YEAR 1: THE SORTING CEREMONY

Author's Note: I thought I would explain a bit about the structure and format of this story. The most important years of the story are years 5-7, but I wanted to give some background on characters, relationships, etc. and a lot of what happens in the later years is built on years 1-4. Hopefully you can enjoy this type of formatting! It's new for me, but I am very excited to share this story with you. Of course, I do not own anything except for the character Cath (whose name is admittedly stolen from Rainbow Rowell's FanGirl). The rest belongs to the wonderful mind of J.K. Rowling.

"Cathryn! You are not to use magic outside of Hogwarts, you know that," Narcissa scolded her daughter, who had grabbed her wand out of the nearly packed trunk and was about to wave it around. She held out her hand to Cathryn who sighed in defeat and gave her the wand. Narcissa brushed Cathryn's thick auburn hair behind her ears. "Are you excited to attend Hogwarts, my darling?"

She nodded eagerly, grinning. "I can't wait!" she replied. As soon as she said it, she felt a knot in her stomach form. "Er, Mum, I'm actually a bit nervous."

"Why is that?" Mum replied, folding the last of Cathryn's clothes into her trunk.

"Well… what if I don't make any friends?" she said, fiddling with the hem of her blouse.

"Don't be silly, Cathryn. I know you'll make plenty of friends. Besides, you have Draco," she assured her. "And you know that Augustina Rookwood is only a year above you, too. Oh, and that Weasley girl, oh what's her name… Jenny? She's going into her first year as well."

"I suppose," Cathryn said.

"Mother," came Draco's voice from the hallway. He appeared at the doorway of Cathryn's bedroom, already dressed in his Hogwarts robes, a green and silver Slytherin tie displayed proudly with his school uniform.

Despite being only a year apart, Cathryn and Draco looked nothing alike. Draco had blonde hair that was practically white, and a pointed face that always carried a proud look. Cathryn on the other hand, had dark auburn hair and wore glasses, often paired with a mischievous smile.

"What is it, Draco?" Mum asked.

"Are we going to leave soon? I'm sure my friends are already at Kings Cross. And I want to get a seat with all of them on the train," he said.

"Have you finished packing yet?" she asked him, straightening his tie and smiling at him proudly

"Of course," he replied.

"Then we'll leave in five minutes. I'll go get your father," she said, standing up. Before she left, she turned back to Cathryn. "Have we got everything?"

Cathryn took one more look at the supplies list that had come with her Hogwarts acceptance letter and then nodded. "Everything," she said.

"Don't worry, you'll love it at Hogwarts, Cath," Draco assured her as they arrived on Platform nine and three quarters at King's Cross station. "You can sit with me on the train, if you like."

Cathryn smiled up at Draco, trunk in hand. "Thanks," she said.

The first whistle blew on the great scarlet train that was about to take them to Hogwarts. Cathryn and Draco turned to say goodbye to their parents.

Her father knelt down in front of her with a proud look on his face. "Will you promise to write your mother and I?" he asked.

Her father was not usually so soft, but Cathryn knew he always was around her. She smiled and nodded. "I promise," she replied.

He hugged her. "Good girl," he said. "Slytherin will be gaining a wonderful witch this year."

Cathryn overheard her father saying something to Draco along the lines of, "Now Draco, do try to… branch out a bit. It would benefit to make friends with people in your own house."

Cathryn's mother hugged her next. "You'll have a wonderful time, Cathryn, I know it. There's nothing to be nervous about. And if you forgot anything at home, we'll send it right over."

"Thanks, Mum. Don't worry too much about me," Cathryn replied.

Her mother laughed.

"Come on," said Draco, starting towards the train.

They waved one last time at their parents before stepping onto the Hogwarts Express. Cathryn could feel excitement and nerves bubbling inside her as they made their way down the crowded hallway. Draco looked into every compartment until he found his friends.

Immediately, they broke out into excited chatter. Cathryn slipped quietly into the compartment with him, looking around at everybody.

There was a tall, lanky boy with bright red hair and a face splashed with freckles, holding a rather ugly pet rat in one hand and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in the other. Across from him was a girl who looked the same age (who Draco sat beside), who had thick brown hair and large front teeth, a stack of school books beside her. Closest to Cath was another boy with unruly black hair, bright green eyes and round glasses. One look at the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead told Cathryn that it was the famous Harry Potter, who had defeated a dark wizard when he was only a baby.

Draco had come home from his first year of Hogwarts bragging about how he had become friends with 'The' Harry Potter. He had mentioned his two other friends, saying that "one was quite poor and the other is a Muggle Born, but they're really alright besides that."

Cathryn remembered how Mum had kept looking nervously at Cath while he was talking, and how Father had a disapproving look on his face and had quickly changed the subject.

