Authors Note: Sorry I haven't updated in a billion years... but schools out now, and its summer (!) So I'll update a lot... I finally figured out where this is all going! YAY! So, yeah...

And sorry if some of this doesnt make sense... :D

Chapter ten

She was riding a broomstick over the Quidditch pitch, zooming in and out of the goal hoops. She soared over the lake, and she fell for a second before she found herself sitting atop an enormous dragon… they dove right down into the lake, but she had no trouble breathing… merpeople surrounded her, singing an eerily beautiful song… and then Scorpius was swimming towards her, and Sarah was sitting cross legged at the bottom of the lake, and the weirder the dream got, the less she could breathe…

Lily sat up straight. Sarah was sitting on the edge of her bed, staring curiously at Lily. "C'mon. Wake up." Lily frowned. "It's Tuesday. Free period." She mumbled. Sarah shook her head. "Yeah, I know, but I'd rather go exploring… plus, your stomach has been growling for the last five minutes." Lily laughed as her stomach rumbled as if to back up Sarah's point, and pulled off the covers.

Five minutes later, they were gripping the rail as the staircase swung around, talking about Quidditch. "So, James made Beater?" Sarah asked. Lily nodded. "I heard Ravenclaw try-outs are tomorrow, and according to Al, Marc wants Keeper." Sarah laughed aloud. "Wants is the key term, Lily. He couldn't stay on a broom if you paid him fifty Galleons! Besides, they'll be in hospital for at least another week."

Instead of eating a whole breakfast, Lily just darted in and out of the Great Hall, with a mouthful of orange juice and quick bite of toast. Then, the girls went up the stairs, looking to find the famed Room of Requirement that James had boasted about finding.

"James said… seventh floor corridor." Lily said, looking at the slip of parchment her brother had given her. Under her breath, Sarah snorted. "James also said his little potion was safe…"

They came to the tapestry James had described. "So, we just walk in front of it three times, and think of what we want?" Sarah asked, looking doubtfully at the wall. Lily nodded. "But what do we want?" They both stood there, deep in thought. Lily was the first to come up with an idea. "We'll go in separately. That way, we're both happy. Let's say, ten minutes each?" Sarah grinned.

Lily pulled out her wand and placed it gingerly on the stone floor. She spun it, and the tip stopped pointing at Sarah. She smiled and Lily backed up. Sarah walked back and forth in front of the tapestry, her eyes closed in concentration. Suddenly, the wall melted away to reveal a door. Sarah half-opened it, smiled at Lily, and ducked inside.

Lily sat down against the wall, waiting for her friend to re-appear. All the while, she was thinking about what she wanted. First, she thought of her parents. Then Gryffindor… but then she decided on exactly what she wanted.

The door opened and Sarah came out, her face shining. "What did you see?" Lily asked excitedly, jumping up. "My sister! My sister had actual magic, and we were standing in the Ravenclaw common room. And then, I got hungry, and a package of Bertie Bott's appeared right in front of me! That room is amazing, Lils. Go ahead in!"

"But, the Room can't bring you your sister… can it?" Lily asked, confused. Sarah shrugged.

Lily repeated what Sarah had done and the door materialized. She walked inside.

At first, she didn't know where exactly she was. Then, the scene became clearer. It was just a round, dark room. Sitting on a stool in the middle, bathed in a spotlight whose source was non-existent, was the Sorting Hat. Tentatively, Lily walked over to it, her shoes clattering on the floor. She picked it up, felt the fabric, and placed it on her head.

Instantly, it dropped over her wavy red hair and over her eyes. The little, familiar voice echoed. "Hello again, Miss Potter. What brings you to me?" Lily wasn't entirely sure, and her throat felt closed up. But then, her voice replied, "I want to know what house I really belong in."

"I told you, Slytherin."

"But that doesn't make any sense! I'm a Potter!" Lily said, frustrated. The Sorting Hat was silent for a little while. "All things… happen for a reason, Miss Potter." It said slowly, finally. "You were meant for Slytherin, it seems."

"It was rigged." Lily said defensively, though she knew it couldn't be true. The Sorting Hat chuckled. "Potter, I've been around for hundreds of years. I've been worn by millions of young witches and wizards like yourself. I've been battered and bruised and torn and even scorched, but never have I been wrong."

