"The Chronicles of Fayt"
Chapter Ten: Child of Burning Time
Jason Black's POV
Hogwarts
Another day, another near death experience. Life as usual at Hogwarts. What a joy. Can you catch the sarcasm there? Well, at least I got some presents. That made up for it a little bit. A little. The team got me some gear, broom mataince kit, nice not Hogwarts owned pads and gloves. That was cool, I had some gear that was mine. Pretty cool. Hermione got me a book on Quidditch, the coolest and most ego boosting part? In the record book part, I was the youngest player on a semi-professional team! Hogwarts technically was a semi-professional league. Awesome! Other than that it was mostly a history of Quidditch, interesting in its own right but I was guilty of having James copy that one page and posting it on the Ravenclaw announcement board. Somebody then framed it and hung it on the wall under a plaque that said Famous Ravenclaws. Most of the other stuff there was Ravenclaws making medical and magical discoveries. Up there with them was me, the Amazing Jason Black. Cool.
James's gift was technically a large assortment of sweets and pranks. Under the table he gave me a rather… graphic... magazine. I cut out the worst pictures and put them all over his area of his dorm room. Take that pervert!
Neville was cool, his grandma bought me my very own owl at his request. He said that he'd watch her over summers for me because I wasn't allowed one at the orphanage. It was a snowy owl, white with black flecks of color. I named her Hedwig after the goddess. She arrived with several other owls and delivered a full supply of owl care stuff. Cage, food, food and water dishes. Pretty awesome present, I felt kind of bad accepting it, it seemed like he spent a lot of money but he said that it was okay because, well, he had a lot of money and if he spent if on something good then his parents wouldn't mind. I accepted it after he quietly mumbled the line about his parents. I'd feel bad if I didn't. He tricked me.
All in all, it was my most memorable birthday. Whether or not it counts as "great" is harder to answer. Friend almost getting killed by a troll, very, very, very bad. Best and most presents ever, very, very, very, awesome. Having a huge feast in my honor, very, very cool. Ron Weasley. Jerk. Flying with James, way fun in the, "I almost died again again again!" way. So, it's hard to say. Best and worst birthday? Maybe. Too many ups and downs to really say. I'll sum it up as really weird.
~!#$%^&*()_+
November 18, 1991
I rolled out of bed and frowned when I saw the rain coming down in heavy and loud sheets. Stupid rain was cold! Good thing those gloves and gear were naturally waterproof. Spells that made them warm or waterproof were illegal. Having leather gear and rubbing it with oil to make it repel water was uncommon but legal. HA! Take that rule book. I was glad James had found contacts that adjusted to my vision magically and wouldn't fly out at high speeds. My muggle ones wouldn't hold up to broom speeds. Plus, glasses would be hell in this weather. As dumb as he is, I love the guy. Especially when he does stuff like the contacts.
Anyway, I quickly ran through the shower and got dressed and went to the Common Room after I woke Neville up. I swear, if me and Hermione weren't on him about everything, he'd be bottom of the class, other than Crabbe and Goyle, the two buffoons in Slytherin, and late to his morning classes. Even if he remembered to do homework he'd fail because he'd forget it all, along with his textbooks.
I saw James was again using his Quidditch stories to pick up on girls. I shook my head. "Hey, James."
He threw me a glare that gave me the impression he didn't want to be interrupted. "What do you want half pint?"
"Game is in an hour and a half. Need to eat and warm up and stuff." I gave him an innocent look, he didn't believe me for some reason… I have no clue why though. Really, honest to god.
"Whatever. Go eat. I'll meet up with you in a couple of minutes." Sure you would… liar. Anyways, I listened and once Hermione came down we went off to go get food… food is always good. And tasty. I like food.
"Jason." Hermione was waving her hand in front of my face.
"Huh?"
"Are you even listening?"
"Uhh, no. I was thinking about food." I threw her a sheepish grin. "I like food."
