Rosabella Black|Daughter of Sirius Black| (Book 1)

The Potions Master

I laughed as they shrieked and scurried in all different directions, some banging into each other.

Learning magic was indeed hard. It wasn't just waving a wand and saying words. We had to study the night skies through our telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. I didn't find this too hard and I already knew most of it. Ever since I got lost in the woods and the stars were the only thing that provided comfort intill Remus eventually found me, I now knew every constellation and names of most the stars.

Three times a week we went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout. She was quite nice but that didn't stop me from lighting fireworks during the lesson. I got a detention for that. During Herbology welearned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while we scribbled down names and dates. I made paper airplanes and threw them across the classroom. Harry and I got into competitions to see who's could go further.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of our first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was different. I learned pretty quick she was not a teacher to cross. She saw me about to set off a fanged Frisbee, even though I was bring very careful to hide it, and she summoned it off me. No matter how hard I tried she always caught me when I was trying to set something off.
Strict and clever, McGonagall gave us a talking - to the moment we sat down in her first class.
  
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." McGonagall said, her eyes trained on me.

I stopped trying to set prank stuff off then. I wanted to learn how to turn my brothers into teacups.

Then McGonagall changed her desk into a pig and back again. We were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized we weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, we were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione and I had made any difference to our matches.

Professor McGonagall showed the class how they had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione and I a rare smile. I got detention for all the stuff I tried to do but she was still impressed.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told us, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank - you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but we weren't sure we believed this story.

For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather. For another, we had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins and my twin brothers insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

Friday was an important day for Harry, Ron and I. We finally managed to find our way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once. Lucas had been helping us get around the castle, along with Michael, but it was nice to manage to get yourself somewhere without asking for help. I wouldn't trust Jason and Jacob to point us in the right direction if my life depended on it.