Classes

Athena woke me up early in the morning by deciding that my face looked like a comfortable place to sleep. As I pushed her off to the side, she shot me a look of discontent and burrowed under my blanket. Hopping out of bed, I saw the sun peek beyond the clouds through our window. As I got dressed, the other boys in our dorm began to stir and wake up. When we got down to the common room, Scott the 5th year Prefect, was downstairs, with a stack of parchment, that had our schedule for the year laid out on it.

On Monday, we had Charms 8:30-11:30, History of Magic 1-2 and Transfiguration 2:30-5:30. Tuesday was just as packed with Potions at 8:30-11:30, Astrology 1-2, Herbology 2:30-5:30. On Wednesday, Defense against the Dark Arts begins at 8:30-11:30, Flying Lessons 1-2, Charms 2:30-5:30 and late at night Astrology 11 pm-1 am. Thursday gave us a late start with Transfiguration starting at 9:30-12, History of Magic 1-2, Herbology 2:30-5:30. Finally on Friday, Defense Against the Dark Arts starts at 8:30-11:30, Flying lessons 1-2, and Potions 2:30-5:30

Seeing how packed our schedule was, Ryan groaned, "Holy crap, why do classes go all the way to 5."

Seeing how busy our schedule was, I asked Scott, "If I understand everything correctly, in our third year we have to pick at least 2 more elective classes. How will we be able to do that if are current classes fill the entire day up."

Scott rolled his eyes and said, "In your first two years at Hogwarts, you have to learn a lot of theory about your class subjects, once your magical knowledge foundation is more robust you will spend less time in your classes. By your third year, you will have a basic understanding of your subjects and the teachers will spend less time lecturing you and more time doing practical magic which doesn't take as much time. That will let you pick up additional classes in your third year."

Seeing that we all understood, Scott made a shooing motion and said, "Now head down to breakfast, with your bags that have your spell books for your classes for the day. Trust me when I say you don't want to be late on your first day."

By the time we made it to breakfast, the great hall was half-filled, it seemed that outside of special feast, meals were much more casual, with students coming and going when they were finished.

As we sat down for breakfast, a few owls started flying in to deliver mail. Considering it was only the second day of term, most of the letters were for the first years. I looked up warily, fully expecting a letter considering it was my birthday, and my mom was prone to passionate acts

A barnyard owl swooped down and dropped a letter off; the letter had my name on it, and it indicated it was from dad. Opening the letter, I saw it only contained two words scribbled on the letter, "I'm sorry." After reading the words, a sinking feeling welled up inside of my gut. Seeing another owl head in my direction, I prayed that mom didn't send anything too embarrassing.

When the snowy white owl dropped off the letter it had, ad the letter fell on the table, steam began rising off of the letter. A groan escaped me when I realized what mom had sent before I could make another move; the letter activated.

The letter began rising into the air, and it began loudly blaring a loud trumpet sound, that sounded suspiciously like a victory tune. When the tune faded away, the letter began loudly singing my mother voice with her French accent, "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Alex, happy birthday to you."

I could feel my blood rush to my face in embarrassment; students all around the hall began snickering and mocking me. Seeing the letter go silent, I prayed that it was over. However, my mom's voice rang out again. "Happy Birthday Alex, I already miss you so much. I can't believe that my baby is 12 already. I love you so much, have a good time at school. Try to make lots of friends and do well in classes and remember mommy loves you." When her voice died down, and the letter burst into colorful flames and sparks. Feeling everyone's eye upon me, I shrank in embarrassment.

Next to me, Roger, cracker up, "Man, I can't believe your mom did that, is she trying to embarrass you."

I defended mom weakly, "That's just who she is; she is really passionate about things like this."

Ryan had an entirely different reaction," That's so cool, talking letters, it's almost like voice mail message."

A puzzled look appeared on William's face, and he asked, "What is a voice mail."

While Ryan started trying to explain what voice mail was to William. My thoughts drifted to our first class. After we had finished breakfast, we all headed out to the third floor. When we got to the third floor, we started looking for the correct classroom. Unfortunately, it was slow going as there were multiple corridors located on each floor. An older student passed by, and I called out, "Do you know where charms are taught."

Without slowing down, the student called out, "Your in the wrong hallway, the charms corridor, is the next one over, you should easily find the class once your there."

When we made it to the next corridor, I saw Anna start to enter a classroom with a fellow Slytherin witch. "Wait up, Anna," I called out.

Turning and seeing me, she smiled and waited, the girl next to her saw me, laughed and said in a slightly mocking tone, "Well look who it is, it's the birthday boy."

Shrugging it off, I rolled my eyes and said, "My mom's just like that, she doesn't even understand that doing that would be embarrassing. I think some parents are like that; they do things they consider nice, but mortify their kids."

Changing the subject, I asked, "What your schedule like."

