"Foist Yers! O'er here! Don't go worrin' 'bout yer luggage neither, it'll make 's own way down, it will." Shouted a man who poked his head inside the compartment. No taller than James, his dark hair bristled with grey. A long beard tumbled below his face, looking very peculiar without a matching mustache. His eyes widened and a broad grin took his face when he saw who was inside.
"James! Ready fer that boat ride I promised yah?"
"Boat ride?" Sirius asked quizzically, having never been on a boat before in any weather much less in the storm that howled outside.
"Entirely safe!" The short man roared, seeming very keen. "Now 'urry 'long you two, big class this year."
"That's Ogg, the gamekeeper." James said with a grin. "Let's go!"
Without a backwards glance at the pile of wrappers or the half eaten frog he was leaving behind, James pulled out a school robe and hat from under his seat. Without waiting for Sirius to do the same, James hopped out of the compartment and into the rain. Sirius found himself soaked to the bone the moment he stepped foot into the downpour, chasing after James who was making his way through the sodden crowd.
Standing upright when many bent double, staggering against the wind James was easy to follow despite his small frame. While Sirius could hear James somehow still talking, words were lost over the gale. The path was lit only by flashes of lightning through which he could see a small crowd of people his age being led by an impossibly tall, burly man towards the lake.
"Three to a boat!" boomed the enormous man as the first years fought the gusts of wind to clamber into the boats which seemed to buck forth from the stormy water. James and Sirius were shortly joined by a lanky boy who nearly fell into the water as James struck a pose at the front of the boat, imagining himself some manner of sea captain.
When the last of the first years were crammed into boats and one young witch was fished from the shallow water they set out. Ogg the Gamekeeper led the procession across the lake, boats sometimes hovering in midair as the crested waves only to slam back down into the water. Perhaps they should have felt relieved to see the enormous man who required his own boat following carefully behind but only James seemed without fear.
A flash of lightning struck down on the lake only just in front of them, revealing a monster fresh from a nightmare. A truly enormous tentacled monster writhed in pain from the bolt of lightning. A maroon tendril rose forth from the water and smashed down with a deafening bang as the squid lashed out against the invisible attacker.
From where the tentacle landed, an enormous wave sprung up, higher still than all others that had yet battered their boat. It lifted them high above the water and as they fell breathlessly back down, Sirius saw in horror that the boat now only had two passengers. The pale faced boy who had been unable to introduce himself over the rain, was gone.
Sirius searched frantically in the darkness for a dark robed boy in black water, struck with a terrible sense of dread. Then he saw him, out of the wave one minute, flailing around in his heavy robes and gone again as the next wave washed over them.
A bright red stream of sparks jumped forth before his eyes as James Potter, hair impossibly stuck out at angles even when soaking wet, jumped into the water with his wand raised to the sky. Splashing about with only one free arm, he was dragged into the next wave with the pale faced boy. They both emerged back out, James still firing sparks off into the sky as they clung together in the storm.
Sirius lunged to the side of the boat, throwing out his arm towards the two boys. The boat lurched in the roil, leaving him breathless when the edge collided with his midsection, toppling his school hat into the water. Gasping, he forced his arm out further to James. But it was too late, the boys were ripped even further away by another gale.
Sirius watched in horror as a great arm reached forth from the monster, wrapping the two boys like a great constrictor. The arm snapped tight, dragging its prey deep into the water. Dangling over the edge, Sirius was knocked to the giant puddle that was the bottom of the boat when the tentacle exploded forth from the water. He clenches his eyes tight as the arm came back for more prey.
Only with two gentle thuds and desperate coughing, Sirius opened his eyes to see that the squid had not snatched the waterlogged duo for a snack but rather as their savior. Maybe the Giant Squid was placed in the lake for the benefit of the students or maybe it had realized its tantrum had imperiled them. The boat sped on through the gale and the storm as if never noticing its cargo had left and returned.
Even James no longer seemed excited as the three boys tried to shout hoarsely at each other over the wind and thunder. Between the rain and the water dripping off their robes from the swim, there seemed to be almost as much water inside of their boats as outside it. So terrified of the poor weather, soaked and miserable, that they did not even notice the sight they lay above them until the boat thudded against the wooden dock.
