Sorry for the wait everyone, I had to rewrite this chapter several times before finally getting something I liked. And even now, it's a little too short for my liking, but oh well. Also starting in this chapter I will be implementing an explanation section to explain certain things in this story. I would have done this in the last chapter but completely forgot. Enough of my babbling, onto the story!

"Sev," Lily said, coming in from the door, "one of the prefects just told me that we need to get our uniforms on."

Severus glanced up at her from his book, mentally wondering why she had taken so long looking for the snack lady. Another part of him was amazed that they were already getting closer to Hogwarts. It hadn't seemed like too long since they had left the station in the Hogwarts Express. Of course, that could have been his excitement making the time pass quicker.

And then his mind finally got to thinking about what his best friend had just said. One little detail picked at his brain.

"How?" he questioned. "All the other compartments are taken, and I doubt that you would want to see me change and vice-versa."

It was Lily who came up with an idea.

"Why did I let her change first, she always takes forever with normal clothes," Severus muttered. He was waiting outside of the compartment, the door closed and light shuffling sounds coming from underneath the door. Lily had suggested that the person not changing would wait outside and make sure no one accidentally walked inside, and as a gentlemen, Severus had allowed her to change first. A decision he was now regretting.

"I heard that," she replied. "I'm almost done, these robes aren't exactly the easiest things to slip into."

After about thirty more seconds of waiting the door creaked open. Lily stepped out, clad in the black robes of Hogwarts. She was still pulling at the sleeves, but stepped out of the door and into the hallway, allowing Severus to enter. Before closing the door, he gave her a stern stare.

"And no peeking." He heard her spluttering protests as he closed the door.

"That was one time, and it was an accident!" Had Severus been slightly less mature he might have snickered. However, he did allow a small smile to spread across his face.

He pulled his robes out of his bags and began to get dressed, noticing how Lily was right when she said these things weren't easy to put on. But after a while it would become nothing more than muscle memory.

Once dressed he opened the door and let Lily in. She sat down opposite of Severus and looked out the window. Without turning from the view she said,

"Can you believe that it's finally time. Ever since we first met I've been waiting for this moment. I always thought that I was the only person with weird abilities, but then you came along and told me that there was an entire civilization of people like me, with their own unique culture.

"When I learned that I would be going to a school to help me learn more about magic, I was excited, but I was also a little scared. I wondered if I wouldn't be good enough and that they would just ignore me. So the day that my letter arrived was one of the happiest days of my life, and the only thing that made it better was the fact that the two of us would be going together.

"I have a feeling that these next few years are going to be a lot of fun."

Seeing the smile on Lily's face and the happiness in her eyes, Severus made a promise. No matter what, he would always protect her happiness, even if it cost him his own life.

When the train finally arrived at the station, Severus and Lily both grabbed the final parts of their uniform, their hats. Severus put his on and stepped into the hallway. Turning around, he saw Lily trying to get her hat on, but it seemed like it was size or two too large. The hat kept falling down her head, covering everything from her eyes up. She eventually managed to get it to stay still on the top of her head.

The two followed the rest of the first years off the train, where a hulking mountain of a man led them from the station to the shores of a lake. Once everyone had piled into the boats waiting for them, they set off for the Hogwarts castle standing tall on the far side of the lake. Looking down into the water, Severus could have sworn that he saw people swimming around down there, but it had to have been his imagination.

Feeling the gaze of the dozens of older students stabbing into his back, Severus was feeling anxious as he waited for his name to be called. Lily had already been called and sorted into Gryffindor, along with Sirius Black. Severus nearly got a headache thinking about Black and his friend, James Potter.

They had only just met on the Hogwarts Express, but in that short amount of time the two had managed to get under Severus's skin. Severus could tell that they had grown up with parents who probably had encouraged their arrogant behavior. And if there was one thing he disliked in a person, it was arrogance.

"Lupin, Remus." Severus shifted his attention back to the kids in front of him who were being sorted by the talking hat. He watched as the next kid sat down on the stool and had the hat placed on his head. The hat took a few seconds to decide before settling on Gryffindor. A few more kids later it was Severus's turn.

Severus approached the stool and felt the hat being placed on his head. Soon after, a voice rang out in his head.

"Hmm... It's been awhile since I've sorted someone like you," the hat said. Severus wondered what the hat meant by that. Although he had a few other questions that were more important to him.

