Chapter 3

Disaster at Sorting

" ...stapled shut, inside an outside world and I'm
Sealed in tight, bizarre but right at home
Claustrophobic, closing in and I'm
Catastrophic, not again..."

~Before I Forget, Slipknot

The sun had already sunk way below the hills of the countryside as Lily and Scorpius put on their school robes. The train slowly stopped and student after student got off the train towards the carriages.

"It was nice meeting you, Potter. If our parents weren't rivals, I bet we would've been friends." Scorpius said teasingly as they stepped onto the platform. Lily grinned. Scorpius wasn't that bad at all. "Perhaps," she agreed. She barely realized that the young Malfoy was beginning to grow on her.

"Firs' years, firs' years, this way! Come on now, firs' years!" From a distance Lily could see the big outline of Hagrid carrying a lantern. She approached him. "Hello, Hagrid." she smiled up at the half-giant.

"Hello, Lily!" he grinned, before continuing his usual round-up of first years. Lily followed him.

"Lily! Lily!" It was Hugo. He was half-running, half-trying to do up his tie. "I didn't see you at all on the train and I thought something happened to you!"

Lily shook her head amusedly as she helped him with his tie. "I was sitting in a different compartment, silly."

"How come you didn't sit with us, Lils?" he said insistently. Lily was spared answering that question when she saw Ruth gliding over to meet them.

"It's nice to see you, Lily. I spent most of my train ride talking with Mister Boy." Ruth said serenely, paying no attention to the guilty look Lily was wearing on her face. "He's a very nice person, but he has a mean mischief streak. I wonder if it runs in the family..."

"It runs in the family," Hugo assured her, momentarily forgetting that Lily hadn't answered his question. He gave Lily a look that clearly asked, "Who's Mister Boy?" Lily mouthed the name "Fred" back at him.

"All righ', you three?" Hagrid had reappeared with a gaggle of kids their age trailing behind him. "Okay now, follow me." He walked back, not towards the trail that led to the castle, but to the edge of the lake. Lily, Hugo, Ruth and the others followed him.

"WAIT! Excuse me!" Two identical twins, Lysander and Lorcan, were running down the riverbank, trying to catch up. Lily and Ruth rolled their eyes simultaneously; Lily's a bit more insistent while Ruth's eye-roll was more dreamy. "You're Hagrid, aren't you?"

"Tha' would be me," Hagrid said, straightening himself up from untying a boat, "and you are...?"

"We're Lysander and Lorcan, new students to Hogwarts." Lorcan pointed to both him and his twin. "I think we're in fifth year, but-"

"-there's a sorting we have to go through, isn't there?" The other twin finished his brother's sentence for him.

"Ahh, tha's righ'," Hagrid said, scratching his head and looking perplexed. "yeh can join us on the boats, I think there's enough space fer everyone."

"Thanks, chap!" Lorcan said, trying as hard as he could to pat the gamekeeper's shoulder.

"Yeah," Lysander told Hagrid, obviously very relieved. "You don't know how much this means to us."

Without further ado, both twins climbed into a boat. The other first-years followed their lead. Lily ended up in a boat with Hugo, Ruth and a small skinny-looking japanese girl, who retreated to the corner of the boat and refused to talk to them. Too soon, the boat ride was over and the shaken first-years and the twins got out of the boats and walked up the slope towards the castle. Hugo was trembling as though he just saw the giant squid. Lily guessed that her Uncle Ron had told his son all about the beast. She suppressed a snigger at her Uncle's antics.

"What a nice ride, that was," Ruth said conversationally as soon as they were climbing the stairs in the Entrance Hall. "It really gives you a feel about Hogwarts, doesn't it?" Lily humoured her and agreed as well. Ruth was nice, in her own odd, eccentric way. It would be fun to have her as a friend.

