Author's Note: I felt bad the last chapter didn't have much going on in it, so I decided I should hurry up and write this chapter. I wanted to have more things happening in it, but I felt like I hit a good place to stop. Next chapter will definitely have more character interactions in it. I hope you guys don't mind that it's taking so long to get going on the Chamber of Secrets plot. I realized as I was writing this chapter that this is chapter seventeen and we have yet to even reach the first attack! I'm definitely not planning on doing everything day-to-day, so there might be a few timeskips coming up, we'll see.

Reviews:

Crossover Junkie: That would be so amazing and hilarious if Voldemort got taken out by a sniper. Sadly, I can't really imagine snipers in this story. I could see Jack in later books suggest contacting the military and the "are you crazy?!" looks he'd get, lol. As for Jack's lame lying skills, I can't see them fooling Snape very well.

god of all: While I appreciate that you're enjoying the story, it would be nice if you could give feedback on what's going on in the chapter rather than just copying and pasting what you put for the last one.

The Story So Far:

There was some confusion in the last chapter about if Snape actually knows if Lillian and Jack are Seasonals and if Lillian has any memories of being the Child of Spring, so I thought I would clear that up here. Lillian has NO memories yet of being the Child of Spring. She's recovered a lot of partial memories, but most of the ones she has are centered around her and Jack just hanging out and not doing anything unusual. So far the strangest things she's seen in her memories are Jack sleeping in a tree and that one where Pitch caught her sneaking back into the lair, since she had to drop down into the hole.

And no, Snape does NOT know for certain if Jack and Lillian are Seasonals. All he has are his strong suspicions, but he doesn't have any proof yet. That's why he's more or less been treating Lillian like a child, but then will have thoughts about her being a Seasonal, because he just doesn't know for sure. All he has are her strong accidental magic and Jack's lower than average body temperature and his white hair and that's not really enough concrete proof yet. So while he's covering for Jack just in case, he's also probably going to make Jack's life at Hogwarts rather difficult, studies-wise. :)

Chapter Seventeen: Everything Sorted

Jack had been smirking at Lillian in amusement for a few minutes as he noticed that a distracted Mr. Creepy hadn't actually given her anything to sit on. Lillian had noticed Jack's smirk and kept shooting him annoyed looks that he ignored. Finally though, when it looked like the professor was going turn back to his own meal, Jack cleared his throat. When the professor turned toward Jack with a raised eyebrow, Jack subtly nodded at Lillian, who was pouting up a storm.

Professor Snape realized he'd been so busy thinking about how life in the castle would be with this new addition, this boy, that he'd forgotten to give Lillian anything to sit on. He hastily got his wand back out and waved it and soon Lillian found herself sitting on an actual booster seat.

Having grown up around muggles, Professor Snape was perfectly aware of several muggle inventions and knew that whatever that contraption attached to the table was down by Lockhart was not the proper one that a small child should be using.

Lillian found herself sitting on a little plastic chair on the chair and smiled happily as she could now clearly see and reach her plate. She went to pick up her silverware only to notice that she had that dreadful spork again.

The smile slipped off her face as soon as she saw it, which Professor Snape was quick to note.

"Not my doing, I assure you," he was quick to tell Lillian.

Lillian sighed and then glanced over at Jack to see he'd already started eating his breakfast with all normal utensils.

"Jack doesn't have one!" Lillian complained.

Hearing his name, Jack turned to look over at Lillian curiously while stuffing a bit of sausage into his mouth. He wasn't used to eating much at all, but he knew he'd have to eat something at every meal to keep up his cover of being normal. His only regret was that after several months of getting used to eating, he'd have to go back to the scrounging he usually did when he and Lillian went back to his lake and Pitch's. Jack sometimes ate a few meals with Lillian, but he didn't share every single meal with them.[1]

"Have one what?" Jack asked as he chewed and swallowed.

"A spork!" Lillian huffed as she showed Jack the evil thing.

Jack looked confused as he looked at it. He'd seen sporks before, but he had absolutely no idea why Lillian would have one.

