25Disclaimer: All Characters and other devices belong to J.K. Rowling. I am simply playing with them and thank her for creating this wonderful Wizarding World we all love.
Chapter 6: First Day of School: Part Two
Harry made it to the Transfiguration classroom unnoticed until the final couple of corridors when he had to remove his invisibility cloak. The corridors on the lower levels were full of students hurrying to their next classrooms and it just wasn't worth the effort to avoid getting bumped into and delaying the inevitable any further.
Once he was visible, his experience was frustrating to say the least. He made it about halfway down the first corridor when his anonymity, which being in a crowd usually offered, was shattered by an excitable third year Hufflepuff screeched at a decibel unintelligible to most human ears while pointing at him.
It only took three words that her friends, and the whole corridor, heard just fine to start a near frenzy: "It's Harry Potter!". Every head in sight turned as one to look directly at him, making him feel incredibly uncomfortable in the process. Soon, students were trying to find things to stand on or shoving each other to get a better glimpse. The shouted questions and press of students were getting to him so he fixed a bland smile on his face and pushed through, now trying to make it the last few steps to the relative safety of the classroom.
Harry shot a thankful look at his 'aunt' who, on hearing the commotion, stood guard at the door to her class, stopping anyone who didn't belong from following him in. He took a few moments to get his heart rate under control. Last night's show was just that, a show. He wasn't prepared for how different all the stares, murmurs, exclamations, and just general attention would feel when there wasn't a plan to follow. He'd have to adjust quickly and hope that the fascination would die down when the novelty of his presence wore off.
Taking a look around the classroom, Harry noticed about half the seats were filled. Other students were trickling in in twos and threes from the door. He had Transfiguration with Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, each group distinctive by the house colors prominently displayed on their robes. Naturally he was still the subject of a lot of staring and whispering inside the room, but his mind kicked back into gear, and he moved away from the entryway.
He fixed his warmest smile on his face and nodded in greeting as he made his way towards an open seat at the from of the room. Some of the reactions to this were quite amusing to him. It seemed that a few of his new classmates didn't realize they were staring so blatantly and would look startled or blush when they did.
To the right of the seat he was heading for sat a Gryffindor girl with bushy brown hair and a welcoming smile on her face. Coming to a stop next to the open chair, he spoke first. "Excuse me, is this seat taken?"
She shook her head. "No, it isn't! Please feel free to join us. My name is Hermione Granger, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter!"
He'd had a feeling based on Ginny's description of the girl and was glad to see he guessed correctly. Ginny had warned him that Hermione, while very nice, was also smart as a whip and loved to uncover mysteries. Dumbledore had even mentioned her in passing as the witch who'd broken some of his mother's academic records. He'd have to be careful around this one.
"It's nice to meet you, Miss Granger." He replied, shaking her hand, and offering his most charming smile. "Please, call me Harry. I've heard a lot about you. I hope we can be friends?"
"Of course, Harry. Please call me Hermion. All good things I hope?" she asked with slightly narrowed eyes.
He chuckled and leaned in to speak in a low voice. "Yes, Ginny and the Headmaster both hold you in high regard."
She looked a little flustered that Dumbledore had spoken of her but turned slightly in her seat to introduce the two boys on her other side.
"Harry, allow me to introduce Ronald Weasley and Neville Longbottom."
Harry held out his hand to each boy in turn. He'd heard all about Ron's reaction and subsequent hexing last night from Ginny, so wasn't very surprised when he was slow to greet him. Neville seemed a little shy, but friendly enough. Before they could get any further, Professor McGonagall closed the door and strode to the front of the room.
"Good morning, class." She began in her brisk manner. "You've no doubt noticed our guest by now. Mr. Potter has been granted permission by the headmaster to attend classes with us for the duration of his stay at Hogwarts. You will treat him with the same courtesy as any other student in my classroom and not make fools of yourselves.
Today we'll be continuing with our practical work on animal-to-animal transfigurations. I want to see full transfiguration from a tortoise to a cat then a lemur by the end of the period. Mr. Boot, take the box of tortoises from my desk and pass them out. Miss Granger, work with Mr. Potter to get him up to speed on the lesson."
