2038, 2 September: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, The Great Hall

The Great Hall was bustling with life as all the houses sat down for breakfast. We all wore our robes, but those stupid-looking hats were gone, which was a relief for me.

Tom had taken it upon himself to wake us up. Good thing he did, because I would've slept until noon. Those beds were too comfy.

We had all walked down here as a big group, the older kids leading us. This place was still as confusing as I had remembered from yesterday's trip.

"It's gonna get cold, Arthur," George told me, right before he stuffed an entire sausage in his mouth. That dude seemed to eat triple what I could and still, he was nearly as skinny as I was. That was magic all on its own.

I smiled and started tucking into my own food. There was definitely a difference between the feast we had yesterday and today's breakfast. It was either the fact that there was much more talking, or that I was already comfortable sitting with the Gryffindors. A big family.

The roof was clear from all clouds, and though candles still floated in the air, they were no longer lit. That and the stair room was the two coolest things I had seen so far.

"Post's coming," Charlie muttered, loud enough for us to hear. I turned around to look at the oak door of the Great Hall. Nobody entered, so I smiled, thinking I was being pranked.

As I turned around, I found an owl sitting in front of me, it's big, beady eyes staring straight into my soul. I hadn't even heard it enter, probably because of the noise already in the Chamber.

"Umm, hi," I said to the owl. It cocked its head to the side.

Looking down at his leg, I saw an envelope in his claws.

"Oh. Right... Post." I muttered to myself, grabbing the letter.

Once opened, I read it, and my grin only grew. It was a letter from my mother.

Hello Arthur,

I hope you enjoyed your first night at Hogwarts, and I also hope everything is going well so far. There was a reason why we didn't buy an Owl next to Goldy (Though Goldy was not something I had planned you would buy in the first place). This here is Rolf. It's your Uncle Stew's owl, and we can use him to communicate. Please write soon, we await your letter.

-Mum and Uncle Stew

P.S Rolf loves treats. Be sure to give him something nice before you send him away, or he'll not get on with you as well as you would like. If you give him a letter, he'll know where to go, so that's something you don't need to worry about that.

I smiled and petted Rolf, before throwing him a slice of my sausage. He seemed content with what I paid him with, and he fluttered off.

"Anything interesting?" George asked.

"Just a letter from my Mum and Uncle. You?" I told him, folding it back up.

"I don't have much hope of that owl arriving anytime soon. Yorkie tends to get lost on her way to basically anywhere." He shrugged, "I guess you can only expect that from an Old Owl, but hey, She's loyal."

I smiled, continuing to eat breakfast.

After one plate, I was good to go, yet somehow George was on his third helpings. I shook my head and smiled.

Without anyone to talk to, it got boring pretty quickly.

"Robin, you know when we'll get our timetables?"

"Huh?" He asked.

I sighed and repeated the question.

"When?"

Robin, you godsend. I gave up and instead tried finding someone else to ask.

Charlie was currently a part of a conversation with some of the older kids, and George was looking at that Iris girl at the Ravenclaw table.

"Hey, George?" I said, tapping his shoulder.

"Ye?"

"When do we get our timetables?"

"Ummm. In a few hours?" He said without taking his eyes off of the red-haired girl.

"Bloody Hell. Go talk to her or something. You won't get anywhere if you watch her creepily." I told him.

"You mental? It's the second day! How stupid would that look?"

"Who knows?"

Sarah came into view from behind a Hufflepuff Boy's head and I saw her say something to the group of girls. They all giggled, and among others, Iris also looked at us.

My eyes locked with hers for a split second, before I whipped my head down to instead stare intently at a plate of Sausages.

"She looked this way, no?" George asked, excitement in his voice.

"Yeah, she did."

"And now. Oh my god. She's coming this way! Dude, help me out here. I think she's spotted me." George started sitting in a more 'Cool-Boy' style as Iris walked towards us with her group of friends, weaving around the Hufflepuff table.

What surprised me the most was that that they actually stopped in front of us, and turned towards me.

"Hey, you're Arthur Graham, right?"

