A/N: So we've finally started lessons. I hope you like this chapter as things have started and we finally start to understand and see what the characters go through at Hogwarts. :)

CHAPTER THREE: Day One at Hogwarts

Sunlight hit Arty's eyelids, making her open her stormy eyes. She was surrounded by her green curtain around her four-poster bed. Arty sat up and pulled the curtain across, revealing a fully-clothed Pansy Parkinson, her black hair shiny from the sunlight jumping through the window. She gave Arty a scowl and walked off, picking up the bag behind her. Arty ignored her and got changed into her uniform, still tired and moving around slowly. Checking the clock on her bedside table, she groaned. It was half past eight, and she wanted to see Imogen again. They'd become really good friends since they met almost 24 hours ago, and she wanted to hang out with her more. She picked up her bag and traipsed out of the dormitory and into the empty common room, and out into the dungeons.

Imogen was awoken by the sounds of the other girls in the dormitory talking to each other. Imogen sat up straight, stretched her arms and yawned and pulled the curtains apart, showing two other Ravenclaw first year girls, Karen and Sheridan. They were just walking out of the dormitory when Imogen was about to say 'good morning' but it was too late. Imogen disappointedly got changed and went through her bag, just to make sure everything was perfect for the day ahead. Her quill and ink pot, her pieces of parchment and her water bottle were all in her bag. She was ready to leave. Walking out of the dormitory anxiously, she entered the Ravenclaw common room, where two seventh year boys were enthralled in a debate about who to take to Hogsmeade in October. Imogen walked out and down four flights of stairs, trying not to trip down the Grand Staircase, as another first year had gotten his foot trapped in the false step a few minutes earlier. There, she went into the Great Hall, which was buzzing with students.

Imogen began to eat her food, looking out for Arty somewhere on the Slytherin table, but she wasn't there. But at that moment, the door opened and behind a small group of Hufflepuffs was Arty with a terrified look on her face. Without realising it, Imogen began to wave at her, beaming, and hoping that Arty would wave back. Arty looked around the whole of the Great Hall for Imogen, finally seeing her excited face. Arty reached her at the Ravenclaw table and sat opposite her.

"Good morning!" Arty said happily. "Hi! How are-" Imogen said, before being interrupted by a fourth year boy next to her.
"Er, the Slytherins-" he said the word scathingly. "-sit over there, so go, please." Imogen and Arty stared at each other. Arty gave Imogen a small smile and went to the Slytherin table. Her father had told her that people don't care about what house you're in, but clearly they do. Just because she was a Slytherin- and had been for less than a day- people are rude to her. Sure, it was her first time, but she had never endured any kind of meanness from others, probably because her father had homeschooled her. As she sat at her table and tried to forget what had happened, a certain bleach-blonde haired boy beside her spoke up.

"Hello," he said. "Er, hi." Arty replied, looking at him. "I'm Draco Malfoy. You are?" he asked. "I'm, er, Arty Tenson." she said, staring into his eyes. He seemed unwaivered and didn't have any facial expressions. "Tenson? I think my father might know your father. Joe Tenson, isn't it?" Draco asked.
"Yeah. Yours might know mine, I'm not sure." Arty said truthfully. "Are you looking forward to your first day? I'm hoping it goes well, I'm looking forward to Defence Against the Dark Arts." "Yeah, me too." Arty smiled. "My friend too. But she's looking forward to everything." "Who's your friend?" Draco asked, taking a swig of his goblet. "Imogen, she's a Ravenclaw." Arty told him. "She's Muggle-born but she's read up on almost everything to do with Hogwarts and magic." "Oh." Draco nodded along, raising his eyebrow. "Well, looks like they're giving out our timetables." "Yep. Exciting." Arty said, casting him a sideways glance.

Professor Snape, with his greasy black hair, was walking past them with slips of paper in his hand. He touched his wand on it and gave it to Draco, and did the same for Arty.
She looked at her timetable for today's lessons: 09.00- Flying class- Madam Hooch- Quidditch Pitch 09.45- Break 10.30- Transfiguration- Prof. McGonagall- Classroom 1B 12.00- Lunch 13.00- Potions- Prof. Snape- Dungeons 13.45- Break 14:30- Herbology- Prof. Sprout- Greenhouses 15:30- End of day

Arty thought her day looked quite good. She looked over at Imogen at the Ravenclaw table. Imogen hadn't gotten hers yet, as Professor Flitwick was struggling with giving the students their timetables. Imogen smiled at Arty, and Arty smiled back. It was almost nine, and Arty wanted to make sure she and Imogen went to the Quidditch pitch together, seeing as neither of them knew the way, it'd be more fun than going alone. Just then, Imogen thanked Flitwick as he gave her her timetable and she looked over it and gave Arty and thumbs-up. Arty mimed at Arty 'wait for me when you get outside' as the bell rang loudly, hurting her eardrums. Everyone got up and walked out of the Great Hall, Arty nearly getting trampled by the bigger students who seemed to have shown no remorse at all at making her robes slightly muddy at the bottom. It was the first day, how had they gotten their shoes muddy, she thought. Imogen poked Arty on the arm and smiled at her. "Hello," Imogen said. "Have you got Flying next?" "Yeah, I do. Do you know where the Quidditch pitch is?" Arty asked, as the two began to walk out of the Entrance Hall and into the sunlit courtyard with the large group of students chatting. "No, but we could ask." Imogen said. Just as they were a foot away from the door, Peeves the Poltergeist flew past. "Excuse me," Imogen called out to him. "Can you tell us where the Quidditch pitch is?" Peeves laughed and spat at her. Imogen gasped as Peeves flew away, laughing happily to himself.
"Charming," Arty said. "Maybe we should just find out ourselves. It'd be an adventure, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess."

