DISCLAIMER: It is with great pain and discomfort that I assure you, once more, that I own none of this, only Kate Whitman, who is cool.
A/N: Thanks for reviewing, guys! LMAONAISE it makes me feel special! And don't worry, Sirius and James will be properly introduced really soon!
Remus didn't know exactly how it happened, but he suddenly found himself standing nervously in a long line of first years. His knees knocked as he stood before the rest of the school, who were already seated at the tables, some impatiently rapping their knuckles on the long wooden benches and others looking almost wistfully at the empty golden platters. Only minutes earlier, Remus had said goodbye to Kate, wished her luck with sorting and the rest of the year, just in case they didn't end up in the same house.
And so Remus found himself wedged between two girls, the one before him was two heads taller than him with curly auburn hair, and the one behind him was also taller than him by a couple of centimetres and had black hair tied in a tight ponytail next to her left ear. He was now watching the sorting hat sing- yes sing, some strange ballad, but was only half-listening as a wave of intense nausea come over him. What if they decide it was all some sort of mistake? Remus thought. After all I am a-
His thoughts were interrupted, however, as the hat stopped singing and McGonagall unfurled a long scroll of parchment.
"Abbot, Ezekiel!" McGonagall barked. A blonde boy with his tie so tight it looked as though he might choke stumbled forward and placed the hat on his head. The hat paused for a second, before shouting,
"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat shouted. Ezekiel padded, blushing, to the table on the far left who had erupted in tumultuous applause.
"Avery, Jonathan!"
"SLYTHERIN!" The table next to the Hufflepuff one broke into applause, and Jonathan strode confidently over to the table.
There were a few more Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, and then "Taylor Bendigo" became the first Ravenclaw. The table to the left of the Slytherins clapped and catcalled as Taylor stalked over to join them. Remus's nerves had settled down a little now, but his feet were beginning to hurt from being stood on for so long in the same position.
"Black, Bellatrix!" The bush-haired girl, Remus noted with glee, actually looked nervous as she jammed the hat on her head. The hat had barely touched her hair before it screamed,
"SLYTHERIN!" Bellatrix replaced the hat on the stool before striding smugly over to the Slytherin table, looking so proud she might burst. Remus noticed that the Slytherin table was now looking intently at the head of the line, where the boy called Sirius, who had spoken earlier in the dungeon was standing.
"Black, Sirius!" McGonagall called sharply. Oh, so they're related, Remus thought. Funny that, I could've sworn they hated each other guts.
Surely enough, as soon as Sirius' name was called, scowls appeared on the faces of several Slytherins seated along the Slytherin table, Bellatrix included. This, however, didn't seem to phase Sirius, who walked casually over to the hat and placed it on his head. When the hat didn't shout a decision after a few minutes, the students began to get restless and whisper amongst themselves. Sirius himself remained on the stool, idly fiddling with something in his cloak pocket, his foot tapping impatiently on the ground. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the rip in the hat's brim opened and the hat screamed,
"GRYFFINDOR!" Remus thought that the house on the far right, the house he had heard so many great things about would be glad to welcome their first new student of the year. Instead, there was only lukewarm, scattered applause, and hissing and booing coming from the Slytherin and Griffyndor tables. At the staff table, the teachers looked dumbstruck and only Dumbledore clapped, his great beard glinting in the candlelight.
After the initial shock of Sirius' sorting had worn out, McGonagall peered down at the parchment again and continued the sorting. Remus tuned out once again and looked around the hall, mesmerised by the ghosts at the back of the hall who were entertaining some students at the Ravenclaw table by flying in and out of suits of armour. Before he knew it, minutes of mindless day dreaming had passed and
"Lackley, Elizabeth!" the girl standing in front of Remus was called to be sorted. Remus felt the butterflies flit around in his stomach as Elizabeth joined the Ravenclaw table. Any second now, any second now.
"Lupin, Remus!" McGonagall called. Remus felt as if he was going to wet himself as his stumbled towards the three legged stool. He picked up the filthy looking hat and placed it gingerly on his head. As soon as he did so, a high-pitched voice that seemed to come from all around him hissed,
"Mmmm, a great mind. Very sharp, very bright. And what's this I see? The want to prove that we're just as normal as everyone else. Yes, very insecure… but ahhhh… brave. My boy, you would do well in Griffyndor. Loyal, too. Right, only one option then. We'll go for…
GRIFFYNDOR!"
Remus stood up from the stool and walked with shaky legs over to the Griffyndor table and plonked down onto the wooden bench next to Sirius Black, who was wearing a very sour expression on his face.
"Are you alright?" Remus asked as "Norbet, William!" became a Ravenclaw. Sirius turned to look at Remus, his hair still covering his left eye.
"Yeah, I'm alright I s'ppose. My family's probably going to disown my because I've 'besmirched the family name' and gotten sorted into a 'mudblood loving' house. But they're all bastards, the lot of them." Sirius said bitterly. "I s'ppose your going to hate me for being sorted into Griffyndor? Lupin's not a pureblood name, and my bloody family are well known for insulting half-bloods."
"Well, I don't see why I would hate you," Remus said with a smile, as "Ophelia, Kalyn" got sorted into Slytherin. "I don't know you after all. Even if your family are horrible, me hating you on principle would be just as bad as you hating me purely for being a half-blood, wouldn't it?"
Sirius grinned. "I can tell that we are gonna be friends," he said.