Book 1: The First Year (ROTBTD Hogwarts AU) (PREQUEL)

15. Jack's POV: Early November

Jack was running late.

Really, he had no excuse. He'd come up with the idea about a month into school and then hadn't gone any further with it until around Samhain, and even then he could've at least tried to speed it along instead of waiting until that moment to empty his trunk.

"Where'd you go, where'd you go, where'd you go, where are you...come out, come out, wherever you are you little–"

The last of the clothes went flying over his head, along with a roll of spell paper, a card box, a prank spinning top, a wad of chocolate wrappers, three chess pieces, his wand–his wand!

Jack caught it mid-air. And toppled face-first into a pile of laundry, and nose-first into a used sock.

"Pleh." He picked it off his face. "...Well. I was wondering where you went." Jack balled up the sock and tossed it onto a chair.

Perched on the chair was none other the half-emptied little bag he'd been looking for.

"HAH! Found you!" Jack grabbed the bag and shot out the door.

He ran through the empty common room, dodging misplaced chairs and leaping over a pile of abandoned books in his rush to climb through the portrait hole and bolt down the corridor.

The day marked the official start of Quidditch season. It was a sunny, blue-skied morning, exactly half an hour before the first game of the year and Jack was late.

One would think that to be enough to empty the castle, but that was not so. Several staff and a number of students—mostly the oldest ones—remained behind with their work, or out of sheer disinterest for the occasion in general. Just because the wizards had made their sport one of the most celebrated features of the school didn't mean anyone else had to treat it like that.

The occasional professor scolded after him as he dashed past, his feet loud and echoing in the otherwise cleared corridors. The late-autumn sunlight that shone through the windows lit his way, illuminating dust motes floating past. It caught in Sanjay's hair, making some of the strands coppery, as he walked out of a classroom.

He looked up at the sound of Jack's approach. "What're you still doing here?"

Jack didn't stop for him. "I could ask you that! Aren't you supposed to be at the game?" He asked, turning the corner.

Sanjay ran after him. He easily caught up, hopped onto the stair railing, and slid down ahead of him. "Had to drop off a friend to remedial. There were, like, at least ten other kids there."

Ouch. "Poor sods."

"Lucky us."

"Wow, you are so sentimental today." That made Samjay laugh, and Jack clipped his shoulder on their way to the front entrance.

The air outside the double doors blew cold enough to sting his cheeks and burn in his lungs. It was one of the first really good days they'd had in weeks, the sky completely cloudless. Jack couldn't help but throw his arms up and unleash an excited whoop.

"Someone's happy!" Sanjay said.

"I can't help it. I love being outside. It's like I could stay out here forever, you know?" Jack leapt down the steps and spun in place, trotting backwards. "All this sky and open air and big, open space! I wanna be flying with them on a day like today." He ran ahead with his arms stuck out like an aeroplane, just because he could. It'd been ages since he'd felt that free.