The Slytherin Magus

I made myself scarce after the class was dismissed. I had no classes till after lunch break so I had a lot of time to myself till then.

I had a lot of work to do though so it wasn't like I could use my free time to take a nap.

The castle was very big but I was careful not to get lost, that would be extremely dangerous for me.

The perfect place to study was the library and if I wanted to practice magic I just had to find an empty classroom. There were a lot of them in the huge castle.

The bell rang to signal lunch and I made my way to the Great Hall, quickly forgetting about the talks about Basilisks in the first-floor girls' bathroom.

After lunch, I had a break then Transfiguration. Hogwarts had one of the best timetables I've ever seen.

Only four subjects daily, with breaks in between each class, it was a student's dream.

After the kind of education system I passed through in my past life, Hogwarts was a breeze.

Our teacher was Professor Esme Bronagh.

(A/N This is an OC I created as there is no record of the Professor who takes up teaching Transfiguration after Professor Minerva McGonagall becomes the Headmistress).

I frowned, I couldn't recognize the name. It wasn't mentioned in any of the available Harry Potter franchises.

The class wasn't too far from the Great Hall though.

It was on the ground floor, in one of the inner cloisters.

Our first Transfiguration class would be taking place in Classroom 1B which was located in the Middle Courtyard also known as the Transfiguration Courtyard.

After she introduced the class to the new year and rambled about what would be expected of us, she went right into teaching.

We would be starting right off the bat with Non-verbal spells and I was a bit wary because I had a difficult time processing the textbook.

The title of the textbook was 'A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration', more like 'A Guide to Advanced Confusion'.

I really hoped that this new Professor would be less strict than Headmistress McGonagall.

I was expecting too much though, it was almost like Headmistress McGonagall had specifically interviewed new Professors by how strict and stern they were.

Classroom 1B was a nicer classroom than the Potions classroom had been.

It was larger in size, surrounded by high windows, windows that opened to the outside world.

Sunlight streamed through the windows, this made the classroom bright and warm, a far cry from the Potions classroom which was located in the cold, dreary dungeons.

It had four rows of three desks, and still had enough room for several cages and bookshelves, two chalkboards, and a desk for the teacher. 

Several candlesticks stood lit behind the desk even though it was afternoon time.

Professor Esme was a tall woman, she favored solemn suits under her Professors' robes and her heels made a sharp clacking sound whenever she walked.

Her hair was pitch black and pulled back in a tight bun that looked like it hurt, her shrewd eyes were unforgiving, her back washboard straight.

I unconsciously sat up straight, as well as everyone else in the joint class. No one wanted to get on her bad side.

 It was Slytherin and Hufflepuff this time. Sawyer and his goons sat as far away from me as possible just like back in Potions class, this was to my advantage.

Just like I feared, Transfiguration lessons were a nightmare.

Professor Esme expected us all to get it right away, and although it was the first class of the semester, she wasn't lenient about homework.

My Intelligence, Information, and the application of them {Knowledge} better be leveling up because my head was smoking from how hard I had tried to pay attention in class.

From the complaints of the other students, it was clear that Professor Esme didn't have a lot of popularity among her students.

She was the one that insisted that we call her Professor Esme. I was grateful for her insight because I had a feeling that life would have been much harder for us all if she hadn't done that.

Her last name was particularly difficult to pronounce, and she had a short fuse.

 If we kept fucking up the pronunciation, bad things were going to follow. It was nice of her to tell us to use her first name instead.

I didn't have any classes after Transfiguration, or more like I would have had but the previous occupant didn't reach the requirement for Astronomy.

I couldn't help but think about how lucky I was that I transmigrated into someone dumb, what if it was Percy Weasley or something? I'd have died again from the strain of schoolwork.

I was free for the rest of the day but I couldn't even be happy about it, there was lots of homework to be done.

Why were we still even being given homework? We were all grown up and we didn't go home till the end of the semester.

We would be having another Transfiguration class tomorrow, I wasn't looking forward to it.

The day quickly passed and then the bell rang to signal supper.

After eating I thought I would be able to get some proper reading done but I had underestimated how much I had done, I was bone-deep tired.

I had gotten some exercise while practicing magic in an empty classroom, not to mention the flights of stairs I had to go up and down.

There was no way I would be getting any reading done.

The next day was the same, only worse. My first class was Transfiguration and Professor Esme demanded that we turn in our five-page homework first thing in the morning.

She was making it awfully easy to hate her.

It was a Friday though and after her class, I had Herbology and Charms, then one free period.

So today was no different from yesterday, I was starting to adjust to it though because I was able to get enough revision done.

It was the weekend now and I had never been happier to sleep in.

When I lived with Vannessa I was free to sleep in as long as I wanted, having to get up early to prepare for school wasn't sitting well with me.

I didn't get the chance to though, Captain Jon was at my bedside at the ass crack of dawn, yammering on about Quidditch practice.

Why did I want to get back into the team again?

I rolled over on my bed, squinting viciously as I bestowed an exasperated look on Jon. I couldn't say no though so I reluctantly got out of bed.

Apparently, we were a couple of Chasers short so as a reserve player I had to join the main team till they could find a proper replacement.

I sleepily followed behind Captain Jon as he led the way to the Quidditch pitch. The cold morning air quickly cleared the drowsiness from my eyes.

At the Slytherin locker rooms, I was somehow not surprised to find out that Blythe and Crawley were the Beaters. They were violent enough to pull off that role perfectly.

There was one other Chaser, a dark-skinned girl, Blair Bosley. The two Beaters, Captain Jon was clearly the Keeper and a slender boy was the Seeker.

Captain Jon was in his seventh year and the rest of us except the Seeker were in our Sixth year.

There had been a lot of remodeling going on the year before so the Inter-House Quidditch match wasn't held.

"Alright! Listen up, for the past 7 years we haven't managed to win the cup once. If it's not canceled then those Gryffindors are always taking the cup." He started, a look of old spite on his face. "But this year is going to be different…"

I zoned out. It was a huge relief that Sawyer wasn't on the team but should I even be surprised? The idiot had blacked out from a single punch, he didn't strike me as fit enough to participate in a sport.

I couldn't help but read beneath Jon's words, he was just saying those things because he was supposed to.

He didn't really believe that we could beat Gryffindor. That would never do, the only reason I was on the team was because I needed to win.

"For today's practice, we'll have to work with what we have till we get new tryouts." He straightened up, his shoulders straight.

He was a good pretender at least, I would give him that much.

"Blythe, you and Crawley will be on defense, as usual, you'll hit the bludgers away from Blair and Albeline." He started off the plan for the day's practice. "I'll do my job while Jason will try to catch the Snitch in the shortest time possible."

I listened intently as Captain Jon designated the roles. It was time to see if my ever-growing stats would come in handy.

It was just about sunrise but it was still cold, it seemed like we were the only teams eager enough to be out on the pitch this early and so soon after the start of the semester.