"Oh no! I'm not gonna just be shipped off to some prison!" Jack Frost jumped up and faced Dumbledore, "There has to be some other way to protect this kid! What's so special about him anyway?"
The guardians watched the two curiously, though they were not too surprised by Jack's reaction.
"Unfortunately, Voldemort views him as a threat and is after him. I am afraid I will not be able to protect him much longer. That is why I need your help."
Jack swung his staff onto his shoulders, freezing an elf in the process, and proceeded to pace around the room in thought. "I don't have any other choice, do I?" Jack said finally.
"Everyone has a choice." Dumbledore smiled at him knowingly.
"Alright fine, I guess it won't hurt to go to school for a little while. At least its not some boarding school right?' Jack laughed,
"Um… Jack…" Tooth looked at him apologetically,
Jack groaned in realization, "Oh great… This is going to be so much fun."
Almost as if he had known Jack would say yes beforehand, Dumbledore had arranged a meeting between the guardians and the Order of the Phoenix. He had explained to Jack (who was the only one who had not known about it) that they were the group he had organized to fight against this Voldemort person. After a short trip on the sleigh, the guardians found themselves outside a small neighborhood in London. Dumbledore had to leave on other business and had left the five confused guardians with nothing but a small note.
"Ok…" North said as he continued to look up and down the street, "I do not get it. There iz no number tvelve!"
"Let me see." Tooth said snatching the note from North's hand before he could even react. Jack looked over her shoulder to read the note.
The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at
number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
"I don't...WOAH!" Tooth jumped back suddenly, "Guys! It just appeared...right in front of me!" Jack looked up from the note and looked at the houses in front of him.
"What are you talking about? There's nothing there!" Sure enough the numbers on the houses skipped from eleven to thirteen.
"Maybe is wrong place?" North scratched his head,
"Not likely mate. How many Grimmauld Places could there be?" Bunny took the note from Tooth and continued to examine it.
"Are you guys blind?" Tooth exclaimed, "It's right there in front of you!" She pointed excitedly pointing directly between number eleven and thirteen.
"Tooth…" Jack began, he was starting to get worried about the older guardian, but was promptly interrupted by Sandy pulling on his sleeve.
"What is it Sandy?" Sandy made a number twelve above his head and pointed at himself, "You can see it too?" The little golden man just nodded.
"Well then how come we can't?" Bunny asked frustrated.
Sandy screwed up his face in thought then pointed at the other guardians. They were thoroughly confused by this which only caused Sandy to blow sand out of his ears in frustration. Hoping the guardians would finally understand him, Sandy created a sand picture of the guardians scratching their heads in thought.
"Oh! I get it!" Jack said flipping in the air with excitement, "You're saying we need to concentrate on the note right?" Sandy nodded his head vigorously and gave Jack two thumbs-up. North, Bunny and Jack immediately ran through the note in their head and concentrated on what it was saying. Almost instantly, a door and windows appeared between number eleven and thirteen and a new house seemed to push its way between the two.
"Well… I guess that solves that problem." Jack said in shock, North and Bunny just nodded, their mouths wide open.
Tooth was the first to go inside, followed almost immediately by the other four guardians. The interior of the house was very dark and smelled dusty and moldy. It was too dark to see anything in particular, but Jack had the feeling that this place would be the perfect place for Pitch to be hiding. With this in mind, they all slowly crept in, their senses on high. Suddenly, a door on the side of the hallway opened up and a plump red-headed woman walked up to the group.
"Oh dear! You must be the guardians! We weren't expecting you so soon! Never mind come on in." The woman ushered them into the room where a bunch of witches and wizards were crowded around a table. They stopped talking as the guardians entered the room and stared at each of them in turn.
"Is that a giant rabbit?" a man with, surprisingly greasy, black hair said in a monotone voice,
"Excuse me mate! Not even a hello?" Bunny crossed his arms
"Relax Kangaroo," Jack laughed earning a glare from Bunny. He stuck his hand out to the greasy haired man "The name's Jack Frost…"
"Oh perfect!" The man growled "Another arrogant teenager."
