Disclaimer: Based on JKR's Harry Potter series.

Rating: K.

Again, thanks for the reviews! I appreciate each of them!

Now let's have a look at the magical adventure of Sirius' first lessons at Hogwarts…

The First Day of School

Sirius was tired as hell when he sat down for breakfast the next morning. He and Vicky introduced the boys and girls from their dormitories to each other. The girls yawned just as much as the boys.

The breakfast was delicious and the waffles were as yummy as if Grandma Molly had baked them.

All of a sudden a huge noise erupted above the children's heads: the owls arrived.

Sirius' cheeks started to burn when a tiny brown owl landed on his sister's shoulder, a letter attached to its foot. He had forgotten to write his parents to which house he had been sorted!

He would never be able to write the letter now and then find the way to the Owlery and come back in time before the prefects would lead the other first years to class…

Meanwhile Rose got up and walked over to him, the letter in her hand. "I figured you'd forget, dear brother!"

Sirius was embarassed, but – thank Merlin – his sister didn't tease him.

"Mom says you shouldn't worry," Rose continued, "and she wrote that dad also forgot to write Grandma Molly on his first day here and Grandma sent him a Howler because he still hadn't sent a letter after one week, but Mom says she won't do that to you." She only interrupted herself because she needed some air. "Anyway, you can read the rest on your own." Rose handed the letter to Sirius. "Gotta run, the prefects will fetch us to class. I've got Potions first and I'm totally excited! See you later!" She started to run off.

"Rose, stop, wait!" Sirius shouted and ran after her. His sister turned around quickly and her curly red hair flew around her face. "Can you show me where the Owlery is? You know how Pig the Second gets huffy when I don't look after him…" And it wouldn't hurt to write his parents…

"Sure. Meet you here at three after class?"

Sirius nodded. "Hey, can I bring some of the boys from my dorm? Two of them are from non-magical families, I bet they'd be interested."

"Okay, bring them along. There's only one girl from a non-magical family in my dorm, I'll ask her if she wants to come, too." Rose grinned. "We can introduce all of them to the mysterious world of magic!" She raised her hands and wiggled with her fingers, indicating fog floating around her.

Sirius laughed. "I'll bring the rest of the enchanted sweets I bought on the train."

"Okay, great, see you!"

Transfiguration with McGonagall

Transfiguration was the first double lesson on the youngest Slytherins' timetable. As soon as Sirius entered the class room his eyes fell on the brown tabby cat that was sitting on the teacher's desk.

Sirius whispered to Baldric who was walking at his side: "That's a classic, my dad told me all about it!"

"What do you mean by that?" Baldric asked. "McGonagall won't do something to the cat, will she? Isn't it illegal to bewitch living creatures?"

They sat down in the back row.

But Sirius grinned instead of answering. "You'll see." He was excited that he was going to be taught by the same teacher like his parents. Hermione always spoke about McGonagall with utmost respect and then continued to lecture here kids that according to Hogwarts – A History there had been headmasters before who continued to teach their subject.

Most of the children flinched when the cat jumped foreward and turned into the headmistress mid-air. After the initial surprise there were some whispered comments.

McGonagall walked down the aisle between the desks and came to a halt in front of Sirius. "What other secrets about my class did your father share with you, Mr Weasley?"

Sirius thought: That he considered you a little bit scary… "Ehm…" All he could come up with in his head were Ron's stories about McGonagall's vivid support for the Gryffindor Quidditch team or how she duelled with Snape. "That he learned a great deal from you?"

McGonagall raised an eyebrow and ordered Sirius to resettle to a desk an the front. Sirius tried not to take it personal because the headmistress now filled up other unoccupied desks in the first two rows.

Then she started to ask the boys and girls what they already knew about Transfiguration and what they expected to learn during their first year.

Together the teacher and students compiled that Transfiguration was the magical transformation of dead objects into other dead or living objects. It was possible to transform living beings into dead objects, but as Baldric had assumed this was forbidden since the results were deadly in most cases. It was also illegal to transform living beings into another one.

"It is possible to animate dead objects, but the spells will wear off over time." McGonagall lifted a pencil from her desk. "I'm going to transform this pencil into a turtle and by the end of today's lesson we are going to see that the spell will have started to reverse itself." She raised her wand and the pencil on her palm became a tiny turtle.

Two girls in the front row made: "Ah!"

McGonagall put the turtle on one of the girls' desks. "Convince yourselves that it really is a turtle now and then pass the turtle to your neighbour. The last one of you will bring it up front and place it on my desk." She paused for a second. "Some of you may be wondering now why magical people don't spend all of their time transforming things into money. Well, there are certain laws of physics and other restrictions that limit magic. Enchanted money lasts less than an hour." McGonagall picked up the sponge for the blackboard and transformed it into a golden Galleon coin which she then passed on to the same girl to be handed through class.

