Disclaimer: I own nothing except a few seventh years and the password.
And without further ado, I give you…
Chapter Five: Sorting and Seventh-years
Professor McGonagall led them through the huge double doors into the Great Hall and Lily immediately forgot James's messy hair and the Bloody Baron as well. The Great Hall was the most magnificent room she had ever seen. Hundreds of candles were suspended above four long tables filled with chattering students who immediately fell silent at the sight of the approaching first-years. She looked up at the ceiling and gasped, for it looked exactly like the sky outside the castle, stormy rain clouds and all.
"Yeah, my brother told me about the ceiling!" Eliza said, staring at it open-mouthed. "It reflects the weather outside all the time!"
They made their way to the table at the other end of the hall, at which there sat witches and wizards that Lily guessed were teachers. She saw Professor Slughorn among them and grinned. The students at the tables they passed stared shamelessly, some elbowing their friends and pointing out various first-years.
The light from the candles glinted off one of the many golden plates on the table and Lily blinked, momentarily blinded. When she opened her eyes, she was looking straight into the eyes of Lucius Malfoy, seated to her left at what she assumed was the Slytherin table. He frowned and she looked away quickly. There was a calculating look in his eyes that slightly unnerved her.
Lily kept her eyes trained on Eliza's ponytail after that and as a result almost collided with her friend when she stopped suddenly. They had reached the other end of the hall.
"When I call your name, you will come forward and sit on this stool." Professor McGonagall indicated the three-legged stool behind her. "Then you will put on the Sorting Hat and –"
"A hat sorts us?"
"Lily, be quiet!"
The first-years watched as Professor McGonagall set a hat down on the three-legged stool. It was patched and extremely dirty. As Professor McGonagall drew her hand back, the hat gave a little twitch, as if to compose itself. Then a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat began to sing.
Long ago, 'ere I was made,
each Founder made their selections.
Chose them from a great big group,
and taught them to perfection.
Wizards live long lives, 'tis true,
but none can live forever.
So Gryffindor thought long and hard;
not for naught was he thought clever.
He whipped me quickly off his head,
as I now tell the story.
Tapped me thrice upon my brim,
giving me the Sorting glory.
For those who value knowledge,
and the power it bestows;
you shall go to Ravenclaw,
for it's you she would have chose.
I might place you in Slytherin
if you are hungry with ambition;
In Salazar's house you will find
others of like disposition.
If the thoughts I see in your mind
are loyal and just and true,
then it's to Hufflepuff you go:
Someday they shall receive their due.
Gryffindor, that noble chap,
valued bravery above all.
It's there that I must send those
who ignore not adventure's call.
These four have since been dead for years,
but their minds live on in me.
Just place me now upon your brow,
so I can see where you ought to be.
I cannot guarantee you'll fit
quite perfectly with the rest,
It may take some adjustment,
but by year's end you'll think them best.
Though I am sworn to divide you,
let not my words be etched in stone:
Befriend time-honored enemies,
and stick not only to your own.
The Great Hall burst into applause as the Sorting Hat finished its song and fell silent once more. Lily clapped just as enthusiastically as any of the older students, saying to Eliza, "That was brilliant! I wonder what sort of charm that was…"
"Wait 'til you're about seventeen, Lily, before you bother with that kind of thing," Eliza told her, rolling her eyes.
"Aubrey, Bertram!"
Professor McGonagall had called out the first name on her list. A small, dark-haired boy came forward and perched on the very edge of the stool nervously. He closed his eyes tightly as the Sorting Hat was placed over his head and fell immediately over his eyes, stopping at the bridge of his nose. After about ten seconds, the rip near the brim of the Hat opened once more and that Hat shouted, "RAVENCLAW!"
"So that's how they do it!" Lily exclaimed to Eliza as a girl with long blonde hair walked up to the stool. "I was afraid it'd be something –"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
The girl walked quickly over to the Hufflepuff table and sat down.
"Oh, no, oh no, oh no…" Eliza whispered.
"Becketts, Eliza!"
