Hi, people! I know it's been an absurdly long time, but...forgive me, please? Life is hectic, but I hope that I've developed a new vigor for this fic, and I hope to bring you all updates faster than this one has come. Anyways, reviews are what I live off of, so if you want to see more of this, a little - and when I say little, it could be as little as you want - feedback would be nice. Okay, then, enjoy!

It would be wrong to say that the members of the ALFS had joint minds, like a hive, but they did have a tendency to think around the same thing. It was what came of sharing so much magic all the time, especially in the Council Chamber. They were as similar as could be, and the same went for their differences.

Despite how varied their personalities were – or, at the very least, the personalities they showed to the world – all five of them, being Ginny, Luna, Blaise, Pansy and Draco, were wondering the exact same thing: "Did I look like that as a first year?"

The eleven-year-olds that were filing into the Great Hall looked nervous at best, with the grand majority looking about ready to piss themselves. Although it was true that the Great Hall was rather large and possessed some degree of majesty, it really wasn't that scary. It was easy to pick out the muggleborns – they were the ones that held something akin to wonderment in their eyes, but such sentiments were also clouded by fear. "Fear for what, though?" Pansy found herself wondering. The sky – or ceiling, rather, that was charmed to have such an appearance – was clouded and dark, but not the regular thunderstorm it had a tendency to be on the day the school year started. It did rain an awful lot in the region, which was somewhere in Scotland, probably, although few knew for sure, but on the first day of school, excessively so. Some years, Pansy had seen it as an omen – Hogwarts could change people so drastically in such a short space of time, sometimes for better, but also sometimes for the worse. It was almost as if Zeus, Lord of the Sky, was warning the little children away. She had always had a fascination with Greek mythology, especially the way the Greek population hadn't hesitated to make the King of Gods out to be so *ahem* promiscuous. Then again, that area of the world did seem to be less…prudish, for lack of a better term, so maybe it was only normal. Pansy pulled herself away from her thoughts – which she quickly realized were completely irrelevant to the current happenings – in time to see McGonagall stop the crowd of first years in front of the riser upon which stood a small stool and the little end table – that Pansy faintly recognized from the numerous times she'd been inside the transfiguration professor's office for some offence or another – upon which the sorting hat had been placed.

A few of the first years pointed at the hat, murmuring things into their comrades' ears. They were probably half-bloods or pure-bloods that had heard tales of the sorting hat from their parents and were recounting them to the muggleborns they'd met on the train. That was always how it was, wasn't it? Pansy could barely remember being in their position, but she did know that she had been scared – scared out of her wits that the defensive charms she'd set about her mind wouldn't hold and the sorting hat would discover everything about the ALFS and then it would all be ruined, everything they had worked for… "But that didn't happen," she reminded herself, forcing her gaze back down to her empty plate. She could look up again when the sorting actually started. Now was just McGonagall explaining things to them.

Pansy knew she'd always been the weak link.

She's started out at Hogwarts over-confident, believing that she was more talented, stronger than all the other students. Not that she wasn't, of course, but it had kept her from trying to shield that from the world. Luna, who was one position her junior, had taken the time to build up something of a reputation for herself, a bubble that kept people from prying – actually, just kept people away in general – and that kept what Luna knew safe. Pansy hadn't thought to take such precautions. So here she was, worrying herself silly while waiting for more unsuspecting kids to get their minds, their most sacred place, rifled through and prodded, the very depths of their soul weighed and judged.

Ah, judged.

Put into categories that so neatly fit the founders, but without regards to the actual students. If you were a Hufflepuff, they said, you were weak and timid, always wanting to help people and be friendly, but in hard situations, failed. Ravenclaws were good for nothing other than knowledge, and even then, they probably wouldn't give it to you unless you were one of them. Gryffindors were Hogwarts' golden children, the ones who could do no wrong. They were the brave and noble ones, who would gladly sacrifice themselves to save another and were always for the good cause. And Slytherins. Apparently, all Slytherins were evil. Pansy scoffed at this thought just as 'Abelard, Scott' was cheered over to Ravenclaw House.

Having a name at a certain point in the alphabet decided a great many things about your Hogwarts career. If you were last, people didn't normally pay attention to you, since the feast started right after, and so you didn't have time to talk to your new housemates before the speech started. If you had your name after a famous person, Harry Potter, say, people were liable to forget to even clap for you. One good thing about the sorting process, though, was that you didn't have to worry about finding the right clique for yourself. If you wanted the 'Emos,' go find a Slytherin if you dared, and ask them. If you were looking for a book club or chess club, you'd be likely to find one with a Ravenclaw. The whole system was horribly stereotypical, but, well, until whatever magic there was on the sorting hat wore off, that was probably how it would stay.

"Abrahms, Jessica," was sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Andrews, Michael," into Ravenclaw.

There was a slew of Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs until McGonagall read out, "Pearce, Adessa."

The atmosphere seemed to shift slightly, although Pansy didn't think that most in the room noticed. She did, however, see Dumbledore sit up a little straighter in his seat, forehead creasing just the tiniest bit. Could he know already? No. Adessa was far too skilled an Occlumens for that. Pansy watched, a shiver of anticipation running up her spine as Adessa stepped calmly up to the platform, not stumbling like many had. Pansy could feel the hot breath on her neck coming from Blaise, who was seated just beside her. A quick glance told her that his eyes were fixed on the young girl, barely blinking.

Adessa looked perfectly alright, sitting on the stool, while the tight-mouthed woman placed the sorting hat on her head. The fabric flopped down over Adessa's face, but not everyone laughed, like they normally would have. The sorting hat was initially silent, and Pansy pictured Adessa filling her head – or the 'lobby' as Adessa referred to it as, which was essentially the part of her mind that she pretty much censored, and didn't care who saw it – with Slytherin-like images. It was, after all, what she, Blaise and Draco had done, since superior intellect might have put them all with the Ravenclaws, and their sense of ethics might have, at the very worst, placed them all in Gryffindor.

