MJ's Hogwarts Journal Chapter 3

Monday 2^nd September

I don’t know how I managed to sleep last night. I was too excited. I still am. When I woke up this morning, I had a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach that yesterday was all a dream and that I’d wake up in my bed back home. But as I opened my eyes, the deep emerald curtains that draped the four corners of the bed, surrounded me. It wasn’t a dream. It was real. I’m still here, at Hogwarts. I’m a Witch. Melanie Jade Frost, you are a witch!

Pansy, Scarlett and Priscilla all seemed a lot more talkative this morning as we got ready. Priscilla and I were fascinated by the lining in our robes, the matching tie and the snake emblem on the left of our uniform. However, Pansy and Scarlett didn’t seem fazed by it – they probably knew about it already. At least, with Priscilla there, I didn’t feel quite so silly for getting so excited about my uniform. Priscilla asked me whether I knew anything about our timetables. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to answer. Pansy seemed to know all about how the school and lessons ran. I kind of zoned out though, while she was going on and on. I was too busy imagining the possibilities of what the wizarding world might entail. Maybe I’ll get to learn how to make things change colour, or size, or weight. If I could make my wardrobe weightless, back home, I could change my room around on a regular basis. Maybe I could lift the car too. That would be funny. I could put it in front of a neighbour’s house, so Dad’ll think he went crazy and parked it at the wrong address. I hope that we’ll learn how to change something into something else – that way I could turn Viki into a cat or something if she annoys me. I’d better make sure I learn how to change her back first though. Oh, this is going to be so great.

After we got ready, I walked with the girls to the Great Hall. It’s a good job that I did tag along, because I would never have remembered the way all by myself. I wouldn’t have been the only one to get lost though. Even Perfect Pansy couldn’t remember every detail of the way without our help. I was almost certain that on our way to the Slytherin Common Room, last night, there was a staircase leading up to the right followed by another one on the left right before we came to the paintings. Well after we crept by the paintings (we didn’t want to disturb them and have them argue about us again) we never passed any of the staircases that I thought I remembered. I did recognise some of the paintings that we passed though, like the guy in the royal red robes with fists full of gold rings, however this time, he appeared to be snoozing. I sniggered as we went past him. How cool is it that the people in the paintings here actually move? You so don’t need a TV here. All you need to do is watch the paintings and you’d be entertained for ages. Actually, you don’t need TV at all, because there must be a million and one things that you can do with magic to keep you entertained.

Ooow dear, that was a rather long tangent. When we finally got the Great Hall most of the school were already inside. The room was an array of black cloaks wafting about. This was when it all sank in. Students were wafting around with their house coloured ties and matching robe linings. Looking down at my green and silver tie and the Slytherin snake emblem at my side, I couldn’t help but beam. As we approached the Slytherin table, I spotted Jed and he waved me over. The warm smiles that I was met with as I approached the table only made my smile increase. Something inside of me just felt right. It was like I had finally found the place where I belonged. I mean even Pansy was pleasant to me this morning. Okay, so she didn’t exactly greet me with open arms, but she did say good morning and she had asked me if I wanted to accompany them to the Great Hall.

Sliding down into the seat next to Jed, I gave a yawn. “You get much sleep last night?” asked Jed with a laugh.

“Actually, I did,” I replied with a nervous chuckle. “I’m surprised, because I was so excited.” I took a glance at the plate in front of Jed as he took a bite out of a piece of toast. My eyes widened as I saw the other seven pieces piled up on his plate. “Are you really going to eat all that?” I asked him. Jed shrugged.

“I can’t help it. My eyes are bigger than my stomach.” I laughed, before glancing down the table.

Toast was stacked up in huge piles in various intervals all of the way down the table. Small self-stirring cauldrons were plonked between every eight students, with bowls surrounding the black tubs. Pressing my elbows into the table, I prodded my head up to look inside. Porridge. The cauldrons were full of porridge. Between the stacks of toast and cauldrons of porridge lay giant plates heaped with bacon rashers, sausages, eggs, beans. Giant jugs were filled to the brim with orange juice too. I grabbed a hold of my glass and poured myself a drink. “Gosh; is every meal like a feast here?”

“Looks like it,” Jed replied.

“You’d be stupid not to love food in a place like this,” I said as my hand hovered between the porridge bowl and Mount Toastmore.

“You wanna eat up,” said Jed through a mouthful. “They’ll be giving us our timetables soon.”

“I hope we don’t get stuck in too many classes with the Gryffindors,” grumbled Malfoy, slamming a spoon into his porridge bowl. Crabbe and Goyle (on either side of him) both nodded and muttered some form of agreeance. Owh, I do feel rubbish with names. I just can’t seem to remember which is which. Crabbe or Goyle? They both look frightfully menacing. I see why a mommy’s boy like Malfoy needs bodyguards like these two.

“What’s his problem?” I mumbled to Jed, rolling my eyes in Blondie’s direction.

“He’s just upset that they got Potter,” he told me.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” I muttered.

