Third chapter of Why So Sirius? Hope you guys like this one! This chapter is pretty long, so I apologize for the wait. This one will be in Riley's P.O.V
I do not own Harry Potter or anything in the wizarding world!
I was surprised by Lily's question but I did certainly know one thing; I was in no way ready for everything that was about to come.
As I was lost in thought, I felt the train break, and I heard them screech against the tracks, and she cringed at the sound, but that meant they were close.
"So, anyone care to answer my question?" Asked Lily. James was the first to reply.
"Most certainly, I want to finally be able to use my wand," My wand! I totally forgot about my wand, which I think I got at a store called, "Ollivanders", I thought to myself. What if it won't work? What if I mess up? Or worse, hurt someone? My worry was interrupted by the train coming to a stop. I suddenly got a burst of panic, and excitement all in the same second. My stomach did a back flip when I looked out the train window.
"Riley, come on, grab your things, we're getting off," said Lily. I followed close behind Lily. The three boys were playfully pushing each other, motioning them to get off faster. I was starting to get more and more excited as I took each step. We finally reached the stairs that lead onto the plat form. I stepped off and breathed in the fresh, warm air of wherever we were. It didn't matter to me where we were, because I felt amazing.
"Oi, first years over 'ere, all first years!" called a booming voice from across the platform. Lily tugged at my arm so I obediently followed, clutching my small bag of things in my hand. even when we were weaving through the crowd of people, I still found myself looking around for Sirius, but I quickly scolded myself, and made the thoughts of him retaliate.
We could hear the booming voice getting louder and louder as we snuck our way through the mass of moving bodies. As we finally reached the voice, I was thoroughly mistaken when I thought to look at eye level. I craned my neck as far as I could backwards and saw a tall, burly figure with a wild mane of hair and a large beard standing in front of me. 'Well, more like looming over me', I thought to myself.
"'Ello there! Me name's Rubeus Hagrid, but ye can call me Hagrid!" beamed the large man. I laughed to myself and was quite surprised to find myself quickly standardizing myself to the new changes. I quite enjoyed it really, since I had always been stuck in the same place, never going anywhere except from school and back.
Everyone started to quite down and there were a few other students, other than first years that were left.
"Now, ello everyone! Me name's Hagrid, I'm the gamekeeper of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Since it's your first year, we'll all be takin' the boats across the lake to the school, where ye all will be met by Professor McGonagall. Then ye'll be sorted into yer 'ouses. So let's go. Stay together with a group of four!"
Lily, James, Sirius and I all gathered into the same boat.
"I wonder what types of creepy creatures are down there!" said James in a spooky tone which intended to scare us, but miserably failed, since we all laughed. after a few minutes of silence and water lapping the boats, we made it to the other side. My eyes immediately widened at the sight of the huge castle, which I assumed was the school. Every window was lit up with candles or some other luminous device. The castle was huge, much too huge for me to ever possibly call it a home, but somehow I knew I'd end up finding it more comforting and loving than any other home I could ever own. And thanks to some certain people, I was sure that my time at Hogwarts would not be boring.
We got off the boats and walked up the large stairs until we made it inside of the castle. The smell of food filled my nose and I breathed in deeply, feeling very hungry after. The same lady that gave me my Hogwarts letter and brought me to Kings Crossing, walked out of immensely huge doors.
"Hello everyone. I am Professor McGonagall, I teach transfiguration here at Hogwarts and I hope to see you in my class at home point. This school was designed for all wizards and witches but no nonsense will be tolerated... especially when I am present," she started intently with her shiny eyes, almost as if she was a cat.
"Now," she continued, "there are four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, And Slytherin. You will be placed in your houses accordingly, so let's not dally, shall we?" We all entered through the large doors and many people let out gasps. The ceiling of the large hall had a starry, night sky, with candles suspended in mid air. Four long, wooden tables stretched across the massive room, and were filled with 'round a hundred student or more. Professor McGonagall quipped at us to get into a straight line and to follow her to the front of the room up the center isle. We all tripped and stumbled over ourselves and each other. Since we had all changed into the long dresses that Lily called robes, I was tripping over mine.
We all made it to the front of the hall. Up on a stage like platform, there was a wooden stool and a very old, weathered, pointed hat. Professor McGonagall made her way up the steps and grabbed a scroll that seemed to appear out of thin air. She rolled out the scroll and held it up in front of her with squinted eyes.
"I will go by last name," she said,
"Allison, Lucinda!" she called and a girl who was quite smaller than me climbed the stairs and nervously sat down on the chair. Suddenly, the hat came to life and I jumped back and hit Sirius in the chest.
