Everything went along smoothly until Neville paused yet again. His eyebrows drew together in confusion. Soon everyone began to notice that he was not saying anything and turned their full attention on the visible shaken professor.

"This can't be right. I thought he was dead…." He muttered, his normally rosy cheeks an ashen gray.

"Neville?" Professor McGonagall inquired, her eyes stern but curious.

At McGonagall's prompting, Neville began to continue to read out the list, "Right, Minerva, my apologies."

He cleared his throat,

"Snape, Arianna!"

It was not possible. How could she be here? A Snape? It was impossible. The thought that this was all some elaborate joke crossed Neville's mind. But it was plain to see that the Snape line had not ended that fatal night. Plain as the ink on the parchment that he was holding in his hand. He shakingly called out the child's name, dimly registering that her first name sounded familiar.

Neville scrutinized the girl as she marched up, her step steady and her eyes level with the Hat. He realized he was staring but who wasn't? The petite, dark haired girl's head suddenly snapped to the left and he found himself staring into horrifyingly familiar eyes. Those ebony orbs had haunted him all throughout his school life. They had taunted him and mocked him mercilessly.

To his mortification, a sliver of the gut wrenching fear that always sprung in him when Snape had been near began to show itself again. This fear had dissolved when Snape had died that night and now, to his horror, it appeared that it had decided to come out of hiding.

The girl was looking at him defiantly, Neville realized, her head held high and her black eyes looking back at him with equal ferocity. The question, 'What?' was evident in her gaze and Neville couldn't help but cringe and turn his head away in defeat. The pain from his childhood tormentor was still too fresh in his memory.

He stepped forward to put the Hat on the girl but she snatched the hat from the stool, stubbornly sat down and jammed the hat over her head. In the back of his mind, he noted that both Snape's spawn and Albus were sliming up the Hat. He would have to Scourgify it later.

The Hat took its own sweet time in sorting Snape's brat. In fact, it took almost as long as it had taken when sorting Albus. Neville wondered what the Hat was saying to Little Snape Junior. Probably how she was as evil as her Daddy and how she was going to Hufflepuff as punishment for his sins.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Damn. No such luck. Neville watched in despair as the girl removed the Hat from her head and made her way down the aisle to where Albus was. The professor's hopes rose for a second. Surely Harry's son would shun the Snape girl. After all, Harry had been tortured almost as much as Neville had. But his hopes sank like a capsized boat when instead Albus smiled shyly at the girl. Something inside him snapping, he made an angry shooing motion with his hands.

Albus looked at him imploringly. The Snake Girl just shot a glare at him. That was it. He made to go up to them and order them to leave the Great Hall, but Albus was already dragging the girl through the doors. He looked down at his list and coughed delicately. No sense in dragging this out.

"Weasley, Rosemary!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

McGonagall stood up as the last student was sorted. She clinked her goblet for silence and waited for Neville to take his seat. She then began to speak, "Good Evening students. To the newcomers, welcome to Hogwarts and to the old hands, welcome back. We have many new faces here at the Head Table and some familiar ones. For the benefit of all the students, in particular, the First years, allow me to introduce our Teaching Staff.

Professor Lovegood - Longbottom will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. She is also the Head of Ravenclaw.

Professor Binns will be teaching History of Magic.

Professors Trelawney and Firenze will be teaching Divination.

Professor Slughorn will be teaching Potions. He is also the Head of Slytherin.

Professor Vector will be teaching Arithmancy.

Professor Sinistra will be teaching Astronomy.

Professor Longbottom will be teaching Herbology. In addition to that, he is also your deputy Head master and Head of Gryffindor House.

Professor Abbot will be teaching Charms. She is also Head of Hufflepuff.

Our Gamekeeper, Professor Hagrid will be teaching Care of Magical Creatures.

I myself will be teaching Transfiguration, as well as being your Headmistress.

Also, our Head Boy and Head girl this year happen to be Victoire Weasley and

I will not bore you with the rules since I can see that you are starving, but I must say that the Forbidden Forest if off-limits to all students. Some of our older students will do well to remember that rule. Furthermore, a long list of items that are banned from Hogwarts has been written up by Mr. Filch and for further information, please check with our Caretaker.

Thank you very much. Now in the spirit of the most popular Headmaster of Hogwarts," here McGonagall's face twisted into a sort of resigned smile, "Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak! Enjoy your dinner!" she waved her wand and food magically appeared on the tables. Everyone began to eat in earnest.