Disclaimer: Anything relating to the Harry Potter stories belongs to J. K. Rowling. She can have my characters and ideas as well.

CHAPTER 1

"I can't find my sweatshirt!" exclaimed a very frustrated girl while standing before a mountain of clothes in her closet.

"Which one?" her roommate asked her from behind a book.

"My favorite red hoodie." she said with a pout.

"It's probably in your trunk, Nina." the girl with the book said rationally.

"I looked there already," a very dejected-sounding Nina replied.

"Under the bed?" her roommate suggested.

"Not there either, Lily." Nina sulked.

"Okay, let me try something." Lily closed her book, got up from her bed, and picked up a wand. "Accio hoodie!" Ten hooded sweatshirts came zooming out of trunks, drawers and closets, all piling on Lily's head. "I hig uh foudid," came a muffled voice underneath. A pale hand reached out holding a bright red hooded sweatshirt.

"Ah! Thanks. Why didn't I think of doing that?" Nina said, while pulling her sweatshirt over her head.

"Curse of the muggleborns. We forget to use magic to do simple things." Lily said with a smile. Nina Aydin and Lily Evans had been friends ever since their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As they both came from non-magical, or muggle, backgrounds, they had a special bond of friendship that put them through the last six years of school. Apart from this bond and the fact that they were both very intelligent, Nina and Lily had little else in common. Lily was outgoing and had a great sense of humor. She was a natural leader who fought for what she believed in and got along with almost everybody. The younger students and her peers looked up to her. Girls wanted to be her friend, and boys just wanted her. She had an obviously striking beauty with fiery red hair and a temper to match it.

Nina, on the other hand, was quite different from Lily, in looks as well as personality. Nina was an introvert who tended to socialize with only those whom she knew very well. She was usually very calm and tried avoided confrontation. Her mind might be buzzing with a million things she would like to say, but people would scarcely ever hear them, choosing to only speak when really necessary. She was too self-conscious and hated any type of attention. She almost envied Lily's beautiful green eyes and slim figure that all the boys drooled over. Her own long black hair and brown eyes, she felt, didn't add any advantages to her more "womanly" figure.

"Why do you always wear a sweatshirt, Nina? It's not cold in the common room." Lily asked her friend.

"Oh…you know me. I like wearing loose clothing." Nina replied.

"Yeah, I can tell. That's all you ever wear! Tracks and hoodies, with your hair tied up in messy bun. I don't think I've ever seen you in anything else. If I wasn't your roommate, I wouldn't know how long your hair was!" Lily exclaimed with a teasing smile.

"Are we talking about Nina's hair again?" said a voice through the door. A pretty girl with curly shoulder-length brown hair came into the dorm. It was Lily and Nina's other roommate, Sara Bana, a girl with a tongue as sharp as a knife, but a heart as big as the ocean. "I've told this girl so many times to let it down. She never listens to me!"

"Please guys. I don't care about my hair right now. I gotta go down and study if I want to pass sixth year. I think everyone in Gryffindor is studying tonight. Remus is down by the fireplace, waiting for me with some notes I need. Are you lot coming?" Nina said by the door with her books in her hand.

"Yeah, I'm coming. I'm just going to change and I'll join you." Lily replied.

"Ooh, I'm in too. Maybe Remus can help me with my Ancient Rhunes." Sara added with a smile that lighted her whole face. She was always ready to join a group, especially if there were boys around.

"I think James is good in that actually." Nina said.

"Oh no. Potter isn't down there too, is he?" Lily asked with a moan.

"Uh…no he wasn't. Just Remus." Nina replied. Lily couldn't stand James Potter. He, and his friends Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were the most popular boys in school. Not only were they gifted students (well, all of them except Peter—nobody understood how he made the cut); but they made it a point to prank everyone in the school, particularly students in their rival house, Slytherin. Everyone in the school knew, much to the disappointment of the girls, that James was in love with Lily.

"Okay, I'll meet you down there in five." Lily said, changing out of her school robes.

Nina grabbed a bag of muggle chocolates that her mother always sent her and went down the stairs to the common room and saw a sandy-haired boy creasing his brows in concentration while reading a puzzling spell. Of all the boys in their year, she liked Remus best. Unlike his friends, the other "Marauders" as they penned themselves, Remus was very approachable and easy to talk to. He seemed oblivious to the fact that he was good looking because his other two friends, James and Sirius, were the school heartthrobs. Nina was too shy to talk much around the boys, but she always felt comfortable around Remus.

"Studying alone today?" Nina asked as she walked towards where Remus was sitting.

He looked up at her and smiled, the crease disappearing from his forehead, "Not anymore." He moved over on the couch and put his books on the floor, "James and Sirius are at their last Quidditch practice before the final game. Merlin knows where Peter is. Oh, here are the history notes you wanted." He looked really pale and tired as he passed her his notes; like he hadn't slept in weeks.

"Ooh, thanks." Nina took the notes from him and started to diligently copy them onto her parchment. About ten minutes later, Lily and Sara came down and joined them. Their quiet study session started to get a little louder after half of Nina's bag of chocolate was consumed and Sara and Remus began to argue on the correct spell for removing warts.

