Filius Flitwick, the respected Dean of Ravenclaw and double agent, having sent an owl with Harry's message to his relatives, was in no hurry to return to his friend and student's home. He stood with his arms crossed, looking at the empty, dreary street with box-like houses, and thought, thought...
"What a pity that Harry avoids me. Apparently, my damned kinfolk really got to him at Gringotts. Being the mentor to such a wizard is the greatest honor. And responsibility, of course. And... perhaps, freedom?.. But how much can I give him? Though at first, perhaps, quite a lot. And if together with Severus...
Harry Potter... amazing, unique child! What a wonderful, strongest wizard could grow from him, simply a miracle. A second Merlin... Now I understand why the headmaster blocked his abilities. But why so cruelly? And what happened now, what caused the unblocking? And what does this threaten?
Yes, with the boy's personal qualities... he could become hope for all of England. Of course, we still need to cultivate firmness, responsibility, most importantly, not to the detriment of his natural kindness. How I don't want to interfere - mental influence, even the weakest, the most skillful, will still slow down the process of his development. But Severus... he always cares so much about safety. Will I be able to stop him, or will I have to stand against him? And won't that be the end?.. Most importantly, I myself can't really offer anything about how to protect both the boy and us... No, I need to think and think again! There must be a way out, and I'm obliged to find it!"
***
He returned in time: Snape was already straightening his rolled-back left sleeve and was gloomier than ever. Harry's face was unusually thoughtful and stern, as if he had aged several years at once.
"Do you also want to tell me something?" Harry was the first to notice Flitwick.
"Nothing, except that I too am a double agent."
"What, you were also a Death Eater?!" Harry was shocked.
"No," Flitwick smiled, "it all began for me several decades ago. When Tom Riddle was studying at Hogwarts, I had already been recruited twice: by wizards and by goblins."
"Ah. I see. Two double agents," Harry smiled. "You help each other. But your masters... sorry," he saw Snape flinch, "but what else to call them?.. Er, employers, perhaps?"
"Call them whatever you want, Potter, you're right anyway, alas. But don't expect this to make either of us happy, you understand."
"I'm sorry..."
"You're not to blame here, Harry."
"Maybe we'll have lunch? I can cook..."
"Potter, are you sure? Because if it's like with potions, we won't live long."
Harry squinted mischievously:
"Spies are used to danger, after all. And... aren't you curious yourself?"
"What about the library?"
"Ah... Then maybe next time?"
"I'll just place an order," Flitwick reassured them. "I promise it will be delicious."
"I don't doubt it."
"And you'll be feeding me for the second time... and I eat... a lot..."
"Potter, calm down. Your appetite is unlikely to make a serious dent in my friend's budget or mine."
Harry remained silent, though he terribly wanted to show them what a dragon's appetite was like... It seems it would be too much for the professors' nerves after all. Look, their eyes periodically lose focus, both of them.
And while he enjoyed rummaging through the professor's books, the adult wizards had a very short dialogue.
"What did you tell the boy, Severus?"
"Everything."
Flitwick opened his mouth, took a breath and... remained silent, looking attentively at his friend.
"What's the point of keeping quiet? The headmaster will present it to him in no time so that... you understand yourself."
Filius nodded. His student often preferred to cut straight to the point, though most often he himself suffered from it. Character... But nothing terrible happened to Harry... Could the boy already be so mature that he doesn't rush to condemn and has such self-control?
"And... how is he?"
Severus spread his hands:
"As you can see... He listened to everything and said nothing."
"But his behavior..."
"It baffles me. And far from the first time."
***
No matter how hungry Harry was, when the owl from some café's delivery service finally brought the order, he literally had to be scraped away from yet another book.
Snape didn't particularly try to hide the joy he felt watching Potter buried in his books. Flitwick chuckled into his mustache. Finally, with joint efforts, Potter was escorted to the kitchen, where the table was already set. And then the friends had a really hard time, because the boy started showering them with questions...
About wandless magic, for example.
And he didn't care that this topic required at least a couple of weeks for comprehensive coverage, not a couple of hours... And on this question both Flitwick and Snape could enlighten him excellently. They told him something, of course, for instance, confirmed why no one detected Harry - neither at home, nor even at Fortescue's: it's specifically wands that are tracked.
"So it would have been better to buy a wand not from Ollivander? But from whom? Not in England at all? But how?"