"Hey!" Jack protested, sticking his tongue out at him.
"Severus!" Sighed a young sickly looking man, "You must excuse him. My name is Remus Lupin. This is Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Alastor or Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Mundungus Fletcher, and Nymphadora Tonks who prefers to go by her surname only."
The members of the order nodded as each of their names were called and Jack was starting to feel overwhelmed with the amount of names he would have to memorize.
"Ooh! I guess its our turn isn't it?" Tooth said brightly, "My name is Toothiana, but you can call me Tooth! I'm the Tooth Fairy and the guardian of memories."
"And I am Nicholas St. North, or North. I am Santa Claus and guardian of wonder."
"My name's E. Aster Bunnymund, but everyone just calls me Bunny. I'm the Easter Bunny and the guardian of hope."
"Oh and this is Sanderson Mansnoozie. We all call him Sandy, he's the sandman and the guardian of dreams. He can't talk so he communicates through his sand." Sandy nodded and created a sand image of himself giving dreams to children.
"It is good to finally meet all of you. Come sit down." Arthur Weasley smiled, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but how does one go about guarding something like wonder?"
North let out a hearty laugh and sat down in the nearest chair, "That is easy question, Ve protect dees things in children, ve assure all the children in whole vorld are filled vith vonder hope and dees other things."
"So you protect children?" Said Molly Weasley.
"Exactly Sheila. It's not that easy either." Bunny pointed out after Snape rolled his eyes.
At this point things were beginning to get dull. Jack decided to let the other guardians handle all the questions while he created frost on the window he was sitting at. The frosty tendrils traveled along the glass creating beautiful icy patterns that soon covered the whole window. To be honest, Jack wasn't quite sure what he thought about all of this. On one hand, it was his duty to protect the children, but that also meant he would have to abandon his nomadic ways for a whole year. He could hear the older guardians telling the order about Pitch but his mind was on other things. The room was still, hot and boring and Jack just wanted to be out flying with the wind creating snow and ice for the children of the world. As quietly as he could, Jack cracked open the window and an icy blast of wind rushed in, cooling the winter spirit down and ruffling his hair playfully. Oblivious to his surroundings, Jack let out a soft laugh and played with the wind, letting it rub against his face lovingly and sending carefully crafted snowflakes into it and out into the world and watching them float gently to the ground. He did this for a while, not even listening to the conversation around him.
"What are you doin' Frostbite? It's freezing in here?" Bunny said, diverting all attention in the room to the smiling winter spirit.
"Um…" Jack said, "Playing with the wind?" Bunny let out an aggravated sigh, "What?" Jack exclaimed, "It's not like I want to be cooped up in a sweaty, hot room full of boring adults!"
"Jack!" Tooth scolded, "Sweet Tooth that was not very polite!" The wizards were watching this exchange amusedly and a few were even chuckling. Jack crossed his arms, grumbling, and closed the window.
"So, Jack," Said the purple-haired wizard named Tonks, "You never told us what you were the guardian of."
"Oh… right… Well I'm the guardian of fun and I basically bring winter to the whole planet." Jack said halfheartedly, ignoring the looks of shock coming from the wizards. Each and every one of them were thinking the same thing: there was no way this teenager was responsible for such a huge task.
"Well," Mrs. Weasley said standing up, "I think it is time to get back down to the actual purpose of this meeting. Jack dear, why don't I show you your room and you can meet the other children." Jack snorted at being called a child but got up anyway, anxious to get away from the boring meeting. He picked his staff up and rested it over his shoulders, his arms hanging over it like a scarecrow. "We'll be having dinner promptly at the end of the meeting." Mrs. Weasley was telling him as she closed the door behind them, "It shouldn't be too much longer dear. Now, you will be staying with my son Ron and his friend Harry. Their room is down this hallway, up the stairs and the first door on the right. Oh and do try to be quiet. We wouldn't want to be waking certain things up." Before Jack could ask what she meant, she hurried back into the meeting room closing the door behind her.
