Lily Potter stared down at the delicious food on her golden plate forlornly. For years she had dreamed of finally coming here, to Hogwarts: the history, the mystery, the camaraderie thrilled her from the moment her older brother, James, returned from his first year with stories of his adventures. Four years had given her plenty of time to imagine the train ride, the trip across the lake, and the sorting, but never had she imagined eating her feast at the Slytherin table! She pushed the food around on her plate and glanced down the table to see Scorpius Malfoy laughing and gesturing toward her maniacally. "Prat," she whispered to herself. There was no need to ask what he was laughing about. The train ride that now seemed ages ago pushed away thoughts of the present.

"All the Potters and the Weasleys have been in Gryffindor. You're bound to be with us, Lily," Albus patted her knee and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Well, it is possible that she might be in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff as well, Al," Rose added with a tone of authority. "Not all families end up in the same house. Look at Sirius Black."

"Well, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff aren't bad, but I'm sure you'll be in Gryffindor." Her brother grinned at her confidently.

"Oh, I don't know, Potter," They all turned to see a tall blond boy leaning against the door frame. "You might just have a little Slytherin on your hands there."

"As if, Malfoy!" James jumped up glaring at the smirk on Scorpius's face.

"Lily's not the snarky, sneaky, slime-ball type unlike you Malfoy." Rose chimed in. He had merely chuckled and walked away leaving them all insisting that Lily would never be sorted into Slytherin.

Lily remembered the sorting hat's words, "Slytherin has everything you need. You will do well there." Then before the words had a chance to sink in, the hat yelled, "Slytherin." She wondered if her face had been as white as all of her family's were when she caught a glimpse of them after the professor pulled the battered hat off her head. Al had looked near to fainting though he seemed to have gotten over it tolerably well. At least he wasn't having any trouble enjoying his feast. James however continued to throw mournful looks her way every few minutes. She wished she could be sitting next to her big brother rather than down the table from Malfoy. James must have sensed her sadness because he chose that moment to stand up and make his way over to the end of the Slytherin table much to the surprise of Rose and Al.

He sat next to her ignoring the hostile looks from the Slytherins down the table.

"You alright, Lils?"

"I guess. I'm just surprised."

"Yeah, but don't worry about it. As far as I'm concerned, Slytherin house just went up a notch." He smiled and gave her a sideways hug.

"Thanks James." He stood up and walked back to the Gryffindor table leaving Lily feeling cold and alone.

She looked down the table at the other Slytherins eating and chatting to one another. Malfoy caught her eye and smirked. Did the hat think she was a snarky, sneaky, slimeball? Cringing at the thought, she couldn't help but remember Aunt Muriel's house erupting with Wildfire Whiz-bangs the Christmas they had all visited. Poor James had taken the blame; causing trouble was one thing, getting into it was quite another. Perhaps she did deserve to wear green after all.

After her dinner disappeared, she pushed her pudding around for what seemed like hours before the eternal feast finally ended. The new Headmistress, Professor Lovegood, stood up and tapped her glass for quiet.

"Now that you have all been fed a delicious meal, you should each hurry off to bed before the Sand Sprites come out." Lily looked over at Albus and was relieved to see the confused expression on his face. Apparently, he had never heard of the things either. Professor Lovegood smiled warmly as the prefect started gathering the first years.

Lily stood up thinking of the warm four-poster bed that waited for her, hoping some of the shock would wear off in sleep. She followed the prefect and the other first year Slytherins down to the dungeons, a bit behind the rest feeling more and more as though she didn't belong. A drawling voice interrupted her gloomy thoughts.

"What's Daddy going to say when he hears his precious princess was sorted into Slytherin?" She turned and glared at the carbon copy of Draco Malfoy sauntering along beside her.

"My Dad doesn't care what house I'm sorted into. He'll love me no matter what." He moved in front of her blocking her path.

"Ah, but how's he going to feel about you being placed in the same house as the 'snarky, sneaky, slime-ball' Malfoy?" A wicked grin slid over his features. "Don't you think he'll worry about his little girl's safety?"

Fire welled up inside her. She didn't know what infuriated her more, that she was stuck in Slytherin with this prat or that he had been right about what he said on the train. She put her hands on her hips in a perfect imitation of her mother.

"Is that a threat because I'm not scared of you, you git!" His smiled even wider reminding her of the Cheshire cat she had read about in a muggle book her father had bought her.

"Well maybe you should be seeing as you don't even know how to use a wand yet." He took a step closer to her making their height difference a sharp contrast. She clenched her fist and swung it at his face. A loud crack echoed along the dark hall and Lily looked down at Scorpius sprawled on the floor with his mouth open and noted with pleasure the black eye starting to form marring his pale features.

"I don't need a wand to protect myself from you!" Flinging her hair over her shoulder, Lily marched down the hall after the rest of her house grumbling to herself about blond-headed toe-rags with over-inflated egos.