And why does everyone say that losing a wand is such a tragedy? Can you buy a spare? And so that no one, er, outsider would know about it?
"And why care for a wand? Is it really true that properties improve?"
"..."
"You don't say... like that! So if I buy the right composition, my wand will also be hard to detect? Can you make it yourself? And how?" Harry's gaze suddenly became predatory, and this was by no means related to food.
Snape almost shuddered, but preferred to be indignant:
"Potter!!! Let us eat too, for crying out loud!"
"Oh... sorry. But..." Harry met the angry gaze of the house's owner. Angry? But he's... smiling! The boy smiled back and began chewing more actively: lunch was dragging on, and there was still so much to learn!
Finally Harry swept away everything that was nearby, thanked for the second helping and, since his mouth was open... told them how he worked as a house-elf in the cottage on Yew Street. He described it in full color, naturally. His dining companions also periodically forgot to chew: they couldn't even imagine such non-standard solutions.
"Harry, eat, eat..." Flitwick levitated another portion of dessert to him. "Otherwise you'll be like Severus... that is, Professor Snape."
"What do you mean, like the Professor?.."
"Well, so..." Flitwick, smiling at his friend's sideways glance, waved his hand indefinitely.
"Smart?" Harry put down his fork. "Serious? A potions master? Dangerous? Or... er..."
"The 'or er,' Potter."
"Well, if all the rest comes with it too... except for the mark and spying, of course, then I wouldn't mind at all!"
"What?" Snape would like to think he misheard, but alas. "You want to be like... me? Have you... lost your mind?.."
"What's wrong with that?" Harry asked, puzzled.
Snape just sighed. What could he answer to that?
"Accept it, colleague," Flitwick patted his hand. "You're going to be Potter's teacher..."
"Do you mean real apprenticeship? I... That would be great! I've read about it."
"After everything you learned about me?!"
Severus realized he wouldn't finish his dessert... No, he wasn't a big lover of sweets, but he liked apple pie. How all this is... unexpected. Interesting. Promising. And dangerous. Both for the boy and for him. Very dangerous. If someone finds out... But to leave the child without help - now? Unthinkable.
"Finish eating. We'll talk later."
***
When they left the table, Harry continued asking questions, seeing that Snape wasn't hurrying to touch on the important and, apparently, difficult topic of apprenticeship. And he found out that wandless magic, essentially, is very close to children's outbursts, only it, unlike them, should be very clearly directed and focused. And this is supposedly incredibly difficult.
And he, it turns out, found a special way of "returning to the origins," taking control of what most often manifests as a child's outburst. And children have access to very powerful magic... Only with age it stabilizes and decreases. But it won't be like that for him, meaning, it won't decrease. Hee-hee. Great.
"Can't wands influence the reduction of power?" he suggested, and the adults froze again.
"In theory, the opposite. But... interesting question."
"When teenagers get their first wand, they..."
"What about them?"
"Yes, magic surges stop. But spells start working better."
"Could it be that a wand is an anchor?" Harry remembered what he had read and what he had talked about with the psychologist. "An anchor of success. Children are convinced that if they have a wand, everything will work out. And without it, magic in general... isn't worth trying. Do they say that? I don't know... how wizards raise children."
Snape blushed. This was his miscalculation, his most brutal mistake... He should have found and taken Harry from the Muggles, introduced him to the wizarding world, at least a year, and better two years before Hogwarts... Wait, but it's precisely thanks to this that Harry doesn't know the limitations familiar to all wizards and isn't bound by them! A Mowgli of the wizarding world, he simply creates what he wants, and it works! It turns out that by placing Harry with Muggles, Albus outsmarted himself. Yes... who's going to teach whom. The boy has some ideas.
And Harry enthusiastically told how he came to controlling magic with desire and concentration. He told how he had to work on neighbors' lawns, about his first earnings, which he was proud of, and, to his own joy, received the liveliest approval from both professors.
And then they shared their conclusions and considerations with him... About the fact that there's something else in the world, for example, the house on Yew Street, they all forgot together.
Before evening came, Harry still managed to show his transformations. The wild enthusiasm of Flitwick and the silent admiration in Snape's eyes were incredibly pleasant to him. It was... Wow.
