This chapter is like twice as long as the others, but I didn't know where to cut it. Anyways, enjoy! Thanks for the reviews! (And sorry for my rhyming skills during the Sorting!)

I wear sophisticated clothes, I say sophisticated things;

Everything about me says I'm a sophistication king

But when I'm with you, can't seem to find my cool

Yeah when I'm with you -- I'm just a dribbling fool!

When the train stopped, the trio left together, unsure of where to go. "Firs' year's over here! This way! Firs' year's!" a voice boomed over the crowd of swarming students.

"That's us," Remus said, taking ahold of his luggage and moving in the direction the voice was coming from. James and Sirius followed.

The crowd slowly cleared to reveal an incredibly large man standing over multiple boats lying on the shore, a lantern attached to the stern of each. "Merlin, that man's a giant!" James whispered to Sirius and Remus. "That must be Hagrid -- I heard he's a halfbreed. I wonder --"

"Let's get a boat before they're they're all gone," Remus said swiftly, interrupting James.

It was four to a boat, so they would have to share with one other person. Just as they'd found a boat and Remus was asking if they could join the mousy-looking boy in it, James suddenly froze and elbowed Sirius hard in the stomach. "Ow!" Sirius yelped. "What was that for?!"

"That's her," James said breathlessly, pointing. "Lily!" Sirius turned to see two girls getting into a boat together with two macho looking boys. One girl had flaming red hair and was rather pretty, but it was the other girl Sirius was staring at. She had long auburn hair, slightly curly at the bottom, and a natural tinkling laugh he could hear all the way from where he was. She was beautiful. That must be Lily, He thought to himself. It's a pity James has got her.

"Oi! Lily!" James said again, but louder this time. Both girls turned around, identical expressions of dislike on their faces.

"What do you want, James?" the one with auburn hair called.

"I said Lily!" James answered back, and, to Sirius' surprise, sounding rather flirtatious. "And unless that's your name..."

So she's not Lily! Sirius thought hopefully. He felt a strange flutter in his stomach. The brown haired girl laughed, and the flutter got worse. "Always so sweet, that boyfriend of yours," she said to the girl Sirius figured was Lily.

Lily turned bright red. "He's not my boyfriend!"

"He'd like to be, though!" James called out to her.

Out of the corner of his eye Sirius saw Remus desperately trying to hold in a laugh. Remus caught his look, and grinned. "He's always such an idiot around her!" he said, not bothering to keep his voice down. "It's funny!"

James whirled around. "Excuse me?!"

Sirius turned back to the girls. "Oi! You! What did you say your name was?" he called to the brunette.

She turned around, looking surprised. "I didn't," she called back, "but it's Anthea."

Anthea... "Nice name," Sirius told her. "Greek?"

Anthea replied, "Thanks, and no, it's British. What's your name?"

"Sirius," Sirius said.

Anthea opened her mouth to say something else, but Lily tugged on her sleeve. Instead she smiled. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Sirius." With that, she climbed into the boat and turned her attention away from him.

"Sirius! Get in here!" James called to him. Everyone was already in the boat except him.

"I -- yeah," Sirius stuttered, climbing into the boat just as it started moving.

"Careful -- not like that!" Remus yelped as the boat began rocking furiously. "Sit down!"

Sirius sat with a thump. "Sorry," he said.

"Sirius, Peter, Peter, Sirius." James said, motioning towards Sirius and the boy with the mousy brown hair in turn. "Any questions?"

Remus was looking at him oddly. "What?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing," Remus replied, shaking his head. "Look at that!" He pointed out into the lake, where there was a disturbance in the water.

All four boys crowded to the edge of the boat. "What is it?" Peter asked in fascination.

"I think it's the giant squid," James said. "Mum told me about it." They watched in awe as a large tentacle surfaced, followed by a huge eye for the briefest of moments.

"That was wicked," Sirius said when the squid had disappeared. "Think we'll get to see it again?"

James shrugged. "Dunno."

"We're coming up to the castle!" Remus reported excitedly.

They looked up, expecting a mediaeval sort of place but nothing in their wildest imaginations prepared them for what they saw. "It's beautiful," Sirius whispered, his eyes widening as he took in the view.

"Absolutely," Remus agreed.

"Everybody off the boats!" Hagrid called from somewhere off ahead. "When yeh all reach shore get in ter two lines!"

Their boat hit the sand with a scraping sound, and they climbed out. James nudged Sirius again. "What?" Sirius asked.

