Swimming To The Sorting

A voice suddenly echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to school separately."

Before James and Sirius knew it, they had finally arrived.

The train stopped abruptly just as they had finished putting on their school robes. They got out from their compartments along with everyone else.

The weather hadn't improved at all.

Heavy rain was falling hard against the grass outside, scary lightings stroke the high trees as thunder followed.

James and Sirius were the firsts to get to the exit as three first years Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy rudely pushed older students to make their way through to the front on the now wide open door. The three oohed and ahhed to heavens only knows what.

"No pushing you prats! We are all going to the same place for Gods Sake!" Sirius heard Jess shout.

"Shut up sister!" Goyle shouted back Jess groaned.

"What's all the fuss about?" Sirius asked her somewhat annoyed, as the students started to step down the train.

"They have never seen lightning in their lives before I suppose" Lily replied dully, Sirius snorted.

"What lightning? I bet they can't even see their own noses and much less in this weather" James sniggered joining in; he knew very well how much Sirius hated this boy. Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, he was the son of 2 of the Black's best friends. This was enough for James and Sirius to hate him alright, as he was just the perfect example of a spoiled mommy's little boy of one of the darkest families in England, he was, of course, brain washed like his family and the Blacks about the purity of the wizard's blood. For him it was all that counted at the time of choosing friends.

"Shut up Potter! And you Black, better watch out, you wouldn't like your mommy to know you haven't been polite at school!" The blond Lucius said smirking as his gray eyes stared in a threatening way to them.

"Ooohhhh!" Sirius and James chorused.

"Oh look at me James I'm sooooo scared! Lucy is going to tell on me with my mother!" Sirius said laughing as he jumped down the train and offered his hand to Lily and reluctantly to Jess to help them step down to the wet place.

Yeah! Tell you what Lucy, why don't you tell Mrs. Black what you and Narcissa were doing in her back yard last month instead! You know, just to see what you get!" James said and Lucius turned red on the face, he looked shocked. Sirius laughed more than he had in months.

"Good one James!"

"Thanks!" James said laughing too; he jumped down without looking from the train landing on the muddy grass, splashing it all over Sirius and himself.

"Urgh, JAMES!" Sirius shouted through all the noise.

"Sorry!" James said smirking as he brushed away the mud and water away from his glasses so he could see.

"I'll have to talk seriously with that girl Lily! She is affecting your brain!" He said trying to clean his face and robes.

"Oh, shut up" Was James' answer.

Before Sirius could say anything else they heard a voice shouting:

"Firs' years! Firs' years here please! Firs' years!"

"Wow that man is... Big!" James said.

"Yeah... I think he's the housekeeper. Andromeda told me he's very cool"

"Nice"

"C'mon" Sirius said as they along the other first years followed the huge man called Hagrid through a very dark and narrow path. Everyone was quiet, the only thing they could hear was the rain and the whistle of the wind. James looked around, everyone was a mess for what he could see through his wet glasses, especially him and Sirius who were terribly wet and covered in mud.

"Um, hello! I'm Alice, Alice Redmond, I'm sorry, have you seen my cat?"

"Your cat?" Sirius asked frowning.

"Yes!" Said the sandy haired girl desperately.

"Is it a white on with blue eyes?" James said.

"Yes, yes!" Alice said happily.

"No, sorry hun, haven't seen it" James said and Alice's expression was sad again as she went to ask other people.

"You are so mean" Sirius said barely above a whisper, James shrugged in response.

"We'll be there in a few seconds!" Came Hagrid the huge man's voice.

Suddenly they narrow path ended as they found themselves before a big black lake and an enormous castle below the thundering skies.

"Cool we're swimming!" Sirius joked, James rolled his eyes.

"No you idiot, we are taking the boats" Jess said and Sirius opened his mouth to say something very nasty but James covered his mouth.

"Aright', as we know it's raining pretty hard, so err... we have to be careful. No more than 4 in a boat please." Came Hagrid's voice.

They all took ran to take their boat as James and Sirius got in a boat with Alice and a very pretty girl that had water dripping from her chocolate brown hair and watery blue eyes.

When everyone was in a boat they started to move forward to the castle, the boats James guessed were bewitched so that no water from the rain would fall in and drown them.

"Look! That's the gigantic squib we read about, remember Lily?" They heard Jess voice as Lily nodded.

Sirius was again about to say something that James knew was nothing sweet at all as he interrupted.

"What house do you reckon we would be in?"

"Anywhere but Slytherin" Sirius said in disgust.

"Yeah, me too" James said "What about you Alice?" He asked as the other girl watched in silence.