~HP~GW~ ~HP~GW~
Class progressed smoothly and Harry found himself having fun. Hermione was clearly every bit as serious of a student and Ginny had made her out to be, but she seemed to enjoy answering questions he had for her about their lesson or classes at Hogwarts in general.
He figured she would be a good person to pace his work off of, making sure not to complete the transfiguration faster than her. There was also some fun in mispronouncing bits of the incantations to have her correct. The attention Hermione was giving him seemed to be earning him glares from Ron, though Neville seemed a bit in awe that he was keeping pace with the best student in their class.
His aunt Minerva complimented his work while making her rounds. That was apparently high praise in her classroom, but Harry had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. She was very familiar with his capabilities in the art, having tutored him for years herself.
He took time to gauge the other students' work. Most of the class were doing fairly well with the lesson. A few students were working hard to complete the assignment before the bell rang. Neville seemed to struggle with putting enough power behind his spell work and Ron wasn't focusing enough at the start of class so he had to try and catch up.
Hermione explained that their class met for a double period every Monday afternoon, so today's lesson was just a continuation of the practical they had begun earlier in the week. Anyone who didn't complete the transfiguration today would get extra practice assigned as homework. Friday's class would be a brief review on the theory covered that week, then discussion and prep for next week's lesson. Essays on topics were assigned weekly, mainly as a way to make sure the students were doing the required reading and investigated the theories properly.
The pace of learning seemed incredibly slow to Harry. He was used to spending entire days or even weeks at a time focusing on one discipline of magic. Reading about new magic was always fascinating and books were something they'd never skimped on buying growing up. He'd also never had to deliver an essay before, as the one-on-one instruction always allowed for in-depth discussion with his tutors. He reasoned that when teaching hundreds of students a week for nine months of the year this approach was more practical.
~HP~GW~ ~HP~GW~
When the bell rang and everyone was packing up, Hermione invited Harry to sit with her and the other Gryffindors at lunch. Seeing it as a good opportunity to get to know his classmates better, he happily accepted. The walk to lunch was a whirlwind of rapid introductions to some of the other students in his transfiguration class.
He met the other six Gryffindors; Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Parvarti Patil, Lavender Brown, Sally-Anne Perks, and Sophie Roper. From Ravenclaw he met Parvarti's identical twin sister, Padma, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Terry Boot. The other Ravenclaws he could see looked friendly enough, but they arrived at the Great Hall and the groups split up for their tables.
Finally taking a seat at the Gryffindor table, Harry took stock of his morning so far. He was pleased with how class went. He had been worried about slipping up and forgetting to say an incantation aloud or completing something on the first try. In a lot of ways, partial transfigurations were more difficult to do for him now that he was trying to. He'd had to hold the blended image in his mind with total focus, rather than just visually the complete transfiguration that was second nature at this point.
It seemed like he could have found a friend in Hermione that shared his intellect. All the other Gryffindors and Ravenclaws he'd met seemed friendly and eager to talk with him. He was looking forward to getting to know them better too. Some of the girls had a predatory look in their eyes which he had to admit to himself was a little scary. The exception was Ron who still looked at him with distrust. Hopefully Ginny felt up to sharing their real history with him to help smooth things over.
He was roused from his thoughts when he felt the weight of two people slide onto the bench on either side of him.
"Look who it is, Fred!"
"It looks like Harry Potter, George!"
"Right-o, Fred! We've got Potter!"
Harry's head was snapping left and right to look at the twin who was speaking. Ginny had spoken fondly of her twin brothers, and there was no mistaking that this Fred and George were Fred and George Weasley. She'd also warned him about their love of pranks so he should never accept anything to eat or drink from them.
"Smart move, Mr. Potter- "
"to come sit with the Gryffs."
"After all, the other houses-"
"each have a champion sitting with them."
"It's only fair. Right, George?"
"That's right, Fred!"
Harry couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing at their antics. "I assume that I'm speaking with the infamous Weasley twins? Pranksters extraordinaire?
The twins bowed dramatically and spoke in unison. "Gred and Forge Weasley at your service!"
"I look forward to seeing your work, gentlemen. I know a couple of pranksters who-"
"Oi! Out of my seat you two! You better not be pranking him already." Ginny's voice interrupted.
