+|Chapter 1: Off to School, Frost!|+
"And remember to brush your teeth twice a day, don't eat too much sweets, and—"
"Tooth! I get it already!" The winter spirit voice held a hint of exasperation in it.
Tooth kissed him on the forehead before hugging him in her motherly way, "Remember to write to us, Sweet Tooth."
Jack smiled and returned the hug, "I'll remember that." Then, Jack lean down so Sandy could hug him.
"Looks good on ya, Snowcone." The Pooka smirked.
Jack groaned, "Shoes are a pain!" He glared down at the offending objects on his feet.
"Are you sure you got everything you need, Jack?" The Russian man asked.
Jack rolled his eyes, "For the fifth time, North, I'm pretty sure."
"Get goin', Frostbite, or I'll carry ya there. And don' get homesick."
Jack laughed, "Aw, so you do care, Kangaroo!"
He hurry away before Bunny could lay a hand (or paw) on him, "For the last time, I'm not a Kangaroo!"
"Don't be causing any trouble now, Jack!" North warned.
Jack smirked, "Now, when have I cause any trouble? Whoops!" He had accidently coated the railing with frost, but thankfully, it went unnoticed.
Jack chuckled nervously at the Guardians' half lidded eyes before giving them a final wave before boarding the train.
"Remember to floss!" Tooth reminded. Jack simply rolled his eyes.
"The kid's gonna need some of Lady Luck's luck." Bunny shook his head.
North let out a chortle, "Jack vill be fine. Beside, Lady Luck has a full schedule zis year!"
Sandy made some images with his sand.
North laughed, "Jack will be fine!"
Jack put away the last of his things before slumping in his seat, sighing. School…
How did it come to this? Let's recall, shall we?
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"JAAAAACCCCKKKK!"
A merrily laughter, that sounds just like falling snow, rang throughout the workshop.
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"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you're still mad about that? Lighten up, Bunny!"
"I would, if someone didn't freeze my bum to the floor this mornin'!"
"It was a joke." Jack said, "Take a chill pill, Kangaroo."
Ohh! That snowflake was getting on Bunny's nerves, "I. Am. Not. A. Kangaroo. I. Am. A. Bunny!"
Jack snickered, "Oh sure you are."
"Why I outta...!"
"It isn't good to be angry all the time, Bunny. It could be pernicious to your health." Jack perched on his staff, "You already have a frown permanently stuck to your face." He laughed.
"Ya don't even know what 'pernicious' means!"
"Do too!" Jack retorted.
"What is it then?" Bunny challenged.
"It's—" Jack froze, he rattled his brain for the answer that has slipped his mind moments before, "Hold on, I got this."
Bunny snorted, "Nice goin', Snowflake."
Jack glared at the Pooka with his staff raised, "You are sooo going down, Kangaroo."
"Bring it, Frostbite." Bunny matched his glare evenly, reaching for his boomerangs.
"Oookay!" North pushed the two apart before they could wrack havoc, "Ve have cookies!" North gesture towards the elves on top of the—ahem—empty plate. The elves quickly scatter, "Hey! Vhat did I tell you?"
Tooth on the other hand was fawning over a boy's first tooth, "—and see how he floss so carefully? Sean's such a good boy!"
Sandy was trying to get the Guardian's attention. Unfortunately, shifting dream sand wasn't loud enough. Blowing sand out his ears in the shape of steam, Sandy grabbed one to the escaping elves and gave the poor thing a good shake. Poor elf, but that caught the Guardian's undivided attention.
"What is it, Sandy?" Jack asked.
Dropping the elf (who stumbled away), Sandy made an image of a tall man with an overgrown beard, then made a ticking clock and pointed to the ground.
North got the message, "Oh! I almost forgot! Zere's a reason I call you all here today. Albus vill be arriving soon."
"Albus? Albus's coming?" Tooth's wings flutter faster, happy to see an old friend after so long.
"You made me come to this freezing place for the old bloke?" Bunny grumbled, but he, too, was happy to see 'the old bloke.'
But Jack was confused, "W-wait, hold on. Who?"
Then all heads turn towards to a loud crack at the fireplace.
"It's been a while, Nicholas."
"Albus!" North gave Dumbledore a big hug, "How good it is to see you, dear friend!"
