Author's Note: First of all, I wanted to say that I noticed my terrible typo in the last chapter. I made the mistake of trying to edit the chapter in the fanfiction android app and I managed to accidentally save the chapter without any of the breaks I put in and all the formatting! So.. yeah. That was a thing. I'll probably go back and edit the chapter later, but for right now I don't want to mess around with it.
Reviews:
CrossoverJunkie: Aww, that was such a nice review! Everyone getting on Jack wasn't the reason it took me so long to update though. I just have a lot going on at the moment and at one point I thought I lost the portion of the chapter I had written out. I hate rewriting things since it never comes out the same the second time around.
Anyway, I found the chapter saved elsewhere (yay backups), so I had decided to finally get it out. As for the reasoning with the wizards, I've noticed that most purebloods in the books tend to dismiss most muggle inventions (except for things like the radio, cars, etc) and tout their way of doing things as superior. Which is incredibly narrow-minded and stupid, but well. I'm guessing that muggle-born wizards and witches might use paper and pens or pencils in private but probably wouldn't want to get caught doing so because they want to blend in with wizard society.
Don't worry, Jack (and maybe Lillian) will be able to point these things out. Although I do have to say that I think the spirits are as prejudiced against wizards as the wizards (some of them anyway, not all) are against anything non-wizard.
god of all: Thanks for your review! I'm glad that you're enjoying the fic.
I also hope that despite the random updating that everyone is still enjoying the fic. Anyway, on with the chapter!
Chapter Sixteen: Meet Jack Black
Lillian's look of astonishment was mirrored in Jack, who had thought it would be much harder to find her. Sure, tall, dark and creepy had said that she was here at Hogwarts, but -
A small body colliding with his caused Jack to snap out of his dazed thoughts as he realized that little Lillian was hugging him around his middle tightly. He felt her trembling and heard sniffling as he also realized that she was crying.
"Hey," Jack said gently to her. "Why all the tears?"
"I n-never thought I'd see you again," Lillian sobbed into Jack's shirt, which was getting wet with her tears.
Jack pried himself out of her grip and bent down and scooped her up into his arms. It was a little difficult while holding his staff, but he did it with little fuss. He was used to doing all sorts of things while holding his staff, after all.
"You lost your hope?" Jack asked her sadly.
Lillian's bottom lip trembled as tears spilled down her cheeks.
"I d-don't remember where h-home is," she replied in a quavering voice, "All I remember is y-you and Pi - "
Jack realized that Lillian was about to say Pitch's name and hastily cut her off. He didn't know if the wizards had heard of Pitch Black at all and he wasn't in a hurry to find out.
"So you do remember us!" Jack exclaimed as he tried to sound cheerful and not panicked at Lillian's slip.
Lillian sniffled and wiped her eyes as she nodded.
"You know I don't remember anything?" she asked as her tears began to slow.
Jack nodded.
"You're lucky I read the paper! Although most of the information about you was wrong," Jack said with an eye roll.
"I was in the paper?" Lillian asked in confusion as she wiped the rest of the wetness off of her cheeks.
"'Some Guy Named Temporary Guardian!'" Jack quoted the Daily Prophet headline with another eye roll. "That jerk said you were an orphan and that your parents died from some disease!"
Professor Snape watched this exchange half in amusement and irritation. He was amused by Jack calling that dunderhead a jerk, but irritated that both Lillian and Jack seemed to have forgotten that he was in the room.
It was his quarters!
Lillian had obviously come to see him, yet she was completely distracted by the appearance of Jack.
Professor Snape was also irritated because he had a lot of things to discuss with Jack, but obviously he couldn't do so with Lillian in the room. He didn't want to upset her with all the talk of Seasonals.
"What jerk?" Lillian asked, still very confused.
"Gild-something something-Hart," Jack said as Snape repressed a snort.
Lillian gasped in outrage at this and gave Jack her best glare.
"Gilderoy isn't a jerk! He took me in when I had nowhere to go and he found Professor Snape to help me get my memories back! He's the best!"
Jack couldn't help but shake his head at that with a grin. Even without most of her memories, Lillian was still Lillian. Granted, she wasn't entirely his Lillian (the Lillian he knew would have protested at being held so long like a baby), but he hoped it would come with time.
