Into the Fire Chapter 4: Sorting and Lily's Impressive Right Hook, a harry potter fanfic

(A/N): Hey Guys! So, this chapter three (four if you count the prologue), and yeah its uh, very strange and random. Leo is a rather strange character to write, so he comes across as quite...eccentric. Also there's a lot of ...'s in this chapter, and it is a rather long chapter. This chapter actually has a page break, which you can probably see from here, because it's a change in time and I didn't just want to leave it blank. I made September 1st 1971 a Saturday, because I wrote this on a Saturday, and I have no idea what day it actually was.

I started this story in 2012. I was fourteen. Its been almost ten years. If you don't like something in the early chapters, it's not going to suddenly change ten years after I wrote it. If you're going to review this story with criticisms, please log in so I can actually reply to you and not have to leave messages like this in chapters so you might actually see it. And if you're just going to bash the story for being inaccurate, again, please remember that I was fourteen, I wasn't born in the 1960's, and I have never been outside of Australia. And some things are inaccurate because that's what people in that time period thought- not necessarily what I think, or know today.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Leo and his father Nicholai, oh, and Blake Anders.

Leo

Neither Severus or I had spoken a word since Lily had fallen asleep in my arms, him reading a Potions book and I reading a set of different books about Hogwarts and it's subjects. The compartment door slid open and a woman with a trolley full of sweets stood in the opening. She asked Severus if he wanted anything and he shook his head silently, before she turned to Lily and I. She smiled softly before asking me the same question quietly.

"A packet of Bertie Botts please?" I asked politely, causing her to raise an eyebrow. Were people not polite anymore? She handed me the box of beans as I scooped the coins from my pocket. She glanced at Lily and smiled tenderly shaking her head.

"Some people just weren't supposed to get up early on Saturdays." She said, making me grin as she exited the compartment.

I should probably wake Lily up, we're almost to Hogwarts and she hasn't changed into her robes yet. Nearly an hour ago I had shifted her slowly so that we weren't sitting upright, but I was leaning up against the wall closest to the door, Lily's arms were still wrapped around my waist, but her head was resting in my lap, the rest of her body curled around my legs, like Vex did when he occasionally fell asleep in a good mood. I shook her shoulder and she groaned, tightening her grip on my waist, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Lily, wake your arse up!" I yelled quietly into her ear before springing back as her head shot up, her hand rubbing her ear.

"Owww! Why did you have to do that?" I smirked before lifting a hand to her chin.

"One, you were drooling all over my lap," She glanced down at where her arms were still wrapped around my waist before untangling them. "And two, you haven't changed and we're almost at Hogwarts." Across from us, Severus snorted in amusement, not taking his eyes away from his potions book. Lily's head snapped around to look out the window, and, finally noticing it had turned dark, jumped up, grabbing the robes from her bag and racing out, presumably to find a bathroom to change in. Severus and I spent the time that she was gone reading again, and when she returned, the train was slowing for it's final and only stop.

"Well, come on boys, we don't want to be late now do we?" Lily chirped, and I suddenly knew we shouldn't have let her sleep for so long. Now she's going to be strangely awake for the rest of the night. Oh well, it's a lucky thing I don't sleep much. What with being half-vampire, vampires being mainly nocturnal creatures, though they can still go into the sunlight if they must, I don't need to sleep nearly as much as humans, which can be a boon at times.

I sighed, standing and following her out of the compartment, Severus trailing behind us. We had barely taken a few steps before I heard Severus cry out from behind me. Lily and I spun around to see Severus lying face-down on the floor, Sirius, Sirius' friend from earlier and two other boys, one with light brown-blonde hair and amber eyes, the other a small boy with dull blue eyes and a mousy appearance. The boy with the amber eyes was frowning, as if he diasapproved, and the boy with the blue eyes looked worried, but Sirius and his friend were simply laughing.

"Come on Severus." I said, my tone cold, but the coldness was directed towards Sirius and his friend as I helped Severus from the ground, holding Lily back with the other arm. Suddenly, Severus spun on them, pulling out his wand. Sirius and his friend stopped laughing and hesitated before pulling out their wands. I grabbed Severus arms and pulled them down to his side, rendering his wand useless against them seeing as it was now pointing at the ground. Just as I did so, a slightly aged woman with a stern face appeared in the doorway behind us, and upon seeing the wands drawn, stepped into the train and in between our two groups.

"What do you think you're doing?" She snapped, thrusting Sirius and his friends wands down with her hand.

"Well-" Sirius, Severus and the other boy started at the same time, only to be cut off by the stern woman.

