Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following chapter concerns how those pupils whose sortings were covered in the first chapter cope/react in the wake of their house placements. This is (by this point) heading off into wild and wooly alternate universe territory...

Martin Avery had been expecting to be sorted into Slytherin, but instead the hat had put him in Gryffindor. That had left him feeling conflicted. He had expected to be in Slytherin. It was a house of the sneaky, the ambitious, and the underhanded. It was where the sons and daughters of powerful and influential figures and families ended up – you only had to look at this year: they had got Sirius Black, the heir to one of the wealthiest and politically most powerful families in wizarding Britain.

Martin Avery had been looking forward to being in Slytherin, and expecting to ride the robe sleeves of someone destined for greatness – maybe even taking the dark mark and becoming a servant of the Dark Lord. Had that been why he had not ended up in Slytherin, he had to wonder now? Had such petty aims and little goals – to be a follower of someone else – been considered unworthy of Salazar's house by the Sorting Hat? Had it placed him in Gryffindor to teach him to forge his own way?

Martin Avery wasn't certain why the hat had done what it did, but he and some other first year pupils who had found themselves in Gryffindor were going to get together to form a group. It was Justinian Mulciber's idea. They hadn't quite settled on goals yet, but they were going to call themselves 'The Golden Horde' and make sure that Hogwarts took notice of them.

Sirius Black had wanted desperately to be sorted into Gryffindor, as a bold statement against his family.

The hat had had a point he had to concede, upon calm reflection over the days immediately following the sorting, that it was unreasonable for it to place him in Gryffindor simply because he disapproved of his family's official stance on various things. It was blatantly obvious that the hat didn't place solely on the basis of family tradition – James Potter had been certain, coming from a long line of Gryffindors, that he would go there, and the hat had dispatched him to Hufflepuff, instead. It had lifted Sirius out of his bleak mood at his own sorting, to see James Potter sitting there that evening, refusing to budge, unable to believe where the hat had just sent him. Sirius had chuckled along with three quarters of the rest of the school.

James Potter was from a pure-blood family, of course, and the rest of Slytherin probably wouldn't mind too much if Sirius extended a hand of friendship to James Potter, once Sirius had quite settled in.

Sirius Black wasn't sure why the Sorting Hat had sent Lily Evans to Slytherin – she didn't seem to be too sure herself – but she had made straight for him, having been sorted there, a look of almost desperation on her face.

She knew what she was being sent into.

Sirius had recalled her on the train, arrogant, or at least proud, tearing him and three other boys off a strip, and he had decided at least for a week or so to give her some room to try and settle, or at least show what she could do.

And in the first week she had shown, he had to admit, that she was one of the most talented Slytherin pupils in the year. The head of Slytherin, Professor Slughorn, had been practically drooling over the potion-brewing ability she showed in her first class in the subject, scarcely able to believe that she was muggle-born and had been brought up in a world which knew nothing of cauldrons. Apparently the only other pupil in the year who came close to her potions talent was the Ravenclaw half-blood, Snape (and Sirius suspected Professor Slughorn thought better of Lily since she was one of his own pupils). And in so far as it was possible to make judgements at this early stage, Lily looked to be one of the top three or four students in the year when it came to charms, too.

Once that was all clear, Sirius decided it was safe enough to adopt Lily as a 'cause' permanently. Growing up with his relatives, he had had to develop certain instincts for ways to do things, and he knew what would or wouldn't fly with the average Slytherin. He mentioned, in his letters home to his parents, the points in charms and potions that Lily Evans was bringing in to Slytherin, and that in terms of overall ability across practical subjects she was not far behind that Ravenclaw, Snape, and probably on about an equal footing with the other Ravenclaw boy-genius of the year, Lupin. Yes, she was a muggle-born, but she was a talented muggle-born, and therefore the usual rules did not apply to her. That was the line he was taking in his letters home to his parents, and they – so pleased were they right now that Sirius was in Slytherin – indulged him in that. And Sirius was able to use that indulgence to his housemates: See, my parents don't disapprove of talent, even when in a muggle-born package, so who are you to disagree?

The fact that the fifth year Slytherin prefect Lucius Malfoy had allowed himself to be convinced of this assisted Sirius greatly. Lucius had half an eye on a profitable marriage to one of Sirius' cousins, and was happy to back up the eldest son of Orion Black. And having a prefect and the head of house along gave him a rock solid position for now.

Sirius was aware that most eleven year olds didn't think or do things like this, but most eleven year olds hadn't had his upbringing. Getting into Gryffindor might have allowed him to escape this sort of crap – and to perhaps get a belated childhood in – but since he had ended up in Slytherin anyway, it was time to bring the advantages of a Black upbringing to bear.

Lily Evans couldn't understand why she'd ended up in Slytherin. Most of her other housemates were hardly on speaking terms with her, because neither her parents nor grandparents were witches or wizards, which was silly, and she had the impression that an atmosphere of outright hostility would be prevailing if it weren't for the fact that Sirius Black was on her side.

