Author's Note: I'm kind of on a Harry Potter kick at the moment. I even created an RP forum with my friend . My other stories will get more attention when I can rustle up some more ideas for plot and such. This one I do have a basic outline for, and so I shouldn't get too distracted again.

A huge apology goes out to my readers and reviewers, I promise to update this month on my more popular stories. Don't forget that reviews give me ideas and muse, as well as drive to actually update!

Warning: Occasional OOC, some AU and mild language.

Chapter One

The beginning of the school year always started the same for any student going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At least, it was always the same for one particular witch. Nadezhda, or Naida as she preferred, would awake to her overly exuberant parents bustling about the house to prepare to go to Diagon Alley. Eventually, the three would make it to the fireplace to use the floo network in order to travel to the Leaky Cauldron.

Naida shifted her light blue eyes over the many bustling witches and wizards upon passing through the archway between the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley. She was determined to get a new pet while she was shopping, as well as a few new books and other odds and ends. Taking a silent glance at her smiling parents, she made up her mind to try and get a new broom as well.

"Mum, dad, I'm going to go shopping. You two should stay at the Cauldron and see if you find anyone you know." Naida was patient with her parents, as she always had been. There was not a single moment that went by that she didn't believe herself to be far more mature than the thirty-seven-year-olds standing next to her.

"You're absolutely right, princess." Her father nodded with a bright smile on his face that Naida was far used to. Sometimes, she couldn't help but to think that her parents should've been in St. Mungo's a long time ago. She waited a moment more for both of her parents to head back into the Cauldron before turning to begin her shopping.

"Have a colourful day, dear!" Naida's mother chimed just before she was out of earshot.

For a moment, Naida bowed her head to sigh to herself until she perked back up to her hyperactive and cheerful self. As she danced along to her internal soundtrack, her normally short attention span became even shorter. Colourful displays caught her gaze and she had to snap back to paying attention before she got ran over by the bustling crowd. However short her attention span was, she was always good at multi-tasking. That was, until she crashed into another body and fell to the ground with a thud.

Bright blue eyes met bright green, both blinking in silence before the other girl snapped out her annoyance. "Watch where you're fucking going!"

Naida frowned for a split second as she picked herself off of the ground. In a bored gesture, she brushed a strand of her dark brown and neon red hair out of her eyes. "Oh, bite me. Is there a law against having fun?" She brushed off the backs of her legs, not allowing the other girl to get her upset.

"When you fucking run into me there is!" The other girl was taller than Naida when she stood up, and used her extra inch and a half to her advantage to glare at the shorter girl.

Instead of backing down, Naida placed her hands on her hips to scowl. "It's not like I meant to." Her scowl suddenly faded as her hyperactive mind picked a different topic. "Look, I'm sorry about running into you. Let's act like civilized women, and go Quidditch shopping. I'm Naida, by the way."

"You've got to be kidding me." A single eyebrow rose up on the taller girl's face as she watched the other female shift her weight back and forth. "Are you mental?"

Naida's lips spread into a wide smile, "I get that a lot, but no, it's just genetic. C'mon let's go." She lightly grabbed her temperamental companion's wrist to pull her towards Quality Quidditch Supplies before the other girl tore her arm back to her own space.

"You are barmy." Said girl whom Naida had yet to get a name from, even as she continued to follow her into the store.

"Better barmy than boring. So, what's your name?" Naida paused in her excursion into Quality Quidditch Supplies to wait for a response. She shoved her hands into the back of her jean pockets as she watched the redheaded girl nearby her.

"Claire. Do you actually play, or do you fake knowing stuff?" She entered the store with Naida now trailing behind her with a light-hearted smile, hands still in her pockets.

"Nah, I play. You see the new Nimbus 1700? I'd do a year's worth of chores for that beauty." Naida eyed the broomstick in the window, the very one that she had been talking about. The taller redhead next to her laughed slightly and smirked at her comment.

"I have it already. Early birthday present from my parents." Claire laughed again at the shorter girl's expression on her face when she had turned to speak face-to-face. It was a mixture of awe and shock, as well as disgust with her nose scrunched up.

"I envy you, I was given just enough to get the Nimbus 1500 last year." She rocked slightly on her heels before twirling around to look at the various team paraphernalia. Personally, she was a Holyhead Harpies fan and mainly checked out the all-women's team things.