"Why do you have it?" he asked as he noticed that was the only thing Lillian had to eat with.

"I guess I'll poke my eye out if I have a real fork or spoon," Lillian grumbled as she moodily tried stabbing her scrambled eggs with it. Her grumbling increased as the egg fell off the pointy part on the way to her mouth.

Jack managed to stifle a laugh at Lillian's predicament as he took pity on her.

"Here," he said as he handed her his spoon. "See how this works instead."

Lillian eagerly set her spork down and happily started eating her eggs with the spoon only slowing down a little when Professor Snape reprimanded for eating too fast.

Jack reached over to ruffle Lillian's curls as he turned back to his own food.

As they continued breakfast, the Hall began to fill with more students and the noise increased as everyone began murmuring and staring at the new arrival at the high table.

"Who d'you reckon that is?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione curiously as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

"Dunno," Ron replied as he stared up at the newcomer. "Bit odd he's got white hair though."

"Yeah," Harry agreed as he stared up at the newcomer as well.

He also noticed that Lillian was sitting next to Snape today and seemed perfectly happy to be doing so. He supposed whatever had been going on last night had been resolved, but he still couldn't help but notice that Lockhart seemed to be glancing down the table more often than was necessary and he looked a bit depressed again.

"He seems to know Lillian," Hermione cut in with her own observations. "He keeps ruffling her hair."

"And judging by the look on her face, she doesn't like it," Ron unnecessarily pointed out as Lillian scowled at the white-haired boy and fixed her hair for the umpteenth time.

As the trio observed, Professor Snape seemed to put an end to it as he spoke quietly to the pair and Lillian gave the white-haired boy a smug, gloating look.

The boy responded by rolling his eyes at her, but he did stop teasing her so much.

Everyone was rather inattentive to their breakfast as they all stared up at the staff table, and soon the white-haired boy helped Lillian down from her perch. Professor Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall all stood and after a quick consultation with the other professors present, Flitwick and Sprout also stood. Professor Snape rolled his eyes and called down to Lockhart, who reluctantly stood as well. Professor Dumbledore led the way down the Great Hall, with Lillian and the boy bringing up the rear, with him holding Lillian's hand.

The students all watched them curiously as they filed out of the Hall and Harry noticed that the boy seemed somewhat nervous, even though he appeared to be trying to cover it up. He also found the boy's dress to be rather odd.

"Why isn't he wearing robes?" Harry asked his friends after the boy and Lillian had left the Great Hall. Harry had noticed that the boy was wearing a blue peasant style long-sleeved shirt and dark pants with boots, instead of the robes that everyone else seemed to be wearing.

"He could be muggle-born," Hermione helpfully supplied. "I suppose some muggle-borns think that robes are sort of like dresses."

Ron snorted at that and shook his head, but decided not to comment.

"Did you see - "

" - that bloke?"

The Weasley twins interrupted as they budged an indignant Ron and Hermione out of the way to sit on either side of Harry. While they were talking, they each added a scoop of scrambled eggs onto Harry's plate, to Harry's amusement and dismay.

Harry knew they meant well, but it was difficult for him to sometimes handle large amounts of food like that, especially at the beginning of the school year. Fortunately, he'd had a good amount of time at the Weasley's to get used to this treatment, so he ate a few bites of the eggs to satisfy the Weasley twins' mothering. Harry also couldn't help but wonder if they were going to keep this up for the rest of the year.

"Hard to miss, wasn't he?" Ron supplied a little grumpily since Harry's mouth was full. "Where do you think the professors and him were going?"

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Hermione butted in. When everyone stared at her, she made an impatient noise and continued on. "Obviously they all have to have a meeting to decide what is going to happen with the boy. Since he seems to know Lillian, he might even take her back home with him."

"But she hasn't got her memories back," Harry interjected quickly after chewing and swallowing his bite of scrambled eggs.

"That's probably another part of why they're having a meeting," Fred said wisely.

"Still wonder why he has white hair though," George added on.

"If he winds up staying, we can always ask him," Harry pointed out.

"That would be an interesting conversation," Fred said with a grin.

Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'boys' to Harry as she turned back to her breakfast. Harry was too busy discussing the strange new boy with Ron and the twins to notice that Percy was eyeing him and Ron rather thoughtfully.

Professor Dumbledore led the way to his office, with the others following behind him. Soon they arrived at the gargoyle that Jack was surprised and amused to see leap aside once the old man spoke something quietly to it. Jack could see a spiral staircase beyond the gargoyle that started moving as soon as the old man stepped onto it. Lillian exclaimed over the spiral staircase that moved all on its own and Jack was somewhat impressed that the wizards had managed to mimic an escalator, since as far as he knew, the wizards were rather ignorant of anything outside their little world.

Jack continued to hold Lillian's hand when they got off the escalator-stairs and he looked around curiously once they made it into what appeared to be the old man's office, since he was the one who took a seat behind the desk. He pulled out his wand, which made Jack tense in apprehension, but he merely waved it impressively and several purple squashy armchairs appeared for everyone to sit at.

Lillian had been given her own squashy armchair to sit in, but to Jack's amusement, she chose to sit in his lap instead. Once everyone was seated, the old guy cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"It has come to my attention that you, young man, are here to retrieve your sibling," the old man said to Jack, as he eyed Jack over his half-moon spectacles.

"Yeah," Jack said a little nervously, since everyone was now looking at him. "I've been pretty worried about where she ran off to, and then I saw her name in the paper.."

Jack trailed off at the end, to allow the wizards to assume whatever about how he had chosen to arrive at Hogwarts. He very well couldn't say that he'd flown there with Wind's help!

"I see," the old man said thoughtfully. "As I'm sure our potions professor, Professor Snape, has informed you, little Lillian is still recovering her memories from an unfortunate incident earlier in the summer."

"Yeah, I heard," Jack replied with a frown as his wintry blue eyes went down to Lillian. He tightened his hold on her in his lap a little possessively.

"Jack and I have already discussed his staying here in the castle until Lillian's recovered her memories," Professor Snape cut in smoothly. "He has informed me that his parents have already given their permission for him to stay, as long as he keeps up with his studies."

"Ah," Filius said knowledgeably with a nod, "So we're here to discuss the boy's schedule in correlation with the other classes?"

"No," Professor Snape spoke up before anyone else had a chance to, "Jack and I have agreed that I would be sufficient to help him in his studies in my spare time. He has admitted to me that his studies have been a bit unbalanced and that he is rather behind in potions."

"Where are he and Lillian going to be when you're teaching class?" Pomona spoke up curiously as she eyed the two children.

"I was thinking that as Jack is older, he could remain with me in my Potions classes while Lillian went with Professor Lockhart to his classes. Jack might pick up a few things in the lectures and when it is not necessary for him to listen in, he could be otherwise engaged in his own studies."

"No!" Lillian cried out before anyone could say anything else.

"Lillian - " Jack started to say in what he hoped was a consoling voice.

"No no no!" Lillian shook her head obstinately as her curls flew about. She turned in Jack's lap and grabbed onto his shirt possessively as though he were going to disappear if she did otherwise. "I wanna stay with Jack! Why can't he come with me to Gilderoy's class?"

Everyone looked from Lillian over to Lockhart at this and Lockhart cleared his throat as he looked rather uncomfortable at the prospect of dealing with this strange boy.

"Lillian," he tried to say in a somewhat neutral and not depressed tone (he was still upset about Lillian eventually living with Severus and not himself), "It sounds as if it would be better for.. ah.. for.."

Lockhart floundered at the end as he had no idea what the boy's name was.

"Jack," Jack supplied helpfully.

"Yes, Jack," Lockhart continued. "It sounds as if it would be better for Jack's studies if he stayed with Professor Snape for his classes and you know that Potions class can be dangerous with inexperienced students."

Lillian's lower lip wobbled at that and she looked up at Jack with sad emerald eyes.

Jack's expression immediately softened and he gently ruffled her curls.

"I could go with Lillian to the first class and then if it's not too dangerous, she could join me in Potions class. Then we could split up after lunch and go then to a class together, and then.. uh.."

