It was a sunny day. A good day to start a new life. Hogwarts was still far since Lilly and her sister Anna had just gotten on the Hogwarts Express. It was going to be weird, Lilly just knew it. It was one thing to be a little bit strange, like she was, and have time to fit in, and it was another to go to a new school, where no one really knows you, but already know the others for years. Lilly and Anna were transfer students and had until now, attended Dukbarfs, a school of magic in the south of Europe. They had already five years of magical study under their belts which was going to make it even more difficult for them to fit in.
At Dukbarfs, students only started school at thirteen. This was because the headmaster, Colin Coldsore, was very worried about student safety, and frankly a little bit paranoid. Students were only allowed to play Quidditch at the age of sixteen, which was when the headmaster believed they'd be less likely to lose a limb or get smashed against a wall. It had been proven time and time again, that it doesn't matter how old you are... bludgers aren't prejudiced.
So, both Anna and Lilly were going to be two years older than anyone in their grade at Hogwarts. Everyone would still be under aged and they were already using magic outside of school for a full year. Not that they had any advantage in their studies. They were still 6th year students and knew only 5th grade level magic like their new classmates at Hogwarts, except disapparition since they had learned it a year ago already. That wouldn't help them in any way at their new school. You couldn't disapparate anywhere in the grounds of Hogwarts. Lilly had read "Hogwarts: a history" by Bathilda Bagshot.
They were excited too despite everything. Hogwarts was a very interesting place and in the past years, it was constantly in the news. It was inevitable since the three most important and famous wizards of the time had been or were, students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were also excited to live in England again of course. Anna's parents had moved when she was 3 years old.
Anna couldn't stop talking about the four Hogwarts' houses and the headmaster Albus Dumbledore "the greatest wizard who ever lived", and Lilly was continuously daydreaming about meeting "the boy who lived", Harry Potter.
The two girls had always been competitive with each other even if they did get along very well most of the time. They did love each other though, since the first time they met, but that didn't mean they enjoyed it. There had always been a huge amount of competition between them. Lilly was always struggling with the fact that Anna was better than her, and the general population for that matter, at everything. Neither of them ever forgot it.
Anna's parents were very important wizards, that were constantly travelling and establishing magical relations between nations and magical creatures. What that really means is that they were two of the most annoying and self-absorbed people in the world. They had been responsible for so many laws and regulations that it was difficult to count them all. Consequently they were almost never home and when they were, they talked about all the exciting and important things they did when they were away.
Let's be clear though. Not all laws that the Valleys had created were good ones. And just because they established relationships the world over, didn't mean they were good relations at that. In fact, Anna's parents were not exactly nice... or good. In fact, when they were younger, they had joined the ranks of a certain dark wizard. They had been Death Eaters.
They had taken the easier, and most cowardly way out, and had later on denied everything. They had been under the Imperius curse the whole time! If they could have, they would have joined the Order of the Phoenix, and so on. Everyone knew, as did their daughter, that they were still loyal servants. Well... everyone except the Ministry of Magic, that wonderful place filled with such dedicated and smart people. Anna could bet that they wouldn't see a dark wizard even if he was right in front of their noses. Cursing them.
Anna was pretty sure that her parents were helping Lord Voldemort ever since he had come back 2 years ago, and had been very busy recruiting new Death Eaters around the world. She tried to put that out of her mind though. She didn't have the desire or inclination to be a Death Eater, or to support the Dark Lord in any way. Black wasn't her color anyway and she had much more interesting things to occupy her time with, like Quidditch or duelling. She liked to think she wasn't anything like her parents, and that she would one day be better than them by following her own path. She had this dream of joining the ranks of Dumbledore and she could see herself hexing and fending off Death Eaters, turning them into poultry or anphibeans. Sometimes, secretly, she fantasized about hexing her own parents and making them do a chicken dance. She had tried it a year ago when Lucius Malfoy, a friend of her father, had visited them, surely to speak about Death Eater related stuff. Anna had hid in the broom closet and hexed him as he entered the door. It had worked and it had been wonderful to see him lift his arms up and down as if they were wings, but her parents hadn't been very amused. They had lectured her for half-an-hour about her being more mature and acting according to her social standing and whatnot and then they had taken her wand away for a whole week. A week of washing dishes by hand and watching Lilly practice levitation charms on her underwear.