In front of them, Hugo stopped and puked all over the stairs leading to the doors. "Never again," he said weakly, catching up with them and leaning on Lily's shoulder, ignoring how Lily was trying vainly to wipe the remaining spittle off her shoulders.

Finally, all the newcomers arrived inside the Entrance Hall. "Now," Hagrid said, "yeh'll have ter wait fer P'fesser Warbler. She'll be here any minute." The half-giant winked at Lily, then traipsed loudly down the stairs again.

All of a sudden, there was a burst of smoke and a few startled first-years started screaming. The twins let out a chorus of raucous laughter as a witch appeared from the dewy fog.

Lily had never seen anyone as flamboyant as this Professor Warbler. The woman in question was wearing a neon-rainbow colored robes that seem to have a life of its own, changing color every few seconds. It was dazzling to the eye. The robes were opened and instead of the traditional t-shirt or high-collared shirt that Lily had often seen on most professors, Professor Warbler was wearing a yellow shirt that had a design of a wand emitting sparks and the slogan, "Got magic?" on it. Instead of a traditional skirt underneath, the professor had decided to wear black leather skinny jeans, the kind Lily saw sometimes on some teenage Muggles on the street near London. Even her new professor's hairstyle had to be taken with a grain of salt. In Lily's clear opinion it looked like someone had tried to cut it short but failed miserably, so they decided to hack off the sides to turn it into an abysmal fohawk.

"Helloooo children!" The woman's voice had a certain spark to it, as if she had had too many cups of coffee that particular morning. "Welcome to Hogwarts! I'm Professor Paige Warbler, and I think I'll be seeing your faces in my classroom pretty soon!" She had a crazy glint in her eyes. "I'm the Transfiguration teacher here!"

Lily thought the woman had lost her marbles.

"Just a couple of rules before we get you kiddos settled in! First off: you'll be sorted into Houses! They'll be your home-away-from-home, if you know what I mean!" she grinned widely before continuing. "The Houses are as follows: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin! You also get house points for your house, so that at the end of the year, you win the House Cup! If you do any rule-breaking, you lose points! But if you do something good, like answer a question correctly," she paused for effect, "you earn points! Everyone got it so far?"

Everyone was too stunned to reply.

She took it as a yes. "Well, let's see if they're ready for you!" She walked towards the big giant doors and peered in.

"Weird lady, huh." Hugo said under his breath. Lily grinned and nodded her head. Even though Professor Warbler looked too loony to be an actual teacher, she was a definite change from the 'average' professor. She looked at her soon-to-be classmates. All of them seemed to be looking at her. Lily didn't know whether it was because of her parents' being famous but, sadly it looked like that was the true reason they were staring.

"Hi," she said meekly. One of them, an asian boy, walked towards her with a grin on his face. "So," he drawled pompously, "you're Lily Potter, the famous Harry Potter's daughter, eh?" Without pausing for an answer, he grabbed Lily's hand and shook it with much enthusiasm. "The name's Timothy Li. Pleasure to meet you. I hope we'll be in the same classes." He turned and saw Hugo. "You're the son of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, init? Nice to meet you. I'm Timothy Li."

"Nice to meet you too, Timothy." Hugo grinned. Lily rolled her eyes. Hugo was much like his father when it came to fame.

Ruth gazed unblinkingly at Timothy Li, who looked at her uneasily and gave a nervous wave. Without acknowledging the wave, Ruth turned to Lily. "I bet he has a Blumbering Humdinger in his luggage. That's why he's acting so loony." she stage-whispered to her. Lily hid a grin and just managed to nod. Timothy looked confusedly at the trio.

"WELL!" Everyone jumped. Professor Warbler was back again. "They're ready for you! Chop chop!" They all walked towards the big doors, which opened automatically. Lily suddenly had a bad case of nerves.

