"Welcome to a History of Magic," droned the transparent professor in the front of the room. Supposedly Professor Binns was a ghost, but Rory was still uncomfortable with the idea of ghosts. How could they exist? It wasn't logical.
Floating back and forth in the front of the room as if he was trying to pace, Binns continued "The first and most important concept you should grasp in this class is that the history is being written now. For the first lesson, you will find in the Daily Prophet an article about what is currently happening in the Auror Department of the Ministry of Magic. Write a 3-inch summary and turn it in." Instantly, a newspaper appeared in front of every student. It was the odd newspaper she had seen on the train yesterday. Short videos replaced photographs. Rory rubbed her thumb against what she assumed was a flexible LCD screen, but she felt paper. She retracted her thumb only to notice that it was now smeared with ink. She shook her head, bewildered by the odd videos, but she decided she should finish the assignment before investigating it further.
Rory glanced through the paper, searching for a section titled Ministry or Politics or something similar. She flipped open to the Sports section, and in the first article there was a video of a person in an orange robe zooming through the sky on what looked like a broomstick. She chuckled. Witches on flying broomsticks? Wasn't that a bit cliche? She started to turn the page when someone spoke, breaking the chilling silence of the classroom.
"Excuse me?" asked the girl on her right. Her eyes were wide and she was trembling, her short nut-brown hair shaking out from behind her small ears. "How do you do the assignment?" she whispered.
Rory hesitantly glanced up from her paper. She had not expected anyone to talk to her. Afterall, she was four years older than all of the other students in the room. Regardless, the girl had spoken to her, and at the very least, Rory could answer her question. "Do you know how to read a newspaper?" Rory asked. The girl shook her head. Rory flipped through her newspaper. "Do you see how there are multiple sections? Here's 'Sports.'" She pointed to with the flying broomstick.
"That's quidditch!" squealed the girl.
Rory nodded, committing the word to memory. "And this is 'World Events,'" she continued, flipping to a page on which there was a video of a man with a french-sounding name. The headline discussed the French magical government. Rory realized that there must be people who believed in magic all over the world.
"Do you think they'll win?" asked the girl.
Rory wasn't aware that there was a war between the French and British ministry from the headlines. She tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"
"The Chudley Cannons," said the girl. Rory tilted her head more. "The quidditch team? From the sports page."
Rory shook her head. "Sorry," she said, "I'm new to the world of magic."
"Really?" asked the girl. "I just assumed that you were held back for a really long time. I asked you for help because I thought you had done the assignment before."
"Nope. This is my first year here," said Rory, shaking her head. She flipped to another page. "Here is "Ministry Happenings,' which will have your information about what's happening in the British Ministry of Magic," she said, though she still wasn't entirely sure what the ministry was. She hoped that she could learn more from reading the assigned article, but in case context was not enough, she resolved to read about it later.
"Thanks!," whispered the girl. She flipped to that page in her newspaper and began reading the first article, dragging her finger underneath each line of text. "I'm not seeing anything about aurors!
Rory skimmed through the headlines. "It's the second article," she replied, pointing to the correct article. "I'm Rory, by the way."
"Jane," replied the girl, pointing to herself. "Thank you."
The article centered around budget cuts in the Auror Department, which apparently investigated dark magic. What exactly was dark magic? From all of the fantasy movies she'd seen, it was evil. Did that still apply here? Also, the ministry was responsible for all magical people in Britain, and the muggle government did not interfere with magical rights. After reading the article, she dipped her borrowed quill into an inkwell, and summarized the article. The quill felt loose and unfamiliar in her hand, but after a few sentences, the push and pull of the quill grew smoother and more familiar. In a matter of minutes, she had finished the assignment.
Rory rose and submitted her assignment on the front desk before finding professor Binns to ask about catching up with the fifth year course. Eventually, she persuaded the professor to proctor a multiple choice test covering all of the first year's material in three weeks. For the rest of class, Rory studied the history of the Ministry of Magic. It was founded in 1707 as the replacement for the Wizard's Council. In 1717, the ministry named three unforgivable curses, and by the 1990s, their use commanded a life sentence in Azkaban, the wizard prison.
When the bell rang, indicating that it was time to switch classes, she scurried off to Charms in Classroom 1A. She was the first student there, so she made a similar arrangement with the charms professor as she had made with Professor Binns, except instead of taking a multiple choice test, she would have to perform various charms. When she sat down in the second row, Jane pointedly sat next to her. During class, the two helped each other figure out how to hold their wands and cast a lumos charm. This charm took almost an entire hour of playing with hand gestures, pronunciation, and emphasis before either of them successfully made their wands act like flashlights.
Transfiguration was weird. Apparently, it was the art of turning one object into another. The assignment today was to turn a silver thimble into a gold one. Rory thought that it sounded like alchemy, but by the end of class, she and Jane had learned how to change the color of small metal objects. When Rory took her pen out of her rucksack and managed to turn the tip of it purple, Jane giggled and tried to turn it pink at the same time Rory was trying to change the color back to the metallic silver it had been. The tip of the pen ended up looking like a tie-dyed silver, pink, and purple mess. Jane looked at it with so much awe that Rory decided to give it to her to keep.
The first Potions class was hands-off. The class was assigned to read a chapter in the textbook about the art of potions and the proper way to prepare ingredients like onion root and frog toes. Rory left class under the impression that Potions was some really convoluted mixture of chemistry and magic. She arranged with the professor to accelerate the course by attending additional lessons at 4:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays starting the next week.