Lilly was very different from Anna. She wasn't as strong as her and didn't have the same drive that made Anna so good at so many things, and liked by so many people at school. Lilly didn't have very high grades even if she did study a lot. The thing was, Lilly wanted to know as much as she could, read as much as she could and practice as many spells as she could, but every time she had a test, she would get so extremely nervous that she would almost always fail. That made her bitter sometimes and she usually lashed out at Anna, because there was no one else she could do it to. It was not very effective though. Anna would simply stare and say nothing until Lilly got frustrated enough and went back to her room to calm herself. Anna would then enter the room, sit next to her on the bed and start making guinea pigs appear from her wand until the room was so full of them that the floor was just a sea of fluffiness. Lilly would then look at them for a while, pick one up, smile back at Anna and make the rest of them disappear.
Guinea pigs were Lilly's favourite animal and she had a huge collection of them in the back yard from all the times she had fought with Anna. Initially Mr and Mrs Valley had killed some of them, because they were so many but Lilly had cast so many protective charms around their pen that they weren't able to even come near it anymore. One time they had disregarded her warnings and had spent two entire days trying to wash off the words "I heart Muggles" from their foreheads. They tried to make her take the spells away but she hadn't. They even used an imperius curse to make her do it but they found that Lilly was very hard to be put under the curse. Later Lilly knew that it was pretty easy for her to resist the curse if she kept thinking about nice things, like for example, her guinea pigs or sugar canes.
There were many strange things about Lilly. Sometimes she walked for miles into the countryside and would only come back the next day, completely refreshed and not at all worried about having been out the entire night. She almost never thought about what she was saying and almost always told the truth. Understandibly that was a big inconvenient both for making friends, and for her guardians. Countless times she blurted out to guests what she had heard Mr and Mrs Valley say about them the day before. Things ranging from: "He's as useless as a blast-ended skrewt" to "She looks like she's been bitten by rabid werewolves." Mr and Mrs Valley tried to keep her out of the room every time they had company.
Sometimes she would bake dozens and dozens of cookies when she was feeling a bit under the weather and she wouldn't eat any of them. She would sometimes read a book and like it so much that she would memorize every single sentence., since she had the tendency to blurt out something inappropriate or uncomfortable. A year ago, she had asked Lucius Malfoy if he was wearing a wig and proceeded to try and touch his hair every time it was within her reach. Anna laughed so hard at this that she had been asked to leave the room along with Lilly. There was nothing wrong with Lilly's head, the Valley's had been to a specialist on mind curses and jinxes. It seemed like it was just the way she was and that was that.
It didn't help that Lilly didn't feel at all like she had a home with the Valleys. Anna was like a sister to her, that much was true, but she would always feel like she had to stand in her shadow. She had everything that Lilly would never admit she craved for: Many friends, boyfriends, social skills, being good at Quidditch and parents. Lilly hoped she had parents, even if they were like the Valleys who only paid attention to Anna to criticize her. Anna's parents had started to simply shake their heads and ignore her. Which was, if she really thought about it, an improvement.
She had been adopted when she was 4 years old and she was told that her mother and father had simply vanished one night, never to return. She sometimes fantasized about them having been sucked into another dimension where there were lots of rainbows and guinea pigs and they couldn't wait to get out of there. She knew it was not true. Either they were dead, or drinking mimosas in Hawai having too much fun to remember about her. The Valleys had told her very little about her parents except that she looked a lot like her mother and apparently was as wrong in the head as her father. They had been strong supporters of He-who-must-not-be-named and had apparently tried to recruit some sphinxes with the result that her father had been hospitalized for 3 weeks. Anna's parents pointed out to her almost weekly that her parents had been pretty useless to the Dark Lord and there was no reason for her to be proud of them, something that made Lilly smile widely since she, like Anna, was not very inclined to help He-who-must-not-be-named anyway.