The Great Hall was bigger than Lily had ever imagined. It was more splendid than what her relatives had told her by far. The bewitched ceiling was more mystical than her Aunt Hermione could ever have read out of Hogwarts: A History. The number of tables, which could hold a lot of food according to her Uncle Ron, looked like they could withstand anything. The tables in question were filled with hundreds and hundreds of students, all of whom were craning their necks in order to see the new first-years.

The crowd of new students managed to inch their way to the front. Professor Warbler beamed at them effortlessly and picked up a scroll off of the stool, in which a hat was placed upon.

"Carter, Coryn!"

A lanky brunette with a nervous twitch in her right hand stumbled forward.

No sooner had Professor Warbler placed the hat on the girl's head, the hat yelled, "Hufflepuff!"

Cheering erupted from the Hufflepuff table. Karin took the hat off and ran towards the table, looking very relieved.

"So that's how they did it," Hugo muttered into Lily's ear. "Fred was pulling my ear the whole time."

Lily was confused. "What did Fred say?"

"He said that the hat morphs into a mountain troll and that we'd have to fight it." Hugo shuddered.

Ruth smiled serenely at him. "There's always a bit of truth in a lie." she said mysteriously.

Hugo stared at her, looking a bit frightened.

"Li, Zakura!"

The timid petite japanese girl who sat at the back of Lily's boat slowly walked forward, shoulders hunched, her haunted jade eyes looking around as though she had just realized where she was. The hat was on her head for a full ten minutes before it had decided.

"Slytherin!"

Hats were thrown into the air as the Slytherin table cheered uproariously. Zakura slowly took the hat off. She looked as though she was going to cry any second. The boy named Timothy looked at his sister with very narrowed eyes.

"Li, Timothy!"

He walked towards the stool and placed the hat on with a firm harshness.

"Ravenclaw!"

Timothy threw off the hat and looked as though he was going to destroy it. The Ravenclaw table cheered. He stalked off to join them.

"Longbottom, Alyssa!"

Lily looked at Neville who was seated at the teacher's table. He had a look of utmost concentration on his face as he watched his youngest daughter walk towards the stool.

"Gryff-" The hat cut itself off on the sentence.

The Great Hall buzzed with curious whisperings. It was apparent that the hat never cut itself off before. Alyssa had a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face. She shut her eyes tight.

"Slytherin!"

The whole Hall was silent. Lily looked once more at Neville. He looked shocked. Alyssa started crying hysterically. This time, some Slytherins cheered while most of the others looked around as if to ask themselves, "how could a child of a Light war veteran managed to land herself in our house?"

"Up you get, dearie," Professor Warbler said soothingly, losing some of her "caffeinated" voice. She gently guided Alyssa to the Slytherin table. Lily saw Scorpius get off of his seat to sit next to Alyssa. She teared her eyes off as the transfiguration teacher opened the scroll once more.

"Nott, Meghan!"

"That one's a Slytherin, for sure," one of the first-years said to her neighbour knowingly. "The Notts are all Slytherins."

"I'm not so sure," Ruth piped in cheerily, "look at what happened to Alyssa! You know, if you have too much certainty, you're more liable to be snorting Scravins in your sleep. They sneak in most magical people's airways sometimes, especially if your odour is a bit off." she added matter-of-factly.

"Why you little freak!-"

"Hufflepuff!"

The first year looked shocked. Apparently "Nott, Meghan" was in Hufflepuff, not in Slytherin as the girl had said. Angry, she started trying to grab Ruth by the scruff of her neck. Lily wrenched both of them apart, with the help of Hugo. As she shot the girl a warning look, she caught the eye of Fred, who nodded at her approvingly. She grinned.

"Potter, Lily!"

Lily froze, her heart pounding in her chest. Hearing the blood rush to her ears, she had to steady herself before making anymore movements. She slowly turned her head around. Her time had come. She walked slowly towards the stool, which seemed to get farther and farther away as she approached it. Was it a charm, merely to confuse her sense of movement? Once or twice she stumbled. Finally, she sat on the stool and Professor Warbler put the hat on her head. On reflex she shut her eyes tight, blocking all light from entering her vision. The noise from the Great Hall abruptly stopped as soon as the hat fell down to her ears.