"When most guys have a one track mind it's gross and perverted. You're just weird and slightly creepy. You truly scare me sometimes Jason. Really, you do." She gave me a really weird look and I grinned like a maniac. Her weirded-out-ness was interupted by entering the Great Hall. Food Hall. Food good. I went over to the table and loaded up on scrambled eggs. I shoveled the eggs in and then grabbed two pieces of toast and smeared on the jelly. I quickly ate that and then poured a huge goblet of orange juice. I chugged it and then sat back.
"Food." I grinned as Hermione gave me a disgusted look. "What? I'm a growing boy! I need lots of food. It's true. I need to stuff my face for fear of like, not growing." She shook her head and read her paper. "Anything interesting?"
"There is a new bill going before the Wizengamot-"
I cut her off. "I said interesting."
"The bill restricts werewolves! I will make it so that it is illegal for them to have children! That means that all werewolves will have to give up their kids and put them with family members or up for adoption."
"That's messed up. You hurt the kid. Take it from me. If the parents want the kid don't screw them over by taking the parents away for no reason." I stabbed at the sausage on my plate. "Sucks growing up like that. I still got my own family but you always wonder why you were such a screw up that they ditched you."
"You're not a screw up-"
"Listen, no matter how many times I've been told that and no matter how many friends I have, I still got dropped off. They couldn't even bother to leave a note with even a first name." I sounded bitter. I was. I sounded pissed. I was. "Only an idiot would pass that law. I'd rather have a werewolf for a parent and risk getting bitten or be bitten than grow up unwanted."
"I hope they see it like you do."
"I said idiots would pass the law. Look at Fudge."
~!#$%^&*()_+
I double checked all the straps on my brand new gear and made sure it was all snug but not too tight. Everything looked good and I grabbed my broom.
"Alright. Gryffindor will be harder to beat than Hufflepuff. Be ready for a tough match. They may be younger than us, well, some of us, they're all older than Jason. Anyway, their seeker is a relative wild card. They lost against Slytherin, the guy seemed average. Still, never underestimate an opponent." James looked at his chasers. "Ashley, me and you played against Spinnet and Johnson last year, and Marks graduated so they brought in a second year, Katie Bell. She's good, but we can beat her. One, we're all bigger than her. Two, we all have more experience than her. Johnson will be tougher, same with Spinnet. You all trained hard." He then looked at the Keeper and Beaters. "Block them. Knock them off their brooms. Do something for God's sake."
We all stood when James did and followed him outside, this time walking in time. It was cheesy, like one of those bad American Westerns when the gang of bandits walks out of the random dust cloud to meet up with the sheriffs for the gun fight. Once again on the unnoticeable queue we mounted up and did a lap of the field. We touched ground in the middle and again James tried to break the other team's captain's hand.
Hootch let the snitch go and threw the quaffle and again Ashley got early possession of the quaffle, barely too, the black chaser, Johnson, nearly knocked her off her broom. I again did lazy circles around the pitch and mostly kept an eye on the other seeker and had to dodge the bludgers the Gryffindors human bludgers knocked my way. They were all technically aimed at James, Ashley and Mike, but for some reason they happened to come my way.
It took about forty minutes for us to gain any semblance of a lead, and then we were only winning by twenty points. James was right when he said that Gryffindor fought harder, for being a younger team, they sure were putting up a fight. Really, the only reason we were winning is because our Chasers had better brooms than the Gryffindors. If we had equal equipment, well, we'd be tied. Mike's parents delivered and had gotten him a Comet 260, nicest Comet out there, the same broom Ashley had. Now James was the slowest Chaser much to his dismay.
Equipment aside, I had a snitch to find, we weren't going to get much more of a lead than now if the game kept going the way it was. I was supposed to wait for more of a lead, but whatever. We were still in the lead for the Quidditch Cup.
It took me another ten minutes to see the snitch, I leaned forward and jerked into a dive. The wind whistled in my ears and I pressed myself closer to the broom. I was about three inches away from the snitch when I was slammed off my broom and went flying forward. I hit the ground and rolled. My vision started to black out.
I felt something repeatedly pounding into me and I fought against it, tried to push it away. "HE'S NOT BREATHING!" Who wasn't breathing? Me? Then it occurred to me… I wasn't breathing. That can't be good. I rolled onto my stomach and started to heave, well, sort of. Nothing was coming out.