Professor Snape continued to watch the pair, as he noticed that Jack had a wand. Severus had been so sure that the boy was a Seasonal of some sort, especially since that floo call from Albus. Why else would the wards go off? But here he was with a wand! Where had he acquired it? Had he actually stolen it from someone?
Then there was the oddity of Jack's appearance. Jack had worn muggle clothing when he had met Jack as a guardian of Lillian's mind, and the boy had been much paler than he was now. As Jack carried Lillian over to the couch and settled down onto it with her sitting in his lap, question upon question popped up in Severus' mind.
"The article kind of glossed over how you came to be at Hogwarts," Jack said as he set his staff down on the couch nearby them. Normally he would've had his staff leaning against the couch, but he wasn't sure how it would look with the goblins' glamour on. He mentally winced as he once more thought of their deal and made sure to keep the palm of his hand hidden, just in case.
"I don't really remember," Lillian admitted. "I just wound up in Mr. Jorkins' office. He said that someone used a memory charm on me because they thought I was a muggle."
Jack recognized the term from the book he had attempted to read when he had his small fight with the Wind. What had the book said?
Oh yeah!
A 'muggle' was the wizards' term for a non-magical person.
Wait a minute..
"Some wizard saw you and just assumed you weren't magical, so they erased your memory?!" Jack exclaimed in shock.
He was lucky that Mr. Creepy hadn't shot the same spell at himself!
Speaking of -
Jack had been about ready to turn to try to see where Mr. Creepy had gone, but before Jack could do so, Mr. Creepy spoke up.
"As interesting as this all is," Professor Snape smoothly interrupted as he made his way over to a nearby armchair and sat, "I must ask you Lillian, does Lockhart know where you are? I believe you were supposed to be with him, hm?"
Lillian had been about to reply to Jack but then Professor Snape had interrupted. At his question, she looked sheepish and fidgeted a little guiltily.
"He's still sleeping," she finally admitted.
"And do you recall the other times you decided to wander off on your own? What happened then? Perhaps Jack would like to hear about that," Professor Snape continued.
Jack looked more amused than concerned about this, as he recognized the tone Mr. Creepy had, which was that same parental tone that Pitch sometimes got that Lillian had dubbed his 'Adult Mode.'
"No no no, that's ok," Lillian said hastily. "Can't you use the fire to call Gilderoy to let him know that I'm here?"
"I doubt the fireplace is in his room and there is little use in firecalling him when he's sleeping. I suppose I could call him in a few hours to let him know your whereabouts, that is, if you can stand being away from him," Professor Snape said, his tone getting a little sharp at the end.
He certainly didn't care if the child preferred that idiot over him.
Not one bit.
At Professor Snape's tone Lillian flinched.
"I'm sorry!" Lillian blurted out as she looked at Professor Snape with sad emerald eyes that he avoided. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings - "
Jack looked down at Lillian as she rambled out an apology and then he looked over at Professor Snape with a small frown. Why was he guilt tripping Lillian? And what had they meant about using the fire to call someone? It was probably in that book he had never actually gotten around to reading.
He sighed softly to himself that perhaps he'd been a bit hasty in rushing to Hogwarts right away. Obviously Lillian was fine, so he probably could have taken an extra day to rest and read some of his books so he'd look more knowledgeable when he was around the wizards.
Not that it mattered anyway, Jack internally grumbled to himself. How had Mr. Creepy guessed he was a Seasonal right away?! Sure, his hair was white, which was unusual, but wizards didn't even know about Seasonals anyway! The wizards didn't even care about spirits anymore and as far as he knew, the wizards didn't even know about most of the spirits even existing anymore.
But still..
How had he known?
Jack phased back in to the conversation Mr. Creepy and Lillian were having to hear Mr. Creepy snap at Lillian that she was still a child and that he didn't need to hear any of her excuses. Obviously she would prefer the person who had first agreed to look after her, but that still didn't excuse how incompetent he was at looking after a small child.
Lillian looked hurt and outraged as Professor Snape said that as she started to shout that Gilderoy was a perfect guardian!
Professor Snape couldn't help his snort of disbelief at that.
"If that were true, you wouldn't have been able to sneak out on him not once, but three times," Professor Snape pointed out.
