A Serpent Among the Eagles

Chapter Five - Being Sorted

  After an unpleasant ride across the lake, the first years were led inside and stood in a room alone for several minutes. Lily could see that every eleven year old face showed nervousness, but she knew that none of them knew how they were going to be sorted... She did, after all, she had lived at Hogwarts most of her life.

  Yet Lily was nervous too. The sorting was more important to her that it was to many, for she had no wish to be in Slytherin, her father's House, but the fact that he was head of Slytherin meant that she didn't want to be in Gryffindor... That would cause... problems. Yet Hufflepuff wouldn't be putting her in a good position either, as no Slytherin in their right mind would befriend a Muggle-born or a Hufflepuff. That left Ravenclaw... Was she smart enough to make it there, and would it be a good place for her? Would she fit in there, when she definitely wouldn't anywhere else?

  After being led into the Great Hall, the first years stared silently at the ragged hat on the stool. They didn't clap along with the others, but silently, nervously stood and listened as Professor McGonagal explained that when she called their names, they were to come to the front and put on the hat, which would sort them into the proper Houses.

  She listened, but didn't pay much attention as people were sorted into their houses. The hat would sit silent and still until calling out the name of the proper House. The names were being called in alphabetical order, and Lily merely caught what House each student went into... until Harry's name was called.

  Somehow she heard a wheezy little voice telling Harry that he would 'do well in Slytherin', and Harry saying, or rather thinking, that he didn't want to be in Slytherin. After quite a while, the hat called out GRYFFINDOR! and Lily winked at Harry as he walked to his House table to the loudest cheers yet.

  "Snape, Lily!"

  The cheers for Harry abruptly stopped, and whispers once again filled the Great Hall, now from the second through seventh years and first years with older siblings that were already at Hogwarts.

  Lily put the hat on her head, wondering if Harry could hear what the hat was saying to her.

  For a moment, all was silent. Then:

  Hello, miss Lily.

  Hello, she thought.

  You seem to be in quite a hurry to be sorted. I see that your father is head of Slytherin House...

  Please, not Slytherin.

  Not Slytherin? I have never had two people so suited for Slytherin that absolutely did NOT want to be there. You're not a Hufflepuff, no... then there's Gryffindor... you're quite brave enough to go there...

  As you so well put it, my father is head of Slytherin. I don't think I'd be welcomed very warmly into his rival House...

  True... well, I see which House you have been trying to get me to put you in... and you definitely have the brains to go in...

  RAVENCLAW!

  Lily removed the hat and noticed that the atmosphere was different than when the others had joined their Houses. The Ravenclaws obviously hadn't missed her last name. There was some unenthusiastic, scattered applause. She quickly chose a seat at the very end of the table and clapped when others joined the table, but otherwise remained silent and separate.

  When the Sorting ended with the redhead from the train (Weasley, Ronald) being sorted into Griffindor and Zabini, Blaise in Slytherin,  Professor Dumbledore stood.

  "Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

  Lily chorused "Thank you!" with everyone else, and she clapped, but her heart wasn't in it. She just wanted to be accepted, with no thought to what her name happened to be.

  The golden dishes filled with food, and Lily silently filled her plate with roast chicken, bacon, peas, and roast potatoes. She ate silently, not bothering to talk to anyone. Why waste her breath?

  Suddenly a girl spoke to her. "Hi."

  Lily looked up from her plate. "Hi."

  The girl smiled. "My name's Cho. Cho Chang. You're Lily, right?"

  Lily appreciated that Cho hadn't mentioned her last name. "Yeah. Lily Snape."

  "Like... Professor Snape?"

  Lily nodded. "He's my father."

  "Really? I- I think I'd be a little intimidated if he was my dad."

  "It's not so bad, if you've lived like that you're whole life."

  Lily and Cho talked, and after a while, she chanced a glance at her father. He caught her eye for a moment and gave a small nod before turning back to his conversation with the professor in the purple turban.

  She watched the other professor for a while, the one talking to her father. For a moment he caught her eye as well, and she felt a pain in her scar, the one on her forehead that she kept so well hidden. She put her hand to her head as the man turned away. She could feel the scar under her fingers... the pain had made it reappear. She hid it again and she knew, knew without a doubt, that there was something evil about that professor.

  The feast soon ended, and she caught her father's eye one more time before following the prefects to the Ravenclaw common room.