Scrambling over each other out of the boat and in through a massive wooden door that stood open before them, the boys escaped the elements. The crowd of students left puddles of water all throughout the warm chamber they entered into, water pouring out of their shoes and hoods. Nearly half of them had lost their pointed black hats in the confusion and some gibbered excitedly while others seemed quietly stunned by the arduous journey that had preceded their very first day of school.
"Hell were you thinkin'? Jumpin' into the bloody lake!" Blazed Ogg, cutting a way through the crowd to get to the trio.
"Ne'er in all mah years! Students goin' in, yeh. Boats capsizin', once! But jumpin' in, madness Potter, madness!"
James finally looked sheepish. Sirius could never have imagined such a thing. James wore muggle clothing beneath his robes. James would leap into a sea in a storm for a stranger. James seemed knew everyone but the face of fear.
And despite feeling like a wet cat, Sirius knew he had finally seen what he wanted. A life that wasn't thick drapes to keep out the light, that wasn't stuffy fireside chats about the shame of Godric's Hollow being 'integrated' or even stuffy, proper appearances. If this was the brave at heart, Sirius though watching James make excuses for himself to Ogg, then he wanted nothing more than to be there.
After Ogg had finally waved James off, he strode through a small side door, slipping through the students while his enormous associate barred the entrance against the gale.
"Say! Er... just who are you?" James asked, just realizing they had never managed to introduce themselves.
"P-peter Pettigrew," the pale boy said, his pointed face awash with joy.
"Pettigrew? Percy Pettigrew's kid?"
Sirius wondered if James had met everyone by this point. Gregarious, affable and friendly, James seemed to have charmed and shook hands with everyone in the entire wizarding world while Sirius sat in the attic, watching it pass by him. Not for the first time, he slowly felt a little inadequate next to his bold companion.
"Y-yes," He squeaked "the Auror, not the writer. That's my Great Uncle."
The rest of Peter's introduction was cut short when the side door was forced to admit a portly, balding man with a gingery mustache and an impossibly hideous emerald waistcoat. Each button had a different coloured snake, glinting with tiny gemstones for eyes. He stepped gingerly and comically around the puddles before clearing his throat loudly.
"Right! I am Professor Slughorn, the Potions Master and Head of House Slytherin! Oh hello Rosier, yes it's a pleasure to see you," he found himself quickly distracted with introducing himself to a smattering of students he seemed personally acquainted with.
"Each of you shall be sorted into your individual houses here shortly! A lucky few may even qualify for Slytherin. Your house is to be your family, your triumphs and disgraces will reflect upon them and your deeds may so echo for all eternity! Mostly on a placard upon the House Cup, which I am sure you will all strive to earn. Well, on through the door then, line up sharply now! Alphabetically if you can, save us all a spot of bother," he muttered on, waving them through the narrow door.
He seemed far more intent on meeting students he recognized then on keeping them in order. Some he seemed well acquainted with and greeted with personal details such as Bagman and Olivander. Others he seemed to know only by ordaining their family.
"Oh yes, a Black! I did hear you were going to be starting this year, most excellent. I have a fine number of your cousins in my house this year and I simply cannot wait to have you and Regulus round out the collection, eh?
"Uhh, yeah," Sirius said, feeling very awkward as the large man chortled and waved at James.
"You'll have to join my little Slug Club as I call it! No worries, it's just a name! But on you go, not much more important than a Sorting boys."
The entrance to the Great Hall snapped him back to reality in the way only a few thousand floating candles beneath the stormy night sky could. It was magnificent. Hundreds of voices cheering and jeering as the first years lined up before the raised table at the front. Stretched before them were the hundreds of students that would be Sirius Black's life.
The Ravenclaws seemed somewhat dour, he noticed. Quiet and unpresuming they watched with guarded eyes and whispers. The Hufflepuffs however laughed and cheered at everything, red faced and excitedly whispering. The Slytherin table, perhaps it was just his imagination, seemed unwelcoming with their harsh whispers and jeers. It was also filled with the dinner guests from his party, even Andromeda who seemed to be waving.