Anna entered their compartment and sat in front of her completely relaxed. Lilly frowned a little realizing Anna wasn't at all worried about the problem of fitting in at Hogwarts. She didn't even think Anna would want to fit in at all. Standing out was
more her style.
Her clothes were immaculate and bright red, her pose relaxed and her hair was so shiny that Lilly could almost see herself reflected on it. She had probably cast some spell to make it that way, or switched shampoos. Lilly often wondered if she should stop using shampoo that included flobberworm mucus in its ingredients.
"Here," said Anna stretching out her arm and offering Lilly some Bertie Botts flavoured beans "take some, you look like you need cheering up. Sugar is just the thing for that."
Lilly stared at her hand seeing the multi-coloured beans. "That's true, but unfortunately, with my luck, I'll probably choose one that tastes like dirt. No sugar in dirt is there?"
Anna smiled widely. "Oh come one Lilly. Live a little. Take a chance. You might just get lucky. I mean, we're starting a new and exciting chapter in our lives aren't we? What do you think Harry Potter would do for example? Cower at the possibility of a dirt flavoured bean? No! He would eat it and love it."
Lilly reached out and took a red bean from Anna's stretched hand. She looked at it suspiciously, turning it over with her fingers.
"I hope I get to be in Gryffindor." Said Anna staring at the red bean. "Don't you? I mean they are the best apparently... The most brave. I think I'm feeling a bit courageous you know? And it would annoy my parents the most...I'm sure I'll be chosen to be in Gryffi..." She was interrupted by Lilly spitting what was left of the red bean into a handkerchief.
"What was it?" she asked not able to stop herself from smirking.
"Feet" Lilly answered.
Someone opened the door and peered in. He had blond hair and grey eyes. He stared for a moment at the two of them and then his gaze was fixed on Lilly. She recognized him. It was Draco Malfoy. The two of them were related, second cousins if she was correct. Anna was smiling widely at Draco now and Lilly knew she was thinking that he was rather handsome. She thought that he was handsome too if a little bit too pale and sickly. She didn't like that look at all. Usually.
"Well well" he said as he sat down next to Lilly swishing the back of his robe to the side like a cape " If it isn't Lillian Atwood. Long time no see. You look... less demented than the last time we met."
Lilly pressed herself closer to the window and remembered that the last time they met she had been trying to make a polyjuice potion that hadn't turned out so great. It exploded and left her with burnt hair and covered is ash. Unfrotunately it hadn't occurred to her to wash up before she went out of her room to meet Narcissa Malfoy and her son.
"You look different Draco." Anna intervened "Last time we saw each other you were less... more... different." She smiled
He looked at her and Lilly could see the cogwheels inside his head turning. Then a flash of recognition.
" Anna Valley. I didn't recognize you." He said standing up and sitting down next to Anna, much to the relief of Lilly. "You too look... different. Well, much better looking than I remembered. Probably because the last time I saw you, you were trying to throw me over a fence with a bad levitation spell. I almost lost a finger. It's like a thing with you two isn't it?"
"Accidents happen when people are having fun" Anna said not losing any of her composure. "But that's all in the past Draco. I'm sure I wouldn't try and throw you over a fence now. And even if I did, at least the spell would work."
Lilly noticed that Draco wasn't completely won over by Anna's charms but he was almost there. Unfortunately for Anna he seemed to have a lot on his mind at that moment. He kept staring outside the window looking dazed.
As Lilly puzzled trying to understand how Anna could make friends, and admirers so easily, why on earth couldn't she do the same, and what could possibly be upsetting Draco so much, someone else walked into their compartment. It was a girl with bushy brown hair. She had a prefect badge, and looked angry.
