In dedication to the one and only Professor McGonagall, Maggie Smith. Thank you for letting me grow up with your character.

"Syria! I'm so incredibly sorry!" one of the twins interrupts the deafening silence.

I recognize it as Fred and the other twin are standing in complete shock.

"Mum is going to kill us," George whispers.

I try to use my arm to wipe the massive amount of wet hair sticking to my face off, but it doesn't help at all when my sleeve is soaking wet.

One boy wipes my sticking hair out of my face while the other throws something at me. When all the hair is out of my face, I see a scarlet and black robe covering my front. I quickly looked up and saw a few older boys snickering in a corner as my white shirt had become completely see-through.

I hear the fast clinking of someone's shoes as someone approaches.

"Weasleys!" I hear Minny's voice. "What on earth were you thinking, I know your mother has raised you better than to do something like this to a first year on their first day! I will be contacting Mrs. Weasley today! Detention, my office tonight! Did we not agree to start off the term detention-free? You will see me every night for a month for this foolishness; not only did you do something this idiotic where someone could have easily slipped and been hurt, but you both returned on your word! Detention!" she scolds in a stern voice the two very guilty-looking boys.

"Come on, Miss Noir, let's get you cleaned up so that you can get off to your first class," Minny announces in the even tone I am used to.

She pulls the wand out of her burgundy robe; she makes an odd motion while saying a funny phrase. Instantly, my hair was no longer soaking wet, but it returned to its initially dry state along with my clothes. I fling the scarlet robe I had previously clutched like a shield toward Fred.

"Go to class Miss Noir , I will see you in my classroom later in the day," she says, and it gives me a bit of comfort to know that I will get to see her later in the day.

I glance down at my schedule and see I have History of Magic first with Professor Binns. The issue is I have no clue how to get there. Why didn't they include maps with the schedule? I look around, and I approach a boy in yellow robes with gold hair.

"Good morning. Could you please tell me how to get to History of Magic?" I ask timidly.

He looks up from his book and smiles, "It is on the first floor. It will be the fifth classroom on the left."

I start walking towards the stairs when I relieze I forgot to reply, "Thank you!" I call back.

I get to the balcony that overlooks the intertwining stairs and pick the first one I see that is headed downwards. I'm halfway down when the stairs move, connecting with another set of stairs. I quickly reach the end of the conjoining stairs and get a balcony like before. I take another stairs downward until I reach the bottom floor. I walk through the darker, dustier hall till I reach the classroom. About half the class is complete with green and blue robes. I sit behind two girls, one in a green robe and one in a blue robe.

I pull out the right textbook from my stack and open the jar of ink on the table, then let my eyes wander around the classroom as I wait for class to start. A blue figure glides down the middle, separating the desks into two sides. His hairline is pushed to the back of his head with incredibly bushy eyebrows. He was a ghost. I tried not to stare, but it was incredibly difficult. A girl in green robes sits next to me, causing me to pull my gaze from him. She gives me a soft smile, and I smile back.

The professor starts before I am able to introduce myself.

"Good morning, first years," he greets in the most drawn out and monotone voice possible, making it sound more like, "Gooooooooood morrrrnnnnning firrrsssttt yearrrrrrrrrrrrsssssss."

"My name is Professor Binns," he introduces himself. He stops talking and stares at the back of the classroom with a sleepy expression before continuing. "If you didn't know already, I teach History of Magic. You will be learning about the first magic families, the creation of Hogwarts, and the wizarding war this year."

I glance at the clock, it has been ten minutes since class started and these are the few words he has gotten out.

+++

The bell rings, and I quickly stand up and rush from the musty classroom. I was watching the clock, and everything was packed up. Luckily, he did give us a short rundown of the school, so I know my next class is only one level down, in the dungeons. I was told that Professor Snape teaches potions, and I'm pretty excited about it, as it was an interesting subject over the summer. I climb down the stairs and walk down the even darker hallway than the first to the potions classroom. This classroom is filled with blue and yellow robes. I was one of the first in the classroom, leaving me to take a desk three from the front. I open my potions book to the first page while I wait for class.

+++

Potions is not, in fact, fun, but boring, just like History of Magic. Professor Snape drew on and on about bottling fame and blah blah. He started the textbook's introduction, but I just doodled in the margins the whole time as I had already gone through the entire book twice.

The bell rings, and all the students quickly leave, probably in a hurry to get out of there. I approach the professor, standing at his desk, looking through a bookshelf behind it.

