A special thanks to my younger sister, Pumpkin Patch of Candy Canes, who knows way more about Hogwarts than me and helped me figure out key details like which house each character should go in, including some that I didn't write into the story, and who willingly proofread every bit of my story to doublecheck my Harry Potter knowhow and whatever else I may have messed up. She's awesome, and honestly was a major lifesaver for today.

The day when you were to be sorted into your house at Hogwarts felt like a distant dream come true, and Alya knew that she might have been a little too abuzz about it. Just, could you imagine? Hufflepuffs for loyalty and a kind heart though sometimes Alya felt like she had to be too rash for that.

Slytherin for practical jokes and sly natures, and yet Alya hadn't played nearly enough practical jokes in her lifetime to feel like one, so she bet that couldn't be it. But, Alya didn't consider herself to have a bad sense of humor at all.

Ravenclaw for being intelligent, and yet Alya had never fancied herself a nerd though she felt the complete desire to research and learn as much as she could. She'd spent years researching Hogwarts and every fact of the school that she could find from propaganda and sheer truth that stunned her silly. She loved research and loved to learn within reason; there were still topics that left her a little too bored out of her mind to be of interest.

Gryffindors were known for being brave nearly to the point of being reckless, and while Alya could see that in herself, she doubted that she was a Gryffindor. She had a tendency to both react impulsively and to overthink herself into oblivion.

She'd been practicing magic since she was three though, and when she wasn't practicing, she and Nino, her next door neighbor and wizard-to-be, were always playing around with it though while she got a little more curious and sure that she could find new ways of magic somehow. Nino grew a little less likely to play so much. He'd started taking it much more seriously.

Alya would insist for as long as you could take it that Nino and her would have the same house in Hogwarts that they'd be roommates or neighbors and goof off together and study magic even in the dead of night. Nino was her best friend, and someone that she trusted way more than anyone and yet it wasn't the way that it would end up.

The Sorting Hat had to be wrong! 'I'm not a Ravenclaw if Nino is a Hufflepuff.' It felt a lot like defeat watching as Nino got sorted into another house, dashing Alya's dreams of being neighbors and yet time had a funny way of changing that too.

For now though she'd grin and bear it and try to put up with the fact that her childhood friend was being separated from each other. They wouldn't be able to eat lunch together or find time to talk or play together anymore, will they?

Alya felt alone and yet when she looked up, there was a kind boy around her age, holding what looked like a spellbound robot in his hands, just out of sight from Hagrid. "Hi." Alya waved semi-nervously since she figured that she might as well come to know another Ravenclaw around her age.

"Hello, I'm Max." He greeted her softly, and Alya wondered if she had to be sorted into the wrong house since he was a lot more soft spoken than she was.

"I'm Alya." She greeted back.

Little did Alya know that it wouldn't be that different to be in a different house than Nino as she found that their study sessions and long conversations did transfer over despite Nino being a Hufflepuff and Alya being a Ravenclaw.

Over time, Alya and Nino changed in the little ways that weren't always easy to notice. At some point, she started to notice the way that Nino peered down at the book while studying or the glow of magic from his wand shining over his skin or the way his eyes gleamed when he finally got a spell right.

Alya had never expected when she'd get carried away when they spoke about anything from classes to magic to dreams to just anything at all, when she'd stop and stare as if seeing him for the first time ever. Nino had almost always been one of her friends. At first, he was one of her only friends, and over time, he'd managed to become her best friend. Now, she wasn't entirely sure what he was to her.

It was like seeing Nino in a whole new light, and with every new potion and every passing day, he became something a little more to her. Like she'd taken her best friend cake and frosted it with something new and in a completely different direction.

Seeing Nino now left little butterflies fluttering in her stomach that simply did not stop when her messenger owl came by and delivered a letter from Nino. Seventeen years old and yet she still couldn't help her excitement at receiving a simple letter from her best friend or the boy, soon to be man, that was still her best friend even after all this time.

She knew that the letter wasn't anything to gush over or super romantic or anything; it was just a general letter since Nino couldn't come over to visit today since he was busy, a fact that he'd mentioned the night before as well. While they hadn't gotten less close over the years surely, something definitely had changed between them after all this time.

"So, what do you plan on doing once you graduate?" Alya asked, wondering if she could find the words to say that could change the very foundation of their friendship and turn it in a completely different direction or at least made it awkward for a while if things went more wrong than right.

"We've mentioned it before." Nino shrugged, "But besides that, I don't have any new plans."

"I was hoping that you'd let me into your plans." She hoped that that didn't sound Slytherin in the least as neither of them had ever been a Slytherin, and there was nothing mischievous about what she was about to ask.

"You already are in a lot of them." Nino admitted though Alya was positive that he hadn't quite realized what she meant yet.

"How about all of them?" Alya asked, "I know that we've been friends forever, but I don't feel exactly the way that I did when we were five. It's a bit different now." She smiled, remembering when they were young and carefree and nothing meant more than just being the best of friends through all of this time.

"All of them?" Nino asked her, and Alya wondered if she was too gutsy as she leaned forward and placed a kiss on her best friend's cheek and met his stunned look with her slightly flirty one.

"All of them." She repeated with a slowly growing grin.

"Like." Nino took a deep breath as he finally found the words, "Do you want to be my girlfriend? Is that what you're asking?"

"Yeah, if you'll have me." She smiled up at him though her heart filled up with nerves as if it were desiring to overflow.

"I will. I mean, I'd like you to be my girlfriend too." Nino's face flushed pink, and though they were both wizards at Hogwarts, it was like they were once again younger than that.

Alya couldn't help how her joy bubbled up within her chest as she pressed closer and wrapped her arms around the boy that she'd grown up with and hugged him tight. Time was once again changing for them like it had when they'd gotten their Hogwart's acceptance letters what felt like forever ago.