James woke up early the next morning with a funny sort of feeling in his stomach. He rolled onto his back and reached under his pillow for his watch. Fifteen minutes to eight. He wondered why the pillow felt different, though. In fact, the whole bed felt different; a bit harder and wider than his normal bed.
Then it hit him: he was at Hogwarts! With that realization, he sat up and hopped down from bed in one quick motion, suddenly alert. He looked around the circular room. There were four other beds besides his and each one was still occupied. James got dressed quickly and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Because it was still early, there were only a few students at each table. James pulled a piece of parchment and a quill from inside his robes and began to write a letter for his parents.
By the time Sirius slipped onto the bench across from him half-an-hour later, James had already finished the letter, and was reading it one last time before sending it with Gale to his parents.
Dear Mum and Dad,
The journey was quite good, I sat in a compartment with Sirius Black. I know he’s a Black, but he’s OK, really. In fact, he’s not even in Slytherin. He’s in Gryffindor, with me. You were right, Mum, Professor McGonagall looks a bit scary. And I saw Professor Dumbledore at the feast last night, he looks very old.
I still haven’t got my new time tables, but I expect to be getting them sometime this morning. In fact, I can see Professor McGonagall entering the Hall now, she must be about to give them out. I’ll tell you how my classes are later this week.
I think that’s it, really. Write back soon and tell me how things are at home. Give Groggy a hug for me, don’t forget his Muggle dog food, he loves them.
Love you,
James
He finished reading the letter, rolled it up tightly and put it away in his pocket. He’d send it with Gale as soon as he finished breakfast. He looked across the table at Sirius, who was sitting with his elbow on the table and his head in his hand. The other hand was holding a piece of toast, on which he had apparently been nibbling before he dozed off.
‘Oi!’ yelled James loudly. Sirius jerked awake with a loud snort and glared blearily at James, who grinned. He reached out for a piece of toast and began spreading butter lavishly onto it. Sirius resumed his nibbling of the toast, and was just about to fall asleep again when Professor McGonagall came towering over to them.
‘Potter and Black...’ she muttered under her breath. ‘Ah, here you go, Mr. Black, and this is yours, Mr. Potter. You’ll be having Potions in the dungeons with Professor Slughorn, Herbology in the greenhouses outside, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Transfiguration in the castle. Good day.’ She handed them each a piece of paper which turned out to be their time tables, and moved along the table to seek out other First-Years.
James peered down at his piece of paper and frowned thoughtfully. ‘Double Transfiguration this morning,’ he said out loud. ‘And Herbology. Double Potions this afternoon.’ He looked up at Sirius with a worried frown on his face. ‘I don’t know a single spell yet, my father never taught me any. He said underage wizards shouldn’t do magic at all. Yeah, well he works at the Ministry and all… What about you, though?’
Sirius shook his head glumly over his goblet of pumpkin juice. ‘Nope, my father isn’t really teacher material. He’s hardly ever home.’ He took swig of pumpkin juice and put the goblet down on the table a bit too forcefully. He stared in silence at a spot over James’s left shoulder for a while, then grabbed another piece of toast. ‘Well, we still have another thirty minutes before class starts. Want to look over the Quidditch pitch?’ he asked.
James looked at his watch and shook his head. ‘Nah, I’m going up to the Owlery. Need to post a letter to my parents, they’ll be worried about me.’ He gulped down the rest of his juice and stood up. ‘Coming?’
‘Yeah, OK.’ Grabbing a few more toasts, Sirius, too, stood up and followed James into the Entrance Hall.
*
‘Transfiguration,’ said Professor McGonagall half-an-hour later, ‘is the magic of changing something into something else.’ She pulled her wand out from under her robes, and flicked it at her desk. There were many gasps when, right where her desk had been, a hippo appeared. But with another flick of her wand, the desk was back in place.
‘It is, however, not just flicking and waving your wand. You will need concentration, undivided attention and confidence when doing Transfiguration.’ Behind him, James heard a low groan. He turned around and saw a boy with blonde hair slouched low in his chair. He recognised the boy as the same one in the boat with him when they were sailing across the lake last night.
