Marauders' Moments
The compartment of the Hogwarts Express was filled with laughter and packed with First Years trying to stifle their excitement with sweets and jokes. Lucius Malfoy was trying to be the centre of attention but it was hard competing with Sirius Black, who had just as much money in his pockets to buy sweets and thus attention from their newly won friends.
"Did your father buy you the broom he promised you?" Lucius shouted over the noise, smirking.
Sirius was busy jinxing some Every Flavour Beans to jump into people's mouths, much to the delight and wonder of the huddle of boys surrounding him. He froze when he heard Lucius's voice and looked up. "We aren't allowed broomsticks in our first year," he growled, "stupid new rules, that's what you get if you employ someone like Dumbledore, my mother says…"
Lucius grinned. "Ah, what a shame indeed," he said maliciously. Before he knew what was happening, a vomit-flavoured bean zoomed into his mouth, and he finally was the centre of attention, choking and spitting and with a scarlet face, and with all the children around him laughing.
Not quite what he had intended.
"You'll get that back, Sirius!" he hissed once he had stopped choking, but just then the door slit open and the Ravenclaw Prefect, Christine Watson, put her head inside. "We'll arrive in ten minutes, you'd better all change into your robes." She vanished again.
Sirius and Lucius looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
"Mudbloods as Prefects," Sirius muttered as he started to search his robes in his trunk, "I wonder what's next!"
Lucius sneered an agreement and, when Sirius turned his back on him, hexed the lock of his trunk so that it tried to bite him.
As they stood before the doors leading to the Great Hall, none of the students could contain their nervousness any longer. Lucius and Sirius stood side by side and tried to chat easily about last summer's Pureblood Festival, but they failed miserably.
"No need to be nervous," Sirius muttered, "it's just that old hat…"
"Yes," Lucius said, his eyes darting around to observe the others. One girl was chewing her nails, another her pigtails; a pale boy was playing with his wand, which suddenly let go a nervous golden spark that ignited another boy's robes.
"Sorry," the pale boy was visibly flustered and helped putting out the fire.
"Never m-mind." The scorched boy, very small and a bit on the chubby side, had blushed. "I - I'm Peter. P-peter Pettigrew."
"Remus Lupin."
Lucius watched them shake shaking hands and turned back to Sirius. "At least we won't have to live with them," he muttered. "I can't wait to see our common room, Bellatrix has told me all about it -"
"Yes!" Sirius was grateful for a topic to talk about. "All silver and green, and the snakes on the tapestry sometimes even hiss…"
They were interrupted by the ghosts gliding through them and through the closed doors into the Great Hall, and then, before they realized it, the doors swung open and the Sorting began.
'Ashcroft, Henry' was the first to go. Lucius watched him being Sorted into Hufflepuff and chuckled. "Good place for a Mudblood."
"The only place to be." Sirius grinned.
"Azzaz, Zazza!"
A pretty dark-haired girl hurried to the chair, put on the hat and was immediately Sorted into Ravenclaw.
"Black, Sirius!"
"There you go," Lucius muttered and gave Sirius a comforting nudge.
Nevertheless, Sirius felt very self-conscious and insecure as he walked up and sat down. He took a deep breath as the Sorting Hat was lowered on his head.
"Ah," said the Hat, "another Black, now let me just GUESS where you're go-… hm… well. I must say…" The Hat trailed off, muttering to himself. "This is most… I've never… tricky… Ooohoohoo, what a temper, no patience at all, definitely not Ravenclaw, no, and Hufflepuff was never in question anyway, but…"
Time went by. It was agonizing. Sirius sat there and felt more and more sick with each passing moment. This couldn't be possible! He was supposed to be Sorted into Slytherin, like all Blacks!
"Ah, yes, I know, I know, my boy, but I don't Sort by family, you know?" the Hat said into his mind. "And you're a very tricky patient, my lad… such a strong wish to please your family, yes, but there is so much more to you… and I fear that whatever I decide might be the wrong decision… well, we could just say eenie-meenie-… Just joking. No, all things considered, I think it would best be - GRYFFINDOR!"
The Hat was taken off.
Sirius stood up numbly. "What?" he muttered.
There was complete silence in the Hall. Nobody at the Gryffindor table cheered. Everyone was just staring at him, but nobody stared quite as his cousin Bellatrix from the Slytherin table.
"Bones, Rose! Black, sit down with the rest of your house."
Sirius stumbled to the Gryffindors and sat down as far away as possible from everyone else. He was dazed. He didn't hear anything, he didn't see anything, he just sat there at the red and golden table, feeling defeated and wronged and stupid. /This must be a mistake/, he thought frantically. /I SHOULD be in Slytherin!/
He suddenly realized that everybody else was eating already. The Sorting was over. Lucius threw him a shocked look from the Slytherin table, and all Sirius could do was shake his head and shrug and feel even more ashamed than he already did.