"Go on! You'll be fine!" Lily said, giving her friend a gentle push in Professor McGonagall's direction. Eliza walked slowly up to the stool, trembling.
The Sorting Hat fell over her eyes, as it had for those before her, and it was barely two seconds before –
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Lily clapped loudly as Eliza skipped over to the Hufflepuff table and sat next to Benjy.
"Black, Sirius!"
"Another Black?" exclaimed the girl with grey eyes next to Lily.
"What d'you mean?" Lily asked. "You know more of them?"
"Know them?" The girl laughed. "Let's just say I've spent far too much time with some of them."
"How come?" Lily was intrigued.
"My brother, Ted, is dating one of them – Andromeda Black." The girl told her. "I've met her family only once, and I don't want to repeat that experience. One of her sisters –" she pointed at a slim, older girl with long blonde hair sitting at the Slytherin table "–went mad when she found out we were… well, that Ted and I are Muggle-born." She glanced sideways at Lily. "That doesn't bother you, does it?"
"Why would that –"
A boy with dark hair walked slowly past her. He watched her out of the corner of his eye and Lily blushed. He was very good-looking.
"That's her cousin, I reckon," whispered the grey-eyed girl. "Dunno much about him."
The Hat took a very long time with Sirius. At length, the rip opened very slowly, as if the Hat was reluctant to make its decision. Then it shouted:
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The hall erupted in whispers. People were turning to each other, looking confused. Lily heard one girl say to her friend, "A Black? In Gryffindor?"
She looked at the girl next to her and saw that she was frowning. "What's up?"
"I don't think the Blacks are generally put in Gryffindor," said the girl softly.
"Carrow, Jane!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
A pause while the heavy-set girl walked over to the Slytherin table, and then:
"Cauldwell, Stephen!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Lily tried to catch Eliza's eye at the Hufflepuff table, but her friend was too busy conversing with Benjy. She heard the phrase, "Evil to the core, the lot of them!" and thought they must be talking about the Blacks. She looked at Sirius, seated by himself at the very far end of the Gryffindor table. He didn't look evil at all. On the contrary, he looked absolutely miserable and kept glancing up at the Slytherin table hesitantly.
"Davis, Marianne!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The skinny girl hurried over and gave a boy sitting at the Ravenclaw table a hug.
"Dobbs, William!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
A handsome boy grinned at the rest of the first-years and sauntered off to his table.
"Evans, Lily!"
If Lily hadn't known better, she would have thought she had a herd of stampeding wildebeest in her chest in place of a heart, the way it was hammering against the material of her robes.
She slowly pushed past Sam and Remus in front of her, walked up to the stool, and sat down. The last thing Lily saw before Professor McGonagall lowered the Sorting Hat onto her head was the small girl giving her a discreet thumbs-up from between James and Remus's heads. She giggled slightly.
"There, that's the ticket, no need to be nervous" said a clever voice in her head. Lily jumped slightly. The hat was talking to her.
"You're a clever sort, yes… perhaps Ravenclaw?"
"Hufflepuff… please let it be Hufflepuff…," Lily prayed inwardly.
"Hufflepuff? Really? No, I think not, my dear, you're far too brave to be put there. I think it'll have to be GRYFFINDOR!"
Lily heard the Hat shout the last word to the rest of the hall. She pulled it off her head and walked over to the cheering Gryffindor table, feeling slightly disappointed. She had so wanted to be in Hufflepuff…
She dwelt on this for the rest of the ceremony, staring at the dwindling number of first-years waiting to be sorted. She barely heard the rest of the names called, only raising her head when James, Sam, and Remus were all sorted into Gryffindor.
As she watched Professor McGonagall carrying the Sorting Hat and stool out of the room, a figure plunked itself down next to her.
"We haven't been properly introduced!"
It was the girl who had told her about the Black family. But – no, it couldn't be. Her eyes weren't grey; they were a brilliant green that matched her own.
"You –"
"I absolutely love your eyes, did I tell you that before?" The girl said, tapping her fingers impatiently on the table. "I was having trouble changing them before 'cause I was so nervous 'cause of the Sorting, but now –"
"What? Witches can change their eye color?" Lily asked.
