On Monday, the Charms class did the next spell in the book and Harry spent the class teaching both Hermione and Susan the packing spell. It was extremely useful and made gathering up their things after class so easy that they both thought it shouldn't be used all the time. Harry stopped his laugh before he disrupted the class and reminded them that they needed to practice the spell anyway. Neither girl could argue that was a smart way to do it, rather than unpacking their trunks and then using the spell to pack it again.

Transfiguration class had them do something that wasn't in the book, so they had to pay attention. Once again, half of the time was spent taking intricate notes that were both important and superfluous, because as long as you had an example to work with, visualizing what to change the object into was easy... for Harry anyway, because they were doing another thing that he was very familiar with.

They were changing a normal knitted mitten into an oven mitt. He knew the feel of it, what it was used for, and the right size. After reading the notes again, he could tell that there was some of the Engorgio charm mixed in to make the mitten bigger. He was also sure that if they were asked to transfigure it back instead of reverting the transformation like normal, it would have some of the Reducio charm mixed in to make it smaller.

It was then that Harry started to clue in that the different branches of magic could sometimes mix together and required parts of each to function. He filed that information away, because he knew it would come up later.

Harry had to help Hermione by giving her his oven mitt to use as an example. He reminded her of what it did and she felt the inside and outside, and she eventually changed her mitten into an oven mitt that was the same size.

“You forgot the engorgement portion of the spell.” Harry chuckled.

“I did not.” Hermione said, her face a little red. “I just wanted to make sure that I had the texture and everything right first.”

“Uh huh.” Harry said as she reverted it back. “It's all right, Hermione. You're way ahead of the rest of the class.”

Hermione looked around and saw that almost no one had changed their mittens, except for the colors.

“Even Susan is struggling with it.” Harry pointed out.

They both looked at her and saw her face squished up as she tried to concentrate.

“I think she's struggling too hard.” Hermione said. “She might hurt herself if she keeps going like that.”

Harry nodded. “I'll be right back.” He said and glanced at the professor, then he left his seat and went to Susan's desk and knelt beside her chair. “Need a hand?”

“Huh?” Susan jumped a little and Hannah giggled.

“You remember your aunt baking, don't you?” Harry asked.

“Yes, but...”

“She didn't use an oven mitt, a big thick mitten to take things out of the oven?” Harry asked.

“No, she just levitated it out.” Susan said.

“Ah, I see.” Harry said and stood up. “Just a second.” He looked at Professor McGonagall and put up his hand, even though he was the only person standing up and she could clearly see him.

“Yes, Mister Potter?” Minerva asked.

“I think we need to distribute examples again. Almost no one knows what the oven mitt is supposed to feel like.” Harry said.

“I assume you have transfigured yours successfully?”

“Yes, professor.” Harry said. “Accio my oven mitt.” He said to summon it and held it up.

“You could have stepped back to your desk to grab it.” Susan said with a smile. “It was right there.”

“I know.” Harry said. “Depulso.” He let the oven mitt go and pushed it back over to the desk to give it to Hermione again.

“I will require your help.” Minerva said with a bit of a smile and put a huge box of mittens on her desk.

“Yes, professor.” Harry said and went to the front of the class. He took each mitten out of the box and transfigured them into all different kinds of oven mitts with different patterns and pictures on them.

Minerva was impressed that he wasn't making just one of them and copying the design. “How many of them have you seen?”

“Tons and tons.” Harry said. “My aunt isn't careful when she uses them and burns them all the time.”

“None of these are burned.” Minerva said and picked one up.

“You taught me that I didn't have to make them into what I thought they should be if the original is damaged.” Harry said and did the last mitten. “Do you want me to pass them out?”

“Please.” Minerva said.

Harry pointed at the pile and flicked his wand towards the students, just like Professor Snape had to give out their potion results. The oven mitts floated over to the students and it wasn't a gentle flutter like with the papers. They were heavy and flopped down onto the desks with thumps and a couple startled yelps of surprise.

“Hey, it worked.” Harry said with a smile.

“Yes, it did.” Minerva said and hid her own surprise. “You may return to your seat.”

Harry nodded and went back to his seat, then went to Susan and whispered into her ear. She nodded several times and he went back to his seat to check on Hermione.

“Nice one, Hermione.” Harry said as he saw her change hers into one with a horse picture on the back. “Does your mom have one like that?”

“No, I just... if you can change it into anything you want... well...”

“You can add anything you want to the back!” Harry said as the realization hit him. “You're not limited to the patterns you see. You're only limited by what you can picture in your head!”

Nearly everyone in the class looked over at him.

“Thanks, Hermione!” Harry said and took his oven mitt back. He reverted it back to a mitten and pictured in his head what he wanted, then cast the spell again.

“Oh, wow!” Susan said when she saw what he had made. It was an oven mitt, except it was snowy white with grey patterns across it. It also looked just like Hedwig with the owl's eyes and beak. It was even the right shape.

