part two

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Alison sits two rows ahead of them on the boat and doesn't look back once. Her ponytail swishes from side to side every few minutes, kind of like she's shifting to watch the castle come into view. But only in small shifts, not big ones like Helena who practically falls off the bench when someone mentions not getting sorted at all.

Beth figures Alison must not be worried about getting sorted. She probably even has her house tie already packed in her luggage. Though, most of the house colors will clash with the pink headband. Maybe Alison won't wear something too prideful then. Better yet, maybe none of them will.

Maybe they'll be the class of witches and wizards who break the stigma completely and forget about traditions so that they can be who they are with whoever they want to be with. Slytherins and Gryffindors, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, Hufflepuffs and -

Sarah nudges Beth's shoulder. "Could you keep it down? Your worrying's giving me a headache."

Beth averts her eyes to the approaching castle.

"I'm not worrying," she says.

Sarah shakes her head. "Look, we'll all have to adjust once we get over there. It's been fun being just the three of us, but that's gotta change."

Beth scrunches her eyebrows together. "What do you-"

Sarah motions towards Alison, and Beth's eyes go from narrow to wide in an instant. Sarah talks over Beth's rising panic.

"It's fine if you want to make other friends. Right, Helena?"

Helena barely glances over to Beth, which serves Beth well since she can't quite swallow down whatever words keep lodging in her throat.

She knows she should just agree. Voice her appreciation that Sarah and Helena aren't going to turn into possessive jerks who won't share her with anyone else, but honestly, Beth doesn't even know if she wants to be friends with Alison in the first place. She kind of mostly wants to be close to Alison, however that happens, which could mean friendship or something else… maybe?

(Though, what that something else is, or could be, probably needs to be defined, and Beth definitely needs to spend more time thinking about that when she's not surrounded by the people who will taunt and judge her for the next seven years of her life.)

So, Beth sort of nods and trains her eyes back onto the castle in the distance. The longer she stares at Hogwarts, the easier her breathing comes. And the less she stares at Alison.

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The sorting takes places in this huge room — the Great Hall — with all of the first years scrunched up towards the staff area on the opposite side of where they entered. All of the older kids have seats already, but the first years have to stand until after they know which table to go to.

Technically, they're supposed to be all lined up, but Helena's freaking out, and at least half of their class looks ready to vomit all over the floor, so people keep clumping up. Muggleborns tremble together, while kids from wizarding families pretend to be above it all.

"All of the tables stay empty until we're sorted," Helena mumbles. "What if we don't get sorted? I'm not brave enough for Gryffindor. Not ambitious like Slytherin. Not—"

Sarah practically claps her hand over Helena's mouth. "Quit it, Helena." She lowers her hand, then forces a laugh. "Gods, you're thinking so much you might even be a Ravenclaw." She laughs a bit more after she says it, which only makes Helena shrink even further into herself.

"They'll send me back, Sarah." Helena's voice rises. "If I have no house, I go back to S. And S will not be happy with me. She will send me to the convent and-"

"Helena?" It's Alison's voice that cuts through the rambling. Her grin shakes a bit as she steps a little further through the clumps to get towards them. "I don't know you very well, but I'm sure everything will work out."

Helena snorts. She turns sarcastic. "What do you know?"

Alison puffs out her chest a little. Stands taller. "My mother says that outside of head lice, there's absolutely nothing to worry about."

Helena tugs at strands of her blonde hair while Sarah rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, thanks, now she'll be shampooing for hours." Sarah shakes her head. "Freaking people out while you're calming them, sounds pretty un-Gryffindor to me."

Alison's eyes drop down to the floor. Her shoulders cave in. She only wanted to help, and Beth can't exactly stand there and say nothing. Not when Sarah pounces on anyone who unintentionally upsets Helena, or makes a comment on the train.

Beth pipes in, "Oh, what do you know about Gryffindor anyway?"

Sarah scoffs. "More than you. I live with Hogwarts: A History over there."