A squawk sounded from up above. My spine shuddered as I flinched, throwing my head back. Air gushed. I gasped. Swooping down from the ceiling were hundreds of owls. Some dove towards the teachers’ table, whilst some shot towards students. An array of, “Ooow,” and “Wow,” echoed across the Great Hall. Hearing the gasps, Jed mumbled, “It’s just the post,” rolling his eyes. As the excitement quietened a little, small, brown speckled owl swooped down towards us. Clutching my sleeves tight I leant back as far as I could. The owl landed right beside Mount Toastmore and dropped an envelope that he had held between his beak onto Jed’s toast pile. “Peggy!” moaned Jed with a sigh. “I’ve told you before, not in my food. You could have ruined it,” he scowled. I’m not quite sure whether Jed meant that the owl could have ruined the letter or the meal. The owl twisted her head away from Jed. “Owh, come on Peg… don’t be like that.” The owl twisted her head away further still. “Fine,” sighed Jed drooping his shoulders. “I’m sorry I shouted at you Peggy.” The owl twisted back around to face him. “Just try to aim for the table and not my food next time.” He rubbed a hand to the owl’s head, and she ruffled her feathers up at him.

“Arh, MJ,” said Jed with a smirk as he turned towards me. “This is Peggy, my owl.”

“Wow!” I gasped. “You have an owl?”

“Yeah,” he replied with a shrug. “I bet it’s a letter from my mom,” he groaned. “She’s a bit overprotective sometimes – you know, what with this being my first time away from home an’ all.” I gave him a smile.

“So, this is how wizards and witches get their post?” I asked, noticing my voice becoming a little high and squeaky.

“Don’t act so surprised,” he muttered nudging me. I caught him glance at Malfoy and his cronies, before averting his eyes back to me. “I guess you’ve just never seen so many owls in one flock before?” he projected.

“No, I haven’t,” I replied a little more stiffly than I had hoped, feeling my cheeks turn red, as I tried to play along. “So,” I said softening my voice a little. “Is this always how wizarding people get their post?”

“Sure is. Why? How do Muggles get post?” he asked. “Don’t you send letters?”

“Oh, we do,” I told him. “But we take them to a place called a ‘Post Office’ or we post them in a post box. Then a bunch of people who work for the post delivering service come and collect them and walk around the town and villages delivering letters and parcels to the correct addresses.”

It’s strange. I’d never had to describe posting a letter to someone before. And it felt even stranger that he didn’t even know what a ‘Post Office’ or a post-box were.

Jed frowned at me. I shovelled a spoon of porridge into my mouth. His gaze made me shudder. It was making me feel even more awkward than I felt trying to describe the postal system. “That’s just weird,” he said with a laugh. “How do your letters ever get there? What if you were to send a letter halfway across the country? Does one man have to walk all the way with one letter? You may as well walk all that way to the person yourself to tell them.”

“No,” I said letting out a nervous giggle. “Maybe I explained it a little wrong… You see the post gets taken to a huge sorting office where people and machines sort through the letters and parcels. Then vans, trains and planes transport the post to the right location overnight. Then the next morning, the people who work for the ‘Post Office’ go out and deliver them.”

“Well the system sounds silly to me,” Jed declared, as he ripped the crust from his toast with his teeth. “Owls are far faster than that confusing system,” he muttered through a mouthful. “And they’re smarter too – isn’t that right Peggy?” I smirked, as Jed’s full attention returned to his owl and the letter.

Jed was right. Owls did seem a smarter way to deliver post. But this whole concept only gave me more questions: Does the owl have to have been to the place before that it’s delivering the letter/parcel to in order to find it? How exactly does the owl know which address it’s taking something to? What if the person isn’t home? Will the owl post it through the letterbox? Do witches and wizards have letterboxes? What about packages? Can owls carry a considerable weight partway across a village or a town? What about a country? What if the owl gets lost? What if the owl gets hungry or is too tired before it reaches its destination? Will he or she just go hunting or take a nap in a nearby tree? And what about if you don’t have an owl, like me? How would you get post then? Will other people’s owls wait for you to write a reply to the letter or will they just fly back home? And how did Jed’s owl know that he had a letter? Do Jed’s parents have an owl and did their owl pass the letter over to Peggy?

Ooow! This is hopeless. I had so many questions, but I couldn’t ask any of them. At least not with Blondie sitting across the table. I’m not quite sure what or why it is yet, but I know to be careful with what I say around him. I’ve noticed Jed always seems to hush the conversation about Muggles – and by the sounds of how he was on the train, I just bet Malfoy’s from one of those pure-blood-snooty Slytherin families that Jed warned us about yesterday. It almost seems a shame, because at times he actually appeared nice. I guess it’s all about playing hierarchies here. If his parents are high up, he has to play the part and live up to their expectations. I wonder if all wizarding families all want their kids to be the best witch or wizard in their class, just like parents do with Maths and English classes back home. I bet it must be hard – especially if magic really is as unpredictable as it appears. I remember Josie telling Malfoy yesterday how she had heard that his type of wand was difficult to control.

