"He is a bit intimidating, who's cat is that?" Harry asks, noticing a cat walk in from the hallway, before bounding down the counters and landing on top of the desk at the front of the classroom.
From the cat, an elderly woman with graying brown hair appeared, wearing a large stereotypical witch's hat and tortoiseshell glasses. Where Professor Sprout had been friendly-looking if strangely dressed, and Professor Quirrell had in some ways looked pathetic, Professor McGonagall looked as though she meant business. "Greetings Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. I am Professor Minerva McGonagall. Welcome to Transfiguration. Transfiguration is a very exacting discipline of magic which requires immense focus and concentration. With this magic you can theoretically transform anything into anything else, barring some specific rules. As such it is to be treated with great care and respect. Please watch this demonstration." McGonagall says, before levitating a paperweight over to her. With a brief wand wave, the circular paperweight is transformed into a bird, which makes a trip around the room, then lands back in her hand. The bird is then transformed into a deck of cards which she then shuffles, before flinging them all out and transforming the lot of them into butterflies, which then congregate into a single batch which then returns to its status as a paperweight.
"Now, for this first lesson we will learn about the Transfiguration alphabet, this is used in Transfiguration to create the…" McGonagall begins her lecture on the topic, and Harry and Hannah quickly begin taking notes having been enraptured by McGonagall's display. What they fail to notice however is the smile on McGonagall's face as she internally celebrates another successful set of 'hooked' students.
Following Transfiguration was lunch; which Harry's stomach was forever grateful for. His nervousness about doing well in his classes had burned through his breakfast much faster than anticipated. Who would have thought that a piece of toast with an egg on it wasn't enough to sustain himself for a full day? Thankfully, the hour given for lunch was more than enough time for Harry to both refuel his adolescent stomach, and have a nice conversation with Hermione.
"So, how are you enjoying classes so far? I thought Transfiguration was exciting." Harry says, looking at his first friend.
"They've all been so interesting, although Herbology was my least favorite. Mom always tried to have a garden at the house, but all it ever succeeded in doing was making me sick." Hermione says, "Turns out I've got a pretty bad pollen allergy, so garden work wasn't in the cards for me."
"Oh, are you going to have any issues in Herbology then?" Harry asks, concerned for her.
"We'll see, supposedly magical plants don't have quite the same pollen as non-magical ones, and there are also apparently potions I can take to ease any symptoms I may have." Hermione says. "When I learned Herbology was a required subject, I did as much research as I could on it."
"That tracks with everything I've seen, you devour information like my Uncle does cake." Harry says, and they both give a small laugh.
"I'm most excited for Charms though, having looked ahead through the book there's some really interesting things we're going to learn how to do, like make things float, or make things soft and squishy." Hermione says, a glint in her eyes.
"I was pretty excited for Transfiguration. I saw Hagrid give my cousin a pig tail when he picked me up, so something like that seems neat." Harry says, chuckling a bit at the memory of seeing his cousin's 'true' colors revealed for a moment.
"That sounds pretty funny." Hermione says. At that moment however, they both realize that they need to finish up and head for their Charms class.
Professor Flitwick was a very amusing sight to see. Standing a very resounding 106 centimeters tall, the diminutive professor was wearing a shirt and waistcoat under his open robes. A broad smile presented itself upon his face as he greeted the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students as they entered the classroom. "Hello students! And welcome to Charms class! This, along with Transfiguration are where you will be doing most of your practical magic this year, although you will be doing some spells in Defense Against the Dark Arts as well. Over the course of this year you will learn a few foundational charms, as well as the basis for Charms in the future. Now, instead of going over the syllabus for this year, I believe that the best way to start learning is to start learning! So we will spend this first class going over the theory behind the knockback jinx, your next class tomorrow we will continue working on this spell, and hopefully at least one of you will successfully cast it. We will then continue working the spell for the rest of the week before moving on to the next spell. I will provide the expected class schedule, as well as student expectations for class tomorrow. For now, let's begin!" Flitwick begins to explain the theory behind the knockback jinx. At its core, the knockback jinx, also known as Flipendo, is a spell that was initially designed to flip something over, however when cast on a target that has some resistance to the spell, it causes them to fall. Providing more power to the jinx can also allow it to push things away with some considerable force, and this is the basis for what would later become the banishing charm, which is a spell they will learn properly in third and fourth years. Harry is completely enthralled by the lesson, and is excited to learn the spell, and even more so the later banishing charm. The idea of sending things flying? That sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Glancing quickly at Hermione, his partner for today's class, he sees that she is as absorbed into the lesson as he is, and is jotting down notes at a rate much faster than he would be able to.