The next morning we all had our first day of classes. I woke up early - far too early - and I got dressed in my uniform. I saw that the logo on my robes had changed to the Hufflepuff crest and the inside of the hood had a silky yellow interior, my scarf had had changed from plain black to yellow and black stripes, and my jumper now had yellow detailing around the wrists, neck, and waist. 

"I've been Hufflepuffised!" I said excitedly. 

I finished getting dressed and put some parchment, ink, quills, and the books I needed for my next three classes into my satchel. I was too excited to do anything, even read, but I decided to go down to the Great Hall and wait for breakfast. 

It turned out they started serving breakfast very early and though there were only a few students there (mostly older students studying) there were toast racks floating up and down the tables, several boxes of cereal, large bowls of yoghurt and fruit, stacks of pancakes, and dishes of spreads.

I sat down and served myself some pancakes and drizzled maple syrup over them. I decided to reread the first bit of my Charms textbook (The Standard Book of Spells (Grade One) by Miranda Goshawk) to prepare for the class. It had an introduction chapter about how you need willpower, concentration, incantation, and wand movement to cast a spell. I was very excited to cast my first spell but I realised that we were still probably a few weeks away from doing that. 

Ellie walked into the Great Hall, spotted me, and hurried over. "Charms first," she said nervously. "With the Slytherins. And I'm really no good at magic. I mean, I tried to shoot a few sparks out of my wand when I got it, and I've stolen my siblings and parents' wands before and tried to do something but nothing's ever worked."

"Well, I'm sure we'll start easy," I reassured. 

After breakfast, we tried to find our way to the Charms corridor. We ended up getting lost and we were glad we had left early. Eventually, we resolved to ask the first older student that we saw. Unfortunately, the first older student we saw was Harriet, Ellie's sister. Ellie pulled me behind a large suit of armour. 

"I can't ask her! She'll hold it against me my whole life!" 

"We agreed. And besides, we need to get to Charms! We can't be late!" 

"Noooo," Ellie groaned. "But fine. You do the talking. She might not notice me."

I walked out from behind the suit of armour. "Hi, er, Harriet? You're a Hufflepuff prefect, right?"

"Yes, that's me," Harriet said proudly. "How can I help you?" 

"Well, you see, I need to find the Charms corridor," I said, showing her the location on my timetable. "Can you please help me find it?" 

"Hang on. Ellie, is that you?" Harriet asked sternly. 

Ellie emerged from behind me. "Hi."
"Why were you hiding?!" Harriet exploded. 

"Errr . . ."

"Well, I can show you the way to the charms corridor; it is quite hard to find your way at first, especially with all the hidden passageways and moving staircases," Harriet said, regaining herself. "Follow me." 

Ten minutes later, we arrived at our classroom. We were some of the first people there. 

"Have a good lesson!" Harriet waved. 

As she left, our professor walked up. "Hello everyone. Come on in and sit down."

Everyone nervously shuffled into the classroom and took their seats. 

"Well, we seem to be missing a few. Must've gotten lost. Anyway, I'm Professor Bernard Knagthon, Charms teacher. In this course you'll be learning a lot of theory, and a few simple everyday spells. For any questions you have regarding Charms outside of class, first check your textbook - do you all have it here with you?"
There was a chorus of yes. 

"So for questions you have outside of class time, you can check your textbook, and if you can't find the answer there, you can contact me."

Everyone nodded. 

"So first up, I would like to advise you to take notes. Lots of notes. It will help you with homework and will get you through your end of year exams. So! First lesson. Is everyone here now?" Professor Knagthon looked around and he saw that all the seats were full. "So! To cast a spell, you need four things: concentration, willpower, wand movement, and incantation. Of course, in later years you will learn how to cast non-verbal spells, but we'll leave that for now." 

Professor Knagthon went on to explain about the four components needed to cast a spell. I was scribbling down notes, desperate to do well. A lot of the Slytherins were sitting lazily, sketching their logo, not even taking notes. I knew they were thinking that they already knew everything. 

Delta Malthwaite looked at me with disgust, as if she didn't think anyone should need to take notes, unless they were stupid. 

*unfinished chapter*