Harry and the twins turned around to see Ginny standing behind them, hands on her hips glaring back and forth at the twins. Harry felt that strange fluttering in his stomach again and smiled widely at her.
"Now, now. Our favorite"
"Fiercest-"
"and most charming sister!"
"We wouldn't dream of pranking Harrikins here."
"We were just introducing ourselves- "
"and welcoming him to the family!" Fred, or George, finished with a wink.
Harry, who'd chosen that moment to take a sip of his drink, started coughing. Ginny blushed bright red but pulled out her wand menacingly. The twins grinned and held up their hands before darting off the bench to take seats further up the table.
Sitting down heavily with a huff, Ginny pounded Harry on the back, who was still spluttering a bit. "Sorry about them, Harry. I did warn you they can be a bit much. Still, you haven't turned pink or sprouted feathers, so I'd call that a win."
Harry chuckled. "Thanks, Gin. They seem like alright blokes. I was just about to tell them Sirius and Remus are interested in meeting them when you showed up."
"Really? Why?"
"Let's just say they have a healthy, or unhealthy, appreciation for pranking, depending on your perspective."
"Interesting… I'm not sure if Sirius and Remus can keep up with those two. But anyways, how was your first class? Find your way around alright?"
"Wait!" an angry Ron broke in. "He just called you 'Gin', and you didn't hex him!? Just what exactly is going on here? What do you think you're doing with my sister, Potter?"
Ginny and Harry looked up at Ron who was now standing, his face was an alarming shade of red. Neville was frantically trying to tug Ron back into his seat, looking extremely nervous. Harry glanced around the table to see that nearly everyone was looking at him and Ginny now, not even pretending they weren't listening. Turning back to Ron to answer, Harry started to speak when Ginny beat him to it.
"Sit down, Ron! You're making an arse out of yourself like usual! Harry's my friend, you idiot, we've known each other for a couple years now. If you didn't have such a big mouth, you'd have been told that. Now, unless you want hexed again, you'll sit down and shut up. If you can do that, I'll think about telling you the story later."
Seeing his sisters' eyes flashing dangerously, Ron made a surprisingly wise decision and sank back into his seat, muttering under his breath. Ginny shook her head in exasperation before turning back to Harry.
"Ugh, that git makes me so mad sometimes. Sorry about that, Harry." she said apologetically.
"That's alright, Ginny. No harm done. I was actually thinking about it earlier. If you decide to tell him how we met, he might calm down a bit. Right now, all he sees is a bloke who came out of nowhere and is close with his younger sister." Harry leaned in closer then whispered, "I also think he wasn't too thrilled that Aunt Minerva partnered Hermione with me in Transfiguration… though you never mentioned them dating so I'm not sure what that was all about?"
Ginny snorted. "Harry, I don't think Ron is aware of it yet, but he's mad for her. They spend over half their time bickering, but always go back for more. Maybe one day he'll come to the realization, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Everyone could see it for years at this point."
"Well, that's reassuring… he thinks I'm messing around his sister and the girl he's mad for at the same time! No wonder he doesn't like me!" Harry hissed.
Ginny patted his cheek, "Buck up, Potter. You can't be intimated by the first bloke who comes along and gets jealous. And definitely not when that bloke is my git brother. Besides none of that is even true."
Harry grumbled something under his breath, but then looked back at her and smiled. "So… where are your dormmates at? Didn't you warn me that I was going to be mobbed at lunch today?"
Ginny laughed loudly, "Merlin, Harry! You must have the worst timing ever! That's them coming into the hall now."
He turned and what he saw made his eyes bulge. No less than five Gryffindor girls were walking straight towards them, giggling and whispering while looking directly at him. He swallowed nervously and thoughtfor the first time that maybe agreeing with Dumbledore's plan hadn't been the best idea.
~HP~GW~ ~HP~GW~
Harry left the Great Hall as soon as the ten-minute warning bell for the first afternoon period rang. When the Gryffindor witches in Ginny's year had reached them, it was a constant stream of questions, giggles, blatant flirts. In other words, Harry had never felt so out of his own depth before. Seeing the third year girls boldly approach him seemed to give many others the courage to as well. The one silver lining was that Sirius and Remus were not present to witness the scene, or more specifically, Harry's awkward handling of it.
