Life of a Charms Professor
Filius had always been a bookworm. His parents also encouraged him in his love for reading. His interests were wide-ranging, from Ancient Runes to Astronomy to Latinate spells. He read all day from morning till his bedtime. He would read in the gardens in the bright sunshine, under an apple tree. He would be found by the fireside, reading a tome, on rainy days. He read most of the books that a magical family could offer. His father was working in the Ministry of Magic in Whitehall, London. Minsitry of Magic wasn't far from the Wandsworth suburb that they lived in. His father was an officer in the Department of Magical relations, working specifically on Human-Goblin relations. It was rumoured that Frank was assigned this particular job because of Goblin blood being in his lineage. Mr. Fraklin Flitwick was a very short man almost like a Goblin. But he lacked the ears and long nose of one. His facial features were more human. Young Filius was very much like his father. Dorothy however was taller than Frank. They had met while they were students at Hogwarts. They fell in love during their fifth year at the school. Dorothy chose to be a housewife taking care of young filius and the home. Their's was a small and happy magical family.
It was an exciting time when his admission letter to Hogwarts arrived. Filius was well-prepared for his life at the School of Witchcarft and Wizardry. Both his parents had told him lots of stories about their childhood at the school. He very desperately wished that he would be sorted into the Ravenclaw house. His father Franklin Flitwick was a Ravenclaw so was his mother Dorothy Flitwick. Both his parents felt that Fiius would be an apt fit for Ravenclaw house given his love for learning and intellectual bent. So the day came when Filius was to be sorted into his house. The sorting hat took hardly a second to decide. Infact the hat was hardly being placed on Filius' head as it shouted "Ravenclaw!". It was one of Filius' happy moments.
Days and months went by as did the seasons. Filius was now in his Fourth year. He proved to be an outstanding student in almost all the subjects. He had particular knack for Charms. He had good confidence that he will become a Charms Professor at Hogwarts one day. By his fourth year, Filius had started to invent minor spells and charms. Inventing spells was one of his passions in life. He shared shared his interests with Professor Sycamore who was very nurturing of Filius' talent. Professor Sycamore had set him a special assignment - to write an essay on 'The Choice of Language in the Invention of Specific Charms'. He had also set him some readings - the book 'the Language of Magic' and few Muggle books on Historical Linguistics. Filius had asked Sycamore a doubt - "Why are most of the spells and charms in Latin?". That is the reason for this special assignment. Filius loved all that he was reading in the book The Language of Magic. There was a specific section that seem to answer his original question to Sycamore:
'"There is a reason why the magical cultures of Europe make their spells and charms in Latin. It is not only an archaic language but also the common ancestor of most of european languages. One might ask - why choose an archaic language. The answer to this question requires delving a little deeper into magical theory. Most of Magic is controlling the elements. One of the axioms of Magical theory is 'you can command and control that whose name you know'. That is why Names of powerful things or beings are often kept secret. One can easily invent a spell in English or German but nothing commands a thing like its 'One True Name'. This 'One True Name' is often in the language that was spoken long before, in the past. That is when the Naming of the thing/being would have been done. The more archaic the language is the more truer the name of the thing/being. Even though one can magically command a dog as 'hund' in German, the latin name 'canis' is older and more original and was used for a longer period hence all the more powerful in its use in the invention of a spell. This is the place where the Muggle study called Historical Linguistics comes into picture. In order to produce a powerful spell one must go further back into the proto-stages of a language. This Muggle study is about the theory of how historical stages of languages can be reconstructed. Such reconstructed forms of words come in handy in the invention of a powerful spell or charm."
Filius was almost near the completion of the essay. This assignment turned out to be very educating. Not only was he getting to know how to invent powerful spells and charms, he was also learning a lot about historical linguistics. He turned out the essay to Professor Sycamore one monday afternoon. Sycamore read through the whole essay with Filius seated in front of him in his office.
"Great essay, Mr. Flitwick. I hope you would have learned a thing or two about the linguistic aspects of inventing spells."
"Yes, Professor. I most certainly did.", beamed Filius.
"Do you have any pet project in mind, Mr. Flitwick?"
"What do you mean, Professor?"
"Well, I know that you love charms. I suspected that you have a desire to create your own spells. Do you?"
"Yes, yes of course, Professor. Some day."
"Why some day? I think you have the sufficient knowledge and skill already, Mr. Flitwick."
"You think so?"
"Yes, I do. Infact I might have a project for you. Only a suggestion, Mr. Flitwick. You are free to choose to not work on it." Filius got excited and was all ears.
