In the weeks that followed the 'Is it Quirrell or Snape' debate, Harry, Ron and Hermione were surprised to see that although Quirrell seemed to be getting thinner and more jumpy, he didn't seem to have cracked yet.

Jack kept saying that it was because he was the one who was doing all this, but the three still thought that it was Snape.

Every time they passed the third floor corridor, they listened in to see if Fluffy was still there and were pleased to hear that he was.

Snape meanwhile was still going around in his everlasting bad mood as usual.

Harry had started giving Quirrell a brave smile whenever he passed him in the corridors, while Ron started telling people off for laughing at his stutter.

Jack wanted no part in it and spent most of his time with Elisa telling her some stories of his life with his family/friends.

After the most recent story, about how after a fight with someone, Sandy had gone into a coma but came back a few weeks later, Elisa said she would like to meet them.

"They sound really nice, and what you said about them always looking out for kids, and I would like to thank them for taking you in," she said when Jack asked why.

"They might look out for kids, but they're not really all that good with them," Jack said grinning remembering when Sophie came to Bunny's Warren.

"I'd still like to meet and get to know them, rather than see them for their visits here for the Quidditch matches. Maybe I can come over during Easter, or Summer?" Elisa asked.

"Easter's not a good time, Aster gets really... huffy around that holiday," Jack said looking out the window "But I'll see about Summer."

Baby Tooth was whizzing around in a bit of a state when Elisa left and squeaking loudly and really fast.

"Baby what's wrong? She's just a friend. Yes she's a girl, but so are you and your sisters and Tooth. I can have one more female friend you know," Jack said trying to calm her down.

Huffing, her feathers ruffled, Baby Tooth choose not to speak to Jack for the rest of the day.

o0o

Hermione, however had more on her mind then the Philosophers Stone. She had begun writing up revision timetables, color-coding all her notes, and insisting the boys did so as well.

"Hermione the exams are ages away," Ron said one time after she told them for the who-knows-how-many time.

"10 weeks!" Hermione snapped "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicholas Flamel."

"Yeah but we're not 600 years old," Ron said rolling his eyes "We're not even 300 years old."

Jack had to hold back loud bawls of laughter and any comments that were flying in his head as Ron said that.

"Besides what are you revising for?" the red head asked "You already know it all."

"What am I revising for?" Hermione asked "Are you mad? You do realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year. They're very important. I should have started weeks ago I don't know what's got into me..."

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to have the same idea as Hermione and started piling up the homework, meaning the Easter Holidays weren't nearly as fun as the Christmas ones were.

Although Jack, Fred, George and Peeves did try to lighten the mood from time to time – mostly by pranking bullies, Slytherins and or Filch.

o0o

One afternoon, Jack unfortunately couldn't get away from Hermione fast enough and was with her, Harry and Ron in the library trying to get though all the extra work.

"I'll never remember any of this..." Ron whined throwing down his quill and looking out the window longingly.

It was the first very fine day they had in months, the sun was shining, there were white puffy clouds in the sky and there was a feeling of summer in the air.

"My old parents used to say try and make a game out of stuff like this," Jack said who had just finished making a paper football and flicked it onto his astronomy work where it landed on Jupiter and he started listing the moons.

Liking this idea, Harry took a go flicking the paper football onto his opened book of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi where it landed on 'Dittany' so he started looking that up.

He had just pulled the book towards him however when Ron said "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid shuffled into view hiding something behind his back.

"Just lookin'," he said innocently "An' what are you all doing here? You ain't still looking up Nicholas Flamel are ya?"

"Oh we found out about him ages ago," Ron said beaming.

"Yeah and would have done sooner if Hermione thought of looking in the book she checked out of the library," Jack muttered making her blush.

"And we know what that dog's guarding," Ron said as if not hearing Jack "It's a Philos-"

"Shh..." Hagrid said clapping his hand over Ron's mouth and looking around to see if anyone was listening "Don't go shouting about it. What's the matter with ye?"

"We'd like to ask you a few questions as a matter of fact," Harry said "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy."

