Harry Potter and the Way of Reason

You will always be J.K. Rowling.

Historical tidbit: In the ancient Roman calendar, the "mid-month" of a month was the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months.

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"You start to see patterns and hear the rhythm of the world."

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Thursday.

If you want to be specific, it was Thursday morning at 7:24.

Harry sat on the bed without moving his hands holding the textbook.

Harry had just thought of a really brilliant experiment plan.

That meant he had to wait an extra hour for breakfast, but that's what his cereal was for.No, the idea absolutely must be tested right away, right now, right now.

Harry put his textbooks aside, jumped out of bed, walked around to the other side, opened the basement of the boxes, ran down the stairs, and started moving boxes of books away. (It's time to put the books in the box on the shelves, but he's too busy competing with Hermione to read the textbooks, and he's still losing, so he doesn't have time.)

Harry found the book he wanted and rushed back upstairs.

The other boys were getting ready to go down to the hall for breakfast and start the day.

"Can you do me a favor, please?" said Harry.While talking, he looked through the table of contents, found the page with the first 1 prime numbers printed, turned to that page, and stuffed the book into Anthony Goldstein's hand. "Choose two three-digit numbers from this list. Don't tell me what you picked. Please multiply the two numbers and tell me what the product is. Oh, and would you please do the math? Please make sure the result is correct, if you take the wrong ride, I don't know what will happen to me or this universe."

Anthony didn't ask "Why are you suddenly crazy?", nor did he ask "It sounds weird, why do you want this?" or "What do you mean, you don't know what will happen in this universe?" You can imagine what life everyone in the dormitory is having.

Anthony silently took the book, took out a pen and a piece of parchment.Harry turned around, closed his eyes to make sure he couldn't see, and jumped around in place.With a pad and mechanical pencil in his hand, he was about to copy down the results.

"Okay," said Anthony, "18 nine."

Harry wrote down 181.He repeated the number he had copied down, and Anthony confirmed that it was correct.

Harry rushed back to the basement in the box, glanced at his watch (it read 4:28, which was 7:28), and closed his eyes.

About thirty seconds later, Harry heard footsteps, followed by the closing of the basement door. (Harry doesn't have to worry about suffocation. If you're willing to buy a really high-end case, the automatic air circulation spell is included. Isn't the magic powerful, and you don't have to worry about paying the electricity bill.)

When Harry opened his eyes, he saw what he wanted, a folded piece of paper on the floor, a gift from his future self.

Call this piece of paper "Paper-2".

Harry tore a piece of paper from his pad.

Call this piece of paper "Paper-1".Of course, it's the same sheet of paper.If you look closely, you will see that the irregular edge shape is the same where it was torn off.

Harry mentally went over his algorithm.

If Harry finds it blank when he opens "Paper-2", he writes "1x101" on "Paper-101", folds it, studies for an hour, goes back in time, and puts down "Paper-1" (At this time, "Paper-1" will become "Paper-2"), come out from the basement in the box, and go to have breakfast with everyone.

If Harry found two numbers written on the "Paper-2" when he opened it, he multiplied them.

If the product of these two numbers is equal to 181, Harry will copy the two numbers on "Paper-429" and send "Paper-1" back to the past.

否则哈利就把右边的数字加2，把新的两个数写在“纸－1”上。除非右边的数字在加2之后大于997，这时哈利会把左边的数字加2，把右边的数字改成101。

If "Paper-2" says 997x997, Harry leaves "Paper-1" blank.

In this case, the only stable time loop is the two prime factors of 2 written on "Paper-181".

If the experiment works, Harry can use the same technique to get any answer that is easy to verify but hard to find.This not only proves that P = NP in the presence of time converters, [1] it also has a stronger generality.Harry can use this trick to open all digital locks and unlock any combination.Might as well use it to find the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets, if only Harry could find a systematic way to list all the Hogwarts locations.Even by Harry's standards, it was a brilliant cheat.

Harry picked up "Paper-2" with trembling hands and opened it.

"Paper-2" wrote in slightly trembling handwriting:

don't mess with time

Harry wrote "Don't mess around with time" on "Paper-1" with slightly trembling handwriting, folded it neatly, and resolved not to do any really wonderful experiments until he was 15 years old.

