Meeting new people
Nick met other first years at around this time that were also exploring the castle like , Terry Boot , both of the Patil twins Padma and Parvati who had somehow got put in separate houses and even Daphne Greengrass. The last of which tried ignore his existence as she passed him in the hallway , but Nick wouldn't be himself if he didn't try and get her attention. "Your hair looks nice. What soap do you use?" he asked while acting innocent. The cold brunette almost tripped from the shock that came from someone in Gryffindor talking to her who was in Slytherin.-
She was stuck between a rock and a hard place as she was both a pureblood heiress from one of the sacred twenty eight and a member of Slytherin house. The real problem came in the form of her own personal beliefs that said there was nothing wrong with talking to a muggleborn like Nick since blood superiority was nonsense. Her best friend was a halfblooded witch after all and was just as talented as most other purebloods she had met. "Horsetail , nettle and lavender oil." she mumbled awkwardly before rushing away in embarrassment.-
Nick grinned widely at the interaction taking it as a personal victory while also mentally taking note of the girls answer since she really did have some nice looking hair. Smooth and silky dark brown with a nice reflectiveness to it. An odd thing to notice perhaps but Nick was a ring smith which required an extreme level of attention to detail. The Patil twins were far more interested in the school itself than their surrounds so he left them be. Terry Boot however was an oddball who actually sought Nick out once he saw him excitedly.-
"That's a cool ring you've got there mate! Whats it do?" The brown haired boy asked while looking at Greed curiously. Nick was a bit surprised that the boy had noticed the ring as he was the only student besides the twins who seemed to. "It's a storage ring that turns into what someone is most afraid of and attacks them if they try to steal it." Nick explained honestly since there was no reason to hide it since it would be exposed eventually anyways. Terry smiled happily "Cool! My da's an enchanter so I was raised amongst enchanted items my whole life and I've never seen one like that ring." He explained eagerly.
"Terry Boot by the way!" He held out his hand with a grin. Nick shook the offered hand with a grin of his own "Nicholas Iron. I got the ring over the summer and it's one of my favorite enchantments so far." he said proudly. "Clearly the person who made it took inspiration from boggarts when they did. Wouldn't doubt if it was goblin made honestly , vicious little buggers that they are." Terry said while admiring the ever shifting ring. Nick chuckled awkwardly at this since he was the one who made it.-
"Ah! I almost forgot to catch up with Anthony , sorry to leave like this nick!" Terry said suddenly as he remembered what he was doing before he saw Nick and left quickly heading towards the direction of the library. 'He seems interesting enough.' Nick thought with a chuckle before he started to walk again. The landscape outside the windows was very picturesque as the sun reflected off the black lake and the forbidden forest stood ominously in the distance past the quidditch pitch. Nick found himself alone eventually and after double checking that he truly was he closed his eyes and extended his magical senses.
Immediately he was overwhelmed as he felt a frankly absurd amount of magic around him including a subtle bit of magic stuck to his clothes. Nick grit his teeth and tried to ignore the rest of the magic to focus on the charm attached to his robes to get a feel for it's purpose. He felt that it wasn't cast with malicious intent in mind but the spell itself was clearly a tracking one. Nick wasn't sure if all students had this on their clothes but he could think of who might be behind it.-
The reason Nick hadn't been using the frankly crazy sensitivity to magic he had in the form of active sensing had to do with the backlash he got for doing so after getting off the train. The sheer amount of ambient magic around him caused his nose to start to bleed when he went to scan his surroundings as he was used to doing at the orphanage. He could tell that it would take awhile for his senses to adapt to this sudden spike in magic and even this current use of them had his nose dripping red.
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