She'd seen the expression on Severus' face when he'd seen her sorted into Slytherin, which had been one of delight, but then, when he'd been sent to Ravenclaw he'd cast a look of almost desperation and of something else in her direction.

Apparently he'd checked the rules with his head of house, Professor Flitwick, his very first night at Hogwarts and discovered that there wasn't anything against pupils from different houses studying together, visiting one another's common rooms, or inviting pupils from other houses to join them for breakfast in the great hall. And on his second morning at Hogwarts he'd mentioned this to her at breakfast (he'd said it would have been rushing things to have tried it on his first) and he did invite Lily to join him and Lupin at the Ravenclaw table.

Not wanting to get herself in hot water with her Slytherin housemates, and aware that her position was tenuous at best, Lily had checked that with Sirius, and he'd said it was probably okay for a Slytherin to be seen associating with members of Ravenclaw. So, with the eyes of a good many of her housemates following her, to see what she did, she went across the floor of the great hall to the Ravenclaw table with Severus, and sat down between him and Lupin.

They had been positioned facing the Slytherin table, so of course Lily could see the Slytherin table now, too, and although there were occasional glances in her direction from the Slytherin table, they didn't seem too bothered to see her sitting between two Ravenclaws who even after only one full day had already started to acquire reputations for brilliance.

Severus asked how she was doing, whilst looking faintly guilty at some of her answers, and Remus was polite, and the pair of them invited Lily to come and join them in the library after lunch the following day. Severus had mumbled something about 'defensive spells' which Lily took to be an offer to give her some pointers in a direction that might assist if her housemates decided to have a bit of magical fun at her expense in private.

Remus Lupin was a pupil in a daze. The first night, Professor Flitwick had called a meeting of the whole of Ravenclaw House, and magically sworn them to secrecy, for as long as Remus was a student Hogwarts – and had then explained Remus had been attacked by Fenrir Greyback, and had contracted lycanthropy as a result. And then Professor Flitwick had made a big speech, about the importance of knowledge, and how he hoped that despite the need for secrecy the pupils of Ravenclaw would look upon this at the very least as an opportunity to investigate preconceived ideas and to question prejudices.

Remus had gone from a position where virtually nobody knew his secret to one where well over a hundred fellow pupils did, in one stroke.

"Your housemates are Ravenclaws, Remus." Professor Flitwick had explained to Remus five minutes before he swore the house to secrecy and made his speech. "I think some of them might notice inside the first couple of months that you're disappearing every full moon. We have to pre-empt this and take the sting before it can become an issue. Human beings are very good at assuming that if something has been kept secret from them, regarding something dangerous, that things are much worse than they might be."

And by and large his housemates did respect his situation, or at least at the moment they were prepared to give him breathing space, whilst they observed and drew their own conclusions about him.

Justinian Mulciber had not been expecting to end up in Gryffindor. He had been certain his cunning would be sufficient to get him into Slytherin. Apparently not. Instead he had ended up in the house archetypically opposed to Slytherin, and he was re-evaluating his opinions and options. Since he had been sorted into a house where overt demonstrations were what were admired, and basically rushing in at enemies before anyone had a chance to form a proper plan – which apparently was sufficient to win the day more times than it ought to do – that was the mode of operation to which he would have to adapt. Being in Gryffindor had advantages of course, besides being able to take the credit (and adulation) for one's deeds; the headmaster was reputed to have been a Gryffindor after all, and to favour the house and those in it on account of that.

Justinian was determined, since the hat had put him in Gryffindor, to adapt to this unexpected circumstance, and that meant forming a gang of like-minded individuals to get their names know, to smite their enemies, (including Slytherins if necessary), and to generally be admired and respected by their housemates. Gryffindors took action, and he and 'The Golden Horde' would jolly well take action. He was particularly pleased by the name, dipping into history, and playing on the house-colours of Gryffindor, which were of course red and gold. Maybe the members ought to have codenames of famous warriors and leaders from history. He quite fancied being 'Belisarius'…

Peter Pettigrew didn't understand how he'd ended up in Ravenclaw. He'd wanted to be in Gryffindor, with Potter, Black, and Lupin – not that that had worked out too well for any of them, either. Before Peter had been sorted Black had gone to Slytherin like all his family, and Lupin had been sorted into Ravenclaw. And then it had been Peter's turn and the hat had asked him where he wanted to go – and Peter had had a premonition that Potter wouldn't get the Gryffindor he'd wanted – and so Peter had opted for Slytherin or Ravenclaw, wanting to at least be in the same house as one of the boys he'd met on the train and to his surprise the hat had plonked him in Ravenclaw. Well, Lupin hadn't seemed too bad, and Peter had thought that at least it meant, with Severus Snape so avowedly certain of Slytherin, that he'd be avoiding him.

And with most of the rest of the school, Peter had sniggered when Potter had been sorted into Hufflepuff and just hadn't been able to believe it, before flying into a mild panic a short while later, when Severus Snape had somehow ended up in Ravenclaw.

