For the next few days, almost anything anyone talked about was Sirius Black and what happened at Halloween. Mostly how he could have gotten past the Dementors supposed to be guarding the exits.

During their first Herbology class after that the holiday, Hannah Abbot spent some time telling anyone who would listen that Black could turn into a flowering shrub.

This made Jack roll his eyes at the suggestion, but smirking that she was sort of correct.

"I'm telling you! Sirius Black can turn into a rose bush!" Hannah said trying to get them to see.

"Hannah," Jack said looking up from the magical plant he was working "If this supposed wanted criminal can turn into a bush, don't you think people would have caught him by now?" he asked cutting a couple of dead leaved off his dancing daisy "I mean... a bush sticking out like a sore thumb, in the middle of the path to the school, slowly getting closer to the entrance, isn't really keeping a low profile is it?"

"Well then how do you think he came in?" Hannah said pouting a little as she tended to the snapping dragon snappers.

"I don't know, maybe someone helped him get in?" Jack said shrugging "Or maybe there are secret tunnels leading out of the school? I mean the place was built during the time when magic still scared the No-Mag's right? So if they came to the school those inside needed ways of getting out to safety right?"

A small murmur and nods of agreement followed that.

"But Mr Filtch knows all of them, doesn't he?" Hermione said as she gently combed the petals of her tiger lily a small purring coming from it.

"He knows about 4, but I think there might be some more even that old grump doesn't know. I mean nobody knew where the entrance to Chamber of Secrets was last year right?" Jack said moving on to the next flower "Just because he's old, and been here for years, and can pop up anywhere, doesn't mean he knows every secret the castle holds."

"Enough chit-chat students," Professor Sprout said coming over to see what was taking them so long to finish their work "And get on with your work."

No wanting to be told of again everyone stopped their conversations and stayed quiet through out the rest of the lesson.

o0o

Inside the castle, the Fat Lady's ripped canvas was taken off the wall and was replaced by the portrait of an Arthurian Knight and his fat grey pony called Sir Cadogan.

Nobody was really happy about this, mostly because Sir Cadogan spent half his of his time challenging people to duels, and the rest of his time thinking up ridiculously complicated new passwords, which he switched about twice a day.

"He's barking mad!" said Seamus Finnigan angrily to Percy after spending the last 5 minutes outside the portrait hole, trying to get into the common room. "Can't we get anyone else?"

"None of the other painting wanted the job," Percy replied sounding like it was the 10th time he said this "They were all too scared of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one to volunteer."

"So a bit like Lockhart last year?" Jack said grumpily "Great... Well at least if he's stuck in his painting, he won't be able to let 2 week captive pixies out in a classroom. Right?"

Grumbling everyone who had been there, though still mad at the changes, nodded at this.

o0o

Over the next few days Jack saw an increase of the Potter Protection Squad, as he named the teachers who were following him and giving lame excuses to be near him, and Percy Weasley (most likely acting by orders of his mother) who was sticking to him almost like glue.

"Peirce, you have to give Harry some space," Jack said one night after Harry went up to bed, having enough of yet another day of Percy acting like a guard dog around him. "He's a kid, not a bit of china, not a bomb that's about to go off."

"He needs protection Frost," Percy said finally getting into his homework "Sirius Black is after him, and he made it into the school once. We can't risk Harry being alone and therefore letting Black have a chance to attack him."

"*So what? We're not going to let Harry be on his own ever again for the rest of his life?" Fred asked playing cards with George, both on Jack's side of thinking. "Well what when he needs to go to the bathroom?"

"Yeah, and what about when he takes showers and stuff?" George asked picking up a card from the pile between them "Does he need a chaperone? Not it, by the way."

"Eventually Sirius Black will either lose interest or be caught and sent back to Azkaban." Percy said rolling his eyes at his brother's words.

"So let Harry hide out amongst people until the crazy man gets bored," Jack said asking to be dealt into the next hand "Heroic plan Percy.*"

Ignoring these words, Percy got on with his homework.

o0o

The next day however, Professor McGonagall called Harry to her office.

Thinking Harry would like the space, Jack went to spend the day with Elisa and Annie.

"Wish we could go outside," Annie said pouting a little as she looked at the rain out the window.

"We can if you want," Jack said drawing some snowflake patterns for his fairies for this year's winter. "It's just water."

