The first years filed after Professor McGonagall quietly, staring around the Great Hall with open mouths. Sirius stumbled as someone stepped on his foot. Thinking it was Snape, he turned around to shove him, but it was a small, mousy-haired boy with quick, darting eyes.

"Sorry!" the boy mumbled. "I didn't mean to."

"That's okay," Sirius said, relaxing. "I thought you were someone else. What's your name? I'm Sirius Black."

The boy extended a hand. Sirius noticed that his fingernails had been chewed with distaste, but shook it anyway. The boy seemed excited to meet him. "I'm Peter Pettigrew, nice to meet you! What house d'you think you'll be in?"

Sirius shrugged. "Dunno...." he said vaguely. He looked around as Professor McGonagall began calling off the names of people to be sorted. After "Bentshire, Zachary," Sirius heard his name. "Black, Sirius!"

Sirius walked up to Professor McGonagall and put the hat on. A small voice said in his ear, "Ah, yes, another Black, eh? Well...wait a moment....I see you're different from the rest, aren't you? Simple, really...GRYFFINDOR!"

After realizing that this name had been shouted aloud to the rest of the hall, Sirius slid off the stool, grinning, and joined the Gryffindor table. He waited until it was Remus's turn, noticing that when his name was called, Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore leaned forward to study him.

Remus glanced uncomfortably at the teachers and let the hat slide over his eyes. He heard the voice mutter approvingly, "Oh, difficult, very intelligent, well, you'd have to be, to cover that up....well, that's all right. Brave too, very brave....and loyal, if you get friends you trust....in that case, GRYFFINDOR!"

With a sigh of relief, Remus walked over and sat down across from Sirius. They both applauded when Peter was sorted into Gryffindor as well, waited as "Pollem, Katie" was sorted into Hufflepuff, and cheered when James was also sorted into Gryffindor. Dumbledore stood up and welcomed new students, then encouraged them to dig into the feast.

After a welcome meal, the four dragged their over-stuffed selves upstairs and collapsed into their new dormitories, eager for their first day as students at Hogwarts.