Week of Jane Day 1 - Bet you I can.

"...Did you hear what that guy did this time?"
"...Hear it, I felt it and I wasn't even there!"
"Can't believe he's in the same house."
Jane Court stopped listening to the hufflepuffs gossipping about Ymous' latest mayhem. She had tried to rein in the troublemaker for months. She had hoped he would eventually settle down and start thinking about how his disregard for rules is affecting others in hufflepuff. But instead when he started his second year in Hogwarts his renegade behaviour got even worse. He was in complete disregard for rules and Jane felt like she needed to take action.
She was sitting in a comfortable chair she had turned towards the door leading into the common room and waited...
Every minute past curfew she grew more irrate and disappointed. The Common room emptied from other students and the lanterns went out, only the natural moonlight coming from the enchanted windows lit the room somewhat.
Until finally the door opened and a boy with messy dark brown hair and even messier robes snuck into the room.
"Ymous."
The boy jumped and tried to look around until he finally noticed the short and plump prefect sitting in a chair.
"Jane... Uhh, why are you up this late?"
"The better question is, why are YOU up this late."
"I... Uhh... Look, I've used every excuse I had and the next one I thought about was a troll in the dungeons, but that is so outlandish that it would never happen... So let's just skip that and go straight for you telling me off again."
Jane nodded her tired head and placed her hands on her forehead and was quiet for a while. Ymous noticed this sudden change in the girl's behaviour and sat down on a stool and waited for the girl to collect herself a bit.
Finally Jane looked up at Ymous.
"Everything I say to you is a joke... You're so tied up to this adventuring nonsense that you've completely blocked out all the fallout your actions cause..." Jane closed her eyes and went silent again.
Ymous looked at the girl and noticed she looked tired, her eyes had dark bags and her usually well combed no-nonsense haircut was a mess.
"Jane... I..."
"I grow tired of this, Ymous, I think I might be partly responsible for this... Maybe if I had been more strict to you during your first year..."
Anon swallowed.
"Jane, look, it's not your responsibility..."
"I am your prefect, Ymous, don't you realize professor Sprout has asked me to keep an eye on you?"
"What, why?"
"You know well why, you're a menace, I've been trying to tell you."
"I never wanted to cause any trouble for you Jane, that's the last thing I want."
Jane looked at Anon and noticed the boy was starting to get visibly red, even in just the moonlight it was clear the boy was starting to get uncomfortable. Perhaps he actually started to feel bad for causing hufflepuff so many problems.
"Will you finally stop with this vault nonsense and scuffles with slytherins and just focus on your studies?"
"I can't."
Jane lowered her head again and started rubbing her temples, she just couldn't reach this boy.
"You lost hufflepuff 20 points... That is unacceptable Ymous, I know it's never been a punishment for you, but try to see things from the point of view of other hufflepuffs. We're so close to winning the house cup for the second year in a row, that hasn't happened in a very very long time."
Anon opened his mouth, but when he glanced at Jane he just got up and walked into his dormroom.
Jane waited for a while before walking to her own bed and went to sleep pissed and disappointed.

The next morning Jane woke up early with the last night well in her memory and decided she needed to do something about it. She quickly showered and combed her hair and dressed up. After polishing her prefect badge and pinning it on her robes she ran out to meet Professor Sprout in her office.
Jane didn't have to walk far, she ran into Sprout in the common room with a watering can in her hands softly humming as she inspected her plants.
"Professor can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Of course, Jane, what is it?"
"Ymous."
Sprout paused for a bit and put the watering can on a shelf next to a tulip looking plant with orange petals.
"He's starting to be a handful, brilliant student, but a troublemaker and bad example to other hufflepuffs... Look, Jane, let me handle him from now on. It's not fair that he's become your headache."
"No, I am determined."
Jane frowned and crossed her arms, she would not be budged. This was something she wanted... No, needed to do.
Professor Sprout looked at Jane for a while.
"What do you want to do then?"
"Please excuse me from classes for a few days and I will follow Ymous and make sure he follows the rules, maybe I'll find out what makes him break rules and we can adress it directly."