"There's Lily," James said. "Let's go catch up with her." He raced off into the crowd, and Sirius tried his best to follow, excusing himself multiple times as he bumped into other people. When Sirius finally caught up, James was already immersed in conversation with Lily, and completely ignoring him. Sirius looked around in dismay, wondering what to do now.

"Sirius!" Sirius whirled around to see Anthea coming up behind him. "Hello!"

"Hi, Anthea!" he greeted her back.

She finally reached his side. "This is exciting, isn't it?" Sirius nodded. "Which house do you want to get into?"

For once Sirius found himself at a loss for words. What if he chose the wrong house? What should he answer? What if she liked Slytherins? Don't be a bloody idiot, he scolded himself. Just tell her! "Gryffindor," he blurted out before he could stop himself.

To his surprise, she smiled delightedly. "Me too!"

Sirius felt his speech coming back. "Has anyone else in your family been here?" he asked.

"No," she answered. "I'm the only one. You?"

"Pretty much everyone in my family." Sirius refrained from saying what house they'd all gone to, and luckily Anthea didn't ask.

They chatted for a little while longer, but their conversation was interrupted by a tall woman in long navy blue robes trying to get everyone quiet. "I am Professor McGonagall," she said. "the head of Gryffindor house. In a few moments you will all be entering the Great Hall, where each of you will be Sorted into the appropriate house by the Sorting Hat. Is everyone ready?" There was a general murmur of consent. "Good. Let's get started then." On that note, the professor opened the doors to the Great Hall, and so the sorting began.

Way down at the end of the hall was a worn, frayed hat perched on a stool. As the students filed in, it opened its brim to speak;

There are four houses in this school,

They all make up a whole.

And those united are not fools,

For to stay united is our goal.

The courageous house of Gryffindor,

Placed there for the bold and brave,

And the friendships formed inside that house,

Are ones that never cave.

There is the house of Ravenclaw,

For intelligence that shines,

A sort of brightness every day,

The kind of brilliant minds.

There is also the house of Hufflepuff,

Made with those forever fair,

The house that accepts you for who you are,

Not who you were here or there.

Last remains the house of Slytherin,

Whose wit surpasses all,

Their logic shall befuddle you,

But at the end shall break your fall.

So which house is the house for you?

Are you smart, or kind, or can't you choose?

Lucky for you, that's why I'm here

To decide which house you'll be in this year.

So place me on your head,

Don't be shy,

I've chosen hundreds of people already.

"How old is that hat, I wonder?" Peter asked when it finished.

James shrugged. "Old."

"I heard it's like a person, though," Remus said thoughtfully. Sirius looked at him questioningly. "it has moods, and it's personality changes from time to time."

"...Your point?" asked James.

Remus looked at him and shrugged. "Nothing, really. Just thought it was cool."

"Do we have to stand here until every single person is Sorted?" Anthea asked, standing on her tiptoes to see over people's heads.

Sirius nodded. "Looks like it."

They settled down to watch and wait for their names to be called. "Alberini, Zane!" A handsome kid with curly light brown hair worked his way up through the crowd. He climbed the stairs with a confident look on his face, sat on the stool, and placed the hat on his head. But the confident look on his face quickly evaporated, to be replaced by a nervous look. Suddenly -- "Gryffindor!" the hat yelled out, startling Peter beside Sirius.

Remus laughed as Zane jumped up, looking happy beyond words as he joined the Gryffindor table. "Hope I'm that lucky," he said.

After that Sirius somewhat zoned out, clapping along with everyone else when people were Sorted but not really paying attention. What if he wasn't that lucky? What if everyone got into Gryffindor but him, and he went to Slytherin? "Black, Sirius!" Sirius jumped.

"That's you, mate!" James whispered excitedly, shoving him forwards. Sirius stumbled up the stairs and sat down on the stool. He placed the hat on his head.

"A Black...interesting." a sly voice whispered in his head instantly. "Normally I would say Slytherin -- as I'm sure you know," it added as Sirius winced. "But you appear to be a different case. Hm...where to send you? You're not friendly or fair enough to be in Hufflepuff --"

Hey! Sirius thought.

"--and you are intelligent, I suppose, but you don't seem quite right for Ravenclaw," the hat continued, ignoring him. "then all that's left is -- Gryffindor!" it yelled out. Sirius simply sat there for a moment, slightly confused. But then he gathered his senses, leaping off the stool with joy as he realised he'd gotten into the house he wanted. He ran off to join Zane, who was motioning for Sirius to sit next to him at the table.

