Jack, not Jackson

Chapter 42: The Meeting.

3rd person POV:

Because Lupin was interrupted,  Jack was never told the actual time of the meeting. Jack's classes were over for the day but a grieving Ravenclaw had needed help after a nervous breakdown had triggered her more extreme OCD habits. 

So it was 25 minutes after all classes had ended that Jack arrived for the meeting. Everyone else was already seated. When he offered no explanation to his tardiness the other Professors looked to Dumbledore. Dumbledore arched an eyebrow at him.

"How kind of you to grace us with your presence Professor Frost. We were starting to wonder if you were going you come."
Dumbledore watched tersely as Jack slid into the only empty chair at the large, slightly oval table.
"I apologize Professor. A student of mine needed help with something."

"I'm sure the student could have waited until tomorrow's class. You do have an extra long class to provide instruction for. "
Dumbledore wasn't even looking at Frost when he spoke, too busy reading something written on the parchment before him.

Jack stiffened very slightly, though no one noticed. They were all too busy watching the fireplace as a chilly gust of wind came down the chimney and made the fire flicker.

When they stopped staring at the fire, the silence settled. It was only after a minute and a half that they realized Jack hadn't answered yet.
"Well?" Dumbledore asked.

Jack stared straight ahead like a soldier giving a report when he spoke. His tone was controlled in the same, slightly rigid manner.
"I won't neglect my students."  He said simply.

"Neglect? Neglect?"
Is that what you think the other faculty and I have been doing? Do try and remember that we have been Professors longer then you have been alive, Professor Frost.

Jack finally turned his head to gaze at Dumbledore. The other Professors held their breath, worried of how he might answer.
"What else would you call it?"

Dumbledore opened his mouth to answer, his normally patient temper starting to heat at the simplistic tone in Jack's voice but Jack cut him off before he got a single word out.

"Please don't interrupt yet Professor. If you would first let me give examples before you refute my claim of negligence."
Dumbledore's mouth snapped shut in astonishment. Every other Professor's mouths fell open.

"Many of the older students have PTSD from the Battle last year and those who don't have probably lost someone they knew. They all need help learning to cope and you haven't provided them with anyone to look to. When I-"

Dumbledore interrupted before Jack could go any further.
"I'm sure the students know they can come to me, or any of the other staff members if they feel they need help."

"No, Dumbledore. That's my point. You are making them take the first step when half of them are so lost they don't even know what direction to step IN, right now. Now be quiet and listen."

Dumbledore's mouth snapped shut again. He was beginning to think seriously that maybe hiring this random wandless kid off the street wasn't one of his best ideas.

"You've known Harry since he was eleven, correct?"
Dumbledore simply nodded in confirmation.
"Then why is it that you have known him for seven years and failed to notice he needed a stronger prescription in his glasses? His grades were suffering from day one because he couldn't read the chalkboards."

Dumbledore was getting very frustrated. This was supposed to be a scolding for Frost, not him. How had the situation gotten so completely turned around?

"I do not claim that you don't care, Dumbledore. But I can and will claim you don't pay enough attention to those in your care."
It was clear Jack had more to say but just as he locked eyes with the other Professors and was going to speak again, the thin shrill cry of a threstral split the temporary silence.

Immediately Jack paled. Then, as though without thought, He leapt for the griffin statue. The other Professors scrambled to catch up with the new Professor as he disappeared. Soon they were chasing him down random corridors and stairs as if he knew where he was going.

He ignored all cries of "wait, stop, where are you going, and come back here this instant."

They eventually stopped and used the extra breath to try and catch up with him. They were slowly gaining on him when his flight straightened out on a large corridor and he took off. The Professors all stopped short when they saw a crowd of students on the moving staircases.

Jack had dived for the edge, taking Rowen's place in the center of the students. He was now laying against the top with his hands and part of his chest hung over the edge. He spoke softly to the space below him then was urgently telling Rowen to find a rope.

The Ravenclaw boy nearly dashed off to get one but a Hufflepuff shoves one into his hands before he took two steps.

"I found this at the lake this morning, take it. It has a pulley on it, if that helps."

"Thanks Elizabeth."
Rowan said as he spun back around and knelt by Jack's side. They spoke urgently but no one else could hear. The Professors crept closer when they realized they couldn't hear what was being said.

Jack tied one end of the rope around his arm and then gave the 'go ahead' to Rowen. "Remember." He said.
"Not too high. We want leverage, not height."

Rowen nodded, then chucked the pully into the air. Once it was there, Jack yelled something in Greek.
να σταματήσει! (Na Stamatísei) and the pully froze where is was about three feet above Rowen's head.

Rowen took the rope and fed it down in front of him.It passed Jack's hands and then Jack called for him to stop. After a few minutes of calm unintelligible murmurings from Jack, the rope went taut.

As the rope stiffened, the stairs began to move again, no longer paused in the middle of nowhere. A yelp/whimper echoes up from below and Jack Immediately let go of whatever he had been holding onto over the edge, gathered his arms close to his body, and rolled himself off.

There were screams as the students watched him disappear. Just as he disappeared, another figure emerged from below the edge of the stairs.

Wendall, eyes shut tight and clinging to the rope as if his life depended on it, shot up into the air and was quickly caught by Rowan and the other students.

They filed him away from the edge and sat him down wrapping him in blankets produced from magic only knows where.  There was a dull echoing thud heard between the whispers of the comforting students and everyone froze.

Rowen whipped back around and dove for the edge even as it slid into place at the top of a new hallway.  "Professor Frost!" He screamed but it was useless. The staircase wasn't where it had been seconds before and the pully was still frozen in place in the middle of the empty space where they had been. There was no rope attached.

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1:- The Greek means stop.
2:- Please don't kill me..yet.