The next morning was … interesting, as Anastasia predicted. Hermione met Anastasia in the common room. She hadn't expected anyone being up so early. Anastasia had wanted to get to breakfast and then the Headmaster's office without a lot of commotion, she thought that some people might slow her down for questions, she was after all the first person ever to have not been sorted into a house. Last night had proven that people were curious.

Anastasia's fitful sleep had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was up so early… well that's what she told herself.

Hermione seemed to be mad at Ron and Harry still, continuously talking about how it was an irresponsible and that they could have been killed.

"Why don't you tell them yourself?" she asked, seeing them coming over to the table. Anastasia got up to go to the headmaster's office. "Do you know where the headmaster's office is?" Realizing she didn't know.

"No idea, but the Professors probably do. But you should wait until they finish eating." Anastasia didn't hear the last part, she was already half way to the staff table. The Great Hall, which was about half full, went quite. Because it you were going to watch someone ask a teacher a question you had to be absolutely silent.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where the headmaster's office is?"

"I'll show you." said Professor McGonagall getting up.

"Thank you."

"Yes, I don't know why I didn't tell you where his office was." As Anastasia followed her out of the Great Hall she hear whispers start up, but she ignored them. Instead of worrying about it though, Anastasia was too busy staring at the architecture of the corridors. With the arches every few feet and the extravagant details sculpted into the walls. They almost move on the walls, not needing color to feel alive. Creatures that she never dreamed about. Giant spiders and snakes, centaurs, small creatures, dragons and half bird and half horse things.

"Do we learn about all these?" she traces a burst of fire from a dragon.

"In Care of Magical Creatures class." the Professor not turning.

See, Anastasia loved to flip through books about anything from the structure of buildings to how deep-sea fish can glow. She was excited to learn about the wizard world and compare and contrast differences. She wanted to see how magic related into the "real" world, to see how it would correspond with scientific laws. But she would never tell anyone this, of course. She didn't want or need the extra attention.

Finally, the arrived at the end of a corridor, but it seemed to be a dead-end. There was a rather large gargoyle statue that took up most of the wall. It was an interesting piece, but Anastasia didn't get a chance to study it for it asked "Password?" speeding up her heart quite a bit. Anastasia had so far worked on masking her emotions, being able to look anger when she was happy or normal when she was hurting inside. Being able to tell lies and making sure all her stories matched, even we talking to two people who would never meet.

She did see though that it was simpler than the rest of the castle. "Cherry." replies professor McGonagall and the statue jumped out of the way, revealing a spiral staircase. "The Headmaster's office." and with that she turned right around. Anastasia hesitantly stepped forward onto the first step. The stairs started to move under her feet. Just like an escalator. She thought. She walked into the office and looked around in awe. The office was magnificent, with shelves lining the walls, some with books and others with gadgets that she could never dream what they could be used for. The sorting hat sat amongst them and a gorgeous fiery red bird sat on a perch in the middle of the room. There were doors along all the walls, but if her memory stood correct they were in a part of the castle not wide enough for so many rooms to be in one place.

Anastasia was reaching out to the bird, which seemed to ask "Don't you remember me?" when a door to her left snapped open and she jumped back. The Professor she thought to be Snape slinked into the room, looking rather mad. "What are you doing here?" he was practically spitting the words at her face.

"I was asked to be here after breakfast, to speak with Headmaster Dumbledore."

Snape seemed to growl and he sweep around, his cloak bellowing out behind him. It looked as if he practiced his entrances and exits. The Headmaster then emerged from the same doorway.

"Ah, hello. I claim you remember our meeting over the summer? But we're not here to talk about that." he walked over to his desk and Anastasia followed. "We need to find a solution to the fact that you are perfect for each of our houses. This, of course, causes problems to arise. I have devised a way around it though. The houses will decide! You shall be in each house for a select period of time and at the end of the year you will be sorted! Now with the schedule this brings problems as well. You have the choice, either with a change of house your classes will change accordingly or you can keep the same schedule throughout the year. In the second choice you may be in a class with Gryffindors and Slytherins but be a Hufflepuff. Your choice."

"I think I'd like to keep the same schedule."

"Very well. Now we have to decide which house to put you in first." he says, "Shall we ask the Sorting Hat?" He goes over to the shelf with the hat and plucks it up. "Here you are." He put the hat on my head.

Oh, it's you again. The first student in the history of Hogwarts that I could not sort. I'm the Sorting Hat, I should have been able to!