"Well well well," the hat said victoriously, "another Potter. Yes, I have just the right house for you. After all, it runs in your blood." If the hat had a face, Lily would swear it was grinning right this minute.

Lily was shocked. The hat's voice was in her head? "Can, can you hear me? My thoughts, I- I mean?" she asked fearfully.

The hat shuddered as if it was wincing. "You're really loud, Miss Potter. And yes I can hear you." It sounded irritable. "It's time for you to be Sorted."

"NO! Please Mr. Hat, listen... is there by chance a House where I can really do well in? I just get so tired of being my parent's daughter, surely you'd know exactly..." She pleaded with the hat, desperate to make an impression that could possibly change her Sorting.

"Ho ho!" the hat cried cheerfully. "like father, like daughter." Lily made a mental note to ask her father what the hat meant by the statement. "Is that what you really want? I know just the House for you, dearie, as long as you want me to choose it for you. You'd do extremely well in it, yes, and it will definitely put you on the right track. Is this your final answer?"

"Yes, please-"

"Very well. If that's what you want...SLYTHERIN!"

Lily opened her eyes. Over a hundred pair of eyes stared right back at her. The faces of her family, her cousins, her parents, even her grandparents flashed before her eyes. What would they think about her new House? She quickly scanned the Gryffindor table for her relatives. Fred had an amused expression on his face, but her brother James looked anything but amused. He looked downright furious. Oddly enough, Lily was not surprised at James' reaction to her Sorting. Agitated, Lily looked for Albus' face. Sure enough, Albus looked confused, but his expression looked accepting to her. Hugo looked freaked out, but that was normal for him. Sadly enough, Ruth was too busy getting pulverized by the angry "Nott, Meghan's a Slytherin" student. Lily didn't bother to find her other cousins. Dominique and the twins might accept it, but Louis and Victoire would be too close-minded and would probably throw her dirty looks. Molly and Lucy wouldn't care, they'd just make fun of her. Lily had never really been around them that much anyway to care about what they thought of her.

"Lily?" It was Professor Warbler talking next to her. Lily ignored her.

The soothing voice was back. "Lily are you quite alright dear?"

She wouldn't break down like Zakura. She would be strong. She would make her father proud.

She got off the stool and walked confidently with her head held high towards the Slytherin table, ignoring everyone who was staring at her. Scorpius looked more than pleased at her being in Slytherin, grinning from ear to ear. He made room for her to sit next to him. James glare, if it were a weapon, would be able to drill a burning hole through Lily's skull. Thankfully she didn't see him, nor did she want to see him for the rest of the Feast.

"Scamander, Lorcan!"

"So," Scorpius began, leaning forward, his silver hair turning dark grey in the shadows, "how did you trick the Hat, Potter? Wanted to see me that bad?" he smirked.

Lily swatted his arm lightly, grinnign as well. "I did no such thing!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Hmm, a Potter in Slytherin," the girl sitting next to Lily said thoughtfully. "who'd have known? You sure you're not the illegitimate child of Voldemort?" Lily looked at the girl. She looked so serious, but her gold-flecked brown eyes were dancing.

"Well, you'll just have to get used to it, Robinson," the girl right next to Lily said calmly, "I think it's a nice change. A Potter in Slytherin would be good for breaking stereotypes. Hello, Potter," the girl said warmly, holding out a hand to shake. "I'm Javielle de Rosales and this is my friend, Regina Robinson." Lily's eyes caught sight of a Prefects' badge gleaming on the girls chest. She smiled at her.

"Scamander, Ruth!"

Lily looked at the sorting. It seemed that she had missed Lysander's sorting. She got her answer though; the Scamander twins were sitting at the Ravenclaw table.

"Slytherin!"

