Brightest Star

Chapter Twelve

Now dressed in her school robes, Izzy walked downstairs towards the Great Hall, greeting the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly-Headless Nick, on the way. Elliot and Eliza were already seated at the Ravenclaw table with breakfast muffins and juice in their hands. Elliot patted the spot beside him and smiled when Izzy sat down there.

"Are you ready for your first day?" Eliza asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I suppose. This is all so exciting that I'm going to learn real magic!"

"It's okay, I think. But it isn't really that much of a big deal."

Elliot stood up. "You guys want juice?" 

"Sure." the two girls said at the same time. Elliot stood up to grab their juice. 

"What's not a big deal?" Stella said as she walked towards the two. "El, your presence is required at the Gryffindor table. Hope and Henry are, um..."

Stella gestured towards the Gryffindor table. Hope and Henry were throwing food at each other then smearing it in each others' faces. Eliza shook her head and ran over to stop the 'food wars' from causing any further damage. Elliot returned with Izzy's cup of juice. He set Eliza's down on the table. 

"Hey, thanks, Elliot." Izzy beamed.

"No problem," Elliot shrugged. "What have we got before lunch?"

"Apparently it's Transfiguration with Professor Dover, then Potions with Professor Walsh-Longbottom."

"Oh, okay then."

The two of them bit into their muffins in silence and tried to stifle their laughter seeing Eliza trying her best to calm Hope and Henry down. In the end, she gave up and simply joined in and dumped a glass of water onto Stella's head. Stella bared her teeth and launched into an all out Eliza attack. Izzy shook her head and watched as Elliot went to join the fight. But she made the wise decision and decided to leave before she ended up with eggs sunny side-up in her hair. 

"Now, today we are going to cover the basics of the art of Transfiguration, starting with the formulae." Professor Dover stood in front of a blackboard, wand in hand.

She started writing down the mathematical formulae that they had to remember. Izzy jotted the formula down quickly on her notebook.

"In Transfiguration, your arm movements must be precise, firm and decisive. Hesitation will lead to failing the spell. Everyone please take out their wands and open the textbook to page five."

There was the sound of talking coming from the back of the classroom. Professor Dover rolled her eyes and continued.

"I'll give you all five minutes to practice the spells and the arm movements."

Professor Dover went back to her desk and sat down, reading something and fiddling with her hair.

Izzy lowered her gaze onto the textbook and practiced the arm movements, drawing them onto her notebook. Elliot was scribbling down all the steps of the incantations into a spare piece of parchment while practicing at the same time.

"Time's up. This lesson, using the spell and the movements that the textbook has shown, you are to turn these matches..."

Professor Dover waved her wand and conjured a match in front of every student.

"Into a needle and back." Professor Dover instructed. "Once you are done, show me, then you are allowed to move on to a harder transformation. You're allowed to start."

All at once, the classroom started erupting with multicoloured sparks. Professor Dover shook her head. It was going to a long session.

Izzy fiddled with her hair, trying to concentrate.

"This stuff is much harder than maths," she thought.

Her brow furrowed and she waved her wand, thinking the incantation. She waved her wand in a clockwise circle and pointed it straight at the match. The match changed colour, turned sharper and transformed into a needle. She turned her wand in an anticlockwise circle and pointed it at the needle; it transformed back into a matchstick.

Elliot's jaw hung open.

"How did you do that first try?"

"I just... I don't know... concentrated and just did it."

"You should tell Nix- I mean Professor Dover."

"Professor!" Izzy shouted, raising her hand high up in the air.

Every single student in the class looked at her with either expectant or bored looks. 

"What is it, Miss Sanders?" Nixie asked, looking up from her book.

"I've done it."

She turned her match into a needle, concentrating hard and immediately turned it back afterwards.

Nixie stood up and walked towards the girl. "Well, then. Try turning this mouse into a snuffbox, then. It's on page six."

Nixie conjured a mouse onto the table. Smiling, she walked away towards her desk and continued her reading while the class continued.