Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, Lord of the Rings, nor Harry Potter. They are the sole property of the original creators, i.e. not me. This story is merely to entertain; mainly me. So please don't hurt me legal persons.

I've been Sorted Where?

The first years arrived last to the Great Hall, as they had to take the traditional trip to the castle in boats. Once everyone was inside the Great Hall, the headmaster, Dumbledore then decided it was time to introduce to the school the special guests they would be hosting for the next couple of years.

"As some of you may have noticed," began Dumbledore, "we have four new students in addition to our first years. These students have shown a great strength in magic, but because of certain circumstances we were unable to enroll them until this year.

"We are not the only school to be hosting students such as these, as there were far too many to be placed, we were only able to pick out the most exceptional. Please make them feel welcome, as this is all very new to them." He then made a waving gesture at Professor McGonagall. "Now we will start the sorting beginning with our transfer students." McGonagall then placed an extremely old and battered hat on a stool that stood at the front of the Great Hall. The hat then sang a strange sorting song.

McGonagall stood off to the side and took out a scroll of parchment with names printed on it. "Tomoyo Daidouji," she called out after the hat finished its song. All Tomoyo could thing about was how she even got into this school, recalling Dumbledore referring to them as having exceptional strength in magic.

'But I don't have any,' she thought as she made her way to the hat. McGonagall placed the hat on Tomoyo's head. A few moments later Tomoyo gave a frightened jump as the hat shouted, "Gryffindor!"

McGonagall removed the hat and told Tomoyo to join her table. Tomoyo was somewhat surprised as everyone at the Gryffindor table clapped like mad.

"Sakura Kinomoto." Sakura then had the hat placed on her head, and not even a second later that the hat had touched her head that it shouted, "Gryffindor!" She was greeted just as excitedly as Tomoyo had been.

Syaoran and Hotaru were up next, and to everyone's surprise, especially Sakura's, they were both sent to Slytherin.

Syaoran and Hotaru grumbled as they made their way to the Slytherin table. "I've been sorted where?" said an extremely upset Hotaru. "Jeez, you're possessed once and get labeled for life." Syaoran just scowled knowing why he'd been sent to this particular table. He had hoped that it was behind him, but his need to get what he wanted by any means was what sent him there. The two were greeted with exceptionally loud cheers from all, except Draco, who just sat, stunned by this twist of fate.

'How was she placed here?' he wondered. 'Nobody this good looking has ever been placed here.'

The cheers from the Slytherin table died down and the first years were then sorted. Dumbledore gave a speech after all had been sorted, saying that the forbidden forest was still off limits, yadda, yadda, and for everyone to enjoy this year, despite what's going on outside the school walls. The feast began shortly after and all sorts of food started to appear out of nowhere.

"This is amazing," said Hotaru. She turned to Syaoran to see his reaction to the food, but he was too busy trying to get Sakura's attention to apologize for not being able to be in the same house. Hotaru could tell this was going to be hard for both Sakura and Syaoran, as they probably hadn't been away from each other for long periods of time since they'd been going out. Sure, they'd see each other, but it would only be between classes and on the off chance that their houses would be paired together.

Sakura was quite in shock to learn that her boyfriend was to spend the rest of the school years with the ones everyone considered 'evil'. Tomoyo tried to calm her down, but couldn't snap Sakura out of her funk. Harry took notice of her distress and tried to help. "It's all right, I mean there has to be some people that go through Slytherin and turn out okay," Harry said trying to sound hopeful.

Sakura cheered up a little, "Really?"

"I'm sure of it, and just in case, I know for a fact that we have several classes with the Slytherins so you can be sure to keep him in line. That is, if he ever starts to stray."

Sakura gave a large smile, "Thank you."

Harry blushed slightly, 'Man, all the transfer girls are gorgeous,' he thought. 'Maybe I should move to Japan.' Tomoyo then turned to Harry.

"Thank you for cheering her up," said Tomoyo. "I just hate to see her unhappy."

"Oh, it was my pleasure," replied Harry.

