AN: Thank you for your reviews. I tend to be a bit irregular with my updates. Sometimes I finish very quickly, sometimes it takes longer. This doesn't mean that I have abandoned the story or anything.

This time a longer chapter and I hope you all stay on.

By the way, the song "From a Distance" by Bette Midler has really been in the charts in 1991. No copyright infringement is intended by the use of the title.

The Sorting

Mandy was bouncing from one foot to the other. "I hope we don't have to wait much longer. I want to know which house I'm going to be in," she said.

My nervousness grew worse with every minute as well. The idea of school houses was extremely exciting for me as well. We were standing in the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts, school of magic and waited for our Sorting. Nymphadora had told us that we'd simply have to put on a hat, but many of the other first years seemed to have different ideas. A red-haired boy said something about a test that would hurt very much. Neville turned pale.

I tried to swallow down the lump in my throat. There was something very far back in my mind. Almost like a memory that couldn't quite come out. Had Nymphadora kept something from us? Neville was from a magical family and I was quite sure I had seen the red-haired boy in Diagon Alley as well. Maybe she hadn't told us the truth so we wouldn't be frightened.

I heard screams and in an instant, I did remember. There had been screams as well back then, flashes of light and a sudden pain on my cheek. Rough hands were tearing me away from someone, from my mother. There was blood on my face. Aurors.

"Vivi, are you alright?" I heard Mandy's voice from faraway. "They're only ghosts. I don't think they want to harm us."

Still shaking, I looked up. She was right. There were really ghosts in the hall now. About twenty of them, gliding around the room. Three years ago, Mandy and I had seen a ghost when we had visited an old castle with our class. No one had believed us of course, but we had never doubted it. The idea that ghosts were really wasn't a shock for me. They still made me nervous though. Was this part of the test? Did we have to fight the ghosts off?

When one of them spoke, we learned that this wasn't the case. He welcomed us to Hogwarts and told us that he'd like to see us in Hufflepuff. This definitely seemed to be the house with the nicest people (and ghosts) in it.

A moment later, Professor McGonagall had returned and led us into the Great Hall. None of my many dreams about magic had ever come even remotely close to something like this. The Hall was huge, candles floated in mid air and the tables were set with golden plates and goblets. Whoever provided for this school must have lots of money. The other students were already sitting on the tables, wearing black robes with crests in various colours. They probably had to do with the houses and I hoped I'd get one soon as well. I didn't really like to wear purely black clothes.

The Hall didn't even seem to have a ceiling; you could look directly into the night sky as if it were open. It was much too warm for this though, probably that was all due to magic. There were so many wonderful things I didn't know where to look first.

I only noticed the hat Professor McGonagall had put on a stool, when it started to sing. I sighed with relief. Nymphadora obviously had said the truth after all. We were supposed to try the hat on. It described all the four houses in its song. What it told us about them wasn't much different from the things I had heard from Padma and Nymphadora. Padma and Parvati were holding each other's hands now; it must be nice to have a sister you were so close with.

I looked at Mandy and smiled. We were almost like sisters as well even though we weren't related by blood. I really hoped we would get into the same house. Facing Hogwarts alone would be too much.

A very nervous-looking blond girl called Hannah Abbott was the first one to get sorted. She ended up in Hufflepuff. The second person, Susan Bones went to Hufflepuff as well. My hands were rather sweaty now. I just hoped people wouldn't make fun of me because I looked too nervous.

After one boy had been sorted into Ravenclaw it was Mandy's turn already. I gave her a look that was supposed to be encouraging but I wasn't quite sure if it worked out too well. Mandy sat down on the stool and put the hat on. It hid her face completely so I couldn't see what was going on. After a short while, it called out: "Ravenclaw!"

The Ravenclaws applauded and Mandy walked towards them. She quickly turned around, smiling at me, before she sat down on the Ravenclaw table. I wasn't really surprised. Mandy always got excellent marks; a house for clever people would be the right place for her. I wasn't really sure in my own case though. I wasn't as clever as she was.

