𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 10

CHAPTER TEN
✧
-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH IT'S DECIDED

. . .

Harry and Jane spent the next couple of days following the map dutifully, the Everleigh girl continuing to take charge and was still picking out the walks, often jumping ahead with Harry behind, wondering how someone could be so carefree as they followed the little black lines across a map. 

However, on the fourth day after the pair's initital meeting, with Harry in his usual t-shirt and jeans and Jane dressed in a longer, flowing dress of cornflower blue and dotted with red and cream flowers - the hem was laced, and brushing against the blades of grass, and Harry found himself rather drawn to it - Jane decided that going on walks set out for them by a map wasn't necessarily her favourite thing.

"Today I was thinking we could do something different." Harry had watched Jane approach, the early morning sun already beating down on them and making her hair glow in the most beautiful way. She had promptly sat down in front of him, flickering dust particles flying up all around her as she used the grass as a cushion, dress creasing as she did so.

"And what would that be?" Harry replied. He had managed to get just a bit more comfortable, and tended to be able to give her longer answers - in just a few days time, which was rather strange for him. It had taken him a while to properly become friends with someone other than Ron when he first started at Hogwarts, forced into socialising in a world where nothing made sense to him, and he would have rather have just observed for a little while.

However, Harry was the so-called 'Chosen One', and his inability to let other people be treated badly had reared up on his first day at Hogwarts, and from then he hadn't been given the chance of observing. Really, he shouldn't have expected it, given his already known presence and effect on the entire Wizarding World.

"We are going on boring walks." Jane proclaimed, Harry's brow creasing just slightly in confusion. "I mean the actual walks, not the time or the person or the conversation.. just the walks. They're boring."

"But we're following the ones on the map?" Harry was forever clueless as things like this, it seemed, and his mind was jumping over hurdles as he tried to figure out what Jane was getting at.

"I think we should just explore." She replied, clasping her hands in front of her chest and sitting forward, joint palms falling into her lip. Harry's eyes followed them, taking note of the thin rings that sat on her index and ring finger of her right hand. Several thread bracelets slid down her forearms at the movement, one of sage green with a daisy charm, and a couple of various plaited colours. 

"Just explore?" Harry repeated her words, watching as she nodded eagerly, leaning forward even more as she did so. 

"It's not always so fun to stick with rules! So we should just go off the map, y'know?" Jane exclaimed. "Just go wherever we want to!" A smile grew on her lips, blossoming like the flowers that scattered the grass around them.

"You're excited for so early in the morning." Harry replied, adjusting his glasses - a piece of tape was twisted around the center, and Jane's smile faltered for just a moment as she noticed it. "But.. it's a good idea - I think that.. we could have fun."

"Right? I think it could be really fun. Oh - and before I forget-" Jane pulled her backpack off of her shoulders, pulling it onto her lap where her hand had rested before. "Here." She pulled out a brown package tied with string. "Flora agreed to help with me baking and Angela got a few ingredients.. so I made brioche." She smiled, as Harry unwrapped the package.

 "I woke up early and made the dough and Angela helped prove it over the day and I got up early today and cooked it!" She continued, as Harry looked down at the slices of brioche. "And.. well I wasn't sure which jam you liked."

"You didn't have to-" Harry watched with wide eyes as Jane pulled out a handful of small jars, each in varying shades of red and purple. 

"I didn't know if you liked jam.. and if you did then which flavour you liked and well, I decided to bring them all." Jane shrugged, handing him the jars and then digging out a butter knife, passing that to him as well. "Eat up, and then we'll go."

Everything she said and did was combined with this kindness, and Harry found himself staring at her in slight awe, lost for words. "Come on!" She urged him, shuffling a bit closer to him and taking the package out of his hands, hand balanced underneath the brown paper. "Which one is your favourite? I must say that Angela's own strawberry and rhubarb one is my favourite.. but whichever you prefer?"

"I'll have the strawberry and rhubarb please." Harry found his voice and managed to splutter out, watching as Jane took some from the jar and spread it across half of one of the slices.

"Just in case it's too much  - brioche is quite rich and buttery." Jane handed him a slice, grey eyes wide as she watched him eat it, sparking with happiness as Harry reacted, somewhat taken aback by how much he liked it. 

"It's good.. it's really good." Harry nodded, taking another bite, chewing and swallowing quickly. "Say - you wouldn't mind putting the jam on the other slice?" 

"Of course not." The Everleigh girl looked as she was over the moon as she spread the rhubarb and strawberry preserve over the second slice. When she was done, she twisted the red and white ginghan lid over the jar, standing up. "Seeing as you like it so much, I'll make sure to make it again - I'll just go wash this as best I can in the river, so you eat that and we'll set off."

And they did just that.

✧