Thinking about Josie, I looked up and over towards the Ravenclaw table next to ours. With everyone dressed in their billowing, black cloaks it was hard to tell anyone apart. I dropped my spoon into my empty bowl and sighed. I shuddered as someone swept past my gaze. It was one of the school’s teachers – one of the two that I saw in ‘The Leaky Cauldron’. The meaner looking one with the long, greasy hair. He still had greasy hair. “That’s Professor Snape,” whispered Jed as he elbowed me. “He’s our Head-of-House.” I swallowed hard as I stared ahead at the man. Out of all the teachers here, I had to get stuck with this creepy looking guy. Watching him hand out pieces of paper to the older students, I tilted my head to the side and stared at him for a while. Not in a creepy way – it was just, he kind of reminded me of someone. Not a person specifically, but more like a character from a film. He’d definitely be the villain. The miserable, lonely man who spends his spare time moping about, complaining about how much he hates his life. I mean, this guy doesn’t even care about his appearance at all, does he? If he did, he’d at least wash his hair. I bet he has his own little lair, where he plots to take over the world. Isn’t that what most people with magic and a (possible) tragic back story would do? I know I would – well I’d at least consider it.

As I stared at my Head-of-House, he never, once, smiled. His skin barely creased as he moved his lips. In fact, as he got closer, I could see that he had no wrinkles at all. This guy must either be a young teacher, or just never shows any emotion of any kind – either that or wizards can alter their appearance at will. But then why would he care about wrinkles and not about his greasy hair? Hmm… this is an odd character. I think he’s definitely one to keep an eye on – especially with how he intimidated that poor other teacher at that bar back in London.

Just before Professor Snape made his way to our little group of First-Years, I attempted to see through the sea of students to spy Josie. Glancing up I saw the other Heads-of-Houses sweeping their way around their House’s table. At Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw all of the students appeared to be so cheerful and full of energy. Their Heads-of-Houses mimicked their actions. I even heard the tiny teacher, who happened to be the Head of Ravenclaw, wishing his students a marvellous first day. This defiantly seemed the complete opposite to our table. But the strangest thing was: I didn’t seem to mind. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it felt kind of nice to be different from everyone else, but not in a bad way. I guess the easiest way to describe it was like how I’ve always imagined sitting at the popular kids table at school would feel like; everyone else is just getting on with their lives and glance over towards you with a hint of jealousy. Now I can’t say that the other kids were jealous of us, but being at this table and with Jed, Pansy, Scarlett, Priscilla, Malfoy and his duo, I couldn’t help but feel a sort of tingly feeling that made me feel special… like I actually belonged somewhere. And none of them judged me – well at least not yet.

Something tugged at my left elbow. I flinched, pulling my arm into my side. It was Jed. He jerked his head to the right as Professor Snape neared our group. “First-Years,” he muttered, his lips barely a slit. His voice was so drone and monotone as he introduced himself to us and handed us our timetables. “Don’t be so foolish as to take after the other houses carefree lifestyle. You will only succeed here through discipline and hard work. And I do not want the number one house points’ position title to return to another house.” I found myself digging my nails deeper into my palms. Was I supposed to understand everything that this man just said? What on Earth are ‘House Points’ and ‘Position Titles’? I’m guessing this Professor Snape guy must be just like most of the others – a pure-blooded wizard who only believes that other pure-blooded families should be allowed in here. Great! That’s all I need. A Head-of-House who’s going to completely hate me. “If you complete all of your assignments to deadline and stick to the rules then we shan’t have any problems. Do I make myself clear?” Digging my chin into my chest I forced myself to swallow. “I said: Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Sir!” I replied, as did a few others, whilst I heard Jed, Pansy and Malfoy refer to him as ‘Professor’. I pinched my eyes tight, worried that I should have done the same. I felt my pulse race around my body. Thumping in my arms, my chest and my ears.

“That’s better,” muttered the professor. I squinted my right eye open a little. He shook his head at us, before bringing a handful of papers to his chest. “Here,” he said holding out the sheets of paper for us each to take. “Your timetables. I’ll be taking your first class, Potions, so don’t be late.” Spinning around on his heels, his cloak wafted behind him as he marched out of the Great Hall.

I found my hands shaking as I looked down at my timetable. Closing my eyes, I inhaled a long deep breath. A hand crept onto my left shoulder. I shuddered and my breath escaped me. “Don’t worry,” Jed said to me with a smile, as he lowered his eyes to my trembling hands. “Snape isn’t that bad.” I forced my best smile at him, but even I could tell it wasn’t believable. “Sure he’s always wanted the ‘Defence Against the Dark Arts’ position and is mad at Dumbledore for never giving it to him year after year and yeah, he’s known for siding with You-Know-Who all those years ago and for being a Death-Eater.” My eyes widened as Jed went on. I have no idea what he was saying, but it sounded worse and worse as he went on. I think I was right in what I said yesterday: This school really does have no sense for safety rules. “But trust me…” Jed went on, “he’s a nice guy.”