"SHHH!" Hagrid said again, again looking around "Listen – come to me hut later, I'm not promising I'll tell ya anythin' mind, but don't go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren't s'pposed to know. They'll think I told yeh –"

"Well you kinda did, OW!" Jack said as Hermione kicked him and gave him a small glare.

"See you later, then," said Harry as Hagrid shuffled off.

"What do you think he was hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked thoughtfully.

"I'm going to see what section he was in," Ron said getting up, having enough of work.

A minute later he came back and set a pile of books on the table all about dragons.

"Dragons" he whispered "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland, From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keepers Guide."

Jack was looking the books over not seeing the one book he thought would be there, then again it was a very old book.

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry said.

"But it's against our laws," Ron said "Dragon-breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709,everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing if we're keeping dragons in our back garden – anyway you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off the wild ones in Romania."

"Of course you can tame them," Jack said as Ron finished his speech "You just have to show them respect, and show you're not a threat. I had a friend a few years back who's town was always being raided by dragons, so the people always fought them to defend it. But then my Friend stepped up and showed them that they could train the Dragons to leave them alone. He even wrote a book about how to train dragons, however I'm not seeing it in this pile here."

Harry, Ron and Hermione were staring at Jack with wide eyes, Ron more than the others sure if this 'Dragon Training' thing was possible he'd have heard it from Charlie.

Coming back to here and Harry asked "But there aren't any wild dragons in Britain right?"

"Of course there are," Ron replied "Common Welsh Green and Herbridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our lot have to keep putting spells on Muggles that have seen them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" Hermione asked.


When they went to Hagrid's hut later that afternoon, Jack, feeling the heat coming from the inside from the other side of the door said he'll wait out here, reminding them he didn't do well in warm places.

While the three of them were in there questioning Hagrid about the Stone and the supposed Dragon Egg, Jack went for a walk around the edge of the forest.

As he rounded the trees, he came across a medium sized paddock and saw a family of strange looking bat-pony horses, that looked like a walking black skeleton of a horse with bat-like wings.

Looking around to check no one was there, Jack carefully let himself into the paddock and went to the stallion, thinking if he could become friends with him then the mare and the foal accept him too.

"Hey bud," Jack said holding out his hand at arm's length keeping eye contact.

After huffing, flapping his wings and stomping his hooves a little the stallion looked Jack over and gave him a questioning look.

Jack guessed that he could tell something wasn't right with him.

Slowly Jack backed up and looked around again.

Turning back to the stallion, he made a snowflake appear in the palm of his hand and the ground around him to get covered in frost.

The foal, having only been born a few days ago, came over to see what this new cold stuff was, while Jack tried to get the stallion to accept him again.

Watching his foal like this Frost Child's artwork, the stallion pressed his snout into Jacks hand, saying he accepted him, making Jack smile.

"So, I see you found a few of the school's Thestrals, Jack," a voice said from the shadows, making Jack jump a little and turn to see Pitch there.

"Thestrals?" Jack asked never hearing of these before, or if he had he couldn't remember.

"They're a very rare and considered 'dangerous' breed of winged horse, only visible to those who have witnessed Death." Pitch explained coming over to gently pet the mare.

"Then what are they doing here?" Jack asked accepting the answer trying not to think of all the deaths he had seen, especially Sandy's.

"They, and the rest of the herd that are hidden in the forest, pull the carriages set out for the second years to seventh years." Pitch said calmly.

Jack nodded to say he heard the answer.

"Jack?!" they heard Harry calling out.

Sighing, Jack said goodbye to the Thestrals and Pitch and went back to the others, who upon seeing him went into repeating all what Hagrid had just told them.

"He lives in a wooden house and he expects to raise a fire-breathing lizard with wings?" Jack asked in a hushed voice as they entered the Great Hall and had a late lunch.

"Yep," Ron said helping himself to bread "I wonder what it's like to have a normal, peaceful life."

"Very boring," Jack said in reply, slipping some mini chocolate chip cookies for Baby Tooth.


AN: For those who want to know/couldn't figure it out, the 'friend' Jack talks about in the library is Hiccup from HTTYD

And Baby Tooth got the way she did after the part with Elisa because she's jealous.