Chapter 2 - 1.2 or "Sorted"

"Wow," James breathed, his eyes wide behind his glasses. Sirius didn't acknowledge him, but simply stared – his mouth hanging open – at the castle that loomed in front of them, every window glittering with light.

The boys had been ushered into a small boat by a huge man with a warm smile. The other two boys in the boat, who they had learned were called Peter Pettigrew and Phillip Maloney, sat with them, staring up in awe at the castle they had all heard so many stories about. The rain was light and felt good on their skin, like a fine, cooling mist. The heat was bearing down on Sirius, making him long for the skies to open and pour down onto them for true relief.

But he had a better idea.

"Hey, Potter, I dare you to jump in the lake."

Every eye in the boat snapped to Sirius, who felt his heart speed up at the thought of doing something so daring, something that surely would have gotten him into a world of trouble at home. But he wasn't at home. He was at Hogwarts, and he wouldn't have to worry about his mother's shouting or his father's wand until Christmas. The dare was a freedom he had never known before, and he liked the feel of it on his tongue.

James, though, was not the one who answered. "What?" said Peter Pettigrew, a fat little boy with light hair and watery eyes. "Why would we jump in the lake? I don't even know how to swim!"

"Excuse me," said Sirius coldly. "Was I talking to you? No. I was talking to Potter, so sod off." Peter Pettigrew shrank backward, shrugging his shoulders in a way that suggested innate submissiveness. Sirius looked to Phillip Maloney to see if he would be challenged on that front as well, but Phillip Maloney just seemed confused, so Sirius turned back to James. "Well, Potter? What say you? A dare's a dare."

"No way!" said James, looking at Sirius as though he were mental.

"What, are you scared or something?" challenged Sirius, a devilish grin spreading across his face.

"No!" James said quickly.

"Oh c'mon, Potter. I thought your family was all Gryffindors…aren't Gryffindors supposed to be brave? And you won't even jump into a little lake."

James swelled up a bit at the insult. "If you're so great, why don't you jump in yourself, Black?"

Sirius's grin widened and he shrugged casually. The next second there was a splash, followed by several screams from the boats around them, and Sirius's head was bobbing in the dark water. He was laughing so hard he practically choked on the water lapping against his face.

"Come on James! Where's your sense of adventure?" he called from right next to the boat.

James looked at the huge man that was coming toward them in his boat, clearly agitated with Sirius's foray into the water. He looked back at Sirius Black's laughing face.

He stowed his glasses safely in his pocket, took a deep breath, and dove into the lake.

Sirius let out a whoop of laughter as the girls in the nearby boat shrieked again and poked their heads over the edge to peer at them. The giant man was coming toward them fast, and he was yelling something now. "Oi! You two! Get outta that water!"

But Sirius and James had started to swim toward the shore, weaving in and out and underneath the boats, making sure to splash that boy Snivellus as they swam by, laughing when they came up for air. The water was suddenly much more shallow, or the shore was much higher, because they soon felt their feet hitting the rocks, and then they were on the shore, waiting as the boats drew nearer, watching the giant bellowing at them, feeling the cool water weigh down their brand new school robes and drip into their eyes from their hair and misty rain.

And when the other boats reached the shore, Peter Pettigrew and Phillip Maloney clambered out, Peter looking at them in awe and admiration and Phillip laughing timidly at them. The giant was taking them up to the castle, each of his enormous hands holding onto the scruff of their necks. They glanced at each other, holding back laughs, and an unspoken understanding passed between the two of them.

No matter what happened, they had already shared an adventure, and it had been totally worth it.

The giant man released James for a second to knock three times on the enormous wooden door to the castle. His hand was back, holding James's collar, when the door swung open to reveal a strict-looking witch with dark hair tied tightly on the back of her head. She surveyed the group of first years that stood timidly behind the giant and then her sharp eyes fell on James and Sirius, who stood in the man's clutches, both sopping wet.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said the giant in his booming voice. "Had a bit o' trouble with these two 'ere. They thought it'd be a laugh to take a dip in the lake."

Professor McGonagall's mouth narrowed into a very thin line indeed when she heard this news. Sirius gulped, thinking that this was someone whose bad side he probably should not have gotten on already.

"Thank you, Hagrid," she said. "I shall take them from here." She gave a sharp look to both Sirius and James before turning and leading the group of first years into the entrance hall, which was the biggest room that Sirius had ever seen, and then into a smaller chamber off of the hall.

