Harry and the Mystery of Age by teddylonglong

Ignoring the offended looks of his colleagues, Flitwick continued, “Lily was the best Charms student I ever had in all my years of teaching. She would surely be good at teaching Transfiguration but it would be a waste. Therefore, I want to suggest a few personnel changes.”

Seeing that he had everyone’s attention, Flitwick elaborated, “I believe it is time to let the ghost retire, Minerva.”

“All right,” the Headmistress replied, surprised but without hesitation.

“Well, in that case I would like to take over the position of History of Magic teacher under the condition that Lily will be my successor as Charms Professor,” Flitwick continued, seeing that the faces of his colleagues brightened a little.

“But who is going to teach Transfiguration, Filius?” Minerva asked exasperated. “I cannot be Headmistress and a fulltime teacher at the same time.”

“Yes, of course, I know that and I have already had a little talk with a former student of mine, Luna Lovegood. She is willing to take over the Transfiguration position and she is quite able as well. Moreover, as she is a Ravenclaw, I’d like her to be my successor as Head of House in a few years’ time, as well.”

“You have really worked this out, haven’t you, Filius?” Minerva said, smiling. “What do you think, Lily? You seem to have the choice between Transfiguration and Charms.”

Lily glanced from the Headmistress to the Charms teacher. She couldn’t believe her luck. Charms had always been her favourite subject and she would choose the position of Charms professor above everything else.

“Thank you very much for offering me the Charms position, and if everyone was all right with me taking the position I’d really love to do so.”

“All right, then we will do as Filius has suggested. Lily for Charms, Filius for History of Magic, and Ms. Lovegood for Transfiguration. Filius, please contact Ms. Lovegood and ask her to come to see me as soon as possible,” Minerva concluded the conversation.

Lily was very happy with this decision, especially as there was only a little time left until the beginning of the new school year and it would have been much more work for her to prepare Transfiguration classes than Charms classes, which she was much more confident with. In fact, Lily’s condition was not too good due to the fact that she had gained eighteen years during the time she had spent wherever it was that Tom had sent her to save her from death; although in her mind, only seconds had passed. So instead of being twenty-one she was now thirty-nine years old, and it was difficult to adjust to the new state of her body. She felt very old and tired all the time. So far, Lily hadn’t told anyone except for Poppy who had asked her straight away, seeing how much Lily slept while they were on the beach. Unfortunately, the Mediwitch couldn’t do much to help Lily with her problem.

The only people that could help Lily were Severus and Harry, who had both noticed what was wrong very quickly and were extremely considerate and helpful.

-----

After their return to Hogwarts, Harry still had to spend a few days in bed until Poppy finally allowed him to get up. As soon as Harry started to feel better, Severus and Poppy gave him two very stern talks.

Harry thought his conversation with his godmother, in which he had ended up feeling very ashamed and had even cried, had been bad. However, his talk with Severus made him feel much worse.

“Do you know how much your mother and I care about you, Harry?” Severus asked in a tone which Harry knew was normally reserved for students doing detention. As Harry looked at him anxiously, he continued, “We did everything we could to keep you safe, even inviting others to our honeymoon just for your safety.”

Seeing that Harry had averted his eyes to his bed cover, Severus said, “Look at me, Harry. We told you many times that you were not to go anywhere on your own. Moreover, Poppy had explicitly made it clear that your condition was not improved enough to go into the water. So, please do tell me what you were thinking, heading straight into the water on-your-own!” Severus had to try hard not to shout at his son. However, his facial expression let Harry very well know how his father felt about the matter.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Harry mumbled, not able to keep the tears from running down his cheeks.

“Sorry is not enough!” Severus stated, glaring daggers at his son. “You have to promise not to do such a stupid stunt again.”

“I’ll try, Daddy,” Harry replied anxiously and as his father continued to glance at him, a memory of his first childhood appeared in front of his eyes and he began to shake, panicking. “I’m sorry, I’ll be good,” he insisted, backing away as far as he could.

Severus frowned at the sight of the terrified child. “Harry,” he said as calmly as he could manage. “You know that I love you very much and that I’d never hurt you deliberately. I know that in your first childhood your uncle punished you with beating or the like, but I promise you, I will never do that to you. Look at me, Harry,” he told his son as he carefully reached out to stroke Harry’s head, noticing with relief that Harry didn’t back up further.