And then they had a discussion about animagus transformation, during which Harry not only learned a lot of new things himself, but also shared his discoveries, so much so that Flitwick decided it was worth testing his method right then and there. He went to the sofa and got under the blanket.
"Are you serious, Filius? Right now? Wait, let me at least check the potions, whether I have everything that might be needed."
"It's the perfect time, Severus: I have desire to spare, the pioneer of this technique is nearby, and someone to insure me too. Ideal, isn't it?"
"If this can, of course, be called a technique - transformation based on child magic is unlikely to suit an adult wizard," Snape tried to cool his friend's enthusiasm. "However, if you're so impatient... I'll try to revive you if something happens. But I don't guarantee it."
"Why do you think it won't work? Adults aren't people or what?" Harry was somewhat offended.
"Hm. Yes, Potter, that's, of course, an argument."
"Haven't you ever wanted to hide from everything in the world under a blanket? Don't you remember at all what it was like?"
Snape thought. Oh, how it was, oh how he remembers. After all, what does he lose? Only first he needs to insure Filius, not leave this to Potter. Though... the boy-Muggle handled Harry's problem perfectly, and not the brightest mind at that.
They didn't have to wait so long. Something stirred under the blanket, a pointed reddish muzzle with neat oval ears peeked out from the side, and then appeared... a leathery wing with a claw, which threw back the fabric so everyone could see it entirely.
"Flying dog!" Harry was delighted.
"A fruit bat?!" Snape was surprised.
The fruit bat Flitwick nodded his head and made some clicking sound, climbed onto the back of the sofa, and then... quietly purred and took off. True, he quickly came down again: apparently, flying was definitely quite difficult for him so far. And transformed back into a half-goblin...
"Amazing! Consciousness is fully preserved, Severus, I recommend! After all, that's exactly what stopped you before, am I right? Harry, you've made a real discovery, all that's left is to gather more experimental material. Your methodology is a true breakthrough!"
The small professor was glowing with joy.
"A fruit bat, can you imagine! This is a memory from youth, very... significant for me. I'll tell you sometime if you, Severus, work now too. Potter here is a genius, I'm telling you! Harry, we need to write an article... a little later, when we gather material."
Harry was a bit stunned, but Flitwick was already tucking the weakly resisting Snape onto the sofa and didn't react to his feeble attempts to deny writing an article.
There was nowhere to go. Snape was laid down and carefully wrapped up. He closed his eyes and imagined... No, that's not it. The quiet whispering of Flitwick and Harry continued to penetrate his consciousness through the stream of memories until Severus guessed to enter the state familiar for controlling wandless magic, and soon memory literally pulled him into one of the days of his childhood. Not the best day.
If only he could hide and protect himself so that no one would bother him anymore! Or better yet, fly away? When he grows up and becomes strong... And suddenly everything became quiet. He looked around. Almost absolute darkness reigned around. He was sitting in some round chamber... Someone was knocking on it.
He wanted to knock back and unexpectedly realized that... he had nothing to knock with. Because his upper limbs had become wings. And this was terribly inconvenient! But squinting his eyes, which gave a somewhat strange picture, he discovered... a beak. It was heavy and, it seems, predatorily curved. And his legs were... big, powerful, with strong toes and enormous claws. He strained and struck the, apparently, shell with all his might with his beak.
"A black eagle? Wow..." Harry drawled and sat right on the floor. "And... hee-hee, looks like the professor. Very much!"
He met the bird's gaze and apologized just in case.
Having gotten out, Snape saw his exhausted, ahem... colleagues. Yes, in animagus transformation Potter was now exactly their colleague, if not senior comrade. Well, and Filius is right - this really is a discovery! He tried to voice this conclusion, but made such a sound that everyone recoiled. Ha. Quite a familiar situation, generally speaking, if not for Filius Flitwick standing right in front of him. The newly-made animagus spread his wings and flapped them a little, immediately understanding that nothing would come of flying - he simply had no room to spread out here. He'd have to repeat this outside the city...
And all this time they were telling him how long they couldn't get him out of the egg. Why get him out, he got out calmly himself. Well... relatively calmly. A black eagle shrugging his shoulders was the last straw for the half-goblin, and he laughed hysterically. And when Snape walked along the back of the poor sofa, smoothly moving his paws, Harry also fell down laughing: the bird retained all the professor's mannerisms.