"What?" Lily said, her jaw widening. Ruth happily skipped, still wearing the Sorting Hat. Lily gestured wildly at Ruth to take off the hat before she made a fool of herself. Ruth caught on to Lily's gestures and ran back to put the hat on the stool. She ran again towards the Slytherin table, oblivious to the laughter of her now-fellow snakes. Scorpius snorted.

Ruth beamed at Lily serenely. "Hello, Lily. I suppose you're wondering how I managed to wind up in Slytherin." Lily just stared at her. "I guess I just had a stray menacing thought about the girl who was beating me up back there. Or else I could have swallowed a mind-swatching gnat by accident."

Lily gaped at her like a fish out of water.

"I wouldn't be surprised." Ruth continued dreamily, "The girl smells like a drunken banshee." Several Slytherins at the table guffawed or sniggered into their robes. Lily and Scorpius were not impressed by her eccentricities.

"Sit down before you embarrass yourself further, Scamander." Scorpius drawled. "Budge along!" he barked at Regina, clearly wanting her to make room for Ruth.

Regina shot an ugly sneer at Scorpius. "Shut it, Malfoy. I'll do as I please." But she grudgingly moved for Ruth. The eccentric girl floated down to her seat.

"Weasley, Hugo!" Lily watched as Hugo sat on the stool, awaiting his fate. He was trembling dangerously.

The hat barely grazed the top of his head. "Gryffindor!"

The sound the Gryffindor table made was deafening.

Javielle sneered. "Just look at the lot. Bunch of hypocritical ruffians, the lot of them."

"Umm-" Lily started. She didn't know how she was going to be diplomatic about Gryffindor without making a bad impression on her new friends.

"Look, I know most of your family's in that house," Javielle said impatiently, "but that's no excuse to treat us badly. I'm a muggle-born, the first in Slytherin and they still treat me as though I'm a Death Eater!"

"You think you got it bad," Scorpius added, "at least they don't call you 'ferret' and threaten to change you into one every time you bump into them."

"Who did that?" Javielle asked angrily, "how come you never told me?"

"I just thought it wasn't much of a big deal at the time," the boy shrugged nonchalantly.

"MacDonald, Beatrice!"

Lily looked at the two. She couldn't imagine that the feud between Slytherins and Gryffindors was so deep! Even her father had put away his hatred of Slytherin behind him. Well, he had no choice, because his auror partner was Blaise Zabini of all people. And it must have worked because her father had even invited Mr. Zabini to their house for dinner!

"Gryffindor!"

Another roar from Gryffindor was enough to make Lily's ears ring. "How come they're so loud?" she asked Scorpius.

"Because," Scorpius said bitterly, "don't you see? They're the smallest House. Even though they have the most number of children from war veterans, a lot of people either end up in Hufflepuff or our House nowadays."

"That's weird," Lily said thoughtfully. Ruth tapped her shoulder. "I think it's because the Hat is prejudiced." she nodded knowingly.

Lily didn't know how to respond to Ruth, so she nodded and just watched the ceremony.

"Zabini, Thomas!"

Mr. Zabini's youngest son Thomas walked up to the stool and put the hat on. He was the last one from the crowd of new first-years. Lily recalled a time when she was very young, where she had visited the Zabini house. Thomas was a very nice boy, but his brother Leon had a mean streak. Just as soon as the hat touched Thomas' head, it shouted the House name.

"Slytherin!"

Thomas stood up and put the hat down. He made his way to the Slytherin table. Lily cheered and made room for him to sit down next to her.

"It's nice to see you again, Lily," Thomas said sincerely. "I didn't think we'd be in the same house!"

Lily could only smile brightly at him. Ruth looked at Thomas interestedly from across the table.

The sound of clinking against china made the whole room silent. The Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, was about to speak.