At last the feast was over. Sirius hadn't eaten a thing. He walked behind the others without paying attention to what the Prefects were telling them. He knew everything already from various cousins, the moving staircases and the pictures and everything. Judging by the many enraptured and delighted faces, more than half of his new 'friends' had never heard about Hogwarts before. He would study with Mudbloods. His mother wouldn't be happy. No, not at all.
Finally, they were in the Gryffindor common room and the two new Gryffindor girls were guided away by the female Prefect.
"Well," said Myrddin Jones, the other Gryffindor Prefect, "since there are so many Firstie boys this year, you're going to have to split into two dormitories. McMonaghan, Pettigrew, Potter, Smith and Unnings, yours is the first one here, and the other one is for Lupin, Grand, Dixon and…" He threw an uncomfortable glance at Sirius. "And Black. Off you go, boys, and have much fun in Gryffindor."
Sirius sat down on his bed, avoiding the stares. He began to mechanically unpack his trunk. Justin Grand and Mycroft Dixon whispered to each other and finally went outside. Sirius was glad. He knew that they were talking about him.
The pale boy, Lupin, who'd earlier ignited Pettigrew's robes, smiled at him. "Hello."
Sirius glared at him. "What do you want?"
Lupin looked taken aback. "Well, I wanted to say hello, and I just did so, so never mind," he answered irritably.
"Are you pure blood?"
"Are you stupid? What does that matter?"
"Well, you certainly aren't Muggle-born or you wouldn't have set off your wand like that…" Sirius said and grinned.
Lupin just shrugged. "I'll be whatever you want me to be, Black. I just wanted to be nice, but obviously you aren't comfortable with that."
The door suddenly burst open and the five other boys rushed in.
"Isn't this stupid?"
"TWO dorms? Where's the fun?"
"We can sneak in and out of each others' rooms now, though!"
"Still, I never thought -"
"Well, nine people in one room, just think about snoring -"
"Hey, were are the two others?" A skinny boy with black, unruly hair looked at the empty beds.
"They left to talk behind my back," Sirius replied coolly.
"Ah. How clever of them to make sure you don't notice." The boy grinned.
"Yes, very considerate." Sirius couldn't help smiling.
The boy walked up to him, extending a hand. "James Potter."
"Sirius Black," Sirius said, taking the hand.
"You have to be joking!" exclaimed James. "I thought you were in Slytherin!"
Sirius stared at him.
James winked and grinned even broader.
The other boys stared at them.
"Funny," Sirius said at last, "I thought that hair of yours would drain any thought that might develop inside your big head."
James laughed and clapped his shoulder. "You'll be alright here, mate."
Sirius was very aware of the uncomfortable stares of the other boys.
James finally seemed to notice too. "Want to see my cat?" he suggested easily.
"Sure," Sirius muttered and followed James into the other dorm.
"They'll get used to you," James said reassuringly. "They'll have to."
"I just wish I was in Slytherin," Sirius sighed.
James walked to his bed and picked up a lazy, huge, brown-and-white cat sitting on it. "Well, but you aren't."
"No."
James absent-mindedly stroked the purring cat. "Did the Hat say why? It took an awful long time with you."
Sirius hesitated. "It - I think it was about to Sort me into Slytherin right away, then it said something about me being tricky and him making a wrong decision whatever it'd say, and then it said Gryffindor."
James frowned. "That's weird."
"Yes, I guess." Sirius sat down next to James and let the cat sniff at his hand before he began to stroke it. "What… what did it say to you?"
"To me?" James grinned. "It just touched my head and then it already began to chuckle, said 'oh my, oh my, oh my' and then shouted Gryffindor."
Sirius snorted. "Wonder what that's supposed to mean…"
"Ask my parents, I think they have a clue." James laughed. "Hey, if the others are nasty to you, just ignore them."
"Can… do you think… with two rooms…" Sirius stared at the floor.
James looked at him for a long moment. "Yes?"
"The others hate me."
James smiled. "Maybe Unnings would shift beds with you, I think he's friends with that Dixon boy."
"Really?" Sirius asked hopefully.
"Guess we'll have to ask a Prefect, though."
"Yeah."
"We'll do that tomorrow, alright?"
Sirius felt a wave of relief sweep him. "Thanks, James."
"You're welcome, Sssssiriusssss."
Before James knew, his pillow struck his face, his cat fled with panic, and then he was engaged in a wrestle with his newly won friend.
