Sequel to "Stranger".
Prompt: "Unbelievable"
Never before had Lily been so glad to see Hagrid in all her life—which was quite a feat since she always enjoyed it when Hagrid visited. But the minute she staggered off the train, she heard his bellow through the rain and dragged Hugo and Fred over with a grin. "Hagrid!" she called to him, waving excitedly. "Do we get to go on the boats now?"
"Boats?" asked one of the other first years who obviously hadn't known about that bit.
Hagrid laughed and she smiled because at least that meant he wasn't mad at her for ruining the surprise. He waved them closer and gave Lily a tight hug—which left her back aching, so she leaned upon Hugo for awhile as Hagrid rounded up all the first years. "First years! Are we all here? Right then, let's get going."
Lily squeezed Hugo's arm in excitement and the three of them grinned wildly at each other as they grabbed their own boat. In a moment they were off, cruising right across the lake, and they chattered excitedly. "Dad said we have to fight a troll to get in," Fred grinned wickedly, and cracked his knuckles.
Lily giggled while Hugo snapped at him. "We do not! Mum and Rose both told me they that the Sorting Hat decides where you go."
"Ah, but that's not half as fun," Fred laughed, swinging his legs at them. Lily shrieked in delight and began to kick back while Hugo inched away from their flailing legs.
"Guys, we're going flip over if you don't stop," Hugo hissed as the boat rocked side to side.
"Hugo, help me win!" Lily giggled and after a moment he grinned and joined in.
"Will you lot stop that!" Hagrid shouted at them, sounding faint but worried all the same. They sighed, but settled for splashing water at each other and giggling madly until they reached the opposite shore. "Honestly, you three," Hagrid huffed, trying to seem stern. "You're more wound up then Mrs. Norris when she finds where Filch hides her catnip."
Abashed, more or less, they fell in line quietly as he led them up to the school. Uncle Neville met the first years at the door, greeting Hagrid warmly and smiling at them when they waved excitedly. "Thanks, Hagrid, I'll manage them from here."
"Good luck—you got two Weasleys and a Potter in this group and they're set on horsing around," Hagrid shook his head at them.
Neville hid his smile by coughing into his fist. "Well, I'll keep a close eye on them. I'll see you in the Great Hall in a bit." Hagrid nodded and waved to them before he turned and left. Neville turned and fixed a serious eye on all of them, making the anxious first years pause for a second before he smiled warmly at them. "Welcome to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My name is Professor Longbottom, Head of Gryffindor House. You'll all be in my Herbology class, so I want you to know right now that if you have any questions or need someone to talk to, I always make time to help you. Now, first I'm going to explain what will happen to you next, then we're going to head into the Great Hall where you will be sorted and can have dinner. Now, any questions before I begin?"
A boy raised his hand and waved around anxiously.
Neville nodded to him. "Yes?"
"What's this about having to fight a troll?" he asked, eyes wide and face paled. Fred looked over at Lily and grinned like a maniac.
Neville smiled. "There will be no troll fighting, I can assure you." The boy relaxed a bit, but Fred, Lily, and Hugo giggled to each other nonetheless. "Alright, if that's all I going to start explaining—here at Hogwarts, our students are split up into four houses—Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own dormitories and common rooms where you will get better acquainted with your fellow housemates. You will attend classes with others in your house, you will eat at your house tables, and you can even join your house's Quidditch team in your second year. Your house will become like a family for most of you."
Several of the students began to chatter excitedly to one another as he paused. Lily and Hugo shared a look before she squeezed his hand and they both turned back to Neville.
"Now, you will all be sorted into your houses by the Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat will peer into your minds and hearts, find those qualities that define you, and place you into the house most appropriate for you. There is no changing of houses once it decides, but if your unsure where you belong, don't worry—the Sorting Hat hasn't been wrong yet."
"Here we go," Fred whispered, practically bouncing in excitement. She grinned and grabbed a hold of his hand.
"Now then," Neville looked at them all, "If there are no questions, we'll head on in and get started." No one spoke so he nodded and then gestured for them to follow as he led them to the Great Hall.
Lily couldn't contain the startled gasp that tore from her throat as she looked in. The first thing she saw was the Gryffindor table, then the others, and then the candles hovering above them. She wondered faintly how silly she must look with her eyes so wide as she looked up at the cloudy ceiling. At first, she nearly forgot to look for her brothers but then Hugo whispered "There's Rose!" into her ear and she remembered to look around. She quickly found the pair of them, sitting together and grinning at her. She waved and nearly stumbled into the person in front of her as he came to as stop.
In front of them, Neville walked up to a stool where at very tattered and charred wizard's hat sat. Lily nearly clapped in her excitement and clutched at Hugo and Fred. Suddenly the brim of the Hat tore open and began to sing. When it was finished, Lily let go of Hugo and Fred to clap eagerly at it like the rest of the hall, then shifted nervously as Neville began to call off names.