As far as Harry knew, this was the most terrifying experimental result in the entire history of science.

Harry could barely sit still and read for the next hour.

This is how Harry's Thursday started.

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Thursday.

It's Thursday at 3:32 p.m., if you want to be specific.

Harry stood outside on a grassy field with all the other first-year boys, led by Mrs Hooch and surrounded by a broom provided by Hogwarts.Flying lessons for girls are separated.Apparently, for some reason, girls don't want to learn to fly on broomsticks in front of boys.

Harry had been feeling a little weak all day.Looking back now, there are actually many possibilities for a stable time loop, and he couldn't help but wonder why that particular loop was chosen.

Also, can't you, broom?He wants to fly on a linear object?Isn't that the most unstable shape you can find, other than hugging a marble?Who chose this one out of all possible aircraft designs?Harry had hoped the statement was just a metaphor, but no, what looked to be an ordinary kitchen wooden broom was placed in front of them.Is someone fascinated by the concept of brooms, without considering other possibilities?This can only be the case.The optimal design for a flying machine is never exactly the same as a tool for cleaning a kitchen if designed from the ground up.

The weather was fine on this day, the bright blue sky, the sun was shining brightly, if you fly in the sky, it is easy to lose sight of things because of the glare of the sun.The ground was warm, dry, toasty, and for some reason felt hard, hard under Harry's shoes.

Harry kept reminding himself that it shouldn't be too difficult if everyone thought the worst eleven-year-old could learn it.

"Put your right hand over the broom, or left hand if you're left-handed," said Mrs. Hooch, "and say, Get up!"

"Get up!" everyone shouted.

The broom jumped eagerly into Harry's hand.

He finally took the lead in the class once as well.Apparently saying "Go!" was harder than it looked, and most brooms were still rolling around on the ground, or backing away from their would-be riders.

(Of course Harry can bet that Hermione was at least as good as he was in the girls' flying lessons earlier today. Something that he can do at once can never be difficult for Hermione, if anything , and riding a broomstick, if it wasn't about intelligence, Harry might as well be dead.)

After a while, everyone finally got the broom in front of them.Mrs. Hooch showed them how to ride a broomstick, then took a turn around the playground, correcting everyone's posture.It seems that although a few children have had fun flying at home, none of them have been taught the proper way.

Mrs. Hooch nodded after reviewing it. "Okay, when I blow the whistle, you all kick off hard."

Harry swallowed hard, trying to suppress the nausea.

"Stay on your broomsticks, fly up a few feet, then lean forward a little, back down to the ground. Listen to my whistle—three—two—"

A broom flew into the sky, and the little boy on it was screaming—not of joy, but of terror.The child was still whirling as he rose, and they caught only one glimpse of his pale, frightened face—

In slow motion, Harry dropped his broom and pulled out his wand, though he didn't really know what to do with it.He had only had two Charms lessons, and the last one was indeed the Levitating Charm, but Harry could only succeed with this spell once out of three times, and he certainly couldn't levitate the whole person—

If I really have any hidden power, please show it now!

"Come back, boy!" Mrs. Hooch shouted (the most useless instructions in the world about how to deal with a broom that is out of control, and she is also a flying instructor, and some part of Harry's brain automatically puts Mrs Hooch added to his list of idiots.)

The boy was thrown off by the broom.

At first, he seemed to move very slowly through the air.

"Wingardium, Leviosa!" Harry screamed.

The spell failed.He could feel it failing.

There was a bang, and then a crack in the distance, and the little boy fell face down on the grass, motionless.

Harry retracted his wand and rushed forward at full speed.He and Mrs. Hooch got to the boy at the same time, and Harry put his hand into the pouch and started thinking oh god what's that thing called, don't care, try "first aid kit!" and it jumped into his hand—

"A broken wrist," said Mrs. Hooch. "Calm down, boy, it's just a broken wrist!"

Harry's heart was still beating as he came out of panic.

The enhanced emergency kit was open in front of him, and Harry had a tube of flaming liquid in his hand, which would keep his brain oxygenated for a while in case the kid broke his neck.

"Ah..." Harry said in a shaky voice.His heart was still beating wildly, so that he could hardly hear his rapid inhalation. "If the bone is broken...do I need a shaping bandage?"

