Author's Note:
Reviews and Comments: To darkhk: Yes, it really is lol. Thank you! To alix33: Thank you! To scrappy8: Thank you! To ellyann13: Thank you! Yes, we see the beginning of Sirius' love of Muggle music and the beginning of the Marauder friendship as well as Jily. To Sara: Thank you! Yes, Sirius and James definitely bonded instantly! To A Huge Fan: Thank you very much for saying it's wholesome and sweet! I'm so glad you're enjoying them! To EnigmaticEmperor: Yes, a bit of a James streak did happen. Sirius is very observant, I think he has to be because of the environment he came from. Yes, Sirius and James became instant friends while Remus met Peter. Thank you! To Fanfictionlover: Thank you for saying you know this will be as good as ASC (I don't know about that but I will certainly try). I am looking forward to sharing some of the Jily moments along with her friendship with Sirius and Snape. Thank you! To ascfan: James would definitely have loved having a sibling! Thank you for saying you're loving my little Marauders!
To Griffind00r: Thank you! I love James introducing Sirius to the Beatles as well and showing how much music came to mean to Sirius. It really does show the influence James had on him from the beginning. Thank you! To MinervaMcGee: Thank you! I love their banter as well! To CorbanD17: Thank you! Still a bit away from the lake incident, but we'll see more of Lily/Snape's friendship in the future. To PurpleLotus: Thank you! To Jily6514: Only other Jily story I have is "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" which I wrote eight or nine years ago and I don't consider my best lol. Though I did take a few ideas/thoughts from there and turn them into ASC. Thank you very much!
My posting schedule: Weekly.
Thanks to Dusk for her amazing editing skills.
As always, thank you very much for reading and please, please review!
Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you for all of your continued support!
CHAPTER NINE:
The One With the Sorting
1st September 1971…
As the train slowed and they arrived at the Hogsmeade station, Sirius followed the girl, Lily, and her friend with the greasy hair off of the train. They approached the rowboats provided by the huge hairy man with the booming voice. He was pretty sure that he had said his name was Hagrid and he had immediately brought a smile to Sirius' face. He found himself in a boat with three girls that he didn't recognize, having lost sight of James amongst the commotion of disembarking, but he soon learned that the girls were called Mary, Dory, and Hestia. Then they were moving towards the castle propelled by magic across the glistening Black Lake.
He followed them into the Great Hall, looking around eagerly. His eyes stopped as they fell upon a tall slender woman with dark brown hair pulled tight in a bun, square glasses on the end of her nose. She wore a dark green velvet dress buttoned at the neck and a black cloak. She was staring down at all of them rather sternly, but he caught the sparkle in her eye that immediately made him smile. To his surprise, she smiled back at him before resuming her stern face as she looked at the upcoming students.
"Good evening. I am Professor McGonagall. I am Head of Gryffindor House, Deputy Headmistress as well as the Transfiguration teacher. I welcome you all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I hope to see some of you in my own house and I look forward to being your teacher. You will soon follow me into the Great Hall where you will be sorted into your houses. Each house has its own unique history and background where you will discover new friends and a wonderful sense of House Pride. The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Please note that you can earn your house points based on good behaviour and your studies or for any reason a teacher deems appropriate. Any rule breaking will result in a loss of points. At the end of the term, the house with the most points will be awarded the House Cup in a grand feast and celebration." Her eyes moved over the nervous fidgeting of the students before her gaze landed on Sirius again.
He simply grinned at her. There was something about her that made him smile. He had a feeling that she wasn't quite as stern as she was letting on, yet he had a strong sense that she wasn't one to be trifled with either.
"Now follow me," she announced before leading the students into the Great Hall.
Sirius' eyes widened as they stepped into the magnificent hall. The ceiling had been enchanted to look like the night sky outside and was covered in floating candles. There were four very long tables across the hall, full of students, and one large table across the front of the hall full of the professors. They walked up the middle of the hall, stopping in a crowd around Professor McGonagall where a dirty old hat sat on a stool.
To his surprise, it began to sing. As he listened to it outline the qualities of the four houses his mind immediately went to Slytherin once more. Was it really where he wanted to be?