"You snuck out from that guy three times?" Jack asked with amusement.
"You do realize how dangerous that is in a magical castle," Mr. Creepy pointed out to a still amused Jack.
Jack shrugged, knowing that Lillian knew how to handle herself, but then paused at that sentiment and winced as he remembered that she didn't remember how to use her powers. Not to mention that Mr. Creepy kept referring to her as a small child, which meant that Lillian probably thought she was one as well.
How on earth was he going to explain to Lillian that she was actually around thirty years old? [1]
He tried to remember back to when he'd first met Lillian and remembered the random bursts of spring magic that she'd kept having until he'd worked with her on learning to control her powers. He supposed they could repeat that training if they had to, but how was he ever going to be able to do that with a castle full of watchful wizards?!
Jack huffed in annoyance at this, but couldn't think of any solution to that, other than getting Lillian away from the castle. Which he knew would be next to impossible to do, especially with Mr. Creepy on the prowl. It was nice that he wanted to help Lillian, but it would mean hindering himself. Jack internally grumbled at this since there was no way he'd trust this wizard enough to admit that he, Jack, and Lillian actually were Seasonals.
While Jack didn't think much of wizards, he knew that they had powerful magic at their disposal and he wasn't about to try and test this to see what it was that they actually could do.
Yes, Jack had been to Hogwarts several times over the years, but he'd always remained outside the castle and well away from the children and teachers there. He'd wandered close enough on several occasions to start snowball fights, but he'd made sure that no one could see him flying around.
Now here he was in Hogwarts with no idea how long he'd actually have to remain here -
"Yeah," Lillian admitted sheepishly with a blush, cutting into Jack's rambling thoughts. "I wanted to explore and get outside."
Jack's frown deepened at that as he realized that Lillian would probably have spent most of her time in this castle. While she did live underground in a cave with Pitch, she was allowed to spend all day (and sometimes into the night if she was late getting back) outside. To go from that to being shut up in a building, even if it was a castle, would be stifling. Especially to a Seasonal.
Then Jack realized he'd most likely suffer from the same fate, since he was pretending to be a wizard himself. He couldn't help but glance at the dreary stone walls and to him it felt like the room was getting that much smaller. He repressed a shudder as he hastily changed the subject.
"You said you were helping Lillian get her memories back, right?" Jack shot at Mr. Creepy.
Jack was sure at some point this guy's name had been mentioned, but to be honest he didn't really care. All he wanted to do was to get Lillian her memories back and to get out of there, the sooner the better.
"Yes," Professor Snape confirmed. "We've had a few sessions, but unfortunately Lillian is unable to recover more than a few memories at a time. But now that the process has been started, she'll be able to recall things on her own, if she sees anything that reminds her of a memory. I don't know how many she's managed to recover, but with the unusually large amount of memories she has, I estimate it will take several months for her to recover them. Not to mention finding time in my schedule to do so."
"S-several months?" Jack stammered faintly.
He'd been expecting to pull off pretending to be a wizard for a few weeks, if even that! But months? How on earth was he going to survive?! Then he noticed that Lillian was looking up at him anxiously and he hastily covered his apprehension with a smirk as he ruffled her curls affectionately.
The anxious look was wiped off Lillian's face at the familiar gesture and she grinned at him as many other instances of Jack doing that came back to her. Usually she was annoyed at it, since it would mess up her hair ribbon, but this time she was happy that she had Jack here, this little piece of home to be with her.
"Well, you always wanted to go on an adventure," Jack reminded her as he continued to smirk in a way that made Severus want to hex the smirk right off of him.
Severus viciously shoved the memories of a boy that used to smirk at him like that, when he was much younger away. He had to remind himself that this boy, this Jack, most likely wasn't anything like that dratted Potter.
"I did?" Lillian asked Jack with wide, curious emerald eyes.
"Yep!" Jack replied. "I remember one time you had.. your.. dad make us superhero costumes."[2]
Lillian looked confused for a moment before she laughed as part of the memory returned to her, while Severus mentally raised an eyebrow at the awkward moment Jack had when referring to Lillian's father.
"Oh yeah!" she giggled. "I was the Lightning Lass!"
