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THE NEXT day, after eating lunch in the Great Hall with my dormmates, we all headed up to the Transfiguration classroom. Adola was practically shaking with excitement but Rosalee couldn't look more bored as we entered the room, taking seats closer to the front since Adola was so eager.

The class was shared with Gryffindors and, unlike our classes with Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs, they stayed away from us Slytherins and we did the same. They had their side and we had ours, occasionally sending small glares at each other for no reason other than the fact that they were of the opposite house.

I set my bag next to my seat, pressed against it to hopefully be out of the way of the aisle, after pulling out my quill and parchment. Tori, who was sitting next to me, had offered that we could share hers to avoid the possibility of overcrowding the table and accidently tipping one over.

Adola and Charis were seated in the table in front of us while Harley and Marjorie were to our left, folding cranes out of bits of parchment, something Harley had taught us the previous day during History of Magic.

Rosalee was somewhere behind us, in the back corner of the classroom, because she'd refused to sit near the front and wanted to be nowhere near any of the Gryffindors.

While Professor McGonagall wrote things for the lesson on the chalkboard, late students filtered in from the quickly emptying hallways. I dipped my quill into Tori's ink pot and labelled my parchment with a simple "transfiguration" since I had no idea what we would be doing.

A whoosh of air and a soft thump startled me and I turned to see that a Gryffindor with light brown hair and slightly shabby robes, even though the school year had barely begun, had tripped over my bag, his ankle caught in the strap. He was face down on the floor but quickly pushed himself up and glanced back, untangling his ankle.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized, reaching for my bag and moving it out of the way.

He waved me off, standing up, "It's all right, really."

I still felt bad but I let the matter drop, watching as he moved to sit at the front of the classroom, almost directly in front of the professor's desk. I heard a scoff behind me and glanced back, seeing Snape sneering at the lion's back.

I looked away but, when Professor McGonagall called for class to start, I couldn't help but look at the back of the boy's head, too. His head was a little ducked, focused on his notes while the professor spoke. Another Gryffindor had joined him at his table and I recognized him as the Black boy, the one Charis had been standing with before the sorting.

He didn't take any notes, didn't even pull out parchment and a quill to pretend he was, but instead leaned back in his chair and watched the professor teach.

Soon, they lost my attention because McGonagall had passed out matchsticks to every student, making it clear that anyone who lit them would be given detention. She pulled out her wand and demonstrated the spell for turning the match into a needle, completely transforming the material into silvery metal.

Everyone looked eager to try it out so she sat down and waved us on, a silent go ahead. Almost immediately, all the students were saying the spell and prodding their match in an attempt to turn it into a needle.

My own match stayed exactly how it was, doing nothing as I recited the spell again and I again. I looked over to Tori and saw that hers had turned vaguely silver, looking a little shiny, but nothing more.

I couldn't see anyone else's match but I heard people huffing in frustration as their efforts continued to fail, despite how hard they tried or how much they adjusted the wand movement a little.

"Miss, he's got it!" someone called and I glanced up and saw Black pointing excitedly at the boy next to him, "He did it!"

McGonagall stood and walked over, a proud smile crossing her face, "Well done, Lupin. Can you transfigure it back?"

She returned to her desk and the efforts were multiplied, each and every one of us wanting to prove ourselves by accomplishing the task. I couldn't tell if the boy, Lupin, had figured out how to return the needle to a match but I was too preoccupied with my own task to notice or care.

By the end of class, only five of us had successfully performed the spell. Lupin, two other Gryffindors, and two Slytherins, one of whom was, to my dormmates' surprise, Rosalee. McGonagall assigned homework, read a chapter on the history of transfiguration, then dismissed us.

Students flooded out the door, eager to head to their next class, but Tori stopped and lagged behind. I paused and looked back at her, confused at why she'd stopped walking. I lingered by the door as I saw her step forward to Lupin.

"How'd you do it?" she asked, gesturing vaguely to the pile of matchsticks and the lone five needles.

He looked hesitant, unsure of how to respond, "I dunno."

"Remus is just smart," Black cut in, walking past them. Lupin followed him and Tori fell into step next to them, "He learns quickly."

"I do not," he protested, looking exasperated as though Black had already said something similar one too many times.

Black smiled at Tori then noticed me by the door, "You interested in the wonderful skills of Remus, too, love?"

I made a face and shook my head, "No, I'm waiting for Tori."

"Fair enough, love," he winked and looked out the door, "Who's that brown haired girl? Anyone know her?"

We followed his gaze and I saw Charis outside, watching us quietly. Her cheeks flushed when we all looked at her and she gave a small wave, "Sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for, love," Black replied, heading out the door, "C'mon, Remus, we're going to be late for History of Magic and I know how excited you are for that class. I know I sure am."

Remus smiled sheepishly at my dormmates and I as he followed Black out the door, turning down the hallway and out of sight quickly. Charis kept pace with Tori and I as we headed the opposite direction, going out to the greenhouses for Herbology.

"Were you waiting for us?" Tori asked, pulling at a loose thread on her bag.

Charis nodded, "The others walked off so I wanted to wait for the both of you."

I smiled at her and she returned the look. I hadn't gotten to know Charis very well, compared to the other girls, because she spent a lot of time in her own thoughts. She got letters from home often, I assumed, because she'd already received eight and we'd only been at school for a day and a half.

The letters seemed to upset her, though, because her face fell whenever she read them and she always tucked them away quickly, hiding them as if someone was going to snatch them out of her hands and read whatever was in them.

"... interesting, isn't he?" Tori had been going on and on about the Lupin boy during our walk to Herbology, still fascinated by how he'd completed the spell so quickly compared to everyone else, since the other four students had taken at least ten minutes longer than he had.

Charis shrugged lightly, "Luck?"

"Perhaps, I'll have to catch him after class again and ask," Tori replied and that ended the topic, since we'd reached the greenhouses just in time for class to start.

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