Title: The Son of Rage and Love
Author: Lady Chaos
Summary: Sirius' first couple of days at Hogwarts.
Pairing: vague mentions of Remus/Sirius
Rating: PG for minor cursing
Word Count: 2262
Disclaimer: Characters and setting belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
Feedback: Would be appreciated, especially as this is un-betaed.
Author's Notes: I challenged myself to write a bunch of R/S fics based on prompts from song lyrics. This is one of them.
Title comes from "Jesus of Suburbia" by Green Day.
Prompt: "Nobody's perfect and I stand accused" – Green Day 'Jesus of Suburbia (Part IV- Dearly Beloved)'
Sirius sighed listening to the inane purebloods around him. Chatting about Hogwarts, their families, and life in general. His parents had arranged for him to sit with these idiots. The children of other pureblood families.
As much as he hated it now, he knew it was just going to get worse. He'd have to listen to this sort of nonsense in the Slytherin Common Room every evening. Of course he would be in Slytherin. Who ever heard of a Black not being in Slytherin? No one had because it had never happened. Even his cousin Andromeda was in Slytherin, although she didn't like it. Hell, she was dating a Muggleborn from another house.
He supposed he'd end up like her; a disappointment to his parents, but not to himself. It wasn't like hewantedto be a disappointment, it was just that to please them he would have to do something that wasn't who he was. And it was just be an act.
Not a moment too soon, in his opinion, the train stopped. Good, he'd be able to get away from these idiots for a little while. He stepped off the train and heard an odd voice call out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" He shrugged and followed the voice, which lead him to a large man standing near a lot of boats on a lake.
The large, and rather hairy, man told all of the gathered first years to get into a boat. He jumped in a boat away from the kids that had been in his train compartment. Three other students eventually joined him in the boat. Inwardly he raised an eyebrow at the appearance of one of them. The boy had glasses and black hair that looked like it hadn't ever been combed. Was it naturally like that?
The hairy giant informed them that they would be able to see the castle in just a moment. Sirius looked up, wondering what his home for the majority of the next seven years looked like. His breath caught when he saw it. Bloody hell! How were you supposed to find your way around the place? He'd have to make a map of it.
The boats docked and Sirius rather reluctantly stepped out of the boat. He walked inside the castle and took a quick look around as they were lead into a small room off of the Great Hall. He focused his attention on the witch who had led them into the room. "In a couple of minutes you will walk through this door and into the Great Hall. In the Hall you will be sorted into your houses. Whichever House you are sorted into, be it Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin; will be your home, your family for the duration of your schooling. Wait here until I return." The witch left the room and conversation immediately broke out.
"How are we sorted?"
"Dunno, some kind of test maybe."
"Do you think we'd have to do a spell?"
"Doubt that. Wouldn't be fair to the Muggleborns. They wouldn't know any spells. Unless they read through their books."
"Have you?"
"Nope."
The door opened again and the conversations ceased. The stern witch had come back. "Follow me, please."
Sirius and the other first year students filed into the Hall after her. In front of the table where all the Professors sat was a stool. On the stool was a hat, a very old hat. Sirius started when the hat began to sing. 'Okay, that was a little unexpected.' He didn't really pay any attention to the thing, though. It was just talking about the different Houses. He looked around the Hall and found the Slytherin table. Andromeda saw him and gave him a nod and a wink.
The hat stopped singing and the stern witch stepped forward with a scroll in her hand. "When I call your name please come forward, sit on the stool, and place the hat on your head to be sorted." She called the first name as Sirius heard a couple of the other first years breathe a sigh of relief.
"At least it's nothing hard that we have to do," one whispered.
Sirius smiled; yeah, that was pretty easy. The smile dropped as his name was called. Time for the Sorting Hat to tell him what he already knew: he was a Slytherin.
He sat down, put the hat on his head, and waited for it to call out Slytherin. He heard a little voice in his ear speak. "Hm, strange. You're not much like your family. I don't think you belong with the rest of them in Slytherin. You don't even reallywantto be in there. You'd do much better somewhere else. Hm. Ah! I know the perfect place for you. GRYFFINDOR!"
Sirius sat still in shock for a few moments after the hat shouted the last word to the rest of the school. Numbly he stood and took off the hat. Shaking slightly, he walked to the table at the exact opposite side of the Hall from where he thought he'd be sitting. How could he have ended up in Gryffindor? No member of the Black family had ever been put in Gryffindor before. He sat down at the table but paid no attention to anything that was happening around him.
The Sorting Ceremony went by with him in a daze. How had that happened? And what would his mother and father say? That was a very scary thought.
Sirius didn't notice the other students who sat down beside him, also having been sorted into Gryffindor. He didn't notice what Dumbledore said during his short speech before the feast started. He picked up a couple of things to eat, but barely ended up getting anything down. He couldn't eat, not right now. Not until he knew what his parent's reaction was going to be.
The feast finished, and Dumbledore spoke a little more. Sirius caught something about a dangerous Whomping Willow having been planted on the school grounds, but not really anything else. Finally, everyone stood and began to leave the Hall. The Gryffindor first years were followed one of the Prefects up into a tower, stopping before the portrait of a lady in a pink dress. The Prefect gave the password and the students entered the Common Room.
Sirius glanced about at it. He hadn't been expecting this at all. Instead of silver, green, and snakes; he had red, gold, and lions. Instead of a dungeon room, he had a tower. He walked up into the dormitory that the first year boys would be using. He changed listlessly and got into bed. He didn't think he'd be able to get much sleep tonight.
