Many thanks to my reviewers! Please, if you're reading this, drop a line to say what you think. I'm particularly interested in comments re Meta - is she too Mary Sueish? Or alternatively, does she sound too old fashioned? When I'm writing school stories I tend to return to a 'default' Chalet School mindset - which may result in characters sounding like they're from the 1950s instead of the 1970s! Not, I think, that the slang would have changed much, and thankfully I'm a Brit, so that's not an issue. ; ) Comments about Minerva's characterisation and her interaction with Meta, Albus et al also welcomed. I would like to keep an IC Minerva while at the same time developing her... difficult line to walk.

Thanks again and enjoy this bit. Part two of this chapter will be up shortly!

Chapter Three
Something was rubbing her nose. Something wet and scratchy and persistent. Meta moaned in protest and tried to snuggle deeper into her blankets. Something sharp dug into her hands where they clasped the blankets to her, and she yelped.

"Minnie!" she hissed at the silver tabby, who made herself comfortable on Meta's chest and began to lick her paws.

Meta humphed. For the first time she took in her surroundings and got her bearings; she was at Hogwarts! With a squeak (what time was it?!), she scrabbled out of the four poster, dislodging Minnie in the process. The cat hissed and spat at her before vanishing, but Meta was too busy splashing her face and then getting into her robes to be concerned. She was relieved to note that she was not alone in her panic; Lily was equally harried, her face screwed in pain as she tried to brush the snarls out of her copper curls.

"I thought boarding schools had dressing bells," Lily complained to Meta as the two pulled on their outer robes, newly embroidered with the Gryffindor crest, and headed down the spiral staircase to the commonroom.

"Why do we need bells?" Meta asked, turning to walk backwards.

Lily rolled her eyes. "It might help with the getting-up part, don't you think?"

Meta shrugged. "S'pose. Most people have animals though." She grinned. "It's awfully hard to sleep in when you've a hungry cat or rat or whatever wanting to be fed."

"I don't have an animal," Lily said sadly. "My mother wouldn't let me." She wrinkled her nose. "My mum's a bit of a clean freak, see."

"Really? We're a cat family. I've always had at least one cat."

"Yes, we all know the McGonagalls have a catty streak," quipped a fourth former as she ran past. "Now hurry up. The prefects won't let us go down for brekkie until we're all there."

Taking the hint, the first years followed, and soon they were all following the Gryffindor prefects through the maze of corridors, temperamental doors, and moving staircases that made up the interior of the castle. The first years, who had been too tired the night before to notice details, were awed into silence, but the chatter from the other years made it clear that familiarity bred comfort.

The delicious smells wafting through the double doors of the Great Hall made Meta realise that she was hungry, and she settled to a breakfast of soda, kippers and bacon with relish, whilst Lily did likewise with toast and a boiled egg.

"There's one thing to be grateful for," Lily remarked as she cut the top off her egg, "at least the food's good here."

Meta frowned. "Why shouldn't it be? The house elves here are as good as anywhere else."

Lily paused mid-chew. "House-elves?"

"They're the creatures who do all the cooking and stuff," Remus Lupin supplied from across the table. "They do the mending too," he added as an afterthought.

Lily fingered the lovely bright red-and-gold crest on the front of her robe. "Did they –?"

Meta nodded vigorously. "Yep. How else d'you think it got done so fast?"

Lily frowned. "Dunno. Didn't really think about it."

"It was house-elves," Remus told her wisely. "Don't you have them at home?"

Lily's eyes went wide. "Of course not!"

Remus and Meta exchanged a glance. "It must be a Muggle thing," Meta said.

Remus nodded in agreement, but then asked: "Does anyone know what we do today?" He sounded worried. "This place is awfully big. How are we s'posed to find our way to lessons?"

"Professor McGonagall will hand out the timetables after breakfast," a tall redhead told him. Meta recognised him as one of the prefects from the shield badge on his robes.

"Never mind timetables," a second redhead said from Meta's other side, "we want to know all about you."

Meta gasped. Her eyes went from redhead Prefect to redhead Number Two and back again. The latter rolled his eyes in a theatrical manner and sighed.

"We've done it again, Fabe," he commented.