"I don't have the slightest idea"

"You? Err miss-" Sirius said looking at the other girl.

"Miss Blackwood, Beatrice Blackwood" She played along but still with an expressionless face. "Definitely not in Slytherin either, I suppose it would be Gryffindor" She answered.

"Ohh, yeah I suppose Gryffindor would be fine" Sirius said in reply.

Suddenly they all heard a scream and a big splash on the water.

James jerked his head to see who had fallen, it was Lily, she was still below the water and strangely wasn't able to swim back to the surface, Lucius and Crabbe the ones who had pushed her laughed, Jess was busy throwing insults at them to notice her friend was drowning. James was about to throw himself to the water.

"No James, wait, what are you doing?" Sirius said alarmed then a second splash was heard.

He was now too below the water trying to find Lily, and there she was, she couldn't swim very well because of her ankle, so James took her hand and swam back up along with her and gasped for air, so did Lily as she hold on to his shoulders.

"You alright?" He managed to ask.

"Yes, thank you James. God this water is freezing!" She said and screamed scared again and hugged James tightly as they felt tentacles tighten around them both, Hagrid had ordered the giant squib to carry them to his boat.

"Thanks" James said to Hagrid once in the boat.

"No, thank you" Hagrid said winking at James as he put his coat around them both, James was blushing furiously as Jess shouted from the other boat to ask if they were ok.

"I know, I know, he's nuts" Sirius said back in the other boat to Alice who looked shocked.

At last, they entered a small harbor just below the castle that was much dryer obviously than outside.

They got off the boats as a not so young, but not so old witch with black hair tied into a bun and a very stern look just behind two square spectacles approached.

"Thank you Hagrid, I'll take them from here" She said as Hagrid nodded and left. She gave a severe look at each one of them and James could swear she almost smiled, but she didn't.

"My, you look as if you've come out of a pool!" She said. "Come with me, you'll be warm as soon as you enter the Great Hall"

As they arrived at the entrance of the Great Hall the witch looked at them again.

"Alright now that we are in I'd like to explain to you quickly what we'll be doing. Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry I'm one of the staff members, for you Professor McGonnagal the head house of Gryffindor" She said not loosing her stern tone.

"Now you'll be sorted to your school houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Each house will be like the family for the rest of the year to you, you'll go to classes together, you'll have a house common room you'll share, a house dormitory, a house table, a house team and others. Each house will earn house points as well as they might loose them, at the end of the year the house with the most points will be the one to have the house cup which is a great honor. Wait here for a moment meanwhile we set everything for you to come and be sorted." And with that she left to the hall and everyone began talking at once.

Sirius saw James approach to him.

"Damn James you scared the hell out of me!"

"Well I couldn't let her drown!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll call you super James to the rescue from now on" Sirius mocked. "What did Lily say? Oh James you are my hero!" He said imitating Lily's girly voice again and burst out laughing.

"Shut up." James said trying not to laugh.

A few minutes passed and they formed in 2 lines, one for girls, and the other one for boys. They entered the great hall and the rest of the students of other years fell silent.

Just in front of everyone was a three-legged stool with an old dusty pointed hat waiting for them. The first years looked terrified as some looked at the hat and some gasped at the bewitched ceiling which showed the stormy weather outside, gray clouds and now and then some lightning. Suddenly on the hat there appeared a rip near the bream of it opening and to some of the first years' surprise it began to sing the song of the year.

Hello my dear friends

Here I am once again

Trying on knew heads

To see where they belong best

Don't worry little ones

I promise it won't last long

Please come and hear my short song

The four houses will be in my strophes

Those little brave ones

Who always fear not

Be sure

Gryffindor is where you ought to go

As for those who reach their goals

Without stops at all

Slytherins will be of course

What I chose for you all

The ones with intelligent minds

Ravenclaw will be where you are to sort

And last but not least

Is the fourth on the list

Those who are honest and fair

No doubt that in Hufflepuff

They'll feel the best

Now what's left

Is to begin our test.

With this the hat finished its song and everyone applauded as Professor McGonnagal held out a long list of names.

"Please as I call out your names, you'll step up front, sit down on the stool, try the hat on and the house it sorts you to, that will be the table where you'll sit down." McGonnagal said as she started to call out the names of the first year students.

It wasn't a long time when she called out Jess Lily's friend.

The nervous curly red head nervously tried the hat on and waited.

"Ravenclaw!" The hat shouted as she happily joined her table that applauded welcoming her.

"Hufflepuff!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Black Narcissa!" McGonnagal said as the pretty blond green eyed girl put on the hat.

"Slytherin!"