“In order for you to know how you’ll be punished in the future, I’ve thought of introducing a points system similar to the Hogwarts House system. Points will be awarded for good behaviour and will be taken for bad behaviour. When you manage to accumulate twenty points, your mother or I will take you to the bookshop and you may choose a book. If you manage to have five negative points, you will serve detention with me scrubbing cauldrons. Do you think this is a fair trade?”

Harry slowly looked up to his father. “Yes, Dad, thanks.”

Severus conjured two small Hourglasses, which he fixed on the opposite wall of Harry’s room, one with a phoenix on it and one with a spider. At the top of the two glasses were many colourful marbles. “Now, Harry, all good points go into the phoenix’ glass, the negative points into the spider’s glass.” Severus put a charm around the glasses, so that only Lily and he could award or take points. Then he added a Silencing Charm and an Unbreakable Charm, so that the glass wouldn’t break when the marbles, which were the size of small apples, fell down.

“All right, Harry.” Severus gave his son a piercing look, searching for approval in the bright green eyes. Then he lightly tapped the left glass three times and three marbles fell down into the spider’s glass. “Now, that was for bringing yourself into so much danger,” he explained sternly, before he tapped the left glass twice, so that two marbles made their way down into the phoenix’ glass. “And these points are for helping Mummy so much during the first days with us.”

Seeing that his son was staring at the glasses uncomfortably, Severus said soothingly, “Harry, I know, you’re starting with more spider points than phoenix points but I’m sure you’ll catch up collecting good points very soon. As I told you before, when you have twenty phoenix points you may choose a new book. Or you can use your good points to get rid of the bad points if you want to. If not, you have to scrub cauldrons at five spider points.”

Harry managed to show his father a small smile. “All right, Daddy, can you please make two points go’way? Then I’ll only have one spider point.”

Severus waved his wand at the two hourglasses and two phoenix points as well as two spider points vanished. Harry let out a relieved sigh. “Thanks, Daddy.”

-----

Too soon in Lily’s and Severus’ opinion, the new school year started. Harry however was very glad to have the students back. At the Welcoming feast, Harry sat at the Head table between his parents. When everyone had finally started to eat after the Sorting was finished, Severus leaned over to Lily and said, “Enjoy dining together with your son. Normally he only eats at the Head table when he is sick, afraid of something, or wants something.”

Everyone around them laughed and Harry protested vehemently. “I just don’t want to be in your way. Maybe you have something to discuss with the other teachers,” he said, smirking. “How can I know that?”

“It’s all right, Harry. Until you’re sorted into a house you may do as you wish,” Lily assured her son, giving him a kiss on the forehead.

A few minutes later, Minerva addressed Harry from Severus’ other side. “Harry, I would like to speak with you about your timetable. Can you come to my office after dinner?”

Harry glanced over at Severus, who gave him an encouraging nod and said, “Unless you want to accompany me to the House meeting in Slytherin, you’re free to go. However, you may not return home on your own. Let Fawkes take you back to our quarters.”

“Ah, all right, Granny. I’ll come with you after dinner. Mummy, do you have a House meeting, too?”

Lily threw Minerva an astonished look. “Do you do House meetings in Gryffindor now?”

“No,” Minerva replied calmly. I have never done that. However, if you wish…”

“Oh no, I don’t think so. I have to get used to so many things,” Lily replied, sighing tiredly. “If you wish I can accompany Harry.”

“It’s all right, Mummy. You better return home and rest. I’ll be fine together with Granny.”

Everyone laughed, and Luna who was sitting between Lily and Hermione said, “My, you’ve become a fine big boy.”

Harry shyly hid his head in Severus’ robes.

-----

Later in Minerva’s office, the Headmistress handed Harry a timetable and explained, “Harry, this is just a suggestion which we can change anytime. As far as possible I’ve put in private lessons with most of the teachers. During the remaining hours, I have planned your schedule according to the first years’ classes. However, provided that I’ll be available, I intend to continue teaching you the Animagus transformation during these times. Look at your time table, these lessons are marked in green. If you ask me at breakfast, I’ll be able to tell you if I have time or not.”