He concentrated and... there he was sitting, as if nothing had happened... On the back of the sofa. Like some schoolboy. Snape quickly returned to his proper position. And still, it was an amazing experience!
***
"Now we must register with the ministry?"
"Potter... If you've been doing nothing but breaking rules for so long..."
"Then one more or one less," Flitwick picked up.
"And let there be more in this case," Snape finished.
They smiled conspiratorially.
"An oath?" Harry asked.
"For reliability, it's worth it," they nodded to him.
And only then they finally realized that twilight had already come and Harry should have been home long ago. Snape tensed, but Flitwick, who decided to become "Potter's carrier," didn't remember about the potion. Harry had completely prepared to leave, took a step...
"Oh, but the book, the book!.. Or," he looked pleadingly at Snape, "is it not allowed?"
"It's allowed. Here."
They handed him a tome carefully wrapped in a piece of light fabric, he tucked it under his arm and leaned to one side a bit: the book was heavy.
"Let's go, Harry."
"And... yes."
They had almost gone out the door when Harry grabbed the doorframe, nearly dropping the package.
"Professor, can I write to you when questions come up, you'll advise me, right?"
"Your owl is conspicuous..."
"Are there any other ways?"
"Filius?"
"How did I not think of this right away!"
In five minutes each was the owner of a brand new notebook, charmed with Protean charms for all three. The half-goblin and the boy headed for the door again.
"And... read about Apparition?"
"I'll send it by owl. Go already, Harry." The house owner sighed.
Snape finally called him by his first name?! Excellent...
And then Harry remembered that he never told (more precisely, didn't ask) about Dudley and the slingshot. When he shared his idea, the teachers literally froze.
"Then, if the balls are filled with potions, you can shoot both from ambush and from afar, but not waste time saying the incantation! How fast it would be! Only, Professor Snape, I forgot to ask, what potions can be poured into slingshot balls?"
"That's a rich idea, isn't it, Severus?"
Snape nodded concentratedly, figuring out what kind of capsules they should be: first, impermeable to potions, second, easily breakable... Not simple...
"Or maybe just dipping?" Harry offered another assumption.
Now that was stupid.
"And what will happen to your hands?"
"What if gloves made of dragon leather?"
"Have you tried shooting in them?"
"Will you give me some?"
"...Potter... Here are gloves and goodbye!"
"Goodbye, Professor!"
Harry slowed down again, holding onto the long-suffering doorframe.
"...Potter, have you decided to stay and live here?"
"And... the potion? What about my memory? I still don't defend myself well."
And immediately felt tension arise in the room, the way the adults looked at each other... But it subsided, and they sighed with relief, and Snape answered:
"I think we'll figure out this question before the start of the school year. There's still time. You won't refuse to study with me a little?"
"Really?! Wow, cool! Can I come to you with a notebook?.."
...Potter. Summer. Extra classes. Puppy enthusiasm. No, he should have taken a sedative after all...
"You need to. Go already, for Merlin's sake!"
***
Snape and Flitwick sat in old armchairs by the fireplace.
"There's your boy for you... There's your Potter for you," Snape said thoughtfully.
"He's unique. He's incredible," Flitwick threw up his hands. "I think I understand why the headmaster blocked his abilities... And tied him to himself. I understand, but I don't approve."
"You saw it too? But why wasn't anything similar noticeable before, when the block was really in place?"
"Well, what do you want, Severus... It's the headmaster after all."
"But the traces of the block look so crude, rough..."
"Have you forgotten?.. Albus artistically masters all types of masking charms and always skillfully covers his tracks. But in runes and ritual magic he is, how to put it... still a dilettante, despite his age. Apparently because he really believes in what he proclaims."
"And because of his unwillingness to delve into the nuances of what he uses, we almost lost Harry!"
"Maybe that was his plan? By the end of school, hardly anyone could have helped the boy."
"We couldn't before either."
"We didn't know what to look for, and even knowing, wouldn't have found it. If even I... And you yourself participated, Severus, and I'll never believe you didn't do it with full force."
"He really can win..."
"Our task, at minimum, is to let him grow up. And develop normally. I get chills just remembering what he was like in the last school year. I would never have thought that Albus would work so... cruelly."
"My Merlin, Filius... What a boy! By himself, without any help! We'll need to find out how he got rid of the block: this couldn't happen by itself, so something occurred. Something completely extraordinary."