"Yes?" he inquires in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you had an extra textbook that is used for the second years that I could borrow? I found the subject very interesting and was able to read all of it twice during the summer," I ramble.

"You," he pauses. "read the whole textbook," he pauses again. "Twice. And you are asking for the next textbook," he repeats what I said.

"Umm...yes. So is it possible to borrow a textbook?" I ask him again.

He turns to another bookshelf and pulls off an extremely worn-looking book, but it will work.

"This has my own notes in them; you may find them helpful," he adds in his drawn-out voice as he hands me the book.

"Ok, thank you!" I respond enthusiastically as I hurriedly leave the classroom. I open the front cover and see the words "Property of: The Half-Blood Prince." Weird, but if Snape likes to call himself some type of prince in his alone time, who am I to judge?

+++

I have completed two more classes, Defense and Herbology, and I'm headed to the Great Hall for lunch. The professor who teaches Defense seemed sweet and caring to all the students. In Herbology, I enjoyed seeing some of the plants I had read about in my potions book.

I take a seat at the end of the table. I fill my plait while people are starting to sit down and use the space I have next to me where no one is sitting to put the new potions book so I can read while I eat.

When lunch is over, I feel confident I can get through the rest of the day with only Charms and back-to-back classes with Transfiguration. I go to the Charms classroom and plop down in a chair next to Hermione and two other Gryffindor boys, one I recognize as a Weasley whose name I should probably remember and a boy with black hair and round glasses.

"Oh, hello, Syria," Hermione greets warmly.

"Hello," I respond with a smile.

"Oh, hello again," the Weasley, whom I can't remember's name, says.

"Hi," I say. "What's your name?" I ask the boy, whom I am sure I have never met.

"I'm Harry," he answers with a bright smile.

"I'm Syria."

I turn and open my book and pull my wand from from the inside of my cloak. This will be the first time I have truly used it. I waved it around a few times, and a few sparks appeared, but Andromeda later informed me that you aren't supposed to do magic outside of Hogwarts unless I was in an emergency.

"Hello, students," Professor Flitwick says cheerfully. "We will jump straight into learning a new spell today so that you can quickly become comfortable with your wand for your other classes."

He goes up to a chalkboard and climbs a stool with two steps to have better access to the board before writing "Wingardium Leviosa" down on the board.

"This, students, is a spell that makes things rise," he explains to the class.

For the rest of class, we practiced the movements we were supposed to say and why getting the exact movement is so important, along with pronouncing your spell.

Walking down the hall towards Transfiguration, I'm practically skipping as I know it means I get to see Minny.

I walk into the classroom and choose a desk at the front, close to Minny's desk. Like all other classes, I pull out my book and glance around at the Hufflepuff robes as they happily talk to each other while the Ravenclaws seem to sneer at each other.

"Hello first years, I'm Professor McGonagall," I instantly smile at her voice and give her my attention. "Welcome to Transfiguration, the art of using magic to make one object into a different object."

She goes on to explain the many different things you need to know before first even attempting transfiguration. She then details the many different things you need to think of, such as the weight of the object and the weight it needs to be when transfigured. It isn't something I find super interesting like other subjects, but daunting. I carefully take notes as Minny lectures, and I spare a moment to glance behind me. The rest of the Ravenclaw students sit with smug expressions on their faces as they slump in their chairs, not taking notes. I turn back around and watch Minny.

"Ok, students, next class period, we are going to start the process of learning how to transfigure something," she announces as people start to pack up for the day.

The bell rings, and I walk over to Minny's desk, "Hello."

"Hello, Miss Noir. How was your day?" she asks with a warm smile.

"It was good," I answer. "How was your day?"

"My day was lovely, besides having a few badly behaved students. Thank you for asking," she responds. "Now, get to your dorm. I'm sure you want some time to hang with your friends before dinner."

My smile vanishes, "Can I just stay in here? I'm sure there is something I could help you with," I ramble, trying to cover up my change in mood.

"You can dust this bookshelf for me if you would like."

+++

I sat and gossiped with Minny till dinner time. I quickly eat in the Great Hall and then go to the dorms. I quickly get undressed when I enter the empty room and slip into my bed at Hogwarts for the first time.

Hello loves! It was not the most exciting chapter, but it needed to set up a lot of the foundation for the plot. How have you been lately? If you have made it this far into Redamancy with me, what has been your favorite and least favorite thing, whether it is the plot, Syria, or my writing style? Please feel free to share!