James was getting fed up of everyone telling him 'it wasn't real' and 'it was just a dream'. Lily was the only person who believed him. As he sat there with the journal he was given when he was 11 by Santa. He smiled over at his beautiful wife who was baking cookies in the kitchen. Her stomach was swelled as she was in her 8th month pregnant with baby Harry. He set the journal aside and glanced up when he felt a cold breeze come in through the window. He didn't even need to look up to know that it was Jack Frost himself that stood before him. Jack had been checking on him constantly since the death of his little sister Sophie a month before hand. "How're you coping?" Jack asked, clearly very concerned about him.
"I'm managing. Lily is still being a big help. I don't know what I'd do without her." Jack couldn't help but smile at that.
"Glad to hear she's being such a big help."
"Did you ever have someone like that?" James asked rather suddenly, taking Jack by surprise.
"What?"
"Did you ever have a girlfriend or wife or something?"
Jack looked away at that and said rather sadly. "I was married."
"What was she like?" James' curiosity was taking over his common sense.
"She had long curls as black as the night and eyes as blue as the sky on a clear summer day. She was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen." Jack's eyes looked distant as he described her, the one girl he'd ever loved.
Something seemed to click in James' head. "You mean like Sophia Peverell?" This caused Jack to look up at him rather surprised.
"What did you say?"
"Sophia Peverell. First person to be head mistress after the founders. Daughter of Godric Gryffindor" James explained not noticing that Jack's face had gone completely white.
"Exactly like her… that was her…" this surprised James and he couldn't work out what to say.
Luckily he didn't need to because Lily walked in with a plate piled high with finished cookies. "Isn't there a portrait of her in the headmaster's office?" As she gently placed the plate on the coffee table between the boys. "We could take you to see it if you like."
"Would you really do that?" Jack asked hopefully, excited at the idea of seeing her again.
Lily smiled at his eagerness which somehow reminded her of Sirius after Annabelle agreed to go on a date with him. "I wouldn't have said it otherwise."
That's how they found themselves in the head's office that night. Lily had explained to a very understanding Dumbledore why they were there and he had gladly left them to it, though Jack would still swear to this day he saw the old man wink at him as he left. James turned the lights on much to the displeasure of many of the paintings but one of them just giggled at the others. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. Her beautiful black curls were pulled back into a neat bun that left a few locks hanging loose to frame her face and her bright blue eyes sparkled with laughter. The dress she wore was very elegant with a white corset, loose blue skirt with white snowflakes embroidered into it (because of her love of winter) that stopped at her ankles revealing white slip on shoes. Around her neck was a horseshoe pendant that Jack remembered giving her the day he asked for her hand in marriage. "Sophia." He whispered softly and to his surprise the portrait seemed to hear him because she looked down at him and her eyes widened.
"Jack?" She asked, almost nervously. "Is that really you?"
Tears were starting to pool in Jack's icy blue eyes as he nodded, never once taking his eyes from the painting. "I'm so sorry Soph, I'm sorry I wasn't there, I'm sorry I didn't remember you, I-I'm just sorry about everything…"
"It's alright sweetheart. I understand, honestly I do." Then she leaned forward, towards him and little did either of them know that her words would haunt him for the next 36 years. She whispered to be sure only he heard, in case the Potters were listening at the door after leaving to give them some privacy. "To be honest with you I'm not even really dead." Jack opened his mouth to ask what she meant but at that moment James came in and the chance was lost.
"Sorry to disturb you but something tells me you're needed Jack." James explained by pointing out the window to the northern lights which could be clearly seen.
Jack was incredibly frustrated at the timing right up to the point where he reached the north pole and saw flames engulfing the building. Jack ran over to the assembled group of guardians. "What happened?"
"The nightmares attacked, then vanished again. It looked like a one off attack as the nightmares were very weak." A heartbroken North explained.
"What can we do?" Jack asked, clearly very worried.
"There's nothing we can do other than rebuild and make sure it doesn't happen again." North replied. "It does mean half the presents for next Christmas have been destroyed and need remaking."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Jack asked but North just shook his head. "Well what are you going to do then?"
North sighed. "We'll try to rebuild and salvage what we can from the workshop." Jack nodded in understanding. "I do think we should keep ourselves distant from normal people just in case we make them targets." Jack opened his mouth to argue but couldn't think of anything to say. He knew full well that North was right and reluctantly nodded in understanding.
"Alright," Jack whispered, "I promise I'll stay away from James."
True to his promise he stayed away from James and Lily. It was 1st November 1981 when he found out about their deaths, he was so upset he refused to leave his room for a week until Tooth came and found him to tell him that Harry had survived and was living with his aunt and uncle. That did very little to lift Jack's spirits but he still looked after the boy. Not caring that Harry didn't believe in him or that Harry was continuing to get into trouble, whatever he did. Jack kept an eye over him right up until Harry had his own children. 11 year old James Sirius, 10 year old Albus Severus and 8 year old Lily Luna Potter. Jack watched them grow but only one ever truly believed as his grandfather, as his namesake, did. James Sirius was first Potter for two generations to be able to see him. Which made Jack's heart break because every time he looked at the boy he only thought about how much he looked like James when he was younger, little Jamie who helped save the children of the world from Pitch.
