12/05/24

As the last few days of school grew closer, more and more people were showing signs of disappointment about Professor Lupin leaving.

"Wonder what they'll give us next year?" said Seamus Finnegan gloomily when Harry told the boys about the resignation.

"Maybe a Vampire?" Dean Thomas suggested hopefully.

"Nah, if it will be anything, it would be a Halfa, they're the best at defensive things," Jack said smiling, thinking of his friend Danny.

"Halfa's aren't real, Jack," Neville said in a hopeful voice, before giving his option. "I say as long as it's someone with brains who knows what they're doing, I don't care who or what it will be."

There was nodding coming from everyone at that.

"That reminds me, Ron, can I have my cookies please?" Jack said, holding out his hand.

"What cookies?" Ron asked from his bed where he was playing chess with Baby Tooth.

"The cookies you owe me for the bet we had about if Hermione knew what was wrong with Professor Lupin or not, when you asked what was wrong with him and she tutted, and you said it was just to get you to talk to her." Jack said simply with a smile and a flutter of his eyes looking innocently at the red head.

"Well she didn't know, did she?" Ron asked looking to the others for back up. "She learnt about it along with the rest of us right?"

"If you had done the homework Professor Snape set on Werewolves like we all know she did, you yourself would know that Lupin was a Wolf way before that. Meaning – seeing as - as already mentioned - she did do the essay – she did already know, so please may I have my cookies?"

"I can't give you something I don't have!" Ron said, looking to the other boys for help.

"Oh I can wait for them," Jack said, leaning against the bedpost. "It might be hard to believe, but I am very patient. I even waited a whole week before eating anything at one point, because I kept giving my share of what little food we had to my sister."Jack said, gaining amazed looks from almost everyone in the room. "And I would have kept getting away with it too, if it hadn't been for the meddling kids next door who noticed me doing it and told my parents." He said, sighing loudly.

"Let me guess, their names were Fred and Daphne?" Harry asked, grinning a little, getting confused looks from the wizards but a laugh from Dean Thomas.

"No, actually. Their names were Andrew and Samantha." Jack answered, getting back to packing up his things away so there was less to do later, there was only a few days left after all.

"I don't get it," Ron said confused.

"It's a Muggle thing, Ron," Dean said, closing his trunk as well. "Don't worry about it. Just get him the cookies or you might be the receiving end of some heart stopping pranks."

"Just remember when you ask your mum for them, you also need to tell her why you need them," Jack said grinning as he stretched and went downstairs to the common room now his packing was done.

o0o

In the common room it was a mess of people trying to work out what to do with their last few days of school.

He saw Fred and George in the corner possibly going over plans for a water-firework show like last year just to use the rest of their Filly-Busters up.

He saw Oliver Wood by the fire looking at Quidditch Magazines, possibly looking for a team to try out for over the summer, as he said he would try and do.

Annie was with Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet, by the sound of it talking about the hopes of getting on the team next year.

And in the window seat looking over the lake, was Hermione with Crookshanks in her lap looking better than she had for a while, although she still had mini bags under her eyes.

"This part of the seat taken?" Jack asked calmly, making Hermione look up.

"I guess not," she said, moving over a little, letting Jack sit down, Crookshaks immediately jumping into his lap.

"Took up my advice on drinking coffee then?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Well, that and… I handed the Time-Turner in," Hermione said waiting for the congratulations lecture she was expecting.

"Oh?" Jack said with a smirk coming to his face. "And why is that?"

"Because… Because it was… too… much for me…" she said struggling to finish the sentence, placing her face into her hands.

"I'm sorry," Jack said, holding a hand to his ear "What was that?"

"Because… It was too much for me.." she tried again, this time mumbling the last few words.

"One more time if you please," Jack said, his smirk growing wider.

"Because it was too much for me!" Hermione said loudly, making the common room go silent for a moment and turn to her, surprised looks on their faces.

"Which is why… Which is why I dropped a second subject, from my overloaded timetable." Hermione said, trying to ignore the audience she now had. "If I drop that as well as Divination, I will have a normal time table again. I just can't handle another year like this one. It was driving me mad."

"You know Hermione," an kind elder voice said, making her look up to see Angelina had come over. "If you were having difficulties with your studies we could have helped you."

The kinder 5th, 6th, and 7th years all nodded along to this. Percy even said he knew what Hermione's year was like, fiddling with his collar as a hint to her that he might actually understand, but she didn't ask.

All he said was: 'Getting 12 OWL's was not an easy task.'

"But, you didn't need to do all the subjects to do all the lessons," he continued, getting confused looks. "I didn't do Care of Magical Creatures, but I self taught myself in my own time using Charlie's notes, and I managed to do that exam. I also didn't do Muggle Studies, but again I learnt in my own time, using my dad's notes which he kept from his time in school and did that exam as well."

