Professor Sprout watched the group of Slytherin 3rd years approaching. 'Oh no,' she thought to herself. 'No-one told them.' She sighs.

"Morning students," She said in a cheery voice. "Gather round, gather round." The Slytherin students gathered in front of her.

"Ok, I am very sorry to have to tell you this, now you have walked all the way out here, but the timetable was miss-printed. I thought Professor Snape would have told you by now. All 3rd year lessons are together, you are supposed to be in Transfiguration. Now please hurry there as Professor McGonagall is bound to be waiting for you."

There was no argument allowed by her tone. The students grumbled a bit and started to head back for the Transfiguration classroom. Just as the Slytherins left they overheard something that sounded like Achel. "its started again Professor."

"run along to class .. you will have to see me later." Said Professor Sprout to the Hufflepuff boy.

Achel came out of the classroom and followed the Slytherins to Transfiguration.

Arcadia just gives a little 'huff', flicks her hair and starts to follow the others. She didn't bring any books anyway, so she's not that bothered.

Randal couldn't believe it! They really were dis-organised here. He turned and headed back to Hogwarts. Of course now he had the wrong books with him, but he expected Prof. McGonagall would understand.

He headed straight for the transfiguration classroom. He had studied the school before he came here, so he knew exactly where everything was. He didn't look to see if the other students followed, he didn't want to miss valuable lesson time. He turned up at Transfiguration to find Prof. McGonagall looking a little flustered, and sank into a chair next to a girl he hadn't met yet. "Hi, have we started yet?" He asked her.

Elia waves shyly at Randal. "We're starting," she explains calling across. "We're supposed to get partners..." Her voice trails off, but she smiles hopefully.

Randal spots Elia a few desks away and waves back. "Excuse me," he said politely to the person sat next to him. He moves next to Elia, "do you mind if I go with you then?"

Elia smiles. "I'd be happy to," she says, happily. When she gets the frog, she mumbles to herself for a moment, then points her wand at it. "Yes!" she mutters, but her excitement is obvious as the teacup, which is delicate, blue and white, with little pink flowers around the rim.

Randal watches with interest, and grins at Elia. He flicks a blond lock from his eyes. "Very pretty. You are quite good at this aren't you?" He pulls out his wand and flicks it idly. With each flick the cup changes. First a tree frog, then a yellow and white striped cup, then a toad, then a red cup with white spots, then a yellow frog with green eyes, then a delicate china mug with a wolf on it, then a normal frog....

"Big show off!" mumbles Arcadia and Pantalaimon growls softly

Elia laughs with delight. "You're wonderful!" she exclaims, grinning back. Her native shyness seems at war with her excitement and cheerfulness. She pulls out her notes. "Did they teach all this in your school in Switzerland?"

Sarah Taverner came bouncing in the door a note clutched in her hand, which she handed to Professor McGonagall with a small smile of apology for being so late. The note was from Madame Pomfrey explaining that Sarah had been ill with something rather Latin-sounding but now was well enough to rejoin her classmates.

Prof. McGonagall examines the note. "Ok, thank-you Miss Taverner. Here," she hands Sarah a frog. "A tea cup if you will..."Randal! Stop showing off. Let Elia practice please."

Arcadia looks at the frogs and pulls a face. Then she looks around the room to see how well the others are doing, and who seems to be doing the best. When Peesemould gets to Transfiguration he says to Arcadia, "Come on their not that bad." and picks one out for here.

Niki is holding a rather slimy teacup in her hand. Suddenly, the handle twists and it emits a "Ribbit!" Niki looks very embarrassed, and lays it on the desk to look in her notes. It slips off the desk, and shatters on the floor. Blushing, Niki approaches Professor McGonagall to ask for another frog.

"That was very good Niki, but please try not to break this one, I don't have very many spares today, due to having everyone in the same class." The professor hands Niki another frog.

Niki returns to her seat with the new frog, and endeavours to keep it on her desk. She flips through her notes for a moment, then pokes the frog with her wand. There is a little flash, and it becomes a teacup with greenish speckles. She sighs and glances at Dylan. "This is so confusing with everyone together!" she exclaims.

Dylan was having no more success than Niki. His frog was china blue and it had stopped moving, save to stick out its tongue to try and catch a fly. He gripped his oaken wand tightly in frustration. This shouldn't elude him like this. He had to have some kind of talent to be here. There had to be some good reason why Transfiguration, something he used to be decent at, was frustrating him.

