The Stubborn Old Headmaster

39

Harry could not prevent himself from tumbling downwards, slightly burning his paws as they came in contact with the hot rings of the hoops that had already had the flames extinguished by the quick-witted elves. 'Ouch, that hurts, but at least the flames were out and it doesn't hurt that bad,' he thought as he hurriedly transformed into an ice phoenix just before he would have hit the unrelenting ground.

"Is yous all right?" the elves asked in concern, causing the phoenix to nod and flap his beautiful emerald wings.

Flying over to Felix, Harry changed into his human form. "Everything is all right, little one," he softly whispered into the child's ears, while he nodded soothingly at his parents who were standing just outside the arena, apparently unsure whether or not if they should fetch Felix from the arena. He picked the child up and handed him to the elf in the centre of the arena, whispering, "Could you hold him for me, please?"

"Of course," the elf replied, gently taking the child from Harry. While Harry transformed back into his griffin form and took into the air once again, the elf talked with Felix in a soothing voice, causing an anxious smile to spread over the boy's face as he observed the three griffins continuing their routine fly through the flaming hoops.

Amidst a huge applause, the three griffins finished their show, and Harry flew by the elf to pick up his brother, before he followed Godric and Tom out of the arena, flying with his brother, who happily sat on his back and enjoyed being in the arena for once.

Shortly later, the show ended, but before Harry could take Felix and head back to his parents, Hagrid kept him back. "Harry, I'm sorry, but there are reporters from the Daily Prophet who are here and want an interview with you. Since you transformed into your human form, I can't make them believe you were just another one of the animals in the show anymore," he added, giving Harry a sad smirk.

"That's all right," Harry replied and pulled Felix out of the tent with him, thinking, 'This is the best opportunity we could ever hope for.' Concentrating on his father, he relayed the thought, 'Dad, please come behind the tent. Skeeter wants an interview with me.'

'All right. Stay calm,' his father replied immediately.

As soon as Harry headed outside, he saw the reporter, who always managed to annoy him to no end.

"Mr. Potter, how nice..." Skeeter began but found herself rudely interrupted.

"My name is McGonagall-Snape," Harry growled, "but you may still call me Harry."

"Oh, I am so sorry, Mr. McGonagall-Snape. Tell me, into how many different types of animals can you transform?"

"That's for me to know, and for the rest of the magical world to hopefully never find out," Harry replied in a firm voice before asking, "May I tell you my thoughts about today's performance?"

"Of course," Skeeter agreed with the false smile on her lips that Harry hated so much. "What do you want to tell the magical world, sweetie?"

"I wish everyone to know that the elves, who were holding the flaming hoop for me to fly through, saved my life by extinguishing the flames before I could get hurt too bad," Harry announced, firmly. "I want to thank them profusely for their fast thinking and quick response to the incident, and I want to say that I'm glad we chose to work together with elves, because they're just amazing."

Looking over the crowd that was gathering behind them, Harry increased his voice as he repeated, "A huge thanks to the elves for preventing me from getting hurt badly today. I also wish to use this opportunity to announce something. So far, two elves for each class have been permitted to attend Hogwarts. This number has been increased to five elves each class from this coming school year onwards."