The Harry Potter Universe belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Note: Just a reminder, this story is happening in 2001, not 1991 as in canon. I had hoped the reference to The Phantom Menace in the first chapter with Rose would have worked, or even the references to The Fellowship of the Ring or Toy Story. Obviously they can't get excited about The Philosopher's Stone coming out. Also, I'm using a slightly different interpretation of the magic system than most, inspired, yes, by Methods of Rationality. If you hadn't picked up that it's one of my influences, then you haven't been paying attention. Mind, it's a small influence, but it's still an influence.

The first class on monday morning, following a sunday that was spent exploring the inside of the castle due to the rainstorm, was Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws.

"Settle down class," said the severe Scottish witch that was both Head of Gryffindor and Deputy Headmistress, in addition to being the sole professor of Transfiguration. "Transfiguration is among the most dangerous and yet the most useful skills you will learn, and hopefully master, here at Hogwarts," she said, striding back and forth before her desk like a caged tiger. "Until you are sufficiently skilled, your transfigurations will not last, and even then, only a select few of you will have the skill and mastery to transfigure something that cannot simply be reverted with a finite. I know that you have not had your Charms lessons, this being the first class of your first year at Hogwarts, and so you do not know that spell, but know that, unless you are supremely skilled, anything you transfigure will, eventually, return to it's former form."

She strode now into the center of the classroom, all eyes trasfixed on her as she suddenly had her wand in hand. She pointed it at her desk, and without even a word, it turned into a pig.

"Now," she said, turning to look at all of her students. "If I were to kill this pig, and give it to the elves for lunch, would you want to eat it?" She paused, looking out over the class. With a look of disappointment, she added, "Anyone want to tell me if they would or would not eat it and why it would or would not be a bad or good idea?"

Silence for a second, broken only by the sound of the pig. Then, hesitantly, Hermione extended her hand into the air.

"Ms. Granger, your answer?" asked Professor McGonagal.

"Uh, I wouldn't eat it ma'am," said Hermione hesitantly.

"And why wouldn't you?" probed the Professor.

"Uh, because it's not really a pig, it's a desk. When the magic either ran out or was dispelled it would no longer be a selection of pork, ham, and bacon, but instead wood, papers, and hardware."

McGonagall smiled, "Ten points to Gryffindor. That was a good answer." She then took her wand and reversed the transfiguration, returning the pid to her desk. She then stepped forward and selected a knick-knack from its surface. It looked like some sort of animated brass witch riding on a broomstick, her hair and robes waving in an invisible wind. "This is my award for being the highest scoring chaser during my seven years at Hogwarts, six of them on the Gryffindor House Team. It was the first award I received that wasn't scholastic in nature." She held it in her left hand, and with her wand in her right, she transfigured it into a glass of water, the image of the flying witch on a broomstick instead animated in ink on the surface of the glass.

The class 'oohed' and 'aahed'.

"Can someone other than Ms. Granger tell me why it would be a bad idea for me to drink this water?"

One of the Ravenclaws raised her hand, "Ms. Turpin, your answer?"

"Uh, because if you drink the water, and it stops being transfigured, it will turn back into brass in your stomach, and perhaps even in your blood, or your brain."

"Excellent, if somewhat macabre, answer, Ms. Turpin. Ten points to Ravenclaw." With a wave of her hand the glass and the water returned to the brass award and it was replaced on her desk.

"Transfiguration is quite possibly the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. I will book no shenanigans or horseplay, no pranks or so-called 'innocent mistakes'. If you, through willful action or inaction, endanger any of your fellow students in this classroom, you will be removed from the class and you will not return. You will not be able to take your Transfiguration OWLs or NEWTs within Britain, and will likely not be able to be tested by any other ICW accredited testing authority. If you decide to not take my class seriously, you will not be doing any transfiguration, ever, if I have any say in it. Are we clear?"

The class was silent.

"Are we clear?"

A smattering of 'yeses', 'crystals', and 'sures' were returned by the class.

"The proper response is crystal, as in we are crystal clear, and that there is no obstruction in your understanding. So," asked McGonagall, looking over the frightened faces of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years, "Are we clear?"

"Crystal," came the united response from the twenty first-years, ten Gryffindors and ten Ravenclaws.

