AN: Kudos to whoever gets both of the sitcom references.

I stepped off the chimney with a few vigorous coughs, dragging my trunk behind me.

"Ah Miss Evans, right on time." Professor Dumbledore stood in his long lilac robes and hat, in the most peculiar place I had ever seen.

Dumbledore's office was a rustic looking place, with a ton of little trinkets I had no idea the use for scattered around, there was an odd looking big red bird perched on the windowsill, and the many portraits of different men that hung on the walls were pretty much all moving — which Lily had warned me about, but I still found incredibly bizarre —.

There was a tall woman standing beside Dumbledore, she seemed to be in her early forties, dressed in green robes that were nearly as ostentatious as Dumbledore's, she had light brown skin, a long nose and large kind eyes, her hair stuck out in various directions.

I dragged my trunk across the floor in an attempt to get closer to the two wizards, but it was proving to be harder than expected. "I'm sorry, I wanted to bring a suitcase but Lily told me wizards use trunks pretty much exclusively, which seems very impractical to me, honestly if I hadn't seen her dragging a trunk across King's Cross for seven years, I would absolutely believe she was pulling my leg, actually dragging this around now kind of makes me feel like she was pulling my leg."

"That's quite alright, Miss Evans, you can leave your trunk there, the elves will take care of it once you've been Sorted." Dumbledore interrupted my blubbering — thank god — . "This here is our Divination teacher, Professor Amara Vablatsky."

Oh. In all my excitement about coming to Hogwarts I'd almost forgotten the actual reason I was here. "Oh, hi, I'm Daisy."

Professor Vablatsky smiled warmly at me. "Yes, I've heard a lot about you, Miss Evans, I thought I should come greet the girl I brought to Hogwarts just so I could keep teaching while doing research for my book."

I smiled. I liked her.

"Pardon me, Miss Evans, but I seemed to be under the impression your given name was Rainbow." Dumbledore said good-naturedly.

"Oh, oh no. That's just what my family calls me, I'm sorry for the confusion. My name is Daisy." I quickly corrected. This was not the first time this happened.

"Well now that the proper introductions have been made, how about we jump right into the Sorting." Dumbledore suggested. "You may sit down if you wish, Miss Evans."

I sat down on one of the rustic embroidered mismatched chairs Dumbledore had pointed out. This was truly one of the gayest places I had ever seen.

Dumbledore recovered a dusty old hat from the depths of his office. As Dumbledore explained what was going to happen, I sat there thinking about how many heads that hat had touched. Hogwarts must have had at least a few lice outbreaks in its time.

Before I knew it the probably moldy old hat was sitting atop of my head. Oh well, that's - that's that, nothing I could do about it now.

Ahhh a Muggle, haven't had one of those in a while.

You've Sorted Muggles before?

Once a long time ago, did not go down well.

But you can Sort me, right?

Why, yes of course. Mmm there's a lot of potential here, Gryffindor could be a good fit.

Mph my sister would like that.

Ah yes, the elder Evans, one of the easy ones, those are some boring Sortings, let me tell you.

I snickered.

Oof, definitely not Hufflepuff.

Hey I resent that, I'm nice.

There's some Ravenclaw potential there but I don't know. Oh okay, oh yes, of course, silly hat.

"SLYTHERIN."

I held my breath. Dumbledore froze. Professor Vablatsky froze. We all froze. I could see the worried looks on both the adults' faces.

They took the hat off my head. I'd even forgotten about the cooties.

"Very well then." Dumbledore smiled lightly, trying to pretend everything was fine.

A knock on the door interrupted our awkward silence. It was, I assumed, another professor, her slightly greying hair was pulled into a tight bun and her seemingly severe look behind her wire rimmed glasses made me shrink in my seat a little.

"Excuse me, Albus, Amara. Is Miss Evans ready?" Her Scottish accent also sounded severe.

"Yes, Minerva. Miss Evans, you may accompany Professor McGonagall to the Great Hall for the Feast. Professor Vablatsky and I will see you there." Dumbledore instructed.