Helena mutters something about it being a good book, but Alison speaks over her.

"Honestly, as important as they are to some people, houses don't matter for much. Especially not in way of unity," Alison says.

Sarah balks. "You don't like the houses?"

Alison fumbles for her words, glancing from Sarah to Helena and landing on Beth somewhere in between. She shrugs.

"I simply don't think that we should let the words of an enchanted hat decide who we're going to be for the rest of our lives. Or, even, who we should associate with."

This little grin forms on Beth's face. Good, at least one person here won't hold it against her if Beth doesn't become a Gryffindor.

Sarah's going to be pissed at first, and Helena will be glad that she's not alone, but maybe Alison will be glad that they don't have to be fake rivals for years. Hell, Alison might even be there too.

Beth feigns nonchalance. "Spoken like a Hufflepuff."

Alison's face pales. "Oh." She wets her lips and smooths a hand over her bangs. "I didn't — I wasn't intending to —"

"Easy there, Hendrix." Sarah almost looks supportive before her gaze drifts to Rachel Duncan in the sea of future pureblood Slytherin kids. "There are worse things you could be."

Alison follows Sarah's gaze and pushes at her bangs again. "Right." She pulls her hands back down to her side. "I should probably return to my spot in line. The hat's coming out, which means we'll start soon. You all should go too."

She practically speed walks away from them. If she hates them - hates Sarah - how is Beth ever going to get to know her?

Beth rounds on Sarah. "Did you have to make everyone hate you this early? Maybe you're the Slytherin here."

Sarah's whole body goes rigid. Were she a weaker person, she probably would've splintered right at the breastbone.

"You heard Pinky. Time to go."

She tugs Helena further back in line without another glance Beth's way.

Beth stifles a sigh.

Sarah's whole identity is wrapped up in this idea that she has to do something good before the whole world gives up on her. If Sarah got sorted into Slytherin, she'd probably give up on doing good all together. Why try if everyone's going to think she's awful anyway?

She's the same way about Hufflepuff. Only, she calls them the bottomfeeders of Hogwarts, the ones going nowhere because they're too busy helping everyone else and finding ways to keep the peace.

Alison probably thinks like that too. Beth might not know a lot about Hogwarts, but she does know that a lot of pureblood wizarding families look down on Hufflepuff. Even if Alison is peaceful, even if she's loyal or nice, or wants the really awesome dorms by the kitchens, Alison would probably choose something else — anything else — just so her family wouldn't be disappointed.

Now that Beth thinks about it, the wizarding kids should be the ones debating over who they are so they end up where their families want them to be. All the muggle-born kids have to do is get sorted somewhere and prove that they belong. That it wasn't a mistake that they got a letter.

Or more likely, they're all afraid, every single one of them.

From the front of the Great Hall, the Hat starts to sing. Beth scrambles to get to her place in the line. She bumps into a few people, gains a few intrigued stares from the professors all lined up at the tables. This is her moment. Just put on the hat. That's it. Put on the hat, let it decide, and then keep going.

She can do this.

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Seven people have names before Beth's. Seven. Then, it's "Childs, Elizabeth!"

Her shoes squeak on the ground, and her butt almost slips off the stool when she goes to sit. The Hat hums the second it lands on her head.

Hmm, Elizabeth Childs, what to do with you? it thinks. Good goals, good mind. You'd do just about anything you could for your friends, and Gryffindor would only help you grow in that.

Gryffindor? But she doesn't feel like a Gryffindor at all. She's always felt more like a—

Hufflepuff? You think so? It would suit you just as well. You're loyal almost to a fault. And it wouldn't be a bad thing to have someone with your potential in the burrows.

The Hat hums some more, then yells so loud the whole of the world probably hears, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

All around her, there's a rumble of hands and feet and voices as the Hufflepuff table cheers. Unashamed and unafraid, they welcome her despite the snickering of others nearby. She barely takes more than a few steps their way before someone tugs her over and claps an arm around her shoulder.

