So far, Gray was having a rotten morning.

It had all started pretty early. Gray was an early riser by nature, and had woken up at the crack of dawn to have a bath, brush his teeth and change into his robes. Upon returning to his dorm, he raised an eyebrow as none of the other lazy bums were awake. Natsu in particular was snoring obnoxiously loudly. If it wasn't for the fact that he and Gray were roommates for half their lives, Gray would not have slept a wink. As it was, he marveled that the other boys were able to fall asleep in the first place.

He busied himself around the room for a few minutes, gave up waiting for the others to awaken, and then trooped down to breakfast in the great hall. There weren't many other people there, except for two white haired Hufflepuffs, his friend Cana at the Slytherin table and two girls in Ravenclaw who he had never seen in his life.

"Morning, Cana," he said.

"Hey," she smiled, but didn't meet his eyes. "You can't sit here."

"Yeah the whole Gryffindor versus Slytherin crap," he said. "Guess I'll sit alone at my table then." Wow. Hogwarts sucked if he couldn't be with his friends. Well, it wasn't as if his entire life was sunshine and rainbows in the first place.

"You do that."

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Class was even worse. They first had transfiguration with Professor Clive, with the Hufflepuffs. That scary Gryffindor girl (Mirajane, he heard) seemed to be happy about that. Gray wasn't really sure what happened during the first few minutes, as Proffesor Clive was droning on and on about the basics of transfiguration. In hindsight, he probably should have paid attention, since when it was time to partner up, he didn't know what to do.

His first move was to turn to Natsu. Ugh. Natsu was the most annoying person in the world, but so far the only person in the school that Gray actually knew and wasn't terrified of. But Natsu was talking to this little girl with short white hair.

"Do you mind if I pair up with you? Mira and Elfman are paired together and I don't have a partner," she gave him a guilty smile.

"Sure!" Natsu beamed at her. What? When had Natsu had time to make friends? And then Gray noticed the blush. Oh man, Natsu liked this girl. Well, Gray didn't want to get in the middle of that.

Gray turned to his other roommates. Gajeel hadn't even showed up to class, and Max and Loke had paired up. Oh great.

"You'll be with me," a voice said behind him. Fearing the worst, Gray whirled around. Yep, it was Erza. He whimpered, but didn't try to contest it. After all, teaming up with Erza was the only option left.

"Ok," he gulped, and then she seized his arm and dragged him to her desk. Ouch.

"Listen up, kids!" Professor Clive shouted over the chatter. "I know you're excited to begin your practical work, but you have to wait for the instructions! I'll be passing around these matches, and you and your partner will have to transfigure these into needles. And to those of you who want to disrupt the class," he have a glare to the Gryffindors, "don't even think about it! I've charmed these matches to never set fire."

Gray heard Natsu groan, and then Loke titter: "Well, we'll just have to find another way then." Ugh. Between those two, Gray's dorm would never be safe again.

Professor Clive dropped a match between the two, and Gray was immediately at a loss.

"D'you know what to do?"

She glared at him, but didn't lecture him. "Yes. Just point your wand and will it to transfigure."

Gray rolled his eyes. Seriously? Transfiguration was a joke! "I'll go first."

She rolled her eyes, pushed the match at him. He screwed up his eyes and pointed until-

"Hey snowflake. You look constipated."

Oh Natsu had some nerve. "Shut your face."

"Well done transfiguring this," Erza said drily. "You've managed to have no effect. I'll go."

What? Really? Gray tossed her the match, glowering. Why hadn't it worked? Some others had made it work! After taking a quick glance at the other tables, he felt a little better. Natsu and Lisanna had no luck, Lisanna's siblings were getting increasingly angrier at ever attempt, and Max and Loke had some how turned their match into a dancing straw, and Professor Clive had to change it back. He heard a curse beside him, and saw Erza.

"Huh- you couldn't do it either."

"Stupid wand. Stupid matchstick," she poked her wand to the table repeatedly.

"I don't think that's good for your wand," Gray pointed out, hoping that she wouldn't hit him for that. "What's it made of?"

She gave him another completely undeserved glare. "Dragon Heartstring and Yew. What about you?"

"Unicorn hair and holly," he said.

"Apparently people with unicorn hair wands are less likely to turn to the dark side," Erza gave him a rare smile. "That's good."

Gray blushed. He wasn't used to praise. "Th-thanks, I guess."

"Well it doesn't seem as if we'll have any luck doing this separately," Erza reluctantly said, eyeing the match between them. That was true. "How about we try it together?"

Huh? That was a terrible idea. He looked incredulously at her. Erza's face turned pink.

"I don't want to do it either," she said. "But look around."

Gray did, and was horrified to see that most of the class had gotten it. Even Natsu was brandishing around a pointy needle, although Gray was pretty sure that Lisanna had succeeded. Even Lisanna's siblings had done it, Mirajane actually smiling for once.

"I'm coming around to check you work," Professor Clive called out.

"Fine," Gray said. "But we have to do it quickly."

Erza nodded and pointed her wand and glared at the needle. "Do it."

He did. He shoved his wand at the matchstick and willed it with all his heart to change already.

"It's not working."

"Halfway done, kids!"

"Well try harder."

"Natsu, Lisanna. What have you guys got?"

"Argh!"

There was a poof of red smoke, which send Gray keeling back from shock. Erza simply waved her hand through it to disperse the smoke. In the matchstick's place was a shiny needle.

"Good job you two," Professor Clive smiled at them after the smoke dispersed. Erza smiled back. Gray did not.

The smoke had been red. The color of Erza's hair. Gray knew for a fact that the smoke was the color of the person's hair who cast the spell. Laxus had sworn by it. And in their case, the smoke was definitely not black. Erza had been the one to transfigure it, not Gray.

Gray was bad at magic.

He spent the rest of the lesson glaring at the back of Professor Clive's head as Erza beamed next to him. On his other side, Natsu was going on and on about how cool their pink and silver smoke was, which just made Gray angrier. Like Natsu had to rub it in.

Right after class had finished, Gray grabbed a matchstick and rushed out. He'd get to the transfiguration immediately.

.

.

Gray wished he could take his resolve back. He'd skipped lunch and hidden in the corridor to try and transfigure that cursed matchstick into something if not a needle. It hand't worked, and now Gray was the laughingstock of a portrait who had watched the whole thing. Yeah, the day was going fantastically.

The rest of his classes were a boring blur. Unlike Professor Clive, the other teachers did not believe in introducing the students to practical work on the first day of school. Apparently, the story of the dancing straw got around, and now all the teachers hated the Gryffindor boys.

But dinner was when it really sunk in. Natsu and Erza were in the middle of a gaggle of young Gryffindors, while Max and Loke were in a deep conversation about something or the other. In the Hufflepuff table, Mirajane had snuck over, and the triplets were having a great time. Even Cana at the Slytherin table was talking to some blue haired girl she met there. But Gray didn't have anyone to talk to.

Everyone else had made friends on the first day and he hadn't.

Whatever, he thought. I don't need anyone anyway. This place is dumb.

So why did he get a weird sinking feeling when Erza laughed so hard at the other table?

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And that happened. Somehow, I feel that Gray would have some more trouble than his friends at fitting in at Hogwarts because of his rather anti-social personality. He's more reserved than everyone, and also comes off as bit of a jerk (especially when he was little), so it would be more difficult for him to make friends on the first day.

Thanks for waiting for this chapter! Again, I'm not sure when the next update will be.

If you liked this story, feel free to check out my other Fairy Tail fics. They're all oneshots, so if you want something short to read, those are good for that.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who read, followed, favorited and reviewed. You make my day.

-SpiderLover.