A/N I had this idea that the Black family might not have been the only ones who were upset upon finding out that their eldest son had been put in Gryffindor House. Hope you like.

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"GRYFFINDOR!"

There was a shocked pause and then rather strained applause as the boy clambered down from the stage and went to join his new housemates. Those closest to him on the bench shuffled away slightly, not looking him in the eye while the rest of the great hall stared at him unashamedly.

It was safe to say that eleven year old Sirius Black had not made the most popular addition to Gryffindor House.

By the time the sorting ceremony was finished he had been joined by several others, including the bespectacled boy he had met on the train, all of whom were chattering away animatedly.

"Cheer up," he said brightly, passing a plate of roast potatoes to Sirius, "you said you didn't want to be in Slytherin anyway."

"I know," he replied. "I'm just thinking about the howler I'm going to get tomorrow when mum finds out."

The boy laughed and slapped him on the back.

"Never mind, there are worse things in the world than howlers."

A chubby fair-haired boy who was sat across from them swallowed hard at this news.

"Like what?" he asked with worried eyes.

"Well there's having to kiss your auntie at family celebrations for a start, I always find that pretty horrible."

Sirius laughed and the boy next to him grinned.

"That's more like it. Now, fill your pockets as you go, we can have a midnight feast later. Don't think I introduced myself properly by the way, I'm James."

"Sirius," said Sirius.

The boys shook hands and smiled at each other.

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Dumbledore had given his closing speech and dismissed the students for the night. The first years were filing out of the hall behind the prefects while everyone else milled around, trying to avoid getting caught in the rush.

James, Sirius and the chubby blonde boy whose name was Peter were following the other Gryffindors towards the Tower when suddenly Sirius caught sight of someone and bolted from the group. James and Peter turned to see where he had gone. He was running across the hall towards a group of older girls who, to the horror of his new friends, wore the silver and green ties of Slytherin.

"Andy!" he shouted, catching up to a tall, dark-haired girl who spun around to look at him.

"Oh, hi Sirius," she said, blushing slightly when she saw him. Her friends had stopped to watch and raised their eyebrows at him.

"I'm in Gryffindor," he told her proudly. "Mum's gonna freak out when she hears! I'll bet Bella or Cissy are writing to her right now."

"Yeh, probably."

"So I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out at the weekend or something? I haven't seen you since Regulus's birthday last month."

The other girls began to snicker behind their hands, causing Any to blush deeper. She twisted her hands together, looking at her shoes rather than at Sirius.

"Um, I'm not sure I can Sirius."

"Some time next week then? Come on Andy, I haven't seen you in ages!"

One of Andy's friends rolled her eyes and the two of them linked arms, turning towards the door.

"Are you coming or not?" one of them drawled, holding out an arm to her.

"I have to go Sirius, I'll see you around okay?"

And with that she linked arms with her friends and left the hall, although she hung her head as she did so.

As the three gilrs drifted away Sirius heard one of them say.

"…just a rotten little Gryffindor, I don't know why you even bothered to speak to him."

On the edge of hearing he could just discern Andy's grunted reply of "cousin".

"Andy!" he called after her but she didn't turn around.

He stood there staring after her for a few moments before he felt a soft tug on his arm. It was James.

"Sirius mate, we better go. We've already lost the rest of the Gryffindors."

Sirius let himself be dragged away by his new friend.

"Yeh," he murmured, "Gryffindor, right."

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After a bit of searching they caught up with the tail end of the Gryffindor first years and found their way to the Tower. But as they climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room their progress was barred by a couple of bigger boys with folded arms.

"What's up?" said James, straightening his glasses in confusion.

The middle lad nodded in the direction of Sirius.

"He's not welcome here," he said and the others nodded.

A few people had looked up to see what was going on and moved towards the entrance with interest. Sirius had gone pale and he felt as though he were going to be sick.

"What do you mean not welcome? He's a Gryffindor!" exclaimed James when it became apparent that Sirius wasn't going to say anything.

"He's a Black," said the middle lad again, apparently the spokesman for the group.

"So?"

"Black's are all Slytherins, have been for generations."

"Your point being?"

A thick finger was levelled in the direction of the still silent Sirius.

"My point being that he should be in Slytherin, not Gryffindor."

"Yeh," piped up someone else, "they probably sent him to spy on us so we don't win the House Cup or something!"

"Yeh, they must have rigged the Sorting Hat!"

There was a general rumble of talk as more people began to take interest in the proceedings. Sirius wished he could just blend into the wall and disappear.

"It isn't possible to rig the Sorting Hat," said a voice by the window. It was a skinny, sandy-haired boy Sirius thought he remembered from the banquet. He was perched on the window seat, a book in his hand.

"What do you mean?" asked the one who had suggested the fix, affronted that his idea should be questioned by a first year.

The boy shrugged lazily.

"The magic of the hat was put in with the stitching, it can't be fixed. To do it you'd have to unpick the stitching and redo it all with your own spell."

There was quiet for a while as everyone took this in.

"Where did you learn that?" asked someone.

"It's in Hogwart's, A History."

There were several murmurs of "never read it" and "bloody know-it-all". But the lead boy in front of James and Sirius took this moment to steer the conversation back to its original point.

"Even so, he doesn't belong here."

"Come off it," said James archly, "the hat put him in Gryffindor so he obviously belongs here. Families have been split up by the hat before."