The feast was ending and the Prefects were ready to take their houses back to their common rooms when Dumbledore got up to make one last announcement. "One last thing before you go to your common rooms. Since there was such a great turn out for the Yule Ball last year, it has been decided to make the ball an annual thing. This dance is only for those in their third year and up. Goodnight." After this announcement the whole hall was talking about what they'd wear and whom they were going to go with.

"Honestly," said Hermione. "It's not going be for another three months."

"That may be, but some people don't want to take chances and wait 'til the last minute, like last year," said Ron. "Speaking of which, just to be sure, will you go to the ball with me, Hermione?"

"Well, of course," she said and gave him a hug. Ron nearly melted.

"You two are great together," said Sakura as they started on their way to the Gryffindor common room. The group walked through a lot of corridors and up terribly odd stairs. All the while, Sakura clung onto Tomoyo for dear life as all the people in the portraits watched their progress.

"Tomoyo-chan, are they gh-ghosts?" Sakura stuttered. Harry looked over and shook his head.

'She's supposed to be courageous?' he asked himself.

Tomoyo turned to Harry and said, "She's courageous when she needs to be." Harry just gave a startled look suggesting a 'did she just read my mind' sort of thing.

"Uh, anyway," said Harry. "They're not ghosts, just enchanted portraits. It's very common in the magic world. I've only just gotten used to the idea myself. Although there are real ghosts at this school."

"Ho-e!" cried Sakura, and hid herself behind Tomoyo.

"Oh, but they're not scary-I mean, the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, is pretty nice," he said, trying to, but unsuccessfully, calm Sakura down. "There's really nothing to be afraid of."

"I don't care if they're nice or not, I just don't want them coming near me," she sobbed.

"Oi, Sakura-chan, you're soaking my sleeve," said Tomoyo.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura wiped her eyes, then tried to dry her friend.

"If you get to know him you'll know he's nothing to be afraid of," said Harry. Sakura just sniffled and tried to stay calm, she couldn't help it, but ghosts just gave her the creeps, no matter how she thought of them.

The Gryffindors finally found their way to the entrance to the common room, which was a hole hidden behind a portrait of a very plump woman. "That's the fat lady," whispered Harry. "You have to tell her the password to get into the common room." Sakura and Tomoyo just nodded, letting him know they understood. Sakura was still slightly frightened by the idea of moving portraits. The Prefect said the password, "Cockroach clusters," and the portrait swung open, revealing a cozy looking room with a blazing fire and a lot of cushy looking chairs.

The Prefect then turned to face all the students once everyone had entered the common room. "The boys dormitories are on the left and the girls' are on the right," he gestured towards both respectively. The prefect then left the students to get settled.

"Come on I'll show you to our room," said Hermione. "Since we're in the same year, I guess that's where you're supposed to go." She led them up the spiral staircase and into a room with several four-post beds. "I guess the extra two on the other side of the room are yours."

The two beds were, of course, Sakura's and Tomoyo's, as their belongings were in the trunks at the foot of the beds. Kero then flew over to them. "It's about time you guys got here, I was getting bored. Especially since I can't play any video games here." Hermione just stared.

Sakura and Tomoyo noticed the look on Hermione's face and realized they'd forgotten to tell her about Kero on the train.

"Oh, uh, this is Kero-chan," said Sakura. "He's my guardian."

"Your guardian?" Hermione looked puzzled. "He's a little small." At this comment Kero then started to glow and was encased by giant wings. When he opened his wings the glow disappeared and in the place where the pint-sized plushie had been was Kero's true form, a rather large winged lion.

"Oh," said Hermione. "So that was just his travel size?"

"I guess you could call it that," said Kero, in his now deeper voice. He then de-transformed. "This is actually my false form. It's so I can remain undetected, for the most part, to not draw as much attention while I aid Sakura."

"Yeah, I don't have a guardian, but I do have a cat, Crookshanks," she pointed to the lump of fur on her bed. "So far he's protected me, I guess."

Later as they were getting into bed Sakura couldn't help but wonder how Syaoran and Hotaru were doing in the Slytherin house.

Syaoran and Hotaru reluctantly followed the Slytherins after the feast, towards the dungeons of Hogwarts until they finally reached what seemed like a dead-end. 'What, are we lost?' thought Syaoran. Just then the Prefect said the password, "Blood boil," and the wall slid open revealing a somewhat eerie looking common room.

