Friday brought along a snowstorm.
It was Defence Against The Dark Arts, and after class Jasper approached Professor Tutman to see if he would be interested in teaching Jasper a shield charm, but he needed to make sure it wasn't in a suspicious manner, just that he was interested to get ahead of other students, and Jasper didn't think that was too unrealistic as he did have to work a lot harder than some of the students to understand all this new wizarding material.
"What do you need Mr. Odair?"
Jasper approached him nervously. He looked back, and saw the others waiting for him at the door, and he waved them along. He turned back to Professor Tutman. "Sir, I was just wondering when we would be learning shield charms?"
"Oh, in your sixth year." Professor Tutman replied.
Jasper stared at him. Sixth year? That was way too far away! He needed to learn them now! He thought Hogwarts would teach something as simple as a shield to first year students, but apparently not. "Well I was wondering if you would be okay with teaching me them...now?"
Tutman stared at him intently. "Why out of all the spells, do you want to learn shield charms? Is someone bullying you?" Before Jasper could continue Tutman muttered something about specific students, and their opinions on blood purity.
"No, no one is bullying me sir." Jasper told him. "It is just..." How should he word this without making Tutman suspicious? "It is just...you did say these are scarier times, and I would like to be prepared."
"Oh, Mr. Odair, you don't need to worry. The Ministry has that under control!"
Well that was good. Jasper thought. He was staring at his hands nervously. Vold-whatever his name would not be a threat to him, or others. That was a relief, but he still needed to learn a basic shield charm for his brothers sake.
"Look, Mr. Odair, if you are so worried, I will have no problem with teaching you a basic shield charm." Jasper looked up from his hands, feeling hopeful. ''But we will start after the winter holidays as they start Sunday."
Was it really winter holidays? Jasper thought. Has it really been that long? He was going to see his brothers for the first time in months...and his parents. He was nervous, he was scared, but he needed to see how his brothers were doing. He really did miss them.
"If you really want to start looking into them..." Tutman continued. "In one of the higher year's textbooks there is a charm called protego, I would suggest you look into that."
Jasper nodded. "Thank you sir! I will. Have a good holiday."
"You too, Mr. Odair."
Jasper walked out of the classroom, and into the Defence corridor. He would study that spell, and see if he was able to perform it before holidays, he only had two days, but this was important.
He decided to skip lunch, and go to his dorm. When he got to his dorm he got out a Defence book he had borrowed, and started to read up, and practise the spell protego. As Tutman said it was a tough charm to get, and all Jasper could get so far was this tiny little flash. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
A bit later, Harry opened the door, and ran in, pure happiness on his face, his eyes seemed to be glowing. "This is the greatest day of my life." He hopped onto his bed.
Jonathan, and Gifford trailed behind him. "Everyone else says otherwise." Jonathan murmured, and they both sat down on their beds.
Jasper looked at them all confused. "What's up?"
"Flying was cancelled because of the weather!" Harry piped up. "I love winter."
"Flying was cancelled because of the weather?" Jasper asked, confused. He had seen people fly in the harsh rain, why was snow an issue?
"Well in reality, Madam Hooch is away for something, and they couldn't find someone who wanted to take over the class." Harry corrected. "But...it's still cancelled!!"
"You are the only one who would be excited about flying being cancelled." Gifford said, rolling his eyes.
"Not everyone likes flying." Harry told him. "Plus we have a snow day!"
"Oh I hate snow days." Jasper muttered.
"You do?" Jonathan asked. "But you have no school!"
"And you can play in the snow!" Harry exclaimed.
Jasper had never really thought of that. Whenever school was cancelled he would have to face his parents, and that was never fun.
There was a knock on their door, and Gifford turned, and answered it. All the first year Hufflepuff girls were at the door dressed in their winter gear.
"We are thinking of going out to play in the snow!" Maryose told them excitedly. "Would you like to join us?"