McGonagall stopped and addressed the group. "In a moment, you will all be taken into the Great Hall and sorted into your houses. For those of you who are unaware, Hogwarts is host to four houses – Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. You will be sorted into one of these houses, which will grow to become something like your family over the next seven years. At the end of the school year, the House Cup is awarded to the house that has the most points, which can be awarded to you or taken from you by staff members and prefects. I would hope that you will all strive to make your houses proud, whichever they may be."

Sirius looked around. Most of his classmates were watching McGonagall nervously. A small boy in the back actually looked like he might pass out from the anxiety. Ev and Gin were a few steps away from him, both staring intently at the professor. Behind them, Lily and Severus stood next to one another, the latter's nose still brilliantly pink and Lily's eyes flickering to it in concern. On the other side of them stood Marshall Avery, flanked by two boys Sirius knew called Rosier and Mulciber. Sirius averted his gaze quickly and turned back to McGonagall.

"You will wait here until we are ready for you," said McGonagall brusquely. Her eyes then landed on James and Sirius, neither of whom had received any new information from her speech, but who were both dripping puddles of lake water onto the stone floor. With a slight flare of her nostrils, she waved her wand and both of their robes were dried immediately. She lowered her voice as the rest of the students broke into nervous whispers. "I will deal with the two of you later, once you are properly sorted," she said, before turning and starting to exit the room. Her progress stopped, however, when she saw Severus sporting his bright pink nose. Sirius nudged James in the side and pointed at them, trying to stifle his laughter.

McGonagall was talking quietly to the boy as the rest of the first years looked on curiously. The laughter from the students became louder and louder as more of them seemed to notice the color of the boy's nose. Sirius watched as McGonagall tapped her wand and Severus's nose returned to its normal hue. McGonagall turned and looked sternly at James and Sirius before sweeping out of the room.

James let out a breath and looked at Sirius. "Reckon any first years have got in trouble before even getting to the school before?"

Sirius wasn't too frazzled by the idea, though. He shrugged. "What really can they do to us? We just jumped in the lake. It's not like we flipped all the boats or anything."

"We should have flipped Snivellus's," said James, his eyes narrowed at the twitchy boy, who was still getting odd looks from the other students.

Sirius also turned to look and laughed. "Snivellus the pink-nosed nutter. I like it."

Peter Pettigrew was standing next to the pair, listening intently to every word they said. He finally spoke up in a nervous, squeaky voice. "What houses do you want to be in?"

James and Sirius looked at him, both a bit shocked at how close he was standing to them. James took a step back and gave the boy, in Sirius's opinion, far too generous a smile. "Gryffindor. My dad and grandpa were in Gryffindor. If I'm not sorted into Gryffindor, I'm leaving."

Peter's eyes widened. "You're leaving? Really?"

James just laughed. "I'll swim right back across the lake if I have to."

Peter looked at him in awe and then turned to Sirius. "What about you, Sirius? What house are you going to be in?"

Once again, Sirius grew uncomfortable with the question, but brushed it off nonchalantly. "My whole family's been in Slytherin…I don't think any Black has ever been in anything but Slytherin, but who knows." He paused, feeling hopeless all of a sudden, and then turned back to James. "I hope I'm not with Snivelly, though. I doubt there'd be much extra space in whatever room he's in. Not only would you have to share it with him, you'd have to share it with his giant pink nose too."

James burst into laughter. Peter was looking around curiously and then started telling James reverently all about how his father had been a Hufflepuff and his mother had been a Ravenclaw, but he wanted to be a Gryffindor too, really, he always had.

Sirius tuned him out. It was true that all of his family had only ever been Slytherins. That certainly was what was expected of him as well. But he had had more fun with James Potter in the past few hours than he had ever had with anyone in his life, and he desperately wanted to be in the same house as him. Sirius's family always spoke of Slytherin with such pride and passion, but he had never found himself interested in what they were interested in. Besides, his family also used the word 'Mudblood,' and he hadn't known that was odd until the train ride. Maybe being in Slytherin was like that, too.

He realized when James started poking him in the side that the group of students was now forming a queue and exiting the room. He fell in behind Phillip and a sharp pang of nerves flittered through his stomach as the group paraded into the Great Hall. He hadn't even had time to consider being anything other than a Slytherin and it was almost time to be sorted. As he stood in front of the rest of the school, every face turned toward the new students, he attempted to dry his sweating hands inconspicuously on his robes, though it didn't seem to do any good.

