Jack was wondering about on the seventh floor, thinking hard about where to practice. Umbridge had soon put up are rule about not forming any organisations and if any were found out, they would get expelled.
Too harsh, Jack thought. Since they had the day off today, Jack wore his own clothes, being the usual blue hoodie but North had packed him some blue jeans and black trainers since he couldn't go around barefoot. On his way around the floor, he saw Crabbe and Goyle picking on some first years. Rolling his eyes, he walked up to them and tapped Goyle on the back.
"Do you have somewhere else you need to be?" he asked.
Crabbe and Goyle turned around and were about to make a snarky comment but when they saw that it was Jack, they gave nervous smiles and a wave. Crabbe even patted the first year boy on the head before running off quickly along with Goyle.
The first years looked up at Jack gratefully. "Thank you Jack!" one of them said.
"No problem kiddos," Jack said with a smile as he watched them head off. Looking at these kids really made him miss the kids in Burgess, especially Jamie. How he longed to have a snowball fight with them. But oh well, he had other things to focus on now. As he continued to walk down the hallway, he was thinking and thinking of somewhere good to practice. As he walked past a large space of the stone wall, he heard a sort of creaking noise and the sound that Sandy made when conjuring dream sand. He looked to the wall and to his surprise, he saw a large wooden door with black metal that were curled into patterns, forming on the wall.
Soon, the door was created and it opened to reveal a huge room but it had mirrors on the walls and a huge fireplace at the end of the room. It almost looked like a training room. A huge grin spread across his face as he realized how useful this room could be.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jack had instantly sprinted back to the common room to tell his five friends and they all followed Jack back to the door as soon as he broke the news. Soon, they were all standing in the room, gazing around in wonder.
"Well done Jack. You've found the Room of Requirement," Hermione said.
"The what?" Star asked, scratching the side of her head.
"The Room of Requirement. The room only appears when a person has real need of it" Hermione replied.
"So like if you really needed the toilet?" Ron asked and Hermione looked at him disgustedly.
"Charming Ronald but yes," she said.
"It's brilliant! It's like Hogwarts wants us to fight back," Harry said, a smile coming to his face.
"Wait… so this room appears when in real need… I really need a cupcake factory! Would that work?" Star asked, her eyes widening.
"The chances are high," Hermione said.
"Oh sweet mother of cupcakes, this is perfect!" Star said excitedly, jumping up and down.
"Why would you want to make cupcakes? What are you going to do, sell them?" Jack asked and Star grinned sinisterly.
"Who said anything about selling them?" she asked, with an evil glint in her eye.
"Sometimes, you scare me," Ron said and Star looked touched by the compliment.
"Why thank you!" she said, placing a hand on her chest. "That means a lot!" she added. Jack did nothing but laugh as he knew that Star was planning something big and wasn't about to spill the details.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The next day, the five of them had called all the people who had signed up to meet in the room for their first lesson. They didn't have many lessons that day so they were all still in their uniforms which Jack didn't like since he preferred his own clothes. All he could do was roll his sleeves up.
Once the lesson had begun, Harry had them all lined up with him at the front where a wooden Death Eater dummy was standing. It seemed to have a life of its own as it raised its fake wooden wand. Jack who was third in line, watched them with fascination. Star had managed to be at the back of the line, due to her trying to rush to the front resulted in her tripping over her own feet and ending up at the back of the line.
Everyone watched as Harry nodded to Neville who raised his wand at the Death Eater. "Expelliarmus!" Neville said, flicking his wand so hard, it flew out of his hand and spun back towards the back of the room. Everyone had to duck to avoid being hit but Star only noticed it at the last minute.
"Whoa!" she said, ducking just in time for the wand to hit the wall and for sparks to fly. "What the heck dude?" Star said, raising her hands up like a startled ninja. Everyone lifted their heads back up again and some grinned in amusement as Neville sighed.
"I'm hopeless," he said.
"You're just flourishing your wand too quickly. Try it like this. Expelliarmus!" Harry said, flicking his wand so the wand the Death Eater was holding got taken out of his hand and flew across the room. Soon, everyone had a go and Jack felt very pleased as he performed the spell right. Neville then did manage to cast the spell, so Star got hit in the chest, resulting in her casting a spell by the name of Tarantallegra, causing him to tap dance for ten minutes until Hermione managed to stop it. Jack and the twins were laughing the whole time.
As soon as that lesson was over, some of them had to go to Umbridge's lesson, to Jack's dismay as they had to write out a pointless text four times and Neville got caught twice for practicing his wand movements.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The next day, after some complaints that Filch had been following them, they were all going to duel by using stunning spells. Harry first demonstrated with Nigel and everyone laughed when boys flew back and landed on the floor with a bit of force.
Hermione and Ron had duelled soon after, resulting in Jack and one of the twins earning some Sickles after Hermione won. It was then Jack's turn to face Star and Fred bet five Sickles on Star to win and George bet on Jack.
"Just because you're my friend, doesn't mean I'll go easy on you," Jack said grinning.
"Thanks Jack," Star said sarcastically.
The pair then went to the opposite sides of the room and pulled their wands out with some of the girls cheering Star on. Some boys cheered for Jack too. The pair stared for a moment and then Star chucked something at Jack which landed on the floor in front of him. Jack stared down at it in confusion as he saw that it was a cupcake with pink icing and chocolate sprinkles. Everyone else looked as confused as he did.
