A/N - Have decided to upload my chapters in parts so that you guys get quicker updates. Judging by the length of this part I suspect Chapter 8 to be made up of 4 - 5 parts.

Chapter 8 – First Day of Class [Pt.1]

Antares rolled his eyes in boredom as he effortlessly swished his wand back and forth, making a silver goblet appear and then disappear before his eyes. Sometimes being ahead of the class wasn't always as fun as one would think.

Casually scanning the room from his position at the back of the class, Antares couldn't help but shake his head at his classmate's pathetic attempts at Conjuration. It would seem that Transfiguration wasn't meant for everyone.

Checking to his left and right where both Xavier and Sophia were seated beside him, he was glad to see that they had at least accomplished the task set to them by their aging Transfiguration professor. He never did like hanging around with incompetent people, it didn't reflect well on him as the Scion of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

Quietly waiting for the class to end, Antares pushed the thoughts of the Hufflepuffs complete ineptitude to perform basic magic out of his mind. He instead focused his attention back to breakfast an hour previous.

Breakfast had been a simple affair. He and his friends had arrived in the Great Hall at roughly 8:00, a time when all four tables were nearly at capacity and the entire room was bursting with conversation. He had sat on either side of Sophia and Caroline, with Xavier, Tristan, and Jasper sitting across the table from them.

The conversation topics were what one would expect from your average group of sixteen-year-olds. Revolving mostly around which classes each other were taking, their plans for the upcoming year, who was dating who, their opinions on the new DADA Professor and other sorts of unimportant questions.

He had then been interrupted from his breakfast of porridge and tea when his schedule for the year had made their way into his lap. Holding the parchment in one hand and his cup of tea in other, he had glanced down at his schedule and nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Antares had internally smirked when he noticed that he coincidentally had Transfiguration first thing after breakfast, his joke earlier to Sophia being completely made in jest. Besides Transfiguration, he had double Defence Against the Dark Arts with the new professor and Arithmancy before dinner.

He was brought out of his musings about breakfast by the sound of a clearing throat. Raising his head, he was met with the stern face of Professor Minerva McGonagall.

"Mr. Black, why are you not practicing the assigned task?"

"I've completed it Professor" replied Antares.

"A demonstration if you wouldn't mind" she said, one eyebrow raised in an expression of clear disbelieve.

Picking up his wand from the desk and sitting upright in his chair, Antares cleared his throat and spoke the spell in a strong clear voice.

"Scyphum Argenti Ignis"

The whole class, including the professor, stopped what they were doing to stare in amazement as Antares' spell began to take form.

From out of thin air a large silver goblet had begun to take shape. It stood at roughly one and a half feet tall, had intricate serpent carvings all over its body and had the Black Family crest (three crows and a wand on a shield of red, blue and white) emblazoned upon its front. Yet it wasn't the beauty of the goblet that held everyone's attentions. It was the intertwined silver and green flames that were spilling out of the top of it.

McGonagall couldn't help the slight smile that made its way onto her face as she began to applaud her student's display of Advanced Transfiguration. Conjuring two things at once was beyond even NEWT level classwork, she wondered when had he learned how to do such advanced magic.

"10 points to Slytherin, for an amazing display of Double Conjuration. However, if you find yourself ahead of my class again Mr. Black, I trust that you will do something more productive with your time than sitting about daydreaming." She said to Antares once the commotion in the room had died down and the class had returned to work.

"Of course Professor. I shall refrain from doing so in the future" Antares replied as he vanished his goblet with a wave of his wand, before relaxing once more into his chair.

Internally he was grinning. It wasn't every day that he got to show off his magical prowess, opting to usually keep his skills to himself. Revealing one's full capabilities to potential enemies was never a smart move, one his father had often reminded him of.

"Show off" muttered a smirking Xavier from his quite used to his friend's dramatics by now.

"Jealous much?" Antares whispered back, his eyes lit with clear amusement.

"Hardly -"

Xavier's full response was cut off by the ringing of the school bell, signalling the end of their first class of the day.

"For those of you that were unable to complete the assigned task today, I'd like a foot of parchment on the properties of a Conjuration and the reason it is so difficult to master. To everyone else you are exempt from this week's homework assignment and are instead encouraged to keep on practicing the spell with more difficult materials" called out McGonagall from 6the front of the classroom.

Following his classmate's example, Antares shoved his Transfiguration books into his bag and stood up from his chair.

Knowing that Sophia and Xavier's schedule may differ from his own, he asked them what class they had next whilst they exited the room together.

"DADA with Professor Graves," said Sophia.

"Same" replied Xavier and Antares in almost perfect unison, the two of them turning to grin at each other in amusement.

"I wonder if this new teacher will be any good or not. I hope he's at least better than Professor Smyth was last year" mused Xavier as the three of them made their way towards the DADA Classroom on the second floor.

"He couldn't possibly be any worse than Professor Smyth" replied Sophia. "Remember how he used to force us to literally copy the textbook word-for-word onto parchment instead of actually teaching us, absolutely pathetic in my opinion".

"What about you Antares?" asked Xavier of his best friend. "What do you think the new Professor will be like".

"We both know that my opinion hardly matters Xavier, seeing as we're about to find out," Antares said as they turned the corner and the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom came into view.

Scyphum Argenti Ignis = Goblet of Fire