"I suppose Lillian could join the Potions class before lunch," Professor Snape said thoughtfully. "As long as she sits far away from Longbottom, there shouldn't be any trouble."

"Really, Severus," Professor McGonagall said severely as her spectacles flashed angrily, but she didn't get anything else out as Professor Dumbledore spoke up.

"So then it's settled? The two children will switch between Potions and Defense." Professor Dumbledore interrupted the brewing argument.

Professor Snape and Lockhart looked at one another and then looked away as they both nodded.

"They could join my Charms class if you both are busy sometime," Filius spoke up helpfully.

"And there's no harm in Jack at least attending an Herbology class or two," Pomona added, while Jack tried his hardest not to look like this was making him internally panic.

Lillian's mood immediately turned around and her eyes lit up in pleasure.

"I wanna go to Herbol.. -whatever class too!" Lillian said excitedly as she floundered over the unfamiliar term.

Pomona chuckled at that but shook her head at little Lillian.

"Maybe a first year class, but then Jack wouldn't be able to learn anything," she said kindly to Lillian.

Lillian's excited look immediately turned into a pout at that, but Jack spoke up before she could do much more than cross her arms.

"I could to a Herbology class," Jack said as he was careful to pay attention to the professor that had spoken about it so he could get the term correct, "My.. uh.. my parents weren't really concerned about me learning about plants. They wanted me to learn other things."

Pomona shook her head at this in dismay.

"Oh dear," she said, "but there's so many jobs that require a good Herbology grade!"

Jack didn't say anything to this and tried hard not to fidget with his staff. He was holding it somewhat awkwardly as he held Lillian in his lap and he tried really hard not to pay attention to how the staff stuck out and was nearly poking the shortest professor in the cheek. He really had wished he'd thought about things like that when he'd asked for a way to disguise his staff.

"Now that that's settled, all that's left to decide is where Lillian and Jack will be staying," Professor Dumbledore spoke up to Lillian's and Lockhart's dismay.

"Since Severus still doesn't have the adequate supplies for Lillian, they could both stay with me in the meantime," Lockhart piped up helpfully. "They could easily share a room until something a bit more permanent is arranged."

Jack didn't really look overly enthusiastic about staying with some strange wizard, but Lillian was wiggling around in pleasure at the thought of getting to spend a little more time with Gilderoy.

"I'll need another room added onto my quarters," Severus replied to that with a sour look at Lockhart's mentioning his lack of supplies for Lillian, "and I'll need someone to look after Jack and Lillian while I gather supplies for them in Hogsmeade."

"You don't have to - " Jack started to say, but was silenced with a stern look from Mr. Creepy.

"I'm well aware, but as Lillian is legally under my care at the moment until this mess gets straightened out with your parents, it falls to me to supply to both of your needs while you're here." Severus replied in a tone of finality.

"I'll be more than happy to look after them," Lockhart supplied while Jack sighed.

"Why can't I look after us?" Jack said reasonably. "I'm old enough! I look after Lillian all the time back at home."

It was only a half-lie, Jack did spend a lot of time with Lillian, but they spent their time together more as friends getting into mischief than as an older brother looking after his younger sister. Nobody here needed to know that however.

Professor Snape briefly had an image of the castle in complete ruins, since he was fairly certain that both Jack and Lillian were Seasonals even though he didn't yet have any concrete proof, save for the oddity of Jack's hair and lower than average temperature and Lillan's very strong accidental magic.

"I think giving Jack time to explore the castle would be fine," Professor Dumbledore stated as his eyes twinkled merrily. "Provided that he gives his word to behave himself and look after his young sibling."

Jack quickly nodded and agreed that he would and Severus had to suppress an internal groan at that. This was all going to end in disaster, he just knew it!

"Then I'd like a word with you Jack, and you, Lillian before I leave," Professor Snape quickly spoke up before Jack could take off to who-knows-where.

