Remus, Sirius, and Lily jumped out of their compartment after everyone else had. They had quickly changed into their school uniforms, and as a result, it looked like something more then talking was going on in that compartment.

Not knowing what was going on, they followed a group of students that appeared to be in their first year. They followed them to the edge of a lake were many small boats were lined up. A huge man was leading the students and said in a loud voice that they were going to go across the lake, and no more then three to a boat.

The three walked across the lake, trying to find an empty boat. The closest they saw to an empty boat, was one with a boy inside. He was rather chubby, and short with sandy blonde hair, and watery blue eyes. He was clinging to the sides of the boat, and it was clear he'd rather be on dry ground.

The two boys looked from the almost empty boat to their female comrade. Sirius turned to Remus and shrugged, then turned back to Lily, muttered a small "Good-bye," and got in the boat with the boy. Remus looked at Sirius, and rolled his eyes, "See you in the castle, okay Lil? We'll sit together, that is if we're in the same house." The redhead just rolled her eyes, and started walking off.

At this point, both boys turned to face the other occupant of their small boat. He was looking at them with his watery blue eyes, amazed that someone just sat with him. Sirius couldn't help but notice how much he looked like a rat.

"Uh...hello?" Remus began slowly. "My name is Remus Lupin. What's yours?"

The boy's eyes got suddenly very big and round once he realized Remus was talking to him. "P-P-Peter. My name's Peter Pettigrew," he said with a weak smile that quickly faded away.

"Hi"

The boats started moving slowly. Sirius looked out over the water to see if Lily had gotten in a boat. He saw her and started laughing. He punched Remus in the side and pointed across the water to a small boat holding three people. A girl who had her chestnut hair up in a tight ponytail, a very cross-looking Lily, and a grinning boy with messy black hair and huge black glasses that Remus could only assume was James by the way Sirius was laughing.

The two of them watched as James tried to scoot closer to Lily, who promptly slapped him. They then started shouting at each other loud enough for a few choice words drifted over the lake, such as "You little berk," "Ass kisser," and "Bastard!" There was a large splash as Lily pushed James out of the boat and into the lake.

It was going to be a long ride to the castle.

The finally got to the castle and were lead up a flight of stairs by a very severe looking woman. She led them right in front of two large oak doors before she turned around. "My name is Professor McGonagall, deputy headmistress. In a few minutes, you shall be sorted into your houses—"

But Remus and Sirius never heard the rest of her speech. A very wet James Potter came up behind them and put a soaking wet hand on each of their shoulders. "Hey Sirius, my buddy, my pal...and Sirius' friends...hi." James stuck a wet hand out to Remus and Peter, who both slowly shook it.

"So, I saw what happened between you and Lily. Burn," Sirius said finally to break the awkward silence between his two friends.

James laughed softly so that Professor McGonagall, who was still talking, could not hear him, "She's just playing hard to get. Just you see, by the end of the feast, she'll be all over me."

Remus really doubted that, but smiled politely just the same. He turned his head up to catch the last part of the professor's speech, but found she wasn't there, "Where'd McGonagall go?"

A certain redhead came up behind them with the girl from the boat, "She went into the Great Hall to see if they were ready for us. Weren't you listening?" Her eye caught James, "Oh, he's here. No wonder you didn't hear. You wouldn't, not with this bloke here." James didn't seem despaired by this comment; he just flashed a wide grin at her. Lily rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Idiot."

At that moment, McGonagall came through the large oak doors, and beckoned them to follow her. They entered to find themselves in a large dinning room large enough to fit three large tables. They looked up to see candles floating, and further up to see the sky that was black and covered with bright little stars. It looked exactly like the sky outside.

The students walked up the aisle between two of the tables. Everyone was staring at them. They walked up and assembled in front of a small three-legged stool with an old hat perched on it. "That's the Sorting Hat," Remus whispered to a very wide-eyed Lily.

"Let the sorting begin!"

"Accosta, Benjamin," McGonagall called out. A tall, lanky boy walked forward. Almost before the hat was on his head it shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

James glanced at Lily who was whispering nervously to her friend. He barely noticed "Agarfalls, Jonathan" become a Ravenclaw.

"What ever house I'm in, I just hope I'm not with Potter," Lily whispered to her new friend as "Birdie, Jordan" was sorted into Slytherin.