"I am so happy to see you again, Albus!" Tooth fluttered around the two happily.
"Why, hello, Toothiana." Dumbledore smiled, "It nice to see you again."
"I see yer still going strong, eh?"
"And I see that you're doing well also, Bunnymund." The headmaster smiled at the retreating figure in the background, "We meet again, Jack Frost."
The said spirit halted in his tracks and slowly turned around with a nervous chuckle, "Hi, Professor Dumberdore."
"Oh, you have met have you?" North asked with eyebrows raised.
Dumberdore nodded with a twinkle in his eyes, "Oh, we met a few centuries ago. It was quite a surprise to see a winter spirit crash land into my office."
"Ve skip ze introduction zen!" North said.
"You're still not mad about that are you?" Jack looked like a kid who had been caught stealing a cookie.
Dumberdore chuckled, "I was never angry with you to begin with, Jack."
Jack beamed and came closer to the group, "Sorry about crashing into your office, Professor D."
"Don't worry about, my boy. Though, the sorting hat is holding quite a grudge."
"Causin' trouble everywhere ya go, as always, Frostbite." Bunny rolled his eyes, ignoring Jack's glare.
"Sadly, I did not come to have a small chat." The headmaster looked solemnly at the guardians, "He's back."
All the guardians, but Jack, stiffen.
"H-he's back?" Tooth fluttered to the ground, "But I thought he gone."
Dumberdore shook his head, "Unfortunately not. He's back and I'm not able to protect all the students. I want ask Jack to impose as a student—"
"Wait, wait, hold up." Jack interrupted, "First of all, who's back?"
"A dangerous man called Voldemort. But better know as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." The headmaster answered, "He has been gone for the past few years but now he has rise again and plans to cause more harm."
"Alright, this Voldy is a big problem but… why me?" Jack was mortified, "I can't go to school! I have to spread snow around the world and what about the kids?"
"Oh ze other vinter spites vould handle zat. You don't need to vorry about guardian duties. You can tell ze kids you're taking break. Zink of zis as nice holiday break!" North suggested.
"Right, except holiday breaks doesn't include going to school." The winter spirit rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. The frost creeping out from under him hinted his distraught, "And if you haven't already notice, I'm snowballs and fun time. Not schoolwork and lecture time."
Tooth fluttered over to him, "Jack, I know this is hard for you but you're the only one who can do this."
"But no one can see me if they don't believe." He tried.
"A simple spell could fix that." Dumberdore said.
"Face it, kid, yer goin' to school." Bunny was enjoying this. Frostbite going to school? Ha! What a riot.
Jack weighted his opinions before finally hanging his head in resignation, "Alright, alright, fine." He lifted his head and glazed at the headmaster who, he was sure, has a twinkle in his eyes, "So, what do I do?"
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"Nope." Popping the 'p', "Nope, nope, nope, nope, NO! That a big N.O."
They (As in North and Jack) were, at the moment, lingering outside of Ollivanders Wand Shop. And why aren't they entering the shop? Jack had gotten his robes and books and both required him to enter the shop. So what makes this one so different?
"I am not trading my staff for some rickety old piece of twig!" Jack clutched his staff closer to himself, ignoring the fact that his staff was also a 'rickety old piece of twig.'
Yep, (Once again, popping the 'p') that was the reason.
North signed for the nth time, "Jack, you haven't let me finish. Albus told Ollivander to adjust your staff so you von't have to part vith it."
"'Adjust?' Just what is he going to do with my staff?!"
"To do vhat he does best!" North pushed Jack inside much to his chagrin.
There were tons of boxes stacked in the shelves and the owner was nowhere to be seen.
"Welp, looks like he's not here so we have to make due without the wand!"
North grabbed him before he could take one step out of the shop just as a noise was emitted from the back and soon the owner appeared.
"Ah yes, you are Jackson Overland Frost, am I correct?"
"Um, yeah."
"May I see your staff?" He stretched out his hand for the staff.
Jack clutched his staff closer to himself but North snatched it away and gave it to the man. Jack glared at North who was oblivious to it.
"My, this is cherry tree…" Ollivander rotate the staff in his hand, "And dragon heartstring… Just where did you get your hands on this?" He raised a skeptical glaze at Jack who looked just as surprised he was. But he quickly covered it up.
