A pecking is heard at the window. Harry Potter looks up from where he is seated in the kitchen, reading the latest report from the Auror department's youngest member. He spots the tawny owl perched on the windowsill, the owl that his daughter had picked out only last week. Harry smiles, knowing that the letter could only be bringing news of one thing.

Removing the parchment from the owl's leg, he unravels it to see his daughter's large, somewhat messy handwriting proclaiming one word: "Slytherin!"

Harry chuckles, unsurprised at the house his daughter was sorted into the previous day. His wife had been convinced that Lily was a Gryffindor like her eldest brother, but Harry had harbored a suspicion that his youngest's ambition to be a great witch would place her in Slytherin. And he was perfectly fine with that. After all, hadn't he named one of her brothers after a Slytherin headmaster?

Harry hears a faint popping noise from down the hall. His wife must have just arrived home from her office at the Daily Prophet. She had been working late since seeing her children off on the train, as she had come home early the last week of their summer holiday to spend some time with her family before the school year started. In fact, Ginny had been the one most apprehensive about sending their youngest to Hogwarts; Lily had been excited and not the least bit nervous about leaving her home for school.

"Did she write?" Harry hears Ginny's excited voice as she walks down the hall. He smiles at her when she comes into sight.

"Yes, and I was right," he tells her with a laugh. Ginny shakes her head good-naturedly.

"James won't be happy about that," she notes, setting her bag down on the countertop. "I almost think that he was expecting her to follow him into Gryffindor, but I suppose it wasn't meant to be."

"It won't help their sibling rivalry, that's certain," Harry says, leaning against the countertop

"Well, now we've got four in four different houses," Ginny surmises. She sits down on the couch.

Harry furrows his brow for a moment, but then realizes what his wife meant.

"James in Gryffindor, Al in Ravenclaw, and Teddy in Hufflepuff," he summarizes, joining Ginny on the couch.

"And our Lily in Slytherin," Ginny finished.

"Let's hope that there's not too much gossip about a Potter in Slytherin. Lily will have to deal with enough of that in school."

"I'll put in a word at the office about how no one is to write about her sorting," Ginny assures him. "I think they'll listen after the incident with Rita Skeeter at the World Cup a few years ago."

Her husband grins. "I think a reference to that will shut the gossip columnists up, yeah."

"Isn't funny?" Ginny asks. "I mean, I come from a family where my parents and brothers and I were all Gryffindors, and the only in-laws who aren't Gryffindors are Fleur and Audrey."

"I think they get a free pass, since Beauxbatons doesn't have houses and neither did Audrey's muggle school."

"Yeah, but still," Ginny counters. "You, Hermione and Angelina are all Gryffindors, but the only grandchildren to be Gryffindors are James and Roxanne."

"Ron sent a letter a few hours ago," Harry adds. "Hugo's a Gryffindor, too."

"My brother must be so proud to have Gryffindor child. I could tell that he was crossing his fingers for Hugo after Rose got into Hufflepuff."

"Dominique'll be happy to have a Slytherin cousin. Maybe she'll take Lily under her wing when they're in the common room. Ward off any bullies who'll taunt her for being a Potter."

"I'm not so sure that she'll need anyone to stand up for her," Ginny muses. "I think the bigger concern will be making sure that Lily doesn't hex anyone who tries to make fun of her."

"She's a lot like you in that way," Harry jokes. "I'm not looking forward to the day when she learns the Bat-Bogey hex. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of hers, or yours for that matter."

Ginny playfully shoves his arm. "I haven't hexed anyone in a while. Not since…" she trails off.

"Not since the Rita Skeeter incident," Harry finishes for her. They both laugh.

Looking over his shoulder, Harry sees Lily's tawny owl still sitting on the windowsill, looking cross at having to wait so long for a response to take back to Hogwarts.

"We should write back to Lily," Harry says, getting up to find a quill and some parchment.

"What are you going to say?" Ginny asks.

"That we're proud of her, and that Slytherin House has gained an excellent student," he responds, grabbing an eagle feather quill and half-empty bottle of forest green ink.

"I'm going to write to James and Albus, too," Ginny tells him, going off to find herself her own parchment. "I need to send James his transfiguration book anyway, I noticed last night that he had left it here. But I want them both to know that we're proud of the wizards they're becoming, no matter what house they're in."

"Teddy's coming over to dinner tomorrow, and I suppose we can remind him just how proud we are of him when we bring up where Lily was sorted," Harry tells her, pausing as he lifts his quill up, unsure of how exactly word his letter.

"Let's hope that he's not too embarrassed when we bring it up. You know how he gets, being a modest Hufflepuff," Ginny says. "Then again, he always liked being in Hufflepuff. I think he always saw it as a connection to his mum."

Harry nods, and continues looking at the parchment. He finally begins to scrawl out a message to Lily, hoping that he conveys the happiness he feels for her.

Dear Lily,

Mum and I just got your message. We heard that you're in Slytherin! And we couldn't be prouder. Don't tell your brothers, but Mum and I have tried to predict each of your sortings before you got to Hogwarts. And while we both knew without a doubt that Teddy was Hufflepuff and James was a Gryffindor, your mother and I were both unsure about Albus. My money was on Hufflepuff, if I had to choose. Mum had chosen right with Ravenclaw. And with you, we were split again. Mum was convinced you'd be a Gryffindor, but I suppose I knew better. But not that house sortings really matter- what matters is that you learn to become a great witch. Use the ambition the sorting hat and I know you have to your advantage. And don't duel your brother over a house rivalry with Gryffindor! You don't want to lose any points for your new house, do you?

Lots of Love,

Dad

I hope you enjoyed this story! I've had this idea floating around in my head so long, that Harry's four kids were in four houses. And the reason I put Lily in Slytherin and not Albus is because he seemed to really not want to be in Slytherin, and we didn't even see any of that house's traits in him (then again, the epilogue was only 7 pages). From the little that we see Lily, she was extremely eager to go to Hogwarts, so I pegged her as ambitious.