Welcome ladies and gents!
I'd like to give thanks to:
Skyrill-Chan and FraulineTraumer for the favs! :)
HenriaSownbinder and Emma Hynes for the reviews :D
Enjoy!
The Doors – People Are Strange (1967)
During the next week, everyone began feeling the Christmas atmosphere. November was cold and Jack stopped spending the majority of her time outside with Angelina and Alicia. The girls had traded their favorite bench in the open courtyard in favor of a table in the Study Hall. The only downside was that they kept getting shushed, sometimes by other students and sometimes by Madam Pince.
It was strange, because Jack had become used to the cold climate, when the rather mild (compared to the last couple of years) November had come around. It was rainy and foggy, but that didn't matter to the students. They hid inside the castle or bundled themselves into many layers before exiting into the frozen grounds. Jack had slowly lost her habit of getting up before the sun, much to Aras's dismay and Alicia's amusement. Her dormmates had ended up waking her up more than once, which had been a feat to accomplish.
This, of course, meant that Aras had become increasingly moody, sometimes going so far as to refuse to take her letters. Lee kept teasing Jack how she couldn't even calm and train one owl, and that with such success, she shouldn't be thinking of becoming a dragon keeper. This had caused the small witch to stop speaking to the boy for a while.
But, Jack had become even more determined after that comment to withstand the late evening classes, such as Astronomy, and get up as early as possible. So, she had pestered one of the older students to enchant her pillow to wake her up. So far, it was working quite well. Then again, the charm had been getting weaker and weaker as more days passed by.
Jack arrived to breakfast fairly early, her fingers frozen from her rather short visit to the Owlery. She looked around the Great Hall, but most of her fellow first years were still dead asleep. However, she noticed a familiar mop of ginger hair and grinned.
"Morning, Charlie." The small witch said, sitting next to the sixth year. He looked up from his reading material and gave her a food filled grin. Seriously, there were one too many similarities between him and the twins. Then again, Jack wasn't one to talk.
She tossed her father's old leather bag onto the seat next to her and plopped down rather ungracefully. The girl was just about to pile her plate, when Charlie stole it and pushed his paper into her hands.
"Read that." He told her, having swallowed his food. Jack gave him a dubious look, but then remembered that she wasn't talking to the twins, but to Charlie. His smile was contagious and his eyes were twinkling in excitement. Jack felt her stomach do a sharp flip and she grinned right back, opening the news. It had a dragon on its front page (a rather weather beaten black and white Common Welsh Green which was roaring and spitting out fire). Jack's eyes widened at the sight and she immediately flipped to the featured page.
"They're recruiting!" She screamed out in excitement, causing quite a few heads to turn. The small witch then turned to her obsession companion. "They're recruiting!" She yelled once more, straight into his face. Charlie laughed his usual laugh. It was that deep kind. The one that you simply knew was real and it warmed you up from the inside. At least it did Jack. Her face reddened at his gleeful expression.
"They are." Told her the older Weasley, putting the full plate in front of her. Jack's stomach sounded its protest at the foodless state as soon as she looked at the sausages, eggs and toast. Charlie laughed once again, taking the paper from her so she could eat.
"Youh neeth tosh affry." She told him through a mouthful. The redhead gave her a confused expression and Jack chugged down some pumpkin juice. "You need to apply." She repeated, mouth free. Charlie nodded.
"I saw it just now. Thank Merlin that I decided to keep my subscription for the Daily Prophet." He chuckled, continuing his breakfast.
Jack nodded, humming. She swallowed once more. "It's strange that they are recruiting, though. The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary is one of the biggest in the world, no? But they're always packed!" The girl exclaimed. Frankly, she had expected herself to be jealous of the fact that Charlie could get a job there. In fact, by his face, he had expected that reaction, too. But, Jack found herself happy for him. He was a true dragon lover. It would simply be a pity for him not to work with those magnificent creatures. Especially because Charlie was one of those who believed in the best of the reptile, rather than of the wizarding community. He was most certainly going to do his best to ensure their comfort.
"I know!" The redhead exclaimed. It was so good, finally having someone to talk to about these things. He was going to miss the little girl once he left Hogwarts next year. The kid had grown on him. "They are the biggest, actually."
"I thought that there was a debate between the Romanian and the Wyoming one?" Jack scrunched her nose, drinking some more juice to wash the toast down. Her stomach was finally feeling better.
