Chapter Text
The Sorting
Lily Evans
There was something off about them. The first being that even the shortest was a full head taller than the students they followed into the Great Hall. Where once there was the normal hushed chatter, the noise rose further as the taller figures filed in behind the first years fresh off the boats.
“Who are they?” Mary MacDonald asked conspiratorially to the group of sixth-year Gryffindor girls.
Lily lifted her eyebrows at her before she shrugged. Her emerald green eyes traveled to Dorcas Meadows and Alice Fortescue who both appeared just as mystified.
“Transfers,” James hissed.
On cue, the word was passed along the table before creeping across to the other tables as well.
“Come again?” Lily asked, coolly.
Her pale eyebrow twitched just so in annoyance. Though her falling out with Severus had begun before the beginning of the summer hols; Lily still disliked James Potter a great deal. Severus was hardly the only reason she had disliked Potter and his roving band of “marauders” as they called themselves. Perhaps, Remus was different, but even he rarely endeared himself by standing aside during one of Potter and Black’s tasteless and often cruel pranks. Peter Pettigrew was hardly worth any true dislike either, but it was rare when the short plump sixth year entered her thoughts at all. Rather than continue staring at James who leaned forward in anticipation of telling her something she didn’t know, Lily glanced back to the strangers. They were decidedly not eleven years old. In fact, they looked to be around their age, or perhaps a year older or younger. There were three boys and two girls who walked closely together as they took in the Great Hall for the first time with varying levels of awe and wonder.
“I overheard Mum talking about it,” James told his rapt audience, but his eyes remained fixed on Lily. “They appealed to the Ministry to join Hogwarts late. It’s all very secretive, but it looks like they were apprenticed to Newt Scamander and Nicholas Flamel!”
A hushed silence fell around them as the table digested the news. It happened only rarely in Magical Britain when a student was taught by a family and then apprenticed under another Witch or Wizard for their fifth through seventh years. Most would quit the program by their second year and would transfer discretely into another magical school as an older first year. It was practically unheard of for an upper-year student to transfer, much less five of them at once!
“Why?” Mary blurted, she gulped when a table full of eyes transferred to her but blustered on despite that. “I mean if you’ve got Scamander and the Alchemist in your corner, why transfer here and why so many of them?”
“It’s him,” Lily said, her eyes had latched onto one of the boys. He looked at the crowd with haunted eyes.
The Gryffindors knew immediately which “him” Lily referred to from her tone. Voldemort, the wraith that had steadily gained traction with terrifying speed out in the real world. They had spent the summer hearing about the disappearances, the deaths, and the torture. They heard whispers of the skull and snake and what it meant when it hung above a house as a warning to what waited inside.
“Ah,” Potter said, uncommonly serious, “Yeah, him.”
The group went silent again, until like clockwork Sirius Black slapped a hand against James’s shoulder as he winked at them.
“Fresh blood!” Sirius grinned a wolfish smile. “Fresh suckers for the picking. You figure we bring out the big guns boys?”
The Gryffindor cackled as he shared a look with the three boys who made up what he considered a family. Remus suppressed a sigh; though humor twinkled in his eyes. Peter smirked; his eyes were set on the tallest boy with gangly limbs. Peter had always hated those who were excessively taller than he was. James wrapped an arm around Sirius and leaned in to whisper his idea. Lily rolled her eyes at them before she focused on McGonagall who had just stopped before the teachers' table. Lily noted that the transfers held back from the crowd of first years, but they watched the sorting begin with obvious humor. The sorting hat was placed on the stool and as it had for the past five years for Lily, it opened it’s rip of a mouth to begin singing.
“Upon a shelf, I do sit,
Until this day my wait will quit.
To decide one's fate is my game to play,
So, let’s get started and be on our way.
