Professor McGonagall led the first years into the Hall, towards the stool supporting the Sorting Hat. Every first year looked nervous, but upon closer inspection, Lily saw that three of the new additions weren't of the norm. There were two boys and a girl. All of them had black hair, but the boys had extremely messy hair and the girl's hair was tinted blue on the last inch. They didn't look scared, but they still clung to each other.

McGonagall unrolled the list of names, and the Ceremony began.

"Anderson, Nicole"

A very small girl pushed through he peers and up to the front. McGonagall placed the hat on her head and stood back. Two seconds later, the hat shouted "GRYFFINODOR!" Nicole jumped out from under the hat and into the arms of a boy that had just stood up at the end of the Gryffindor table.

"Must be her cousin," Arabella muttered.

"Why not her brother?" Alice asked.

"That's Frank Longbottom," Lily interjected. "He's an only child. They must've adopted her or she's distant family that showed up after Frank's father was murdered."

James looked around at Lily. "His father died?"

The three girls looked at James incredulously. "You've lived in the same dorm with him for four years and you don't know anything about his family?" asked Alice, completely at loss at how little boys communicated other than to announce how hungry they were.

Lily took over. "Potter, your father is Ministry official and he never bothered to tell you that one of your friend's family was killed off by Voldemort?" Lily's eyes were so wide that James would have bet his Nimbus they were going to fall out of her head. He tried to change the subject.

"You know, we really should be watching the Sorting." Lily said nothing, just turned her attention back to the Sorting.

The first of the three kids that caught Lily's attention was about to be Sorted. It was one of the boys. As the Hat was placed on his head, he smiled as confidently as he could at his siblings. The Hat took a moment's consideration before, "GRYFFINDOR!" The boy walked over to the table, still shaking slightly and sat down next to Lily. She smiled gently at him and received a shaky one in return.

"Gardiner, Michelle," announced McGonagall. The boy's attention snapped back to his sister. Lily admired her black and blue hair as Michelle walked up to the Sorting Hat and found herself tugging wistfully on her own ginger locks.

Michelle sat down on the stool, shaking just a bit more than her brothers. Both had their eyes glued on her. "GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the Hat jubilantly. Michelle jumped off of her stool and ran down the Gryffindor table to meet her brother.

Lily watched them embrace and felt a pang of sadness. 'Why can't Petty and I be like that all of the time?' she thought forlornly.

Everyone returned their attention back to the last Gardiner, whom McGonagall had just introduced as Robert. He made his way up to the stool and sat down, quaking more visibly than either of his siblings had been. McGonagall placed the Hat onto his head and stood back.

The Hat seemed to be having some sort of debate and was opening and shutting its brim. About a full minute later, when plenty of people's faces were taking on a blue tinge from having held their breath for so long, the Hat finally shouted to the Hall,

"SLYTHERIN!"

A gasp went through the Hall. Those who were waiting for the Hat to make its decision and were denied of oxygen had to breathe in quickly to gasp along with everyone else.

Murmurings started to flood the Hall and Lily didn't hear the name of the next person to be Sorted. She watched in a kind of unexplained pity as Michelle and her brother lowered their heads.

While walking over to the Slytherin table, Robert scanned it for a place to sit so he'd be out of common sight as soon as possible. A girl with long black hair caught his eye. She was looking at him intently. He quickly looked away and saw a couple of the older Slytherins leering at him. He quickly walked over to where the raven-haired girl was sitting.

Tina had been watching the Ceremony very closely. She'd gotten an odd feeling when she looked at Robert. She knew he was just like her in the instant that she'd laid eyes on him. 'He needs to sit near me!' Tina thought when Robert was Sorted. She saw him making his way over and settled into the calm, cool demeanor that got her sorted into Slytherin in the first place.

"Hi," he said glumly as he sat down. Tina felt her heart break for the boy. He at least deserved some kind of welcome.

"Hi. Robert, right?" He nodded. "I bet you wanted to be in the same house as your brother and sister, huh?" He nodded again. "Well, when the Sorting is over, how about you come with me to eat dinner with my friends?"

Robert looked at her, one eyebrow cocked. "Why would I want to do that?"

Tina smiled at him. "Do you see those three girls sitting next to your brother?" Robert nodded. "Those are my friends. I also think that you might want to get a good image in your head of how the four boys across from them look before tomorrow."