Another teachers' meeting

"I heard that you've been teaching Harry how to duel?" Minerva asked curiously as they sipped the pumpkin juice while sitting in her quarters.

Ever since the troll incident, no, ever since this chaotic year started, they had been meeting together like this in order to talk with each other about their students. Though they both knew that by students, they mainly meant Harry Potter.

Especially since the Headmaster wanted to know everything about the young boy who only ever spent his time with Flitwick out of all the staff members and despite being curious, the old man could not directly ask Flitwick about the young boy.

Thus Flitwick and Minerva had these friendly talks once a week during which they would occasionally talk about Harry and Flitwick would tell everything that he knew about the boy to Minvera who would later send the report to Albus Dumbledore.

Flitwick didn't like the fact that he was indirectly reporting Harry's actions to the Headmaster, someone who Harry didn't like very much and was the reason he was sent to live with those abusive muggles. He just hoped that the headmaster would not use this news against Harry somehow.

"I've heard that you've been teaching the boy how to duel. Filius, is that true?" Minerva asked with a disapproving glance, clearly showing what she thought about this business of favoring one student over everyone else even if it was Headmaster Dumbledore who told them to do so.

"That is true Minerva." He said without flinching under the stern woman's gaze. They'd colleagues for so long and he had since gotten used to her glares though he could see why the young students are so scared of her stern facade despite her being a big softy deep in her heart.

"The boy is clearly not attending any classes and even when he does, I could tell that there is nothing that he could learn in those classes. And the headmaster will not allow him to leave the school until the end of the year" at this both of them frowned. "At least this way he would learn something from the staff members."

"But if he want to learn dueling then why doesn't he attend Defense Against the Dark Arts classes?" she asked and then grimaced as they remembered who taught those classes.

Quirrel was a good person, though a bit cowardly. But they all knew that he was anything but a good teacher.

When Minerva had shared Harry's reason for wanting to leave the school, i.e having bad teachers like Binns, Quirrel and Snape, Flitwick had agreed with him thoroughly.

The quality of staff members in the school had degraded by quite a bit in recent years and even Flitwick who loved to teach in Hogwarts would agree that perhaps Hogwarts was not as good a school as it used to be in the past.

Such a degradation had happened after the war with Gryndalwald in which many pureblood and halfblood families died and the degradation of Hogwarts became even worse after the last war with Lord Voldemort.

Those days the strength of each class each reached over 150. Now it's barely a third of that.

Many wizards and witches, especially the muggleborns and Halfbloods left the country during the last war and sometimes Flitwick wondered if they had made the right choice after all and if he should have left the country as well.

Especially since the discrimination between the muggleborns and halfbloods and the so called halfbreeds like him had not decreased even a little bit despite the fact that the light side had won the last war.

"Well, I don't think I can argue with your decision when you put it that way." Minerva said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "So tell me, how are your dueling classes with Mr. Potter progressing?"

At the topic of the prodigy, Flitwick sat straighter in his chair and became excited at once, forgetting all the depressing thoughts going through his mind a few moments ago "Oh! Mr. Potter is an absolute delight to teach." He piped cheerfully. "An absolute delight Minerva. I don't think I've ever seen a student as talented as him in learning spells. He learns just about every spell I've taught him in a single day. In a single day Minerva. How many of us can do that. Of course, the fact remains that I've not shown him any particularly dangerous or complicated spells just yet but I doubt he'll take much time in learning those either if I ever decided to teach him."

Minerva raised one eyebrow at this excitement. Learning that Harry was not simply good at Charms but other things as well was news to her. If only he showed this much interest in her subject as well.

"Yes. But that's not even the most exciting part." Flitwick squeaked cheerfully, almost jumping from his seat in excitement. Ready to discuss even more things about the brilliant student with her.

