The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now, while you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you house points. Any rule breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup."

"Trevor!" McGonagall stares down at him. "Sorry."

"The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily," she informs and leaves.

"It's true then, what they're saying on the train. Harry and Liliana Potter have come to Hogwarts," a boy with slicked back platinum blonde hair spoke up. Students whisper and murmur as the boy continues. "This is Crabbe, and Goyle, and I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." Ron snickers. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask yours. Red hair, and a hand me down robe? You must be a Weasley." Ron frowns. "We'll soon find that some wizarding families are better than others, Potters. Don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He extends hand.

Harry eyed him with disgust. "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks."

Draco glares and turns to Liliana instead. "And you? What about you? Joining your pathetic brother?"

"Nope," Liliana responded coldly.

Draco smirked.

McGonagall returns and smacks him on the shoulder with a paper. He retreats with one last glare in Harry's direction.

"We're ready for you now. Follow me."

She leads everyone through two large doors and into the Great Hall, where there are four long tables with many kids, as well as floating candles. The roof appears to be the sky.

"It's not real, the ceiling," Hermione tells Liliana. "It's just bewitched to look like the night sky. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

"I know, I've read it too," Liliana responds and Hermione grins.

"All right, will you wait along here, please? Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words."

Dumbledore rises from the main table and says his speech. When he's finished, McGonagall unrolls a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will come forth, I shall place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses. Hannah Abbott."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Susan Bones."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Terry Boot."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Mandy Brocklehurst."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Lavender Brown."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Millicent Bulstrode."

"SLYTHERIN!"

(Skip a few)

"Justin Finch-Fletchley."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Seamus Finnigan."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Hermione Granger." Hermione sprinted to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Ron groaned.

(Skip a few)

"Sue Li."

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Neville Longbottom." He fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back.

"Ernie Macmillan." He was quite cute, in Liliana's opinion.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Draco Malfoy."

He swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once. The hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

There weren't many people left now.  "Lily Moon", "Theodore Nott", and "Pansy Parkinson" all went to Slytherin. Then a pair of twin girls, "Padma Patil" and "Parvati Patil" went to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Then "Sally-Anne Perks" who went to Hufflepuff. And then, at last, "Harry Potter!"

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Harry Potter?"

"Is his sister here too?"

The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. The next second, he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes. And a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting...So where shall I put you?" Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin. "Not Slytherin, eh? Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that. No? Well, if you're sure! Better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet.

Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

Harry sat down opposite the Weasley Twins and beside Percy. He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back.

And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.

Harry turned his attention back to the sorting.

"Liliana Potter."

More whispers erupt as Liliana walks up to the stool with a neutral expression.

The sorting hat ponders on her head for a full ten minutes. Harry's palms start to get sweaty. The students began to murmur.

"SILENCE!!" Dumbledore shouts. "Sorting Hat, please make your decision!"

"RAVENCLAW AND GRYFFINDOR!!!"

The Great Hall is eerily quiet. Dumbledore rises again. "Very well then, Ms. Potter. You will join the Gryffindors for class and you are welcomed to both common rooms. You may choose either table to sit at."

As McGonagall took the sorting hat off of Liliana's head, Harry wondered why it was unable to choose one house. The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables looked at Liliana hopefully.

Both my parents were in Gryffindor, and now Harry is too, thought Liliana. So why don't I give it a change?

To the Ravenclaw's delight, Liliana skipped to the Ravenclaws' table, and was welcomed by happy and excited faces. She was invited to sit in between Mandy Brocklehurst and Sue Li, and across from Padma Patil.

And now there were only four people left to be sorted. "Dean Thomas," a dark skinned boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Lisa Turpin," joined Liliana and the Ravenclaws, and then it was Ron's turn.

Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him. Liliana brought up a small round of applause with her little group and the rest of the Ravenclaws.

"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley as "Blaise Zabini" was made a Slytherin.

Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the sorting hat away. Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet again. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"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! Thank you!" He sat back down.

Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not. "Is he a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.

"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table. Roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and peppermint humbugs. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious.

At the Ravenclaw table, Liliana had become the leader of her little group, which consisted herself, Lisa Turpin, Mandy Brocklehurst, Sue Li, and Padma Patil. There was this other girl, too. Isobel MacDougal, a second year pureblood. She very much wants to join Liliana's group, and tries to act cool, but is always ignored.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding...

As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.

"I'm half-and-half," explained Seamus. "My dad's a Muggle. Mom's a witch. Bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out." The others laughed.

"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.

"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville. "But the family thought I was all Muggle for ages since nothing happened until I was eight."

Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes, and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.

"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.

"What is it?" asked Percy.

"N-nothing." The pain had gone as quickly as it had come.

"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy.

"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape was staring at the Ravenclaw table, where Liliana was sitting. Liliana must've noticed it too, since she looked up, but Snape turned his head away before Liliana could catch him.

At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again to say the rest of his speech.

"And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

"Is Liliana coming?" Ron asked. Harry looked at the Ravenclaw Table, where a prefect was leading them to their rooms. Liliana was in the center of a giggling group of girls, and made no move to join the Gryffindors.

"Guessing not," Harry sighed. Ron looked glum, although he tried to hide it.

The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.

"Here we are."

At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she asked.

"Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it, and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.

Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase, they found their beds at last. Five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.

"Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets."

Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.

Meanwhile, in the Ravenclaw common room, The Lilies (which was the name of Liliana's little group), were deciding the dormitories sharing plan.

"Well, there's five beds per room, and sometimes Liliana will go to the Gryffindor's' common room, won't you, Lily?" asked Mandy.

"Yep," answered Liliana.

"And there's five of us, perfect!" Sue exclaims. "We'll share a room!"