22/9/21

AN: Sorry if this is a bit long, but I hope you all like it.

As requested by Madam Pomfery, Jack and Harry stayed in the Hospital Wing for the rest of the weekend.

On Sunday, just after breakfast Ron, Hermione, Annie, Elisa, and Luna visited them, along with the Gryffindor Quidditch team this time accompanied with Oliver who said to both of boys – but mostly Harry - he didn't blame him for what happened.

The team left after about an hour, but the others stayed all day, quietly playing card games and some Wizards Chess, after asking Madam Pomfery if they could push the beds together so they could all play the same game.

At the moment they were playing a muggle card game called Rummy, and Ron was getting grumpy because he didn't understand it.

"I win!" Annie said smiling placing down her cards to reveal she had a run of 3, 4, 5, and 6 of clubs and three Queens."

Checking the cards everyone, but Ron, nodded.

"Hang on I had that last time and I didn't win," Ron said frowning "Why does she get to win this time?"

"Because, Ron," Hermione said in an annoyed 'Said-this-too-often-already' voice "Your run, wasn't all one suit."

Grumpily Ron said he wanted to play something else.

"There's no need to be a sore loser Ron," Jack said collecting the cards and shuffling them once the scores were taken, they were playing 101 Rummy, meaning the first person to get that score loses, and Ron due to him not understanding the game was now on 76 "Lets just have a couple more goes, ok?"

"Alright..." Ron said pouting and still grumpy.

o0o

That evening, once everyone was gone and Jack's bed was back where it was that morning, Jack looked over to Harry and asked:

"So... Gonna tell Big Brother Jack what's bothering you?"

Feeling there was no point trying to deny or fool Jack, Harry sighed and said "Well... It's a few things really, but the first thing I guess is this Grim, thing."

"What about it?" Jack asked unsure what to say.

"Well, it's meant to be a death omen right?" Harry asked looking over to Jack "And I think I saw it in the stands during the match, and not what? 15 minutes later, I fall off my broom which was 50ft in the air."

"You didn't fall off your broom because of the dog, you fell off because of the Dementors." Jack said firmly, not wanting Harry to think Sirius was trying to kill him.

"Well that the other thing," Harry said sitting up a little and hugging his legs like a child would when they were upset. "Jack... What do you hear when you're... knocked out by the Dementors?"

"A few things, I guess," Jack said sighing, rolling onto his back, and looking up at the ceiling "But it mostly goes to Emma and me on the lake by our village, and me waking up and finding I'm invisible to everyone around me. But I take it that's not what you hear."

"No. I think... I know... I can hear my mum, begging Voldemort to take her instead of me, and him telling her to stand aside." Harry said gripping the bed sheets.

"Moldywart told her to stand aside?" Jack asked confused. "I would have thought he'd get on with it without a care seeing as she was a muggle-born. No offence."

"Yeah that does seem strange," Harry said after a bit of thinking but shook it off and went back to the conversation "But the point is, as far as I know only you and me are affected by the Dementor's, so why doesn't anyone else pass out?"

"Harry, everyone is affected by those things," Jack said trying to block out the pictures of hooded figures and pale scaly hands from his mind as he spoke about them. "We just have it more than everyone else because we don't have as happy beginnings as other people have."

"Huh?" Harry asked looking over to Jack, confused.

"You had your parents killed – murdered – by a wizard serial-killer, and then spent 10 years being treated as a mix of a House Elf and a punching bag," Jack said calmly, even if his hands were clutched into fists.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, he continued. "While I woke up from under the ice of a frozen lake with only my name, the clothes I had on, and my staff. I didn't know who I was – I didn't even know I was anyone before I woke up until that Easter I was chosen to be the new Guardian - , I had to work out my powers over the winter elements on my own, and for the first 30 – 40 years I didn't have any friends other than Gale. Then 300 years later, I was shoved in a sack, tossed through a magic portal, and told I had to become a Guardian with the others."

"We are not weak, Harry," Jack said finishing up, letting go of his fist slowly "If anything I'd say we were two of the strongest non-spiritual people I know. We can put up with all of that, and attacks from Dementors, and both come back from it. Yeah ok, we might be a bit sick and uneasy after they come near us, but we get back up again as soon as we feel better, right?"

"I guess," Harry said smiling a little not thinking of it like that. "Still," he said sighing as he laid back down in his bed "I bet Malfoy will be even more of a pain now that we both collapsed in front of the whole school."

"If he is, just leave him to me," Jack said, for once not taking on the bet seeing as he knew it was a losing filed "I think I have some words that might shut him up."

Nodding and yawning, Harry rolled over and closed his eyes soon asleep thanks to Sandy's dream sand that had been swirling outside the window.

Smiling a little, Jack closed his eyes too and was asleep not long after Harry, strangely looking forward to the morning.

After both boys woke up and got dressed in their school robes (which were delivered by their friends yesterday) they had a last minute check up with Madam Pomfery before they went down to breakfast.

