Ever since Flitwick had delivered Naomi's invitation to Hogwarts the family was a royal mess. Mom tried to organise everything herself, dad felt guilty about never realising his daughter was a witch and Lucas was busy hiding how jealous he was of his little sister. It was the day before school would start and they had just returned from Diagon Alley. Naomi loved her family a lot, but it wouldn't hurt if they were a little more organised. She'd even asked them to let her go by herself, but mom didn't think it was safe.
The trip left Naomi dazed, still not believing everything fully she had entered what felt like a magic theme park. And she din't like rollercoasters. She'd asked a nice boy for directions while her family was staring into space, although she was just as amazed as they were. Mom had told her to get a wand from the best, since he still didn't ask too much and buying every book secondhand would make up for it. They'd gooten everything, and on the way back mom had grabbed Naomi's 'new' robes and told her she'd take them in to fit properly. Mom was obsessing a lot, but Naomi appreciated the effort.
Once she was back in her room Naomi packed all they had bought (thank goodness for Hogwarts' financial support) except for some books about wizard society into a large clunky bag that would have been difficult to close if she had not been the type to travel light. She grabbed one of the books for History of magic and started her efforts to catch up on all she had missed.
The next morning she woke up feeling too enthusiastic to be tired. She'd spent most of the night reading and had eventually decided to try six of the more basic spells as well, including one that made her books look newer, because to be honest she never saw pride in appearances as a bad thing. When she ate her breakfast she didn't say a word and when she said goodbye to her brother and father she only hugged them quietly. Naomi and mom took a bus to King's Cross and mom asked her if she should come to the platform with her. Naomi declined, said goodbye and walked to the wall Flitwick had told her about. She hesitated. Somehow this could still be a cruel joke, or a dream. If she could actually walk through that wall everything would be real. She knew dreams usually ended when you actually hit the ground, so would a wall be any different?
When she slowly walked to and then through the wall she at once felt reassured and became more nervous. Composing herself she stepped into the crowd. Of all these people only a few were dressed normally, the rest all wore robes in varying shapes and colours. She didn't want to look too out of place so she quickly walked over to the train. She was glad they had arrived early and sat down somewhere alone near the middle of the train. She put an open book on her lap and began observing wizards in their natural habitat. She noticed a nice boy who had helped her find Olivander's wand store. Looking out of the window she had more and more questions about wizard society. Everything looked so old-fashioned she wondered if they even used electricity. And judging by the size of one of the families even that was like the middle ages, where you kept having more kids just because half would die of the plague. The boy from before entered the train compartment. "Hi again." He looked more nervous than she was. "Hi, thanks for helping me out in Diagon Alley, I don't think I've introduced myself, I'm Naomi." "I'm Neville." the boy said, still shaking a bit.
After a while they were chatting comfortably. The train was moving and the occasional shriek was heard from the next compartment. "So what house do you think you'll be sorted in?" Neville asked. "Well, I've read about it a bit, and I'll probably be put in Ravenclaw," Naomi sighed. "I don't think I would pit in with Gryffindor or Hufflepuf from what I've read." Neville showed her a sad smile. "I just hope they put me in a house with nice people. I'm not exactly the popular type. People often like to pick on me. Animals never do though." He took a toad out of the pocket of his jacket. "This is Trevor." Just then they heard people entering the compartment.
"Look, we've got some first years," one of two identical redheads said. "Lee, want to show them what you brought?" the second chimed in. A boy with dreadlocks holding a box sat in front of them, smiled broadly and took off the lid to reveal a gigantic tarantula. Neville gasped and let go of Trevor, who quickly ran as far away as possible. Naomi was startled, but not scared. "Trevor!" she heard, and before she knew it Neville was gone and one of the redheads took his seat, effectively blocking Naomi from following him. "Well done, you managed to scare a toad." The boys looked surprised. "You know, we only came here cause our former audience got bored, but you could at least have responded in some way. Or did you pee your pants without us noticing?" Naomi smirked at that. "Maybe when you deserve one. Now would you leave me so I can change, or are you that curious about whether I've peed my pants or not?"
After the boys had left Naomi quickly changed. She was glad mom had managed to make the robe look decent. For the other two she'd had to buy she would have to do it herself. Neville didn't return and Naomi picked up the book she'd been pretending to read. History of magic really sounded interesting. She hoped their teacher would be the type that could vividly tell these stories. At the same time, the enormous amounts of violence and muggleborns creeped her out. Just then she came across a passage about Slytherin, and their policy on muggleborn students. The last paragraph mentioned the first half-blood accepted into the house.
