Slowly the Great Hall emptied as everyone retreated sleepily to their dormitories. The other first year Ravenclaws and I followed a tall, fifth year prefect named Morgan Welsh-Linn to the Ravenclaw dormitory. I tried to remember all the winding staircases and elegant corridors that we took, but I quickly lost track. Several times we had to step through hidden doorways behind threadbare tapestries, or go up stair cases that I'd thought we had just gone down. At last Morgan announced that we were almost there as she lead us down a warmly lit hallway with polished mahogany walls and great stained glass windows depicting wizards casting powerful spells and brewing complicated potions. We stopped before a plain stone statue of an eagle, silhouetted against another arched stained glass window, this one showing a wizard in hideous green robes pouring over an ancient looking spell book.

"Scientia est vox!" She said loudly to the eagle.

He sprang to life, nodding his great, feathered head, "Right you are, my dear!" He leapt aside and I just glimpsed the stained glass wizard waving at us and holding his book open to a page reading 'Welcome, Ravenclaws!', before the window swung open. Instead of the moonlit grounds of Hogwarts, the window revealed a comfortable common room with great stone walls, a soft blue carpetand two fireplaces surrounded by large, fluffy blue armchairs.

"Boys staircase is the one on the left and girls is on the right," Morgan said, gesturing to two carpeted staircases at the back of the room. I followed the other Ravenclaw girls to our room. It was small, but cozy, with three beds, bureaus and bookshelves. Candles were set in nooks along the wall, glowing in a friendly way. Our trunks had already arrived and Fen sat on my bed, washing himself.

Victoria and Megan, the two other first years were sitting on their on beds, talking.

"I'm sure my mother will be really pleased. Everyone in our family all the way back has been in either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. What about you?" Victoria was saying.

"I don't know. The hat was going to put me in Hufflepuff, but I asked it not to. I don't think my mum would care but my sister would probably tease me. Oh!" she said, noticing me, "I'm Megan,"

"I'm Sarah," I said, smiling.

"Where're you from then?" asked Victoria without so much as an introductory 'hello'.

"Oh, um, Boston…" I said, a bit taken aback.

"The United States? I could tell from your accent," She said rather unnecessarily. "What about you, will your family be pleased with your house?"

"I don't think they know enough about Hogwarts to care, really. The hat was thinking about putting me in Slytherin, but-"

"Oh, so you're pureblood then?" Victoria asked, cutting me off. "I am. My whole family goes back, centuries and centuries. I don't really think they should let muggle-born people in at all. I mean, they haven't grown up around magic, have they? Most of them have never even heard of Hogwarts! It's not fair, really. There are plenty of good, pureblood, families around who would love to have their children go to Hogwarts,"

"Actually, I'm only halfblood, my dad is a wizard, but my mom's sister was witch so I did, um… grow up around magic," I said, slightly indignant about her prejudice, but trying not to let it show. I didn't want to get into an argument or anything, but I really couldn't understand what people had against muggle-borns.

"Oh… oh, well I didn't mean… you know, it's not like I'm a muggle-hater or anything," She said, sounding rather surprised.

"What about you?" I asked Megan, trying to smooth over the awkwardness. "Is your family a wizarding family?"

"Yes, I'm pureblood," she said, but it didn't sound as if it really mattered to her. We unpacked silently, mostly because we were all too tired to say much to each other, but the silence still felt a little uncomfortable. I hoped that by the next morning we would all have forgotten the conversation and start over fresh.

However, in the morning, Megan and Victoria finished getting ready a few minutes before me and left the dormitory together, leaving me to find my way for myself. I nervously crept out of the stained glass doorway and into the hall. For a minute I couldn't even remember whether I should go left down the hall to a tall spiral stairway or right to a large wooden door, but then I saw several fourth years who appeared to have just left the common room and I managed to follow them down what felt like hundreds of corridors and staircases.

Finally we reached the Great Hall which was now filled with all sorts of breakfast food. I sat down at the end of the Ravenclaw table and reached for a blueberry muffin. Suddenly, however, I was interrupted by a whooshing sound that filled the hall as though a hundred owls were all flapping their wings at once. Then I realized that in fact the sound was a hundred owls all swooping into the Great Hall, apparently delivering the morning mail. Owls in all shades of brown, white, black, and grey flew through the room, dropping letters into goblets of pumpkin juice and newspapers into bowls of cereal. Owls of all kinds filled the space below the enchanted ceiling, which was cloudless and dull blue this morning. There were screech owls, snowy owls, great greys, barn owls, spotted owls, eagle owls, tawny owls, great horned owls, and I even thought I spotted a fluffy little pygmy owl carrying a package twice its size.