"Another law, for example, is the impossibility of conjuring up food. Things can be transformed to look permanently like food, but this doesn't mean that they are edible. Transfiguration is a very complex and potentially dangerous form of magic, so please make sure you always follow the security advices I give you. I won't hesitate to throw out anyone who fools around in my class or willingly ignores the safety measures. Is that clear?"

The class nodded.

"The only exception which allowes to transform a living being," explained McGonagall, "is the self-transformation of a witch or wizard into another living being. That is what you've witnessed me doing. Does anyone of you know what the witches and wizards are called who are able to transform into animals?"

No-one raised their hand faster than Sirius.

"Mr Weasley?"

"They are called Animagi, Professor."

"That is correct. Let's see what else you know… Who controls them?"

"The Animagus Registration Office in the Ministery of Magic."

"How many Animagi exist in the UK?"

"About fifteen." Sirius was determined that she wouldn't beat him. He knew a lot about Animagus magic, because the other Sirius had been one. He had been able to transform into a huge dog.

"Can anyone become an Animagus?"

"No, only those who register with the Ministery first and receive permission. And you have to be a very skilled witch or wizard." Sirius put on his most charming smile, and indeed he seemed to be able to placate the headmistress.

McGonagalls lips twitched as if she was fighting against a smile. "Thank you, Mr Weasley." she said. "Now, class, please open your copies of The Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration on page five. You don't need your wands yet."

McGonagall demonstrated the wand movement that was explained and illustrated on the page and told the class to copy her gesture. After a few minutes the class had to repeat the spell word – "Collustro!" – after her before the pupils were allowed to practice the combination of the wand movement plus the spell on their own.

The aim was to change the colour of the tea cup that was now sitting on each desk. The headmistress walked between the tables and observed the progress of her class.

Here and there she corrected the pronunciation of the spell word or she adjusted someone's grip on the wand.

Sirius was very confident that he said "Collustro!" the right way and that he held his wand neither too hard nor too sloppy, but nothing happened. He tried again. And again. And again.

Then all of a sudden his cup became a very light shade of pink. Sirius was so surprised he dropped his wand. From the wand's tip a tiny spark errupted and it threatened to roll of his table. Sirius caught it at the last second.

"Try not to break your wand like your father, Mr Weasley." McGonagall said. Sirius hadn't noticed that she had been near.

"Let's have a look at your cup." McGonagall picked up the piece of china. "You are the first in class who has got any result, that's good. Did you think of something pink when you used the spell?"

"No?" Sirius couldn't remember.

"Hm… interesting." McGonagall turned the cup around in her hand. "May I see your wand, please?"

Sirius nodded and gave it to her.

"Yew…" she muttered. "Dragonheart string, isn't it…" She smiled when she handed the wand back. "The dragonheart strings sometimes try to influence minor colour spells by directing them towards the colour which their dragons' scales had. Maybe your cup will be purple by the end of the lesson."

"Is that bad, professor?" Sirius asked. "Does it mean that I don't have control over my wand or something?"

"Don't worry, Mr Weasley." McGonagall kindly replied. "A wand can never be controlled, because it is the one who chooses the wizard, not the other way round. The wand has agreed to be used by you and right now it tries to communicate with you, wants to show you that the two of you can work together and achieve great things."

Sirius wondered: "Are you saying that my wand is exited?"

The teacher smiled. "That's another way of saying it."

Sirius continued to practice. His hopes that the cup would indeed turn red seemed in vain. Nothing happenend, no matter how carefully he waved his wand or how clearly he uttered the spell. He even tried to think of a purple cup to help the spell, but still nothing. The lesson came towards its end and Sirius was about to give up and just sit and wait for McGonagall to let the students go, when the miracle happened: the cup jerked and turned into a bright red.

"Professor!" Sirius cried, then blushed vividly when he remembered what McGonagall had said about acting up.

The teacher reprimanded him: "In my class students are expected to raise their hands and wait quietly, Mr Weasley."

"I'm sorry, Professor…"

Two minutes later McGonagall stood next to Sirius' table and praised him for the whole class to hear. She also complimented some other students. Baldric's cup had turned light green, Lucinda had managed to make the polka dots on her cup disappear, and Robbie's cup had a crack, but was orange. Those few whose cups hadn't changed at all were told not to be discouraged.

Then McGonagall told the whole class: "Pack your things and wait outside for me to take you to your next class. On your way out look at the pencil and the sponge I transformed earlier."

When Sirius passed the teacher's desk he saw that the coin had changed back into a sponge that still had a little bit of golden glitter on it, and the turtle had become a strange, elongated four-legged object that no longer moved.

While McGonagall led the Slytherin first years through the castle and towards the greenhouses, she thought for a moment that the young Weasley was as talented as his mother and as noisy as his father. But then she remembered: They aren't really his parents…

Herbology with Neville

Neville Longbottom greeted his next class in the middle of the meadow between the greenhouses. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to hold the lesson in the open.

He knew some of the Slytherin students from sight, and Sirius Weasley and Victoria Krum because they had been playmates of his daughters since they were little. His wife Luna wouldn't be teaching them until their third year when they had Divination.