Professor McGonagall waited at the door as Dumbledore pulled me aside. "Miss Evans, it is more important now than ever that no one finds out your identity, as a Muggle or as Lily's sister, remember, you are a half-blood, your mother is Elspeth Urquhart, and your last name is Edwards."

I gulped. "Yes, I remember." Dang, I thought Lily and her friends were a little biased and maybe exaggerated a little, but if the headmaster was that worried about me being in Slytherin, I guess Slytherin must really just be like that.

I followed Professor McGonagall out of the Headmaster's office, but not without overhearing Dumbledore and Vablatsky's conversation on the way out.

"She'll be fine, won't she? I mean there's Chopra."

"Yes, of course."

"Oh and Khoo, yes, Khoo."

"And Miss Greengrass, of course."

It was not until this very moment that I understood what Lily was talking about whenever she enthusiastically described Hogwarts. To put it simply, the halls of Hogwarts were magical. As redundant as that might sound when talking about a magic school, the castle just exuded magic. There was magic in every corner. Not only was it architecturally beautiful, but it was also architecturally magical, on every floor there was at least one moving or disappearing staircase, which was unsurprisingly difficult to get through.

The boisterous magical paintings on the walls were the most interesting things I had ever seen. I was absolutely sure that Professor McGonagall was at least a little bit done with having to slow down every few minutes when I stopped to look around, although when we finally stopped walking and I came face to face with her, I realised she had a bit of a prideful look in her eye.

My heart hammered into my chest as we approached the tall doors of the Great Hall, I longed to talk to my sister for comfort and advice. I sort of expected a grand entrance, with everyone looking at me as I bust the doors open, but as soon as I walked into the Hall I realised how stupid I was being. The bustling of the students barely let anyone pay attention to their surroundings. It was kind of overwhelming being around all of those people at once. I guess I had been around this many wizards before, but I had always been a visitor and I'd had Lily with me, now I was supposed to make myself at home, alone.

"Now, what House were you Sorted into, Miss Edwards?" McGonagall asked as I looked at the four long tables.

"Uh Slytherin."

McGonagall's expression was the same as both the professors' upstairs had been, except hers had an underlying tone of pity. "All right, the Slytherin table is the at the end, over there." She pointed out. "Have a nice dinner, Miss Edwards."

"You too, Professor."

McGonagall wandered of towards the staff table and I made a beeline for the Slytherin table. I immediately went for the emptiest looking spot on the table. I exhaled. I made this far, this was good.

I got some curious glances, but no one approached me, until two girls around my age came barreling towards where I was and sat right in front of me.

"Hey," one of them said. "Are you the new girl?"

Okay, so these two were all business.

The girl who had spoken had mahogany brown skin, thick eyebrows and wide eyes. The girl next to her had porcelain white skin and watery green eyes, with well groomed long dark hair and an easy smile.

"Yeah." I answered simply.

"I'm Saf Chopra." The eyebrows girl stated.

"Bella Greengrass." The long haired one said.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Daisy Edwards." Ugh, I hated using that name so much.

Both girls perked up at my name.

"So you're not a pureblood?" Saf asked.

Oh god, I cannot believe this was happening so soon. "Um, I'm a half-blood."

Both Saf and Bella sighed with relief.

"Oh thank Merlin." Saf said. "Since about half of our House is made up of assholes, we wanted to see in which category you would fall. Us half-bloods don't usually suffer as much as Muggleborns, but if anyone gives you a hard time, just let us know, we'll deal with it."

I couldn't help but smile. Why the hell did my sister have no friends in Slytherin? These two seemed perfectly fine. "Thanks."

"I mean you did luck out a little bit, I think our year has the least worse assholes in Slytherin. Only four out of seven blood suprematists! Now four out of eight, that's pretty good." Saf stated enthusiastically.

I nodded worriedly.

