Okay just to pre-empt any questions/ criticisms on not writing James a 'proper sorting' I've made the decision to do this chapter this way because I imagine that James would be Sorted into Gryffindor with the same kind speed that Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy were Sorted. I therefore thought it would be more interesting to write this bit from the point of view of the other marauders and get a bit of conversation going.
"Look, James is about to get sorted," said Sirius, as McGonagall called the name "Potter, James" and James approached the stool.
His eyes found Sirius's and just before McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat over his head he offered him a small wink. The hat deliberated only for a second before bellowing "GRYFFINDOR!" and although by this late in the Sorting Ceremony enthusiasm, especially on the part of the older students, was waning, James still managed to drum up a warm round of applause. Sirius whooped and cheered for James just as he had done for him as he hopped up off the stool, handing the sorting Hat back to Professor McGonagall with a flourish and walked happily towards the Gryffindor table, ruffling his hair where the hat flattened it slightly and pushing up his glasses, which had slipped slighty down his nose
"That was quick," remarked Sirius, as James slipped into the space beside him, "It can't have looked that far into your head in that amount of time, it must have barely got through all that hair."
"I know!" said James, "I feel cheated! You three all got to have a right good chat with him by the looks of it. But my hair is very Gryffindor so I guess it didn't really need to look any further."
"James Potter, the only person wizard in Britain to have been Sorted by his hair alone," laughed Sirius.
"That's me," said James, winking again, "so, you made Gryffindor after all... Peter?"
"Yeah," said Peter, "I'm so relieved, I can't wait to tell my mum and dad."
"I can't wait either," said Sirius, "though I imagine I'm excited for very different reasons. It'll piss her off to no end! My mission in life has finally been accomplished!"
"What about you Remus? Happy you're in Gryffindor or are you still in the 'I don't mind' camp?"
"Um... happy I guess," said Remus, deciding to keep to himself how hard he had fought against being Sorted into Gryffindor.
"Are you not disappointed you weren't in Hufflepuff?" asked Peter surprised, remembering they're conversation on the train.
James and Sirius burst out laughing and Remus turned very red.
"Hufflepuff?!" gasped James, "are you serious? You wanted to be in Hufflepuff?!"
"I... yes... sort of... like I said, I didn't really mind, I just... I thought Hufflepuffs were nice... a-and I didn't think I was brave enough for Gryffindor anyway... or smart enough for Ravenclaw... and I definitely didn't want to be in Slytherin."
"I'm sorry Remus," said James, "but that is quite funny."
Remus looked down and started playing with his fork.
"Oh I'm sorry Remus, I didn't mean to laugh. Hufflepuff's can be pretty cool. My cousin's boyfriend's a Hufflepuff and he's got a motorbike... except that's a secret so don't tell anyone, the boyfriend I mean, not the motorbike."
"You can count on us Sirius," said James, "what's a motorbike."
"It's a muggle thing. It's like a bicycle except they use a sort of muggle-magic thing called a nengine to make it go really fast."
"Cool!" said James, "sort of like a broom?"
"Yeah, except it can't fly."
"Oh," said James, "well that's a bit rubbish then."
"No they're great! I thought all muggle stuff was rubbish but Ted let me have a go on his one time when Dromeda took me with her to sneak out and see him and it the best thing ever. I mean, obviously it would be even cooler if it could fly but it makes this really great 'mmrrrrmmm mmmrrrrrmmmmm grrrrrrrrrrrr' noise."
"Are you sure it was a bike Sirius," laughed James "are you sure you weren't riding some sort of animal?"
"Well obviously I can't do the noise exactly," said Sirius, "but it was really cool, and to think that muggles make things like that without magic is incredible. I don't think they can be nearly as stupid as people always say they are!"
"Oi Black," said an older student, twisting in his seat to face the group of first years, "no one wants to hear your muggle-hating rubbish at this table. Bugger off back to where you belong if you're going to be going around spouting stuff about muggles being stupid. Plenty of people here have muggle parents and I'll bet a damned sight cleverer than you you ignorant little..."
"I wasn't saying muggles were stupid!" said Sirius defensively, "I was saying the opposite... I was just saying that I thought it was really clever of them that they could do so much stuff without magic."
"And no one's gonna take being patronised round here either," said the boy, "you're blood status don't count for nothing here Black, no one cares how rich your daddy is it won't stop someone from hexing your hairless balls off."