"Oh, I'm really sorry, I-" I stumbled.
"It's fine, really," he smiled, which showed his straight, white teeth, and I blushed furiously.
The hat that sorted the first years started speaking and I was taken aback in surprise.
"Hmmm, it'll be Hufflepuff for her!" it called and all of the table filled with student in black and yellow robes clapped. The girl got off of the chair with a big smile on her face and joined the Hufflepuff table. I turned to ask Lily what house she thought she'd be in but I saw her talking to that boy named Snape.
"But Lily, you have to be in Slytherin, I won't have anybody without you.." he trailed off.
"Sev, I don't want to leave you either, you're my best friend, but I can't control the Sorting Hat, and we both know that," Lily said with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"You just don't want to be in the same house as me because you want to be with the git James Potter," said Snape with disgust in his voice.
"No! He is rude and arrogant, I could never like that boy," spat Lily with a red hue in her cheeks. I ended up tuning them out to listen to the sorting ceremony again. There had been about 12 students that had been sorted, all of which I didn't know the houses they were sorted into.
"Sirius Black!" called Professor McGonagall. My stomach twisted into a knot. I had no idea why, but I could feel the butterflies moving around.
"Hmmm, a long line of Slytherins in the family, I see... but you wish to be a rebel hmm? I see, I see... maybe...yes, yes, GRYFFINDOR!" cried the Sorting Hat triumphantly. The table with the Gryffindor's went wild. There were applauds, whoops, yells and cries of excitement. Sirius' face returned to its normal colour and he let out a sigh, hoped down from the stool and confidently took even strides over to the Gryffindor table. I couldn't help but grin at him as he moved and sat down, flashing his smile with his effortless good looks.
After the C and D last names had been sorted, it finally came to Lily's turn. Her name was called and she nervously but gracefully walked up to the stool and placed herself on it. Almost as if the hat hadn't even touched her head, it yelled,
"GRYFFINDOR!" and Lily looked elated, but when her eyes met with Snapes, her smile faltered, and then kept her head down as she walked over to the table.
I was too enthralled with my own thoughts to notice that it was already past Remus' sorting, and he had been sorted into Gryffindor, along with a few others. I barely noticed my name when it was called. I started to sweat and get nervous. I slowly walked up the stairs, focusing all my energy on trying not to fall in front of the whole school. Once I made it to the stool, I sat myself down and looked at everyone with their eyes on me. I clamped my hands onto the sides of the chair and held on tightly with my eyes shut. I could feel the hat being placed on my head and it sprang to life.
"Well what do we have here? A smart one, hmm, maybe Ravenclaw, but quite cunning and brave..I detect plenty of loyalty too.. decisions, decisions... well.." pondered the Sorting Hat,
"It'll have to be... GRYFFINDOR!" it cried out. The emotions that I had felt all at once were almost too much to explain. At first I was giddy, then I got butterflies as I saw Sirius laughing and cheering for me. I started to laugh too when I saw the look of excitement on Lily's face as I started to walk over. I got seated next to Lily, and across from Sirius, and he flashed me his winning smile and my heart skipped a beat. After multiple other names had been called, like "Abernathy, Cornelius", "Mary MacDonald", and "Lenty, Pittacus", it was finally James' turn to get sorted. Per usual, he strutted his way up to the chair, and plopped down. Even before the hat had touched his black, messy hair, the hat screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!", just as it had with Lily. He showed off his white, straight teeth with his apparent trademark smile of smugness. He ran off the stage to join this best friend who was in the same house and celebrated. The main course appeared and I ate happily, the food tasting amazing.
"Hi, what's your name?" said James to a shorter, quiet, boy. He looked up from his food and said hello back. I could see in his eyes that he was quite clever.
"I'm Remus Lupin.. half blood.. this is Peter Pettigrew" said Remus who messy clothing, and hair, continuing to talk as he stuffed his face with a chicken leg. The boy next to him had beady, watery grey eyes, a pointed nose that resembled a rat, and short dirty blonde hair. He was very short too.
"Well hello Remus, would you like to be our friend?" said Sirius, smiling. The boy had a sudden brightness in his eyes and smiled, indicating that he would like nothing better.
"See Evans? Now you can't say that I'm not brave, haha!" nagged James as he showed off his Gryffindor emblem on his robes.
"Oh, shut up James," said Lily in an annoyed voice, but I could see a smile playing on her lips, which she was clearly trying to hide.
I was a Gryffindor. I didn't really know what it meant, but I was proud, and I was certainly ready for the next chapter of the rest of my seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.