"Everyone, this is my little sister," Draco said, gesturing to Cath, who was still standing stupidly at the compartment door. "Cathryn, This is Harry Potter," (Harry smiled at her), "Ron Weasley," (Ron said hello with a mouthful of Every Flavour Beans) "and Hermione Granger," (Hermione held out her hand for a formal handshake and said pleasure to meet you).

"Hi," Cathryn replied to all of them, sitting beside Draco.

Hermione turned to Cathryn and said, "So, do you think you'll be in Slytherin, too? It's a great house, from what Draco says. But Gryffindor is really great too. That's what house Harry, Ron and I are in. Slytherins and Gryffindors have never really gotten along - that's what it says in Hogwarts: A History, anyways. Some people find it's rather strange that we get on with each other. Oh, by the way, Ron's got a sister named Ginny who's going into your year. Where is-"

"Hermione, you're scaring her," said Ron, rolling his eyes at Hermione. Cathryn fought back a laugh as Hermione scowled at him.

"She's a walking encyclopedia, you'll get used to it," Draco said with a sneer.

"I'm also probably the only one out of the three of us who's done our summer homework," Hermione said, with her nose in the air proudly as if she had just won an argument.

The others said nothing at this, though they all looked like they had just remembered about the summer homework.

"Snape's going to have our heads for not doing that Potions essay," Ron said glumly, finishing the last of his Every Flavour Beans. He made a face. "Ugh, Earthworm!"

"Who's Snape?" Cathryn asked, wondering if a Snape was a sort of scaled creature that prowled the halls of Hogwarts.

"He's the Potions professor at Hogwarts," Harry replied with a tone that suggested he didn't much like Snape.

"He's also the head of Slytherin House," Draco added. "He's really not all that bad."

"You mean, he's not all that bad to Slytherins," Ron replied. "He hates Gryffindors. Actually… he hates pretty much every other house."

Hermione went on to talk about the other heads of the houses at Hogwarts, and while everyone else looked incredibly bored, Cathryn clung on to her every word, feeling her excitement towards starting the new school year grow and grow.

At last, the Hogwarts Express screeched to a halt and everyone began to filed their way out of the train and into the crisp September air outside.

A giant man, well over two feet taller than the students waved his arms, calling "Firs' years over here!" over and over. Nervous looking first year students, who barely even reached his waist, shuffled through the crowd.

"See you after the ceremony, Cath," said Draco, waving at her over his shoulder.

"Good luck!" Harry said to her, smiling.

Cathryn waved back at them before they disappeared with the older students. The first year students she stood with didn't say much at all with each other. Some of them looked frightened, others just craning their necks and looking into the distance to see if they could spot the castle.

"Alright, everyone here?" the giant man said, beaming down at everyone. Nobody said anything in reply. "Right then. Me name's Rubeus Hagrid. I'm the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. Now, we best get goin' - don't want ter miss the Sorting Ceremony! Everybody, follow me."

The first years followed Hagrid down a path and all the way to the edge of a huge lake. Perhaps it was because the sky was growing dark, but the lake looked inky black. A fleet of small boats rested on the shores.

"No more than three to a boat! Everybody in," said Hagrid, stepping in to one of them.

Nobody dared to make the first move. Cathryn looked around, and then sighed. They're just boats, she thought to herself. It would be quite a scene if they arrived late to their own Sorting Ceremony, anyways.

A girl with bright red hair and freckles stepped into a boat with her, as well as a boy with curly brown hair and a very pointy nose that made him look like a fairy.

"I'm Ginny Weasley," the redhead girl said nervously as they waited for everyone else to climb into their boats.

"Oh, are you Ron's sister?" Cathryn asked. Ginny nodded. "I'm Cathryn Malfoy. My brother is Draco."

"I'm Dan Hadfield," said the boy.

Before anyone could say another word, Hagrid pointed a bright pink umbrella across the lake and the boats shot off the shore much faster than anyone expected.

Hogwarts was finally coming into view, and Cathryn couldn't help but smile as lake water sprayed lightly on them and the warm glow of the lights from the windows of the castle drew closer.

Cold and hungry, the First Years were lead through the massive front doors and were greeted by a woman wearing black dress robes and a pointed hat. She had a stern face and carried a rolled up piece of parchment one hand.

"Welcome, first years," she said. "I'm Professor McGonagall. We will shortly begin the Sorting Ceremony, in which you will be sorted into your houses. First, you will line up in front of the door behind me. When I call your name, you will walk onto the stage and sit on the stool. I will place the Sorting Hat on your head, and then you will join your house table. Are there any questions?"

Once again, everybody was silent.

"Good," she said curtly. She began to quickly organize everyone into a neat queue by last name and then walked through the door she had pointed out.

As Professor McGonagall called out the first name, Cathryn began to feel nervous about the Sorting Ceremony. She had never given much thought to what house she would be in, since her whole family were Slytherins, but what if she was sorted somewhere else? What would her parents say if she were sorted into Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff? What would Draco say?

She froze in fear as she heard, "Malfoy, Cathryn!" being called from the Great Hall.