Jack, not Jackson

Chapter 27: Lets Sort this out.

Jack Frost POV:

I practiced magic for the next six days. Dumbledore had given up on private lessons on the first day after I supposedly defied logic so I sat with Lupin on the stone bench as he taught me higher ranking spells.

He told me that I had enough "magical core" to make me quite strong at channeling magic. I don't know what that meant but all that mattered to me was that I was able to move up to fourth year work by the end of the third day.

I asked Lupin to teach me a spell that could read books to you, that way I could listen to books like magic theory, history, and magical creatures as I practiced, walked, practiced swordplay, or kept company with the Forest.

It was only six days into taking lessons from Lupin that he said I had learned all that students know when they graduate. It was then that he told me about the school opening ceremony.

Which meant I had one day to prepare to face being sorted into a house. I had no idea what that meant and Lupin's explanation brought more confusion then clarity so I had just nodded my head sagely and acted like I understood.

Lupin refused to tell me how the sorting was done but I figured, unless they're sifting through my memories or something that I would be fine. I'd make it up as we went, planning had never really worked out for me anyway.

I had finished lessons with Lupin earlier then I thought I would and now had no idea what to do with the next three days. I walked the castle, making a mental map of it in case of emergencies and spoke to the Forbidden Forest.

I practiced magic and came up with theories about magic. I knew magic was in my blood, and it made me wonder if these wizarding folk might know what had caused my powers to change to ice.

I had always figured it worked something like a Greek god becoming their Roman aspect. Some things change but they're still the same person. Maybe someone here might actually know the answer, but I knew I would never ask. I wouldn't let them get that close to the truth.

I had studied magic hard and had spent hours speaking with the Forest, letting it teach me magic history the way it had seen it. It was very enlightening and often showed views on topics that the history books did not.

The Forest never spoke of my heart condition or my show of weakness and I was thankful for that. I wasn't sure what I would do if the only thing I'd ever met as old as me no longer wanted to speak to me.

I was calm in the Forest, and though I wouldn't exactly call it peace, it was the closest I'd come in a long while.

—————a day later.—————

It was time for the sorting. I'd seen odd skeletal horse creatures pulling carriages arrive as well as Professor Hagrid in a boat that was in danger of sinking, leading a bunch of other boats not so in danger of sinking.

They'd all gone inside and in another minute, I saw Professor McGonagall come out and look for me. I patted the tree I was leaning against once as a farewell to the forest and headed out to meet her.

Once there she beckoned me to follow her and started speaking.
"We're just sorting the first years now, Shouldn't take too long. Wait here until Dumbledore introduces the Professors, he'll do you last then you will come in and be sorted, okay?"

I nodded. She turned into a cat, looked back at me once, twitched her whiskers, then slipped through the large doors and was gone.
Okay so shapeshifting was a thing here, apparently. I thought calmly.

I waited patiently for the sound of Dumbledore's wise old wizard voice through the door to be heard over the hum of talking students.

I waited about half an hour standing there. Then I waited a little less patiently for another half hour. I would have been fine waiting for the next four months but she had said the sorting would be done shortly. This didn't feel like shortly, to me.

Then, just as I was beginning to lose hope and start talking to the empty painting on the wall, I heard Dumbledore start speaking. I listened closely to see if he said anything interesting. He did not.

I was getting bored of that too when I heard the Headmaster's voice say, "..And our newest Professor will be taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts. Because he has never attended Hogwarts, we will now sort him into a house. Professor Frost? You may come in now."

I stepped forwards and gently pushed the doors open. All eyes were on me. No matter how many times I'd been knighted or brought before a king for trial or for reward I would never be comfortable with so many eyes on me.

It was different on a battlefield. Eyes on a battlefield didn't have time to think. These ones did, and I could practically hear their questions.

"Who is this? why should we trust you? How are you so young? No wizarding robes? where is your wand?How are you different from us?
I shut them out and zeroed my attention in on Dumbledore at the front, who was holding a floppy triangular rag while McGonagall exchanged a short stool for a wooden chair.

Then the triangle blinked. My attention was immediately drawn back to it as I approached the three step rise to where they were. I came to a stop about four and a half feet from Dumbledore and raised an eyebrow at him.

"What is that?" I ask him, gesturing to the tattered thing in his hands. Murmurs break out behind me as the students voice their surprise or disproval.

"This is the sorting hat." Dumbledore says in a slightly strained tone that no one seems to notice. "It will sit on your head and decide which house best suits you. "

I was extremely wary of the supposed hat. But sat on the chair as I was told to do by McGonagall waving a long red sleeve towards said chair.

I went ridged as I sat, ready to pounce off the stage at a moments notice. I had not brought my staff, as it was an amplifier for my power that I did not need but my hands felt empty without it.

I closed my eyes and took a single breath. Forcing the cold temperature around me to go back up to normal and my heart rate to slow. If I wanted to avoid my heart taking a nap on me I had to remain entirely in control. No matter what this hat did.

They placed the hat on my head and I felt a presence in my head. Immediately, the barriers went up. I kept most of my memories behind barriers anyway, but my recent ones were not and I refused to let an inanimate object know more about me then anything alive on earth.

"You must let me in" said a voice that matched quite well with the patchwork item on my head.
"No, for your sake, I must not."
I said back. It did not like that. I could feel it putting pressure against my outer mental walls.
"Let me in or i will tell the Headmaster to release you from your position."

Instantly, a picture of Calum Wood scared and alone in the forest came to me. His voice shaking a little as he told me he was scared the new Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts would be evil.

Resigned to my fate. I gathered some memories of my life, thinking maybe if I showed it war, it would stop. And then I dropped the wall to them. The hat flooded into me.

It flashed through scenes of battles, screams and terror. I heard so many voices that it should have been just noise but it wasn't. I heard kings screaming for my blood. Soldiers screaming for my help. Generals screaming for my head.
Then I realized one of the screams was new.
It was the hats.

It's hurting it. I thought as I threw the walls back up and cradled the hats consciousness in my own. I fed it memories of the stars and children's laughter on snow days. I gave it sunrises on frosted lakes and deer herds moving silently beside it.

I gave it silence, calm, and the feeling of a boat being rocked on the water until the consciousness gathered enough strength to limp back to itself. "I'm sorry" I said as the last tendril of it curled away.
I barely heard the hat's quiet echoed reply.
"No. I am."