Something pounded into my back and whatever was stuck popped out onto the ground. I turned my head to the side when I saw it. The snitch? I'd been choking on the snitch? Maybe I'd get an award for being the only person to catch the snitch by almost getting killed by it.
"Dude… you were almost dying because you were choking on the snitch?" I picked up the small gold ball and held it up.
"Does this mean we won the game?" I heard the team laugh.
Madam Hootch spoke up. "Ravenclaw wins. Technically, you caught the snitch." She blew the whistle four times.
"Ravenclaw won?" I heard Lee Jordan over the speakers. "I thought Black almost died. Fred smacked him pretty hard with the bludger, what happened?" The crowed was cheering but not as much as the first time we won. I held up the snitch as James picked me up off the ground. My back was pretty sore. I didn't remember any bludger and I was missing about ten seconds… oh well. I guess we won… even if I didn't remember winning.
The cheering got louder once I'd gotten back on my feet and held up the snitch. The stands emptied and we were again rushed by the crowd. Neville and Hermione managed to fight through the crowd and people kept asking the same question- what had gone on to where we magically won the game?
"Alright! Quiet down!" People hushed… a little. "You wanna know what happened?" Some cheers. "So, I was going for the snitch, and all the sudden WHAM!" We started heading towards the lockers. "Next thing I know something keeps smacking my chest and I hear somebody yell that "He's not breathing!" I was really confused and then I realize, hey, they're talking about me!" People laughed at that. "So, I start like, trying to cough and somebody smacks me on the back and I cough it up. I was really confused when I saw the snitch lying on the ground."
"Wait… you swallowed the snitch?" Hermione was looking at me weird.
"Yeah! I guess when I got wailed on by the bludger I swallowed it." I laughed. "Anyway, I pick it up and ask if it means we won. Apparently, choking on snitches counts too." The people around me were laughing. The joking lasted until we reached the locker room and then most of the crowd left and then it was only the team.
"Jason." I turned to look at Ashley. "You okay? You hit the ground pretty hard and Fred Weasley has got an arm."
"Well, I'm sore but I'm pretty sure I've had worse."
"You blacked out for closer to a minute, that's serious." It'd been a while since somebody had really paid that close of attention to me. It was weird.
"I'm fine, really."
She looked at me skeptically. "Have one of them look at your back. You got hit pretty hard." Back at the orphanage you were pretty much on your own, her pushing me to get help was a little bit odd, back at home if you said you were okay than that was that.
"Alright…" I wasn't overly concerned, like I'd said, I'd had worse. Ashley walked off and I went to go get changed into regular clothes and take a quick shower, I was covered in mud from my crash on the pitch. I went to my locker and grabbed my clothes before heading to the showers. I pulled off my robes and threw them into the hamper for the House Elves to clean along with my pants, shirt and socks. I kept my boxers… I wasn't big on being naked around other guys. Nope, not a big fan at all.
"Jason…" I turned to look at Mike.
"What?"
"Dude, you got a massive bruise on your back. Like, enormously large. It's all black… that's got to be hurting you."
"Well, a little bit."
"A little?" Mike looked at me like I was nuts. "I'd be curled in a little ball crying man. Have Pomfrey give you a bruise paste thing. Helps them heal faster."
"I'm not big on hospitals." My voice rose a bit in panic. "I'll deal with it."
Mike snorted as I turned the water on hot. "You're terrified of hospitals?"
"Of course not!" I paused and stared at the wall. "I just would rather avoid the hospital by all means necessary."
"Dude!" James walked into the showers. "Wicked bruise there little man. Too bad you're gonna suffer through it. Last time you were forced into the hospital you broke the doctor's nose and almost pushed an orderly down two flights of stairs when you woke up in a panic." James laughed as he turned on his own shower. "What is with you and hospitals anyway? You have this weird phobia or something."
"They smell like dead people." I shuddered despite the heat of the water.
"The hospital smells like dead people?" Mike looked at me like I was nuts. Maybe I am.
"Yup. It just smells like dead people. Don't ask me why it smells like dead people, it just does."
