Okay, chapter two. It's been a long time since I've updated...well, a week, but I'll be updating more frequently now!

Disclaimer: Do you really think I own Harry Potter? If I did, I would so rich I WOULDN'T BE WRITING FANFICTION I WOULD JUST BE PUBLISHING SPINOFF NOVELS

Alex POV

"Aw, yuck!"

I gag freely as a bit of seaweed comes flying out of the lake and hits me. Max and Lily roar with laughter. They had known each other for a couple hours and they were already like sisters.

But seriously, wasn't seaweed supposed to be in oceans? Not lakes? To make it worse, they made me sit so that I got all the water that was jumping into our boat straight in the face. I couldn't open my eyes once.

Finally Professor McGonagall opens the doors and we go inside. I know who everyone is; dad was always talking about Hogwarts. Even though I had seen countless pictures (it was so weird how much I looked like my dad, minus the stupid glasses, and how much Lily looked like mum. Seriously, we're mini-me's!) and had heard so many bedtime stories about Hogwarts, it still took my breath away. Even looking haunting and scary in the dark night, it looked like home. I knew instantly why my dad loved it here so much. It was incredible, and even that seemed too little a word.

Despite Lily's constant reassurances and Iggy's eye rolling, the sorting is the scariest moment of my life. I'm anxious, not just for myself, but for all my friends. Iggy was expecting Ravenclaw, but I didn't want to be separated from him. And what if Lily wasn't in the same house as I was? We had never been separated for longer than exactly seven minutes and forty seconds, while still awake. Everyone told me it was weird, but I love my sister. She's my twin, we're close. We protect one another.

Beads of sweat dripped down my neck, my skin is pale, my fists clenched. It was close to P now.

"Lovegood, Ludwig!" McGonagall calls out. Iggy runs up to the hat and sat there as it evaluates him. It was only about three seconds before the hat screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!" Iggy ran off to the Gryffindor table, looking extremely confused. His brother had just been sorted into Ravenclaw, but they weren't really close, he didn't care.

I see Lily bite her lip; Max was up next. I know how important it was to her to have a genuine friend, and Max was unusual. She likes that. I reach down and gripped her hand, feeling how clammy it was. Lily never gets nervous. Ever. She's the poster-girl for tough. By the age of seven, she had broken every one of my bones.

"Posner, Max!" McGonagall calls out. Max saunters up to the hat uncaringly and sits down.

The hat was taking a while. Not too long, but it was thinking long and hard about where to put her. I see Max occasionally smirk. The hat is pleasing her. Damn those charming hats.

"Gryffindor!" the hat calls out. Still looking bored, Max went over to the table to join Iggy. Another girl, an older girl, stops and says something to her. That must be the sister she mentioned. She has Max's long dark hair, mature face, and confident aura. The only difference is that while Max has these dark, dark brown eyes, her sister's eyes are a brownish green. Like…tortoiseshell.

"Potter, Alexander!" McGonagall calls out, jerking me back to reality. Whispers erupt throughout the Great Hall; I see James staring at me intently. I fight the urge to roll my eyes. Not that I was under any pressure or anything.

Another Potter, eh? The hat drawls. Creepy. You're easier than your brother. Heart of a lion. You belong in GRYFFINDOR!

The Gryffindor table erupts into cheers and clapping. I eagerly jump off the stool and join Iggy. James nods at me in approval, then carries on talking to bunch of idiots. Frank Longbottom sits next to him, looking bored. Him and Frank are like Iggy and I, except they're polar opposites. James is a git, Frank is cool.

"Potter, Lily!"

I hold my breath as the hat swoops over Lily's eyes. Even blinded, she still looks intimidating.

The hat takes longer than it did with Max, people start to whisper. Could there be a Potter not put into Gryffindor?

"GRYFFINDOR!"

No, of course not.

Lily doesn't beam with pride as she comes to sit with us. Instead she struts to my side, like, "Pfh, of course I'm in Gryffindor. I'm Lily Potter." I smile at my sister's cockiness.

"Well, wasn't that lovely and convenient," Lily says, tossing her long red hair off of her shoulder.

"The Fates are being kind to us," Max says in a deep, mystical voice, waggling her eyebrows. We all burst out laughing, only to be quieted by the beginning of the 'Welcome Back' speech or whatever.

Professor McGonagall stands in front of the teacher's table at the owl podium, looking very official. Lily rolls her eyes and plays with her mobile phone. They had invented a magic one that didn't go haywire around Hogwarts, and naturally daddy's little girl gets the best one money can buy. I internally roll my eyes, thinking of my father's strange impression that Lily was a saint. Either that or he knew everything and just chose to ignore it. Probably the latter.

I make a mental note of all the things she told us not to do. The number one item on the list was to go into the Forbidden Forest. Apparently they didn't the name was obvious enough, they also had to continuously emphasize it. I sigh. McGonagall has no idea how much fun going in there is going to be now. I lean over to see Lily writing down every rule on her phone. Every one of them would be broken by the end of the month. It wasn't like we were just going to let the tradition of the mischievous twins die out. Okay, well, it wasn't much of a tradition, but we saw it as another excuse to be rebellious. Lil and I have been breaking the rules since we were in diapers, pairing up to steal from the cookie jar. The only difference between us is that when I do something bad, I cover it up. I play the sweet, innocent, helpful kid who somehow ended up in a family of juvenile delinquents. All I have to do is smile, look confused, and blame James. Lily, however, wears her accomplishments proudly on her sleeve for all the teachers to see. People know I break the rules, but I don't get in trouble. Lily will have six detentions by the end of the day tomorrow. I roll my eyes at the thought, causing me to receive odd looks from Max and Igster. Lily ust smirks at me, knowing what I'm thinking about.

I didn't even notice when McGonagall had finished. I just realized that food was suddenly on the table, and there was a lot of it. My mouth starts to water just as the sight of it.

Max starts piling on mashed potatoes and gravy that fills her plate. Yorkshire puddings adorn the top of the potatoes like birthday candle, and they too are drowned in gravy. Iggy has a sensible mix of meat, potatoes, and vegetables. Loser.

"Hey bedhead, slow down," Max tells me, not taking her own advice. "Food should be eaten, not inhaled."

I put my fork down and swallow my food before diving back in. "Bedhead, eh?" I question her.

Max shrugs. "You look like you just got out of bed with that hair."

Lily laughs openly and ruffles my hair. I. Hate. Everyone.

Dinner was over too soon. The food was beyond amazing, and I could've eaten it all day long. I talked with Max all the way up to the common room. She was awesome, but also really weird. And way too smart.

"C'mon, mate," Iggy says, going up to our dormitory. I wave goodnight to Lily and Max and follow him, too hyped on adrenaline to be tired. When we got to the room, one other guy was in there.

"Hi," he greets us cheerily when he catches sight of us. "I'm Dylan."

HAHA! Who is this Dylan character? What will the first day be like? All this and more in the next chapter of The Next Generation.

Anyone who reviews will get a bonus section of this from Lily's point of view, revealing why the hat took so long to place her.