Whoops

It was the Second Year now that Nico attended this magical school. Surely you would expect of her to have gotten used to this place. That's a big no. Even thought she was a Prefect, even then she got lost easily in this Castle. There was something strange about it.

Possibly, her vague sense of direction had something to do with it. But honestly, the walls and long hallways all... looked the same to her. For some reason, her eyes still couldn't fully fathom how everything was put together. Her brain couldn't remember or distinguish certain areas from others because they all looked the exact same.

Heading to the Great Hall, she swiftly walked up towards the infamous moving stairs. With her she carried her loyal purple Pygmy Puff, Pip. 'Mhm. I'll let you take a bite from my food today. Just be patient okey? We're nearly there.'

Pip squeeked happily. Looking forward to the delicious golden chicken that the house elves seasoned so well. Her Puff had always been there for her and saved her multiple times from certain doom. Especially the anxiety that often would slip into her mind.

Carefully Nico hopped up the stairs and before she knew it the stairs started to move.

'WHOA!' She didn't anticipate its movement. Sometimes these stairs seemed to have a will of their own. She almost fell over, her Pygmy holding onto her shoulder as she managed to keep her balance, gripping the handrail. 'O-Oh wauw... that was kinda close.'

Sighing relieved, the little dhampir rested her hand on her chest.

Jay held onto the railing as the stairs suddenly- in a aggressive matter- moved. Now it was just Jay and the interesting girl on the stair way. She was probably heading to the great hall, they thought. Jay then took a few steps towards her, 
“Umm... the stairs aren’t gonna move for the next two hours. And if you were going to the Great hall-“ the stairs seemed to stretch out to a much higher floor- the fourth- and this kind of messed Jay up as they weren’t exactly used to this much movement despite the fact that they have been hanging out on the stairs for quite a while now.

”-you’re screwed.” They simply said. 

Then Jay realized where the stairs were going to go- “I think we are going to the fourth floor....” they said aloud. You idiot! As if that were to make things better. Their face became red at their stupidity, now the pretty Slytherin girl probably thought they were a really annoying pessimistic Griffindor student. Honestly, they barely have done any interactions with any other students other than in classes when needed, like working with partners. Jay was a loner, and the main reason why they were blurting out all these things were probably because they were desperate for someone to notice them.

”N-not that it makes anything better!” They suddenly added as they saw the prefect badge, nervousness filled them.

After Nico could collect her thoughts, she noticed someone else on the staircase. She wasn't exactly sure if ... she was a boy or a girl. Not that it mattered much. The little dhampir blinked and looked over at the other person.

Pip peeked from behind the red strains of hair, that draped over Nico's shoulder like a small waterfall. Wiggling its nose, he took in the other persons scent.

As they pointed out she wouldn't be able to reach the Great Hall for the moment, the redhead looked up as the stairs had gotten longer. 'Darn..' She muttered. 'The next two hours?...' She sighed and gently rubbed her head. After this long walk from down in the Slytherin basement, the dhampir grew a certain appetite.

Nico sighed and looked down at her Puff, curled up on her shoulder. 'Sorry, Pip. We'll have to wait... or we'll have to take a long detour.'

Eyeing the Gryffindor once more, Nico could tell that they were acting ... abit on edge. As the redhead herself suffered from social anxiety, these signs she could read in their body language were quite clear. She smiled warmly. 'Thank you for explaining. I had no idea they only moved every few hours. I only walked this staircase once before without knowledge of it. Except maybe some rumours.'

Nico was usually the one to get nervous and shy, but as soon as another gets uneasy she can't help but do her best to reassure the other individual. This was one of those cases.

'Ugh... I was looking forward to lunch. Is there... a different way to get there? It's abit embarassing to ask since... students expect Prefects to know their way around the Castle. I.... do not.'
A sheepish smile tugged onto the corners of her lips.

Did she even introduce herself yet? She didn't think so... This entire situation had forgotten her manners. She flashed the Gryffindor another warm smile which was abit shy.

'I'm Nico by the way. Who are you?'

She didn’t know her way... and she was a prefect... that was certainly quite interesting to Jay. But after all, Hogwarts was quite a maze, not even Jay who has wandered around the school like, every day, didn’t really know where some classes were, only the floors they were in. 

“I don’t know any detours... I’ve been trying to save galleons for the Marauders Map at the shop in Diagon Alley, would be helpful in many cases like this...” Jay said, they mentally cursed, they shouldn’t of had spent money on the dungbomb, oh well.

