"Bernadett, Alejandra." We had to sit through the entire sorting, and Alexia's (who, at this point, had asked me to call her Alex) sister was being sorted. It took a while, but the hat finally declared her a Gryffindor. Thinking of her name, I posed a question to Alex.

"Hey, Alex. Do you speak Spanish?" She was congratulating her sister at the time, but nodded affirmative. "What does…" I thought for a minute. "Quién sabe mean?"

"Who knows."

"Huh?"

"It means 'who knows'."

"Oh… What about Cierre para arriba?"

"Ummm… Roughly? It pretty much means 'shut up'." I was telling myself to shut up… How quaint.

The ceremony passed fairly quickly and soon the food was there. I was hungry, famished would actually be a better word, possible even starving, but I also felt that if I ate a single bit I would retch until there was nothing left. I could tell that most of them were looking at me, wondering if I was going to eat, and giving me almost every ounce of sympathy they had in them. I didn't want that though. I wanted them to leave me alone. I wanted to be the quiet, subdued Lily Evans that had no friends and needed none.

As I was thinking those thoughts, I could feel Snape's loathing gaze pierce me, and made me turn around those thought completely, thanking god that I had these people around to protect me.

"Liiillllyyyy!" Sirius waved his hand in front of my face as he sang out my name. I was quickly jerked back from my busy job of sorting out my thoughts, which were normally extremely well organized, but somehow got messed up.

"Huh?" It was weak and a little dazed, but at least I said something. They all looked at me strangely and I noticed the food had disappeared. I knew what they wanted now. It was time to talk to Dumbledore. Oh God, I SO did not want to do this, but, before I knew it, they were dragging me off to the Headmaster's office.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, no one seemed to know the password, and it seemed the gargoyle was getting impatient. It surprised us all.

"Well are you going to go in or not?" it snapped. "I haven't got all day! If you don't know the password, then guess!" We stared, dumbfounded, but the others soon took his advice and began guessing. I, for one, thought for a while, and finally came up with the answer. Before I could stop myself, I had blurted it out.

"Socks and lemon drops!" The gargoyle looked at me, relieved, and moved aside for us. We made our way up the moving staircase as I began dreading it even more. Just before we reached the top, I turned around and tried to run away.

¿El huir otra vez?

Whatever you said, yes.

¿Tu huirá siempre?

Ummm… most likely?

Tu es imposible.

Ummm…. Uhhh…. Whatever.

I had nearly reached the bottom when I heard the exact same thing from someone else.

"¿El huir otra vez?" I looked up and saw Andraia "Andi" Ramirez standing in from of me. She had once been a friend of mine, but I had pushed her away. Just like all the others.

"¿Otra vez?" I heard Alex ask behind me. I, of course, had no idea what they were saying. I looked around, completely and utterly confused.

"Huh?" Andi looked at me, an unusually serious look in her eyes.

"¿El huir otra vez? In other words: fleeing again?" Unfair, I thought. Totally unfair. She was using it against me.

"I had no choice that time."

"You do this time, and, yet, you're still running." I shook my head furiously, as if that was going to clear it. I couldn't take this right now. Before anyone could stop me, I ran off blindly, not caring where I ended up. They would still tell the headmaster, and I would probably have to confirm it, but none of that mattered right now.

I was soon out of the school, and was headed toward the forest. As soon as I reached it, my path had a purpose. I was actually headed somewhere. Often, in previous years, I would come to this little glade in the forest where I could just be alone and sort everything out. No one had ever been brought to my spot, and I hoped to keep it that way.

When I reached it, I quickly threw myself down at the truck of my favorite willow and cried. No one could reach me there, especially not my parents, so it didn't matter if I cried or not. Because of this, I lost myself. I just sat there and cried. I cried for everything. My parents, my sister who now hated me, my lost friends, my insanity, the people trying to be my friends now, my inability to allow them to get close to me, but, most of all, I cried for her.

***Third Person***

The look in Dumbledore's eyes was grave as he sent the students off to bed. He knew that something of the sort was bound to happen. The airs between the students were thin and it was only a matter of time. Yet, he hadn't been expecting Lily Evans to be involved. After that tragic incident, she had shut herself off from the world. She had faced so much already and it saddened Dumbledore, because he knew things would only get worse.

Looking down at the small figure running into the forest, he turned to his phoenix, Fawkes.

"What are we going to do Fawkes? What are we going to do?"