The next day, Jack was pleased to see that Malfoy was shocked to see that he, Ron and Harry were still at the school.
Wanting revenge on Malfoy for nearly getting him and his friends kicked out, Jack went looking for Fred and George Weasley.
"My dear friends, I need your help with a prank..." he said in a hushed seeing there were others there too.
"You need our help?" Fred asked surprised "After everything you did in your book?"
"Come now, you couldn't possibly think I did every single one of those pranks alone do you?" Jack asked rolling his eyes and pulling a list out telling the twins what Malfoy tried last night.
"So I have made a list of possible pranks we can pull on him as pay back," Jack said finishing remembering he needed to tell Peeves why he was there 'That can wait.' he thought.
'Glue and feathers
Dye his hair blue
Snatch his robes while he is in the shower
Put 'Hair fall out' potion in his drink
Move him from his bed to the front lawn while he's sleeping'
"Of course we may need help with some things, one of them being the whereabouts is the Slytherin common room and it's password," Jack said "Other things, I'm sure I can call in a few favors to April and she will give me the tools." he said looking more at the blue dye and the hair fall out potion.
"As long as we get back at that snooty brat," George said, Fred nodding, both looking over the tables at Malfoy "No one tries to get our brother out of this school and gets away with it."
.
When Jack was done with them, he came to sit with Harry and Ron where Harry was telling Ron about something that had been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, it sounded like.
"It's either really valuable, or really dangerous," Ron said thinking.
"Or both..." Harry agreed.
"Even so coming across that three headed dog was kinda cool right?" Jack said getting agreements from Ron and Harry.
"Speak for yourself," Neville who was on the other side of the table said "I don't want to come across that thing ever again."
"Come on we gotta get to class," Jack said stuffing some toast into his mouth before leaving almost bumping into Hermione who to Jack liking, seeing that she was a bossy know-it-all, didn't speak to him.
About a week later, Jack had told Fred and George that he should be expecting a package from April with all the necessities for the pranks they wanted to pull on Malfoy.
Just as he was finished saying that, the owls flooded into the Great Hall and everyone's eyes were on two long thin packages each carried by 6 large screech owls.
One came to Harry and the other came to Jack a letter arriving soon after, and Jack getting a medium sized parcel which he gave to the twins while he read the letter.
'DO NOT OPEN THE PACKAGE AT THE TABLE
It contains your new Snow Flurry 68 but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one too.
Oliver Wood will meet you and Harry Potter tonight on the Quidditch pitch clock for your first training session
Professor M. McGonagall.
Grinning wide, Jack looked over to Harry wondering what sort of broom he had got.
"Gotta head up and stow this away until this evening," Jack told the twins taking April's parcel too "See you later."
Just as Jack was getting up he saw Ron and Harry get up too.
"Hey Harry, Ron, wait up!" he called catching up with them then lowering his voice "So what you get?"
"A Nimbus 2000," Harry replied "You?"
"Snow Flurry 68"
They looked to Ron with questioning looks wondering what the differences were when they come across Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
Malfoy snatching the two long packages away from Jack and Harry.
"Those are broomsticks," he said giving them back "You'll be out this time Potter, Frost, first-years aren't allowed them."
"Well for your information, Malfoy, mine happens to be a Snow Flurry 68, and Harry's is a Nimbus 2000," Jack said never feeling this proud of anything since he became a Guardian.
"Yeah Malfoy, what did you say you had? A Comet 260?" Ron asked stepping forwards as well "Comets look flashy but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus, or the Snow Flurry."
"How would you know Weasley? You couldn't afford half the handle!" Malfoy said fiercely "I bet you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig?"
Getting mad, Jack was about to pull out his wand to freeze Malfoy in place when little Professor Flitwick came over.
"Not fighting are you boys?" he asked looking between them.
"Frost and Potter have both been sent broomsticks Professor," Malfoy said grinning.
"That's right," Flitwick said nodding turning to Jack and Harry "Professor McGonagall told me all the special circumstances. What might they be?"
"I got a Nimbus 2000 sir, and Jack has a Snow Fury 68," Harry said smirking at Malfoy's face which held utter shock "And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I got mine to be honest."
The three of them ran upstairs laughing at Malfoy's face that held shock and fury.
"What do you mean it was cause of Malfoy you got that broom?" Jack asked curious.
"He tried to steal Neville's Remembrall and I flew after him and got it back," Harry said "So if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have gotten on the team."
"Huh, funny how helpful Neville is isn't it?" Jack said grinning.
"You're bringing Neville into your little gang to break rules?" an angry voice said behind them making them turn to see Hermione coming up the stairs a disapproving look on her face.
"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" Harry said.
"Yes don't stop now," Ron agreed.
"Yeah it's doing us so much good," Jack said "Oh and Hermione, a little tip... You should learn to keep your nose out of other people's business."
"I can say the same think to you, Jack," Hermione said pointing to Baby Tooth who was hiding in Jack's Pocket.
Jack just glared at her as Hermione left, needing to catch Baby Tooth to stop her from attacking Hermione.
"It's ok Baby, if she wants to be like that fine, but I need you to look after April's parcel for me. Can you do that?"
Humphing a little towards Hermione's direction, Baby nodded.
With that the boys headed for Gryffindor Tower where Jack and Harry stashed their parcels and then with Ron rushed to their first lesson.
Jack had a lot of difficulty paying attention that day.
