A/N: I will say now, this isn't going to be a pervy Lolita-type romance. Not that I have anything against pervy Lolita-type stories...I just didn't want you to have certain expectations…that's all. )
Also, I hate myself. This was going to be a bloody one-shot, but then I got sucked into developing my OC and stuff…so…here we are, another short story by yours truly. Alright, let the reading commence!
To Be a Gryffindor
Chapter One: The Prefect
Peering slightly past the boat's edge, the reflection of the waning moon could be seen on the surface of the dark waters. The boat rocked gently as others shifted uncomfortably in their seats. They were nervous too, just like her. Well, who wouldn't be on their first night away from home at an enchanted castle? Jane wouldn't show her nervousness though. Especially not in front of the older students. Well, student. There was only one older student with them in the boat, and Jane certainly didn't want him to think she was as timid and frightened by her new environment as everyone else in her year was.
The older boy had introduced himself as Remus Lupin. He had said he was a sixth year and that he would be riding in the boat with them to the castle. He was a prefect too, according to the hairy half-giant who had greeted her and the other first years when they had first gotten off the Hogwarts Express. All of the older students in the boats were prefects; it was their job to make sure that the boats full of first years had safely crossed the lake in time for the sorting.
Jane felt her stomach go in a knot at the mere thought of the sorting. She was an only child, so she had no siblings in any of the houses - not like Anastasia Vance, a first year she had met on the train who had told her that siblings tended to be the same house. Anastasia had three older sisters, all of whom had been Gryffindors. All Jane had were her parents' background, which wasn't of much help. Her father had been a Gryffindor and her mother a Hufflepuff. She didn't think she was like either of her parents, so she couldn't tell which house she'd land in. Not that she cared very much. No, Jane was much more concerned with fitting in. What if she didn't get along with anyone in her house? What if they didn't like her? What if the sorting hat made a mistake and put her in the wrong house? She was going to be at this school for seven years, and not having friends would make things very difficult for her.
It won't be so bad, she told herself repeatedly as she watched the man named Hagrid scolding a student in his boat for trying to throw another student overboard. After all, things had gone smoothly so far. She boarded the train on time. The lady with the sweets had been nice to her when Jane had run into her outside her compartment, accidentally rattling her trolley and nearly knocking over some of the food. The girls she had shared her compartment with were nice enough; they all seemed to have known each other and had been chatting with one another most of the time without paying much attention to Jane, but every now and then the girl named Anastasia Vance had made attempts to include her in their conversations.
Remus Lupin had been nice too, so far. He had smiled warmly at all the first years who had gotten into his boat and had welcomed them to Hogwarts, assuring them that while they might be nervous now, they would soon get used to the ways of the school and would come to see it as their home. Jane thought that perhaps he would ask them for their names, but he didn't. It then occurred to her that Remus Lupin belonged to a house already, and probably already had a bunch of friends in his own house. He probably had enough names in his memory to be getting on with and needn't have troubled himself with learning their names.
He's a prefect, so he's smart…maybe he's in Ravenclaw then. Jane thought to herself. But almost immediately she dismissed the idea as she took in the badge on his robes. It was red and gold and had a lion on it. He was a Gryffindor.
So as the boat continued its course down the lake, Jane tried to remember what she knew about Gryffindors. They were known for their bravery. The sorting hat, which she was destined to put on later that evening, once belonged to Godric Gryffindor. That was it, really. Jane looked up at Remus Lupin again to get a better look at him. Tall and thin, he had light brown hair that fell delicately around the sides of his face. It suited him, Jane thought. But it wasn't really suitable for a Gryffindor, was it? She had always imagined Gryffindors to look more or less like her dad—burly and fearless-looking. After all, they were courageous people, weren't they? Jane's dad was an auror at the ministry of magic, chasing dark wizards most of the time. That was the height of bravery for Jane, so she tended to imagine that all the other Gryffindors were like her dad.
Remus Lupin looked nothing like that though.
He looked like what Jane had imagined Hufflepuffs to look like, mainly because his thin frame reminded her of her mother, who had been a Hufflepuff. Still, if he was a Gryffindor, and if the sorting hat was never wrong (Jane's father assured her of that), Remus Lupin was supposed to be a brave guy then.
Jane spent the remainder of the boat ride trying to imagine how Remus Lupin might have demonstrated bravery during his life.
