A/N: Hello? Anyone still here? Heh. I'm SO sorry I took so long to get this last chapter up. It was Lucy's fault. She was tough to sort. But now it's done and this story if finally complete and I can stop feeling guilty about it! I very much hope this was interesting for you and that it helped you get to know my next generation. It helped me get to know them! :) thank you so much for reading! Especially for those who review! You're comments fuel my writing! And now, without further ado, the last four sortings! :D

Lucy Rowina Weasley and Roxanne Angelina Weasley – 2018

Lucy didn't feel nervous to the point of queasy. She wasn't stuck in painful anticipation or quaking with trepidation or any of the other symptoms that customarily rocked each new group of students who stood here. No, looking out over the Great Hall, finally included in the world she had heard so endlessly about, Lucy Weasley felt nothing but small. A vast, black ceiling littered with stars arched above her, hundreds of students stared up at her from the long tables, ghosts who had been around for centuries, watched unfathomable Sortings just like hers, the enormity of it all made her feel tiny.

As the Sorting Ceremony slipped through the alphabet, Lucy glanced down the row of first years to see if Roxanne was as daunted by all of this as she was. Her cousin was half-way down the line, whispering encouragement to a girl who had just been called forward. Lucy recognized her as one of the occupants of their compartment, someone Roxanne had gotten on easily with. Roxanne flashed a grin as the girl slid onto the stool and waited with wide eyes for the hat to be dropped over her head.

Of course Roxanne was in her element. Lucy wondered, somewhat jealously, if her cousin had ever felt small in her life. Everywhere she went, Roxanne filled the room with her bouncy attitude and enthusiasm, while Lucy huddled beside the wall.

She shifted her gaze out again, to the rest of the Hall. At the Gryffindor table, she easily picked out her many cousins. Louis, Fred, James and a couple of their friends had made some kind of battle field across the table, building forts out of the plates and cups, arranging silverware like artillery, and otherwise preparing for war. As Lucy watched with a mixture of trepidation and amusement, James caught sight of Molly's warning glare from up the table and mimed zipping his lips with a cheeky wink. They weren't technically being disruptive. Yet.

Farther up the table, Dominique caught her eye and waved cheerily, an old pro at lending encouragement from the sidelines by then. Lucy tried to return the gesture but her smile was weak and her wave fell flat. Near the end of the table, Albus and Rose sat opposite one another, scribbling on pieces of parchment and sliding them across the table top. Rose saw her looking and mimicked Dominique, Al's grimace and hasty imitation of her actions made Lucy guess Rose had stomped on his foot under the table.

Lucy glanced again towards Roxanne, standing with her new friends down the line. Although they were the same age, they had never been like Al and Rose. They got on well enough, but Lucy and Roxanne were complete opposites. She had never been so jealous of Rose and Albus, or Fred and James, or even Hugo and Lily before. Lucy could not count on fitting in with even one person, while Roxanne would be friends with their entire year in no time flat.

"Weasley, Lucy!"

Caught off guard, Lucy stumbled forward. She had not noticed the line dwindling to only a few people around her. She caught Molly's eye as she hurried over to the stool. Molly nodded and offered a small smile, which was more than most people could get out of her. It bolstered Lucy's confidence a little. But only a little.

Then the hat was over her eyes.

"Feeling small, Lucy Weasley?"

The voice in her ear made Lucy shrink a little, fold in on herself as she sat nervously on the stool. The hat made a noise of affirmation at her reaction.

"Not the first one to be dwarfed by the castle… but let's see what else is here. You're not a daredevil, are you? No… not one for daring or chivalry. You aren't particularly sharp, either, though that's not to say you aren't smart… sensible is what you are. And very loyal. Oh yes, quite a lot of loyalty here, and a good drive to work… interesting."

Hufflepuff, Lucy thought. She didn't think Hufflepuff sounded too bad. They all looked rather nice and friendly. And she wouldn't have to worry about being brave there. She could be as cowardly as she wanted and no one would have any problem with it.