I nodded, not really knowing what else to do.

"The son of Stewart Graham by any chance?"

"Nephew... But yeah. Why?"

"Nothing really. Sarah's talked about you, that's all. It's pretty cool, you know, that such a famous person is your family member. We could hang out more." She smiled before they walked back down the aisle and exited the Great Hall. George was smiling like an idiot beside me the entire time, but he hadn't even gotten as much as a glance.

When she was out of earshot, George turned towards me.

"What the hell was that?!" He exclaimed, holding his head, "That was not cool dude." He frowned.

"Honestly, I have no clue what happened," I said, looking at him.

"Utter. Bullcrap." He pouted, turning back to the table to grab a piece of bread.

"Love is a fickle thing, so do not worry. You must persist, for women can be harder to understand than even the hardest theory you may learn." A Mysterious voice said.

"Uhh-"

A Man floated through the table and looked at us.

I just stared with an open mouth.

"Hello, Sir Nicolas." Tom greeted the Ghost from few seats down.

"And Greetings to you too, Thomas." He replied.

"You're... A Ghost?"

"What? Never seen one? Must be a muggle-born wizard then. I cannot imagine what's going through your head right now."

A real ghost, floating in front of me. EPIC!

"Can I get a name, excited First-years?"

"I'm George Fisher, and that there with an open mouth is Arthur Graham," George said.

"I'm sorry..." I muttered, closing it self-consciously.

"No problem there, Arthur. I'm Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, though students can call me Sir Nicholas."

"Why haven't I seen any ghosts beforehand?"

"Headmistress McGonagall has forbidden us to show ourselves to students until the first breakfast ever since an incident I'd rather not talk about."

"Seems Pretty harsh." Robin piped in.

"Oh it is, my young man. May I please get your name as well?"

"Robin Colton."

"Robin! It is also nice to meet you, as is to meet you two lovely folk." He said, pointing towards me and George.

Charlie seemed to notice us having a chat with the Ghost, and scooted over.

"It's Nearly-Headless Nick! I've heard stories from my father about you."

"I'm sorry, but I'd rather be called Sir Nicholas. Who may you be?"

"Charles Potter."

"Ah! A Potter! I knew many of your folk, so I did. Still, it's quite tasteless calling me by that name. After all, I have a title."

"Wait-" I interrupted them, "Did Charles just say Nearly-Headless?"

"Yes. It's a name the students call me, though I must say it is incredibly humiliating."

"How can you be nearly-headless? You either have a head, or you don't." Robin said.

"Oh really?" Sir Nicholas asked, and grabbed his hair.

One pull and his entire head flopped to the side.

It was more cool than gross, though I could see many of the first-year girls further down whiten at that sight. A tiny bit of skin was all that held the body part to the rest of the body.

With one swift movement, he flicked back his head to the normal position.

"How..." George trailed off.

"It's an interesting story and one that I've told many times. Yet I have learned not to tell the tale at the table so I'll spare you the details. On another note, I also heard a question being asked by Arthur before that whole girl fiasco-"

"What girl fiasco?" Charlie asked, looking at me and George.

"Nothing." Me and George said at once. Robin smiled at us.

"And to answer your question-" Sir Nicholas continued, "You'll get your timetables soon enough. As in a few minutes from now, if the Professors decide to keep themselves to last year's schedule."

"Thank you, Sir Nicholas." I nodded, and the Ghost smiled, before slowly floating down the table. I saw way more Ghosts flying around now. They were finally allowed to roam the hallways once again.

At the Teacher's table, I noticed some of the Teachers were standing up, and walking towards the four tables, one to each table, carrying a massive stack of paper cards.

A Man walked beside our table, his darting eyes revealed he was searching for someone.

He wore thin glasses, which went well with his beard. With shoulder-length hair, dark brown and without a curl, he seemed pretty laid back. The only thing that was slightly off was his dark robes that only just didn't act as a makeshift broom.

When he spotted the person he was searching for, he strode over to him. It was Thomas.

"Who is that?" George asked.

"That's Professor Ó Brádaigh." A boy told us, hearing George's question.

