AN; Welcome. Not much to say at the beggining, but hope you enjoy.
I smiled at my father as we walked into the pet shop. The Magical Menagerie, it was called. The store was a bit scary for an eleven year old girl, as it was rather dark and dank, because of all the animals. I was picking out my animal, my familiar, my companion for my upcoming years at Hogwarts, the best school of Witchcraft and Wizardry that there was. Well that was my mother's opinion anyway.
You see, I was born and raised in America, the same as my muggle father. But my mother, a witch (No, she is not green!), was born and raised in England, the latest in a prestigious line of Irish witches and wizards (on her father's side). She completed her seven years at Hogwarts, and then took a job as an international diplomat between the Ministry of Magic in England, and the Department to Magical Beings in the United States. There's a whole lot more story here but you don't want to hear it, my parents met, fell in love, bada bing bada boom, me.
Fast forward to the now. I'm eleven, which I believe was already established, and I'm preparing to go into my first year at Hogwarts, which I am allowed to attend because of my dual citizenship in England and the USA. Although I am considerably more American than Brit, I jumped at the opportunity to study abroad.
"Hello, can I help you? Looking for your pet for Hogwarts I'd bet." The woman smiled at us while leaning on the counter. "Owl's are bright creatures; carry your mail for you."
"No, not an owl. Feel terrible getting the thing and exhausting it, flights across the Atlantic can't be good. Besides your mom has your mail going through the Ministry doesn't she?" I nodded to what Dad had said. I wasn't typically a shy kid, but the dark store startled me, with all the caged eyes.
"American?" She looked surprised, but shook her head and dropped the subject. "What were you looking for then?"
"A kitten." I finally piped up. The witch waved us over to an area where there were a few small cats playing together. I watched them for a bit, and smiled once I found the one I wanted. A small white mixed breed cat. "That one."
"Alrightly, this one we call Tobey, but you can rename him of course." The witch smiled and picked up my new kitten. Dad and I bought the cat, along with a new red collar (Charmed to never choke or chafe), and walked out of the store with him in his carrier to meet Mom. The only thing left on the list was my wand. As we walked towards Olivander's Dad asked me if I was going to change my kitten's name.
"A-huh. I'm going to call him Biely." I smiled, and Dad laughed.
"White, in Slovak. Very creative." Mom teased "I'm particularly surprised you didn't name him Cierny, for sarcasm's sake."
"What does that mean?" I asked. Although I'm half Slovak, I know very little of the language. I've picked up a few words, but neither of my parent's speak it fluently.
"Black." I pondered the new word for the rest of the walk to the wand store. I started at the sign for a moment, and wondered how the store had existed for 300 years BC, before walking in after my parents. Once I stepped inside I saw my mother was speaking to an older man with rather thick glasses. He asked her a question, obviously to see her wand, because she pulled it out and handed it to the man. As he held it, he smiled.
"This must be your daughter. Looks like you did at that age, except for the nose. No bump." Mom's hands flew to her nose where there was a boney bump, just as the man, who I'd assumed was Olivander, had said. The man then addresses me. "Hello dear, I'm Olivander, and I'll be helping your wand find you. Because as you know-"
"It's the wand that chooses the wizard." We chorused together. It was something that Mom had to have said t me hundreds of time, her response whenever I asked her what type of wand she thought I'd get. He nodded, and a bit of a surprised look graced his face. He smiled at me though, and started shuffling through piles of wands.
"Which hand is your wand hand?" I indicated my right hand to him and he came out from under a pile of boxes holding just one. Once it was pressed into my hand I knew it was right. A warm feeling flooded my grip, and what looked like a small fireworks show flared at the end of the wand. "15 and 2/3 inches of Cypress. Dragon heartstring core. Fine for a young witch."
As mom was paying for the wand, and saying goodbye to Olivander, the little bell above the door rang. I looked to see who else had entered the shop. A young boy, who looked to be about my age, walked in followed by his mother. He had black hair and glasses, and looked like he was itching to get his wand. I smiled at him, and walked over, hoping he would be one of my new classmates.
"Hello, I'm Nicole Tallo. I'm going to be in my first year at Hogwarts." I introduced myself. He grinned at me, his entire face lighting up.
"James Potter. Nice to meet you. I'll be starting Hogwarts day after tomorrow too." I was about to go into a deeper conversation with the boy, but my parents were done in the store and called for me.
"Sorry." I frowned. He shrugged.
"Parent's, what can you do? Anyway, hopefully I'll see you on the train." He waved and made his way over to his mother, who was taking a seat so she could watch his wand fitting.
The next day's passed in a blur, and before I knew it, I had run through the brick wall to get to platform 9 and ¾. For the first time in my life I saw the train that would take me off to school, a school that would teach me how to cast spells and brew potions. I would miss my parent's terribly, but we knew that it would happen, so we were as ready as could be.
"So you remember how to send us letters right?" Mom asked yet again. "Just address them to me at the Ministry, and I'll get them, whether I'm here or at the Department. Alright?" I nodded. Tears were starting to cloud my eyes. I hugged both my mother and father, saying my goodbye's until winter break. I turned away and climbed onto the steam engine, having loaded my trunk with Dad earlier. I walked up and down the corridor looking for a familiar face. I had met a couple other students' while we were staying at Mom's family's home, but I couldn't seem to find anybody to sit with. Finally I happened to run into a compartment that only had two people. They both looked to be about my age, and a tad nervous. This led me to assume that they were first years too.
