The heavy oak door of Professor Flitwick's office clicked shut behind Orion Malfoy. The silence that followed wasn't the peaceful quiet of an empty room, but the heavy, stagnant air that settles after a storm.
Flitwick dropped the pretense of grading essays. He slumped back in his chair, his feet dangling inches above the floor, and rubbed his face with both hands. He felt incredibly old, and deeply, profoundly inadequate.
He stared at the drawer where he had hidden the 'Secret Admirer' letter. The boy's logic was flawless. The cruelty of children was insidious, and he, the Head of House, had been completely oblivious to a conspiracy of isolation happening under his own roof. It took a twelve-year-old Slytherin playing vigilante to break the cycle.
With a heavy sigh, Flitwick hopped down from his chair and scurried over to his fireplace. He tossed a pinch of Floo powder into the grate.
"Minerva McGonagall's Office," he called out clearly.
He looked into the emerald flames. "Minerva? Are you available?"
A moment later, McGonagall's face appeared in the fire, her expression instantly shifting from administrative focus to sharp concern. "Filius? You look dreadful. Come through."
Flitwick stepped fully into the grate, spinning through the magical network, and stumbled slightly as he emerged into the neat, organized sanctuary of the Deputy Headmistress's office.
McGonagall was already moving toward a cabinet near her desk. She didn't offer tea or biscuits. She took one look at Flitwick's haggard expression and pulled out a crystal decanter of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey and two heavy tumblers.
"Sit," she commanded gently, pouring a generous measure into each glass.
Flitwick sank into a tartan armchair, accepting the glass with a trembling hand. He took a sip, the fiery liquid burning a welcome path down his throat.
"Thank you, Minerva," he wheezed.
"What has happened?" she asked, taking the seat opposite him, her own glass resting on her knee. "Is it about the Chamber? Another attack?"
"No, no," Flitwick shook his head quickly. "Nothing so dramatic. It is... internal house politics. Or rather, a complete failure of them on my part."
Over the next twenty minutes, Flitwick poured out the entire sorted tale. He spoke of the missing shoes, the mountain of robes, the terrified Ravenclaw girls, and the eventual, shameful confession of a systemic bullying campaign directed at Luna Lovegood.
McGonagall listened in silence, her lips pressing into a thin, angry line.
"I was blind to it, Minerva," Flitwick admitted, staring into the amber liquid in his glass. "A first-year girl, locked out of her own common room in the dead of winter. And not a single prefect thought to intervene. They simply called her 'Loony' and looked the other way."
"Children can be exceptionally cruel," McGonagall murmured, her voice tight with sympathetic anger. "And they are masters of hiding it from adults. Do not shoulder the entire blame, Filius."
"Perhaps," Flitwick sighed. "But that is not the most concerning part of this affair."
He took another sip of Firewhiskey, fortifying himself.
"The architect of the terror campaign against my bullies," Flitwick said softly, "was Orion Malfoy."
McGonagall's eyebrows shot up. "Malfoy? A second-year Slytherin orchestrated a mass theft in Ravenclaw Tower?"
"He didn't just orchestrate it," Flitwick corrected, a reluctant, terrified awe creeping into his voice. "He executed it flawlessly. Without ever stepping foot inside the tower himself. He used his family's house-elf."
"A house-elf," McGonagall breathed, the realization dawning on her. "Of course. They bypass standard wards. But... how did you discover this? Did you catch the elf?"
"I didn't," Flitwick admitted, looking utterly defeated. "Albus did."
He recounted his conversation with the Headmaster.
"Albus knew from the very first morning," Flitwick explained, his voice tinged with bitterness. "When Miss Edgecombe found the first pile of shoes. Albus simply asked one of the Hogwarts house-elves. Apparently, the elves have their own... network. They know when a foreign elf enters the castle. The elves cleaning Ravenclaw Tower knew about the Malfoy elf's presence immediately."
McGonagall's grip on her glass tightened. "Albus knew? And he said nothing?"
"He told me he chose not to intervene," Flitwick said, rubbing his temples. "Because, according to him, Orion wasn't actually stealing anything permanently, and no one was being physically harmed. He viewed it as 'misplacement with a theatrical flair'."
Flitwick looked up, meeting McGonagall's furious gaze.
"Albus believed the boy was doing the right thing, in his own twisted way. He wanted to see how far Orion would push the psychological pressure before breaking the bullies. He used my house as a moral testing ground for a Slytherin prodigy."
"That is unacceptable," McGonagall hissed, setting her glass down with a sharp clack. "To allow a student to be terrorized—even bullies—to test another student's restraint? It is reckless."
"It is Albus," Flitwick sighed heavily. "To him everything is a chess game. He told me to confront Orion, to understand his motives before issuing punishments. And so I did."
Flitwick recounted his interrogation of Orion. He repeated the boy's cold, irrefutable logic: that a vague complaint to a professor would have yielded nothing, and that only by applying overwhelming, terrifying pressure could he force the bullies to confess and reveal the extent of their cruelty.
"He sat there, Minerva," Flitwick whispered, "a twelve-year-old boy, and he told me to my face that I was incapable of fixing my own house. And the worst part? He was absolutely right."
The office descended into a heavy, contemplative silence. The fire crackled, casting long shadows across the walls.
McGonagall picked up her glass again, staring into the flames. Her anger at Dumbledore's manipulation warring with a profound, reluctant respect for the Malfoy boy's methods.
"He is a terrifying child," McGonagall finally said, her voice quiet but firm. "He lacks the cruelty of his father, but he possesses a pragmatic ruthlessness that is... unsettling. He views the school not as a place of learning, but as a system to be manipulated for efficiency."
She took a slow sip of her drink.
"Yet," she added, her lips twitching into a wry, almost invisible smile, "one cannot deny his results. He solved a systemic bullying issue in a week without casting a single hex on a student. And last year... he orchestrated a pedagogical stress-test on my own Gryffindors that was nothing short of brilliant."
Flitwick looked up, surprised by the shift in tone. "The dragon incident?"
"Indeed," McGonagall nodded, a glimmer of dark amusement in her eyes. "He came to my office. He laid out the entire plot involving Mr. Hagrid, Mr. Potter, and the contraband egg. And then he convinced me to replace the dragon with a transfigured rooster simply to teach them a lesson about consequence."
She let out a short, dry chuckle, shaking her head.
"I must admit, Filius," McGonagall murmured, swirling the amber liquid in her glass. "While this business with the shoes and the elf is certainly a breach of protocol... the dragon debacle was much more entertaining. Watching Mr. Potter's face when that dragon transformed into a barnyard fowl is a memory I shall cherish for the rest of my tenure."
Flitwick stared at her for a second, then a bubble of laughter escaped his own lips. The tension in his shoulders finally broke.
"A rooster," Flitwick giggled, taking a hearty gulp of Firewhiskey. "He really is a menace, isn't he?"
"A calculated menace," McGonagall agreed, raising her glass in a silent toast. "Let us hope, for all our sakes, that he continues to use his powers for... localized discipline, rather than anything grander, like world domination."