Jack stayed in the hospital wing for a few more days, finally coming back to classes on Thursday afternoon, at the start of Potions.
"Nice to see you back, Jack," Seamus Finnegan said smiling patting him on the shoulder gently – He normally would have slammed the person in questions back as hard as he could, but didn't think it was a good idea to do that with Jack.
"Thanks," Jack said smiling "Nice to been seen, and to be back. Um... any news on Hagrid and the Hippogriff?"
Harry and Ron were about to answer when Snape came out of the classroom and ordered everyone inside.
"Today, we will be making shrinking solutions." Snape said waving his wand to make the ingredients and the instructions appear on the board. "Begin."
While Harry and Ron were sharing a table with Malfoy, and Hermione was sharing with Neville, Jack was sharing a table with Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis.
"Hello ladies," he said kindly, giving a small bow and letting Baby Tooth say hello, before telling her to stay in his pocket.
"Hello Jack," Daphne said as she set up her cauldron and set the fire going "Um... Sorry you got hurt the other day due to Malfoy being an idiot and not listening to Hagrid."
"Aww, you don't need to apologize for him," Jack said lightly waving it off "But thank you."
"If we may ask," Tracy asked coming back with the ingredients "Why did you jump in front of that dweeb in the first place?"
"Well 1, I think there would be a lot more problems if Malfoy Jr. got hit than rather than me or anyone else," Jack said getting his knives ready "And for another, my family have this 'rule' that - good or bad, naughty or nice, we protect every single kid this planet holds."
"That's sweet," Daphne said smiling one of her rare smiles "But I'm not sure Malfoy is from this planet. Or at least this age, seeing how 'proud' and boastful he is all the time about his family being purebloods and sticking to old traditions."
"Well seeing how advanced the Muggle world is I don't think any wizarding families are from this age. No offense." Jack said finishing cutting up his daisy roots.
"None taken." both girls said quietly agreeing with what Jack just said.
Around half way through the lesson, Professor Snape went around and took a look at everyone's potions, as usual criticizing the Gryffindor's and congratulating the Slytherin's even if their potions are just as (if not worse) than the Gryffs.
Unfortunately, Neville was one of the ones that Snape liked to pick on the most. That along with Potions being Neville's worst subject (mostly because of his fear of Professor Snape), well that just made things 10 times worse.
As such, his potion, which was meant to be bright acid green, had turned –
"Orange, Longbottom?" said Snape, ladling some up and letting it pour back into the cauldron to show the rest of the class. "Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do, to make you understand Longbottom?"
"How about actually teaching us how to make these potions, rather than leave it to us to try and work out how to make them on our own, and then loom over us and criticize and judge them because of how bad they are?" Jack spoke out firmly, fists clenched as he glared at the teacher, making the class gasp and go silent.
"I beg your pardon, Frost?" Snape asked standing tall and looking over to him.
"Something wrong with your ears as well as your brain?" Jack asked not backing down "Well then I'll repeat myself. I said – 'How about actually teaching us how to make these potions, rather than leave it to us to try and work out how to make them on our own, and then loom over us and criticize and judge them because of how bad they are?'"
There was another class full gasp, this time followed by small whispers.
Daphne and Tracy tried to make Jack stop, but he shook them off.
"Detention, Frost, and 50 points from Gryffindor." Snape said calmly.
"Why?!" Seamus said letting himself be heard "Jack's right. If you taught us how to makes these things, we wouldn't make so many mistakes."
The Gryffindor's all nodded in agreement.
"Another 10 points from Gryffindor, Mr Finnegan, and if I hear you criticize the way I teach again, you will surely regret it." Snape said coldly before turning back to Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of the lesson, we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."
With that Snape walked away leaving Neville breathless with fear.
"Help me!" he moaned to Hermione, who was working next to him.
Frowning, after checking his potion was fine, Jack wrote a note to send to Bunny to see if he could come and teach a few extra Potion classes to him and his friends, knowing he at least would teach the class properly.
He was nearly done, when a conversation between Seamus and Harry caught his attention.
"Hey Harry, have you heard? Daily Profit this morning – they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted."
"Where?" Ron and Harry asked together.
"Not too far from here, It was a Muggle who saw him. Course, she didn't really understand. The Muggle's just think he's just an ordinary criminal, don't they? So she phoned the telephone hotline. By the time the Ministry of Magic got there, he was gone."
"What's the big deal about this Black guy anyway?" Jack asked the two girls beside him. "I mean yeah ok, supposedly killing 13 people is not all that good of a thing. But what else?"
"Well one, almost all of his family turned out to be Dark Arts lovers," Daphne said as Tracy nodded "And almost all of them turned out to be supporters of You-Know-Who."
"Doesn't mean he was one." Jack said thinking of some of his spirit friends who went against their 'family's' beliefs. "It's like that thought that everyone who goes into Slytherin will turn out to be bad, just because Mouldy-wart was in that house."
The girls both smiled at Jack as he said this, liking the fact that he knows that not all Snakes were bad.
Quietly the three of them finish up, and start packing up their things as Snape said the potion needed to stew for a few minutes.
Looking around the room, Jack could see Hermione whispering instructions to a very panicked looking Neville.
Shaking his head, knowing this will get more points knocked off of Gryffindor, Jack went over his note to Bunny.
...
Hey Bunny!
Sorry to bother you, but could you maybe come and do some teaching (or tutoring at least) up here at Hogwarts, on Potions?
Snape is a terrible teacher, and only favours the students his own house.
(I'm not sure how a guy like him ever got to become a teacher when his like this to his students)
From Jack.
...
Meh... It wasn't great, but it will have to do, and hopefully, if he comes and does the tutoring at least, it will at least get those students who need more help than others, the help they need.
Smiling Jack folded up the letter until it was really small, and gave it to Baby Tooth asking her to deliver it to Bunny.
Saluting, Baby took the note and zipped off, just as Snape came over to Neville's cauldron that was holding the correct coloured potion now.
"Everyone gather round," Snape said his black eyes glittering "and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad, If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it should shrink down to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad if likely to be poisoned."
The Gryffindor's watched fearfully, while the Slytherin's looked excited, as Snape picked up Trevor the Toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion, trickling a few drops down the amphibian's throat.
There was a moment of silence as Treavor gulped down the potion, and then pop Trevor the Tadpole was now wriggling around in Snape's palm.
The Gryffindor's all clapped and cheered for Neville, who looked a mix of nervous and embarrassed.
Snape who looked sour, pulled out a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops over Trevor and he reappeared a full grown toad again.
"Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, which wiped the smiles from their faces and turned them into frowns and glares "You shouldn't have helped him Miss Granger. Class dissmissed. Frost stay put, we need to discuss your detention."
Rolling his eyes, Jack sat back down at his desk and watched the others leave.
"So Mr Frost..." Snape said once everyone was gone "What sort of detention, is worthy of you insulting the way I teach a class?"
Sensing this was a rhetorical question, Jack stayed quiet and just shrugged.
Snape went over to his private storeroom to see if there was anything he needed, Jack grinned when he heard Snape curing that it was only the first week, meaning the room was almost fully stocked.
Coming out Snape looked over at the used cauldrons in the corner of the classroom. They had been used earlier that morning by 1st years meaning the some of them had the potion burnt onto the inside of them.
Not seeing or able to think of anything else, Snape set that as Jack's detention, to be done on Saturday.