Lesson Six: Sweat the Small Stuff; Forget the Big Stuff

Fear is a complicated thing that grips the body wholly.

And yet with most people they have the ability to cover it up in the midst of a challenging moment of their life, Remus thought casually to himself as he watched each individual first year walk past him up to the front of the room.

He had noticed immediately how each child managed to hide his or her fear of the 'challenge' they were about to face. It was strange for him to see their exhibited dread of things to come, for he knew exactly what it felt like to be in their position, having only been through it the previous year himself, but to see it displayed so vividly made him wonder: had he been that scared?

As the new students were forced into a line to wait their turn to be sorted, Remus unconsciously looked over the class before him in search of his cousin who, once located, looked rather stiff-faced aside from her eyes, which were wide with wonder. He smiled slightly as McGonagall began to carefully explain to the students gathered there about what they were to do in order to be sorted. She then carefully pulled out the intimidating scroll of names and slowly stepped to the side and waited for the sorting hat to tell its tale. Once the hat had finished its new song about the four houses traits and the abilities of the four founding fathers of Hogwarts the hall fell into an uproar of applause. When the cheering had finally died down McGonagall, never one to waste any time, took immediately to announcing the first name. "Arhirii, Iris."

The little girl stepped forward, took up the hat and carefully sat down on the worn stool before she finally let out a small scared sigh and placed the Sorting Hat carefully upon her head. She had been sitting there for a long while, and Remus, as he intently watched, could tell that she was still scared. Not only that, but he could almost have been sure that her eyes were clenched shut, even though the hat had slipped past her eyes, as she waited for what horror she would have to face; for placing a hat on your head was far too simple of a task. That had only been some kind of trick so the first years would let their guard down. Or worse, what if she had told the truth to them, and the hat would never yell out a house for the young child. Remus knew the feeling, and he was positive it was the thought of the other child waiting patiently before him. Finally, the hat yelled out "Hufflepuff," tearing him away from his thoughts on the sorting, as a loud chorus of applause resounded from the Hufflepuff's table while polite applause came from the rest of the houses that were watching. All the while little Iris got up from the seat with a large smile on her face and walked over to join her new housemates.

And so the Sorting Hat ensued with the next child. Remus watched as his friends actually paid attention to what was happening, unlike last year's ceremony where they had barely took any notice of their fellow students, who had been being sorting. While Remus watched the next child, a young boy, go up to sit on the stool and place the hat on his head he figured that the reason they were now able to pay attention to the ceremony was because this year they did not have to worry about the hat not saying anything to them this year, for they were already sorted. The anxiety was gone and the torch had been passed to the students now standing before them.

"Black, Regulus."

Remus looked over at Sirius, whose ears seemed to perk a bit as soon as the familiar name had been called out. He followed his friend's gaze to the young students before them as the boy stepped forward with a smug air around him as he held his head high. He then slouched his way over to the hat and the moment he touched it Sirius growled "Slytherin" as the hat screamed out the same just a few seconds later, when it had merely grazed above young Regulus' head. Remus looked over at Sirius questioningly finding it slightly funny that Sirius had even bothered to speak at that moment. "Every member of my family has been and will always be in Slytherin. Well, that is, except for me." Sirius stated as a way to explain his advanced sorting of Regulus with an odd combination of both bitterness and pride. Remus just nodded his head slightly in understanding. He had begun to comprehend, from their summer together, that Sirius hated his family, and he had a valid reason too, so there was no reason for him to try and make a debate over it. He agreed with Sirius on this particular problem.

"Yeah, well, you can also tell by the way they act, like watch this one." James interrupted to get Sirius' mind off of his family, knowing better than Remus that it was not a good idea to let him dwell on it. He then pointed up to the front of the room where a Cassandra Cascario stepped up cautiously to the stool. "What house do you thing she's going to be in?"

Remus stared at the girl as she carefully took the hat into her hands and sat down. "Hufflepuff." Remus said warily before he looked over at James with an unsure glance. The messy haired boy nodded his agreement and as the girl sat with the hat on her head, they waited until finally the hat yelled out Remus' presumption. Remus smiled slightly at his deduction, as he watched the girl walk past them and joined her fellow housemates.