For several seconds I sat transfixed by the site, until a very short wizard who I soon learned was called Professor Flitwick gave me a card with my schedule on it. It included the days and times of all of my classes and what other house I'd be having the class with. On the back was printed the teacher and location of each class.

Monday:
8:00-8:45 Transfiguration with Gryffindor
9:00-9:45 Herbology with Slytherin
9:55-10:40 Charms with Hufflepuff
11:00-11:45 Free
11:55-12:40 Potions with Hufflepuff
12:40-1:40 Lunch
2:00-2:45 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin
2:55-3:40 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin
3:50-4:35 History of Magic with Slytherin
4:50-5:35 Free

Tuesday:

8:00-8:45 History of Magic with Slytherin
9:00-9:45 Transfiguration with Gryffindor
9:55-10:40 Free
11:00-11:45 Herbology with Slytherin
11:55-12:40 Herbology with Slytherin
12:40-1:40 Lunch
2:00-2:45 Potions with Hufflepuff
2:55-3:40 Free
3:50-4:35 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin
4:50-5:35 Charms with Hufflepuff

Wednesday:

8:00-8:45 History of Magic with Slytherin
9:00-9:45 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin
9:55-10:40 Transfiguration with Gryffindor
11:00-11:45 Transfiguration with Gryffindor
11:55-12:40 Potions with Hufflepuff
12:40-1:40 Lunch
2:00-2:45 Free
2:55-3:40 Charms with Hufflepuff
3:50-4:35 Charms with Hufflepuff
4:50-5:35 Free
11:00-12:00 Astronomy with Gryffindor

Thursday:

8:00-8:45 Potions with Hufflepuff
9:00-9:45 Potions with Hufflepuff
9:55-10:40 Free
11:00-11:45 History of Magic with Slytherin
11:55-12:40 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin
12:40-1:40 Lunch
2:00-2:45 Charms with Hufflepuff
2:55-3:40 Herbology with Slytherin
3:50-4:35 Free
4:50-5:35 Transfiguration with Gryffindor

Friday:

8:00-8:45 Charms with Hufflepuff
9:00-9:45 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin
9:55-10:40 Herbology with Slytherin
11:00-11:45 Potions with Hufflepuff
11:55-12:40 Transfiguration with Gryffindor
12:40-1:40 Lunch
2:00-2:45 Free
2:55-3:40 Free
3:50-4:35 Free
4:50-5:35 Free

Saturday:

11:55-12:40 Flying Lessons with Ravenclaw (every other Saturday; weather permittig)

"You'll want to keep that around. The teachers often change the schedule, so you should make sure you check it every now and then," Professor Flitwick said in a squeaky voice.

I looked it over carefully. I was disappointed to see that I only had transfiguration and astronomy with Gryffindor, but I was excited that I had transfiguration first thing today and would be able to see Angelina. On Tuesday, I noticed, I had a free period after transfiguration. Maybe I could study with her after the class.

I glanced at my watch to see how much time I had and gasped. It was ten minutes to 8:00! I had ten minutes to get to transfiguration, which, according to my schedule card, was on the third floor. Wondering vaguely whether the floor I was on now counted as the ground floor or the first floor, I hurriedly gathered up my things and glanced around desperately for another Gryffindor or Ravenclaw first year.

Up ahead I saw Thomas McMillan from the train who I remembered was in Ravenclaw. He was walking with Sean O'Leary, another Ravenclaw. I sped up, trying to keep them in sight, but not let them notice me following them. I wasn't sure that they knew exactly where they were going either, they kept stopping and had to go back and retrace their steps several times.

They were desperately trying to open a locked door now, arguing over which way they should go. I checked my watch, the halls were nearly empty now and we only had four more minutes to get to class. I heard foot steps coming up the stairs behind us and turned quickly. I was on the verge of asking whoever it was for directions, when they suddenly let out an angry shout. It was Mr. Filch, the caretaker.

"You two! What do you think you're doing? That hall is forbidden to students!" He screeched.

"We had no idea, honest!" Sean exclaimed.

"We were lost! We meant to go to the transfiguration department, and I thought it was through this door here!"