"No, we can't," Elisa said drawing some herself saying she betted hers were better than his. "We'll get colds; we could slip in the mud and poke our eyes out or break some bones."

"That won't happen, sis," Annie said rolling her eyes but staying put anyway, since she was playing chess with Baby Tooth.

"Annie, you are likely to break something even when the ground beneath your feet is as dry as the driest part of the Sahara Desert." Elisa said in a 'You know it's true so don't try and argue with me' voice.

Just then Harry's voice was heard outside the classroom muttering about how dumb his life was.

Curious, Jack went to see what was wrong.

"Well first, McGonagall tried to stop me from training for Quidditch in the evenings," Harry said grumpily when he was in the room with them.

"We got our first match on Saturday!" Jack said not believing this, this coming from the teacher who picked Harry to be Seeker in the first place. "We need you to train with us at practices."

"That's what I said," Harry said, crossing his arms a bit grumpy. "So... after a bit of thought, she said it would be alright, but a teacher or Madam Hooch will be there to oversee them."

"So even when you're technically on your own, you're still being overseen by teachers," Elisa said a small smile on her face.

"You noticed too?" Harry said looking at the Ravenclaw.

"Harry, almost the whole school has noticed." Elisa said setting her drawings down "Those dumb teachers; following you everywhere – well except Lupin and Snape, Snape probably because he wants you to be killed, not sure about Lupin."

"I think Lupin's not following him, because he knows Harry can handle himself." Jack said looking over Elisa's work.

"At least someone does," Harry said quietly.

As the first Quidditch match drew closer, the weather got even worse.

So bad, Jack asked if the match could possibly be postponed until the weather sorted itself out.

"I'm sorry Frost," Madam Hooch said when he asked "But the school sets out the Quidditch matches to be played when they are set so they're evenly placed throughout the school year. If we move this match, we'll need to shuffle around all the others."

"Then what about that time, that match that lasted 3 months was played?" Jack asked his hair soaking wet and getting in his face "What happened to the other matches then? You only have this one pitch after all."

"That was different, that was the final match," Madam Hooch said "This is the opener. It cannot be moved."

So the team carried on practising in these horrible conditions, freezing themselves to the bone, ending up so they could barely uncurl their fingers from their brooms once then came to land.

Until in their final practice session before Saturday's match happened when Oliver Wood came to tell them some bad news.

.

"We're not playing Slytherin!" he told them, looking very angry. "Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."

"Why?" chorused the rest of the team.

"Flint's excuse is that one of his Beater's tripped on one of the tall staircases and broke his arm and hit his head meaning he's in the hospital wing." said Wood, grinding his teeth furiously "But it's obvious why they're really doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Thinks it will ruin their chances of winning."

There had been strong winds and heavy rains for the past few days, and even then as Wood spoke there was a clap of thunder.

Jack had an uneasy feeling it was because Evie had told Emily-Jane about Elisa.

"I bet there's nothing wrong with that Beater other than he's a brainless git," Jack said annoyed, the others nodding along with him.

"I know, but we can't prove it." Wood said bitterly. "And we've been practising all these moves thinking we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff and they have a whole different flying style. They have a new captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory –"

Angelina, Alica, and Katie suddenly giggled.

"What?" asked Wood grumpily.

"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" asked Angelina.

"Strong and silent," said Katie as they giggled again.

"He's only silent because he's too thick to string 2 words together," Fred said not believing the girls beside him.

"Um excuse me," Jack said the other side of the twins "But what does that make Sandy then?"

"Well... he's different," Fred said slowly trying to find the right words "He's a mute right? So he can't speak anyway."

"Besides he's not strong, he's... round, and squidgy." George said trying to find the right words.

"And one to not get bad," Harry added making them shut up, which they did before getting back to the matter at hand.

"Besides what are you so worried about Oliver?" Fred said "Last time we played them, Harry caught the snitch in 5 minutes remember?"

"We were playing in completely different conditions!" Oliver shouted to another clap of thunder. "Diggory's put a very strong team together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin are trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"

"Oliver, calm down!" said Fred, looking slightly alarmed "We're all taking Hufflepuff seriously. Seriously."

Together the rest of the team nodded to let their captain know they meant it too.

* - * Almost spoken word to spoken word for a scene in Trollhunters Part1 episode 9 'Bittersweet Sixteen'