"Witches? Not any witch, no," said the girl. "Only Metamorphmagi!"
"Metamorwhat?"
"I can change my appearance to anything I want!" said the girl, grinning proudly. "I'm really rare. A Muggle-born Metamorphmagus? Probably the only one in the world…" She glanced at the staff table, where Lily could see that man – Dumbledore? Was that what her father had called him? – conversing quietly with Professor McGonagall. "Wish they'd hurry up, I'm starving… what's your name, by the way?"
Lily was caught off-guard by the sudden question. "Oh! Lily Evans."
"Nellie Tonks. That's right, I remember you getting Sorted."
Just then, Professor Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands twice. Most of the students in the hall fell silent at once, though Lily noticed a few students at the Slytherin table kept talking.
"Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts!" Professor Dumbledore said, beaming around at the students. "There are a few points of interest that I must go over before the feast commences – but I know that all of you are starving, and as I myself cannot wait to sink my teeth into some of the kitchens' best roast beef, I shall make it brief." Some of the students chuckled.
"Mr. Filch, our caretaker," Dumbledore indicated a rather weedy-looking man standing in a dark corner of the hall, "has informed me that the number of Fanged Frisbees in the corridors is simply unacceptable. As you all know," he lowered his half-moon spectacles sternly, "Fanged Frisbees are at the top of the list of Mr. Filch's list of banned items, which can be found tacked to almost every classroom door in the school.
"Apart from reminding you all that the Forbidden Forest on the edge of the grounds is just that – forbidden – I can see no other obstacle between us and our excellent feast. And now, I would just like to say – dig in!" Professor Dumbledore smiled at his applauding students and sat down.
"Dig in?" said Lily, perplexed. "But there's no foo – oh!"
For the golden plates in front of her had just filled themselves with the most sumptuous-looking array of food Lily had ever seen. She could see a plate of every one of her favorite foods just in her line of vision. Helping herself to a chicken leg, she smiled. Her housekeeper made chicken legs just like these for her birthday every year.
Then she looked to her right. Mashed potatoes, creamy but with large chunks of solid potato – just like her Great-Aunt Ella had brought when she came over for holidays before she had died two years ago. This place really is magical… Lily thought, feeling a slight pang of homesickness.
"So, what's your blood?" Nellie said, bits of bread flying out of her mouth as she spoke. "I've already told you mine."
"My blood?" Lily said incredulously, putting down her chicken leg. "What about it?"
Nellie rolled her eyes. "I mean, what's your family? Wizards? Muggles? House elves?"
"Oh! Both my parents are Muggles."
"Great, so are mine! Except I've got an older brother who's a wizard, so I guess I'm better off than you, magically-speaking," Nellie said. Seeing Lily's face, she said, "No, no, I meant that I already know about the Wizarding world. Sorry, that came out wrong. Do you have a magical brother or sister?"
"No… I have an older sister, but she's not shown any signs of being a witch yet, so I reckon I'm the only one in my family."
Stuffing a large piece of meat in her mouth, Nellie nodded thoughtfully. "Great that you're a Gryffindor, though, innit? Brave ones, an' all. My brother's in Ravenclaw. He's a bit swotty." She took a large gulp of water and swallowed noisily.
"Gryffindor, brave? There are brave ones in Hufflepuff, too," said Lily, slightly insulted.
"So say the Hufflepuffs," said Nellie, rolling her eyes. "Mark my words, Lily, Gryffindor's the place you want to be. Ravenclaws are a bunch of goody two-shoes. Ted doesn't let me say that because he and his dear Andromeda are Ravenclaws… but it's still true. Slytherin – well, we'll not get into them, you can tell just by looking at them why you don't want to be there, and Hufflepuff? People say that's where the Hat puts the ones that don't fit in anywhere else."
"Maybe that's where the Hat puts the ones that have all the qualities of the other Houses put together, then!"
"You're just saying that because your little friend went to Hufflepuff and you didn't," Nellie answered dismissively, breaking off a piece of bread. "I suppose you begged to be put in Hufflepuff, did you?"
