"Good morning, Professor."
"Ah, Mr. Granger," he smiled, "come in, sit down."
Following the professor's invitation, I walked into the office and sat on a chair opposite his desk. The office was strictly working, not personal: mountains of papers, documents, cabinets with various teaching aids and books.
"What brought you to me on a legal day off?"
I took the bracelet out of the inner pocket of the robe and put it on the table in front of the professor. The small wizard rose in the armchair and pulled the bracelet closer with magic, examining through neat glasses.
"Wanted to give this bracelet to my sister for her birthday, but wanted also to make sure that it does only what it should, and nothing superfluous. You understand yourself how dangerous and unpredictable objects in the magical world can be."
"Undoubtedly, Mr. Granger," the professor answered without tearing himself away from examining the bracelet. "I understand you perfectly well and fully approve of your choice. But if I find traces of Dark Magic or curses, then you will have to turn to Professor Snape. He is the most knowledgeable among us in this area."
"Undoubtedly."
Flitwick examined the bracelet from all sides for another minute, not lifting it from the table. Nodded to himself, took out his wand and made a couple of passes over it.
"What should it do, Mr. Granger?"
"Protect from hexes, warm, and help the organism in cleansing from everything superfluous, improving abilities for self-healing and other... Hmm... How was it there... Self-debugging of the organism, there."
"Amusing little thing," Flitwick nodded again, and began performing another series of passes over the bracelet.
It took the professor no less than ten minutes to finish with this matter, put the wand on the table and look at me with a satisfied gaze.
"The bracelet is completely safe and does what you stated. You can safely give it to your sister and worry about nothing."
"Gratifying to hear. But... Can I be just a tiny bit impudent?"
"And aren't you 'already'?" the professor smiled, narrowing his eyes slyly.
"Indeed," I mirrored the smile. "The thing is that if Professor Flitwick himself writes a short note, like: 'Bracelet checked and approved, use it, and happy Birthday,' then for her it will be a straight-up very good gift. She is painfully dependent on attention and approval of older and knowledgeable people. No matter knowledgeable in what."
"Indeed," Flitwick nodded importantly. "I noticed such a vice in Miss Granger. Well then... It won't be difficult for me to write such a thing."
With a hand gesture the professor levitated quite high-quality parchment from somewhere, took a quill, dipped in ink, and quickly wrote a note in extremely neat calligraphic handwriting.
"Here, Mr. Granger. Gladden your sister on the holiday."
"Thank you, Professor," I nodded with a sincere smile and got up from the chair, taking the bracelet. "Have a good day."
Leaving the office, and then the auditorium, headed to the main tower. Turning into one of the niches, used the insane advantage given by possession of internal neutral energy; boundless, as far as brains, will, and imagination suffice, sorcery. Wrapping myself in a tightly fitting and thick layer of energy, maximally clearly, according to precepts of the elven shard, imagined how I become unnoticeable to everyone, invisible. Had to strain mightily, and mainly only so that magic in its large concentration didn't start doing something else besides embodying my desires. Yes, this is one of the difficulties of working with internal energy; costs of volitional efforts are equally proportional to its volume and density. Even if possession of such power gives boundless possibilities, the poverty of human mind cuts these possibilities mercilessly.
Raising hands before eyes, I didn't see them. Then noticed that stopped seeing my own nose with the corner of the eye; an object that is always one way or another in the field of vision. How, after all, absurd is the power of a wizard with neutral internal energy. Absurd power, and how they teach "not to use" it; exactly such a feeling arises from training. But this doesn't mean yet that there is no sense or benefit in this, and I will find, collect, master, and understand this benefit. With time. Groundless haste hasn't brought anyone to good yet.
In such a state I headed to the portrait of the Fat Lady guarding the passage to Gryffindor common room. Can't pass by the passage; it is on a large staircase landing, and outside in this place Gryffindor tower closely adjoins the main one. Nowhere to hide here, no secluded places, and portraits and paintings everywhere on walls. Although, walls of the main tower are almost completely covered with portraits, paintings, and other animated living creatures.
Didn't have to wait long. Students passing by didn't see me at all, while I maintained charms, sometimes pumping energy into them. Costly... How costly this is! Wizard shards are indignant, seeing such waste of energy. But indignant quietly; assimilation doesn't stop for a moment.
Here, finally, appeared not a student of other Houses idly wandering around the tower, not a Gryffindor leaving the common room, but precisely entering. Some curly-haired boy with a film SLR camera and bulky flash.
"Fortuna Major!" he said to the portrait in a loud whisper, looking around.
"All correct," answered the Fat Lady in the portrait with a chesty voice, and it moved aside.
That's it. Top secret information obtained.
With a clear conscience I went about my business. For example, need to visit the library; Cedric advised several books about the magical world and various animals, and fiction needs to be taken for the next lesson, even if it is only on Thursday.
In the evening, immediately after dinner, I went to Hogwarts kitchen, where house-elves met me again with great enthusiasm. They solemnly, as many as four of them, brought out not such a big, but quite beautiful cake with chocolate cream to me, and the inscription in the middle of artistically designed decorations with a bias into girlish style said: "Happy Birthday." Well, I asked myself without excesses.
"Here, young wizard," one of the house-elves joyfully rambled when others placed the cake on a chair. "As you asked."
House-elves covered the cake with a box, tied with ribbons, and generally gave the look of a chic gift.
"You tried excellently, thank you."
With these words I released neutral energy into space, and it was immediately absorbed by house-elves who came into a peculiar narcotic high. Not hindering them from enjoying life, I took the package and left the kitchen. Looking around, saw no one.
Concentrating neutral energy around myself, forced it to change distinctive signs of my uniform to Gryffindor ones, and make myself inconspicuous to the eye, not catching attention, not causing interest. Of course, if under such effect I show up in a clown outfit at a meeting of firm shareholders, they will definitely pay attention to me due to mismatch, but that's why I changed symbols too.
Without problems reaching the entrance to the lion House common room, looked around; above and below on stairs now and then someone made noise, ran, walked, in general, life boiled, but specifically here it was quite quiet and no sense waiting for something.
"Fortuna Major," I pronounced, and the Fat Lady's portrait immediately moved aside, opening passage.