Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter of any of its characters, J. k. Rowling does. Only my ideas and OC'S.

Author's note: like I said in chapter 1, this is my first HP fanfic, so if you see anyone out of character, just let me know and I'll work on fixing it in other chapters.

~2~

A little girl sat on a wooden stool, her short legs dangling in the air about a foot above the floor. She appeared to be either 6 or 7 years old. Dark brown hair framed her face and flowed down her back. The child was currently in the kitchen, sitting on the stool her father had made the day before. Her father had a shed in the backyard that he used as his workshop. The little girl knew that she wasn't allowed inside there unless her father was outside with her. She understood why, with all the wood, nails, and power tools, it wasn't safe for her to be messing with stuff. It was in the shed that her father had made the stool she now sat on.

He had put a lot of effort into it, like everything he did. The quality of said stool was so good that anyone who didn't already know that Woodrow had made it himself would have thought he had bought it at the store. Woodrow, the girl's father, had made many things from his work shop, including the dog house and the beautiful jewelry box he had made for his wife as a Christmas present last year.

The light brown colored stool was pushed up to the island counter, the child sitting completely still as she watched her father chop and deice vegetables that would be put into the pot on the stove. No one could deny the fact the Tiffany loved watching her father cook. He was an excellent cook who even worked as a chief at a nearby restaurant. The child would watch his every move as he attended to his food, soaking up everything he said like a sponge.

Due to there being no children her age where they lived, Tiffany would most often be alone, either in her room playing with the Barbies the one of her sisters had given her when they had outgrown them, or outside on the swing set. Even though she did have four older sisters, two of them spent most of the year at Hogwarts; the only time she got to see them was during the summer. And even then, they didn't spend much time with her. The other two were already grown and out of the house. The only friends she had were at school, but she never saw them outside of school. This led Tiffany to spend time in the kitchen watching her father as he cooked. At first he had tried to make her wait in the living room until supper was ready, but he soon realized it was useless so he gave up and allowed her to watch him.

She loved and admired her father so much; Tiffany wanted to be just like him. As she grew older, her father would allow her to help him, with adult supervision of course. It was during these times of bonding that the child discovered a love for cooking.

~2~

After Professor McGonagall explained the importance of the sorting, and what the four houses were, the woman left, giving them time to make sure they looked presentable before the sorting began. The room had grown silent as everyone seemed nervous about the sorting. Well except for Tiffany anyway. Her sisters may like to pick at her, but they would never worry her for any reason. They had explained the whole sorting hat long ago, when she had asked how they ended up there school house. The brown haired girl looked over at Holly, Jessica and Hermione, who were close to her, and said. "You know, I don't know why everyone's so nervous, hasn't anyone already told them that they only put a hat on top of your head to sort you into a house. I mean really, it's not anything major." Jessica nodded her head in agreement; her own sisters had explain the whole situation to her as well.

A look of disapoinment flashed across Hermione's face. "Really? That's it?" Tiffany had to refrain from rolling her hazel eyes. "Well yea, it's just a sorting, not a test. What would they expect a bunch of newbies to do anyway?"

"Are you serious? My brother told me we had to wrestle a troll." Tiffany looked to who had spoken; it was a boy with red hair and freckles on his face. "Trust me it's just a hat, my sisters know what they're talking about. Besides, a troll, seriously, trusty me man, your brother is messing with you." The red headed boy seemed relieved at that, even the dark haired kid next to him looked slightly relieved.

Not long after that a bunch of ghosts drifted through the wall into the room. It freaked a lot of the children out, even Holly. Tiffany had to cover the blonde's mouth to keep her from squealing. Even Jessica seemed startled for a moment, which was an accomplishment of itself. That girl was usually bored out of her mind; it was good to see her interested in something for once. Even if it was the ghosts that seemed to be having a conversation over their heads. Soon enough, Professor McGonagall came back and shoed the ghosts away. After making everyone get into a straight line, she led them into the great hall.