"Good," said McGonagall, her demeanor softening. "Now, if you're take our your textbooks, we'll begin with our first lesson, transfiguring a match into a needle."

The twenty students in the class split into groups of twos and threes. The most difficult problem was that half of the class wanted to group with Rose. With Professor McGonagall reminding the students they only had half an hour left to finish their lesson, Rose took the initiative, "Neville, you and Ron work together today. Hermione, you work with Sally-Anne, and I'll work with GIna."

There was some grumbling, and a bit of excitement from Gina, but eventually they got back to their lesson.

Rose was pointing her wand at the match and mumbling under her breath about getting it to change into a needle, but nothing was happening.

"Congratulations, Ms. Granger," announced Professor McGonagall. Rose looked up and noticed that half the class was packing up already. She glanced over a Hermione and saw that her match, while still recognizably a match, was pointed and silvery. "Ten points to Gryffindor."

As Rose put her notes under the cover of her textbook, and then slipped the textbook into her backpack, she hissed at Hermione.

"What?" asked Hermione, herself putting her notes carefully into a folder before putting it into her bag.

"How'd you do it? Half an hour and I don't have anything to show by a creased forehead."

"It's all in the imagination," said Hermione confidently. "I've always had a vivid imagination, so I just applied that to this, imagining my magic flowing out and changing the match into a needle. I still need work."

Charms class was, much like Transfiguration earlier in the day, mostly an introductory session. Two things, though, stood out to Rose. The first was how excited Professor Flitwick, a short man with wild hair and if Rose was going to guess, not a small amount of goblin in his ancestry based on his size and the general proportions of his head and ears, which reminded her of the bankers at Grongotts. The second was that, like in Transfiguration, Hermione had achieved the first and best results, which in this case was the simple light spell, lumos.

"The light, or torch, spell, commonly referred to by its incantation, lumos, is one of the most basic and useful spells a witch or wizard will learn. Which is why it is the first spell you will learn in my class," said Professor Flitwick from atop the stack of books the allowed him to see over his desk.

"Unlike most of the charms you will be learning in my class, as well as those that you should be learning in Professor Quirrell's class," explained the diminutive professor, placing an emphasis on the 'should'. "The light spell doesn't require any complex somatic components, also known as wand motions. It also lasts until you dismiss it, which is done by saying the counter-charm, nox."

"Now, I should hope that all of you can achieve this by the end of our class today, both lumos and nox, for they are a pair, that without the latter, the former is of little utility."

It was after Hermione was the first to achieve the light spell, on her first try no less, as well as the counter-charm, though this time on the second try for she hadn't quite gotten the pronunciation correct, coming out at nāx rather than nox.

While the professor's excitement and Hermione exceptionalism, which luckily the Slytherins were seeing for the first time, were the two largest standouts, there was one interaction, near the end of the class, that confused Rose a bit.

Draco Malfoy, who had, not seventy-two hours before, claimed that he'd marry Rose and become the most powerful wizard in Britain, had come over to Rose and tried to strike up a conversation.

"You really should have told me who you were," said Draco.

"What?" asked Rose, concentrating more on how quickly she could switch from lumos to nox and back, trying to see if she could do it quickly enough to do an SOS.

"On the Express, when I came into your compartment, you really should have told me who you were. I wouldn't have made such a fool of myself," explained Draco.

"Draco, you made a fool out of yourself at the robe shop," said Rose between attempts at signaling distress. "You confirmed that you were a fool on the train, and now you are here, in our first class together, after you admitted that you planned to woo me and then take my family's power, the family that died before I could know them I might add, and trying to make amends by saying that it's my fault that I didn't tell you who I was."

"Well, if you had told me who you were, I wouldn't have said those things," complained Draco.

Rose turned to the blond Slytherin, "Draco, you shouldn't have said those things anyway. If for no other reason that, well, it wasn't very cunning."

"What?" gasped Draco loudly.

"It wasn't very cunning, isn't that one of the traits of Slytherin House? Cunning, ambition, and tradition, that's the big three, right? I mean, yeah, I got that from listening to Hermione read from her favorite book, but still, seems about right."

"How can you say I wasn't cunning?" asked Draco. "I mean, I tried, doesn't that count for anything?"