"Lily Evans never begs!" Lily's temper, famous at her primary school, was beginning to surface. This girl had no idea what she was in for.
"And that Hat didn't listen to you," Nellie continued, ignoring Lily's increasingly red face. "Pity you don't get to stay with your friend, but the Sorting Hat is never wrong, Lily Evans. You're going to do well in Gryffindor." She held out a dish of buttered corn. "Care for a cob?"
Lily stared, brow furrowed, at the girl sitting next to her. Then her face cleared and she carefully moved the corn from the dish to her plate. "Thank you."
"Anytime."
And the girls continued their meal as though the quarrel had never happened.
A while later, Lily was reaching for the jug of pumpkin juice – Nellie had informed her that it was quite a popular drink in the Wizarding world, no matter how staunchly Lily defended her usual supper beverage choice of lemonade – when she suffered a severe shock. The jug disappeared from beneath her fingertips and was replaced within seconds by a tray of chocolate-chip cookies.
"Oh!" She gazed around her and saw that all traces of supper food had vanished, only to be replaced by delicious-looking desserts.
"I hear the fudge is great," said Nellie. Looking at the girl's bowl, Lily saw that it was already piled high with a large amount of chocolate pudding.
"Don't waste time, do you?" she remarked, selecting a piece of fudge from the dish and popping it into her mouth.
"Food," said Nellie, waving her spoon in the air, "is one of the best things the world has to offer. Now, pudding," she jabbed the spoon into her bowl, "is the single best thing it offers. That, and muffins." She banged her spoon down firmly on the table as though that settled the matter.
"Likes food, does she?" came Sam's voice loudly from a few chairs over. "She'd better watch it. Carry on like she does now and she'll get fat later."
"Sam!" Lily gasped, mortified for her friend.
"Oh, don't mind him, Lily," said Nellie. "He's just sour about what happened earlier."
"What happened earlier?"
"I threw him out of his compartment."
"What?"
"In a manner of speaking, I suppose. I tossed a Dungbomb in there and he and his friend were out like a flash."
"Why'd you do that, Nellie?"
Nellie smirked. "That compartment has the cushiest seats. My brother told me. Compartment Number Nine is the most comfortable."
"Not if it stinks like Dungbombs!" Sam called down the table.
Lily looked at Nellie.
"After living with my brother for all those years, I think I'm immune to it. The smell, I mean. It doesn't even bother me anymore."
"Does your brother use Dungbombs often?" Lily asked.
"All the time. A real prankster, Teddy is. He said everyone in his dormitory was marvelous at the Bubble-Head Charm by the time they got to fourth year."
"The Bubble-Head Charm?"
"Oh, come on, Lily, don't be daft. You conjure a bubble 'round your head so that you can't smell something foul. Ted showed me. It made him look awful funny, though." Nellie giggled as though picturing it in her head.
"Still, it was mean of you to throw it in their compartment when they hadn't done anything," Lily reprimanded.
"Nag all you want, it's done," said Nellie dismissively. "Lord, you're a regular old priss! You'll get made prefect in fifth year for sure."
"Prefect? You really think so?" Lily's face was shining.
Nellie looked revolted. "What're you so happy about? Being prefect would take all the fun out of life."
Before Lily could answer, the headmaster stood up at the staff table once more.
"I am sure that you must all be quite exhausted, what with the excitement of seeing Hogwarts and your old friends again after all this time," Dumbledore said, beaming, "and I shall be quite content with sending you all to bed very soon. But first…! First, we must sing the school song, I think!" He turned and winked at a very sour-looking Professor McGonagall.
He stood up on his chair and flicked his wand once. A long golden ribbon flew out of the end and rose high above his head.
"Everyone pick a satisfying tune, and off we go!" The golden ribbon began to twist itself into words, and the school began to sing – or rather, bellow:
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."
Lily finished the song around the same time as the older boy sitting next to her, but Nellie was singing it very slowly and very off-key and didn't finish for another minute.
"And now – bed, I think!" Dumbledore finished clapping for the school song and the ribbon flew back into his wand. "Good night!"