Ginny and Hermione barely suppressed their mirth at his discomfort. In the case of the twins, they didn't even try. Neville, Dean, and Seamus seemed in awe of him getting so much female attention. Ron on the other hand just scowled deeper and deeper as the lunch hour progressed. Cleary, he was not able to pick up on the panic shining in Harry's eyes the way his siblings could.
Now having the space to breathe, Harry collected himself and sought out the Charms classroom. He was scheduled for a double period with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Dumbledore's thoughts were that it would be better for Harry in the long run if he was interacting with all four houses as much as possible. Harry was okay with this approach. Given that the plan was to only remain at Hogwarts for the duration of the tournament, or until they were able to capture Voldemort, Crouch, and the rat. Making connections across all of the houses while he was there would be very beneficial to his future.
His journey to the Charms classroom on the third floor was less eventful than his earlier experience in the corridors near the Transfiguration room that morning. There was still a lot of staring, greetings, and whispers, but fortunately no rush of students coming up to introduce themselves. He reasoned that being seen over lunch sitting with other students was already starting to drop the mystery factor surrounding him.
He was really looking forward to Charms with Professor Flitwick. Remus and Sirius had told him that the little professor was always one of their favorites, and that his mum was one for Flitwick's star pupils. He walked through the doors to the Charms classroom and took a look around, it was airy and a lot of natural light shown through the large window behind Flitwick's desk. There was no sign of the wizard himself, so Harry figured he must be making his own way up from lunch. The room was still filling up with Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, once again it seemed like the students preferred to sit with their housemates when possible.
Spotting Padma Patil and Mandy Brocklehurst sitting next to an empty seat in the front row, he approached them and cleared his throat to get their attention.
"Hi Padma, Mandy. Do you know if this seat is taken?"
Mandy blushed but shook her head while Padma shot her an unimpressed look. Turning back to Harry, Padma spoke up.
"Hi Harry, have a seat! I'm surprised you aren't joining the Gryffindor's in Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon?"
"Thank you. I'm actually going to be jumping around a bit in terms of house pairings. Since I'm not enrolled at Hogwarts, the headmaster thought it'd be a good idea to have me experience classes here with different groups. Both of my parents and my uncles were in Gryffindor though, so I imagine if I was ever sorted, that's where I'd have ended up."
"I don't know about that, Harry." Padma replied with a wry grin. "You were doing just fine in Transfiguration this morning. Something tells me you would do well in Ravenclaw. Then again, Hermione's at the top of our year and she's a Gryffindor too so who knows?"
Before Harry could respond, Professor Flitwick bounced into the classroom. Calling for everyone to take their seats. He quickly climbed on top of a stack of books perched on his chair so he could look over his raised desk at the class.
"Good afternoon, everyone!" The small wizard greeted the class enthusiastically. "Today we'll be continuing the study of Banishing charms! A quick review of our lecture on Monday first though. The incantation is 'Depulso'. Wand movement is a simple swish of the wrist! Now, who can give the class an example of uses for this charm? Hmm… let's see…" Flitwick scanned the room. He did a doubletake when his eyes reached Harry, then let out an excited squeak and toppled off his pile of books which caused some laughter amongst the students.
Harry, being closest to the tiny professor jumped up to lend him a hand. "Are you alright Professor?"
"Mr. Potter! Yes, yes, I'm quite alright!" Flitwick chuckled as he stood. "I must admit you caught me by surprise there for a moment my boy! For a second, I thought James was sitting in my class again, without his glasses, of course. Minerva mentioned that I should expect you with my fourth-year class this afternoon, but I was working with a group of third years before lunch on Cheering charms and quite forgot. It's a pleasure to have you here, Mr. Potter! I knew your parents quite well; I hope you take after your mother in Charms? She was a natural!"
"Thank you, sir. I've heard much the same from my uncles about my mum's Charms skill. I'm fortunate enough to have some of her journals on the subject. Perhaps we can take a look at some of her later creations some day after class?" Harry asked with a smile.
"Class?" Flitwick looked confused for a moment, then looked around and remembered where he was. "Oh, right! I'll be sure to set something up Mr. Potter. If you'd just return to your seat now, I'll get back on track."
