Chapter one

It was an unusually sunny day for October. Even though the trees of the Forbidden Forest were swaying dangerously in the strong winds and the cold air rushed like knifes through the school grounds, the high sun still cast patches of speckled light over the transfiguration classroom. The effect was that many students were having to squint through the sun at the hedgehogs they were supposed to be transforming into pincushions. This made the job even harder as eyes watered against the white light and the heat on their heavy robes made them all feel slightly drowsy.

'Jacobs,' a stern voice called out. A blonde girl turned to look at her companion curiously, but the girl being addressed by the professor made no sign that she had heard him.

'Jacobs,' the professor said loudly, causing more people to look.

The girl with long black hair jumped slightly. She had been staring dreamily across the classroom at Hugo Weasley. As soon as she jumped she felt his eyes meet hers and she flushed pink. Turning back to her hedgehog she saw what had caused all the commotion. A steady flow of fluffy white foam was issuing from her wand. It had completely engulfed her poor hedgehog which was staring at her dolefully. Its eyes the only part of it not covered in the foam. It was still spilling freely from the lazily held wand and was dripping heavily over the desk and onto the floor.

'Oh,' the girl said, flustered. Her blonde companion rolled her eyes and flicked her own wand at the mess. It vanished leaving the rather startled but clean hedgehog to retreat into a quivering ball. 'Thanks Sarah,' the girl muttered.

'Let us see your best efforts Jacobs,' Professor Tifildus said lazily, lowering his heavy grey eyebrows.

The girl waved her wand at the hedgehog in the motion they had been taught. She could feel every pair of eyes in the classroom on her. The hedgehog gave a feeble wiggle and a single silver pin replaced one of its spines. Someone at the back of the class laughed. The girl called Sarah turned swiftly and glared in the direction of the laugh.

'Poor, very poor,' Professor Tifildus said icily with one of his eyebrows now raised. 'I do not have to remind you Jacobs,' he continued, 'as I do not need to remind anyone else in this classroom, that next year you will be taking your O. , and these exams are of the greatest importance. Jacobs, extra homework for you, I expect a faultless pincushion by Thursday.'

With her face still burning, the girl left the classroom with her friend Sarah ahead of her, her eyes on her feet but snatching swift glances ahead of her for a sight of tousled auburn hair.

'I can't stand that Tifildus,' the girl seethed angrily as she reached the bathroom with Sarah. She slammed her school bag down on the sink. The loud thudding echoed around the stone walls. 'He's always picking on me, he hates me.'

'Hate is a very strong word,' Sarah's tired voice drifted back though her toilet, 'he's like that with everyone.'

'Yeah but he really seems to hate me personally.' The girl grimaced at herself in the mirror. Her long black hair never stayed completely straight. It wasn't frizzy, more disarrayed. It gave her a 'just woke up,' look permanently. Her heavy fringe needed a trim as it was now almost covering her large blue-black eyes. The girl wrinkled her nose at her reflection. 'I mean,' she went on, 'at least the other teachers are tolerant of me, they do sometimes give me these 'aww bless,' looks. Sympathy for having the intelligence of a flobberworm.'

A heavy chain clattered into use and Sarah immerged from her cubicle, looking harassed. 'Matilda Jacobs you are much more intelligent than a flobberworm.'

'Thanks,' Matilda said coldly, 'but I was exaggerating, I realise my intelligence far outstrips that of a flobberworm.'

'Oh I know,' Sarah said annoyed, 'I was just, well, oh why did you say it then?'

'I dunno,' Matilda said sighing deeply, 'I'm just frustrated I guess.'

'Your only problem is confidence,' Sarah said over the sound of the water as she washed her hands. 'I've seen you do really well when you think no one's looking, you just crack under pressure, like today for example.'

'Well that's great,' Matilda said sarcastically, 'next year I'll just ask the examiners to turn their backs, 'I did I really great bit of magic there, honest, please give me an O.' Anyway, how's anyone supposed to get over confidence issues with twerpy old Tifildus breathing down their necks every lesson?'

'You're loads better now;' Sarah reassured her, 'you were really terrible in our second year. And remember how you barely passed the exams in our first year?'