"You can leave your bags here, you won't need anything today," Neville instructed the children. "Let's have a walk to the edge of the Forbidden Forest."

The students followed Neville to a group of trees with green needles and bright red seed cones, about one hundred feet from where a path disappeared into the forest.

"At first," Neville began, "I may remind you that the Forbidden Forest is called forbidden for a very good reason. Many magical creatures live in there like centaurs who prefer to live undisturbed. Other creatures like the acromantulae – those are giant spiders – could become very dangerous if you don't know how to protect yourselves. The most obvious reason, though it is often overlooked by students, is that you get lost very easily. I can tell you from personal experience that you don't want to spend the night in there."

Some students laughed nervously, not sure if he was joking.

"Now, who wants to have a guess what we are doing here?"

"We're looking at the trees?" a girl suggested.

"Do you know what these trees are called?" Neville asked. "Victoria?"

"They are yew trees, their wood is used to make wands."

"That's right." Neville smiled. "For the next few lessons were are going to talk about wand trees that are common here in the UK. It's important that you get acquainted with the materials of your wands, because each has different characteristics. What are your wands made of?"

Neville asked round and the students answered with hawthorne, elm, cherry, chestnut, holly, mahoghany and willow. Sirius was proud that he was the only one who's wand was made of yew.

Neville's next question was: "What other wand trees do you know?"

Vicky raised her hand: "My father's wand is made of hornbeam!"

Lucinda said: "There's an elder wand mentioned in the Tales of Beedle the Bard."

And a boy from the other dormitory answered that an uncle of his who had grown up in China possessed a wand made of bamboo.

Neville let the pupils form groups and the rest of the lesson they spent describing the yew branches, needles and seeds and learned that although all parts of the tree were poisonous, they could be used for healing purposes. Their first homework assignment was to read the chapter on yew trees in the Handbook of Herbology.

Charms with Flitwick

Professor Longbottom escorted them back into the castle for their last class of the morning before lunch, Charms with his colleague Flitwick.

Sirius thought it was pretty much the same like Transfiguration, just without changing an object. They had to practice a wand movement, then repeat the spell and then practice both together.

Flitwick told the students to take turns with Summoning a feather with the Accio spell.

Sirius' partner was Vicky. They agreed that they liked Flitwick's jokes and Sirius asked his friend if she wanted to come along to see the Owlery later.

A Visit to the Owlery

In the afternoon Rose, Sirius and their friends met in front of the Great Hall. Rose was accompanied by a girl called Louise Sheffield. With Sirius were Lex, Robbie and Baldric. Vicky arrived last.

There had been plenty of time for Sirius to write a letter during History of Magic, the last class of the day. The subject was so boring, no wonder Professor Binns had died while lecturing and become a ghost.

Everyone followed Rose up the West tower. They laughed when they got separated, because the stairs moved and changed directions constantly.

Robbie and Lex were fine with the tiny owls the Weasley siblings owned, Pig the Second named after Ron's owl Pigwidgeon, and Coco. Robbie held Pig in his hand while Sirius fed the bird and tied the letter to one of his legs.

"Hold him out of the window!" Sirius told Robbie when Pig seemed to prefer to snuggle instead of leaving. The tiny owl stretched his wings when the wind ruffled his feathers and then took flight.

"Hey everyone!" Lucinda came over to them, a huge snow owl sitting on her arm.

"Wow, your owl's really pretty!" Vicky said.

Lucinda smiled: "I got Galadriel from Grandpa for my eleventh birthday!"

Robbie and Lex eyed the bird sceptically.

"Oh, don't be so scared, she's really sweet!" Lucinda kissed her owl on its beak.

Louise was brave enough to let Galadriel sit on her arm when Lucinda passed her a leather glove.

The children fed and groomed the owls with some of the supplies from the Owlery. Soon the middle-sized brown school owls which could be used by anybody who needed them where flocking to them.

"How do the owls know where they have to fly to?" Lex wondered.

"It's magic! They just know." Sirius said. "Write down your parents' address on the envelope and they'll find the right house. Might be wise to warn your parents though that the owls want to be fed in exchange for the delivery."

Baldric said: "Yeah, some raw meat or a mouse."

"My older brother owns some snakes, he can spare some mice." Louise said.

"Oh…" Robbie looked uncomfortable. "My parents are vegetariens…"

"Some owls also like chocolate biscuits." Rose said. "But you would have to test which ones first."

They went downstairs and outside to sit down under the trees by the lake.

Louise, Lex and Robbie got to hear lots of stories about growing up in magical families, the enchanted Diagon Alley with all the magical shops (especially Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes) and the ancient bank house Gringott's, St Mungo's Hospital and the Ministery of Magic.

Sirius had brought the latest issue of Quidditch Weekly and the famous book Quidditch Through the Ages. With the help of the pictures and some Chocolate Frog cards he and Vicky explained how the game worked. Eating the Chocolate Frogs itself turned out to be funny because Louise, Robbie and Lex had never before had moving sweets.