Mia had found a seat with a window that faced the platform, and waved back to Zara as the train began to move. With Louis happy to sit on her shoulder, and her trunk safely stored on the racks above her head, she settled in and began to read one of her favourite books, Moste Potente Potions. As much as she wished she could, the witch refrained from flipping her hair, Zara had warned her that giving people too much knowledge could be a bad idea, so satisfied herself by morphing parts of herself that no one looking in would see.

It took longer than she had thought it would for her quiet to be invaded but when she saw the worried and terrified look on the pudgy blonde boy who had entered, her heart felt for him, "Hello."

"Hi, umm, have you seen a toad? His name's Trevor," he seemed to realise that that was a silly thing to add, as though the toad would be telling people his name, bringing forth a deep blush.

"I haven't but I'll help you if you would like?" Seeing the bashful nod, Mia stood and grinned, "This is Louis."

Realising what she was doing, the boy smiled at the bird before moving it to the taller girl, "I'm Neville Longbottom by the way."

Mia knew the name instantly, his mother and father had been attacked in the last war, but didn't say anything, "Mia Granger, well Hermione but no one calls me that. It's nice to meet you Neville."

That brought an even larger blush onto the boy than was there before, "And you Mia."

They agreed to split up, it would be easier to find Trevor that way, so with Louis on her shoulder still, she head off. Poking her head into every compartment, she learnt more and more about those she was attending school with, even those whose last names were not already in her mind library, and if they were, the person got their own file. It was a technique pépé had taught her after learning she had an eidetic memory.

She had just left Fred and George Weasley shocked, she had easily spotted their unique feature, George had a cluster of freckles just beside his left eye that were in the shape of Gemini while his brother had the exact same except by his right eye. After a few uninteresting compartments, she came upon a boy trying to turn his rat yellow of all things. And while they hadn't seen Trevor, she had learnt that she was going to be in the same year as Harry Potter, a boy who fascinated her in the books she had read but now interested her as she could see the bruises and wariness in his eyes.

He also had a way with animals it seemed as he was easily able to pet Louis, who didn't like people touching him who he didn't know, and had snapped when Ronald Weasley had tried to copy the black haired boy. With a kind grin, she had said her farewells and returned to her search.

It was for nought and after an hour, she had returned to her compartment to find Neville crying about losing his familiar, so had comforted him. They'd spent the whole ride talking and when they arrived at Hogwarts had both celebrated together when a huge man who introduced himself as Rubeus Hagrid handed over the escapee toad.

As they walked into the large castle, the girl could feel the spirit alive and well, as though it was welcoming her to her home, all she could hope was that it would become that over time. A few of the other first year students were nervous as they heard others saying what method was used to sort them, and Neville was shaking like a leaf until she whispered just loudly enough for him, Harry and Ron to hear, "We don't fight a troll, it's just an enchanted hat that once belonged to Godric Gryffindor."

"How do you know?" The redhead asked, almost arrogantly, certain that his brothers hadn't lied to him and he knew things that no other first year would know.

"Because my pépé told me, he's friends with the headmaster," she didn't like to throw around her connection but wanted to stop Harry and Neville being afraid, "He heard that a number of the older siblings would try and see who could cause the largest amount of panic in the starting year by telling the biggest lies."

Blue eyes narrowed but quickly widened when he saw his twin brothers laughing at the entering group and he blushed the same colour as his hair while muttering, "Sorry."

They were all standing in a group in front of the Head Table, obvious as that was where all of the professors sat, while on a small platform there was a stool and ratty old hat. Professor McGonagall, a stern looking woman, stood by it with a scroll in her hands, "When I call your name, come up and place the Sorting Hat onto your head. After you have been sorted, head to your house table. Abbott, Hannah!"

The names rang out until the woman said, "Granger, Hermione."

A gentle squeeze of Neville's arm, the brunette sat on the stool and the hat was placed onto her head. The first thing she felt was someone trying to enter her mind, so threw up what she thought as her rather weak but effective wards and heard a chuckle come from the hat, "That was not something I expected from an 11 year old Miss Granger, you have been trained in the Minds Arts?"

"Yes, by my pépé, to help me organise my mind better," Mia answered truthfully, before asking, "Do you need to look into my mind to sort me?"

"It is a necessity yes"

"Ok, I will try and let you in," concentrating, the witch created a doorway into her mind and felt the hat enter, "You could have simply entered, it was not that strong."

Again, the hat chuckled, "It was far stronger than most I have encountered, you should be proud to have such a secure mind."

As she sat there, watching in her own mind as the hat glanced at her life, she heard the professor move to stand behind her and whisper to the headmaster, "This is the longest hatstall in record, what do we do if there is no choice made?"

"That needn't be a worry Minerva, I do believe he has decided," a kindly old voice said.

It was true, the hat had receded from her mind, "Thank you my dear, it was very enlightening and leads me to the predicament that you can only be in one house and yet you are suited for all 4. Thankfully I have decided and it is, GRYFFINDOR!"

Carefully getting up from the stool, she had been sitting on the uncomfortable thing for almost 20 minutes, Hermione ran over to a seat near the Weasley twins, who messed her hair up as she sat by them and watched the rest of the sorting.

Harry, Neville and Ron were all sorted into Gryffindor as well. After a welcoming message that cemented her belief that Albus Dumbledore was going senile, Mia ate like a horse and was happy to be heading up to Gryffindor Tower soon afterwards. As she fell asleep that night, to the sounds of her 4 other roommates getting ready for bed, a large smile was on her face that remained the whole night.