"SLYTHERIN!" roared the hat, and the tension in the room, that Pansy had barely noticed was there, was broken. The Slytherins all cheered, clapping and hooting like the houses normally did. Adessa smiled radiantly – although Pansy knew that it was fake – and skipped over to the Slytherin table where she was welcomed by a few second years, who looked pleased to no longer be the youngest. After Adessa, there were three more Slytherins, two boys and one girl. The two boys didn't catch Pansy's interest, but the girl did. Pansy waited until Dumbledore had finished his speech – which was concluded by a phrase in absolute gibberish that only made the man seem more of a kook than he did before – before turning to Blaise, a disapproving look in her eyes.

"You told me Catarina was going to be home-schooled!" exclaimed Pansy, even before the food had appeared on the table. Blaise shrugged and reached for the serving spoon of the mashed potatoes, which had just appeared. Seeing that the boy wasn't going to answer, Pansy smacked him in the arm. "Blaise!"

"I didn't know she would be here. And you know how my mother's always changing her mind. Maybe she decided that she wanted Catarina to have the 'experience'." Blaise dug the spoon into the fluffy mashed potatoes, withdrawing an outrageous quantity. He dumped it on his plate, where it made an audible squelching noise, before reaching for the roast beef. Pansy eyed the food already on his plate with distaste. It was amazing, how he could eat so much and still retain a perfect figure. She glared at him one more time before reaching for the asparagus. As soon as she had set it down, Blaise was shoving the plate of beef in her face.

"Want any meat, love?"

Pansy took the platter with a vicious glare, before stabbing at a thick slice of roast beef with the meat fork. A horrid grating sound met her ears as the metal prongs met with the platter's metal. She cringed, but dropped the meat onto her plate anyway. She shoved the beef back at Blaise, who nearly dropped it, before reaching across him to get to the mashed potatoes he'd left on his other side. It was the start-of-year feast; she was allowed to pig out. Especially after spending an entire summer with her parents telling her that 'young ladies don't need much to eat'. Yeah. Food seemed like a good idea at the moment. She did, after all, have to regain those nine pounds she'd lost over the summer.

"Hey," said Pansy, in between mouthfuls of mashed potatoes slathered with gravy, "Do you know where Draco is? He sat down with Adrian Pucey, but I don't think he's there anymore." Blaise immediately picked his head up and started looking around at the Slytherin table. Sure enough, the blonde was nowhere to be found. Blaise shrugged, stuffing a chunk of bread into his mouth.

"Prbfly 'n thwrashruhm," announced Blaise. Pansy scowled at him. Blaise swallowed before repeating himself. "I said: he's probably in the washroom." Pansy sighed, turning back to her own meal. Draco did have a tendency to do completely random things, but it did get annoying, and sometimes Pansy wished she could remove those little odd traits from his personality. After a while, she set down her utensils, folded her hands in her lap, and turned to Blaise.

"In the washroom, huh?"

"Yeah."

"You wanna bet on it? Five galleons?"

"Deal."

Five minutes later, Pansy felt a tap on her shoulder. She whipped her head around to face the person. "Draco! Where've you been?" she exclaimed, alerting Blaise as well to the boy's presence. Draco shrugged, gesturing for Pansy to make room for him at her side. She did.

"Washroom," he replied, sitting down. There wasn't much elbow room, but it wasn't necessarily uncomfortable. Blaise smirked, and held a hand out across Draco. Pansy sighed, before rolling her eyes and pressing five galleons into the boy's hand. Draco raised an eyebrow. "You shouldn't make bets like that – for all you know, I could be lying." Blaise quickly pocketed the money, grinning at Pansy, who gave a little 'hmph' and began eating again, taking great care to elbow Draco in the ribs whenever the opportunity presented itself.

"So," began Draco, trying to make conversation, "Catarina's in Slytherin, then?" Blaise nodded. As it turned out, no one who knew that Catarina Zabini existed also knew that she was attending Hogwarts. Blaise didn't generally make a point of mentioning his sister, so she had probably been something of a shock to the Hogwarts population, especially the Golden Trio. Pansy found herself wishing that she had been looking at their faces when Catarina's name had been announced – they often forget that they didn't, in fact, know everything there was to know. Or Granger did, at the very least.

"It's a good thing of I've perfected the art of looking completely unperturbed in all situations," said Blaise, now only picking at his food, rather than stuffing his face with it. Being 'respectable members of pure-blood society', they had to be constantly well-mannered at home, and Hogwarts was a good place to unwind – and get into bad habits. No one could criticize their eating habits, though, since all they had to do was remind someone that Ronald Weasley, one of Hogwarts' golden children, ate like a pig.

"You mean, you didn't know your own sister was going to school here?" asked Draco, raising an eyebrow. Blaise shrugged. Deciding to drop it, Draco reached for a spare plate and set it in front of him. "She's the same age as Adessa, so they'll be in the same dorm to start. Do youthink they'll be friends?" Blaise shrugged again.

"Adessa isn't really Catarina's style, but they should get on just fine."

Draco nodded. Catarina Zabini was a bit of a daredevil, to say the least. She loved getting into just about everything, no matter how risky, and was constantly trying Blaise's patience, and sometimes his own, when he visited the Zabini Estates. Catarina was a leader, and so was Adessa, so they probably wouldn't end up being great friends, but he had a feeling that if they both laid down some ground rules with each other, they wouldn't drive each other crazy. After putting a small roll and a few pieces of asparagus on his plate that he could pretend he was eating, Draco turned his head to observe his least favourite Gryffindors: the Golden Trio.

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