As soon as they entered, they could hear Malfoy and his fellow Slytherin's laughing as he re-enacted how both Harry and Jack fainted and fell off their brooms just because a few Dementors showed up to the match.

Harry looked to Jack and silently telling him to sort it out, like he promised.

"Let me have some food first, then I'll do it," Jack said heading to the Ravenclaw table instead of the Gryffindor one and sitting next to Elisa and Luna, who had been helping look after Baby Tooth, who once she saw Jack hug-sulted his face.

"Nice to see you to Baby," he said gently petting her head.

"Why are you over here then Jack?" Elisa asked in a curious but not caring voice.

"One, to be with you," he said as he reached for a bowel and some cereal "Two so I can give a 'Not-too-bad-a-talking' to Baby Dragon back there." he said nodding his head back at the Slytherin table.

"Well if it's as no-too-bad as the one you gave Dumbledore in June, I can't wait to see it," she said smiling and tucking into her pancakes.

As they were finishing the well known voice of Malfoy called out behind them:

"Hey Frost, you do know you're sitting at the wrong table right?" he said "What the Dementors screwed up your mind so much you can't remember where you're meant to sit?" he asked before doing fake fainting fit to roars of laughter from the other Slytherin's.

Ignoring them to build tension – and to have a sip of pumpkin juice – Jack said calmly "I don't remember there being any rules about having to stay at one table all your time here, Malfoy."

This got the Slytherin's to pause in their laughing and the other houses to think.

"Elisa you've been here one year more than us, and one of those who have read Hogwarts-A-History is... there such a rule?"Jack asked smirking a little at Elisa's smirk.

"Not really, although there is a unspoken rule that for big feasts, Welcoming, Halloween, Christmas, etc, that everyone should stay at their table, for the rest of the year people can sit where they want." Elisa said calmly "It's so students with friends and/or family in other houses can still be with each other. But everyone should know that anyway. I mean I spent almost half my time with you, Annie, and the Gryffindor's last year."

"Well, there is a Wrackspurt hive in that corner over there," Luna said pointing to the corner at the other end of the hall behind the teacher's table, just above the House Hour-Glasses "They might have something to do with how forgetful everyone is."

There was more muttering as everyone looked to where Luna was pointing, but saw nothing.

"But getting to your other point Malfoy," Jack said slowly standing up, his hands made into fists and the tips of his hair turning white, a cold breeze swirling around him. "No, the Dementors didn't mess with my memory. But they did make me relive the time I lost my sister due to a frozen lake, because I - her older brother - didn't check it was safe first." he said, half lying because no one could know what he really saw/heard.

There was a small gasp from people – mostly Elisa's friends – and a hush brought over the hall again.

"And it's not my place to say what Harry sees, but it's just as, if not slightly more bad," Jack said looking over his shoulder slightly to Harry who was keeping his head down, as all other head swished between him and Jack.

"So, you think it's funny Malfoy?" he asked ignoring everyone else, or how bad Gale was swirling around him, trying to calm him down "You think it's funny reliving your worst memories, your fears, the feeling of ice diving inside you and stabbing you with a thousand knives at once?" Jack paused here to try and calm down a little, and catch his breath, ignoring and not caring what everyone else thought.

"You think it's funny that with all the love, all the fun, all the laughter, that was taken from us, it made us pass out because of all the power rushing through us at once, huh? Do you?!" he asked his eyes flashing ice blue for a few seconds, ice starting to form at his feet, but only Elisa noticed that.

"Oh but of course you wouldn't would you?" he asked aiming this fully at Malfoy, but looking at the other Slytherin's that joined in with the teasing of him and Harry since they school year started. "You think anything that happens to us that you don't understand, just because we're not Pure-Blood's and we were raised away from all this dumb stupid magic is funny. Clearly showing everyone NONE OF YOU understand anything about love, fun, joy, or any warm emotions of any kind."

The Great Hall was silent, not even a clatter, or a scrape of a knife and fork was heard as everyone was seeing Jack shoot Malfoy down a few pegs. Even the teachers were watching this and listening to every word Jack Frost said.

Calming down a little more, Jack turned, Baby Tooth following him, to the exit and set off for his first class hoping one of his Gryffindor friends would bring his stuff.

As his went out the door, and closed it behind him, he grinned to himself as a loud roar of applause and cheers for him was heard.

He didn't care what the punishment (if he got one) might get because of that speech, whatever it might be... it was worth it just to see Malfoy and his friend's faces as he spoke to them.

Feeling Baby tugging on his hair and chirping to get his attention, Jack looked up to see the little fairy had a worried look on her face.

"Yeah... Yeah I'm ok Baby Tooth," Jack said nodding calming down a bit more before pushing himself off the doors "Come on, Herbology first thing today."

With that the boy and his fairy friend went across the entrance hall and down to the greenhouses to wait for Professor Sprout and the rest of the class.

* A Wrackspurt was an invisible magical creature which floated into a person's ears, making their brain become unfocused and confused.