"Welcome to Hogwarts. In a moment you will pass through these doors and enter the Great Hall where you will be sorted into one of four houses. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin or Gryffindor. Each house has it's own noble past and respected alumni, once you have been sorted you will be expected to uphold the ideals of you house, lest you give it a bad name." Hermione winked at Elisabeth, huddled in her cloak near the front of the group.

A smile tugged the corner of her lips. "Let the fun begin."

She led them into the Great Hall. Elisabeth didn't think she had ever seen so many people.

"Form a line." Hermione said. "And when I call your name come up here and place the hat on your head."

Elisabeth thought she may have heard the hat sing, but she did not remember the words. Hermione had gone through most of the A's, B's, C's and D's before Elisabeth shook herself back to reality.

"Entwerp, Elmira."

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted firmly.

"Finnigan, Caroline."

"Good luck." Elisabeth whispered as Caroline walked past her.

"Thanks."

The hat contemplated for a minute before-"RAVENCLAW!"

Elisabeth looked around the room, looking at the tables filed with children, the head table, where Hagrid beamed at her, Professor Binns, the only teacher that was a ghost and Neville, smiling broadly, his horn rimmed glasses making his gentle face look (slightly) more severe.

"Granger, Anna." Elisabeth squeezed Anna's hand tightly as she walked by. Hermione's voice was trembling as she called her daughter's name.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Lucky Anna." Moira said, as Hermione called Will's name.

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Oh no. Poor Will."

"There's nothing wrong with Ravenclaw, Daniel."

"You don't know Will as well as I do. He's been wanting to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team since your dad bought him a broom on his second birthday. He-"

"Longbottom, Daniel."

"Good luck Danny." Elisabeth and Moira whispered.

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat shouted. Elisabeth was acutely aware that she was standing alone when Moira's name was called.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" Elisabeth looked at her friend as she went to sit at the Hufflepuff table. Moira smiled at her and nodded to show that it was all right.

Elisabeth tried to calm her nerves by reminding herself that no matter which house she got into she had a friend. Except for Slytherin but if she got into Slytherin she would drop out and begin a life of crime. Maybe she could get a job as an underworld gun moll.

"Potter, Elisabeth." Elisabeth heard whispering and saw people craning their necks to get a glimpse of her. The last thing she saw as the hat dropped over her head was a massive, moving portrait of her father, in his Quidditch robes, on a broom. A sixteen year-old likeness of her father winked down at her from the far wall.

"A Potter! Well, I thought I had seen the last of you."

"Sorry." Elisabeth thought.

The hat chuckled. "So what house do you want to be in?" It asked idly.

"I get a choice?"

"Well of course, it is, after all, our choices that decide who we are."

"Ravenclaw." Elisabeth thought.

"Yes, you are a Ravenclaw, headstrong and wise. Never too many brains for your own good."

Elisabeth had the impression that if the hat had eyes it would be winking.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Elisabeth pulled the hat off her head and rushed to Ravenclaw table. Hermione and Nevile were clapping and smiling at her.

She looked up at the portrait of her dad, wondering if he would be disappointed in her. She also thought of her mum, wondering if, wherever she was, she was disappointed in her.

"Good job Lib." Daniel grinned at her.

"And you." Elisabeth said, grinning back. "Where'd Will go?"

"He didn't even sit down at the table." Cedric Chang said in a low voice, leaning across the table.

"He must've gone to the bathroom. I was just waiting to see what house you were in, I'm going to go find him now."

"Daniel. No. Sit. Eat. You can go look for him after the feast."

"Yes mum."

"Don't push it, or this will be your last meal."

Daniel laughed. "The true Elisabeth comes out."

"The true Elisabeth has been out forever, she just hasn't been provoked yet."

Elisabeth looked down the table and saw Apacia, who winked at her. "I'll talk to you in the common room." She mouthed.

Elisabeth gasped as the food appeared on the table. She looked at the head table. Hermione was deep in conversation with Neville but he turned and winked at her, giving her the thumbs up.

Elisabeth put some food on her plate and turned back to Daniel. "Do you think Moira will be alright in Hufflepuff?"

"Mo can make friends anywhere, she's so sweet. Mum will be disappointed but mum is a smidge superficial." He caught the look on Elisabeth's face and hastily added, "she would never tell Moira she's disappointed. Mo will be happy in Hufflepuff because she's a happy person."

"I should meet up with her and Anni after dinner. If Anna still wants to talk to us, what with us being lowly Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."

"Anna isn't as tough and cold as she makes herself out to be."

"I know." Elisabeth said. "You know, I thought you would be put in Hufflepuff."

"How come?" Daniel asked.

"You're hard working and loyal."

"From what you know of me." He said ominously.