"This is bloody brilliant!" Zane exclaimed as he sat down. "I've never seen anything like it! You're Sirius, right?" he added.

"Yes -- and you're Zane? That's such a cool name!"

Zane laughed. "Thanks --" His stomach growled suddenly, incredibly loud. "Sorry," he said in an apologetic voice as Sirius burst into laughter. "Whenever I get hungry it does that. Wish the sorting were over already, I'm starving!"

Sirius glanced at Professor McGonagall reading out the names. "We're only on C!"

"Oh, I know, I know!" Zane whined. "It's not fair!"

"Cauldwell, Anthea!" Sirius sat up straighter in his seat.

Anthea walked calmly up to the stool, placing the hat on her head. She sat there for a few minutes, looking quite reasonable and in control. Finally, the hat yelled out, "Gryffindor!" She took it off and bounded away fro the platform, sitting down next to Zane.

"Hey Zane, Sirius!" she said happily. "This is so cool!"

They waited longer, Sirius drifting off here and there, only to wake up again when a familiar name was called. "Evans, Lily!"

Lily took about twenty seconds to be Sorted into Gryffindor. "Lupin, Remus!" Remus barely sat down when the hat yelled out Gryffindor. "Pettigrew, Peter!" Peter took a little bit longer, but in the end also went to Gryffindor. "Potter, James!" James was about the same as Remus -- he got Sorted into Gryffindor fairly quickly.

When they had all sat down together at the Gryffindor table, and the king's feast had bloomed out of nowhere, Anthea suddenly asked, "What did the hat say to you guys?"

"Hmmphgh," James said, a large buffalo wing in his mouth already. He held up his hand, signaling them to wait while he swallowed a huge bite. "Didn't say very much," he said once he'd finished. "just, 'oh, another Potter!'" He took another large bite of buffalo wing.

"Charming," Anthea said sarcastically as sauce was mushed all over his face. "That'll get you the ladies." James grinned.

"The hat didn't say much to me either," Remus said. "it considered Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but only briefly."

"It considered those for me too," Lily said, staring at James with a look of disgust and wonderment on her face simultaneously. "How on earth can a boy such as him fit so much into his mouth in one bite?!" Indeed, James had just managed an entire slice of mutton into his mouth without even chewing.

"Moving on," Zane intervened, "It considered Hufflepuff for me, but then said I was way more of a Gryffindor."

"It didn't consider Hufflepuff for me for more than a second, and the same with Slytherin. Ravenclaw took a bit longer, but barely. It thought I was a Gryffindor pretty much from the start." Anthea told them.

Sirius reflected on this. "You took a long time, though -- three minutes or something."

Anthea shrugged and looked away, but not before Sirius managed to catch an odd look in her eyes. "It wanted to be absolutely sure, I guess."

Sirius shrugged as well. "It considered Slytherin for me for a second. Told me I wasn't smart enough for Ravenclaw! It decided on Gryffindor pretty fast."

Anthea nodded. "What about you, Peter? You've been awfully quiet."

"It considered Slytherin for me too, that was it. Then it said Gryffindor." Peter replied.

"It's funny how people can have two sides to them, which makes them part of two of even the most separate houses, like Gryffindor and Slytherin," Lily remarked.

"Dessert time!" James shouted suddenly. The leftovers of their dinners all disappeared from their plates, leaving them sparkling clean, and any kind of dessert one could ever desire popped up down the middle of the table.

"Nice!" Zane exclaimed, grabbing for the nearest treacle tart. "I love these!"

After dinner they were all led up to their dorms. Sirius found, to his delight, that he was sharing a dorm with all of the boys he'd already made friends with; Zane, James, Remus, and Peter. There was an extra bed which turned out to belong to a cheerful looking boy named Frank Longbottom. Quite an unfortunate name for someone so nice, Sirius thought.

They all talked to each other while they unpacked -- James and Zane brought out massive supplies of wizard candy, and Peter showed them the Giant Book of Quidditch, which fascinated Sirius and James beyond words. All the boys went to bed that night very late -- they were too excited for the next day to go to sleep properly. Especially Sirius, who spent much of the night thinking about a particular she...

They've finally reached Hogwarts! Yay! (Please review!!) Next chapter is: Classes Commence!