"Isn't this place great," said Draco, uncharacteristically cheerful, to his lackeys.

"Ick, yeah, if you're Stephen King," Hotaru said looking around. Syaoran nodded in agreement. Draco turned to look at her.

"Stephen-who?" he asked, almost rudely.

"What? Oh, he's a famous writer," she said. "He's known for writing horror novels and stuff like that."

"Well, I've never heard of him," he said smugly. "So he's obviously not that famous."

"He is a muggle, and as you're known for disliking them, it's no wonder you haven't heard of him."

"A muggle?" he asked. "How dare you mention one inside Slytherin's house."

"You know 'muggles' as you call them aren't that bad-I mean-I've lived around them my entire life, and I find nothing wrong with liking those who don't possess magical powers." 'Even if they don't like me,' she added to herself.

Draco looked as though he was going to say something really harsh, but then, scowling, Syaoran stepped in front of him and Draco though better.

"If you know what's good for you you'd leave talk of muggles outside this house. Those in here aren't very forgiving of things like that." Draco then headed towards his room flocked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"As these people don't look like a very friendly bunch, I'd actually take his advice and refrain from mentioning muggles, or anything else they'd take offense from, for now on," Syaoran told her more than suggested. "Just to be safe, I think that tonight I'm going to be sleeping with a magic shield around my bed. I don't trust those three in the least."

Syaoran and Hotaru sat in silence in the common room, patiently waiting for everyone else to go up to their rooms. The two thought it best to avoid any unwanted interactions. Once the common room had been completely cleared, other than Syaoran and Hotaru, of course, Luna strolled down the stairs carrying a book. "Hotaru," she said, dropping the book. "Have you contacted the others yet, to tell them you've arrived safely?"

"Oh, my, gosh, I completely forgot." She was about to reach for her communicator, but stopped as soon as she realized, "I can't use my communicator here."
"That's why I've brought this book down. It tells you how to communicate using fire. The items needed are attached inside." Hotaru picked up the book and thumbed through it.

"So I'm just supposed to throw the powder into the fire, this seems easy enough." She looked over at Syaoran who was starting to doze. Hotaru nudged him gently. "Maybe you should go to bed now." He nodded sleepily and made his way to his room.

Hotaru went to the fire and threw in the powder, she then uttered the name of the person she wished to speak with, "Rei Hino." Hotaru figured Rei would be the only person near a fire at this time of night.

Rei was more or less surprised to see Hotaru's floating head in her flames. At first she thought it was some sort of premonition, but quickly realized it was not, since none of her premonitions were able to actually make contact with her. Rei had had a crash course in magic using so as to perform her duties as a sailor scout, so she vaguely understood the workings of this sort of communication.

"Hi, Rei," said Hotaru. "I wasn't able to use the communicator so I figured-well, Luna figured-this would be the best way to contact you."

"Oh," said Rei. "Well how are you doing so far, everything going all right?"

"Yes, everything's fine, I've even made some new friends."

"That's great, I'm sure everyone will want to hear about your time there, so we'll be sending you an owl, so we can contact each other easier. I'm sure everyone else will want to be more discrete about sailor business. Oh, by the way, who's that behind you?"

"What?" Hotaru turned around to see Draco. She quickly turned back to the fire, "Bye, Rei," she said and Rei's head vanished.

"Who were you talking to," Draco inquired. "And what's so important that you couldn't even speak English. But I was able to pick out a 'sailor' something."

"I was speaking to a friend, and it's not like she could even understand English anyway," replied Hotaru. "As for the rest of the conversation, that's for me to know and you to never find out." She then turned to leave, but Draco grabbed her by the wrist.

"What is it with you? Do you not understand who I am."

"I understand that you're an extremely evil person and I'll have nothing to do with you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to bed-and why haven't you?"

Draco let her wrist go, "Well, that's for me to know and you to never find out," he said smugly as he turned to leave. He then disappeared up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

"Oh, well, pfft," was all Hotaru could say to that before she went to her own room.