She struck a heroic pose on Jack's lap and pointed with her right hand out at the room at large.
"Fear my wrath, bad guys!" she said in as menacing a voice as she could muster, which was about as frightening as a kitten meowing.
Jack hastily grabbed Lillian's hand and lowered it as he recognized the danger of her accidentally using her powers. He knew she often pointed at where she wanted her spring magic to go, and she was excited enough to have her emotions accidentally set her powers off, especially if she was pointing.
Lillian hardly seemed to notice or care why Jack was forcing her arm back down as she bounced around on his lap excitedly.
"Do you remember what my costume was?" Jack asked with amusement.
"Umm.." Lillian's excited smile faded as she turned thoughtful.
"It was pretty, uh.. interesting," Jack continued, trying hard not to blush while Lillian thought. As he thought of that costume (what had ever become of it anyway?), he remembered how utterly embarrassing it was.[3]
Professor Snape wanted to interrupt since they had gotten pretty far off topic, but he knew this had to do with a memory of Lillian's of some sort and if she could remember this, then he knew it would be one less memory for him to help open. So he remained silent for now and like Jack, waited to see if Lillian could recall this small detail.
Lillian frowned as she thought hard about that day. Parts of it were fuzzy. She remembered that she'd woken up extra early and gone to where Jack was to wake him up..
But that didn't make any sense.
Wasn't Jack her brother? Didn't he live with her and Pitch?
And why would she have to go outside to wake Jack up?
That didn't make any sense!
Lillian's frown deepened as she remembered startling Jack awake and he fell..
He fell...
Lillian's frown changed to a completely bewildered look and she turned to stare up at Jack. As she stared at him she suddenly noticed how different he looked in comparison to her memories. Why was he so different now?
Jack noticed that Lillian was staring at him and he suddenly remembered that day they'd been talking about their powers.
Did that mean..
Did she finally remember that she was the Child of Spr -
"Why were you sleeping in a tr - " Lillian started to ask in bewilderment, but Jack hastily covered her mouth with his hand, but was too late. It was obvious what she was about to say.
Professor Snape couldn't help but look at the pair in amusement, with the corners of his mouth twitching as he hid a smile.
"Do you make it a habit to sleep in trees?" he asked Jack seemingly offhandedly, but he was actually somewhat serious.
Jack shrugged as he blushed in embarrassment, uncovering Lillian's mouth as he did so. Thankfully Lillian was too busy being outraged at being silenced like that to notice anything off about his hand.
"You didn't have to cover my mouth!" Lillian frowned at Jack. "Professor Snape, tell Jack he was being mean!"
Professor Snape leveled a serious look at Jack, although the corners of his mouth were still twitching.
"Jack, Lillian is right. That was very rude to do," he said in his Adult Voice. "Although I have no authority over you, I think it would be in your best interest to apologize."
Jack rolled his eyes at.. Professor Snake.. Snape.. was it? Eh, he liked Mr. Creepy better.
"Sorry, Lillian," Jack apologized to Lillian, although he didn't sound that sorry.
Lillian was about to point this out with a pout, but Professor Snape cut in. Even though he shouldn't mention anything about Seasonals in front of Lillian (no sense in upsetting her, after all), he could still discuss a few things with Jack while she was present.
"I understand that you wish to take Lillian back to wherever your home is, but obviously you cannot do so while she's still recovering her memories. If it's alright with your.. parents.. then you are more than welcome to stay while she is recovering. I'm sure the Headmaster will allow you to stay. He may even wish for you to attend classes while you're here." Professor Snape added on as he watched Jack closely, to see his reaction.
Jack went a little pale at the thought of attending classes and he gave a half-hearted smirk at Mr. Creepy to try and cover his nervousness.
"Oh, ah.. I don't need to attend classes," Jack said quickly, "I'm being homeschooled and.. and.. my guardian said it was alright for me to stay until Lillian's better, as long as I kept up with my studies."
Jack wanted to slap himself right after that came out of his mouth, since he only brought a few books with him and he had no idea how advanced those theory books he bought were. For all he knew they were for someone much more advanced than he was, or else they were for someone less advanced and he'd look like a moron if he was caught with them.
"I see," Professor Snape said as he looked intently at Jack, who looked at Professor Snape right in the eyes as he tried to seem confident.