The next morning he awoke, strangely enough feeling quite refreshed. He climbed out of bed, crept past the beds of the other boys, and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. When he came out the other boys were just getting up. He figured he ought to ask their names seeing as he had missed getting them the night before.
"James Potter," the boy with messy black hair and glasses from before answered.
"Peter Pettigrew," was the answer from a boy with blond hair.
The final boy introduced himself as Remus Lupin. He had brown hair and strange brown eyes flecked with amber and was rather soft-spoken.
Sirius introduced himself, and then the others left to take their showers. They came back, dressed, and they all went down to breakfast.
Sirius' nervousness increased. Whatever his parents were going to say about his strange sorting would come today. He sat down, grabbed a little bit to eat, and waited for his owl to bring him something from his parents.
When the letter landed, he picked it up to read it.
Dear Sirius,
I know that not everyone is perfect, but I think there has been a mistake. How else could you have been sorted into the wrong House?
By the end of it he was shaking. The soft-spoken boy, Remus, asked him what was wrong.
"They want me to go to Dumbledore and tell him that I need to be put in Slytherin! Said the hat must have made a mistake!"
"Why do they wantyou to be in Slytherin?" the boy named James asked.
"Because no member of the 'Most Noble and Ancient House of Black' should be in any House other than Slytherin. They're nuts. I'm not going to Dumbledore. But what should I say to them?"
"What do you mean? Tell them you want to stay here. End of story. The Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes."
"They won't accept that. They won't accept anything until I'm in Slytherin." Sirius sighed.
"They'll have to get used to it, Mr. Black. This is the House you have been sorted into, and this is the House you will stay in." Sirius looked up; it was the stern witch from the previous night. "Now then, here are your schedules for this term; your first class is mine, Transfiguration. Mind that you are not late for it." With that, the witch left.
"Alright then. Guess I'll tell them they're stuck with their imperfect son being in Gryffindor."
Remus gave him a strange look. "How can they think you're imperfect?"
"They don't think hardly anyone is perfect." Andromeda had come over. "Congratulations, Sirius! It's good to see you get away from the rest of our family. Have fun this year; and like McGonagall said, don't be late for her lessons. See you around!" She left to join her boyfriend.
"Maybe we should do something to those idiots over there. Something to show that we're better, smarter than them," James grinned at Sirius.
Sirius grinned back. He didn't think he'd mind being a Gryffindor, not with a friend like this. They walked to Transfiguration, plotting their trick on Slytherin; Remus aiding them with tips on not being caught by the teachers. Yes, it would definitely be a lot of fun to be in Gryffindor.
Andromeda looked into the Slytherin Common Room. "Alright you three, it's empty."
Sirius, James, and Remus entered the room. Remus had said they needed to be near invisible to avoid being seen by anyone. James had suggested they use his Invisibility Cloak to help them with their prank, something Sirius had been quite shocked to learn that he owned. After that problem was taken care of, they only needed one more thing, to know how to get into the Slytherin Common Room. Andromeda had been very willing to help them, but would not go so far as to givethem the password.
With the all-clear they stepped into the room, took a quick look around, and then placed the objects needed for their prank on the floor. A Filibuster firework, liberally coated in some Stinksap. Remus had quickly looked up a charm to make it look like the floor beneath it and performed it now. Sirius grinned and gave him a quick hug. "Brilliant, Remus!"
Remus blushed but before he could say anything in return, Andromeda hissed at them to get out of the room. She had been standing in the hallway, on the lookout for Slytherins returning from dinner. They quickly ran out, waiting for the room to fill up. Once it was James would whisper a spell to make the firework go off and splatter a good number of Slytherins and the walls of their Common Room.
A steady stream of Slytherin students entered the room. Andromeda walked away, telling one of her housemates that she was going to meet her boyfriend in the library. "Now," Remus hissed.
James spoke the spell, and immediately pandemonium broke out. Several Slytherin girls screamed, and many of the boys let out curses as the firework exploded. The three Gryffindor boys ran; they didn't need for one of the Slytherins to find them out there.
They made it to the entrance hall before standing in a corner and pulling off the cloak. All three doubled over from laughter. "Oh, that was perfect."
"You're absolutely certain your cousin won't say that it was us?" Remus asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure. She's probably laughing about right now. I told you, she's not like most Slytherins."
"Well that's good," James said, clutching his sides; aching from all the laughter. "I don't want my cloak to be confiscated. And I've no doubt that they'd do that."
"We should probably get back to our Common Room, we don't want to be seen anywhere near the scene of the crime."
"Right you are, Remus!" Sirius answered. "Let's hurry back." The three boys ran upstairs, each breaking into fits of laughter along the way.
Remus sighed as he finished his Transfiguration work. "This stuff is kinda hard."
"I love it. It's really interesting."
"You must like it, Sirius; you finished the essay in about a half-hour. What are you working on now?"
"Map. It's a bit difficult to find your way around this place. Figure a map is the best way to do it without getting lost."
"Interesting. I should look up methods of magical map-making. Might find some useful spell to put on the map. Maybe something that could help you avoid teachers while pulling pranks on people."
Sirius grinned. "Yeah, that would be useful. Hope you can figure something out." He sighed. "Time for bed I think, it's late."
Remus agreed and the two went up to their dormitory, Sirius wondering if his friend couldfigure out something to make his map better.