Author's note: Here's part five of the chronicling of the Raspberries' first year; it's the Sorting and- the bet! Will it be interesting? You BET it will!

Disclaimer: It's the usual yadda yadda yadda. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The line of thirty new students were led into the Great Hall, led by the tall, thin Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, who looked old enough for her age to be three digits. At the head of the line was the bespectacled Christina Zzra, now clad in her Hogwarts robes. The girl of diminutive stature looked very nervous, but she was also beginning to look excited about this new turn to her lifetime. As they were led to the front of the Great Hall, Christina walking behind Professor McGonagall, the tall, curly-haired blonde with a thin face began whispering to her. This girl seemed as if she were possibly taller than even Gwen.

"Wow, this is really exciting to be here. I'm the third child in my family to start here, I hope I get I get into Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, preferably in Ravenclaw. Have you any older brothers or sisters here? I'm Amy Boot, by the way." The girl threw her long blonde curls over her shoulder so that they caught the light, and her blue eyes sparkled with excitement.

"My brother Curtis Zzra is a Ravenclaw third year, and Craig is a Gryffindor second. I'm Christna.. Yeah, my parents liked giving names starting with the letter C." Amy smiled. "I've heard of Curtis."

The line came to a halt and turned to face the rest of the students that would be their schoolmates for their year. Christina inclined forward slightly, her dark eyes darting around looking for Gwen and Janine. Janine was not too far behind herself, placed behind a short, fat girl with chin- length blonde hair and a tall girl with wavy waist-length blonde hair. Blonde hair seemed pretty common in this particular class of students. The three people behind herself all had varying shades of blonde in their hair, but the fifth, sixth, and seventh persons in the line were brunets. Gwen was towards the rear, behind a pair of twin girls and in front of a tall girl with long red hair. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Felicia fidgeted nervously in her place in line between a brunette with slanted eyes and a blonde with a layered haircut and an air that reeked of an arrogant attitude. There was something familiar about this girl, but she could not place it.

"This is really gay," the blonde commented haughtily to her scrawny friend standing behind her. Felicia scowled; this sounded exactly like the voice she and her three friends from Diagon Alley had heard talking about some others, including a girl with "hair curly enough it looks like it could support a pencil." Looking along the line, Felicia guessed that the tall sandy-haired girl had been whom they had been badmouthing. Were those she was standing by her friends. They did not seem to fit the preppy snob's description, though.

"Your head is in your ass," Felicia muttered. She had spoken a little too loudly, for the girl's attention shifted to herself.

"What did you say?" the girl asked, glaring. Even her very voice sounded haughty, she sounded as if she were attempting to put on a phony exotic accent.

"I said your head is in your ass. I heard your comments about my friend's dad," Felicia challenged. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see an irked Professor McGonagall. Felicia blushed and mumbled an apology, and started looking about the line for Fern, Lucia, and Daphne. She, from her position almost at he halfway point in the line, took a while to locate them but she finally did so. First she saw Lucia between a short girl with a curly brown ponytail and a tall good- looking boy, then she saw Daphne and Fern almost at the end of the line, separated only by a small girl with extremely long brown hair. Felicia smiled at Lucia when their eyes locked, then turned to watch the hat that McGonagall had now brought out. She had not even noticed the Sorting song.

"Abbott, Lena!" A wavy-haired blonde stepped out of the line and settled herself on the stool. Professor McGonagall settled the hat on her head, and it fell forward to cover her eyes. After the moment, a rip at the brim open and the hat bellowed, "Ravenclaw!" The table second from the right began cheering- they were certainly enthusiastic about newcomers here! Lena set the hat on the stool as she went to join this table.

"Belasca, Felicia!" Her stomach lurched when McGonagall called her name out of nowhere. She ought to have known she'd be at the beginning, for her last name started with the letter B. It was a mercy that Abbott came before Belasca in the alphabet! She walked to the stool on quaking legs- it seemed at least a mile. Darkness enveloped her as she felt McGonagall set the hat on her head.