But a small cornel of disappointment hardened inside her. She couldn't be smart and bold and perfect like Molly, she had known that from the start, wouldn't have her father bragging about her good grades or high goals, but she could be brave like Molly. She could get her father bragging about how she had been sorted into his own house.

Well, she couldn't have that now. She would be Lucy the freak, first Weasley sorted out of Gryffindor in three generations at least. It was something to set her apart, finally, she tried telling herself glumly.

"But whoever said you weren't brave?" the hat asked.

Erm, you? Lucy ventured, speaking for the first time directly to the hat.

"Not daring, no, but I never said you weren't brave. Hufflepuff would suit you nicely, that's for sure, but…"

Lucy waited patiently, but the hat had lapsed into silence.

But…what? She finally asked, suddenly worried the hat had decided her un-sortable.

"You feel small."

Well, I am small, Lucy told the hat uncertainly.

"Not just here, though. Everywhere. With your sister and your father, among your big family with all those famous names. You don't think you can live up to them. You would quite like me to put you into Hufflepuff so you wouldn't have to worry about trying.

"Well, I've got news for you, Lucy Weasley. Godric Gryffindor himself spent a fair amount of time feeling small. I should know. I was on his head. But that didn't stop him from going ahead and being courageous anyway, and it doesn't stop you from trying to make something of yourself either. Now that's what I would call brave. So, on the benefit of the doubt, GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat flew off her head and Lucy looked with amazement at the wildly applauding Gryffindor table. How on earth had scared little Lucy landed herself there?

Molly stood up, grinning a real grin that Lucy rarely saw on her face, and that was all the encouragement she needed. Lucy leapt off the stool and raced down to the mob of cousins waiting for her, red braids flying behind her. Now she would have to be as brave and bold as all the rest. But she didn't feel quite so small all of a sudden. If the Sorting Hat thought she belonged here, well, then she would just have to prove him right.

"Weasley, Roxanne!"

Roxanne finished applauding her cousin and moved towards the stool for her turn. She kept her head held high, an easy, unconcerned look on her face that would not betray the tumult of nerves jittering inside of her. The walk seemed to take forever from her place in line to the stool. She could see all of her cousins watching intently, her brother most intently of all. As she sat down on the stool and the hat began to lower over her eyes, she spotted Fred whip out his scarlet handkerchief and wave it like a flag at her. It was an old symbol of encouragement they had come up with when they were small and it made Roxanne grin broadly.

Then the hat was over her head and she was waiting.

"Confident, kind, undoubtedly trust-worthy, but rather rash and impulsive, aren't you?" a small voice reeled off. Roxanne rather thought it sounded hurried, as though it wanted to be finished with her quickly. "Curious, terribly curious, and open-minded. An interesting combination – ah! You've got a secret, haven't you, Roxanne Weasley?"

Not a secret, exactly, Roxanne thought, a bit taken aback with how much the hat could see.

"I can see everything," it told her, perhaps a little pompously. "Including that quieter side of you, we'll call it. Although I don't know why you'd hide brains like that away. Being curious isn't a sin."

You wouldn't understand, Roxanne sighed. She had rather been afraid this conversation might come up. Her brother had told her all kinds of stories about the sorting, mostly wildly tall tales in the beginning, but the truth had come out in the end. And she had been nervous about what the hat might see in her ever since.

"There is very little I wouldn't understand," the hat said now. "You've a sharp mind. You use it well, yet you pretend academic knowledge holds little appeal to you to be like your brother. Is that not accurate?" But the hat didn't wait for her confirmation. "You are a thinker, one with your wits about you and wisdom already stored up. You would excel in Ravenclaw, certainly."

Roxanne couldn't help but cringe at the very thought. It wasn't as though she didn't like being smart, it was more that she didn't like having to be smart. And she could only imagine Fred's reacting should she be put in Ravenclaw. He was sure, far beyond any doubts, that his sister was Gryffindor through and through.

"There are always surprises about the ones we think we know best," the hat told her, listening in on her every thought. "I do not exist to live up to expectations."

