So I'm going to try and update once a week - probably on Mondays. Hope you enjoy the next chapter. :)
Chapter Two:
Lily stood with the rest of the new students as Hagrid knocked three times on the giant door. Moments later Neville opened the door, looking down kindly at the small, nervous faces in front of him. Lily waved when he looked at her and he smiled in return. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor Longbottom." He sent a pointed look at Lily and Hugo as he emphasised the word professor. "Follow me please." They scurried after him as he led them to a small chamber Lily knew was next to the Great Hall. She wasn't nervous, at least not for herself. She was a little worried Hugo might work himself up again; Hugo never did anything in halves especially not emotions.
After Neville had filled them in on the four houses and the ceremony about to take place he left them to wait. Lily turned to the boys. "Isn't this exciting! We're finally at Hogwarts."
Hugo nodded, "Yeah. Exciting…" The cold water of the lake seemed to have calmed him down some but he still looked a little worried. She slipped her hand in his and squeezed it. He smiled ruefully, "Fine, It's awesome!"
Neville returned, "Line up please, and keep quiet. The ceremony shall soon begin," and he led them into the Hall. As she stepped through the door Lily gazed around in wonder, she'd heard millions of stories from all different sources. Finally she could tell her own. She turned to their newfound friend, who seemed slightly green. "Are you okay Matt?" she whispered. "All the people; staring," he muttered, clearly terrified. Lily took his hand, and guiding him and Hugo, went to line up in front of the hall. Neville placed a stool in front of them and on it he sat an old pointed hat. "The Sorting Hat," Lily breathed as it began to sing.
When it had finished there was a round of applause and Neville stepped forward with a roll of parchment, "Allan, Meredith." A small girl with golden blonde hair and piercing blue eyes stumbled up to the stool. After a few moments, the hat called out, "RAVENCLAW." There were cheers and clapping. Neville paused then, "Anderson, Robert."
"GRYFFINDOR!" Lily could see her brothers cheering along with everyone. James winked at her, Albus waved and she smiled back. "Boot, Natalie" went to Gryffindor as well, then "Daniels, Fergus" went to Hufflepuff.
"Finnigan, Aidan" "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Lily recognised the boy walking down to the yellow and black table. His dad had gone to school with hers and he used to play with Lily and Hugo sometimes. That is, until one day when Uncle Ron and Mr Finnigan had a major falling out over a Canons game. It had been very loud; they'd been able to hear the yelling all the way down the street in the playground. Mr. Finnigan had come storming down and taken Aidan home and they'd never come to visit again.
"Lestrange, Cecilia." If Lily hadn't known him for so long she would never have noticed Neville's voice tremble slightly. A thin, tall girl stepped forward. She had thick black hair that tumbled down past her waist to a length Lily only dreamed of achieving. She was aware of the slight stirring of jealousy before squashing it carefully. "SLYTHERIN!"
"Manson, Kelly," Neville called, both Lily's hands had gone numb now from the vice grip both Hugo and Matt had. "SLYTHERIN!"
"O'Connell, Matthew." Lily gently nudged him forward. He sat down gingerly on the stool and shoved the hat over his head. A few minutes later the hat shrieked, "RAVENCLAW!" Lily beamed at him as he hurried towards the table, obviously uncomfortable with the attention.
"Potter, Lily." It took a few seconds for her to untangle her hand from Hugo's. "Don't worry." She insisted as she went towards the hat. Once on her head it was dark, blocking out the whispering and stares.
You'd think they'd be used to it. She thought dryly.
'Oh I imagine people will still be curious when it's your grandkids sitting here.' Said a voice.
'Hello Mr Sorting Hat Sir."
'Hello Miss Lily Potter." The hat sounded amused, "You're quite something aren't you."
"Um thank you."
"Awfully polite."
"Being nasty doesn't get you anywhere. It only hurts people." She informed him.
"How very Hufflepuff of you," the hat mused. Lily waited patiently, wondering vaguely where she would end up. If she was put in Hufflepuff perhaps she could be friends with Aidan again.
"So you'd like to be in Hufflepuff?"
"If that's where you think I should go."
"Docile little thing." The hat paused, "Where to put you?" For what seemed like forever Lily was left to her own thoughts. She amused herself by imaging what the hat might have said to her various family and friends.
"Not quite." The hat chuckled at the imagined conversation with her father. "At eleven he wasn't the man he is today remember."
"Oh of course."
"Well I've decided where to put you."
"Okay then."
"You really don't mind where you go?" the hat asked.
"No. Not really."
"Well, well…it's been a pleasure to sort you Miss Potter."
"Thank you it was nice to meet you."
Lily was left with the hat's chortles echoing in her head as a loud "GRYFFINDOR!" rang out through the hall. Lily beamed in pleasure and ran to sit in the place James had made for her. Albus slid up to ruffle her hair.
"Potter through and through this one," a fifth year boy laughed.
"That was fun," Lily giggled. "Oh I hope Hugo's in Gryffindor!" Suddenly anxious she looked up at Hugo who looked extremely nervous. "Hugo? Are you kidding? That kid's got more guts than anything else. Where could he be but Gryffindor?" James assured her.
Hugo watched Lily sitting happily between her two brothers, smiling up at him. He took a deep breath as "Thomas, Jacob" became a Gryffindor.