Jack refrained from rolling his eyes at this as he had the feeling he was about to get the Mr. Creepy equivalent to one of Pitch's old lectures about safety. He remembered quite vividly the lecture that Pitch had given himself about looking out for Lillian, not long after he had met Lillian and had agreed to help her out with her powers.

"Alright," Jack spoke up when it looked like the professor was actually waiting for a response from one of them.

"After your tour of the castle, if Severus hasn't yet returned the two of you are more than welcome to come visit me in my quarters," Lockhart spoke up.

"Thanks for the offer, but - " Jack started to say, but was cut off by Lillian's cheery "Of course!"

After that, Jack fell silent after an internal sigh. Dealing with all these wizards was exhausting and Lillian, with most of her memories gone, wasn't exactly making things any easier.

"I think that will conclude our meeting," Professor Dumbledore said as he and the other professors stood.

Jack picked up Lillian and plopped her down on the ground before standing himself, with his staff at hand. Normally he'd hold it upright, but he recognized it would look strange with it glamoured to look like a wand, so instead he held it loosely at his side. He wished for the umpteenth time that he thought of something better to do with it, or else come up with a plausible explanation for having the staff in the first place. For all he knew it was normal for some wizards to have a staff.

He knew he could always find a way to contact the goblins to see if they could come up with something, but his dealings with them were so terrible that he'd rather deal with any convenience he had with his staff than to strike any more deals with them. He tried to take his mind off of it, however, even as a pit of dread formed in his stomach at the thought of having to do any favors for the goblins.

What would they have him do?

Now that he'd found Lillian, which had been his main concern, the question kept haunting him. He hadn't given them too many restrictions in the favor, just that he didn't have to hurt anyone. But there were so many other things you could do besides hurting people.

Goblins, he knew, had several feuds with the wizards. The amount of animosity they held for wizards was pretty legendary. Even Jack, who didn't know much about the wizards at all had heard of it. What if they had him do something against the wizards? The wizards wouldn't know that anything Jack was doing would be on their orders. Jack tried to rack his brains as the thought of that terrible conversation he'd had with that goblin.

Had he mentioned he was going to Hogwarts?

He didn't think so, but he was so tired at the time that the conversation he'd had with the goblin had been little more than a tired blur.

Jack's musings, however, were interrupted by one of the professors speaking up.

"Just a moment," Professor McGonagall said as she looked questioningly at Jack. "I was curious, why do you have white hair, young man?"

Professor Snape shot Jack a sharp look. He had speculated to Albus that Jack had probably suffered some sort of potions accident, but he had admitted that he had failed to ask Jack about it. He was curious of the boy even had any explanation for it, since his previous explanations were fairly feeble.

He was certain that if Lillian hadn't obviously recognized Jack from her limited memories and also been vouched for by himself, that Dumbledore and the other professors would have had much more questions for him and been much more suspicious of his presence at the castle.

"Oh," Jack said very awkwardly. "Ah.."

Lillian looked up at Jack and tilted her head.

"Yeah, why do you have white hair?" she asked curiously. She had a feeling that she had never asked Jack that before. She couldn't remember why, since now that she thought about it, it was kind of weird for someone to have white hair.

"It's a rare condition," Jack said with a rather awkward grin at everyone. "You wouldn't remember Lillian, but I was born with it."

"What sort of condition is that?" Professor McGonagall asked, very startled. She'd never heard of such a thing before.

"It has a really complicated name, but it's when someone's born without any pigmentation in part of their hair," Jack said in a rush as he mentally congratulated himself.

"I suppose in your case it must extend to all of your hair," Professor Snape said.

"Yep," Jack agreed as he forced himself to keep his staff loosely at his side. This would normally be a time when he'd have it propped up on the ground and be leaning casually against it. He tried not to think mournfully of when he'd be able to do that again; certainly not when any of the wizards were present. It would look too strange.

"Well, if that's all," Professor Snape said as he gestured at Jack and Lillian to follow him.

Having grown bored of the conversation, Lillian had taken to looking around the room while Professor Dumbledore watched with twinkling eyes.

"Oh, a bird!" she gushed as she hurried over to where a beautiful bird sat on a perch. It had crimson feathers along its body and golden tail feathers that almost seemed to glow.

