Nine Lives and Bad Luck

16

Harry had left his friends early with a vague comment about an old family friend at lunch the next day earning him a few confused looks, but they had still smiled and said they would see him at charms then- since it was the class they had after lunch. He figured it would be nice to speak with Fili- Flitwick, before class as it had been awhile since he had last seen the other dueler. The small professor had been one of the many duelers he had met through Silk and he had enjoyed learning a few small charms from them once he had entered the dueling ring. It would be strange to have the other as a formal teacher, but he knew he wouldn't be given any room to mess around in class and would probably be held to higher standards if anything.

He knocked on the door of the charms classroom, Flitwick hadn't been at lunch when he left so he hoped they would be in their classroom already.

    "Yes?"

     He opened the door nervously, "I thought I'd stop by to visit before class since it's been so long..."

    "Asphodel!" Flitwick squeaked happily, "Come in, come in, how have you been?"

     "Busy, I hadn't expected to get a Hogwarts acceptance letter so it was a nice surprise, it's been... interesting being around so many children all the time." He smiled taking a seat on the student desk in front of the podium.

    "You're forgetting you're still a child yourself, I know you never had much experience with a carefree childhood," he paused giving Asphodel a quelling look before Asphodel could protest, "even if Tiamat hasn't said anything about where she picked you up from, but you have the chance now to have a piece of normality, so don't get too caught up in everything else." 

    "Should I quote you on that Professor Flitwick?" He laughed.

     "Oh, it's Filius when I'm not teaching- you're already far too used to calling me that." They waved a hand, "and can you imagine if Tiamat heard? She would never stop, I'd might as well just change it to my dueling title and save myself further trouble." They both snorted at that.

     "Fair enough, I'll get the title change papers for you then, Silk would be so proud I got an early start on driving people up the walls." They both chuckled quietly for a moment, "While we're on the subject of being driven crazy, I came across a charm not long ago; muffliato, and I don't think I'm getting it quite right, would you mind  giving me some advice? I'm planning to use it on Silk- she shrunk me, not even a lot which would honestly have been kind of cool, she made me child size and I had an hour to figure it out!"

     Flitwick laughed cheerily, they had started these 'disputes' a few months after Harry had taken up dueling where they would cast spells on the other which, while not harming them or really effecting their daily life all that much, would really annoy the other. He knew they would stop if either was truly frustrated by the spells though so he saw no need to interfere (he was pretty sure Harry had started it too as Silk had one day shown up to a get together Carol- a fellow dueler- had arranged with cat ears glued on, hints of what he wasn't sure were real or fake tufts of feathers showing, and vowing for revenge. Harry went to view Flitwick's duel later in the evening sporting a fluffy tail and bright red colored hair.  (Oddly enough he noticed Harry had taken a liking to the hair style and his hair was from them on often died in reds, oranges, and yellows which made it, amusingly, quite like a lions mane when not wrestled into a braid or some sort of order. How fitting they had ended up a Gryffindor although Flitwick was a little disappointed they hadn't gotten into his house.) 

     "Well, Let's see what you have so far then, you know the incantation and motion, yes?"

      "Yep."