10. Bottled Emotions (1/2)

"harry, mate, i don't think i can go on for much longer at this point," ron told harry, trying to balance himself on the handle of the staircase carefully. harry stopped himself from going any further to wait for his dramatic friend, sighing and rolling his eyes with the faint outline of a smile edging across his lips. "come on! how are you not as shocked as i am? that evans guy is wicked awesome — seriously!"

"it's still only day one, ron," harry reminded him with a nudge of the shoulder playfully. "we're not even over with the day yet."

"exactly!" he exclaimed impatiently. "not only is the guy impossibly talented, but he's so nice. and he's supposed to be a slytherin. a bloody slytherin! i think that old hat's finally gone mental; sorting him into that snake den. i might as well be in ravenclaw then!"

harry only shrugged with a feeble smile, motioning for his friend to follow him up the rest of the staircase. "maybe not all slytherins are as mean as you think they might be," he suggested, earning himself a grimace from the red-haired boy. "oh, but snape is definitely mean, no doubt about that."

a grin found itself wriggling across ron's freckled face as he patted a hand against harry's back in a friendly manner, draping a hand over his shoulder. "yeah, that greasy git is the full embodiment of a slytherin, absolutely full of it like malfoy." he noted snidely, disregarding the exasperated sigh from harry.

honestly, ron could be so insensitive to the point of where he has the emotional range of a teaspoon.

—

charms class was all together, similar to that of transfiguration; only somewhat easier. while transfiguration was more focused around the correct amount of concentration that one had to conjure in order to properly — and without making anything somehow explode into smithereens like a certain gryffindor in class managed to achieve — transform a single object into something else, charms left more room for the abundance of one's own creativity and imagination. it was a much more… lighter, if not subtler subject. of course, that didn't mean that the students could afford to just go swinging their wands as if they were waving at a friend across from them. like in all of their classes — yes, even history classes — they had to put at least some sort of effort into their work.

harry sighed quietly to himself at hearing the half-goblin professor squeak when pronouncing his name out, quickly claiming his presence in the class before chewing on the inside of his cheek to soothe his nerves. he still didn't understand why people found him so fascinating at all, he was just harry. just harry. he wasn't some mighty wizard like dumbledore was, he was just some ordinary kid that suddenly discovered he was a wizard on his eleventh birthday, nothing more, nothing less.

sweeping his gaze across the classroom, he found himself staring eagerly at professor evans, who was leisurely relaxing on a stool he had summoned for himself without a wand. the gesture of the display seemed to have a rather eccentric effect on their charms professor who merely gawked at the laid-back assistant, utterly bewildered and taken aback before continuing on with the roll.

harry soon found himself already struggling with the accurate wand movements as well as the pronunciation, flicking his attention from his white feather to his red-haired friend that sat on the opposite side of himself. apparently, he was being berated for his foolishness by the bushy-haired girl named hermoine granger, he could recall first meeting her on the hogwarts express train on their way there. she was too smart for her age, really. sure, she was terrifyingly clever and was always the first to put her hand in the air to answer a question, but she was a really irritating know-it-all sometimes.

moving his gaze back to the front of the class, he discovered the two professors conversing with one another animatedly, professor evans waving his arms around before returning his wild gestures into more subtle movements once he realised he was getting a little carried away with himself. leaning against the edge of the table, he tried to block out all of the other meaningless conversations occurring around him and instead fixed his attention on his mentor's discussion.

"the old religion, you say?" he could hear professor flitwick inquire in a squeaky voice, his entire body turning around to face the leaned back warlock before

andishing his wand back into his robes. "my, i haven't heard about that topic for years! mind you, i was quite fascinated by the subject — although the books have proven rather difficult to retrieve sadly. i believe that most texts have been destroyed or stolen over the years, unfortunately."

evans gave a strange, yet calculating look before his eyes practically bulged out from his sockets. "d-destroyed? what about those residing within hogwarts? surely there must be at least a few," now he was perching on the edge of his stool, pensively attentive with his ears looking to perk up eagerly for an answer.

professor flitwick slumped his shoulders dejectedly, shaking his head without saying a word. harry watched with a questioning

ow raised as professor evans slowly sunk back into his hunched position on the stool before running a hand over his face, biting on the corner of his lips.

the warlock looked up once more, "are you sure?"

"well…" the hesitation was made clear upon the charms professor face as he lowered his stare to the ground before facing the assistant reluctantly. "i suppose there may be a few texts lingering in the li

ary," at the small smile that began to spread across merlin's face, he quickly added; "however, they lay prostrate in the restricted section there. even though you're indeed a professor and part of the staff here, you are still only an assistant. you will require a pass." his smile dropped for a couple of moments before reappearing in renewed hopefulness.

"is it possible for me to get one from you?" god, he was feeling like a student more than ever now.

"w-well, yes, but—"

merlin raised his hand to stop him from talking any further, darting his eyes around the room for something to prove his worth. he understood the lack of trust in someone like himself, after all, it was still only his first day of teaching — well, technically it was actually just assisting instead of doing all the teaching — and the staff members didn't know him all that well (except mcgonagall now of course, under special circumstances). he figured that showing a small demonstration of what he could perform would suffice enough for the charms professor. just something simple. not that he actually knew what counted as simple at this time.

whirling his head around to the unused desk, he raised an arm up in front of himself, automatically gaining the full attention of those that were within the room. by this time around, the gryffindors were on high alert whenever merlin acted strangely, if only for their own curiosity and anticipation for what the idiosyncratic man might do next. what they saw unravel in their transfiguration class was more than enough to pique their interests, not to mention the odd relationship he had with professor mcgonagall who was their head of house.

with a quiet whisper of incomprehensible words that were muttered under his

eath in an undertone, flitwick angled himself to follow the gaze of the assistant, fixated on the additional feathers that were left out on the table and scattered about in a small mess across the desk.

steadily, all of the huddled bundle of feathers that were gathered together on the desk shot up into the air as if being blown away by an explosion before deviating from one place to the other across the ceiling in graceful movements. students gaped as they craned their necks around the classroom, flitwick being one of the same expressions among them.

"w-wandless magic!" the short professor exclaimed excitedly, "mag-magnificent! just… absolutely beautiful!" he turned back to look at the grinning warlock.

"the pass?" merlin asked triumphantly, crossing his arms over his chest in waiting.

"will you enlighten me on your talents afterwards?"

"of course, i don't see why not."

"it's a deal."

—

"so," minerva started, a trifle sternly as she motioned towards the chair that rested beside her vacantly. "would you care to explain what, and more importantly, how you've miraculously appeared out of nowhere after over fifty years? moreover, why did you decide to come back as a teacher now?"

merlin took his seat gratefully, leaning back into the material in a slouch before releasing a comforted sigh. he looked up to meet her gaze, eyes sparkling with their usual look of mischief before grinning widely. it didn't matter how closely he inspected her appearance, she still looked the same to him, just excluding the abundance of her wrinkles and there we go. not that he would actually mention that to her (for he too feared for his wellbeing).

"many reasons, minnie," he chuckled to himself at the use of her little pet name, straightening his back a little so he wouldn't be slouching. it was evident that he would most likely get a sore back if he continued on in such a position continuously. "well, not really actually. probably just three or four reasons, but whatever," he shrugged with a small grin. "i don't need a reason to come back here, just missed it i suppose—"

minerva intervened a