"Jason hates the doctor too. The doctor reminds him of the hospital which terrifies him."
"I am not scared of the hospital. I just don't like dead people." Really, I'm not afraid of the hospital. I swear. Scout's honor.
James laughed. "He will never admit his strange fear of hospitals. Because in Jason's twisted and warped little mind, going into a full scale panic attack and needing to be subdued by drugs because he was a danger to everyone around him and himself does not mean he is terrified of hospitals."
"Can we like, not talk about hospitals?" I felt a little sick to my stomach. "I don't feel too good."
"Ha, I think he's about to puke." James laughed more. "Try not to puke on me, please. I just got all nice and clean."
"You're an ass. Shut up." I felt cold even though the water pounding my chest was hot.
"Aww. Come on lil' man. It's all good. I'm just messing with you." James tried to look innocent. Key word: Tried.
"I'm outta here." I reached forward and turned off the water. "Too much talk about hospitals." I shuddered at the word. "I'll see you in the Common Room." I turned as James laughed again and quickly dressed back in the currently abandoned area of the locker room. I was toweling my hair dry when Mike walked in with a towel slung around his waist.
"So." He started. "Hospitals? Kind of a dumb thing to be afraid of. Especially when you got a huge bruise on your back. Sucks man."
"I'll live. I'd rather heal the normal way than go to the Hospital Wing." Like I said, I'll live. Better deal with a little pain than deal with the Hospital Wing. I waved good bye before I walked out of the locker room, Nimbus in hand. I pulled up my hood and quickly jogged back to the castle. By the time I got back my breath was coming in quick gasps and my back was burning with each breath.
"Jason?" Ashley was at the far end of the Entrance Hall. "Are you alright?"
I clenched my jaw and managed to hiss out a sentence past the pain. "Does is look like I'm alright?"
Her forehead scrunched up. "Come on, follow me." She grabbed my upper arm and started to lead me through the halls. I wasn't sure where we were going; I hadn't really been to this part of the castle. We reached a big set of double doors and she opened one. I looked inside then back pedaled.
"You know what? I feel fine." I tried to pull away but that didn't work out so well as she had a pretty good grip on me. "Really, I'm great. Doesn't hurt at all. I'm just a little tired, I should probably go lay down in the dorms…"
"Jason, what's your problem? It's just the hospital wing…"
"I'm not a big fan of hospitals. Maybe we should just go, I'll be fine." I was starting to hyperventilate and that hurt. Hurt real bad.
"What's going on?" A woman dressed in an old fashion nurses outfit walked out of the partially open door.
"Nothing!" I answered quickly. "Nothing at all!"
"You're the seeker than passed out after you got hit with the bludger, you need to come inside. By the time I got the message there was a hurt player and got to the pitch you'd run off. Not a very wise move young man." She moved forward to grab my other arm and I took off in a dead sprint. You'd be surprised at how much of an adrenaline rush terror gives you. For how strong Ashley's grip had been I jerked out of it pretty easily. I somehow managed to end up in front of the Common Room entrance after by blind rush ended. I gasped out the answer and all but jumped into the Common Room. I slammed the door shut and leaned against it as I gasped for breath.
I looked up and noticed all the people looking at me rather oddly. "Jason…" Hermione asked slowly. "What's going on?"
"Demon woman tried to kill me." I was still breathing hard and my eyes were jerking wildly around the Common Room. "They tried to make me go to the hospital wing. I barely managed to get away." People were really giving me weird looks now.
"Demon woman?" I nodded. "Who's the demon woman?" Hermione was looking at me like I was nuts.
"Demon woman in the hospital wing, tried to kidnap me. Almost made me go into the hospital wing. She tried to kill me." Neville grabbed my arm and made me sit in a chair.
"Madam Pomfrey isn't that bad mate." I wasn't sure who made that comment, whoever it was is crazy. Damn demon woman tried to kill me. I know it. The Common Room door banged open and I jumped and turned around. It was just James, Mike and Ashley.
