𝗷𝗮𝗻𝗲, harry potter

˗ˋ 58

CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT
✧
-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH HE RECOVERS

. . .

It was when Harry properly came-to that he realised they were no longer in the library. Jane had pulled him down to rest once he had calmed down a bit, but neither had even wanted to fall back asleep, but now as he looked around, he realised they were in her room.

The stinging in his scar continued, but he tried his best not to react as a blinding pain ran through his body like a shockwave but failed miserably. Jane laid awake beside him, not mentioning it as the metal of his glasses dug into her neck, sitting by as Harry reacted to whatever was happening.

She didn't want to as - she knew it was private - but to wake up to the sound of him clearly going through an awful night terror, complete by the muttering of a name he was yet to mention to her was scary. 

Jane had heard all about Ron and Hermione, learnt the names of the copious amount of siblings in the Weasley family, the people in Harry's classes and who had visited his boarding school the night before. But Cedric was a name he hadn't mentioned. And if it was so closely related to this nightmare, she was curious.

But she wouldn't ask, instead laying still and letting her eyes travel around her blue-tinted room, listening to the rain on the skylight as the storm continued on through into the early morning.

"The weather always does this." She was the first to speak, her words  breaking through the pattering of rain on the glass. Harry's head rested on her shoulder, her arms wrapped close around him and shifting just slightly as he looked up at her. "When it gets to August, it's like it will never be sunny again."

"My birthday..." Harry paused, clearing his throat. "It's almost like the cut-off point. The last day of the sun." 

"But it doesn't mean we can't have fun." The Everleigh girl made sure to reassure him, not wanting him to feel as though the summer was over before it had even began. "Seeing as it's still in the first week I think it might manage to brighten up."

"You think it could be sunny again?" Harry sounded hopeful, as if there was always going to be a constant cloud hanging over him in the wake of his nightmare. His eyes were on the skylight above the bed, the stars that Jane had once pointed out now covered by a veil of clouds.

Jane shifted a little behind him, but her hands remained wrapped around him and drawing shapes into the bare skin of his arms. One of them felt a little like the shape of his scar, and Harry looked towards it. "You know what?" Jane's tone seemed more positive now. "I bet, by the time Flora and Angela have gotten up and we're going down to breakfast, the rain will have stopped and we can see the ends of the sunrise. It's always the prettiest after a storm at night."

"I can't remember if I've ever seen one." Harry thought this for most of the things that Jane said, but it just seemed to make sense that she would know when the world around them was at it's most beautiful. "At school, when they were early practises there might have been some. But Oliver was too focused on trying to get us to run laps."

"What sport do you play?" As always, Jane was ever-so interested in Harry's school, which seemed so strange in comparison to every other school she could think of.

"The founders of the school made one up." Harry couldn't even think of what Muggle sport he could compare Quidditch to. "It's kind of like basketball in the sense you have to throw a ball into the hoop, but more like football or hockey the way you move across the pitch."

Jane laughed quietly, a whisper of positivity in the blue-tinted room, which seemed so dark to them. As if she could read his thoughts, she leaned over and managed to turn on the fairylights that were arranged over the decorative headboard of her bed. Harry realised, as a glow of amber fell over the room, that this was somehow the closest they had ever been, and he had never felt so comfortable to be sandwiched up to his side. 

"Your school is so strange." She shook her head, before pausing, Harry glancing up at her and seeing her staring up at the window above. "I think the rain is stopping - I told you it would." 

"You did." Harry nodded, smiling. He was glad to know that perhaps they could manage to continue what they had been doing for the entire month previous. "Have we got a plan for today? A walk we haven't gone on yet?"

"I'd be surprised if there isn't." Jane replied, their conversation slow as the sky above them slowly calmed from the storm, leaving behind the slowly growing light of dawn, right before the sun was going to rise. "We can go swimming if the river isn't too fast - or go back to the waterfall. But for now..." 

Harry felt a loss of warmth as Jane pulled herself away, simultaneously dragging the covers with her as well. He watched in the half-light as she made her way out of her room, leaving her door open and giving Harry the view of her opening the doors into the cupboard outside, pulling out a folded-up stepladder and a couple of towels.

"What are you doing?" Harry pushed himself up, watching as Jane came to the end of her bed and set the step ladder up, standing on the top and pushing open the skylight, gently laying the pane down on the roof behind it. 

"I've done it before, don't worry." Jane smiled as she placed the towels just outside of his line of vision, securing her arms on either side of the window. 

"That's not-" Harry paused before standing up and standing at the end of the bed as she pushed herself up onto the ledge. "Nevermind. You said the sunrise is best after a storm?"

"I did." She replied, shuffling out of the way and picking up the towels. "Come on, Harry." The girl called after her, ever so gently as though she didn't want to wake the world around them. Or at least Flora and Angela. 

Harry followed her actions, emerging out of the open skylight and onto the roof, looking around in complete awe at the surrounding views, which were recovering from a night of heavy rain. It was incredible, but none more so beautiful than when he turned towards where the roof met it's peak, a flat surface along the middle on which Jane was sat.

It was safe to say that his nightmare was readily forgotten. For now, at least.

✧

a/n
double update to
thank you all for 
200k, even if its 30k
later (which is insane btw, 
i only hit 200k ten days
ago??)