Ginny had never felt more threatened as she waited in the line, her fingers tangled in the slightly mangled sleeve of her hand-me-down robe. This one had come from an older cousin, since she was the first female in their family to go to Hogwarts, it had been a little harder to find her a robe. For a while she had dreamed that she would get her very own, but of course she wasn't that lucky...their family just wasn't lucky.

However...if she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor...she would have to get her own new robes. Everyone in her family (except for some distant third-cousin) had been sorted into Gryffindor...but what if she wasn't? What would happen then?
Bill, Charlie, Percy, George, Fred and then Ron had each been sorted there, year after year for ages now. It had been years since a Weasley hadn't been in Hogwarts, and even in her last year that was when one of her younger cousins, her fathers brothers middle daughter would be starting. It was already a well known fact that Elise would be sorted into Gryffindor, no question about it and that only made Ginny worry all the more that she wouldn't be. She wasn't brave and daring like her brothers were, she just knew she would get sorted into Hufflepuff...although Fred had teased her often that she was destined for Slytherin. Growing up with six brothers made you turn sneaky, using any means to get what she wanted. It was how she had been forced to live though, she couldn't help it!

Ginny shuffled forward as the lin shortened. At least with a last name starting with W it meant that she wasn't anywhere near going first. It was better really, because by the time they got to her everyone would have really lost interest and they'd just be dreaming of the feast which would follow. The only eyes on her would be her families...Harry and Hermione...really, the only ones which mattered when she stuffed up.

She knew very well that she was destined for Slytherin. Looking over at that table she could almost see her shadow there already, waiting for her. Everyone at the Gryffindor table looked foreign to her, she knew already that she didn't belong there, and the Hat would know that well. A girl, she forgot her name but knew her last stared with a D, was already wearing Ravenclaw robes (looking hand-me-down as well) as if it was certain she was going there...and then as soon as the hat touched her head, it had shouted "Slytherin!"

What if Ginny was the same? Everyone in her past was in Gryffindor...but that meant nothing. Perhaps it could even mean that it was well past the time for one of them to go somewhere else?
Would her brothers even talk to her anymore if she ended up somewhere else?
"...Weasley! Ginerva"
Ginny steped forward and took the sorting...