Draco Malfoy's crony Vincent Crabbe got sorted into Slytherin where he sat down next to a girl named Millicent Bulstrode. Both of them seemed rather thuggish, the kind of people who'd hold other children's arms behind their back so someone else could hit them. I really didn't fancy getting into their house.

The girl who had helped Neville look for his told was called Hermione Granger and went to Gryffindor. I surely wasn't going to end up there either. I didn't feel like having any daring, nerve or chivalry at the moment at all. It would be Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Both would be alright but I wanted to stay with Mandy. In Hufflepuff, I'd have the chance to get to know Nymphadora better though. I might find out if we were related after all.

Greengrass, Daphne was sorted into Slytherin now; she looked nicer than the rest. I noticed that she didn't sit down next to Crabbe and Goyle but chose an empty chair on the other side of the table.

"Lestrange, Vivien," Professor McGonagall called. A few people were whispering to each other but that didn't surprise me. I was used to it from primary school. Sitting through about half of the Sorting had taught me that a name like "Lestrange" wasn't normal for witches either.

My heart was beating violently as I walked towards the stool. I was glad when I could sit down because my knees were so weak. Professor McGonagall put the hat on my head, I was glad I didn't have to do it on my own. I might have dropped it. The hat fell over my eyes so I didn't see anyone anymore.

I was startled when I suddenly heard a voice talk to me. It had to belong to the hat.

"Interesting. I see lots of curiosity. A thirst to know things, to understand."

Of course I'm curious, I thought. Who wouldn't be in my situation?

"You're not afraid to stand up for others even if the odds are not in your favour," the hat continued.

I felt myself blush. It wasn't anything special. It wasn't right to look away when someone was being treated badly. "Please, just send me to Ravenclaw with Mandy," I thought, wondering if the head could understand me.

"You're a loyal friend as well," the hat told me. "But I can see something else. You want to prove yourself to the world. There's a desire to be special, to stand out from the crowd."

So far, the hat had made it seem as if I was a wonderful person but I didn't like the last bit. I wasn't arrogant. "That was just because of the magic. I really was different. It wasn't my imagination. Please send me to Ravenclaw. I'll do anything to be good enough."

"You'll do anything, eh?" the hat asked with a hint of amusement if a hat could feel amusement at all.

I realised that this must have sounded like a very Slytherin thing to say. It couldn't be considering putting me into Slytherin, could it? They wouldn't want me anyway.

"I didn't mean it like that. I meant that I'm going to study really hard. I won't waste my time with anything unnecessary." Well, I would try to find out as much about the wizarding world as possible but that was acceptable Ravenclaw behaviour, wasn't it?

"Please don't send me to Slytherin. I don't want to live with people who hate me for where I come from. I don't want to spend the next years in a constant fight."

"Very well, not Gryffindor then," the hat said, leaving me perplexed. We hadn't been discussing Gryffindor at all.

"You could do well in Slytherin if you had the strength to remain yourself," the hat said. "It wouldn't be easy though and you'd lose much if you failed. Too much I think. That's why I want you to be in RAVENCLAW."

The hat shouted the last word into the hall aloud and I got up, immensely relieved. Professor McGonagall took the hat from me, and I walked off towards the Ravenclaw table. Mandy was clapping wildly and hugged me as soon as I reached her. "Yes! We just had to be together," she said. I wholeheartedly agreed. I didn't want to tell her what a narrow miss this had been. At least not right away.

Su Li, the girl sorted after me ended up in Hufflepuff. I saw Nymphadora clapping for her. She had pink hair today. This talent of hers seemed to be fun though I wouldn't dare to make myself look like that.

Neville Longbottom was next. He seemed to be much more nervous than I had been which was quite an achievement. Neville fell over on his way to the stool, a few people laughed. Most of them were sitting at the Slytherin table. I really didn't understand why the hat had considered putting me with them.

Neville sat on the stool for a very long time. I didn't mind this anymore though. I didn't have to wait any longer. Finally, Neville was sent to Gryffindor, a decision neither Mandy nor me could really understand.

"I'm sorry but he's not exactly brave," Mandy said.

