It was a highly irritated Minerva who had come to join Lily at the High Table after the sorting was complete. She glared in freezing silence until the Headmaster concluded his opening remarks, then hissed, "What did you do?"
Lily helped herself to a roasted chicken breast. "I'm sure I haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about."
"You were late, and Draco Malfoy is in my house!"
"It's not my fault Draco sorted into Gryffindor," Lily smirked. "And we were late because I had to break up a fight on the platform."
The Deputy Head's nostrils flared, her lips pressing into a very thin line. "A fight? Between whom?"
"I'm not going to tell you that, Minerva," the Head of Slytherin said as calmly as possible. "They weren't on school grounds, yet, and the school year hadn't begun, so it's of no consequence to you."
"You know as well as I do that the school year begins as soon as that train leaves the station! It was one of your Slytherins, wasn't it?" the Deputy Head asked suspiciously.
Lily smirked again. "I think you'll find that students from all Houses were involved. But that's really neither here nor there."
"Malfoy," the older woman muttered, apparently giving up on the topic of the fight for the moment. No doubt she would ask her prefects and get the whole story from them after dinner, or at breakfast.
"What about him?"
"Why did his sorting take so long?"
"Well, obviously he wasn't inclined to go into the house he was best suited for," Lily offered reasonably.
"I don't think he is best suited for my house! I knew his parents, you know, and –"
"Minerva," Lily said sharply, finally turning to look at her nominal superior. "Don't tell me you're going about judging children on the actions and personalities of their parents. Look at Jimmy and Victoria – neither of the boys nor I were in Hufflepuff, as I trust you well remember."
The older witch snorted. "Only too well. I still think I've dodged a bullet on that one," she huffed.
The Head of Slytherin rolled her eyes. She probably had, but that wasn't the point. "The Hat would not have put Draco in Gryffindor if he didn't have the potential to belong in Gryffindor."
"And what would you know about it, missy?" Minerva scoffed.
Lily hesitated at that, but only for a moment. "You don't really think Gryffindor was its first choice for me, do you?" She could still hear its voice echoing in her ears, from all those years ago: Ah, I know exactly where you belong… but the house would ruin you, you know. Gryffindor, on the other hand… well, Godric would approve of your fire. Whether Salazar would approve depends, I suppose, on what you make of it…
The Deputy Head's eyes hardened, as she was reminded of the extent to which Lily had deceived her in the years leading up to the end of the war. "No, I don't suppose I do, at that. Which reminds me, what was the Head of Slytherin doing, fetching students to the castle rather than preparing her dorms for their arrival?"
Lily sighed. It wasn't as though Minerva truly had much power over her. Technically Lily, like all the professors and staff, reported to Minerva as the Deputy Head, but in practice, there was very little the Head of Gryffindor could do to discipline her former prefect. She lived at Hogwarts because her keeper lived at Hogwarts, she taught because she needed something to fill her days (other than dealing with the students' mischief) and wanted to remain in Dumbledore's good graces – it wasn't as though she was paid – and her duties already included whatever miscellaneous rubbish the other professors didn't want to deal with. Most often, the older witch was forced to settle for variously public degrees of tongue lashing when Lily stepped out of line. Fortunately, it would only help her position within Slytherin that the Head of Gryffindor was very publicly put out with her at the moment.
Still, it was very irritating to be lectured in front of her peers as though she was still a child in Minerva's house. She sighed, holding her tongue and reminding herself that it was only a matter of time until the older witch ran out of steam. In the meanwhile, most of the others would sympathize with Lily, who had only wanted to see her children in person, and had acted perfectly professionally as she went to fetch them. The more Minerva ranted, the more unreasonable she would seem.