Jasper jumped up. "Definitely!" Jasper was excited at the prospect of actually enjoying a day off from school. He grabbed his coat, hat, boots, and gloves.
Jonathan scoffed. "You just said you hate snow days."
Jasper shrugged. "Are you coming or not?"
Harry was getting his winter gear as well. "Of course!"
Maryrose ran toward the snow, and sat down. She immediately begin to pack snow into a ball, and roll it across the grounds making it bigger. Jasper also started to do this, and so did Marty. The others started to pack snow on top of each other to make a snow fort.
All of a sudden a snowball hit Gifford in the back. He turned, and saw Jonathan behind him making snowballs so he packed snow in a ball, and threw the snowball in his direction.
"Hey!" Jonathan yelled. "What was that for?"
"You threw a snowball at me!"
"I did not!"
"Did to!"
Jonathan quickly picked up a snowball he had made, and directed it at Gifford. Gifford dodged it, and it hit Penelope.
Penelope turned, and threw a snowball at Jonathan. It hit him in the chest. He ran behind the little fort they had built, and started to make a pile of snowballs.
Harry threw a snowball at Marty, and Marty threw one back, and then Jonathan threw one at Maryrose, and Maryrose hit him in the face with a snowball. Penelope snuck up behind Harry, and pushed him in the snow, and then Harry pulled her along, so they were both sitting knee deep in snow, laughing.
All the while Dorothy, and Jasper were plotting in the other snow fort. "This seems extreme." Jasper told her.
"It is never too extreme in a war." Dorothy said giggling.
Jasper, and Dorothy were making piles of snowballs with the help of Venom who was in charge of slingshotting the balls of snow through the air toward the other Hufflepuffs. The snowball that had started this war was not Jonathan's, it was Dorothy's. Dorothy was also making a really big snowball that was right now the size of her head.
Dorothy pulled out a bat.
Jasper stared at her. "Where did that even come from-"
"I'll never tell." She grabbed one of the snowballs, and threw it in the air, and swung sending it full speed ahead to Marty. Marty fell in the snow laughing.
Dorothy looked over to Jasper. "Wanna try?"
Jasper hesitantly took the bat from Dorothy, and grabbed a snowball, he knew who he was going to hit. He threw the snowball in the air, and swung the bat, and the ball went toward one of the Slytherin boys, and he fell on his face.
Dorothy gasped. "Jasper!"
Jasper was wide-eyed, he had definitely missed his target. "I didn't mean to-"
"HAHA, I HAD NO IDEA YOU HAD IT IN YOU!" Shrieked Dorothy. This got the attention of the other first year Hufflepuffs.
They came over as Dorothy continued to laugh. "What's so funny?" Maryrose asked, trying to avoid Venom who was still shooting snowballs.
"JASPER HIT A SLYTHERIN WITH A SNOWBALL!" Yelled Dorothy unknowingly, getting the attention of the people around them.
Harry looked shocked. "You didn't."
"I didn't mean to-" Jasper started.
Jonathan laughed. "Why didn't we think of that?"
"Probably because you actually have brains." Hissed a voice behind them. Jasper turned, and saw the older Slytherin boy he had accidentally knocked down. "How dare you."
"Wow, you must be real fun." Dorothy said, scoffing. "It was snow, stop crying about it."
"I am not crying about it!" The Slytherin screamed. Well they have a short temper. Harry thought. "I think you just need to be more smart about who you decide to mess with." The Slytherin boy hissed to Jasper.
"I'm sorry." Jasper told him. "It was honestly an accident, I didn't mean to - AH!" The Slytherin boy attempted to hit him in the stomach, but Jasper saw it coming, and dodged it. The Slytherin boy must have not been expecting that as he stumbled a bit.
"Come on." Penelope said to Jasper. "Let's go."
"How dare you!" Dorothy screamed to the Slytherin. "How dare you try to hit my friend, you bully!" She pushed him, and he stumbled again.
"Dorothy, let's go." Maryrose started.