My tongue froze to the roof of my mouth. I couldn’t say anything back. I didn’t bother trying. I knew that I might dig myself into a deeper hole than I felt I was already in. All these kids at my table were obviously all from full-blooded families, who knew everything about magic and everything about the school and all of its teachers. If I was to even let on one tiny bit that I wasn’t like them, I could already tell that there’d be trouble. I closed my eyes, took another deep breath and tried to shake away all of my negative thoughts. ‘I’m a witch,’ I told myself. ‘I’m a witch and I’m in Hogwarts. Everything is right… everything is as it should be.’

Opening my eyes, I gazed down at my timetable. My eyes skimmed across the page. Thud! My heart bounced to the front of my chest. I couldn’t understand a thing. I was expecting the timetable to list the days of the week and then the lessons that occurred on each day beside them (like on a regular school timetable back home), but this…? It appeared to be written in some sort of strange coded clump of letters. My eyes danced around the page as I squinted at the paper and tried turning it around. I heard Jed give a laugh at my side and patted me on the back. “Good idea, MJ,” he grinned, as he too turned his timetable around. I frowned. I still didn’t get it. How was this helpful? It was still just a bunch of random words to me. My chest grew heavy. I could hear myself breathing stronger. How was I going to survive here if I couldn’t even read my own timetable? Jed seemed to get it straight away. What’s wrong with me? Dropping the timetable down onto the table I dragged my hands down my face and groaned. “You okay, MJ?” Jed asked. Sniffing, I told him how I felt. That I was never going to fit in. I was never going to get it. I couldn’t even read my timetable. How on Earth was I going to survive a day here, let alone a whole year?

Jed placed his hand on mine. I pulled away. He swiped his arm back and rubbed the back of his neck. Forcing a smile, it looked like he was pretending that was what he had meant to do all along. “Look…” he whispered. “Everybody’s new here at some point. Not everyone is born into wizarding families or knows a tonne of spells. I bet half of them at this very table are just as terrified as you. They just put on a brave face. Now you’ve got me, well you’re kinda stuck with me for the next seven years, like it or not.” I don’t know what it is about Jed, but he always seems to have a way with words that makes me smile. “Now come on, let’s take a look at the timetable together.”

I admit now, looking around at everyone else afterwards, they all seemed a little confused as to how they were supposed to read their timetable too. In a way, I was lucky. Jed already knew so much about the school, because of his dad and his cousin that he was just able to explain everything to me so clearly. And not in a patronising way either. Meeting him was fate. It just had to be.

It turns out that the whole timetable thing wasn’t that complicated after all. It was just made to look that way. The writing kind of spiralled, like the shell of a snail. Monday morning’s lessons started at the top of the page in a fairly decent sized handwriting. But then each lesson spiralled around the page in a clockwise direction, getting smaller and smaller and smaller as it went through the week. Friday afternoon’s Charms class was written so small that if I hadn’t already seen the lesson written down for Monday and Tuesday then I might have assumed it said Clams.

 

As Professor Snape had already pointed out to us, our first lesson was Potions. The one problem was that the room numbers weren’t very clear, and it turned out that none of us knew classroom number 123 from number 321. However, the one upside to our first lesson being Potions was that Vlad had actually pointed out that House Common Rooms are located near the Head-of-House’s office and being as our Head-of-House is our Potions teacher, that made our Potions classroom pretty close to the Slytherin Common Room. At least I know how to get there from the Great Hall… I think.

Swiping my bag from my feet, I placed my timetable inside, before turning to Jed. “Have you already got your books for Potions with you?” I asked, worried that I had already given Professor Snape a reason to scold me, as I didn’t bring any of my school books with me to breakfast, because I didn’t know which ones I might need and I didn’t want to have to lug all eight of them around with me all day.

“Nope,” Jed sang out as he took yet another piece of toast.

“Well don’t you think we should?” I asked as I glanced around at the others. No one else appeared to have any schoolbooks with them either. Pansy, Scarlett and Priscilla got up to leave. “Professor Snape doesn’t seem like he’d be very understanding if we forgot our Potions books to his first lesson,” I warned him as I stood up.

“Good point,” he replied looking up at me. Dropping his toast, he grabbed his bag and together we raced out of the Great Hall.

After grabbing our Potions books, Jed and I managed to find the classroom pretty easily. It turns out that it was only the other end of the corridor to the Slytherin Common Room – the first room with a black, dungeon-like door with metal bars, not too far from the winding staircase. We got there with enough time before the lesson started and were able to pick a good seat. Not too close to the back, because we decided teachers always pick on the kids in the back. And not at the front, because teachers expect too much from you if you sit too close. We agreed on the middle row on the far side of the room. We were sat beside some amazing castle windows. They were long and narrow like the arrow-slits on a turret, which came to a point at the top. It’s too bad that they didn’t look out onto anything. There were bricks behind them. I guess it made sense as we were in the school dungeon, but thinking back to it now, why did the classroom have windows in the first place if it was underground and there was nothing to look out onto? Strange…

While waiting for the rest of the class to come in, I glanced around the room. Most of the students that had arrived had already found themselves seats and appeared to be discussing spells that they had tried. Their voices echoed against the cold, stone walls. In fact, the classroom was awfully cold. The floor was identical to the walls: cold and made of stone. I noticed as more students came into the classroom that dust clouded around their ankles. Okay, so it was cool that this place was a castle, but it made me feel a little anxious that if someone suddenly started pacing up and down, then they would be wearing out the floor. That could be bad. That could be very bad.