"Bennett, Kevin," he began.
A ruddy face, dark haired boy hurried up and hopped up on the stool. The Hat barely touched his head before it yelled "Ravenclaw". There was a roar of approval from Ravenclaw as Kevin slipped off the stool and nearly jogged over to his table, nervously jumping into the first chair he found open.
"You nervous?" Fred asked.
"Nope," Lily answered.
"I am," Hugo shuddered. "What if it doesn't put me in Gryffindor, like it did Rose?"
"Courage," Lily reminded him.
Michael Darcy became the next Slytherin, followed by Wren Frost, while Joshua Freeling along with Miriam Jones became Gryffindors. Rosa Gomez became another Ravenclaw and Dustin Manchester was a new Hufflepuff student. Finally, Neville called out "Potter, Lily" and Lily looked to her cousins once before she hurried over to the stool and climbed on.
She sat perfectly still as the Sorting Hat fell down around her eyes, blocking the view of the Great Hall. Mmm, another Potter.
Hello, she thought cheerfully.
You're a confident little thing, aren't you? It chuckled.
All the more reason to put me in Gryffindor.
It actually laughed, echoing throughout her ears. You have spunk yes, but that's not all that's here. Loyalty…yes, most definitely. Your friends mean a lot to you, don't they?
I would do anything for them, she answered at once, thinking of grinning Fred and nervous Hugo.
I see. Well, is there a House in particular you want to be in?
I trust you to make the right call, she thought, almost smugly.
Oh, do you? Well, better be "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Lily paused; there was dead silence for a moment but then she realized dazedly that the Hufflepuff table had nearly erupted in cheering as the youngest Potter was to join them. Neville pulled the Sorting Hat from her head, looking bemusedly at her as he helped her off the stool.
"Well, go sit down," he urged, gently pushing her to the Hufflepuff table.
Lily, for her part, staggered over to her table and nearly fell as she tried to sit, prompting quite a few people to reach out and help her into her seat. "Lily, you okay?"
"Huh?" she asked, blinking spastically.
She recognized James's girlfriend, Iris Medici, gazing worriedly at her. "Can you hear me? Are you alright?"
Lily blinked at her. She had all her limbs attached, right? Why wouldn't she be okay? Oh, maybe that's because you're in Hufflepuff, not GRYFFINDOR? Lily sat up and nearly whipped her head around to look at the Gryffindor table. Her brothers, along with Dominique, Molly, and Lucy stared at her in shock. Even Rose at the Ravenclaw table was craning her head around to stare at her. Finally, Lily turned back to Iris. "What just happened?"
"You got sorted into Hufflepuff, love," Iris explained, patting Lily's hand. "I'm thinking that this wasn't something you planned to happen."
Lily just stared.
"You should write home," Albus said before they left the Great Hall, after James had already stormed out. "Mum and Dad are going to want to know what happened anyway."
Lily nodded and watched as most of her family left to go to Gryffindor Tower, someplace she would never visit now. Iris grabbed her shoulders and began to steer her forward, talking softly to her and leading her down towards the Hufflepuff Cellar. Iris pointed out the tunnel to the first year's room and promised to help her in anyway she could. Lily went to bed without a second thought and forgot to write any letter.
The next morning, Albus told Lily that James had already written to their parents—on her behalf, to beg them to somehow convince the headmistress to change Lily to Gryffindor. Lily cringed and hurried over to her house's table. A few days later, Nicodemus, her father's barn owl, flew down in front of her and dropped off a letter before flying over to the Gryffindor table. Lily tore her letter open and skimmed most of the letter until she found "Your mother and I are very happy for you, sweet heart. It's great that you ended up in Hufflepuff, we're very proud of you" and nearly screamed.
She tore off some parchment and sent Isolde later. The note read "Name one Hufflepuff who did something worth being proud of".
Her mother sent her an alphabetized list containing names such as "Hannah Longbottom", "Cedric Diggory", and "Nymphadora Lupin". Her father sent along an actual letter, in which Lily could guiltily imagine him speaking in a disappointed tone that was ten times worse than if he had sent a Howler with Nicodemus. Properly chastised and feeling a tad abandoned, Lily spent the next week and a half avoiding her family except for Albus and Hugo. It wasn't like most of them acted like she had betrayed them by being sorted into Hufflepuff, but fact was they didn't know how to broach the subject. Even tactile Rose or kind Molly had trouble talking to her.
One afternoon, in a sudden mood swing of maniac desperation, Lily tried to change the color of her tie with any charm she could think of. She cowered in her corner of the library, searching desperately through the books for any spell. She was so absorbed in her task, she didn't even hear someone tripping over her stacks of books at first.
