Heads of House

By HarryDude85

Filius Flitwick: Britain's Dueling Champion.

That was the title that the Head of Ravenclaw house held, from 1964-1970. And he loved it.

When Filius was a student at Hogwarts, he knew he was talented. He wasn't being arrogant or big-headed. It was a fact and everyone knew it.

He was the best in the school at Charms. He could do things in his second year that sixth years struggled with.

So when Hogwarts announced it was holding a dueling competition in his third year, Filius signed up at once, despite the next oldest student was in his sixth year. Everyone told him 'You may be good, but you're not that good.'

He was.

He won the competition in his third, fourth, and fifth year. He would have kept on winning, except that Headmaster Dippit thought it was unfair that the same person kept winning every year and canceled it.

When Filius left school, he became a professional dueler. He traveled all over Britain, taking on people twice his age and three times his size. They all laughed when they would see a teenager who could barely reach there waist enter the arena, but Filius always showed them that what he lacked in size, he more than made up for in power.

He loved winning, but after winning 6 country wide championships, Filius tired of fighting and retired.

He still, however, loved having a challenge and being able to use his charms for a profession. So when Professor Dumbledore offered him the position of Charms teacher at Hogwarts, Filius instantly answered yes. He would still be able to use his Charms, only now it would be in a more orderly and secure fashion. And what was more challenging than teaching hundreds of students how to be experts in Charms?

What Filius didn't expect, however, was that his first year as teacher would also be the first year for James Potter and Sirius Black. Those two, along with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, made it his first seven years a constant ever changing challenge. Not to mention that his first decade of teaching coincided with the worst war the wizarding world had ever seen.

Needless to say, the 70's were a had decade.

After the downfall of Voldemort, however, Filius found his job a lot easier then it ever had been before. He was promoted to Head of Ravenclaw House in 1983, after the Astronomy teacher Professor Gurdlis retired.

It was a peaceful, quiet time, occasionally disturbed with the arrival of the Weasley twins, but nothing ever happened to make Filius to fear for the lives of his students. Not even the return of Voldemort or the mad reign of Dolores Umbridge made Filius afraid that Hogwarts was not safe anymore.

But then Snape killed Dumbledore, something that Filius still blames himself for. He was the one who fetched him, was the one who told him about the invasion. If he hadn't Snape would have known nothing about the battle that was raging floors above him. The fact that Snape had attacked him when his back was turned made him even more angry, but a small part of Filius was proud about that. The only chance Snape had at taking out the dueling master was a cheap shot from behind. Not even Voldemort's right hand man wanted to take on the tiny Charms teacher.

But now nothing was safe. Everything Filius had grown to love about teaching, about Hogwarts, was gone.

The school was now nothing more than a training camp for future Death Eaters and a prison for the rest, with the occasional Charms or Transfiguration lesson thrown in too keep the appearance of a school that it no longer was.

As the year went on, and his students gave there health and sanity in order to keep hope along, Filius couldn't help but be grateful that the number of students in his class was dwindling. While he knew that a few of the disappearances, like that of one of his favorite Ravenclaw's Luna Lovegood, was due to Death Eaters, he also knew that most of them had finally had the sense to go into permanent hiding.

As he had told the Carrow's each time one of his Ravenclaw's would vanish, he had no idea where his students had gone. And, as he also told them every time, he wouldn't tell them even if he did know. It was the one act of defiance that Filius allowed himself. Telling the madmen that he would keep his students away from them at all costs was the only way he could lash out without risk of retaliation on there part.

He wasn't scared of them, heavens no. He knew that a duel between him and the both of the Carrow's would be such an easy win for him it would border line on pathetic. He also took great pleasure in knowing they knew it to.

No, it wasn't him he was afraid for. He didn't know what the Carrow's would do to his students if he tried to defy them. Probably torture them horribly and force him to watch. Filius didn't know if he would be able to live with himself if he had to watch that, and he never wanted to find out.

So, most day's toward the end of the school year found him with empty classrooms and a lot of spare time.

He didn't know how much longer the school could last like this: daily torture sessions; students disappearing everyday; a headmaster who sat back and did nothing. The only thing that kept people's hope up, Filius' included, was the thought that Harry Potter was still out there somewhere, fighting in a way that only he and his closest friends knew and that one day he would return to make everything right.

But that hope had been lasting for months with no results. And with every day that Harry Potter remained on the run, a little bit of hope vanished.

Then, one night, not an important night, just a quiet, normal night at Hogwarts, where no screaming children were heard or acts of heroism were being preformed, everything changed.

He was in his room, just about to retire for the night, when a patronus Filius recognized instantly as Minerva's sped through his wall and stopped in front of him.

The cat looked at him before opening his mouth and saying, with Minerva's usual crisp, urgent voice, "Harry Potter has returned to Hogwarts. Follow my patronus."

Finally, Filius thought as he ran out his door, hope has returned to Hogwarts.