The first year students waited outside the Great Hall nervously with pin drop silence. Sirius Black was perhaps the only first year who stood confidently, perhaps even arrogantly. After all, he was trained to keep his composure at all times as a Black.
But the truth was he was also scared on the inside. He had just met his first friend who wasn't a cousin. It also seemed like he made his first enemy too. He met a half-giant and travelled through a rough lake with a huge octopus in it, on a flimsy boat. Clearly this school didn't pamper their students. He was far away from home for the first time without his parents and brother. It wasn't far off to say that he was out of his comfort zone. And now he would be sorted into his house, which would define him for the next seven years.
In the loud silence, he thought about the sorting. Everyone expected him to be a Slytherin. All Blacks were in Slytherin, at least all Blacks worth mentioning. His family practically owned the house. And he did want to go in the same house as his father. The house of the successful. And yet…he thought of his cousins and wholeheartedly did not want to be like them. Besides, going to Hogwarts for him was a new beginning; it was a chance to do something he wanted and to be his own person. Was he really just going to be another Black? What if became like Lucius Malfoy?
The door opened, and the strict professor named McGonagall who had just gave them a talking to beckoned them through the door. The noise in the hall was loud as students were eating their dinner cheerily, without any concerns for the first year. Sirius gulped as he walked forward with the first years.
He suddenly seriously missed Regulus. He acted tough about the parting throughout the summer, but suddenly he felt like crying. He was homesick.
But then he remembered his promise to Regulus. He would help him when he joined later. And he couldn't do that if he was a sniveling coward. No, he would be brave. No matter what the sorting hat decided he was going to be brave.