No Such Thing as Favorites

It was a little challenging to find the Great Hall for breakfast the following morning, but even worse when it was time for the students to go to their first class, Transfiguration. Most of the students- Gryffindors had this class with the Hufflepuffs, to Ally's relief- showed up at class more than twenty minutes late for class.
"All right, all right, everyone take your seats, settle down," Professor McGonagall said, attempting to calm the ecstatic first years. It took them a minute or so to all find seats for themselves and calm down.
Professor McGonagall looked at them all and said in a very proper voice once they all settled down, "Good morning," the class murmured a good morning in return, "as you all most likely know, I am Professor McGonagall, Head of the Gryffindor house, and Transfiguration teacher. You are all here to learn the important fundementals of Transfiguration. Hopefully, when you graduate Hogwarts, you'll be able to do this," Professor McGonagall waved her wand at her desk and it quickly transformed into a swine. The class gave a loud applause and Professor McGonagall smirked, turning the pig back into her desk. It seemed as though she had done this trick for many years to impress first years.

Transfiguration flew by, and before they knew it, they were up, packing away their quills and parchment into their bags. "Hey," Ally started to Emilee and Hailey- both of whom she sat by in Transfiguration class- as she carefully placed a bottle of ink in her bag and asked somewhat awkwardly, "did you two get to choose the house you were in? During the Sorting Ceremony?" Emilee shook her head, her blonde, almost light brown curls shifting inaptly on her shoulder.

"No," Hailey replied, raising her eyebrow high up, "why? Did you choose?"
"Of course not! I just... wondered if you two did. That's all," Ally fibbed. Hailey gave a skeptical sideways glance at Emilee who was nearly completely oblivious to the lies.
"Okay, we'll see you at Charms; bye," Hailey said and left, a cogitating look stuck on her face.

"I don't wanna get lost; better catch up with her," Emilee thought aloud and began to hurry away, twisting around and waving bye with a warm smile as she rushed away.
The Gryffindors were off, shuffling in a rather large herd to their Defence of the Dark Arts class. They got lost once because of Juan who said they were supposed to take a left at the suit of armor. Little did they know, the suit of armor moved around frequently; they didn't even figured this out until they passed it for the fifth time. What felt like an hour of searching that was really less than twenty minutes was cut away when they finally found their Defence of the Dark Arts classroom.
"Well, looks like the Gryffindors finally decided to make it to class," the teacher said. She was stout with straw-like hair. Her glasses had thick, black frames. "Find a seat; hurry up." The Gryffindors scrambled to find seats quickly. Juan and Ally ended up sitting beside each other, also by the girl from the boats who happened to be yelling at Juan in loud screeches.

"I'm Professor Weldon, and in this class, I'll be teaching you how to defend you from the dark arts, as you should know if you aren't prats." A couple students giggled at the choice of words. "I was in the Ravenclaw house myself when I attended this school," Professor Weldon said, sounding slightly nostalgic. "That doesn't mean the Ravenclaws get to slack off," this recieved a groan from the Ravenclaws, "because in this class, there's no such thing as favorites." Now, as Ally looked around the room, the color scheme was blues and oranges, just like the Ravenclaw's colors. "Now, the only way to learn how to deal with creatures is to deal with them up close and personal. Starting next week, we'll look at our first creature; pesky garden gnomes." Some people sighed, others looked excited.
Defence of the Dark Arts dragged on a little longer than Transfiguration, but was just as satisfying. As they all walked away, the raven-haired girl's feet got tripped up in her robes that were too long for her and cried out over dramatically, "Professor Weldon! One of the Gryffindors tripped me!" All of the Gryffindors called out in protest.
"I'm sad to have to say this on the first day; ten points from Gryffindor for tripping Ms. Izaguirre," Professor Weldon announced, making the Gryffindors complain even more.
"Look, her robes are way to long," Ally protested, trying to get their lost points back. "She stepped on them, and that made her fall."

"Another five from Gryffindor," Professor Weldon said as she helped the girl up. The Gryffindors loured as they went away to Charms.

By the end of the day, the first year Gryffindors were tired and excited for their coming days at Hogwarts. Once they had all been well fed and were in the Gryffindor common room, the first years sat around the fire, speaking about their families and lives.
"Well, I don't want to brag, but my father is in the Ministry of Magic," Isaac said, in an overly masculine voice that was obviously fake.
"Nice," Laura replied in a nasally voice.
"Which department does he work for?" Adam asked.
"Department of Magical Games and Sports," Isaac said proudly.
"Cool," Adam replied, leaning back in the chair he sat in.
"Any of you thinking about joining Quidditch?" Juan asked, looking around at them all.
"Not me," Jocelyn answered. "I like being in the stands, rooting on Gryffindor."
"Not into the action, huh?" Isaac asked. "As for me, I'm going to be the best Beater Hogwarts has ever seen!"

"That's pretty ambitious," Ally said. "Chasers are way better anyway."
"No way!" Adam said a little too loudly. Nearly everyone in the common room looked at Adam, who had gone slightly pink. "It's just, I didn't think you'd like Quidditch, let alone want to be a Chaser," Adam explained, going slightly pinker as they all giggled at him.
"Everyone likes Quidditch, you git," Laura said and everyone, including Adam, chuckled.
"So, how about you guys?" Isaac asked, his voice losing all of the fake manliness.

"I'm a pureblood," Juan started, rather bravely. "All of my siblings went to Hogwarts, one was in Gryffindor, another in Ravenclaw, and the other in Hufflepuff. None of them got top O.W.L.s, so my parents don't expect that much of me, even though I think I'll get top marks."
"I'm a pureblood too," Jocelyn said, her voice soft. She didn't continue and no one pressed her to do so.

"Well, I'm a pureblood," Laura said, still in the nasal tone. "My mom is in the Ministry, like Isaac's dad, but not in the same department. She works in the Ministry of Magic Public Information Services. She wants me to follow in her footsteps, but all she does is paperwork. There's no way I'm going to be stuck in the office all my life. I'll probably go to temples and find relics or something."
"I'm a pureblood like you guys," Adam said. "My parents don't work in the Ministry, but they travel the world, studying magical creatures like dragons, giants, even mermaids. When I get older, though, I'm going to play for the British Quidditch team. If that doesn't work- I know it will work, though- I'll just travel the world, exploring the different wizarding cultures."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm Muggle-born," Ally stated in a voice that dared them to judge her for her heritage. "My dad's a Muggle, and he works at a water treatment plant. My mom is a squib, but other than that, her parents are wizards. I always visit my grandparents, so that's where my wizarding knowledge comes from."

"Are we missing anyone? The time to spill your guts is now," Adam announced. The first-years shook their heads and Adam smiled, "Great! Now who wants to play Exploding Snap?"