DISCLAIMER - I'm not J. K. Rowling. Wish I was but no, sorry. She owns everything.
A few minutes passed, but eventually the door to the great hall was opened and the students stumbled in, in single file. The room was huge, and the night sky was reflected on the ceiling. Sirius stared in astonishment as he saw clouds slowly gliding across the heavens. On the floor of the hall, there were four tables with students sat at them, one for each house. Sirius noted where the Slytherin one was, after all that was where he would be going. There was also an elevated platform, where the professors were sat, so as to look over the members of the school.
The witch that had allowed them into the castle had placed a stool at the front of the room, and on top of it, a tattered, torn old hat, the type which Muggle children wear on Hallowe'en. To the shock of some of the new students - presumably Muggle-borns - one of the tears in the hat opened, like a mouth, and a song was heard around the hall. Sirius wasn't listening though. He was too busy gazing at his new surroundings, his new home. He could see his cousins. Narcissa was sat with a grin on her face, talking to a boy who looked slightly younger than her, he was wearing a prefect's badge and therefore must have been in at least fifth year. His hair was a similar colour to Narcissa's, only it was a little lighter. They could have been siblings, but obviously weren't. Sirius's other cousin, Andromeda, was staring dreamily at a boy sat on the Hufflepuff table, who apparently hadn't seen her. He had a jolly face, and his mouth was slightly ajar as he stared intently at the sorting-hat, as if it was singing directly to him.
Sirius hadn't caught much of the song, it was something about the four houses and their qualities. Gryffindor - courage. Slytherin - cunning. Ravenclaw - brains. Hufflepuff - hardworking. It had finished before he knew it, and there was a short round of applause until the stern witch stood up again, and the hall was silent. She had a scroll of parchment, with the names of all the new students on.
"Arkly, Robert," was the first name she read out. A boy stepped forward, looking petrified. He sat on the stool and after around half a minute had passed the hat spoke. "Ravenclaw!" The boy ran over to the table, where he was greeted by a great round of applause.
"Black, Sirius." Sirius moved, knowing what was coming. He sat down slowly and placed the hat over his head. It slid to just below his ears and began to speak to Sirius. He realised that no-one else was able to hear the words that were being spoken to him, after all, he hadn't heard anything when Robert Arkly was in his position.
"Ah, another Black." The hat spoke calmly, with a man's voice. "I fear you do not belong with the rest of your clan. You are braver than most, and do not share the pure-blood values that the House of Slytherin prize. Therefore I shall have to place you in GRYFFINDOR!"
The last word echoed around the great hall, and was followed by gasps of shock and surprise. All the Black's were in Slytherin, it had been that way forever. But the hat had said Gryffindor, so, hesitantly Sirius walked over to the Gryffindor table, every eye watching him curiously. He sat down and glanced very quickly at the Slytherin table, where Narcissa looked horrified, as though she was a little girl who had just been told that the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist. Sirius dared not look for too long, and decided to stare at the goblet in front of him. There had been no clapping for Sirius, or at least, he hadn't heard it. The ceremony continued (Bones, Edgar, "Ravenclaw!" Charleson, Alice, "Gryffindor!" etc) until eventually it reached Remus.
He went forwards and sat on the stool, where he sat for a few minutes until eventually he joined Sirius in Gryffindor. He sat down next to his friend, and smiled happily. There were now six people in Gryffindor, four girls and two boys. The girl off the train was there, her friend had looked horrified when she had been sorted. She was talking to the other girls, apparently unaware of how annoyed Snape was. Another girl was sorted there, Mary MacDonald, and then the boy from the boats, his name was Christian Nettles, joined Hufflepuff. A short, mousy-looking boy called Peter Pettigrew was sorted into Gryffindor, and he looked very pleased with himself. he ran over, but stumbled over a Slytherin girl's leg and fell over, head first. This made almost all of the school laugh at his expense, but he just got up and carried on to the table, sitting next to Remus. The next person was James, who ran forwards excitedly, and sat down happily on the stool. The hat screamed, "Gryffindor!" almost instantly and he ran over just as happily as Peter had, but managing to avoid the leg of the girl. He sat next to Sirius and whispered, "told ya," which Sirius smiled at.
The ceremony went on, Sirius noted that Severus Snape was sorted into Slytherin with no hesitation from the hat, but eventually stopped when Duncan Zandy joined Christian Nettles at the Hufflepuff table. The Headmaster, Dumbledore, then stood up and said a small speech after which the plates laid on the tables burst into colour with hundreds of different dishes. Sirius shovelled piles of food on to his plate, and then ate with complete disregard to the table manners displayed by normal members of society. Some of the older girls were looking at him in disgust, but the younger females were staring at him for other reasons. He was, after all, extremely handsome. He smiled at the girls whenever he took a break from eating, and this put a lot of them off. His teeth were filled with all sorts of multi-coloured pieces of all varieties of food, and this wasn't quite as appealing as his gleaming grey eyes.
After the main course came dessert, which Sirius ate just as enthusiastically. His favourite seemed to be chocolate fudge cake; which James had seen him grab at least five pieces of. The feast seemed to go on for hours, and when it finally finished everyone was exhausted. They were led upstairs by a prefect called Marlene and taken into the Gryffindor common room, which was concealed behind the painting of a fat witch in a pink dress. She had asked for the password, "Beedle," before swinging forward to reveal the room beyond. It was circular, clearly in one of the towers, and decorated in red and gold, the colours of Gryffindor, not that anyone was paying it much attention. The boys climbed the stairs to the left of the room and found their dormitory, where they collapsed immediately and fell into a deep sleep.
A/N - I don't really like this chapter very much, but I did my best. With any luck the next chapter should be MUCH better. I have some very interesting ideas for their first day (you can't see me but I'm doing an evil smile). Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you really gave my confidence a boost. Please keep on R&Ring...