“That's amazing.” Hermione said as Harry held it up to admire it.

“I think I'm going to keep it.” Harry said, cast a preservation spell on it and then used the unbreakable spell on it. “Professor, I'll give you another mitten to replace it.”

Minerva smiled. “They were lost mittens that have been gathered over the years, so you can keep it.”

“Thanks a lot!” Harry said and smiled at her.

Minerva felt a pang of guilt that he only just now gave her that look. She knew she had missed her chance to be a significant part of his life with her mistakes, so all she could do was be the best teacher that she could be.

“I believe we are almost out of time.” Minerva said. “We will continue this tomorrow, so you can return both mittens and oven mitts to the box.”

Everyone in the class did, except for Harry. He packed up his things, using the spell of course, and then the bell rang.

“You have got to do that for my aunt.” Susan said to Harry as the students left the class. “I'll bring a pair of mittens for you to change for her.”

“For her?” Hermione and Hannah asked at the same time and that made Susan laugh.

“Well, she'll want to see it.” Susan said with a smile. “Come on, Hannah. We've got to meet up with the prefect to get permission to have a plant in our dorm room.”

“I keep telling you, that's a weed.” Hannah said as they walked off together and Susan laughed.

Hermione watched them go and took a breath. “I'm glad she's not as mean as the others.”

“Hufflepuffs are known for their long lasting friendships.” Harry said and quoted the hat.

Hermione smiled. “Well, we should be glad we're friends with her, because they are not friendly with people that aren't their friends.”

Harry looked around at the other students that had walked off in different directions. “I think nearly all of them are like that, even people in our own House.”

“Unfortunately.” Hermione said. “They've gotten better since you accused Lavender of being mean.”

“I'm glad.” Harry said and looked at her. “You need to tell me if they bully you again.”

“As soon as it happens, you'll be the first person I tell.” Hermione said.

Harry nodded and they walked over to one of the secret stairwells Harry knew about to get back to Griffindor tower.

“Are you really going to do it?” Hermione asked as they went up the stairs after checking that no one could see them.

“What? Change the mittens?” Harry asked.

“No, reporting to Filch.” Hermione said.

“Yeah.” Harry said. “He needs the help.”

“But, you don't have detention anymore.” Hermione said.

“Everyone will assume I do.” Harry said with a smile.

Hermione chuckled and she shook her head. “All right, fine. I'll save telling you that you're crazy for later.”

Harry chuckled as well and they went into the Griffindor common room and split up. He dropped his things off and left at a jog. He used the quick secret passage that took him right down to the first dungeon floor and he stopped at Filch's office. There was the sound of metal armor clattering to the floor and several curses, then the door to the office opened.

“Who in the bloody blue blazes is... oh, it's you.” Filch said when he saw Harry. “I almost had the suit of armor back together, too.”

“I can help.” Harry said. “Hi, Missus Norris.”

“Meow.” Missus Norris said and rubbed her side on his leg.

“You don't have detention anymore, lad.” Filch said.

“Who said I don't have detention?” Harry asked innocently and grinned at the mean-looking man.

“Dammit, I shouldn't have told you that trick.” Filch said, remembering that he told Harry that no one would ask him if he had detention if they were cleaning together.

“Meow, meow.” Missus Norris said in amusement.

“We're starting the third floor bathrooms, right?” Harry asked.

Filch sighed. “Just a minute and I'll get our things.”

Harry nodded and poked his head into the office to see the half-built armor suit in pieces on the floor. He quickly cast silent sticking charms on all of the pieces on the floor and then cast the repair spell silently and waved his wand. The armor suit floated up and pulled together onto the wooden base that held it together. The sticking charm should last for a long time, since it required very little magic to work.

“Let's go.” Filch said and they went up to the third floor and started cleaning the bathrooms. It took an hour to clean three of them, two boy's and one girl's. Harry walked across the hallway before Filch could stop him and Harry entered the other girl's bathroom.

“Ahhhoooooo! Hup! Hup!” A girl's voice cried out and Harry jumped when a spectral girl's head came up out of the sink. “Those people down in the lake kicked me out again!” She said and her spirit fully formed in front of him. “What are you doing in here?!? This is MY bathroom!”

Harry deployed his wand and let his anger at the ghost fill him. “Exorcizantur Exspiravit!” He said and a white ball of light shot out of his wand and engulfed the spirit. It let out an ungodly howl as it shrivelled and sunk in on itself, then with a little pop it completely disappeared.

“Lad! That bathroom's haunt...” Filch caught the end of the ghost's scream and saw the last of it pop out of existence. “Blimey.”

“It's not haunted anymore.” Harry said and put his wand away. “We might be here for a while, though. This place is filthy and hasn't been cleaned in a while.”

Filch gave him a disbelieving look for a second, then he smiled. “It's nothing that a little elbow grease can't fix, eh?”

Harry nodded and the two of them got to work while Missus Norris meowed in approval.