"Hmmm. strong personality here, I see... You do not fear speaking your mind, and you do not take flak from others lying down. You consider your greatest fear to be heights, but you do not let yourself go to pieces in a tough situation. I say your ideal house would be GRYFFINDOR!"

The table on the far left exploded with cheers, and Felicia shakily walked over to an empty section at the table. As she approached, several people called out, "Welcome to Gryffindor, Felicia Belasca!" Felicia grinned at these, then turned to watch others being Sorted. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the end, Felicia and Daphne were sorted into Gryffindor, while Fern, Lucia, Janine, Gwen, and Christina landed in Hufflepuff. Christina was furious: Hufflepuff? The House that was for "everyone else?" That meant the bloody hat had not found her particularly brave, or witty, or cunning. The hat had said she was a decent measure of all three main traits yet it had put her in Hufflepuff! Janine and Gwen were okay enough, but Fern and that other girldid not seem very into confrontation, or even conversation. They sometimes muttered things to each other that she couldn't catch. Were they talking about her or her two newfound friends? If they were, she would tell off the pair of pathetic fools. Marigold, Laura, and Anna, unsurprisingly, had been dumped into Slytherin, though Christina privately felt she actually wouldn't mind that House too much unless her dorm mates were exclusively rich schmucks.

"Lucia, what part of England are you from?" Janine asked. She wasn't going to bother asking Fern; she knew the Potters lived in some obscure small town in the middle of nowhere. It was good she was earliest in the alphabet of the Hufflepuffs so she could memorize the names of the others.

"Oh, Lucia, that's your name, I though it was Lisa or something like that," Christina said.

"Kent," the dark-haired girl answered in her wispy voice. Wispy hair, wispy voice: if it weren't for her chubby body she'd be nothing but a wisp.

"I'm from Cordor, rhymes with Mordor!" Janine sang with a laugh. Fern and Lucia looked confused; they were apparently unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings. Hopeless there.

"Hey, you know who I can't stand? Those girls," Christina declared, indicating Anna, Marigold, and Laura at the Slytherin table. They weren't easy to miss, because the three of them and a fourth girl, with narrow eyes and brown hair just a little past her shoulders, kept turning to stare in their direction.

"Yeah, we've got a bet with them and we're going to win, Gwen here is going to win for us," Janine added. You see that skinny girl?" Fern and Lucia nodded. "she's racing against Gwen, if there is even the slightest bit of wind I bet she'll be blown away, not that we care."

"Gwen looks like a runner," Fern commented, scrutinizing the curly- haired girl.

"Nah, even though I am one. You look like more of one, with your small hips and chest and your skinny body," Gwen replied. Fern blushed slightly; she had apparently taken Gwen's words as an insult.

"Hey, come watch us win our bet, you two," said Christina. "You know the small redhead and the gangly brunette with bangs you two were hanging out with? They're welcome to watch." Fern looked surprised that they had actually been noticed, never mind their companions, but Lucia knew Christina meant Felicia and Daphne. Felicia and Fern seemed the kind of people who would enjoy watching a bet in action. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I am seriously loving Hogwarts so far, I've gotten /such/ a great impression of it!" Daphne was the speaker, and she was talking to the five Hufflepuff female first years and Daphne. They were waiting for Marigold and Laura to arrive so that Laura and Gwen could run laps around the lake. Daphne and Felicia had just endured double Potions with Professor Snape, their first-ever Hogwarts lesson. He had spent the whole time implying that they were a crowd of hopeless imbeciles, and was it her imagination or had he particularly targeted herself and Felicia? Even better, Marigold and Laura, plus their friends Alicia and Anna, had decided to take every opportunity to snipe at them. Felicia had jotted a note about a little exchange of words with Marigold, who seemed the leader, and Snape had done nothing to snap it.

"I agree. Marigold and those others can take their attitudes and shove them up their asses," Felicia added vehemently.