The great hall had four long tabled filled with students, each on belonged to one of the four houses. As they were led to the front of the room, Tiffany noticed her cousin Jamila sitting at one of the tables and knew it had to be the Hufflepuff table. Once the first years stopped were they were supposed to, McGonagall sat a stool in front of them, and then a old pointed hat on top of the stool. The stool wasn't as nice as the ones her father made in her work shop, the thought crossed Tiffany's mind before she realized it. After the hat had come to life and sang, McGonagall stepped forward with a scroll in her hands. "When I call your name, place the hat on your head and sit down on the stool to be sorted.

It seemed that their names had been put in alphabetical order through their last names. The sorting started with those whose last names started with an 'A'. It didn't take long for the professor to let to Tiffany's name.

"Caraway, Tiffany."

Tiffany walked over to the stool, picked the hat up and placed in on her small head and sat down. The hat fell over her eyes, blocking her sight. This freaked the girl out, she was scared of the dark and not being able to see wasn't helping. Then the girl heard a voice inside her head. "Hmm, I see much talent. So much talent you haven't had a change to explore." To say that Tiffany was started would be an understatement. She had no idea how she was supposed to respond the hat now talking to her. But she didn't have to for it continued to speak. "I see much self-doubt, in the right environment you could grow to do amazing things. I can see you desire to prove yourself to everyone, and a good might to do it with. You just need a push in the right direction."

As the hat spoke, it felt as though it was looking into her very soul. It was disturbing how the hat on her head knew so much about her. It was starting to make the young girl uncomfortable. Then the hat said, "I wander where I should put you?" Tiffany shrugged her small shoulders, like she had said before, she wasn't picky. It was then that she finally responded to the hat. In her head she thought, 'it doesn't matter, I'll be happy no matter what house I'm in.' That seemed to make the hat laugh. "That's good spirit, how about Slytherin." Even though she had of course heard about the house's reputation, Tiffany couldn't be bothered to care. 'That sounds good, I'll go with that.' It was right after she thought that, that the hat on top of her head shouted out, "SLYTHERIN!"

Tiffany stood up and sat the hat back down, then walked over to the cheering Slytherin table. She waived at Holly as she did, her BFF waiving back. The brown haired girl sat down with the other newly sorted Slytherins. Then another name was called and the sorting continued. It was kind of boring actually, having to sit there while everyone had their name called. Soon after though, Hermione's name was called and she was placed in Gryffindor like she had wanted. After Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table, Tiffany zoned out, to bored to pay attention to use was being sorted were. It just seemed to go on and on, though it was mostly just her 11 year old attention span working against her.

She snapped out of her thoughts just in time to see a pair of identical twins be sorted. The first one out of the two to be called up was Andrew Macarthur. The only thing Tiffany could tell about his appearance from where she was, was that he had short black hair. The 11 year old boy was quickly sorted into Gryffindor. The other twin was named Xander Macarthur. He seemed more nervous than his brother, for he approached the stool a little slower than his brother did. His sorting took a little longer then Andrew's did. But in the end, the sorting hat yelled out 'Slytherin' and the dark haired boy walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Tiffany. Now sitting next to her, Tiffany could now see that Xander had blue eyes that reminded her of the sky during a cloudless day.

Looking at the boy next to her, Tiffany wanted to say hi but her throat closed up on her. Stupid shyness getting in the way. No, she had deicide that she was going to move past that, so choking down her nerves, Tiffany spoke to Xander. "Hey," it was only one word and sounded award, but it got the job done. The boy turned his blue eyes to her hazel ones and responded, "Hey, nice to meet you." Surprisingly enough, he sounded nervous himself, that made Tiffany feel a little better. Xander held his hand out and continued to speak, "I'm Xander," Tiffany shook her hand and replied, "And I'm Tiffany, it's nice to meet you to." Just then Tiffany noticed a boy with pale blonde hair strutting over to the Slytherin table, a smug look on his face as he sat down. The brown haired girl hadn't been paying attention to who had just been sorted, so she missed his name.

There were a few more people sorted before Tiffany heard her cousin's name be called.