The four boys then began to play this game continually with the rest of the students. They had only been wrong with three of the first years thus far, until Kara stepped forward with a proud disposition as she placed the hat on her head after she had sat down on the rickety stool. The four were silent as they watched respectfully as Remus' cousin was being sorted. Until Sirius could no longer hold his tongue and growled out 'Slytherin' but the hat retorted moments later with a resounding "Ravenclaw." Remus smiled at his cousin as she joined her House table. He wasn't sure what had made Sirius suggest Slytherin, granted she could be a bit of a jerk but most of the time she was fine, or as he had grown used to with Sirius, Kara most likely bruised his friend's pride somewhere along the line. So, rather than dwelling on it he opted to push it out of his mind and simply turned his attention back to the front of the room and watched the end of the sorting.

Though Remus kept his eyes on the front of the room his mind kept wandering to the table across from him despite his not wanting it too. He watched his cousin slightly, out of the corner of his eye, as she looked on her fellow students still being sorted. It did make sense for her to end up in that particular house. His own father had been in Ravenclaw along with his uncle, Kara's father, and Edmund's brother. Not only that, but Kara's mother had also belonged to that particular house when she was in school. He sighed deeply to himself; she definitely did belong there. Her parents would be proud if only they could see it. Yet, even with these thoughts running through his head, trying to convince him that it was okay that she was not in his house, he still would have rather had her sitting beside him more willingly than across from him. That way he could at least be able to look out for her if she were to get into any trouble, which was simply inevitable.

McGonagall yelled out the last name "Weldt, Thomas" who was quickly sorted into "Gryffindor." It was the applause that had woken Remus from his thoughts. As he watched the small boy walk cautiously over to their table and consequentially joined a group of first years sitting somewhere in the middle part of the table. Remus smiled at the boy, as Sirius yelled down the table to a small group of redheads located at the other end, "What no Weasley's this year?"

Chris looked up and waved at Sirius, "Nope, ended with me," he said quickly, "It's only me, Wilson, and a few of our cousins."

His older brother smiled at the four troublemakers and then hit his little brother on his shoulder. The two boys and their cousins then carefully relocated, along with Lily Evans, next to the four boys. Once they had re-situated themselves Chris continued, "Arthur got married over the summer."

"To who?" Peter asked as he clung onto what Chris was saying having had no success with any conversations with his own friends for that evening.

"Molly Prewett," he smiled slightly, at Peter's blank look he went onto describe the eighteen year old that had won his eldest brother's heart, "Fiery red-head, head girl, went out with Arthur last year. He'd fancied her for a long time before they started dating last year, and now he's married her. It's weird."

They smiled at him as Dumbledore stood up from his seat at the head table asking for everyone's attention. It took mere seconds for the roar from the students chatter to dissipate completely as they looked onto their headmaster, "Good evening and welcome to another year at Hogwarts. I do not wish to keep you from your growling stomachs, so there are only a few warnings I must be sure you receive. As always the forbidden forest and Whomping Willow are strictly off limits, unless one wants to risk the loss of life or limb."

He then surveyed the students with a mild smirk as he continued, "Mr. Filch has added a number of new items to the list of objects not allowed within the school grounds, which is much too long to recite here so if you feel the need to read the complete list of these forbidden objects, they are posted on Mr. Filch's office door."

He smiled whimsically, "Professor Malvitz has retired, so to say, so that he can spend time with his family. So there has been a new appointment, Professor Pike, will be taking the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Professor Pike stood at the sound of his name and there was a mild smile on his face as if he were not sure what he was to be doing in such a position. Then he quickly sat back down when Professor Lamia tugged his sleeve in what looked like grand annoyance.

Professor Dumbledore then sat down as well and the food for their feast instantly appeared on the tables. Instantaneously, the students began to grab at the assorted articles of food. After Remus had piled his favorite courses onto his plate he took the time to look over at Kara, who was now busy laughing with another girl from her house, who was as Remus remembered a member of his own class. He sighed deeply and once he looked up from his plate of food, he noticed that James was watching him intently with a slightly worried air about him.