Slytherin: The house for the cunning, the house of the purebloods, the house that held his entire family. Slytherin: Where you could use your intelligence to step up in the world. It wasn't a bad house, but was he cunning enough?
He didn't think so.
Ravenclaw: Where wit and intelligence were prized. They loved to learn, to answer riddles, and to philosophize life. Was that him?
He wasn't sure.
Gryffindor: For the brave and courageous; those who were chivalrous to others.
He definitely wasn't very brave, he thought.
Hufflepuff: For the hard workers. The ones dedicated to fairness, acceptance, and loyalty. That one sounded nice.
But since he had never seen fairness in his life that might not be the house for him either.
Sirius stared at the hat and swallowed.
Slytherin was his family house. The house that everyone expected him to be placed in; to succeed in. But he knew that it wasn't the place for him. In fact, not one of the four houses that the hat had sung about sounded like a place where he could belong. His eyes found James who was pointing to the hat in excitement. Was James' father right? Would the hat really take his thoughts into account? He looked up at Professor McGonagall again, not listening to her words. Having her as head of his house would be kind of nice, wouldn't it?
But everyone in the Black family went to Slytherin.
His palms began to sweat and he placed them in his pockets as he worried his bottom lip. Professor McGonagall unrolled the parchment in her hands and began to read names aloud:
"Anderson, Sarah!"
A small girl with curly brown hair hopped up onto the stool. The hat was placed on her head and there was silence in the hall and then —
"Ravenclaw!"
"Avery, Lionel!"
"Slytherin!"
"Black, Sirius!"
Sirius stepped forward, his eyes on his feet as he moved towards the stool. His palms were sweating profusely and he closed his eyes as the hat fell over them. He jumped when the hat spoke in his ear.
"Hmm, difficult. You want to prove yourself, but you don't want to be like the rest of your family. Lots of wit here, intelligence to be sure, loyalty... but where to put you?"
Not Slytherin, Sirius thought, I don't want to be like my family.
"Slytherin is not the house for you, of this I am sure, but with your courage, better be — GRYFFINDOR!"
The last word was yelled out to the whole hall and Sirius couldn't stop the huge grin from plastering across his face as he made to take his seat. He was slapped on the back by a few Gryffindor students as he took his seat at the table feeling immensely relieved and terrified at the same time. His parents were not going to be pleased that he had chosen a different house than Slytherin. His eyes met James' who was grinning widely at him and giving him two thumbs up.
He listened to the names of the other students with half an ear: Brown, Burbage, Campbell, Carrow and Carrow, Casey, Chang, Davies, Diggory… and then he perked up when he heard, Evans, Lily. He watched the sweet little redhead from the train take her seat up on the stool nervously and the hat fell over her face. It took less than five seconds for the hat to call out Gryffindor and she hurried forward to sit next to him.
"Hi, looks like we're to be housemates!" she exclaimed, grinning widely at him.
He grinned back, a huge smile on his face. "It looks like. Your friend Snivellus will be disappointed."
Lily's smile faded. "It's Severus. No need to be so rude," she said, turning away from him.
He shrugged and turned back to the hat as more names were called: Fawley, Fields, Flint, Fortescue, Gudgeon, Jones, then Kane, Deanna was also made a Gryffindor. She sat down across from Sirius with a big grin on her face.
"Gryffindors, eh? Fantastic!"
Sirius grinned and turned back to the hat as McGonagall called out Kendrick, Lestrange, Li, and then Lupin, Remus was the next Gryffindor chosen.
Sirius watched the boy with the crescent shaped scar over his eyebrow head over to the cheering Gryffindor table. He took a seat next to Lily and smiled. He had dark golden brown hair and golden brown eyes.
Sirius smiled at him. "Hi! I'm Sirius, this is Lily."
"Remus," he said smiling kindly. "Nice to meet you. That was more nerve wracking than I expected."
Sirius nodded in understanding, turning his attention back. His eyes were on James who was still practically bouncing on his feet. He wondered if the energetic boy ever stood still. He hoped that he was in Gryffindor. He had never met anyone so full of life and energy as the scrawny boy or more determined to be sorted into the house.