Lily huffed. "Fine, then what's the reason I'm in Slytherin?" she demanded. "I…" The Sorting Hat started to say, but Lily cut it off. "And don't tell me that you don't know, because you can see into my head, so you must be able to see why the Hungarian Horntail I'm in Slytherin!" she fumed.

"You are much like your mother, Miss Potter. Very hot-headed, very determined. You want to prove yourself, to stand out. Very much like your mother." The Sorting Hat mused, sounding mildly amused. "I believe your question may be answered by this."

Lily sensed movement in the corner of the room. She lifted the brim of the Sorting Hat up so she could see, and looked to her side. There was something there, large and out-of-place, that had simply appeared when the Sorting Hat mentioned it. Lily gingerly put the Sorting Hat back onto the stool and walked slowly over.

It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Lily's eyebrows shot up – It was the Mirror of Erised, the enchanted mirror Harry had told her about. She realized that the Sorting Hat wanted her to look in it, but she stayed rooted to the spot, just out of sight of the mirror's glass surface, afraid to see her reflection.

Suddenly, with a soft scraping noise, the mirror slid over to Lily so that it showed her, wide-eyed and gaping. Lily studied the reflection.

There she was – still in her green tie and Slytherin badge. Was that really what she wanted, to be in Slytherin? But that was impossible! Then, she studied it more closely… standing beside her was Sarah, grinning, also in Slytherin colours. Somewhere in the distance, she recognized her parents – Harry, black hair messy, lightning-bolt scar barely visible, Ginny, red-headed and smirking. James and Al stood there too… but why were they so far away?

Suddenly, Lily remembered what the Sorting Hat had said – "…to prove yourself, to stand out…" She was standing out from her family, a family full of Gryffindor's and she was sticking out like a sore thumb… a sore, green thumb, that is. "But that can't be what I want. That isn't what I want at all!" Lily said aloud, frustrated. Then, the Sorting Hat spoke again, Lily jumped as she didn't know it could speak unless someone was wearing it. "Are you sure about that?"

Lily glared at her reflection, the smiling, green-clad Lily. With the tiniest of movements, something in the mirror changed. It took Lily at least five seconds to realize that her reflection's tie and badge weren't the silky green they had been, but they were a golden colour that could only mean… "Hufflepuff!" Lily cried, staring with distaste at the badger on her reflection's badge. But after a moment, the badger became a raven. "Ravenclaw." Lily breathed, seeing the midnight blue and bronze. Just as suddenly, the colours went back to Slytherins, and again to Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. Beside Lily, Sarah was changing the house colours as well. But never did they cycle to Gryffindor, though the Potters in the background remained crimson and gold.

"I am standing out." Lily said suddenly, realizing what the Sorting Hat meant. And then, Lily remembered…

She was seven. She sat next to her brothers, Albus at nine and James at ten, in a car. Ginny drove, Harry sat beside her. "I still don't get why we have to go to Muggle School!" James moaned. Harry twisted around in his seat to face his children. "Spells won't do you any good if you're faced with a Sphinx. You need logic and brains, and at Hogwarts you don't learn that kind of thing, only at Muggle School can you learn the math and logic. Did I tell you about that Sphinx, when I was in my fourth year?" Instantly, the boys piped up with "Tell us again!" Lily, meanwhile, tuned out of the story she had heard dozens of times before. She frowned down at her school uniform, which was as bland as the school itself – grey, with a black plaid skirt. She couldn't wait until she got to Hogwarts, where she could wear long sweeping robes and a bright crimson tie and the Gryffindor badge, where she could stand out.

And then she was nine, at Kings Cross, watching both her brothers and Rose go off to Hogwarts. She frowned, surrounded by Ginny, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Hugo all wearing some kind of Gryffindor clothing. Hugo had Ron's scarf wrapped around his neck. Lily had declined Ginny's invitation to wear her old scarf. She liked standing out, being the one that people questioned. Sometimes, she resented being the daughter of the most famous wizard since Dumbledore. Anything that would make her different from the others was perfect.

Back in the Room of Requirement, Lily's head was spinning. "And being in Slytherin…" she started to say. On the stool, the Sorting Hat continued, "Makes you different. It's all in your head, you know."

Lily stared at the mirror, at her reflection, which had settled on Slytherin again. All in my head… Lily thought. All of a sudden, there was a movement in the corner of Lily's eye. She spun around, startled, and felt one foot collide with the other…

The last thing she remembered was cursing herself for being such a klutz, and then her head whacked against the clawed foot of the mirror and everything went black.