"Oh, um, it's heirloom!" Jack grinned.
He nodded, "Yes, it has been around for quite a while. Around three hundred years I shall say. Whoever made this staff has fine wandmanship." He quickly retreated to the back, causing Jack to be worried without his staff in sight. That said, he nearly had a heart attack when the man returned with only a piece of twig.
"What did you—"
"Here." Ollivander shoved the wand in his hand before he could continue, "Just say, Engorgio."
Jack looked skeptically at it.
"Go on, go on."
"Engorgio." His eyes widen when the wand grew into his staff.
"Now say, Reducto."
"Reducto!" Jack said, with confidence this time. His grin was prominent on his face as the staff shrank back to a wand. Now that he looked closely, it had the same frosted pattern as his staff.
"To make to grow back into a staff just say, Engorgio and Reducto to shrink it."
Jack grinned and watched in amazement as his staff shrunk and grew, repeatedly.
"Thank you, Ollivander." North said as he ushered Jack out of the shop.
"You're very welcome."
"Wai—" The winter sprite turned to apologize to the wand maker but it seem that Ollivander had disappear to the back.
"Ve got everyzhing ve need," North rolled up the paper and tucked it away, "Now let's go home and get good night sleep for school!"
Jack weakly smiled, "Hahaha… yay…"
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The compartment door opened interrupting Jack's flashback. Turning to the door he noticed a young girl with brown hair that reaches her waist and matching chocolate eyes.
"Oh, hello!" He smiled.
She smiled back and reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook. Jack looked at her quizzically as she scribbled something and turned it around, 'Sorry to bother you, but can I sit here?'
The realization hit Jack and he grinned and signed, 'Sure, no problem, kiddo.'
Her eyes widen as she sat down and hurriedly signed, 'You know sign language?'
'One of my friends is mute and we tried practicing sign language, but he likes to make things out of sand to speak to us.' Jack shrugged, "It was fun though. I'm Jack Frost! What's your name?"
She giggled, 'I'm Emma. Emma Wilson. Jack Frost like the one in the fairy tales?'
He chuckled nervously, "Something like that, yeah."
The door opened, yet again and this time a redhead popped his head in, "Sorry, everywhere else is full so we're going to sit here."
He winced when a brunette smacked him in the head, "Manners, Ron!"
A raven with round glasses shook his head at his friends, "Can we sit here?"
"Sure! Go ahead." Jack grinned, unfazed by the redhead's behavior, "I'm Jack, and this is Emma." She gave them a smile and a wave.
"Thank you." The brunette said as she sat down with the other two, "I'm Hermione Granger, I apologize for my friend's rudeness."
"No problem." Jack still have a grin on his face while Emma shook her head."
The winter sprite's infectious grin was past onto the redhead, "Nice to meet you, I'm Ron Weasley."
The last one was a bit hesitant to introduce himself, "I'm Harry… Harry Potter." Harry seem to be bracing himself for something but Jack didn't know what.
"Cool, nice to meet you!" Jack nodded, surprising the trio.
But Emma's eyes were wide and she quickly signed to him, 'Don't you know who Harry Potter is?'
Jack blinked, "No, should I?" He joked.
'He's Harry Potter! The Harry Potter." She wrote in her notebook and underlined his name to emphasize.
"She can't talk?" Ron asked the obvious, which earned him another smack in the head by Hermione.
"Ron! Sorry about him." She apologized for the redhead again.
Jack chuckled and scratched his cheek sheepishly, "I was homeschooled so I don't really know what's going on in the world.
"That explains a lot." Hermione nodded.
Harry looked kind of relieved, "If you don't know who I am, it's fine."
'I read the papers about you.' Emma scribbled.
The raven groaned.
"Cheer up, Harry." Hermione tried to reassure him as Ron patted his back.
"How can I, when people and pampers are spewing lies about me?! Even the Ministry won't believe me!" Harry gestured at the two of them furiously, "They probably don't believe me either!"
Emma frantically shook her head, 'No! You don't look like a bad person so I believe you!'
Jack nodded, "She's right. We believe you, so chill out a bit."
"Finally, someone who don't fall for those papers!"
Jack and Emma exchanged glance and smiled. This is a good start.
Maybe school isn't so bad after all.