"Malfoy! What are you doing in here? You're supposed to be changing into your robes. We're almost at Hogwarts"
Draco stood up in a defiant stance. "And what's it to you you filthy little mudblood? Do you think I have time to worry myself about these things? I have much more important things to think about right n..." He collapsed to the floor completely rigid. Anna stared at the prefect certain that she had cursed Draco but the girl was staring at Draco's stiff body with as much amazement as she.
Lilly had gotten up right when Draco had called the girl a mudblood. She hated the word. Not that she had been raised not to like it. It was used rather a lot in the Valley household. Unfortunately for Draco, Lilly liked to read. A lot. And she read a lot of things written by a certain wizard called Albus Dumbledore. Let's just say that she had learned to accept his views on matters such as this one. She had quickly raised her wand and in a flash Draco was lying on the floor petrified. It had been instinctive and she was amazed it had worked so well. Perhaps it had because she hadn't thought about it too much.
Anna didn't look at all surprised now that she knew Lilly had been the one to do it and chuckled just a little bit. She knew her friend could do any spell perfectly well if she didn't have an audience, or was very angry.
The prefect girl however was not very amused.
"What do you think you're doing?" she shouted at Lilly "You just petrified someone. Out of school. Without a teacher present. That is so wrong in so many ways. Are you insane?"
"Hey. She was standing up for you, and don't worry alright? We can do magic as much as we want to. We're not underage." Anna told her.
Someone else got into the room. It was getting pretty crowded now.
"What happened Hermione?" asked a very tall red headed boy holding a packet of marshmallows. "Is that? Is that Malfoy on the floor?" he said. Then he burst out laughing and spilled almost all the marshmallows on the floor.
"Ron! It's not funny." Hermione said putting her arms on her hips "We have to fix it before anyone sees it. I don't want to be involved in something like this!"
"Oh C'mon Hermione. You're one to talk. You petrified someone in our first year at Hogwarts and he was your friend. I don't see anything wrong with petrifying Malfoy if you ask me..."
"Well I wasn't a prefect then was I? It was a totally different situation! I have certain responsibilities now. I have to be a role-model." Hermione said as she flicked her wand and Draco started to move again. He stood up as quickly as he could, his robes all tangled up. He turned to Lilly with a hateful look on his face and Lilly expected him to hex her right then and there. Surprisingly he didn't. He turned around, bumped violently into Ron and just before exiting turned back.
"I hope to see you back at the castle Anna. Slytherin will welcome you with open arms." He then stared straight at Lilly and added "Next time I see you, you'll be the one rolling around on the floor. I promise you that!"
The four people left all stared at each other, until Anna broke the silence by laughing pretty loudly.
"I was sure he was going to murder you." She told Lilly "He looked like he wanted to anyway."
"Yeah. Maybe I shouldn't have petrified him." Lilly said sitting down again "But he really diserved it the little weasel."
"No, you shouldn't have and you'll soon get used to him saying things like that. I'm used to it." Hermione said turning to exit the room. "You're off to a really bad start of your school year you know?" Then she changed her mind and turned back around "What did he mean he hopes you'll be sorted into Slytherin? Aren't you already sorted?"
"That's what you took from that?Not that he's going to attack her?." Anna asked pointing at Lilly. "You really need to sort out your priorities."
"That's what I've been saying for years." Ron added. "But I'm curious too, you're not first years... I mean..." Ron looked Anna and Lilly over from head to toe "You're not 11."
"We're 18 actually. We're going for our fifth year at Hogwarts." Anna said smiling at Ron and Hermione's confused faces.
"We're transfer students from Dukbarfs." Lilly said. "It's in the South of Europe. It's really hard to go there though..."
"Duk what?" Ron asked
"Ah I understand now." Hermione said nodding her head slightly
"What? What do you understand? What am I missing?" asked Ron
"I'll tell you when we get to Hogwarts." She said exiting the room with Ron. "We have to find Harry."
