The said professor was diminutive man, probably not even three feet tall, and even outside of his short statue there was something about him that wasn't quite human... He was wearing a rather normal, if horribly outdated, dress coat. Which, Harry supposed, was a good thing: he could imagine his aunt having a heart attack had the man showed up in some garish robes or whatever outlandish clothes the wizards were depicted in in the fairy tales.
"Would you happen to be Mr. Harry Potter, young man?" The diminutive wizard asked in a somewhat squeaky voice as he looked up to meet Harry's eyes.
"Y-yes, sir." The younger magical replied after a moment or two of silence.
"Good." The man said. "I'm Filius Flitwick, and I teach Charms at Hogwarts." He introduced himself.
"Charms, sir?" Harry asked curiously: the letter telling him that he was accepted into Hogwarts didn't have a list of classes he will be taught there. Likewise, while the list of course books he needed to buy had several books about spells, none of those book had the word 'charms' anywhere in their titles.
"I take it, your guardians haven't explained you much about the magic?" Professor Flitwick asked after a few moments of silence. Harry shook his head.
"They did explain me that I was a wizard and that all the strange stuff that sometimes happened around me was magic, but they refused to tell me anything beyond that." He said.
"I see..." The older wizard replied. "Don't worry, Mr. Potter, I'll do my best to answer the many questions you undoubtedly have." The professor promised. "But, perhaps, this isn't the conversation we should have while standing in the doorway." The green-eyed boy couldn't help but nod in agreement. "Than, why don't we start our journey to the Diagon Alley? - That's the magical shopping district in London and the place where we'll buy your school supplies."
chapter 2 end
"Ah, sir..." Harry breathed out.
"What is it, Mr. Potter?" Professor Flitwick asked, unsure of what was troubling his young charge.
"How will I be able to pay for those things, sir?" Harry asked: his relatives had made it clear that they weren't spending a single penny on his 'freakish stuff'. He vaguely remembered his aunt implying that he might had some magical money, though.
"You don't need to worry about that, Mr. Potter." The Hogwarts' Charms professor said. "Your parents had without a shadow of doubt made sure that you'll be well-provided in case something unfortunate happened to them." Harry nodded, happy to be told that his late parents cared about him.
"In that case, I'm ready to go, sir." He said, stepping out of the house and closing the door behind himself.
"Alright then, Mr. Potter. There is a lot we need to accomplish today." Professor Flitwick said jovially. And so the two of them began walking away from #4, Privet drive. Which kind of confused Harry: shouldn't wizards be traveling via flying carpets or something? His guide noticed this: "We won't be walking for long, Mr. Potter. Once we reach a less public area, I'll summon us a ride to London." Harry nodded. It actually made sense that the Charms master wasn't going to use his magic in the middle of a street: everyone would have known that Magic was real if wizards and witches cast their spells whenever and wherever they felt like. "Also." Professor Flitwick continued. "I'm sure you have questions that you'd like me to answer. In fact, I remember you asking about Charms back there, but, perhaps, there are some other questions that you would like to get answered first?" Harry nodded.
"You said that my parents left me some money. Did you know them, sir?" The older wizard nodded. "Can you tell me more about them?" The young Potter asked.
"But of course!" The diminutive man replied. And, after a moment of silence, he began his tale...
The 'Knight Bus' was the absolutely worst way to travel, Harry decided. The damn purple triple-decker was loud as hell; the passenger seats weren't bolted to the floor and jerked around violently whenever this deathtrap on wheels accelerated or made a sharp turn; and one could only wonder where the driver got his license from. If he even had one at all that is. Magic making things jump out of the bus's way was the only reason it didn't suffer serious accidents every other minute. That said, according to professor Flitwick, the 'Knight Bus' was the only method of discreet transportation that was reliably available to underage or infirm wizards.
Of course, the 'Knight Bus' itself wasn't the only topic the diminutive professor had enlightened Harry on during their ride. He also fulfilled his earlier promise and told the young Potter about his family. Thus, by the time they arrived to Charing Cross Road in London, Harry finally had some idea what his parents truly were like. He was really happy to learn that they weren't unemployed drunkards like his aunt had been claiming for years, but he was also greatly surprised by the fact that the Potters, in fact, were a long and distinguished magical bloodline. And since Harry was the last living member of a Noble house, he will become Lord Potter when he got old enough.
Professor Flitwick also told Harry what he knew about the events of that fateful Halloween night nine year ago. And while Harry already suspected that his aunt had being lying to him and it wasn't a car crash that took his parent from him, learning that they had been murdered by a very powerful and very evil wizard was... well... shocking. What's more, the aforementioned dark lord then tried to kill him as well, but inexplicably failed and got vanquished instead. Because of that, the young Potter was widely known as the 'Boy-Who-Lived' and was a celebrity of sorts in the wizarding world.