Disclaimer: Anything relating to the Harry Potter stories belongs to J. K. Rowling.

CHAPTER ONE

Nikki Patil couldn't wait for the night to be over. As she sat alone in the corner of her crowded living room twirling a lock of her long black hair, she wondered why she had to be subjected to the never-ending boredom that surrounded her. It wasn't fair. Why did she have to stay home on the last night of the summer holidays just to help her mother entertain her dull guests? The kitchen was full of ladies helping her mother. What did she need Nikki for?

"Of course, VJ wasn't forced to stay," she said to herself bitterly. "He always gets to go out whenever he wants to."

"Oi, Nikki, what're you doing sulking in the corner by yourself?" Nikki turned to face her older cousin, Misha, who was standing over with her a plate full of food. "Don't you wanna eat?"

"I'm not hungry," Nikki replied with a frown.

"Oh, come off it. Eat. The food's delicious," Misha replied, taking a bite.

"I know it is. I helped cook it," Nikki said, and added sourly, "all day long."

"Oh." Misha looked at Nikki with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Is that what's bugging you?"

Nikki sighed in frustration. "Yes. And the fact that it's my last night here before I go back to school, and Mum still had to have one of her stupid dinner parties. I mean would it have killed her to just let me have a day of rest or a day of doing whatever I wanted to do?" Nikki didn't wait for an answer from her cousin but went on to say, "I helped her the whole day hoping that she'd let me go out at night to hang out with my friends. But, no. That didn't make any difference to her. She said I had to stay at home with the 'guests'. Everyone here's family! I see them all the time. What's the big deal if I went out?"

"Oh, come on Nikki," Misha finally got to say. "You know how it is with us. Good Indian girls just aren't supposed to go out. We're supposed to stay at home and help our mothers."

"That's bull," Nikki said. She scowled at all of her unsuspecting relatives, who were engrossed in their dinner.

"You should be glad that your parents actually let you go away for school," Misha said reproachfully. "I don't think my parents would've sent me. VJ was the first one in our family to go. And they only let him 'cause he's a boy."

"Yeah I know. They only let me go because they knew that he was going to be there as well." Nikki rolled her eyes. "As if I needed to be looked after. If they knew what he was up to over there…"

"Hey, what is my brother up to over there?" Misha asked Nikki curiously.

Nikki laughed, her light brown eyes sparkling, "Okay, just 'cause I'm a little mad at him right now because he was allowed to go out and I wasn't, doesn't mean I'm going to rat on him. He is one of the few people that I get along with at school. I need him to survive my last year."

"Gosh, is it that bad for you? VJ seems to love it."

"Yeah, well, VJ is easily entertained. And he's a guy, so he doesn't have so many….restrictions," Nikki said.

"Oh, right," Misha said, understanding what Nikki meant. "So I guess you haven't found a nice Indian boy at that school, eh?"

"At Hogwarts?" Nikki asked her cousin incredulously. "No nice boys period, let alone Indian."

"Listen," Misha said in a more hushed voice as she moved a bit closer to Nikki, "I overheard our mums talking and apparently, there were a lot of ladies asking about you for their sons at my engagement party last week."

"Ew, gross," Nikki said in disgust. "I'm not interested in any of those guys. And they definitely wouldn't be interested in me."

"Why not? You do know that you're considered to be one of the prettiest girls in the whole community, right?" Misha asked.

"It's all superficial," Nikki replied hotly. "They just see my long black hair and my fair skin and think that I'm the Indian girl that every Indian boy only dreams of marrying."

"So what's wrong with that?" her cousin replied just as heatedly. "It just makes it easier for you. You can have any guy you want. Very few of us get that luxury."

"And what about the fact that I'm a…witch?" Nikki said in a more hushed voice. "How many nice Indian boys do you think will be okay with that?"

"Don't worry about that," Misha replied.

"How can I not—" Nikki's words were interrupted by the sound of her mother calling her from the kitchen. She reluctantly got up from her seat and trudged towards the kitchen, trying not to notice the ingratiating smiles she kept getting from all of the elders that were milling around the main floor.

"Nikki!" her mother said exasperatedly to her as she stepped into the kitchen. "What are you doing? I need your help! Take this out to the dining room." Her mother handed her a large dish and she proceeded to do as she was told, cursing her lucky cousin VJ all the way.

"Stupid boys," she muttered under her breath. "They never have to do anything."

"Nikki!" It was her mother again. "Come here for a minute. Your Auntie wants to tell you something." Nikki, with her teeth grinding together, turned around and walked towards her mother and her aunt. Nikki tried hard to return the smile that her aunt was giving her, but she had a sinking feeling that she already knew what it is her aunt was going to say. And, if it was what she was thinking, she had another sinking feeling that she was going to blow something up.

"Oh, you look so pretty," her aunt said to her affectionately. "You know, I was just telling your mother that so many people were asking about you at Misha's engagement." Nikki could feel her face get warm; she didn't know if she was blushing from embarrassment or anger.

"I told them all that you were still studying though," she continued, and Nikki felt a little tinge of gratification towards her aunt, "but come time for the wedding in December, I'm going to take the inquiries more seriously." Nikki's feeling of gratification swiftly turned back into anger.

"I'm not interested in getting married," Nikki managed to say through her clenched jaw.

"You see what I mean?" Nikki's mother interjected frustratingly, "She doesn't care! I tried to talk to her so many times and this is what she always says."

"Nikki, you really need to be serious about this," her aunt said in a much calmer voice. "What are you going to do after school is finished?"

"I'm going to continue studying," Nikki replied matter-of-factly.