"What stupid bugger put these—oh, Potter," Scorpius Malfoy sneered. "I should have known." Then he paused and his eyes widened at the tracks her tears made from the dust of the books on her cheeks. "Good lord, Potter, what happened to you?"
At once her thoughts clashed together; fear, shame, disgust, horror, but above all wild desperation. It took all she had to keep from breaking down in front of this sour boy she'd only met once before. "I just wanted it to be red," she hiccupped and very nearly broke down crying then and there.
Malfoy looked horrified himself; he bent down, setting his books aside and quickly tried to shush her. "C'mon, now stop that," he tried. "Look, c'mon, where's that Gryffindor courage or whatever you lot call it…"
"I'm in Hufflepuff!" she nearly wailed. His face turned a little pale as she buried her face into her hands.
"Well, no wonder why," he muttered but winced as she began to cry louder. "Oh, come on, I didn't mean it like that—now, stop crying. Please—c'mon, Madame Filch will come over here and get us both in trouble if you don't shush." Finally she quieted down and he gently pried her hands away from her face, looking very out of place all the while. "I should get Albus—you're his sister anyway-"
"Don't!" she gasped and clutched at his hands. He blinked and looked down, almost fascinated, at her hands in his. "That'll only make it worse."
He shifted warily. "Well, how much worse could it get? What on earth is wrong with you anyway, Potter?"
For a moment she hesitated and then in a split second decision, she poured her heart out. She told him everything—about being placed in Hufflepuff, about her parents' letters, about James's behavior, about her cousins' behavior. The only thing she skipped was that she was going to have to write to her mother very shortly to ask for her to send a package of napkins and some of her menstrual medication. Scorpius, for his part, listened with a bravely solemn face and hid his mounting unease expertly. By the time she was done explaining, Lily panted out of breath.
Scorpius shifted nervously, taking her silence to mean he should say something. "You know, even if you did change your tie—which you can't, by the way—it still wouldn't change what house you're in."
Lily nearly started crying all over again.
Quickly realizing that perhaps that wasn't the brightest thing to say to this upset girl, Scorpius continued quickly. "I didn't want to be in Slytherin at first," he blurted.
It was Lily's turn for her eyes to go round. "What?"
His face burned and Lily marveled that he could actually show emotion like that in such a…human way. "Shut it. Look, when I was little, because no one let me forget all my father's faults, I came to Hogwarts knowing exactly what he did—so when I got stuck in his house, everyone expected me to be exactly like him." He screwed his face into a grimace. "Especially your brother."
"But…he's your father," Lily tried, too startled to form a real objection.
"And? I told you, I didn't want people to just hear my last name and my house and think I was a miniature version of him," he snapped.
She blinked slowly. "…so…what changed?"
He looked sheepishly at her and shifted again, but never let go of her hands she realized suddenly. "Your…brother, actually."
"Albus?" she asked, gaping.
"Well, yes," he retorted sardonically. "What, you think James and I are secretly friends?"
"But—he never said anything."
At once there was another very human look on his face—mixed relief and bitter disappointment before he conquered his expression once more. "Good—we'd only get in trouble if he blabbed then."
"My parents wouldn't be mad if he-" she paused. "Well, my father I know wouldn't be mad."
"Well, mine would," Scorpius frowned. "But that doesn't matter—just because you didn't end up in the house you thought you wanted doesn't mean you didn't end up in the right house. There, get it now?"
Lily stared at him for a long time before finally releasing his hands to wipe at her face. "This is a weird conversation."
He frowned and stood. "Now, no more crying—if Madame Filch thinks I made you cry, she'll give me a detention—and I don't need another detention so early in the year, got it?"
She blinked at him and tried not to giggle. "'Another detention'?"
His face got a little pink. "Err…first year, your brother—James—and I…well, we tried to duel each other."
Lily's eyes went very wide. "What happened?"
He shifted his weight uneasily. "Professor Patil caught us and chewed us out good—look, are you going to stay sitting there all day, or are you going to get up?"
She smiled slightly and stood up, wobbling a little. "Thanks…Malfoy."
Interestingly, Scorpius's face got a little pinker. "Right," he said suddenly and began to march off, snatching his books up quickly. Before he reached the path between the bookcases, he turned back to her. "Potter, this conversation? Never happened. Understand?"
She nodded briefly. "Crystal."
He nodded back to her and vanished quickly, leaving her standing there amongst a few stacks of books with a bemused expression on her face. Who would have guessed that Malfoy could like a normal person for once? She thought, a smile twitching the corners of her mouth up as she bent to collect her books to put back on the shelves.
After that, Harry smiled gently as he read a much more cheerful letter from his daughter than he had recently gotten. At least, he thought, handing the letter to Ginny, she's seems to have made a friend there to help her.