A/N: After the success of my other For Want of a Nail story, Harry the Curious, I got to thinking about similar things. I considered various different possibilities, but wasn't inspired by many of them. Then, however, I decided to try Pottermore (Sorted into Ravenclaw, for the curious). I was interested to learn that Professor McGonagall was nearly put into Ravenclaw, and Professor Flitwick nearly into Gryffindor. I find this highly amusing, and couldn't help wondering what might happen if they had been placed in the other houses.

I arrived at the conclusion that a good deal might be changed by the simple expedient of swapping two people's houses, and just had to write about it. The main difference at first is that Professor McGonagall is Head of Ravenclaw, and Professor Flitwick is Head of Gryffindor. They still teach the same subjects, McGonagall is still deputy Headmistress, etc. But the students in the Houses, influenced by their Heads, well… let's just see, hmm? This picks up from near the end of chapter seven. Like early on in HtC, I'll give a few sentences from the book, the bold the first line of changes.


Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Gryffindor first years followed Professor Flitwick, their Head of House, through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Flitwick led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.

A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as the professor took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him. "Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist."

Professor Flitwick spoke, his voice high and flutelike. "Peeves, begone!" A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered. "Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?" There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross- legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!" He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked, but there was no need to; Flitwick whipped out his wand and said "Garluma!" Peeves' movement was suddenly reversed, and the poltergeist was sent flying through the halls head-over-tails, slamming into a wall and groggily floating away. Everyone in second year and above applauded, as the first-years stared in amazement.

"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't listen to prefects or even teachers. Here we are."

At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Good evening, Professor. Password?" she said.

"Caput Draconis," said Professor Flitwick in a high, carrying voice that carried through the mass of Gryffindors, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it - Neville needed a leg up - and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.

Percy pointed out two stairways at the back, telling Harry that the one on the right led to the male's dorms, but Professor Flitwick was saying something. "The muggleborn first-years, come over here please!" he called. "That includes you, Mr. Potter, as you were raised by Muggles."

Harry drifted over to where Flitwick stood, in the middle of a circle of armchairs and couches. He sat next to the bushy-haired girl from the train; Hermione Granger, he remembered. There were only two other muggleborns in first-year Gryffindor, it seemed. One of them was Dean Thomas, a burly black boy, and the other was a tiny little blonde girl whose name he couldn't remember.

"Now then," squeaked the Professor. "My name is Filius Flitwick, and I am your head of house as well as the Charms Professor. Now, I know that you've had a certain amount of information given to you by the professors who came to meet you to take you to Diagon Alley. What do all of you know about our world?"

Hermione Granger raised her hand eagerly, but no-one else did. When Flitwick looked at her expectantly, she immediately began to sprout off things that Harry had read in his wizarding history book. Within moments, however, he was lost; she had clearly gotten more than just the required textbooks, and had, apparently, memorized every history book in Flourish and Botts.

Flitwick raised a hand before long, silencing her. "Thank you, Miss Granger, very informative," he said dryly. "Anyone else?" No one else said anything. "Come one," the professor said encouragingly, "surely there's something…"

Harry hesitantly raised his hand after a moment. "Um. Can you explain the Houses a little better? And exactly what is your job as head of house?"

"Certainly!" he squeaked. "You know from the Sorting Hat that Gryffindor is the house of the brave, Hufflepuff the loyal, Slytherin the cunning, and Ravenclaw the intelligent. Of course, there are other traits associated with these houses; chivalry and, I am ashamed to say, acting without thought, are also Gryffindor traits; Hufflepuffs are very fair and generous; Ravenclaws are usually curious and a bit eccentric, and Slytherins are ambitious and often rather underhanded.

"However, none of the Houses are fundamentally different. You will find good people and bad people in each; there are dull people in Ravenclaw and unsubtle people in Slytherin, Gryffindor has both the brave and the not-so-brave, and Hufflepuff has had its share of traitors. You may have heard rumors, furthermore, about the houses; that all Dark Wizards come from Slytherin, that Hufflepuffs are all mediocre, for example.

"None of these are true. I draw your attention to the infamous serial killer Sirius Black, servant of You-Know-Who and a Gryffindor, to my shame. The dark lord before him, Grindlewald, once visited Hogwarts and tried on the hat; he was placed into Ravenclaw!. I doubt I need to list all of the Dark Wizards from houses other than Slytherin, as I'm sure you're all quite bright. But I urge you all to disregard these stereotypes!"

Professor Flitwick paused to breathe; he had been quite vehement by the end of his impromptu speech, and Harry got the impression that he had given it several times before. "I apologize, Mr. Potter, what was the second part of your question?"

"Oh, er… what do you do as head of house?"

Flitwick smiled benevolently. "I arrange your schedules, I control discipline in the house, I provide career counseling, and I favor you most unfairly during classes." He chuckled at the last one to show it was a joke. "I encourage your studies and try to get you to behave well, though not necessarily with success. And, as our government is heavily influenced by wealthy and bigoted purebloods," he said, frowning, "I am technically the legal guardian of all Gryffindor students who do not have a wizarding parent. This means that I am to act as a father or grandfather would to all of you; I do try to take an interest in each and every one of you, and you will receive small Christmas presents from me. Once you reach your third year, if your parent does not sign your permission slip to visit Hogsmeade, I can sign it for you, assuming that there is no other reason for you not to visit."

Flitwick yawned. "But it's getting late. If any of you have any questions or concerns, any at all," and it seemed that his eyes rested longer on Harry than the other two as he looked between his first-year muggleborns, "come to me. I will not laugh you off, I will not ignore them, I will take them seriously and look into them or answer them as best as I can. Now, to bed!"


A/N: …Also, the character pairing is not romantic. That would be disgusting. It's just the main character (Harry) and the character that most changes flow from (Flitwick).

I am searching for a beta for this story.

Garluma is just a few syllables I thought sounded cool, and means nothing at all.