A/N: Well, how was that for huge foreshadowing? I practically did it with a makeup brush. Here goes the next bit, if you can stand to read how the plot works out. Here you go.

Chapter Two: Either Or and Neither Nor

"And finally," Professor McGonagall announced calmly, s if it weren't perfectly obvious that there was one more student in the center of the Great Hall, "we have our new fifth-year student, Julia Starcatcher." It was her turn to be Sorted, so Julie strode up boldly to the chair where the others had been placed on. Little Chloe had been put into Gryffindor, and had, shaking, shook Julie's hand before she went to her table, so she had some small idea of what the nerves would be like as she was Sorted with the hat on. The frayed brim went over her eyes, and she began to hear a voice above the top of her left ear.

"Well, what have we got in this, I wonder? A Gryffindor's mind in a Slytherin's body? Or is it the half way around? Well, it's touch and go for you, miss, unless you've got any other opinion…"

'I don't really care, just Sort me,' Julie thought nervously. The hat continued on.

"Well, that certainly makes a little difference, now, doesn't it? You've got bravery, treachery, cleverness, and cunning all snarled up in this mind of yours, and really no opinion where to go. Are you sure you don't care?"

'I just don't know a thing about either!' Julie thought, and the hat just seemed to sigh.

"Well, if you can think like that, dear…" Julie relaxed a second, hoping it would just get over with at last. "Then I'd better just leave it a tie then, hadn't I? THIS ONE'S A DRAW!" the hat announced, leaving Julie in a state of what felt like permanent mortification.

"What can it mean, a draw?" Hermione whispered to Severus.

"Explain yourself, hat!" McGonagall demanded. Still on Julie's blushing head, the hat began to sing:

"I'm sorry, but it's really so,
A hat I am, and so I know,
Which kids are perfect for the blue,
And red, and gold, and green ones too.
This girl's got two types in one brain,
And thus explains my song's refrain
I'd say I really can't not-nor
Pick Slytherin or Gryffindor!"

A wave of shocked silence spread over the room, only to be followed by another of muted whispers.

"Yeh mean she's both?" Hagrid inquired.

"This has never, ever happened before," Professor McGonagall exclaimed. "Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you all to start on dinner. Miss Starcatcher, Hermione, Severus, I'll need a word in my office with the three of you."

"I'm, sorry, Professors," Julie tried to explain as they stepped into the office. "I just didn't know which to pick, and I just wanted all the Sorting to be over…I was nervous, y'know?"

"Can't believe they would have put you in Slytherin," Snape dryly observed, only to be poked with Hermione's elbow.

"That's quite alright, Julie, it's really scary for everyone. Especially when you've heard so close to nothing about the different houses. I'd have done the same thing if I hadn't known then."

"That," Professor McGonagall announced quietly, "is what I intend this meeting to be entirely about. As the Heads of House for Gryffindor and Slytherin, I expect you both to interview Miss Starcatcher and allow her to conclude an opinion. Would that be acceptable to you, Julia?"

"Yes, of course, professor. Which one of them's-"

"That, they will not be allowed to tell you. I don't want bias because the one is-a bit different from the other." McGonagall shot an absolutely withering glance at Snape.

"I suppose I might begin by asking you whether you have ever lied, Miss Starcatcher," the black-haired professor began with a smirking but inquisitive look as he took a seat directly to Julie's left side.

"Oh, but of course, sir!" Hermione grinned a little meanly at Severus as she took the seat to the right.

"Were you ever caught in the library five hours after you weren't supposed to be there?"

"I got caught after four, once." Julie hoped it was a satisfactory answer, but the Defense Against the Dark arts teacher inquired:

"And what were you researching?" Julie blushed like like an undercooked beet.

"I was reading about geneology and race determination among people of the British Isles." Hermione realized exactly why before she said it. "I was trying to find out what nationality I was by my features, see, 'cause I've never known who my parents were or even where I come from, and I was just sort of hoping I might find something, you know?"

"Well, let me see, then," Professor Snape continued. "I believe that it's your turn, Hermione."

"Well, yours was cross-examination, so you could really go next if you-"

"Professors," McGonagall warned, clearly acting as a mediator. "You sort this out or I will put her into Ravenclaw."

