Over the next few weeks Defence Against the Dark Arts had grown to be most student's new favourite lesson. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherin's had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin.
"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed "He dresses like our old house-elf."
"Oh you mean the house-elf who was more loyal to Harry Potter than you and your abusive-to-him parents, and who your father was tricked into freeing by the same boy because he gave your father a slimy sock which he shoved your dad's cursed Diary into?" Jack asked in an innocent / curious voice, making the Weasley's glare at Malfoy and others giggle a little.
Glaring at Jack and walking off in a huff now he had nothing left to say, Malfoy left the library, quickly followed by Crabbe and Goyle.
"That should shut him up for a few days at least," Jack said returning to working on his homework on Kapper's, the newest creature Professor Lupin had brought in for them to learn about.
"You know he's just going to come back," Elisa, who was in the library with them, said as she did her homework on Transfiguration.
"Yeah. But when he does, we'll be there to shut him up again. And again. We will shut him up every time he attacks us." Jack said smiling and standing up. "We will fight him by the lake, we will fight him on the Quidditch pitch, we shall fight him in the castle grounds and in the hallways, we shall fight him in the skies; but we shall never surrender!*"
As the wizard boys looked confused and clapped and cheered quietly and politely, Harry and the girls (Hermione, Elisa, and Annie) all just rolled their eyes and carried on working, Hermione going so far as telling him 'Those aren't even the right words'.
"Hey you still got what I was referring to," Jack said sitting back down, just as his watch beeped. "Hey, guys we better hurry or we'll miss Bunny's first Potions lesson."
Quickly the third years packed up and went to the large spare classroom on in the first floor, which Dumbledore had given to Bunny for his lessons.
Bunny was given a choice of teaching everyone who needed help at one, or teach half of a whole year, like Snape does in his lessons.
Thankfully, Bunny had suggested to only doing one house per lesson and each Year had a different day of the week, so the student rivalry didn't interfere with working on the potions.
Today being Wednesday, it was the 3rd Years turn and right now it was Gryffindor's turn.
At first, Neville was scared Bunny would be as mean and pushy as Snape was, but after the first few lessons, even with some minor mistakes, Bunny was still nice to him.
One time, when Snape had been practically mean to Neville – the story about his Boggart having leaked out into the school – Neville had gone to see Bunny and spent the day with him, talking, not talking, and painting eggs together, since it was the 7th Year's day and most of their teachings were nearly done, not a lot of them saw any point of getting extra lessons.
When Jack had his free periods he also went to spend some time with Bunny, and they talked about how the year has been so far.
"Good, I guess," Jack said staying in the back and out of the way of the other students "Care of Magical Creatures isn't all that good at the moment now Hagrid's lost his confidence thanks to Malfoy."
"Yeah, well at least them creatures he's showing you are safe to first-timers to be around and left alone with, right?" Bunny, in his human disguise of bluey grey hair, a yellow suit worthy shirt, and an Easter egg medallion around his neck, asked taking a sip of coffee as he looked round the room where Ravenclaw 2nd Years were working.
Thinking there would be no end to the conversation any time soon, Jack decided to get out his Defence book and read ahead a little picking a subject that seemed interesting.
Werewolves.
"Werewolves are found all around the world, but is said to have originated in Northern Europe." Jack read out loud to himself. "There are two ways to become a wolf, be bitten by one, or be born one – Note: if you're born one from your 15th birthday, you will change every night thanks to the light of the moon, not just at the full moon, and you will keep your mind.* These wolves are mostly seen in North America.
"However if you are bitten, you change every full moon from when you're bitten no matter how old you are."
"Jack, mind reading that in your head? The kids are here to learn Potions, not Defence against the Dark Arts, remember?" Bunny asked Jack, making him look up to see he was actually putting the kids off.
"Sorry." Jack said and 'zipped' his mouth closed and went back to reading, starting with how to tell the difference between a Werewolf – in its wolf form, and a normal wolf.
Then he moved on to spotting the differences between 'Born' Wolves and 'Bitten' wolves.
This part was a little bit harder as there didn't seem to be that much difference except the Born Wolves were furrier and lived in packs where Bitten Wolves mostly worked alone and were less fury.
Jack was about to turn the page and find out how to spot Wolves in their Human forms when the bell rang.
Marking his place in the book with all his notes he had written, Jack packed up and went to his next class.
At the start of October, Jack and Harry had another thing to worry about: Quidditch.
One Thursday evening Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Team captain called a meeting in the common room to discuss tactics for the new season.
"Well... At least it's not five in the morning this time," Fred Weasley said stretching a little hoping this meeting wouldn't go on that for long.
"This is our last chance - my last chance - to with the Quidditch Cup," he told them pacing up and down in front of them. "I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it.
"Gryffindor haven't won the Cup in seven years now. Ok so we haven't had the best of luck – what with injuries – then the tournament getting called off last year..." Wood swallowed before he rambled on any more, and took a deep breath. "But we also that we've got the best – ruddy – team –in – the – school," he said slamming his fist into the other one, that old mad 'Capitan's glint' in his eye.
"We have four superb Chasers." he said gesturing to Jack, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and the reserve Alicia Spinnet.
"Two unbeatable Beaters."
"Stop it Oliver you're embarrassing us," Fred and George said together, pretending to blush.
"And a pair of Seekers that has never failed to win us a match," Wood concluded pointing to Jack and Harry. "And me." he added as an after thought.
"We think you're very good too Oliver," said George.
"Cracking Keeper," said Fred agreeing.