I agreed. No one had seemed as nervous as Neville so far. He even forgot to take the hat off and kept in on his head while walking to the Gryffindor table. Many people were laughing at this. I tried not to because I knew it was rude but it was hard.

"I really don't understand why a pureblood is acting like that," one of the older boys on our table said. "He makes it look as if all this was completely new to him."

When Morag McDougal finally got the hat from Neville, she became a Ravenclaw too. Her older sister was already here and they started chatting with each other.

Draco Malfoy was sent to Slytherin right away, I had guessed correctly in his case. He walked over to their table, joining Crabbe and Goyle. I was really glad that I wasn't forced to stay with them. I would probably have been their target for bullying and in a school where everyone had magic; my skills wouldn't be much use.

Peter Moon was quickly sent to Hufflepuff and the next student, a boy called Theodore Nott walked towards the stool. He looked around nervously and avoided to meet anyone's eye. A bit like Neville though it wasn't quite as bad. Theodore sat on the stool for quite a while and ended up in Slytherin. I really didn't expect that. He didn't seem like a Slytherin at all. Maybe they weren't all nasty bullies like Malfoy. I didn't know Millicent Bulstrode at all for example. Judging her by her looks wasn't a nice thing to do. The same was probably true for Pansy Parkinson, the girl who was sent to Slytherin next

Afte Pansy, it was Padma's turn.

"I really hope they come here too," Mandy said and I agreed completely. The Patil sisters had been really nice and explained many things. I'd probably still be worried about the Thestrals if it hadn't been for Padma.

Padma put on the hat and a few moments later, it shouted: "Ravenclaw!" We were clapping loudly and Padma joined us, a broad smile on her face. "Ravenclaw's simply the best," she said, a statement many people around as were quick to agree with.

Parvati sat on the stool now. We all accepted that she'd join us soon, but it wasn't supposed to be like that. "GRYFFINDOR," the hat shouted.

Padma's smile faded away. "Oh no. This can't be true. They can't put us in different houses."

"Well, you can still see each other in class and so on," I said, trying to comfort her.

"Gryffindor's not really a problem," an older boy said. "Our two houses get along quite well. I'm Roger Davies by the way. Do any of you play Quidditch? We really need to get better. Slytherin keeps winning every year."

"This is probably a stupid question, but what is Quidditch?" Mandy asked.

"Ravenclaw house rule number one, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers," Roger said. "You're probably Muggle-born, aren't you?"

Mandy nodded.

"Of course you wouldn't know about Quidditch. But you will soon enough. It's the best sport in the world. Quidditch is played on flying broomsticks."

I was listening intently now too.

"There are two teams, seven players each. Three of them are chasers; they try to score goals with the Quaffle, a big red ball. Two players are beaters; they try to keep the two Bludgers away from their team. Those are heavy balls that try to knock people off their brooms. There's one Keeper who guards the goal and a Seeker. He's trying to catch the Golden Snitch, the last ball. This is earning the team many points."

"This really sounds like fun," I said. "I'd love to try it but I probably have to practice a lot first. I've never been on a broomstick before."

"I don't know," Mandy said, a doubtful look on her face. "Balls who try to knock the players off their broom? I'm not sure if I want to sit on a broom at all. Sounds too dangerous to me."

The Sorting of the next student interrupted our discussion. There seemed to be something really special about the boy called Harry Potter. He looked quite ordinary, nervous like everyone else but people where staring at him from all the four house tables, whispering to each other. In his case, the whispering was clearly positive. Harry seemed to be some sort of celebrity. Maybe he was the son of a wizarding star, something like that did surely exist.

A few people at our table looked disappointed when he was sent to Gryffindor; the Gryffindors were applauding him raucously. I didn't say it aloud but I didn't mind him being in another house. I didn't like it when people got so worked up over someone famous.

A little while later, Lisa Turpin, a petite girl with very light blond hair became one of us. She sat down next to Mandy but cast a quick look into my direction.

Lisa was the last person to be sorted into Ravenclaw. When Blaise Zabini, a rather good-looking dark-skinned boy had joined the Slytherins, an old man with white hair and a long beard got to his feet.

"Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster," Padma whispered.

I expected some kind of serious speech but Dumbledore only welcomed us and said a few nonsensical words. Authority figures who acted like that made me a bit uncomfortable, but the others jeered and clapped. They seemed to be used to this. Maybe it was just his style. When he had sat down again, food had arrived, by magic I was sure. I looked at it in astonishment. The food at the orphanage hadn't been bad but many of the dishes here looked as if they were from an expensive restaurant. I had never eaten lamb or roast beef before. They didn't have enough money for this kind of thing at the orphanage but here, money didn't seem to be an issue as I had noticed before. At first, I didn't really dare to try these expensive things but then I did do it. They were delicious.

"So are you all from wizard families?" Mandy asked the others between two mouthfuls of roast chicken.

"Well, my family has been magical for four generations," Lisa said. "That counts as a wizarding family but it doesn't make me a real pureblood. I couldn't marry someone like say Draco Malfoy." She looked over to the Slytherin table.

I couldn't think of a reason why anyone would want to marry Draco Malfoy but I didn't say so. Maybe Lisa liked him.

"You're Muggle-born?" Lisa asked Mandy.

"Yes. My parents couldn't do any magic. I never believed that something like that did exist. But there were those odd things happening around Vivien and me."

Lisa quickly looked at me and back to Mandy. "You know each other?"

Mandy smiled. "We've been living in the same orphanage," she said.

I would rather have kept this to myself but it was too late. We'd have to deal with the reactions.

"So you don't belong to the pureblood family Lestrange?" Lisa asked me. She sounded quite relieved and didn't seem to mind my upbringing.

"There is a pureblood family called Lestrange?" I asked. Was my name a magical one after all? Pureblood probably meant that you weren't related to any Muggles but I didn't like the sound of the term. It made it seem as if everyone else was "impure."

"Yes, there is. But they'd never let a child of theirs stay in a Muggle orphanage," Lisa said.

"I'm not sad that you're not one of them."

"Why? Is there something wrong with them?"

"Well, they're really interested in the Dark Arts," Lisa explained.

"Dark Arts? Black magic? So this kind of thing does really exist as well?" Many of my books had dealt with evil powers and the dark side. Morgana had often been called a dark sorceress as well. I had never really believed that this was true. Ms Leakey probably had a part in this. She thought that people preferred to describe witches as evil for simply doing things like working with dangerous plants.

"Yes, it does. I'd rather not talk about it though," Lisa said.

The leftover food had vanished, leaving the plates as clean as they had been before. Ice cream in many flavours, apple pies and many more desserts appeared now. I'd like to try everything but I had no chance to do so without getting sick.

Mandy asked Padma about her family now. "My parents are a witch and a wizard but one of my grandmothers is a Muggle-born. This probably makes me three-quarters-blood or something."

"Seriously, who cares about this kind of thing?" one of the first-year boys said. "I'm Anthony Goldstein by the way. My father's a wizard while my mother doesn't have magic if you really want to know."

"Does she know about your father's magic?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Yes, he told her about it before they got married," Anthony said. "She's quite open-minded, my Mum. It didn't bother her. She's upset by some of the things that are going on in the wizarding world though. When she saw pictures from Azkaban, she was completely shocked."

"Well, she wouldn't be if she knew what these people have done," Padma said.

"I don't think so. Mum's a psychologist, that's something like a Healer for the mind."

Mandy and I knew what a psychologist was of course, but the people from magical families obviously did not. I looked over to the Gryffindor table where Neville Longbottom was sitting with the other first-years. There probably wasn't a chance for him to get professional help.

"She has dealt with torture victims and she's completely against it you see. No matter what someone has done."

I didn't want to show my ignorance all the time but my curiosity got the better of me. I also remembered what Roger had said about asking questions earlier this evening.

"Could you explain to us what Azkaban is?"

"Of course. Azkaban is the British wizarding prison," Anthony said.