~HP~GW~ ~HP~GW~
The rest of the double Charms period flew by. Harry enjoyed Professor Flitwick's teaching style and positive attitude immensely. He could easily see how his mother would have loved the subject given the man's enthusiasm for his students' success. Since he had somewhat of a ready-made excuse for his skill in the subject, having discussed his mum's journals, he didn't hold back with displaying his mastery of the Banishing charm. And really, a single charm was much easier to master than the more complex transfigurations from earlier in the day, so he felt safe that he wasn't giving anything away.
After the bell rang Padma and Mandy introduced Harry to some more of their classmates. Once again, everyone he met was quite friendly and seemed happy to have him there. With it being a rather large group of twenty students, he knew remembering everyone's names would be difficult, but he had the distinct advantage of owning a pensieve so he could always go back and memorize them later.
When his classmates headed off either to their final lesson of the day or back to their dorms, he made his way back to the sixth-floor guest flat, hoping Remus and Sirius were there. Fortunately, he hadn't received any essays to do yet and wasn't assigned any extra practice. With several hours until dinner was served in the Great Hall, he wondered what the two Marauders had planned for his real lessons.
He gave the password to Aila who nodded and let the door appear. Walking into the common room he saw his uncles were, in fact, present and they appeared to be working on a parchment that sat between them at the dining table.
"Hey Uncles Siri, Rem. What're you two up to?" Harry asked as he set down his school bag.
"Harry! How was your first day of school?" Sirius asked with a grin.
"Not bad! Kind of fun actually, especially Charms. Flitwick fell off his chair when he realized I was sitting there."
Sirius let out his trademark bark of laughter and Remus chuckled.
"Albus dropped by earlier to mention you were quite popular at lunch. I'm sorry I missed it." Remus said. His lips were twitching, holding back a grin.
Harry scowled and muttered rude things under his breath causing Sirius to just laugh harder.
"We did warn you, Harry. You're a good-looking young man, and that's on top of everything else surrounding you. Still, there's worse things in life than being flirted with by half of Gryffindor house." Sirius said, winking.
"To answer your question about what Sirius and I are up to… We're putting together a schedule for your continued training outside of class. We want to give you time to enjoy being with people your own age for once, but we can't get lax on your training. Having a pretty good idea of the tasks from Albus this summer is helping us tailor what we'll be doing while we're here."
"Do we know if Dragons are definitely going to be a part of the first task, then?" Harry asked with a raised brow. "I know that was the most likely choice out of the other Class XXXX or XXXXX creatures."
The smiles fell off his uncles' faces as they glanced at each other, then turned back to him and nodded.
"Well, we knew it was coming. Of course, dragons would make for a better show than say trolls or snallygasters." Harry shrugged. "Let me hear this schedule. Then can we find somewhere to do some spell work? I have energy to burn after sitting in class for most of the day."
"Sure, Pup. Albus told us we should call Dobby to take us to a training room he had in mind. We're going to need a lot of space and don't want to be seen and give anything away." Sirius said with a reassuring smile.
~HP~GW~ ~HP~GW~
Three hours later, Harry was relaxing on his bed after a hot shower meant to work of the stiffness in his muscles. Dinner was supposed to start in a half hour and he, along with his uncles, were planning to join the rest of the school in the Great Hall for it.
The schedule Siris and Remus had come up with for him was ambitious, but he'd been used to a rigorous education for the past six years of his life so he knew he could cope. His uncles would be the primary instructors in his private lessons, though Aunt Minerva, Professors Flitwick and Moody, and Sirius' cousin Tonks would all help out from time to time. Unfortunately, Dumbledore would be too busy, and the eyes of the other judges would be on him, so besides the rare occasion where he could slip away, he wouldn't be able to offer much assistance.
As far as Harry was concerned, Dumbledore had already done more than enough when he told them to talk to Dobby about a training room. The excitable little elf was thrilled to be of assistance to 'the Great Harry Potter' and led them up to the seventh floor to what appeared to be a blank stretch of wall across from a ridiculous tapestry of trolls attempting to learn ballet.
When Harry called for the room as Dobby had instructed, a grand set of doors appeared on the wall. What they opened to left Harry, Sirius, and Remus temporarily speechless. Inside was a massive room equipped with dueling circles and dummies, bookshelves filled with books covering a wide range of topics, a comfortable sitting area with couches, chairs, and a fireplace, and finally an exercise area that was stocked like a reasonable home gym.