Professor Sprout opened her mouth and stared at Jane for a while.
"I can't let you do that, Jane, why would you even suggest missing classes just for one student?"
"I will work during weekends to catch up, I just have to understand him a bit better, maybe we can help him... And if that doesn't work, I will directly stop him from breaking rules."
Professor Sprout sighed.
"Fine, I know when you're determined you wont let anyone stop you... Alright, I'll let you skip classes for today, but I expect you to work hard later to make up for it."
Sprout turned away and picked up her watering can and started watering the strange orange plant.
"Thank you Professor."
Jane turned around and noticed students were already leaving for breakfast. She knew Anon would sleep for a long time, after spending all night breaking the rules, so she just sat down on the chair again and waited.
After a while Anon emerged from his dormroom with his hair even more messed up than when he had spent all night running around the castle. The boy yawned loudly and lumbered down the stairs and walked past Jane and stopped when he noticed the girl.
"Jane." Anon turned to look at the girl. "Did you spend all night in the common room?"
"What do you think?"
Anon coughed and scratched his neck.
"I woke up early to make some arrangements."
"...For?"
"Don't worry your head over it yet."
"Uhh, Okay... I am going to go... Breakfast."
Jane got up and walked up to Anon.
"Good idea."
Anon turned away quickly and started jogging out of the common room, Jane followed him out.
Anon was visibly hurrying to catch the breakfast and avoided looking at Jane, who was following him silently with a frown.

When the two got to the great hall Anon quickly scanned the table and found Rowan and rushed up to his friend and sat infront of him. Jane simply walked calmly to a free spot a bit further away, but still within eyesight.
She was eating her breakfast and caught parts of Anon's conversation with Rowan.
"Rowan, I messed up, look how angry Jane is."
Jane sighed, she felt a bit bad for making Anon nervous, but it was notihing compared to how nervous he made her feel everytime she had to deal with the aftermath of his actions.
She ate her breakfast quickly and simply waited for Anon to be done with his. After the boy got up and started walking out of the great hall she got up herself and followed the boy.
Anon seemed to relax a bit and started talking to Rowan about what he had found out. When the two walked up to a corridor they stopped and Anon pointed into the corridor and said something to Rowan.
"Vermilious!"
Anon yelped and jumped back from the red sparks that blocked the hallway and turned to look at Jane, who had followed him and had her wand out.
"That's not the way to transfiguration classes, Ymous."
Anon opened his mouth, but when he looked at Jane's expression he closed it and simply started walking towards the transfiguration classes with startled Rowan.
"She really is angry, Anon." Rowan whispered, but Jane had good ears and heard everything.
Jane ignored Rowan completely and followed the two boys up to tranfiguration classes. After Rowan entered the classes Anon finally turned towards Jane.
"Uhh... Don't you have classes of your own, Jane?"
"You should focus on your own studies, Ymous."
Anon looked at the determined prefect and raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth.
"But..."
Jane interrupted the boy and firmly grasped the taller boy's shoulders and turned him towards the classroom and pushed him in. Other students in the classroom looked at Jane push Anon into the class amused and a few snickered and started whispering among themselves.
Anon had turned bright red and greeted McGonagall.
"G-good morning, Professor, sorry I am late."
"Looks like you would be a lot more late if Ms.Court hadn't brought you in." McGonagall smiled. "Go take your seat."
Jane walked up to the Professor, who turned to look at her.
"Pomona explained the situation earlier, you can sit next to Ymous and keep an eye on him."
"Thank you, Professor McGonagall."
Jane calmly walked up to Anon and sat next to him.
Anon was starting to sweat and turned red again, glancing around the room. Until he finally turned to Jane.
"Why are you doing this? Did Sprout really send you to follow me, why?"
Jane took out her herbology book and started reading.
"Focus on your transfiguration, Ymous."
"But..."
Jane took out her wand and calmly, but theatrically put it on the table infront of her. Anon swallowed and turned to listen to McGonagall.