So that man was the Head of Gryffindor House. His features seemed to correspond with his personality, for I saw that he was smiling and laughing as he talked with Thomas.

"Please line up in front of me Gryffindors! Youngest to Oldest. I'm going to hand out the Timetables." Tom told us, and slowly the request was passed down the entire length of the table. We stood up and did as told.

I looked at it the moment I got it in my hand. Half the lessons were named in such a way that I didn't know what to expect from them. History of Magic seemed interesting, and so did Defense against the Dark arts. Flying was something that I was looking forward to on Thursday.

The first lesson I'd ever have was going to be Charms. I had no idea why I'd need to know how to pick up girls, but hey, I was past laughing at dumb stuff, cause, in the end, they turned out to be no joke.

Next to each period was the time it started, and Charms was going to start at Nine. It was currently Eight, so there was still a lot of time to get there.

"Holy Crap, there's a lot to take in," Charlie muttered, and Robin nodded along with him. I was looking forward to using my wand, but I couldn't figure out which lesson would let me do that. There were some that were straightforward. But Transfiguration? What the hell was that?

As one big herd, the entire Gryffindor House walked back up to the Common Room, getting our books for the lessons we would have today.

"Standard Book of Spells, Beginners Guide to Transfiguration, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, Guide to Self Protection," Derek Repeated to himself loudly, which was good for me too, cause I could check I had everything I needed.

Once we had everything, all of us walked down to the Common Room and stood around Nearly-Headless Nick as he told a story about something I had no idea about, having joined in late.

Time flew by quickly, and quite soon we were walking through the school once more, this time led by Nick. It was Tom that had asked Sir Nicholas to lead us to our lessons until we knew the castle well enough to not get lost. The Ghost seemed more than happy to help. After getting over my surprise that such a thing as ghosts existed, and would actually interact with you on a daily basis here, I found the company of Sir Nicholas actually enjoyable. I wondered if every ghost was this nice.

We reached a room, and Nick waved us goodbye whilst floating away.

Entering the room, a bell rang, and suddenly everyone started walking much faster to take a seat. I sat down beside Charlie and a girl called Sophie. She seemed pretty nice, and since there was no teacher we talked for a bit. I tried steering away from topics like family because I didn't want the discussion to be about my Uncle again. That was something that in no way would I want: to be known as the Nephew of Stewart Graham, rather someone who is seen as a separate entity from my famous Auror Uncle.

A small man walked into the classroom and stood upon a stack of books that was at the very front of the class. Even Hector, who was the shortest boy in Year 1 Gryffindor, was taller than the man.

"Quieten down, please," He said whilst holding the wand to his neck. Whatever he had done, his voice definitely shouldn't have carried across the entire room.

Once we did as he had asked. he cleared his throat.

"I welcome you, First Years, to Hogwarts and more importantly your very first lesson: Charms. I am Professor Filius Flitwick, and for the next few years, I'll be your Professor. Let's start off by talking about ourselves for I want to learn your names. Let's just go down the rows, shall we?"

"Julia Isenmore." The First Girl said.

"Robin Colton."

"Sophie Mitchell."

"Brian Liresen."

"Charlotte Henderson."

"Abbie Sanford."

"George Fisher."

Then it was my turn. I said my name.

"Charles Potter."

"Hector Verdis."

"Derek Tried."

"Hector Verdis."

"Chloe Carman."

"Jasmine Reilly."

Five people sat in one row, and Jasmine was right behind me.

"Alright! Thank you. Let's start at once since I know all of you are probably excited to learn your first spell!"

I looked at the two boys either side of me, and they too smiled.

"Now then, open books on page one, and let's begin!"

We did as told, and Professor Flitwick started explaining.

"So... Charms is an important part of magic, and probably the basis of all your future knowledge. All charms add properties to objects or creatures, and we differentiate two groups. Normal Charms and Dark Charms. Dark Charms are called Hexes, Jinxes or Curses, and we won't really learn about them in first year. Defence against the Dark arts lessons will talk all about them though, but I'm also here if you have any questions. Now then... Get out your wands!"