"That is Fawkes, my phoenix," Professor Dumbledore supplied with a chuckle at Lillian's enthusiasm.

Professor Snape stood near the door with Jack, as after Jack had given the explanation about his hair, the other professors had all left. Now to Severus' dismay, Jack wandered over to join Lillian in examining Fawkes.

"He's so pretty," Lillian said in a hushed voice as Fawkes stared down at her and then at Jack with his beady eyes.

"He is a magnificent bird," Professor Dumbledore agreed while shooting an amused look at his impatient Potions professor, who returned the look with an eye roll of his own.

Fawkes opened his golden beak and let out a long trill, sounding musical and ethereal to the two Seasonals.

Lillian gasped as she brought a hand up to her heart. She had never heard anything so beautiful in her life. The music that Fawkes made seemed to resonate down into her very soul.

Jack's jaw dropped as he stared at Fawkes in astonishment. When he heard Fawkes' musical trill, all his worry seemed to be wiped away and he was left with a feeling of confidence, of courage, and he somehow knew as he and Fawkes stared at one other in the eye, that Fawkes knew precisely what he and Lillian were.

Normally the thought might have left Jack in a panic, but instead he couldn't help but smile at the phoenix. He knew without a doubt that Fawkes would keep their secret. Fawkes was very much a magnificent bird.

"Wow," Lillian said in complete awe as she stared at Fawkes.

Fawkes spread his magnificent wings and flew over to land on Jack's shoulder. Jack looked startled at this and looked at Fawkes a little nervously. Fawkes let out another trill and Jack felt calmed by it. He reached up with a free hand to gently pet the phoenix's head as he couldn't help but wonder if phoenixes had magical properties in their song.

"I've never seen Fawkes so taken with someone like that," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"I wanna pet him too!" Lillian piped up as she tried, and failed, to reach Fawkes.

"Are you going to say hi to Lillian?" Jack asked Fawkes, and Fawkes responded by taking flight and landing gently on the ground in front of Lillian.

Lillian giggled in pleasure at the bird and gently pat him on the head. Fawkes seemed to enjoy the attention and nuzzled her hand in return. Jack wondered if Fawkes seemed to like Lillian more because she was a spring spirit, or if it was because that Jack tended to be naturally cold. He supposed that a phoenix wouldn't like the cold very much.

When Fawkes let out yet another trill, however, Jack was alarmed to see that Lillian's bracelet started to glow. Was it reacting to something about the phoenix? There seemed to be an almost magical quality to the phoenix's song. Maybe Fawkes doing that in such a close proximity to the bracelet was causing some sort of reaction.

Jack hurried over to Lillian and scooped her up into his arms, obscuring her bracelet from view.

"We should get going," he said to her, trying hard to sound normal and not at all panicked. He winced when there was a loud crack of thunder outside followed by a bright flash of lightning as it once again began pouring outside.

Lillian bit her lip and looked out a nearby window at the rain worriedly. Had that been her accidental magic again?

Fawkes, having had his source of affection taken away, flew back up to his perch and tucked his head under a wing, apparently ready for a nap.

Professor Dumbledore eyed the downpour outside and then gave Severus a significant look. Severus noticed this and gave a slight nod of acknowledgement, but neither chose to comment on it with the two children in the room.

Jack was at the point of hurrying past a bookcase to get to Mr. Creepy when Lillian's loud exclamation made him freeze in his tracks.

"It's the singing hat!" she cried out happily as she spied it from over Jack's shoulder, her worries about her accidental magic temporarily forgotten.

"What?" Jack asked confusedly as he turned around.

He saw a rather dirty, patched and frayed hat. It didn't look at all like anything special and he couldn't help but wonder why anyone would keep it around. Then to his astonishment, Lillian reached over and plucked it off its shelf and plunked the hat on Jack's head.

"It tells you what house you belong in," Lillian said cheerfully to Jack, who didn't understand any of that.

Jack was about ready to ask Lillian what she meant, when a strange voice spoke up that only he could hear.

