Disclaimer: Hogwarts and its Hoggy, warty denizens still belong to JKR and The Man.

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Chapter 13: Flitwick to the Rescue

Harry saw it all in the slow motion of shock. Simon seemed to hang arched in mid-air, neck stretched long and low, forelegs tucked neatly under him, and his hindlegs trailing along with the fluttering tail. Draco was lying flat along the horse's back with his knuckles clenched white in the mane which flickered around his blond head like black fire. Like surf in a seashell, Harry heard the screams of students and staff, and the slow grinding of the stairs.

And then the front legs unfolded and reached forward and the back legs came up and under the horse's belly, and Simon touched down on the stairs which were swinging across from his right.

Harry hadn't even seen those stairs moving.

Simon collected himself again and, without breaking stride, leaped up off the second staircase.

There were more screams

He landed on a balcony and cantered off down a corridor.

After the moment if took for Harry to realise Draco and the horse weren't splattered all over the Entrance Hall, he turned his Firebolt after Simon and shot off down the corridor.

He turned a corner just in time to see Simon screech to a halt, his hooves sparking on the stone floor, and barrel through an open door.

Predictably, there were screams.

Fair enough. Harry was having one of those days, too.

There was a muffled thump and some equally muffled swearing that sounded like Draco. Well, Draco was definitely having one of those days, although Harry couldn't quite place 'muffled' in context.

It became a bit more obvious when he leaped off his broom and ran into the classroom.

It was Professor Flitwick's Charms class: the diminutive professor had been teaching a group of Ravenclaws and Gryffindors one of the levitating charms – thus the big pile of pillows in the corner, and thus the muffled thump.

That had been Draco. His feet were sticking out of the pile, which had collapsed on him, and he didn't seem in a rush to get out of it.

Simon (it was hard not to notice the horse; he was a definite feature of the classroom) was standing by the window, and Harry spared a breath to thank whatever power had told the horse not to jump out of it. A horse startled enough to tackle moving staircases wouldn't hesitate to leap out a third-story window, surely? Simon's ribs were heaving and he shifted nervously, whickering when he saw Harry. He sounded almost humanly relieved to see him.

"Mr Potter… what… what under the sky have you been getting up to?" Flitwick sputtered as he climbed onto his desk to take a better look at this classroom invader. "You've scared these poor students out of a week's worth of lessons, I swear!"

Harry looked around – the students were cowering under the desks. "Um," he said, "I think it's safe to come out. Just don't do anything to scare the horse. Malfoy – are you all right?"

"Define 'all right'."

"Four limbs, circulatory system functional and, in your case, a minimum of brain power."

"Oh, that's nice. Thank you very much," Draco said, but he didn't sound like he was hurt. "Where's Simon? And where am I?"

"You're in my Third Year Charms class," Professor Flitwick said in his high, fluting voice. He squeaked and shrank back as the horse turned to look at him. "Is that the dangerous animal Professor Dumbledore and Hagrid warned everyone about?"

Simon whinnied softly, then sighed, a long, shuddering sigh of relief, and dropped his head to gently nuzzle the shoulder of the shortest of the Hogwarts staff.

Flitwick lowered his wand, gingerly rested a hand on the long nose, and said, "He… seems quite nice for a dangerous beast…"

Harry raised his eyebrows. Flitwick's wand was still clenched in one hand, but Simon seemed unperturbed. Maybe it was because Flitwick was so tiny – the huge Hagrid unnerved the horse, so it would make sense if Simon didn't see Flitwick as a threat. But if Harry could have translated the horse's expression, he would have sworn on his parents' graves Simon was looking at Professor Flitwick and trying to say, Get me the hell out of this mess. Harry hadn't even seen him use that one with Luna, and that little whinny was new.

"He is, Professor," Draco said. He'd picked his way out of the pillows and was trying to comb his hair back into place with his fingers. "I have no idea why he decided to run in here, though."

"Colin took a photo."

"He's camera-shy?" Draco's brow wrinkled.

"Maybe, but I expect it was the flash that frightened him like that."

Draco's frown of confusion turned murderous. "That's right… I've seen him taking photos with a Muggle camera that needs a great deal of light… So that idiotic waste of skin panicked Simon, did he? And how in Merlin's name did that result in me being here? I'm a bit confused about how I got here, but I do remember that it was very fast and at one point we were travelling uphill."

Harry decided telling Draco about Simon leaping from staircase to staircase three stories up was not going to help keep things calm. "This is the classroom on the third floor."

"I didn't know horses could climb stairs… you'd think with the hooves and four legs and all, they'd be a bit wary of tackling them."

"Yeah. You'd think that. I guess Simon was too upset to be thinking about what horses are meant to do. He certainly managed the stairs well. No trouble there."

"Edifying as this discussion is, it doesn't solve the problem of a horse in my classroom," Professor Flitwick interrupted brusquely. It was the first time Harry had heard him seriously annoyed, but then it was the first time he'd seriously disrupted Charms.

"Sorry, Professor. It was an accident."

Draco carefully picked his way through the collapsed pile of pillows to where Simon was standing. "Yes, sorry. If it's any consolation, I have absolutely no intention of ever in this or any other lifetime repeating that ride."