His mind kept sneaking off to the Quidditch pitch and looking forwards to that night where he would get to fly the air again Wind by his side to catch him if he started to fall, which he hopped wouldn't happen.
That night, after rushed dinner and running up to get their brooms, Jack and Harry went to the pitch.
"You ever heard about how to play Quidditch before?" Harry asked on the way there.
"Nope," Jack said holding his broom as if it were his staff "I doubt you have either, right?" he asked.
"I don't even get to watch football," Harry said looking gloomy "The Dursley's only have me because I'm related to them. They don't like me that much."
"At least you had a roof over your head and people who knew you were there," Jack said thinking about his years alone before he became a Guardian.
Soon they were at the pitch and inside the stadium where they saw hundreds of seats in raised stands around the pitch so spectators could see what was going on, and at either end there were 3 tall golden hoops.
Both too eager to fly to wait for Wood, Jack and Harry got onto their brooms and started flying around and challenging each other with skills, Jack telling the Wind to let him do it on his own so it would be fair.
"Hey Potter, Frost, come down!"
Oliver Wood had arrived and he was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm.
"Race ya!" Jack said to Harry and they shot to the ground landing next to Oliver, none of them getting hurt.
"Very nice," Wood said grinning "I see what McGonagall and Hooch were saying about both of you. Potter, you're a natural, and Frost it looked as if you belonged up there."
"Thanks," they said together, Jack getting his hair ruffled a little by the Wind.
"I'm just going to teach you the rules tonight, then both of you will join the rest of the team for practice three times a week." Wood said opening the crate revealing four balls.
"Right, now Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it isn't all that easy to play. There are 7 people on each side, 3 of them are called Chasers," he said taking out the red football sized one and giving it to Jack "This ball's called the Quaffle, you and the other two chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try to get it through one of those three hoops to score a goal, ten points for each goal. Follow me?"
"3 Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and put it through the hoops to score," Jack said throwing and catching the Quaffle to test it's weight.
"So that's like basketball on broomsticks and 6 hoops then?" Harry asked.
"What's basketball?" Wood asked.
"It's a Muggle sport where they bounce a ball around and try to get it into a hoop to earn points," Jack said.
"Well then other than the bouncing, yes, it is like that," Wood said carrying on with the lesson "The Keeper, that's me, defends the hoops and try to stop the other team from scoring."
Getting nods from the two, Wood asked for the Quaffle back and put it away and handed them each, in Jack's opinion, what looked like a rounders bat.
"I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do, these two are the Bludgers," telling them, pointing to two balls struggling against chains trying to get out. Telling Jack and Harry to step back Wood let one out.
It shot high up into the air and the flew straight at Harry who whacked it sending it across the field, soon it came back and this time Jack hits it sending it to fly through one of the goal posts.
"Not bad you two, you're both pretty fair beaters," just then the ball came back and smacked into Oliver's chest making him fall to the ground and wrestle it back into the crate strapping it down.
"What was that?" Harry asked amazed.
"A Bludger," he said "They rocket around trying to knock players off their brooms, which is why we have 2 Beaters on each side. The Weasley twins are ours. It's their job to try and knock them towards the other team."
"Have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Jack asked curious.
"Never at Hogwarts," Wood said "We've had a few broken jaws and bones but nothing worse than that. Now Potter. You are the last player, the Seeker, and you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers –"
"- unless they crack my head open," Harry butted in.
"Don't worry, Fred and George are more than a match for the Bludgers – I mean they're a bit like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."
Jack snorted at that grinning and agreeing to that.
Wood reached into the crate and pulled out the last ball, a small golden walnut sized one that unfurled a pair of silver wings.
"This, it the Golden Snitch and it's very small and very fast," Wood explained to both of them "And it's the Seeker's job to catch it and that earn his side an extra 150 points, because a game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch has been caught, so it can go on for ages – I think the record is 3 months, they had to keep bringing substitutes so the players can get some rest."
"It took 3 months for one of the two Seekers to catch that thing?" Jack asked not believing this.
"Yep," Wood said putting the Snitch away "Any questions?"
Jack and Harry shook their heads.
"We won't practice with the snitch tonight, it's too dark, we might lose it, so instead we'll try these," Wood said pulling out a back of golf balls "And then Frost you and I will see how good you are at scoring goals while I play Keeper."
Nodding in understanding, the three of them got onto their brooms and took off, Jack staying to the side while Oliver threw the balls to Harry in random places – Harry not missing one.
Next Jack had the Quaffle out and they were up by the posts, Jack on one side, throwing the ball through them, Wood in the middle defending, and Harry on the other side to catch it and give it back to Jack – Jack scored almost every time.
'All those snowball fights probably' he said to himself grinning.
Soon it had gotten too dark for them to carry on and they were heading back to the school.
"I tell ya that cup will have our name on it this year," Wood said grinning "I wouldn't be surprised, Potter, if you turned out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons. And Frost, I must say you have some skills there with your throwing."
"Lots of practice I guess," Jack said shrugging a small grin on his face as he looked up to the moon and then "Hey Wood, can we invite family to watch Hogwarts Quidditch matches?"
"As long as you give the teachers a bit of warning that they're coming," Oliver said nodding.
Grinning the first thing Jack did when he got to the dormitory was write a letter to the Guardians inviting them to come, giving the date of the match and the time, and gave it to Baby Tooth seeing she'll be faster and was there and Archie wasn't.
Once she was gone Jack got into his pj's and went to sleep.