"So… So I didn't have to do seven classes a day?" Hermione asked not sure how to feel about this.

"Well you would have needed to go to each other one so you kept up with the lesson plan, and then attended the exams, but no." Percy said calmly.

"Ugh…!" Hermione said, planting her face into her knees feeling a mix of embarrassed and stupid, feeling Jack's cool hand gently rub her back.

"I feel like this is the part where I get to say, 'If you had just asked, I'm sure your friends would have helped you.' But seeing how I think you already know that, I won't say it."

"You literally just said it…" Hermione's voice said muffled by her knees, an eye full of hate shooting out from behind a veil of bushy brown hair towards him, getting a few forms of laughter from everyone as noise slowly returned to the common room.

"I did not just say it," Jack said calmly "I said it feels like the part in time where I should say it."

"Just shut up Jack," Hermione said welcoming her cat back to her who was coming to comfort her.

"On the subject of subjects," Jack said after a moment of silence. "How was Muggle Studies? I can only assume that that's the one you dropped. Am I right? Still not sure why you took it myself."

"I wanted to see what Wizards thought of Muggles and our world from their point of view." Hermione said ignoring the question.

"You wanted to be taught about Muggles, from a teacher who probably didn't know the right names for 75% of the things she was teaching." Jack said calmly.

"Well," Hermione said a smile on her face "There were a few dinglehopper's and snarfblat's, and I admit Wizards are a few century's behind, but I think that's just because their too proud of the old ways to try new things."

"I would have thought Wizards would know what a dinglehopper is," Jack said grinning "We use them at every meal after all, well, unless you're Ron."

This got a small laugh from Hermione who seemed to be happy again.

"He was a dick this year wasn't he?" she said, sighing.

"*Gasp…* You noticed too?" Jack asked in mocked surprise "I thought I was the only one and was beating him up in your defence for no reason."

"Which was a bad thing by the way," Hermione said in a 'Shame on you for doing it, but I don't really care' voice.

"Well if you think about it, Brownie," Jack said, looking around and then whispering. "He's not all that good a friend anyway."

"What do you mean?" she asked confused.

"Going back to year one. He accepted Malfoy's midnight duel with Harry, before Harry had a say in it." Jack said counting his fingers. "He said some hurtful words about you - which you overheard - which made you miss the Feast and therefore the warning about the Troll. He was careless about the super top-secret-can't-be-seen-by-anyone-but-us letter from Charlie, meaning Malfoy knew of the operation and in turn meaning Gryffindore lost 150 points -"

"That could have happened anyway," Hermione said trying to defend him.

"If there's one thing I have learnt about super secret spy letters, it's Read them, Memorise them, Destroy them, so nobody else can read them." Jack said getting nods from Baby Tooth. "Anyway, Year two. His teasing on Ginny made it so she didn't feel brave enough to tell her brothers about the Diary. and I'm sure that day at the station, if I hadn't come up with sending a message to explain what happened, he would have had the idea to take the car and get himself and Harry into a heap of trouble. Oh and then there all the fights and rivalry that he has with Malfoy." Jack said, catching his breath. "If he hadn't laughed at his name on the train, I'm… 45% sure Draco would be a smidgen bit nicer to Harry. Even if it is to try and get on his good side."

"I see your point, but -" Hermione said unsure on how to carry on.

"Need I remind you on how he's been this year as well?" Jack asked petting Crookshanks gently "Or how often he tried to harm this fine feline here?"

Hermione stayed silent.

"He gets jealous, and blows his top too easily," Jack said calmly. "I won't say anything to Harry unless something really bad happens, and I will give him one more chance. But if he's like this or worse next year, I think we should stop being friends with him. Even if he apologises and come crawling back on his knees and weeks of detentions because you weren't there to do his homework for him."

This got a confused look.

"To do his homework for him?" Hermione quotes. "I don't do his homework for him, I check his over and make sure he's done it right."

"Brownie, when have you ever seen Ron doing his own homework, when it's not with Harry or you there to help him?" Jack asked calmly. "It might his hand writing down the words, but it's your brain they're coming from."

Hermione was about to say something to this, when Annie and Colin Creevy came over to ask Jack if there would be a water-firework show like last year.

"Well I hadn't planned one," he said looking over to the twins. "But I suppose there could be." Jack said, getting up. "Want to help me?"

"YEAH!" They cheered and Jack went to get his supply before grabbing the Weasley Twins before they all left the tower for the grounds.

AN: Sorry for making you wait, I'm having trouble writing out the next few parts.

As for the water-firework display... I had that written down - letting my fingers do the typing - telling the story of the Chamber of Secrets, but when i reread it to check it, my brain remembered this is the third book. 😓

Should i keep it, or should i change it?