There was a stampede to reach the doors before everyone else, but over the noise of scraping chairs and chattering students Lily heard a clear voice say loudly, "Follow me, Gryffindors! Gryffindors this way!"
A tall, pretty girl was beckoning at them from near the door. A red and gold prefect's badge glittered on the front of her robes. Lily and Nellie scrambled out of their chairs and followed her out the door and up a wide marble staircase.
"You're new, aren't you?" the prefect asked Lily curiously.
"Yes," Lily said shyly.
"You look it. Turn here." The group turned right at a portrait of some very fat men in Victorian costume.
"I look new?" Lily asked.
"All scared and suchlike. And I think that I'd have noticed you before, with that bright red hair." The girl tugged playfully at a piece of Lily's hair.
"Are you a prefect?" She blushed as soon as she said it. It was painfully obvious that the girl was a prefect just by looking at the badge gleaming on her chest.
"Yes, a fifth-year. I've wanted to be one since I was eleven, though. It'll be great actually having some control over things around here. What's your name?"
"I'm Lily Evans."
"Marlene McKinnon. It's nice to meet you, Lily Evans." She tugged at Lily's hair again. "Ah, here we are."
They had reached the end of the corridor. On the wall was a large portrait of a very fat woman in a pretty pink dress.
"Bloomers," said Marlene clearly. The lady in the portrait nodded once and the portrait swung forward, revealing a large hole in the wall.
"Ooh!" Lily gasped, fascinated.
"This is the Fat Lady – sorry, ma'am, but that's your title – and you'll need to give the password to her every time you want to get into the common room. The password changes every once in a while and you're not to give it to members of other Houses. After all," Marlene laughed, "what would we do if they found out our common room is loads better than theirs?"
"Cut the speech, Mar, we want to get in!" called a boy from the back of the group.
"Shut it, Frank, I'm going!" snapped Marlene, and she led the way through the portrait hole.
It looked rather like her mother's sitting room at home, Lily thought. Except her mother had never been fond of gold, and this room was decorated almost entirely in scarlet and gold. There were comfortable-looking couches and armchairs scattered throughout the room, and a large fire crackled merrily on one wall. There were two doorways at the end of the room where Marlene led them.
She pointed at one. "This is the staircase to the boy's dormitories." A few boys immediately detached themselves from the group and hurried up the staircase. Marlene pointed at the other. "And these are our dormitories. Be sure not to confuse them." She winked at the girls.
"And if there's nothing else you girls need, I'll be going to bed!" Marlene yawned widely. "It's been a long day. See everyone in the morning!" She hooked arms with a girl who looked to be about her age, and the two walked up the staircase and out of sight.
Lily made to follow her, but Nellie grabbed her arm to hold her back. "Look!"
They turned and Lily saw the boy whose Sorting had caused the huge fuss standing in a corner – Sirius Black. He was surrounded by three older boys, all of whom looked very intimidating.
"So what's your game, Black?" demanded the one on the left.
"Yeah, what're you playing at?" the other two chimed in.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Black politely, but there was a steely edge to his tone.
"You're a Black and you're in Gryffindor!" said the first boy very slowly, as though Black couldn't understand him if he talked normally. "It's not normal."
"You're up to something!" remarked the blonde boy on the right.
"He's probably a Slytherin spy! Gone to report our goings on to his filthy family!" sneered the boy in the middle, who was the beefiest of the lot and had large, heavily muscled arms. Black flinched when the boy mentioned his family, but otherwise remained as stoic as ever.
"I got Sorted into Gryffindor, so you'd better watch who you're accusing," he said coolly. Lily noticed his hands were trembling slightly.
"Yeah, but I reckon you've still got a bit of filth left in you," the large boy in the middle smirked. "What d'you say, boys?"
"I say we squeeze the filth out of him!" said the blonde boy threateningly. He made a move toward Black, but Lily got there first.
"Just what do you think you're doing!" she squeaked. It was quite a different matter to be thinking about standing between Black and the older boys and to actually be standing between Black and the older boys.