The Slytherin sneered at Dorothy. "You act so tough, but you can't even hit correctly being the little weak girl you are. I'll show you what a real hit looks like."
The Slytherin started to swing his arm toward Dorothy, and before she could react, Jasper grabbed the boy's wrist, stopping it. "Don't you even think about it." He said sharply.
The Slytherin glared at Jasper as Marty, and Gifford grabbed Dorothy away from the Slytherin. "And what's stopping me? Is it you? Because how do you think a little eleven year old mudblood has all the power in the world to stop people from getting hurt?" The Slytherin asked, rolling his eyes.
"You can do whatever you want to me. I really don't care, but don't touch my friends or you will be sorry." Jasper told him, getting angry. "Also, I'm twelve." He let go of his wrist, and turned to others.
The Slytherin scowled, and not wanting to be bested by a first year Hufflepuff mudblood, he started to retaliate. He pulled out his wand. "Diffindo!"
Jasper turned, pointed his wand at the boy, and said the first spell that came into his mind. "Protego!" He shouted, and he hoped it would work as he had only just been practising it.
The spell deflected off the small shield charm, and hit the Slytherin boy. The Slytherin cursed, and he clutched his wrist. Jasper's eyes widened as he saw blood was seeping through his hand.
Harry grabbed Jasper's hand. "Let's go."
"Oh my god, it worked!" Jasper exclaimed, his anger washing away, and turning into joy.
"What is going on here?" Professor Vector, the arithmancy professor shouted.
"He attacked me!" Yelled the Slytherin boy pointing at Jasper still clutching his wrist.
"He did not!" Maryrose shouted, her hair turning red.
"Ohhhh, yeah because I would do this myself." The Slytherin signalled to his wrist.
Harry glared at him. "All Jasper did was the shield charm."
"He wouldn't even know that spell!" Shouted the Slytherin boy. "It isn't taught until sixth year, I don't even know it!"
Professor Vector turned to Jasper. "Detention Mr. Odair."
"He didn't even do the spell!" Harry protested. "Are you really believing a Slytherin over a muggleborn Hufflepuff?"
The Slytherin boy gasped. "And they say you can't be prejudiced toward us!"
Harry rolled his eyes. Slytherins were so annoying. "Oh, just shut-"
"Enough!" Shouted Professor Vector. "Mr. Odair, you will be having your detention after the holidays." Professor Vector turned to the Slytherin. "Mr. Jackson, please go."
The boy got up. "Yes sir, right away sir." He ran off toward the castle.
Professor Vector walked away, and the Hufflepuffs all sat there for a few seconds in silence.
"That was so stupid!" Jonathan exclaimed, breaking the silence. "He should have gotten the detention, not you."
Jasper shrugged. "I am not too mad about it." Jasper had gotten in trouble at school many times before due to accidental magic incidents, and honestly he was just ecstatic the shield charm worked. He could help his brothers now!
Harry turned to Jasper. "I do have to say, that was really cool! How did you figure out a sixth year spell so quickly?"
Jasper shrugged. He really didn't know, maybe it was because he needed the spell when he was at home? He wasn't sure how spells worked as he was still having trouble with the levitation charm, yet he could do this.
"Maybe you were just really determined to show that stupid Slytherin." Dorothy said.
"Who even was that?" Penelope asked as the topic of the Slytherin was brought up again.
"Theodore Jackson." Marty replied. "I have heard of that family."
Harry groaned. "Aren't they all blood purists? I hate them."
Marty nodded. "Quite a dark family...mysterious too."
"How so?" Jasper asked.
"That's the thing, usually we know some things about those types of families." Marty told them. "We don't know much about them except that they are all blood purists."
"And that they all suck." Harry said, absentmindedly drawing in the snow. He had heard about which families to avoid, and he was making sure to do just that.
Dorothy whispered something in Venom's ear, and Venom scuttled off.
"Where is it going?" Maryrose asked her hair now a paler shade of red.
"To throw snowballs at Jackson." Dorothy said, smiling.