Professor Snape could immediately tell that Jack was lying through his teeth, and that no one knew of his coming at all. In fact, Professor Snape had the strong impression that Jack had decided to come here on a whim with very little planning, as was evidenced by his poor cover story.
"Then in that case you won't mind giving me your floo address so I can contact you guardian, hm?" Professor Snape asked as he raised an eyebrow at Jack, who fidgeted.
Jack was trying very hard not to freak out as he squirmed in his seat a little and tried to calm himself by playing with Lillian's curls a bit. He stopped at the squawked "Hey!" as he did so, noticing that Lillian was scowling at him as she fixed her bow again.
"They don't have a floo," Jack hazarded, hoping that he was using the term correctly.
Professor Snape noticed the incorrect use of the term, but he nodded all the same.
"I see, so your fireplace isn't connected," he subtly corrected Jack. "Not uncommon, really. What's your surname? I'll send them a letter with a school owl."
Jack's mind suddenly flashed back to the poor owl he'd seen what felt like forever ago and he couldn't help the irritated thought of Wizards! How many storms did the poor things have to fly through?
"Oh! I know! I know!" Lillian said excitedly as she raised her hand as though she were in a classroom. "It's Black!"
Jack almost facepalmed at that, as he realized she was thinking of Pitch's last name.
"Jack.. Black?" Professor Snape asked in a strange tone as his gaze on Jack sharpened.
"That means I'm Lillian Black, right?" Lillian turned in Jack's lap to look up at him with excitement shining in her eyes.
"Uh.. um.." Jack stammered.
Hello rock, meet hard place!
He didn't want to give Lillian false information, but although he couldn't give away his cover (even though it was kind of already blown, he figured if he kept denying it long enough Mr. Creepy might start to believe it).. Should he tell the truth?
Or..
"R-right, yeah!" Jack's mouth blurted out entirely without his permission.
Argh,why did he say that?!
"Very well," Professor Snape said as he rose from his seat. "I'll go tell the Headmaster at once. I expect the both of you to stay put."
Before Jack had a chance to say anything else, Professor Snape quickly left his quarters, but not before he waved his wand and a tea tray appeared on the low coffee table, complete with two cups on saucers with a teakettle filled with boiling water and tea bags off to the side.
Lillian eagerly scrambled off Jack's lap to get their tea ready, while Jack stared down at the tea. That move had been so much like Pitch it was scary.
"So are you going to tell me now why you were sleeping in a tree?" Lillian asked after she had the two cups filled with water and each had a tea bag placed inside.
Jack blushed as he tried to come up with an answer. He didn't think telling Lillian that he always slept in a tree would be useful somehow.
"I.. uh.. sometimes take naps in trees," Jack admitted.
Lillian's surprised burst of laughter made Jack blush more in embarrassment. It was the first time he'd ever taken the time to realize that this might be considered strange. Lillian had never made a big deal of it before, but then again, she did sleep in a cave.
"That's silly!" she declared as she kept an eye on their teacups. Then she cocked her head as though considering something after her laughter died down. "Why don't you sleep with us? You're my brother, right?"
Jack fidgeted again as he considered what to answer. He was touched that Lillian thought of him like a brother, since he certainly considered her to be like the little sister he never had. But he didn't want to fill up her head with false information. Now she thought her last name was Black, when she actually didn't have a last name. His own last name was Frost for reasons unknown to him, but now everyone here would think it was Black as well.
Maybe that was for the better, Jack decided. He knew that the name Jack Frost was pretty common among people, and he couldn't be sure if the wizards had ever heard of it before. If Mr. Creepy knew about Seasonals, then what if other wizards had as well? There wasn't any point in making it easy for them.
Although his hair might very well give it away, he thought ruefully.
"Well.. look, Lillian. It'll all make sense once you get your memories back," Jack told her much to her disappointment. "It might be confusing if I explain it all now. I know you want me to tell you everything so you can remember, but you heard what Mr. Cr - uh.. That professor guy said. You need to get them back slowly."
Lillian pouted at that but reluctantly nodded.
"Fiiine," she sighed. "But you'll stay until I get them back, right?"
"Sure," Jack said with a grin. "What's life without a little adventure?"