The severe looking witch who had lectured them as they entered pulled forth a rickety stool and a tattered, moldy looking sort of hat that Sirius could have found a dozen of in his attic. In fact, he believed some great-great-aunt had left just such an outdated hat in the storage closet on the third floor. Just as he watching and wondering what he could possibly need such a tattered hat for when he couldn't stand the new and crisp one he was forced to wear, it burst out into a rather peculiar song about each of the houses that Sirius could barely hear all the way at the back.
The witch who introduced herself as McGonagall called forth the first person on the list, the unfortunately named Bagman, Otto. Watching closely for any help he could get, he watched him sit on the rickety wooden stool and, of all things, place the hat on his own head in lieu of his own school required black hat that he somehow kept through the storm. Then waited for a second, then two, then three.
"Hufflepuff!" Roared the hat at last. The boy scurried off to a table festooned with black and yellow. McGonagall read of the name next on the list - his own.
He made the long way up the line to the spotlight as the enchanted sky above swirled great thunderclouds that flashed lightning and even boomed thunder. He turned to face the crowd on the stool and plopped the hat down over his head. Unnerving as it could be to sit in front of the whole school it was somehow worse when they were all watching him as he was in darkness.
"Oh, a Black," echoed a voice from behind his ear "Never a shortage of you lot is there. Always trying to convince me into dropping them into Slytherin Plenty of cunning in you too, no doubt."
He found himself clenching his hands into fists and desperately thinking It's not what I want!
"Cunning, resourcefulness. I see you've sold out little Regulus before. A Slytherin true and though, eh? What would proud, proud Orion say?"
It's not what I want! Sirius shouted inside his head again. By this time his Sorting seemed to have taken twice as long as it had for the boy before him.
"You want to go elsewhere for the community do you, a Hufflepuff maybe? But then, striking out on your own takes courage young Black. To step away from everything you know for the sake of what you believe in. The courage of a true Gryffindor!"
Hearing the last word roared the room, Sirius whipped off the hat and stared at the faded and torn fabric, shocked to see it actually wink at him. Two of the four tables clapped politely, confused by the extreme length of his sorting. If the Slytherin tabled seemed appalled, it was nothing to the faces the Gryffindors were making. Grabbing but refusing to wear his ugly black hat, Sirius walked down to the table as the first new Gryffindor and stared at the horrified faces of his new House.
Now that his choice was made, he slowly felt the reality slip back down on him. Ravenclaw his parents would have disliked but understood. Hufflepuff would have made him the family disappointment, already considered half a squib. But Gryffindor was a nightmare, the cold shiver down his spine was likely his parents already blasting him off the family tree. He would have to change his name, perhaps leave the school and become a traveling warlock. He was certain he could get a few galleons for his broom, maybe learn magic on the run.
When he tried to shift to the side to let the red haired girl from earlier take a seat, she promptly turned her back to him and crossed her arms. Sirius got the feeling he was going to be getting a lot of cold shoulders and should probably get used to the treatment. He ran to escape a table full of hidden hostility for a better unknown and somehow wound up at a table of open hostility. Between his parents, Slytherin cousins and house mates, he suspected he'd be lucky to make it to Christmas.
The boy with mousy brown hair made it to Gryffindor but sat away from him, near a boy with light brown hair who was steadfastly ignoring him. Potter made it in shortly after, ruffling his dark black hair and winking everywhere, to the disgust of the red haired girl. Sirius barely noticed, staring at the wooden table and doubting the courage that got him into all this trouble.
Peter Pettigrew soon wandered over to the table but Sirius barely noticed, running his troubles through his mind. James actually sat next to him and thumped him on the back before immediately turning to a crowd of familiar faces. He looked up and noticed that Severus Snapes friend hadn't made it to Slytherin either, instead sitting across from him.
After the sorting finished, a man from the head table rose who could only be Albus Dumbledore. Festooned in bright mauve robes depicting lime green showering stars he made an impressive sight with his long beard, auburn and streaked with white, if not a particularly colour coordinated one. He waved a hand and the room fell to quiet.