Whilst my mind was wondering, I didn’t even notice Professor Snape appear. Jed elbowed me in the side. I pinched my eyes to and murmured, before glaring at him. Jed looked from me to the front of the room and jerked his head towards the blackboard. There he was. Mr. Tall, Dark and Emotionless. His black hair clung to the sides of his face as his stone eyes stared ahead at the back wall. “Do you think all our teachers will be like him?” I whispered. Without moving my eyes from the professor, I felt Jed shrug beside me.

“I hear Professor Snape’s not that bad,” Jed muttered back. “Not to Slytherins anyway.” It was obvious by now that we were sharing a class with Gryffindor students, as there were others in the room who wore the red and yellow striped ties and the crescents on their robes appeared to be lions – a couple of them sat behind us.

I found myself biting my bottom lip as I gazed ahead at our Head-of-House. His black robes appeared to drown his frame, as material wafted at his sides when one of the last of the students swept through the door. Malfoy and Pansy sat at the table in front of me and Jed, whilst Blondie’s bodyguards sat in front of them. As Crabbe dropped into his chair, Professor Snape’s folded arms fell to his sides. His nose snarled. He swung his right wrist in the direction of the door. “Closportus!” he projected. The door slammed closed. His arm shot back to his side before I even got a chance to look at his wand.

“For those of you who do not know, I am Professor Snape, the Potions Master.” His dull, monotone voice made my spine tingle. I shuddered.

“Doesn’t this guy know how to start with, ‘Good Morning’,” I heard one of the boys behind us from Gryffindor whisper – I later found out that his name was Seamus. He and his friend Dean were actually quite funny.

Throwing his arm towards the backboard, Professor Snape pointed out his wand and swished his wrist. I gasped. A piece of chalk levitated and began writing Professor Snape’s name on the board, mimicking Snape’s wrist movements. I imagine that this is what Snape’s handwriting would actually look like – all joined up and slanted, like he was writing in italics: Professor Snape.

“Some of you may have heard that this class is easy,” he muttered. Several people shrugged and a few muffled mumblings throughout the classroom. “Well… you are wrong,” he shouted, picking up a textbook, only to slam it against his desk. “Potions is not just something that you can copy out of a book. It takes precision, server concentration and is much similar to that of a recipe… the creator doesn’t always give everything away to make the perfect potion. You have to learn to read between the lines. Am I understood?” Silence. In truth, I don’t think any of us quite understood. He cleared his throat. “Am I understood?” he repeated, only this time even louder. A combination of, “Yes Sir,” and, “Yes Professor,” sang out in the room.

The door creaked open. Professor Snape’s hand was on his wand and spun it towards the door like a shot. His eyes widened and for the first time there was an actual expression on his face. One of alarm. “S, s, sorry we’re late, Sir,” snivelled a red-haired boy as he and his friend stumbled into the classroom.

“Yer-yeah,” stuttered a dark-haired boy with large, round spectacles. “We got lost… and Peeves-”

“Silence!” roared Professor Snape. “Lateness is not tolerated in my classroom, regardless of whether it is your first day or your last. Take a seat.” The boys nodded and fumbled their way to the only empty seats at the back of the classroom. Another emotion curled upon the Professor’s face. A smirk prodded up in the corner of his mouth as the boys sat down. “I see you must think that you’re some sort of a celebrity then, Potter?” sneered Snape. Everyone turned to face the dark-haired boy.

“Did he say Potter?” whispered Pansy.

“It’s Harry Potter!” gasped a boy on the other side of the room. I have to admit, I still didn’t know who the boy was, but after Josie’s explanation yesterday and the Professor singling him out now, I almost felt sorry for him. He did look completely innocent. It’s pretty easy to get lost in this school. The only reason why Jed and I didn’t get lost was because we passed by here already.

“Well?” roared Snape, looming over the boy.

“No, Sir,” he replied. Spinning around on his heels, the professor turned back to the front of the classroom.

*

I was so glad to leave Potions at half-past-ten. The tension in the air was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. What with Professor Snape picking on that Potter boy and none of us really grasping the correct way to stir a cauldron – I just thought you spun your wrist around, like you would stir cake mix, but apparently not. I still don’t have a clue what he was talking about, but luckily nobody else seems to either.

The second lesson of the day was Herbology. And it’s our only class with Ravenclaw too, which means that we have a class with Josie (which is really good, because we don’t have any classes with Hufflepuff at all, so if one of us had been placed there, we’d never see each other). Herbology may be the only lesson that we have together, but at least we have it three times a week. I feel like I’d tried to find Josie loads, but she always seems to get lost in amongst the crowd. I mean how difficult is it to spot a huge head of red hair? Well I guess with the Gryffindor group of coppertops it can be a little difficult. But I’m certain that Josie’s the only red-haired girl in Ravenclaw, or one of very few at the very least.