So it was few hours later that Jack found himself joining Lillian and Professor Snape for breakfast in the Great Hall. Jack held Lillian's hand on the way there as they followed after Mr..er, the professor and he couldn't help but squeeze her hand out of nervousness when he noticed all eyes on were on them as they walked up to the high table that had what were presumably other professors there.
Professor McGonagall nodded at them, and Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily as he took in the sight of Jack with little Lillian. He noticed right away that Jack was loosely holding his wand and wondered briefly why he would do that, when Professor Snape ushered them to the table.
Noticing that they were one seat short, Professor Snape conjured a chair with a wave of his wand. He took his seat and gestured for Jack and Lillian to do the same. Lillian scrambled into her usual seat by Professor Snape, relieved that she didn't have to sit in that humiliating chair for now. She pouted however when she noticed that Professor Snape had forgotten to give her anything to sit on and she was much too short to reach her plate.
Jack took the empty chair on the other side of Lillian and snickered at her predicament, in a true brotherly fashion.
"Have a problem?" he asked her a little too innocently.
"It's not funny!" Lillian pouted as she crossed her arms in annoyance.
"Sure it's not," Jack grinned at her. "Do you want me to cut up your food for you? I can always feed you."
He said the last part in an annoying sing-song voice that made Lillian pout even more. She remembered that Jack sometimes teased her, but she would've thought he'd wait at least until after breakfast! She was dreading what he would say if she ever had to sit in that horrible chair while he was here.
"I can feed myself!" Lillian declared a little too loudly as Professor Snape finally took notice of the situation.
He saw Jack's grin and Lillian's pouting and could easily deduce what had been going on.
"Jack, perhaps next time you'd draw attention to the fact that your sister needs help instead of teasing her," Professor Snape reprimanded. "And Lillian, next time I hope you'll remember to ask someone for help."
Lillian looked a little chastised and nodded, although Jack didn't seem to take much notice as he casually said "Sure" in an offhand way that Professor Snape knew that Jack hadn't taken in a word of what he had said or else had not taken it seriously.
He could already tell that these were going to be a wonderful few months.
If it hadn't been for Lillian, he might not have even bothered covering for this cocky little brat to the Headmaster. The Headmaster had been very curious about Jack (especially since the wards had gone off earlier that morning), but Professor Snape had assured Albus that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary with the boy, save for his hair color and that had been put down to a potions accident of some sort, he was sure.
To his relief, Albus seemed to buy this and they had settled down on what to do with Jack. As predicted, Albus had been all for putting Jack in classes with everyone else, but Professor Snape said that Jack was already being tutored at home and he had no idea how far along Jack was in his studies. He went on to say that he'd reached an agreement with Jack that he'd help Jack with his studies in private in addition to help Lillian recover her memories.
The Headmaster had cheerfully agreed and said that after breakfast they could all meet to discuss Jack's living arrangements along with Lillian's.
Professor Snape glanced down the table to Lockhart and knew that was going to be a cheerful meeting. As he piled food on his and Lillian's plates, he couldn't help but wonder what Hogwarts would now be like with two Seasonals in its midst.
[1] I can't count! Originally I had it down as being over thirty, but then I realized that it's still the early 90's and she'd be younger than that. If you only counted her sprit years, she'd only be around 23. If you added on her mortal years (6-ish), she'd be 29 or so. Since Jack doesn't know how old Lillian is really, I decided to just put 'around thirty' for there.
[2] This is a reference to Child of Spring. In one chapter Lillian made up super hero names for herself and Jack.
[3] This is in chapter 12 of Child of Spring called "All I Want for Christmas." If you're curious, Jack's costume had Frosty the Snowman on the front of it, which is extremely embarassing for him. It explains in the chapter that Jack had accidentally created Frosty in one of his many attempts to get people to notice him and it wasn't one of his prouder moments.
Author's Note: I hope you guys don't mind that this was a bit of a filler chapter. But we finally got to see Jack interact with Professor Snape, yay! Next chapter will show some of the other characters (probably Harry and Co.) and we'll see if Jack's lame lying skills will work on Professor Dumbledore.
As always, if you have any suggestions/comments feel free to let me know!
Edit: Fixed my many typos.