Hmm, unusual. Very unusual, the strange voice said to Jack.

"Wha?!" Jack cried out, his eyes going wide in shock.

Lillian burst out laughing at the look on Jack's face.

"It's a talking hat," she told Jack. "I wanna see where it says you should be!"

Professor Dumbledore couldn't help but chuckle at Lillian's antics as Professor Snape made his way over to Dumbledore, unnoticed by either Lillian or Jack.

"Ah, the curiosity of youth," Professor Dumbledore said to Snape with a twinkle in his eye.

Professor Snape rolled his eyes and while the Hat seemed to be deciding Jack's fate, Professor Dumbledore leaned in towards Severus.

"Do you by any chance happen to know where Professor Lockhart is?" Dumbledore quietly asked Snape.

Professor Snape remembered that everyone had left the office and went their separate ways, and so he shrugged.

"His office, I would presume," he replied as he kept half an eye on Jack and Lillian.

"I suppose I don't have to tell you that the wards detected another powerful burst of magic," Dumbledore continued.

"Hmm," Professor Snape said thoughtfully as he watched Jack and Lillian. "I wonder what the cause for it is."

"It is quite curious," Professor Dumbledore commented. "Do continue to keep an eye on him, won't you?"

"Considering that we will be sharing responsibilities for Jack and Lillian, I daresay I'll have the opportunity," Professor Snape said dryly.

It would seem that we have a Seasonal in our midst, the Sorting Hat said to a panicked Jack. Oh? And not one, but two it would seem! it continued as it correctly interpreted Jack's panicked thoughts.

How on earth did it know that?! Jack's mind practically screamed as he froze in panic. No one was supposed to know and now this hat would probably tell the wizards -

Jack's thoughts were interrupted by a chuckle.

Don't worry, I'm bound by secrecy. Your thoughts are quite safe from anyone else but me, the Hat assured Jack. Now let's see.. I can see that you're very hardworking and incredibly loyal. Very good traits for Hufflepuff. And yet the ability to integrate yourself in wizarding society as you have means you must also be particularly cunning.

Jack couldn't help but be surprised at that, since if it was one thing the spirit world associated with Jack, it was not cunning. Then he thought with a mental wince of his deal with the Gringotts goblins and decided that probably wasn't as cunning as the hat thought he was.

The Hat responded with another chuckle.

Yes, your dealings with the goblins have much left to be desired, it seems. And even though you knew you were walking into what was, for all you knew mortal danger, you still went to help your friend. That takes a good deal of bravery, even for an all-powerful Seasonal.

Jack blushed in response to this. True, he could have used his powers if things got out of hand, but he didn't think freezing a bunch of goblins and single-handedly starting what would probably be an all-out war with them would be smart either.

Considering the amount of goblin wars, it's a good thing you kept your head, the Hat agreed. And considering what you did out on the lake, I'd say that you should definitely be a..

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Sorting Hat cried aloud.

As soon as it was done, Lillian happily plucked the hat off of Jack's head and giggled at his somewhat stunned and confused[2] look.

"My turn!" she said and before anyone could protest she plunked the hat down on her own head.

Professor Snape regarded Lillian with a small amount of alarm. He'd never known anyone so young to don the Sorting Hat, especially one that had as many issues with her memory as she did.

"Is that safe?" Professor Snape asked Professor Dumbledore quietly.

"It shouldn't harm her," Professor Dumbledore responded equally quietly.

"Well?" Jack demanded after a minute. "Is the hat talking to you?"

"It feels funny," Lillian replied.

Meanwhile, in Lillian's mind, the sorting hat was having a rather strange experience. Normally it was able to easily sift through thoughts and memories to determine what qualities a person had to be able to properly sort them. Now, however, instead of being able to sort through Lillian's memories, it found itself in large field of flowers.

"Now this is interesting!" the Sorting Hat said to itself as it seemed to gaze around.

"What the.." a familiar voice could be heard and the Jack in Lillian's mind approached the Sorting Hat cautiously.

"Oh?" the Sorting Hat asked. "How very strange to find you, young Seasonal, in this Seasonal's mind."