I dragged Jed along with me to try and find our Herbology classroom the very second that we left the Slytherin dungeons. After what happened to Weasley and Potter in Potions, I was terrified of being the next First-Year to be late to a class. It’s a good job that I managed to convince Jed to run, because the classroom was so difficult to find. We had to go outside and cut across some gardens to get to what looks like a giant greenhouse. When we arrived, our teacher, Professor Sprout, had already let our class inside. Stepping inside the greenery, I instantly spotted Josie – sat on her own in front of a planter box. I called out to her and pulled Jed along with me.

“Josie!” I squealed as I sat down beside her. “How are you? How’ve you been?” She pinched her lips in and shrugged.

“I’m okay. How are you both?” she asked looking from me to Jed.

“Tired from all the running around,” sulked Jed and he plonked himself down beside me.

“Sorry,” I panted. I hadn’t realised how tiring running from the dungeons to the gardens would be until I actually sat down. The back of my throat was stinging. My legs trembled. My back ached. But we were here. We were on time and we were with Josie, so I wasn’t about to complain.

“What did you ‘ave first?” Jed asked her.

“Charms,” she replied, tugging on the edges of her cloak. Her eyes shot over to the doorway hearing the cackling laugh of Pansy as she, Blondie and his two followers entered the greenhouse. “What about you two?” she asked zooming her attention straight back at us. “What was your first lesson?”

“Potions,” I replied with a groan. “It’s so complicated. And Professor Snape makes everything sound so difficult. How’s Charms? Is it difficult too?” Josie shrugged, looking down at the soil in the planter box

“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “There seems to be a lot to remember… Professor Flitwick is really nice though.”

“He’s your Head-of-House, isn’t he?” asked Jed – although I’m sure that he already knew the answer. Josie nodded.

In comparison to Professor Snape, Professor Sprout was full of joy and laughter. “Now, now class, I don’t want to frighten you with some of the terrible garden creatures on your first day,” Professor Sprout announced once she had the full classes attention. She had a head full of greying brown curls that danced about as she bounced around the greenhouse. “So today we will just be discussing all of the different herbs and fungi that we will cover during your first year to see how much you all know. Don’t be afraid if you don’t know anything yet, because we all have to start somewhere, dears.”

*

After Herbology, it was lunch. I couldn’t believe it; we get a whole hour lunch break. At my old school we got thirty minutes. This meant that we could actually take our time eating and try to find our next two classes early, so we knew where they were. Upon reaching the Great Hall, we asked Josie if she wanted to sit with us, but she didn’t. It was a shame, because I was really hoping to spend more time with her. I can see why though – I guess she was worried that she’d get into trouble for sitting at another house’s table, but at lunch time it seems like most students just come and go as they please, so it’s not like she’d be taking up a seat or that she’d be in the way. I bet no one would even notice. I tried to make sure that I could keep my eye on her this time though. She had her back to our table, but was only sitting a few seats up from where we were. The thing that upset me most though, was that she was sat on her own. I did notice that some of the other Ravenclaws did tend to be sat on their own, but knowing that Jed and I were right there, just a few seats away and Josie was sat on a table alone, by herself was annoying. Why must we be separated? It’s just a stupid table. Stupid hierarchies.

Lunch wasn’t quite as grand as our other meals had been, but it was still pretty cool. There were loads of sandwiches, all different flavours and on different kinds of breads and there were salads and lots of meats and vegetables. But trust Jed to find a stack of yet more toast. “You can’t eat more toast,” I exclaimed.

Jed shrugged at me and through a mouthful answered back, “Why not?” I sighed at him.

“Out of all of the food here, you choose to eat toast all day long.”

“So?” he replied with another shrug. “What’s your point?” I just laughed at him.

Whilst sat at the table in the Great Hall something amazing caught my eye. “Wow!” I gasped pointing at a white paper napkin besides my plate at the table. “Were they here before? I never noticed them.”

“Yeah,” Jed replied. “I think Hogwarts puts them out at every meal, see,” he said as he pointed to an emblem in the bottom right hand corner. “It’s on every one. They always seem to rest the cutlery on them.”

“Do you think it would matter if I keep one?”

“Course not,” Jed replied with a shrug. “It’s a napkin; their purpose is to be used.” I smiled at him and swiped one from the table. I’m surprised that I never noticed them before. They are so cool. They all have the little Hogwarts crescent on them to with the lion, snake, badger and eagle on. It just looks so… magical and possibly easy to sneak into class and write on one. I’m sure that Viki will want to see one too, as a sort of souvenir, so I’d best remember to keep one to send home to her.