"What is the most exciting part then?" Minerva asked, sitting on the edge of her chair as Flitwick's excitement seeped into her as well. He always had that kind of affect on other people. Not that she would allow her excitement to show on her face. She had a stern facade to maintain after all.

"The most exciting part was his adaptability against spells." He replied sagely, as if that explained everything while in truth, she didn't really understood anything.

"What do you mean by adaptability?" she asked.

He smiled at her in a way that clearly said that he knew something that she didn't and stayed silent in order to frustrate her for a few moments before he replied "The first day I used few simple spells like Jellyleg jinx, Leg Locker hex, Tongue tying curse, Tickling hex and a few other simple spells. It surprised me that he was able to learn all those spells within the hour. But what surprised me even more was what happened the next day."

Minerva looked at his curiously and he continued "The next day when I used those spells on him, none of them worked. No matter how much power I put behind them. No matter how skillfully I performed them, they refused to work on him. In fact, one of those spells even backfired on me."

By this point both of Minerva's eyebrows were raised to her hairline in surprise "How?" she asked, clearly as confused about the subject as he had been when he first encountered this 'Phenomenon'.

Flitwick smiled turned even wider at that "He charmed his clothes to either neutralize or destroy those spells. He had even carved a series of runes inside those clothes for holding up those charms so now no one would be able to use such spells on him."

"And he did it for every spell you performed?" Minerva asked, finding it a bit hard to take in this bit of news and feeling a bit jealous of Flitwick for getting such a brilliant student.

"Yes. He is a true genius. In fact, I would not be surprised if one he managed to find a way to neutralize the three unforgivables within a few years as well." He said with a grin on his face.

"That's impossible." Minerva denied without a second thought "No one has ever managed to find a way to counter the unforgivables. If they had then so many people it last war wouldn't have to die."

"Perhaps. But I believe that he would be able to do it." Flitwick said in a serious tone this time "In fact, had had already made a few plans to counter for the killing curse and the imperius curse and from what I heard, I have to say that his ideas have merit. He may not be able to succeed in a few days but I believe given chance, he'll succeed eventually."

Minerva wanted to deny his claims. To tell him that if it was such a easy task then someone would have already done it. But the look in his eyes made her realize that he was serious about this. That he truly believed in Harry.

She once again wondered what Flitwick saw in the young boy that he would have such faith in his abilities.

But then again, she had also seen what the boy had done to the Troll, hadn't she. How the boy destroyed it without even a scratch in his body.

Maybe there was something about him after all.

Is that why Headmaster Dumbledore did what he did?

Allowed him to live in a harsh environment so that his magical talent could come out.

No... don't think that way.

A single right cannot excuse a hundred wrongs.

Now that she thought about that event, the boy must have used some kind of enchanted weapon to do that much damage as simple spells would not work against the Troll's magical resistant body and a young boy, no matter how powerful, would never be powerful enough to harm a troll with any explosive spells.

Hell, she was one of the most powerful witches in all of Britain and she knew that she would not be able to do so much damage to a troll.

So yes, perhaps it was understandable that Flitwick would have so much faith in him.

She also realized that if what Flitwick had told her so far was the truth, then they were seeing the birth of a truly powerful wizard who would fight by relying on charms.

Such a thing had never happened before.

Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in all Britain used Transfiguration to fight along with a bit of charms as support.

Voldemort, the second most powerful wizard had use all manners of dark spells to get an advantage.

But she had never heard about anyone winning battles with charms.

Even Filius Flitwick, who was a charms teachers used his great arsenal of spells and his experience as a duelist to defeat his opponents.

She had never before heard of someone who fights in battles with charmed weapons.

But currently, Harry has not even completed his first year and he had already created enchanted weapons that could obliterate an adult Mountain Troll.

And if Flitwick was to be believed, he was currently working on a charming his clothes so that they would repel any kind of spells thrown at him.

If Harry continued in this path then he might truly be able to do what no one had done before. And for once, she was truly excited about the possibilities of such a future.