"Out of the way, pipsqueak," said the beefy boy impatiently. "We've got work to do."
"Not with him, you don't!" Lily continued loudly. "He didn't do anything!"
"Go away," hissed Black out of the corner of his mouth. "I can deal with my own problems."
"Shut your face," Lily whispered back fiercely. "I didn't see you dealing with them too well before I came over!"
The boy in the middle had evidently heard her, and he let out a loud laugh. "The girl's got guts! I say, I'll give you a second chance, little girl. Step away from the filthy Black boy."
But Lily had drawn her wand. "Second chance, and then what?"
Suddenly another boy stepped in front of Lily. It was James.
"Come off it, Evans," he scoffed. "This isn't even a good cause. The boy's dark as his name. Let them have their fun."
Lily narrowed her eyes and pointed her wand at James. "Some Gryffindor you are, James. Get out of the way."
"Better do as she says, mate, I don't like the look of this!" the boy on the left stage-whispered, elbowing his friends and sniggering.
"Get out of the way."
"Or you'll do what?" James taunted. "We haven't even learnt any hexes yet, Evans."
"You mean you haven't."
Something in her tone of voice must have convinced James that Lily was seriously considering hexing him to the other side of the common room, because he stepped back nervously and said, "If you want, Evans. But don't say I didn't warn you."
"What's all this?"
Marlene McKinnon had arrived back in the common room. She took in the scene in front of her and then turned to the first boy and glared at him.
"Marcus Johnson! Bullying, again?"
"Stay out of it, Mar!" grumbled the boy.
"Shut your fat mouth and get up to bed before I call McGonagall!" Marlene put her hands on her hips. "That goes for you, too, Corner, Abbott."
The three boys muttered mutinously to one another but backed away from Sirius Black and went up the boy's staircase. Marcus made sure to elbow Marlene as he passed her. Her foot flew up to kick him swiftly in the behind in retaliation, and he yelped as his friends guffawed next to him.
"All right, everyone, clear out!" Marlene said sharply to the rest of the onlookers, all of whom dispersed and went up the two staircases without much complaint. "That means you, too, Potter," she added, glancing at James. He rolled his eyes at her and motioned to Sam and Remus, who were behind him.
"Come on."
"And you!" Marlene put a hand on Lily's shoulder just as she was about to climb the staircase. Lily looked back, startled, but Marlene just smiled. "I'll be recommending you for prefect before I leave school, I reckon." She patted her on the back and went up the steps.
Lily turned to Nellie, who was standing next to her, looking as though she didn't have a clear idea of what had just happened. "Let's get to bed, then!"
"Oh, stop looking so happy," Nellie said as the two mounted the stairs. "This is horrible. You're going to be even more prissy."
In response, Lily stuck out her tongue. They reached the top of the staircase and she sighed happily. There were six four-poster beds with scarlet hangings in the room, each with their own nightstand. She could see her trunk waiting for her at the foot of the bed nearest the middle window.
"I call the loo first!" came Nellie's voice, muffled slightly because her head was buried in her trunk.
"Second!"
"Third!"
"Fourth!"
"Fifth!"
"Sixth! Oh, bugger," mumbled a girl with brown braids two beds over from Lily. They all laughed.
As she climbed into bed a few minutes later, with her pajamas on and her teeth brushed, Lily looked out of her window at the spacious grounds. It was marred slightly by the rain still lashing at the windows, but she could tell the view would be beautiful once the weather cleared up.
Yes, Lily thought, pulling the covers up to her chin like she always did, things at Hogwarts were shaping up very well indeed.
"G'night, Lily!"
"'night, Nellie," Lily called sleepily, her eyes already heavy. Marlene was right; it had been a very long day. And a few minutes later, she was fast asleep.
AND THERE WE HAVE IT!
Hope you all liked that chapter as it was my longest yet.
Poll: Would you like me to jump to seventh year next chapter or do one more first year chapter? Whatever my faithful reviewers want… provided they REVIEW! Let's try to break the record of nine reviews this chapter. I promise to update soon!
Lots of love and ah-dorable British boys,
Messyblackhair66