This chapter is unintentionally short, but crucial and I really enjoyed writing it. It's also the chapter from Nicole's POV which differs from canon the most. Hope you enjoy!

Nicole woke up for the first time ever without Harry next to her. She already hated being in Slytherin. She wondered if it would be different if she was in any other house – will she still be getting so many questions about her brother? She didn't know how Harry felt, being in a different house than her. Maybe this will grow on her, and she might make friends with the people here.

But right now, that seems unlikely. It feels like she just needs to be in a special time, so she wondered about what will happen in the lessons. There was a lot on her timetable. She was doing her lessons with the other Slytherin first years, so that might take a while.

She got up as she realized that no one else was up yet and it was still 4 hours until lessons start. She wasn't usually the one up early, maybe it's because she's in a different environment? She decided to get dressed, and maybe hope for the best.

"What are you doing, Potter?"

Oh wait, she was wrong. Pansy Parkinson was up and that was weird. Did she wake her up or something.

"Getting ready for class?" said Nicole.

"At 6 in the morning?"

"I'm an earlybird," Nicole lied.

"Well, keep it down," Pansy said. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

She wandered out of the dormitory, and sat down on one of the seats in the common room. It was comfortable, but the common room itself looked very dark. Like something was off. Her alone time was cut short as she saw a fourth year wonder into the room.

"Are you Harry Potter's sister I've been hearing about?" he asked.

"No, you must have me confused with someone else," she lied.

Just then, Draco Malfoy wondered into the common room.

"You're up early," he told Nicole.

"So are you."

"Zabini's talking in his sleep," Draco explained. "Hope that doesn't continue. Barely got any myself. Why are you up?"

"Oh, I needed a time-out," Nicole said. "I woke up early, decided to have a look round."

"Well, let me join you," said Draco. "Always heard a lot about this common room. Might be interesting."

The two started walking around, and talking.

"So how are you enjoying this place so far?"

"Honestly," Nicole answered. "I hate it. They treat me like I'm just Harry Potter's sister. No one else. Like no one wants to get to know me, they want to get to know my brother, and my brother only. I'm not known for me, but for who I'm related to."

"Well, I don't care about your brother," Draco said. "I don't know him that well yet, but he seems like a jerk."

"I know Harry can be a bit awkward at times," Nicole said. "But it's just his insticts. We both had a hard upbringing. It affects us both in different ways, I suppose. We both had different reactions when we got the letter."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean while I was not surprised and thought it basically explained everything, Harry had to be convinced," said Nicole.

"Well, you seem a lot more reasonable than him," said Draco. "Whether you want to defend him or not."

"Yeah, but we're barely going to see each other now, are we?"

"We have Potions with the Gryffindors," Draco said. "So you'll see him at least twice a week. And we have meals together."

"It's a class, we'll barely get to speak," Nicole said. "Just a few waves."

"Well, I'm the only one here who cares about you and not your brother," Draco pointed out. "Whether you like or not. I'll see you in class."

Nicole wasn't sure if she thought Draco was the nicest one here or the most annoying, but so far, she seemed to like him a lot more than the others.

And a few hours later, they all went to class. It was the History of Magic. Even taught by a ghost. Nicole thought that could be interesting.

It wasn't. It was the dullest thing Nicole ever did, and everyone seemed to agree.

"Wake up, Goyle," Draco said at the end of the lesson.

"What the hell was that?" asked Pansy. "The most boring thing ever, and we have to do this every week?!"

"Lighten up, it wasn't that bad," Lily said, but everyone looked at her. "OK, it might've been, but it was the first lesson, it could get better."

"Doubt that," said Sophie Roper, which was the first time Nicole heard her speak since they met.

Next up was a lesson where they had to study the night skies through telescopes and learnt about planets, this lesson wasn't that different from a few of the science lessons Nicole had with Harry before.

And then it was time for dinner in the Great Hall. Draco was right, it was the entire school. On the table, all she got was more questions. Nicole waved to Harry on the Gryffindor table, and he waved back, showing that he at least saw her. They had a nice talk between tables later.

"How is it so far?" Harry asked.

"Awful," Nicole said. "Not the best first impression. Everyone's asking about you!"

"Must be hard with Malfoy in every lesson."

"Actually, he's one of the better ones," Nicole said.

"Must be pretty bad then."

Nicole could hear Ron calling him.

"See you later," he said.

"Bye," Nicole said.

"Do you miss each other already?" Draco asked when Nicole got back to the table.

"You've got to understand that we have barely spent a minute apart since we were born," Nicole said. "It's a little weird."

"You two were that close?" questioned Lily.

"Weird that you were both sorted into different houses," Pansy commented. "It's a little different."

"Well…"

"I'm not answering any more questions about Harry," said Nicole. "If you want to, you can ask him yourself."

"I wasn't going to ask about Harry," Lily said. "I was just going to ask were all the muggles terrible? Or did you and Harry have friends outside of your family?"

"Nope," Nicole said. "No friends at all. Nobody liked us due to Dudley's lies."

"Must've been a hard life," Lily said. "And I thought mine was bad."

"Oh, Lily," Pansy said. "You don't have as bad a life as you say. I know it, and you know it."

Nicole knew that Lily and Pansy knew each other before coming to Hogwarts, but it doesn't seem like they ever got along. And it doesn't seem like they were going to start now.

The next lesson was Herbology, which took place in greenhouses outside of the castle, with a little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned to take care of strange plants and what they are used for. It wasn't bad, but not nessescarily good either.

Then it was Transfiguration, taught by Professor McGonagall, who seemed even stricter than before.

"Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. Then she turned her desk to a pig and back again. They were then tasked to turn a match into a needle, which was okay. The only person who managed to do it was Daphne Greengrass, but that was only just.

And then lessons were over. For a first day of lessons, it wasn't too bad. It wasn't too enjoyable, but the teachers and students weren't as bad as the ones in the last school, and although she was without Harry, at least Dudley wasn't there.

They then went back to spend free time in the common room.

"Well, this is not off to a good start," Draco said.

"I didn't think it was that bad," said Lily.

"Well, who asked for your opinion, Moon?" Draco asked.

"It was okay," Nicole said. "It was what I expected I suppose."

"Well, I hated it," Draco said. "All the lessons."

"Why?" asked Lily. "Seems to me you were just too lazy to do any of the work."

This seemed to have made Draco mad as he got his wand out and pointed it at her.

"Draco, calm down," Nicole said, as Draco put his wand down. "Lily, you don't have to be such a control freak all the time."

"Control freak?!" Lily exclaimed. "He's the one basically not doing anything."

"You're all being idiots," said Sophie Roper, who then ran to another part of the common room.

The three looked at each other as Lily walked away.

"Thanks," Draco said. "I guess sometimes I do lose my temper. And that Moon can be a pain in my stomach. Can't believe she's in Slytherin."

"Why do you care about houses?" asked Nicole. "Why does anyone care? When I first met, you were saying you really didn't want to be in Hufflepuff. And then people were warning me about Slytherin."

Draco laughed. "What were they saying?"

"Hagrid said that there's never been a dark witch or wizard that didn't come from Slytherin," Nicole said.

Draco laughed even louder. "That's a joke, right?" Nicole shook her head. "Not only is that giant a crook, he's also a liar. For one, there's the infamous Sirius Black. For another, there's Florence Hirocki."

"Who are those people?"

"Oh, I forgot you were raised by muggles," Draco said. "I'll see you tomorrow. It'll be good."

Next chapter will be Snape's first chapter and it will get good.