By the time she had a lunch break, Rory was starving. As soon as she walked into the Great Hall, Abigail called her over to the far end of the Gryffindor table, where she and Fay were already sitting.
"Hi Rory!" Abigail greeted when Rory walked up to them
"Hi," responded Rory, removing her rucksack and sitting.
"Merlin! I love your hair!" said Fay.
"Thanks, I grew it myself," Rory quipped. Fay and Abigail exchanged a look.
"So how were your first classes?" asked Abigail, glancing at her nails.
"Good," Rory responded. She decided that if she were to make this conversation more interesting, she should tell them about the pen tip coloring incident."I met this girl during first block, and—"
"Isn't Professor Binns the worst?" interrupted Fay.
"Ugh, I know, right?" Responded Abigail. " He's so boring. Have you ever met anyone that boring, Rory?"
"Actually, last year I had a teacher that fell asleep in the middle of—"
"Oh look it's Matt and Jerry!" said Abigail. Wow, thought Rory, they really don't care to hear what I have to say. What great friends they are.
Matt and Jerry sat across from Rory.
"Hi Rory, how was your first day?" asked Jerry.
Rory began responding, "It was pretty good. During Transfiguration—"
"We were just talking about Professor Binns. Isn't he so boring?" said Abigail.
Not as boring as this conversation, Rory thought. If this is how all of my conversations go, this is going to be a long school year. From out of the corner of her eye, Rory saw a skirmish in the entryway. She looked closer and noticed that Jane was involved. She decided to intervene. It was a great excuse to leave this boring conversation.
"I've got to go," she excused herself, slinging the rucksack over her shoulder and heading toward Jane. "Give it back!" Jane shouted toward a girl in a green cloak as she jumped at the girl's closed fist.
"No, It's mine now!" the girl responded, smiling. She had curly brown hair that reminded Rory of Fritz, and she was holding the multicolor pen up in the air.
Rory rested her hand on Jane's shoulder. "What's going on?" she asked, pointedly looking both girls in the eyes.
The girl with curly brown hair crossed her arms. "The Gryffindor is jealous of my pen," she sneered.
"Hey, I'm a Gryffindor. Watch what you say," commanded Rory. The girl opened her mouth as if to speak, but Rory quickly said, "Wow, I seem to have lost a pen just like that this morning in Transfiguration!" The girl holding the pen froze. "Would you mind returning it to me?" asked Rory.
The girl dropped the pen and ran away. Jane retrieved it from the ground.
Someone tisked from behind Rory. She turned around to find Fritz. He began slowly clapping as he approached,stopping about a meter away from her. "Wow, Rory. Are you really stealing pens from my little eleven-year-old sister?" he asked.
"It looks to me like she gave it up pretty willingly," jeered Rory.
Fritz exhaled sharply. "This must be a new low for Gryffindor," he said, turning on his heel and retreating to the Slytherin table.
Rory's eyes trailed him as she fumed. How dare he try to make her feel guilty for resolving the skirmish? She hadn't even threatened his sister, she just highlighted her dishonesty! When Fritz reached the table and presumably told Nate and friends what he had seen, they all turned to glare at Rory. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Jane. "Would you want to go study with me?"
Jane scrunched up her eyebrows and thought momentarily. "I don't want to study," she said. "I want to go watch the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Flying Lessons. Rory nodded and shrugged. "I'll see you at dinner though," added Jane. Rory smiled. At least she wouldn't have to sit with The Superficial Four.
Rory wound through the corridors until she reached the library. Finding an isolated table by the window, she sat and opened her Charms textbook. She had learned Accio and Alohomora before her stomach started rumbling and she decided to return to the Great Hall. When she arrive, Jane was already waiting, and she waved Rory over.
Rory felt awkward sitting in the middle of a group of eleven-year-olds, but she had to admit that the conversation was much more interesting. Over dinner, Rory paused her studying so that Jane could explain to her everything she had learned from observing the flying lesson. Once that was accomplish, she asked Rory, "What quidditch team do you support?"
"I have not learned any more about quidditch since this morning," Rory reminded her.
Jane shook her head with pity and proceeded to explain all of the rules to Rory, who thought the sport sounded overly complicated. She also wondered how much physical activity a sport of flying actually used, but didn't ask under the assumption that she would seem rude.
After dinner, Rory headed toward the Astronomy tower for her first lesson with her own grade. When she arrived, Abigail, Fay, Matt, and Jerry were waiting.
"I can't believe we missed you at dinner!" said Abigail. Oh no, what a shame, thought Rory. Abigail added, "But it's so great that you're in Astronomy with us!"
"Yeah, it's too bad that we're already partnered up though," commented Fay.
"Sorry, it's too bad that we can't sit with you," said Matt.
Rory shrugged, not particularly upset by their supposed inability to sit with her. Because there was an odd number of Gryffindors enrolled in the course, but an even number of Ravenclaws, she sat by herself. However, this isolation didn't particularly bother her. She was in Astronomy, in her own element. This class was the reason she had decided to switch schools. She didn't switch for the friends or the food or the money. Well, maybe she did switch in part because tuition was free, but that was not her original reason for considering the school. She was here for Astronomy, and as she learned how to sketch a star chart, she dreamed about how much more she would understand about the universe at the end of the school year. There were so many questions to be answered, and if answering those questions meant she that she sat alone in her favorite subject, so be it.