"They're such bitches, I'd like to slap them all silly," Christina raged furiously, stamping her foot on the hard ground. The Hufflepuffs had been in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and quickly decided that Professor Rollins was a lunatic. He had taken three minutes or so introducing several people who were not there as his helpers and rambled about a little birdie friend of his. Other times, he just randomly raved about various topics, and they had no clue about what he was saying. She was still fuming over the Hogwarts Express incident.

"Ahh, speak of the devil, or should I say devils? Look who's coming?" Gwen was clad in sweatshorts, a T-shirt, and running shoes, naturally all RaBuF. She had merely worn her cloak over her out-of-uniform ensemble, and made sure to hold it shut in class: not that Rollins actually seemed to notice what the students wore. They could probably show up naked and he still wouldn't notice. To her amusement Laura was in a denim skort and a micro-tank.

"That Laura girl is dressed like a preteen tramp!" Janine commented stridently, laughing at her nemesis' outfit.

"No, you just need fashion sense! All of you!" Laura yelled back, tossing her long hair, which was loose. Gwen smirked again; that would hinder her running if she were any competition at all, which she seriously doubted. This girl looked as if she had never tried out any sort of physical activity whatsoever in her life- shopping for several hours straight did not count.

"I do believe you're also insulting yourself then, Laura Down," Gwen laughed as the four girls joined the seven of them, looking the skort and micro-tank up and down. Without a doubt, she was clad in merchandise purchased from a RaBuF store! The logo was absent, but these were definitely clothes her own mother had devised.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Laura asked, her perfectly tweezed eyebrows knitting in a frown. She hoped that Gwen had not just realized that they were wearing the same brand of clothes. She did like RaBuF attire, she just didn't wear the zigzag containing the letters r-a-b-u-f plastered all over them. Those people who thought they were cool merely by displaying the brand of clothing on their clothing were pathetic. It was the sex appeal of the clothes that made them cool, not the brand. Laura knew her form-fitting clothes would any guy in his right mind do a double- take when passing her- but Gwen? So what if the RaBuF logo was on the left leg of her shorts, and on each shoulder? No self-respecting guy would stop to have a second look at her!

"I notice that you're wearing RaBuF clothes," Gwen said with a laugh. If this girl knew who had made those clothes! "You said you wanted to run three times around the lake, right?" Actually, Laura had said two, but if Marigold and Laura forgot about that, their amusement could increase. Christina opened her mouth to speak but when Gwen trod on her foot slightly she closed it with a snap.

"How do you know these are RaBuF, Meeko? Omigod.. My tag isn't sticking out, is it?" Laura's face actually paled slightly, and Christina failed to stifle a snigger.

"You're fine as always, Laura," said Alicia Thomas. "And Zzra, there's nothing funny so I'd advise you to shut your sodding mouth unless you want your ass kicked."

Christina inhaled a fake gasp of terror, entertained by her pathetic show of toughness. "What, you're going to beat me up? Oh Merlin, I'm so scared! I'm just quivering all over, I simply cannot contain my fright! Hey, guys, this one here," she indicated Alicia, "thinks she can beat me up! Oh, my, how terrifying."

Alicia's face darkened and she made a move. She probably would have struck Christina if Marigold had not laid a hand on her shoulder to restrain her. "Hey, let us win the bet first before we start rearranging faces, Alicia." The seven girls written off by Mari as hopeless losers dissolved in peals of laughter.

"Oy, Laura, I'm ready when you are," Gwen said, jogging in place slowly to warm her muscles up. Anna and Marigold stared at the curly-haired Hufflepuff incredulously, and Daphne was rather confused herself. Lucia would have been too, had she not been rapt on the ensuing argument.

"What the hell are you doing, Gwen, have you drank a hyperactivity potion or something?" Anna demanded. Gwen and all of her friends except for Lucia and Daphne positively roared with laughter.

