24/4/23

First, Sorry it has taken so long to update, I was busy with other things and then had to work on this so it was just right. That being said -

Warning - It gets very wordy at the end, but, like before I just let my fingers do the writing, and I feel it could be used later (whether it be in this book or another (if i do any more) is a different question)

Either way hope you all enjoy :)

After he left the Room, Jack let his feet guide him to where they thought he should go, he wasn't thinking about it as he was trying to understand how Sirius could say things like that about his deceased brother.

He was so tied up in thinking this he only just stopped himself from bumping into Professor Lupin, who was carrying some books under his arm.

"Sorry sir," Jack said automatically.

"That's alright Jack, but next time maybe concentrate more on what's in front of you than what is in your head." Lupin said calmly, lightly tapping the boy on the head with the books before going into his classroom towards his office.

"I was just trying to understand something," Jack said coming in after him.

"Oh? And what might that be?" Lupin asked as he unpacked the tea-set and set the kettle to boil.

"How can someone, who was treated bad by his family, not care when he hears that one of them – say a brother – is dead?" Jack asked trying to keep anything Black out of the conversation.

"Well," Lupin said in his thinking voice. "I suppose it would have to involve and just how bad the family had treated this person." he said adding a teabag and boiling water to the teapot. "And then how close these two people in question were to begin with."

"But they're brothers," Jack said watching the teacher "He should care even if he tried to get him killed right?"

"I think that may be pushing it, Jack," Lupin said pouring the tea and sitting down, opening the biscuit tin.

"Ok, not try to kill him then," Jack said taking a chocolate chip cookie "But you know do bad things, that in some eyes are unforgivable."

"Well then it goes back to how much they cared for each other before whatever caused this upset to happen, happened." Lupin said taking a sip of his tea. "Am I allowed to know just who it is we're talking about, Jack?"

Jack looked at Lupin in minor surprise, then looked at the desk thinking.

He couldn't tell him it was Sirius because that would make this whole plan possibly go up in flames. And he couldn't say it's a student because the teachers would possibly want to look deeper into this.

"No sir, at least not yet," he said looking back up "But it's not me if that's what you're thinking."

"Why would I be thinking that?" Lupin asked calmly.

"Well usually when something like this happens, the grown up thinks that the 'someone' the kid is talking about who's having all these problems is the kid themselves." Jack said taking a sip of his tea.

"Well, there are times when the grown up can tell it's not the kid, Jack." Lupin said smiling. "For now, to make it easier, what shall we call these brothers?"

"How about, Patrick and John," Jack said liking those names.

"Alright," Lupin said trying to follow this. "So Patrick is the one who was treated badly, yes?"

"Yeah," Jack said nodding, taking another biscuit, Baby Tooth nibbling at the crumbs that came from the first one. "And John is the favourite brother, who joined a club of bad boys, adding more items on the list of reasons for Patrick to hate him."

"What makes you think Patrick hates John so much?" Lupin asked calmly.

"Because he said so," Jack said slowly so he could get the words out correctly. "We were talking, he let slip he had a brother, I asked where he was, and he said among that he no longer saw John as a brother anymore, that while he was... away for the past few years, he heard that John had been killed somehow... and that he didn't care about it!" Jack said, saying the last part loudly making a blast of frost cover Lupin's desk.

After a while, and a bit of thinking, Lupin replied.

"Perhaps you should tell Patrick how you feel about what he said."

"I was," Jack said pouting a little "I was even telling him what it meant to be a brother, but it turned out I was freezing the room we were in, so Elisa suggested I step outside for a bit."

"Well I'm sorry to say this Jack, but not everyone has the same idea on things as you or I do," Lupin said calmly setting his cup down to look at Jack properly.

"I know we all have different pairs of eyes*, sir," Jack said rubbing his in frustration "But even so, if one brother hears about the death of the other brother, shouldn't he at least feel something?"

"I suppose it depends how far apart they were, and how differently the rest of the family treated him and his brother." Lupin said sighing as he took his cup up again to finish it.

Groaning Jack looked around the room a little, and saw the clean Marauder's Map sitting on top of a pile of things in a box on the desk.

Side eying Lupin, to check he wasn't watching, which he wasn't he was looking out the window which pointed at the Whomping Willow, Jack slowly reached out to try and take it, but a knock on the door stopped him.

"Come in," Lupin said calmly turning to the door.