Charlie nodded. "There was, but now there isn't. The Romanians expanded. That's why they're recruiting." He smiled at her, opening one of the pages in the paper and showing it to her. "They even invested in a kids-friendly summer camp to increase awareness." He handed her the Prophet once more. Jack read the paragraph quickly, almost swallowing it up. This was brilliant! This was perfect! "You need to apply." Charlie returned her words with a smile. He really never stopped smiling, did he?
Jack nodded absentmindedly. She was still in the paragraph. Contact with dragons. Working around the Sanctuary. Getting to know the dragon keepers. With a silly grin on her face, Jack drifted off to imaginary wonderland. Charlie getting up brought her back to earth.
"You're going?" She said, her voice more disappointed that she had wanted it to be. The sixth year nodded.
"I need to go to Hagrid's real quick." He told her with an apologetic glance. "He got some new nifflers and asked me to help out. Kettleburn is getting rather old, not to mention increasingly limbless, so they could use a couple of more hands." The sixth year joked and walked away, grabbing his stuff and a piece of toast in a hurry.
"Wait, Charlie!" Jack yelled, getting up, too. "Your paper!" She stuck the Daily Prophet into the air towards him, but he only gave her a grin around his toast.
"Keep it!" He yelled. "And apply!" And then he was gone. Jack sat back down, smiling to herself. Her face was a bit red, as she clutched the newspaper tightly in her hand. The unfaltering smile stayed on her face as she resumed eating, her eyes never leaving the dragon picture on the page.
"What's got you in a good mood?" Asked Angelina, sitting opposite of her friend. Jack looked up, her cheeks hurting from the smile that just wouldn't go away.
"Nothing much." Jack replied. "Just a camp." Angelina gave her a weird look before glancing at Alicia, who had just joined them. Jack resumed eating, and didn't see the sly nod and grin that Alicia gave her friend.
X
The three girls walked into the greenhouse one, holding their scarves and coats as tight around themselves as possible. The day was windy and the air was quite crisp. Professor Sprout was already there, preparing one pot or the other with her protective gloves. She smiled brightly at the incoming students. Some of them returned the smiles, but most of them were rather frozen and miserable.
"Alright class!" The Professor began. "You can put your coats and books over there. Today we will be having a practical lesson." There was a slight commotion as the first years went back and forth, leaving their things and getting into groups with their friends. They gathered around the table where various potting equipment lay.
Professor Sprout gave one more large, warming smile. Jack liked the woman. She was kind and warm somehow, reminding her of an aunt that she had never had.
"What do you reckon we'll be doing this time?" Asked Alicia, moving to stand beside Jack.
"Hopefully not anything that will get us bitten." Replied Angelina. Her eyes were looking around the greenhouse, searching for the venomous tentacula that she had had a run in with. Jack and Alicia exchanged glances full of suppressed laughter.
"Does anyone know what a spicea rubo is? More commonly known as the spiky bush?" Jack looked around, trying to see if anyone knew. There was complete silence and no hand rose for a while. Professor Sprout had just given up and closed her mouth when Alicia put her hand up. "Yes, dear?"
"It's a type of a bush, Professor. It has spikes that it fires off when attacked." The girl said, a bit uncertainly.
"Excellent, Miss Spinnet! Five points to Gryffindor!" Sprout exclaimed. Jack gave Alicia an incredulous look. The witch in question grinned back.
"We haven't done that yet!" Whispered the dragon obsessed girl in despair. "How do you know that?" She looked guilty. Like she should know it, too, but wasn't paying attention in class.
Alicia smiled and whispered back. "It's in our book. Right next to the Lumos and Lumos Solem spells." Jack wrinkled her nose in concentration.
"But I don't remember Lumos having anything to do with plants?" The small witch said, confused.
"Now!" Professor Sprout successfully silenced the chatter in the room. "Does anyone know how to subdue a spikey bush?" She asked. There was silence once more. However, Alicia didn't raise her hand this time. Fred and George were muttering something in the back, looking at a book. They were the only source of noise in the room besides the couple of interactive (much to the students' disdain) plants. "Weasleys?" Asked Sprout, as that was quickly becoming the most popular way to address them. Except McGonagall. McGonagall was still stubbornly calling them Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley (except when her fuse blew).
"Fire, Professor." One of them replied, looking up for a second.
"Incendio should do the trick." Continued the other.
"Just-"
"have to-"
"watch out-"
"for the spikes, Professor." They ended it together. Jack had been amused by their speech at first. However, the more time she spent with them, the more annoying it became. Professor Sprout looked between the two, as if determining which was which, but then smiled widely.
