7. Pointy Matchsticks?

Harry woke up the next day feeling quite refreshed. He yawned, stretched and got out of bed. After giving Shadow a few pets, he draped him around his neck. Making a quick stop at the bathroom, he walked down to the common room, where he saw a surprising amount of people. Everyone was whispering and staring at the common room notice board. Scanning the board, he saw a few announcements about charms club, Snape's remedial potion lessons, and a large silver poster concerning flying lessons? Blaise, Malfoy, and Daphne all saw him and walked over.

"Oh my God!" Daphne exclaimed. "Flying Lessons! I'm going to crush this. I've been playing Quidditch since before I could walk."

"I'm definitely going to be the best," Blaise proclaimed self-assuredly. "I was the best beater when we played with the boys in our town."

"There's no chance I'm not the best," Malfoy said. "I once dodged a muggle helicopter flying at 150 mph and caught the Golden Snitch at the same time, barely saving my team from a loss. Then I dodged a Bludger and…"

Harry listened amusedly as Malfoy kept spouting stories that got more and more unrealistic and unbelievable. It seemed that all of his magic-born friends had a large amount of experience when it came to flying. Personally, he was excited, but also a little nervous, as it was his first time.

"Boy if you take me up in the air, best believe we're both coming down the hard way. I will bite you! Leave me on the ground!"

"Come on Shadow, it'll be fun."

"Fun? Fun! Fun is slowly stalking a mouse until it dies. Fun is sinking your venom filled fangs into its body. Fun is gulping down a mouse in one swallow, no bites. Flying is not fun!"

"Don't be such a wuss!"

Ignoring Shadow's insistence that he was not a wuss, Harry instead chose to focus on Malfoy, who was launching spiritedly into what was yet another feat that boasted superb flying skills. Harry knew most of these stories were a little more fiction than fact, but they were entertaining to listen to.

"Once, I was chasing the Snitch, and I accidentally flew up in a thunderstorm," Malfoy was saying, as they walked to get breakfast.

"I got struck by lightning a few times, and fell unconscious for a few seconds, but I was able to grab the Snitch just before I hit the ground. I then did a sloth roll to avoid a peregrine falcon, and had to stand up on my broom and jump off to get a safe landing."

Yes, it's quite obvious that these stories contain a little bogus in them.

Malfoy was quite the storyteller, and while almost everyone could tell that he was spicing up his stories, he had attracted a large crowd of Slytherin first years. They hung onto his words more attentively than he had seen them pay attention to any teacher. It seemed that everyone was feverishly excited for the Flying Lessons, and as he looked up, Harry could see the same thing happening in other tables. Ron Weasley was blatantly lying about his skill on a broom, so much so that not many people were listening to him.

Harry checked his schedule. They had Double Transfiguration followed by lunch. After lunch, they had Charms, and then Flying Lessons. It was going to be a good day.

After a healthy breakfast of eggs, a yogurt parfait, and some milk, he and his friends went to Transfiguration. He was serious about getting fit, and his diet played a major role in that. They arrived at the Transfiguration classroom 5 minutes early, and sat down at their usual spots in the back of the class. Professor McGonagall was already at the head of the class, shuffling around her drawers.

"What do you reckon we do today?" Zabini whispered to the rest of the group. "All we've been doing is taking notes today.

They shrugged their shoulders, having no better idea than Zabini on what was to happen today. Soon, students started filing in, and the class started.

"Today we will begin our first practical lesson. Wands out everyone." McGonagall announced. "I hope that answers your question, Mr. Zabini?"

Blaise's eyes widened.

"How did she know? Well, cats do have excellent hearing. Maybe she gets certain qualities from her cat transformation, just like Shadow gets certain adaptations from being bonded to me."

"Yup, I'm amazing!"

"Don't be so full of yourself…"

"Finnigan, come up and pass out these matchsticks."

The sandy-brown haired Irish kid that Harry had seen earlier came up. Looking at him from the back, his head seemed unproportionately small, compared to the rest of his body. The boy came around, staring at Harry's forehead a little too long before handing him his matchstick.

"Now class, we are going to try to transform this matchstick into a needle. Needless to say, this magic is a little advanced for your skill level, so I doubt many people will get it today. The incantation I want you to use is Mutatio.' The wand movement is a tight clockwise, circular motion, followed by a jab to the matchstick. Oh, and also, whoever gets it first gets 40 house points and an optional private lesson with me. Remember, it's all in the wrist. Begin!"

The entire class was in a frenzy to be first. Everyone wanted the glory of 40 house points, even if not everyone wanted the lesson from McGonagall.

Harry traced his wand in a clockwise direction, before jabbing at the direction of the matchstick. Nothing happened. All around the room, he heard scuffling and huffs of exasperation.

"Envision the matchstick turning sharper, and silver. Focus on intent."

Shadow's soothing voice helped slightly. Harry furrowed his eyebrows and concentrated harder. He imagined the matchstick turning into a needle, and he cast the spell again. This time, the matchstick got a little sharper, and darker colored. The progress was small, but encouraging. He tried again, focusing as hard as he could. The matchstick became distinctly sharper, much like a needle, and a brownish-grey color. On his fourth try, as he really focused on envisioning the needle, It got even closer. It took him 2 more tries, but he finally got the entire matchstick to turn into a pointy, silvery shining needle.. He looked up at McGonagall, who had what Harry could have sworn was an approving grin on her face.

"Bravo!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Potter has been the first one to successfully transfigure the matchstick! 100 points to Slytherin!"

She motioned him to come up to her desk.

"Would you like to accept a private lesson from me," she whispered, when he arrived at her desk.

"Gladly," he responded, a wide grin on his face stretching from ear to ear.

He walked back to his desk and spent the rest of the class helping Blaise, Malfoy, and Daphne complete the spell.

Hermione Granger got the spell a little after him, and gave him a smirk, as if she thought she had won something. Harry couldn't care less. He was just waiting for flying lessons.

"NO! NO FLYING!"

A.N: Sorry so much guys. I know, it has been a while. Like exactly 3 months. I have… absolutely no excuses. I'm so sorry. I'm way too inconsistent, and all I can promise is that I'll try to be better.

Important: I removed the sentence in chapter 4 where it said that Harry had already learned the matchstick to needle and Incendio charm before coming to Hogwarts, because it didn't make any sense for him to know those things already.

Thanks so much for reading! Please Follow/Favorite, Share, and Review, it means a lot to me.