"Euphemia, we're going. Come on," Walburga ordered and Mia looked up from where she had just finished her pancakes to see Walburga stood over her with her arms crossed, Heather and Mary on either side of her.
Euphemia groaned inwardly, not wanting to spend another minute in their company, she would rather just wait for Minnie and walk with her but she knew that would be unforgivable.
She simply nodded, fuming, but still stood up, sending one last look at Eileen who grimaced at her sympathetically before she was dragged out of the Great Hall by Mary, who had hooked her arm through Mia's.
Minerva looked over from the Gryffindor table to see Euphemia being taken out of the hall, quite unwillingly by the looks of things and immediately stood up, ready to go over to her and invite her to come with them later on but felt a hand on her arm which prevented her from moving.
Looking around with a fierce expression, she locked eyes with Charlus who had been the one to stop her, "Leave her, she's chosen what she wants," he told her, distaste lining his tone and Minnie shook her arm free of his grip.
"Don't tell me what to do," she snapped and stalked off to go and talk to Euphemia.
Crowds of students and gaggles of giggling girls separated Minnie from the group of Slytherin girls that she could see over by the marble staircase, three of them chatting whilst the fourth one, Euphemia, stood to one side, her head hung as her feet shuffled back and forth.
Minerva shoved her way through the last of the students, getting an irritated look from a Hufflepuff boy but all Minnie cared about now was getting to Mia.
"Transfiguration is first and that's with the Gryffindors," Mary was saying, not sounding as if she very much liked the idea of sharing a class with the house that Slytherin despised the most.
Walburga pulled a face, "That muggle lover, Dumbledore, teaches that class," she informed them with a toss of her hair, that almost hit Euphemia in the face, had she not ducked.
"The deputy headteacher, you mean?" Heather asked, pulling a face and Mary and Walburga both nodded.
Euphemia personally didn't see anything wrong with the Transfiguration teacher, she figured he was quite the hero due to the fact that he defeated Grindelwald, who she knew she was supposed to love but she just couldn't when the man terrorised muggles and treated them like filth. It just wasn't right.
"Excuse me," came a familiar voice through the crowd and Mia's head shot up immediately to spot Minerva pushing past a few people and her heart soared at seeing her best friend again, she hadn't seen her properly since the beginning of the sorting, only ever from a distance.
But then it sunk as she remembered who she was with. Someone was about to get hurt...
Walburga looked up from where she was gossiping with Heather and Mary, the three of them sending dark looks at anyone who approached them.
Minnie didn't seem unnerved by their presence, though Mia tried to warn her with her eyes, shaking her head frantically.
"I would like to speak with Mia," she announced and Walburga immediately wrinkled her nose as Heather looked disgustedly at Minerva's Gryffindor uniform.
"Too bad, Euphemia is talking to us," Walburga sniffed, pitting emphasis on Mia's full name as if to imply that Minerva was saying it wrong.
"She doesn't look like she is. In fact, she looks rather bored," Minnie replied coolly, staring back at Walburga, not breaking the gaze until the latter finally looked down at her shoes in frustration.
"You have two minutes," Heather told Euphemia and Minerva, tossing her hair back and spinning back round to face Mary and Walburga, evidently talking about the two girls.
I'll have as long as I want, dimwits Euphemia thought furiously to herself and it must've shown on her face as Minnie chuckled.
"Now, what did you want?" Mia asked her, coming off a little harsher than she intended and automatically apologised. "Well, some of the other kids and I are going to explore the castle later and I was wondering if you wanted to come."
Euphemia was taken aback by the offer, having not expected to be asked to hang around with Gryffindors, as she assumed that the majority of Minnie's new friends would dislike her because of her green robes and the fact that she was a Black and a Slytherin.
She risked an apprehensive look at Walburga, who narrowed her eyes back and suddenly Euphemia had made up her mind.
"Yeah, count me in," she smiled and Minerva gave her a hug before informing her to meet them in the Entrance Hall after her last lesson.
"Wait, aren't you in Transfiguration with me now?" Mia grabbed onto Minnie's sleeve, not really wanting her friend to leave her with the monstrous beings that were Walburga and her cronies and Minerva's face brightened and nodded, agreeing to walk with her to the classroom.
The Transfiguration classroom was across the Middle Courtyard and so, without telling Walburga, Euphemia quickly hurried off that way with Minerva, though she could hear Heather's furious shouts from behind her.
The Entrance Hall was now packed with students exiting from the Great Hall, readying themselves for the first lesson of the first day.
Two seventh years were making out in a small passage off the Entrance Hall and smaller students such as themselves scurried about, anxiously looking for classrooms.
Older students shoved past the younger ones, though some kind Hufflepuffs were directing Pomona Sprout to the Potions classroom, as Minerva and Euphemia overheard as they passed her, Minnie waving at the small girl before they hurried out of the main doors and out into the rainy courtyard.