"The point is," Wood said clearing his throat "the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Jack and Harry joined the team, I've thought the thing was in the bag. But we don't have it, and this years the last chance we'll get to see out names on the thing..."
"Well..." Jack spoke up leaning back a little to escape Oliver's wrath the best he could "I wouldn't say that. After all, there will other years where Gryffindor can get the Quidditch Cup, it will just not have you as the Captain."
Half agreeing with Jack, but wanting to cheer up Wood, the team politely ignored him and said:
"Oliver, this year's our year."
"We've got this Oliver."
"Definitely."
o0o
However... It seemed that the harder they trained the worst the weather got, with rain and winds coming from everywhere and going on for days, until one practice session had to be cut off early because it was getting too dangerous.
As the team entered the common room they found it buzzing with excitement.
"What's happened?" Harry asked as he and Jack made their way over to Ron and Hermione who were in two of the best chair doing their Astronomy star charts.
"First Hogsmeade weekend," Ron said nodding over to a new notice that had been pinned up "End of October. Halloween."
"Excellent," said Fred who had come in after Harry and Jack "I need to visit Zonko's, I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets."
Seeing the sad look on Harry's face as he sat down Hermione said:
"Harry I'm sure you'll be able to go next time. They're bound to catch Black sooner or later, he's been spotted once already."
"Black's not stupid enough to try anything in Hogsmeade," said Ron "Ask McGonagall if you can go Harry, next one might not be for ages."
Sensing an argument about to happen, and way too tired to care about it, Jack started heading up the stairs to the boys dormitories' where he saw Fred and George waiting to talk to him.
"Hey Jack you think you can ask your 'Friends' to tune down the weather a little bit so we have reasonably good conditions for the match next week?" Fred asked stretching his arms a little and rubbing his back.
"Sorry, I only have power over ice, frost and snow," Jack said getting undressed from his Quidditch uniform "Yes I am friends with Gale – the Wind – but she's her own person. If she's this mad, that means something big must have happened somewhere."
George was about to ask what he thought Jack might think happened, but Ron's loud, annoyed cry of "GET OFF, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!" made them look up and head back down to see, Crookshanks, Hermione's new cat, attacking Ron's bag.
Something came flying out of it and Crookshanks went after it.
"CATCH THAT CAT!" Ron yelled, as the feline ran after the thing Jack now recognized as Scabbers.
George tried to catch Crookshanks but missed. Scabbers ran through 10 pairs of legs before running and hiding under a set of drawers, the orange cat following it and trying to swipe it out.
Ron and Hermione ran over to the drawers and grabbed their pets, the former not all that happy.
"Look at him!" he said holding up Scabbers by the tail in front of Hermione's face "He's skin and bone! You keep that cat away from him!"
"Crookshanks doesn't understand it's wrong," said Hermione her voice shaking, hugging the cat close to her "All cats chase rats Ron, it's in their nature."
"There's something funny about that animal," said Ron who was trying to persuade a struggling Scabbers into his pocket. "It heard me say, that Scabbers was in my bag."
"Oh what rubbish," said Hermione impatiently. "Crookshanks could smell him Ron. How else could he..."
"Actually," Jack spoke up before anything else was said "Depending on what breed he is, I'm pretty sure he did hear what Ron said. May I, Brownie?" he asked holding out his arms to Hermione to ask to look at Crookshanks.
Unsure, but wanting this sorted out, Hermione handed her cat over to Jack and everyone was surprised to hear the cat purring as Jack gently bounced him and looked him over.
"Yeah..." Jack said quietly scratching the cat's ears and looking at its tail and how bushy it was "Yeah... just as I thought..."
"What?" everyone asked wanting an answer.
"I have no idea." he said making everyone groan. "But there is something not quite right about him."
"HAH!" Ron said fiercely to Hermione.
"But... That doesn't mean that if there wasn't he wouldn't be smart enough not to understand us humans," Jack said finishing his sentence and giving Crookshanks back to Hermione.
"See Ron, there's nothing funny about him." Hermione said hugging Crookshanks and heading up to bed.
"Well with that settled, sort of, I'll be heading off to bed." Jack said bowing to the whole room and heading up the stairs.
Hearing two sets of feet behind him, Jack rolled his eyes and let them follow him into the third year's room.
"Yes guys?" he asked out loud to the Weasley Twins.
"You know what that cat is don't you?" Fred asked leaning against the wall on one side of the doorway, George was leaning against the wall on the other side.
"Maybe," Jack said yawning "But it's just a hunch, and I'm too tired to worry about it right now."
"Just tell us what it is," George said smiling "We won't tell. We promise."
Together they crossed their hearts and held up their other hand so Jack could see they weren't crossing their fingers.
Sighing Jack got into bed and said "I think... it's part Kneazle. Meaning if it has it in for Scabbers, it must be something that rat did, because Kneazle's are smart, and have the ability to detect unsavoury and suspicious characters."
"But that rat doesn't do anything bet eat and sleep," Fred said confused.
"I know, which is why we need to understand why Crookshanks wants to get at him so bad." said Jack yawning and waving the Twins off, settling down to sleep after asking Baby Tooth – who agreed to his request – to keep an eye on Crookshanks for the night.
AN: Hello!
Sorry it's been a full month since i last updated, i've been busy with home stuff, and was having a bit of writers block.
Anyway... ref 1 (*) is Winston Churchill's speech, rewritten to fit around Hogwarts.
And ref 2 is supposed to be on the movie 100% Wolf, where a son of a wealthy family of werewolves (surnamed Lupin) needs to proove he belongs in the pack, because he becomes a poodle at night instead of a wolf.