"He wasn't saying anything bad about muggles!" said James, "Sirius isn't like his family, he's a Gryffindor for starters, and he doesn't think he's any better because he's a 'pureblood' either, right Sirius."
"Right," said Sirius, trying to sound defiant but failing because he was so shocked James had stepped in to defend him.
"And in that respect he's no different from you or me right Longbottom," added James, recognising the boy from the many family gatherings he'd attended and realising that this boy too was a what people called a pureblood.
"Look Potter, I know you're still young so you don't quite know the way the world works yet, so I'm going to give you a bit of advice, don't go getting yourself mixed up with a Black. And that goes for all three of you," said Longbottom, nodding towards Remus and Peter, "you get mixed up with that boy and you're just asking for trouble."
Peter was frowning slightly open mouthed at Longbottom, Sirius's face was tense and unreadable, and James looked as if he was about to start yelling, or worse, physically assault the older boy, regardless of all disadvantages in terms of size and magical ability. Remus looked between the three of them and decided that something needed to be done.
"Um... I'm sorry," he said, "but I don't you're right about Sirius. I told him my mum was a muggle and it didn't bother him at all, right Sirius?"
"Not at all," said Sirius.
"So I'm not going to stay away from him just because his family hate muggles, that's be just as bad as Sirius avoiding me because one of my parents is a muggle. So... yeah..."
Longbottom just looked at Remus for a second, and Remus felt his face grow hot again under his glare but he did his best to look him in the eye.
"Well don't come crying to me when he starts calling you the 'm' word and hexing you for no reasons," he said at last, and with that he turned away and resumed his conversation with his friends, who had all stopped to observe the altercation.
James, who had risen slightly from his chair, sat down again.
"Don't listen to people like that," he said to Sirius, "you're a Gryffindor, you're nothing like the rest of your family, you know that and we know that so who cares about anyone else?"
Sirius turned to Remus.
"You do know I'd never do that right?" he said, his voice for the first time quiet and earnest, "I'd never call you the 'm' word and I'd never hex you because your mum's a muggle. I'd never do that to anyone."
"I know," said Remus.
He didn't just say it to be polite, he said it because, despite how little he knew the boy, he really did believe it. He didn't seem like he hates muggles and muggleborns. Remus couldn't help doubting however, that his accepting attitude would extend as far as werewolves.
Reply to Fanfictionaddict's review:
Yeah, when I see a thorough review I like to answer all the points in the review. Yeah I know that one thing I was guilty of overplaying was Peter's slowness in getting sarcasm and stuff. Again I'm just thinking back to the bit in the flashback in Order of the Phoenix where James, Sirius and Remus are joking about the werewolf question and Peter doesn't seem to get it. When I say 'good at reading people' I mainly meant 'good at sussing out social situations', I think things like getting jokes often is less about being 'people smart' or whatever and more about being witty. I dunno. But yeah, that is one thing I'm going change. I'm going to give Peter a more prominent role in the joking and maraudering.
As the 'record of all known werewolves'. That was something I sort of just wrote and then forgot about. I was looking for things for the teacher to say that would get Remus worried he was going to tell the students about his condition. I based the idea off the Werewolf Registry which is mentioned in a few (of what I count as) canon sources. However after the new pottermore info (or maybe it was there before somewhere and I just missed it) I've realised that the Werewolf Registry was basically a complete flop cause no one signed it, so such a register wouldn't have existed. So that is one of the things I'm going to change this time round.
Finally, I'm really annoying and inconsistent in terms of uploading. I write when I have time and then as soon as the next chapter's ready I upload it. Also I'm going to be starting uni very soon so I'll have less time on my hands, but I do intend to keep updating as often as I can whilst still getting all my work done. So yeah, sorry about that. I upload literally on an 'as and when' basis, so sometimes I might upload two chapters in a day but other times there could be up to a two week gap. Something you could do if you want to keep track of when the fics you like have been updated is make a fanfiction account and then you can follow or favourite stories and I think you can even get email notifications when a fic has been updated (but I'm not sure).
Anyway, thanks for reviewing again. I assure you I am taking everything you've got to say on board (and that goes for all you reviewers- I'm trying to always answer any points raised in reviews from now on, if you've got an account I'll PM you but if not I'll leave you a little (or sometimes not so little) note at the end of the chapter). So yeah, please bear with for a while while I try to adjust a few things in the story. Feedback is valued every step of the way :)