I pulled it out from my belt.

"Each charm requires three things. Determination, wand movements and a special word. Watch me!"

He grabbed his wand and did a looping movement with it.

"Lumos!"

A white light suddenly lit up from the tip of his wand.

"Whoa!" We all said as one.

"This is the Wand-Lighting Charm, created by Miranda Goshawk. You can read about it in the book, and that'll be your homework. But it's time for all of you to do this too. Wands Ready!"

I brought my wand up to my face.

"And follow my movements, before saying the words... Lumos!"

I did the circular movement and said the word.

Nothing.

Doing it again, I still didn't get the desired effect. What could've been the problem?

Charlie's Wand was shining, along with a slowly growing amount of classmates' wands too. Robin was waving his wand all around himself, while George was tapping it against the desk as if that'd help. Ten minutes passed, where nothing happened for any of us.

"Whoops!" I heard Robin exclaim and I looked over just in time to see his wand fly out of his hand, straight at the teacher.

He dodged it matrix-style, before picking it up and giving it back to him. Everyone was looking at him wide-eyed.

"I've been a teacher for a long time, and I've learned to dodge rogue spells, wands and books." He laughed, before getting back on topic, "A simple loop, then the word. Loo-mos. Pronunciation is key! As the book says, Remember Wizard Barrufio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself lying on the floor with a buffalo on his chest!" He smiled. Looking into the book, I saw that he had quoted it without a single mistake.

"I can do this..." I muttered, repeating the spell very carefully.

It lit up suddenly, and I had to look away before it burnt my eyes out. Success!

George finally managed to do it too, but he had to pat out a tiny fire that had started on his textbook.

When Robin was finished too, Professor Flitwick continued.

"Now then, to extinguish your wands, you need a counter-charm. Most Charms work that way. For this, you simply flick your wand, and say the Word Nox."

He showed the spell in practice, and just like that his wand stopped acting like a torch.

This time it worked the moment I did it and looking around the classroom, it seemed like this had worked much better for everyone else as well.

"Perfect! This is just the start though. Over the years, we'll learn many charms of various complexity, along with some other techniques that I won't get into, or you'll get confused."

We all let out a moan.

"Now, now. We have to leave some for other years. However, it's our first lesson, so we can call it quits for now. I do have some things to discuss with you..." He cleared his throat, "The school choir lost a lot of students as the Year Seven's left last year, and we'd need some good singing voices to replace them. Anyone who is interested can find me during the afternoon, or can put their hands up right now."

A few hands went up. I saw George look around the room before he too put his hand up. I looked over to Charlie, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Four... Five..." The Professor Counted, "Fantastic! We still have... Forty-Five minutes? Only half the lesson has passed." He scratched his chin, "That's not happened in a long time. Do any of you have questions?"

Some hands went up, including mine. I wanted to ask a question about one charm I had heard about.

The Professor's eyes locked onto me, and he called my name.

"Mister Graham, yes?"

"Sir. I've heard of a charm... the Patronus?"

"Ah, where did you hear that from?"

"My Uncle, he showed it to me. What does it do?"

"Now that, that's a good question. Five Points to Gryffindor." He smiled, "The Patronus Charm is an extremely advanced form of magic, and there are two forms of it. Corporeal and Non-Corporeal. Both serve to protect the caster, though the Corporeal Patronus is better at that job, also meaning it's harder. They can come in the form of any Animal, and they protect against dark creatures. But I can feel myself getting into Professor Ó Brádaigh's field, so I'll let him explain it to you in more detail if you wish to learn more about it, or you could read about it in the library."

"Thank you, Sir."

I saw a glint in his eyes, and he smiled, before turning to answer the next question.

Forty-Five minutes passed fairly quickly, and very soon a bell rang.

Standing up, I sheathed my wand and turned to follow Charlie out of the classroom, but I heard the voice of the Professor call me over. As I looked over, I saw he was beckoning me to come over.

"Yes, Professor?" I asked once I stood beside the small build of the Charms Teacher.