Students were flocking around here as well, the different colours of all the houses blending into one, as the courtyard became a mass of students all clad in their black robes.
Shouts of friends trying to keep up with their companions filled the air as the rain pelted down from the grey skies above them, causing puddles to form all over the flagstones.
Minnie almost slipped in one of these puddles but the boy that Euphemia recognised as Florean Fortescue, the boy who had hung out with Charlus on the train, caught her with a laugh and she sent him a grateful look.
"Slippy here, ain't it?" Florean chuckled as he brushed his wet hair out of his face, "I'd give anything to be able to perform a rain proof charm like that guy," he pointed at an older Ravenclaw student who had his wand upwards, forming an Impervius umbrella.
Mia nodded in agreement, though she did always like rain - she thought it was pretty and dewy grass looked lovely in the morning light, as she had figured when she peeked out of the windows that very morning.
"Where are you two off to, anyway?" Florean asked cheerily, pulling the girls over to one side so that they didn't delay anyone in the busy courtyard.
Euphemia kept quiet, not sure whether he was addressing her as well, she didn't know whether he shared Charlus' beliefs about her, though he did have a friendly glint in his eye which was comforting.
"Transfiguration," Minnie answered, "I'm looking forward to it." Florean nodded, informing them that he was going to Potions and that he would see them later, which confused Euphemia as she thought he didn't like her.
She was especially befuddled when he waved goodbye to both of them and not just Minnie and he looked at Mia, smiling in a friendly fashion too.
"I thought he wouldn't like me," Mia whispered to Minerva as they watched Florean be swallowed up into the crowd again, losing sight of him in the wet courtyard.
"Why not?" Minnie asked curiously, her eyebrows furrowing. "Because of Charlus," Euphemia answered, as they began to start walking again, being caught up in the throng of students heading towards shelter, the crowd going faster because everyone wanted to get out of the drizzle.
Minerva rolled her eyes, "Charlus is a git, he'll come round eventually when he realises that you're not some evil temptress of the west."
Her comment made Mia chuckle as they were swept into the ground floor corridor, the entrance of which was covered in muddy footprints and little puddles that had been brought in by the students emerging from the rain outside.
Minerva tried to squeeze the water out of her ponytail as Euphemia brushed down her robes, trying to remove it of the droplets that had rested there.
It was then that Mia noticed Walburga had also entered, a scowl on her face as Heather and Mary stood on either side of her, leaving Mia to let out a squeal and push Minnie into the crowd, quickly moving toward the classroom so that she could delay the confrontation with Walburga that she knew would not be pleasant at all.
Minnie caught on almost immediately and grabbed Euphemia's arm, pulling her towards the Transfiguration classroom, where there was already a line of students snaking round the corner.
Due to this class being Slytherins and Gryffindors together, the line was rather staggered as the two houses were trying to stay as far away from each other as possible.
Minerva sighed and she and Mia simply stood to one side, not choosing to separate or to stand with any particular side as it was evident the pair of them found it stupid.
Euphemia noticed that the same lone girl who had been by herself on the boat when they were arriving at Hogwarts just yesterday evening (though it seemed like a lot had happened since then) was stood alone again and Minerva informed her that the girl's name was Augusta Sanderson because she knew her due to the girl being in Minnie's dormitory.
Apparently, she was rather bossy and a force to be reckoned with which was probably why she hadn't exactly made fast friends with any of the girls in Gryffindor.
The other Gryffindors were stood in a group and Minerva pointed out who they were from where the two were stood.
"Amy and Elizabeth are the girls there," she said, pointing to a dark haired girl and a blonde one. Minnie then told Euphemia who the rest of them were, "Jillian and Rebecca are the two brunettes there and there's Augusta, of course."
Mia nodded, noting that the other girls were stood apart from the boys with the exception of Blondie, who was giggling at something Charlus was saying, twirling her hair around her finger.
Something unusual shot through Mia and she felt odd watching them and sort of switched off as Minerva named all the boys who were joshing about on the other side of Charlus and Blondie, Alastor looking on with a rather bored expression.
"And who's the Blondie?" Euphemia asked, a little more stiffly than she intended, looking towards the blonde girl who had been hanging around Minerva and who was now leaning on Charlus, looking up at him in a way that made Euphemia feel sick, though she had no idea why.
Minnie laughed out loud at Mia's choice of words, "That's Eugenia Jenkins. She's really nice," she told Euphemia and the latter grimaced, glowering down at her shoes.
Minerva raised an eyebrow, a knowing smile crawling onto her face though she didn't say anything as the classroom door had now opened and the students began to file in slowly.
"Euphemia!" came a furious yell from Walburga and Mia quickly span around, gave Walburga an innocent smile and sauntered into the classroom, which made Minerva laugh again.