‘Any problems, Mr. Pettigrew?’ came the clipped voice of the professor from the front of the classroom. The boy reddened and shook his head, slouching lower still so that only his eyes were visible.
‘Very well, today we will begin the most basic Transfiguration. You will attempt to Transfigure these matchsticks-,’ she waved her wand and a matchstick appeared in front of every student- ‘into a needle. You will need full concentration for this, so please, no talking.’
James looked doubtfully at the matchstick in front of him. Beside him, Sirius was prodding his with his wand, giving a loud yelp as it burst into fire. James picked up the matchstick, then laid it back down.
Oh well, he thought, looking around. Nobody had yet managed to turn their matches into anything besides ashes. At least I won’t look too stupid.
He took a deep breath, concentrated on an image of a needle in his head and gave the matchstick a tap with his wand.
‘Blimey! James, you did it!’ gasped Sirius from beside him. James looked down at his matchstick in surprise, but there was no matchstick there. Instead, a needle lay on his desk, its point gleaming in the morning sunlight.
He was aware of other students turning their heads to look at him, and he could feel his face grow warm. Then suddenly, Professor McGonagall was at his side, picking up his needle and examining it. Satisfied, she laid the needle back on his desk and, to his surprise, gave him a small smile.
‘Excellent, Potter. I haven’t seen anyone getting it right on the first try. Were you taught to do magic at home?’
‘N- no, Professor,’ stammered James, a bit nervous by the attention he was getting.
‘Well, in that case, take twenty points for Gryffindor,’ she said and walked back to the front of the class. ‘Alright, concentrate now. You still have one more hour to turn your matchstick into a needle.’
He could not believe he had been able to do magic on his first try. James turned his attention back to his desk. There was another matchstick there, beside his needle. He looked at Sirius beside him, who was frowning in concentration, muttering under his breath. He prodded his matchstick with his wand again.
Sirius glared at his matchstick, hoping to scare it into Transfiguring itself. But the matchstick appeared impossible to be intimidated. He took another deep breath, concentrated on a needle and prodded his matchstick again.
To his absolute surprise, he saw the matchstick turn silver, then growing pointy at one end. He gave a whoop of triumph, then held up his needle as if it was a trophy.
‘Good work, Black, take fifteen points for Gryffindor,’ announced Professor McGonagall, seeing the perfect silver needle in Sirius’s hand. James thumped him on the back.
‘Alright! We’re the only ones who’ve managed to do it. It isn’t so hard after all, magic, is it?’ said James, tapping his wand on another matchstick and turning it into a needle.
Sirius grinned. ‘Yeah, I thought we’d be complete dungbrains here. Pheww,’ he wiped his forehead on his head in mock relief. James laughed, though relief was evident in his laughter, too. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then Professor McGonagall swooped down on them.
‘Right, then,’ she said, ‘now that you have completed your tasks, you can move on to the second one. Here,’ she handed them each a teacup, ‘try to turn this into a saucer. You will find it a bit more difficult, but if you can manage it, fifty points will be awarded to Gryffindor.’
By the time the Gryffindor first-years were making their way through the grounds for Herbology, James had already won the house fifty more points.
‘I don’t know how you did it, mate. My teacup didn’t budge at all,’ complained Sirius. James laughed. He was feeling very good indeed. He had managed to turn his teacup into a saucer on his third attempt, and Professor McGonagall had seemed very impressed with him. She had even given him the next task; turning the saucer into a teapot, in which he had been unsuccessful. He did not feel very bad about it, though, since Professor McGonagall had told them that they were only supposed to be turning saucers into teapots next term.
‘Believe me, I was pretty surprised myself. I never thought I could do it. You weren’t too bad, though. You were the second one to turn the matchstick into a needle, and only four of us managed to do it by the end of the class. I mean, for a first timer, that’s quite an achievement.’
‘Yeah, you’re right. Still, that’s only Transfiguration. We still have Herbology, Potions, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Transfiguration might be the easy one!’
James gave a shudder at the prospect. ‘Well, let’s hope not!’