Black and White

Slither Away,Slytherins

"Ah, Miss Bianchi," Professor McGonagall said, with a hint of some emotion that Giorgia understood perfectly: sarcasm. "How glad I am that you have finally graced us with your presence."

As the rest of the students around her laughed, she sat in the sole empty space she could find (and it wasn't very hard to find), which was next to Prefect Lily Evans.

"Giorgia, isn't it?" Lily said as the class started.

"Yeah, that's me," Giorgia muttered as she looked at Professor McGonagall, who was explaining how N.E.W.T level Transfiguration would be much more difficult than the transfiguration which was being taught.

If N.E.W.T level Transfiguration is harder than this, Giorgia thought to herself, Consider me six feet under. She'd read the textbook, so she had a fairly good idea of the difficulty level, which was sky high.

"Miss Bianchi?" McGonagall said, suddenly standing right in front of Giorgia's desk. "Are you listening?" How did she get there?

"Yes, Professor," Giorgia said.

"Oh really?" The professor said, arching her eyebrow. "If so, if you were truly paying attention to the list of spells I was talking about, then surely you must be able to perform a Transfiguration spell. It can't be easy for a first-time lass, can it?"

She snatched Giorgia's quill (which was extremely hard to write with) from her satchel and handed it to her.

"Go on,then," the professor said, and Giorgia's mind was racing with all the spells she could do to prove McGonagall wrong. A quill, eh? I know exactly what to do with it. Except for writing with it, of course.

She pointed her wand at the quill on her desk, and with a swish and a flick (Lucrezia had briefed Giorgia about the proper wand actions) and said, "Avifors."

At that instant, the quill morphed into a tiny little feathery fuzzball , which Giorgia recognised to be a baby bird. An owl, to be exact.

All the boys gawped, all the girls awwwed, the professor was flabbergasted, and Giorgia's jaw was dropping to the ground. She had absolutely no idea how she had done it, but yet the little baby owl was on her desk, making soft little hoos.

"Um.." Giorgia trailed off awkwardly, seeing as every student's eyes were on her for the third time that week. "Is that good enough, professor? Or should I do another spell?"

She didn't mean to sound cheeky. Because the glare McGonagall gave her could have blown up a minefield with the amount of force in it.

"Um, I didn't mean to sound cheeky, professor," Giorgia said quickly, giving McGonagall a pleading look.

The professor blinked. Once. Then twice. Then finally, she composed herself and gave Giorgia a resigning look.

"Very good for a first-time lass,Miss Bianchi. I expect more from you in the future." She gave a look to everybody else in the class, and everybody looked away from Giorgia.

As she continued teaching the class about different transfiguration spells, Giorgia was desperately trying to quieten the baby owl, which was starting to make little owl noises.

"Miss Bianchi," Professor McGonagall said exasperatedly as her class was disrupted by a cry from the owl. "Will you please make your owl quiet?"

"Uh, It won't listen to me, Professor!" She said frantically as the owl started to cry even louder. And I haven't even taken my first 'Care of Magical Creatures' lesson yet! She thought to herself. Does the owl count as a magical animal, since it was made magically?