Standing beside Remus in front of two large doors, Lucy was frightened at the thought of sorting. Would she be placed into Slytherin? The house of horrid people like what her father had told her? Or maybe Hufflepuff, which her father seemed to laugh at heartily whenever he mentioned the house?
She looked to the large hourglasses filled with crystals, red, green, blue, and yellow. House emblems lined the base of each, a snake, a lion, a bird, and a badger. What they were for, Lucy didn't know, but they were pretty and provided her enough distraction from the impending sorting.
The double doors opened slowly, a booming voice reverberating within the grand hall. Floating candles littered the ceiling depicting a magical image of the night sky. Rows and rows of large tables took up most of the room, another taking up the front where sat old witches and wizards smiling fondly at the newcomers.
"Now, we begin the sorting!" the old man on the podium announced, giving leave to another woman much younger than he yet with as much grace. The woman stood proudly by the podium, donning dark green robes with a large witch hat.
Lucy stood to the side like the rest of them, nervous to the point that she might have become sick. "Ampen, Georg," the woman announced, a boy from their flock walking unsmiling towards a stool where sat a beaten and battered hat.
Lucy gasped as the hat spoke, the wizarding world never ceasing to amaze her at every turn of the clock. It spoke a few whiles and announced quite loudly, "RAVENCLAW!"
A table from the ranks broke into roaring cheers as the new addition made his way to the table, a smile on his once nervous face.
Lucy looked to the rest of the first years with her, seeing them all looking less nervous than what she supposed she looked. A couple more students made their way to the hat, being sorted as the hall echoed loudly with pubescent cheers.
"Black, Lucy." The woman announced.
Lucy felt a nudge at her side, Remus looking down at her with a comforting smile. "She called you," he whispered, eyes moving to point at the witch and the Sorting hat. Lucy took a deep breath, casting a glance at Remus before making her way to the stool.
She sat there in front of the entire population of the school, all staring and wondering where little Miss Lucy Black would be placed. She felt a weight placed suddenly on her head, a voice speaking to her in her mind no doubt.
"A Black again I see," the hat muttered, humming to itself, "where to put you, where to put you. Slytherin would be an option; after all, you Blacks have a history of being in Slytherin."
Lucy wondered what he had meant by that remark, her father surely couldn't have been a black and she certainly had no cousins she knew of from his side. The hat chuckled softly, "naïve of your lineage, I see. Courageous, biting wit, I sense great ability from you, child. Decisions, decisions…you'll just have to be…"
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat bellowed, causing a table to erupt in thunderous cheer. They shouted and screamed as their first addition came to them, a small smile on her face as upperclassmen patted her in the back as a congratulations.
"Welcome to Gryffindor!" one said, smiling down at the little girl. She smiled back at the rest of them, finally turning to the sorting as another Black came to sit.
The raven haired boy matched closely to her own crop, same dark eyes yet with a brooding air of superiority about him. She wondered if he was one of the other Blacks that the hat had mentioned during her sorting, but it seemed unlikely as she had no cousins of her own. Her father and mother were only children if she recalled correctly.
But another loud cheer from Gryffindor broke her from her thoughts as the raven haired boy sat across from her on the table. She felt his gaze lingering intensely on her, one which she tried rather hard to ignore. Turning finally to the boy, Lucy mustered up her courage, "hi, I'm Lucy Black," she said, giving a shy smile at the boy.
The other Black sneered at her, crossing his arms as he turned to watch the sorting once more. Remus had been sorted into Gryffindor as well, sitting beside a girl named Lily Evans. Lucy managed to talk quite well to Lucy Evans, forgetting for a brief moment her other friend who sat a person away.
She felt the glare of the boy again, but to save her from further embarrassment, she ignored it once again. Once the sorting was complete and the feast much the same, the group made their way to where they would be housed for the next seven years.
Lucy tried to remain as far from the boy as she could, opting to stick with Lily and Remus as much as she could. She wondered if she should ask them why that boy Sirius was still looking, rather, glaring at her, but thought against it in fear they'd say that she was merely over-reacting.
Upon the next day, classes began quite joyfully for the First Years, the Gryffindors having a subject called Charms together with some Hufflepuffs. That same morning, Lucy had received a letter from her father, the boy Sirius receiving a red envelope which was not foreign to Lucy, as a Howler. Sirius had run quickly outside the hall, choosing to open the letter where fewer could hear the screaming taunts of his mother dearest.
Lucy looked to where the screaming was but thought nothing more of it as she read the letter her father had sent.
"Luciana,
Congratulations in being placed into Gryffindor. As for whether you had any cousins you did not know about, I'm sure you know well enough that there are none.
Your mother sends her love.
Lucien."