"Well", continued Professor Sycamore "the librarian told me the other day that he suspected some students are entering the restricted section illegally. Do you think you can solve this problem by inventing a nice spell, given your proclivity for charms?"
Filius paused for a moment. "Yes, of course professor. I think I can take up this challenge."
Before leaving, Filius asked Sycamore "Professor can I borrow that book?"
Filius had pointed to a book that he had been eyeing for a long while. It was quite a tome of a book, titled 'The Complete Guide to the Invention of Spells by Peter Hopcock', sitting in a topshelf behind Sycamore.
"Sure. You can borrow it. I'm sure it will come in handy for you."
…
For the next few weeks, Filius' complete focus was on reading the basic books necessary to the invention of spells. He had come upon a particular strategy to prevent illegal reading of the books in the restricted section. He would have to put an 'Obfuscating' charm on all the books so that when an illegal reader opens them to read, all he would see is letters moving chaotically across the pages, rather like a swarm of insects. Filius was quite proud of the idea. But the difficulty was the invention part. How to actually create this spell? What about readers who are allowed to read the books in the restricted section? He thought that he would charm a pair of spectacles that alone would break this Obfuscating charm. He had come up with the exact latin word for the spell : 'obfusco!'.
The secondary steps of spell-creation required a little more effort than coming up with a latin name. There was the 'creation' ritual wherein the latin incantation is paired up with a wand movement. The creator of the spell had to have the desired effect of the spell in mind, during the process of creation. The ritual is to be conducted alone, with the creator standing inside a heptagram or a seven pointed star, with his wand out doing the necessary movement all the while incanting the spell. This is the 'binding' process wherein the incantation and wand movement is made canon and acquires enough magical power to execute the desired outcome. The sources of power are the latin spell, the heptagram and the wand. One crucial thing is that the latin spell ought to be written many times along the edges of the heptagram.
Filius had successfully 'bound' the spell with the wand movement and the desired outcome (which is the obscuring of the content of the books). Now, he had to test the Obfuscating charm. He stepped out of the heptagram and took out a book from his bag. He laid the book open in front of him, on the floor, swirled his wand thrice in the air and pointed at the book and said 'obfusco!'. A jet of blue light emanated from the wand and hit the book. As soon as the blue light faded, the contents of the open book, that is, the letters, started swarming around like ants across the page. Filius smiled. He had created his first spell!
…
Filius soon created those spectacles that cancelled the effect of the Obfuscating charm. He demonstrated both the charm and the glasses to Professor Sycamore. He was elated to see Filius' invention and congratulated him copiously. Sycamore made sure that Filius' spell was cast over the books in the restricted section and the charmed spectacles were handed over to the librarian. A very joyous Professor Sycamore remarked that Filius was one of the brightest among the fourth-years at Hogwarts then.
Days went by and soon Filius saw himself graduating out of Hogwarts. He always wanted to teach at Hogwarts but there was no vacancy then. So he thought that he would work in the ministry at a job that involves his knack for charms. Filius' father who had retired from the ministry by then handed him a pamphlet. It said that a certain 'The Snitch Company' was hiring spell-casters for the large scale production of snitches and other quidditch-related items. There was one vacancy for a spell-caster to enchant snitches to fly. Filius thought that this will make a perfect temporary employment till he got a job at Hogwarts.
As soon as he joined the Snitch Company, he was presented with a challenge. His employer Mr. Henry Fairbanks complained that there was a decline in the demand for their snitches since the latest models of brooms were too fast and their snitches are proving to be too slow for them, hence easy to catch. He wanted a way to increase the speed and agility of their snitches. Filius intuitively understood that speed alone is not the problem. In order for the snitch to be hard-to-catch it had to not only increase speed linearly but also change directions quite often. This was quite some problem. On the surface it seemed like a simple problem of increasing the speed and agility of the snitch. On introspecting, Filius felt that the problem at hand would only be solved by digging into deeper aspects of Magical theory.
