"Firs' years over 'ere!" a loud, deep voice called. The station was horribly crowded; James couldn't see around the hordes of students gathered around the train door. He had lost Sirius long back; the black-haired boy had run off to say hello to one of his cousins. Judging by the way Sirius had spoken about his cousins, he could not understand why he would voluntarily visit one.
James walked towards the gruff voice, blindly following its sound. Soon enough, he came to find its owner; a large, large, man with a scruffy beard and kind eyes.
"Well, 'ello there!" he cried when he spotted James. "I take it yer a firs' year?"
James nodded quickly, still startled by the man's height. His dad had never mentioned anything about this guy.
"Well come on then!" the large man said. "I'm Rubeus Hagrid, by the way. Keeper of Keys and Grounds 'ere at Hogwarts."
"That's nice," James said, scanning the crowd for Sirius, whom he spotted chatting with a blonde girl. "I'm gonna go- over… there."
He waved a hasty goodbye to Hagrid and jumped in the boat with the blonde and Sirius. "And who is this?" he asked the latter.
"This is…" Sirius paused, and turned to the girl. "I forgot your name."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm Marlene McKinnon," she told James, who grinned at Sirius' absentmindedness. "And you are?"
"James," he replied.
Marlene smiled at him, and turned back to Sirius. "So you're telling me that you're going to cut class first thing tomorrow?"
"Yep," said Sirius, grinning devilishly. "First thing tomorrow."
"And you expect me not to tell the teachers?"
The grin faded from Sirius' face. "Ah," he said. "I didn't really think about that."
James snorted.
"I'm gonna tell," Marlene said, smirking. "First day back and you'll get detention."
Sirius pouted.
They reached the other side quickly enough. James hopped out first, followed by Marlene. Sirius bided his time, taking a few stretches before getting out.
"What house do you wanna be in?" James asked Marlene as they were entering the castle.
"I dunno," Marlene replied earnestly. "I suppose being a Gryffindor would be alright. I hear they're super brave and stuff."
"I wanna be a Gryffindor," James said, adjusting his glasses, which had become crooked on the boat ride. "They're super brave and stuff."
"That's what I just said," said Marlene, looking at him. Then she looked up. "Hey, look, a professor."
James looked up as well. A tall, bony witch in emerald green robes came gliding down the staircase, holding a scroll of parchment in her hand. She had a tall, pointed hat to match her spectacles, which gave off an slight aura of imperiousness.
"Good evening to you all," she said when she reached the bottom. "I am glad to see that you have found yourselves friends here at Hogwarts. I am Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress and your Transfiguration teacher.
Soon you will find yourself sitting with your fellow classmates in the Great Hall. But before we do that, we must complete the Sorting Ceremony. The Sorting Ceremony will separate you into the four Houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. This House will be your 'family' during your stay at Hogwarts. Good actions will earn you House points, while rule-breaking shall cost you. At the end of the year, the Houses compete in the House Cup. The House with the most points shall win it. Now, if you will follow me into the Great Hall, we shall begin your ceremony." McGonagall finished and turned her back to them, leading them into the Hall.
"That was a lot of words," James whispered to Marlene, who laughed silently. "I don't think I kept up."
"You've got to pay attention," Marlene said. "Otherwise you'll never pick up anything!"
James laughed as they entered the Great Hall, then stopped abruptly. It was a huge room, big and open with four long tables lined up in it. There sat the older students, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs and Slytherins and Ravenclaws, all watching them get sorted.
"I didn't realize there would be this many people," James whispered. Butterflies flew around in his stomach. Marlene nodded slowly.
His stomach churned. He looked at the Gryffindor table, decked out in reds and golds, and then at the Slytherin table. Their cold faces stared back at him.
McGonagall led them to the front of the hall, where a small stool with a hat perched on it stood. James observed the hat.
"Abbott, Lukas!"
James watched the first boy go up to the stool and sit on it. The hat came to life; it started to talk. His dad had omitted this from his lecture about Hogwarts.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" it cried. James took a step back.
"Avery, Orpheus!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Awxley, Lena!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Black, Sirius!"
Black, Sirius? James had heard of the Black family before; they were Dark Wizards, the lot of them. Of course, Sirius had said his entire family was in Slytherin. James shook his head. If Sirius was a Black, then they couldn't be all that bad.
The hat was still making its decision. James could see Sirius' small, pale face sticking out from underneath it.
Finally: "GRYFFINDOR!"
The whole Hall seemed to quiet just a little bit. Many heads turned at the Slytherin table as Sirius took off the hat, placed it on the stool, and walked over to the Gryffindor table quietly. James saw their expressions change from shock to hatred as he took a seat. At the staff table, many of the professors looked surprised.
McGonagall called another name. "Evans, Lily!"
The redhead from the train walked up to the stool. Now that James had gotten a better look at her, she was actually quite pretty. Her face, golden and freckled from the summer, was small and heart-shaped, with a curtain of fiery red hair framing it. She was on the shorter side, much like James himself, and walked up to the stool with a nervous spring in her step.
Maybe the biggest thing he saw was her eyes. They were green like the grasses that grew in his backwoods, green like the leaves on the sycamore trees in front of his house. They were hard to categorize by color; they seemed to flash and change shades every so often, James thought.
James watched the hat be placed on her face, which looked even smaller under the large Sorting Hat. There was a long pause; James could see Lily's eyes darting around uncertainly under the hat. Then:
"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat cried, and James couldn't help but feel relieved. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Severus look at his feet. James smirked.
More names were called. A pudgy boy was sorted into Slytherin, a very, very tall girl went to the Hufflepuff table, and a few joined the Ravenclaw table.
"Lupin, Remus!"
James looked up- he had heard the name Lupin before. It had been his dad after coming home from a meeting at the Ministry, saying something about a man named Lupin.
A lanky boy walked up; he was limping, James could tell. His left foot dragged slightly on the floor, making it so that he leaned to the right side a bit. James couldn't see his face, but the back of his head was covered in golden-brown curls.
When he turned, James' eyes widened. His face was covered in long scars; silver, white, pink. Where could he possibly have gotten those?
Well, he could ask later. He watched Remus Lupin sit on the stool and wait quietly, keeping his eyes down.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Another Gryffindor, James thought as Remus walked over to the Gryffindor table. His stomach tingled with anticipation; he was coming up soon.
"McKinnon, Marlene!" went to Ravenclaw. James watched her go. After M came P.
He thought he was next. When McGonagall opened her mouth to call the next name, he had already started walking up there.
But the name wasn't his. Instead, "Pettigrew, Peter!"
"Whoops," James muttered to himself, stepping back to let Peter Pettigrew through.
Peter's sorting also took a long time; James was beginning to get annoyed- why couldn't he just be Sorted already?
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat cried.
Finally, James thought. Every muscle in his body seemed to have tightened all of a sudden; he was tense, very tense.
"Potter, James!"
James gulped and strode up to the stool. The Hat looked much, much bigger up close. Intimidating.
James shook himself slightly. Why was he intimidated by a hat? Was he that much a coward? He didn't think so.
James put the Hat on.
Not even as soon as he'd put it on did the Hat go:
"GRYFFINDOR!"
I stole some of these names off of the Harry Potter wiki, so credit to the makers of it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and there will be many more to come. The next chapter is Sirius' PoV, so it will be a little bit different. I used my take on Sirius and kind of- broke- past his usual smirking self and went a little more in depth into his family fears.