"See sir, my brother said if you got lost you should find the big, oak, door next to the portrait of Christopher the Curious and I thought this was it, so I was just trying to get through it so I could find my way-"

"Oh, you were, were you? Well… For your information, this door is out of bounds and furthermore…"

I never heard what else the door was; I was too busy trying to casually walk away while really going as fast as I could without running. I was going to be late for my very first class at Hogwarts ever. And, to make matters worse, Professor McGonagall was going to be the teacher and she really hadn't looked like the kind of person who'd be very forgiving about lateness. I was so worried about this that I almost bumped into a Gryffindor fourth year walking down the hallway toward me.

"Excuse me," I gasped, extremely relieved, "Do you know where the transfiguration department is?" She gave me a very odd look before replying, "Yeah… Right here." She stalked off muttering about snotty little first years and I felt my cheeks reddening. A large gold plaque on the wall right next to me said clearly 'Transfiguration'.

I turned to my left and saw classroom 8, where my class would be held, right next to me. Almost too relieved to be embarrassed anymore, I quickly opened the door and took one of the few remaining seats, near the back. Angelina gave me an understanding look, while Victoria giggled slightly, whispering something to Megan.

"Ah, good. We're just waiting for four more then. Please take out your books. I'm sure they will be arriving momentarily," Professor McGonagall said.

A petite girl with dark brown hair came into the classroom, looking rather confused. "And you would be Amelia Stone?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"Yes, Professor," she said, sitting down nervously with the other Gryffindor girls.

"Now, let's see… It appears we're missing Kenneth Towler, Thomas MacMillan, and Sean O'Leary…" The door opened again and Thomas and Sean walked in.

"Good morning, boys. So glad you decided to join us. Now, as we are only missing one person, and he is already late for my class, I think we will begin," She said, gesturing to two empty seats in front of her and indicating the we should all listen up.

"Transfiguration is one of the most difficult and dangerous of magics taught here at Hogwarts. If done incorrectly, the results can be catastrophic. Therefore, anyone caught fooling around will leave this class and will not return. Is this understood?" She asked, there was general consent around the room and Professor McGonagall nodded briskly and withdrew her wand from the pocket of her robes. She gave a small flourish and the hat stand by the door became a small giraffe, its neck bent absurdly to keep its great spotted head from touching the ceiling.

Everyone applauded and there was an air of excitement around the room. "When can we do that?" asked a boy called Josh Grenson loudly. But, as we soon discovered, we would not be able to change inanimate objects into animals for a long time. Professor McGonagall first set us to reading the first chapter in our books and then passed out matches that were to be turned into needles. I quickly realized it was a lot more difficult than I had thought. There were complicated movements that had to be done just so and tongue twisting words that had to be said with exactly the right emphasis.

For the umpteenth time I cried "Postulmuto!" gracefully swooping my wand downward and then jabbing it at the match. Nothing happened at first, but then my wand grew warm for a second and a tingling hum spread through my fingers and up my arm. Suddenly the match exploded, smoking wildly, its splinters of shrapnel turning first purple then green and finally bursting into flame before flying across the classroom. It was completely quiet for a second, unbroken except for the cries of people being hit with flaming bits of transfigured match.

"What in the world did you do?" ask Professor McGonagall, sounding more perplexed rather than angry.

"I- I'm not sure," I stammered, looking at the devastation I had caused. Apparently the splinters had turned into molten bits of metal which were now making dangerous sizzling noises and letting off a smell that was suspiciously like melting plastic.

"I think you were a bit… overenthusiastic," Professor McGonagall said, vanishing the remnants of the match with a flick of her wand. "It appears that you somehow… uh, blew up and melted your match. However, it seems that you did in fact manage to turn it into a needle a few seconds prior to, er… exploding it. Well done, for that you can have five points to Ravenclaw. On the other hand, it is evident that you have a rather strong knack for magic… a rather large amount of power, shall we say, for a first year and you don't seemed to have yet mastered control of this. I warn you, be very careful. Don't get carried away when you are practicing spells. Is that understood, Miss Starell?"

I nodded, embarrassed. "Alright then, I think it is time for you to go to your next class. I want everyone to write me a short essay on what you read in the first chapter of your books. I will collect them on Wednesday," With that, the class filed from the room, whispering enthusiastically about our first lesson.

I was still thinking about my explosion. As I glanced down at my wand, which was still smoking slightly, I thought back to the words of the woman who had sold it to me. 'This wand will turn your wildest dreams into reality.'