Tea With a Professor pt2

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A/N: Not my story! Original available on ao3

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He'd never actually had detention with Flitwick, and it had been years since he was in the school, so it was an educated guess as to where he was even going.

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"Is this about the start of the term? I do have some preliminary lesson plans for the first couple weeks that I would love to talk with a seasoned professor about..." Percy was saying as Harry finally came to an open door that must be Flitwick's office.

"Merlin," he chuckled when he looked into the office that seemed to be overflowing with books and whose furniture was slightly shorter than the norm but still looked comfortable. "You're a bit hard to find. I don't think you ever actually gave me detention when I was in school...thanks for that, by the way."

"Harry?" Percy turned to his boyfriend with a questioning look and surprised frown.

"Who are you both?" Flitwick gave his wand a twitch causing the office door to slam shut and what Harry recognized as a questionably legal ward fall over it. "You look like Mr. Weasley but different, and who are you?" He glared first at Percy then Harry.

"Er..." Percy turned wide, concerned eyes to Harry when he realized why they'd been trapped in the office.

"He can see through the glamour," Harry answered him with a shrug. Yeah, he was concerned, but he fully believed Flitwick was a good bloke and definitely remembered him fighting against Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts. "You didn't catch the dagger glares he was shooting me all through the feast. Apparently, it's house elves and goblins at this point that the spell doesn't work for."

"Explain or you'll learn that I have some actual daggers as well," Flitwick growled, his hand straying to his hip, and Harry was extremely impressed. He actually did want to see what the man could do with some daggers and was interested as hell even if he didn't want them used on himself.

"I'm Harry Potter, sir, and this actually is Percy Weasley. We're just older than we should be. We made a little trip back in time, and unfortunately that lead to our younger selves not being here when we took over," Harry explained as succinctly and quickly as possible before the man started to curse them.

"Time travel...that would explain Mr. Weasley," the man frowned and studied them through the glamours to try to ascertain the truth of the story. He nodded at Percy, but his gaze settled on Harry with an even deeper study. "Yes...you are Harry Potter; I see that...son, do you not have a girlfriend or someone in the future to tell you that shoving pieces of metal through your face is unattractive?"

Harry laughed and Percy seemed to let out a breath of relief, his hand moving from where his wand was clearly strapped to his forearm. "Percy is actually my partner of a couple years now, and he hasn't complained yet. Any issues with my face, love?" He grinned at Percy who rolled his eyes but gave him a fond smirk.

"So, I'm your partner now? Not boyfriend or something like that?" He asked instead of answering the question with an interested raise of his eyebrow.

Harry shrugged, not really wanting to have this discussion in front of Flitwick even if the man seemed to have calmed down some and was instead now filling a kettle for tea, clearly expecting them to stay and explain before he released them into the castle where there were students. "I think we're past that now at this point. I mean...you're my person..."

Percy gave him a smile that definitely bordered on the sappy. "Well, good...and no problems with the face at all. I kind of like it a lot..."

Flitwick cleared his throat and shoved teacups in both their hands. "Now that's settled, just why did you two break all the laws of magic and invade our little slice of 1995? Does this have something to do with our Dark Lord problem?"

"Yes and no," Percy answered him as they walked over and sat on the low couch across from the professor's smaller armchair. "Voldemort is more a contributing factor than the entire problem. It's a bit of a domino effect. The fear and tactics that he takes leads to some very unethical and prejudicial legislation after his overthrow that basically destroys our community."

"Anyone with magical creature blood is taken from society, anyone with any connection to dark arts as well, and anyone who speaks against the ministry or the law," Harry continued to explain to a shocked but also not completely surprised Flitwick. "We could never determine exactly what was happening to those taken, but we have enough information to guess that they were probably being killed instead of any kind of relocation as we were told."

Flitwick pointed to Harry's runes. "It seems you have some connection to the dark arts yourself."

"He's a master of Dark Arts," Percy said, not able to keep some of the pride out of his voice. "He's also good at disguising himself when he's out in public, so he hasn't...or hadn't been targeted just yet."

Harry was a bit embarrassed and gave Percy a little smile. "Er...yeah, I started questioning everything I'd believed over the years when I was kicked out of the aurors because my core was completely dark. So, I did some self-study, then found a master in Amsterdam, and when everything started getting really bad in our society, I turned to using what I had learned to try to help others."

"I have no prejudice against any type of magic or core," Flitwick took a sip of his tea and nodded. "My family is much more open-minded than your purely wixen society. If those of creature blood were targeted though, what of my people? Were the goblins and our nation addressed in all this legislation at all?"

Harry and Percy shared a look before Percy motioned for Harry to explain since he had more information and background knowledge. "Well...the goblin nation thankfully had some solid treaties and a standing army, so you were safe for a long time."

"This doesn't sound promising," Flitwick sighed and poured some more tea to fortify himself for the news.

"Nothing outright or violent happened," Harry assured him quickly. "But the ministry set up their own financial institution and started requiring more and more of our world to use that bank. Gringotts Britain eventually closed its doors and the nation focused on its international branches, so there are very few goblins left in Britain anymore. I'm not sure what you in particular ended up doing. You retired from Hogwarts when the first wave of those with creature blood began to be taken, but I don't think you were part of those. I think you left the country, but I'm not absolutely certain about that."

"The ministry now controls all the money, the legal system, and most of the jobs in the world," Percy explained with a dark look at those implications.

Flitwick stood and opened a cabinet, taking out a bottle of what looked to be scotch. With a questioning gesture, he ended up pouring some in all their teacups. "I feel like I should be more surprised at all this you're telling me, but the goblin seers have been warning of a time similar to what you are speaking of for years now. The ministry has gotten so corrupt, more so in my lifetime."

"It swiftly gets much worse after the final battle when everything is rebuilt," Percy agreed with him.

Flitwick sighed and looked at them both sadly. "Who did you lose? I'm assuming for something as drastic as what you did in coming here, it wasn't just a threat but a reality of just how bad things had gotten."

Percy and Harry both winced. "Everyone," Percy answered with a meaningful look at the man before downing his scotch.

"My godson," Harry began, a hollow and haunted look in his eyes. "Ron, Hermione, Draco, Kreacher, and they were all directly connected to ministry action. There were many others before then that we hope to stop like Severus, Colin Creevy, Fred Weasley, Lavender Brown...the list just keeps going..."

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