"Hey man, heard you got dragged all the way to the doors of hell before you made your escape." I nodded. "Well, now you know where the portal to your doom is." James laughed at me. Jerk.
"Demon woman tried to kill me. I could see it in her eyes."
"Demon woman?" James gasped out between bouts of laughter. "Better not say that when she's around. She really might try and kill you. Who knows, maybe you got the right idea about hospitals."
"Laugh now…" I muttered darkly.
"Would somebody try and explain what's going on?" Neville looked confused.
"Well, the midget over there had a bad experience at the animal hospital when he was five. Ever since then he had been terrified of all hospitals. You see, we had a dog that we were feeding and he got hit by a car. We carried him to a dog hospital and he died. Jason was convinced that they killed our dog." James paused, "Now all nurses and doctors are out to kill him."
"Yup. Pure evil. Stupid places smell like dead people because of all the people they kill." I looked around. "Demon woman is probably going to come after me. I know it."
"She probably will." James sat down on a couch. "She is pretty relentless." As if on cue the door opened and in walked the demon woman and Dumbledore.
"Mr. Black, it seems you've managed to avoid the nurse." I took one horrified look at the two and my eyes bugged out. I paused for about half a second before I vaulted over the back of my chair, knocking it over backwards in the process and ran up the stairs to my dorm. My fears were confirmed. The demon woman was after me.
~!#$%^&*()_+
James Thompson's POV
Hogwarts
I watched as Jason fled the room in a panic. "Hey, Professor Dumbledore! What brings you to our Common Room this fine afternoon?"
"Mr. Black. Any reason he left?"
I looked thoughtful. "Other than his phobia of hospitals, doctor's offices, doctors and nurses? Not much really."
"He doesn't like hospitals?"
"Doesn't like? Tried almost killed an orderly by almost pushing him down stairs in his panic and trying to get out. It took two huge guys pinning him down and the muggle equivalent of a calming draught to calm him down." I grinned at the memory. Good times, good times.
"I take it that's why he has so far avoided medical attention?" Dumbledore had a grin on his face as his eyes twinkled more than usual.
"Yup. He's probably upstairs muttering about evil psycho nurses trying to murder him. He gets all weird and twitchy when he has an episode. Freaky, really." I cocked my head to the side. "Come to think of it, he kind of talks to himself. Jason is a little freak, mental."
"I see. Is there any way we could persuade him to drink a potion or receive medical attention?"
"Yeah, he's cool if it's Ms. Stanford or something. If it wasn't a trained professional he's cool with it. His psychosis is limited to those within the medical profession." Jason is so weird.
"So, say if Professor Snape was to come up here…?" Dumbledore asked.
"He wouldn't think Snape was out to kill him even if the rest of the school thinks he is."
"That's Professor Snape Mr. Thompson." Dumbledore was grinning. I don't think he's very angry. Nope. Don't think so at all.
"Sure it is." I grinned at him.
Dumbledore laughed. "Send somebody to try and reason with him. Poppy, let's get Severus and send him up so Mr. Black can get some medical treatment. Any is better than none." With that a very angry "Poppy" and a smiling Dumbledore left.
"So." I looked at the gathered people. "Anybody want to talk to psycho boy?" Nobody volunteered. "Jeeze, don't all jump at once. I'll talk with the little freaky man I guess."
~!#$%^&*()_+
God, the freaky bit at the end is a midly exaggerated tale. My friend Heather got hit by a car when she was like, ten? Anyway, she was unconscious and brought into the hospital and woke up and like, panicked. She swung her arm, which was in a cast, and bashed the doctor in the face. She broke his nose and tried to run but two guys caught her and she was drugged into submission. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, I know what you're all thinking. My friends are freaks. And, yes, they are. But so am I. It's all good.
Okay, Jason's revenge for the "graphic" magazine is a true story. Sort of. My brother and his friends broke into their friend's truck and put a bunch of gay porn in there. Great really. It was his friend's eighteenth birthday for the record.
The food part is also true. Jessie (friend of mine) is in love with food. Seriously. We go into the cafeteria for food and he starts just like, staring at the food. He really scares us sometimes. Jessie is possibly the weirdest guy alive.
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