"Melendez, Jessica." Tiffany watched the darker skinned girl walk up to the stool and put the hat on as she sat down. Just like it had done for herself and many others, the sorting hat fell over Jessica's eyes. Tiffany was genially interested to see where her cousin would be place. A part of her hoped that she would be placed in the same house as herself, but another part didn't. They got along great if they were around each other for only a few days. But if the two spent too much time together, then they would end up at each other's throats, it was always like that. Sure enough Jessica was also placed into Slytherin. She then sat down in front of Tiffany.

Tiffany then zoned out again, chatting with Xander and Jessica occasionally. It was only when she heard professor McGonagall call out, "Solomons, Holly," that Tiffany once more became interested in the sorting. Her BFF excitedly hurried to the stool to be sorted. The brown haired girl couldn't help but small at her best friend's excitement. The blonde 11 year old was sorted into Ravenclaw. As Holly was taking her seat at her table, she Saw Tiffany at her own table and waved over at her. Tiffany didn't hesitate to wave back at the blonde. This got Tiffany some strange looks from her own table, but she wasn't paying any attention, so she didn't notice. Later on some boy named Harry was sorted into Gryffindor. The name sounded familiar, but Tiffany couldn't remember where she heard it before.

The red headed boy, who Tiffany now knew was named Ron Weasley, was also sorted into Gryffindor. Once the sorting was finished, McGonagall rolled up the scroll, picked up the stool and the sorting hat and left. Then Dumbledore stood up from the teacher's table and greeted everyone to a new school year. The food appeared on the plates once he was finished speaking. There were lots of good food, it was hard for Tiffany to decide what she wanted. As she ate, she continued so speak with Jessica and Xander, but never with her mouth open, that was just bad table manners. What had started off as an award greeting from before was now a friendly conversation. Xander seemed like a nice person, someone who Tiffany could see herself being friends with.

When the dessert appeared, Tiffany just got herself some mint-chocolate chip ice cream and a brownie. She was so full from the meal to eat too many sweets. After the sweets vanished as well Dumbledore spoke once more, this time explaining that the forbidden forest was off-limits to all students. Though that should have been obvious, why wouldn't a forest that was called the 'forbidden' forest be off-limits? It seemed very self explanatory to Tiffany anyway. He also mentioned that there is to be no magic in the corridors and how the third flow corridor is off-limits as well. Tiffany didn't question it; she knew they had a good reason for it. After singing the school song, Tiffany and the rest of the Slytherin first years followed the Slytherin perfect down into the dungeons. The perfect, whose name Tiffany didn't know, spoke the password in front of a stretch of damp stone wall. Once this was done, a hidden rectangular doorway appeared.

They all fallowed the older boy into the common room, were he gave them an intreduction and explained how the password to enter the common room would change every fortnight and that they should keep an eye on the notice board. They were then dismissed to go to bed. Once in the girl's dormitory, Tiffany saw that the beds were ancient four-poster beds with green silk hangings, and bedspreads embroidered with silver thread. Silver lanterns hung from the ceilings, it was very nice in here. Tiffany found the bed with her trunk in front of it. Once she changed into her favorite purple PJ's, she pulled out a white unicorn plushy that she had gotten when she was little. The stuffed animal was called Rainbow, and Tiffany would sleep with it every night. There was no way she was going to leave home without her rainbow-baby.

The brown haired girl got into her bed and laid underneath her sheet and comforter. She laid there for a good twenty minutes, the stuffed unicorn held to her chest, before she finally fell asleep. The first day at Hogwarts had ended, and it could only get better.

~2~

Well that was chapter 2, I hoped you like it. If you noticed, it the flashback in the beginning of this chapter, it mentions Tiffany having 4 sisters, even though she only told Hermione about 2 sisters having gone to Hogwarts in the last chapter. There's a reason for that and you'll find out soon enough. I also forgot to mention that Tiffany didn't notice Hermione's know-it-all attitude because she is so used to dealing with it from Holly that it didn't register. With everyone sorted, it's time for the fun to begin. Thank you for reading and please leave a review so I know what to improve on for the next chapter. Later.