But that's the thing, Roxanne told the hat earnestly. I may have a whole collection of books hidden under my bed now, but if you put me in Ravenclaw and I have to be top of my class, well I know I'll stop studying just to prove everybody wrong! I'm stubborn like that, can't you see it in side my head?

"Yes, yes, I see it," the hat said impatiently. "You aren't afraid to go after what you want, and to get it either, Slytherin maybe?"

Roxanne couldn't help but recoil in horror. If she thought her brother's reaction to Ravenclaw would be bad….

With all due respect, I am NOT a Slytherin. But the hat had already moved on.

"No, not ambitious enough. Nor cunning enough, though you could be if you wanted to be…. Well, if you won't stay studious in Ravenclaw, all I can label you as is bold. Brave and with enough nerve to do as you like no matter what, go on to GRYFFINDOR!"

Roxanne blinked in the sudden brightness of the hall, barely hearing the thunderous cries from her cousins and new friends over at the Gryffindor table. She slid off the stool and began walking over towards them, grinning as if there had never been any doubt that was where she would end up. It was the best place for her, she though happily as Fred and James both clapped her on the back and Dominique got up to hug her. How else was she to keep an eye on her brother? Where else would she have roommates daring enough to break the rules for a bit of fun? Where else would Roxanne be able to be herself with no expectations resting on her shoulders?

XxXxX

Lily Luna Potter and Hugo Arthur Weasley – 2019

At long last the sorting of the last Potter and Weasley came around. (At least for this generation.) The eleven students who had come before had all found their way into Gryffindor. This sorting was the moment of truth, and it wasn't only the Potter/Weasley family that was looking forward to it with keen interest. By this point more than one teacher had made predictions on whether the entire family would end up in Gryffindor, and who and how the trend would be broken with.

Lily and Hugo filed into the hall with the rest of their year, Lily leading the way as was her custom, and Hugo following, as was his. Their bright red hair stood out in the line of first years as so many of their cousins', uncles', and aunt's had in years past. Lily gaped around at the star-strewn ceiling, the long house tables, all the details of the room that none of the many stories she had heard had quite managed to capture to perfection. This was where history was made, she thought. This was where her father and the rest of her family had won a war.

Hugo was looking around, too, but all he could think was that it was very unfair to show them a magnificent sight like this for the first time right before the sorting. He was too queasy to enjoy any of it.

"Don't worry, Hugo," Lily leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Why not?" Hugo demanded in a horse squeak.

"Because Al told me you can pick your house if you ask the hat right."

Lily leaned up on her toes to scan the hall for her brothers. No, she wasn't nervous exactly, but it was still nice to have them close by. She spotted James, Fred and their friends clustered halfway up a table on the far end. Of course James was being a prat and not even looking her way, too busy looking at that magazine his friend Aaron had brought under the table. They'd hidden it away when she'd come to find James on the train ride, all five of the boys turning brick red.

Albus was looking for her though. He grinned and winked as Rose waved from beside him. As Lily watched, Albus slipped Rose a folded piece of paper, which her cousin dropped to the floor, slipped her wand into her hand, and set sliding across the hall to the table on the other end where Al's friend Scorpius picked it up and read it, smirking. He noticed her watching him and offered a friendly sort of wave, the only friendly gesture from that table.

"But Lily, I'm no good at telling people what I want," Hugo hissed back, too busy worrying over the sorting to notice his sister was trying to catch his eye.

Lily turned her gaze on him squarely. "It's easy! You just decide what you want, then say it."

Hugo rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

The girl beside Lily jabbed an elbow into Lily's side as she was about to retort and Lily looked around. The girl had a pointed nose, dirty blonde hair, thick glasses, and a severe expression. She raised a finger to her lips pointedly and turned back to the sorting, which was somewhere around the M's. Lily scowled, but decided it maybe was a better idea to stay quiet before her mouth got her into real trouble.

