The Miraculous Effects of Darkness

Chapter Six

It was quite a challenge for Anika to pull herself from her bed the next morning, as she had never slept on such a comfy mattress. But the excited conversation that was going on between Lily and Mary became annoying enough for Anika to pull herself from beneath her duvet and begin getting herself ready for her first day of Hogwarts lessons. 

In the time that it took her to get dressed, Anika felt herself getting just as excited as Lily and Mary. All five of the first-year girls who shared that dormitory- the other two being named Lisa and Donna- headed down to breakfast together, excited chatter never-ceasing despite the lengthy walk from their dormitory to the Great Hall. The walk was made longer through Mary's suggestion that they take one of the shortcuts which had been pointed out to them on their way to Gryffindor tower the previous night, which lead to them getting very lost and having to ask a ghost for directions. 

"There better still be food when we get down there," said Donna, who had made it clear from her introduction to Anika that her favourite part about Hogwarts was the food.

"I'm sure there will be," Anika assured her, "the plates are probably enchanted so that they don't empty until everyone has eaten. That's what I'd do anyway."

Indeed, there was still plenty of food left at the table when they arrived. They weren't even the last ones to arrive, it seemed that many of the older students had tried to push the hour when they would have to get out of bed to as late as they could. 

"Why would you choose to eat porridge for breakfast when you could eat a muffin?" Mary asked Anika. Mary had loaded her plate up with three muffins, one blueberry, one milk chocolate chip and one white chocolate chip.

"Porridge is nice," Anika replied.

Not long later Professor McGonagall began to make her way down the Gryffindor table giving out timetables to the students. Anika received her timetable and saw that she had Transfiguration first. Upon comparing their timetables, Anika discovered that Mary was in most of her lessons, whilst Lily only shared flying with them.

Up and down the packed Great Hall, people were comparing their own timetables and yells of pleasure or annoyance could be heard as students realised that they were or weren't in classes with their friends. 

"Bad luck Sirius," James Potter was patting Sirius on the back as they compared their timetables. It seemed that James was in class with Peter and Remus, with whom James and Sirius had become fast friends, but Sirius was alone in class. 

Lisa from Anika's dorm shared the same timetable as Anika and Mary, whilst Donna would be in classes with Lily. 

"Well at least we all know someone in our classes," said Lily, shooting a smile across the table at Donna, "Does anyone have a watch?"

"It's 8.50," supplied Mary.

"We really should try and find our class," said Anika, "this castle is a maze!"

*

Having decided not to take any short cuts this time, Mary, Anika and Lisa managed to make it to Transfiguration on time. The same could not be said for many of their classmates, however. Half of the Gryffindor first years were paired with half of the Ravenclaw first years for Transfiguration, meaning that there were around 20 students in the class. It was ten minutes after the time when the class was scheduled to start that it actually began after the last student traipsed in- Sirius Black, who sat in a free seat beside Lisa. 

"Now that we've all managed to find our way to class," said McGonagall, clearly not very happy about the lateness even though it was only their first day, the woman quickly took the register, hardly waiting for the students to answer before she moved onto the next name. After the register was done, she set the piece of parchment aside and got to her feet, standing in front of her desk and looking out at the students. "Transfiguration is perhaps one of the most challenging branches of magic, certainly the one that requires the most discipline. We will begin working through the first few chapters of 'A Beginner's Guide To Transfiguration' from which we will learn the basic theory before we progress onto applying it practically." With that, McGonagall waved her wand, and transfigured her desk into a pig and back again.

There was a muttering among the students as they scrambled to remove their textbooks from their bags as quickly as possible so that they would not be reprimanded by the stern woman. 

"Will we learn to do that?" Mary asked Anika, gesturing at the desk, which was once again in its original form of a desk.

"Miss MacDonald, eventually you will learn to do many things," said McGonagall, who had overheard Mary's question due to Anika and Mary being seated at the front of the class, "Transfiguration will help you succeed in many different forms of magic, which we will begin learning about now. If everyone could turn to the start of chapter one, we will begin with a summary of the four main fields of Transfiguration."

*

Dear Mr Borgin and Mr Burke,

I hope that you are doing well. 

I am enjoying Hogwarts. I was sorted into Gryffindor and thus far have had lessons in Transfiguration, Charms and History of Magic, all of which I found interesting. I am quite looking forward to flying lessons, but I will have to wait until Wednesday for my first flying lesson as we only have those on Wednesday and Thursday.

I have made friends with some of the girls in my year and this weekend we plan to explore the castle so that we don't get lost on our way to classes next week.

As this is the first letter that I am sending with Stanley, I will make it a short one so he doesn't have too heavy a load to carry. I will send you another letter on Monday to update you about the weekend and my first few days of lessons. Pass my love onto Mrs Godfrey.

Anika