"Will you sit next to me?" Euphemia asked Minnie quickly and Minerva gave her a smile and said "I was going to ask you the same question."
The classroom itself was big, surrounded by high windows that were specked by the rain, droplets of water running races down the glass.
It had four rows of three double desks and still managed to have enough room for several cages and bookshelves, two chalkboards, and a desk that their Professor was leaning on rather casually.
Albus Dumbledore was indeed the Transfiguration professor and he smiled at them all as they settled down, though he got a few dirty looks from certain Slytherins whose families had been ripped apart due to his defeat of Grindelwald.
The rest, however, including Euphemia, were staring up at him as if he was some sort of god and others who didn't know much about the crimes of Grindelwald and his reign of terror, like Minnie, were looking at him curiously, unaware of why so many people liked him and why others didn't.
Eugenia came over to Minnie, asking where she had been and whether she would sit next to her but Minerva simply replied, "Sorry, Eugenia, I said I'd sit next to Mia."
This statement earned Mia a look from the girl in question before she beamed and shrugged, "Oh well, I'll sit next to someone else."
Eugenia still ended up sitting next to Minerva, across the aisle and the girl named Rebecca from Gryffindor plonked herself down in the seat beside her.
Charlus was seated beside Alastor at the back, the pair of them with their feet up on the table, leaning back in their seats.
Mary was seated by herself, behind Heather and Walburga who had turned round to talk behind their hands, glancing Mia's way which gave her the foreboding feeling that they were talking about her.
Elizabeth and Amy were also sat at the back as Euphemia noticed that Charlus was attempting to flirt with Amy, who simply brushed him off with a dirty look.
Why Mia was looking at Charlus was a question that would never be answered, as she had no idea herself.
"Settle down now, please," Professor Dumbledore called, standing up straighter now which made the majority of the class turn their attention to the front of the classroom now. The majority of the class, that is.
"Mr Potter and Mr Moody, please stop snickering at the back and pay attention," Dumbledore called, causing the class to all twist around in their chairs to stare at the two boys in question, who both still had their feet propped up on the desk.
"Oh and remove your feet from the desk, it is not a footstool. Though if you would like to purchase a footstool, I strongly suggest Gladrags as a great place to buy one."
The class laughed and Charlus and Alastor took their feet off the desk, with grins plastered on their faces though.
Everyone was more interested in this Transfiguration Professor now that he had shown that he had a sense of humour and even the likes of Walburga and other scowling Slytherins had uncrossed their arms and perked up a little.
Dumbledore smiled at them all before turning to the chalkboard and waving his wand to activate it, started writing on the board.
Take out your A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration textbooks please were the words written on the chalkboard in Dumbledore's elegant penmanship and there was a scramble as students who hadn't already fetched their books hurried to retrieve them from their school bags.
Dumbledore waited patiently before waving his wand again, sending a scroll of parchment to each student, "I suggest you make notes on what I am about to say," he told them and Minerva eagerly took out her quill, looking up at him with an interested expression.
"Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous subjects you will take here at Hogwarts and you are required to take it until fifth year and then possibly further your knowledge in it at NEWT level," Dumbledore informed them before carrying on. Charlus had already started whispering away to Alastor, evidently bored, but it only took one warning look from Dumbledore to shut him up.
"It teaches the art of changing the form and appearance of an object or a person. This tends to end in a few accidents so do not feel at fault if you can't achieve the results straight away. I have seen plenty of spells go wrong, including a time a student transfigured her friend into a teacup instead of the mouse that she was meant to be working on and also another case where a boy didn't transform his turtle into a dog as was required but instead ended up with a Niffler. I never saw that Niffler again, come to think of it," Dumbledore added at the end, chuckling.
The class were already laughing at the mental images and the Professor let them giggle for a bit until he quickly silenced them with a click of his fingers.
Euphemia was impressed at how much influence Dumbledore could have over the class, everyone was now staring at him with the utmost respect because of the way he controlled his classes, firm but also fun.
"Can you transfigure anything, Professor?" a Ravenclaw girl in the front row asked, her hand waving in the air and Dumbledore laughed, "Oh no, that would be disastrous."
"Why not, Professor?" a Hufflepuff boy shouted out, thrusting his fist in the air at the same time as his question, not that Dumbledore seemed to mind.
"Well, of course, there are limits to Transfiguration which are governed by Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. The information regarding the limitations are written on page 5 of your textbook," there was a ruffling of pages as the kids looked for the page, their eyes all quickly scanning over the text there.
"There are also many branches," Dumbledore continued, bringing all the attention back to him now.
"This includes Cross-Species Transfiguration and Human Transfiguration. This type of magic is regarded as very hard work and is notably more scientific than Charms work that I dare say you will find out later on today. One has to get it exactly right for the transfiguration to be successful."