Four houses, divided
Their lives having collided
/ To win this twisted race,
You have only to listen to me to keep up the pace,
Brave and reckless, charge forward and Gryffindor may be your home tonight,
Loyal and grounded, kind Hufflepuffs, you are companionable sight.
Eccentric and clever, Ravenclaws halls with knowledge beckon and call,
Or is it ambition and brilliance that will make Hogwarts and Slytherin your hall?”
Lily was one of the first students to clap, but the room quickly erupted into applause. McGonagall nodded sharply toward the hat and then the headmaster. Now that she was looking, Lily noticed that the headmaster’s intense blue gaze was centered on the five transfer students as well. She wondered what he was thinking behind those half-moon glasses. McGonagall began calling names and the room mostly forgot the older students as they greeted first years. Even as Lily clapped and cheered while first-years joined their ranks, she couldn’t help being curious why none of the transfer students had been called yet.
Indeed, the five of them were left standing in the center aisle. They waited patiently as McGonagall rolled up her parchment and stepped aside. Professor Dumbledore stood, quieting the room with a sweep of his hands.
“Before opening announcements, I would like to introduce and kindly welcome our new transfer students. As you may know, it is unusual to welcome older students into Hogwarts’ hallowed halls, but I expect you all to welcome them with open arms. I expect that our prefects will make themselves available to assist the newcomers to adjust to Hogwarts life. Now if you please, Minerva!”
Professor McGonagall gave her normally pinched smile before she unrolled the parchment and again began reading. The room leaned forward with bated breath, waiting to hear not only where the transfers would end up, but their names and year.
“George Billius, 7th year,” McGonagall called.
The room waited until one of the five moved forward. It was one of the redheads, and the second tallest of the bunch, though he looked the eldest out of them all. The man’s face was serious, even somber, but it looked as though he should be laughing. Freckles scattered across his face and more than one person gasped when they saw the gaping hole where an ear should have been. The wound revealed by a casual flick of his hair before the redhead sat on the stool. McGonagall dropped the hat onto his head and the room waited…and waited. After a full three minutes in which George’s hands turned white-knuckled from gripping them together, the hat announced, “Ravenclaw!”
The hat sounded very pleased with itself. Billius sat there in a stunned silence, his mouth falling open, as the Ravenclaw table exploded in applause. It took McGonagall taking the hat from his head for him to move. George’s eyes found his fellows as he walked numbly to the Ravenclaw table to be pulled down among them. Ravenclaw’s seventh-year prefect Pandora took George by his arm and parked him next to her. Her golden star earrings twinkled merrily as she sat back down and pat George on his head like he was a child. Her white gold hair framed her grinning face.
The remaining four transfers stared at George in near alarm. The fellow redheaded boy was even slack-jawed. Lily’s eyes were drawn away from him to one of the girls with shiny platinum hair that tumbled down her shoulders. Her ethereal blue eyes were locked on Pandora instead of George. When the girl moved her head to answer the other girl’s question, Lily could make out radish earrings among her pale locks of hair. McGonagall continued as though there had been no interruption to the proceedings.
“Luna Billius, fifth year.”
The blonde girl walked forward, and her intense gaze turned hazy as she approached the sorting hat. So, the girl was related to George then, Lily concluded. Besides both having blue eyes and fair skin, Lily couldn’t see any resemblance between them. Then again, she and Tunney had never looked alike either, as they had taken after different parents. Luna had a vague expression when she plopped down on the stool and waited for the hat to be placed on her head. Again, the hat deliberated for a long time, before it finally announced, “Gryffindor!”
To the delight of her table around her they cheered for Luna. Having one of the transfers was quickly becoming a status symbol based on the smug look she saw James and Sirius send at the Slytherin table. Lily carefully kept her gaze away from the snakes, but she had been aware of a heavy look from one in particular, all evening. It was Lily who stood up and walked to meet the lithe blonde when the fifth-year prefects seemed more consumed with gossiping than helping their year-mate. Luna smiled widely at her as she stood with the sorting hat still on her head. McGonagall quickly snatched it before she could walk off with it as several first years did every sorting. Lily extended a hand and Luna took it as she smiled up at her with an odd twinkle in her eyes.