The compartment of the Hogwarts Express was filled with laughter and packed with First Years trying to stifle their excitement with sweets and jokes. Lucius Malfoy was trying to be the centre of attention but it was hard competing with Sirius Black, who had just as much money in his pockets to buy sweets and thus attention from their newly won friends.
"Did your father buy you the broom he promised you?" Lucius shouted over the noise, smirking.
Sirius was busy jinxing some Every Flavour Beans to jump into people's mouths, much to the delight and wonder of the huddle of boys surrounding him. He froze when he heard Lucius's voice and looked up. "We aren't allowed broomsticks in our first year," he growled, "stupid new rules, that's what you get if you employ someone like Dumbledore, my mother says…"
Lucius grinned. "Ah, what a shame indeed," he said maliciously. Before he knew what was happening, a vomit-flavoured bean zoomed into his mouth, and he finally was the centre of attention, choking and spitting and with a scarlet face, and with all the children around him laughing.
Not quite what he had intended.
"You'll get that back, Sirius!" he hissed once he had stopped choking, but just then the door slit open and the Ravenclaw Prefect, Christine Watson, put her head inside. "We'll arrive in ten minutes, you'd better all change into your robes." She vanished again.
Sirius and Lucius looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
"Mudbloods as Prefects," Sirius muttered as he started to search his robes in his trunk, "I wonder what's next!"
Lucius sneered an agreement and, when Sirius turned his back on him, hexed the lock of his trunk so that it tried to bite him.
As they stood before the doors leading to the Great Hall, none of the students could contain their nervousness any longer. Lucius and Sirius stood side by side and tried to chat easily about last summer's Pureblood Festival, but they failed miserably.
"No need to be nervous," Sirius muttered, "it's just that old hat…"
"Yes," Lucius said, his eyes darting around to observe the others. One girl was chewing her nails, another her pigtails; a pale boy was playing with his wand, which suddenly let go a nervous golden spark that ignited another boy's robes.
"Sorry," the pale boy was visibly flustered and helped putting out the fire.
"Never m-mind." The scorched boy, very small and a bit on the chubby side, had blushed. "I - I'm Peter. P-peter Pettigrew."
"Remus Lupin."
Lucius watched them shake shaking hands and turned back to Sirius. "At least we won't have to live with them," he muttered. "I can't wait to see our common room, Bellatrix has told me all about it -"
"Yes!" Sirius was grateful for a topic to talk about. "All silver and green, and the snakes on the tapestry sometimes even hiss…"
They were interrupted by the ghosts gliding through them and through the closed doors into the Great Hall, and then, before they realized it, the doors swung open and the Sorting began.
'Ashcroft, Henry' was the first to go. Lucius watched him being Sorted into Hufflepuff and chuckled. "Good place for a Mudblood."
"The only place to be." Sirius grinned.
"Azzaz, Zazza!"
A pretty dark-haired girl hurried to the chair, put on the hat and was immediately Sorted into Ravenclaw.
"Black, Sirius!"
"There you go," Lucius muttered and gave Sirius a comforting nudge.
Nevertheless, Sirius felt very self-conscious and insecure as he walked up and sat down. He took a deep breath as the Sorting Hat was lowered on his head.
"Ah," said the Hat, "another Black, now let me just GUESS where you're go-… hm… well. I must say…" The Hat trailed off, muttering to himself. "This is most… I've never… tricky… Ooohoohoo, what a temper, no patience at all, definitely not Ravenclaw, no, and Hufflepuff was never in question anyway, but…"
Time went by. It was agonizing. Sirius sat there and felt more and more sick with each passing moment. This couldn't be possible! He was supposed to be Sorted into Slytherin, like all Blacks!
"Ah, yes, I know, I know, my boy, but I don't Sort by family, you know?" the Hat said into his mind. "And you're a very tricky patient, my lad… such a strong wish to please your family, yes, but there is so much more to you… and I fear that whatever I decide might be the wrong decision… well, we could just say eenie-meenie-… Just joking. No, all things considered, I think it would best be - GRYFFINDOR!"
The Hat was taken off.
Sirius stood up numbly. "What?" he muttered.
There was complete silence in the Hall. Nobody at the Gryffindor table cheered. Everyone was just staring at him, but nobody stared quite as his cousin Bellatrix from the Slytherin table.
"Bones, Rose! Black, sit down with the rest of your house."
Sirius stumbled to the Gryffindors and sat down as far away as possible from everyone else. He was dazed. He didn't hear anything, he didn't see anything, he just sat there at the red and golden table, feeling defeated and wronged and stupid. /This must be a mistake/, he thought frantically. /I SHOULD be in Slytherin!/
He suddenly realized that everybody else was eating already. The Sorting was over. Lucius threw him a shocked look from the Slytherin table, and all Sirius could do was shake his head and shrug and feel even more ashamed than he already did.
