A stroke of red and gold
After everyone had finished with their meals Dumbledore rose from his seat and with a wave of his arm the tables were suddenly clear of all the empty plates and platters. He walked over to the golden pedestal at the front of the hall and began to address the students before him " Now that you have all been well fed and watered it is time you make your way to your house dormitories, however first I would like to say a few words: as you may be aware Hogwarts has acquired a new tree called a whomping willow, this tree is very rare and Hogwarts is lucky to house one; be warned that if you stumble too close to this tree you may find yourself taking a trip to the hospital wing or in the worst cases, St Mungos. Our caretaker Mr Filch has asked me to remind you that casting spells outside of the classroom is strictly forbidden and the dark forest is strictly forbidden to all students unless told otherwise. On a happier note quidditch team trials will be held in the second week of term, prefects, please escort the first years to their common rooms and I wish everyone a goodnight, sweet dreams" As he broke of the whole hall erupted into applause and cheers before departing to their dormitories.
"Gryffindor first years this way please" called a tall red-headed girl from across the hall "Quickly now, follow me please" a smaller blonde-haired boy joined her and together they started to heard the small group of Gryffindor first years out of the great hall and out into the entrance hall. With the great masses of students flocking out of the hall it was difficult to keep the prefects in sight. Sirius turned to James only to find him weaving his way through the crowds towards the rest of the first years; sensing this was his only way out he grabbed the end of James' robe before it vanished and allowed himself to be pulled along through the students.
Following James through the crowds was like walking blindfolded through an overgrown forest trail, students were hitting Sirius from every which way and it was hard to keep a hold of James robe, at this point Sirius was beginning to think that apparition would be his preferred method of transportation than this. After a few minutes of twisting and ducking they had made it to the edge of the hall where the prefects were standing with the other Gryffindor first years. Sirius was glad to see that he and James were not the only ones to have been caught up in the crowd as two small brown-haired girls emerged rough and breathless from the swarm.
Once the prefects were sure they had everyone they started to lead the way up the staircases to the common room. Now that they had eaten dinner Sirius was looking forward to climbing into bed and drifting off into sleep but the journey to the Gryffindor common room was a long journey all the way to the seventh floor and his legs were heavy as lead. Every inch of the walls surrounding the maze of staircases was covered with paintings, whenever they found themselves waiting for a staircase to change positions you could talk to inhabitants of the portraits.
Once they had reached the seventh floor, the prefects led them down a long corridor to a large portrait of a fat lady in a silky pink dress, she looked up at the first years with a curious expression painted on her face almost like she was examining them, once she had overlooked the small group of Gryffindor's she looked back to the red-headed prefect and boomed "password?" To which the prefect replied "Shrivelfig". At once the portrait swung forward, revealing a round hole in the wall, they all scrambled through it and disbursed out into a round cosy room filled with squishy old armchairs sitting around a blazing fire, the Gryffindor common room.
The prefects directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another, at the top of the spiral staircase they found their dormitory at last. Five four-poster beds draped with deep-red velvet curtains lay neatly made around the room, all of which had a trunk in front of it except for one. James headed straight for the end bed by the window and immediately started changing into his pyjamas, Sirius took the bed next to James and began to search his trunk for his pyjamas. As Sirius hung his robes up next to his bed the dormitory door swung open slowly and two other boys entered cautiously.
The first of the two boys to enter was a small scruffy boy with short mousey brown hair and shallow brown eyes; following him came a taller boy with neat light brown hair and piecing green eyes, his skin was pale and even though he was only young he looked even more tired and worn out than everyone else. "Hey, I'm Sirius and this… is James" he said, pointing towards the collapsed lump on the bed which was James. Both boys seemed resistant to talk but Sirius was surprised that it was the taller boy that answered. "I'm Remus and this is Peter" he a slight smile crept across his face as he addressed Sirius "I see that there's no trunk at the middle bed, I guess that means it's just the four of us" he said breaking eye contact and made his way over to the bed adjacent from Sirius'.
After a long day, once the boys had changed into their pyjamas and climbed into their beds the dorm was filled with Remus' soft snores. As soon as Sirius' head hit the pillow, sleepiness began to run through his whole body and within minutes, he was drifting into sleep but then it suddenly dawned on him. He was the first and quite possibly the last of the Black family to sleep in this dormitory, by the time morning came he would be the first Black to wear the Gryffindor tie between his robes but by doing this was he also unknowingly dangling a noose around his neck?
No. It was about time there was a stroke of red and gold entwined in the Black family tree. And with that thought laying fresh on Sirius' mind, he fell asleep within minutes.