"Excellent!" She remarked. "Five points to Gryffindor, each." When the twins high fived their friend Lee she frowned a bit at them. "But, do pay attention next time."
"Yes, Professor." They chorused, a bit too sweetly, with identical grins. No, though Jack, they weren't going to amend their ways anytime soon. One of the twins caught Jack's exasperated gaze and made a very obnoxious wink towards her. She stuck her tongue out right back, nose scrunched up.
"They are impossible." Told her Angelina from her other side. "If they know things, why don't they pay attention and get good grades? They're such idiots." The girl remarked in anger, arms crossed. "We could be winning the Cup." Jack tossed a look at Alicia and the other girl shrugged. She knew that Angelina was rather competitive and confident (she was a Hebridean Black, after all) but why did she blame it all on the twins? Sure, they lost a lot of points with their pranks and detention, but they also gained a lot with their knowledge in class. Besides, the House Cup wasn't all that important in Jack's opinion.
"Now, we have practiced the Fire-Making spell, so let's do one more practice before we begin?" Professor Sprout spoke once more. "Wands out!" There was a small scuffle as everyone took their wands and pointed them at the intended objects on the table. Sprout had made them practice on small, inflammable things last time. Now, Jack was staring down her wand at a piece of a broken pot, which she was supposed to light up. "All together!" Sprout instructed.
"Incendio!" Chanted Jack, doing the proper whipping motion with her wand. Her piece of pottery burst into brilliant blue flames and began jumping around from the heat.
"Aguamenti!" Fired Alicia without missing a beat, extinguishing the flames after a bit. "You really need to get a grip on that." The girl told Jack. "Stop imagining dragonfire when you do the spell." She chuckled.
"Can't help it." Replied Jack. "It's the purest form of fire." She grinned at her friend cockily.
"Rubbish." Murmured Angelina, waving her wand around in an attempt to set fire to her pot. "Just imagine a smaller dragonfire. Incendio!" Her piece crackled and then began furiously smoking. "Bloody pot." She cursed, trying again.
"Now, split into groups of thee or four and pick a bush!" Instructed Sprout. Angelina and Jack turned to Alicia expectantly. The witch (who had obviously studied) picked a rather small spiky bush and led their group towards it. "Oh, we have an odd group. Errrr- Mr. Jordan, Weasleys, why don't you join Miss McCarthy and Mr. Fleetwood or Miss Spinnet and her group?" Sprout directed. "Come on, we need to start repotting." Lee grinned at the girls and took his stuff, heading towards them. However Professor Sprout saw the danger in time. "Oh, why don't you get out of your comfort zone, Weasleys? One for each group!" She exclaimed with a smile, her gloved hands on her hips. She gave them a series of quick nods to hurry them up. The twins begrudgingly split up, one heading to the girls and the other sitting with Lee next to the dark haired Ravenclaw named McCarthy.
"Which one are you?" Asked Angelina as soon as the twin sat next to them. His face immediately brightened and he tore his eyes away from his twin (who was already talking to Lee and the others).
"Which one do you think I am?" He said cheekily with a crooked grin. Angelina's frown deepened. She obviously wasn't in a good mood today. Alicia and Jack exchanged amused glances.
"Whichever." Angelina retorted. The twin's grin widened even further. Jack shrugged heading towards the spiky bush.
"Who's repotting and who's doing the charm?" She asked, picking a bigger, new pot for the plant. Professor Sprout kept shouting instructions in the background. Angelina glared at the twin and he smirked at her, happy with his achievement.
"I'll repot?" Asked Alicia, heading towards Jack to get some fertilizer.
"Me too." Angelina walked towards her friend, ignoring the twin now. He turned to Jack with a large smile.
"Guess we're on spike management duty, little dragon." He laughed causing Jack to smirk right back at him.
"Guess we are, George." The twin kept chuckling.
"Wrong guess!" He told her, but took out his wand regardless.
"Right guess." Jack argued, her own wand out and at the ready.
"Oh for the love of Merlin!" Exclaimed Alicia, getting fed up. "Fred!" She yelled across the room, causing the redhead in question to turn and yell back.
"Yes?!"
"Nothing! Just saying hi!" The witch waved and turned to the other twin, now identified as George (though, no one could really be sure, it could be another prank). "Right guess." She told him, high fiving Jack.
George laughed. "Alright, ladies. I'm going to be a true Gryffindor and gallantly allow you to continue your delusion that I am, in fact, my own twin brother." He twirled his wand expertly. "Incendio!" The spiky bush retracted its weapons, which it was getting ready to fire off at Angelina. "Shall we repot this menace now?"
