WhiteRabbit5: I was going by information in the Harry Potter Lexicon (go to Google and type those three words in since the link never works). They address this issue one or two places in their site and say that there are five girls and boys in each house each year and give evidence. I am just playing with that idea a bit.

An Anti-Sheep Cheese Muffin: Thank you so much! I feel special now! Here is the update!

The door swung open to reveal thirty-nine ten and eleven year olds. At the front were two extremely hyper girls who could have been twins, had their hair and eye color not been different. (A/N: You and me, Natalia).

"Can you believe it? We are at Hogwarts at last!" the brunette screeched. "And I heard there is this hot, hot seventh year named Lucius..." Her chatter died away when she saw me standing there. I guess she felt guilty for talking about other hot guys in front of me. Truthfully, I did not care. I would have much rather found someone closer to Chateau Gauvreau. Several of the other first years gave me weird looks as they passed too. I suppose it was because I had suddenly appeared and was not on the train.

We went through the procedure Mercy had told me would happen- we waited in a small chamber off the Entrance Hall, then went into the Great Hall to be Sorted. The Sorting Hat sang a song describing the four houses, which only served to make me more sure that I wanted to be in Ravenclaw or Slytherin, like Severus, who was standing next to me. I closely watched who went where during the sorting. Black, Sirius went to Gryffindor. So did Evans, Lily. And all too soon, Gauvreau, Tarin, was called. Nervous, I went up to the hat and put it on.

"You want Slytherin or Ravenclaw, eh?" the Hat asked me. "Sorry, Tarin. You have a destiny to fulfill and the only place you can fulfill that destiny from is... GRYFFINDOR!" Disappointed, I took off the Hat and sat down away from Sirius because I remembered what Severus had said about him. Severus shot me a sympathetic look. Soon Lupin, Remus joined the Gryffindors, and sat near Sirius. The next person was Peenya, Valerie. The Hat was not even on her head before it cried, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Hope you can join me, Lynn!" she said to the brunette who was talking about Lucius, and grinning, went to sit at the Slytherin table. Next Pettigrew, Peter, and Potter, James became the last two Gryffindor boys. Richard, Lynn got her wish and sat next to Valerie and Severus became a Slytherin too. I watched them jealously, then turned to look at my year-mates. The other four boys were sitting together, seemingly happy. Oh well. I would meet them soon enough- too soon, I thought. Would it be too horrible to walk across the Hall and sit with Severus? I supposed I had better not- at least on the first day.

Professor Dumbledore stood up and gave his beginning of the year speech. Already knowing anything important (the Forbidden Forest was, well, forbidden, a Whomping Willow had been planted, give a welcome to Professor David, etc), so I got out my copy of Le Sorcier de St Tropez, an amusing story about a wizard who had terrified the Muggle tourists in St Tropez. Mercy shook her head at me from the High Table. Sometimes I hated having a mom for a professor. So, I raced through dinner as fast as I could and waited impatiently for the feast to be over.

At last, when I had decided that I was going to try to fall asleep on the table without catching Mercy's eye, Dumbledore dismissed us. I immediately ran to talk with Severus, who jerked his head toward the side chamber we were in earlier. Mystified, I followed him, wondering why we could not talk in the corridor. When we got there, Severus quickly checked to see if anyone was looking; no one was, of course. We darted inside.

"Uh, Tarin, don't take this the wrong way, but... one meeting in a bookstore does not cement a friendship. Since, um, you're a Gryffindor and I'm a Slytherin... I do not know..."

"You are embarrassed to be seen with me because Slytherins and Gryffindors do not interact," I said flatly.

"It's just this girl..." I heard him mutter under his breath. Shooting him a filthy look, I stalked out, intending to go straight to Gryffindor Tower. Having him as a friend here was about the only thing that could possibly make this place bearable. Unfortunately... no one else was there anymore. Severus came out a moment later and joined me in blackly staring around. "Uh, which way?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. Both of us had completely forgotten our fight from a few minutes ago. Neither of us had wanted to go to Hogwarts in the first place, so while others spent time looking at maps so they would be ready their first day, neither of us knew the first thing, like which way the dungeons were. "Let's go back in the Great Hall- maybe a teacher will still be there."

"Good idea," Severus said. We went back in, only to see two girls left. They were the Slytherins, Lynn and Valerie, and they were pouring over a book lying on the table in front of them. Valerie looked up, favored us with a glare, and turned back to the book. Lynn looked up at us, and abruptly snapped the book shut.

"What- oh, them," Valerie said to Lynn. Turning back to us, she spoke a bit louder, "What do you two want? Can we not look a small book in peace!?"

"Excuse me," I said acidly. "We were merely sort of lost and hoped some person remaining in here knew the way to either Gryffindor or Slytherin."