"Someone who won't change the story? How about you?" She asked the boy with the amber eyes, seeing as he was the only person not occupied by holding people back, being enraged or currently trying not to wet themselves. "What are your names anyway?"

"Remus Lupin, mam. We, Peter Pettigrew," He gestured to the blue-eyed boy behind him who was almost shaking with fear. "Sirius Black," He pointed to Sirius. "And James Potter," He pointed to the last remaining boy, the one with the glasses. "Had just left our compartment when the others," He gestured to us, obviously not knowing our names. "Left theirs, and James thought it would be a good idea to trip...Severus? Over." He seemed questioning of Severus' name, probably hearing it from when I had said it earlier. "They did so, and when he," He pointed to me. "Helped him up, Severus pulled his wand on James and Sirius, and he," He motioned to me again. "Started holding him back so he wouldn't attack James and Sirius, who had by this time gotten their wands out. And that's what happened." She raised an eyebrow before turning to me, seeing as I was the only one not incapacitated by fear or rage.

"What say you? Is his story true? Also, what the bloody hell are your names?" A small smile found it's way onto my lips as she swore, but it soon disappeared.

"I'm Leo, this is Severus Snape, and Lily Evans." I nodded my head to Severus first, and then to Lily to emphasize. "That's exactly what happened." The woman raised an eyebrow at me slightly, as if curious, before she scanned me. Of course, Dumbledore had to tell his second in command, so this must be professor...McGoggles? McGonall? McGona...gall! McGonagall. So, professor McGonagall knows about my...heritage. I raised an eyebrow back, which would have just seemed inquisitive to someone looking on, but she and I both knew it had a challenging edge. She smiled slightly before spinning on her heel to face both groups.

"Mr Snape, Mr Potter and Mr Black, you will see me after the feast for your punishment, the rest of you are free to go." Severus started to protest but I covered his mouth with my hand and rushed off to catch up to the others, still dragging him and making sure Lily didn't turn around and start killing Sirius and James. As the others passed us, James spoke up.

"See you around, Snivellus." Severus turned around to glare at them, but I still had him in my grip, unfortunately, Lily was able to worm her way out of my other arm and smacked James straight in the nose- with her fist. I heard a crunch, and I was pretty sure she had broken his nose, what with the blood that started to pour out of it as he fell to the ground. McGonagall spun around, her eyes first setting on James bloody and broken nose, with Lily standing over him in rage, before darting to me. I wasn't breathing. I didn't have to breathe as often as regular humans, but I still needed to breathe so I wouldn't be able to keep this up for long, and I could feel his blood.

"Ms Evans, you will also see me after the feast, Leo, get those two out of here while I deal with these three." I nodded, my breath was almost gone, so I grabbed Lily and Severus' arms and dragged them away towards the castle at a fast pace. My lungs were burning, but I kept my breath for a second longer before releasing it in a gush, trying to make it sound like a gasp at the sight of the man towering before us as I drew in new breath.

"Are you the last three?" I shook my head as Lily muttered, 'The last three that matter.'

"There's four more on their way, they got in trouble with professor McGonagall." The man shook his head in disapproval, clucking his tongue.

"Already? It get's worse by the year. Well, let's get you into a boat." He directed us over to one of the last two remaining boats and we climbed in carefully, trying not to fall into the water. Sirius, Remus, James and Peter arrived just as we had settled into our boat, and climbed into the last boat by themselves, Hagrid in his boat, waved the boats forward and they lurched into movement towards the Castle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sirius scoop some water into his hand from the lake and quickly twisted around to hit James in the face with it, and I only barely managed to restrain a grin.

We arrived in the boathouse of Hogwarts and we all carefully climbed out of our boats, making our way safely to the Great hall where, surprisingly, McGonagall was waiting. We all climbed the stairs until we were directly in front of her, and she stared us down.

"When you walk through those doors, you will be sorted into one of the four houses. Those houses will be like a home for you. Any good behavior gets you points, any misbehaving," She glared at Sirius and James. "And you will lose points. The four houses are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin, and each have different traits that will lead you to be put in them. Good luck." She told us before turning on her heel and pushing the tall doors open to admit us into the magnificent hall in front of us, in which there were five tables, at the far end was a table for the teachers, the table on the far left was Slytherin, the one next to it Ravenclaw.