Angrily, he pointed his wand at the frog, and spat the spell to transform it, along with some Welsh curses for good measure. A flash, and where Dylan's frog used to be there was now a pile of dust, almost ash. "Go'dammit," Dylan muttered, looking away. He supposed it was time to get another frog as well.

Ayumi sighed, staring listlessly at the frog sitting on her desk. Glancing at Madison's work next to her, is seemed that she just couldn't get it right. The frog stared at Ayumi with its blank eyes, and clumsily hopped a few inches, for the teacup handle protruding off it's back made it difficult to move.

She started prodding it miserably with her wand. "Kaeru wa baka..." she mumbled, glaring at the creature. Madison giggled, and picked up the frog by its handle.

"How handy!" she smiled. "Ayumi, would you card for a cup of frog?" Madison pretended to be serving tea. The two girls started snickering, and Ayumi noticed Niki and Dylan in front of them.

"Gosh, I'm glad I'm not the only one having troubles with this stuff!" Ayumi smiled, noting the smouldering pile of ash on the desk in front of Dylan.

Madison grinned. "Oh, you'll get the hang of it...If I can do it, you can." She held up her light blue teacup. "Hmm...I wanted light blue flowers, but this'll do. Hey, how are you two doing?" she asked Dylan and Niki in front of them. "Oh..." she said, seeing the pile of ash. "Oh, you'll get the hang of it. Don't give up!"

Cass was waiting for the others to work on their frogs! She held out her Elm wand and mumbles the words quietly the frog transformed into a rather pretty white china teacup with roses painted on the sides. She giggled when she saw Dylan's tea cup accident and with a wave of her wand her teacup transformed back into the mild mannered frog. She tapped Dylan on the shoulder and handed him her frog," Here This one is real mild and until like that one you had doesn't try to hop off the table. Dylan mumbled something and continued to get up and approach the Professor's desk.

Professor McGonagall sighed as Dylan approached. She pulled out another frog. "Don't be so angry. Transfiguration is a delicate art. Gently and with care if you please." She pears over her glasses at him.

He flushed scarlet as he took the frog. "Yes, ma'am. I'm tryin'." Dylan felt more than slightly mortified as he made his way back to his seat, giving Niki something of a smile. He'd make the blasted frog into a teacup. Gripping his wand tightly, he settled down to try again, his brow furrowed in concentration. Again, the finer art seemed to elude him as the frog merely turned colours, now white with little blue flowers.

Achel wanders in and looks around. He sees Nimue and looks away. He sees Arcadia and smiles. He takes the closest free desk to her he can find. Prof. M. soon seems to have everything in order.

Nimue of course notes that Achel has come in and also that he has chosen to sit close to the stunning new girl Arcadia rather than near her. She just looks down and anyone sitting near her would note that she looks even more sad than she had a moment before.

Achel takes a Frog - without him even reaching for his wand it changes into a small bush, one that seems to be rooted to his desk. He sighs. He takes his wand and waves it at the Bush - it changes into a teacup. A wooden teacup with roots, but a teacup after all.

He looks over to Arcadia and smiles at her again.

Professor McGonagall wanders around the class looking to see how everyone is doing.

"Oh, Arcadia, isn't it? You want to put more emphasis into your wand movements. Nimue, don't look at it like that, they all started as cups, not frogs. Andy, you could do with a little less wand movement. Achel, why has you cup got roots? Come on lad, you are not in Herbology now...." She continues to wander around trying to point students in the right direction.

"Thanks, Professor McGonagall," said Andy giving her a face of pure hatred when her head was turned. He tried again with less "wand movement" and it worked, but the cup had legs instead of a saucer.

"What the hell?" he whispered under his breath. Obviously it would take some time to get this accomplished. He just wanted to do it and get it over with. He looked up at Professor McGonagall. She was busy with something else. Maybe he could possibly get this right before she caught him.

As Professor McGonagall's back is turned away from her, Arcadia sticks her tongue out.

"Well I don't care what she says. I think it's a lovely teacup!" whispers Arcadia and flicks her hair with a smile in Achel's direction.

Meanwhile Pantalaimon sneaks behind the Professors desk and comes out clutching a teapot in his mouth, which he passes under the desk to Arcadia.

Achel goes a little pink. Arcadia notices how tall he is for his age, and how he seemed to be broadening and filling out. He must work out a little. Achel still had the same tanned complexion he'd brought back from South America, but there seemed to be a sadness in his eyes - especially when he looked in the direction of one particular Gryffindor girl.

He turned his eyes back to Arcadia - she could feel him looking at her neck where she had flicked her hair away. Suddenly Achel's Teacup sprouted branches.