Professor McGonagall was placing a very old hat atop a three-legged stool that sat in front of them. Everyone was staring at the hat, so Sirius stared too. When the brim of the hat opened and burst into song, James caught Sirius's eye and the two had to force themselves not to laugh.

The hat was telling them all about how Slytherins were so cunning and ambitious and Sirius wondered whether he was either of those two things. He had never given any thought to his future or to power or anything of the sort. The hat went through Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, singing about intelligence and loyalty and bravery, but Sirius didn't feel any of those things either. At the moment, the only things inside of him were nerves and a hearty amount of confusion.

The song ended and everyone applauded loudly. Professor McGonagall once again stepped up in front of the first years and began speaking. "When I call your name, you will step forward and place the hat on your head."

That's all he had to do. Sirius relaxed a bit. He just had to place the hat on his head and sit down. The hat would tell everyone that he was a Slytherin and he'd go to the Slytherin table and sit next to his cousins and Rabastan Lestrange and he'd be just like the rest of his family. Everything would be green and silver. Everything would be safe and sound. Everything would be as it was expected to be. He was going to be a Slytherin.

And with that thought, his heart sank to his toes. Maybe he really didn't want to be a Slytherin. Oh, why hadn't he thought about this before?

Professor McGonagall called out the first name, "Avery, Marshall," and Sirius's eyes snapped to the boy who stepped away from the group and sat down on the stool. He had brown hair and a pinched face, and he wore a sneer on his lips as if this whole sorting business were a waste of his valuable time. The whole school watched as the hat dropped over his eyes. Barely a moment passed before the hat screamed out, "SLYTHERIN!"

Sirius gulped. It was unsurprising, of course it was. He'd be a Slytherin with Marshall Avery. Maybe they'd clear the air about what had happened in April, maybe Sirius could punch the boy in the jaw and that'd be that and they could be friends again. But he watched as Avery sidled over to the Slytherin table and sat next to his cousin Narcissa and a small gaggle of her male admirers, and a bubble of dislike for all of them seemed to rise up in Sirius's throat, threatening to choke him. He forced himself to turn and watch as "Balini, Adin," a pretty girl with dark, silky hair placed the hat over her eyes. After about thirty seconds, the hat screamed out "GRYFFINDOR!" and the table to Sirius's right erupted in cheers.

He watched as the Gryffindors clapped and smiled at Adin Balini when she joined them. They all seemed much friendlier than the Slytherins, but maybe that was just because the Slytherins who Sirius knew weren't very friendly.

Nothing in the world could have prepared him for the way his heart pounded in his ears when he heard McGonagall call out, "Black, Sirius."

Shoulders thrown back, he walked steadily to the stool and sat down on it. The last thing he saw before the hat fell over his eyes was a view of the Slytherin table, where every face was straining to get a good look at the latest Black child to come to Hogwarts. Every set of ears at that table was expecting to hear the word "Slytherin" roared out by the hat.

But all Sirius heard was a little voice in his ear. The hat seemed to be talking to him.

"Another Black, eh? Well I think I know where to put you… but wait, there's something here that I've never seen from the rest of your family. Something unique. Loyalty, oh loyalty beyond measure that has yet to be explored. But Hufflepuff is not the house for you. And you have the potential to be one of the brightest students to pass through these doors. You're well beyond your years in terms of magical knowledge. But, no, Ravenclaw is not the place for you."

He closed his eyes, despite the inside of the hat being dark anyway. He didn't like it telling him what he would do or what he could be good at. He just wanted it to tell him which table to go sit at. He just wanted to be off this stool, wanted his mind to rest, wanted to prove himself to James and Snivellus and Avery and even that Peter Pettigrew. He wanted to find that girl he had seen on the train platform and to make her laugh. He wanted to get off the stool. He wanted to learn magic and explore and go on adventures with James. He wanted….

He wanted to be a Gryffindor.

It came to him like a bolt, hitting him so hard upside the head that he swayed slightly on the stool. He wanted to be different from the rest of his family. He wanted to make a name for himself and not be just another Black heir.