The rest of the classes went on normally, although Anon kept glancing at Jane, who was reading her Herbology book, he kept opening his mouth trying to say something, but never did.
After the classes Anon quickly packed his bags and rushed out of the classroom. Jane simply nodded at McGonagall and followed Anon.
Anon probably tried to get away from Jane, but had run into Merula in the hallway. When Jane arrived in the scene the slytherin girl had already taken out her wand and was taunting Anon, who looked around nervously.
"Merula, please I can't do this now!"
"Then tell me what you found last night!"
"No!"
Jane calmly observed how Anon would react.
"Then I'll beat the information out of you, Ymous!"
Anon finally put his hand in his pocket, at which point Jane took out her wand and pointed it at the boy.
"Levicorpus"
Anon yelled and was pulled into the air by his ankles, his wand fell from his pocket and everyone around him just turned to look at Jane surprised.
Even Merula was a bit frightened at Jane's expression when the prefect calmly walked up to Anon and took his wand from the floor. Jane turned to look at Merula, who immediately backed off.
"Why are you doing this, Jane?"
"No duelling."
"What, but..."
"Don't insult my intelligence, Ymous."
"I would never!"
"Liberacorpus."
Anon was surprised and didn't brace himself, he fell roughtly on the stone floors and tumbled a bit. He got up and rubbed his shoulder.
"Ow!"
Jane pointed her wand at the boy again and when he noticed it he backed out a bit raising his hands up infront of him.
"Episkey."
Anon stared at Jane for a little bit and opened his mouth.
"You have charms classes next, you better not be late."
"Jane..."
"I heard you've been tutoring other students and winning points that way, I suggest you work on getting back the points you lost."
Jane offered Anon his wand back, he stopped rubbing his shoulders and took it from the girl and stared at her for a bit.
"Jane, I feel bad that you feel like you need to follow me around like this..."
"Oh, have you finally started to consider my feelings?"
"...What?"
Anon stared at the girl.
"Have you finally started to consider that your actions have impact on people other than yourself and whoever you're duelling at that time?"
Anon looked down on the floor and took a deep breath and started walking with Jane in tow. The two walked past the hourglasses that showed the current house points, anon stopped and looked at the hourglass filled with the yellow diamonds.
"We'd probably be winning now, if you hadn't gone on a losing streak for the past few months."
Anon coughed and turned to Jane.
"Zip it, Ymous, I know you've gained a huge number of points, but your little stupid activities is eating at it."
Anon turned back to look at the hourglasses. Jane noticed there was a change in the boy's behaviour.
"Look, Ymous, I know you are a kind and caring person, and I am glad you're a hufflepuff, but you must realize you're on a wrong path right now."
"You don't have to follow me around, Jane..."
"I feel like I have to, you would've ran off before transfiguration classes, and what's worse, you would've dragged Rowan with you. Not to mention you nearly duelled Merula again, and cause problems not only for yourself, but also for her."
"But she came at me with her wand out."
"You didn't back off, you knew I was there, you could've called out to me. I would've handled the situation the way it should've been, but instead you reached out for your wand like a vigilante."
"I'm sorry."
Jane sighed and walked next to Anon and looked at the hourglasses with him. Anon looked at the other hourglasses and turned to Jane.
"Ravenclaw is leading by like 150 points."
"So it seems..." Jane said dryly.
"I'll make you a bet, Jane. I will get hufflepuff 200 points before the week has passed, without losing a single point or breaking any rules."
Jane raised her eyebrow and looked at Anon, who was now smiling his overconfident smile.
"If I lose, I will drop everything related to the vaults and my brother and just focus on my classes and never cause any trouble, I promise that."
"And if you win?"
"I get to ask one thing from you."
"That's vague..."
"I know, just trust me, it's nothing troublesome, hopefully, and only you can give me an answer."
"So you're betting on a question?"
"Yeah."
Jane crossed her arms and thought about it for a while, what question could Anon possibly have for her that he'd be willing to risk everything he's worked out so far. Maybe he thought he could ask her of something personal and to use that as leverage... But unluckily for him, she didn't hide anything like that.