"Hello. Can I sit here?" I stuck my head inside the compartment. The girl looked at me and smiled, nodding. The black haired boy barely paid me any mind.
"Of course. I'm Lily Evans, and this is Severus Snape. We are going to be first years. What about you?" The girl had auburn hair that was very pretty, and a kind voice. I stuck Biely's carrier and my robes on the shelf above our heads.
"Oh sorry. I'm Nicole Tallo, first year too. Nice to meet you Lily and Severus." The boy finally nodded at me. That was a little better, but only by a tiny amount. If I judged only by first impressions, I wouldn't want to socialize with this rude boy. The three of us chatted for a bit, and waved to our parents as the train pulled away from the station. Eventually we were interrupted by two black haired boy's invading our cabin.
"Nicole! I thought I'd find you eventually. This is Sirius, just met him this morning. Sirius this is Nicole, I met her the other day in Olivander's. Who are your friends?" James said at a rather rapid pace. I wondered how the boy could even speak that quickly.
"Lily Evans and Severus Snape. You two are welcome to join us if you need a place to sit." An even bigger smile broke out on the two boy's faces.
"Great. We had been sitting with a group of fifth year Ravenclaws, and all they were talking about was homework." Sirius spoke for the first time. He was about as tall as James, meaning I was a tad bit taller than him. He had slightly neater and longer hair than James, and grey eyes as opposed to Hazel.
"Ravenclaw?" Lily questioned, confused.
"Oh yeah. You don't know about that do you? Hmm well…" I started to explain. The whole conversation started to get a bit out of hand when the boys all started commenting on what house they would be in. Sirius, it turned out, like Snape came from a long line of Slytherins, but unlike Severus, he most definitely did not want to be like the rest of his family. This entire thing lead to an enormous argument, where James and Sirius were rather mean, and Lily and Severus storming out.
"Did you have to be so mean?" I questioned, completely irritated with their behavior. I gave the two of them a look that completely expressed my disgust.
"Who are you? My mum?" Sirius asked. James had already decided to look ashamed, judging by my tone I guessed.
"If you continue to act like a child then yes. You simply can't go around acting like-" I was cut off in mid sentence by the compartment door opening yet again. This time a boy, yet again, appearing around our age, entered the compartment. He had dirty blond hair, and looked a little worse for wear.
"Could I sit here?" He questioned. I was surprised he was still looking for a seat this far into the train ride. I made introductions for the group this time.
"Course. I'm Nicole Tallo; these idiots are James Potter and Sirius Black." The boy nodded and moved towards an open seat.
"Nice to meet you. Remus Lupin." He gestured to himself. Then questioned "American?"
I explained to the boys the entire situation of how I came to be the only American in attendance. Each piped in once in awhile; sharing experiences they had with the ministry. James, it turned out, actually knew my mom's family. He actually recognized the name more than anything, but the connection was still there. Eventually talk of my family turned to talk of school. Eventually Remus and I started discussing books, and what we had read in the texts thus far. James and Sirius had entered a highly intense discussion about quidditch. As much as I enjoyed playing the sport, following the European Circuit had never been my thing.
"Biely!" I squealed when the kitten came toppling out of his carrier above. The train had just rounded a rather sharp bend, at a rather quick speed. Remus jumped when I squealed, and James and Sirius turned away from their heated conversation about which team would win the world cup to see what the problem was.
"What did you say?" Remus questioned me, shaking his head. "That can't have been English. Even American English."
"Slovak actually. Means white." I stared down at my kitten, petting him, as he fell asleep in my lap, happy to be out of his carrier.
"You speak another language?" James and Sirius joined into our new topic of conversation. James reached over to pet Biely, and she purred at his touch.
"Well I don't know much. Only a word here or there." I shrugged. Sirius sat with his head cocked to the side, and Remus encouraged me to speak the little bit I knew.
"Sliepka means chicken, medved means bear, biely means white, pes is dog, and ceirny means black. I only know one complete phrase." I was about to tell the boys the rest of my Slovak when a prefect stuck his head into the compartment. He let us know that we were almost there and needed to change into our robes. I climbed onto the seat and grabbed my robes from the shelf, placing the cat back in his carrier.
I went to step out of the compartment to change in a room down the hall when Sirius called out to me.
"What's the phrase you know?" For a second I was confused as to what he was talking about. With the interruption of the prefect and finding my robes I'd forgotten I was in the middle of a sentence.
"Oh, daj mi pusu." I said to him as I walked down the hallway.
AN; Okay, so. Hi. Umm I hope you enjoyed that at least a little bit. Umm ever since I read the HP books, I was curious about the marauders. I'd read some FF about them, but wondered what would have happened to them all if another character had been thrown into the mix. Well let's see. What else to say. Nicole Tallo is based off me. Um this chapter was pretty much an introduction to the characters, and some shenanigans will start up in the next chapter. That one will have the feast, and the rest of the first night. Yeah pretty much. :D OH! In case you wanted to know how to pronounce the slovak words, I'll put that under the message.
Sliepka- sleep-ka
medved- med-ved
biely- be-le
pes- like pest, but without the t sound
ceirny- cheer-ni
daj mi pusu- die me bush