"But never a Black."

"I can't go to Slytherin!"

Every eye in the room moved silently to Sirius, who had gone from white to red.

"They don't want me there either," he muttered, still stinging from his cousin's rejection earlier on.

"Not our problem."

One of the older boys made a grab for Sirius but as he did so James drew his wand.

"Leave him alone!" he shouted.

The others smirked and drew their own wands.

"Three against one."

"Two against three."

It was the skinny boy with the book. He had moved around silently to stand on Sirius's other side and was brandishing his wand, a dark gleam in his eyes.

Sirius blinked. Across the room he saw Peter moving in their direction, a hand already fumbling beneath his robes and wondered why he wasn't defending himself. But just as he reached for his own wand the door of the portrait hole swung open and Professor McGonnegal was there, eyebrows raised and arms folded.

"And what, may I ask, is going on here?"

Her eyes swept the room and the crowd consciously drifted back from the fighters by the door.

She frowned at the collection of boys before her, particularly noting the presence of Sirius Black, she might have known he'd get into trouble somehow.

"Anyone?" she asked.

Suddenly James straightened and grinned at her.

"We were playing a game Professor," he said brightly.

"A game?"

"Yes, we were playing at duelling, see," he pointed his wand at Lupin and waved it randomly. "Flibbertigibbet!" he shouted. Nothing happened but Lupin proceeded to go into a dying swan act, collapsing on the floor and grinning up at the professor innocently.

"A game," repeated James, turning his smile on the boys opposite, "right lads?"

"Absolutely", "Oh yes, definitely a game Professor", "Just a bit of fun really", came the quick responses.

"I see," replied McGonnegal coldly. "And what have you to say Mr Black?"

Once more everyone was looking at Sirius. Tell her, he thought to himself. Tell her they were going to beat you up, do it or they'll just try again later!

He turned to McGonnegal and the room took a breath.

"Oh absolutely Professor, just having a laugh."

He fixed her with a brilliant, cocky smile, flicking hair out of his innocent grey eyes with the tip of his wand.

McGonnegal sighed.

"Very well then, but I suggest you all get to bed immediately. It's very late and you have an early start tomorrow."

"Yes Professor," chorused the room.

As soon as she was gone the smile dropped from Sirius's lips and, casting a dark look at the three bigger boys he shoved his way past and headed for the dormitory stairs. Only when he was completely out of sight did he start to run, barrelling up the rest of the steps and hurling himself into the dormitory and onto the bed with his trunk at the foot of it.

He buried his head on his knees and fought the urge to cry. It wasn't fair, everything was meant to be better here, away from his parents. But nobody like him because he was a Black and Andy, the only member of his family he could stand, wouldn't talk to him because he was a Gryffindor.

He hugged his knees tighter as he heard footsteps outside. A moment later the door creaked open and James, Peter and the skinny boy filed in and he realised that they must be the other occupants of the dormitory. They began rifling through their trunks for their pyjamas.

James and Peter wandered into the bathroom with toothbrushes and Sirius was left with the skinny boy.

"Why didn't you just tell McGonnegal the truth?" asked the boy quietly.

"What? And prove I'm a grass and a spy and a trouble maker? No thank you."

There was silence for another minute or so and then Sirius said, "Why did you stand up for me?"

The boy shrugged.

"I know what it's like when no one wants you around."

Sirius managed a smile.

"I'm kind of used to it at home," he said but then the smile faded. "I thought it would be different here. Maybe the hat was right."

"What do you mean?" James asked, coming back into the room, Peter tailing behind him.

Sirius sighed, he'd been hoping to avoid this, especially after the scene downstairs.

"The hat was going to put me in Slytherin, but I asked it not to," he said and dipped his head so that his hair hung in front of his eyes, shielding his face form view.

"So?"

"So?" He looked up in surprise. "So, I'm obviously meant to be a Slytherin, I'm just too stubborn to see it! I should ask Dumbledore to re-sort me."

"Don't be stupid," said James, coming to perch on the end of his bed. "If you were really meant to be in Slytherin the hat would have put you there no matter what."

The skinny boy nodded and put a warm and on his shoulder.

"The hat doesn't do things without a reason Sirius," he said gently. "It put you in Gryffindor for a reason and that reason is because you belong here."

"But how can you know that?" he moaned.

James grinned at him.

"Because a Slytherin would have told McGonnegal what was really going on, that's why."

"You should have heard them downstairs after you left," said Peter. "They said they should give you a chance and maybe you weren't so bad after all."

The skinny boy patted his shoulder again.

"So stop all this stuff about being re-sorted. Here, have some chocolate."

He handed Sirius a bar of Honeyduke's finest chocolate which he had produced from a pocket.

"Thanks."

"Hey that reminds me," said Peter excitedly, bouncing over to where he had left his robes. "What about our midnight feast?"

"It isn't midnight yet"

"So?"

"You're on!"

Sirius bit into the chocolate bar and smiled.

"What's your name by the way?" he asked the skinny boy who was in the middle of pulling on a pair of rather worn looking blue pyjamas that were at least two sizes too big for him.

"Remus," he replied.

"Sirius."

"I had sort of worked that out."

"Come on you two, empty your pockets and let's get this feast going!"

Sirius jumped off of his bed and sat cross-legged on the floor with the others. Perhaps things weren't going to be so bad after all.