"Fine." Jane said finally. "I'll take you up on that, if nothing else, you will be out of trouble for the rest of the week."
"Great, I wont disappoint you, Jane!"
Anon smiled at the girl radiantly and ran off to his charms classes.
Jane was surprised and felt she had started to blush, but shook her head and followed the boy.

During the charms classes Anon acted like Jane wasn't there and focused on learning the charm and then tutoring other students. Jane noticed she had put down her textbooks and was just looking at Anon tutor other students cheerfully. It was this kind of behaviour that landed him on her house and it was really nice seeing it actually happen. One of the positive things she had heard about the boy was his willingness to help other students, but she heard about it so rarely. Most of the things that carried to her ears were all the bad things he did.
Jane turned to a gryffindor student trying to practice levitating a feather next to her.
"Excuse me."
The boy flustered and quickly put the feather away and turned to Jane.
"Uhh... What?"
"Calm down, I just wanted to ask you a question."
"Uhh..."
Jane rolled her eyes and turned to look at Anon again.
"How often does he tutor other students?"
"Who, Anon? Uhh... Every class, I think... I've been thinking about asking him to tutor me with this, but I am embarrassed."
Jane looked at the gryffindor surprised.
"Every class? Why don't I hear about it more often..."
"Uhh..."
"It was a rhetorical question and not aimed at you." Jane said and paused for a moment. "Also you're flicking your wand wrong, you need to swish and flick in one continuous motion, you pause for too long."
The gryffidor student stared at his wand and started swishing and flicking it infront of him. Jane ignored the student for the rest of the classes and started reading her textbook, glancing at anon a few times.

After the classes Anon waited for Jane at the door leading out of the classroom. When she walked up to him she noticed he was smiling widely.
"That's 25 points already."
"That's good, the only problem with that is, you don't have seven other charms classes before the week is over."
Anon's smile faded a bit and he coughed.
"Keep it up, Ymous, I was happy to see you help other students."
Anon smiled again and held the door open for Jane.
"Alright, I am convinced you're going to stay out of trouble at least for the rest of the week. I am going to go attend to my other classes. I hope you will not disappoint me and get into trouble."
"I wont, I promise."
Jane smiled at the boy and walked off.

Jane had attended to the rest of her classes normally and was sittining in the common room. reading up on the two classes she had missed, while following Anon.
She noticed Anon entered the common room at sensible time and sat down on another chair and took out his potions book. He noticed Jane was looking at him and smiled a little and raised his potions book and started reading.
After a while Rowan joined Anon and the two were chatting cheerfully, but Jane didn't hear either of them mention the vaults or any other illicit activity. She knew not to trust Anon completely, but had decided to give him a chance to redeem himself. Maybe even if he doesn't win the bet, he'll be more considerate. Jane didn't expect him to keep his word about not going after his brother and she wasn't going to enforce it on him, she knew how important it was to him. She just hoped he'd find a way to go about it without breaking the rules.
When it started getting late and closer to curfew Jane got up and all the other students started leaving for their dorms.
Anon also got up and walked past Jane, stopping at the stairs leading up to the male dorms.
"Uhh... Good night, Jane."
"Good night, Anon."

The coming days Jane stopped paying so close attention to Anon's doings. She focused her energy on her own studies and helping other students. But she noticed that the gossip about his troublemaking died down, she didn't hear any negative things about him.
She was again sitting in the common room after having helped a first year student with her troubles. She heard some student talk about Anon and started listening a bit worried.
"...Can you believe he did that?"
Jane got a bit worried, Anon had one day left for their bet and had been doing so well.
"Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself, if I wasn't there, he just completely ignored her and walked off, she even threw a knockback jinx at him and he took a deep breath and kept walking."
Jane got up and walked up to the two boys talking.
"Are you talking about Ymous?"
The two students turned to look at Jane.
"Yeah, Anon Ymous, the duelling renegade walked away from a duel."
"Maybe it was his new way to piss Merula off?"
The first boy turned to the other and rubbed his chin.