"It's for emergencies," Mrs. Hooch snapped. "Put it away, he's fine." She bent over the boy and held out a hand. "Okay, kid, it's okay, get up!"

"You're not really letting him continue riding the broomstick are you?" Harry asked in surprise.

Mrs. Hooch shot Harry a sideways look. "Of course not!" She took the boy's uninjured arm and pulled him up -- Harry was surprised to find that it was Neville Longbottom again, what the hell was he doing? —she turned to all the children who were watching. "I'm taking him to the infirmary, and you don't move here! Leave the broom there, or you'll be kicked out of Hogwarts before you finish 'Quidditch.' Come with me ,Honey."

Mrs. Hooch led Neville away, and he held his wrist, trying to control his sobs.

After they left, one of the Slytherins started laughing.

This sparked a burst of laughter.

Harry turned and looked at them.It seems the time has come to remember some faces.

Harry saw Draco coming towards him, accompanied by Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle.Mr. Crabbe didn't laugh.Mr. Gower is definitely laughing.Draco looked serious, except for an occasional twitch of the corner of his mouth, from which Harry deduced that Draco thought it was hilarious, but there was no political gain in laughing now, so it might be better to wait back Let's talk about Slytherin's dungeons.

"Oh, Potter," Draco whispered, still with a serious expression and the occasional twitch of the corner of his mouth, "let me just say that when you use an emergency to show leadership, you should act as if everything is under control." Posture rather than, say, flustered look." Mr. Goyle giggled, and Draco gave him a glare. "You might get some points, though. Shall I help you pack your first aid kit?" "

Harry turned to face the first aid kit so he wouldn't have to look at Draco. "I'll do it myself," said Harry.He put the needle tube back to its original position, fastened the buckle, and stood up.

Ernie MacMillan walked up to Harry just as Harry was putting the first aid kit back in the pouch.

"Thank you, Harry Potter, in the name of Hufflepuff," said Ernie MacMillan formally. "Nice attempt, good idea."

"That's a really good idea," Draco said in a long voice. "Why doesn't anyone in Hufflepuff get out their wands? Maybe if you all help, not just Potter, you can help." Got him. Don't Hufflepuffs claim to be united?"

Ernie looked both angry and ashamed to death. "It didn't occur to us then—"

"Ah," said Draco, "didn't think so, I guess that's why a Ravenclaw friend trumps all the Hufflepuffs."

Oh shit, how was Harry going to get over this... "Don't mess with it," Harry said in a gentle tone.I hope Draco understands that you are interfering with my plans, please shut up.

"Hey, what's this?" Mr. Gower said.He bent down and picked up from the grass a glass ball the size of a marble, filled with swirling white clouds.

Ernie froze for a moment. "Neville's Remembrall!"

"What's a memory ball?" Harry asked.

"It'll turn red if you forget something," Ernie said, "but it won't tell you what you forgot. Give it to me and I'll give it back to Neville later." Ernie held out his hand to take it. .

A smile suddenly flashed across Mr. Gore's face, and he turned and ran away.

Ernie froze, then yelled, "Hi!" and ran after Mr. Goyle.

Mr. Gower picked up a broom, jumped on it in one smooth motion, and flew into the air.

Harry's jaw dropped.Didn't Mrs. Hooch say that she would be fired?

"You idiot!" Draco gritted his teeth and cursed.He opened his mouth to shout—

"Hi!" Ernie yelled. "It's Neville's! Give it back!"

The Slytherins started cheering for Mr Goyle.

Draco's mouth closed.Harry saw a sudden wavering look on his face.

"Draco," Harry whispered, "if you don't order that idiot to come back to the surface, the teacher will be back later, and then—"

"Come and get it, Hufflepuff!" Mr. Goyle called, and the Slytherins cheered even louder.

"I can't!" whispered Draco, "all the Slytherins will think I'm cowardly!"

"If Mr. Goyle gets fired," said Harry through gritted teeth, "your father will think you're retarded!"

Draco's face contorted in pain.

At this moment--

"Hey, dirty Slytherins," Ernie called, "didn't anyone ever tell you that Hufflepuffs would stick together? Get out your wands, Hufflepuffs!"

