Since the beginning | Deamus |

(first year) Ch. 5 I Lose An Eyebrow*

(Just a few minor changes, no real change to the plot)
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Apparently, alarm clocks don't exist at Hogwarts. I learned this the very hard way on that first morning.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" one of my dorm mates, a boy with bright ginger hair and the only one in the room I didn't know the name of for some reason, shouted as he hastily tried to pull his shirt on.

"Shut up! Why're you yelling!"

The ginger glared at me, still attempting to put his clothes on. "We're late!"

"Oh!" I joined him in frantically pulling on my clothes. By the time I was done the others were up, and it became a scramble to get out the door before breakfast was over.

We were given our schedules in the Great Hall by a bunch of house elves who disappeared as soon as they did their job. Our first class was Transfiguration which according to the (completely inaccurate) map we were given, was all the way on the other side of the castle.

There are over a hundred staircases at Hogwarts and not one of them stays in place. That first day I had to constantly change the way I was going only to run into a wall, or a wall pretending to be a door.

The Hogwarts' ghosts weren't much help either. They could just float through walls so to them it wasn't difficult to get around the castle. Peeves on the other hand would point you in a certain direction, knowing full and well that you would run into glue or another wall. Peeves was the poltergeist of Hogwarts and dedicated all of his time to make our lives miserable. Dean managed to get on the wrong side of him pretty quick. All he was doing was walking beside me, muttering about the crazy staircase, when Peeves started to pelt chalk at us. Dean tried to hit him with a book which only managed to get more chalk thrown at him. Luckily, when we tried to run away we opened the door that led to the Transfiguration classroom.

Professor McGonagall was standing behind her desk, directing kids who wandered in here by accident back to the right class. Everyone was milling around trying to find their friends and get ready for class. I sat down in a seat near the back of the room, maybe Professor McGonagall wouldn't call on me if she couldn't see me.

Dean sat down next to me and took his books out of his bag. "I cannot believe how long it took to get here. We're lucky we weren't late."

"I know," I ran my fingers through my hair, there was still some chalk dust in it from my encounter with Peeves, "the staircases plus that poltergeist sucked."

"Ya, and-" Dean started before Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the classroom.

"Quite everyone." She was using a normal voice but it silenced the whole class just as well as it would if she yelled. "Welcome to Transfiguration. Our first lesson today-" The door burst open with Harry and the ginger (who I learned later that day was Ron) came running in.

"Sorry we're late," Ron said, out of breath and clutching a stitch in his side.

"This class started ten minutes ago Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter. Can you two not read maps?" The class laughed as Ron's face turned red. "Now go find a seat so I can start teaching again."

The rest of the class wasn't too bad to say the least. Three kids got detention for burning some parchment and throwing it at people; I may or may not have been one of them, but no witnesses can prove it.

"We will be trying to turn a match into a needle, it was demonstrated on page thirteen of your Transfiguration book. But, I'll show it again for those of you-" Professor McGonagall stared pointedly at Ron and a few other in the back who were giggling at something that one of them said, "who have not read it. Now watch closely." She turned to a match that was sitting on her desk. "Acus." And before my very eyes, was a needle. Most of the class whispered excitedly as they were preparing their wands to practice their first spell. "Before any of you get too excited you should know that though this is a simple spell, things can go wrong fast if you don't do it exactly right."