At last the feast was over. Sirius hadn't eaten a thing. He walked behind the others without paying attention to what the Prefects were telling them. He knew everything already from various cousins, the moving staircases and the pictures and everything. Judging by the many enraptured and delighted faces, more than half of his new 'friends' had never heard about Hogwarts before. He would study with Mudbloods. His mother wouldn't be happy. No, not at all.
Finally, they were in the Gryffindor common room and the two new Gryffindor girls were guided away by the female Prefect.
"Well," said Myrddin Jones, the other Gryffindor Prefect, "since there are so many Firstie boys this year, you're going to have to split into two dormitories. McMonaghan, Pettigrew, Potter, Smith and Unnings, yours is the first one here, and the other one is for Lupin, Grand, Dixon and…" He threw an uncomfortable glance at Sirius. "And Black. Off you go, boys, and have much fun in Gryffindor."
Sirius sat down on his bed, avoiding the stares. He began to mechanically unpack his trunk. Justin Grand and Mycroft Dixon whispered to each other and finally went outside. Sirius was glad. He knew that they were talking about him.
The pale boy, Lupin, who'd earlier ignited Pettigrew's robes, smiled at him. "Hello."
Sirius glared at him. "What do you want?"
Lupin looked taken aback. "Well, I wanted to say hello, and I just did so, so never mind," he answered irritably.
"Are you pure blood?"
"Are you stupid? What does that matter?"
"Well, you certainly aren't Muggle-born or you wouldn't have set off your wand like that…" Sirius said and grinned.
Lupin just shrugged. "I'll be whatever you want me to be, Black. I just wanted to be nice, but obviously you aren't comfortable with that."
The door suddenly burst open and the five other boys rushed in.
"Isn't this stupid?"
"TWO dorms? Where's the fun?"
"We can sneak in and out of each others' rooms now, though!"
"Still, I never thought -"
"Well, nine people in one room, just think about snoring -"
"Hey, were are the two others?" A skinny boy with black, unruly hair looked at the empty beds.
"They left to talk behind my back," Sirius replied coolly.
"Ah. How clever of them to make sure you don't notice." The boy grinned.
"Yes, very considerate." Sirius couldn't help smiling.
The boy walked up to him, extending a hand. "James Potter."
"Sirius Black," Sirius said, taking the hand.
"You have to be joking!" exclaimed James. "I thought you were in Slytherin!"
Sirius stared at him.
James winked and grinned even broader.
The other boys stared at them.
"Funny," Sirius said at last, "I thought that hair of yours would drain any thought that might develop inside your big head."
James laughed and clapped his shoulder. "You'll be alright here, mate."
Sirius was very aware of the uncomfortable stares of the other boys.
James finally seemed to notice too. "Want to see my cat?" he suggested easily.
"Sure," Sirius muttered and followed James into the other dorm.
"They'll get used to you," James said reassuringly. "They'll have to."
"I just wish I was in Slytherin," Sirius sighed.
James walked to his bed and picked up a lazy, huge, brown-and-white cat sitting on it. "Well, but you aren't."
"No."
James absent-mindedly stroked the purring cat. "Did the Hat say why? It took an awful long time with you."
Sirius hesitated. "It - I think it was about to Sort me into Slytherin right away, then it said something about me being tricky and him making a wrong decision whatever it'd say, and then it said Gryffindor."
James frowned. "That's weird."
"Yes, I guess." Sirius sat down next to James and let the cat sniff at his hand before he began to stroke it. "What… what did it say to you?"
"To me?" James grinned. "It just touched my head and then it already began to chuckle, said 'oh my, oh my, oh my' and then shouted Gryffindor."
Sirius snorted. "Wonder what that's supposed to mean…"
"Ask my parents, I think they have a clue." James laughed. "Hey, if the others are nasty to you, just ignore them."
"Can… do you think… with two rooms…" Sirius stared at the floor.
James looked at him for a long moment. "Yes?"
"The others hate me."
James smiled. "Maybe Unnings would shift beds with you, I think he's friends with that Dixon boy."
"Really?" Sirius asked hopefully.
"Guess we'll have to ask a Prefect, though."
"Yeah."
"We'll do that tomorrow, alright?"
Sirius felt a wave of relief sweep him. "Thanks, James."
"You're welcome, Sssssiriusssss."
Before James knew, his pillow struck his face, his cat fled with panic, and then he was engaged in a wrestle with his newly won friend.