*

Okay, so after lunch, our next lesson was Charms. Josie was right, Professor Flitwick was nice; he definitely wasn’t as strict as Professor Snape appeared. He was the tiny teacher that I mentioned who was sitting at the teacher table at the big feast last night. I did hear someone whisper that Professor Flitwick was half goblin – that must be why he’s so short then. Jed did tell me that this was just a rumour though and even he wasn’t sure if it was true. The professor definitely didn’t have pointy ears or long bony fingers though. Oh well.

On the board he had written the words, ‘Spells, charms, hexes and curses.’ Okay, so this seemed pretty interesting and that was before I knew what they meant. “Alright class,” he projected as he stood on top of a stack of books. I admit, it did look a little silly, but I guess if you’re short and you need to make sure that the kids in the back of your classroom aren’t messing around, then it’s the best thing to do. It also made the classroom a little entertaining, as Professor Flitwick had various places around the room where there would be a stack of books piled into steps. It just looked like something out of a movie. He definitely got the class’ attention.

Tapping his wand onto the edge of his teaching podium, Professor Flitwick called out, “Who can tell me what any of these words mean?” He pointed his wand towards the four words that he had written onto the board. “Now hands please, no shouting.” After a while of several people shooting up their arms and answering – not all of them got it right straight away (phew), we finally managed to gather together a mini dictionary-type definition for these four words. I’m pretty glad that he did this otherwise I’d have probably been confused for a little while. Here we go:

Spells: A spell is the generic term for any piece of magic. Example: changing a rat into a teacup.

Charms: A charm adds to or changes the property of a spell. Example: making a teacup dance.

Hexes: A hex is a type of dark magic, usually a charm that is used to cause harm. A hex causes irritation to the subject (and is often amusing), but does not cause serve damage.

Curses: A curse is the worst kind of magic. This permanently harms the subject. Must NEVER be used, even in dire situations.

Like several other things that I had heard since starting at this school, it sounded quite dangerous. It’s almost hard to imagine that such things as poisons and curses actually occur. You could just be walking down the street and an evil wizard could just whip out their wand and curse you forever. That’s pretty terrifying. And that could have happened to me when I was at home and I (or my parents) would never have been able to comprehend it. Well I’m glad that I’m safe and sound inside this school building for now. I’ve heard several people say that nothing bad can happen so longs as you’re inside the four walls of Hogwarts and so longs as Professor Dumbledore is around. That last part sounds a little scary, being as Dumbledore seems like he’s already quite old – he has to be in his sixties or seventies at least, he has a huge Merlin-like beard. If anything were to ever happen to him then I don’t know what I’d do. But I’d best put panicking aside. Everything is fine. Everything is fine.

Similar to Professor Sprout from Herbology earlier, Professor Flitwick just spoke us through some of the terminology and charms that we will be using throughout the year. It didn’t sound too complicated actually, but he assured us that it was hard and would take a lot of practise. I think that my favourite that we would be learning, will be the charm that makes objects levitate. That sounds amazing. I could send someone’s pen flying across the room, so that they couldn’t write. Or move the newspaper away from my old man as he goes to grab it. Or move the toast away from Jed, now that one would be funny.

*

The last lesson of the day was Transfiguration. This was taught by the school’s Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall. Like Professor Snape, she seemed rather strict – even more so than when we met her for the Sorting Hat ceremony last night. “Now students,” she began. “I am sure that all of your other teachers have warned you of this as well, but as Deputy Headmistress here at Hogwarts it is my duty and responsibility to warm you all of the dangers of using magic without supervision.” Okay, so here’s another lecture about this school and magic being dangerous – seriously how was this place not shut down by some over politically correct parents. I’m not complaining. No way am I complaining. It just seems so surreal. Back at my old school you got banned from playing outside at lunchtime if you walked across the classroom too quickly with scissors in your hand. And now I’m in a place full of danger. Yeah, there are constant warnings, but they trust us. The teachers here actually trust us. And the parents must trust their kids too; otherwise they wouldn’t send them here. This is awesome!

“You are not to cast spells,” Professor McGonagall went on, “between classes and you are to never to cast magic upon another student. Doing so will cost you detention for the rest of your school days or worse.” As she spoke my spine tingled and I gave a shudder. She definitely wasn’t a teacher to cross. But what made this lesson probably the coolest of the day was that we actually got to use magic. In all of our other classes, all of the teachers went over the basic general knowledge of the subject, but Professor McGonagall started us off with an actual spell. Alright, so we had a tonne of notes to copy down too, but we actually got to use our wands. It was so exciting.

Professor McGonagall gave each of us a matchstick and got us to transform it into a needle. After a day of realising that the wizarding world have so many short cuts to doing things the way that I’m used to, I was actually surprised to find that most people knew what a matchstick and a needle were. Even Jed knew which impressed me – well he knew what a matchstick was anyway – typical boy.

Okay, so I couldn’t turn my matchstick into… well anything, but do you want to know what the best part was? No one else could either. All of the boasting that everyone was doing yesterday, and this morning, was just all talk. I’m actually on a level playing field with these guys and I couldn’t be more excited. Scarlett claimed that her matchstick changed to a slightly grey colour, but I don’t believe her. Nobody did.

