21/8/22

Note: The end of this chapter has a true real life animal abuse story

The next day, (and a few more after it), there was a very loud word war between Ron and Hermione about who's fault it was about Scabbers' disappearance.

Ron, even after being punched in the nose by Jack, and given a warning by Percy, was still blaming Crookshanks and Hermione by not keeping a closer eye on him.

Hermione though, along with Jack much to her surprise, was saying it wasn't the feline's fault and suggested that Ron actually went out to look for Scabbers rather than just complain that he was missing.

Hermione also said that maybe the ginger cat hairs had been there in the boy's room since Christmas.

"He's hated Crookshanks ever since he jumped onto his head when we visited the Magical Menagerie last summer," Hermione explained to Jack one afternoon when she was working on her Muggle Studies homework about labelling the inside and wires of a plug.

"Well, Ron's the tallest right?" Jack asked petting said tom-cat in his lap who was purring "He probably was just using him as a shelf to get down to you so you and/or Harry so you would buy him. Cat's are very choosy on who they want as their owners you know."

Just then, Harry came over an 'unsure-how-to-say-this' look on his face as he tried to explain that all possible evidence that Crookshanks was guilty of eating Scabbers.

As he explained, the cat's in question tail slowed down to a stop and he curled up a bit more, his ears flattening against his head.

Seeing this, and mad already, Hermione lost her temper.

"Ok, side with Ron. I knew you would!" she said shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, Everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"

Harry was about to try and talk to her again when Jack, after putting Crookshanks down stopped him and suggested they went to do their homework in the library, a sleepy Baby Tooth coming along with them.

o0o

They had just made it there, when they see the Weasley's (minus Percy) gathered around a candle they had borrowed and a little box that had been shaped into a coffin.

"What's this then?" Jack asked in a whisper as they came over.

"Scabbers' funeral," Ginny whispered back. "Ron wanted it, so the Twins put one together."

"Seriously?" Jack asked not believing this. "You can't have a funeral without the body of the deceased. And you are meant to wait what? 6 months? A year? before you claim a missing person is dead."

"If you want to go and cut up that mangy cat to pull out the half destroyed body of Scabbers go ahead." Ron said glaring at Jack a little, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small back of Cockroach Clusters and set it next to the empty coffin.

"Come on Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," said Fred bracingly. "And he's been off colour for ages, he was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly. One swallow – he probably didn't feel a thing."

"Fred!" said Ginny indignantly.

"All he did was eat and sleep Ron, you said it yourself." said George "What's the point in moaning, just hop on down to Hogsmeade and get yourself a new rat."

Ron said nothing.

On a last-ditch attempt to cheer him up, Harry suggested that Ron came to the Gryffindor Team's last Quidditch practice before the big Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match that night, so he, Harry, could test out the Firebolt.

This seemed to cheer Ron up and get his mind off of the rat.

"Brilliant! Can I try and shoot a few goals on it?"

Rolling his eyes, Jack looked at the time and saw it was getting close to breakfast.

"Well I have something else that might please you Ron, but we need to get to the Great Hall for it." he said.

"Oh yeah, your bet," Fred said smiling as he remembered "How mad will April be to hear that you're not celebrating our birthday hmm?"

"I doubt Bunny and / or Tooth will be madder when they hear I set a bet with the Ancient Rules." Jack said sighing as they blew out the candle and left the library.

o0o

In the Hall there was a slight rearrangement of the furniture this morning as a small stage was set up at the front of the Hall – where First Years waited to be sorted.

As they entered, Jack at the front, there was a hush over the students.

The Weasley's and Baby Tooth went to take seats at the Gryffindor Table, where as Jack and Harry went up to the stage, where Professor McGonagall – being head of House greeted them, and addressed everyone in the Hall.

"A few days ago," she began, looking out to all the students and behind her at the teachers. "Two of my student's made a bet against each other using the Ancient Rules of Betting."

There were whispers and mutterings from the students who had not heard about this, but it quickly went away as McGonagall spoke again.

"The bet was between, whether Harry James Potter's new Firebolt broomstick –" this got some muttering too, especially from the Quidditch enthusiasts "Would be replaced by the Hogwarts staff, just so Gryffindor could win the Quidditch Cup." Here she gestured to Jack who smiled and waved. "And whether he would get said broomstick back after it had been checked for jinxes.

'Last night, the bet was fulfilled, and this morning, they payment will be given out. Boys over to you."

She stepped back and Jack stepped forward.

"I, Jackson Benjamin Overland Frost," Jack began, feeling all eyes, wide in wonder on what this meant "Lost a bet against Harry James Potter."

There was a gasp from almost everyone was talking about how it was even possible that Jack Frost, the Master of Bets could have lost one.