"Hello, and welcome to another year at Hogwarts," she looked at everyone imperiously before continuing. Lily suddenly had the picture of a cat in her head. She shook her head dazedly. "Just a few reminders for you all: The Forbidden Forest is banned for everyone who does not want to die a painful death. A list of banned substances from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes will be available to all from our caretaker, Mr. Filch. Lastly, the Gryffindor dormitory is undergoing some changes, so once the feast is over, Professor Longbottom and I will show you where your temporary House will be staying," she said directly to the Gryffindors, who had shocked looks on their faces.

"Now," she said, spreading her arms wide, "let the feast begin!"

The sound of a hundred hungry, eager students filled the Great Hall as a multitude of dishes piled with food appeared on all four tables. Lily turned and saw Thomas digging into the leg of a veal with unadulterated enthusiasm. She looked away in disgust and amusement. Finally, she found a chicken leg and quickly started to separate it from the chicken.

Just as soon as she got the chicken leg, a curious cold sensation envelopped her. She looked around and saw a long wispy sword protruding out of Zakura's chest. She shrieked as Scorpius laughed.

"It's the Bloody Baron!"

A ghost covered with bloodstains rose out of Zakura, who looked very pale. He barked with laughter and proceeded to swoop down the Slytherin table. Lily laughed along with the others; it was clear that the Bloody Baron was enjoying himself.

All too soon, the feast was over. Lily sat back with a contented smile. She had never eaten that much food in her life. The only thing that came close to it was Grandma Molly's cooking at the Burrow.

Lily frowned. What would her grandmother say, if she knew what House she had landed herself in? She shook the depressing thought from her head.

"Lily!" Scorpius was jabbing at her side. "We have to go to our dorms." Lily followed her House to the Slytherin dorms.


Dear Mum and Dad,

I'm pretty sure you've already heard from everybody else that I'm in Slytherin. Albus, Fred, Roxanne and Dominique don't seem to mind. Hugo's still in shock after the feast and he looked sick so I didn't ask him. And yes, I talked to them after the feast. I hope you don't mind either. Albus told me that you wouldn't mind, Dad. He said you'd explain the reasons why. I think he's hiding something from me.

I saw Mr. Zabini's son Thomas at the Sorting. He's in Slytherin too, as well as Alyssa. I'm not sure if Neville minds. She was in a right state after, crying during the entire feast. I hope she's alright, because I haven't seen her since then.

There's this real shy girl named Zakura in my dorm. It seems like she prefers being alone. And yes, I'll try to be friends with her, Mum.

I said hi to Hagrid. He said to remind you that he's invited you to his hut on Saturday at one in the afternoon.

Love, Lily

P.S.: When I had the sorting hat on my head, the hat said something along the lines of "Like father, like daughter." What did that mean?

Several parchments littered the floor of the dorm room as Lily tried in vain to make her letter sound as indifferent as possible. She had a million things on her mind already. She didn't feel like including what she felt about all of this, when it was clear that someone in her family was bound to not take it well. Putting her lit mahogany wand between her teeth, she concentrated on her letter once more.

"Lily?" The door of the dorm opened as Alyssa looked in. Her face and eyes were puffy from crying.

Lily immediately stood up. "Are you okay, Alyssa?" she asked, directing her to the empty four poster where the Alyssa's untouched luggage was sitting.

"I'm fine," she replied, sitting down and wiping the remainder of her tears. "Daddy talked to me after the feast."

"And?"

"He's f-fine with it." Lily laughed in relief and hugged Alyssa. As soon as she let her go, Alyssa got into the bed and turned off the light while Lily took off the luggage from the end of the bed.

"Goodnight, Lily."

"'Night, Aly."

It was just like old times, when Lily would come to the Longbottoms for a sleepover. Only Lily decided not to go to sleep for another hour. She had to finish her letter before tomorrow.

Sighing, she continued to re-write her letter.


Disclaimer: All right reserved to JK Rowling. I do not own any Harry Potter characters, places, or ideas.

Do not use this plot without my permission.