The prefect grinned. "Anyone'd think you'd never seen twins before, kid."

"I haven't," Meta admitted.

The one called 'Gid' held out his hand. "Well, now you have. I'm Gideon Prewett, and Mr Perky Perfect Prefect over there is my identical twin, Fabian – "

"- and now that we've satisfied your curiosity, you can do the same for us," Fabian supplemented.

Meta eyed them warily. "How'd you mean?"

Gideon leaned closer. "Gossip! For example –"

"-are you anything to do with our beloved Head of House?"

"She's my sister," Meta told them.

Their eyes went wide. "Uh," began Fabian, "no offence, but aren't you, um, a bit – "

" – young? Don't get us wrong, your sister's a fine woman, but she's no spring chicken, is she?"

"She's my half sister," Meta clarified, glaring at them.

The boys clung together in pretended fear. "Ooooh, look, Gid, she's got the glare down pat, hasn't she?"

"Yeah. Who'd think it, we've got our very own mini McGonagall – "

Fabian laughed. "Mini McGonagall. That's a good 'un, mate."

"Genius, aren't I," his brother agreed amiably. "I wasn't even trying, neither." He sighed and looked at the startled first years. "Brilliant, kids, just brilliant. That's us. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"I'll tell you otherwise," snapped Professor McGonagall's voice from behind Meta. "Prewett and Prewett, here are your timetables. You're with me first lesson, by the way, and I expect to see clear evidence of your vaunted brilliance then. Now go away and stop terrifying first years."

To Meta's astonishment, the older boys gave the stern professor an easy grin, and took their timetables. "Ta, Professor. We'll go and get ready. We'd much rather leave the terrifying to you, anyhow. You're so good at it!" The last bit was flung over Gideon's shoulder as they departed, and the Gryffindor first years sat watching their Head of House in frozen horror, fully expecting to see the cheeky Prewetts transformed into something small and squashable.

Instead, Professor McGonagall seemed to completely ignore them, although Meta could have sworn she saw something resembling a faint twinkle in the older witch's eyes as she turned back to the first years.

"Here you are: your schedules for this year. Now don't be intimidated," their Head of House added briskly as one or two first years turned slightly pale, "you'll get used to it very quickly, and we teachers do make allowances for you at first – for a very short period, so don't take advantage of it. Now you'd better return to your dormitories and finish getting ready for class."

By the time that they all trooped back into the Great Hall at four o'clock for afternoon tea, Meta was exhausted. The day had been tiring, challenging, frightening and exhilarating by turns, and they still had an hour of prep to go! Evidently Lily and Remus agreed with her, for they slumped over their tea, looking as drained as Meta felt.

"Well," said Lily faintly, "that was … interesting."

"You're gonna be top of the class," Remus observed gloomily as he spread shortbread crumbs all over the table. "You were fab in Charms, Lily."

Lily flushed. "You weren't so dusty in Transfiguration yourself, and Professor McGonagall said Transfiguration was the most complicated magic we'd learn."

"Yeah, but Meta was better still better than me," Remus grumped. "I was hopeless at Charms too. Look. Wingardium leviosa!" He pointed his wand at the piece of shortbread still resting on his plate, and it rose by some three millimetres before dropping back and shattering into smithereens.

"I don't know what you're complaining about," Meta told him severely. "That's still lots better than most people managed. Sirius Black blew up his feather, f'r'instance."

"He was just messin' around," Remus insisted, obviously determined to be pessimistic. "I bet he could do it if he wanted. I bet I'm in the bottom. Lily'll be top in Charms, and Meta in Transfiguration. Severus'll top in Potions and Frank in Herbology. Just wait. You'll see!"

Meta shrugged and finished her tea. "It's only the first day," she pointed out. "I bet you're better than you think. And," she added with a groan, "it's nearly quarter past four and we've got to find our way back to the commonroom for prep, or we'll lose housepoints."

Realising the truth of this, the other two hurriedly finished their own tea, and before long the three were attempting to negotiate their way back to Gryffindor for themselves. Admittedly, it took them twice as long as it should have done, and Professor McGonagall threw them a very dirty look when they did appear, but this small achievement put them in a good mood for the rest of the day, and started off their Hogwarts careers on a positive note.