In came Elisa and Neville, both looking calm, but if you looked you could see they (well Elisa at least) was mad about something too.

"How may I help you two today?" Lupin asked calmly as he called for more teacups.

"We're just here to pick up Jack, Professor," Elisa said before Lupin could pour some tea.

"How'd you find me?" Jack asked getting up.

"You left a trail of icy breadcrumbs, Hansel," Elisa said rolling her eyes and leaning to one side so Jack could look out into the corridor, which did indeed have an icy/frosty trail covering the walls and floor every few steps.

"Oh," Jack said, blushing a little. "Um, did 'Patrick' change his mind on brothers after I left?" he asked not wanting Lupin to know it was Sirius just yet.

"Sadly no," Elisa said sighing.

"He said the only way for his mind to be changed is if we find something his brother did that went against everything they were taught and would make up for all the pain he went through for rebelling against them himself." Neville said eyes shifting to Elisa nervously.

Seeing this Lupin cleared his throat. "I hope by Neville's reaction, Elisa, that you have not been hurting anyone over this. Be this magic or not."

"Professor, I am a well mannered, older of two daughters, young lady," Elisa said acting as if she was offended. "I would never harm anyone unless they deserve it."

"And even then you'll be sure no evidence comes back to you, will you?" Lupin asked smiling picturing Elisa as someone he once knew.

"Depends how good the detectives are." Elisa said shrugging.

"If you say so," Lupin said in a roll-your-eyes voice.

Saying goodbye, the three of them left passing the Room of Requirement as they did, but not going in.

"You did do something, didn't you?" Jack said smiling a little.

"Oh yeah," Elisa said smiling "After giving him a talk of my own, to which he still denied care for his brother, I gave him a shot of a new curse I perfected the other day. It's meant to make the hittee feel sick for 24 hours no matter what they do to themselves to try and reverse it."

"Plus she punched him in the stomach too." Neville added.

"Well, he deserves it," Jack mumbled to himself before kissing Elisa in a means of thanks and goodnight.

Slowly, quietly Jack and Neville went back to Gryffindor Tower, Neville looking like he wanted to ask something.

"Yes, Neville?" Jack said sighing after the shy boy opened his mouth for the fifth time and then closed it again.

"I – I was just wondering, what happened to make you say those things to Sirius?" Neville asked in an unsure voice.

"I'm not sure if you know this or not," Jack said pausing at the top of the staircase they were just climbing, hoisting himself up on the banister to rest for a bit, Neville choosing to sit on the floor. "But a long while ago, I had a younger sister. Like most kids who learn they were getting a new sibling, I didn't want her at first when she first came home. I had what I now learn was something called Older Sibling Tosis, where the one in question is jealous of the newest member of the family." Jack said smiling a little.

"Anyway, there was a large pond not too far from the village we were living in, and one winter's day – a few years later so I got over my OST – She wanted to try out her new ice skates she just got for Christmas." Jack continued, Baby Tooth resting on his shoulder and gently petting him comfortably. "I did up her skates for her, and watched her wobble onto the ice. I was just starting to put mine on, when there was a 'crack' and look up and I see that Emma had gone out too far, and the ice wasn't thick enough to hold her."

Neville gasped a little, but stayed quiet.

"As quickly and carefully as I could I made my way over to her as far as I could go. She said she was scared, so I thought we'd play a game to make that fear go away. As fast but as carefully as I can I got her the thicker ice, but ended up trading places with her and... I fell in. The last thing I can remember now I have my memories back, is her reaching out to me, her scared face, and her voice calling out my name as I fell."

Tears were now in Jack's eyes as he gripped his cloak, ice patterns starting to cover them and the area around him, looking darker than usual in Neville's opinion.

"But..." Neville said confused "If you're the one who fell in, what does this have to do with Sirius? And how are you here now? Going by the story it seemed like it was non-come-back-from-able."

"How it relates to Sirius is: If I didn't swap places with her, protected her, and be the big brother I was to her, by getting her back to the thicker ice... she would be the one that went through the thin ice instead." Jack said, layering up all it meant to be a big brother before answering the second question with a question of his own, and a small sigh.

"You remember back in first year when we were in the Forest and I asked you if you believed in the Guardian's of Childhood?"

"Yeah..." Neville said slowly.