She glances up, and there's a guy — strong build, round face, dark skin, badge with perfect written on it — who plops her onto the table and tells her to enjoy the show.

"You're the first of the new recruits, rookie. Welcome to Hufflepuff. Name's Art."

"Well, your parents had a sense of humor," Beth says before she can stop herself.

Art laughs. "Okay, smart ass, for that, you don't get to sit on the table."

"Oh, you're breaking my heart." She swings her legs down and sits on the bench next to him.

Art's face turns serious. "Better me than someone else."

She has that trouble swallowing again. Does he know? How could he already —

He grins. Laughs so hard that another Hufflepuff slaps him so he'll shut up. He waves the person off and bumps Beth with his shoulder.

She forces herself to chuckle. "Yeah, good one."

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Rachel gets sorted into Slytherin. No surprise there. Daniel practically brushes off her seat for her when she heads over to it. There's another seat next to them, and Rachel stares at Alison until Alison glances over.

Beth can't be completely sure, but she swears Rachel mouths, "For you," before Alison looks away.

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"Hendrix, Alison!"

The Hat barely touches her head before it calls out, "Better be… SLYTHERIN!"

Alison's face turns about as green as the house color. She gets off the stool stable enough. Though, her legs wobble a bit on the way to the table.

She sits about as far away from Rachel as she can. Beth tries smiling at her, but she doesn't so much as look up.

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"Manning, Helena!"

Beth scoots over to free some space.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Helena whimpers, and her whole head whips to where Sarah stands in line. She must be mumbling apologies, but Sarah won't hear them. Sarah walks up and tugs Helena off the stool. She pushes Helena forward to the table. Meets Beth's gaze and watches her sister move away from her.

Sarah's a Gryffindor, which surprises no one except maybe Sarah herself, who takes a moment to smile a watery smile before heading to her table.

Helena waits until Sarah sits down to sit next to Beth.

She says, "Sarah will not be happy with me."

Beth shakes her head. "She gets it, Helena. She knew you were going to come over here eventually. I mean, you almost blinded that nun at the day care because she threatened Sarah."

"Could've been brave."

"It was brave, but being brave and courageous, that's not all of who we are."

Helena shrinks even more. "We are not Sarah."

Of course not. While Beth and Helena fidget at their table, Sarah high-fives the kids at hers. Locks eyes with some guy with floppy hair and a plaid collar poking out from under his robes. She adjusts like a freaking chameleon to every situation. They freak out, and she takes a second from her excitement to check on them and mouth, "Take care of her," while Helena's not looking.

Neither of them are Sarah, but being them can't exactly be awful. It's only day one, after all.

So, Beth throws her arm over Helena's shoulders the way Art did with hers. She rocks the two of them side to side. "Want to know the best part about our house?"

Helena answers, "The kitchens?"

Beth shakes her head, shakes them both really. "We're the house elves favorites. They take us on adventures."

"No, they don't."

"They could."

"You are making this up."

"Want to find out?"

"Tonight? With Sarah?"

Art clears his throat. "You two can't go wandering off on your first night. It's against the rules."

Beth shrugs. "Who cares about rules anyway?"

He points to the badge on his robes. What does perfect have to do with anything? She reads the button again. The spelling's wrong. Not perfect —

"Prefect?" Beth says.

Helena hides her face with a groan. "I am sorry. We will not go. We will stay inside like good girls in our rooms. Right, Beth?" She doesn't wait for an answer. "Beth likes joking. About rules. But prefects like rules. Prefects enforce the rules. We will listen."

Beth nods, though she gets about as much of what's going on as she would from a NEWT level Transfiguration class. Art keeps watching them, and he doesn't stop until that Mark kid joins the table twenty minutes later.

When Art stands to greet the guy, Beth leans closer to Helena.

"We'll sneak out tonight." Her eyes drift to Alison, then jump to Sarah. "All of us. I promise."