Naida glanced around, but finding nothing that she really needed to have, searched for Claire in the store. She found the other girl checking out new gear that had just came out. "Hey! I was wondering if you want to sit on the train with me tomorrow? It'd be wicked if I got to know you more, you know?"

Claire turned around to face Naida with somewhat of a smile, "If we find each other, sure." She looked once more at the gear before realizing what time it was. "Crap. I have to go meet my brother, I'll see you around."

"See ya!" Naida called to the redhead that was soon blending with the crowd of Diagon Alley. She rocked on her heels again as her eyes flickered over the different shops. For the new school year, she still needed a new pet seeing as her old cat had passed away and it was time for a new companion.

It didn't take much time for the sixteen-year-old to find a suitable owl for herself. The female barn owl she had chosen was plain brown and white, with a pretty moon-like face and white speckles on her brown feathers. "I dub you, Cosmos!" Naida raised the cage of her new pet and grinned before heading back to where she had left her parents.

Hopefully they hadn't gotten into too much trouble.

Outbursts of random and erratic behaviour were almost always present with Naida's family, so it wasn't any different the next day when the three headed for Platform 9 ¾ for the Hogwarts Express. Like Claire had said the day before, Naida was sort of unstable but she was nothing compared to her parents at times. Mainly, she was the more mature one.

Upon finally getting her parents to take care of one another, and leave her alone in their colourful plotting, the teenage girl managed to board the train. She still wore 'Muggle' clothing as she casually peeked into compartments to see if they were empty or contained any of her friends.

Suddenly, the sound of laughing and embarrassed groaning drew her attention. Naida slid the compartment open a wee bit to peek inside, only to get an eyeful of the four pranksters that rained trouble within Hogwarts. She slid the door open further and noticed that two of the more outgoing pranksters had played a joke on the less-popular member.

"What happened?" Naida questioned as she entered the compartment to take a seat on Remus Lupin's lap. He was used to being used as a chair for the random spaz of a witch, since they had become good friends the year before. She gently poked Remus' cheek with a smile, "How was your summer?"

Across from her, Sirius Black had finally been able to control his laughter at Peter Pettigrew's dismay. "Peter sat down in jelly." He gave a few more laughs at this as Peter hid his face in embarrassment.

One of Naida's eyebrows rose up at this before she too began to giggle slightly. "That is awful."

"My summer was as usual." Remus answered the only girl in the boy-filled compartment, a smile at Peter's predicament still on his face.

Naida's head nodded up and down before turning to the leader of the troublemaker's beside her. "Got loads of stuff planned for this year?"

Before James could answer her, Sirius spoke up with a wickedly charming smile on his face. "Why don't you come sit on my lap?" He eyed Naida, as he not so subtly flirted.

Her face scrunched up slightly and she threw her arms around Remus' neck tightly, hiding from Sirius' undressing gaze. "Remus, tell Sirius that just because he thinks he's hot, he's not." She felt the rumbling laughter of her best friend beneath her as he shook his head.

"I'm not your messenger, Naida."

The mentioned girl huffed and stood up from Remus' lap to stand at the entrance of the compartment. She wouldn't have had to sit on her friend if they had picked a bigger compartment, but they hadn't and so she re-opened the door. "Oh well, I'll see you four later. Don't worry, captain, I'll still be playing Quidditch." Naida fluttered her fingers at James teasingly before blowing a kiss at Remus as she left.

"She's mental." Sirius said the moment she left the compartment, shaking his head back and forth with a smile still slightly on his face. He swatted away the chocolate frog container that James threw at him in boredom.

"That's from the one chasing after her." James retorted with a laugh.

Naida had ditched her suitcase and owl in the hallway, where surprisingly enough they were perfectly fine. She grabbed both and took them into the compartment across from the Marauders'. It was empty, and larger than theirs, which pleased her plenty.

After setting her owl on one of the seats, and her trunk on another, she pulled out her robes to change into. She could change in record time, and she did so while humming a song from some Muggle band or another.

Once her school uniform was sitting properly on her form, she curled up on the large seat next to her owl. Her tie was loose around her neck, the Gryffindor colours bringing out the neon red in her hair. Just as she was closing her eyes to take a nap, her compartment door slid open to reveal the girl that she had met yesterday, Claire.