"You know, it's rare that a First-Year asks such a question on the very first lesson. I've known a few students who liked reading about spells, but they are now parents and grandparents. That begs the question, I'm certain I've heard your family name before. Are you related to Stewart Graham perchance?"

"He's my Uncle Sir."

"Yes, Yes. A Fantastic Boy, and I hear he's not so bad an Auror either. He too was Gryffindor. You do well to follow in his footsteps." He looked at his watch, "Oh it seems I've chatted with you a bit too much. I hope to see a lot of activity from you during my lessons." He smiled, handing me a note. I looked at it quizzically, "If you're late." He whispered.

"Thank you, Sir," I smirked, turning around to walk away. Something stopped me in my tracks. The Sorting hat had said... Something and it was only just hitting me.

"There a problem, Mister Graham."

"Sir, you might be able to help me with something."

"Yes?"

"The Sorting hat, it told me that my last family member was a Slytherin. Do you remember who it could've been by any chance?"

His forehead wrinkled.

"I don't recall any Graham being Slytherin. All of you were Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Did the sorting hat really say that?" He asked, worry etched on his face.

"I'm not sure. Maybe I don't remember it well... Goodbye Sir." I said, walking out of the classroom. The bell rang, and my face paled. Class had started, and I wasn't even sure where the lesson was. Transfiguration.

I walked down the corridor, but it opened into yet more corridors that seemed to lead deeper into the maze that was the castle.

"I've seen that look so many times before. Sweating, scared... The look of a First-Year that's lost."

Looking around my surroundings, there was nobody around me.

"Over here! The Painting, on the wall. I'm waving!" I noticed the moving painting, and walked closer to it, "Hey! Not so close, or your breath'll ruin my trees!" He exclaimed.

"Sorry." I muttered.

"No worries. Now then, how can I help you?"

"I need to find class... Thirty-Four." I said, reading off of the timetable.

"Transfiguration, Huh. Good subject. It's just your luck it's on this floor."

"Really?"

"Yes. Follow me!" The Painting said, and it walked out of its frame.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You coming?" I heard it's voice further down the corridor.

I walked over to the next painting, and the man stood there, with an annoyed looking lady standing behind him.

"If you want to reach your class and still understand what's going on, you have to do some running."

Before I could even agree, the painted man was off once more, and all I heard was his voice getting further and further away. Pardon Me-s and I'm Sorry-s bounced around the corridor. I ran after the sound.

I passed down infinite corridors, until finally, I barged through an oak door, not realising the portrait had stopped.

"Who do we have here?" The Teacher asked, and I looked at her breathlessly. I never knew portraits were secretly Olympic Runners.

The entire class was silent while I gathered my breath.

"I'm sorry Professor, I got lost."

"Why didn't you come with the rest of your year then?"

"Professor Flitwick had asked me to stay to talk with him." And I showed her that letter the Professor had given me.

"Ah yes, the Professor does like to talk with some of his students. Very well, take your seat."

I threw myself into the nearest chair I could find, beside Charlotte.

"May I get a name, Mister..."

"Graham. Arthur Graham."

"Mister Graham. Welcome to your first transfiguration lesson. Thankfully, you didn't miss much. I am Professor Katla Edwardson. We had just finished learning each other's names."

She pulled out her wand.

"Now, we can start. Charms was your first class, am I correct?" She asked.

"Yes." Half the class chorused.

"Good. Then you know some of the basics of magic. Charms are adding properties to an object or animal, but transfiguration is more exact. It needs less creativity and more knowledge of the subject. Open your textbooks, where in the first chapter you can read the following:" She cleared her throat, "Whenever you transfigure something, you must not wiggle or twirl your wand unnecessarily, rather firm and decisive wand movements are what you should try for, and with a clear mental picture of the object you are hoping to create, your spell will most likely work. There's a mathematical equation-" She flicked her wand at the blackboard, and a chalk quickly wrote it up by itself.

t=(w*c*Z)/(v*a)

"t stands for the difficulty of your transfiguration, w for your wand power, c for concentration, v for viciousness and a for the mass of the beginning object. The smaller the number you get for t, the harder it is."