So she occupied herself instead by surveying the hall for friendly faces. The rest of her family was easy to find. Roxanne sat not far up the table from Fred, her long black curs bouncing as she turned her head, whispering to Lucy, who sat beside her. Lucy elbowed Roxanne in the side and nodded towards Lily and Hugo. Both girls waved and smiled, Roxanne pointing to the empty seats they had saved at the table for them. Lily grinned her appreciation of this, but Hugo groaned softly beside her.

"Now they've jinxed us," he murmured.

Dominique tipped them a wink from where she lounged with the rest of the sixth years, her Quidditch captain badge gleaming proudly on her chest. Louis was busy writing the letter to Uncle Charlie he had started on the train, not paying the slightest attention to the purple goo Fred kept leaning over to drip down his back. And at the far end of the table, Molly surveyed all of this with her usual sharp eyes, fingering the new Head Girl badge she and her father had spent the whole summer revering.

Lily tried to get a smile out of Molly through two more sortings, but it was as useless as trying to get James to shut up about Quidditch in the week leading up to the World Cup, so Lily moved on to the other two house tables.

She knew people here, too, vaguely anyway. A few of them were the children of her parents' friends whom she had met a few times at reunions or in passing. A few more were faces she recognized from the train. But it was obvious where she would have the most people to turn to.

"Potter, Lily!"

Lily scuttled forward, wide eyes too fixed on the hat to notice that James had finally looked up or that Molly's lips had twitched up at the corners. Professor Lancing dropped the hat on her head and Lily sat and waited.

"Interesting… plenty of courage I see, yes, plenty. A strong sense of justice, no doubt. A great deal of compassion and an… artistic way of thinking about things. A cunning side, too, if I'm not mistaken. You know how to get your own way. There's no telling where you might go if you gave into ambition with that sense of justice. Yes, Slytherin would be quite the fit for you."

Lily could not say that she was taken by surprise. James had said only last night how very Slytherin-y she could be. But that did not stop her insides from squirming at the very thought of joining that table, of being the first in her family in who-knew-or-could-even-count how many years.

Well, Lily just wasn't going to stand for that.

No, I don't think I'd like Slytherin very much, she told the hat pleasantly.

"No? But if you wish to succeed, if you wish to make a difference, Slytherin will help you. You could be great, Lily Potter."

Maybe I don't want to be great. Everybody else in my family's great. I think I'd rather stand out.

"Do I sense sarcasm?" the hat asked.

Lily mentally bit her tongue. She had spent too much time around James this summer. She was anything but bitter about her family's large shadow. Lily never had any trouble making herself heard above the clamor.

"Cheeky, aren't you? Slytherin would definitely be a good fit."

I don't think so, Lily insisted calmly. You can put me anywhere you like, even if it's not Gryffindor, but I won't go to Slytherin. Don't you know who I am? All the Death Eater's kids would beat me up!

"I find it hard to believe you would let them. You have far too much nerve and fight in you."

Exactly.

"Now don't you try flipping my words on me, Lily Potter. That's the sort of cunning thing I'd expect from –"

Don't say it!

Now real panic had begun to set in. James had only been joking last night when she said she might end up in Slytherin, and Al had gone off defending the house just as their father often did. But Lily had heard too many stories. She did not want to become a manipulator. It wasn't always a bad thing to be. Scorpius worked it to his advantage when he had to, one of her father's best Aurors could lead a team better than even her father because she could get people to do what needed to be done. But Lily did not want to be known for that. She was afraid of what getting into that habit would turn her into.

So she stopped trying to persuade the hat and reverted to sheer will, sending wave after mental wave at the hat. Not Slytherin.

"Alright, alright," the hat said after a moment, sounding distinctly ruffled. "I get the point. If you won't be swayed –"

I won't be.

" – then GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily sagged with relief as the Great Hall reappeared around he and a storm of applause erupted in her ears. She leapt down off the stool, grinning broadly and skipped down to the hoard of cousins applauding her.

"What took you so long?" James demanded, ruffling up her hair.

