I just had a good teacher

"You're back, Potter, and both Weasleys," Professor McGonagall said, approaching them with a stern face. "All three of you have detention tonight."

As she spoke, McGonagall turned her gaze to Ginny and said in a tone of disbelief and exasperation, "I never imagined that a first-year student would dare cast a spell on a sixth-year! I have already informed your parents."

Ginny's face went pale in an instant. She thought of the red Howler she might receive the following morning. If that happened, it would be awful.

"You will help Mr. Filch polish the silver in the Trophy Room. No magic, Weasley-all by hand. As for you, Miss Ginny, you seem quite capable with your charms, so you can go to Professor Flitwick. And you, Potter-you will help Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail."

At those words, Harry felt as though his heart had seized up. The two people who had given him the biggest headaches that term were Colin, the first-year newcomer, and this vain, incompetent Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. By comparison, he would rather face Filch.

"Couldn't I polish the medals too?" he pleaded.

McGonagall couldn't help raising her eyebrows at that. Clearly, she was pleased that her student didn't care for Lockhart.

But-

"Certainly not. Professor Lockhart specifically requested you. All three of you, remember: eight o'clock sharp tonight."

If it were that easy, it wouldn't be a punishment.

"Please wait, Professor-"

"Is there anything else, Miss Weasley?"

"I wanted to ask about those Slytherin students. Don't they deserve punishment for insulting their classmates?" Ginny summoned her courage and looked McGonagall straight in the eye. Harry, Ron, and even Hermione stared at her with wide-eyed admiration.

Until then, none of the young lions had ever dared speak to Professor McGonagall like that. Even the twins behaved like mice faced with a cat whenever they saw her. This time, the youngest of the Weasley family had outdone her elders.

"Of course they have been punished-Professor Snape will see to their punishment personally."

With that, McGonagall turned and left.

"Did I hear that right?" Ron said dramatically. "Snape will punish them? Doesn't she know that's no different from letting them off?"

All four looked unhappy. Clearly, they were certain Snape would protect those students.

In fact, though, they had guessed wrong this time.

After Ginny's jinx struck Marcus, the two teams had nearly erupted into an all-out brawl. Only McGonagall and Snape's personal intervention had brought it to an end. Under those circumstances, Snape had naturally learned what had happened and volunteered without hesitation to take charge of Malfoy's punishment-now every toilet in Slytherin was Malfoy's responsibility.

At eight that evening, Ginny went alone to the Seventh Floor. The Ravenclaw Head of House's Office was near the West Tower. Ginny counted thirteen windows to the right, then knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Professor Flitwick's high-pitched voice came from inside.

"Sorry to trouble you, Professor."

"Ah-Miss Weasley, you're here at last." Flitwick smiled happily the moment he saw Ginny. He was unremarkable in appearance, standing only about four feet tall, a little shorter than Ginny was now. His features were also quite different from those of most people. In truth, however, he was the most caring of the four Heads of House. "Right on time."

"Sorry, should I have come a little earlier?" Ginny asked quietly.

It was her first detention, so she was rather nervous. Ron was polishing trophies, and Harry was helping Lockhart answer his fan mail-both unpleasant jobs. What about her? Professor McGonagall hadn't seemed to mention what Professor Flitwick wanted her to do.

Flitwick saw her concern at once and hastened to say, "Don't worry, child. There's no unpleasant manual labor here."

"Rather than that, I would actually prefer to teach you more about charms. You've done very well in class, so perhaps my expectations of you are a little higher." Flitwick waved his wand, and his drawer opened by itself. A host of little cakes hopped out and arranged themselves in front of Ginny. "Would you like some?"

"Thank you, Professor." Relieved, Ginny happily picked up a cake.

It was much better than the toffee she had eaten at Hagrid's that morning.

"I heard you cast a jinx on a sixth-year student?" Flitwick began speaking with Ginny at a leisurely pace, as though they were having a heart-to-heart.

Ginny nodded.

"I already know what happened. Although it may not be entirely appropriate for a professor to say this, I still want to tell you that he thoroughly deserved it."

Flitwick himself was a wizard with goblin ancestry, so he was particularly sensitive to such matters. Sometimes, people of mixed ancestry like him had even less standing than wizards from Muggle backgrounds.

"Of course, casting spells on your classmates is still discouraged." Flitwick brushed the matter aside lightly. "But since you've already mastered such a difficult jinx, I imagine the other spells on the first-year syllabus won't pose much of a challenge?"

Flitwick looked at her expectantly.

Ginny promptly gave Flitwick a demonstration, beginning with the Levitation Charm, followed by the Softening Charm and Colloportus. Finally, she used the Severing Charm to cut a gash in the desktop, then restored it with the Mending Charm. The display filled Flitwick with delight.

After all, it wasn't even Halloween yet, and his lessons for the first-years were still covering theory.

Yet judging by Ginny's performance, she had already learned just about every charm in the Standard Book of Spells 1.

"Wonderful, Ginny! Wonderful!" Flitwick was so excited that he nearly jumped up. "I'm already considering whether to let you join my Charms Club. To be honest, your performance is even more impressive than Miss Granger's!"

Such lavish praise made Ginny blush. She believed all of this was thanks to "Mr. Riddle" and his teaching. Without him, her skill with charms would never have reached such a high level.

"I just had a good teacher," she said shyly.

That clearly gave Flitwick the wrong idea.

But it was precisely that misunderstanding that put Flitwick in such a good mood that he excused Ginny from detention altogether.

"All right, you may go back now. If you run into any problems with charms, or there are any books in the library you would like to read, you're welcome to come to me. I hope you can maintain this standard. If you do, I'll certainly invite you to join the Charms Club as soon as you reach your fifth year. Of course, if you're already interested, you're perfectly welcome to sit in."

Only after giving her the time and place of the Charms Club meetings did he reluctantly see Ginny off.