On the other side of the aisle was the Gryffindor table, and on the far right was the Hufflepuff table. I met Dumbledore's eyes from where he sat in the middle of the High table, his blue eyes scanning the crowd from over his half-moon glasses. We advanced down the aisle behind McGonagall, and when she had almost reached the High table she turned on her heel to come to a stop next to a wooden stall upon which a scroll and an old hat, the Sorting hat, sat.

"When I call your name, come up to the front and sit on the stool to be sorted." She said before lifting the hat from the stool and unfurling the scroll before reading out the first name on there.

"Blake Anders?" A small, pale boy with glasses that almost covered his dark brown eyes, his golden-brown hair hanging down in front of them, hesitated before walking up to the stool and taking a seat. A few seconds later, the hat delivered its verdict.

"Ravenclaw!" The small boy grinned and took the hat off, handing it back to McGonagall before rushing over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Black, Sirius?" Sirius pushed through the crowd and sat on the stool, trying to look confident, but I could see that he was nervous. Very nervous. The hat considered it for barely a second before shouting its verdict.

"Gryffindor!" For a few seconds, the crowd was deadly silent before James, Remus, Peter, and I (what? I can't be nice?), started to clap, and the rest of the crowd soon joined in, except for the Slytherin's. A few names later, the next familiar name was called.

"Evans, Lily?" Lily swallowed before heading up to sit daintily on the stool, McGonagall resting the hat on her head, but I think we both knew what house she would be in, with her impressive right hook and her not being adverse to using it, and it wasn't Slytherin.

"Gryffindor!" Many more names were called out, none I recognized, before mine.

"Joannis, Leonides?" The crowd went silent, they knew the Joannis' were a powerful and merciless pureblood family, much like the Blacks were, so they were curious and a little bit worried, I'm sure. I stepped through the crowd easily and climbed the two small steps to sit on the stool, but not before meeting McGonagall's eyes. She set the hat on my head, and I was immediately greeted by a voice inside my head.

Ah, a half-vampire! I haven't seen one of your kind here in a while, and only a handful of times before now at that! Let's take a look at you though. Hmm, your smart, very smart, and curious for knowledge...your extremely loyal, your not afraid to do what you must and your really very brave, your cautious, but if something annoys you enough it's not hard to get you angry...perhaps...yes.

"Gryffindor!" The hat shouted, both out loud and in my head, and McGonagall lifted it off, allowing me to stand and make my way to the Gryffindor table and sit down next to Lily. Only a few people more before another familiar name was called up.

"Lupin, Remus?" I could see Remus swallow deeply, even from here, before starting towards the stool. McGonagall placed the hat on his head, and a few seconds later, he was sorted into Gryffindor. A few people later, maybe three, Peter was called up, and the poor boy was shaking like a leaf in the middle of a thunderstorm. Dammit, I really do have to stop with the analogies! He hesitantly climbed the steps and sat on the stool as if it were going to bite him, jolting as the hat was dropped onto his head. It took perhaps a full minute before the hat delivered its verdict, and it wasn't one anyone expected to hear.

"Gryffindor!" He's a Gryffindor? But he was literally shaking at the fact he had to stand in front of a crowd! Ah, Leo, don't judge a book by it's cover. Okay, more analogies, and referring to myself in third person now? Nice, very nice. I thought dryly, before James's name was called up next.

"Potter, James?" James jogged up the stairs and sat on the stool confidently, letting McGonagall place the hat on his unruly jet black hair.

"Gryffindor!" The hat cried, almost instantly, and James jumped off the stool and was halfway towards the Gryffindor table before he realised he still had the Sorting hat on. Perhaps seven people later Severus was called up.

"Snape, Severus?" Snape blinked silently before making his way up to McGonagall and letting her put the hat on his head, and less than ten seconds later it had the verdict almost all of us knew it would.

"Slytherin!" Lily looked like she knew it would happen, but still sad, so I squeezed her hand under the table comfortingly before turning to watch as the remaining group of students were sorted and after that digging into the feast that appeared before us on golden plates and platters.

(A/N): Please review or check out my other stories!

This chapter has had minor edits made to it on 25/12/22

To Cyan-Snake, who reviewed the last chapter with 'Literally called him Sev in the last chapter', in response to Leo saying he had never called Severus 'Sev' or anything other than his full name- good catch. I think he mostly meant that he didn't call him 'Sev' seriously, considering in the chapter before that, which you're referring to, he called him Sev when he made fun of him accepting his service picking out bertie botts flavors, to Dumbledore. Also, if you allowed private messages, I could reply to you directly, instead of in a chapter like this. A chapter you're probably either past, or will never read because that indiscrepancy has turned you off my 10 year old story. Thanks for your review!