks was. 

She didn't know how Sirius would approach her, and she didn't want to find out. Truthfully, she was scared. First, Jane had never dated. Like actually dated. She's messed around with people before, but had never pursued an actual relationship. Second, she wasn't blind. Sirius Black was hot. Third, she was worried about getting into something while the world was literally going to shit.

That said, she couldn't put her studies on the back burner, so her, Lily Evans, and Penny sat on the couch in the common room reviewing spells for Charms. While Jane often studied with the two girls, she wouldn't consider them friends. They more so had an understanding of each other and rarely talked about anything other than schoolwork. 

This was what the girls were doing when the four marauders entered through the portrait hole. Both James and Sirius perked up at the sight of them.

Jane sighed and set her essay down. She could tell Lily was growing fonder of James as the time passed, but that didn't mean he should immediately ask her out. In fact, Jane thought it was a horrible idea.

Before James had a chance to speak, Jane stood up, a slight shake to her head. "If you're thinking about asking her out again, I'd refrain. She's very obviously not in the mood." She turned to grab her short essay for Charms and her book.

James scoffed at her and her words, looking to his friends and rolling his eyes. "Yeah, Prewett. Like you're one to be giving me dating advice. Honest, I'd listen to Peeves before I did you."

The insult made a new anger flare in Jane's eyes, and Peter was quick to realize this. He jumped forward to grab James by the arm. "James, let's just go."

Reluctantly, the Potter boy allowed himself to be dragged away. Sirius lingered, but didn't really want to be on the receiving end of Jane's anger so followed the rest of his mates.

Lily gave Jane a small smile as she stood up to join Jane. "Thank you. I truly don't think he understands that I would say yes if he would go about it differently." Her expression was frustrated, and Jane understood her.

Jane smiled sadly at the redheaded girl, expressing her sympathy. Lily huffed a bit as she continued, "I don't mind him publicly asking so much as I just want something different. He's asked me out in the common room over a dozen times over the years.  Is it wrong that I just want authentic?" She paused. "Don't answer that. I know the answer. So what about you and Sirius? He clearly likes you. I heard he's been asking around about you."

Penny was now clearly listening, her Charms work discarded. Jane looked at Lily like she'd grown a second head while Penny laughed at her reaction. "You know it's true, Jane. He found me at Lunch if I knew where he could find you. I told him to bugger off, but still."

If Jane was completely honest, she knew Sirius like her back in his second year. Narcissa had heard from Regulus who had heard from Sirius. She never thought he still liked her. Not until he confessed to it while drunk the other night. Anyway, she answered Lily's previous question with a shrug. "Probably nothing."

Lily and Penny looked at each other with grins. Penny looked somewhat offended and made the offhanded comment of, "If Sirius Black liked me, there'd be no question as to what I'd do."

This made Lily laugh and Jane roll her eyes. After a moment, Lily looked back to Jane seriously. "If you ask Sirius on a date, I'll ask James."

The worst part was that Jane knew she was dead serious. She chuckled and took a few steps towards the stairs of the dormitory.  "I'll think on it, Evans," she said before fulling disappearing up the stairs.

Sirius Black was determined. He would talk to Jane. After four days of trying to find her, he knew there was only one person left that might have an answer for him. His cousin, Narcissa Black.

He wouldn't be going to her if he didn't have to. They were never close as kids, and they hadn't talked since Sirius had run away. After witnessing yesterday's interaction with Jane and James, he didn't know what else to do.

He was standing in a corner near the Slytherin common room, the map safely in his hands as he watched his cousin's name move towards the entrance to the common room.

The moment he saw her name leave the room, he muttered, "Mischief managed," and stuck the map into his pocket. He pushed himself off the wall he was leaned on and quickly rounded the corner to find Narcissa.

She saw him almost instantly and stopped in her footsteps. She looked quickly over each of her shoulders to make sure no one who would scorn her for talking to him was present. Once she deemed it safe, she approached him. "Sirius."

"Narcissa." He followed her into a more secluded hallway before talking again. She was just looking at him expectantly, her eyebrows raised and arms crossed. "I think you know what I'm going to ask."

She nodded, using her hand to push some hair out of her face. "If it's about a certain redhead, then yes." She pursed her lips. "And why you think I'd tell you anything about her, you're crazier than you've been painted out to be." She turned to leave, only stopped by him grabbing her.