Achel coughed, looked away and set to taming his wild briar. Arcadia giggles is a very 'girlie' way at this.

By this time it was obvious to Nimue that Achel was flirting with Arcadia and not being very subtle about it. It looked as though Achel has made up his mind about how he felt about her situation with Marvo. Either that or he had only been nice to her because she was pretty and now a new girl had caught his eye! Nimue firmly resolved to banish him from her thoughts and life though she kept sneaking looks at what the pair was up to now.

Randal picked up on Elia's query about Switzerland and came over a little sullen. 'Oh, boy!' He thinks, 'Why do girls end up like this?'

"Umm." He actually looks less confident than normal. "No, I learnt it myself. I am just very good at it."

Niki notices, and waves an admonitory finger at Randal. "Tssk, tssk," she says with a smile. "Stop showing off," she adds, but it's obvious she's just joking.

Elia looks up from her notes, where she's adding something, and glances at Niki. Her smile sours, and her face grows serious. She returns to her work, and doesn't say anything more for a long while.

Randal looks around to see what his sister is doing.

Noticing the teapot moving from Pantliamon's mouth to Arcadia's hand, he flicks his wand at it, and it turns into a cup with frog limbs sticking out of the sides. He chuckles to himself, the sulleness easing slightly and looked to see if anyone noticed.

Arcadia beams and places what she 'thinks' is a perfect teapot on the desk, as she had not seen it change for watching that the Professor didn't see.

"Arcadia. May I see your tea cup?" Asks Professor McGonagall

Achel, whilst trying to tame the cup on his table notices Randal's spell. He flicks his wand at the frog cup and it turns into a mouldy frog cup. "oops"

He flicks his wand again whispers something under his breath and the cup turns back into a normal teapot. Unfortunately his own cup has now grown to about 6ft and wrapped itself around him and another Hufflepuff girl,

Niki watches, trying to muffle her laughter, but without much success. She hopes that Achel won't be annoyed by her giggles, but she stops caring when she sees Elia's face. She stares at Elia for several moments before returning to her work.

Professor McGonagall watches as Arcadia puts a misformed teapot on the desk. She was just starting to wonder what her personal teapot is doing deformed on this girl's desk, when it first becomes mouldy and then becomes a normal teapot again. She turns to see Achel and another student have now disappeared into a large teacup with roots.

She waves her wand round the room and all the frogs; teacups and variations change back to teacups.

"Ok everyone you may go to your next lesson. But you and you will stay behind." She points to Achel and Arcadia.

"Oh, bore," Niki says, "it's History of Magic." Elia gives her an offended look, and she laughs. "Who else is going to sleep?"

When the Professor said 'you may now go to your next class' Arcadia was already half way to the door by the time she was told to stay behind!

She does not look at all happy!

Once the other students have left Professor McGonagall turned on the two students. "So, which of you would like to explain what MY teapot was doing on Arcadia's desk? No, don't bother! You both have 10 points deducted from your houses. And you, Miss Fudge will learn not to cheat. You're wolf will be chained to the desk at the front of the class for the next lesson, as I expect that he helped you. Now out before I decide to give you a detention too."

She turned back to the pile of teacups and tried not to laugh at the unfortunate pair who had thought to cheat her.

Arcadia starts to cry. "Oh no PLEASE Professor McGonagall! PLEASE that's so unfair to poor Pantalaimon! PLEASEEEES I promise I won't let it happen again! Please! It was just my brother showing off so much. It made me feel so bad! I'm so sorry! PLEASE! <sob Sob> <sob Sob>

Prof. McGonagall was not going to be swayed by this performance. "No. Your wolf will be tied to the front or left outside the classroom for the next lesson. Now get to History of Magic, or you will be late!"

Arcadia wipes her eyes and walks out of the class with Achel.

Achel does not looked pleased. However he resists the urge to talk back. He leaves with Arcadia and says under his breath "Fudge will pay."

Arcadia Turns to Achel. "I'm a Fudge!"

"I know. It wasn't you, it was .. well Randal .. look I grew up with Egreen as my cousin, almost as a brother because of what happened to his Father. He used to pick on me until I grew powerful enough to stop h .. I mean until he grew out of it ..When I saw Randal pick on you like that ..."

Then Arcadia's eyes narrowed and her voice deepened. "No. It's McGonagall who's got to pay! And if she think she going to tie me up she'll got another thing coming!"

Achel tried not to think about Arcadia being tied up.

Arcadia seems to be paying no attention to Achel, her mind is obviously on other things. Pantalaimon growls softly as he pads by her side, his eyes also narrowed.