Perhaps he had saved someone's life once. He had rescued a young girl from the giant squid which lived at the bottom of the lake. She was hanging out with some of her friends during lunch when it happened. They had been sitting at the water's edge, dangling their feet in the water, when the girl slipped and fell into the water. Remus Lupin heard her screams for help, and dove into the lake, fully clothed just as the girl's flailing hands disappeared underneath the surface. The girl had begun to sink, but Remus Lupin had grabbed her hand only moments before the giant squid could wrap one of its tentacles around her…
That seemed a bit dramatic.
Maybe Remus Lupin would take part in the war that was slowly beginning to break out in the wizarding world. Maybe the school would come under attack by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers—the death eaters. Perhaps the girl would be cornered by three or so death eaters, ready to kill her. One of them would raise his wand, ready to strike, but then Remus Lupin would appear out of nowhere, disarming all of the death eaters at once. Upon summoning their wands, he would snap them to pieces, causing the unarmed death eaters to immediately disperse. With great urgency, he would take the hand of the girl and hurry her towards safer grounds…
Still too dramatic.
Perhaps Remus Lupin had protected the girl from a bullying professor. She had done something stupid outside of class, and having been caught, was getting told off by her professor when suddenly, Remus Lupin appeared and took the blame, saying it was his fault that the girl had acted in the manner which she did; he had made her. And then he would nod solemnly as the professor proceeded to punish him, ripping his prefect's badge off the front of his robes as a demotion…
Jane's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden jolt of uneasiness in her stomach. Why had she pictured herself as 'the girl' in all of those scenarios?
"You're awfully quiet…nervous?"
Startled, Jane looked up to see Remus Lupin smiling warmly at her.
"Oh…uh…"
"I remember being a complete mess on my first night at Hogwarts." He said, still smiling. "You're definitely more composed than I ever was."
Jane nodded uncertainly, trying to think of something to say. She had just been thinking of him, she couldn't let him know that…
"I'm just nervous about what house I'm going to be in." she finally said. "I don't have any siblings to base my guesses off of."
"Well, siblings aren't necessarily put in the same house. They can be, but not always."
"Really?"
"I have a friend who's a Gryffindor, but his younger brother is a Slytherin." Remus Lupin had said, looking at Jane rather amusedly. "Siblings may have the same blood, but they don't have the same personalities. You're sorted according to the type of person you are."
"Oh." Jane said simply, feeling somewhat stupid now.
Jane was sorted into Gryffindor.
The other girls who had been sorted in with her and who were now her roommates were fairly nice. She liked her potions instructor, Professor Slughorn, who had taken a liking to her when she had confirmed with him that her father was indeed Blake Williamson, the hit wizard–turned–auror who had recently been given the Order of Merlin, First Class for his services to the ministry of magic.
She was quite terrified though of Professor McGonagall, the head of her house. And just about everyone else in the school whom she hadn't met yet—which was pretty much everyone, come to think of it, aside from the other first years she shared classes with, and of course, Remus Lupin.
Jane didn't like Remus Lupin's friends though, or at least the boy named James. He was quite rude. After her first day of classes, she along with Gary Harris and Louis Watson, two other Gryffindors in her year, had sat down on a sofa in their common room to work on their transfiguration assignments together, when a boy with messy black hair and glasses approached them.
"Hey, midgets…why don't you run along to the library or something to do your work? These seats are for the big kids!" he said rather condescendingly as he smiled at them.
"We were here first though." Louis replied as he attempted a glare, but failed miserably as he was rather distracted by the older student's unkempt hair.
"At this school?"
Louis glanced at Jane and Gary with a look of defeat in his eyes, and in the next moment they were gathering their books and rolls of parchment and stuffing them into their bags.
"James—"
Jane had glanced up as she zipped her bag shut. Remus Lupin had just joined James, followed by two other boys—a short plump boy with dark brown hair and a tall, good-looking boy with piercing grey eyes. The two of them were grinning appreciatively at James, while Remus had looked slightly put out.
"James," he started again as the first years began to head towards the portrait hole, "did you really have to do that? They were studying and everything…and they're new here, you probably frightened them."
James had simply laughed as he fell onto the couch, grabbing Remus Lupin's arm and pulling him down with him. "That was the point. Now, just have a seat, Moony old boy—Merlin, not on my lap!"
There was a fit of laughter from the corner in the room where Remus Lupin and his friends were now sitting, but Jane did not turn back to watch. She had heard enough anyway. She now knew why Remus Lupin was a Gryffindor.
