After having made the students write down tons of different formulas and charts, Professor McGonagall gave each student a matchstick.

“Your next task is to change the match on your table into a silver needle.”

She said and held one matchstick where the whole class could see it, before taking out her wand and waving it at the matchstick, turning it into a shiny silver needle.

“If you are not clear about something you are encouraged to raise you hand and ask. If not, you may begin.”

While the other students were having a hard time transfiguring the match into a needle, Almira was humming as she transfigured the match into a silver needle, then back into a match, then into a golden needle, back into a match. Transfiguration has always been easy for her as she uses the same kind of process when she's changing her own form.

“Are you done transfiguring the match Ms.Marlson as you seem to have the extra time to hum?”

She was having fun turning the match into all kinds of needles when she heard Professor McGonagall’s stern voice from the front of the class. She turns her match once again into a silver needle before raising it up for Professor McGonagall to see and says:

“Yes Professor!”

Professor McGonagall seems to be surprised at this and walks slowly to stand next to Almira’s desk. She takes the needle out of Almira’s hand, bringing it close to her face to examine it.

“Well done Ms.Marlson, another 5 points to Hufflepuff. Still you should stop disturbing your classmates’ concentration with your humming.”

She says, a lot less sternly this time, before giving the needle back to Almira and walking back to the front of the class.

The rest of the lesson went by as some of the students managed to transfigure the match into needles, but most failed to make any significant advances on transfiguring the match. The lesson ended in Professor McGonagall giving them a huge amount of homework to be done before the next transfiguration-class.

After lunch they had potions-class with the Ravenclaws.

When they got to the dungeons of the Slytherin Tower, a thin man with shallow skin, crooked nose and uneven teeth was standing in front of the classroom and looking at the students with a face that said that there’s nothing funny in this class.

Professor Snape started their lesson with:

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic.

I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Really, this sounded like something he said to every class he teaches before their first lesson.

There wasn’t much to tell about their first potions-lesson. Professor Snape first made them write down the instructions from the blackboard, then he put them in pairs and had them prepare ingredients for potions, as there wasn’t enough time for brewing any real potions. No homework was given after this lesson.

Professor Flitwick, the charms teacher, was a short man with a shock of white hair, and though it was a class Almira and her friends had been waiting for as that’s the class where they get to cast all kinds of charms, the first lesson was spent on writing down the essentials of casting spells like the intent, the incantation and the wand-movement.

“I wanted to learn new spells…”

Almira says, sad that the lesson she so looked forward to ended with her not learning anything new or fun.

“Cheer up Mira, it’s normal to start by learning the theory first, and not everyone has had their parents teaching them before attending Hogwarts.”

Susan tries to cheer her up.

“I guess, but it still shouldn’t take that long to learn the basics. I mean, it only took five minutes for my mother to teach me my first spell…”

Almira pouts, not noticing the mixed expressions on her friends faces.

“Um, Mira. What was your first spell?”

Hannah asks.

“Hm? The cleaning charm, why?”

Almira answers, though she doesn’t see how her first spell changes anything.

“Genius.”

Megan says while looking at Almira with envy in her eyes.

“But you learned it too?”

Almira says as she doesn’t understand how learning the cleaning charm made her a genius, as she had just taught the same spell to her friends last night.

“Mira, we learned it after multiple hours of you guiding our hands, correcting our incantations and helping us build clear images of what we wanted the spell to do.”

Susan explains.

Almira holds her chin and seems to think on what Susan said, before asking doubtfully:

“Is it possible that you’re just slightly slower?”

The other three can’t believe their ears. They all have connections to the big families, and Susan has been especially learning to cast spells from her aunt. No one has ever questioned their ability to learn new spells, until Almira that is.

“A-anyway, what do we do now? We have six hours before we have to go to the Astronomy Tower.”

Seeing her friends’ shocked expressions, Almira stutters as she tries to change the subject.

Seeing Almira's awkward attempt, Susan exhales deeply before speaking:

“Haa… How about we go to the Common Room and try to get some of our transfiguration’s homework done before dinner? I’m sure our little miss genius here would be more than happy to help us, who are slightly slower to study, to get through our mountanous tasks.”

She says the last bit with an over dramatic voice and finishes with a bow towards Almira, to which Megan also joins.

“Yes!”

Almira says with a giggle, and they head towards their Common Room.

Almira somehow manages to help her friends finish their homework before dinner time, so after dinner they just laze around in their room, talking about all kinds of things, ranging from hobbies to pets. Surprisingly, Megan’s family actually takes care of dragons and other XXXXX-rated beasts while they are detained by the Ministry, before they are sent to somewhere else for long-term housing.

When there was half an hour until midnight, they headed towards the Astronomy Tower and were welcomed by a tall witch with dark eyes, dark hair and dark skin. She had a slightly round face with a strict expression.

Professor Sinistra taught them the names of some of the stars, and made the students observe them with their telescopes while explaining what kind of changes they had to look for. This lesson too ended in a huge amount of homework having to do with movements of the stars and the planets.

When they were finally back to their room, it was already half-past two in the morning, so Almira cast the cleaning charm on all of them before they stumbled onto their beds and briskly fell asleep.