Peter just had to hope that Severus wasn't the sort to hold a grudge, and wouldn't notice him too much. Or maybe he should hope that Severus would notice him, because he had seemed a brainy sort on the train, and Peter could do with inveigling his way into the good books of someone brainy if he was going to survive in the house of ravens.

During the sorting feast, Peter had started to calm down, and to reassure and tell himself that he could fit in, and then a short while afterwards in the Ravenclaw common room had come the head of house's bombshell that Remus Lupin was a werewolf! He didn't look the psychotic murdering type, who would maul them all to death in their sleep, Peter was sure, but how could one tell with a werewolf?

He reassured himself with the fact that Filius Flitwick, the head of Ravenclaw, was said to be the most skilled wizard in the school, when it came to duelling, after the headmaster himself. He would surely be able to keep his charges safe if Lupin – or Remus as Peter supposed he must refer to him – turned nasty.

James Potter couldn't understand how he had ended up in Hufflepuff. No, correct that; he could see the reasoning, but he was having a hard time of accepting it emotionally. And it was infuriating to be in the house which was the butt of the jokes of many of the wits of other houses. He, himself, had been busy making just such jokes about Hufflepuffs on the train on his way to school. Well he was laughing on the other side of his face now – or rather he wasn't laughing at all, more to the point.

It was a cruel universe.

The worst part of it was that, having been put in Hufflepuff, damnit but he felt obliged to what was now his house. Oh yes, the Sorting Hat had definitely got him to a 'T' on that count. Potters were loyal. Hufflepuffs were loyal. Go figure.

It was just that somewhere, deep down inside, James Potter had hoped that he would have been found to be at least as brave by the hat as loyal. It felt like a judgement on his personal valour.

And that hurt.

Severus Snape had had his dreams dashed. He'd seen Lily – brilliant Lily – sorted into Slytherin, and for a handful of glorious minutes had dreamt of what might be to come, and then reality had struck and the hat had sent him to Ravenclaw.

Not that things couldn't have been worse. If he'd been sent to Gryffindor the sentiments of both his and her houses would have made it very nasty for them having anything to do with one another, but Lily was still in Slytherin and Severus was already picking up that the dislike Slytherins had for most muggle-borns was quite a bit worse than he'd thought.

Severus had thought on the train that Sirius Black was probably a complete waste of space, but it turned out that he had his uses after all. At least when it came to Lily it turned out that Sirius didn't give a monkey's about conventional Slytherin attitudes to muggle-borns, and even though he was only a first-year, Sirius Black was an heir in the direct line of one of the oldest and most respected families in magical Britain – and his opinion consequently counted for a lot. The Slytherins were currently turning a blind eye to Lily's birth circumstances because the boy who would likely one day be the head of House Black required it, and Severus was grateful for that – even to a prat like Black.

And in the meantime, Severus was managing to meet up with Lily as often as possible in the library, to instruct her in as much by the way of defensive and protective magic as he could, as fast as possible. Lupin tagged along too, which was handy, since he was more softly spoken and better at explaining things than Severus. Lupin was clever – it was a pity his life had been so damaged by his being infected with lycanthropy, taking him out of studies for a quarter of a month or so whilst he suffered and recovered, as he might have been able to do astonishing things if all his time had been his own. (Severus had to wonder why there hadn't been any significant developments made in alleviating lycanthropy? Surely it should be possible to brew a potion of some kind to at least minimise the monthly effects?)

The fact that Remus was a werewolf didn't bother Severus in the slightest. Albus Dumbledore, the hero who had defeated Grindelwald, surely wouldn't have admitted him to the school in the first place if he thought Remus could pose any serious danger, and apparently the headmaster, Professor Flitwick, and Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary were working on ways to ensure Remus' comfort and the safety of everyone during full-moon nights. Pure-bloods who sneered at Severus for being 'the son of a muggle' bothered Severus much more than the fact that Remus was someone indisposed three nights out of every lunar month.

Severus hadn't ended up in Slytherin, with Lily, but life was at least tolerable as things were – and being at Hogwarts in Ravenclaw was considerably better than being back 'home' in Spinner's End…

Author Notes:

Whilst the first chapter was intended to be a stand-alone piece on how the Sorting Hat came to make a very different 1971 sorting from that of canon, it seemed reasonable to provide some indication of the initial reactions to the situations in which the hat had placed them of the pupils.

The idea that despite the canon Marauders all being sorted away from Gryffindor, a gang of Gryffindors would form anyway (in this case 'The Golden Horde') is perhaps an artistic liberty, but I wanted to play wth the idea that maybe (in Gryffindor House's case) it's the perception of the house by the pupils in it that encourages such things to sometimes occur. (Especially with a war having just recently broken out.)

Unless I can assemble a chapter giving the staff reaction that seems to be it for this piece, although it's possible the universe may continue in other fiction some day...

Thanks to those who despite the fact this was indicated as a likely one-shot put this one on alert anyway. That encouraged me to come back to it eventually and get this chapter out.