The standard spells that were used in the market then, for the production of snitches, were the Speed and Agile spells. The former makes a snitch fast (in a linear fashion) and the latter spell makes the snitch evade and change directions. Both these spells are purely physical ones, acting upon the physical properties of the snitch. They treat the snitch as a dead, soul-less object that it is. But Filius had a clever idea. Why treat the snitch as a dead automaton that mimics a fleeing, fast prey? Why not make it an alive entity? Why not impart a soul to it? That was his great idea - imparting a soul to a snitch. Such an initiative is not the same as the dark magic of creating a Horcrux, which involved killing a person. As Filius dug deeper into Magical theory, he came across a method called 'Soul copying'. It is when the soul of a being is copied and placed in an object to animate it. This copy of a soul is only a mimicry, and not an actual soul. In other words it animates an object and makes it behave like the actual being, but it doesn't produce consciousness in that animated object. This 'soul copying' magic is however very difficult to perform amd requires great mastery over the nuances of spell casting. Filius asked Mr. Fairbanks for a period of two weeks to come up with a solution. During this time, he pored over thick books on 'geminate souls' (as the copy of a soul called in the literature). He practised that spell many times and perfected the technique of creating a copy of a soul. By the end of it, he had a kettle that meowed like a cat and a book that barked and wagged its bookmark-tassel.
To enchant the snitches, Filius ordered a large cageful of tropical hummingbirds. He performed a large-scale soul copying on those birds and animated the snitches. Mr. Fairbanks stood awed at the elegant solution to the snitch problem. He voluntarily paid a huge incentive to Filius. Being financially prudent, Filius saved up those galleons in his vault at Gringotts.
That night, after he had produced the first batch of snitches with souls, Filius had a strange dream. He dreamed of a large circular room with a high ceiling. There were many golden, winged keys that were flying chaotically around the room. There was a boy in a broom chasing after a particularly large key. The boy's face seemed quite familiar. On waking up, the only thing about the boy's face that Filius remembered was that he had a lightning scar on his forehead.
…
Soon after his stint at the Snitch Company, Filius got an owl from Professor Dumbledore. It was to inform him about the vacancy for a Charms Professor at Hogwarts. Filius was more than thrilled. He had got his dream job. Nothing could be better. He soon packed his luggage and headed out to the school aboard the Hogwarts express. Soon after Filius fitted into his role at Hogwarts Dumbledore asked him if he could be the head of Ravenclaw house. Filius was on cloud nine. He only hoped that he perform his role as the head of a house well.
One day, the Professor of Magizoology Barnie Burns came to him with a request. He was planning on making an exhibit of fossils of magical beasts in Hogwarts. It was to educate the young minds about the magical discipline of paleo-magizoology. He had collected many a fossil specimen of beasts during his expeditions in England and abroad. He had in his collection, skeletons of ancestral species of Dragons, stuffed specimens of phoenixes, skeletons of many species of hippogriffs, skeleton of a baby basilisk etc. His request was that he wanted his specimens to be animated and interactive rather than dull, stationary exhibits. That is where he needed the help of Filius. By then Filius had gotten a good name in the academic circles as partcilaurly good at charms especially Animating spells. This was because he had published a monograph titled 'A new magical technique to animate objects' in the Journal of Advanced Charms. It contained information with respect to his experience at the Snitch Company animating snitches. When Burns had finished communicating his wish, Filius gave a beaming smile agreeing to do what Burns had wanted. Burns was quite ignorant about the magic behind soul-copying. He asked Filius if it involved dark magic. Filius corrected him by saying that it is the making of a Horcrux which is dark magic and not the making a copy of a soul. He also added that while the Horcrux object is a fully conscious one the object animated by a soul-copy is not a conscious entity. Also Horcrux renders an individual relatively immortal but soul-copying doesn't make one so. Destruction of a Horcrux destroys a part of an individual's soul while destroying the object containing a soul-copy doesn't destroy the being with the original soul. Burns was finally satisfied and happy.
Animating skeletons and stuffed specimens of magical beasts involved a difficult task. That is, the copying of souls of living magical beasts similar to the dead ones. This involved some work on the field. Filius was enquiring among his circle about any existing magical menagerie. Dumbledore had agreed to copy the soul of Fawkes, his pet phoenix. Similarly Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts agreed to help with the copying of a hippogriff's soul. Filius wrote the famed magizoologist Newt Scamander if he could do soul-copying of some beasts in his collection. He got an affirmative reply. Filius was over-joyed. This task of collecting the soul-copies had a subtle difficulty - the issue of transporting soul-copies. In the case of animating the snitches, Filius had those tropical hummingbirds right beside the snitches while performing the spell. Once a copy of a soul is made it had to be immediately concealed in an object or a dead being. While soul-copying was wrote about in legends and theoretical texts, no one had actually performed it successfully like Filius had. He had made a breakthrough in Magical theory and practice by animating those snitches. Now it is yet another opportunity to make history. He had to devise a way to store the soul-copy in an interim object and transfer the copy later into the fossil specimens.