Professor McGonagall continued to call out names: Mason and then McDonald, Mary and McKinnon, Marlene and Meadows, Dorcas were all made Gryffindors as Sirius moved down the bench to make room for the three new girls. Monroe went to Hufflepuff then Nott went to Slytherin, and then Parkinson before Pettigrew, Peter became the seventh Gryffindor chosen. Sirius cheered as Peter took his seat with them and then Potter, James was called forth.
"Gryffindor!" The hat called out and Sirius found himself clapping the loudest, grinning widely as James took his seat with them.
"You were right, mate!"
James grinned widely. "I told you it was my house!"
The names continued with the Ps, putting two twin boys named Prewitt into Ravenclaw before Rosier, Rowle, Sampson, and Scamander were sorted. Shacklebolt, Kingsley was also made a Gryffindor; Shafiq, and then Snape, Severus.
Sirius watched as Lily stood up on the bench to watch her friend try the hat on.
"Slytherin!"
Lily sat down, her eyes sad. "We've been separated into different houses!"
Sirius put his arm around her in reassurance. She looked absolutely crushed. "It's okay, Lily. It doesn't mean you'll never see him. We'll still have classes together and whatnot. I'm sure you guys will still be friends."
She nodded, stealing a glance at Snape who wasn't even looking in her direction.
Now that all of the people were sorted, his stomach was starting to grumble and he wondered how much longer the food would be. He listened with half an ear as Spinnet, Vance, Wilkes, and then finally Zabini and Zusack were sorted.
Then the man at the front of the Great Hall in dark pink robes with purple moons on them stood up. His long white beard was tucked into his belt as he smiled at the room.
"Good evening to all. For those new students, I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of this school. I welcome you all to a wonderful year where I'm sure we will have much fun and learn a lot. I have a few important announcements to make. Quidditch tryouts for the house teams will be two weeks from today. There will be notices in your house common rooms. Only second years and above are eligible to play on the school teams. There is to be no magic used in the corridors. And the Forbidden Forest is of course, forbidden. New this year, Hagrid has planted a large tree out in the grounds called the Whomping Willow. I advise caution to all students approaching it as it is very solitary and doesn't like anyone to be near it. The tree will strike out if you approach it. Now, tuck in."
He raised his hands and food immediately appeared on all of the tables.
Sirius watched as Lily's eyes widened in wonder.
"Wow!"
He laughed and helped himself to some food. He couldn't stop smiling.
End Author's Notes:
Here is the Students from the Marauder generation. Last names present are from JKR's list and a few original characters who come up later in ASC.
Gryffindor:
Sirius Black
Remus Lupin
Peter Pettigrew
James Potter
Kingsley Shacklebolt
Lily Evans
Hestia Jones
Deanna Kane (original character)
Mary McDonald
Marlene McKinnon
Dorcas Meadows
Ravenclaw:
Robert Brown (first name by me)
David Casey (original character)
Bertrand Davies (first name by me)
Simon Fawley (first name by me)
Gideon Prewitt
Fabian Prewitt
Henry Wilkes (first name by me)
Sarah Anderson (first name by me)
Marsali Campbell (first name by me)
Katerina Kendrick (first name by me)
Ji Li (first name by me)
Emmeline Vance
Hufflepuff:
Christian Burbage (first name by me)
Hu Chang (first name by me)
Amos Diggory
Florean Fortescue
Nathaniel Monroe (first name by me)
Thomas Scamander (first name by me)
Jonathan Zusack (first name by me)
Calypso Fields (original character)
Grace Gudgeon (first name by me)
Alice Mason
Delta Sahni (original character)
Erin Spinnet (first name by me)
Slytherin:
Lionel Avery (first name by me)
Amycus Carrow
Magnus Flint (first name by me)
Rabastan Lestrange
Theolonius Nott (first name by me)
Cornelius Parkinson (first name by me)
Evan Rosier
Adam Rowle (first name by me)
Christopher Sampson (first name by me)
Zain Shafiq (first name by me)
Severus Snape
Giovanni Zabini (first name by me)
Alecto Carrow
Caroline Collins (original character)
Athena Cross (original character)
Thanks for reading and please review!