The 'Come and Go Room' or 'Room of Requirement' was definitely Harry's new favorite place. After getting over their initial shock, the three wizards explored the room with the enthusiasm of young children on Christmas morning for a solid twenty minutes before they remembered why they were there and got to work. This mostly boiled down to advanced dueling and a good bit of time working on his flame-freezing charms. They agreed to come back for scheduled sessions but were all pleased that getting burnt wasn't likely to be a problem for him during the first task.
Breaking out of his reverie, Harry turned his attention to the copy of today's Daily Prophet that Remus suggested he read before dinner. Seeing the headline and large picture of himself from the last evening's events was a strange occurrence, but he read on:
BOY WHO LIVED COMES HOME!
In a strange series of events that caught the magical world by surprise, Harry James Potter, the Boy Who Lived, has returned to the shores of Magical Britain. As reported in yesterday's Prophet, Harry Potter's name came out of the Goblet of Fire on Halloween night, shocking everyone in attendance. Last evening, Mr. Potter, along with his godfather, Lord Sirius Black, and longtime friend of the family Remus Lupin, turned up at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to challenge the validity of his so-called entry to the Tri-Wizard Tournament. This reporter would like to remind our readers that Mr. Potter has not been seen or photographed in Britain since shortly after the tragic events of Halloween night, 1981, in which James and Lily Potter lost their lives, while He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was destroyed.
"Seeing Harry Potter just turn up in the middle of dinner was completely unexpected! He walked in with his hood up and those other two men to either side of him. It was quite scary at first and no one knew what was going on. When he took down his hood, I think I just about fainted he's so handsome!" one fourth year Gryffindor witch was quoted as saying.
Mr. Potter certainly did make a striking figure as he confidently presented himself to Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. He calmly agreed to have his magical signature read in order to sort out the mess he found himself in when things took yet another unexpected turn. The signature of Mr. Potter matched that of the parchment bearing his name from the Goblet of Fire. After a few minutes of pandemonium taking place in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, Mr. Potter gained the assembled crowd's attention and swore on his honor that he did not enter, nor ask anyone to enter, himself into the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Unfortunately for our hero, the Goblet of Fire represents a binding magical contract and upon confirmation of a match, Harry Potter officially became the fourth Champion of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
The Daily Prophet was able to independently verify that Mr. Potter and his companions were, in fact, not in Britain at all during the period in question. This revelation leads this reporter to have grave concerns surrounding these events. We at the Prophet call on the Ministry to get to the bottom of this potentially sinister plot with haste, or the savior of the wizarding world's life may be at risk. (Story continues on pg. 2)
For a recounting of the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, see pg. 2 & 3.
For a full history of the Tri-Wizard Tournament and list of lives lost, see pg. 4.
Harry had to chuckle at their plan getting off to such a good start. While not a necessity, having public support behind him rather that scrutiny on him was a very welcome thing. His stomach gave a growl of hunger, so he got up from the bed to gather up Sirius and Remus.
He'd told Ginny that he'd see her at dinner that evening so he didn't want to be too late. Hopefully she was saving a seat for him. He'd like to continue building new friendships as well with the other Gryffindors he met earlier at lunch. He just hoped there wouldn't be another rush of witches approaching him while his uncles were watching. "Maybe I can get Ginny to protect me." He thought to himself, then groaned. She'd never let him live that down… the question was, what was the tougher potion to swallow? Ginny's teasing, or his Marauder uncles'?
A/N: I'm back! Sorry for the delay in updating… had my Stag Night/Bachelor party two weekends ago and was out of commission to do much besides my day job for a while there haha.
This chapter will probably be the last of the stage setting chapters. No major revelations or anything in it, but it felt right to show Harry in his first day of 'real' school. Up next, we'll have the Weighing of the Wands ceremony and more relationship building both with Harry & Ginny and with the new friends Harry is making.
The bit where Flitwick tumbled off his stacked books was borrowed directly from the Philosopher's Stone. I felt bad about the class laughing at Flitwick falling from the high so decided Harry was going to be his helpful self.
Thanks for reading and reviewing!