CHAPTER TWO

The next morning, Nina woke up smiling. Today was the day she'd finally get her wand. Oh, her other school things too, but this was her wand. She had been waiting this moment for forever.

"Morning, mom."

"Hi sweetie. Excited?" Her mother asked her.

"Pretty much." She grinned. "Where's dad?"

"Upstairs getting ready, though I think he's reading about last night's game."

Nina did a fake sigh, "Men."

Her mother laughed at told her to start eating already.

Nina's house wasn't that big, not compared to Peter's either way. What she really liked from her house was the backyard.

Once she was ready, she walked outside, sat in the little bench in front of the pond, and thought. Her mom had made her the offer of buying her a familiar too, but she honestly didn't know what to get.

Definitely not a toad, she thought as she saw one jumping around in the little pond. And I can always borrow Peter's owl.

That's it. She would get a cat.

"Have you ever noticed our parents love to torture us?" Peter said to Nina as they exited Slug and Jigger's Apothecary later on. "I mean, why couldn't we get the wands first?"

Nina shrugged, "It builds suspense." Inside, she was nearly jumping from excitement the closer they got to Ollivander's.

"Mr. Ollivander?" Peter's mom called once inside.

"Yes, yes, one moment please." They heard the old man say from somewhere in the back of the shop, eventually he stumbled out from between two lines of wands, coughing dust.

"Oh, Mr. Ollivander." Said Mrs. Blotts, "Are you sure you don't want us or the kids coming one day to help you clean up a little?"

"No, no, my dear. I'm just fine. How about we get down to business? I haven't seen you kids in a while."

"Sorry, Mr. Ollivander, I really don't know why we stopped coming over." Nina told him, everything real.

"Not to worry, darling. Shall we start with you?"

At first, Nina was busting with excitement and nervousness, but as time went by, she was starting to worry. She had already tried ten wands and none of them were the correct one.

This will be the one, she thought.

And she was right.

As Mr. Ollivander handed her the eleventh wand, her heartbeat speeded up. She watched the wand with sudden interest, before finally taking it. A warm feeling filled her body.

"This is it." She said aloud.

"Yes, certainly. You are very powerful, my dear." The old man said. Nina looked up to see a glow penetrating the store. She noticed Peter had taken off his jacket, which he had on only because he had a cold and that day was particularly windy.

Had the heat in her body transferred to the others too? No, she thought, I'm not that powerful at all.

"A very particular wand, 9½ inches, unicorn hair, and birch." He said.

"I wasn't aware you used birch, Mr. Ollivander." Mrs. Davies commented.

"I don't. This was a one-time occasion. The only one in its kind. I'd be expecting a great future if I were you, Ms. Blotts." The wandmaker finished.

Nina didn't know what to say, so she looked at Peter, who smiled in an encouraging way.

"Thank you, Mr. Ollivander." She finally said.

Peter's wand was found almost immediately – at the second or third try, but Nina didn't really know. She was carefully examining her own wand, which her mother had let her have in her pocket now.

The days went by in a fast blur, between hanging out at Diagon Alley, staying home, reading of course, and everyday life. Before they knew it, Peter and Nina were boarding the Hogwarts' Express, looking for a compartment.

They say alone near the rear of the train, that is, until the young Albus Potter came to join them.

"Hi." All three of them said simultaneously. Nina smiled, if this was how she was going to start her year, then it couldn't be that bad.

"May I sit with you guys?" The Potter boy asked a little shyly, but already with some level of trust.

"Yeah." Peter said, while Nina moved some of her stuff to give Albus enough space. A soft meow was heard when she moved the cage.

"Sorry, Bianca." She apologized, taking out her cat familiar.

Bianca was a little animal, beige with black lines through her body. She was an automatic yes for Nina, who saw her and immediately fell in love with the cat.

"Your cat?" Albus smiled, and she nodded. "Nice."

"I know." The girl said.

"Do you have a familiar?" Peter asked Albus.

He nodded, "An owl. My cousin has her right now. You have one too." He observed.

"He's a Snowy Owl, Orion." Peter confirmed, letting Orion out of his cage.

Albus smiled, "Like the hunter. I was obsessed with him a couple of years ago."

A noise outside stopped their conversation. A brunette girl stopped outside their compartment door, locked eyes with Albus, and then glanced quickly – holding her gaze a little bit longer in Nina – and pushed her way out of the hallway. Her expression was one of someone who was utterly annoyed.

"What's her problem?" Peter asked out-loud.

Nina shrugged, while Albus stood up and left the compartment.

"Rose!" He called, as he disappeared from view.

"Rose Weasley?" The other two said, taken completely aback. From what they had heard, Rose was a very educated girl.

Nina tried to listen to what was going on outside; much to Peter's dislike, but he was curious too.

"What's going on?" He asked when she had already gone back to her original position of seating by the window.

"I just heard one word – traitor. Albus said it, but it was more like he was asking Rose why she had accused him of being a traitor. I'm not completely sure though." Nina said, concerned, but mostly curious.

The day drew on, Albus making a reappearance a while later, they joked around, bought candy from the lady, just your typical day at Hogwarts Express.