"A wise man once said, Draco, 'Do or do not, there is no try.' Trying to be cunning won't cut it. You have the ambition, that's obvious, and tradition, sure, gaining power through marriage I guess it traditional, but it's the cunning that you need to work on. Now, leave me alone, I'm trying to signal my distress to Sally-Anne and you're not helping."

Rose watched out of the corner of her eye as Draco sulked back to his group of friends, which had expanded slightly since the incident on the Hogwarts Express. In addition to the two meatheads from the train there was a pig-faced girl with stringy black hair. She seemed to pester Draco when he returned, and then, after hearing him explain himself, spend the rest of the lesson glaring at Rose.

The final class of the day, and with a frantic rush from the Charms classroom, down the stairs and across the grounds, the Gryffindors joined the Hufflepuffs for Herbology. While Professor McGonagall had been strict and stern, and Professor Flitwick excited and energized, Professor Sprout was was matronly and grounded, which suited her as both Head of Hufflepuff House and the Herbology Professor.

"Welcome, welcome, to Greenhouse One, where we'll be spending the rest of the year here for Herbology. While in a few years you'll be able to learn about the various magical creatures and how to care for them, with Professor Kettleburn, Merlin bless him. But, in this class, which I hope to see all of you in through the end of your NEWTs in seven years, is all about the various magical plants and fungi that you will encounter. You'll learn how to identify plants and fungi, how to distinguish magical cultivars and species from their more mundane cousins known to the muggles, and what they are used for," said Professor Sprout from the front of the class, gesturing at the various plants and fungi around the edge of the greenhouse classroom.

Unlike in the previous classes, Hermione was not the standout among the Gryffindors, for when Professor Sprout began to ask a series of basic questions to get a gauge of her students, the first hand up for every question was Neville's.

"Nev," commented Ron, "How'd you get to know so much about herbology?"

"Well, with Gran involved in the Wizengamot, I had to spend most of my time alone, so I spent it around the various greenhouses on the estate," explained Neville. "I mean, yeah, it's not exciting like sneaking out to play quidditch with your brothers, but for an only child, well, I made due."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," said Hermione. "I mean, I didn't have many friends growing up, but instead of greenhouses my parents had a library, so I got lost in books."

"I guess I had a bit more normal childhood, what with Dudley there to have fun with. We'd play video games and watch movies, plus whatever was on the telly," explained Rose. "Though Aunt Petunia made sure we got outside, so we played lots of footy and I did some field hockey, while Dudley had his boxing."

"Footy?" asked Ron.

"Football," explained Rose. "Two dozen kids on a field a bit smaller than the quidditch pitch, kicking around a ball about a this big." She had her hands far enough apart to represent a football. "It may not be as exciting as quidditch," said Rose, anticipating the reaction from Ron, who had explained the gam to her, Sally, and Hermione on Saturday, "but it's pretty much the most popular sport in the muggle world."

"Weird," said Ron with a shake of his head. "I mean, sure, Dean explained it to me too, but I still find it a bit barmy. I mean, where's the fun without the flying, only having two goals, and only one ball?"

"Well, since they're not flying, you don't need the bludgers to knock people out, so there's two balls out right there, since a slide tackle is good enough to most," explained Rose. She put of her hand before Ron could ask another question, "I'll explain slide tackles later. But, without the bludgers and flight, about the main difference is that there's no snitch to catch."

"How do you know when the game's over?" asked Ron.

"Well, you time it, of course," said Hermione with an exasperated sigh. "I mean, really."

"Time it? But, where's the fun in that?" asked Ron.

Rose and Hermione both sighed, while Neville smirked slightly, glad that he'd not have to argue either side, and glad that he'd found friends. He could hear Gina and Sally-Anne discussing something just before the dark-skinned Dean Thomas wrapped his arm around Ron's shoulder.

"Ron, I hear you're talking about footy," said Dean, a gleam in his eye.

"Well, we were explaining to him how it was like quidditch without brooms, bludgers, or the snitch. And then you asked about how it can end without a snitch, and we said it was timed," explained Rose in summary.

"So, then Ron here most be wondering how it can be exciting if it's timed, right?" asked Dean.

"Right," confirmed Rose and Hermione with a nod. "You'll explain it to him, right? We've got to go."

"Leave it to me, ladies," said Dean with a predatory smile.

Published January 10, 2013