We awoke the next moring, and got dressed. We headed down towards the great hall to get breakfast, and as we were eating Professor Snape, our head of house, started going round handing out time tables. "Ah, Ms Taylor, here you are. How's your father?" "Fine thank you Sir." I took the timetable and compared it to Pansy. "yey, we're in all the same lesson's Arabella!" she exclaimed. Just then Draco was handed his, he was sat across from Pansy. "Gis a look Bells." I gave him my timetable and he seemed delighted "Same lessons for everything." I grinned at him and took my timetable back. "Bells?" Pansy asked in a whisper. "Yeah, it's what he calls me" I laughed.

We had transfiguration first, with Professor McGonagall, as soon as we'd all finished we headed to the class room, well, when we could find it anyway. We went inside and sat down. I had Draco to my left and Pansy on my right.
"What do you think she'll be teaching us then Bells?" Draco asked, curious to my answer. "Urm, how to change objects into other objects?" I winked and him and he laughed suddenly the cat who was sat on the Professors desk became.. The Professor, everyone stared in astonishment. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." She then turned her desk into a pig, and back.

Everyone got excited, and we were all eager to start. We all took notes from what McGonagall was saying and then we were given a match, which we were meant to turn into a pin. "Oh gosh, what was the spell again?" I asked Draco, blushing. He repeated the spell, trying to change his own. But by the end of the lesson only one person had managed to change it, Hermione Granger. She's a muggle born gryffindor, I remember her from the meal last night.

After transfiguration we headed towards Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA), this was taught by Professor Quirrell, a bit of a nervous man. We didn't really do much in his lesson, the room stank of garlic, which was apparently meant to scare off vampires. I didn't even know vampires actually exsisted, thought it was just a tale. I was sat next to Blaise in that lesson, so I was chatting to him about his family.

"So, were both your parents in slytherin?" he asked, curious. "Well, my father was.. My mother was in ravenclaw." his faced seemed slightly saddened, "So, you're a half-blood then?" "Oh, no. Pure-blood, how about yourself?" he smiled, "Pure-blood too. However I only live with my mother. My father died when I was little, I've had step-dad's since then though, just.. They all seem to die." "Oh, I'm sorry for your loss" We carried on talking for a while, he seemed friendly towards me, which was a bonus. This means I've made a decent amount of friends already and it's only my first day of lessons.

The rest of the day went by quickly, just like the week, and it was soon Friday. I walked to the great hall with Pansy, Millicent and Daphne (who I'd also became close to over the week) and we sat down.
"So, what've we got today then Pans?" Pans was my new nickname for Pansy, she called me Bells now, Millicent is Mill, and Daphne is Daph. We'd became so close is week, it was actually magical. "Well, double potions first two, then we're off all afternoon" Pansy replied "Oh, that's delightful!" Millicent exclamed. We laughed together, and then owl mail came. I saw Rosina flying towards me with a letter attatched to her leg. She landed playfully on the table and started nibbling at some toast which was on my plate. I stroked her head, tickling behind her ears, while undoing the letter with my free hand. "Ah, it's off my parents." Pansy and Daphne had gotten letters too, however Millicent got mail yesterday so wasn't expecting anything. I read the letter in my head.

Dear Arabella,
I hope you're having a wonderful time at Hogwarts, and have made lots of friends! Me and your father are missing you a lot already, we can't wait for you to come home at christmas. So, how have your lessons been so far? Tell me about them all, and about the new people you've met. Have you met any cute guys? Aww. My babys grown up.
We love you, so much.

Love Mother & Father. xxx

I put the note in my bag, I'd reply to that later.

Pansy sighed, "Parents, I've been gone a week and there missing me!" I laughed, "Same, dunno what there going to do for 7 years, honestly." Millicent looked towards the large clock at the end of the hall, "Oh! We best be heading to Potions, Professor Snape wouldn't be happy if we were late, us being in his house and everything." We grabbed our things and headed to the potions classroom.