"Welcome to our new arrivals! I'm sure you'll give us many more pleasant surprises such as we've already seen. Welcome back to returning students! Your professors will be delighted to once more guide you through the murky waters of education. On this very topic, please say hello to our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, the Honourable Sir Roland Cauterwaul de Bayard!"
The students clapped appreciatively as tall, elegant looking man with a thin, drooping mustache rose and bowed deeply. He wore elegant silks of pastel colouration and plumed cap, the feather of which had dripped into his chalice, flicking drops of elfwine when he straightened. His long, black hair was curled into long ringlets which gleamed in the candlelight.
"Now, I have decided to forgo the Hogwarts song this year in favour of getting directly to eating, I'm told there's treacle!" With a clap of his hands, the tables creaked under the weight of the immense amount of food now filling the golden platters on each table, which Professor Dumbledore wasted no time in eating from directly.
Sirius took the more sophisticated approach of putting the food on his plate first as James imitated Dumbledore and proceeded to pick right at the platter. For some, it was a welcome meal after a long day of travel. For others, a final course after a long day of trolley sweets. For Sirius, it felt like a last meal.
"I can't believe you're eating like that! Have the decency and respect to put it on your place first," the red haired girl shouted at James.
"'Ook, i' all goe' 'he same place"
"You're disgusting," she said, turning her head away, revolted.
"Surprising to see you here. I'm Gideon Prewett, half a prefect," an older boy introduced himself from down the table.
"Half a prefect? How can you be half?" James asked, not bothering to look up from his meal.
"Because, young Potter, I'm the other half," said a stern voice from the other side of Gideon. "Twins you see. I'm Fabian, Dumbledore couldn't give it to just one of us so he split it. So now you lucky rotters get 3 Gryffindor Prefects this year."
"Wouldn't that be one and two halves?" The boy next to Peter chipped in.
"Same difference, you're Remus Lupin aren't you? McGonagall wanted a word with you after the Feast."
"'Ow you in 'rouble a'ready 'oopin?"
"My mother is very ill and was undergoing treatment today, I'm sure the Professor wishes to discuss the matter with me in privacy."
"You sure like your big words don't you?" James asked with a grin before finally shoveling food onto his plate instead of his mouth.
"No you great berk, it's just that if brains were money you'd not have a pair of knuts to rub together," Lily opined.
"Oi! Prefects?"
"I didn't hear anything wrong with that, what about you, Gideon?"
"Not a word out of line Fabian, not a word."
James grumbled and continued to spoon food from the platter up until the moment it disappeared as the feast ended. Dumbledore stood up once more to round out the feast.
"As a few cursory notes go for the start of the term, no magic is to be performed in the corridors between classes. After a troublesome incident involving an aged tome, a hinkypunk and the Giant Squid library books are no longer to be removed from inside the castle except when transported directly to classes. Additionally the Forbidden Forest remains strictly Forbidden. All students are advised to avoid both the forest and the rather untimely death that it may bring. Trot on then!"
The crowd of Gryffindors followed Gideon and Fabian, through the enormous doorway flanked by oaken doors and up the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall with Sirius lagging at the end, staring at his feet. Down corridors and through tapestries and over trick flagstones, disappearing stairs and around a suit of armour that appeared to be out for a walk. Once they even had to walk through a row of ghosts, bathing them in a feel of ice as the muggleborns gasped and pointed.
It was one such suit of armour that swung its enormous claymore, the gleaming edge of the blade seeming razor sharp a scant few centimeters from Sirius' nose. Over the blade he watched his fellow Gryffindors march on, chatting merrily and pointing out tapestries before a tall wizard whose blonde hair was nearly as long as Sirius' own stepped out from behind the armour.
"What a perfectly entertaining letter I will have to write to my father," the older boy said with a smile.
"Evening Lucius, are you coming up to join Gryffindor too?" He asked, with significantly more glib than he felt, as the last Gryffindor student turned into what appeared to be a solid stretch of stone up ahead.