And then, there was the Sorting.

That year, the Sorting Hat's song merely told the history of the school, it talked about the unity of all four houses – almost, anyway. Then professor Longbottom walked up with a scroll and began calling names. Richard Aarons came first, he became a Gryffindor; he was followed by Brianna Alden, a Hufflepuff; John Akins, another Hufflepuff, and then the B's.

Nina watched with interest the sorting of the people that would become her classmates, who were already her class.

David Baker was the first Slytherin, and then there was one Ravenclaw, Carter Bennet, before she was called.

"Blotts, Nina." Professor Longbottom said.

Nina walked up to him and sat down. Once the hat was in her head, she lost complete view of the others.

"Intelligent girl, I see." A voice said, and startled her. "You would do so very well in Ravenclaw."

No. She thought.

"Not Ravenclaw? You look up to your mother, you know. Valiant, loyal. Are you sure you do not wish to be in Ravenclaw? It could bring you great things."

Yes.

"Very, well." The hat paused, merely for dramatic effect, Nina knew, and then he shouted. "Gryffindor!"

She took off the hat and handed it to her new Head of House, and then walked to the table, sitting next to the Richard boy so she could get a good view of the other students.

There was, of course, the Weasley family she had seen at the station, but mixed between them were other people. They were treated like family, so she could see just how welcoming the big family was. She glanced at Albus and smiled, wondering if that would be her.

Then there were some other kids, her own cousin, whom she smiled too from afar, and people she had seen in the store every year. None that she really knew, of course.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't my little girlfriend." Nina, of course, recognized that voice.

"Get off me, James." She said, pushing the arm that rested on her shoulders away.

"You're not happy to see me?" He asked.

"Jimmy, leave the poor girl alone." A beautiful, redheaded girl told him. "Hi, I'm Dominique Weasley."

"Nina Blotts." She answered. "Is he always like this?"

"Most of the time." Dominique shook her head.

"Nique!" The boy protested.

Nina laughed and turned her head just in time to see Hayden Brown become a fellow Gryffindor; and her twin Monica became a Ravenclaw. More names were called.

Peter, to Nina's great relief, became a Gryffindor, too. She let out a satisfactory sight, content, and then Albus was announced Gryffindor too. The table filled up too with the presence of Lucille Ferris and Natalie Ox, and the all was quiet as a blonde boy made his way to join them, Scorpius Malfoy, nonetheless. The air tensed as people waited for a reaction between the Potters and Scorpius, but nothing happened – yet.

The tension was only released when Damien Thomas was welcomed to the table, followed closely by Katie Turner. But of course, as Hogwarts only knows drama, more than one pair of eyes looked up when Rose Weasley's name was called.

Nina and Peter's were filled with curiosity and – let's admit it – a little unfriendliness for the girl. Albus watched her warily, taking in her every movement, as if one step could end in disaster. Then there were the other Weasleys, and James, looking to see where their cousin would be placed.

The trio (A/N: Gosh, that just sound so cute, I have my own trio3) held their breaths as the Sorting Hat was placed on her head, and exactly one minute later, it bellowed a word they did not comprehend at first, but understood when the redheaded girl walked to the Ravenclaw table, being embraced by a beautiful blonde girl who Nina could only guess was Victoire Weasley.

The feast was obviously delicious, and if you add to it the quantity of laughter the first years had, then it was the best meal ever of all the eleven year olds. Nina found her roommates to be really awesome, and they bonded in no time. With the boys as well, they were all fun and good folks.

More than once, they found themselves explaining the most wicked things of the Wizarding World to Katie and Richard, who were both muggleborns. However, when the boys launched into a deep explanation of Quidditch, Nina turned to her roommates for a nice, non-Quidditch talk. She loved it, of course, but she was not hardcore about it like Peter.

After dinner, prefect Roxanne Weasley took them to the Gryffindor Common Room and showed them the stairs to their rooms. Nina stayed down a couple more minutes, talking to Peter and Albus, and agreeing in waiting for each the next day, Saturday, to eat breakfast.

"So, you're the one James was all obsessed with this summer."

This startled her, for she thought he was mostly fooling around.

"He was?" Roxanne nodded.

"Nique and I barely managed to stop him from bothering you tonight. You're the first girl to say no to him from the start, he's just not used to it."

"Yeah, that's around what Albus said. I just hope he'll get over it."

Roxanne laughed. "Go to sleep, we'll talk tomorrow." With that, she continued her way up the stairs, and giggles erupted from behind the closed door they had been talking by.

"You girls are unbelievable!" Nina said, opening the door to her room, yet smiling.

"I knew he was looking at her a little bit too much." Hayden laughed.

"Merlin, Nina, if I were you I would be flattered." Natalie commented, and then proceeded with a bad imitation of her voice. "Why, James? I am extremely grateful for the attentions of such an important and good-looking kid."

"Goodness gracious, Lucille, stop laughing. I would never like someone because of their name." Nina protested.

"What's so important about the Potters and the Weasleys, either way?" Katie asked, and they all shared a look and lounged into the explanation, finally drifting off to sleep a couple of hours later.