"Black Sirius!" McGonnagal called as Sirius sat down on the stool and tried on the hat. Andromeda his 4th year cousin from the Hufflepuff table beamed at him and he smiled back at her.

"Hmm" Said the hat interested. "Another Black, I suppose I should put you in Slytherin with all of your cousins, it was the house of your uncles and parents you know? They'll be very proud" The hat whispered

"Yes that's why I don't want Slytherin"

"Hmm. Then I'll sort you in... Gryffindor!" The hat shouted as the Gryffindor table applauded and so did Andromeda, Bellatrix and Narcissa Black exchanged looks of disbelief. Sirius sat down.

"Blackwood Annabelle!" Was the next name as the girl who had said to Sirius her name was Beatrice put on the hat.

"Gryffindor!" The hat said again as the Gryffindor tabled applauded once more, she sat next to Sirius as McGonnagal kept on with the list.

"Wasn't your name Beatrice?" Sirius asked the girl.

"Yes" Was all her reply.

"Then why did McGonnagal say Annabelle?"

"That's my first name, but I like Beatrice my second name better"

"Oh, then I'll call you Annabelle is that ok Ann?" Sirius asked smirking as Beatrice jerked her head towards him, her blue eyes looking at Sirius' gray ones annoyed.

"No"

"Bones Amelia!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Crabbe Vincent!"

"Slytherin!"

"Evans Lily!" The professor called as Lily put on the hat.

"Hmm.. Tough decision..." The hat whispered but Lily didn't dare say or think anything at all.

"Gryffindor!" The hat shouted at last as Lily went to join her table, Jess looking quite disappointed.

"Perfect! Now there is no way James would like another house but Gryffindor, he's extremely brave anyways" Sirius said to himself.

"Goyle Gregory!"

"Slytherin!"

Professor McGonnagal continued as the hat kept shouting houses.

"Longbottom Frank!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Lovegood Albert!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Malfoy Lucius!"

"Slytherin!"

"Pettigrew Peter!" A chubby and short scared looking blond boy approached as he tried on the hat.

"Gryffindor!"

At last James Potter's name was called and he sat down and tried the hat on which had barely touched his head when it said:

"Gryffindor!"

Finally after a few more names there were no first years students left so a smiling wizard up at the staff table stood up and smiled at them all, his bright blue eyes twinkling.

"Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! As some of you may already know I'm professor Albus Dumbledore your headmaster. I know you are tired and hungry from your long trip, yes, like I always say, everything seems so much brighter and happy when our stomachs are full. So we need to eat before talking about a so tiresome and gloomy subject as the school rules right?" Dumbledore said smiling as James and Sirius nodded in agreement. "So, let the feast begin!" He said.

The golden plates on the table filled with all kinds and types of fresh food and deserts, the cups filled with delicious pumpkin juice as knives and forks began to clatter.

The house ghosts made their appearance too and talked to some of the students as some of the first years who had never seen ghosts screamed.

Nearly Headless Nick was James' and Sirius' favorite as he was the only one with a bit of sense of humor and was the Gryffindor ghost.

Finally when everyone was full of food to their heads and where finished eating, the tables were cleaned up in a second as Dumbledore's gentle voice came again.

"Well now that we are happy and fed" Dumbledore smiled "I would like to remind you all some of the school rules Mr. Filch the caretaker gave me this year." Dumbledore said as he put on his half moon spectacles so he could read the long list, Sirius and James groaned and exchanged looks of pure gloom.

Dumbledore read the long list of rules such like:

The forbidden forest is forbidden.

You mustn't be out of your common room at night.

You mustn't be rude to prefects.

Make sure your shoes are clean as you enter the castle.

You must be at every class on time depending on your schedule.

You mustn't.

You must.

You mustn't.

You must.

You mustn't.

You must.

James and Sirius where about to have a terrible headache when Dumbledore finished, Lily was trying hard not to laugh, Beatrice looked like she was going to fall asleep, so did the rest of the school.

"Well I think that's it!" Dumbledore said cheerfully folding the long paper. "Now you may go to sleep" And with this everyone stood up and went up with their prefects to their respective houses.

"Like we are going to remind all of those freaky rules" Sirius said in a tired voice.

"I know, rules are made to break them"

"Yeah"

They said to one another.

"If you ever need help to brake those rules don't hesitate to tell me" Lily said smiling, Beatrice just stayed silent as they climbed up the changing stairs to the portrait of the fat lady where their House was. Sirius and James nodded, they were so tired they were about to collapse.

That night they slept happily on their four posters just after they made a HUGE effort to change to their pajamas.

Hope you liked it

Thanks for reviewing Jess luv ya:)

Hoping to see more reviews!