First, I want to apologize for the delay. I haven't been able to write for a while, as my grandmother recently passed away. Next, I want to tell you all a little about the future of this story. Book one and two will be easy to write, as I can use the original story as a base, the same goes for book four, but book three, five, six and seven will take some time, as I will have to re-create the story from scratch to fit the rest. Therefore, don't be surprised if some chapters take a while to write, but don't worry; I have no plans on abandoning this story.
A cat, a bat and a Goblin
It was around seven in the morning when Halios and Seren woke up that day. After greeting each other, they both went about and got ready for their first day in school. Once they were dressed, they left the Ravenclaw tower and went down to the Great Hall to have breakfast. It took some time, since they first got lost, and when they thought they had found the way, they were waylaid by a ghost doing pranks. It took them almost 20 minutes to reach the Great Hall, after having to ask some of the paintings for directions. Walking into the hall, they looked around and soon spotted both Hermione and Neville, who was sitting together close to the Ravenclaw table. Making their way over, they sat down as close to their friends as they could.
After they had sat down, Seren turned to Hermione and Neville. "Good morning, did you two sleep well?"
Both Neville and Hermione turned towards Seren and Halios. "Oh, good morning. Yeah, it was really nice. How about you two?"
"It was nice, and we were lucky enough to be able to share a room." Halios answered. They continued to chat while they ate, and soon their respective heads of houses came and gave them their schedules.
"Let's see... History of magic before lunch, and double Transfiguration together with the Hufflepuff first years after. And tomorrow... Charms and Herbology, also with you guys from Hufflepuff. Hmm... seems we have almost the same schedule, except for Astrology, which we have with Slytherin and you with the Gryffindors." Seren said. "Shall we finish here and go to class?"
The others agreed, soon they made their way to their first class. History of magic would have been really interesting, if it weren't for the fact that the professor, one Binns, could put an insomniac to sleep in less than ten minutes. After an hour, under which only Hermione and Halios could stay awake, Hermione due to training and Halios due to being a creature of magic, and thus not needing things such as sleep or food to survive (though she could sleep and eat if she wanted to). Having an hour until lunch, they decided to explore for a bit before going to the library.
After spending almost 30 minutes trying to find the library, they finally found it and once inside, they asked the librarian, Madam Pince, for some books on the subject of history of magic. Spending the time left until lunch, they red and discussed what they had red of the topic. After returning the books, they went down to the Great Hall and had lunch. Spending the lunch talking and eating, once they were done, they made their way to the Transfiguration classroom.
They were amongst the first to get there, and when they entered, they saw a cat sitting on the teachers desk. While Hermione, Neville and Seren took a seat in the front of the classroom, Halios went up to the cat and scratched it behind its ears, making it purr, before sitting down next to her friends. Soon, everyone was there, and they started to look around for the teacher.
"Umm... Do you think the teacher is late?" Hermione said, turning towards Neville. It was at that moment, that the cat jumped of the desk and turned into the professor that had taken over from Hagrid when they had been sorted.
"Five points to Ravenclaw for showing kindness towards an animal, Miss Sheoth. Now, I am Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher here at Hogwarts, and I'll be teaching you the art of transfiguration these next few years. The art of transfiguration is a hard one, and as students you will learn how to transfigure one inanimate object to another, to a live object or a living creature into an object." With that, she transformed her desk into a pig and back. She continued to explain the possible ramifications of failing certain types of transfigurations, and what she were expecting of them in class. She then gave them their first task, namely to turn a match-stick into a needle.
The class progressed smoothly, and in the end, they had all succeeded turning the match-stick into a needle, with Hermione being the first, followed by Seren, Halios and then Neville, who, while he had some problems, were able to succeed due to the help the other three gave him. After giving Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff points for finishing the transfiguration and then helping Neville, Professor McGonagall told those who hadn't finished to continue practice until the next lesson, and the others to read the next chapter in the transfiguration book, and then she let them go.
After leaving their books in their respective dorms, the four friends spent the time until dinner exploring the castle. Once they had had dinner, they wished each other a good night and returned to their common rooms. Seren and Halios spent the rest of the evening chatting and reading in the Ravenclaw common room, before going to bed.
The next day began well. After their morning rituals, Seren and Halios went down to eat breakfast and spent the meal chatting with Neville and Hermione. Afterwards they went out to the greenhouses and waited for the professor that would teach them Herbology. Soon, they were let in into the greenhouse, where the professor introduced herself as Professor Sprout. Spending the next hour or so listening to her describing different magical plants, they soon found out that Neville excelled when it came to plants, and he was able to earn almost fifty points for Hufflepuff that lesson. Leaving the greenhouse, they went and had lunch, before going to the Charms lesson.
In Charms, they sat down together again, while the professor made a roll-call. He then presented himself as Professor Flitwick, the charms professor and the Head of House for Ravenclaw. He then went on to describe what Charms was and what they would be learning during the year.