"I expect that's just a Mudblood custom, Weasley and Finch-Fletchley look confused and their parents are wizarding folk.. Though I believe Lucia's paternal grandparents were Muggle? Pity, guess that means only one of you are pureblood.. Not that the Weasleys deserve the title, what with all the Muggle-lovers in the family." Daphne saw red at Marigold Parkinson's defamation of her family and her small hands clenched into fists.

"What was that you were saying?" Daphne challenged, placing her hands on her small hips.

"Yeah, like you would really get it, Weasley. Do you need it spelled out for you? Wait, I bet you do. fraternizing with Muggles is sure to make you unable to understand even simple words," Anna added caustically, her poisonous green eyes haughtily scanning the tiny redhead.

"Can we just get this over with and save the talk for later?" Laura demanded. When Laura's friends turned to look at her, she hastily added, "We can be tainted by being seen talking to these people.. We have our reputations to think of! Oh, what was your question Meek? Something about three laps, whatever those are?"

Gwen rolled her turquoise eyes with disbelief: evidently Laura Downs was clueless about anything having to do with track. Her brushing Gwen off as a lunatic when she was doing her warmup exercises, the way she dressed up for running in those tight clothes, her ignorance about what a lap was.. It was too much! "It's what we- er, what do you call us? Mudbloods?" Gwen scowled; Christina had told her in no uncertain terms to clobber anyone who called her such a name over breakfast that morning. "It's what we would call one time around the lake."

Three times around the lake did not sound right to Laura, but she decided not to speak up lest she seem scared of running an extra time around the lake- which was starting to look very large indeed. Three laps- if she made it around three times running, she would have to eat out the whole Slytherin table at dinner to recover. Anna stepped forward and led the girls to a place where two rocks were set up, one about ten feet in front of the other. She told Gwen to take the one further back and Laura to take the one in front. Pointing at Gwen's rock, Anna said, "First to pass this three times wins, and I mean pass it, starting on this rock does not count as one pass."

"I'd hate to break this to you, Anna, but I knew that already," Gwen stated succinctly. "I've run so many races I've lost count." She decided not to complain about the shortcut, that's how confident she was about the outcome of the bet. Judging by the look of apprehension on Laura's face, she would be lucky if she made it around once, let alone thrice. Felicia had also spotted Laura's advantage point, and was furious.

"You cheating, stupid bollocks, you're giving Laura a head start! Look, everybody, Laura's rock is about ten feet, probably more, in front of Gwen's! That's not fair!" Felicia made a move to move Gwen's rock further up, but the tall girl held out a hand to stop the furious brunette from grabbing the rock. Felicia stopped, breathing heavily in her temper, and gave Gwen a confused look.

"She'll definitely lose if they're using this sort of tactic," Gwen muttered to Felicia, who sneered. "It's okay, they have people start further up front sometimes. Everything evens out in the end." She would explain about the starting points in relation to the circumference of the track later on. This wasn't exactly that setup but she felt that arguing about a head start for a person who she could beat anyway was pointless. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

"Right, then, let's get our money!" Anna declared. "Get on your rocks, both of you! One of Gwen's loser friends can tell them go.. How about Potter here? I haven't heard a peep from you, Potter!"

Choosing to ignore that zing, Fern stepped forward and cleared her throat. She remembered the runner's start from gym class and Field Day. "On your marks," Fern said softly but clearly. Gwen crouched down in a runner's stance, but Laura remained upright, her arms folded. Let Meek do her weird actions! They were very comical to watch anyway. "Get set!" Fern leaned forward slightly, and Laura took a step. "Go!"

Both girls ran forward upon Fern's command of "Go!" Gwen was running slightly slow but steadily; she would pick up speed later on. Laura spurted forward as fast as she could; and her three Slythericn cohorts began cheering for her and jeering at Gwen.

"Come on, Meek, a turtle can run faster than that!" They could see she wasn't bad as she began to go a little faster, a little faster, but they needed to quash whatever confidence she was stupid enough to possess.

"Hmm, this is so boring, the outcome is kind of obvious!"

"It will be hard deciding what to do with this money!"

