Claire Rivers was or at least would be a Ravenclaw. She would grow up to be a leading expert in the field of astronomy.
Claire would write many books on reading the future from the stars. Her most famous book and now a collectors edition is "Fated One; Romance Through the Stars"
Though the book was wildly successful, Claire never did find nor believe in love.
She would later go on to write her biography called "Emergence of a Star: from Hogwarts to Heaven" After she had died, her portrait had finished the last chapter.
During her first year, she was simply a small little girl ; boat mate to one Lily Evans.
The first uniform that every first year wears has the sigil of Hogwarts in place of the house crest. Without houses, a certain bond forms amongst first years.
Without being sorted, first years feel a sort of freedom to befriend whomever they wish.
This is what Lily felt the moment she got off the Hogwarts express. She followed the flow of first years until they were by the docks.
All the other years had been sifted out and were probably on their way to Hogwarts via carriage.
Being alone with all the other first years gave her a sense of optimism. Something not shared with the rest of her boat mates.
"What if the older kids bully us?" came a voice sitting at the very edge of the boat. She was cold and tried to wrap her robe tighter around her tiny frame.
"I heard that if first years don't bow down to the prefects, they'll send the ghosts down to eat your heart!" said the girl sitting beside Lily.
Lily gathered all the courage she had and spoke up, "Listen, whatever they do to us won't be as bad if we all stick together. Lincoln had said that a house divided can not stand after all."
"Who's Lincoln?"
"Hogwarts is a castle and it's pretty obvious that if you divided it, it would fall."
It was times like these that Lily remembered just how different muggles and wizards were.
"Never mind," she muttered. "Just a muggle saying."
As soon as the words came out of her mouth she could feel the tension in the boat. Her seatmate shifted ever so slightly away from her.
The all too optimistic vision of united first years standing up to the older years had shattered, and she want even in Hogwarts yet.
Perhaps she shouldn't have been so slow. Lily had wanted to savour the experience so by the time she reached the dock, Severus had already left on a different boat. Staring ahead she could see his mess of black hair, happily chatting with his boat mates.
An Excerpt from "Emergence of a Star: from Hogwarts to Heaven" the Biography of Claire Rivers
Curiosity of of the Snake and the Doe:
In all my years at Hogwarts I could never figure out why on Earth the smart and kind Lily Evans would want to be friends with the creepy Slytherin boy. He was always lurking somewhere around her like her shadow. Everyone knew that Lily was too kind not to say no to anyone who asked her help but she should have made an exception.
They always drew attention to themselves when they were chatting in the hallway. Pretty Evans with her slithering black slob is what they used to say. Not that Lily was ever as pretty as me of course.
Snake or Snipe, whatever his name was, hair was always hanging around his face. Apparently he never heard of a brush nor of a hair cut.
They always talked for a very long amount of time, especially during potions class. Poor Lily, forced to endure the company of a creep.
Thankfully towards the end of our 6th year, Lily finally woke up and smelled the loser. He must have confessed to her or something. Merlin knows that even Lily Evans had standards.
The poor girl probably thought that he was the best she could do for a time.
It was one thing to be her friend. You never had a problem with homework, trust me. It was another thing however to be her. Little miss no life that she was.
Of course there are a few such as the Potters and the Malfoys who act as though they know where they are going to be sorted. They scout looking for possible housemates and sneer at future rivals.
"Look at that one mate." Sirius had said to James. He and James had climbed into the very first boat. Of course they had to push off a pair of disgruntled first years but as James had said.
"All is fair for Black and Potter."
Sirius had been pointing at a boy several boats behind theirs. He stood proud if not extremely rigid. His hair was perfectly combed and his hands were neatly at his sides.
"Bet that one's going to be a Slytherin."
"Bet? You bet? He's more then a bet it's practically a prophesy that he's going to be in Slytherin." James responded, lightly shoving Sirius to the side causing him to bump a nervous looking fellow.
Of course both boys didn't apologize and seeing as how the boy they bumped wasn't going to do anything, the only other boy on the boat took it upon himself to say something.
"Hey, you bumped the bloke, least you can do is apologize."
Two pairs of eyes immediately snapped at his direction. They began talking without breaking eye contact from him.
"Hufflepuff?"
"No, wouldn't have spoken at all. What about Ravenclaw, seems pretty skinny."
"Not clutching on to any book or scroll for dear life so no."
"Slytherin? Wait no!"
"How do you know Sirius?"
"Please, I grew up in a house full of Slytherins. Wrong posture, wrong aura, wrong face."
The boy who spoke out was busy staring at the two boys bicker over houses, but touched his face at the last comment.
"Then its Gryffindor."
"Yup, Gryffindor."
After what seemed like a several seconds, James and Sirius both extended their arms and shook hands with Remus Lupin.
"Nice to meet you, I'm James and this strange fellow beside me is Sirius."
"Pleasure meeting a fellow Gryffindor."
Remus could only nod his head, the other boy on the boat momentarily forgotten.
The encounter was cut short and suddenly everyone was getting off the boat and being ushered into the entrance to the great hall.
James and Sirius continued their search for fellow housemates, dragging Remus along as they went.
