James was beaming. His pockets were stuffed with candy and he was excited to finally be sorted. There was a big chance that he would be in Gryffindor since his dad was in Gryffindor, but that was no guarantee. Ravenclaw would fine as well. Even Hufflepuff would be fine, as long as it was not Slytherin. Some dark wizards and witches were coming from that House. His dad told him that all those terrible things would happen mainly because of them. The torturing, the killing for fun, scaring people with threats and kidnapping them. He was standing next to Sirius. "Are you ready, mate?" He asked. Sirius grinned at him. "I am more than ready to break the Slytherin tradition!" In front of them they heard some weak noise, but as soon as the two big doors opened it became louder. They entered the Great Hall and everybody was looking at them. The professor directed them between the four tables and gestured them to stop. She climbed the few steps towards a stool with a filthy, old looking hat. "We will start the Sorting Ceremony now. When I call out your name you will walk up to me, sit down on the stool and place the Sorting Hat on your head. He will decide in which House you belong for the rest of your school life here. You will take place at that table, you will eat at that table and you will present that House as well during your time here at school. Good behavior will reward your House with points and for bad behavior points will be deducted. The House with the highest amount of points will win the House Cup at the end of the schoolyear. And now, without any further ado, we will start the Ceremony." She stepped out of the way of the hat. The hat started singing and a few first years gave a small scream of surprise. James took this opportunity to discuss the first impressions of the teachers with Sirius.
"What do you think of her? She seems very strict. She looks like she needs a good prank." James whispered to Sirius with his gaze on professor McGonagall. "I think you are right. Maybe we can make that stick in her butt disappear." James snorted. "There is that big bloke that brought us to the castle. Do you reckon he teaches anything?" Sirius looked at him with squinted eyes. "Nah, I guess he is maybe the gamekeeper. Look at his clothes and his hands. But how about that small man over there? I have the feeling we will have the upper hand in his class. He does not appear as an authority figure." James looked at the small wizard. "I do not know. I think this could be difficult with him. But for all we know we will not even have any classes from him. A few classes we will not have until later." Just when Sirius wanted to reply the Hat stopped singing and everybody applauded. It was time to start the Sorting Ceremony. Professor McGonagall stepped forward again, now with a roll of parchment in her hand. "Let us start the Sorting Ceremony. I will now call the first name. Adrian, Peter." The boy had to walk from behind and almost tripped over someone's robe. He took place on the chair and placed the hat on his head. It was thinking and after 30 seconds it yelled: "RAVENCLAW!" The table on the right of James started cheering and welcomed Peter Adrian warmly. He sat down and looked happy that it was over. "Aubrey, Bertam." A small, but chubby boy stumbled forwards with his ears red. But when he turned around to face the crowd his eyes look determined. He looked to the right to the table of Slytherin and his mouth twitched a little. It was obvious he wanted to go there. And indeed, as soon as the Hat touched his head it yelled: "SLYTHERIN!" James rolled his eyes. "I am soon, since my last name is Black." Sirius whispered. He was not wrong since he was the fourth one to be sorted, just behind a boy with the name Avery. The Hat thought for a few seconds but then it was certain: "Gryffindor!" Sirius pumped his fist into the air and hurried off to the table to left. He gave James a thumbs up.
James watch the upcoming students with interest. Margareta Catchlove was sorted into Hufflepuff. Caradoc Dearborn into Ravenclaw. The next name was called: "Evans, Lily!" And he saw that it was the girl with the flaming red hair and the piercing green eyes. Lily Evans took place on the stool and she put on the Hat. Her face flushed. After a minute or so the Hat finally made a decision: "GRYFFINDOR!" She looked relieved and jumped of the stool, gave the Hat back and made her way down to her left. Sirius was cheering, just like the rest of the table. She sat down on the opposite of Sirius and shyly looked down. The next few names went fairly quick. Benjy Fenwick was sorted into Ravenclaw and Frank Longbottom in Gryffindor. Remus Lupin was up next and James was rooting for him. He liked him, even though he looked older for his age. Maybe it was because he was fairly tall. James was a little bit above average right now, but Remus was taller. Remus put on the Hat with shaky hands. "GRYFFINDOR!" Remus smiled and sat down next to Lily who he gave a hand. She smiled brightly at him. The next two names, Mary McDonald and Marlene McKinnon were also sorted into Gryffindor. They high fived each other and both hugged Lily. Dorcas Meadows was sorted in to Ravenclaw. Someone named Mulciber, a big and evil looking bloke who missed one of his front teeth, was sorted into Slytherin. Alice Pescus was sorted into Gryffindor and took her seat next to Frank Longbottom. After that it was Peter his turn. He stumbled towards the stool and put the Hat on his head. A minute passed away, another minute as well and Peter was just sitting there. He started to sweat. After more than five minutes the Hat finally yelled: "GRYFFINDOR!" Peter hurried to table and almost forgot to put the Hat back. The Great Hall roared with laughter when the small boy quickly returned the Hat. James was sure it was his turn now. Was there still place in Gryffindor? There were now four boys and four girls. Did this mean that Gryffindor was maybe already full?
