A/N: That wonderful moment when you realise that you have a whole week and three days before your next essay is due…*collapses face-first onto bed* I handed in two essays today, staggered around sleep-deprived, ate a ton of pizza with my flatmates and now I'm tucked up in bed, all warm and snuggly…and seriously dozing off right this second.

Also, I go home tomorrow for the Easter Holidays and my sister informed me over the phone that the Rise of the Guardians DVD finally arrived today. WORDS CANNOT CONVEY THE EXCITEMENT.

*IMPORTANT* As of now, you can check my profile for information about this story and what's going on i.e. when I'm hopefully gonna put the next chapter up or why it's going to be late or whatever. :P

Disclaimer: Don't own either of them, etc.

Catching the Wind

Chapter Four: To Promise

"I don't understand!"

Jack paced back and forth across the surface of the frozen pond. He thumped the butt of the staff down in frustration and a web of cracks radiated out from the point of impact. As he turned around and went back across the pond, another layer of frost shivered over the surface where his bare skin touched the ice, sealing up the fissures once more.

"Jaaack…" drawled an exasperated voice. The winter spirit's eyes were drawn to the shore, where Harry was rolling the head of a snowman into shape. They were at the local park, which was mostly buried under a downy blanket of snow and which was also currently deserted due to the early hour. The clouds had drifted away in the night and the sky was a dazzling blue, all the more vivid against the white landscape. "I've already told you."

Jack scowled. "I still don't understand. How can they blame you for everything?"

It had been three days since Jack had met Harry. Three days of attempting to get back at the Dursleys for their treatment of Harry without it actually being blamed on Harry. It hadn't gone well.

Jack had jerked awake on the morning of the 21st and had barely had a chance to wonder at the fact that he'd fallen asleep – which rarely happened and never somewhere warm – before he became aware of what had woken him so suddenly. A rapid banging on the cupboard, along the shrill command of, "Up! Get up! Now!"

Harry had jumped too, startled awake by the noise, and then he had groaned in dismay. Jack blinked in surprise as he watched Harry slip off his lap and begin rooting under the bed. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for my socks," Harry replied, his voice slightly muffled by the bed. He crawled back out and started pulling them onto his feet.

"No, I mean, why is your aunt yelling at you to get up? Isn't school finished for the holidays?" Jack rubbed at his eyes, feeling like his brain was made of cotton wool. Usually when he fell asleep, it was to recover from some kind of injury and perhaps exhaustion from overexerting his powers. It felt strange to have drifted into sleep for no apparent reason, especially when it had only been for an hour or two.

"Yeah, it is, but Aunt Petunia will want me to cook the breakfast," Harry said matter-of-factly, wriggling his toes to get them into the bottom of the socks.

Jack had frowned. "She makes you cook the breakfast? Aren't you too young for that?" As he spoke, memories of the previous night flooded back and his frown deepened. It shouldn't surprise him really, judging by the way the woman had treated her nephew before.

"Not really." Harry pulled a jumper over his head. "I've got a box to stand on to see the top of the cooker."

"That's not really what I meant…" Jack trailed off as Harry pushed open the cupboard door.

The boy turned back to look at him. "Will you come with me?" he asked hopefully. "I can make you some too. I'm pretty good at it by now." Then he paused, evidently struck by a thought. "Can you eat?"

"What? Uh, yeah," Jack replied, momentarily derailed by the question. "I don't need to but I can." He ducked out of the cupboard and Harry beamed up at him, before setting off down the hall. "Harry," Jack said, catching up as the kid entered the kitchen. "Do your aunt and uncle always treat you like this?" He couldn't keep the concern out of his voice.

"Yeah." Harry shrugged and fished some sausages out of the fridge. "They don't like me much. Neither does Dudley. But that's okay because I don't like them much either."

"Dudley?"

"My cousin. You saw him yesterday," Harry explained, dropping the pork links one by one into the frying pan. They hit the bottom with a sizzle. "He was one of the ones chasing me yesterday at school."

Jack's eyebrows rose and his anger spiked. "They let your cousin bully you?"

At that precise moment, Aunt Petunia bustled into the kitchen. "Don't let those sausages burn!" she snapped. "Last time they were black!"

Jack's temper was already simmering near the surface. Her tone was quite enough to send it over the edge, even without the look that had appeared on Harry's face, somewhere between indignation and hurt.

All of the kitchen windows shattered as the temperature abruptly dropped to below freezing, and Aunt Petunia shrieked and ducked, as the wind swept in along with half of the snow lying on the ground outside.

Harry blinked up in astonishment and shock at Jack, knee-deep in snow and one hand still holding the frying pan. "Oops," Jack said unrepentantly.

It had rapidly degenerated after that. Aunt Petunia had become hysterical and started screaming at Harry, calling him unnatural and a freak. Jack had shouted right back even though she couldn't hear him, outraged that she was blaming the child and lost his temper again, along with his control. This time all the pipes under the sink had shattered as the water in them froze and Aunt Petunia had become even more hysterical. Uncle Vernon had thundered down the stairs, still in his pyjamas and then there been more shouting and bellowing, the end result being that Harry was banished to his cupboard once more while his uncle had phoned a glazier and a plumber.

Over the next day or two Jack had tried all manner of things in an attempt at punishing them for their treatment of Harry, from icing the lids shut on all Aunt Petunia's cleaning products to freezing the engine of Uncle Vernon's car. No matter what he did, Harry got the blame for it and all that did was upset Jack even more.

"I just don't understand!" The immortal teen stomped back and forward across the surface of the pond. Crack, refreeze, crack, refreeze. "How can they possibly blame you for these things?"

Harry stopped rolling the snowman's head for a moment, blowing his hair out of his eyes with an exasperated huff of breath. "They don't like things behaving in a way they're not supposed to, or anything that they can't explain. And, like I said, weird things happened around me quite a lot, so that's probably why they think it's me. Now will you please stop worrying and just come and play Jack?" And with that, he went right back to rolling the snowman.

The winter sprite could only stare in astonishment, both at the fact that it was the first time he had to be encouraged to play instead of fret over something, and because of the young boy's incredible pragmatism over the whole situation.

But then, from what he's said, this has been going on as long as he can remember. It's completely mundane. No wonder he's developed a 'that's the way it is' attitude.

Harry looked over, and seeing Jack still standing on the ice, called out impatiently. "C'mon Jack! Stop worrying about it!"

The winter spirit shook himself and then flew over to the kid, before starting to roll the snowman's body. The motions were familiar, honed by years of practice, and calmed him a little from his agitated state. As his hands worked, Jack turned the situation over and over in his mind. It was frustrating beyond belief to be unable to help Harry, but anything he did was only going to make it worse. There had to be something he could do to help…

Harry glanced over at him and grinned, eyes bright from exertion and happiness. "Don't look like that. You can't stop them from being horrible people, but you're here and that's what matters. We can play together and they can't ever take you away from me." Harry looked back at his snowman head, focused on patting it into shape, and thus missed the look that passed over Jack's face.

They can't ever take you away from me.

Clearly, Harry had been every bit as lonely as Jack had been. The winter spirit coughed a little to clear his throat, which felt very tight all of a sudden. "Don't worry. We'll play together every single day." He was proud of the fact his voice had only rasped the tiniest bit and when Harry beamed at him in response, Jack felt so light he might have actually risen off the ground and simply not noticed.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

A/N: Ahhhh, feel the fluff. xD Hope you enjoyed and hope you also leave a review. :P Also, a huge thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! I haven't had time to reply to them individually but I read them all and beamed at every single one. :D