Anna pulled out her schedule, and we discovered that we had Charms, Potions, and Defense against the Dark Arts together. As more time went on the class filled up with everyone from Ravenclaw and Slytherin, at 8:30 on the dot, Professor Flitwick walked in, and the students murmuring quieted down. The first thing anyone noticed about Professor Flitwick was his short height; he stood at about three and a half feet tall. If I remember correctly from the books, this was due to him being a part goblin. However, if anyone ever underestimated Professor Flitwick, they stopped when he famously won the International Dueling Champion three times in a row. His hairline was receding, leaving the top of his head bald, while his hair on the side was grey and his beard hid the lower part of his face.

Next to his desk, were stacks of old books, which he climbed like a set of stairs until he stood on his long rectangular desk. "Good morning first years." He squeaked out in a high pitched voice. "I am Professor Flitwick, the head of charms, and the head of Ravenclaw as well. I will be teaching you charms during your time here at Hogwarts; I want everyone to know my door is always open if you have questions or need help with anything."

Professor Flitwick spoke with such enthusiasm as if it was his greatest wish to be able to help students learn. As he started teaching class, he moved and bounced around full of energy, if it were for his appearance, I would have thought he was an excited child.

"Now, before we begin, I want to speak on the nature of what charms is all about. Let's start with a basic overview of what charms are. The easiest way to explain charms is to think of charms as adding magic effects to things. Most are temporary effects; however, when you are older, you will learn how to cast long-lasting charm spells. You will find that charms are the most versatile subject to study in magic, and there are countless charm spells, and many variations to charms spell that you will discover how to use. One of the most important aspects of charms is wand movement and incantation. If you mess those up, there can be random consequences, best case scenario is nothing happens at all, other times you may produce random magical effects some benign, others less so. So, while there is room for personal creatively when working on charm spells, it is important to remain focused your mind on what you are casting and not mess up the wand movement or incantation."

Professor Flitwick continued to speak to us about charm work, with the whole class furiously taking notes. When there was only less than an hour left until the class was over, Professor Flitwick eyes twinkled and said, "Alright enough talk, I'm sure everyone here wants to get down to it and cast some spells." He pulled out his ivory-colored wand that looked like my aspen wand and said, "This first spell we are going to learn is the levitation spell. So first, the incantation is Wingardium Leviosa, and while you say the spell, you give your wand a little swish and flick. Just like so, Wingardium Leviosa". A book rose off of his desk, and it zoomed around the room floating off the ground, with a flick of his wand.

As soon as I heard what spell we were going to work on, a smile slipped out. I had been casting that spell all summer. I shot Anna and Roger a confident look, while Professor Flitwick was passing out white feathers, he said, "When I am finished handing out these feathers, I want you to attempt to make them float in the air."

After he had finished, everyone pulled out their wands, and there was a flurry of wand movement and murmuring as everyone said the incantation. Looking at my feather, I gave my wand a swish and flicked and chanted "Wingardium Leviosa."

Instantly my white feather rose around four feet off the ground, looking around I didn't see anyone else with a feather in the air.

Professor Flitwick bounced over excitedly, "Excellent work Mr. Fawley, 5 points to Ravenclaw for being quickest out of the gate. Try to maneuver the feather around; it's easy to get things to rise into the air, making it move around is more difficult."

Hearing his instruction, I flicked my wand, and the feather shot across the room zooming over Professor Flitwick head. He laughed and said, "A little more gently Mr. Fawley, no need to overdue it simple nice movements."

Nodding, I slowly brought it back under control, after seeing I had got the basics, Professor Flitwick moved on to assist other students. About ten minutes and many attempts, Anna was able to get her feather to rise into the air, while it hung shakily in the air she shot me a triumphant look.

Sitting next to us was Roger, whose face was turning red in frustration, he glared at the feather-like it had personally insulted him. By the end of the class, only around a third of the students had gotten their feather to float. As we were packing up to leave, Professor Flitwick called out, "Your homework is to write 6 inches on the history of the Levitation charm and to practices the spell. Hopefully, by the next class, more of you will be able to make it work."

The day passed by quickly, and soon it was time to meet on the second floor for History of Magic. When I filed in, I saw Alicia with her some of her fellow Gryffindors inside already. I grabbed a seat next to her. Soon the class was started and our teacher, Professor Binns floated in and began roll call.

Overall the class wasn't so bad, while Harry and Ron always found the subject rather boring. I found it fascinating. I mean, who doesn't like learning about ancient wizard civilization. Our history is full of fascinating wars, even some magical disasters. Although I have to admit, Professor Binns does speak in a monotone voice that makes even the most fascinating subjects seem rather boring.

After class, it seemed like both Ravenclaw and Gryffindors had Transfiguration together as well. Even though there was a thirty-minute window in between the classes, I headed down to the first floor where the Transfiguration classroom was, so that there was no chance of me being late. Being one of the first students in the class, I walked into the empty classroom, on Professor McGonagall's desk was a green and black cat watching me intently.

Grabbing a seat in the front row as I have been looking forward to this class and didn't want to miss anything. Knowing that the cat was Professor McGonagall, I was looking forward to seeing her transform.

As my fellow students trickled in, the cat watched the clock tick down like a hawk. The Weasley twins barely made in on time, just passing the through the door when the clock hit 2:30. After everyone took their seats, students began whispering to each other, seeing how there was no teacher present.

Alicia leaned over to whisper something, but I said: "Shh, you don't want to miss this."