Hugo gulped. There had been no doubt in his mind that Lily would end up in Gryffindor. He had entertained the hope that she might get into Hufflepuff, the way she insisted so adamantly that everything be fair, even among the owls. But in the end, Lily was brave. Hugo thought she just might be the bravest girl he knew, even braver than his sister. He might have been able to make it into Hufflepuff, but Gryffindor? That seemed like a longshot.

And now he really would be the only Weasley not in Gryffindor, the one to mess everything up.

Hugo was the last one left up in front of the teachers. Roma, Spencer had just wondered forward and all too soon been declared a Slytherin. Now it was Hugo's turn. He started moving even before Lancing called his name, feeling as if every eye in the place, even those of the millions of stars winking down from the ceiling, were on him.

"Weasley, Hugo! Er, there you are, very good."

Hugo had already slid onto the stool. He waited with his eyes squeezed shut for the hat to be dropped over his head and his fate to be decided.

"Mmhm, yes, I see," a voice said in his ear. Hugo knew it was coming. He didn't even flinch. "Very loyal, generous, hardworking, hmm, bit naïve. Something of a push-over, but diligent, fair, willing to admit your mistakes, a good student, I'd say Hufflepuff is the place for you."

Yes, that was what he had expected.

"And you agree? Excellent! Then off to –"

No!

"What?"

Hugo's heart was hammering more than it ought to be. Decide what you want: Hugo didn't want to be the odd one out, and it had nothing to do with being afraid of breaking the trend. He wanted to be brave like his parents, like his sister, like his cousins and grandparents. But Lily had missed a step when she'd given him the instructions. You couldn't just ask for what you wanted. You had to do what you wanted, sometimes.

"Well? What is it?" the hat asked impatiently and, Hugo thought, unnecessarily. It could read his thoughts after all.

"Well, that doesn't let you off the hook," the hat told him, proving Hugo's point.

I – I want to be in Gryffindor, Hugo declared with as much force as he could put into the words.

"Do you now?" the hat asked.

Yes.

He expected an argument, for obviously the sorting hat thought he belonged in Hufflepuff. But instead he received a sound almost like a wheezy chuckle or a rustling of fabric.

"Very well then. Gryffindor it is."

Really? Hugo asked, taken aback.

"Unless you've changed your mind?"

No, definitely haven't. And you'd know, anyway.

"I would," the hat agreed. Then it made it's weird laugh again. "There are many kinds of bravery, Hugo Weasley. You'll be suited quite nicely in GRYFFINDOR!"

There was instant uproar. Not just from the Gryffindor table, either. As Hugo leapt off the stool, flushed with his victory, he saw Neville pump his fist, Hagrid pounded the table with one great fist (bouncing one of the golden goblets to the floor), and the stately witch on McGonagall's left sidelet out a sharp "Ha!" he thought must be quite unlike her from all the odd looks her staff members and students gave her. But the witch was too busy giving her own smug look to Lancing.

Other than fleeting bafflement, Hugo didn't spare the teachers' reactions much though. He raced down to the Gryffindor table where Lily met him with the bone-crushing hug she had learned from their grandmother and Rose ruffled his hair because she knew he hated it and the rest of his cousins and their friends bore down on him with their congratulations and exclamations, for whether they admitted it or not, they had all been hoping to keep the streak going.

Not a one of them were the same. Teddy followed his mother's and godfather's footsteps and became an Auror, Dominique would eventually return to Hogwarts to take Madam Hooch's place as referee and flying instructor, Albus preferred the company of dusty history books to the chaos of the joke shop Fred and James took over, Rose was a cut-throat defense attorney for the department of Magical Law Enforcement, Louis ended up in Romania with Uncle Charlie and his dragons. But when it came down to it, they were all some shade of scarlet and gold.

A/N: Well, that turned out much, much longer than I intended it ever to go. I almost split this up into two chapters. And now some of the future has been revealed career-wise. I've kept the destinies of my next-gen rather quiet until now, but there you have it. Part of it, anyway.

Thanks for reading and please please please let me know how the last installment was!