*

After lessons were over, Jed and I hung out in the Slytherin Common Room for a bit. I still can’t believe that there was an actual open fireplace there, with a real burning fire. I’m starting to wonder who keeps the fire burning, because it never goes out. It’s a good job too, because being the dungeons, I bet it would be freezing otherwise. The room was arranged with black leather sofas and armchairs. Can you believe it? It feels so royal. All of the chairs were decorated with green and silver drapes and cushions. It really makes the whole place look homely. I sat down on one of the sofas, next to Jed. It could fit two people comfortably and three at a squeeze as we saw Pansy, Scarlett and Priscilla squeeze onto the sofa opposite, facing us. Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle (yes, I think I finally got their names right) sat together on one of the other sofas that vertically joined ours with the girls’. I guess it sort of made a straight edged letter ‘C’ shape.

Jed and I sat listening in on the others’ conversations and it as quite funny actually. Priscilla was trying to make out that she was really smart. Scarlett kept going on about how she was nothing like her twin Crimson (who got sorted into Gryffindor) and how Crimson was a complete embarrassment. Pansy was trying to show off – it was so obvious. She was telling everyone how her father was really high up in the Ministry (which I think I’ve figured it out to be the wizarding equivalent to Parliament, or close to it) but whenever she was asked exactly what her father did, she always dodged the question. She would just say, “Oh my dad’s really important; Cornelius Fudge couldn’t do without him.” Jed later told me that Cornelius Fudge is the Minister of Magic and the equivalent of the Muggle Prime Minister.

I’m sure Pansy was just trying to impress everyone, just like everyone else around here. But she was taking it a little too far. I’m sure it was her and her parents that I saw at Kings Cross station going into platform nine and three-quarters. Her parents looked so ordinary – not like the Malfoy’s. The funny thing was, was it seemed it was Blondie that she was trying to impress and even I knew that he’d see right through her. If anyone knew that her father wasn’t high up in the Ministry, then it would be him. Knowing that Jed’s father was an advisor of how to use magic and worked closely with the school board, I turned to Jed and shrugged waiting to see his take on it. He leaned a little closer to me and whispered, “She’s such a liar.” I pinched my lips in feeling myself smile as I tried to stop myself from laughing. Even Jed started to snigger. They all turned towards us.

“What’s so funny Jed?” Blondie asked. I bit the edge of my lip as my eyes shot to the floor. My stomach tingled. We were dead. I felt Jed fidget at my side. He twisted himself to face them more as I looked over at him. Kicking his right foot up, he rested his ankle upon his left knee and threw his right elbow into the back of the seat.

Jed just smirked. “It’s just I can’t see how irreplaceable someone who works in the Ministry’s Owl Post sorting room is. Surely the Minister of Magic can find someone else pretty easily. I mean, the Ministry gets hundreds a applications to work there every single day.”

I can’t believe how calm he was. Jed just sat there with that smirk on his face. My eyes widened with shock as I stared ahead at Pansy. Her bottom lip quivered as she murmured several sounds, but never actually spoke a single word. Her cheeks turned a dark pink. “Well, what about you?” she blurted out pointing a finger at Jed. “What does your father do?” Why everyone asks about fathers all of the time around here I’ll never know. Don’t women have important jobs in the wizarding world? How sexist!

“You don’t know who Jed’s father is?” Blondie sneered. This only made Pansy’s cheeks turn even redder. She lowered her head and sank into her seat. “Jed’s father’s an advisor of magic. He works close to the school governors, like my father, who control everything that goes on here. There probably isn’t a decision that goes on in this school that they don’t know about. In fact,” Malfoy went on, “My father could run this school better than the old man in charge.”

“Oh, put a sock in it, Malfoy,” Jed sighed and threw a cushion at him. It whacked Blondie across the side of the face. Oh my gosh, you should have seen the anger on Malfoy’s face, as it changed from a cocky grin to dagger eyes and a snarled nose. Snatching the cushion from the ground, he lobbed it back at Jed. Jed slid towards me, dodging Blondie’s attack. He then lent over me and yanked out the cushion from my side and threw both back at Blondie. But this time Malfoy ducked, and they smacked Goyle in the face. A little dazed, Goyle shook his head, before reaching out for one of the thrown cushions and swiped his own from behind.

“Pillow fight!” bellowed Crabbe, throwing a cushion at Pansy. Then everyone grabbed cushions and started throwing them at each other. I have to say, I don’t think I have ever laughed so much. My sides ached and my cheeks stung. Cushions were being flung here, there and everywhere. The only reason why we stopped was because Vlad walked into the Common Room and glared at us.

Thinking back now, that was genius of Jed. It was getting really tense between everyone and he brightened up the whole situation just by throwing a cushion. Genius. Absolute genius. I won’t tell him that though – it’ll only make his head swell.

I’m sitting up in bed writing whilst everyone else has gone to sleep again. I really have to stop making a habit of this. I just can’t help it though. I’m just super excited to be here. I really had better get some sleep for a new lot of lessons tomorrow.

- Josie -