"Look, I'm telling you, this is the correct way to do it." Sara was insisting.

"How can you be so sure?" Remus retorted.

"'Cause I—uh had to help a friend once who got jinxed." Remus was about to ask how the "friend" got jinxed when he suddenly looked up towards the portrait hole, seemingly listening to something. Two seconds later the hole opened and two tall, black-haired boys came running in. They fell to the floor laughing and howling, while everyone in the common room stopped what they were doing to stare at them.

"Oh, man! That was a brilliant prank! You should've seen his face!" James said to Sirius through fits of hysterical laughter.

"Potter!" Lily yelled as she stood up from her seat. James and Sirius abruptly stopped their chortling, "Can't you see we're studying here? Go back outside if you're going to make such a racket!" James stared at Lily with a stunned expression on his face, as Sirius scanned the perimeter of the common room, noticing that everyone's eyes were on them. His lips formed a mischievous smirk and he ran his hand through his perfectly-set hair. His attention went back to James, who was still staring at Lily. Sirius cleared his throat, which snapped James out of his momentary stupor.

"Hey!" James retorted. "I didn't know the common room had suddenly been transformed into the library! And why do you always have to single me out and pick on me? I wasn't the only one, you know."

"I don't care." Lily replied impatiently. "I only noticed your obnoxious voice." With that, Sirius got up looking very pleased with himself and took a seat on the other side of Remus muttering, "Well, it looks like I'm getting out of this one."

"Aha, noticing me now are you, Evans?" James said with a cheeky grin. Nina could hear Remus muttering to Sirius, "Here we go again."

"Please Potter. We seriously need to study—unlike you and Black here." Lily replied rolling her eyes.

"Damn, looks like I'm in again." Sirius said quietly. Nina looked up at Remus and Sirius and couldn't help but stifle a laugh. She always had a big problem of laughing at everything—especially during supposedly serious moments. People thought she was a somber person because she was so quiet, but her friends knew she could laugh like a hyena at times. She quickly creased her eyebrows and started to copy notes with as much concentration as she could so that nobody would notice her trying not to laugh, especially the boys next to her. She obviously didn't look serious enough because Lily caught her.

"Nina, what is so funny?" Lily looked angry and confused at the same time.

Nina cleared her throat. "Oh, I wasn't laughing at anything…just these notes…" Her voice trailed off as she put her hand on the side of her face and she looked back down at her notes. She could feel her face getting warm because she knew everyone was looking at her. She hated it when people looked at her—especially extremely good-looking male people in close proximity. She was going kill Lily later for putting her on the spot.

Sirius, who always seemed oblivious to any conversation that didn't involve himself, looked at a clock on the wall and said to his friends, "Hey guys, we've got to go. It's almost nine—we'll be late."

The smile that was on Remus's face left, "I almost forgot." He looked tired again and started packing up his books.

"Where do you guys have to go now?" inquired Lily.

"None of your business, Evans," replied James.

"Well, I'm a prefect. I should know where you're going after hours." she said authoritatively.

"So is Remus, and he's coming with us. So stop being so nosy." Lily looked affronted by James's words, but after looking at Remus, who looked paler than ever, she changed her mind about retorting again. As the boys were walking out, Sirius spotted Nina's bag of chocolates and grabbed it.

"Hey!" Sara said, "You can't just take those chocolates without asking."

"Oh." Sirius said. "Well, can I have some?"

"They're not mine." Sarah replied.

"Then why do you care?" Sirius said while taking one of the chocolates and popping into his mouth.

"They're Nina's." she said.

"Well, Nina doesn't mind if I take any. Do you, Nina?" He turned to Nina holding the bag with a smile on his face. Nina, who could feel the heat coming to her face again, just looked up and was about to say no when Sara interrupted her, "Yes, she does! She's just too nice to say anything."

"Oh." Sirius frowned and was about to put the bag down.

"No, it's okay." Nina said in a quiet voice. "You can have them."

"Really. Thanks, Nina." He smiled and winked at her and left with the chocolate. Nina was sure her face was beet red by now. Hoping no one would notice her she went back to copying her notes.

"What did you do that for? I wanted to have some chocolate. You didn't have to give him the whole bloody bag!" Sara scolded Nina.

"I have some more upstairs." Nina said casually, but praying inside that her face would cool down.

"Mmhmm. So what were you laughing about anyways?" she asked curiously.

"Um…I don't really remember." Nina replied and Sara gave her a disbelieving look. "Seriously. You know me. I laugh at stupid things at stupid times."

"Hmm. I guess." Sara said, and then realizing something asked, "Where'd Lily go?" They looked around the common room and saw that their friend was gone.

A/N: Some of you have already read this story. I accidentally deleted it, but then decided to edit and re-post it. There are a few changes (e.g. character names etc...), but the plot will remain pretty much the same. I might add a bit more James and Lily to this one though. Send me a review and let me know what you think! Chapters should be posted regularly!