"Wow, I always thought that Malvitz liked his job," Sirius said quietly.

James looked distractedly at Remus as he spoke, "He did, he just finds family more important. Dumbledore said that. His wife had a baby."

"How'd you know that?"

"I ran into him in Diagon Alley a week ago, he was with his wife and they're little girl, his wife was holding a baby."

Peter looked at James, "I didn't think Professor's could have wives or husbands."

"Of course they can nitwit," Sirius said as he jabbed his fork into a piece of chicken.

Remus, who was quite intent on being ignored, shifted a bit from underneath his friend's glances before James finally spoke up, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," the messy haired boy cocked his eyebrow up at his friend.

"Alright," Remus said ultimately cracking from under the look he had just received, "I can't exactly keep an eye on her if she's in a different house."

"You want to end up babysitting that?" Sirius chimed in.

Remus just looked at him blankly, "No, but you have no idea what she could get herself into if she's given the chance."

James sighed, "Don't worry about it. She's happy. If she gets into any trouble then we'll talk to her about it, but until then it's really not worth worrying over. Remus, she can't possibly get into more trouble than us."

Remus just nodded his head knowing that James was right, even if the last bit wasn't exactly the most comforting thing he had ever heard in his entire life, and gave one final look over at his cousin, who was still busy laughing at whatever joke her new friend was now telling her. He sighed once more and nodded his head to himself before he went back to his meal as he listened to an odd combination of James filling in Sirius about the Quidditch highlights of the summer season and the dismal show of teamwork by the Chudley Cannons. Yet again, it seemed to override Lily's sorrowful tales of her sister, Petunia's, growing hatred of her. A thing the girl, as she had stated, didn't even understand, as far as she knew they were still as close as ever when she had left for school last year, but apparently she was wrong.

Remus sat and listened to both of the conversations both feeling for Lily and, yet, also taking the time to laugh at James and Sirius' bickering. A balancing act that he was glad to take on. That was until James' voice broke through with the end to his argument with Sirius, which called for Remus' undivided attention, leaving Lily to talk with Alexandria Prewett without Remus' interfering.

"Yeah, I just hope you play better than your beloved team," James said as he looked intently at Sirius.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked shortly.

"Well, you are going to try out for beater, there is an opening."

Sirius nodded his head. "I think so."

James smirked as he ripped a piece of chicken off of the bone and placed it into his mouth. Then they fell into an assortment of chatter both with the Weasley's and amongst themselves, until gradually the food disappeared and they were all too full to do anything but sleep. When Dumbledore had given his last words the students were asked to go to their dormitories and they all kindly obliged as they stood from their seats to leave. The four boys smiled at each other as they continued their conversations with the Weasley's on their way to Gryffindor Tower. When they reached the fat lady's portrait they uttered the password and slipped into their common room. From there the four of them said goodnight to the Weasley's and quickly headed up to their old dorm room.

"God, it's good to be home," Sirius exclaimed as soon as they had entered the familiar room.

"You said it," James retorted as he ran over to his bed and proceeded to jump on it with full force.

Remus just rolled his eyes at the two of them, as he too went over to his own bed and took his nightclothes out of his trunk. He carefully put them on, as the others did the same, and then they all climbed into their beds for the night. But rather than going to bed straight away they spent their time telling jokes back and forth until they each slowly drifted off to sleep, until only one was left among the sounds of the night.

Remus J. Lupin stared up at his canopy, silently thinking to himself about what James had said earlier: 'They were dead without any sign.' He rolled over onto his right side not entirely knowing what to think of that comment, and not wanting really wanting to think of it at all. Yet, either way it bothered him greatly. He closed his eyes as he tried not to think too much into the subject that had not plagued his thoughts for that entire day until that very moment. Eventually, he managed to fall into a deep slumber with his last thought being one of the jokes Sirius had told him.