"Oh, I see. And they're torturing the prisoners there?" When I asked this, I realised how little I knew about this new world I was joining. I had been aware of my ignorance as far as magic was concerned but I knew nothing about this society's laws either or about the rights I had here if any.

"Well, not exactly," Padma said. "There are no human guards there."

"What else is guarding the prison then?" Mandy asked.

"Dementors," Padma said shivering.

Seeing our blank looks, Lisa explained: "Dementors are dark creatures. They feed on human emotions, on happy thoughts and memories. People who live with them lose all of those. And they lose all hope and the ability to enjoy anything."

I was shivering too as well when I heard that. The raspberry ice-cream I was eating didn't taste nearly as good as it had before anymore. There was a faint memory once again. "They're going to take us to a place where we will never be happy again."

"This is torture," Anthony said and I thought he was right.

I was glad when Mandy changed the subject again. "So it's normal to have Muggle relatives?"

"Yes, it is," Padma said. Anthony, Lisa and Roger were voicing their agreement. "Most people have mixed blood. Purebloods are extremely rare."

"Especially in Ravenclaw," Lisa added. "Academic curiosity isn't the trait pureblood families usually value. Most of them are either interested in political gain and go to Slytherin or they value courage and go to Gryffindor. A few families are closer to the earth and to plants and animals. They tend to go to Hufflepuff."

She looked at me again. "The Lestrange family is one of the few exceptions. Academic curiosity is quite important for them. The things they're interested in are often quite creepy though. That's why they usually go to Slytherin but there have been more Ravenclaws among them then among almost any other pureblood family."

I felt a twinge of excitement when I heard that. I wasn't going to tell the others that I had no idea who my parents were but I would definitely try to get information about the Lestrange family.

I ate the rest of my ice-cream and a ball of chocolate ice-cream as well, my appetite had returned.

When the feast was over, Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. I quickly realised that he was going to give the serious speech now. We were told that the forest on the grounds was forbidden to students and that we weren't allowed to use magic in the corridors. He also mentioned Quidditch try-outs but I knew that I wasn't ready for that yet. Afterwards, he warned us that we weren't supposed to go into a corridor on the third floor if we didn't want to "die a very painful death."

If he had said this earlier this evening, I wouldn't have taken it seriously. After all this stuff about Dementors and torture we had discussed, I believed it now. There were dangers lurking here which I couldn't even fathom and I was totally dependent on others. For the first time, I started to have doubts if I really wanted to be here. Looking around, the answer was clear however. Yes, I did want to be here but was going to try to find out as much as I could as quickly as possible.

After the Headmaster's speech, we were told to sing the "school song" which was more of a joke than anything else. We were all asked to sing to our favourite tunes and I chose the song "From a Distance" which I had really liked when I had heard it on the radio. The words of the school song didn't make much sense; in my mind I heard the lyrics of the song and added my own. From a distance, this had seemed like a dream come true, but the doubts didn't want to go away completely. How could they jump from talking about mortal dangers to singing a funny song like this? Dumbledore was conducting the last singing students with his wand and clapped, seemingly amused by the song himself.

Then he sent us off to bed.

"First-years follow me," an older girl called. "I'm Penelope Clearwater, Ravenclaw prefect."

We walked behind her and I cast a quick glance at Neville Longbottom who was following the Gryffindors' prefect. I had offended him somehow but I had no idea how. Did they have freedom of speech here at all? Could I end up in this place called Azkaban simply for saying something wrong without even meaning to?

Penelope talked about a House Cup but I barely listened.

The food was lying heavy in my stomach. I really shouldn't have eaten so much.

Back at the orphanage I had always believed that I belonged into a world of magic. Now I was here but I wasn't so sure if I really belonged either. Maybe I'd always remain a stranger as my name prophesied, no matter where I was.

"Vivi, are you alright? You've been so quite?" Mandy asked.

"I'm fine. I think I've eaten too much."

Mandy smiled. "Me too. I just want to sleep now."

Sleeping was a good idea. Tomorrow, the lessons would start and I could look for the library to find out as much as I could. No matter what was going to happen, at least I wouldn't be alone. Mandy was with me as she had been at the Orphanage.