"We should have upped the odds on the Mudblood losing!"

Gwen was starting to close the gaop between her and Laura, however, as Laura began to quickly feel very weary and out of breath. She had started off much too fast, and her chest was beginning to pound. Sweat poured down her reddening face, enough to fill an eight-ounce glass by the look of it. Gwen seemed to be at leisure, however, and she was actually smiling as she ran. They were halfway around the first lap of the lake.

"Laura started out much too fast, I know because I did that a lot myself," Fern whispered to Daphne.

"I'm loving this, she's actually not looking very well-groomed now.. Look, she actually has a few hairs out of place!" They were, of course, referring to Laura.

The gap was diminishing in size faster and faster as Gwen rapidly gained on Laura. She was beginning to reach the haze where she felt no pain and just ran, while Laura looked as if she were an agony. Gwen could actually see the slim girl's back heaving through the tight shirt as she took rapid shallow breaths. She was breathing the wrong way. She looked as if she was likely to make herself sick. Adding an extra burst of speed, Gwen drove level with Laura.

Panicking, Laura tried to speed up again, but it was becoming harder and harder to keep level with Gwen. That other girl, the lunatic, was actually SMILING but Laura was in excruciating pain. Her right lower side was sharply protesting with her every stride, and her legs felt as if they were planning on locking completely and causing her to fall. Her heart was pounding in her head and the air she breathed did her no good. Gwen lengthened her stride AGAIN and made it more rapid. What was with her, was this having no effect on her? Suddenly, Laura could no longer match her, and Gwen cut in front and began widening the gap between herself and Laura. She passed the rock, signaling the completion of her first lap. Bloody hell, this was only the first lap still? This was torture, that's what it was!

Gwen felt elated, in contrast to Laura's pain. She wasn't even running to what she knew was her full potential, there was no need to actually tire herself out this time. Laura was going to lose, she had set the seal on that by starting the race off running maximum speed. She would be an excellent sprinter, but this was a long-distance run! She began counting her own strides to a beat. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.

Janine smirked as Laura passed for the first time, panting very audibly. Marigold, Anna, and Alicia looked livid, but everyone else was very pleased indeed.

"Her purple face is clashing with that pink tank of hers, oh Merlin!" Christina observed loudly, so Laura could hear her biting remark. Laura's face darkened; she had apparently been affected. Running AND embarrassment from the outside? This was amusing to watch.

Before Laura struggled even halfway through her second lap, Gwen had already completed hers, actually slowing down to wave to the spectators. She of course would never do that in a competitive race, but this was leisure for her. She was doing what she did best against an apparently rather unathletic person. "Great going, Gwen," Janine hissed, as Lucia gave the thumbs-up sign from behind her. Fern mimicked applause, while the others were shouting "Wooo, go Gwen, you're almost done!"

This was insane, that Meek girl must have cheated. yes, that was the only explanation Laura could find. It was impossible, impossible, that anyone could run that far at a steady pace and maintain their comfort level. She had to have drunk a potion that would keep her from getting fatigued. Speaking of fatigue, Laura had resolved to go to bed very early that night, she sure as hell needed the slumber. And food.. How would she ever recover her energy otherwise? When Meek passed her again- bloody hell- Laura clapped a hand over her mouth. Her stomach had just performed an unpleasant flop, and she did NOT want to get sick on this outfit.

"YES!" Gwen shouted jubilantly, passing the rock for the third time. She ran slightly further for emphasis, then slowed down and came to a halt. Laura had not even finished her second. "It's okay Laura, don't worry about lap three!" relieved at this mercy, Laura dropped to her knees where she could and began heaving violently,. Perhaps she should not have eaten quite so much breakfast. She watched Marigold hurl the money bag containing their galleons to the ground at Gwen's feet, and then the Slytherins rushed over to aid Laura. Those Hufflepuff and Gryffindor bitches exchanged high-fives, then began walking back to the castle. They would pay, they would get theirs.