The Little Lightning Girl

2-The Third September First

(Above is Rose Weasley)

We bought our books and supplies rather quickly and efficiently. I remembered how first year, it had taken hours and hours for Mcgonagall and I to purchase everything I needed for school. Last year, I supposed, Maya and I had taken a great deal of time in the book shop. But Rose's mum wanted her back at a specific time, so we didn't dillydally, apart from a few extra minutes sifting through my vault at Gringotts. But eventually we parted and as they Flooed to their respective homes, I went back to Camp Half Blood.

It occurred to me, as I popped into an empty room of the Big House, that I might not have even bothered to ask permission to go get supplies, because Chiron hadn't been here when I left, and there was no one here now. But I walked up to my cabin and packed my books into my awaiting school trunk, excited about another year at the castle. Eventually, sleep caught me as I read a book about Quidditch strategy in my chair by the window.

September First

My mom couldn't drop me off at the train station like she had before. She'd owled me days ago about an emergency at work, and I supposed I couldn't keep her from saving people's lives just because I wanted to wave at her as the train left. I was many things, but I certainly wasn't selfish.

But my mood lifted as soon as I opened the glass door to the same train compartment I'd sat in for three years, and nearly tackled Kaley Finch in a hug. The French girl was dressed as fashionably as always, and her cat, Meredith, was curled on the seat next to Kaley's trunk.

As soon as Rose joined us, we began swapping stories, as we'd promised to do every year. After last year when I neglected to mention that my summer had involved a quest to Washington state where I had managed to get a gnarly scar on my chest, the three of us had made a pact to spill every possible detail on the train rides. I was a bit jealous that they'd gotten to spend a good portion of the summer together. I knew that Camp Half Blood was the only safe place for me aside from Hogwarts, and I knew that me being away from my two safe havens put other people in danger as well as myself. The last thing I'd want would be for my friends to get hurt but... I felt left out. They apologized a hundred times, though they couldn't have done anything about it, and I waved it off just as much. I wouldn't let my unfounded negative emotions mess up our friendship.

The Sorting

Lily Potter was being sorted this year. Albus had told me while we shopped in Diagon Alley that he and James had cast bets on which house their sister would end up in. According to Albus, she was wickedly smart and pretty mischievous when she wanted to be. He thought she'd end up in Slytherin, but James figured Ravenclaw. His reasoning for why she wouldn't get Gryffindor was that she always called him to kill spiders whenever she found one.

But as we were all seated at the table, I remembered that Hugo had surprised everyone last year, and had since thrived in Hufflepuff. He was the top of his class and Rose mentioned that he'd even had a friend over during the summer, a young lad named Evan who was from a muggle family. Lily could surprise us just as much. The little Potter was the youngest in the entire Potter-Weasley clan, and I had no doubts that it wasn't just Albus and James who had placed bets on her.

But there were quite a few children of legends in this bunch of first years. Genevieve Wood's younger brother Alistair was in this lot, as were the Finnigan twins, Callum and Isla. Lily had known many of these kids from birth, and at the very least, wouldn't have any trouble making friends.

The first abnormal thing to happen in this sorting was that the Finnigan twins went into separate houses. Callum went into Hufflepuff, and Isla into Gryffindor. Families were split between houses every now and then, but it wasn't often.