"Naida?" She questioned with a slight smile, her own uniform on although neither had seen which house the other was from. Naida lifted her head from her comfortable position to see who was calling her name. Her face brightened upon seeing who it was.

"Claire! Wait, you're in Slytherin?" Naida panicked for a moment before groaning and falling back into her seat, half of her body off of it in her flailing.

"Yes you barmy bat, I'm in Slytherin. I see you're in Gryffindor." Claire spoke as she entered the compartment with her own trunk, and a cat carrier in her hands. "Deal with it!" She flipped her hair over one shoulder with a smirk before sitting down across from the Gryffindor girl.

Naida wrinkled her nose slightly as she shifted from laying half-on and half-off the seat to sitting straight up more so than before. "What're you gonna do, bite me if I don't?" She teased as her lips spread into another smile.

"Don't tempt me." Claire laughed as Naida stuck her tongue out across from her. "See, I was right when I said that you're mental. You're in Gryffindor, it's bound to happen." She teased lightly, ignoring the house rivalry that was supposed to occur.

The red and gold coloured girl giggled at her new friend's words only to bounce out of her seat upon hearing the Trolley Lady come down to her compartment. "Want some candy? I want some frogs." Naida opened the door just as the lady with the candy cart stopped to ask if the two girls wanted anything.

"Grab me some blood pops and chocolate frogs too." She reached into her pocket to grab some money for Naida to buy her the specified candy, but the other girl had already done so with her own money and pushed Claire's hand away.

"Don't worry about it. You can always buy me a butterbeer at Hogsmeade later." Naida plopped her form back at her original position, handing the candy that wasn't her own to Claire and spilling the rest nearby Cosmos.

She opened one of her chocolate frogs slowly, so that the magicked chocolate couldn't escape before she ate it. "So I guess you play Quidditch for the Slytherin team."

"Mhm. I'm the Seeker, I can't believe we didn't recognize each other if you play for Gryffindor." Claire laughed as she unwrapped one of her blood pops to savour slowly.

"I'm a Chaser. I tend not to pay much attention to faces, but more to the ball and dodging bludgers. I think Quidditch is one of the only times I don't have a problem paying attention." Naida responded after taking a bite out of the no-longer moving chocolate.

An intrusion halted Claire from responding, as the four boys from across the hall blundered into the compartment to annoy the two females. "Naida, you're hanging with a Slytherin!" James scowled as he moved Cosmos to the luggage rack above with Naida's trunk, so that he could sit protectively by the Gryffindor girl.

"Did I say you could come in?" Naida demanded as Sirius grabbed one of her liquorice wands. She scowled at him and moved to sit by Claire, the only friendly Slytherin in all of Hogwarts Express. "My friends are my business."

"Piss off, Potter." Claire scowled across from her at the frowning boy. The other girl scowled as well, the two of them looking eerily alike as they did so.

"Get out!" Naida demanded, extracting her wand as she did so. She was by far exasperated with the Marauders who seemed to believe they could intrude on her whenever they wanted just because she was their friend.

The wand she held in her hand was 10 inches long, made out of Willow wood with a dragon heartstring core. It was her constant companion everywhere, and would always be. It shot out a heavy wind as she spoke the spell word to do so. "Pulsus!"

Caught unaware by Naida's rare show of annoyance, the four boys couldn't get another word in before each of them was forcefully shoved out of the compartment that the girls occupied. The door slammed shut once there was no more testosterone to bug them, and even if they tried to open it they wouldn't be able to.

"Those boys are so much trouble!" She complained to the Slytherin female next to her before she moved back to her own bench-seat.

Claire's annoyance turned to laughter upon watching Naida slump into her seat again. The Marauders had managed to steal more than half of the other girl's candy loot. "I don't know, I think Remus is kind of sexy. I'd make time for him any day."

Her words were met with a withering look from the shorter girl. "Doesn't matter if they're cute, hot, or down right gorgeous. They can be pests."

On the other side of the forcefully shut compartment, Sirius placed a hand over his heart in a melodramatic way. "I am not a pest. I am a well cultured annoyance." He grinned at his three close friends before they re-entered their own compartment. "Hear that Remus, you're 'kind of sexy'." He mimicked Claire, to which he received a playful shove.

"Shut up, Sirius. You are a pest." Remus groaned before he closed the compartment behind him, ignoring his slightly red face.