"Black, Sirius"
Sirius slowly made his way up to the stool. He could not see James' reaction, but he sure heard the drawn in breath. Sitting down, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. The hat fell on his head and he couldn't help but flinch.
"Ah, the young Black."
The hats voice filled his ears, but he knew it wasn't moving up top, this conversation was for him and him alone. The hat laughed as it skimme through his thoughts and memories.
"Quite the rebel I see?" Sirius frowned, confused, and the hat gave another short laugh. Then the brim opened and it shouted out one word for all the hall to hear.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The hall was silent. Then, the Gryffindor ghost, Sr Nicolas, started to clap. The older students joined in and soon the Gryffindor table was screaming for him as loud as they had everyone else. Sirius grinned in relief as he took a seat. He glanced round at James to see his friend giving him a thumbs up and the biggest smile Sirius had ever received.
As the rest of the first years where called, the only ones Sirius recognised where the ones from his boat. This was because the first one to join him at the Gryffindor table was Frank Longbottom, who had become so exited he had fallen in the lake, nearly tipping the rest of them in as well. The others included 'Lupin, Remus' who was a small boy with mousy brown hair. He had seemed very shocked to be placed in Gryffindor. Along with 'Pettigrew, Peter' who got almost an even bigger shocked silence than Sirius. This was because he became the first hat staller* for the last 70 or so years. Then, a few after Pettigrew, James joined him at the table. He gave no mention towards Sirius' previous display of distrust and instead focused on talking about the future. That was the momen when Sirius knew he had made a friend for life.
* a hat staller is when someone's sorting takes more than five minutes. This is very rare and there are only a few cases of it happening.