"And I think we have the least in-your-face blood purists. Like yeah, we know pretty much all four are You-Know-Who supporters, but none of them are really the kind to go out chasing down Muggleborns trying to curse them, except maybe for Selwyn, but the rest just sort of avoid Muggleborns and make offhand comments about blood purity once in a while." Bella explained.

"They make some offhand comments about us half-bloods sometimes, but you just gotta brush it off." Saf said.

"Ugh, don't let her fool you, she's barely a half-blood, no one ever bothers her about it." Bella ratted out her friend.

Saf faked a shocked gasp. "I will have you know that my great-grandmother was a whole Muggle."

"And did you ever even meet the woman?"

"Well, no but – "

Bella cut off her friend with a loud laugh.

Maybe Slytherin would be fine after all.

That same night, as I finally settled into my new dormitory along with Bella and Saf (and another girl named Kiernan who seemed to want nothing to do with the rest of us), I decided it was finally time to call Lily. I was afraid of what she would think about me being sorted into Slytherin, but the urge to talk to her made me decide to just do it. I couldn't do it in the dorm though.

When I said call, I didn't actually mean on the phone, because apparently Muggle technology did not work at Hogwarts. So James had gotten Lily and I enchanted mirrors, where all I had to do was say Lily's name three times into the mirror and it'd establish a link through the mirrors. It was pretty cool, to be honest, like having a phone call but with live video on it.

After finding out curfew was in a half hour, I told my roommates I was going out for a little bit, Saf and Bella tried to get me to wait until the next day, since they were busy at the moment doing last minute homework, but I told them I wouldn't go too far and would be back in a moment.

So armed with my bag, I ventured out on my own. It didn't take me too long to find a broom closet I thought was close enough to the Slytherin dungeon so that I could find my way back.

I quickly locked myself in and turned on the one tiny light. I took out the mirror and took a deep breath. I guess we were doing this then.

"Lily, Lily, Lily." I said in one breath. If I said it slowly I felt like I was summoning a demon.

My sister's eager face appeared on the surface of the mirror, where my reflection had been a moment ago. "BOW OH MY GOD FINALLY. Wait, are you on the Astronomy Tower? That does not look like it."

"I'm not on the Astronomy Tower, because first of all your instructions were very much unclear and well, there's something I need to tell you first. " I explained, trying to look away from Lily.

"Wait! You've got to tell me which House you were Sorted into first." Lily's excited voice filled the room.

I tried not to look too nervous. "Uhh, well, I was SortedintoSlytherin."

Lily's expression remained frozen on the mirror, then she blinked once, and her smile slowly started fading away. "Sorry, for a moment I thought you said you were Sorted into Slytherin."

I remained silent and gave her a meaningful look.

"Well, you owe me ten Galleons, Lils." I heard James's voice from outside the frame. He thought I'd get Sorted into Slytherin?

"YOU ARE COMING HOME RIGHT NOW!" Lily came out of her trance in a rage.

My eyes widened. Was she for real? "Lily – "

"NO, it's not safe for you there, what if – ? What if – ?" Lily's face was set into a deep frown as she ranted.

"I mean I don't think it's that bad, I'm not evil and I'm here."

"It's not about that! I don't mind Slytherin as a House, I can see why the hat would put you there, but there's so many blood purists there and if they found out there is a Muggle in Slytherin, I can't even imagine what they'd do to you." Lily's voice started to crack and my eyes brimmed with tears as soon as I heard it. I hated watching my sister cry.

"Well, no one's going to find out, and so far, two out of my three roommates seem pretty cool." I tried to reason with Lily.

"Who are they?" Lily was quick to ask.

"Their names are Saf something and Bella Greengrass, Grassgreen?"

"Oh, oh my god yes, I know them, I forgot they were in that year, they're alright." Lily did seem a little calmer.

"I'm pretty sure there's some decent people in that year, Lily, if I recall correctly." James's disembodied voice put in. "Oh shit, Sirius's brother's in that year, stay away from him, he's a dick, and I don't mean a Sirius kind of dick, I mean an actual blood purist dick."