They walked into the courtyard outside, into a door by the courtyard, down the stairs, into another corridor and outside just opposite the pitch. It had gone very quickly and luckily. "Well, we did that fast..." Arty said, walking towards the pitch. "What an adventure." she added sarcastically.

As they reached the pitch, so did other students. They were told to stand by a broomstick and stick their arms out and yell 'Up!'
Imogen was struggling. She started to feel self-concious and kept looking around at other people who were doing the same thing.
"Up!" she siad, starting to get frustrated. "Up! Up, up, up, up, up, UP! Ugh!" "Are you alright?" Arty asked. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just that it's not working. I'm doing everything right but it's against me!" Imogen said, annoyed. "Maybe you're not relaxed enough. Just stick your arm out and calm down, then say 'up'." Arty instructed. Imogen nodded and flipped her hair out of her face. She held her arm out over her unmoving broom on the grass. She took a deep breath and said, "Up." The broomstick suddenly jumped up and she grabbed onto it, nearly falling over because of the force. "You did it!" Arty said happily, as she held her own broom in her hand. "Thanks!"

"Shut up, you show off!" Pansy yelled to her, from across the grass. Her broom was still on the ground and her Slytherin friends were next to her, laughing along with her. "Yeah!" one of them said. "You're just a stupid little show off!"
"Ignore them, Arty, they're not worth it." Imogen whispered to Arty, who nodded, but those words stuck with her for the rest of the day.

"Okay," started Madam Hooch. "Now, mount your brooms- but don't fly off!" But, of course, a boy called Neville had accidentally started fly off, screaming in fright. Madam Hooch shouted at him to come back down, but he couldn't control it. Everybody watched as he hit the tree and fell to the ground in pain and agony. Madam Hooch ran up to him and helped him, then took him to the Hospital Wing, instructing everyone to stay put. "Oh, that poor boy." said Imogen, supressing her laughter. "I shouldn't laugh."

At break-time about ten minutes later, Arty and Imogen went to the Transfiguration courtyard. They sat at a bench as they snacked and talked about how they were looking forward to Transfiguration. "Do you think Professor McGonagall's nice?" Imogen asked. "I don't know, but I hope so." Arty answered, taking a bite out of her chocolate frog. "Oh, look, Nicolas Flamel. Who's this guy?" she said, showing the chocolate frog card to Imogen, who shrugged.

Transfiguration went well, but two students were quite late and came in when they were doing some quiet work as Professor McGonagall watched them, transfigured as a tabby. Arty and Imogen sat next to each other, to help one another, but they found the work somewhat confusing.

Lunch was a better affair, despite not being a lesson. Arty and Imogen sat together at the Hufflepuff table so nobody on their tables told the other to leave. The tables at lunch were emptier than they were at breakfast, as most people were outside. Arty and Imogen decided to leave the Great Hall and go exploring before the next lesson began. So, they did.
They chose to explore the outside first, going to every courtyard. They enjoyed the Transfiguration courtyard the most as a large group of fifth and sixth years were watching two sixth years play Exploding Snap, which was incredibly amusing. "Come on, Chris!" a girl yelled. "SHANIA! SHANIA!" A small crowd of four people sang aloud. "Chris, you suck," said a Gryffindor boy who couldn't stop laughing as the cards kept exploding in the players' faces.

Next was the Viaduct Courtyard, which was, by far, the most creepy-looking- and Arty and Imogen liked it for that reason. Only one person was there- a seventh year Slytherin student who was feeding his owl. He looked at Arty and Imogen who were eyeing him. "What?" he said aggressively. Arty and Imogen, taken aback, left the courtyard.

By the time they'd reached the Central Tower Courtyard, it was time for their Potions lesson, which they'd been dreading. They'd heard that Professor Snape was scary and nobody really liked him.

At the dungeons, all the first years were quiet, waiting at the door for Snape to tell them to come in. And he did. Arty and Imogen sat at a table at the back, hoping to be as far away from him as possible. Arty listened to him intently, finding every single word he uttered as interesting as the one before. Imogen was making notes frivolously, writing every word he said down. Her quill was violently scratching her parchment and the boy next to her gave her a dirty look as she turned the parchment over to continue writing. Soon enough, though, the lesson finished, as did the school day not long after that. Arty had found Herbology boring and tedious, whereas Imogen thought the exact opposite.

"Can we go to the library? I need to write to my dad. I promised him, you see." Arty told Imogen. "Sure. I need to get started on reading up on asphodel too, that was really interesting in Potions today." Imogen replied.

At the library, Arty and Imogen found a spot to sit at, where Arty got out a piece of parchment, quill and ink while Imogen took out a book about Asphodel. Arty thought long and hard about what to write; she wanted to tell her dad everything- how much she missed him, what had happened, how she'd made a friend already, just like he had said. So she wrote.

'Dear Dad,

My first day has gone really well. I made a friend on the train. Her name's Imogen, she's in Ravenclaw and we're really close now. Also, I got Sorted into Slytherin last night. I haven't had all of my lessons just yet but I'm really enjoying Potions, even though we didn't make anything yet. I'm liking school so far. Like you said, it's really pretty.
Me and Imogen went around to three different courtyards, and it was really fun. Anyway, I'll write to you again hopefully.

Miss you lots,
Arty xx'

She read it over again and again. She didn't want to mention Pansy because she knew it would make him panic and she didn't want that. She just left it like that and told Imogen that she was going to send it off at the Owlery now. Imogen checked out the book and the two walked through the cold September grounds to the Owlery.

All in all, they thought it had been a very good day.