“All right, Granny. Thank you very much,” Harry replied sincerely, glad to be able to learn many new things during the school year.

“You might wonder why you have more lessons with Uncle Tom and your father than with the other teachers. This is not without a reason. Uncle Tom has expressed a reasonable as I believe interest in teaching you wandless magic and your father intends to intensively teach you Potions.”

Seeing Harry’s eyes twinkling happily, Minerva continued, “During the last school year you did a very good job helping all the teachers with their grading work. If you wanted to help again, I’d like to ask you to help Professor Lovegood and your mother first as both of them are new and will surely need some time to adjust to everything. They will be more in need of help than the others, especially your mother as she also has the Head of House position to get used to.”

“All right, Granny. I will do so. Um… Could you speak to Professor Lovegood about it? I mean, I don’t really know her. Hermione told me that she was a friend of mine before and knows me well but…”

Minerva laughed. “Yes, my child. I have already spoken to Ms. Lovegood, and I’ve reserved a few hours for grading – look here at the hours marked in red on your timetable. They are the free periods of your mother and Ms. Lovegood. I don’t think she’d mind if you called her Luna by the way. But Harry… Please remember that you may help with the grading but you don’t have to.”

Seeing that the boy was tiredly rubbing his eyes, Minerva said, “All right, you should return to your room and go to bed, Harry. If you have questions, we’ll be able to talk about it at breakfast. All right?”

“Yes, thanks, Granny, good night,” Harry replied and gave Fawkes a pleading glance who flashed Harry back into his room immediately.

-----

During the next months, Harry enjoyed himself immensely. He especially liked his lessons with Tom and Severus as both of them taught him things he had never heard of before. Severus told Harry at the beginning of the school year that he wanted to teach him easy Healing Potions. In the near future, he intended to do some research to which Harry would perhaps be able to contribute to, if he had a certain level of knowledge about these potions. Healing potions had to be brewed precisely. Therefore, Severus didn’t go easy on Harry, and Harry eagerly tried not to disappoint his father.

On weekdays, Harry often spent the evenings either reading the Potions book his father had given him at the beginning of the school year or helping his mother grading homework whenever he noticed that she was tired or busy.

Tom’s lessons were very difficult, too. He not only taught Harry wandless magic but also silent magic. At first, Harry only tried very easy spells like Lumos or Wingardium Leviosa. However, it was very difficult.

During their fifth lesson, Harry lost his patience. “Uncle Tom, I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I’m just too stoopid,” he suddenly started to wail.

“Oh, Harry,” Tom said, putting both hands on Harry’s shoulders. “Nobody expects you to be able to manage wandless magic within two weeks, especially as you’re only seven years old. Why do you think we don’t teach the students wandless magic?” When Harry didn’t answer, he continued, “Because it’s very difficult, Harry. We just thought you’d like to learn something different, and as your magic is so powerful you’ll likely be able to manage wandless magic eventually. But you don’t have to learn if you don’t want to.”

Harry wiped the tears from his cheeks and started rubbing his forehead against the headache that he always got attempting wandless magic. “It’s not that I don’t want to learn, just that I think I’m too stupid,” he finally said.

“No, you’re not stupid at all. Shall we try once more? Try to levitate the parchment in front of me over to your side of the table,” Tom instructed his godson.

Harry really tried hard, but it took the boy several weeks until he was able to levitate a parchment to the other side of the table.

“Very well done, Harry,” Tom commended his godson. “The fact that you managed to do this proves that you’re able to do wandless as well as silent magic. It is not a common ability,” he added, seeing that Harry enquiringly raised an eyebrow. “Now how about you try to levitate the cushion over there onto the chair next to you?”

Harry frowned. He was already very tired from trying to lift the parchment and his head hurt but he knew that he couldn’t tell anyone about it, otherwise he wouldn’t be allowed to practise wandless magic anymore.

His hesitation must have been too obvious because Tom asked, “Harry, what’s wrong? Are you tired? You know that you can only practise wandless magic if you feel completely well. If you’re too tired you have to tell me immediately. It’s no problem to finish a lesson earlier. Sit here on the sofa and rest for a while,” he instructed his godson and Harry complied, relieved.

-----

The Animagus practise with Minerva was no less tiring. Harry had so far managed to transform his whole body except for his head, which just seemed to be impossible to transform.