Angelina rolled her eyes and grabbed a shovel.
X
Flying was great. Jack held onto her broom (a really old Cleansweep Three, which had a mind of its own most of the time) as she climbed further up. She didn't mind the age of the broom. Well, it was rather annoying, but she would survive. Madam Hooch yelled for them to come back down and Jack obeyed.
She directed the broom to go lower and then lower, and it did so begrudgingly. It rumbled in a way and trembled annoyingly. Jack frowned. She was a fairly decent flier, growing up with Dragon and all that, but this broom was really limiting her capabilities. With a grin, Jack instructed her broom to go up once more.
"Miss Knight!" Madam Hooch yelled from the ground, but Jack didn't really hear her. There was wind in her ears and in her hair. The familiar feeling of weightlessness took over as she pushed the old broom to go faster, and then faster and even faster. Yes, this was what a dragon felt like. Powerful, free and magnificent, flying in the air like a giant bird.
Jack cut off her broom, sensing that it was finally listening to her. "Let's do something familiar, shall we?" The girl asked her charmed item, suddenly feeling brave. She briefly thought how the twins had influenced her a bit too much, but dismissed it. She was this brave even before knowing them. Maybe not just as bold as she had become?
The broom headed down, making Jack's ears pop due to the fast switch of the pressure. With a smile on her face, the girl watched as the green grass got closer and closer and closer. Then, she let go. The old Cleansweep did a sharp jump and trembled, but stopped, just like it was instructed to.
Jack jumped off with a cheeky smile. She made a guilty face at Madam Hooch right away. "Forgive me, Professor, the broom was crying." The woman's sharp eyes were whipping the small witch into her place, freezing her into the spot. Jack kept looking innocently up.
"Stay after class, Miss Knight." The Madam instructed, turning away from her. "Once more! Mount your brooms!" She told the students loudly. Alicia gave Jack a wide-eyed look. The other girl shrugged, getting back on her broom. She saw Dmitry staring at her from the sidelines, his face a bit green.
X
"Nothing?" Alicia asked, bewildered. "Not even detention?" The girls walked down the corridor together, heading for the Great Hall. Jack shook her head, smiling cheekily to herself.
"Of course not." Angelina grinned from Alicia's other side. "That was some brilliant flying!" She nodded with enthusiasm. "You never told me that you could fly like that!" Obviously, in the absence of a certain twin, Angelina's mood had gone through the roof. Then again, that might have had something to do with their Flying Lesson.
Jack shrugged. "Pa was pretty adamant about me learning how to fly." She replied, looking a bit uncomfortable.
"You're lucky!" Angelina continued excitedly. "My dad isn't a very good flyer, but he tried to teach me. My mom, though. She's amazing! She played Seeker at Hogwarts." The girl rambled on. Alicia noticed someone and split away from the group, heading towards him. Jack caught Angelina's arm, so they would wait for their friend. The witch looked at their blushing friend. "She fancies him." Said Angelina.
"Fancies who?" Asked Jack, dumbfounded.
"Diggory, of course." Giggled Angelina. "Didn't you hear her last night? Cedric this, Cedric that!" Jack tried to recall. True, Alicia had mentioned someone named Cedric. A boy from Hufflepuff, right, Jack remembered. She fancied him?
"Really?" Asked Jack, turning to Angelina. The girl nodded. "Ok." Replied Jack evenly.
"What's with that reaction?" Asked the dark haired girl. Jack didn't reply for a while, watching Alicia twirl her hair and giggle at the Hufflepuff boy.
"Angie, how you know that you fancy someone?"
"Do you think that you fancy someone?" Angelina fired back without missing a beat.
"I don't know. I feel weird." Replied the shorter of the two. "And I have an unidentifiable urge to giggle and twirl my non-existent hair around him." Explained Jack, her eyes still glued to the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff pair.
Angelina's smile spread. She had been waiting for this. After Alicia had told her what she had seen. Well, it was inevitable, she agreed. "Then why don't you tell him that you fancy him?" She asked Jack.
The other girl simply nodded, rather absent-mindedly.
X
Astronomy was a buzz-kill, as usual. Jack dragged her heavy feet towards the common room, her head lolling around, tired. This time, she had paid attention and not gotten left behind. She was walking in between Alicia and Angelina, who were discussing the position of Venus and how it was going to boost their love lives. Jack honestly didn't see the point in their conversation. They seemed to have pretty nice and well thought-through love lives. Her bag seemed to weight too much, digging into her shoulder. She didn't know how she was going to get up the next morning and go see Aras. She needed to adjust her schedule.
