Chapter 5

Explanations

A silence had fallen upon the hall. And the first one to speak was no other that Severus Snape. "This is not fair," he declared. "Potter is still alive."

The figure now known as Harry Potter looked at him with his piercing green eyes. "Ah!" he said. "You must be professor Severus Snape. It's a pleasure, I'm sure."

"Harry!" Ginny called as she was making her way towards him.

He now focused his eyes upon her and smiled. "Ah, and then there is she, who he loves most." He laughed silently.

"You are not Harry Potter!" All the students turned in the direction of the voice, but Cedric had only eyes for the figure.

"Cedric Diggory?" the fake Harry asked. Cedric nodded and the fake Harry smiled. "He'll be pleased to know you're alive."

The figure started to glow and after a blinding flash of light that left everyone blinking, a new person took the place of Harry James Potter. His hair was flaming red and spiked. The tips of his spikes were blond and his skin was tinted brown. His eyes were glowing red, but still held a yellowy colour. He wasn't too long, but seemed very short for his age. He was dressed, from head to foot, in black, with an occasional flame.

"Who are you?" Ginny demanded and everyone seemed to agree. Fawkes let out a soft note and the mysterious man smiled.

Then he bowed. "Captain Jack, pioneer from the planet Rex and flame thrower, at your service." And he smiled his most charming smile.

Dumbledore coughed politely and everyone now focused on him. "Students! Will you please return to your dormitories? Ginny and Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and Cedric Diggory, please accompany me to the room next to the Hall. Prefects guide the first years to the dormitories.

Mary Higgins, Simon Peterson," the two seventh years in question seemed surprised to be singled out by the headmaster, but didn't complain. "If you will guide the first years of Gryffindor towards the Gryffindor tower. I'm afraid Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley will be busy. Teachers please make sure no one gets lost. Captain Jack,"

Jack looked up from where he was staring at the ground. "Oh am I being noticed again?"

Dumbledore smiled, but he had lost his twinkle. "If you'd please follow us." He turned and walked towards the side door. Jack smiled.

Cedric walked in the room on the other side of the Hall. "Last time I was here, I was entering the Tournament."

Ginny, Ron and Hermione walked in behind him, sharing a look of curiosity and worry. "What do you make of him?" Ginny whispered, glancing behind her to see if Dumbledore and Jack were already following them.

"I don't know," Hermione said and Ron just struggled his shoulders. "I've never heard of the planet Rex or of a flame thrower." The four of them took a seat.

"I would have been surprised if you had." Jack walked into the room and dropped himself in one of the chairs. "Not many people know of the time and space lords, so who would know about an element ruler. I would have laughed if you knew about a low placed flame thrower."

"But why did you take the form of Harry?" Ginny asked. "It's not very respectful to walk around in a dead mans body."

He smiled at her in a charming way, but she just scrolled at him. "Spoilsport. I'll tell you. It was his idea, so don't be mad at me."

"You mean Harry Potter is still alive?" Dumbledore seemed surprised for once and it affected the mood in the room a bit.

"Alive and, well I can't really say he's alright since he's got this big burn-mark on the side of his face and that lightning scar's not the most charming thing on his face. Very into himself too, not very good to keep all that anger bottled up inside. But he's doing a good job on those Death Eaters." Jack grinned from ear to ear. "Oh and he's probably fighting the Hornscrew right now."

Hermione frowned. "What's a Hornscrew?"

Jack laughed. "This he should have heard. He said you knew everything. Cheers," he raised the glass a little in toast, while Dumbledore continued to remain quiet. The fact that he remained quiet seemed to unnerve all four of them, but he just smiled.

"If you don't mind, I have a few things to arrange." Then he left the room. The four students shared a look.

"Don't worry, he just needs to inform the rest and he has placed a bug in the room so he knows what's going on." The fire thrower seemed to enjoy this immensely and threw back his glass.

"But to come to the point, we have business to discuss. A Hornscrew is the creature you saw tonight. This was a female by the way the male looks completely different. But that's beside the point; they use the wings to fly as well as to defend themselves.

The female is red with black wings and the male is blue with white wings. We usually say; 'They're like fire and ice'. But the Hornscrew thanks its name because of the horn on their heads. They make holes in the mountains, where they sleep, eat and mate. Get it?"

The four of them were staring at Jack as if he were some kind of alien or something. He had spoken so fast that it had been almost impossible to follow it. But I said almost.

Hermione nodded, Cedric seemed to wrestle with the information to put it in order and Ginny struggled a bit with her shoulders. Ron just looked lost, but then again he always did.

"Can you just tell us what happened to Harry and slowly this time," he said with a pained expression on his face.

"Why don't you just ask him yourself?" Jack asked. He lifted himself from his chair and walked around the room. He seemed to be unable to sit still for so long. Even though it hadn't been that long.

Ginny fought the urge to throw something at him, merely because she couldn't find anything to throw at him. "Well, he's not here is he? So how can we ask? And since you took the shape of Harry only minutes ago, we assume that you know Harry."

"Ah ha!" Jack said and he turned towards her. He pointed one of his fingers in her direction with an eager expression on his face. "But how do you know that? How do you know I've met Harry Potter? I could've just stolen his body and took his form after I ate him, or something." Jack raised his hands in defence as four wands pointed in his direction.

"Because you wouldn't do such a thing," Ginny answered as she put away her wand. "Because you saved us from that Hornscrew. If you had eaten Harry Potter, than you would have wanted to eat us too and not save us. Plus you said that Harry said some things too you, and he would have only told you those things if he really trusted you.

And no-," Ginny continued as Jack opened him mouth for another comment. "-He wouldn't tell you anything of those things under torture."

Jack grinned, showing his white and pointy teeth. "You are very clever."

Ginny blushed at the comment and took her seat again. The others also took their seats and waited patiently for Jack to continue his story.

Jack took another walk around the room, taking in every detail, until he returned to his seat by the fireplace. "I met Harry Potter about one and a half months ago. He looked like he had just went through hell and back." Jack shivered, a reflex that didn't seem to suet him at all. "I'll never forget the look on his face."

He shook his head, snapping out of the daydream he had been in, as Ginny laid a hand on his arm. He grinned. "Where was I?

So, I met him and he was half conscious. His face was full of blisters, red and raw. He seemed to find our meeting funny, because the first time he laid his eyes on me, he smiled and fainted. Not a real mans man is he?" Ron and Cedric laughed silently and the girls just rolled their eyes. Hermione slapped Ron on the arm and Ginny shot Cedric a killing glance.

"Anyway, I couldn't just leave him there, so I took him in. Nursed him back to health, sat at his bed everyday, talking to him while he was crying himself to sleep. Not a pretty site to see." He sighted and stared into the fire. "But he's okay now. And he's rounding up the Death Eaters, so that's a good sign."

The four of them took on surprised looks. "What? You didn't suspect he'd be lying around did you?"

Ron and Hermione rolled their eyes. "He wouldn't be Harry if he would just sit around all day," Ron said. "But from what I read in the papers… it just sound like really advanced stuff."

Jack smiled. "If it helps and I'm sure it won't, but I think that what ever happened and what ever saved him is still in his body."

A/N: I love Jack; he's one of my favourite characters. That I made him up just proves that I'm really crazy. So I gave you guys another piece of the puzzle. Don't worry; Harry will be back in the next chapter.