Many wands were pointed at Mr. Gower.

Three seconds later—

"Slytherin, get out your wand!" shouted about five different Slytherins.

Lots of wands pointed at Hufflepuff.

Two seconds later—

"Gryffindor, get out your wand!"

"Do something, Potter!" Draco whispered, "I can't stop this, but you! I owe you a favor, do something quickly, don't you claim to be smart?"

For the next five and a half seconds, Harry realized that someone was about to cast a Sumerian Simple Attack Charm.When this turmoil is over and the teacher expels all the students who caused the trouble, only Ravenclaw will be left as a first-year boy.

"Ravenclaw, get out your wand!" Michael Corner yelled, clearly unwilling to be part of the disaster.

"Gregory Goyle!" Harry shouted, "I challenge you to decide the ownership of Neville's Remembrall by means of a game!"

There was a sudden pause.

"Oh, really?" Draco said loudly, Harry had never heard him so loud, "Interesting. What kind of bet, Potter?"

Uh……

"The game" was the only idea Harry could think of right now.As for the game, he couldn't say "chess" because Draco would be too suspicious if he accepted it, and he couldn't say "wrist wrestling" because Mr. Goyle would crush him—

"Would that work?" cried Harry. "Gregory Goyle and I are standing at a distance, face to face, and no one can come near us. We can't use wands, and neither can anyone else. I have to stand." So did he. Gregory Goyle would have to give up all rights to Neville's Remeber and give it to me if my hand could touch Neville's Remeber."

After a pause, everyone's expressions changed from relieved to bewildered.

"Ha, Potter!" Draco yelled, "I'd like to see how you can do it! Mr. Goyle accepts your challenge!"

"Let's go!" said Harry.

"Potter, what are you doing?" Draco whispered without moving his lips.

Harry didn't know how to answer without moving his lips.

Everyone put away their wands, and Mr. Goyle dropped gracefully to the ground, looking rather bewildered.Some Hufflepuffs, Chef Puff started to move towards Mr. Goyle, but Harry begged them not to with an earnest look, and they backed away.

Harry walked up to Mr. Goyle, stopping a few paces away from him, making sure that neither of them could reach the other.

Harry retracted his wand slowly, without haste.

Everyone else backed away.

Harry swallowed.He basically knew what he wanted to do, but had to find a way to make it impossible for others to understand what he had done—

"Okay," Harry said loudly. "Now..." He took a deep breath, raised one hand, and made a gesture of snapping his fingers.The students who heard about the pie incident—that is, almost everyone—gailed a sigh of relief. "I'm going to summon Hogwarts madness! Happy bouncing, Wetland Wetland Wetland!"

Harry snapped his fingers.

Many cringed.

Nothing happened.

Harry let the silence last for a while, growing, until...

"Uh," someone said, "is that all?"

Harry looked at the talking boy. "Look in front of you. Do you see a little patch of grass on the ground?"

"Uh, yeah," said the boy, who was a Gryffindor (what was it called Dean?)

"Dig in there."

Now many people looked at Harry inexplicably.

"Uh, why?" Dean asked.

"You just do what he says," said Tyley Boot in a weary voice, "don't ask why, trust me."

Dean got down on one knee and started digging.

A minute later, Dean stood up again. "Nothing," Dean said.

Huh.Harry was going to go back in time, bury a treasure map there, mark the location of the second treasure map, and the second treasure map would mark the location of Neville's memory ball, which he would get back from Mr. Goyle My memory ball is buried there...

That's when Harry realized there was a much simpler way, and one that would be less prone to revealing the Time-Turner's secret.

"Thank you, Dean!" Harry said loudly, "Ernie, please look around where Neville dropped it and see if you can find Neville's Remembrall?"

Everyone is even more baffled.

"You just do what he says," said Terry Boot, "he'll keep trying until he succeeds, and the scary thing is—"

"Merlin!" Ernie gasped.In his hand was Neville's Remembrall. "Right here! Where he just fell!"

"What?" cried Mr. Gower.He looked down and saw...

…he also had Neville's Remembrall in his hand.

Long pause.

"Well," said the Dean-something boy, "that's impossible, isn't it?"