"What about Zed?" Charlie asked.

"Zed is the Unknown Variable. It can take the difficulty both ways. Normally, if it's within your power range, the unknown variable does little to harm you. The more you challenge yourself, the more you'll find it'll be quite random at times. We're going to start with a spell. Any incomplete transfiguration you do, you should attempt to correct it. Otherwise, it can be dangerous for others, or for the living creature. Leaving a Rabbit half transformed into a weasel won't make the creature happy. Grab your wands."

For the second time today, I pulled my wand out from my belt and held it.

"All of you have an apple on the table..."

She looked at Brian, who was chewing something.

Professor Edwardson sighed and threw a new apple at him.

"Please don't eat them. Anyway, if you're successful at casting the spell, you should have a pineapple in front of you. The movements are easy, it's just a forward movement with a slight curve. Speak the words Reparifarge while you do it, and if you do it with the right confidence and movements, it should work."

She showed it on her own apple, and it did in fact turn into a pineapple.

Charms was much different compared to this, and it showed. I noticed Derek lift his apple a few moments later, his wand having pierced through it somehow. Sophie managed to get a hybrid fruit, part apple, part Pineapple. Robin, he managed to get as far as the shape. However, the texture and skin of the apple still remained.

To be fair, I wasn't having that much luck either. It wouldn't even budge. An apple rolled across the classroom here, Charles' wand landed in a plant pot over there. It was pure chaos.

"REPARIFARGE!" I yelled, but the apple didn't even react. One day in, and I was screaming at an apple. If Fingal would've heard about what I was doing, he'd collapse from laughter. Trying to turn a red, shiny apple into a yellow, spiky large pineapple. I couldn't help but smile at the stupidity that I was a part of.

The first actual pineapple was done by Chloe, nearly half an hour of swinging and cursing later.

"Very good, Miss Carman. But let's take a look on the inside." Chloe's eyes widened.

One flick of the wand, and the Pineapple fell apart, revealing apple seeds.

"So close, and yet so far. Nevermind. Alright! Let's stop. This'll be a part of your homework, to try to transform this to a pineapple." She pointed at the apple, "This is the basics of the entire thing, without knowing this spell, it's quite dangerous. This shouldn't deter anyone. If Reparifarge is something that works for you, reading through the book you have, or finding one in the library, could give you a head start. Just remember, the larger something is, the harder it is to transfigure. Know your limits."

"Reparifarge!" Robin exclaimed, and though his wand flew from his hand, the pineapple gained a nice yellow colour.

The Teacher raised an eyebrow, and with the same movements cut open the fruit. It was just as much a pineapple on the inside as it was on the outside.

"Congratulations, Mister Colton." Professor Edwardson said, clapping. We joined in.

Robin blushed, before standing up and grabbing his wand.

"Now then, wands away. You can continue this later. Open your books on page twenty-one, and let's begin..."

The rest of the lesson passed with us writing non-stop, copying everything the magic chalk wrote on the board before it was wiped clean. Most of it seemed logical in theory, but seeing as how I still had an apple in front of me, I wasn't so sure.

It was the bell that saved my hand from falling off. That didn't mean it wasn't hurting like hell.

"Homework for the end of the week is taking notes of the book, up until the match into needle transfiguration. We'll be trying that out next week. One last thing. While Reparifarge is a very useful spell, it's just as much a part of transfiguration as everything else. Meaning, it's extremely complex and hard unless you understand exactly how it works. It is, something that is worth learning though. As for Mister Colton here, we could chalk this success of his up to the Unknown Variable. Rarely does it work this fast for first years. You may now leave." She said, and we all stood up.

As I walked passed her, I heard a question directed to Robin about what type of wood his wand was made out of. The answer, however, was lost in the crowd.

"What's next?" Charles asked.

"Lunch," George replied.

"About time, I'm famished," I told them.

Stepping outside, I saw the last painting the man of the portrait had been in. There was nothing in there now. There went my plans to thank him and maybe exchange names.

"You got that right." Brian laughed behind us.