It was a typical letter from her father, a straight to the point message written in his graceful pointed long hand. It was foolish of her to expect anything more of an emotion than pleased with her father's letter; he was never much of an emotional man, after all.
Pulling her mind away from the memory, she focused on Charms as their miniscule professor began to teach a levitation charm to them. She had no cousins, as what her father said, and she would believe him on the basis that it was her father who said it.
Lucy managed to levitate her feather; alongside Lily Evans who and both rewarded ten points to their house as being the only ones who had managed to do it in class. This success was received with a scowl form Sirius Black as he had only managed to make his little feather twitch for a moment. Maybe this wouldn't be as promising as year as she had hoped.
Lucy came to finish her first day, finding herself in the Common Room and choosing to avoid dinner for the sheer reason that she wasn't that hungry. She had met the rest of the Gryffindor first years during the day, being partnered to a James Potter for Potions and a stumbling Peter Pettigrew had accidentally thrown a hex down her way during Defense against the Dark Arts.
Lucy didn't understand why the Slytherin first years seemed to hate her so, but an upper class man named Artie Weasley explained how Gryffindors and Slytherins were the main opposing houses in Hogwarts. Though it explained much of their disdain, why two older girls seemed to hate her so was still a mystery.
"Oh," a voiced said from behind her, making her jump in surprise.
She muttered an 'ow' under her breath as she rubbed her elbow that had hit the table hard. Waiting for the tingling pain to dispense, Lucy turned to see the cause of her embarrassing mishap, maybe not bringing out the insufferable temper she inherited from her father but still giving a lecture like what she had gotten from her mother.
Standing by the staircase leading up to the boys' dorm rooms, Sirius Black stood there with all his haughty glory. "Hmph," he hummed, moving to retreat back to the boys' room, but Lucy had been bothered enough by his rude demeanour.
"What the bloody hell is your problem?" she said, the fire of the Lucien Black temper she had inherited refusing to be extinguished any longer.
Sirius Black turned back to her, an eyebrow raised and a scowl gracing his face, "you are," he replied daringly, glaring at the girl.
"Why? What did I ever do to you?" she asked, getting up from her seat on the floor. In her hand, she gripped her quill tightly, the feather trembling at the pressure.
"You mean you don't know me?" he asked, looking amused for once since Lucy had seen him at dinner a night ago. He stepped closer to her, his daring intensifying at the challenge that Lucy was presenting.
"Should I?" she asked, crossing her arms in distaste.
"I assure you that you should, after all, I am your cousin on your father's side," he said, grinning at the shocked look on her face.
Lucy was taken back at the response, not comprehending what he had just said. Cousin? She had no cousins. Her father said she had no cousins. Even her mother said she had no cousins. But now this boy, this insufferable little boy dared to contradict the word of her own father?
"I have no cousins," she spat at him, daring for him to continue.
"Is that what he said?" he replied incredulously, "I suppose that's what your blood-traitor father really would say considering the family had disowned him." Sirius was enjoying the look of astonishment on the girl's face, and Lucy knew that.
"Your father was once the head patriarch of the Black family after my grandfather and his brothers had died, but then he decided to go mad and marry that Muggle mother of yours," he sneered, laughing as though he had made a jest.
"What? Can't speak? I'm not surprised. If I found out that my father was a dishonoured blood-traitor and I, his spawn, surmounting to nothing more than a mudblood, well, I'd probably go and off myself the muggle way, since you'd probably end up no better than that Muggle whore mother of yours," he taunted, doing more harm possibly to him than to her.
Lucy was conflicted, hearing the news which she greatly did not expect. This was a lie, it had to be, her father would never hide such an important thing from her, and of course he wouldn't. Looking at Sirus' smirk, her rage flared inside of her. That last bit of jest had pulled her from what little control she ever had.
With a quick reflex, her wand was drawn, "Stupefy!" she shouted, a jet of lights erupting forth from her wand. Sirius was thrown back hard into the far wall of the staircase, his body ricocheting off it and rolling down the steps. He groaned in pain as his blurred eyes tried to take in the situation, he had pushed her he knew, but she deserved it as much for being who she was: a half-blood, a smudge on the superior race that were wizards.
Lucy raced up the stairs, slamming the door shut as she dived for her bed. Tears were falling freely from her, the emotion that had built up inside of her breaking as she cast the defensive spell on the stupid git that was Sirius Black.
Her cousin, one made from partly the same flesh and blood. And she couldn't stand the thought of being related to him or any one of his family.
She cried herself to sleep that night, ignoring the calls of Lily and shouts downstairs as students filed in from dinner. Lucy was just too tired, far too tired to deal with any of the trouble she had caused. Consequences would catch up to her, but consequences could wait until tomorrow.