Elisabeth snorted. "Very dark Mr Longbottom, very dark." She said in a deep voice.

He smiled. "I try."

They both burst into laughter.

"Hey, too bad you didn't get into Gryffindor."

"Too bad for who?" Elisabeth asked, turning around in her seat.

"Me." Kris said, smiling.

"Thought so, I'm quite happy with my placement."

"How do you reckon my Quidditch team will keep up their ten year streak with the child prodigy on the team?"

"Maybe I won't even be on the team."

"That would be worse." He winked and kissed her quickly on the forehead before loping off.

"I wish he would stop doing that. At least until I know what his intentions are."

"I know what his intentions are. Malice. He's sent both his girlfriends to therapy, I don't even want to know what happened to his mistresses."

"Oh shut up Vivyann. You turn everything into a soap opera. Kris is very nice, his reputation is sketchy, that's all." A tall dark-haired boy snapped back at the white-blond wispy girl.

"You're just saying that because you're his friend."

"YOU'RE just saying THAT because you're mad he doesn't like you."

The girl rolled her eyes. "My name is Vivyann Dasalenna, this dolt is my boyfriend Derrick Vichy, we're third years."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Elisabeth Potter, this is my good friend Daniel Longbottom."

Daniel looked up from his plate long enough to smile and then went back to eating.

The two girls rolled their eyes and shook their heads. "I am not sitting on this side of the table tomorrow."

"Why not?" Vivyann asked.

"Because my father at sixteen is staring down at me from the wall."

"Get used to it, there's two more of them, and one in every common room."

"Why in god's name?"

"War hero." Derrick said through his food.

"There's three of Seamus Finnigan, two of," he glanced the rest of the table. "Professor Granger. Two of Uncle Ron, and seven of Uncle Sirius and Uncle Lupin together."

Elisabeth shuddered. "Poor you." Vivyann said.

"Hey, which one is Snape?" she asked looking at the head table.

"Next to Professor Binns. With the greasy hair. They had next to dad in the first plan and dad nearly lost his lunch."

Elisabeth laughed.

They finished eating and the tables cleared themselves magically.

"Should we go say hi to Anna and Mo?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, I think so." They told Vivyann and Derrick they would talk to them in the common room and got up and stretched.

They walked over to Gryffindor table first and Anna hugged them and introduced them to the friends she had already made.

"So you guys are happy with where you are?"

"Oh yeah, Will isn't."

"I know." Anna sighed, "Poor guy, he never really thought about not getting into Gryffindor. I should go talk to him."

"I'm going to later." Daniel said.

"We're going to see Moira now." Elisabeth added.

"I'll come with." Anna said good bye to her friends and the walked over to Hufflepuff table where Moira was engrossed in conversation with a group of Hufflepuff girls.

She stood up when they said her name and came over. "I'm so glad everyone's happy."

"What about Will?"

"He'll get over it. Dan will go drag him out of the loo, he'll mope around the common room for a couple days and then find something better to do. It's a vicious cycle."

Daniel laughed. "That's about it. Well, we're going to go back to our common room now, tell mum what house I got into will ya?"

"You bet. Good night you guys." Moira hugged her brother good night and went with her friends to the Hufflepuff common room.

"I'm going to go to my room, I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

"Absolutely, we'll find you at breakfast and the five of us can do something."

Anna nodded and gave Elisabeth a hug, returning to her common room.

"I'm going to go get Will out of the bathroom."

"I'm going to send an owl to my dad, I'll meet you in the common room."

"Do you know the password?"

"Chanty po."

"What kind of password is that?"

"The Head Girl is Glaswegian."

Daniel nodded and went to get Will. Elisabeth began walking up to the owlery when Hermione stopped her.

"Good job sweetie. Your mum would be proud."

"You think so?"

"I know so. You go write your dad now, tell him that you're happy, don't tell him that Kris kissed you and for heavens sake, don't tell him that Cho Chang is flying instructor."

"How did you know-"

"I have eyes swetheart. Keep that boy at arms length at least until you turn thirteen." She gave Elisabeth a quick hug and disappeared down the corridor.

Elisabeth went up to the owelry and penned her dad a quick note, sending Penny on her first flight.

She went up the stairs, remembering the instructions she had been given without incident. Except seeing two of the four portraits of her father. In one of them he was standing by the lake with Hermione and in the other he was standing in front of a cauldron, the liquid throwing multi- coloured flashes across his pale face.

She arrived at the Raven claw entrance. It was a smooth slab of obsidian, carved with an eagle, the eagles outline moved like blue liquid but when she touched it it was smooth and hard. She whispered the password and the eagles beak grew wide, splitting until she could easily step inside of it.

She gritted her teeth and stepped inside.