I was absolutely loathe to cut this, but unfortunately the chapter was too long, and so I had no choice but to take it like a woman and put it in the excerpts instead.

I loved this scene, and I hope you do too!

First Transfiguration Lesson

People had given me weird looks at breakfast; especially while I was eating my peaches. Mmm, peaches; nature's way of apologising for spinach. Delicious golden orbs of loveliness.

Other than that it was very enjoyable. Mum and dad had sent me a short message wishing me a good year; that they would sent a few goodies in a few days, and to behave.

I always hoped that they'd forget to add that, it just made it that much harder to lie about what I'd done at school. Then again, they knew that I'd only cause trouble if I had a reason, and I knew how to show I was just being cheeky and amusing to teachers.

After grabbing my books having Hermione lecturing me the whole way about how I should have put them in my bag last night and taken them down with me at breakfast, it was off to my first class.

Upon entering the classroom, I spotted a gorgeous tortoiseshell cat sitting on the teacher's desk.

"Oh look! What a beautiful cat!" I cooed at it, slowly stroking the spot behind its ears I knew all cats loved.

"Umm, Lena," said Harry urgently.

I turned to face him, still stroking the cat. "Yes, Harry?"

"That's Professor McGonagall." He said in a slightly strangled tone.

I jumped back as if the cat, er, I mean, teacher, had scorched me.

"Oh my goodness! I am so sorry Professor!" I said desperately, cheeks flaming, hoping that there weren't any Slytherins around to see my humiliation.

I heard cackling from the back of the classroom. Damn, no such luck.

Hopping off the desk, the cat transformed into my teacher, who looked fairly amused.

"That's quite alright Miss Holland, you weren't to know. Besides, I haven't had a good stroke for quite some time," she added in a low voice, giving me just a hint of a kind smile. I'm not sure whether she intended the double meaning, but my filthy mind snickered and added 'that's what she said'.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and scuttled over to my desk, head bowed.

"It's okay, it looks like you made a friend in her anyway," whispered Harry.

"Besides, think about what a great story this will be back in the dorm," said Ron.

Class began before I could say anything.

This lesson we would be attempting to turn lumps of clay into an animal. Professor McGonagall said that the animal would suggest something about us.

Poor Neville failed miserably until Mione looked up from her dolphin (a glass of water had been conjured up for it), after which he had a tiny bird of some kind. Ron ended up with a bear, and Harry got a wolf, which encouraged a small and infuriatingly intriguing smile out of him. When I asked him about hit, he just shook his head and grinned even wider. Then I turned my attention to my friends' animals

"Hermione's is pretty obvious," I said. "I mean, dolphins are known to be exceptionally intelligent. Ron's really protective, just like a mother bear over her cubs." Ron blushed and scowled at his bear, as if it had let him down.

"As for Harry, well wolves are sometimes loners, but really good in teams, and, if yours is an alpha Harry, then it's a leader, just like you!"

Now it was Harry's turn to turn red.

I looked around the room and my eyes fell on Malfoy's animal. I can't say I was surprised at the result; a crowned snake.

Pansy was still trying to stuff the life-sized flea into a jar (figures, she was an irritating little parasite), and Millicent beside her was letting her weird bird [for all of you reading this, it's an ostrich, implying stupidity and aggression] run wild as she mocked Crabbe on his caterpillar, and Goyle on his goldfish. They seemed to be fairly accurate; both animals just ate, took up space, and that was pretty much it.

"Lena, what kind of wand is that? I've never read about something like that!" exclaimed Hermione.

"And that tells you something," said Weasley.

I didn't blame her, my wand was pretty weird looking, but I liked it. It was different, just like me.

It was made of wood, but over the wood, there were thousands of tiny, thin threads of shining crystal that wound around it and formed a ribbon twisting around it that cut into the wood and looked like a river winding through a cherry wood forest.

"Well, I had to have it made, because the old wizard in the wand shop in France couldn't find anything for me. You should have seen his shop afterwards; I had practically blown it up! The wand's part cherry wood with a willow core and inside that it's got unicorn hair. This stuff over here is crystal and stardust."

"Wow, that's one conflicting wand, how does it work with all of those elements?" asked Hermione.

"You know, I'm not sure. Monsieur Deveraoux said it was like me, 'you are composed from much conflict, yet somehow that is how these elements have the ability to work in harmony. It is in your very essence, child. It is only fitting that your wand is the same.' " I said, using air quotes.

"Lena, better do your animal, McGonagall is looking this way," whispered Harry urgently.

I hurriedly flicked and pointed at the lump of clay, and felt a horrible icy vice clamp around my stomach.

There was now a life sized tiger perched atop my desk. It's paw was raised, claws extended.

I was frozen. I couldn't even think, it was like my brain had stopped functioning. Damn, I knew that thing didn't work properly!

Wake up, Lena! Use your wand! That cat is going to eat you!

Harry seemed to have noticed that my mind had turned into a vegetable, and literally pulled the cat's attention away from me by pulling it's tail.

It whirled around to face Harry, growling, and I could hear Professor McGonagall somewhere in the background trying to shout instructions at him. My mind went from comatose to hyper alert in 0.1 and I brandished my wand at the hostile tiger.

"Infantilise!" I screamed, and a bolt of blue shot towards the angry cat. [I don't care that this is in none of the books…I think, but it's a spell that turns everything into babies, so the tiger is now a cub.]

The tiger suddenly shrank to the size of a small kitten. I picked it up by the scruff of it's neck and tapped it's nose sharply.

"No! Bad cat!" I said severely in my best Grandmother Ulana voice (that woman scared the bejeezus out of me).

Some people, mostly the stupid Slytherins, started laughing. Harry was still fairly pale though, and I was desperately apologising for my tiger's terrible behavior. Luckily the bell rang soon after this little incident, so I hastily turned the tiger back into clay, and hurried off with my friends to Charms. I would think about the implications of my tiger and what exactly it meant about me later.