"As such!" he said causing the room to calm down and focus on him again "According to the bet, Harry and I made, I shall not be taking in this year's April Fool's Day pranks. But just a minor warning, my partners in pranking crime are still free, and I hope they will avenge me by doing even greater pranks than usual." Here, to put more feel into it, Jack let off a truly evil laugh that made the students either look scared, confused, or roll their eyes and get back to their breakfast.

Once that was done, Harry and Jack went to the Gryffindor Table to enjoy their breakfast.

That evening, because Harry still needed a teacher at Quidditch Practices to protect him, Madam Hooch was there and she too was amazed by the workings of the new broomstick.

She took the broom in her hands before take-off and gave them the benefit of her professional opinion.

"Look at the balance on it! If the Nimbus series has a fault, it's a slight list to the tail-end - you often find they develop a drag after a few years. They've updated the handle, too, a bit slimmer than the Cleansweeps, reminds me of the old Silver Arrows – pity they've stopped making them, I learnt to fly on one, and a very fine old broom it was too..."

After about 5 – 10 minutes Jack cleared his throat and politely reminder he why they were there.

"Um Madam Hooch, not that we don't all find the history of broomsticks, and your stories fascinating, but we are meant to be having an evening of Quidditch Practice, and we need the whole team, so if Harry can have his broom back..."

"What? Oh, yes of course, here you go then Potter," she said giving Harry the Firebolt back. "I'll sit over here with Weasley..."

She and Ron left the pitch to go sit in the stadium (Baby Tooth was back with Annie in the common room), and the Gryffindor Team – including the backup Chaser Alicia Spinnet – gathered around Wood for his final instructions for tomorrow's match.

"Harry, I'm sorry, but I haven't found out who Ravenclaw will be playing as Seeker. In the last few matches it has been Cho Chang, she's a fourth year and she's pretty good, but she's had trouble with some injuries. I heard that they have a back up Seeker, but I'm not sure who it is, what year they're in, or how good they are."

"Well unless they're as good as Lightning Head, Oliver, I'd say they're at least second year or higher." Jack said smiling to himself at Harry's frown at the nick name.

"Yeah, and they need to be reasonably good to actually be on the team, or even a back-up player, right?" Fred asked looking to George for his say on this but he just nodded.

"I also, don't know what type of broom this back-up player will be riding," Oliver said as though he wasn't interrupted. "But that doesn't matter, because whoever it is, on whatever broom, there's no way they can match up against you and the Firebolt."

"Oliver." Katie Bell said sounding a little annoyed "There is more to Quidditch and how good a flyer is than just the brooms said flyer uses."

"Forget it Kate," Jack whispered to her while Oliver was still going off on how good the Firebolt was "He's like a kid at Christmas, just been giving a shiny new toy and wants everyone to know just how great it is."

Soon Oliver calmed down and told everyone to get on their brooms so they can begin practicing.

At long last, Harry mounted the Firebolt and kicked off from the ground.

He was going faster than he believed he had ever flown before, everything around him were blurs of colour and the wind rushing over his ears drowned out the cheers and cries from the team.

Jack, sitting on his Snow Flurry 68 watched Harry with a smile, feeling just the amount of fun he was having by being on this new broomstick.

"Harry, I'm letting the Snitch out!" Wood called out from the goal posts.

It only took a few seconds (a minute max) and Harry had the Snitch in his hand, to cheers from the rest of the team.

He let it go and waited for a bit before going after it again, but this time it was Jack who found it.

In his defence on being asked why he went for it he said: "Well I am the back-up Seeker, so I need to be just as good – if not better – than Harry, right?"

So they took it in turns going after the Snitch, each turn lasting a minute maximum, and then Jack had a game of Hot-Potato with the girls and the Quaffle.

After a while though it started to get dark, so everyone had to come down, and going against Jack's joke suggestion of just strap lanterns to the brooms, came down for Oliver's last few words before they retire to bed.

"I can't see what can possibly stop us tomorrow!" he said beaming "Unless, - Harry, Jack, you've sorted out your Dementor problem, haven't you?"

"Totally." "Yeah." Jack and Harry said together, one sounding confident one, not so sure.

"The Dementors won't show up again, Oliver, Dumbledore'd do his nut." Fred said confidently.

"Well let's hope not," said Wood. "Anyway – good work, everyone. Lets get back to the Tower – turn in early..."

"You all go, I promised Ron he could have a go on the Firebolt," Harry said to the rest of the team, as Ron came down from the stands, where a sleeping Madam Hooch was still in her seat.

Being the good big-brother figure he was, Jack said he would stay back a little longer too.

"Here you go," Harry said holding his broom out to Ron, who leapt over the barrier of the lowest seats, landed on the grass, and ran up to them.

