“Albus, before we get to whatever you wanted to talk about, there’s something I’d like to ask first.” Professor Flitwick looked at Dumbledore.
“Where exactly was Mr.
William during my lesson just now?” “That is actually related to what I wanted to discuss with you.” Dumbledore snapped his fingers, and a teapot waddled over to Professor Flitwick with an exaggerated little sway before pouring him a cup of black tea.
“Two Aurors came by earlier to question Leo about the dark wizard he captured.” “I see.” Professor Flitwick nodded.
“There weren’t any problems, I hope?” “Not for him.” Dumbledore chewed on a soft sweet.
“But…
we may have acquired a bit of a problem ourselves.” Once Dumbledore had finished explaining what had happened, the office fell completely silent.
After a while, Professor Flitwick pushed his glasses higher on his nose.
“You’re saying Ailio Yarrow was defeated by Mr.
William in a direct confrontation?” “Yes.” “That’s extraordinary…” Professor Flitwick looked at Leo in genuine astonishment.
He had not known much about the incident involving the werewolf or the dark wizards and had assumed there must have been some arrangement on Dumbledore’s part behind the scenes.
He had certainly never imagined that Leo was already strong enough to defeat an Auror without relying on magic at all.
“I don’t think just hearing about it really gets the point across.” Leo was already looking eager.
“Professor Flitwick should experience it himself!” “So much youthful energy…” Dumbledore shook his head in helpless resignation.
“I don’t mind at all, though I still have a few things to take care of first, so it will have to wait until this evening.” Professor Flitwick thought for a moment.
“How does seven o’clock in my Charms classroom sound?” As a former dueling champion, Professor Flitwick had never been opposed to fighting.
If anything, he was rather fond of it.
Had he not still needed to mark assignments and prepare lessons, he would have been perfectly happy to test Leo’s fighting ability right then and there.
“Sounds great!” Leo laughed.
..
By dinnertime, students were gradually filing into the Great Hall.
Harry and Ron were still discussing the possibility that Leo had already killed Snape, while Hermione was still annoyed enough about what had happened the previous night that she had no desire to speak to either of them.
“Snape still hasn’t shown up,” Harry speculated.
“You don’t think Leo dumped him at the bottom of the Black Lake, do you?” “I think being buried somewhere in the Forbidden Forest is just as likely,” Ron said after considering it.
“You two are overthinking this.
If I really did kill Professor Snape, I’d obviously feed the body to Fluffy,” Leo said.
“Leo!” Harry and Ron both jumped.
“When did you get back?” “Oh, I already finished disposing of Professor Snape’s corpse.” Leo spoke as casually as if he were discussing the weather, then picked up the confit duck leg in front of him and took a bite.
“Five points from Gryffindor for discussing the murder of a professor behind his back!” A cold voice suddenly came from directly behind the three boys.
“Yo.” Leo waved the duck leg in greeting.
“Hmph.” Snape glared at Harry, turned sharply, and swept away with his black robes billowing behind him.
Harry stared after him in confusion.
“…Why did he only glare at me?
You two were talking too!” “Maybe Professor Snape secretly has a crush on you.” Leo set down the bone he had stripped clean and reached for an entire plate of pie.
He would be dueling Professor Flitwick later, and there was no way he was going into that without loading up on energy first.
“Maybe he keeps staring because he just can’t forget those sad, beautiful eyes of yours.” “You’ve got to be joking.
I’m going to throw up.” Harry shuddered violently.
Snape being in love with him?
Was there anything in the world more horrifying than that?
“So what did you actually go off to do?” Ron asked curiously.
“Oh, Dumbledore needed me for something.” Leo tore into a piece of turkey, crunching straight through the bones along with the meat before swallowing the lot.
“You’ve got a serious appetite today,” Ron said, watching in surprise as Leo continued eating.
“I got a bit of exercise this afternoon.” Leo reached for an entire rack of lamb.
“And I’ve got something else planned tonight.” “What are you planning to do now?” Hermione finally snapped, still visibly irritated.
“I assume you do understand that anything involving another violation of school rules—” “Nothing like that this time.
Professor Flitwick and I are having a little extracurricular academic exchange,” Leo said.
Hermione gave him a suspicious look.
“Really?” “You can come and watch if you want.” Leo shrugged, inviting her, then glanced at Harry and Ron.
“You two can come too.” “We’ll pass…” Harry and Ron replied without hesitation.
The moment they heard the words extracurricular academic exchange, both of them assumed Leo was talking about extra lessons or some other kind of tutoring and immediately lost all interest.
..
At seven o’clock that evening, the Charms classroom looked completely different.
“Huh?” Hermione stopped as soon as she walked through the door.
“It definitely wasn’t this big during class.” The room had expanded to several times its normal size.
All the desks had been pushed against the walls, leaving an open area in the center roughly the size of a football pitch.
Hermione’s eyes widened in realization.
“Is this…
an Undetectable Extension Charm?” “That’s exactly right.” Professor Flitwick had been sitting on a table beside the door while he waited.
When he saw Leo arrive, he hopped down to the floor.
“If this were an ordinary lesson, I would certainly award Miss Granger a point for being so well read.” “Let’s get started.” Leo began loosening up immediately, his joints cracking one after another.
“Wait.” Hermione stared as Leo started pulling off his wizarding robes, revealing the sleeveless shirt underneath.
“Didn’t you say this was an academic exchange?” “It is.
An academic exchange about dueling.” Leo settled into a fighting stance and looked toward Professor Flitwick, who had drawn his wand and was walking toward the opposite side of the classroom.
“Ready, Professor?
I’m not going to hold back.” “Not a problem.” Professor Flitwick and Leo exchanged the formal bow of a wizard’s duel.
“Come on.” “I’m coming!” A grin spread across Leo’s face.
The next instant, the floor exploded beneath his feet, and his figure vanished from where he had been standing.
“Remarkably fast,” Professor Flitwick observed.
With a flick of his wand, he cast a Transfiguration spell on the floor.
Stone surged upward and reshaped itself into a vicious lion, which lunged toward the dark blur racing straight at him with its jaws wide open.
Leo did not slow down.
At the very last instant before impact, both hands shot forward and seized the stone lion by the head as his knee drove sharply upward.
The explosive knee strike combined with all the momentum of his charge, and the force of it produced a short, violent crack in the surrounding air.
Bang!
Flesh collided with stone in a thunderous impact.
The stone lion’s jaw shattered, and chunks of rock burst outward in every direction.
“Protego.” Professor Flitwick instantly raised a Shield Charm around himself, blocking the flying fragments.
“Engorgio.” Without any pause between spells, he enlarged the stone lion with the shattered jaw until it was twice its previous size, its head almost brushing against the chandelier overhead.
“You can keep altering something after it’s already been Transfigured?” Leo asked, clearly interested.
“Of course.
It does not violate Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration, though it is a considerably more advanced application.” Professor Flitwick sounded perfectly relaxed even in the middle of the fight.
“Professor McGonagall will cover that sort of material with you in your fifth year.” He pointed his wand toward the stone lion.
“Geminio.” The single lion multiplied into eight.
They spread out around Leo and attacked him from every direction.
Leo reacted almost immediately.
He planted his feet, drew one fist back, and drove it into the stone lion directly in front of him with all the force he had gathered.
The crushing blow sent the lion flying backward.
It smashed into two more stone lions behind it, carrying all three of them together into the wall.
The impact shook the classroom, and a thick cloud of dust and powdered stone surged into the air.