"It's a plot hole," said Harry, "I made myself weird enough to distract the universe for a while, so the universe would forget that Goyle had picked up the memory ball."

"No, wait a minute, I mean, there's absolutely no way—"

"Please, are we all standing here waiting to learn to fly? Yes we are. So shut up. Anyway, as soon as I get Neville's Remembrall, the competition is over and Gregory Goyle must Give up all rights to the Rememebrall and give it to me. That's all there is to it, isn't it?" Harry held out his hand to Ernie, "just roll it over, because no one can come near me, okay?"

"Wait a minute!" yelled a Slytherin - it was Blaise Zabini, a name Harry had trouble forgetting. "How do we know if it's Neville's Remembrall? Maybe you just threw another There's a memory ball over there—"

"You have a strong Slytherin trait,[2]" Harry laughed, "but I assure you, Ernie is holding Neville's Remembrall. Gregory Goyle is holding I don’t dare to say about the memory ball.”

Zabini turned to Draco. "Malfoy! You can't let him go like this—"

"Shut up, you," growled Mr. Crabbe behind Draco, "Mr. Malfoy doesn't need you to tell him what to do!"

What a good guy.

"My bet is with Draco, the noble and oldest of the Malfoys," said Harry. "Not with you, Zabini. I did what Mr. Malfoy said he wanted to see me do. As for whether I have met the conditions of the bet, I will ask Mr. Malfoy to decide." Harry told Draco He bowed his head and raised his eyebrows slightly.That should be enough to save Draco's face.

a pause.

"Are you sure this is indeed Neville's Remembrall?" Draco asked.

"Yes," said Harry, "this remembrall will be given back to Neville, and it was originally his. Just give me the one Gregory Goyle has."

Draco nodded, looking determined. "Strange as it may seem, I will not question the pledge of the noble Potters. The noble and oldest Malfoys will keep their word. Mr. Goyle, return the Remembrall to Mr. Potter— "

"Hey!" Zabini said, "he hasn't won yet, he hasn't touched—"

"Catch it, Harry!" said Ernie, throwing the Remembrall.

Harry caught the memory ball in the air with ease, and his reflexes were quick in this regard. "Okay," said Harry, "I won..."

Harry stopped.All talking stopped.

The memory ball shone bright red in his hand, like a miniature sun, casting red shadows on the daytime ground.

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Thursday.

If you want to be specific, Thursday at 5:09 pm in Professor McGonagall's office, after flying lessons (Harry dialed back an hour in between).

Professor McGonagall sat on her stool.Harry sat in the judgment chair at her desk.

"Professor," said Harry reluctantly, "Slytherin's wand points to Hufflepuff Puff, Gryffindor's wand points to Slytherin, and some idiot asked Ravenclaw to take his wand too." Come out, I only have five seconds to think about how to stop this chaos! That's all I can think of!"

Professor McGonagall was livid and angry. "You can't use the Time-Turner like this, Mr. Potter! Don't you know what secrecy is?"

"They don't know how I do it! They think I can do weird things with a snap of my fingers! I've done other weird things that even a Time-Turner can't explain, and I'll do them in the future More, this time it won't be very prominent! I am also forced to do so, Professor!"

"You are not forced to!" Professor McGonagall snapped, "You just need to call this unknown Slytherin back to the ground and let everyone put away their wands! You could have bet against him to explode cards, but No, you have to be so ostentatious, using the Time-Turner unnecessarily!"

"That's all I could think of at the time! I don't even know what an exploding card is, they can't accept a game of chess, and if an arm wrestling is suggested I'll lose!"

"Then you should choose arm wrestling!"

Harry froze for a moment. "But then I'd lose—"

Harry stopped.

Professor McGonagall looked very angry.

"I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall," Harry whispered, "I really didn't think of that, you're right, I should have chosen to wrestle my arms, I'd be too pretty if I did that, but I really didn't think of that at all ..."

Harry stopped.At this moment, he suddenly realized that he actually had many other choices.He could have let Draco decide what the bet was about.He can ask everyone's opinion... Using the time-turner is really too ostentatious and unnecessary.There are so many possibilities, why does he have to choose that one?