"Well they're real. Really real. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman. Every one of us is real." Jack said standing up smiling now as he explained this. "Each one of them was chosen because of their skills and all that stuff in bring joy to children and keeping them safe, becoming something called 'Guardians'. Up until a few years ago, those four were all there was, until an old enemy came back and Manny thought they needed a bit of help. That's where I came in."

Slowly they start moving again as it was getting late.

"It had been... about 300 years since I woke up from the pond, honestly I stopped counting when I reached 150. Yes I said 300 – well 317 – my physical appearance stopped being effected by time when I... fell in." he said seeing Neville was about to ask a question. "Anyway, in that time, I did all the things I have claimed I did, all the pranks in my diary, brought winter and snow days every year to all countries cold enough to have me, but I had no memories from before I woke up, and because no one believed in me in being more than just an expression –"

Neville remembered the Boggart saying something like this.

"Then no one living could see me, or hear me. And if they got close enough, would walk right though me. No matter how hard I try to get seen, I was always unseen. But then..." Jack said smiling a bit more now "After a misunderstanding and me getting my memories back, I met Jamie Bennett, and was seen for the first time in all of my undead life by a living being."

Loads of questions were racing though Neville's head by now, but he thought he should let Jack finish his story, plus they were almost at the entrance to the common room.

"The Guardians need to be believed in to get their strength and their powers, and the enemy I mentioned before had been working the last few days to make those who believed, to stop believing, until only one kid was left." Jack continued a smile on his face which turned into a smirk as he remembered Bunny. "I got to Jamie first, and got his beliefs in the others to be relit, and then by some miracle, I don't know, he started to believe in me. Anyway, the others came looking terrible, Tooth couldn't fly, North looked as old as I bet he actually was, and Bunny was an actual little bunny rabbit."

He paused here to see if Neville had anything to say on the names he just said, but he didn't so he continued.

"After a run-in with the enemy, I start to make thing fun to banish the dark and fear away, and we got some of Jamie's friends who helped us beat him away for good. Then I became the newest Guardian and here I am." he said smiling and striking a pose like a super hero would. "Any questions?"

At first Neville was silent, probably trying to download all this information into his head.

"You... managed to get your memories back after 300 years of not having them?" he asked slowly trying to be sure he understood this, trying to not get his hopes up.

"Well there was a few things that had to happen before I got them, but yes," Jack said coming out of his pose as they carried on turning the corner to the corridor which at the end held the Fat Lady. "Turns out, that baby teeth when they fall out hold memories of the kid's childhood and Tooth and her fairies protect them until someone needs to remember something important. Right Baby?" he asked the little fairy beside them who nodded, smiling and striking a pose herself.

"Could they work on grownups affected by dark magic?" Neville asked nervously.

This got worried and confused looks from Jack and Baby Tooth.

"Nev, are you –"

"Are you going to give me the password or not?" the Fat Lady asked more grumpy than usual – most likely having been disturbed from her nap.

"No, we're going to talk some more," Jack said frowning at her.

"Now see here young man," she said pointing to him. "I was having a delightful sleep until you two came down this corridor and towards me. And I will not have my beauty rest be disturbed for no reason!"

"And what are you going to do about it?" Jack asked back, Neville looking nervous and Baby face palming herself, wishing Jack would stop. "It's not like you can do anything to hurt us, all you are is paint, memory, canvas and magic. If I was the type of kid I was before a few years ago, I could get some spray paint and turn that pink dress of yours the most horrible shade of green you can think of!"

"*Gasp* You wouldn't dare..." she said actually looking afraid.

"Try me," Jack said glaring back at her.

There was silence for a few minutes, until Jack broke his eye contact with her and turned back to Neville, showing him a more brotherly / caring face.

"Are you alright?" he asked reaching out a hand to place on Neville's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Neville asked in his 'I'm lying so nobody (including me) gets into trouble voice.

Feeling something was bothering him, but not wanting to push the timid boy into revealing what it was if he didn't want to say so himself, Jack gently squeezed his shoulder comfortingly and then turned to the Fat Lady, stood tall and said the password to her (Ursa Minor) and she swung open to let them in, Jack smugly saying 'Thank you' as he walked though.

*Different Pairs of Eyes – How one looks at the world.

For example: You say Po-ta-to I say Po-tah-to.

Or Summer is the best because that's when school is over and we can go out to have fun. VS Summer is the worst because it brings heat, forest fires, and makes us all sweaty and too tired to do anything.