I stand here, feeling shocked. How could this be happening? The cheers from the Gryffindor table seem deafened. I slowly turn me head away from the stool Lily just bounced off of and find her sitting a few seats away from Black. I catch her eye after a few moments and she gives me a sad smile. I keep watching her after her eyes leave mine. She's talking to a brunette now, trying to look animated, but she glances back at me a few times. I know she wants me to join her. Those emerald eyes beg me to forsake my aspiration for Slytherin. But then I see Potter slide into the seat next to Black and I know I can't let the hat put me with them. I had already accepted I might end up in a house with Black. After all, his family is famous for their blood purity and Slytherin heritage. I had even thought we might end up friends when I heard last summer that the oldest Black son would be in my year at Hogwarts. That prospect has definitely been blown out of the water. But standing here and seeing my Lily at the Gryffindor table made me think that perhaps I could stand him with her by side if it was just him… but not him and Potter together. Something tells me that sharing a dorm and a common room and all my classes with those two would be intolerable.

I gulp and turn my head from staring at Lily's beautiful red hair when I hear the stern lady call me up. I take a deep breath and close my eyes as I sit down on the stool. I open them just in time to find Lily watching me before I let the hat fall of my eyes.

"Dear dear," I hear a voice in my head say, "Contemplating whether to follows Miss Evans or your dreams, are you?"

I start. I hadn't expected to converse with the hat that would seal my fate. "How do you know that?" I respond in my thoughts, feeling slightly violated. Who gave this enchanted hat the right to know my deepest thoughts and desires?

"I see you aren't pleased with me. But let me ask you this: how should I know where to put you if I don't know how you think?"

"I suppose you're right," I think grudgingly after a moment. I still don't like the idea of a hat peering into my head. What if it told someone?

"No worries, your secrets are safe with me," I hear, 'Now, let me think… where should I put you?"

"Slytherin," I think immediately.

"But why? You might fit some of the characteristics, but what about Ravenclaw? I can see you're intelligent… No? What about Gryffindor, where your friend Miss Evans sits?"

"Gryffindor is filled with idiots like Potter and Black. I can't go there," I think, "No matter how much I want Lily."

"But why not? I sense great bravery lurking within you."

"I don't care," I think stubbornly.

That hat sounds almost regretfully as it speaks this time, "If you insist…. better be SLYTHERIN!"

I smile a little as I lift that hat off my head, place it on the stool, and hurry towards the Slytherin table where I hear whoops and hollers coming from. As I sit down, I glance over at Lily. She's looking at me sadly. "Friends forever?" I mouth, gazing at her hopefully.

"Always," I see her mouth back.

A/N: Wow… I tend to write in third person past tense, but here I am, writing in first person present! I hope you enjoyed this little one–shot of mine, and if you did, don't forget to review it! (: