Sitting at the Gryffindor table, Remus Lupin was doing his best to read his Transfiguration textbook before class the next day. It wasn't easy when he was sitting beside two lunatics throwing leftover Chocolate Frogs at each other, but he intended to persevere.

"Oi, you berk, watch the hair!" Sirius said to James, dodging the chocolatey missile. He lost his balance and knocked into Remus, who dropped his book into the treacle tart he had saved from the trolley. Remus heaved a long-suffering sigh, grabbed his book out of the treacle tart, cleaned it with a muttered spell, and put it back in his bag. You could only persevere so much before giving up, after all.

"Sorry, Moony." Sirius said apologetically. Remus shrugged.

"If I don't know the information by now, I'll never know it. I've finished all my summer homework, so I guess I'm ready for class."

"We had summer homework?" James asked, looking horrified.

Remus glared at him. "Yes, and it counts for ten percent of our grade, so you'd better have done it!"

"Relax, Moony. Prongs is just teasing you. We used the mirrors and worked on it together." Sirius said, smirking. Considering that the two-way mirrors had been his idea in the first place, he thought that he was entirely justified in taking the credit.

Remus shook his head. His best friends would be the death of him someday.

James looked at the Head Table, and nudged Sirius.

"Look at Professor McGonagall. She looks like she's going to cough up a hairball." he whispered, trying to avoid her overhearing him. She had cat ears, after all. Sirius looked up and raised his eyebrows.

"Think it has something to do with the way Slytherin House is acting?" Sirius whispered back. James glanced over at them. The Slytherins seemed to know something, constantly whispering to one another and smirking at the other houses. Then again, they usually looked like that, so it was kind of hard to tell.

"Tell Remus to look at them. Let's see what he thinks." James decided. Sirius nodded, poking Remus in the ribs.

Just as Remus opened his mouth to ask Sirius what he wanted, the doors to the Great Hall opened. The First Years all stood in a line, looking like they were going to pass out. Behind them were Abraxas Malfoy and Orion Black, the two leaders of the Board of Directors.

"We'll talk later." James whispered, knowing that Remus would never talk during the Sorting. Remus nodded, turning to watch the first child walk to the Hat.

James and Sirius amused themselves by casting Tripping Jinxes and Sneezing Hexes on the First Years as they walked to the Sorting Hat. Remus shook his head in weary amusement, wondering if he could get away with reading his book under the table. This was the longest Sorting he had ever sat through, and he was starting to get bored.

The Sorting eventually ended, and Mr. Malfoy took the platform to give a speech.

"Students, for many years we have encouraged the four houses of Hogwarts to be rivals. You challenge one another for points, for grades, and for the Quidditch cup. This is to teach the benefits of competition. However, it appears now that it may have gone too far. That is why, starting this year, all Seventh Year students will be resorted. This will give you the opportunity to make new friends, and to experience new viewpoints in life."

For the first time in history, every student in Hogwarts was silent for about thirty seconds. Then the whispers started.

"Is this even legal?" James hissed at his friends, who were horror-struck. "Shouldn't we have known about this before they decided?"

"I'm going to kill them." Sirius muttered, glaring at the Slytherins. Several of them were looking at the Marauders, laughing at them for being out of the loop.

"So, when Professor McGonagall calls your name, please come up to be resorted." Mr. Malfoy finished, sitting back down.

"Black, Andromeda."

The rather dainty girl got up gracefully from the Ravenclaw table, almost dancing to the stool.

"Ravenclaw!" the hat cried. Sirius smiled, nodding his head to her as she reclaimed her spot.

"She's the best of the family." he told his friends.

"Black, Bellatrix." Professor McGonagall said, frowning slightly. The black haired girl strode up to the Sorting Hat and sat down on the stool.

"Slytherin!" the hat yelled almost immediately.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'd have been worried if she'd been anywhere else. She's a sadistic bint."

"Isn't she the one Lily transfigured into an onion?" Remus asked.

"Yeah. I still have the pictures from that. It was absolutely hilarious." Sirius whispered back, grinning at the memories.

"Black, Narcissa."

"How many more of your cousins are there?" James asked Sirius.

"I'm the last one with the name Black, and I'm going next." he replied, watching Narcissa walk back to Slytherin, nose in the air.

"Black, Sirius." McGonagall called out. He stood up, glanced at his friends, and walked confidently to the stool. No one but his friends could see the fear in his eyes.

"Hmm. Sirius Black. Yes, I remember. Brave, not afraid to stand up for your beliefs, courageous. But now I see something else in your mind as well. You will destroy anyone who dares harm someone you love. You have become more cunning as well, planning your pranks and mischievous tricks. I had offered Slytherin to you in your first year, but you chose against it. I think I would like to see what you will become there."