Just as Jay was going to add a comment they saw the little fur ball on her shoulder, it was one of those puffy pet thingys wasn’t it? They were cute but what Jay really wanted was a snake, and if they got both their snake would definitely eat the pigmypuff. The girl then introduced herself, Nico... I haven’t met someone with that name... Jay thought,
”Well then- Jay takes out their hand towards her- I am Jay Victoria, a pureblood and non-binary,” They introduced themselves, Gee I can’t remember the last time I introduced myself like this... And yes, it had been quite some time since they have introduced themself in a slightly snobbish manner, mentioning their blood type made them feel more comfortable and somewhat important. Hopefully Nico won’t leave them hanging, that happened once to them, it didn’t go well. It seemed like perhaps Nico didn’t exactly know about Jays ways-
“They/them pronouns just incase ya didn’t know heh heh...” They quickly added.

Nico frowned a little sad. No detours. Now what. She was hungry. 'Marauders map... I think I have one of those. I'm not entirely sure how to use them.' Letting out a sigh of embarassment, she rest her hand on her elbow. 'And well... Since I don't know how to use it.. I left it at my dorm. Which is... all the way down in the Slytherin basements.' Just the thought of the long staircase up made her knees quiver.

They introduced themselves as Jay. Jay Victoria. 'What a nice name. Pleasure to meet you.' They even offered their hand to shake. With another shy smile, Nico gently tilted her head as she tried to shake the Gryffindors hand as good as she could. They would've felt that her hands are exceptionally warm for someone with a skin as light as hers. Ususally people'd expect her fingers and palms to feel cold.

It was one of her, rather surprising traits.

'A pure-blood...' Nico only met a handful of pure-bloods. There was one memorable time where she showed a Pure-Blood prefect what water toys were... It was rather sad to see. Was Jay just like her?

And non-binary? Nico had heard of this term before. It was rather new. Back at home where they had a computer she once ended up on this site that explained these... genders... or something like that. Now which one was non-binary again? 'Non-binary? I've heard of it before but I can't quite remember what that meant. S-Sorry, maybe you would like to explain it to me.. ? If I had a computer I might've been able to check... But Hogwarts sadly doesn't work that way.'

This time for sure, she'd certainly remember it. If more students like them would be at this school, it would be nice to know. If her colleagues didn't know, it would be valuable information.

'Oh! And this is Pip.' The purple ball knew that was his queue. The dhampir felt comfortable enough to show off her pet, even though they just met. Pip ran up Nico's arm as her hand stayed at the same height of Jays shoulders. Before the Gryffindor could react, the fluffball ran circles around their neck. 'Seems like he kinda likes you. Doesn't happen that often.' She let out a soft chuckle, watching the Pygmy Puff fool around.

Soon, the excitement of the ball came to and end as he kindly gave Jays cheek a gently rub. Quick and elegant, the Pygmy hopped back to Nico to hide in her hair once more. 'He has... some weird sides too but... You learn to love them. Do... you have a pet?'

It wouldn't hurt to ask. Since she was kind of stuck here anyway. Jay seemed kind and kinda... awkward so far. But Nico didn't mind. Meeting new people at quiet places was pleasant.

“Oh, yikes... “ they said when she mentioned that she didn’t know how to use the marauders map, Jay themself wasn’t even sure,
”I think you say something along the lines of, ‘I am up to no good’ or something like that? I remember seeing a group of older students using it in the Griffindor common room,” and that was last year and Jay was talking to someone at the time so it was probably not the right wording, the first time they saw the map was a year before getting the letter to Hogwarts, they grabbed paper and opened it up, it was completely blank, but then someone who claimed to be from Hogwarts explained to them what it was.... As Jay shook her hand they were surprised by her warmth, compared to theirs- cold as their soul.

”Non-binary pretty much means I don’t exactly identify as either a guy or a girl... So instead of using he or she I use them pronouns. People say it’s confusing and weird, so I get it if you think I’m weird for that, ” Jay said, normally they’d roll their eyes in annoyance and say something simple but this was different for some reason. 
“Ah!” They helped in surprise right as they were going to comment something, the fluff ball suddenly ran circles around their neck and went back to her. Jay had never even held a pigmy puff, and now they could confirm that pigmy puffs are for sure suuuper soft.

”I sadly don’t have any pets... there’s a bunch of magical animals that sometimes visit my manor but really, there’s only one animal resident- and that is a really old owl,” Jay said, when they said visit they mean wizards going there with their suitcases and illegally selling dragon eggs, baby animals like threstals, and they also bring animals to kill them and sell their meat and bones. Jay had never gone to that section of the manor since it was in the basements, but they’ve heard plenty of wizards and witches talk about it...

”Oh right- how long have you been using muggle-tech?” Jay asked, it probably sounded like a dumb question to her but Jay has never in fact, used a computer, their guardian has been very strict about the rules in the manor, the most muggle-tech thing they've owned was a very cheap flip phone that they bought after stealing muggle money from a muggle corpse when they were nine...

Reducio

By the way at this time Jay was figuring out how to dye their hair the muggle way so their hair is a messy mixture between red and green. Christmas!!! Jay fully dies their hair green about a week before the ball, so yee

Anyways, thought you should know