Jack stared down at the Sorting Hat in complete confusion.

"A talking hat?" he said as he poked the Sorting Hat with his staff.

"Ouch! Watch it!" the Sorting Hat said irritably as it resumed looking at its surroundings. "Hm, now how am I meant to look at memories here?"

Jack went on alert at that and looked at the hat suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"What I mean, is that I am the Sorting Hat and it is my job to look at memories and read the thoughts of the individual that has placed me on their head. But I cannot do so if I run into the mind's defenses," the Sorting Hat replied.

Jack narrowed his eyes down at the Hat.

"If you think I'm going to help you look at Lillian's private memories, then you've got another thing coming! I don't care if you are some weird talking hat!" he said while holding his staff menacingly.

"Well!" the Sorting Hat exclaimed, quite offended, "You're lucky that this isn't a real sorting. Incidentally, you might want to increase your own mind's defenses."

"What?" Jack asked, having no idea what his real-life counterpart was up to.

"Your mind was nowhere near as intricate as this young lady's," the Sorting Hat told Jack. "I found yours to be rather empty and vast like the arctic."

Jack looked very outraged at that, but before he could vent at the hat, it disappeared just as suddenly as it had come.

"You didn't need a magical hat to tell you that," a smooth voice said slyly from the nearby shadows, "I've known that all along."

"UNDECIDED!" the Sorting Hat shouted, to everyone's shock and surprise.

"Some hat you are," Jack said as he tugged it off of Lillian's head and placed it back on its shelf.

"Lillian probably hasn't recovered enough memories to be sorted," Professor Snape said as he recovered from his surprise. "Now if you two are done, we should get going."

And before he knew it, Jack found himself being ushered out the door and back down the spiral staircase with Lillian in his arms. As he followed after Professor Snape and carried Lillian back down to the dungeons, Jack couldn't help but wonder if every day in this castle would be just as strange and exhausting.

[1]In my story, I'm going to say that spirits technically don't have to eat but they do still get hungry. So while Jack wouldn't have to eat to survive, it wouldn't be fun for him to go from getting regular meals at Hogwarts to not much of anything back to when he goes back to his lake. Remember, this takes place before the Rise of the Guardians in my Child of Spring fic, so Jack hasn't moved in with Pitch and Lillian yet.

[2] The hat was referring to when Jack saved his sister in the movie, but this could also be interpreted by Jack as the time he saved Lillian when they first met in Child of Spring.

Author's Notes: As you can see, the chapter sort of ran away on me once they got to Dumbledore's office. And of course you can't go to Dumbledore's office without seeing Fawkes or the Sorting Hat, so I hope I did that justice. I also had been planning on the Sorting Hat showing up in Lillian's mind for ages, I just wasn't sure how I was going to make it happen.

Also, I was looking at a timeline of events and I realized that I'm a little off in things. According to a calendar of CoS events, Harry served his detention on a Saturday night, when I was pretty sure it was Friday. So forgive me for having this weekend be extra long. I'll try to be more accurate in the future, but I wasn't about to go and rewrite an entire chapter since this is technically supposed to be Monday and Sunday. Also, just a note here that I am planning on deviating from the plot, but I'm not 100% on exactly how much that will be by. Obviously with a not-as-stupid Lockhart, Ron getting a new wand and the addition of Jack and Lillian, things are bound to be different. Just how different? We'll have to wait and see!

Also, on Jack's fake surname.. I thought I was being so funny and that people could laugh at it until I looked at Jack Black's film/tv-ography and realized he wasn't in all that much that kids would really know about in the early 90s. Whoops? At least we'll get a laugh out of it! I also thought it would create some interesting gossip amongst the students when the third book rolls around, since I am DEFINITELY doing at least that one after this. Ideally, I'd like to go all the way through the defeat of Voldemort (whether that involves all 7 books, I have no idea yet), but realistically I realize I might want not want to do all that.

As always, feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions/comments. If you need or would like any plot clarifications, you can always PM me. I'm more than happy to talk about the story and always try my best not to let any future spoilers slip.