"Ugly, right?" Jack overheard the neighboring conversation. "Did you see how she does that thing with her nose?" The girls giggled.
"Looks like a gnome!" Added the other, making Jack's nose relax from its scrunched position immediately. Were they talking about her? She didn't know. Did she really look like a gnome? She knew that she had a habit of scrunching her nose, but her Pa had always told her how cute it looked. On all the photos (as Dragon had gone through a photo-taking insanity phase, like most parents), whenever her younger double would scrunch the nose, it didn't look that bad.
"I bet it will stay that way!" Jack's hands flew up, feeling along the length of her nose. It was rather small, button shaped and completely wrinkle-free.
"Maybe your mouth will stay that way." Angelina suddenly said, much louder than her previous words to Alicia, making the group in front hear her clearly. The girls turned, some of them looking mortified. They were both from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw (as they had Astronomy together). Jack noticed Mary looking to the ground, her face full of guilt.
"What way? It's perfect." Replied the other girl. She, too, was a Gryffindor. She shared a dorm with Jack and the other two. Why was she acting like this? Jack couldn't remember doing anything wrong to her.
"I think so, too." Replied Angelina, puffing her chest out threateningly. Alicia was frowning in the background, as the groups had stopped by then. "Recon, looks rather like a dementor's? Just perfect." Alicia attempted to stifle her laughter. Mary was still pointedly looking to the ground. Jack's nose was scrunched in confusion. The girl in question flipped her hair, like she hadn't even heard the comment.
"Who cares what you think." And then she turned on her heel, robes flying. "Let's go girls." And she led her group away. Angelina turned to Alicia and Jack with a smug smirk.
"That was brilliant!" Alicia praised, high fiving the girl. Jack was still confused. Angelina turned to her.
"You need to learn how to stand up for yourself, you know?" The Quidditch-loving witch said with a small frown. "You can't let her spread all that bull about you."
"I heard her last week telling everyone that all my family was in Slytherin and that I'm a spy in this house. Ridiculous." Commented Alicia as they started walking towards the tower again.
"Did you give her a speech?" Asked Angelina, happily. They seemed to hate their dormmate. Jack frowned. Why were they so happy that they were harming the girl right back?
"Mhm. I told her that if she keeps spreading lies about me, I'd hex her balloon lips to tell the truth at all times." Grinned Alicia. "I think it worked for me."
"True." Angelina nodded. "You really need to grow a pair, Jack." Said the dark haired witch, turning to her short friend. Jack shrugged once more, staying silent. She didn't know what to say.
Angelina and Alicia continued chatting about one thing or another (insert boys and Quidditch) as they walked. But, Jack was in her own world. Why did the girl from her dorm act like that? She didn't know. Why did Alicia and Angelina hate her? She didn't know. She wanted to know.
The moon slowly left the skies, leaving the three Gryffindor girls in the dark. Jack suddenly felt something coil in the pit of her stomach. She sped up her pace, pulling Alicia's hand, to make her hurry up. The small witch could remember the daunting sound of a long, drawn-out scratch chasing her and getting closer. Fear gripped her and she tugged on her friend's hand once more.
"What's wrong, Jack? Stop pulling me. I'm walking!" The witch protested, but Jack had frozen already. Her fear had caught up with them.
There was the familiar, dead silence in the hallway before a long, eerie scratch of something against glass sounded.
"Run!" Jack squeaked.
That's all for today folks! Sooooo eeeebil! :D
If anyone's been paying attention to my song choices, I'd like to tell you guys that most of the previous ones have been about Jack, but this one isn't (which was strange, even to me). Rather, this chapter is highlighting the development of another character :3
Do tell me your thoughts in the reviews :)
HenriaSownbinder: I'm glad that you liked the prank :D I was a bit torn about it, not knowing whether I was overdoing it or not… But I figured, the twins left Hogwarts with a prank, so they should enter the similar way, no?
Dumbledore is always a hard one to write.. I mean, he's a tad insane, but also all royal and everything, I'm always worried about writing him… But, I figured that he would've liked the first prank, but warned the twins not to do it again… He seems to like Fred and George :D
I'll see about that… Dragon is rather irresponsible with writing back… We'll see if we can make him tell you guys about the letter somehow :D
Hope you enjoyed!