"Knock 'em dead!" James shouted when McGonagall called, "Black Sirius."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at James as a few people giggled as James grinned innocently. He sat on the small stool as the hat was placed over his head. After a few seconds Sirius made a face that looked like he just had a full bottle of vinegar poured down his throat. Remus chuckled softly, he knew the hat had just suggested Slytherin, and now Sirius looked like he was about to kill it. It finally shouted, "GRIFFINDOR!" and Sirius, smiling smugly, took he's seat at the Griffindor table.

Lily rolled her eyes. She realized they were on E's when "Eddens, Katy" became a Griffindor. Lily was now on pins and needles, "Elliot, Paul" became a Griffindor, "Emerson, Johanna" became a Ravenclaw, "Etienne, Angelica" became a Hufflepuff and then "Evans, Lily."

Lily stepped forward slightly. She sat slowly on the stool and the hat was placed on her head. She could see nothing. James Potter watched, holding his breath, "Griffindor. Griffindor. Please, Griffindor. You old bag of a hat better put her in Griffindor or I'll throw you in that little lake and if that doesn't work I'll burn you. Come on, Griffindor," he whispered. Remus bit his lip to keep from laughing.

But in the end, James got his wish, "GRIFFINDOR!"

"YES!!!"

"Oh no," Lily muttered suddenly as she placed the hat back on the stool and went over to join her fellow Griffindors at their table. She sat silently, and watched a few more first years get sorted trying to ignore James, who kept looking over at her and smiling.

"Flyby, Nicole." Lily watched as her friend from the boat walked up and the hat was placed on her head.

Lily closed her eyes, "Come on, Griffindor. Don't you dare leave me here alone with Black and Potter!"

"GRIFFINDOR!" came the hat's sudden shout, making Lily jump. The girl jumped off the stool, put the hat back on it, and ran to rejoin her friend.

Sitting down next to Lily, the girl said, "They called me Nicole, I hate it when they call me Nicole. I mean, how much harder is it to remember 'Nikki'?"

Lily laughed and turned back to watch as "Garth, Stuart" got sorted into Ravenclaw.

"I wish the food would get here soon. I'm starving! I mean all I had on the train was a few every flavour beans. I stopped eating when I tasted a vomit flavour one, I thought I was going to have to taste it again if you no what I mean." Lily giggled causing "Gudgeon, Davey" to look over at her suspiciously before he went up to be sorted.

Nikki and Lily continued to whisper excitedly before they noticed a small boy with messy black hair staring at them with ice blue eyes. "Hi. I'm Davey. I got sorted into Griffindor."

Lily nodded her head, "Yes, I see that."

Davey's smile widened. "The hat said I was brave," he said puffing out his chest.

"Great. We'll call you if a mouse runs by. Okay? Bye bye," said Nikki as she tried to physically force him to leave. He glared at her but switched seats just the same. "I think he likes you," she said once he was gone.

"Right, sure."

"No, I'm serious. I think he was showing off."

"Great just what I need; another kid with messy black hair drooling over me."

"You seem to attract them. I thought that Potter kid would never go away. I think he likes you too."

"Thank you, Mrs. Obvious. I wish he drowned in lake."

"Yeah, but he is kind of cute though."

Lily turned to her friend with a look of hatred and disgust, "Potter?! Cute?! Don't make me hurt you. I'll learn some really good curses and then I'll hex you."

Nikki laughed, "Yeah, sure you would."

"Don't tempt me."

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Wait, that's my cousin. GO ALLISON!!"

"Hill, Allison," who looked remarkably like Nikki with her curly brown hair in a ponytail, waved energetically at her cousin. She walked bouncingly toward the ragged hat. Before it barely touched her head, it shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"GO ALLISON! THAT'S MY GIRL!"

"OKAY! CATCH YOU LATER, NIKKI!!" and she ran and sat down with the rest of the Hufflepuffs.

Nikki started randomly pointing at people in the line, "That's my brother, that's my sister, that's my cousin's half-sister's cousin!"

Back in the ice cream shop Remus was receiving odd looks from his friends, "What?"

"When did that happen?"

"I can't remember her family. It way too confusing, but I swear that was in there somewhere."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Nikki's an only child."

"Only you would know that."

"Hey! I take care of my women!"

"Nikki was never 'your woman.'"