Shit, how did Sirius end up with a blood supremacist brother? "Oh okay."

"Oh Avery junior is in that year too, stay away from him. Oh and Selwyn, do not go near Selwyn under any circumstances." Lily instructed, matter-of-fact.

"Alright, I'll only talk to Saf and Bella, they said they're introducing me to a guy named Jem tomorrow though." I said.

Lily's eyebrows raised. "Oh, oh my god, Jem! How could I forget? He's so lovely."

"See Lils? She'll be fine, no need to send a rescue party." James said.

"By the way, did James bet you I'd be in Slytherin?" I tried desperately to change the subject from me going home.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Ugh, yes, he did."

James appeared beside Lily. "Deep down, she knew you'd be in Slytherin too, she just refused to admit it."

"Well, a little forewarning would've been alright, Lillian."

"Shut up." Lily rolled her eyes again. "Anyway, don't forget to ask Dumbledore about your skating arrangements tomorrow, he said it should all work out."

"Yes, yes."

I woke up very early the next morning. Not only because I was unbelievably nervous about attending my first class at Hogwarts, but also because attending Hogwarts meant that I now had a very tight schedule. Work out in the early morning, attend classes, do homework during free periods between classes, skate in the afternoon and three days a week attend a special lesson with Professor Vablatsky.

So at five in the morning I was getting out of bed. I was a little embarrassed about having Dumbledore show me where I was going to be training at this early hour, and I let him know as soon as he came into view outside the Slytherin dungeon.

The professor just chuckled lightly. "That's quite alright, Miss Edwards."

The man led me to a door not too far from the dungeons, it looked pretty simple, Dumbledore unlocked it with a wave of his wand. He gestured for me to go in front of him.

I was not expecting what I found inside. It was a swimming pool, Hogwarts had a freaking hidden swimming pool.

The room itself was quite large, with a high roof. The pool was right at the centre, with some old bleachers beside it, there were also some gym equipment beside the bleachers, that looked oddly out of place.

I shook my head. "You have a hidden swimming pool?"

"Well this room has had different uses over the past. It was first created by a Care of Magical Creatures professor who specialised in water creatures, he wanted to create a controlled environment where he could study the behaviours of some minor creatures so he dug this up, and made an artificial lake." Dumbledore explained. "Years after the experiment ended, some students tried to reuse this space and make a swimming pool for everyone to use, but in the end it didn't work out so we were left with this. I had it filled up again for your use, and now it'll serve for you."

"Uhh okay."

"Oh, of course." The professor chuckled. He did some vigorous wand waving and the water in the pool froze. With another wave, the ice zambonied itself to perfection. Oh sweet Jesus, that was so beautiful. "Will that be sufficient for your practices, Miss Evans?"

I gaped at him. "Well, yeah. But usually ice rinks have some sort of ventilation system so the ice won't melt." Dumbledore waved his wand lightly. "Oh magic, right. I guess if it's not much of a bother, I'd be more comfortable with some sort of barrier around the ice."

"It's not bother at all, Miss Evans, I'll have it fixed up for your training session this afternoon."

"Thank you."

"I shall leave you to your training now, Miss Evans, good luck."

It was as I was about to enter the Potions classroom that I began to feel sick to my stomach. Being nervous about wizard school was enough, but my first class being Potions, which was not only the hardest class I took but one of the hardest overall, was just too much. At the very least, this was one of the very few classes I shared with Bella, as we had discovered I shared exactly zero classes with Saf.

Bella gave me a little push forward and I was finally inside the dark little Potions classroom. Seeing the seating arrangement in pairs made the uneasiness in my stomach grow.

I went up to the teacher first thing, I knew all my teachers had been informed of me being Muggle, and were meant to go easy on me, but it still made me nervous.

"Hello, Professor. I'm Daisy Edwards, I'm new." He knows you're new, dumbass.

The middle aged robust man looked me up and down before saying, "Ah yes, Miss Edwards, I was expecting you. It seems now you've joined our class, we finally have an even number, and Mr Black can finally stop working alone."