"Please." She pulled her arm back from his grip but stopped walking. He sighed out in relief and continues, "I just need to know where I can find her. Just to talk. That's all."

Narcissa looked away from him and bit her lip nervously. "She can't know I told you this. I mean it, Sirius." She waited for him to nod until she spoke again. 

"She's supposed to meet me and Lucius later tonight." She, again, looked around to make sure no one had joined them in the hallway. "The Room of Requirement. Do you know what that is?" He shook his head. "Seventh floor, left corridor. Pace the hall three times while thinking something like 'a hidden place to talk.' I think that's what we agreed on the last time. A door will appear. Go at seven."

The moment she was done talking she walked away, Sirius calling out a brief "Thank you!" before running off to meet with his best mates because of two things.

One, he had a chance to talk to Jane. At the very least, he wanted to apologize for springing his feelings on her. He obviously wouldn't apologize for his feelings but he can definitely admit that if he was going to tell her, it should have been in a different way. Preferably while he wasn't pissed.

Two, apparently there was a room that they didn't have included on the map. He would have to scope out this room another time with the boys so that they could alter the map. This leads him to his question of, how did Jane and Narcissa find this room and they didn't? Maybe he could ask Jane tonight. Maybe not.

He ended up finding all three of the boys in their dormitory. Peter was snacking on some candies from Honeydukes while sprawled out on his bed. James and Remus could both be found with books; James was reading a poetry book he got from Effy, and Remus was nose deep in a book for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The sound of Sirius slamming the door shut behind himself brought their attention to him before he even had a chance to speak. "Oi, lads." He threw the map at Remus who stared with an annoyed expression as he picked it up. "We missed a room."

Remus looked at him like he was the dumbest person he'd ever met. Which... Fair. "Sirius, you had to have read it wrong. We checked that map five times over."

Sirius just shook his head, still extremely excited about this news. "No, my Moony. I fear you're wrong. That we were wrong. I can be sure after tonight. Room of Requirement! Appears after pacing and expressed a need. Seventh floor, left corridor."

James stood up, as did Peter, to look over Remus' shoulder as he opened the map and started looking where directed. "Pads, are you sure?" James asked quietly before Remus had even got to the part of the map that displayed the seventh floor.

Once the map was opened, at the very least, it proved that there was nothing in that exact location on the map. Still, until Sirius would be able to prove the room was there, they weren't going to say that they missed something. It was Remus who voiced this exact thing to Sirius. "The map shows nothing there. How did you even find this room? Can you at least show us?"

He was quick to shake his head. "No. I haven't been yet. I didn't find it. Narcissa told me about it. I'm meeting Jane there tonight. I'm meeting her at seven, so I can be back early to tell you all about it. It's insane magic to make that room. I can't believe we didn't know about it."

Throughout his continuous ramble, the other boys looked between each other. Peter asked the question coursing through all of them, "Meeting with Jane?" There was a disbelieving edge to his voice. Remus and Peter had been plagued with conversations about redheads since the beginning of time. Redheads being Lily Evans and Jane Prewett. It seemed impossible at this point for any advancement to be made, but alas four days ago, Jane had ended up in their dormitory while bringing Sirius back from the pub.

With a grin, Sirius nodded. "Meeting with Jane," he reiterated, a sense of pride to the words. "Narcissa told me when and where to find her. And we're just going to talk."

By this point, all three boys surrounded one bed, just looking at Sirius in astonishment. As Remus processed the words, he gave Sirius a confused look. "Does this imply that Jane doesn't know she's meeting with you tonight?"

Sirius didn't respond which resulted in James laughing loudly at his best friends expense. "Really? You're just gonna what?" He stopped to continue laughing. "Show up and scare the girl?"

Peter picked up, also laughing, when James couldn't compose himself. "What if she hexes you? You do know her reputation? Right?" Remus and Sirius both looked between the two having a laughing fit. Neither found it funny. Remus was just concerned, and Sirius was annoyed with his friends.

Remus stood up to stand in front of all of his friends and said, "James, Peter, have some compassion." He had a very slight smile as he faced away from Sirius, revealing he secretly found a small amount of humor in the situation. He turned to Sirius. "All I'm going to say to you is that you should be prepared for how this could go."

