After that, the funeral moved on to its final stage, the offering of flowers. Katie waited near the statue with two Clergy carrying flower baskets. The guests rose and took a white lily from Katie, then bent down and placed it before the statue as a memorial and a show of respect—of course, quite a few people had prepared personal gifts of their own, and those could be set aside nearby as well.
At the sight of this creation that was part memorial tablet, part cenotaph, the wizards who sincerely mourned Flitwick felt much comforted by such a high-standard funeral honor.
And even those who had little connection to Professor Flitwick, especially the older foreign representatives, looked on with unmistakable envy and jealousy.
After Stephanos offered his flowers, he also presented a gift box that, in truth, he did not know had been prepared by his subordinates. Then he stroked his beard and glanced again at Flitwick's statue. He himself was a wizard of Pureblood birth; whether during his previous term as Minister of Magic or in the honorary post he had accepted after retirement, his life could be said to have had both wealth and power.
But seeing the scene before him—being granted, after death, a memorial in the Temple of the True God in what was currently the largest wizarding city in the world, with one's deeds recorded and forever honored by others—still made Stephanos so envious he was almost jealous.
After this group of Ministers came the gifts prepared by the professors of Hogwarts who had been Flitwick's colleagues, and these were much more sincere. Professor McGonagall had prepared a rather worn set of Wizard's Chess; Professor Sprout presented a small potted Patronus Tree she had carefully cultivated herself, a magical Rowan Tree that protected anyone who