Jack continued down the dark hallway. The decorations in the house were all very dark and menacing. As he passed a row of severed, what looked like deformed elves, heads, Jack began to wonder just what sort of a world he was entering. He climbed up the stairs at the end of the hall and approached the door Mrs. Weasley had pointed out. His hand hovered over the handle, wondering if now was the best time to meet his new roommates as he heard shouting on the other side of the door. Slowly turning the handle and pushing the door open, the voices became even clearer.
"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER-" A dark haired boy, who looked no older than fifteen was yelling at another, taller boy with red hair and freckles, and a bushy haired girl. Jack wasn't quite sure what he had walked in on but he wasn't comfortable with it.
"No, honest-" The red headed boy started.
"Harry, we're really sorry!" The bushy-haired girl was trying desperately to calm her friend and Jack could see tears forming in her eyes. There was a long silence after this and Jack took that as his cue to enter. He pushed the door all the way open and cautiously walked inside. All three of the children turned to look at him.
"Uh, Hello." He said awkwardly.
"Hi…" The red headed boy said, confusion clearly showing on his freckled face. Jack figured this must be Mrs. Weasley's son Ron, as they both had the same bright red hair.
"Who are you?" The dark-haired boy said none too gently. Jack could now see the boy's bright green eyes, glasses and a peculiar lightning shaped scar on the child's forehead.
"I'm Jack Frost." Jack Frost stuck his hand out and the dark-haired boy shook it, confusion replacing the anger on his face.
"Wait! Jack Frost! Do you mean like the mythical being who brings winter?" The girl looked at him curiously.
"Yep that's me kiddo!" Jack said "Although I'm not exactly mythical."
"Well I know you're not." The girl said sounding like quite the know-it-all, "But the Jack Frost who brings winter is."
"Hey! I do bring the winter! I'm the 'mythical' Jack Frost you keep mentioning...but I'm not mythical!"
The red-haired boy and the dark-haired boy watched Jack and the girl, one with disbelief and one with utter confusion.
"Could someone explain to me what the bloody hell is going on!" The red-head yelled finally throwing his hands up in frustration.
The dark haired boy sighed and looked towards his friend, "In the muggle world, Jack Frost is a mythical being who is responsible for the snow and cold. But he's just as real as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny."
"Isn't Santa Claus the one who hides the potatoes?" The red-head asked.
At this statement, Jack burst out laughing and had to lean on his staff for support.
"No Ron, that's the Easter Bunny. And he hides eggs, not potatoes." The girl explained patiently.
The red-head, who Jack now knew for sure was Ron, blushed violently at Jack's laughter. "It's not that funny!" He grumbled which only caused Jack to laugh harder.
"I'm sorry- I'm sorry" Jack gasped, his laughter finally dying down, "It's just that I know Santa Claus and that image is just too funny!"
The three children stared at him in disbelief. "I thought you said Santa wasn't real." Ron said to the girl. She looked at him, her eyebrows raised and answered, "He's not."
"Ok, so let me get this straight." The dark-haired boy said, "You're the mythical being, Jack Frost, who controls winter and you just so happen to know Santa Claus who is also another mythical being."
"First of all, I don't control winter, I just sort of conduct winter and create snow. No one can control winter. And second Santa is real and I do know him. He's a very good friend of mine. And whether you believe me or not, he just happens to be hanging out in your dining room chatting with your parents." The children's mouths hung open and none of them said anything for a few minutes.
"Ok...Well...Prove it!" Ron said skeptically. A smirk crept onto Jack's face.
"Alright. You asked for it." In one fluid motion, Jack lifted his staff above his head and slammed it onto the ground. Tendrils of floral frost reached out across the floor and covered the ancient wood in ice. Jack then cupped his hands together then tossed them into the air. Hundreds of tiny sparkling snowflakes began to fall lightly to the ground covering everything with a thin blanket of powdery white snow. Jack grasped his staff with one hand and put his other on his hip in triumph.
"Well…" He said smugly, "Do you believe me now?"