There is a first time for everything, and now, redeem yourself. Sort me now, give me my first house.

Of course, you want to me to tell you where to go. No one ever asks me anything else. Tell me what to do, what should I do, what path should I take… Even if they already know the answer, they always know the answer, I just tell them what they already know.

Tell me this, tell me what I know but cannot find.

Fine, you know you should be in Slytherin first. See what the cunning know.

"Slytherin." she practically whispered.

"The house of cunning." he said, taking the hat, "Here is your schedule." waving his wand and a piece of parchment appeared.

"I have potions first." she stated.

"Yes, and you should give this to Professor Snape. He is your Head of house now."

"Yes, thank you, sir."0

"Oh, and I'd think it'd be best if you were in Hufflepuff next quarter." he called out as she shut the door. She was thinking on her way through the corridors, Loyalty, can get you in trouble, or dead. She was debating, yet, it also has it values.

She had to ask for directions, then went to the dungeons. The lesson had already started when she got there, and professor Snape sneered as she came in.

"So, I presume you're in Gryffindor?"

"Actually, I'm in your house, Professor. Slytherin." she said, smiling slightly, she held out the note. Snape took it and all but ripped it apart as he opened and read it.

"Yes, of course. Take a seat, you are lucky that the class has not gotten far yet. As I was saying, today we will start with a simple potion that is used to cure facial blemishes. Directions are on the board." he waved his wand in the middle of talking and the board filled with complicated looking directions. Anastasia had already sat down next to an extremely pale girl with pale white hair and eyes. It hurt Anastasia's head to look her in the eye because she could barely see her pupils, as they were only slightly darker that the almost translucent white of her eyes. They didn't look ghost like, though, they strangely fit.

"Hello, I'm in Slytherin too. My name's Altaira, Altaira Malfoy."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Anastasia." she looked over to see Ginny whispering franticly into her partner's ear. Both of them looked over at her every now and them, making it obvious that she was the subject of discussion.

"Oh, don't bother with the Gryffindors, they've never gotten along with us, Slytherins. They're too jealous that we are so much more cunning than them, all they've got is bravery and more often than not that comes with stupidity."

"Yeah, well I could still be in Gryffindor, I haven't been truly sorted yet." she says, suddenly angry.

"What?" asks Altaira, looking quite confused. Her hair turned a different shade of white, maybe with some peach in it Anastasia thought. She shook her head, thinking she was seeing things.

"Tell you later." Argh, I am becoming so girly. She thought. The rest of the lesson was surprisingly easier than Anastasia first thought it would be. It was almost as if she were in one of her summer Chemistry classes. The main difference was the ingredients. Professor Snape walked around the room criticizing potions, then he came to Anastasia's table.

"Ah, you've brewed the ingredients to the exact shade of purple the potion needs to be. Most first years have trouble turning the potion blue, as everyone can see in Weasley's cauldron. It's a bright green, I suspect that you added bat fangs instead of snake?"

"Well, Sir, the containers are right next to each other and there is only a small b or s in front of the word fangs." Ginny states, looking at the two different containers.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Miss Weasley." Some Slytherins were snickering behind cauldrons. Most of her classes from there on were a bore. Most Professors explaining the subject and what they would be going throughout the year. Especially their expectations of all their students. By lunch Anastasia was starving, and rushed to the Great Hall with everyone else. But before she made it into the hall she was cornered by one of the girls that had been in her Gryffindor dorm.

"How could you? I bet you chose Slytherin. I bet you didn't want to be in Gryffindor, did you? You probably think you're so much better than us, huh? You do know that the lion eats the snake?"

"Well, it's not my fault. It's not even permanent, but if this is how Gryffindor treats the other houses I might think Slytherin is better. I wouldn't want to be part of a house that treat another like it's something that needs to be gotten rid of." the girl just stared and Anastasia walked away.

"Salazar Slytherin wanted to get rid of all the other houses, just thought you'd like to know. He's even got a Chamber with a monster in it to do the job for him!" she called after her.

"Anastasia!" someone called and she turned to see who had. Altaira was sitting at the Slytherin table called to Anastasia again. She let out a sigh of relief, she had been wondering where she was going to sit, but it made sense that she would sit with the Slytherins. As Anastasia made her way toward her, Altaira moved her bag to the ground making room for her. "Now, can you tell me what you were talking about in Potions?" she batted her eyes in a jokingly pleading way.

