September 1, 1971

Waxing Gibbous

The bile rose up, burning like hot, sharp knives in Remus Lupin's throat as he stumbled and shoved his way through the crowd of students disembarking the Hogwarts Express. The platform was small and dark and hundreds of students were pressing out of the train and into each other as Remus raised a pale shaking hand to swipe his fringe out of his eyes. He wasn't sure he would make it off the platform without vomiting. Suddenly, a large warm hand, the size of dustbin lids found his shoulder. "All right there, Remus?" a booming voice sounded a distance above Remus' ear.

He looked up. And up. It appeared that the man's body would never end and Remus would never see his face, when finally, beetle black eyes squinted down at him from behind matted wiry beard and hair. Words failed him completely. "Dumbledore asked me to keep an eye out for ye. Afraid ye might be feeling a bit down with—" The man stalled for words, scrunching up his face. "—count o' the crowd and all." With a quick smile he raised his brows and gestured for Remus to move forward, before booming out. "Firs'- years! Firs'- years, over here!" and raising a lantern to show the way.

Following closely behind the oversized man, Remus stumbled up a dark little path, the other first-years snuggling in close behind. The man glanced down at Remus. "Rubeus Hagrid. But ye can call me Hagrid. I'm the Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts." Remus gave a quick nod and tried to swallow down the bile again rising in his throat. Hagrid turned his voice to the stumbling students behind him. "Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years, follow me." The path darkened even further and Remus tried to make out the what ran alongside the edges of it, settling on a dense packing of trees. "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a see," Hagrid called out, and Remus focused his attention ahead.

They rounded a bend and a collected wave of awe rang out amongst the first-years. A great black lake spilled out before them, leading up to a high mountaintop on the other side. Perched atop was the vast castle Remus had stared at hundreds of times wishing with all his soul he'd one day get to see. The turrets and towers were filled with windows that sparkled back the starry skies above.

Remus promptly vomited.

The boy at the front of the line vomited, a green sickly color that made Peter Pettigrew very relieved he hadn't nervously eaten all of the snacks the other boys in his compartment offered him along with the sweets he'd brought from home. Especially considering in front of the boy being sick stood a fleet of little boats floating atop a very dark lake. Peter inhaled slowly and closed his eyes. This was going to be bad.

"No more'n four to a boat!" bellowed out the giant man in the lead, after helping the now extremely pecky boy into a boat to be shared with the man. Peter suddenly felt even more ill than he had prior. This would be just like picking teams at muggle school—no one would want him and this time he didn't even have the hope of the teacher helping him out, as there was already someone more pathetic than he.

He hesitated. The other students scurrying toward boats quickly, each forming little four student groups as if they all had some sort of telekinetic power that Peter had been born without.

"Pettigrew!" the specked boy from the train called out and Peter jumped. "Come on, you're with us!"

A warmth spread throughout Peter that he had never felt before. Friendship. Maybe he had made a friend.

Sirius Black glared at messy-haired boy to his right. "What'd you invite him for?" It was a gut response. It was obvious from the time the compartment door slammed, Pettigrew was a one wit wonder. James and Sirius outmatched him in every way. Intelligence. Money. Family. It just didn't make sense that James continue to build a friendship with someone so blatantly below them.

Running a hand up into his hair, ruffling it even further, James scoffed. "Because we don't want—" his eyes cut across to the crying redhead and her sniveling companion making their way toward the boats "—that in with us." James pretended to gag and Sirius barked out a laugh.

"Thanks so much," Peter panted hauling a leg over into the boat and James rocked it. Peter stumbled into the water his left leg drenched.

Biting back a laugh, Sirius playfully slapped James on the should. "Watch it, James!" James was red faced trying to feign innocence. Peter stared at the two his heart sinking. They were just making fun of him. And then, James reached out a hand and tugged Peter into the boat. Peter breathed a laugh of relief. It sparked and the laughter boiled over, spilling out of James' mouth until it caught fire, the three boys were soon howling with it.