"Please, don't put me there. I don't care where I go, just not there." Sirius thought to the hat, shaking his head slightly.

"I can't take your opinion into consideration this time, Mr. Black. Hogwarts herself told me to sort based on what was in the student's heart and mind. You will do well in SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted the last word.

Everyone gasped in shock, turning to one another to whisper about this turn of events. If someone who was as perfectly Gryffindor as Sirius Black ended up into Slytherin, who knows what else could happen.

Sirius walked to the Slytherin table, feeling as if there was ice replacing the blood in his veins. All the Slytherins stared at him in surprise as he sat at the end of their table, not even remembering to sneer. His father, watching from the Head Table, exchanged a look with Abraxas. It seemed that many things would be changing this year. They both smiled slightly.

Albus Dumbledore, on the other hand, looked as if he was choking on one of his lemon drops.

Sirius zoned out for some of the sorting, only glancing up when Lily Evans was sorted into Slytherin. She sat across from him. She would be the first muggleborn girl in the house's history, and the others at the table were already glaring at her. Sirius nodded to her, and she smiled slightly back. She was so pale with nerves that it made her red hair look like flames.

"Don't worry, Gryffindors stick together." she whispered to him across the table. He grinned, feeling a little better.

Severus Snape was trying to catch Lily's eye, but she ignored him, preferring to whisper with Sirius about where their friends were going. The Mudblood comment he had made almost two years ago still stung, and she wasn't sure she could talk to him now without feeling that pain.

"Lupin, Remus." Both their heads turned to watch as their friend walked up to the hat, hands fisted by his sides.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted. Everyone's eyes widened even further. Two of the famous Marauders, Slytherin's most hated enemies, had ended up in that house.

Remus took the seat beside Lily, who automatically shifted over to make room. The former Gryffindors were hanging onto the very edge of Slytherin table, distancing themselves as much as they could from the rest of the house.

"I'd hoped for Ravenclaw." Remus whispered to both of them. Lily nodded in agreement.

"The Hat's not listening to us this time." she whispered. Sirius grimaced.

"Tell me about it." he muttered. "He said that Hogwarts herself had told him what to do."

"Normally, Hogwarts doesn't bother speaking to the Hat or individual students; she relies on the Headmaster or Headmistress to follow her will - or to face the consequences." Lily said, with Remus nodding.

"How do you two know that?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"It was mentioned a few times in Hogwarts: A History - Extended Edition." Remus answered, smiling as Sirius rolled his eyes at the mention of Remus' favorite book.

"Pettigrew, Peter." Remus and Sirius looked at one another and mouthed HUFFLEPUFF along with the hat. They clapped for him as he took his new seat, and he waved at them.

"Potter, James." Remus and Sirius exchanged a long look, and then Sirius slid over to make an empty space at the end of the bench.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat called out once again. By now, the Slytherins looked like Professor McGonagall was doing the cha-cha naked on Hufflepuff's table. They looked at the Marauders' corner of their table, horror and disgust on their normally expressionless faces.

James took his seat, cursing under his breath. Remus patted his hand under the table, and Sirius nudged his leg in a silent show of support.

"Since we're stuck in the same situation, would you mind if I called you James? It would be best to make it seem like we're united so that the Slytherins won't try to attack us." Lily asked him quietly.

"Not at all, Ev- I mean Lily." he said, smiling wanly.

"That's a good idea." Remus said. "The Slytherins will use any excuse to destroy us, but we mustn't make it easy for them."

Once the sorting was finally complete, the food appeared. Normally they would dig in like wild animals, but this time they could barely stomach a few bites. Everyone in the Great Hall seemed to have the same problem. The new First Years were the only ones who seemed content.

The Slytherin prefects stood up after the meal, and the ex-Gryffindors got up with the First Years and the other new Slytherins to follow them to their new house.

Remus glanced at their former table, which now had three Slytherins, five Hufflepuffs, and two Ravenclaws sitting with them. The original Gryffindors were looking around at where their friends had scattered, and when they met his eyes, they looked at him with pity.

He sighed, following the prefects.

When they got to the Slytherin common room, the prefects stopped at the large staircases at the back of the room.

"Girls on the left, guys on the right. If you need anything, deal with it yourself." one of them said, glaring at all of them.

Lily nodded, giving Remus a quick hug and walking quickly up the stairs, along with the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff girls. James, Sirius, and the Ravenclaw boys went up their stairs immediately, while Remus watched to make sure the girls were all right, because he didn't trust the prefects not to curse them while their backs were turned. Then he followed the boys to their new dorms.

It was okay, if you liked green and silver, but after so many years of the blinding red and gold, none of them could get used to it. They all tossed and turned for hours, until finally they fell into a restless sleep.