"Sure, I don't see any reason why not to." And she told Altaira and the others listening in what happened. "So, I'm going to be in each house for about a quarter." she finished.

"That's so cool! You know no one's ever not been able to be sorted. You must be really special, having the talents of all four houses."

"Yeah, you're, like, the most interesting person to come to Hogwarts, since Harry, of course." says one of the other girls listening in. She took on a dreamy expression when she mentioned Harry.

"Harry?"

"Why, Harry Potter of course!" she replies, looking shocked.

"You're not telling me that someone doesn't know about the Great Harry Potter?" A long drawl comes from behind Anastasia.

"Hi, Draco." Altaira's voice got about ten degrees colder.

"Ah, aren't you glad to see your big brother?" he mocks. Then he calls out "Hey, Potter! Haven't you heard? There's someone over here who doesn't know you're famous! Wait, it's not a surprise, no one cares." He smirked, "So, who are you? And I thought you had been sorted into Gryffindor?"

"Obviously not, even a blind man could have seen that." Draco's smirk didn't vanish, but faltered a bit.

"Harsh. But you were over there. So how is Potter and the gang? Obnoxious and arrogant as always, I suppose. His father was a delinquent from what I heard, those things run in the family."

"Yeah, well, you can't go five minutes without running to our father. 'Oh, Daddy, someone's been mean to me at school. Get his father thrown in Azkaban because I'm too much of a wimp to do anything about it.'" Altaira mocked. Draco scowled at her.

"Well, I'm Father's favorite."

"Because you'd jump off a cliff without your wand to gain his appreciation." Draco's scowl deepened. He turned back to Anastasia because he already lost that battle.

"So what's your name?"

"Anastasia, now please excuse me while I go vomit. I'm just finishing a conversation with the most hideous thing."

"Huh? I'd be a little nicer to my sister if I were you."

"Really? You're so arrogant that you can't distinguish a weasel from a good person?" She then turns to Altaira, "You are so lucky these things are not genetic." They laughed as Draco stormed away.

"Bye, big brother." she called. "He is so obnoxious. Ever since he got back from Hogwarts last summer all he talks about is Harry this, Harry that. Or his friends Ron and Hermione. He's rather obsessed. Don't tell them though, because I know your friends with them and all. I think I would die of embarrassment if they found out." She pauses, "Sorry about what I said in Potions. I was being way biased and that is what most Slytherins think and I was trying to fit in. I should have thought first before going on what my brother says."

"Nah, it's okay, I just wonder why all the houses don't like each other. And I probably shouldn't have insulted your brother."

"No, it's ok. It was good, you know. And he'll get over it, especially if you end up in Slytherin. I bet you two will be great friends, but for now if he's bugging you I give you my permission to insult him in any way you can think of."

"Oh, now I need your permission?" Anastasia joked, but she didn't think they could be friends. Altaira laughed. They both ate at least two plates of food and drank practically a whole jug of pumpkin juice each. The rest of the day went by in a blur until last class had ended and students were going to their common rooms and Anastasia had no idea where to go. Maybe I should go to the Gryffindor common room. She mused, not knowing what else to do. Then Ginny came up to her.

"Hey, Anastasia. I'm sorry about the incident before lunch, if I had known what she going to say I would have tried to stop her. Not all Gryffindors think like that, but what she said about Salazar Slytherin might be true. There's a legend about the Chamber of Secrets that he supposedly created."

"It's okay, thanks. Do you by any chance know where the Slytherin common room is?"

"Sorry, no. Most students don't know where the other house's common rooms are."

"Ok, thanks. I'll go look for another Slytherin. Bye." Anastasia hurries off.

"Anastasia!" Anastasia recognized Altaira's voice. "I went to the common room and waited for a while before realizing that you probably don't know where it is! So I rushed out looking for you."

"Thanks, Altaira."

"Oh, and we should probably get back soon, it's the first day here and we've got a load of homework. Most of it is from Professor Snape, I've heard he's really hard, but Draco says that he goes easy on Slytherins."

"Ok."

"That reminds me. Draco is practically haunting the common room, waiting for you. He is so obsessive, especially about people who insult him."

They continued to discuss trivial things until Anastasia suddenly asked, "Hey, what do you think about the Chamber of Secrets?" she asked suddenly.

"All I know is that it's a legend and that Father sometimes thinks aloud about it. Why?"

"Oh, it's just that someone mentioned it."

