Unnamed

As Charms Master, Filius Flitwick had some summer duties before he could relax the rest of the Summer. Some of the charms were rather routine, like the ones on the broom closets that prevented pregnancy. Occasionally they broke down, usually under a combination of interference between charms. He usually had to re-charm a couple during the school year, especially since one of those charms that interfered happened to be the breast supporting charm, which was very popular. It only effected the existing charms when cast inside or within half the maximum radius of the broom closet, but four or five applications, and the pregnancy prevention charm dropped. That's why he'd installed the indicators.

Something in particular was wrong with the broom closet he'd just repaired. It was the one that Penelope Weasley nee Clearwater had become pregnant with twins in. He had just repaired the charms on it three days before, which had really worried him. Then he'd found out an additional fact he hadn't been aware of, the Weasley Curse, or at least that's what Percy had called it.

Flitwick had taken Percy aside after he'd heard that the boy was going to be a father. Clearwater had been his fifth year female prefect, so there were many things he wanted to discuss with the then fifth year male prefect. Percy had thought he was failing, which was ridiculous on the surface, given that he was number one in Charms for the year, and had held the title since his first year without interruption.

Flitwick smiled as he remembered Percy's pale face. Someone had apparently told him that Flitwick was going to transfigure him into a stepping stool. That was patently untrue of course. Minerva was the transfiguration master, not Flitwick, and transfiguration wasn't to be used as punishment. Besides, he preferred to suggest transfiguration into peacocks. It was his favorite dueling transfiguration.

Flitwick moved on to enter the Gryffindor Common Room and begin the work on the Girl's Staircase. It was always interesting to see what got caught in that staircase's trap.

Percy Weasley had informed him of the family curse, and how it had supposedly come about. His father called it a blessing. Percy couldn't agree. Apparently back in the eighth century, a Sir Eldread Weasley had saved several young maidens from a band of Vikings. The maidens had then blessed the middle aged knight who had been without a heir at the time, saying that his line would be blessed with descendants without counting. A year later, his young wife delivered her first of four sets of twins, and twelve children overall, eight of which survived until adulthood. Since then no Weasley male who had survived to adulthood and wed had fathered any less than four children.

Flitwick dodged to the side as the suppressed spells from the last school year released in a flurry of sparks, feathers, and surprisingly an avalanche of books. He was nearly hit by the broom that shot down the stairs. He memorized the spell signatures as each released. It was fascinating what boys would try to use to go up those stairs, or stray spells that ended up inside it.

Once all the suppressed spells had been released, Flitwick attempted to bring back up the protections on the staircase. It was something he did ever year. If you didn't, do it at least every couple years, the protections could overload, and do a sudden uncontrolled release. This time, the protections appeared to come up, but then went down again. Flitwick tried again. They didn't come back up at all this time.

"Filius!" Professor Snape said from the door to the Gryffindor Common Room. "Are you still working on the protections in Slytherin. My office says they're down."

"Merlin! I just fixed them this morning!" Flitwick said. That hadn't happened before. He frowned. Neither had the crash on this set of stairs. "I'll be back down to look at them again after I fix Gryffindor."

"The charms on all the broom closets seem to be down again, too," Snape said. "Shall I get Septima and Bathsheda?"

"Yes, and tell Bathsheda to bring the rune copies," Flitwick said, his brow furrowed. "Something has been really wonky with these protections since last Halloween."