Chapter 1, "Swallowed Whole"

The train ride had been relatively uneventful, having chosen a compartment early on and making sure to place a locking charm on the door, because really what else was he to do? Being who he was he had very little contact with people his age, or really, people at all. Awkward social interactions were something that he hoped to avoid at all costs, or at least until absolutely necessary. Anxiety was a scary thing when you were an eleven year old, and being an eleven year old werewolf gave anxiety countless opportunities to rear its ugly head, giving you no time to brace for the impact of it all. He really was no good at bracing, he realized as the sorting hat was placed on his head, the fear of it swallowing him ever present on the boy's mind. No, he thought, no one had prepared him for hundreds of eyes staring at him with scrutiny as if he were a bug under a microscope. Swallowing hard, he forced himself to collect his racing thoughts and stop the slight tremors that were coursing through his body. He took a deep breath and told himself that as far as anyone knew he was normal, and really, he was sure, most people had better things to do than to stare at him. It was all in his head.

"Ohhh," a voice whispered in his head, instantly causing Remus to start. "This is interesting," the hat murmured.

"What... what is?" he answered in the quietest of voices.

The hat was silent for a moment, almost as if it were deciding how to respond when he knew perfectly well what the hat had meant. Gripping the base of the chair tightly, he dug his fingernails into the wood. He wished nothing more that the hat would get on with it. Surely someone had noticed the considerable amount of time it was taking to sort him.

"Impatient little thing aren't you, young Lupin? Yes yes, the sorting. Terribly sorry my boy, but I've never seen one of you in all my years of service to Hogwarts!" Remus visibly flinched, "Now for where you'll be placed... Ravenclaw seems to be a fitting place for you, but I think you may need more than what the house can offer, and while Slytherin is the obvious choice... no I think not. I think,"

"GRYFFINDOR!" bellowed out the hat. Remus, having thought he misheard remained on the chair for several moments than was acceptable and only when he became aware that people were staring did he move from the chair and make his way towards the long table, applause all around him. And it was overwhelming and he thought perhaps the ground could take him there and then.

He was aware how much of a coward he must have looked, eyes downcast staring at the empty plate below. Instantly, as if a light had turned on his shoulders squared and he schooled his face into a passive mask, the one he had learned to use around strangers to keep their eyes off of him for any longer than was absolutely necessary. He had learned the best way to avoid unwanted attention was to not draw attention to warrant it.

Most of the people by then had lost interest in the newest member of Gryffindor, instead going back to the sorting feast, half listening to the names being called. He had felt a pair of eyes burning holes into the side of his head since he sat down. Carefully he turned his head meeting the gaze of the cold grey eyes. Oh Merlin, he thought, but he was so close. Had this boy no sense for personal boundaries? He carefully shifted away from the other boy, finding it odd that neither had bothered to engage in conversation, just staring at each other, both like deer caught in headlights. He never met anyone who had ever looked quite like the other boy did. He looked far too serious to be eleven years old, far too exposed. This, he thought, was not an eleven year old boy.

"Sirius!" a voice screeched right into his ear causing him to flinch away, the exchange between the two boys lost.

The owner of the grey eyes broke out into a smile. And that too was weird.

"James! I hadn't even noticed you had been called," the boy, Sirius, replied with the grin now plastered on his face. He wanted to rip it off.

"Yeah, you soggy foot. What happened to, 'James we've to stick together, James how am I to prove that there is a frozen alien base underneath the sheets of ice in Antarctica if my sidekick is taken from me from that wiling meddling hat and is placed elsewhere where we will only grow further and further apart, our epic quest for extraterrestrial life forms forgotten for eternity?'"

"Oh, Jimmy. You're right... a man needs allies with quest going, and of course I'll need your thick skull to plunder through all that Arctic ice," the grey eyed boy said nonchalantly.