Jack and James were having a snowball fight in James' bedroom. Unfortunately it meant that Jack didn't see the Northern lights. Jack didn't discover that there was an emergency until too late. By the time he noticed and got there everyone was gone. No North. No Tooth. No Bunny. No Sandy. No-one. He had no idea what to do so he did the first thing he could think of, went back to check on James. "What's wrong Jack?" The boy asked curiously, "I wasn't expecting to see you again for a while."
"They've all gone... Pitch must have them... The Guardians... they've gone..."
"Well what are we going to do?"
"Not we. I'm going to find them and help them."
"Well how're you going to do that alone?" James protested.
"I don't know..." Jack said attempting to think of a way around the questions.
"Well surely," James interrupted his train of thought "if the man on the moon got this team together to protect the children he would have a sort of back up, in case something went wrong like this. If you're all based at the North Pole he'd want them as far away as possible and would keep them at the South Pole."
Jack looked at the boy, absolutely lost for words. "How did you work that out?"
James pointed in the southern direction to where he could see the Southern lights. "The Northern lights are how you get called to the north pole so the Southern lights are probably the same just the other way around."
Jack continued staring at the boy in surprise, surprised that the boy had worked that out and surprise that he hadn't. "That's brilliant. I'll go down and see if there's anything there and anything they can do if there is." With that he left for the South Pole, hoping that something could be done.
There was yet another argument breaking out at the South Pole. Mary was getting incredibly fed up of the constant bickering between Sophia and Fluff. This time it was because Sophia had thrown a snowball at Fluffy causing her to drop the Easter Egg she was holding. "Will you two stop already? We have more important things to be dealing with right now." Mary finally snapped at the pair of them.
"Not my fault Fluffybun over there has no measurable sense of fun or a sense of humor." Sophia replied casually leaning against a counter.
"But it is your fault that you're irresponsible and will be the reason this team fails if you don't start taking things more seriously." Fluffy snapped.
Cavity sighed. He was the only male on the team and their resident version of the tooth fairy. "What is it with you girls and arguing constantly, surely you should have bigger priorities right now." Before either girl could respond the alarms went off to show someone trying to get in. "Who could that be?"
"Don't know, I'll go and look." Before anyone could stop her Sophia had left to see who it was
When Sophia opened the door it took her a moment to be able to say anything as she saw who was stood there. Eventually she managed to find her voice. "What are you doing here?"
Jack had been in an equally shocked state but was soon able to reply. "I need your help. Pitch has North, Tooth, Bunny and Sandy. I need help getting them back."
"Why should we trust you? How do we know you're not an impostor? If you really are who you say you are then answer me this. What was our first date?"
Jack couldn't help but smile at this as he replied. "We went ice skating on the great lake at school. You'd just been attacked by Malfoy and his cronies so to make sure your view of my house wasn't tarnished I took you out skating to prove that we can be nice-" he didn't even finish because his wife had pulled him into a hug. It was only now that he noticed that she was wearing the same outfit as her portrait and although her eyes stayed the same; her hair was bright white and hung in loose curls down to her waist. He hugged her back, not even bothering to question it and that's how Cav found them ten minutes later.
Once Jack explained what had happened to the others they started trying to work out a plan of attack. By the time they had finished it was about midnight but they all set off, undaunted by the darkness surrounding them. They reached Pitch's lair and immediately split up to set their plan in action. Whilst everyone else went to find their husbands (or wife in Cav's case) Sophia and Jack went to find Pitch, the Boogey man himself. Pitch was distracted making fun of Sandy so the young couple worked together to freeze him in place and then went to help get everyone else out. By the time everyone had met up at the North Pole The couples were once again getting to know each other. Cavity and Tooth were whispering to each other; Fluffy and Bunny were complaining about the cold and North and Mary were talking eagerly about different toys they could make. Sophia smiled up at her husband and gently squeezed his hand. "You have no idea how pleased I am to see you." She said kissing him softly on the cheek.
"I think I have a pretty good idea" he said, smiling at her before kissing her softly on the lips for the first time in over 300 years.
Author Note: That's the end of this part of the story, anything after is a prequel. I would also like to take this moment to thank Shirley Rolls for her help with this both in giving me suggestions for character names and titles and pre-reading bits of it for me. Enjoy my little prequel about Jack and Sophia's first date :)
Sophia Gryffindor was considered by most to be the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was also incredibly bright and could also be a little bit of a trouble maker. This unfortunately meant that among the Slytherin students she had a large amount of enemies. However no-one ever expected her to be attacked and least of all by Malfoy and his cronies. However one night, in mid winter that's exactly what happened. Sophia was on her way back to the Gryffindor common room from her father's study when she was ambushed in an unprovoked attack by the offending students. Luckily for her they were encountered by Jack Peverell. He was wearing his father's invisibility cloak and when he saw what was happening he hexed the Slytherins and took the cloak off. "Are you alright?" He asked the girl.
She nodded, clearly still in a little shock. "Yes, thank you."
"Come on, I have an idea to help calm your nerves." He offered her a hand which she gratefully took. Jack led her out of the castle and down to the lake.
"We shouldn't be out here you know." She pointed out cautiously but Jack just shrugged.
"Well I just thought you might like to go ice skating." Which caused Sophia to smile
"I'd love to go ice skating with you." She replied, transfiguring their shoes into ice skates and gently leads him onto the lake where they spent the next few hours laughing and skating together until they were discovered by Sophia's father and each given detentions.