Looking back up, he saw what Star had done. "Stupefy!" she said, aiming her wand at him so Jack was knocked back across the room where he landed on his back. George handed over Fred's winnings as the girls cheered for Star. The brown haired girl walked over to Jack and held out her hand to help him up, which he accepted.
"What was that?" Jack asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"Its simple really! When I throw one of these at the enemies, they get confused as they look at it! Giving me…" Star began, then picking up the cupcake and smelling it contentedly. "The perfect opportunity to attack!" she said, then patting Jack on the shoulder and skipping off to the girls.
Jack saw that as a very good strategy as he put his wand back in his pocket. As he walked over to Ron, the red head patted Jack on the back. "Good manners letting them win," he said.
"Oh, she won fair and square," Jack said.
"Okay mate, okay," Ron said with a fake smile. Jack could only laugh at Ron and couldn't wait for tomorrow's lesson.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jack had arrived late the next lesson since Umbridge started questioning students about illicit activities and apparently he had been at the top of her list and Star was at the bottom of the list since Umbridge thought of her as a 'respectful, academic and well behaved student which made Star laugh so hard, her sides were splitting. Jack had instantly turned away at the offer of Umbridge's tea as he suspected that she had put something in it. Harry thought that was a wise idea.
As the weeks passed, people got better and better at spells, especially Jack as he was one of the best ones there, without bragging or anything. Once or twice, Fred and George had played a prank on Filch, causing boils to go all over his face and for Umbridge become furious.
Everyone saw that the old toad favoured the Slytherins as they had all joined the inquisitorial squad for extra credit and were seen walking about with medals on their robes. Another reason for them to be cocky and arrogant. Great.
Christmas was soon nearing which meant that the classes were almost at an end this year. Everyone was disappointed, especially Neville, who had finally perfected casting the Expelliarmus spell. After giving a mini speech with applause at the end, everyone expect Harry and Cho left the room and headed back to their dorms.
Jack naturally walked with his friends and then Ron surprised him and Star with a question. "Do you guys want to stay with us for Christmas this year? My parents won't mind," he said.
"Really?" Star asked excitedly.
"Yeah. Little warning though, my dad will be asking a lot of questions to you since you're Muggle born," Ron said with amusement.
"I will ask my parents! I hope they say yes!" Star said and then she looked at Jack. "You too!" she told him.
"I'll ask my Guardians if I can. Don't know what they'll say," he said. He hoped they would say yes but he also wanted to make it snow in Burgess for the kids too. Meh, he would find a way.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Soon, everyone was in bed and sound asleep and Jack felt quite tired that day. Probably from all the spells, work and investigations he still had to do. Star had still helped but had found nothing out yet. The moonlight shone through the window and onto the sleeping winter child. Manny knew that Jack was doing well and was dreaming safely. Someone else wasn't though.
Jack was shaken awake by someone and he almost yelled out in shock if it had not been the familiar face of Ron waking him up. "Dude get up!" he said frantically.
"Look, if this about me doing that Tickling Charm on you yesterday, it was Star's idea, not mine!" Jack said rubbing his eyes.
"Wait, that was you two?!" Ron asked, irritated but quickly snapped back to the main problem. "Not that! It's Harry, he says that he had a dream about a snake attacking my dad! In a bad way!" he said.
"Why didn't you start off with that?!" Jack almost shouted, leaping out of bed and darting out of the room. He bare feet slapped against the stone stairs and his blue t-shirt and baggy white joggers almost clung to him. Star was at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in a pink t-shirt with a cupcake on it and stripy pink and white shorts. Jack nearly laughed at the stuffed cupcake toy she was holding tightly.
"There you are!" Star said. "Hermione said for us to come but since you didn't wake up, she said to wait for you so you would know where to go" she said.
"No point standing here then, let's go!" Jack said, dashing past her and out the door with Star following behind him closely. As they ran, they saw a faint light coming from ahead of them and saw that it was Professor McGonagall, holding a very shaken Harry.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After the Weasely kids had been called into Dumbledore's office, Harry was describing the dream to Dumbledore. Jack was listening intently as Harry described it and the Dumbledore started to talk to his paintings, telling the men in it to alert people. His heart almost popped out of his chest when Harry had an outburst but then felt pity when Snape came in and took Harry down to the dungeons to his classroom.
Everyone else were talking quietly as Star and Hermione tried to comfort Ginny but Jack heard low whine and turned his head to the door. His eyes widened as he saw a pair of yellow eyes looking through the door. As soon as Jack moved a part of his body, the eyes vanished and the sound of running footsteps was heard going down the hallway.
"I'll be back," Jack said, then running out the room, causing everyone to look shocked.
"Where's he going?" Ron asked in surprise.
"I'll follow him," Fred said.
"Me too!" Star added.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jack followed the sound of the footsteps as he pulled his wand out and made a little light come out of the tip of his wand. Finally, he lost the sound of the footsteps and stopped in the middle of the hall.
"Aw nuts!" Jack said with a pout. But still, those eyes seemed familiar… almost as if… no it wasn't possible! Jack didn't even hear or notice the looming figure rising up behind him. He only heard it at the last minute and by the time he looked around, something hit him straight in the face and he fell down to the ground unconscious and his wand rolled out of his hand.