"Studying what?" Her mother asked angrily. "None of this hocus pocus baloney I hope! You had enough fun for six years. When this year is over, you either get married, or go to medical school."

"Med school?" Nikki asked her mother incredulously.

"Yes, it's the only profession noble enough for a woman."

"But I don't want to do that or get married," Nikki said stubbornly.

"Then what do you want to do?" her aunt asked her.

"I want to…" But Nikki's voice trailed off. What did she want to do? She really had no idea. All she knew was what she didn't want to do, and getting married was one of them. "I'm going up to pack for tomorrow."

She slowly walked away from her mother and aunt, still able to hear her mother saying, "Look at these kids today. Her father and I let her go away for school and still she isn't grateful. What else did we not do for her?"

Nikki could feel the pangs of guilt go through her as she walked up the stairs and to her bedroom. It was true that her parents allowed her to attend a school away from home, something that was rare for girls in her community to do. She was lucky, and she knew it. But why did it have to end there? Why was she allowed to taste a bit of freedom if it was only going to be snatched away from her in the end?

She was in the middle of tossing her books and school robes into her trunk when she was startled by the sudden appearance of a tall boy with curly black hair that had way too much gel in it.

"My God, VJ!" she exclaimed. "You scared me!"

VJ laughed heartily, his dark eyes sparkling, and said, "See, this is what a summer with muggles does to us. We get frightened just by seeing someone Apparate."

"Yeah well I don't really appreciate people Apparating into my bedroom. What if I was changing or something?"

"Ah, I knew you weren't," VJ said dismissively as he took a seat on Nikki's bed. She could see the tiny silver hoop earring on his left ear reflect the light coming from her lamp on her end table.

"Show off," Nikki muttered. "Just because you passed your Apparition test this summer doesn't mean you have to do it all the time."

"Oh, you're just jealous 'cause I'm a few months older than you," he said. "So how's the party going?"

"Don't even ask, you traitor," Nikki said accusingly as she dumped some clothes onto the pile of books in her trunk.

"What?" he asked innocently. "It's not my fault that my mum let me go out and yours didn't!"

"Yeah, whatever," Nikki said dryly. "I've got a lot of packing to do so why don't you just Apparate yourself downstairs."

"Right. And give all of the old folks down there heart attacks," VJ said, now flipping through one of Nikki's magazines he found lying on her bed.

"Good, then maybe they'll all go," Nikki said sarcastically. "So where'd you go?"

"Meh," VJ shrugged, tossing the magazine aside and scratched his head absent-mindedly. He wore silver rings on both of hands, and a silver bracelet on his right wrist. "Here and there. Just chilled with some friends."

"From school?"

"No, from the neighborhood. But, I did bump into Chang at the mall."

"Anthony?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah. So get this," VJ said and Nikki moved a little closer to her cousin, sensing that he had something interesting to tell her. "He didn't get the Head Boy position."

"Really," Nikki said thoughtfully. "I thought he'd get it for sure. I wonder who it is then."

"Well, I was thinking it would either be him, Diggory, or Lupin," he said, and then added, "God forbid someone from the Slytherin house gets it."

"Yeah," Nikki agreed. "I was thinking the same thing. I'm sure Lily Evans got the Head Girl position though."

"Oh definitely. Everyone knows that already. The headmaster would be off his rocker to choose anyone else…oh, besides you of course," he said smiling wryly.

"Right," Nikki said, tossing pairs of clean socks into her trunk.

"I can't wait to go back to school. Too bad it's our last year. You must be glad we're almost done, eh?" he asked her.

"I dunno," Nikki replied with a slight frown. "I know I always complain about it, but, at the same time, I think I will miss Hogwarts when I'm done."

"Of course you will," VJ said with conviction. "You always realize that you like things when it's too late. You're too busy complaining to realize a good thing."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Nikki asked him, feeling a little offended.

"It's true!" he exclaimed. "Remember when your parents finally moved out of their old house and bought this new place? It was you who convinced your parents to move in the first place because you couldn't stand the neighborhood. And then, after you moved, all you did was talk about how you missed the old one!"

"I didn't—"

"Oh and almost every time you go shopping, and you try on some clothes or something, you don't like it at the store. But as soon as you get home, you start going on about how you should've bought it."

"That's not true," Nikki said sternly, now feeling thoroughly annoyed.

"Gimme a break, Nikki. I know you inside out. You complain about Lanie Lovegood constantly while we're at school, but I know you really like her."

"She annoys the crap out of me," Nikki threw some more of her clothes into her trunk.

"Yeah but you hang out with her all the time."

"She's one of my roommates," Nikki said defensively. "I don't have a choice."

"Right," he replied disbelievingly.

"What? I hate Severus Snape too. Does that mean I'm secretly in love with him or something?" Nikki asked shrilly.

"You better not be," VJ said in a more serious tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nikki said heatedly. "What if I am?"

"Shut up, Nikki," VJ said.

"You shut up," she snapped. "Get out of my room."

"Fine, I'm going," he said getting up and heading towards the door. "You know that once I'm gone though, you'll wish I was still here." VJ quickly stepped out the door, barely dodging a pair of sock balls that were being aimed at his face.

As the door to her room shut and Nikki was forced to look around her chaotic room in silent solitude, she let out a curse. "Dammit. I hate it when he's right."

A/N: I know I said I wasn't going to write another story, but I got writer's block from writing my novel and this idea just came into my head. I tried to do something a little different, but of course, like the other stories I wrote, there will be some familiar elements that you might recognize. I like the idea of just changing the main OC and seeing how their personalities all deal with similar situations differently. Unfortunately, I know that I won't be able to update as frequently as I did before, but I'll try my best. I hope you guys like this one. Let me know what you think of it!