"I don't know, I mean, maybe? That's not very hufflepuff thing to do, though."
"He's a bit of a renegade for a hufflepuff anyway."
"He didn't do that to spite Merula." Jane sighed and smiled.
"Also he's 100% hufflepuff."
"Well... If you say so, Jane..."
Jane left the two boys speculate why Anon had a change of heart about duelling.
Jane was about to sit down on her favourite chair when Anon suddenly walked into the common room smiling widely, she still had her wide smile on her face when she stopped and turned to look at Anon.
Anon stopped dead on his tracks and stared at Jane and the awkward silence went for a bit. both of them were just smiling at eachother. Jane noticed Anon started turning red and felt herself starting to blush aswell. She finally sat down.
Anon coughed started walking towards the dorms.
"Hello, Jane." Anon said while passing the girl.
"Hello, Anon."
Jane covered her face with her book, she didn't understand why she had such reaction seeing Anon smiling like that, well, the silence was a bit embarrassing.
After Anon had left the room Jane could hear a snicker nearby. She turned out and realized Penny Haywood had seen the whole thing.
"Oh, don't mind me, I am just amused."
"...Of what?"
Penny giggled and sat closer to Jane.
"So, Anon then?"
"What about him?"
"You actually like him, I always thought it was odd how you made it your personal mission to try to turn him into a model student, but guess this explains that."
Jane frowned at Penny, she was a bit annoyed at the younger girl insinuating things like that.
"Don't be ridiculous, he's so much younger than me."
"I don't know about that, Jane, he's pretty mature for his age. Also he's a talented wizard, what does age mean to a guy like him?"
Jane scoffed and went back to her book.
Penny just giggled and walked to her dorm.
Jane went to bed and started thinking about what Penny had said, why did she really scrutinize Anon that much. She really had taken too much of an interest in him, but how could she not. She knew Anon was a troublemaker, but it's not like there weren't other troublemakers in the house aswell. Tonks was notorious for making pranks, but Jane rarely took the time to try to make Tonks stop her mischief. So why was she so interested in Anon? She rationalized focusing on him by his rulebreaking being more dangerous and harmful to others and went to sleep.

The next morning Jane walked past the hourglasses and noticed that Hufflepuff was actually in the lead again. She quickly walked to the list of students and looked for Ymous' name on it and realized the boy had actually managed to get 150 points that week. If he somehow could get 50 points that day he would win the bet, but she knew it was a bit of a tall order. Anon only had transfiguration and potions that day. McGonagall wouldn't give him 50 points for doing well in her classes and Snape wouldn't give him a single point for any reason.
Jane went to the breakfast and noticed Anon was doing the maths in his head aswell and was looking a bit discouraged. Jane felt a bit bad, he got so close but his target was too ambitious, if he had said 150 points it would've been just as outlandish as 200 points, but he would've won the bet.
Jane sat down and ate her breakfast while looking at Anon occasionally. The boy seemed to have stopped calculating the points in his head and instead stared at Professor Snape with a scowl.
Jane saw Anon get up and walk up to her.
"Meet me at the hourglasses today 30 minutes before curfew, we'll settle our bet then."
Jane swallowed the muffin she was chewing unladylikely and turned to Anon.
"Alright, I'll see you then."
"Great."
Anon walked off and looked like he swung his arms in a weird way that Jane couldn't understand, was he flexing or something? Anon stopped at the door leading out of the great hall and looked at Snape and scowled again and left the great hall.
Jane couldn't understand at all what happened and just went to her classes normally.

After the classes Jane was waiting on Anon infront of the hourglasses. She had checked the scores and noticed Anon had actually managed to get 45 points that day, McGonagall surely didn't give him that many points, no matter how well he did that day. But, in the end he was five points short. She actually felt bad for the boy, he had tried so hard and lost by so slim margin. She decided she wouldn't force him to take the forfeit, if he promised to try to follow the rules more from then on out.
"Jane..."
Jane turned to look at the boy walking up to her, he had his shoulders slumped and he had his hands in his pockets. He looked very defeated.