"Now, the first spell we are going to learn is Wingardium Leviosa, the levitation charm," he began. "You will all be given a feather to practise on. To begin, make sure you know how to pronounce the words correctly, otherwise the spell might do something completely different than it was supposed to. Next part is wand movement. For this spell, the wand movement is a swish and a flick. As you begin to say the spell, swish your wand horizontally, and then flick it gently towards the object you wish the spell to hit. Make sure your wand continues to point at the feather as you finish wording the spell. Now, begin."
They spent the rest of the class practising the spell. While both Halios and Neville had some problems, they both succeeded towards the end of the lesson, thanks to Seren and Hermione. After dinner, they went to the library to study a bit, before going back to their respective common rooms before curfew.
The next day, Halios dressed in the boys uniform and changed to her male form on the way down to breakfast. He got a lot of curious stares that morning. After breakfast they had Defence Against the Dark Arts, but that class was a waste of time, according to Halios. The teacher, one Professor Quirrell, had such a bad stutter, that they could barely make out one word in three, and Halios could feel a strange darkness emanating from the professor. Deciding to study the DADA on their own time, the four friends went down to lunch. After lunch, it was time for their first lesson in potions, so they made their way down to the dungeons, where the classroom was. Entering the classroom, they noticed that the benches where organized in pairs, so Halios sat down with Hermione and Seren and Neville sat together behind them. As the rest of the students started to enter, they began looking for the teacher. Soon, everyone was seated, and the teacher had yet to arrive.
Suddenly, a man entered the classroom, his robe billowing around him like the wings of a bat. As he came to a stop in front of the class, he turned towards them and gave them a piercing glare, as if to judge them.
"Put your wands away, there will be no wand usage in my class." he began. "I am Professor Snape, the Potion Master here in the castle, and if you are not the kind of dunderheads I usually teach, you may actually learn something. In my class, you will learn how to brew potions of all kinds, potions that heal, poisons that hurt, elixirs of luck and love, but that is only if you have some skill. Now, I will call your names, and I want you to answer loud and clear, got it?"
He proceeded to call their names. Once he was done, he asked a few questions to gauge how much knowledge they had about the subject, before getting them started on a Cure Burn potion. After writing the instructions on the black board, he spent the rest of the lesson stalking the classroom, looking for faults. Halios and Hermione managed without any problems, but it was only the watchful eyes of Seren that spared Neville and the rest of the class some nasty burns, as she was able to stop Neville from making a mistake that would have blown the potion they were working on up. Once the lesson had ended, they had only lost 20 points each, and they made their way to dinner.
The rest of the week proceeded well, and once the weekend came, they spent their time either in the library or the grounds around Hogwarts. After telling Hermione and Neville a bit more about himself, Halios began describing the magic system he was used to from home. There was several schools of magic, he told them. Not in the way Hogwarts was a school, but rather that each school had a distinct type of spells attached to it. These schools was:
Illusion: The art of controlling the minds of others. The spells in this school can be used to change the perception of people and creatures around the caster, such as stopping them from attacking, or making them flee in terror. A master of this school can even turn himself invisible.
Alteration: Alteration is used to change the reality around the caster. A practitioner of the Alteration school can breath under water, open locks or make his skin as tough as armour. They can detect life, transmute iron to silver and silver to gold and can paralyse others with a touch.
Destruction: The destruction school allows its practitioners to bend the elements to their will. They can throw fire, ice and lightning at their enemies, and a master in this school can summon storms of fire and ice, and channel lightning so strong, it can kill a dragon in less than a minute.
Conjuration: The most common use of conjuration is to create weapons and armour of pure magic. It can also be used to summon creatures from Oblivion, or reanimate the dead, though those uses are looked down on, and in some cases illegal.
Restoration: Restoration is the school of healing. Its practitioners can heal wounds, and cure diseases and poisons. They can also shield themselves and others from harm, and cause undead creatures to flee.
Enchanting: Enchanting is used to inscribe items with magical properties. It could be to give a weapon an elemental effect on a hit, strengthen armour to withstand magical attacks or putting an enchantment on a necklace to give its wearer the ability to breath under water.
Alchemy: Similar to potions in this world, alchemy is used to create potions poisons and elixirs of different types.
After explaining his magic, Halios answered any questions his friends had to the best of his ability. He demonstrated a few of the schools with a few spells. He levitated a rock with the help of the Alteration school, he summoned a dagger with the skills he had in conjuration, and he healed the wound Hermione got when she touched the dagger he had summoned, not believing it was real at first, with a spell from the Restoration school.
Soon, it was evening, and after dinner he changed back into his female for, so that he could enter the girls part of the dorm without any problems. After saying goodnight to each other, Seren and Halios went to sleep, their first week in school, done.
There, a new chapter. A bit shorter than usual, but a chapter none the less. I hope you all like it.