“Don’t worry, Harry,” Minerva said, putting a calming hand on Harry’s arm. “Even much older wizards than you have to practise years in order to be able to manage the Animagus transformation, and more than ninety percent of the wizards aren’t able to transform at all.”

“But maybe I belong to these ninety percent,” Harry said, feeling frustrated.

“No, you’re not,” Minerva replied firmly. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have managed to transform at all, not even your left hand. But it might take some more time, and you’ve time enough. You’re not even a Hogwarts student yet. Remember, you’re still seven…”

“Nearly eight,” Harry interrupted proudly.

“All right,” Minerva laughed. “Anyway, try to be patient; you’ll manage when you’re ready for it, that’s for sure.”

And Minerva was right. On the first day of the winter holidays, Minerva offered Harry a lesson directly after the students had gone home for Christmas. Probably because he hadn’t had any other lessons before and was well rested, Harry managed to transform into his phoenix form completely.

“Oh, Harry, congratulations. You’re beautiful – just like Fawkes,” Minerva commended him, excitement shining in the older woman’s eyes.

Fawkes flew down from the shelf where he had been sitting next to the Sorting Hat and onto the floor, landing just in front of Harry.

#Well done Firefly. That’s what I’m going to call you now by the way. Now you have to learn to walk, fly, and flash. I’m going to teach you, nestling.#

#Thank you, Fawkes,# Harry as Firefly answered and carefully tried to make a step ahead. He only managed two steps however, before he stumbled and fell down to the floor.

Fawkes let out a giggling trill, joined by Minerva’s laugh, who then asked, “Is Fawkes going to teach you everything you have to know as a phoenix?”

#Yes,# Harry answered excitedly.

“Was that a ‘Yes’? Sorry, Harry, I can’t understand you,” Minerva told him smiling and Harry nodded his head.

#Now come on, get onto your feet and try to walk again,# Fawkes urged Harry and he tried again and again until he was finally able to walk on his bird’s feet.

At the same time that Fawkes let out an enthusiastic trill, #Well done, Firefly,# Minerva commended Harry, too. “Very good, Harry!”

#All right,# Fawkes trilled. #Shall I teach you to fly, or do you want to rest for a while first?#

#I’m a bit tired,# Harry admitted, and Fawkes showed him how to avert his head so that he could rest his head on the plume of his back. Harry immediately followed his familiar’s example and took a short nap. A few minutes later, he woke up to his father’s voice.

Severus came to see Minerva in order to discuss the Christmas schedule and Harry’s birthday party with the Headmistress. However, he stopped stunned when he saw the two birds sitting on the floor in the middle of Minerva’s office. “Harry?” he asked, astonished.

#Yes, Daddy, it’s me,# Harry shouted happily and excitedly started to flap his wings and took off in order to fly up to his father’s arm.

Noticing too late what Harry intended to do, Severus bowed down, holding out his arm for Harry, but Harry already tumbled down onto the floor. #Ouch. Fawkes, how do I do that?#

#You have to send a bit of your magic into your wings and flap your wings as you already did. Try again. Maybe you’ll have to try for a few times but then you’ll manage.#

Harry tried again, and after about twenty small crashes onto the floor, he managed to land on his father’s arm. Fortunately by then, Severus was sitting down in a chair talking to Minerva, so that the height of his arm was much easier to reach than before. Severus immediately started to pet the beautiful phoenix. Getting stroked his head feathers felt so good that Harry soon turned his head onto his back and fell asleep.

When he woke up a few hours later on his bed in his own room, Fawkes was looking down from his perch. #Hi Firefly, did you have a nice sleep?#

#Yes, Fawkes, thank you# phoenix Harry replied, very glad to have finally managed the transfiguration.

#All right then, let me show you how to flash# Fawkes suggested, and Harry agreed eagerly.

After a few tries, in which nothing happened, Harry managed to flash himself to the other end of the room.

#Very good, little nestling# Fawkes commended and suggested, #Now let’s see if you can manage to flash you out into the living room where your parents are.#

Harry concentrated on where he wanted to flash, and seconds later, he appeared in a huge room he had never seen before. ‘Where am I?’ he thought, panicking. ‘Am I still at Hogwarts?’

Chapter 11 – Lessons with Fawkes