As Filius went around on his field work to collect soul copies, he carried with him a jar of pebbles. Whenever he did any soul-copying he immediately transferred the copy of the soul onto a pebble. He chose pebbles because they do not move much. The most they can do is roll around within the jar. Later he would use a Transferring spell to do the soul transfer from the pebble onto the fossil specimen. That was his neat little trick. Soon, Filius had finished collecting the soul-copies needed to animate all the specimens that Burns had.
…
It was a particularly grey and dull day. It was raining and the castle was lashed by cold and howling winds. Filius sat in his cosy office by the fireside. He was in a very contemplative mood then. He just sat and looked around at his oval office - first looking at the curtains, then the paintings and the tapestry. A movement caught his eye. One of the dead Charms Professor in the paintings yawned. Somehow that struck him as very strange and noteworthy. What makes the people and beings in the paintings at Hogwarts move? This movement of persons(and other beings) in paintings is more life-like and not like the repetitive movements in a magical photograph. His brain started making connections. He wondered if there was an ancient magic behind this animation or if it was a simple spell. Whatever the answer is Filius decided to write a research article on this topic and get it out into the magical academic community. He decided to title it "what makes the contents of a painting move?". He started enquiring. His first step was to consult Dumbledore since he was well-versed with ancient magic particularly the magic of Hogwarts.
"Please do sit down Professor Flitwick. What brings you here?"
"Well, Dumbledore I noticed something today and was curious about it."
"Do tell."
"Well, what is it that makes the persons and beings in paintings move? What is the magic behind them? I suspect that it is not a simple sixth year spell."
"You are right, Professor Flitwick. It is not simple magic. I don't have the complete knowledge about it. But I can offer you some information that I gathered by hearsay. It is ancient magic involving a particular forgotten spell."
"Dumbledore I have a hypothesis. You know my work on soul-copying right? I am the pioneer in this field of soul-copying having resurrected the ancient magical technique by historically reconstructing the spell. Well, I think the animation of the paintings here at Hogwarts is a similar kind of magic."
"Very interesting, Professor Flitwick. I encourage you to investigate this further."
Filius just couldn't sleep that night. His head was buzzing with ideas and hypotheses. He needed a way to prove that the magic behind the paintings is soul-copying. He was raking his brain to find one such way to prove it. If he proved that that is so, it would be a new finding and that would definitely excite the academic community. As he was getting tired thinking, a word popped intohis head : Anti-spells!
Anti-spells are spells used to counter the effect of a particular spell. Usually most spells have a counter or anti-spell. For example, if a Cheering charm makes you particularly giggly, you can use the Sobering charm to make you normal again. To prove that a painting is animated by the technique of soul-copying, all Filius has to do is perform the anti-spell that liberates the soul-copy from the painting. That would also result in the painting becoming still and not moving. If the magic behind the paintings is not soul-copying, the anti-spell would have no soul-copy to liberate in the first place and the painting would continue to be animated. Now the question that remained for Filius is where to find the anti-spell.
Filius pored over tome after tome on ancient magical theory and was unsuccessful in finding the anti-spell. Just like he had reconstructed the latin spell for soul-copying, he decided that he would also be successful in obtaining the anti-spell through linguistic reconstruction. He wanted a latin equivalent to 'liberate/release the soul' and came up with one. He experimented with various wand movements along with the latin incantation. Finally one particular wand movement made still the grazing horse in a painting. He succeeded! He soon informed Dumbledore about his success and that he had been right about his hunch that the paintings were being animated by soul-copying. He quickly penned down his findings as a research monograph and sent the owl to the editor of Journal of Advanced Charms.
…
Filius was wondering what legacy he would leave at Hogwarts, having served many years as the Charms Professor. There are parts of the castle that speaks about the great witches and wizards who have lived there. There are many paintings of the Headmasters at Dumbledore's office. There are statues of the four founders found at specific points in the castle. When he retires or dies even his animated painting would be hung on the walls of his office. But Filius wanted to contribute much more to Hogwarts. Something that would speak about his skill and cleverness.