"Ok, we're here, and the passwords 'Basilisk' I don't actually know what that is though." She said all this in front of a stretch of bare, damp wall. When she said 'Basilisk' a concealed stone door slid open. The common room had lower ceilings than the Gryffindor's and was longer in a rectangle shape. Greenish lamps hung at even intervals and once you got past the slightly damp and chill of the place it was quite comfortable. Everything was elaborately carved or designed. The furnishings were beautiful, if a little stiff. The only chairs that looked like you could relax in were sitting around the fire with a table in-between them.

"Let's go sit over there." she said, pointing to them.

"Sure." They started to walk over, but were intercepted by Draco.

"So, I see your at least playing the role of Slytherin. For now."

"Leave us alone, Draco." says Altaira, in a tired voice.

"Fine. I see it that you need your beauty rest, you should probably sleep for a good ten years to look decent."

"Shut up." Anastasia pushes past him, dragging Altaira behind her. They got all their work done in a clean hour and spent the next two talking and watching as everyone else went up to their dorms.

"I hope Draco doesn't bother us tomorrow."

"Yeah, it gets pretty annoying after the first minute or so."

"Agreed. Let's go up to bed, we need to keep our minds clear so we can come up with brilliant come backs." Altaira laughed.

"Yeah, it's so much more mind taxing than lessons."

"Do you think my stuff is up there? It wasn't in the dorm at the Gryffindor dorm."

"Well, since you're a Slytherin, at least now, your stuff should be there." And sure enough, when they got to the dorm she says, "That bunk wasn't there before. I bet it's yours!"

"Yeah, well, night." They both got ready for bed in silence and both fell asleep almost at once.

The first thing the first years were talking about were flying lessons, which were to be held that Thursday. Some were groaning because we would be taking them with the Gryffindors.

"Guess what." Altaira asks, right when Anastasia gets to the table for breakfast.

"If it's about flying lessons, I don't want to hear it."

"No, no. It's about Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Remember? I don't think either of us had him yet. My friend told me he's a complete airhead. Totally obsessed with himself."

"Really? But that's not good? How are we going to defend ourselves?"

"What's out there to defend ourselves from?"

"Oh, I don't know, but it's always a good idea to at least know how. Maybe if he's really bad we can ask one of the other teachers for help, or at least spend some of our free time researching monsters and how to defeat them."

"Are you one of those people who's always looking over their shoulder, thinking something's behind them? All paranoid and all?"

"No, I just like to be prepared. 'Hope for the best, but expect the worst.' That's my motto."

"Ok, just don't go all paranoid on me."

"Ok, I won't 'Go all paranoid.'" Altaira giggled. "What."

"Oh, it's just funny, the way you say it."

"Hey, sis, guess what." Draco came up.

"What, Draco?"

"I'm the new Slytherin seeker."

"Really? What did you do, get Daddy to buy your way in? I've seen you on a broom, I bet Anastasia's better than you."

"No, I didn't buy my way onto the team, but Father did donate Nimbus two thousand and ones for the whole team."

"So you bought your way in?" says Anastasia

"Didn't I just say that I didn't? Or are you deaf?"

"Yeah you didn't buy your way in; Daddy did." replies Altaira. Draco doesn't reply and storms away, a scowl on his face.

"He really is easy to get worked up."

"I know, it's annoying, but fun to."

"Right, let's get to Defense against the Dark Arts. We've got it first." They rushed to the class.

"Ah, welcome class." says Professor Lockhart when the whole class has been seated. He gave a rather large, flashy smile. "We will begin this class with a quiz to see what you all remember from my books."

Altaira raises her hand, "Sir, you don't expect us to have read all your books by now, have you?"

"No, no. It's just to see what you've already read and retained." He then started passing papers out.

"Why doesn't he use magic? All the other Professors do, to pass out papers and trivial things like that." Anastasia whispers to Altaira.

"Search me." she says with a shrug.

The quiz was completely insane. The most idiotic questions were on there and they were all about Professor Lockhart. Anastasia thought it was complete rubbish, as did mostly everyone else in the class. But, she resigned to filling out the quiz, remembering the answers because she had read the complete series on the train ride there but thought it had been a complete waste of time.