Minerva had her head bent over her parchment, scribbling away frantically with her quill, practically writing down every single word that Dumbledore was saying whereas Euphemia next to her was just noting down important things through the use of bullet points.
Many of the other students were also writing down things that Dumbledore was saying though others sat there with untouched, blank pieces of parchment, simply preferring to listen to him avidly.
Even Charlus and Alastor had stopped mucking about at the back of the class and were actually listening, the latter even writing.
Euphemia eventually zoned out a little, resting her chin in her hand as Dumbledore carried on speaking, choosing to simply note down words that she heard that could be important.
"As I said earlier, Transfiguration is like Charms - though this subject is achieved through concentration, precise wand movements, and the proper pronunciation of an incantation," Dumbledore was now saying.
"However it is generally more difficult than Charms and requires great effort. So please make sure you are paying attention in my class as I will not tolerate bad behaviour but I also want to be able to have a laugh with you all to make this subject more enjoyable."
Dumbledore finally finished his speech and there was a scattered smattering of applause and he shook his head, "Don't applaud me, applaud yourself seeing as you all managed to survive during my lecture," and there was an appreciative chuckle that rippled across the classroom.
"Well, most of you did," Dumbledore added, poking a student next to Lyall Lupin who had fallen asleep and the student abruptly woke up and sheepishly looked up at Dumbledore who just smirked, "Try and stay awake, Mr Cunningham."
The class gradually moved onwards as the clock on the wall ticked nearer to the end of the lesson and Dumbledore set them a task that required them to transfigure a match into a needle with the wand-work that Dumbledore demonstrated to them.
The air was filled full of frustrated shouts when students were unable to do it, yells of triumph when they achieved the right result and Dumbledore's calming voice as he gave advice here and there, correcting hand movements and helping those who were struggling.
Minerva was one of the first few to manage to turn her match into a needle, only after a few tries at it and Dumbledore congratulated her, earning her five points for Gryffindor.
"Do you want me to help you?" Minnie asked Mia, who was stuck staring at her silver match confusedly.
Euphemia nodded with a slightly confused expression and Minerva placed her hand over Mia's, directing the girl how to move her wand and Euphemia nodded dazedly.
"Now you try it," Minerva guided her, "Keep it upright and make sure to sweep it in a U shape." Euphemia tried again and her match got even more shinier and more needle like but was still quite obviously a match.
"Make sure to flick it at the end of the sweep," Minnie advised Mia, showing her how to do it again, practicing on her own needle, which turned back to a match and then back to a needle again when Minerva flicked her wand again.
Euphemia watched the transformation with awed eyes and tried copying what Minnie did and, to her delight, managed to turn her match successfully into a needle.
"Well done, Miss Black! Five points to Slytherin," Dumbledore awarded her with a winning smile and Euphemia beamed back at him as Minnie gave her a high five.
The bell soon rang, bringing the class to an end and Dumbledore summoned all the needles / shiny matches so they all ended up in a pile on his desk at the front of the room.
"You are all dismissed," he called and there was a rush for the door, chatter rising to almost a yell as the students piled out of the room.
There was a lot of excitement about the Transfiguration Professor, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the class, even the Slytherins - who didn't like him because he defeated Grindelwald - had small smiles on their faces though they tried to pretend that the class had been a drag and that Dumbledore was a bad teacher, which everyone just rolled their eyes at.
"What do you have next?" Minerva asked Euphemia as they exited into the busy, bustling corridor crammed full of students.
"Uh, Herbology, I think," Mia replied and a hand with sharp nails suddenly grabbed her wrist, "No kidding, me too!" came a horribly familiar voice that sent shivers down Euphemia's spine.
"Guess we're walking to Herbology together!" Heather exclaimed. "Walburga and Mary have already gone ahead, she told me to come and collect you."
Minerva opened her mouth to say something but Mia shook her head, mouthing 'I can handle it, don't worry' and Minnie closed her mouth, though she still looked worried.
"I'm not a child that you need to look after, Heather. I can look after myself," she yanked her wrist out of Heather's grip and the blonde girl scowled before turning to address Minerva.
"You can leave us now, half blood scum," she spat at Minnie and the girl jumped back in surprise as Mia's blood boiled and she shoved Heather away, making the girl collide with the wall.
"Mia, you didn't need to do that!" Minerva told her in an anguished whisper, "Now you're in more danger!"
"She spat at you," Euphemia shrugged and shot daggers at Heather who stalked off to the greenhouses.
"I appreciate the sentiment but now I'm going to be worried that you'll get hurt," Minnie said with a concerned look.
"Just go to your next lesson, Minnie. I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall, alright?" Minerva nodded and watched as Euphemia sped up and rushed out onto the grounds, watching the girl's dark hair billow behind her as her robes flapped about her ankles.
And she couldn't help but be worried.
Let me know what you think in the comments!