As soon as we got into the classroom we took seats, this lesson I was sat next to Goyle and Mill, that'd be alright, I thought. Draco was next to Goyle, and I could see him looking past Goyle to look at me. Why though? I had no clue. Professor Snape waltzed into the room and proceded by taking names of who was there, after this he started questioning Harry Potter about different things, including where you'd find a bezoar, which is obviously taken from the stomach of a goat, however Harry didn't seem to know. The professor didn't look impressed that Harry couldn't answer anything, however Draco, Crabbe and Goyle all found it rather amusing. We were all told to copy something down, and then Snape put us into pairs. I became paired with Goyle, which Draco didn't look too happy about.

Snape spent most of the lesson telling everyone to look at Draco's work, about how 'perfect' he'd done it. He clearly favoured the boy, it was totally unfair. Just then the clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the room. A potion started crossing the classroom floor, buring people's shoes. I, like the rest of the class, lifted onto my stool, I didn't want my new shoes burnt. Snape started ranting to Neville, who made the mess, and everyone was dismissed.

"Urgh, Longbottom had to do that didn't he? Failure." Draco snarled. "Leave him alone Drake," Drake is what I call him, as he calls me Bells "it wasn't his fault. Not everyone's perfect like you seemed to be, according to Snape anyway. He's injured, isn't that enough for him?" I didn't think it was right for Draco to be insulting him, he'd done nothing to Draco. "Why are you so bothered Bells? Not exactly like you know him properly..." "You don't need to know someone to be nice Draco, you obviously don't know that." I stormed off, and walked up to a 6th floor corridor, all I wanted was to be alone. I took out some parchment, ink and a quill and started to reply to my mothers letter which I recieved earlier.

Dear Mother and Father,
I'm having a wonderful time here! I love it already, I can see that I'll be having fantastic years here! I love my lessons, and friends. I've made a lot of friends for the first week to be honest! Oh, I'm in slytherin by the way, just like Father. I'm still really good friends with Draco, but I've made friends with a girl called Pansy Parkinson, who's in the same dorm as me, we're basically bestfriends. There's two other girls who share dorms with me, Millicent Bulstrode, and Daphne Greengrass, there really friendly! I can see us all getting along really well.
Yes mother, I am missing home, but I'm settling down really nicely here, I can't wait to see you both again though.
I love you both.

Arabella xx

I waited until the ink had dried, which didn't take long, and folded the letter. I placed it in an envelope and wrote my mother and fathers name on the front with our adress. I headed over to the owlery to give it to Rosina so she could take it to them. I headed up the steps and turned a corner towards where my owl was. Just then some tall cute looking boy bumped into me. "Oh, urm sorry, didn't see you there." He started to blush. "No, it's my fault, sorry." I went past him and went up to Rosina, attatched the letter to her leg and she set off. I had the afternoon off so I decided to go find Pansy so we could explore the castle together. On my way inside the castle however I saw Neville Longbottom walking towards the hall for lunch. "Neville!" I called. He looked round and saw it was me, looking half frightened he headed over. "How are you?" He seemed surprised, "You mean.. You're not going to tease me for what happened today?" he said softly, it was hard to hear him to be honest, his voice was quiet and shaky. "No, why would I?" "Well, the other slytherins did..." He started to blush. Just then Draco, Goyle and Crabbe walking into the corridor, "Bells, why are you talking to that failure?" Draco sneered. "Draco, leave him alone." Draco pushed past him, followed by the two boys, and walked into the hall. "Don't mind Draco, he's just... Well, he doesn't mean it really anyway. I just hope you're ok." I smiled at him and we walked into the great hall, each going off to our own tables.

"Why were you talking to him anyway?" Draco said as I sat next to him. "I was just seeing how he was, got a problem with it like?" I glared at him. He shook his head and carried on eating. Just then Pansy walked into the hall and sat across from me. "Pans, seen as we're free this afternoon fancy exploring the castle with me? I've only seen our classrooms, dorms and the owlery if I'm honest, wouldn't mind looking at the rest?" She grinned at me, "Oh Bells! I was going to ask you that too!" "It's sorted then. After we've eaten?" She nodded.