Wait, was this Mr Black Sirius's brother, whom I was specifically told not to talk to? Well, fuck.

Professor Slughorn pointed me in the direction where smaller Black was sitting towards the back. Bella looked at me apologetically as I passed, and I sent a small smile her way. At least she'd be sitting right in front of me.

The younger Black brother was almost as extraordinarily handsome as his brother, if you were into brooding boys that looked like they hadn't slept in weeks, which I must admit, is kind of my type. But knowing that he probably hated Muggles, made him kind of lose any appeal to me. I sat down and braced myself for whatever may come.

All in all, none of my lessons had gone as disastrous as I thought they would. Potions had been the hardest by far, but luckily enough I had managed to get through the lesson without fucking up visibly enough to make a fool out of myself in front of everyone, so I considered that a win.

Although I hadn't spoken a single word to Black the whole lesson, I could tell he was annoyed not only at how blatantly bad I was at potions, but also at the sheer number of questions I asked (mostly to Bella). Everyone had been pretty surprised at how much Slughorn seemed to be willing to help me with my potion. I just hoped they all thought I was stupid.

History of Magic was pretty easy, you just had to listen. And I thought Divination would be the one subject I would actually be good at, since I'm supposedly a Seer, but apparently there's a bunch of theoretical shit that you had to learn. From textbooks.

I had pretty much just stuck to Saf and Bella all through the day. During breakfast the Head Boy and Girl had very nicely introduced themselves to me, and as it turned out the Head Girl, Tessa was good friends with Saf and Bella.

I'd met another one of Saf and Bella's friends during Potions, a tall girl with aristocratic features and dirty blonde hair named Natalliya, she was a Gryffindor so she didn't dare approach the Slytherin table at meals, in fear of being crucified by her House.

I was now sat at Professor Vablatsky's office for out first Seer sesh, which the witch had said would mostly be just us talking.

"So, Daisy." Professor Vablatsky put her tea cup down and seized me in with her large hazel eyes. "When did you say you got your first 'vision' as you call them?"

"I'm not entirely sure, when I first started getting them I didn't know it was the future, but before that, I always sort of got premonitions, I still do. A lot of the time about earthquakes for some reason. Sometimes when someone around me was about to get hurt." I explained.

"Mm." Vablatsky stared into my soul. "Is there something you could say was a trigger for a vision?"

"Uh I don't think so. They're not always visions per se, sometimes I'll just wake up and I'll know things I didn't before. But sometimes when I meet a new person, they might trigger a vision about them, not always though."

Our little back and forth went on for while longer before the professor decided the was enough for the day.

It was now the end of the day. The end of my very first day as a Hogwarts student. I was happy. For the first time I felt like I could actually manage here. I'd even gotten so excited having the rink to myself that I'd stayed there way too late, though I had managed to get a permission slip from Dumbledore himself, after explaining how on the days I had to meet with Professor Vablatsky I might start practicing late and needed to stay a little longer at the rink, Dumbles had caved and now I was legally allowed to stay out until midnight on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

I was currently exercising my right for staying out past curfew as I walked back to the Slytherin common room.

"Edwards! What are you doing out here?" It was Black.

"I could ask you the same question." I fired back. Why'd he give a shit?

I could tell Black resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm a prefect, I'm patrolling for students out of bed."

"Oh." Shoot. "Well, not to worry, I have a permit." I quickly took the piece of paper out of my bag and handed it to Black.

Black skimmed it quickly and exhaled sharply. "This just says 'I can do what I want.'"

I could tell he was fed up with me. "Whoops, wrong one."

I took the paper from Black's hand and dug through my bag again. I gave him the right permit in exchange. He examined it for a moment before handing it back to me and scoffing slightly. "Why on earth do you have that? It's literally your first day here."

"Well, unfortunately for you, that is none of your business." I walked past the boy, in the direction of the Slytherin common room.

And Black just could not resist calling after me. "What's in the bag?"

"Back off, bitch."