How the Marauders Met

His parents said goodbye to him on the platform and he clambered onto the train with all of his luggage and settled himself in the corner of an empty compartment as the doors of the train were being closed.

He waved to his parents as the train sped away from the platform and he sighed and took out a book of spells. Just as he began to read the door of the compartment was opened and a boy of about the same age was standing there looking at him.

"Do you mind if I join you?" the second boy asked.

"Feel free." replied the first.

"Are you a first year too?" asked the second.

"I am. I'm Remus. Remus Lupin." He smiled and put down his book.

"Nice to meet you Remus! I'm Sirius! Sirius Black. What are you reading?"

"Book of Spells. Seems like we're going to be doing a lot of learning!"

"I thought Reg said it'd be fun here!" Sirius moaned.

"Well it is a school! We're meant to learn at some point! Who's Reg?"

"He's my brother!" He laughed, "Annoying older brother that wants me to be in Slytherin like the death eaters! I'd rather be in Gryffindor though! What house do you want to be in?"

"Oh I don't know really. I'm not really that brave and I'm not clever really…. Wouldn't really fit in any of them!"

"Hopefully we'll be in the same house though! Then we can be friends! If you want to of course!"

"Really? You want to be friends with me?" Remus looked rather shocked at Sirius wanting to be friends with him as he'd never really had friends before. Due to his "time of the month" he liked to keep himself separate for fear of hurting people but disliked being alone.

"Sure!" Sirius smiled at his new friend. "It'd be awfully boring without friends and you seem ok!" He smiled again.

"I do?" Remus beamed. He had never been treated as kindly before by anyone apart from his family and for once he felt wanted.

"Yeah! There's the school!" Sirius pointed into the distance "Thought it'd take longer than that to get here!"

They gathered all of their belongings as the train pulled up at Hogsmeade Station. A giant was awaiting their arrival and piled them all into carriages with invisible horses. Remus and Sirius were in a carriage together with two other boys.

Sirius looked at the other two boys and said "I can't believe I'm finally at Hogwarts!"

"Me neither!" said a black haired boy with glasses.

"It's really exciting!" squeaked the boy sitting next to him.

"I'm Sirius Black by the way!" Sirius said smiling.

"Nice to meet you Sirius! I'm James Potter and this is my friend Peter Pettigrew!"

Peter squeaked "Yeah nice to meet you Sirius!"

James then turned to Remus "What's your name?"

"Remus Lupin. Nice to meet you both!" Remus replied smiling.

"Maybe we could all be friends if we're in the same house?" Sirius suggested.

"Yeah we could!" James replied smiling. "That way we wont have to make friends after the Sorting Ceremony! What house do you want to be in?"

"GRYFFINDOR!" Sirius shouted and Remus and Peter laughed at him.

"Me too!" James said. "Looks like we will be good friends!"

"Yeah!" Peter squeaked. Remus just smiled.

"You'll be in Gryffindor too wont you Remus?" James asked.

"I don't know. I don't really fit into the brave, bold category…." Remus said, hesitating slightly.
"Of course you do!" Sirius smiled at Remus.

"Have to wait and see wont we?" Remus replied as the carriages ceased to move and the first years filed out of the carriages and approached the Great Hall nervously.

They entered the Great Hall nervously and stood in a group at the front of the tables. They were called up one by one by Professor McGonagall and they sat on a stool as she placed the Sorting Hat on their head and it would call out a house.

"Black, Sirius" Sirius glanced at his new friends, then headed up to the stool and sat down. There was a long pause while the hat considered what to do with him before4 it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and there was a loud booing from the Slytherins as Sirius joined the Gryffindor table.

"Evans, Lily" A red haired girl approached the stool and Professor McGonagall placed the hat on her head. After a while the hat announced "GRYFFINDOR" and she jumped off the stool and ran to the Gryffindor table.

By this time Remus was feeling quite nervous as he knew he would be called up soon. Professor Dumbledore kept looking at him and giving him reassuring smiles but Remus thought he would never fit in and if by some miraculous chance he made some friends he could never tell them about his condition.

"Lupin, Remus" Remus jumped at he sound of his name and James pushed him forward towards the sorting hat. He gulped and sat on the stool. Then his eyes were covered by the hat and he heard it talking to him. "Werewolf hey? Shows some bravery. Pretty clever as well. Tricky one this one." Then he heard the booming voice of the hat announcing "GRYFFINDOR!" and his heart leapt as he jumped off the stool and sat next to Sirius, his heart pounding still.

"Pettigrew, Peter" Peter approached the stool and was the next to be sorted into Gryffindor.

"Potter, James" Again sorted into Gryffindor.

"Snape, Severus" A tall boy with greasy black hair approached the sorting hat. After about 5 minutes it announced "SLYTHERIN!" and all of the Gryffindors booed except Lily. She looked disappointed and James said to her, "He your friend then?" She nodded, took one more look at Severus, and turned back to the front of the hall. She didn't look at him again and Remus thought "What if that had been me in Slytherin?"