"Yes, I see. I do all the groundwork but quite clearly I'M the sidekick." James, Jimmy? rolled his eyes before quickly turning to Remus, "Hello! My name is James Potter and I see that you've already met Sirius, the great git that he is," said James, holding out his hand. Presumably for him to shake. Nutters. They were all nutters. Nevertheless, he tentatively offered his hand, just then noticing a flash of red across the table.

"Well you're a bit... odd," offered the girl and the source of the red flash. Hair, his mind supplied. He froze, momentarily thinking the girl was referring to him until he noticed her gaze landing on James.

"Did you hear that Sirius? No, I didn't hear anything at all," James said loudly, causing him to smile despite the red haired girls reddening cheeks.

Sirius, having already heaped his plate full of food briefly looked at the girl and shrugged making a noise that he could not decipher through the mouth full of mashed potatoes. He thought that maybe it had ended with the word blood. James gave him a scowl and opened his mouth to say something when the boy sitting to his right tugged on his sleeve.

"James, you know it's t-" Sirius was cut off.

"Can I have the gravy, please?" said the boy frantically tugging on James' sleeve.

Sirius paused in eating, fork midway to his mouth staring at the stout boy. He scowled, angling his fork and giving off a haughty stance as his shepherd's pie landed on the hand of the second year sitting beside him.

The eyes of the round boy's face got impossibly wide, his lips trembling before stammering, "I'm P-peter... Peter Pettigrew," and then immediately cast his eyes downward.

"S'okay, mate," reassured James, patting Peter's shoulder, "Shan't come between a boy and his gravy. Shan't do it when that boy is Sirius Black. Bad temper that one has, runs in the family, it does."

Sirius blanched, letting out a breath of cool air that tickled the side of his neck, "M'sorry, Peter," he mumbled, sliding the gravy down the table.

He found himself staring at the grey eyed boy again, the exchange between he and Peter seeming so odd. Sirius returned the gaze, smiling softly at him, yet still not speaking a word. There was something in that smile. Something undeniably warm that managed to reach the other boy's cold eyes.

"Hey," said James, jabbing him in the side with a fork, causing his to quickly whip his head around in the opposite direction, "you never told us your name."

There was a brief pause in which nothing was said and then James, "Your name...?" he repeated

And he would have answered more promptly, he was sure, had there not been a hand on his leg.

"Oh. Hm." was the grey eyed boy's response when entering Gryffindor 1st year dorms. Despite how nice the room looked, he half expected the other boy to turn his nose up and make some ostentatious remark, an occurrence he was quickly becoming accustomed to when around the other boy.

The abrupt stop in motion caused both James and Peter to collide into each other with James crashing into Sirius. Sirius blinked, coming out of his daze. He gazed back at Remus. He was currently standing just outside the room holding the door open with a hand. He met the other boy's gaze, dimly aware that he had made a step in his direction. Before he could register what was happening, Sirius grabbed his hand and all but threw him on the bed closest to the wall on the right hand side of the room. He sighed, rearranging himself on the bed and staring at the closed door.

"Alright, mates. I've decided which bed is whose," Sirius claimed, throwing himself on the bed directly besides his and then motioned James towards his assigned bed.

Raising an eyebrow, James looked at Sirius, "Okay, and why?"

"Well, James. Being who I am, a man and all I have to protect those who are weaker than me, so naturally it'd make sense for me to take the bed nearest to the door in case something should happen that would require my immediate care," he said with a straight face.

"...Sirius, I'm up against a wall," huffed James, making an effort not to stare at Peter, who was sitting on the bed directly across from Sirius' and actually closest to the door.

"All comments stand, James. You have knobby knees."

"My knees are not knobby!"

"James! I know how you must feel, but take into consideration how dismayed I am that James Potter, my partner in life, is unfit to slay dragons and trolls and other various creatures of the night with me because he has the physique of a girl."

He watched transfixed as all the bedding on James' bed flew through the air, smothering Sirius in linens. His voice could still faintly be heard declaring his sorrows. He found himself laughing, no longer worried that the other boy thought of him as weak.