"Ooh, look, there's Sirius," Eunice said the next morning. They had just entered the great hall for breakfast and were heading toward the Gryffindor table. "Let's sit next to him."

Gwen shook her head. "You have some nerve!"

"Gryffindors are supposed to be brave, aren't they?" she replied, leading her roommate over to sit by the Gryffindor boys. She plopped right down next to Sirius and brightly said, "Good morning!"

"Morning," Sirius replied. Gwen sat down on the other side of her friend, and Lily and Grace slipped into seats across from them, next to Remus and Peter. "I'm Sirius," he continued, and introduced his three roommates. Eunice introduced the girls and they dug into breakfast.

"What do we have on the schedule today?" Eunice asked over the scrambled eggs.

"Transfiguration with Slytherin, potions with Hufflepuff ," James said, shoveling sausage onto his plate.

"Uh-oh," Gwen said. "Potions... I just hope it's not like cooking. My mum has given up on teaching me to cook."

"I heard transfiguration is really hard," Peter said nervously. The corner of Remus's mouth twitched.

"Are you trying out for Quidditch?" James asked Sirius.

"Nah." Sirius brushed it off. "Dueling club, maybe."

"What's quidditch?" Lily asked.

James launched into a long and detailed explanation of his favorite sport. Gwen rolled her eyes. He sounded like her father. When he had finally run down, she said to Sirius, "Is there a dueling club?"

Sirius nodded. "There's a notice in the common room."

Gwen made a mental note to check later. She had never thought about dueling until Mr. Ollivander mentioned it. But since your wand was supposed to compliment you, and hers was supposed to be good for dueling... Maybe she wouldn't be so bad at it! She had her doubts about transfiguration and potions though...

000

Transfiguration class, which they had with Hufflepuff, didn't go terribly well for Gwen. Their strict but interesting teacher, Professor McGonagall, had them all trying to turn matches into needles. No one actually managed it, of course. Sirius and James' were rather silver and pointy, and several people's, including most of the other Gryffindors', were getting pointy, at least. But by the end of class, Gwen's hadn't changed at all, and she was beginning to plot how to "accidentally" strike it and burn it up. A few other people were having the same problem, including Peter Pettigrew. James and Sirius were trying to help him, but it didn't seem to be working. He seemed as relieved as she was when McGonagall declared the class over.

Gwen glumly trudged with her classmates to potions, which were held all the way down in the cellar. If anything, potions was worse! Professor Gumboil had them working in pairs to make a simple boil cure. Gwen, working with Eunice, stung herself on the dry nettles and didn't let the horned slugs stew long enough. Eunice managed to catch her mistakes, but the potion looked a bit too green when they were done. She noticed that Peter seemed to be struggling even more. He was working with Remus, who, she noticed, ended up doing most of the work after Peter nearly added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the heat. Professor Gumboil wasn't terribly nice about it, either.

"Watch that, Pettigrew! You'll melt the bottom of the cauldron! Honestly, the students I get..."

Peter looked crestfallen. James and Sirius hid their amused grins. Gwen watched Lily, who glanced at James and Sirius with disdain, then went and spoke quietly to Peter as Remus was doing. Gwen couldn't catch what they said, but in a minute or two, Peter nodded and smiled at them.

But all in all, Gwen was not in a good frame of mind as she walked to their first class the next day. It was charms, and tiny Professor Flitwick wanted them to try and levitate feathers. Gwen didn't want to try. She had messed up on the last two subject, and this didn't look any easier. She watched a little jealously as Lily managed to levitate hers just above her head on her second try. After a few tries, James and Sirius's feathers rose into the air.

Eunice nudged her. "You haven't tried the charm yet."

Gwen looked at her dolefully, then took up her wand with a sigh. Well, swish and flick, she thought. "Wingardium leviosa!"

To her unending shock and delight, the feather immediately, obediently, rose into the air. Concentrating, she moved it around, finally dropping it to tickle Eunice on the nose. Eunice sneezed.

"Oh, well done!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed. "Ten points to Gryffindor!"

Gwen beamed.

000

Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Astronomy. None of her classes went too badly over that week and the next, and she even seemed to be pretty good at Defense. But Transfiguration was another story. She simply did not understand it. Eunice tried to help her some in class, and even James and Sirius gave her a hand when they weren't working with Peter. McGonagall, at length, announced that a test was scheduled for the next Tuesday. Gwen, sitting dejectedly at her desk, put her forehead in her hand.

Gwen sat staring blankly at her homework on the table in the common room, her chin propped on her fists. It took her a minute to notice that there was someone standing across from her. She glanced up to see Remus looking down at her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, smiling slightly.

"Oh. Yes, I'm fine," Gwen said, running a hand through her hair and puffing out her cheeks. "I just don't get this."

Remus picked up one of the papers. "Well, no wonder," he said after a moment, pointing to it. "You were reading the wrong chapter!"

"Argh!" Gwen put her had down on the table between her hands and shook it, eliciting a laugh from Remus. He pulled a chair up beside hers.

"Here, let's take a look at this assignment."

"Transfiguration is so hard!" she exclaimed.

Remus had a thoughtful look on his face. "In some ways, it's very hard. In some ways, it's so easy you don't even have to try." He realized that Gwen was staring at him, fascinated, and he laughed. "Show me your notes."

Remus helped her with her transformation work every night that week. There was a test on Tuesday, and Gwen worried about it, even after it was done. The day they got their tests back, she put off looking at her grade until they were in the corridor walking to potions. Them she sneaked a glance—and did a double-take, stopping dead.

"What is it?" Remus and Eunice asked at the same time.

"I got a B minus!" Gwen yelped, jumping up and down. "I got a B! I got a B!" She threw her arms around Remus' neck and didn't notice his blush or how nervous his laugh sounded. "Yahooo!"

"No jumping the corridor," Filch hissed, having sneaked up behind them. Gwen stopped immediately until Filch was out of sight, and then all three of them started laughing.

AN: Please review! I will love you all forever! And constructive criticism is very much appreciated!