The sternest face James had ever saw greeted him and the other first-years as the door to the castle swung open. She nodded a brisk, "thank you, Hagrid," before dismissing the man completely pulling the door to the castle wide. Admitting his mother was right being a very hard thing for James to do it took him a moment to do so. She was exactly right; the castle was—awe-inspiring. The Entrance Hall appeared to go on forever, with ceiling heights one couldn't quite make out and a marble staircase that shifted above them. Preventing James from further perfecting his gapping face impression the stern-faced woman guided them into a small room off the hall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said the woman. Her eyes peering out amongst the students in a way that made James feel as though she were assessing their abilities for rule-breaking. "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you will be allowed to take your seats in the Great Hall, you must be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a time honored ceremony within the Hogwarts castle. It is important to you because while you are here, your house will be like your family. You will attend classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitories, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin, each with a noble history of its own. While you are at Hogwarts, any of your triumphs will result in being awarded points to your house, and any rule breaking—" the Professor's eyes seemed to linger on James at these words "—will end in losing house points. The house with the most points at the end of term will be awarded the House Cup. I am sure you will all do your best to be an asset to your house." James was positive her eyes did not linger on him at the end of her speech and instead rested on the pale boy who had been sick by the boats.

James glanced at Sirius, who appeared rather stern himself. "Wotcher, Sirius."

"I'm going to do it, James." Sirius told him tonelessly. "I'm asking for Gryffindor."

A bright smile spread across James' face. "Well, you go first. I'll ask for Slytherin, if the dumb hat doesn't listen to you." Sirius beamed.

Sirius stared upward at the ceiling as they entered the Great Hall. His elder cousin Andromeda had told him multiple times to make sure he wasn't too busy being pompous to appreciate the magic that had been used to turn it into the night's sky. Mapping out the constellations as the line of nervous first-years made their way across the Hall gave him an air of cool the others could only hope for. It wasn't until James nudged his shoulder that Sirius felt a twang of anxiety at all the eyes staring at him.

"This is so cool!" James whispered. Or said less loudly than normal. Sirius wasn't sure James knew how to do something as quiet as whispering. Sirius nodded in agreement.

The hushed voices of the students eyeing the first-years halted as a worn hat and a three-legged stool was brought out. Everyone stared at it. Sirius could immediately tell the students with the magical backgrounds to those without. The red-haired girl from the train looked absolutely baffled. A dusty cough sounded out of the brim of the hat before and the girl jumped.

"Oh, though I am old and shabby,
and to you, I may seem gabby,
I'll have you know,
There is no other hat, like me."

The hat couldn't hold Sirius' attention for longer than its introduction. Poetry and rhyming had never been his thing. He gazed passed the hat and up at the high table where the professors sat. He felt his heart bang against his ribs as he found himself staring into clear blue eyes behind half-moon glasses. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster. The circles in which Sirius' family associated despised him and Sirius trained response was to be wary. But the longer he stared, the more at ease he felt. There was a kindness in those blue eyes Sirius wasn't sure he had ever seen before.

"Black, Sirius," Professor McGonagall called out and Sirius jumped. He thought he saw the corners of the headmaster's lips twitch upward but couldn't be sure as his feet propelled him forward.

The hat flopped down around Sirius' ears, obscuring his view of the hall and the students staring at him. Contemplating all of the older students here that he found himself acquainted with and the snide looks assuredly cast his way, Sirius discovered the blindness comforting rather than disconcerting. I want to be in Gryffindor, he thought boldly. The moments ticked by and nothing happened. Positive that something should have happened by now, Sirius' palms began to dampen in nervousness. What if asking meant the hat wouldn't choose a house and turn him out of the school completely for being so insolent? Panic settled in and Sirius raised his hands to remove the hat.

"Not to pleasant to be ignored, now is it," the hat chuckled coolly in Sirius' ear.

"Sorry," Sirius thought pathetically and the hat laughed.

"This will be fun," the hat continued to chuckle before shouting out to the hall, "Gryffindor!"