"Hello, Ymous... I just checked your points."
"Yeah, I know, I lost fair and square." Anon sighed "I worked so hard to create that elixir perfectly, I even asked Penny to tutor me. I recreated the recipe seven times before the potions classes. When I finally made it flawlessly and presented it to Snape, and mind you, I never once argued with Merula the whole class. I was silent, listened to Snape, answered his questions perfectly and worked on the elixir..."
Jane listened to Anon recount his disappointing potions classes.
"I got twenty points, it was fair, but I was hoping for 25..."
"Anon..."
Jane smiled at the boy, she was happy Anon had put so much effort in his studies so she was just going to tell him she wasn't going to force him to drop his search for his brother.
"Still, five points short." Anon scratched his head and l glanced at the hourglasses. "I tried to help as many people as I could, I should've helped that guy who had trouble with wingardium, but I kinda admired his tenacity. Not once did he stop trying..."
"Anon..."
"Still I lost... Well, I learned my lesson, my overconfidence is my downfall. You win, Jane, I can't get five points anywhere at this our."
Anon and Jane just looked at eachother.
"However..."
They both turned to look at Dumbledore, who had appeared out of nowhere and was standing behind them.
"I never thanked you for telling me the time yesterday, Ymous... Five points to Hufflepuff, you truly embody the kindness that makes your house great."
Anon and Jane opened their mouths and stared at Dumbledore, who smiled and walked off.
After a while Anon turned to Jane.
"Did that really just happen?"
Jane was just as surprised as Ymous and just smiled at him.
"Well, you won."
"I guess I did."
"Well, what did you want to ask me?"
Anon blushed and turned away.
Jane looked at him confused, did he want to ask something embarrassing, she was starting to get a bit worried. Maybe he really wanted to know something that he could use as leverage.
Anon took a deep breath and turned to Jane.
"Will you... Will you go out with me... Like on a date?"
Jane froze up and just stared at Anon, she had no idea he felt like that about her.
"Jane?"
Jane looked at Anon and gathered herself.
"...You bet one question from me, why didn't you bet on a date?"
"I didn't want to force it on you, And I thought of the bet just to show you I can be responsible."
"I already knew you could be responsible."
"Well, there have been talks that I shouldn't have been a hufflepuff." Anon slumped his shoulders and looked at the floor. "I hear people calling me a renegade."
"Don't worry about those people talking about you, I think you've proven yourself a true hufflepuff..."
Anon looked up to Jane and smiled, she was smiling back at Anon.
"Also, I've never met another person who has defended the house like you. You break the rules and as much as I shouldn't admit it, I adore that about you."
"...What?"
"People respect you, Ymous, they respect Hufflepuff because of you. Ever since you stepped in the school and were put in Hufflepuff things have been different. No one could deny that that one of the most talented prodigies is in hufflepuff."
Jane noticed that Anon was starting to turn red again, kinda cute seeing him get flustered from praise.
"So, about that date then."
Jane sighed and closed her eyes to think on it for a while.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather ask someone like Penny? she seems to like you..."
"Penny is a good friend, but no, I understand if you don't want to go, I am not going to force it on you."
Jane thought about it for a while, what's the harm anyway... He's a bit younger, but it's probably just puppy love. She really wasn't sure if she should just turn him down gently or go on a date with him to make him happy... He probably wasn't looking for snogging anyway... But where would they go?"
"What do you want to do on our date?"
"I was thinking about going on a walk..."
Jane giggled, she felt it was so unlike her. But his innocence was cute, he considered going out on a walk a date.
"Alright then, I'll go out on a walk with you, Anon."
Anon smiled and held his hand out.
Jane looked at it confused.
"What, you meant right now?"
"Why not? It's full moon, the lake is probably nice."
Jane turned completely red, she hadn't expected this at all. That is too romantic...
"But the curfew..."
"I can stand to lose a few points, I made 50 extra... Besides, you're a prefect."
Jane took Anon's hand and the two walked out trough the front door, Jane knew at that point that she had underestimated Anon.