Because he saw a way to win.Even if it was just a trifle that won, even if the teacher would have taken the Remembrall back from Mr. Goyle anyway.

Be victorious.That's his problem.

"I'm sorry," Harry said again, "for my pride and stupidity."

Professor McGonagall wiped his forehead with his hand.Her anger seemed to subside a little.But her voice was still very stern. "If you do this again, your Time-Turner will be withdrawn. Did you hear me clearly?"

"Yes," said Harry, "I understand and I'm sorry."

"So, Mr. Potter, you can still keep your Time-Turner for the time being. Considering that you did prevent a lot of trouble, I will not deduct Ravenclaw's house points."

And you can't explain why my house points were deducted.But Harry wasn't that stupid to say it out loud.

"And more importantly, why did the Remembrall behave like that?" said Harry. "Does that mean I've been cast with a forget-me-not spell?"

"I find it strange, too," Professor McGonagall said slowly. "If it were that simple, I think memory balls would be used in court to test the forget-and-forget spell, but that's not the case. I'm going to investigate, Potter Sir." She sighed, "You can go now."

Harry started to get up from his chair, then stopped. "Uh, sorry, I have something else to tell you—"

You hardly notice her flinching. "What is it, Mr. Potter?"

"It's about Professor Quirrell—"

"I'm sure, Mr. Potter, that's not a big deal," said Professor McGonagall quickly. "Of course you remember that the headmaster told all the students not to complain about the defense professor to us because of some trivial matters?"

Harry was puzzled. "But this may be very important. Yesterday I suddenly had a feeling of impending disaster, just when-"

"Mr. Potter! I have a sense of impending doom, too! My sense of impending doom suggests that you must never finish that sentence!"

Harry's mouth opened.Professor McGonagall won; Harry was speechless.

"Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall, "if you find anything interesting about Professor Quirrell, please don't tell me or anyone else. You've taken up enough of my precious time now—"

"It's not like you!" Harry blurted out, "I'm sorry, but this is incredibly irresponsible! I've heard that teaching Defense is a cursed position, and if you already know there is If something is wrong, I thought you would take it seriously—"

"Something's wrong, Mr. Potter? I very much hope not." Professor McGonagall said blankly, "Last February, Professor Black was caught staying in a closet with no less than three fifth-year Slytherins , and in the previous year, Professor Summers had been such a failure as a teacher that her students thought the changelings were a kind of furniture, and if something went wrong with the super-capable Professor Quirrell, the consequences would definitely be Disastrously, I bet most students would fail their Defense Ordinary and UWEL."

"I see," said Harry slowly, understanding what she meant, "so in other words, whatever problems Professor Quirrell has, you definitely don't want to know before the end of the school year. Because it's only September, and even if he Murdering the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on live TV, you don't take it to heart."

Professor McGonagall stared at him closely. "I'm sure I didn't say that, Mr. Potter. At Hogwarts we try to prevent anything that threatens our students' access to education."

For example, the Ravenclaw first-year students who don't know how to keep their mouths shut. "I believe I understand exactly what you mean, Professor McGonagall."

"Oh, I doubt it, Potter, I doubt it very much." Professor McGonagall leaned forward, her face tightening again, "Since you and I have discussed something much more sensitive than this Thing, I'll get straight to the point. It's you, and only you, reporting this mysterious sense of impending doom. It's you, and only you, a giant magnet for chaos, and I've never met anyone like you .First our little trip in Diagon Alley, then the Sorting Hat, and then today's episode, I can already foresee that I am destined to hear a super funny story about Professor Quirrell in the Headmaster's office, and It's you again, and you're the only one in the story, and after hearing it we have no choice but to fire him. I've admitted that, Mr. Porter. But if this sad thing happens before the middle of the month of May If you do, I'll tie you to the Hogwarts gate with your own guts, and stuff fire beetles up your nose. Do you fully understand what I mean now?"

Harry opened his eyes wide and nodded.Then, a second later, "What if I could make this happen on the last day of the school year?"

"Get out of my office!"

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Thursday.

There must be something wrong with Thursdays at Hogwarts.

At 5:32 on Thursday afternoon, Harry stood beside Professor Flitwick, facing the giant gargoyle guarding the entrance to the Headmaster's office.