Year One: The Immortal Stone

*Start!*

The moment you meet your best friend is often branded into your mind. A memory that never fades out of existence. It could be a scene you remember with spectacular detail. It could be a casual bump and rushed apology in the middle of crowded sidewalk. For Nicole Collins, it was a simple answer to a question that held no importance.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Go on ahead."

The answer itself was spoken by a girl who looked plain and ordinary. She wore muggle t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Her skin was shaded like a well-baked pancake. Her eyes were piercing, serious and colored a brownish hue. Her features were sharp but set in a stony expression. She gave off the type of feel you would get from someone who had had a bad day and didn't want to be bothered.

Others would normal feel uncomfortable and dart away as quick as they could. But Nicole likes to think she's part of risky, adventurous minority that rarely backs away from anything.

After she stows away her trunk with difficulty, she sits across from the girl and looks out the window.

The train had left the station a good bit ago, and she had already said her goodbyes to her mum and dad. The landscape outside showed houses and green fields lying beneath a cloudless blue sky.

Her attention turns back to the girl in front of her, and for a moment a silence settled in the compartment.

Nicole hates silence.

Silence leaves you with unsolved thoughts that constantly drift into something completely irrelevant to the subject at hand. It leaves you with no answers to the dozen of questions swarming in your head. It has you pondering and pondering over mysteries you could solve if you only opened your mouth to say them.

So, Nicole speaks to the girl with a welcoming smile on her face. "Hi!"

"..." the girl says nothing and only gives her a moment's glance before looking back out the window.

Nicole wasn't feeling down about this. She could already tell from the way from the waves of tension coming off of the girl, that she wasn't up for a conversation. But Collins weren't anything if not persistent.

"It's my first year at Hogwarts, you know. I got my letter at breakfast while me and daddy were playing 'I had a thought'. Mummy always leaves the window open because she likes to feel the weather before getting ready for work. Course daddy has to work too, mind you, but he was off the day since he wasn't feeling quite that well. We were eating pancakes and syrup and daddy had just finished off his thought on why cats were mini griffins, and I was about to tell him how puppies were like cursed werewolves in disguise; when suddenly, just when I opened my mouth, I heard a screech and an owl flew right in front of me. Didn't hurt me of course, but it dropped my letter right in my pumpkin juice. Luckily, it wasn't that injured and I gave the poor owl a bit of bacon before sending it off. Daddy had already looked the letter over to see who it was from, and when he handed it to me, I couldn't believe-"

"Did I ask you to tell me your entire bloody story?"

The girl across from her pinned Nicole with a dark glare. She looked annoyed and Nicole blinked innocently. The glare darkened even more.

"What do you mean?" Nicole asked.

"Shut.Up." Was all she got in reply.

Again, Nicole persisted. "What's your name?"

"None of your business."

"Is this your first year at Hogwarts too?"

"Are you deaf?"

"Are you a muggleborn, half-blood, or pureblood?"

"Must be if you're still talking."

"What house do you think you'll be in?"

"Be. Quiet."

"Gryffindor doesn't seem that promising. Daddy always says I had the thirst for adventure like them, but I just can't see myself in that house. The lions just look so bold and hard-headed that they always take to actions before knowledge. I don't wanna die just because it's the 'noble way out'.

"You really like the sound of your voice don't 'cha."

"And people say that Slytherin has a habit of taking in dark wizards. But I don't think that's true. Merlin was a Slytherin, you know, and look at him now! He's one of the most famous sorcerers in all of the wizarding world! But one silly graduate decides to perform world domination, and suddenly everyone in his house must be incarnations of evil!"

The girl sends Nicole a look that seemed a cross between curiosity and exasperation. Nicole took that as to her agreeing with the previous statement.

"I know right! It's so prejudiced and unbelievable! Sirius Black was a Gryffindor and he killed 13 people with one curse! But one kid goes psycho and all of a sudden everyone whose has ambition and diligence must be dark."

"What. The. Bloody. Hell. Are. You. Talking. About?" The words were said slowly, as if one were talking to a baby who couldn't understand them.

Nicole took in a deep breathe to speak again, but the opening of the compartment door stopped her words.

A girl dressed in her school robes stood in the doorway. Her hair was a mass of curls and she had a bossy voice.

"Have you seen a toad?" She asked. "Neville's lost his and I can't seem to find a perfect anywhere."

"No, sorry." Apologized Nicole.

"No." Barked the other girl.

The girl in the doorway looked offended by the harsh tone. She tilted her chin up and asked in a rude way, "And you are?"

The girl across from Nicole gave her a false smile. "Elizabeth Myers. And I'm the person who doesn't care about a bossy princess who has her knickers in a knot. So if you'll please" she made a shooing motion with her hands, "Get out of my sight."

The girl's cheeks flushed an ugly red and she huffed before turning and pushing the door closed with enough force to make it slam.

"Drama Queen." The girl, no, Elizabeth sneered.

Nicole watched the door for a moment before turning and holding out a hand to the girl in front of her. "Nicole Collins."

Elizabeth eyes her hand for a tense moment, and just when Nicole was about to put her limb down, she reached over and clasped it to give a short shake. "Elizabeth Myers."

A simple answer to a non-important question started a friendship that would last for years to come. And in that compartment, aboard the Hogwarts Express, Nicole and Elizabeth shook hands.

Their fates intwined together the moment their hands touched.