“Lily Evans,” Lily introduced herself with a smile, “I’m a Gryffindor prefect, our table is over here.”
“Luna,” the girl replied and smiled wider before her eyes slid sideways to look over Lily’s shoulder where the rest of her companions still waited. When she looked back to Lily her grin widened.
“The Crinkle-back Snifflers like you. I believe we’ll get along.”
“Crink—” Lily started, but Luna was already walking toward their table pulling Lily along with their threaded fingers.
“Oh, yes,” Luna agreed. “Papa used to set out peppermint for them all the time! They are very good luck because they’re drawn to the sweetness of temperment.”
“Sounds…sweet?!” Lily laughed and despite the oddness of the girl, Lily already found that she liked her.
Luna led them back to where Lily had been sitting. She took the seat directly next to Potter which would be a needed buffer between Lily and the arrogant pisspot. Luna turned to smile at the marauders to her left. The four boys watched her with varying expressions. Peter looked vaguely weirded out by the radishes in her ears. Remus smiled politely but was more focused on the other transfers about to be sorted. Sirius grinned large and merry, an expression that grew bigger when Luna informed a smirking James that he had a nasty case of snarkcaks. James kept his comments to himself under Lily’s glare over Luna’s head. McGonagall continued the ceremony once the Gryffindor table had finally stopped cheering as they struggled to get a good look at their newest lioness.
McGonagall cleared her throat before announcing the next name. “Ronald Billius, sixth year.”
The second redhead and the tallest of the bunch visibly swallowed. The remaining boy with wild black hair patted Ronald on the shoulder before he pushed him forward. A bushy-haired girl disentangled their fingers which Lily had only just realized had been threaded together. Ronald shared a heavy look first with the girl and then the boy before he punched the boy’s shoulder companionably. Finally, he walked forward. Again, as they were now expecting, the hat took a long time in its deliberation. Ronald’s face became heated the longer the inspection went, his ears turning as red as his hair. Lily wondered, was he arguing with the hat?
“Hufflepuff,” the sorting hat announced to a muffled curse from the boy that was swallowed up by the Hufflepuff’s exclamation of joy.
Lily spared the Slytherin table a glance to see that they were trying to hide their sulking behind disdain. She saw a flash of greasy hair being pushed behind one ear, but before she could break her promise to herself, she heard George Billius above the throng as he threw back his head and started to guffaw at his brother.
“Shuddup,” his younger brother growled as he took the hat off; though his face still burned.
He looked helplessly to the girl and boy who still waited to be sorted. The girl visibly sighed and waved for him to get a move on. The other boy bit his lip and ducked his head to hide the mirth on his face. Ronald wasn’t alone for long because a dark-haired Hufflepuff prefect walked up to throw an arm around him jovially. The puff grinned up at Ronald and whispered something that made the transfer student let out a groan before he was pulled toward their table. They knew each other, Lily thought after a moment as Ronald moved his gangly limbs toward the friendly honey badgers. When Lily glanced at Luna to see what she made of the recent events she saw her already smiling. Lily couldn’t help but smile back. Her attention was brought back to the ceremony when McGonagall once again lifted her scroll to read from it.
“Harry Granger, sixth year.”
It was the boy, the one who looked like James but somehow older. If Lily were to really think about it the resemblance would be uncanny, but there was something about him that spoke of a hard life that James certainly did not have as the pampered son of a pureblood house. What had happened to the boy to make him that way? Lily wondered as she watched him walk soberly to the sorting hat. His eyes stayed focused, never straying to the other students or the head table. The hat didn’t fit nearly to his nose as it did the first years, but the boy still closed his light-colored eyes. It was expected to have a wait time, but by comparison to the other three, it was relatively short. Granger nodded his head, and there was a resigned twist to his mouth. He opened his eyes just as the hat announced, “Slytherin.”