Peter and James contained themselves enough that Peter was able to check the time and stand. "On that note, let's get going to the Great Hall, yeah?" He and James were quick to run from the room while Remus and Sirius heard them laughing in the stairwell. 

Sirius just gave an exasperated look to Remus before following them out of the room.

Once there, dinner dragged for Sirius. He kept looking at the clock, waiting, biding his time until 6:50. He estimated about ten minutes needed to get to the seventh floor. His leg was tapping and tapping and tapping. He'd stopped eating what felt like ages ago, much too nervous to stomach anything more than a bread roll.

Sirius had to give credit where credit was due; once James and Peter had gotten a good laugh of the situation, they were very supportive of him. That's all he could hope for at this point, and he knew he had it. His mates were always there for him, no matter the situation. He also knew that, regardless of how the night progressed, they would be there to listen and support him.

He looked up from the table when James kicked his foot. His best mate had a small smile on his face as he tilted his head towards the clock. 6:50. His stomach dropped upon seeing that. Still, he stood, sending a mock salute to his friends as he started for the Room of Requirement.

On his way out the door, he nearly ran into Narcissa who gave him a small smile of luck. Maybe this would turn out okay.

Jane was sitting on the couch with an art pad that the Room of Requirement conjured up for her while she waited for Narcissa and Lucius to show up. Ever since her brothers had shown her the room, she liked to use it as a sort of recluse. 

In the wake of being hunted like prey by Sirius, she figured it was a safer place to meet with her friend. As of a week ago, she was the only person who knew of the room. She was quick to show Narcissa where it was when she realized she'd be spending significantly more time in the room.

The clock was ticking closer and closer to 7:00 when she heard the door open. Figuring it was her friends, she didn't move. When a guy's voice that she recognized spoke, "Hey, Jane," she jumped up and grabbed her wand.

Now, standing and facing Sirius Black, she said, "What the actual fuck are you doing in here?" She watched closely as Sirius put his hands up in the air and took a step back. "How- how do you even know about this place?"

Sirius shook his head more to himself than anything. "I just want to apologize. And you've been avoiding me. Like actively avoiding." He made sure to not move any closer until she responded.

Jane's expression turned from defensive to confused. "Apologize?" She set her wand down on the table, much less worried about what was to come. With her arms crossed, she propped herself up on the arm of the couch.

He let out a breath of relief as he allowed himself to relax. "Yeah... Apologize." There was a chair near the couch Jane was near, so he moved towards that. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry for dropping... All of that on you the other night. I should never have put you in that situation. An-and I know being drunk isn't an excuse, but yeah you know that's what I was. Then you were avoiding me. Which was worse than you just saying you don't like me. Or maybe I'm not your type. Or whatever it is. Which I get it. But yeah, I'm sorry."

Sirius just stood for a few moments and waited as Jane thought. The girl in question sighed and crossed her arms. "You're definitely my type. Promise that's not the issue. But yeah. I was avoiding. I didn't know what you were going to say... So I thought it'd be better to ignore."

It was his turn to look at her like she was crazy. "Oh, but I'm your type?" His expression turned smug as he ran a hand through his hair.

Rolling her eyes, Jane scoffed. "Of course that's what you focus on. " Sirius seemed offended at that. She just shook her head. "Don't get too ahead of yourself... Honestly, Sirius, I just don't know you well enough to know if I like you. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, no. I get that." And he did. As he grew up, part of him realized how stupid his crush was, to base it off of an instance during his first year, that is. The previous year, however, before he ran away, he had a conversation with Andromeda, who had nothing but amazing things to say about Jane. The stories he heard about the girl only further solidified what he had only previously thought he felt. "Friends?" He held his hand out to be shaken.

Jane flat out laughed at the offer, but she still moved to shake his hand. After whatever that was, she sat back on the couch and went back to her art pad. She wanted to reask her question about how he knew she was there, but when she thought about it, it was clear Cissy told him. Otherwise, she and Lucius would have still shown up.

Sirius, at this point, sat on the arm of the couch, his feet on the cushion next to Jane. He kicked her side gently to get her attention. She looked at him with a faux annoyed look causing him to smile. "So I'm your type?