Mum always said I had a knack for remembering useless things. She thought, thinking about the one time her mother actually read her report card. "Trigonometry lessons? Have your teachers gone mad? No one needs to know anything but the basics in Math and even then I think it would be a waste of time. Is this what you've been doing weekends, taking extra pointless lessons? Biology?" Her mother had gone on and on how she would never need any of those skills in her lifetime. Her mother then proceeded to tear up all the permission forms and requirement letters from her teachers. When the teachers asked if she would be taking the classes she somehow managed to get them to agree to let her take the summer courses without permission. That had also been the one of the last nights she went home when her mother was around.

She shook her head, Focus, none of that matter anymore. You're here now. Anastasia hated when she relived these memories, but she turned her focus back to the quiz. It was almost comical, the only thing that kept Anastasia from laughing aloud was the fact that this was their teacher! She knew right there and then that it was going to be a long year. A really long year.

"Tut, tut. Hardly any could answer one or two of these correctly. I see that we have a long year ahead of us. Oh, Miss Weasley knew what my secret ambition was. No one knew what my favorite color was… except for Miss Anastasia. I'm sorry you didn't sign a last name. Wait, she got every single one of these questions right, good for you." He gave a bright smile to the class.

"Excuse me, Professor, but how is learning about you teaching us how to defend ourselves?" asks Ginny, not bothering to raise her hand.

"Good question, my dear. Now as you all know I'm quite talented. So if you know what makes me be so successful all of you can follow in my footsteps!"

"But, how is knowing that your favorite color is lilac going to protect us from, say, a werewolf?" someone else piped up.

"Now, let's get on with the lesson." Professor Lockhart continued, seemingly oblivious to the question. "What is in this cage can be part of your worst nightmares. All I ask is that you don't scream, and remember that no harm can come as long as I am here." With that, he swept the cover off the cage revealing … spiders?

One of the students in the front had to disguise a laugh and went into a coughing fit.

"Yes?" Professor Lockhart asked.

"Well, they're just spiders and you can make any spider that big using an enlarging charm."

"Yes," his eyes seemed to twinkle, "But these aren't any normal spiders, they are acromantula!"

"But, Sir! Aren't those extremely dangerous? They like to eat human flesh!" Altaira jumped up as she was saying this.

"Yes, of course, but right now they are completely harmless, young ones they are."

"Sir! Even the young ones are dangerous." Altaira seemed to be panicking.

""Not at all, see?" He opened the cage door and the five spiders quickly scuttled out. Altaira screamed, but the spiders acted strangely, going in a straight line they went right out the door.

Some unknown force seemed to take control of Anastasia. She went after them, they sped up but they weren't hard to follow. All she had to do was follow the screams. She felt like they were running away from something, or maybe to it. She followed them to the edge of the forest, when a large figure blocked her.

"Now where are you going?" the gigantic man asked.

"I was following the acromantula!"

"Acromantula? In the castle? Never." but he was looking over his shoulder, as if worried about someone.

"Professor Lockhart brought them in."

"Professor Lockhart? That fool! Who brings those critters into a school?"

"Yeah, but, um, who are you?"

"I'm Hagrid, Keeper of Keys."

"Nice to meet you."

"So why did you try and follow 'em?"

"Impulse."

"Well, you'd better get back ter the castle."

"Yeah, thanks, bye." Anastasia ran back to the castle, where everyone was still seated in class.

"Anastasia! You're back! Thank goodness you came to your senses before you caught up to them. They would have eaten you alive!"

"Not actually, I followed them all the way to the forest."

"You didn't go in did you? That's the Forbidden Forest! Did you?"

"No, Hagrid blocked my way."

"Thank goodness." Then Professor Lockhart spoke up,

"See, completely harmless. Now I'd say class can be dismissed." The whole class gathered their things and fought to get out the door first.

"Completely harmless? The man's mental." Altaira said as soon as they rounded a corner. "And after what I heard happened in the second year's class with the Cornish pixies you'd think the man had some sense smacked into him. Favorite color's lilac, complete rubbish. I think your idea about studying outside of class could be useful. If we have him for more than a year we'll fail our O.W.L's."

"Yeah, how could he be a Professor? We should ask someone about that."

"Why don't we talk to that Hagrid? If he doesn't turn you in for being outside the school during class he can't be too bad."

"Sure, I guess. I mean we don't even know if he's a professor."

"Draco says that Harry and his friends are friends with Hagrid, why don't you ask if we could come the next time they visit."

Anastasia let out a sign, "I guess."

"Anyways, what in the world made you run after those bloody spiders?

"Impulse." Anastasia didn't really know though, whatever gave her the idea and led her to carry it out was now tugging at the edge of her mind though… making her curious.