"Oh not at all, not at all," Lucius spoke, slowly and softly as he started to walk around Sirius. "As Slytherin Prefect, I'm ensuring no rules are being broken. Like being outside of dormitories after hours. Two Points from Gryffindor"
Sirius felt his stomach drop. He knew he was going to catch all kinds of hate from his extensive Slytherin family but he had never imagined that they would go after him like this. He had seen the wary looks the Gryffindors were giving him already and was sure things would get far worse when they noticed he was costing them points.
"I guess it's not entirely surprise you'd not qualify for Slytherin. It's hard to be ambitious or cunning when you're a hop skip away from, well, being a squib."
Lucius raised his wand up towards Sirius, aiming it directly at his face as he grinned.
"Perhaps the words 'Blood Traitor' might do you some good. Teach you a little something about loyalty. Would you rather it in pimples or cuts?"
A piercing shriek rang out, forcing Lucius to stash his wand and glance about guiltily, thinking he'd been spotted. But rather the shrieker was nowhere to be seen. Sirius ran to a nearby window and peered out to see if the voice had come from out on the yard but quickly decided that nobody would have sounded so loud from the ground all the way up on a sixth floor corridor.
"Well," Lucius started to say before, with a bang, Gideon the Prefect dropped from the ceiling, landing on Lucius shoulders. Jumping to his feet, he glanced around before his eyes settled on Sirius.
"You got a right set of pipes on you Itty Bitty Black. Now don't tell me our dear, beloved cousin Lucius had you screaming like that?"
"I've not touched a hair upon him!" Refuted Lucius, going quite pink in anger. "And you ought to look before you leap."
"Get off it, Malfoy. Prefects can't deduct points from other prefects so take it to someone who cares. Let's go Shrieker, try not to get lost again or you might end up having more family reunions," Gideon said, picking out the last two words with much tact.
With that, he grabbed Sirius shoulder and propelled him forward, snorting at his assertions that Sirius had in fact, not been the one who had been screaming. When they eventually reached the top of the Gryffindor Tower to an enormous portrait of a portly woman.
"Already out after hours? You had better not cost us our winning streak at the house cup," chided the Fat Lady.
"The password is Consillio et Animis," spoke the Prefect and the portrait hole swung open with a huff.
The room into which Sirius stepped seemed stuck somewhere between a rustic hunting lodge and an enormous balcony. Some sort of powerful magic must have held the rain and wind at bay, for though he was looking out at the storm and over the Hogwarts grounds the air was still and dry. Even from a distance, the view was clearly a commanding presence over the school, facing towards a dim series of lights that he imagined must have been Hogsmeade.
The room was stuffed with large chesterfields, comfy looking chairs, an odd series of hammocks and even some long tables at which one could work at. In the center of it all was an enormous open air fireplace. Above it on the ceiling sat the fixture of roaring lion's head, facing towards the smoldering embers as if belching them out when in fact it seemed to be functioning as something of a chimney.
"Is the wall, like the ceiling in the Great Hall?"
"Not like the Great Hall," said Gideon with a laugh. "Trust me, Fabian chucked one of my wizard chess pieces over the ledge last year after a particularly close match. Never did find it and the substitute pawn has never fought with quite the same vigor. Seems whatever magic it has only keeps things out, not in."
At Gideon's direction, Sirius made his way up one of the two spiral staircases set in the back, winding all the way nearly to the top before finding a door that had his name engraved onto a plaque along with three others, he made his way in quietly, found the only empty bed and fell asleep immediately, still wearing his damp school robes.
Authors note _
So there you have it, things are starting to pick up! I'm wondering if it was a poor choice to leave the first and second chapters as two separate ones instead of a larger combined one. For those curious, Sirius Black is intended to slowly develop into the person he is shown to be in the main series, character development of a sort.
Despite the relative shortage of names given in this chapter, especially with the sorting, I'm planning out about one hundred students for Sirius' year, 25 or so per house. I'm in the midst of fleshing them out while still fitting in with the universe canon though obvious not all of them will get much time in the limelight.
As with the main series, there will be a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for every year. Not all of them will be wholly crucial to the story though they will all be detailed. And right now I'm aiming for a chapter a week, though I will need to slow down after the first year is done to flesh out my outline for year two in greater detail.
Questions, Comments, Concerns?