'No,' Matilda said scathingly, 'I'd forgotten actually, thanks for opening up old wounds.' She was annoyed with the way Sarah did this; she always tried to help the situation but ended up just offending Matilda and making it worse.

'Well there are loads of things you are good at,' Sarah shot back trying to save herself, 'it's really just transfiguration and-'

'Potions,' Matilda cut in glumly, 'old Slughorn has it in for me as well though.'

'Yes, but you are good at lots of other things,' Sarah continued reassuringly.

'I'm the school joke,' Matilda said angrily as she grabbed her bag and followed Sarah out of the bathroom and down a staircase, narrowly avoiding the trick step. 'Maybe I'm a squib?' Matilda said.

'You can't be a squib,' Sarah said lazily as though she had all these concerns before and had put herself into an automatic way of dealing with them. 'Your parents are florists Tilda, if you didn't have any magical ability you'd be a muggle.'

'Oh yeah,' Matilda said, 'see I am thick. Maybe I'm muggle then? Maybe then sent the letter to the wrong person, maybe my brother should be here.'

'Tilda,' Sarah suddenly said very sharply turning swiftly on the spot to face her friend. 'How many times do we have to go through this? Every time Tifildus shows you up in Transfiguration we have to go through this,' she imitated Matilda quite successfully, 'ohh I'm so thick, I'm the school joke. Honestly! You need reminding that Professor Longbottom had doubts he was magical, thought he was a squib too-'

'And then he went on to defy Voldemort and now he's a wizarding hero,' Matilda finished for her, annoyed, 'I know, you've told me a million times.'

'And you've told me a million times that you're thick.' Sarah said. She was half angry but her tone suggested that the conversation was over.

'If only the rest of school was more like Quidditch,' Matilda sighed, 'cos that I'm really good at.'

'Won't be too confident after we beat you on Saturday,' a familiar arrogant but playful voice said as Matilda and Sarah crossed the great hall for lunch.

'Alright Potter?' Matilda said turning to face the boy who had spoken. It was a fifth year, James Potter, looking so much like the pictures of his father that Matilda had seen; thin with round glasses, the only differences being the eyes that were bright brown instead of green, the slight touches of red in his hair and the absence of a lightning bolt scar upon his forehead.

'Jacobs, Abbott,' he nodded to the two girls in a way that was clearly supposed to be charming, 'looking forward to knocking you out of the running for the cup.'

'Yeah?' Matilda said with an eyebrow raised and her arms folded, 'well we've won it for three years in a row now, thanks to yours truly.'

'Pride comes before a fall,' James replied smirking.

'You must be in a bottomless pit then,' Matilda said. She saw with a jolt in her stomach that one of the people who laughed was Hugo Weasley.

A smile also flickered across James' face. Matilda knew that he wasn't malicious, it was just pre-match banter. Despite James' obvious flaws he had an honest heart. She guessed that his father's fame had gone to his head.

'You're looking a little peaky Jacobs,' he said looking at her curiously. 'Are you sure you're going to be able to play Saturday? You're not catching a cold?'

'The only thing I'll be catching is the snitch,' Matilda said before turning swiftly from him.

'We'll find out on Saturday,' he called after her before sitting down at the Gryffindor table next to his friend Fred Jordan. James followed the progress of her stroll to the Hufflepuff table with her friend Sarah Abbott.

'Who does James Potter think he is?' Sarah said angrily as soon as they sat down.

Matilda helped herself to sandwiches and shook her head while her mouth was too full to speak. Swallowing she said, 'he's alright, it's just a bit of fun. Except for those lot, they mean it,' she jerked her thumb towards the Slytherin table. If we beat Gryffindor on Saturday we'll have to play them, and they play dirty.' Sarah looked down at her jacked potato; she had gone a little green. 'You'll be fine,' Matilda carried on, clapping her on the back, 'you were really good at your tryout. I mean, a match is a bit different cos of the crowds and the pressure but I'm sure you'll be fine. You just have to ignore the fact that it's so important, pretend it's just another training session, even though there's a lot riding on it.'

'Er, thanks…' Sarah said.