"Weasley, Hugo" The whispers, like there were for Lily's name but there were far too many Weasleys for people to get as excited. Still, the whispers were there. He jammed the hat over his eyes, and heard the soft voice whisper in his ear, "Well, well, what a passionate young mind. Ready to fight for justice." Though he was surrounded in blackness Hugo scrunched up his eyes and waited for the ordeal to be over. "Oh well I won't tease you." The hat said after a moment, "Your young cousin entertained me enough for the evening, I don't know when I enjoyed a sorting so much. Tell her thanks for me… GRYFFINDOR!" Breathing deeply with relief Hugo went to sit at the cheering table, with his cousins on his right and new classmates on his left. He felt his stomach rumble and waited impatiently for the last four students to be sorted. Finally, while Catherine Zane was settled in Ravenclaw, Proffessor McGonagall rose to speak, "Welcome to Hogwarts, first years. Welcome back everyone else. I am persuaded this year's opening banquet will not be as chaotic as previous years-"
James snickered, "she says that every year," he whispered.
"That said, enjoy your food, and please try and make the first years comfortable in their new home." Everyone clapped as she sat back down, and food appeared on the platters in front of them. Hugo began piling food on his plate and after filling his mouth with as much as possible, gazed around him. Lily was busy making friends with everyone, she'd hardly touched the food. Hugo expertly served her some of the roast chicken and potatoes, carefully avoiding any pumpkin. She glanced at it when he nudged her and obediently took a bite. Satisfied, Hugo turned to the boy sitting next to him. He was slightly on the chubby side, a mop of unruly black hair sat untamed on his head, almost obscuring twinkling blue eyes. He had a wide friendly grin.
"Hugo Weasley." He held out his hand, the boy shook it. "Nathan Powell, just call me Nate."
"Okay. Don't ever call me Hugie. No matter how many redheads you hear say it." Nate laughed, "I did notice there seem to be a few of those."
"Ha most of them have already left school. The Weasley family is infamous for it's hoards of children."
"So…Weasley…hmm any relation to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes in Diagon Alley?"
"Muggleborn?"
"Yeah how'd you know?"
"You asked about the wrong uncle." Hugo said with a laugh, "But yeah WWW is owned by my uncle and my dad."
"Wicked. My mum wouldn't let me go in but I looked through the window." He sighed wistfully.
"Well there is a shop in Hogsmeade…oh but we can't go till we're in third year."
James looked up at this, "Hugie you disappoint me. Are you a Weasley or not?"
"Uncle Percy would resent you implying lawlessness is in our genes." They both laughed and James went back to his original conversation, waving his fork around, as he discussed quidditch tactics with a thin fourth year who seemed more interested in avoiding the food likely to fly at her any moment.
"Hugo, I'm going to go say hi to Rose." Lily said getting up and wandering off towards the Ravenclaw table.
"So how many of these people are you related to?" Nate asked, before Hugo could reply the sandy-haired boy opposite laughed, "Weasleys? They're only related to nearly every damn hero from the war."
"What war?" Nate asked intrigued. The boy launched into a tirade, the kind Hugo hated the most, embellished and over dramatised. A few of the other first years seated near them added their own stories. Hugo groaned and laid his head on his arms. Some days he really hated being a Weasley.
"Don't suppose you lot could stop yapping on about stuff you don't understand?" James remarked offhandedly in between enormous bites of what looked like several sausages wrapped in bacon.
"You're James Potter." A blond girl squeaked, wide-eyed.
"yeah I know." He rolled his eyes as he turned back to his friends, "Can't ever escape them." He complained loudly, "I knew I shouldn't be such a good chaser."
One of James' friends laughed, "you'd think they could wait till they actually saw you play. I mean basing it all on rumours is a little..."
"ridiculous. Especially since we all know it was Jamie who started them." Another one interupted, James protested lightly at that comment and Hugo marvelled at their ability to so expertly change the subject without seeming to. He supposed they'd had a lot of practice.
Thankfully Nate then asked what a Chaser was and Hugo was happy to explain.
"So why is Hugo wet?" Rose asked as Lily slid into the seat next to her.
"Pushed him in the lake." She replied frankly, helping herself to a bun. A snort of laughter across the table had Rose glaring furiously.
"Ooh. You must be Scorpius." Lily said. The pale blonde boy raised an eyebrow, "infamous among the Weasley clan I see."
"Oh not really it's just Rosie is always complaining about you. That's her special glare. I've only ever seen her give it to Hugo before. And that was only when he did something really bad."
"Don't talk to him Lily, it only encourages him." Rose snapped.
"I want to meet your friends." She insisted. Scorpius howled with laughed as Rose turned an interesting shade of purple.
"He's not my friend." She hissed.
"They why do you sit with him?" Lily asked.
"Never mind that. Why'd you push Hugo in the lake?"
"He was about to freak out."
"Lily…maybe less drastic measures next time. We don't want him to catch a cold."
"Okay." Lily agreed placidly.
"I'm not going to prank Lily." James voice floated over, she looked up to see her brother now seated next to Fred, a few places ahead of them.
"James it's a Hogwarts tradition, we won't hurt her." Fred said.
"I know that but there is no way. I am not risking it."
"You're not scared are you?"
"Hey I know for the most part, she's the epitome of sweet little girl but..."
"Did you just say epitome?" Fred asked in disbelief.
"Rose said it the other day. Did I not use it right?" James asked innocently.
"James you're not an idiot, stop pretending you are."
"Not all of us can be Ravenclaws."
"Well you're the one who doesn't want to do our traditional prank. Some Gryffindor."
"We'll do the prank, just not on Lily. It was all very well when she couldn't do magic and had to resort to other measures to get us back but she has a wand now."
"Oh Merlin. I hadn't thought of that. That means we can't prank Hugo either. We'll have to prank some non-Weasleys."
"Well that's always fun."
Lily smiled to herself, though Hugo was much quicker to flare up and would lose his temper over something as little as Rose not passing the cereal in the morning, if Lily got mad neither heaven nor hell could stop her from getting her revenge and her brothers knew it very well.
Please let me know what you think.