"Yeah. Whatever. Continue Remus."

Remus looked around, crossed out the last paragraph and continued...

"So, where's your family?" Nikki asked realising that Lily had not yet pointed any one out.

"Um...I'm muggleborn so...uh...they're in London."

"Oh right. They're muggles. Do you miss them? I've always had at least a couple members of my family around be wherever I go. I've never really been away from them. How many siblings do you have?"

"One...regrettably...a sister named Petunia."

Nikki waited. "That's it?! One sister! Oh that's full sister I bet. Any half sisters? Stepsisters?" Lily shook her head slowly. "Wow. Small family."

"What about you? You're family seems interesting? What's it like?" Lily asked trying to get off the subject of her apparent "small family."

Back in the ice cream shop:

"Sirius! Help me!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and pushed the deranged werewolf away from the small book, and began writing in considerably messier handwriting, with grammar and spelling that made Remus cringe.

"Hey Remus did you see that crazy girl by Lily? It almost seems like..."

"It almost seems like what, Sirius?" Remus asked in a lame tone, hoping to any higher power above that he wouldn't have to regret prompting Sirius to start.

"Well the way they were cheering on for each other, you'd have thought they were...well...they were lesbians or something!" Sirius blurted out with a grin.

A mere two or three seats down from there, Lily couldn't help but listen in on them. Nikki was just about ready to tell her about her family, when some other family member...too many to really care, anymore...was asked to step up for the sorting. More cheering from the overly energetic girl could be heard.

I don't see how calling her...sister, I hope that's what she was...'that's my girl' could be warrant enough to be dubbed lesbians. I picture her more of a cheerleader or maybe a gym freak with that type of energy.

"Sirius! That's not something you take so lightly—"

"Yeah Sirius, your such a perverted git!" Lily decided it was time to stop all of the petty talk on her oblivious friend. "It's mighty sick, seeing as the girl Nikki was rooting for was her sister...I think"

"Actually it was my cousin, she's a halfblood. But we're close like sisters." Nikki decided to jump in on the subject, a subject she was most profoundly interested in. Of course you'd be too, if you had a family as strange if not as big as hers.

Sirius muttered to Remus behind the back of his hand "More like look like sisters... Don't you think, Remus?" Remus just ignored him, of course.

"I'm sorry about that Nikki, Sirius meant, that he thought you guys were sisters from your looks." Lily decided to be kind enough to cover for him. She didn't want to lose a friend so soon.

"No problem, many people make that mistake. I mean I also take after my other cousin from the other side. Her name's Samantha White, and she'll be sorted pretty soon, too!"

"There are more of you?" Remus inquired. "Just how many? Ehh...I didn't mean to sound rude, you don't have to answer that." Remus was beginning to blush, I'm starting to act as bad as Sirius does.

"Oh, no! It wasn't rude at all. There's probably only about seven of us, this year." Nikki replied absentmindedly, tallying up the numbers.

Sirius just gawked at her, "Then what was with all the rooting! I swear you rooted for about twenty of those people!"

Nikki laughed right out loud, as both Lily and Remus smacked him at the same time. "Well, sorry. Those were friends that I'd made on the train... don't tell me you didn't make any?"

Lily smirked at him. "Well, Sirius. It seems like she got you back for all of those little comments you made earlier. I mean I might even begin to think that you might've been holding a little flame for James, with your logic." Before Sirius could do anything, Remus thought it was about time to intervene.

With a little cough, Remus decided to bring it back to Nikki. "So, are any of the seven relatives your siblings?"

"Nope, I'm an only little muggleborn. Though my dad is a squib... we live a muggle life."

"So the other 4, Allison and some random person being your cousins on opposite sides of the family, are...extras?" Lily timidly asked. Family relations were one thing she'd never had a problem with. What with having a small family, what was the point?

"Well, I think they're more like extended family, or distant relatives. Because they're not really related to 'me' directly, it's kind of like a big circle." Nikki said thoughtfully, trying really hard to think of a way to say all of this.

"Well, it's not like we have anything else better to talk about. These people are still going at it with the sorting and all. Why not elaborate, my dear Nikki?" Sirius grinned charmingly at her, much to Remus and Lily's disgust.