When they were gone Anna turned to Lilly.
"That was a bit unnecessary... but still, it was pretty funny."
"No it wasn't. I shouldn't have hexed him in front of a prefect. I'm probably getting detention now." Lilly said
"No you're not. Didn't you hear their names? Ron and Hermione? And they said they needed to find Harry?" Anna was staring intently at Lilly
"They were Harry Potter's friends." She exclaimed "The ones who were with him in the Ministry last year. Of course."
"And I'm sure that Harry Potter's friends aren't going to make you go to detention... They're supposed to be really nice." Anna added
"She didn't seem so nice." Lilly said "It was like she was ready to pounce on me like a lioness for breaking the rules."
They only had time to change into their school uniforms when the train stopped. They had arrived.
"I'll be right there." Lilly said as Anna left the train "I forgot Mr. Sniffles back there."
She walked quickly back to her train compartment, looked for her pet rat and found it cowering in the corner. When she exited she was almost run over by Draco.
"What's the hurry Draco? I don't think the train's leaving so fast is it?" she said not very sure that he wouldn't just hex her right away as he had promised.
Draco seemed confused by seeing her there.
"No... I don't know..." he said as he kept walking away from her "You should leave quickly anyway. Wouldn't want to go back home so quickly if I were you."
He looked really nervous but at the same time Lilly thought she could see he was a bit triumphant. What could it be?
At that moment Mr. Sniffles decided that he did want to go home and so, jumped from her hand and ran away towards the back of the train. She ran after him and just as she was turning a corner she saw it going inside a compartment that was not the one they had been travelling in. When she opened the door, a strange sight awaited her. Mr. Sniffles was standing in mid-air as if he was on top of something invisible. Lilly bent down and reached towards her rat, it jumped again and instead of just grabbing air, she found herself grabbing something soft like a fabric. She yanked it. Harry Potter was lying on the floor completely immobile with his shirt pulled up to his neck. She had grabbed it along with the fabric. After a few moments of staring at him and thinking that he must be in such a good shape from playing Quidditch and fighting dark wizards, Lilly pulled out her wand and with a flash of red light he was no longer petrified.
"Thanks." He muttered as he stood up, pulled his shirt down and looked at her. "I'm sorry, I don't think I know you?"
"Why were you petrified under this invisibility cloak?" she asked not answering his question.
"Well, it's a long story and I'm sure you don't want to hear it..." he said leaning against the compartment door "You see, I was at diagon-alley the ther day and saw Draco doing something pretty suspicious with his mother and then I followed him and then I thought I had to find out what he was doing and then here on the train..."
"Your nose is bleeding." She interrupted as she reached out and touched it "It's a little crooked too."
"Yeah." He said after putting his finger on his nose and feeling it. "I wish Hermione was here to fix it, she's pretty good at spells. Not that I need her to help me every time but she likes to feel needed you know?"
"Ah don't worry... Here." She flicked her wand and his nose was fixed. Another flicker and there was no more blood.
"Thanks... Again. I still don't know your name though." He said "I'm Harry Potter."
"Yeah I noticed."
"The scar right?" he asked smiling and putting his finger on the scar on his forehead.
"No, the glasses." She stated "No one wears glasses like yours."
"Yeah, they're pretty unique. I thought about changing them but then I thought, hey I'm Harry Potter maybe I'll start a new trend." He said as they started walking to the exit.
"Have you?" she asked.
"Not yet, but I'm telling you it's gonna be this huge thing."
Lilly was a bit worried at how Harry seemed to be a bit too full of himself, but then she remembered that he was Harry Potter, so he was allowed. He was also very attractive so she decided to forget about it entirely. They reached the carriages that would take them to Hogwarts and they said goodbye and he darted off to the front of the line. Lilly couldn't be more happy if she had met Merlin himself and he had offered her a talking guinea pig.
