After the preliminaries and the feast, a prefect took us to the Gryffindor Common Room. It was a nice little room, with a crackling fire and two separate stairways to the girls' and boys' dormitories. I walked up one, closely followed by Emmeline and Molly. Lily and Andromeda had hit it off, and stayed downstairs, deep in the middle of a debate with Brianna Jorkins.

I looked around. Then I chose a bed next to Emmeline, and saved another for Lily. Pulling the curtain around my bed, I bade everyone goodnight and lay down. But I didn't fall asleep until what seemed like hours later. I was pondering the Sorting Hat's decision.

The next morning came so quickly, I could hardly believe that it was six o'clock. (We didn't have to wake up so early, but I was just used to getting up at six.) I quickly got dressed, and saw Sienna struggling to be let into Lily's bed. "Come with me," I coaxed her, and she followed me out of the dormitories. I was planning to go on a walk around the school and explore, but froze upon entering the Common Room.

Sirius Black was seated on a chair, reading Hogwarts, a History. When he saw me, he frowned. I guess that he was still angry about the whole Severus thing. It wasn't like I cared about being friends with him, but I didn't want an enemy, so I forced a smile.

"Been up long?" I asked. He shook his head, looking confused at my friendliness.

"I just woke up, but I wanted to read this book before school started. James and I have decided to find out every nook and cranny and secret in this school, and supposedly, this book will help. What about you?"

I shrugged. "I also wanted to explore, but I wanted to do it when everyone else is asleep."

He jumped up. "Cool! How 'bout James and I come?"

I didn't really want him around, but if it was necessary for him to stop hating me... "Okay. Is he awake? I don't want to wait around for him. I've only got another forty-five minutes till the castle wakes up."

"I'll wake him up." Sirius vanished up the steps to his dormitory, and reappeared a moment later with a sleepy James.

We walked out of the Common Room awkwardly, but soon overcame our shyness and started banging on walls, checking if they were hollow, and opening doors to empty classrooms. I walked to a picture of a fruit bowl and rapped it. It was hollow! I excitedly motioned to James and showed him the painting. He ran his fingers over it, and the pear started to squirm and giggle. We jumped back, and the door swung open.

"Sirius, we've found something!" James shouted. Sirius came dashing up and stared into the room.

"House-elves?" he said, looking confused. I peered in behind him. I had seen very few house-elves, but there were more in that room than I would probably ever see.

"The kitchen!" James said gleefully. I now noticed the heaps of pots and pans and came to the same conclusion James had. Of course, my first impulse wasn't to do what he did, which was to run to the nearest house-elf and ask, "d'you have any extra food?"

The house-elf looked delighted, and almost immediately, a couple of others came running to us with all sorts of pastries and sweets.

"Hey, thanks," Sirius said to one, wolfing down a Danish.

"Always happy to serve," it squeaked.

"Not like our house-elf," Sirius told us. "Kreacher hates me and never obeys me!"

"Why don't we go back to Gryffindor Tower and share those with some other people?" I said pointedly, watching the two boys stuff themselves.

We did so, but I hung in the background, watching everyone else beg Sirius and James to tell him where the food came from. We may not have been enemies anymore, but that didn't necessarily mean I wanted to be friends.

James and Sirius walked to breakfast, handing out sweets to anyone who they passed. Peter Pettigrew looked awed when he received a muffin, though two Slytherins, Evan Rosier and Bellatrix Black, just rolled their eyes in disgust. I noticed that Sirius glared at Bellatrix with extreme dislike and muttered something in James's ear.

"D'you suppose that's why he's in Gryffindor?" I asked Lily. She looked strangely at me, and I realized that I had been thinking, rather than speaking aloud. Then I also realized that Andromeda was with us, and she was Bellatrix's sister. I shut up very quickly. I hadn't quite gotten the laws of tact down pat yet.

I hurried to the Gryffindor table and saw Sirius gesture for me to sit with him. I ignored his motion and sat next to Remus. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Peter get up from the Hufflepuff table and sit where I was supposed to be, and start up a conversation with Sirius. He turned away, disgusted, but James smiled at the simpering kid!
=========== Peter had latched onto James so quickly, that in three weeks time, he was part of the most popular clique of first years. James seemed to enjoy the attention, and though Sirius had despised Peter at first, he put up with him for James's sake. Remus Lupin, though (in my opinion) too nice for that crew, was befriended by Sirius, and by October, was a known "Marauder" as some called James's crew.

It was strange- about Lily and me, I mean. Though we had been practically attached for eleven years, we now drifted apart. She, Andromeda, and Harry Whitby were best friends, whereas I hung out with Emmeline and Molly. Actually, they were best friends. To me, they were the sort who I'd sit with during meals, but during my free time, I was happy to be alone. Sometimes I'd just wander around the grounds, other times, I'd watch Quidditch teams practice on the Quidditch field.

I got to know Rubeus Hagrid, the big man who had led us across the river on our first day at Hogwarts. He was the gamekeeper, because he had been expelled some twenty-five years earlier. He also loved animals, especially big, dangerous ones. Hagrid loved telling me about the pet Acromantula he had had years ago. Sienna, who liked following me around more than Lily, was terrified of Hagrid's dog, Dragon.

One afternoon at about dusk, Dragon chased Sienna right out of Hagrid's hut. She raced away, and I followed. The spooked cat continued to run, all the way to the Whomping Willow that had been planted at the beginning of the year. I chased her, trying not to worry about the powerful branches swinging around me. Lily would kill me if anything happened to Sienna! The cat made it to the trunk and relaxed. She started to sharpen her claws against the tree calmly. Suddenly, a big branch hammered me down, and I tasted blood in my mouth. Another branch was coming close, and I shut my eyes, expecting the worst. Instead, it froze right above me.

I stared disbelievingly at the tree. Then I looked at Sienna, who was now scratching a knot on the tree blissfully. Shrugging, I approached the Whomping Willow. There was a big gap between two roots, and if I squinted, I could see a distant light. Without even pausing to think, I crawled through the roots.

There was a low tunnel below; I crawled through it for a while, Sienna right behind me. Eventually, we came to a small opening. Inside, I saw, we were in an empty room. There was a shut door next to me, and I opened it cautiously. I gasped.

Remus Lupin glared at me. "Get out!" he hissed. "I don't know how you got here, but it's going to get dangerous in a few seconds. Shut the door and run!"

I backed away. Suddenly Remus went rigid. All his limbs began to shake, and his head started to lengthen. "You're a werewolf!" I gasped, suddenly understanding.

Already almost wolf, Remus made two signs with his hand- a finger on his "lips" and a quick mock slash across the throat. I got the concept- no telling. Running out the door with Sienna on my tail, I mused about my discovery. Maybe I could see Sirius or James being a werewolf, but Remus was too nice for that. Odd...