I woke early this morning. The first rays of sunlight were beginning to peek through the blue drapes that hung across the windows of the dormitory and on the far side of the room, I could hear Dian muttering in her sleep. With a small giggle, I slipped out of bed and picked up my robes. Overnight my robes had gained a beautiful blue trim and the hogwarts symbol had altered to the Ravenclaw symbol. I pulled them on and quietly crept from the room. I noticed, as I passed, that Melissa’s bed was empty. Looks like I’m not the only one excited for day one! I hurried down the beautiful marble stairwell and into the common room, where a fire crackled in the fireplace, and two ghosts sat at the chess table next to the main window. With a chuckle I hurried to the door and passed through into the fifth floor corridor. The hallway was empty so I had a peek through every door down the corridor until I came across a room with a wide open balcony on the far side. With a quick check that the room was empty, I crept across to the balcony and gazed out across the grounds. I was met with the crisp morning air and I inhaled deeply as I walked to the edge. I gazed out across the Lake, to where the sun was creeping up, casting it’s magnificent golden light across the water and through the surrounding edges of the Dark Forest. I glanced down to see what else was going on. Near the greenhouses, a young, but elegant looking witch with a tall yellow hat and pale pink robes was waving around her wand, causing red spark to fly out at a magnificent plant that was attempting to break out. As I watched, the witch spun around and shot a beam of light at the plant which immediately withdrew. I marvelled at the power flying from her wand. Suddenly, a sharp whistle blow turned my attention and I glanced over towards the Quidditch Pitch where three students, draped in green robes, spiralled into the air after a small golden ball. With grace they twisted, weaved and spun around each other and followed the ball, even as it dove down towards the ground. I turned my eyes once more around the grounds in time to see The GroundsKeeper run out of his house yelling and waving a spade as he tore after a small winged creature. With a chuckle I turned and headed down to breakfast in the Great Hall. As we entered, the four Heads of House stood at the entrance, adorned in elegant robes and they handed out our timetables. Professor Darkstorm handed mine to me with a smile, and I felt myself go bright red as I took it and hurried into the hall. Up first was Potions, followed by Herbology and then Transfiguration, all before lunch! After this I had History of Magic before dinner and then finally Astronomy!

“This is insane!” a small voice cried. I glanced upwards and saw Dian staring at her timetable in disbelief.

“If you ask me” Melissa chimed in quickly, “It’s insane that there’s not enough!”

“Of course you’d think that Mel” A tall boy with sandy hair and a gawky smile chortled, “Miss first year prefect!”

“Be quiet Sam!” Melissa yelled, throwing her “A Thousand Ways to get Detention” book at him. The table erupted with laughter and on the far side, I could see Charelle Bryant and Shweta Night huddled over a piece of parchment drawing and laughing.

I took a seat next to Melissa and was greeted with many smiles. I pulled up a plate of toast and with a hungry grin, scooped eggs and bacon onto it before I began eating. Sam leant over the table and picked up my timetable, comparing it to his own, before smiling and placing it back down. He moved down the table to another group of boys and high-fived one of them that I recognised as Alexander Doevendans from the sorting ceremony. I felt my attention tear back as a high pitched laugh came from Charelle as she held up a picture she’d drawn of Professor Nivera and Professor Darkstorm as an old couple in rocking chairs. Her face quickly dropped however as Professor Nivera moved down and out of the hall, chatting animatedly with Professor Darkstorm. In the distance, the clock rung 9:00am, and students all around me leapt to their feet, grabbing books and a last slice of toast in their hurry to get to their first class of the year. I grabbed my bag as I was swept with the crowd out into the main hallway and down the stairs, through the door on the left hand side of the entrance hall, into the dungeons. We flooded into the Potions classroom and I took a seat at a table next to two students. With an air of discretion, I glanced at the top of their books and saw “Abi Taylor” and “Aldana Suasnabar”. They were talking quietly and they turned and greeted me as I sat down. Just as I pulled out my quill and parchment, Professor Nivera glided into the classroom and stood at the front smiling.

“Welcome!” She cried, startling some students. Her hair sat in a gentle side ponytail and was draped across her front right shoulder. Beautifully embroidered golden robes tumbled around her body and spilled out across the stone floor. “Today marks the beginning of your Hogwarts education, and thus allow me to be the first to provide you with a series of instructions!”

She pulled her wand from within her robes and flicked it towards the blackboard. In a puff of smoke, the board on the left became covered in ‘guidelines to make it through a magical education’, whilst the board on the right displayed ‘Magical Ethics Essays’. Every student eagerly began writing whilst Professor Nivera sat down at her desk and pulled out a plate of food. She began eating and proceeded to explain that owing to having to hand out the timetables, and students coming late (at which she stared at Charelle Bryant), she and Professor Darkstorm had missed breakfast. For the next hour and a half, we copied notes and learnt the theory of a Wiggenweld Potion before being sent on our way. My hand ached as I hobbled out of the class and knew I was in for a lot of work with the rest of the day. By the time I fell into bed, my head was ready to explode. In Herbology we’d learnt about many different kinds of Plants and Dian Frost had received detention for throwing feeding a Venomous Tentacula some of her jelly-beans. In Transfiguration, we learnt about a series of laws known as Gamp’s Laws for Elemental Transfiguration and the Professor displayed the ability of a series of spells known as the Class-A Transfigurative Spells. Funnily enough, Dian Frost also got a detention in Transfiguration for eating snacks in the back corner of the classroom. After lunch, in History of Magic, the elusive and wispy Professor Balog introduced himself and gave us an outline of the entire course before assigning us (as well as with Herbology and Transfiguration and Potions) a pile of homework! Astronomy was a welcome course after dinner as we began star gazing. This quickly changed however as we got piled with even more homework! Lying in bed, I can happily say, as quite possibly the happiest witch alive that I would do it all again! The door creaked open and I could hear Charelle giggling as Dian walked into the room, covered in grease.

“It’ll teach you for speaking out of turn in class Dian” Melissa snickered as she rolled over to sleep.

“Well, the Professor’s aren’t around now” Dian quickly piped up, before she grabbed a pillow and started a pillow fight. I quickly pulled my blankets up to protect myself as Charelle used her wand to projectile her pillow in my direction. As soon as it fell to the floor, I grabbed my own and leapt out into the battlezone!

After almost an hour of fighting, we all slumped onto our beds and fell fast asleep!

Until next time, A potioneer in the making,

Genevieve Greenburg