The last boy was lost and did nothing but follow them.
An Excerpt from "Emergence of a Star: from Hogwarts to Heaven" the Biography of Claire Rivers
Marauders
If you didn't know the meaning of friendship back at Hogwarts, it meant that you had never met the Marauders. One look at them and you knew they were brothers. The real kind. Not the I'm related so lets force ourselves to get along kind.
They were a group of four dreamy boys who threw the best parties and had the funniest pranks. Unfortunately all of them were in Gryffindor.
You know how in boy bands everyone sort of had a peg. In the Marauders James Potter was the leader, Sirius Black was the funny one, Remus Lupin was the responsible one and Peter Pettigrew was the kind one.
If you snagged a Marauder then you had queen status in the school.
Though they seemed pretty open and welcoming, the Marauders was the exclusive of exclusive groups. Only very few people actually got to know them well. You could chat with them for a while but they only opened up to a very exclusive few outsiders.
I never really saw them relaxing or letting their guard down. It's still a mystery what Marauder down time looked like. Out in the open they were always busy, putting on a show, a party, a prank.
The I an rest of Hogwarts could never be a Marauder but we could hope from afar that we were.
After they got off the boats all the first years were ushered into the entrance of the great hall.
Most of the first years had stopped talking and stared at the large oak doors and large sculptures of soldiers that lined the walls.
Looking up, Hogwarts seemed to go on forever.
One group however was making a commotion.
James was dragging Sirius who was dragging Remus who was being followed by Peter.
They were drawing attention from the rest of the first years as they seemed to be the only ones not nervous.
James was pushing people out of the way but abruptly stopped and pointed straight ahead of him. "Gryffindor."
The motion caused the four boys to bump into each other and to others within their vicinity.
Remus was rubbing his nose which hit Sirius's shoulder muttering "My dad said not to cause trouble."
Sirius followed where James was pointing until he laid his eyes on a little girl with flowing red head.
Not the copper or ginger shade that people called red to make them seem more appealing.
It was truly red. Gryffindor red.
Almost as if feeling the pointed finger, Lily looked straight towards them.
"Slytherin green eyes. She's a snake James."
"No, a lion. I'm sure of it."
Remus was about to interrupt but James continued, his finger still raised.
"We should talk to her, look she's staring at us. She must have gotten bored talking to that Hufflepuff."
Lily, however was not talking to some Hufflepuff. She was talking to Severus and upon seeing the two boys continue to point and ignore her glare, she decided to speak up.
"Has anyone ever told you that it's rude to point?"
"As a matter of fact they have. My mom has, so has my dad and most of my aunts. Several…"
Seeing as how her point was clearly lost, she decided to ignore them and continue her conversation with Sirius.
From out of nowhere came a tall lady in emerald robes. She stood straight and looked at all the first years with piercing eyes, which screamed, behave.
They said that everyone in Hogwarts was as old as the building but she looked as if old age was only beginning to form wrinkles.
"Line up by two, stay quiet and follow me." Professor Mcgonagall said before opening the doors to the great hall.
All eyes stared at the single first year who was unlucky enough to be at the head of the line.
Circe Aelius began sobbing.
Professor Mcgonagall motioned for the rest of the first years to move forward, pushing the crying girl by the closer to the chair by the platform.
The sorting hat gave a little jug before being placed on Circe's head.
Most children were accustomed to magical items and talking things but the sorting hat was an entirely different entity.
Talking items didn't usually have a personality to the extent of the sorting hat. Especially one as mean as it.
It was no surprise when some muggleborns were a little scared and didn't want to approach the hat.
After several incidents and coaxing, almost all the students were finished being sorted.
Some were happy with their house.
Some were disappointed.
Some were Sirius Black.
His cousins were glaring at him from across the room but it didn't seem so bad since James was talking animatedly to him.
"Gryffindor." He rolled the name around on his tongue and found that he liked it a lot better then Slytherin. You always needed to sneer when saying the name.
The implications however, only dawned on him much later when he stared down at his robes and noticed that his Hogwarts patch had become a lion.
He would think about the howler he would get later. For now he was satisfied with sipping his pumpkin juice and watching James trying to flick peanut shells at the little girl across the table.
Life was as good as it was going to get for an 11-year old.
Lily had no real opinion about her house.
Unlike everyone else who grew up with family allegiances or stories of people from those houses, Lily had no idea what made each house different.
There were the basics of course.
Gryffindor for the courageous, Slytherin for the clever, Ravenclaw for the smart and Hufflepuff for the kind.
Nothing really struck her as a place where she really belonged.
Perhaps Gryffindor would grow on her and it would in several years.
Asking an 11-year old to be courageous seemed daunting.
For now she would enjoy the pumpkin juice and *whack*
Did someone just throw a shell at her?
Yes! She was finally looking at me, thought James.
He wasn't sure why but he wanted that girls attention.
He would be her friend. He just knew it.
Sirius seemed to be attending to his thoughts so he had nothing else to do but throw peanut shells.
The future looked cheery for James.
Eventually the festivities died down and the first years were ushered to their dorms.
It was after all past bed time for several of the first years.