Lily was now watching the rest of the Sorting Ceremony from her spot at the Gryffindor table. She felt relieved now. There was no magic yet, no test. Lily did not know much yet about the different houses. She only knew that Severus was sure he would end up in Slytherin. He looked sad when Lily got sorted into Gryffindor. First she was disappointed, since she knew nobody yet. But as soon as the girls from the train joined her she was excited! Mary and Marlene hugged her and now they were rooting for Alice to join them and luckily this happened. Now it was the turn of the boy who Lily had no idea what his game was. His parents seemed like decent people. They helped others without knowing them, just because they looked like they were in need of help. But why was he so nasty towards Severus? They did not know him. Was this just because he wanted to get in to Slytherin? Well, he wanted to be sorted in Gryffindor badly and now Lily kind of hoped he would not. Just because he seemed like a guy that would get anything he wanted anyway. Professor McGonagall called out his name now: "Potter, James!" He walked with confidence to the stool and sat down.
He barely had to put the Hat on his head and it already yelled: "GRYFFINDOR!" James was beaming. He walked to the table and set himself down next to Peter. Now Lily was only interested in Severus. She kept watching and sometimes she noticed who was being sorted into what house. Evan Rosier was sorted into Slytherin. And then she heard the name she was waiting for. "Snape, Severus!" She saw that Severus looked at her when she sat down and she smiled. He smiled back and a longing look came into his eyes. Maybe he was hoping now he would be sorted into Gryffindor. She knew he did not know anybody in Slytherin. But as soon as the Hat touched his head it was clear that he belonged in the House he always spoke about. "SLYTHERIN!" He cast a side glance to Lily and then walked to the other side of the Great Hall to join the Slytherin table. Colin Stebbins was sorted into Ravenclaw and after a big bloke named Wilkes was sorted into Slytherin the Sorting Ceremony was over.
This was the moment that the Headmaster rose from his chair. Everybody stopped with talking all at once. Lily could feel that this was a powerful wizard and that everybody had a deep respect for him, even the teachers. "Welcome back students and welcome new students. Another year at Hogwarts and we are all more than ready to let you enjoy classes full with wisdom. We are more than ready to expand your horizon. We hope that you are ready to meet new people and have an open mind. The older students already know this, but I need to say this again for the new students. Nobody is allowed in the Forbidden Forest, visits to Hogsmeade are only for students in their third year or higher when they have permission. If you want to try out for your Quidditch House team please contact the Head of the House. But again, this is not for the first years. I think we now had enough do and do nots, so just let us enjoy the feast for now." He raised his hands and all kind of food appeared on the table. Lily her eyes went big. Everything you could imagine was in front of her. She got some food on her plate and started talking with Remus who was sitting next to her. At one point the food disappeared and the desserts came in their place. Lily felt full, but it all looked so good. She helped herself to some pie and enjoyed the warm fuzzy feeling that came over her. She slowly became tired. The deserts disappeared professor Dumbledore stood up again. "I hope you all enjoyed the feast. Classes will start tomorrow, so have a good rest. First years, please follow the prefects of your House. They will be calling you soon. For now I wish you all a good night rest and very good first week." Lily heard a voice calling for the first years and she stood up and walked towards the guy and the girl. "We will show you how to get to the tower of Gryffindor and we will tell you the password for the entrance. Please remember it and when it changes we will tell you as well. If you have any issues with someone, a subject or it is just anything else you can always come up to one of us. Now please follow closely." Lily walked next to Alice who was gushing about Frank. "He is so nice, Lily. And so funny!" Lily smiled. "That is great, Alice! That is really good. It sounds like you like him a lot." Alice started blushing. "I just met him. We will see."
They walked towards a big painting of a chubby lady. "Okay, so this is the Fat Lady." She coughed. "Ignore her, it is the name of her painting. She is covering the entrance and will only let you in when you know the right password. The password for now is Horntail." The portrait swung open and they climbed through the passage. "This is the common room of Gryffindor. You will spend your free time here and also all the news will be on this board. First year boy dormitories are up this stairs and for the girls it is these stairs. Your stuff is already at your bed. Sleep tight." Lily made her way up with Alice, Mary and Marlene. They chatted a bit, changed into their pajamas and went to bed. "Good night girls. I am happy we are together with the four of us!" Said Marlene. "Same!" Said the other three.
A smaller part from Lily's perspective, sorry guys. Barely had any inspiration and it was quite hard to write this. She is new to all of this and now that it is done and ready I of course have loads of inspiration. But I will use it for the upcoming chapters! Please review, favorite and/or follow!
I am such a Jily shipper and I wished they were lovers from the start. That would have given them more time together, since they had so little. But of course, that makes their story so great. They were taken away way too young and they had so much more to give in their lives. So I might write a bit about Alice and Frank (Yes, Neville's parents) that it was first at love sight with them. But again, they were so young. Did you know what love felt like when you were 11, 12 or 13? I found/find it quite hard to write about it. I try to go back to the mindset of myself in that age, but it is quite difficult.
The upcoming chapters will be longer! These are way too short I think.