Remus knew nerves and anxiety were the things that should have been filling his mind as the names being called neared his own. However, his stomach was turning, his head throbbed—as if his brain were fighting to escape his skull, beating up against the bone mercilessly. He pulled at his hair as tears welled in his eyes. Stumbling slightly, he bumped into the person next to him.

"Alright, mate?" asked the thin boy beside him.

With a forced nod that made the world spin, Remus smiled. It was a wobbly smile. The kind of smile a hapless drunk gives before collapsing in his own vomit. The boy did not look convinced but returned to staring ahead.

"Lupin, Remus," was called and Remus tried to stand up straight with pride. Like his dad would have wanted.

His gate was slow, as he slipped passed the other students, squinting against the flickering light of the candles lighting the room. The unsteady glow of light making his head spin further causing dancing sparkles of color before his eyes. A gasp of relief fled Remus' lips as he reached the stool. It was as if he ran a marathon to get there.

The darkness that consumed his sight as the hat fell over Remus' eyes was the first pleasant thing he experienced since leaving the little boats on the lake. He sat in the perfectly black silence and suddenly wished for home.

"Interesting. Very curious, you are." The words tumbled into Remus' mind from nowhere. "Can't say I have ever sorted someone like you before."

Unable to bite back his thoughts, Remus angrily snapped, "Despite my illness, I've made it here. So please refrain from patronizing me further. I could have waiting until after the moon, had I wanted to allow it to get the best of me. Sort me and be done with it."

The hat giggled. "Silly boy," it retorted. "As if I was speaking of your affliction." Before Remus could respond, the hat shouted and Remus' ears rang with the sound.

Dizziness almost over took him as the brightness of the room entered Remus' eyes as the hat was removed. He hadn't even heard what the hat had screamed as pain pierced through his skull and he blinked about the room. Blinking back the pain, Remus forced himself to focus on the loudest table and move his feet that direction. Red and gold.

Peter was trying desperately not to cling to James' shirt sleeve, as he had been asked and the told to stop several times already. But really, he had never been so nervous in his life. Crowds didn't really bother him, but crowds staring at him were an entirely different thing all together. And Pettigrew was drawing nearer every second.

"Come on, Peter. Let go." James demanded, extracting his sleeve from Peter's sweaty grasp. "Get. A. Grip."

Stuffing his hands in his pockets in another vain attempt to stand alone, Peter glanced down at his feet. Well, there went his only friend.

"Pettigrew, Peter," came far too quickly and Peter tripped over his laces as he made his way through the crowd. Several people snickered and Peter blinked back tears.

Unfortunately for Peter, the hat did not fall passed his ears. Instead it sat upon them, as they stuck out a bit farther than most and he was forced to stare out into the crowd.

Peter sat. The hat thought.

One minute passed by.

And another.

Peter sat. The hat thought.

At the three-minute mark, the hat said, "Tricky."

Another minute.

"Any suggestions?" the hat asked.

Peter's cheeks reddened, "Well, I might have made a friend who is in Gryffindor?"

The hat sighed. "Gryffindor!"

James Potter didn't think he would regret the loss of Peter Pettigrew clinging to his arm, but he found himself suddenly a ball of nerves without the distraction. Luckily, he only had to sit through Peter absurdly long sorting and one quick shout for Hufflepuff before his own name was called.

Determined to see out in to the crowd, James puffed up his hair and tried to fill his head with air. It didn't work, but it didn't matter. The hat only sat on his head for a mere five seconds before shouting out, "Gryffindor!"

James leaped from the hat after the announcement and ran across the hall toward Sirius. "Thank the stars! I was scared my vow earlier was going to land me in Slytherin!" He slid into the seat next to Sirius as the other boy let out a bark of laughter.

"Mr. Potter," a voice rang out and James looked up. "The hat, please?"

James flushed and offered up the hat to the professor.

Author's note: I'm so sorry about the delay in updates. I don't have an excuse. I'm still sorry though. Anyways, hope you enjoyed.