"How do you work? What kind of spell was used to animate you?" Severus questioned, his curious mind trying to figure out how the hat worked..

"Those are questions I cannot answer, so settle down and let me have a look through your memories," the hat replied, and Severus thought he could hear an annoyed tone in its voice. "Now, let's see. You are definitely brave, but you do not have the reckless abandon of a Gryffindor. You are very wise, but the pursuit of wisdom is not the most important thing to you. You are very cunning, and have great ambitions. You would do well in Slytherin.

"However, your loyalty outshines everything else, perhaps it's an effect of your life as Itachi."

"My past life has nothing to do with it, I have separated myself from that. My past life no longer affects me."

"That is where you're wrong. You may not realize it, but everyone's traits and personality are determined by their memories and past experiences. So even though you may not think about it, those memories of a boy who was loyal to his village above all else affect your current self. No matter how hard you think otherwise, those memories will be with you for the rest of your life.

"But I digress. Now it is time to place you in a house, but since I am a generous hat, I will give you the choice to join Slytherin or to join wizards who share in your loyalty."

"If you really can see inside my head, then you already know that there is something I would like to prove my mother wrong about."

"Very well then, I think you should go to..." and then the hat yelled out the whole room, "HUFFLEPUFF"

Silence was all that met the hat's declaration, until finally the Hufflepuff table erupted in a shower of cheers and applause.

As the hat was being removed, Severus heard it whisper into his mind once more. "Think about what I said, after all, your memories might help you here more than you realize."

Severus thanked the hat before walking off to join his new house. He felt quite a few hands at him on the back as the rest of the students were sorted into their houses. After that, the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, outlined a few rules for the school year. Severus could tell that those rules would be quickly broken by Potter and his friends.

After the speech, Dumbledore sat back down and the once empty plates filled with food. Severus hadn't realized how hungry until just now. His stomach was calling out for food and he quickly began to sate his hunger. He also couldn't help but notice that the Gryffindors were taking the medieval theme very seriously with their table manners compared to the other three houses.

One of the older Hufflepuff students seemed to notice what Severus was staring at.

"Don't worry, they're normally not like that. They just get really excited at the beginning of the year."

Severus hoped that that was true, he wouldn't be able to stand if the Gryffindors were always nearly jumping on their table for each meal.

Once everyone had had their fill, each of the houses were led off to their dorms. Severus smiled at Lily as he passed her on the way out, something that he hoped no one else noticed. Once at the Hufflepuff painting, one of the prefects said the password and the all of the students filed through and went to their respective dorms.

As Severus lied down in bed, he thought about the hat's words and wondered if maybe he should try to use his memories to help him. He turned over and quietly sighed, this was something he would have to sleep on some.

Explanations:

Severus' wand: The wand that Severus uses in the series is never stated, so I get to use a little bit of creative freedom here. Cedar is supposed represent Loyalty, and I don't think that needs to much explaining. I chose Dragon heartstring as his core because it seemed to fit better than phoenix feather or Unicorn tail hair. I chose 13 inches as the length of his wand because Itachi was probably about 13 when he killed his clan, well that and 13 is usually thought of as an unlucky number and we can all say that Itachi and Severus were not the luckiest guys in the world.

Changing Severus' house: I chose to change the house that Severus went into because I don't want this to be exactly the same as the original series. Also loyalty is Hufflepuff's signature trait, something which both Itachi and Severus had boatloads of. And like the Hat said, our memories affect our personality, so Itachi's loyalty plus Severus' loyalty equals Hufflepuff.

Severus' attitude to James and Sirius: Severus will still have that dislike towards James and Sirius from the series, but it won't be as bad as in series. Itachi was shown to hate the arrogance of the Uchiha clan with a passion, a trait that has carried over to Severus no matter how much he tries to block his memories.

Severus' owl: The reason I chose to name Severus' owl Mikoto was because while Severus may want to forget his past life as Itachi, those memories still affect him. For the owl, he chose to name her Mikoto because killing his own parents put a great burden of guilt on Itachi, who cried while killing them. In a way, naming his owl after his mother is a small part of him not wanting to let go of his parents.

Also the reason I chose the species of owl, was because that kind of owl has some of the best vision of any animal on the planet, similar to the Uchiha clan whose visual prowess with the sharingan gave them powerful eyes among other things.