Awe written all over his face, Ron carefully took the lump of wood from his friend's hands, mounted it, and kicked off, doing a few laps around the pitch.

Wanting to have some fun, Jack challenged Ron to a race of 100 laps on the brooms they were currently using.

"Really? Only the Firebolt will beat you for sure," Ron said smiling proudly.

"Well if you're too scared to race me, that's fine," Jack said coming down to land.

"I didn't say that," Ron said quickly, before looking around and picking the announcer's box as the start/finish line. "We'll need to keep our own score though."

"Are you sure you can count that high?" Jack asked in playful teasing.

"Can you?" Ron asked back getting ready to go on Harry's count.

Unfortunately, Madam Hooch woke up and put an end to the race before they could finish (Firebolt 56, Snow Flurry 50).

She was mad at all three boys for not waking her, and insisted they all went back up to the castle.

"See, told you the Firebolt would win," Ron said to Jack as both Quidditch players shouldered their brooms and headed up to the school.

"How would you know, we only got half way through the challenge." Jack said pausing when he heard something, halfway to the castle.

"Yeah, but I had done more laps than you, meaning I would have finished on 100 first." Ron said proudly, not noticing Jack stop.

Thankfully Harry did and stopped too. He was about to ask why Jack stopped when he saw a pair of eyes, gleaming out of the darkness of the trees to the Forbidden Forest.

Finally noticing his friends had fallen behind; Ron turned around and asked "What's the matter?"

Harry pointed towards the trees. Ron pulled out his wand and said "Lumos!"

A beam of light was cast from the wand and fell across the trunks of trees and fallen rotting leaves and some kind of animal.

All three boys leaned closer and jumped, when it jumped at them, but relaxed (a little) when they see it was just Crookshanks who had just leapt out of the line of trees at that point.

"Get out of it!" Ron said reaching down, wand still lit in the air, to where a rock was sitting oh so conveniently in the grass.

Knowing what Ron was intending to do, Jack sent a binding charm at Ron, locking his arms to his sides.

"What gives?!" Ron asked looking to Jack.

"It is illegal to physically harm animals Ronald," Jack said firmly going over to the feline and picking him up.

"Why?" Harry asked, knowing this was true but questioning it "They hurt us all the time." Harry said showing his hand where another girl's cat had scratched him just the other day because he had disturbed its nap.

"It just is, ok," Jack said petting Crookshanks and looking back to the trees - wondering if Sirius was there or not - before they continued up to the castle. "You should hear about some of the stories about abused and neglected animals over in America. Maybe that will change your mind." he said to Ron who had gotten unbounded.

"Alright, go on tell me some tales." Ron said in an uncaring voice eyes on the cat.

"Well... There was once a farmer, who had about 12 horses on his land, in a muddy human-shin-high paddock. No food, no clean water, all of them so thin you could see their ribs and hip bones. Which are two things you SHOULD NOT be able to see in a fit well cared for horse." Jack said a little mad at this guy, but calmed down. "Anyway, among the horses, there was a heavily pregnant mare, and a stallion that somehow, has a hole in its neck."

Ron was surprised at this, but said nothing.

"What happened to them?" Harry asked having heard of stories like this before here in England, but not knowing they could get this bad.

"Some good people told an animal helping and saving company. They took charge for all the horses, won to keep them in court, and looked after them and made them all healthy weight again. Sadly the mare didn't make it though having her foal because she was too far gone already, but at least she got to have it in a safe place with caring people around her she trusted to look after it." Jack finished his story as they reached the Entrance Hall.

"What about the one with a hole in his neck?" Ron asked.

"It seemed he's had it for years, the skin had grown over it and it didn't seem to bother him," Jack answered with no hesitation.

"But he had a hole... in his neck..." Ron said not believing it.

"Yes, Ron I know, I just told you that. Weren't you listening?" Jack said setting Crookshanks down and encouraging him to go to the Tower.

"What about the people who owned them?" Harry asked, cutting the argument before it started to repeat itself.

"They had to pay the medical bills, the fine for harming animals for every horse they had, and then got sent to jail for 15 years to think over what they had done." Jack said in an uncaring way. "You want that to be you Ron, is you go around hurting animals, hmmm?"

"What? No of course not." Ron said surprised that Jack would even think it.

"Well then, don't even think about throwing rocks at them out of anger for a lost rat then," Jack said firmly before heading up the stairs.

A few minutes later Ron and Harry followed, neither boy saying anything until they had to give the password to get into Gryffindor Tower.

AN: I'm not sure if I got the numbers right, or the info fully correct, but the story Jack tells Ron and Harry about the horses was indeed a real true story.

I like to watch a show called 'Animal Cops Huston' and this is one of their cases.

Please bear in mind that these shows are between 10 – 20 years old (the dates they give are the early 2000's)