Hogwarts was as stunning to look at as they had thought it was going to be. The thigh towers were incredible and the light coming from the windows made both of them feel calm and somehow safe. It was like if Hogwarts was welcoming them, saving them from the darkness outside, and especially from the cold that was threatening to turn them into icicles.
Anna was distracted from that sight by a blonde girl who was staring intently at her. It wouldn't be a problem, but the girl was wearing raddish shaped earrings. She looked rather insane and being stared at by an insane person is not the greatest feeling in the world even if you are used to it like Anna was.
"Hello." The blonde girl said with a very gentle and rather harmonious voice "My name is Luna Lovegood. What's yours?"
Anna shook the girl's hand very weakly.
"I'm Anna Valley. This is Lilly Atwood."
Luna looked at Lilly and smiled slightly.
"Is this your first time at Hogwarts then?" she asked turning back to Anna
"Yes. But how did you know that?"
"Your robes don't have any house symbol and you look like you're seeing Hogwarts for the first time" she looked at the castle dreamily "I remember that look on my face when I saw the castle for the first time too. I had a mirror."
"It's very beautiful." Said Lilly "I wonder what the ceiling of the great Hall will look like tonight... I do hope it's the traditional starry sky enchantment like it said in Hogwarts: a history."
Luna simply smiled, picked up what looked like a newspaper from her handbag and started reading it. Anna read the title: The Quibbler. She had heard of the Quibbler before but had never actually read it. The rumour was that it was full of nonsense. She was just about to whisper that to Lilly when she asked Luna if she had another copy she could read.
The Great Hall was packed. Lilly started to get that weird feeling she always had when she felt pressured, and was itching all over. Everyone was staring at them. It didn't help at all that they were entering the hall with all the eleven year olds. She took a glance at Anna and knew instantly that she was actually enjoying the attention. She was smiling widely and standing in a very relaxed manner. They were told to approach the end of the Great Hall where an old hat was sitting on top of a long table that ran horizontally along the room. Sitting along the table were, from what they could gather, the teachers of Hogwarts. There was a very short woman dressed in green and a pointy hat talking to a very large and tall man with an enormous and shaggy beard. Lilly knew that was Rubeus Hagrid, the groundskeeper. He looked enormous even sitting down.
An extremely short man was swishing his wand about trying to illustrate something to another teacher on his right. On the right of the table was a man that seemed to be very bored by everything that was happening. He had long black hair down to his shoulders and was dressed in black robes and wearing gloves. She thought she saw him shoot a glance in her direction and raise an eyebrow but when she looked again he was looking as bored as before. A very fat man with what seemed a merry disposition was trying to talk to him but was being unsuccessful. Right in the middle of the table was a man that both Anna and Lilly were the most excited to see. He had a long and flowy silver beard and long silver hair. He was wearing a pointy hat and was smiling very widely at everyone. Anna smiled back, but Lilly noticed his hand. It was all shrivelled and black. It sort of looked like the dead guinea pigs she had found after Mr and Mrs Valley had their way with them, or maybe even licorice, something that made her shrink back in disgust. She hated licorice. Albus Dumbledore, for that was indeed him, noticed her flinching and staring at his hand and after looking at her with kind eyes over his half-moon spectacles he hid his hand inside his sleeve. Lilly noticed and tried to mouth to him that she wasn't disgusted at him but at the thought of licorice.. Unfortunately that only resulted in the dark-haired man on the right of the table starting to stare at her like she was insane so she decided to stop before she got detention. Dumbledore didn't seem to be offended though and was still smiling at her when an old witch wearing a very tall and pointy hat and wearing purple from head to toe, stepped forwards and announced that the sorting was going to start. Then, the hat that had been sitting quietly on the long table started to move and sing.
It was a song about people getting together, united and fighting, against a common enemy, no matter who they were or what house they were in. Anna noticed that the Slytherins snickered at this. They were obviously not eager to fight alongside any of the other houses. She thought they were especially not eager to fight against the enemy the sorting hat was talking about.