Nikki, who was oblivious to the fact that Sirius was hitting on her, continued, "Well, my dad's sister's daughter is Allison Hill (over there at the Hufflepuff table), and my father's other sister's daughter just got sorted." She then started waving at another girl with long blonde hair and glasses over at the Slytherin table. "That's Nona Kaffer. And my mother's sister's daughter is over there (Right there, that's Samantha White). Her dad's ex-wife's daughter's here too (that girl next to Samantha. Yeah there, that's Sahara White). You following so far?"

The three nodded slowly, each not wanting to be the first to say they had no clue what she was talking about.

"Okay, good." Nikki of course failed to notice all the blank stares around her, just kept going. "Because here's where it gets tricky."

Nikki started to look a bit nervous at this part, like she wasn't telling the others everything. "Sahara's mother had two sisters. The first sister has a daughter (she over there on the other side of Sahara) her name is Arisu Shimada. Now the other sister is dead. Deatheaters killed her and her husband awhile back. Their daughter was Yuna Urameshi (that's her, waving at Nona). Yuna was at Nona's house when it happened. When she heard the news she was devastated. But the next day Mr. and Mrs. Kaffer adopted her, and I got a new cousin! Now who am I forgetting?"

As she counted off the names on her fingers, the other three looked at each other in utter bewilderment. "No one! That's it!" Nikki finally exclaimed.

"You're all girls then?" asked Sirius after he understood at least part of what Nikki had just said.

"Of course that's the only part Sirius wants to know about." Lily muttered out of the side of her mouth to a snickering Remus.

"Well, I guess you could say it runs in the family," she said and then giggled.

"How on earth can you remember that all?!"

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know if that's really what she said or not, but after seven years, you can pretty much write her entire life story."

"I never knew you heard what Lily said," Remus said, looking a bit guilty, and chewing his lip nervously.

Sirius chuckled, "There's a bit more up here than moths you know," he said tapping his forehead. Then he quickly flashed them all a very toothy smile. "Okay, Moony, your turn," he said, passing the book to Remus as James rolled on the floor laughing at the thought of Sirius having anything in his head, Peter looked at him, as though to question his sanity, and the entire ice cream shop stared at them all, thinking along the same lines as Peter.

They talked a bit longer about any thing they could think of until McGonagall called, "Shimada, Arisu."

"Everybody shhh," she said hurriedly hushing the other three. Then, not taking her own advice began shouting at the girl that was her mother's sister's husband's ex-wife's sister's daughter. "HEY ARISU! HEY! GOOD LUCK!" Arisu smiled, waved slightly and stepped up to be sorted. A few minutes later, "RAVENCLAW!"

"Hey what about me?" James said suddenly getting off the floor.

"What?"

"Yeah and me too," Peter piped up.

Remus' eyes widened, "Oh yeah! I forgot!"

"You forgot two of your best friends?!"

"Shut up or I'll write you out of the book!" James shut his mouth. "That's better. Now I'll go beck and fix that." Remus flicked his wand and the text split to reveal a portion of unmarked paper.

"Pettigrew, Peter."

"Isn't that the boy you shared the boat with?" Lily asked pointing at the mousy boy.

"Yeah. He's probably going to be in Hufflepuff." Sirius said watching the boy shake as he stepped slowly toward the hat. "He looks like he thinks the hat's got fangs or something." He said with a laugh.

They were all surprised with the house shouted, "GRIFFINDOR!" and they boy came to sit with them. He sat between Sirius and Remus and would every once and a while look around nervously, and bit his lower lip.

"Potter, James," Lily's head shot up and she listened intently. Sirius noticed this and smirked. Almost before the hat touched his head though it yelled, "GRIFFINDOR!"

Lily let her head fall back down with a thud on the table, "Damn."

"There! We're back to where we started can I continue now?"

James, who looked thoroughly pleased with himself nodded gleefully.

"Urameshi, Yuna" was the next to get yelled at by her mother's sister's ex-husband's wife's sister's daughter before she was sorted into "SLYTHERIN!" and she sat down next to Nona. Yuna was closely followed by "White, Sahara" who went to join the other Ravenclaws and "White, Samantha" who followed her half-sister.

The sorting concluded with, "Zebrine, Brian" who became a Slytherin. After that, the feast began, and the friends were to busy with there food to talk much. But they did jabber excitedly as they followed the Griffindor prefect to the common room, but they broke away quickly as they all split and went to their resident dormitories, and immediately fell asleep.