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"Hey there! Good on you for making Gryffindor," a tall, lanky boy with firey red hair greeted. He was grinning almost as widely as Dora was and held out a hand for her to shake. She reached up, he was quite a bit taller than her, and was surprised by the strength of his hand shake. She sat down on the bench next to him as Professor McGonagall asked for quiet for the next sorting, calling up Sirius Black.
"Gideon Prewett, by the way," the boy greeted, "Prefect. Sort of my job to welcome the first years," he whispered, half watching the next sorting.
Dora wasn't too interested in the outcome of the next sorting, knowing it was that rude boy from the train. She didn't care where he ended up so long as it wasn't in Gryffindor with her.
It was almost as if the hat was still inside her mind when it announced "Gryffindor!" just after she thought that was the last outcome she wanted. It just couldn't be happening. Her face fell after the announcement but so did the boy's. He looked stunned. It took him a while to come to his senses and hop off the stool, trudging slowly over to the Gryffindor table. He took a seat at the table, opposite Dora. Gideon greeted him the same way he'd greeted Dora and the cheering died down again leaving Dora and Sirius looking anywhere but at each other.
He was being unusually quiet. Not that Dora knew him very well but she didn't expect this of the boy who that very same day and barged passed her, nearly knocking her over like it was no big deal. Now he was sat perfectly still with a perfectly straight spine, staring at his plate like he'd never seen one before. He was frowning, looking confused. His grey eyes looked a little glassy. He looked up after a long while and Dora smiled as welcomingly as she could, mostly so it wouldn't look weird that she had been staring at him but partly because she wanted him to feel a bit happier. Perhaps she had caught him at a bad moment when he had knocked into her. He was behaving so differently that she couldn't help but think there was more to him than met the eye.
Then the line of first years moved down as another person went up to be sorted. The other boy from the train moved down to stand behind Sirius. He poked him on the shoulder and he whirled round, face immediately lighting up when he saw who had prodded him. The other boy pulled a strange, grimace at Sirius, obviously intending some sort of reaction. Sirius grinned and pulled a face back. So much for that idea, Dora thought, and went back to scowling at him for pushing her over.
So she didn't have to look at his stupid face, or obnoxious smirks, she returned her full attention to the sorting. The red-head girl that Dora had tried to make eye contact with had been called up. Lily Evans was sitting nervously on the stool and kept making weird facial expressions. She was probably having a mental conversation with the hat like Dora had. Had she looked that strange during her sorting too? The hat was pulling concentrated faces as it searched around in the poor girl's mind to work out where she belonged. It was taking an awfully long time and people were starting to get impatient. All along the Gryffindor table, Dora could hear people give up paying attention and start whispering to each other. The girl on the stool looked like she was entering into a heated silent argument with the hat, the longer her sorting went on the angrier she looked.
"Great, not another hat stall," Dora heard someone on her table grumble, "Remember last year when Frank was being sorted? Took 20 minutes! Couldn't decide on Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, you remember?"
"Yeah, wonder if that's what it's deciding now. What do you reckon?"
Dora turned her head to see who was talking. They were whispering but not doing a great job of being quiet. She saw who it was almost instantly, it was hard to miss their bright red hair. The boy who had just spoken was Gideon, the prefect. The other boy, sat next to him, looked almost identical to him. They were sat so close together that Dora thought for a second that her eyes had blurred and she was seeing double.
"Looks like she's about to throw a fit, don't she?" the other Gideon said, "5 sickles says she's a Slytherin. Face like that!"
Lily was scowling.
"I dunno, she looks like she's not leaving til she gets her way. Might be made of some pretty strong stuff." Gideon whispered back although Dora could hear him perfectly well.
"Fair dos, I still reckon Slytherin."
"Alright, you're on. I'll say she's one of ours," Gideon said and shook the other boy's hand. They went back to watching the sorting, more closely now that something depended on it. Gideon practically burst with cheering when she was eventually sorted into Gryffindor.
She slunk off the chair and traipsed over to Gryffindor. She took the space next to Dora on the bench and smiled flatly. Gideon welcomed her like he had with Dora and Sirius but Lily didn't look too happy.
"Thanks," she said to be polite and sat with her elbows on the bench.
"What's up with you?" Sirius asked from across the table, looking like he was suppressing a smile.
Lily looked up at him and glared.
"Are you okay?" Dora whispered to her when Sirius' attention was diverted back to pulling obnoxious faces at the guy from the train who was still waiting his turn to be sorted.
Lily shrugged, "I promised my friend we'd be in the same house."
"Oh, has he been sorted yet?" Dora asked, thinking she'd spaced out and missed someone.
"No, but he's pretty certain he's going to be in Slytherin."
"He could still be Gryffindor, he's not been sorted yet, right?"
"I guess," Lily shrugged.
Dora smiled trying to cheer up the poor girl and she smiled back weekly. They turned their attention back to the sorting. Dora hoped, for Lily's sake, that her friend was a Gryffindor too.