They were then called one by one by the witch in the purple robes. All the eleven year olds seemed a little bit scared and a lot excited. Being sorted was a big deal for them and so it was for Anna and Lilly. They had high expectations and wanted to be placed in Gryffindor most of all. Lilly was sure that Anna would get her wish fulfilled anyway, unless the hat remembered having placed both her parents in Slytherin. She was also sure that she wasn't going to Gryffindor even if she wanted it so much. She never had any luck anyway and didn't consider herself courageous and strong like she knew the Gryffindors were supposed to be. She wasn't power hungry either or anything like that and her parents, even though they had been Slytherins themselves, were supposedly not very good ones at all. She couldn't be a Ravenclaw. Not that she wasn't smart deep down or good at being a witch, but she would never have high grades or be successful like the Ravenclaws were supposed to be. All that remained was to be sorted into Hufflepuff. Whatever a Hufflepuff was, Lilly was not exactly thrilled to be one of them.
"Anna Valley"
She stepped forward confidently as everyone looked at her puzzled as to why someone her age was being sorted, and sat on the chair being offered to her. The hat was placed on her head.
"Ah, a Valley. I haven't seen one of you for a long time" the hat whispered to Anna "Both Slytherins your parents aren't they? And a very powerful family as well I see. You know where I should put you don't you? It would be rather perfect for you wouldn't it?"
"It would." She said "If it wasn't a bit of an inconvenience, hat. I would very much like to annoy my parents. I'm sure you understand. And you seem like someone who likes to have a little fun... why not give a rebellious girl a hand?"
The hat laughed.
"Yes... I do enjoy annoying people a bit. And I can't say I haven't changed my mind before." it said "Very well then. GRYFFINDOR!" he shouted.
There was applause and cheering as she strutted along to the Gryffindor table. Two red headed boys who seemed to be twins, called to her and she sat in the middle of the two. She was positively beaming until she shot a glance at Lilly and caught her worried gaze. She quickly gave her the thumbs up and mouthed "Don't worry.".
"Lillian Atwood!"
She WAS worried. She wished so much to be placed in Gryffindor. What fun she could have there. Harry Potter was there too. She didn't want to be a Hufflepuff, upstaged and bested once again by Anna, but most importantly, she didn't want to be alone in a new place with no one she knew. She was perfectly aware that she had a tendency to do and say strange things that made people think she was crazy, but Anna usually helped to ease things a bit by distracting them.
She walked a little clumsily to the chair. She sat down and the hat was placed on her head. It said nothing for what seemed like an eternity. Finally it spoke.
"Hufflepuff hey?" it said "Is that where you think you belong?"
"Yes... I do."
"Hummm. As much as I would like to send you there to find out for me what a Hufflepuff is anyway and think you probably are an excellent finder, I think you belong somewhere else. Somewhere that will help you be all that you can be perhaps? A place that will help you find what you're looking for I think." It said
"Let it be Gryffindor please... let it be Gryffindor... " she muttered under her breath.
The hat smiled.
"SLYTHERIN!"
There were cheers from the Slytherin table as a somewhat dazed and dumbfounded Lilly walked to their table. She shot a glance towards Anna who seemed to be in the process of choking on a pumpkin pastry, and was being patted on the back by one of the twins.
She spotted Draco Malfoy who was staring straight down at his empty plate, and decided to sit as far away from him as possible. A tall girl with dark brown hair and a sharp look on her face scooted over to let her sit. As she looked back at the Gryffindor table, she saw that Anna had regained her composure and was now talking, if rather absent-mindedly to one of the twins. Three chairs on the right, Harry Potter was in deep conversation with his two best friends. He noticed her staring at him and raised his head. He smiled back at her and seemed to not be harbouring any ill feelings towards her just because she was in Slytherin now. Perhaps not everything was going to work out wrong.