"Well, we were going to the library after Madam Pince is gone," Lynn said.

"Breaking rules on the first day of school?" I asked with a smirk. "Isn't that daring."

"We're Slytherins," Valerie said with a shrug. "Besides, we live in the same town and we really do not feel like sharing a dorm with three other giggling, most likely popular girls. But what do you think, Lynn? Should we show these kids the way to their houses?"

"You know, they are probably both older than us," Lynn said. Valerie gave her a look. "Er... why not?"

"Come on, Severus, the Slytherin common room is this way," Valerie said with an impatient air. "Lynn and I can finish looking at that manga tomorrow." I stifled a laugh at the look on Severus' face. Obviously, I had just found out who "just this girl" was. But Lynn was impatiently beckoning at me from the staircase, so I followed her. She did not speak much. She kept looking at his one picture in her "manga," whatever that was. I wondered if they were Muggle-born. It was not until Lynn had dropped me off at this hideous portrait of a really fat lady in a pink dress and left that I realized I had no idea what the password was.

"Are you the last Gryffindor first-year boy? I only saw four enter," the lady, whoever she was, said.

"Unfortunately," I told her. "Who are you?"

"No one has asked me that in years!" the lady said, looking delighted. "Most students just call me 'the Fat Lady,' but my real name is Lydia-Annabelle Pearton. But it is too late for an eleven-year-old like you to be up talking. The password is 'Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks.' Two students named James and Sirius programmed it as a joke." She sighed and her picture swung open.

"I'm ten," I muttered as I walked inside. Girls! I would never understand any of them expect my sisters, Mercy, and Geranium. I found the room marked "First Years" in the boys' tower, and entered.

"There's the missing Gryffindor!" a boy with messy black hair, glasses, and hazel eyes said with excitement.

"Yeah, the four of us were wondering if you fell down a toilet and got eaten by a giant snake or something," another black-haired boy said. He paused in mock thoughtfulness. "Not that that would ever happen, mate! The name's Sirius Black. The guy with glasses is James Potter, the guy reading a book is Remus Lupin, and the guy who is looking at me weirdly- stop it, Peter!- is Peter Pettigrew. Who're you?"

"I'm Tarin Gauvreau," I said, trying not to let my annoyance show. The only half-decent seeming person in the room was Remus, but he seemed really nerdy. I mean, I read, but that was fantasy. This person was reading Hogwarts: A History. How insane could people get here? Peter though, had apparently noted my last name.

"Are you French?" he asked excitedly.

"I live on the northern coast," I said, a small bit of irritation starting to creep into my voice. These were not my type of friends.

"Can you speak French?" Peter asked. I did not even bother to dignify that with a response, and opened my trunk to look for a pair of pajamas. I quickly went into the bathroom to change, leaving the annoying four behind. I brushed my teeth and ran my fingers through my hair and prepared to go to bed and sleep until Judgment Day. Unfortunately, my troublesome roommates had other plans.

"Tarin, your Mum's teaching here, right?" James said the moment I came in.

"Yes..." I said doubtfully, not knowing where this was going.

"Well, do you know where the kitchens are?"

"Of course. I had to arrive here a month early, do you think I had anything better to do than explore the school?" Of course, Gryffindor Tower was the one place I had not bothered to try to find because I thought I would be in Ravenclaw. "Why do you want to know?"

"We're going to host a beginning-of-the-year party for just the five of us. We need refreshments!"

"Nuh-uh. I am going to bed," I said, marching purposefully towards the very inviting-looking piece of furniture. Two seconds later, James and Sirius were in front of me, back to back as though they were in some stupid Muggle spy movie.

"If you don't help, you can't join our club," James said with a raised eyebrow. "The others have already accepted. You would be the one Gryffindor boy all on your lonesome. You have one week to decide, of course."

"Oh, now I feel really bad," I muttered, rolling my eyes, pushing past them and falling into my new four poster.

"At least draw us a map," Sirius said, popping his head in. I slammed the curtains... or at least did what counted for slamming when it came to curtains. However, I could not get to sleep. At home, or in the temporary quarters I had had before Gryffindor, it was at least perfectly silent and there was a glimmer of light. Here, the four other boys chatted and laughed loudly. The curtains blocked all light, but I did not dare open them a crack or light my wand, lest the others realize I was awake and pester me more.

This was the beginning of my separation from those who would call themselves the Marauders. Peter was on the verge of being retarded, or so it seemed, and we had just about nothing in common. Remus liked to read, like me, but I was not near as smart as him, and I read for pleasure. James and Sirius had everything- girls, grades, and a million other things. I dated, yes, and did decent in school, but I was nowhere near their level. The Marauders' future and mine would not be tied together, this much I knew even at the age of ten.