“HARRY! How could yeh?” Hagrid asked loudly. “How could yeh do that ta Fluffy?”

Harry turned to look at the giant man. “He shouldn't be in the school with us.” He said. “I warned you last night.” He looked at the headmaster and held up the Gringotts letter. “I warned you, too.”

“Harry, there are a few things that you need to understand about...” Albus started to say.

“I know all about having things taken from me, thanks.” Harry interrupted him and sat back down, then started eating again. He only picked at it, because he didn't want to overfill his stomach, and he waited patiently for his watch to tell him when to head to class.

The sounds of eating and conversations picked up after that. It was a spectacle and nearly everyone was talking about it, except the teachers. Just like the night before, they were waiting for the right moment to assault Dumbledore with more questions.

*

Professor Flitwick's questions were going to have to wait, however. He had Charms first class and needed to get there before the first year students. He left the breakfast table and gave Albus' back a pointed look, then left through the door at the back of the room. He went through a secret passage, one that the teachers used all the time, and he entered his office at the back of the Charms classroom through another secret panel.

He took out the materials and visual aids that he needed to teach the first charm in the standard book of spells. He would normally let them read for half of the class; but, after the things he had witnessed, he needed to wow his students right off the bat or they were going to be disappointed in his lessons. The bell rang and he took his position on top of his desk, so that everyone would see him when they entered.

Flitwick made a bit of a show of how small he was, because that always caught the attention of the students. It was a teaching trick he had used to full advantage over the years and it hadn't failed him yet. He paced on top of his desk, did a bit of a fidgeting dance, and let the students take their seats on their own. He looked down at his seating plan and saw little check boxes appear on the sheet as each student proved they were present, and he started the class.

*

Harry was bored. It was something Bertha had warned him about when she started teaching him during their private lessons. The first year curriculum was a very introductory course and if he had done all of the spells from the first book, then his charms class was going to seem like a waste of time. He still had a lot to learn, like proper wand use, handling, and other things.

“Mr. Potter.” Professor Flitwick said.

Harry jerked up straight in his seat, because he had started to doze off.

“Please demonstrate the proper wand use for the Lumos spell.”

Harry did it perfectly.

“Very good. Five points to Griffindor.” Flitwick said. “Now, if you could demonstrate the actual spell for another five points?”

“Which one?” Harry asked and Hermione chuckled, then she closed her mouth with a red face for interrupting the class.

“Just the Lumos main spell, please.” Flitwick said and Harry lit his wand. “How many of the variants do you know?”

“Two.” Harry said. “Lumos Solem, and Lumos Maxima.”

“Very good, Mr. Potter. I assume you've performed them properly?”

“He used Lumos Maxima when we came from the train.” Hermione said. “It stopped halfway across the lake and he had to cast it again.”

Harry was going to say that he used Nox to turn it off, when Flitwick gasped.

“You held the spell for that long, Mr. Potter?” Flitwick asked and Harry nodded. “Another five points to Griffindor for knowing each spell.” He said and then chuckled. “I suppose it would be funny if you didn't know the counter charm. Perform it, please.”

“Nox.” Harry said and his wand went out.

“Another five points.” Flitwick said. “Excellent work, Mr. Potter. Excellent.”

“Th-thanks.” Harry said.

“I hope you won't be too bored as the rest of the class practices.”

“I can help Hermione... if she needs it.” Harry said and gave her an awkward smile.

Hermione rolled her eyes and the three of them laughed.

“I'll leave you to it.” Flitwick said and started going to each student to help them with the spell.

“You can teach me the Maxima variant.” Hermione whispered. “I only found the Solem one as a reference in one of the books.”

“You figured out to think about the sun when casting it?” Harry asked.

Hermione nodded. “It was a passage about devil's snare in the Herbology book.”

“I must have missed that.” Harry said.

“Well, if you didn't just skim the pages looking for spells, you might have remembered seeing it.” Hermione said with a smile.

“Or, you know, I don't have an interest in plants.” Harry said. “I don't know why everyone has to learn to take care of them if they aren't going to be a gardener or something.”

“It's in case you ever come across them in the wild and you'll know how to deal with them.” Hermione explained. “As long as muggles aren't around. You'll get in trouble if you use magic around them.”

Harry nodded, because that was the very first thing Bertha had told him. And the third thing. And the tenth thing. She really wanted to make sure that he didn't make a mistake like that. Or she was a little scatterbrained, Harry wasn't sure. She was nice and always paid attention to him when he visited, so he gave her the benefit of the doubt.

For the rest of the class, Harry quietly taught Hermione the trick to using the variant spell. You had to really want the light to light up the space around you, and not necessarily from the tip of the wand. Hermione took in a sharp breath at the revelation, because she had thought the magic had to come directly from the wand.

Harry leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “No, Hermione. The magic comes from you. You are magic.”

Hermione's face flushed red at the compliment, even though she knew that wasn't what Harry meant when he said it.

“The wand just lets you focus and direct it, just like it says in the book, Powers You Didn't Know You Had And What To Do With Them Now That You've Wised Up.”

“I really, really want to borrow that book.” Hermione whispered.

Harry nodded and promised to let her borrow it. By the end of the class, Hermione had a firm grasp of what Harry had taught her. She didn't try to cast the spell, though. She didn't want to insult the professor like that, even though it was still technically the same spell he was teaching.

They left the class walking close to each other, still discussing the differences between the basic spell and both variants, considering they each had different visual effects and affected the wand in almost the same manner. They followed the other students down the hallway to the stairs and went up to the second floor to a classroom that seemed to have been empty for a long time.

When the bell rang, they all sat down at the large desks and waited for the professor to appear. Harry had his book open and was quite happy to learn more about the wizarding world's history. The book was a bit dry and didn't describe the events that he wanted it to, namely the goblin wars and how they had spilled over into the wizarding world and they had to step in and save them from destruction.

“AHHH!” Hermione screeched and covered her face as a ghost floated into the classroom through the chalkboard.

“Depulso!” Harry said and the strong beam of white light slammed into the ghost's chest and flung him back out of the room. The ghost let out a howling wail that sent shivers down everyone's spine and not just the ones that were afraid of ghosts.

“Harry, that was the teacher!” Ron exclaimed. “You have to stop doing that, mate! If Professor McGonagall finds out...”

“Why did it have to be a ghost?” Harry asked, his voice full of disbelief. “I was really looking forward to this class, too.”

“So was I.” Hermione said, doubly disappointed, because not only was the teacher a ghost, they now had no one to teach the class. On the plus side, that ghost was not likely to come back right away.

“What do we do?” Harry asked.

“Self study.” Hermione said and nearly all of the other students groaned.

“I'd say it's a free period.” Ron said and that was met with enthusiastic agreement from everyone. “They won't let us roam the halls, though.”

“I'm going to study.” Hermione said and flipped the book to her favorite chapter.

Harry looked and saw that it was about the meetings between the goblins and the wizards, before the war spilled over onto them and they had to step in to sort everything out. His favorite chapter was the one right after that, when the meeting went bad and a fight broke out. He looked at Hermione's reading face and thought that even though they had a few things in common, there was definitely a difference between them and their likes and dislikes.

For some reason, Harry didn't mind that at all. He spent the rest of the class reading, just like her, and the other students goofed off and played games. They all went to lunch afterwards in a better mood than they had been at the start of the class.