One evening as he was strolling in the Hogwarts grounds he noticed that few stars had started to appear in the cool, dusky sky. Soon it became dark and stars shone in swarms in the sky. Filius was amazed at that sight of the starry sky. How beautiful is the night sky in Hogwarts! It would be really amazing if one could take in this awesome sight within the cosy confines of the castle and not stand out in the cold windy grounds. An idea popped into his head. Can one enchant the ceiling of the Great Hall or any other common place within Hogwarts to show the night sky? That would be really great as the students would be in awe at the crystal clear view of the night sky from within the castle. He would have to render the ceiling of the Great Hall permanently invisible. It could be achieved quite easily as the Invisibility spell is not very difficult to perform. But a large scale operation like this would require more than one person to perform the actual magic. So he sought the help of fellow professors who all agreed to this 'charming' work.
That is how Hogwarts came to have an invisible ceiling in the Great Hall. The Brain behind that particular piece of magic was Filius Flitwick. He also added a few other charming touches to the decoration of the Great Hall like the floating candles which would be lit every night and it was quite some sight!
…
Filius got an owl one day from a shopkeeper called Spencer in Diagon alley. The letter read as follows:
Dear Mr. Flitwick,
Greetings. I am Herbert Spencer and I run a charmed artifacts shop at Diagon alley. I have been following your work for sometime and I must say that I am very impressed by your charmwork. Presently, I have an idea for a product in mind and which requires your help. I think that the idea of a "soul-stone" is a very appealing one, commercially. Children would love it. The soul-stones that I speak about would be ordinary stones which are charmed to contain the soul-copies of magical beasts. Buyers can later release these beast 'souls' to animate everyday objects for their own amusement. Who wouldn't love to have a flying kettle or a crawling plate or a waddling soap container in their bathtub? I think that children would love it too. The soul-stones painted in bright colours would be quite a sight. I need your help in charming these stones. I promise a fifty-fifty share in profits to you. Please do consider my proposal.
Yours,
Herbert Spencer
Filius wasn't particularly thrilled at the proposal but he also felt that an additional revenue wouldn't hurt. By then Filius himself maintained a collection of soul-copies of magical beasts that he had gathered from Newt Scamander, and which he stored in pebbles in a jar. The first batch of soul-stones would have to be produced suing the copies inside this jar. And he can always make copies of soul-copies, which is a recent trick that he had learnt. Filius wrote back to Herbert Spencer agreeing to help him in maing the soul-stones.
The next time Filius visited Diagon alley he stopped by Spencer's shop. There was a huge display of these coloured soul-stones with a bright banner that read 'Flitwick's and Spencer's Soul-Stones. Animate your everyday object for amusement!'. By the crowd going in and out of the shop, Filius gauged that the product was doing quite well. He smiled to himself with satisfaction.
…
It had been many years since the Battle of Hogwarts and the death of Voldemort. Normalcy had returned to the wizarding world soon after that. Somehow Filius yearned for something he couldn't quite describe in words. He figured out that he longed for more satisfaction in life perhaps a renewed sense of purpose and meaning. How to find those? It was not quite the same as solving a magical puzzle. He had often discussed this dissatisfaction with Dumbledore when he was alive. His advice to Filius was that he devote his life and career to something larger than himself which Filius did. He thought that Hogwarts standed for something important. It was much more than a castle and a bunch of people living in it. It was a center of learning of the ancient ways of magic where many a young mind was educated. It was also a symbol for Goodness and Truth as it had stood and won against the power of Voldemort. Having dedicated himself over to teaching at an institute like Hogwarts must have given Filius a sense of satisfaction that his was a life well lived. But there was a small nagging discomfort in a corner of his heart.
He had a strange dream one night. There was a very scared looking goblin and a wizard in a black cloak holding a long whip. The wizard started whipping the goblin and the poor goblin started screaming out of pain. Filius woke up from the dream sweating. He felt like he himself had been whipped. He shared this dream with his close friend and Professor of Transfiguration Minerva McGonagall. She soothed him saying:
"Filius, I think that this dream is an answer to your chronic dissatisfaction. Perhaps it is time you get in touch with your Goblin roots and do something for the welfare of goblins."
Soon Filius left Hogwarts and settled down in his parents' home. He started an organisation for the upliftment of goblins. He started scouting the country on the lookout for young goblins in need of magical education. He wanted goblin students to be admitted at Hogwarts to learn magic. He would hold meetings with many goblins to hear their grievances and be a mediator between his goblin folk and the Ministry of Magic. He started writing articles for magical newspapers about the need to overcome prejudices against goblins by humans. At the end of it, as an activist for goblin welfare, Filius found that sense of peace that he was looking for. The Ministry of Magic announced a Life time achievement award for Filius Flitwick in an august gathering of many witches, wizards, goblins, elves and many other magical folk. At that moment, Filius felt that his was a life well lived - a charming life.
….…..