On cue, the cat leaped off the desk and transformed into Professor McGonagall; it was strange to see. Her transformation involved a lot of twisting and whirling; it happened so fast I couldn't see the transformation. One second she was a cat, the next after a blur of movement, she stood before a dumbstruck audience.

Seeing how amazing and fluid the transformation was, I swore right then and there that no matter how long it took, I would become an animagus before I graduated. I don't know why Europeans seem to have such a big issue with animagus; it's crazy that only seven people have legally become animagus in the past century. Aunt Nefret told me that at Uagadou, the magic school she attended, over 80 percent of their student become Animagus by the age of 14. Her animagus form is a tiger shark, which is very useful, considering they live on a ship.

Professor McGonagall's voice shook me from my thoughts. "Transfiguration is one of the most difficult and demanding aspects of magic you will be learning; it is very different from charms, where there is room for creativity. Transfiguration is much more exact branch of magic; there isn't room for personal creativity when it comes to transfiguration; any deviation can have drastic and dangerous consequence. If done incorrectly, whatever your transfiguring may get permanently stuck halfway between forms, on that note, any tomfoolery or mischief, in this class will see you banned, and you will not be returning to class."

As she issued her threat sternly, she made eye contact with the Weasley twins as if she could sense they would be trouble. Seeing that her point was understood, she went on, "The art of transfiguration, is that of change, I will teach you to alter the form of an object, by transforming it into a different form." To illustrate her point, she waved her wand at her desk, and it became a pig.

Seeing that she had everyone's full attention, she smiled and said, "There are four main branches in transfiguration, the first is transfiguration, which we have already discussed, next is untransfiguration, which like it sound returns object to their original form." Once again, to illustrate her point, she waved her wand at the pig, and it transformed back into a desk.

She continued, "The final two are Vanishment, which is extremely advanced and won't be studied until your fifth year, and Conjuration which is learned in your sixth and seventh should you achieve the required grade."

Professor McGonagall continued her lecturing on the subject for an hour before giving each person a match. "We will be starting small before you is a match, the goal of this transfiguration spell, is to turn it transfigure it into a silver needle," She said.

I was slightly intimidated, looking down at the match. If I remembered correctly, Hermione was only was able to turn her match silver and slightly pointy, which demonstrates just how difficult this was going to be.

Firmly concentrating on the spell, I grabbed my wand and pointed it towards the match and chanted, "Aculeus."

Unfortunately nothing happened, as time went on no one was successful. With only 20 minutes remaining, I glared at the match like I had met my mortal enemy, "You will transform, or I will see you burned." I threatened the match.

Closing my eyes, I tried to relax and focus, after easily learning some charms and hexes I had assumed that transfiguration wouldn't be difficult. But to be honest, I was a little happy, after all, learning magic without effort, takes some of the meaning away. Having to struggle to succeed makes you feel better when you do succeed. After taking a few breaths and calming down, I brought my full attention to the match, and I deeply concentrated, seeing the match turn into a needle in my mind. I pointed my wand at the match and chanted "Aculeus."

The match simmered and transformed fluidly into a silver needle; I let out a breath, I didn't know I was holding and wiped the sweat off my brow. I looked about the room and saw everyone trying to transform their match. Next to me, Alicia and Roger both struggled to get their match to transform.

A stern voice rang out from behind me, "Mr. Fawley, shouldn't you be working on your match, rather than watch your neighbors work."

Turning, I found Professor McGonagall standing behind me with a stern expression on her face. Before she could continue, I realized she couldn't see my needle beneath my hand, so I moved my hand quickly. "I'm done, I was able to do it."

Her eyebrows rose for a moment in shock, upon seeing the needle, after a moment, a small smile emerged on her face. "Well done." She congratulated me. "It's rare to see someone succeed on their first day, five points to Ravenclaw for a job well done."

By the time class was over no one else had succeeded as well as I had, I noticed a raven-haired girl in our house giving a glare as if I had wronged her in some way. After searching my memory for her name, I realized her name was Jessica Brooks. I was puzzled at her resentful stare; I don't believe I had said two words to her.

Before letting us go for the day, Professor McGonagall gave us a ton of homework on the subject. She left us a final warning, "While other classes may encourage you to try spells outside of class, transfiguration spells outside of the class are prohibited until your third year."

As everyone shambled out of the class, I stayed behind, wanting to satisfy my curiosity. When the last student had left, I eagerly asked Professor McGonagall, "Can you teach me how to become an animagus."

She didn't look surprised by my question. "There is always one or two who end up asking me about becoming an animagus. To answer your question, yes I can, but not until you are older and have a much better grasp on transfiguration magic. Terrible things have happened to those who were unprepared. I didn't learn how until my sixth year at Hogwarts. So until then, I will not teach you anything about animagus."

Nodding my understanding, I left slightly crestfallen, I knew from my aunt that is was possible to become an animagus by the age of 14. Thinking for a moment, I decided I wanted more information on animagus. I knew that their was an easier way to get the information than digging around in the library for the information on animagus, it was time for me to visit the famous Room of Requirement on the seventh floor.