Flitwick climbed off his desk. "Class dismissed – class very quietly and without fuss… dismissed." The reins had fallen over the horse's head along with Draco, and Flitwick picked the thin leather straps up in one hand, twirling his wand thoughtfully with the other. As soon as the students had tiptoed out, he said, "I suppose we should get your new pet outside… we have a few minutes before classes end… Hmm…" He touched his wand to his throat and said, "Sonorus." Then, in a voice which echoed from the corridor outside, he said, "All students to stay in their classes an extra five minutes. Those who are between classes are to remain silent while a nervous animal is removed from the castle. Any students who deliberately provoke the animal will find themselves instantly in possession of three detentions with Mr Filch. That is all." He removed the charm and said in a more normal voice, "Let's get your horse outside, shall we? Mr Potter, please guide Mr Malfoy. Should we get Hagrid in to lead the horse out?" He moved around to the side of his desk, then froze as the horse followed him. "Oh dear…"

But Simon had stopped, too. The horse dipped his head down again and blew into Flitwick's face.

"Oh dear, oh my… is he hungry?"

"No, that's how horses say hello." Or so Mr Python had written.

"I see. Well, hello, there." Rather bravely, Flitwick patted the horse's cheek. When he stepped back again experimentally, Simon followed. Flitwick walked slowly out the door and into the corridor. Simon followed, just as slowly, each hoof falling carefully to keep to the slow pace of the tiny person leading him.

Scarcely believing this new, exceptionally meek Simon, Harry followed. "Are you okay, Malfoy?" he whispered.

"Yeah," said Draco, who had his bearings now with the gloves. "Door… three metres in front of me due north… Simon… heading through the door – hey, Potter, are you letting him get away?"

"Of course not. Professor Flitwick's leading him."

Draco's aghast expression summed up Harry's feelings on the matter. The Slytherin opened his mouth to say something, apparently thought better of it, and closed it again. Harry took one hand and put it on his shoulder.

"No offence – those gloves are pretty nifty, but we might need to run…"

Draco, who had stiffened at Harry's presumption, nodded. "Agreed."

They followed the horse, who filled the corridor and sent the paintings whispering to each other (they must have taken Flitwick's warning to the students for themselves as well) to the top of the stairs. The horse peered at one portrait, where a young woman in yellow robes was whispering behind her hand to an elderly witch holding a stoat. The stoat wriggled free and ran off into another painting as the horse snorted at it, and the young woman giggled as the old witch shook her head.

Flitwick muttered something Harry didn't catch, and one of the staircases swung to the corridor to meet them. There was a brief line of green light where the two met. "There," Professor Flitwick said. "That will stop it moving any time soon. Come along, now."

But Simon, too, didn't seem to be about to move any time soon. He planted his four hooves firmly at the top of the stairs, and when Flitwick tugged on the reins he tugged back, lifting Flitwick into the air.

Gasps echoed up the stairwell.

Dragging Draco behind him, Harry got to Simon's front end just in time for the horse to gently lower his head and put Flitwick back down on the top step. Flitwick looked somewhat paler from his non-Leviosa'd levitation. Looking down, Harry saw dozens of upraised faces staring up at them. It seemed a lot of students had found excuses to be between classes. Funny how so many of those excuses involved the Entrance Hall.

Simon lowered his head, eyeing the stairs, and blew a rippling snort of deepest distrust.

"I see. So you can gallop up them, jumping from one moving staircase to another –"

"What!?!"

"Uh – I'll tell you later –"

"Damn right you will!"

Harry went back to talking to the horse. "…But you can't walk back down stairs which are fixed in place?"

Simon spared Harry a glare which said You can't trust these stairs at anything slower than flat-out, and snorted again, backing up down the corridor. When Flitwick gave the reins a gentle tug he stopped but pawed at the floor, sending up sparks on the stone and leaving long gouges Filch would froth at the mouth over later.

"Now what do we do?" Harry sighed.

"You call in a Charms Professor, of course," Flitwick chuckled. He waved his wand.

"Equus leviosa!"

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Later Harry would wonder why Simon took this so calmly. There he was, suspended high above the crowd, slowly being lowered to the floor so far below with his ears and bright, dark eyes moving to catch all the sounds and sights of the castle, and he seemed to be doing nothing more or less than admiring the view.

With his broom in one hand and Draco's hand on his opposite shoulder, Harry followed Flitwick down the stairs. When Simon's hooves lightly touched down and the horse dropped his head to lip Flitwick's wispy hair, the professor giggled and said, "It's not edible, you know!" and patted Simon's nose. Then he picked up the dangling reins and handed them ceremoniously to Harry. "Make sure he gets back safely," he ordered. "I don't think he needs to be stressed any more today. Give him some apples or whatever it is that they eat. Dear me – I must get ready for my next class…" With a final pat, he turned and started back up the stairs.

The students were crowding the Entrance Hall, but a wide space opened up for Harry, Draco and Simon. "Well," muttered Harry, "let's do like the man said…"

Luckily Simon didn't balk at the wide stone steps leading out of the castle. Colin was standing at the base of them. The boy's face was ashen as he clutched his cameras to his chest like talismans against evil and tried to stutter out an apology. By the way Draco's face closed over with malice at the sound of the boy's voice, Harry decided it best to ignore Creevey for now. And have words with him later.

It was a huge sense of relief – and the knowledge that he'd just escaped something very nasty combined with a determination to make sure something very nasty happened to one Colin Creevey – that Harry led Simon and Draco back outside.

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