Chapter 8: Trick
Star, Silia, and Draco made their way from Prof. Binns' class and into the Great Hall for lunch. They met Luci at the door and talked for a few minutes about the dumbness of the new Defense teacher, the boringness of History class, the new things that Potter ass and his little friends did, and what Star should expect from McGonagall in Transifguration. Then they went their separate ways to eat breakfast.
Star and Draco sat at their table, Star thanking him for sitting with her. They ate for a few minutes, but lost her appetite pretty fast. She just didn't feel like eating...but she didn't feel like spending a ½ hour outside or in the common room or sitting their silent so she decided to give conversation a shot.
"So...who's Potter?"
Draco swallowed and glanced over at Gryffindor table darkly.
"You see where Silia is? On the opposite side of the table is Potter, Granger, and the Weasley pratts."
Star craned her neck to find them. Sitting amidst a sea of red heads was Hermione Granger and Potter, a skinny boy with messy hair.
"Okay...but what's so special about them?"
Draco launched himself into a rant about some dark wizard and surviving an attack and how he's a cocky bastard and his friends always acted so 'higher than thou' and how everyone was so obsessed with him for some reason and blah blah blah...clearly Star sensed high animosity between the two houses. Most of the Slytherins joined in on the rant, as well. Star looked back at Potter and his friends. She didn't understand most of what the Slytherins were talking about, but Potter didn't really look all that terrible. She was kind of intrigued by this strange story Draco had just told her and sort of wanted to know more. She hoped she'd be able to talk to him sometime...but she didn't voice her opinion. Draco might pick up that dish of ketchup and use it to garnish her head when he ate it.
When lunch finished, Star and Draco headed toward McGonagall's classroom with the Hufflepuffs (which Star concluded to be a house of nice but sort of boring people...). Transfiguration was apparently the class where she would learn to change stuff into other stuff...or something. She was a little afraid of this class. The night before, McGonagall seemed rather stern and icy. When they entered the class, Draco insisted on sitting in the very back of the room. McGonagall was the Gryffindor Head, so Star guessed he probably didn't like her.
When they took their seats McGonagall stood and stepped away from her desk. She regarded her class silently for a few moments before she spoke. She welcomed the class back and hoped they had a pleasant summer briskly, then turned to the black board. Everyone began removing quill and parchment and Star sighed. More notes she wouldn't understand. Yay.
Once they'd written down what turned out to be this year's class expectation, McGonagall turned to her student, once again regarding them with her sharp, spectacled eyes. Her eyes flicked to the back of the room and Star thought, when their eyes met, that McGonagall showed her the faintest, smallest, barely-noticeable trace of a smile. Star smiled back just as faintly. WTF? Why did all the Slytherins dislike her so much? They all called her an evil, batty lady. The Ice Queen. Bag Woman. Hag...and a few other things I care not to repeat to you. Well, Star liked Prof. McGonagall. But she wouldn't tell anyone.
McGonagall told the class she wanted to do a short review of everything she'd taught them. It would only take them the first week of school. She said it was because the materials she had ordered for the class to use that year wouldn't be delivered until the end of the week. So until then they would be performing a bit of review, to make sure they had the skill to handle what she had ordered from them. But although she said this, Star knew that the reason she was putting them through a review was to give her a chance to do well. But Star didn't hold it against her. In fact, Star had decided she wanted to sneak down to the kitchens sometime and bake her cookies.
By the time Transfiguration was passed and done for the day, Star could turn a pin cushion into a mouse (a cute one, too, that McGonagall said she could keep—Star named her Nao. She was slightly purple, and although everyone thought it was an accident that she was purple, Star kept it a secret that she did it on purpose), a teacup into a small blue and red fish, and Draco's shoe into a fluffy duckling. She couldn't believe how easily the skills came to her. Changing the objects and then returning them to normal (the duck and fish, at least) wasn't all that difficult. Maybe this magic thing wasn't so difficult after all...? No. It would get harder. Star told herself; it can't stay easy for long.
Star and Draco ran into Luci on her way down to the dungeons for Potions. They helped Luci to her feet and apologized for knocking her down. She told them not to worry about it, then asked Star how Transfiguration went.
As they headed down a smallish corridor toward the class a most hilarious thing happened; Star, Luci, and Draco were immersed in conversation about the cute little purple mouse named Nao and they did not realize who, with his big nose in a roll of parchment, one hand locked on the shoulder of a frightened looking Ravenclaw, was heading down the hall at the same time. None of them noticed each other until they were trying to fit through the door at the same time. The four students and Snape smashed into each other and frantically tried to squish through the doorway. Star was the first one out of the fray, and she pulled Draco out of the fray. Snape placed a hand on Lucretia's back and pushed her through. As the girl followed after Snape, Star thought she glanced Snape's hand pass over Lucretia's rear end. But she cringed it off. No way could that be true. She took it as a trick of the flickering light and found her seat toward the front of the room with Draco and Luci.