The Boy who died - Ready for Anything

Turning matches into needles

POV of Veatrix Lestrange

This morning, I considered whether I should just sit with Draco at the Slytherin table for breakfast. But somehow, I wasn't sure if I would be welcome there, so I sat with the Gryffindors instead. I sat a little apart from the other first-years and watched them a bit while I ate a piece of toast, even though I wasn't really hungry. It was kind of strange that Bella always sat with the Gryffindors. It was generally known that Slytherins and Gryffindors didn't get along well. That was exactly my problem. Most of my family had been in Slytherin. It had always been that way. And now, of all people, I ended up in Gryffindor. I didn't want to imagine how disappointed my parents would be if they knew. Surely they would see me as a kind of disgrace to the family... I couldn't bear the thought of my parents any longer. I mean, I was just so incredibly torn: On one hand, I felt like I belonged in Slytherin, with Draco and the others. On the other hand, the Sorting Hat was known to be extremely intelligent. It must have had a good reason for placing me in Gryffindor, even though I couldn't fathom what that was. I was incredibly worried about being on my own at Hogwarts. It made me sad to see Parvati, Bella, and Ginn joking and laughing together. Even though the three of them were in different houses, they already seemed to be good friends, and I envied them a bit for that... But of course, I would never openly admit that.

I still hadn't finished my toast when the group headed to class. Hermione and Ariana stopped briefly to ask if I wanted to come with them. I declined, as I felt they were only asking out of politeness or perhaps pity. When they left, I looked over at the Slytherin table and then followed Draco and his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle. In the classroom, Draco and I sat in the back row, at the table next to Bella and Parvati, who didn't seem particularly pleased that we were sitting next to them. I simply ignored them, or at least tried to. I heard the classroom door move and expected Professor McGonagall, our Transfiguration teacher, to enter. But instead, a gray tabby cat slinked between the tables. I looked around the classroom, hoping someone would recognize the cat as theirs, but the others were also looking at it in confusion. Once it reached the front of the room, the cat turned to us and gave us a... almost stern?... look. A moment later, our teacher stood in the same spot where the cat had just been. 'Wow, that's amazing!' I heard a Gryffindor boy whisper. What was his name again? Ron? Professor McGonagall seemed to have heard him and looked at the red-haired boy for a moment. I could swear I saw a slight smile on her lips, but a moment later, it was definitely gone again. She greeted us and explained that Transfiguration was one of the most challenging subjects. To demonstrate, she stepped aside and pointed her wand at the teacher's desk. It transformed into a pig. After a few seconds, she turned it back. She had certainly earned our attention! She explained that transfiguration spells on small objects, which one wanted to transform into objects of similar appearance, were much easier than the transformation she had just shown. She pointed to a few matchboxes on the desk and announced that our first task was to turn a match into a needle. The whole thing turned out to be quite frustrating; honestly, I had imagined it to be easier... I focused intently on my match and pictured a needle in my mind's eye. Determined, I tried the spell over and over again. After about half an hour, my match seemed to have actually changed. It was still wooden, but the red tip was gone. In its place was already the eye of the needle. Encouraged by this first success, I wanted to try again when Professor McGonagall suddenly asked for our attention. I couldn't believe it. Once again, Hermione was the first student to succeed with the spell. Hermione was asked to come to the front of the class to demonstrate the spell. A few seconds later, Professor McGonagall held up the needle for us to see. Suddenly, I felt a bit demotivated. I would have liked to be just as quick. Well, at least she was in the same house as me, and even though I still couldn't quite identify with the Gryffindors, I was a bit happy that she had earned 5 points for Gryffindor for the second time. I noticed Draco next to me staring at her with hatred and quietly, so only I could hear, calling her a Mudblood. Although it was true, I didn't quite like him talking about her that way. But I also didn't feel like arguing with him about it. I was incredibly glad that he was still talking to me at all, since we were in rival houses. 'And there's really no way to get you into Slytherin after all?' he just asked me. 'No, unfortunately not. I've told you a thousand times that even Snape told me he couldn't change it...' I replied quietly to Draco, as Bella was just giving us an unenthusiastic look. I shot her a dirty look, whereupon she turned back to Parvati and her match. Draco also gave Bella a dirty look and now muttered to himself about what a disgrace it was for Slytherin to have a traitor like her. That made me thoughtful, but I didn't express that I thought, at that moment, that he wasn't fundamentally any better because he was talking to me. After all, I was a Gryffindor, but he probably didn't consciously perceive me as one, which I was honestly very glad about. As the end of the lesson was approaching my match started to look more and more like a needle. By now, I had managed to make it thinner and slightly silvery. Well, at least! I wasn't completely satisfied with it yet, but we were given homework to practice this spell anyway. I definitely preferred that to having to write another essay. I still hadn't finished the one for History because I had spent so long on the essay for Potions. I was a bit of a perfectionist, which meant I wouldn't turn in an essay unless I was completely satisfied with it. I wasn't particularly motivated as I left the classroom with Draco and had to say goodbye to him because I now had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. That didn't sound like the most exciting subject.