"No, wait!" Hermione started. "What's your favorite bedtime story?"

Both Snape and Julie snorted.

"Bedtime story? At an orphanage?" Julie shrugged wryly as she turned to face her new teacher. "The best I could do was reading a fat leather Shakespeare at four using the hall light to read by. You could say I liked Much Ado About Nothing best, though."

"Well, that's er-good, then. Who's your favorite modern author?"

"Chuck Palahniuk."

"Okay, what the hell's he write?" Hermione chipped in to clarify:

"Dark fiction, stuff like Fight Club-"

"Okay, now I know it. Very good taste for a fifth-year."

"What would you rather do, find out why something is that's bugging you, or play pranks on your teachers?" She was thinking in terms of how she and Malfoy might have used the Marauder's Map, but clearly Hermione wasn't all that good with questioning.

"You are my teachers. How do you think that I'm going to answer?"

"You admitted before that you can lie, Miss Starcatcher," Snape reminded her, noting the odd little cringe whenever he said her name. "You could always fall back on past policy."

"Well, no, I'd have to say that it'd depend on how much it was bugging me or how annoying the teacher." Julie grinned and Hermione giggled slightly at Snape's somewhat surprised expression, which was a way that he very rarely seemed to look outside of the dungeon.

"What sort of drink do you like best?" she finally challenged, remembering full well the counts of possion of liquor, just to see if young Miss Julie really lied.

"I like sev'ral different kinds of soda, tea, and coffee if you put a little crème de menthe in it." Hermione was startled by her candor about drinking. "I got caught once with a jar of that at school-giving out like, spoonfuls to the bigger kids for their coffee. The stuff at the orphanage was such bloody tar it really needed just a scrap of odd flavor."

Snape was beginning to realize exactly why the hat had given up on this young fifth-year. It was as if she had been bred to standard as the perfect half-and-half mixture, and he wondered if maybe she was.

"What do you know about these mysterious origins?" Julie's eyes narrowed, but she didn't quite flinch at the peculiar question.

"Well, I was born as a baby, and taken to an orphanage by a man that noone recognized. I was told he'd gave his name as 'Sarvant,' or 'Servant,' or something, and he left without filling out the paperwork. Seemed to have a broken hand. So nobody knew what my real name was, or if I even had one. They picked my first name by someone's closing their eyes and reaching into the Shakespeare. Got Julius Caesar, except there's that fact that I'm a girl, and hence it's 'Julia.' 'Starcatcher' is because of this mark, here." Julie held up her palm to show an asterisk-shaped scar at just an inch or so away from the pad of her thumb. "Have you any other questions about where I came from, because that's really all I know."

"Wow. And speaking of interesting scars, you should see the one that I've got." Hermione was shocked as Severus pulled up the sleeve to show the inside of his left forearm, where the branded Dark Mark had faded into nearly nothing. He very rarely showed it, almost never even to her. "Does this mark mean anything to you?"

"It must have hurt to get it," Julie offered.

"I mean the symbol," Severus explained. The other two professors were surprised completely that 'stupid girl' hadn't somehow gone into that remark.

"I sort of recognize it, yeah," Julie strained to think of where she knew it from. "I had nightmares about it all the time as a real little kid, guess it must've been a rock band whose video scared me or something."

Suddenly Snape was on his feet, and McGonagall as well.

"I think you see the situation," Severus said to McGonagall, and she nodded in agreement. "Hermione, she must be put in Gryffindor."

"Oh, please don't fight over me, you two!" Julie cried, for some reason unable to bear the thought of these two people fighting. Snape suddenly grinned and pointed to Hermione.

"She's Head of Gryffindor, I'm Slytherin." Julie looked completely nonplussed. "Cripes, you really were confused by that hat. Most people tell it in a second."

"Severus, she honestly hadn't heard a thing about either of the Houses, she was perfectly neutral to each."

"I quite agree, dear." Severus whispered, out of Julie's hearing. "But her knowing the Dark Mark is a sign of something very bad indeed." Snape turned from her then with a frown to face his boss. "I think we'd better send for Albus Dumbledore."