It was the oddest thing. Before finding his friends in the crowd, Harry’s eyes shifted toward the Gryffindor table. He met Lily’s eyes as though she were the only person in the room as the Slytherins burst into applause. There was something there, some unknown connection that lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. It was only when Harry’s eyes moved off her and over to James that Lily belatedly realized his eyes had been familiar. Her eyes—but no that was probably the lighting. Lily shook off the odd feeling as Harry took the sorting hat off and smiled politely at McGonagall who surprisingly returned it with a twitch of her mouth.
Harry turned and visibly shrugged at Ron and George at the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables respectively. He even looked toward Luna at Gryffindor again and then smiled reassuringly at the lone girl who still waited as he moved toward Slytherin. Lily found herself fascinated with the forbidding expression he gave the upper year Slytherins. She saw him consider sitting beside the first years before a pale boy, an island at the Slytherin table with a potion’s text in front of him, caught his eye. Severus’s greasy hair tangled around his sickly pale face and he jerked his head up a little in surprise when the stranger caught his eye. Something odd passed over Granger’s face, uncomfortable and almost sad before he gave a huff.
Finally, Harry Granger placed himself in the seat next to Severus Snape before he crossed his arms in front of him and refocused on McGonagall. He acted oblivious to the incredulous looks he received from the pureblood royalty who had made an empty place for him. Instead, he had chosen to sit next to Snape, the loner who was only tolerated for his outstanding genius, rather than sit with the pureblood high society of the wizarding world. Severus had taken to staring at the boy with his small mouth barely ajar. In that instant Sev’s eyes flicked over to her and held as they had a million times over the years, sharing in a shared emotion even across a hall. Lily understood him perfectly, even as she tore her eyes away. Tears welled against her will. Where had their connection gone too, and what had happened to her dearest friend?
Severus turned to look at the newcomer from the corner of his eye, but Harry didn’t introduce himself or even look as though he considered it necessary. Granger just faced forward and watched the lone girl who still waited to be sorted. The girl’s fingers had worried together, and it looked as though she were concentrating hard on something before her name was finally called.
“Hermione Granger, sixth year.” The girl, Hermione, jolted forward. First, she sought out Ronald and then Harry before she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. She walked like she was on a mission. The girl sat gingerly on the stool and waited for the hat to be lowered onto her head. Again, the Great Hall had to wait for the verdict. Hermione’s face visibly changed from resignation to shock just before the hat opened its rip of a mouth to announce, “Slytherin!”
Lily could see that all the transfers were visibly shocked by the pronouncement, except for Luna who hummed beside Lily and said in a dreamy tone. “The Snackles are at it again.” Lily heard her just before Slytherin burst into gloating applause while the Marauders groaned. The balance had fallen decidedly in Slytherin’s favor. Lily couldn’t help but compare the two relatives. Were they twins or cousins? Hermione moved quickly to her seat across from Harry with her face clouded over with confusion. Harry looked as dumbfounded while Severus beside him just looked uncomfortable. He seldom talked to women outside of Lily herself and was ill at ease with them. If Lily hadn’t been hearing that awful word spill out of his mouth in her head ever since OWLS last year, Lily might have felt sorry for him. What with the glares from the pureblood royalty and the Marauders combined, he was not in a good position. Lily’s eyes lingered on Harry. He was almost obscured by Hermione’s hair. He had reached forward to take her hand in comfort. Lily saw him nod his head toward Ronald. Hermione looked over her shoulder and then scowled darkly at the boy who gaped at her in horror. The prefect next to him, who Lily now recognized as the son of the famed Magizoologist Newt Scamander, clapped Ronald on the shoulder good-naturedly. Yes, Lily thought, there was something strange about the five of them, and Lily Evan’s was determined to uncover it.