When the train finally arrived the first years were taken to several tiny boats by a giant man with a beard. She couldn't sit with anyone she knew,(Just Neville and those three guys from the train) because they all quickly picked a boat. Naomi sat with three small scared girls, who didn't talk to her, or anyone for that matter. The castle up ahead was gorgeous. She thought it looked magical, but then again it probably was. When the man told the boats to move, they took the first years to a small cliff. They had to keep their heads down, though the hidden opening was large enough, and reached a small underground harbor. They got out of the boats and walked to the castle over a pebble beach that turned into... Grass? None of this made sense at all. She saw the large man had given Neville his toad back. Then they reached the castle.
An imposing lady Hagrid called professor McGonnagall opened the door, revealing a large hall that could fit their house at least thrice. She showed the kids to a small room, and gave what seemed to be a small speech about things Naomi had learned after a single night of reading. When the professor left twenty or so ghosts entered through a wall. Naomi was not even suprised anymore. Her worldview was drastically changing. And in the back of her head, a plan was simmering.
-When the sorting started Snape tried not to focus on Harry Potter too much. Lucky for him he would have a distraction from the son of both his only love and the bane of his existance. When a new Slytherin was called out, one Dumbledore had thought a Ravenclaw, Filius poked Severus' arm with his fork. "Snape!"he hissed. "That girl is muggleborn, the hat's gone insane."
Snape missed most of what happened after; Longbottom running of with the hat, Draco being sorted into Slytherin as expected, Dumbledore's first speech of the evening. He wasn't sure what bothered him most, Potter the second looking very much like his father and being a Gryffindor on top of it, or a mudblood managing to get into Slytherin. He quietly reprimanded himself for using that word. The girl was cleary in danger, Potter was only a threat to his sanity.
After dinner Severus followed the first years to the dungeons and told them to visit his office so he could discuss any problems or questions they had, like always. He told Naomi Lewis and Draco to visit that evening. The older Slytherins weren't supposed to realise something was off about miss Lewis, and he already knew Draco and his extended family well enough not to need a lot of time.
Half an hour later Naomi Lewis showed up at his office, just in time. Severus had just returned from his chat with the sorting hat. She sat down when he motioned towards a chair. "Miss Lewis, I think we both know why you are here now, instead of tomorrow." The girl nodded. "Because my parents are muggles and this house has a history of discriminating against them." The girl looked perfectly composed, and any regular observer would have missed the nervousness Snape saw. Man, he hated this conversation already. "I'm afraid this is not just a history of discriminating against muggleborns, are you even familiar with the term Death Eaters?" "I've read about them sir." But they're quite like several groups of regular people, she thought. Besides, a lot of those wouldn't like her either. Snape felt a little guilty about using legilimency on an innocent girl, but she didn't give off a lot of information. "Then you must have missed the part where a lot of them basically force their children to get sorted into Slytherin." Naomi stiffened a little, she clearly hadn't thought of that. "You are hardly the only one to ask the sorting hat for favours."
Snape thought that was it, but the girl spoke up. "I hardly asked the hat for a favour, I just asked it what it would be like for me if it forgot about my blood status." Naomi kept he voice calm. "I mentioned I had read about him sorting the first half-blood here. The hat told me it had been wanting to go a bit further, but hadn't found the right person for it yet." Severus knew there was no other option now, the hat had told him the same thing. Technically this was the sort of disregard for the rules Slytherin himself had liked, though Snape didn't mention that to his students. "If anyone asks, you were adopted after your parents died in a horrible accident involving a dragon you don't want to talk about. Now go to your room and get some sleep."
When Snape entered Dumbledores office after Draco had visited for five minutes or so the other heads of house were alreadly there. Dumbledore quickly stated his opinion. "We need to re-sort her, she would be a fine Ravenclaw." "Albus," Severus stated, "people will want to know why we changed it. When they find out not only most of Slytherin will hate her guts, the same goes for every kid with a bias against Slytherin. She cose Slytherin, and they'll consider miss Lewis a traitor." "And that would mean most of the school would have something against one eleven year old," McGonnagall agreed, "We'll have to hide this from the other students, and some of our own faculty even!" Dumbledore had his patented sad old man look on, but eventually agreed. "We'll need to give her an Alibi in the form of some wizard familly, one we can trust. Perhaps the Weasley's?" Snape schook his head. "Did I not mention bias against Slytherins? As much as you like them Albus, we can't have Arthur Weasley attacking one of my snakes for who she is." Snape realised too late he was already starting to feel protective about the brat who was causing him so much trouble. He was also too late in seeing Dumbledore's eyes twinkle in that annoying way. "Didn't you have a cousin who walked away form home? He sounds like the ideal father for Naomi."