Truly, the sad part was, Lily wasn't even trying to undermine her authority, but she was fairly certain most of the staff respected her at least as much as Minerva, and Dumbledore clearly relied on her more out of the two of them. It would be amusing to see if she could oust the older woman from her position entirely, she mused before she caught herself. Bad Lily, she reprimanded herself with the slightest smirk. Minerva is almost as much of an institution as Albus, and you know you don't want the paperwork that comes with her job…
"Sorry, what?" she asked absently, realizing that the witch in question had paused in her irritated tirade. "Yes, it was very wrong of me to be late to the sorting due to problems entirely beyond my control," she took a stab at addressing the argument she hadn't been paying the slightest attention to. Judging by Bathsheda's snort of half-suppressed laughter and Minerva's thinning lips, she had missed it by a good margin. "Erm… and also that your term has got off to a rubbish start?" Nope. "Listen, Minnie," she said finally, resorting to channeling Sirius. "You can whinge at me as much as you like, but that doesn't change the fact that I did not step outside the boundaries of professionalism in fetching the children, breaking up the fight, or dealing with the aftermath. Draco's sorting is neither my fault nor my problem, and throwing a strop won't change it. So act like a bloody adult and deal with it." She ignored the sputtering, incoherent response, instead turning her entire body toward the Runes Mistress. "Bathsheda, I was wondering if you might have any insights on wardbreaking…"
…
Down at the Hufflepuff table, a small knot of students watched this conversation avidly – with far more attention, in fact, than one of its participants.
"You don't think we got her in trouble, do you?" Victoria asked anxiously as the Deputy Headmistress glared at their mother.
"Nah," Jimmy assured her. "She doesn't look worried."
"She's a Slytherin, she could be hiding it." Victoria nodded; Susan clearly shared her concerns.
"No, I don't think so." Neville, on the other hand, almost always backed Jimmy's opinions. "That's the same look Vicky gives people when she wants them to think she's paying attention, but really isn't."
"Hey!" Victoria objected, but Susan giggled.
Jimmy did a double take, looking from his sister to his mother and back. "He's right."
"Of course I am. And look, she's talking to that other professor, now."
"Yeah, but Minnie still looks peeved," Victoria noted.
"It's fine, sis. She's a grown woman. She can take care of herself."
"I know that, but…"
"C'mon, Vic, lighten up," Susan cajoled her, evidently reassured by the boys' arguments and Lily's ending hers up at the high table. "Talk to people, make some friends."
"Speaking of, what happened to Hermione?" Neville asked suddenly.
"She's over at Ravenclaw, down at the far end," Jimmy pointed.
The others turned to peer at the bushy brown head: she appeared to be talking animatedly to several of her new housemates. "I hope we have classes together," Victoria sighed. Aside from Susan, she didn't have any close female friends, and she had liked the excitable Ravenclaw, especially once they had gotten past the awkward introductions.
"I'm sure we will," Jimmy said reasonably.
"And even if we don't, we'll still have loads of free time," Susan pointed out. "I'm sure we can find some time to spend with her."
"Who's that?" an older Hufflepuff asked, apparently noting that nearly half of the new Hufflepuffs were staring at the Ravenclaw table.
"A girl we met on the train," Victoria explained.
"And she got sorted into Ravenclaw? Tough luck," the girl said, making a face. "Still, your friend is right, you'll have plenty time to spend with friends from other Houses outside of class. Speaking of which, I'm Jan. I'm one of the third-year mentors, so I expect I'll be seeing a lot of you this term."
The firsties introduced themselves before Jimmy asked, "Mentors?"
"Sure!" Jan grinned. "We pair off with the new cubs and help you all get your bearings the first few weeks, and answer questions and such for as long as you need. Of course, you shouldn't be shy about asking anyone for help, not just your mentor, but mostly third and fourth years are the best bet. Sometimes it's like the upper years have forgotten how completely overwhelming Hogwarts can be at first."
Neville and Susan did not look surprised. Apparently their aunt Amelia had told them more about Hufflepuff than either of the twins had thought to ask. Victoria, however, thought that sounded brilliant. Dad and Father had never mentioned anything similar in Gryffindor, and for all they had suspected that Jimmy was bound for Slytherin, they hadn't exactly had any Slytherin adults around to ask about the inner workings of that House.
"What are the dorms like?" Susan asked excitedly.
The older student laughed. "Well, you'll see after dinner, but…"