The hat must have felt his epiphany, for it wasn't a second later that it roared out for everyone to hear, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius grinned and yanked the hat off of his head. The applause that rang throughout the hall was scattered. The Slytherin table looked utterly stunned. He looked toward his cousin Andromeda, a seventh year, who was smiling slightly, her eyebrows raised. A few seats down, Narcissa was gaping at him, astonishment pulling at her beautiful, haughty features. He dared a look up at the Head Table, where only a few of the professors clapped, including Professor Dumbledore. The rest of the staff simply stared at him, their eyes wide.

And as he walked to the Gryffindor table, Sirius felt happier than he could ever remember.

He sat down next to Adin Balini and smiled at her. The sorting had continued, but he barely paid attention as "Cagle, Emily" became the first Ravenclaw. The hat was spitting out houses left and right, but Sirius was so ecstatic that he was sitting with the Gryffindors that he didn't even pay attention until "Evans, Lily" was called.

Sirius watched Lily as she walked toward the stool. Her walk was confident, and before the hat fell over her eyes, Sirius glimpsed the amount of determination in them.

It didn't take long at all before the hat suddenly shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" for all to hear. The Gryffindor table erupted with cheers as Lily practically ran toward the table. Sirius moved over to make room for her, but she sat down across from Adin Balini instead, smiling at the other Gryffindors while completely ignoring Sirius.

The table once again exploded with cheers as Jonathan Goomer became another new Gryffindor. Several other first years had been sorted and Sirius was just starting to wonder what they'd have for dinner when "Leigh, Ginuine," was called. A few whispers fluttered across the hall and Sirius looked up in time to see the girl from their train compartment sitting straight-backed on the stool, her chin high in the air, her eyes avoiding everyone else's.

Adin leaned over and whispered, "Her name is Ginuine Leigh? Are you serious?"

Lily's ignoring of Sirius was clearly not persistent enough to miss such an obvious opportunity. "I'm not but he is," she said, smirking and nodding toward him. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Funny, Evans. You're just one big ball of wit. Have you got it out of your system now? Can we not make jokes about my name for the next seven years?"

But Lily had evidently gone back to ignoring him. She was staring at Gin, who was still hidden beneath the hat. "What kind of nutter parents name their kid Ginuine Leigh?" she asked Adin. "That's just asking for ridicule."

Adin's answer was interrupted when the hat bellowed, "GRYFFINDOR!" Gin walked over to the clapping table, carefully avoiding Sirius's smirking face. She sat down on the opposite side of Adin and looked back up toward the hat, where "Linney, Evilee," now sat. Sirius arched his neck around Adin to get a look at Gin, but she seemed set on staring at the sorting taking place. When Ev was announced to be the next Hufflepuff, Gin deflated a bit, but still avoided Sirius's eye.

"Lupin, Remus," was called. Sirius watched as the anxious-looking boy he had noticed in the previous room made his way to the stool and sat down. He was pale and thin with dark circles under his eyes and light brown hair that was very neatly combed. He looked ill, but Sirius wondered if he was just nervous. He sat there, fidgeting with his fingers, until the hat announced him a Gryffindor. He smiled and walked over to the table, where he sat next to Jonathan Goomer, a little ways down the bench from Sirius.

Phillip Maloney became a Ravenclaw, and Sirius became more and more antsy as they moved toward the P's. Mary Macdonald and Raeanne Muller both became fellow Gryffindors and made a beeline for where Jonathan and Remus sat. When Peter Pettigrew was named a Gryffindor, however, he sat down right next to Sirius. Sirius didn't have much time to think about him, though, as James Potter had just been called to the stool.

James walked up, a confident grin on his face. A few whispers broke out through the hall about his surname. Many Slytherins craned their necks to see him, but they didn't have much of a chance to hope he would join their table. The hat had barely touched the hair that stuck up on the back of his head when it cried out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius clapped louder than anyone as James rushed toward them, stopping only to high-five a burly seventh year a little ways down the table. He threw himself onto the bench across from Sirius and did not even seem to notice when Lily Evans turned completely away from him.

Sirius grinned at him. "Nicely done."

"Cheers," said James. "And you thought you might've been a nasty old Slytherin. Puh," he scoffed, before turning toward Adin, whom he seemed to recognize. "Balini," he said, nodding politely.

"Hi James," Adin said. "Congratulations. You're dad'll be proud, I reckon?"

"Of course," James grinned. "Not that there was ever any doubt."

Several more students had their turns before "Snape, Severus" was called to the stool. He walked up to the hat with his shoulders hunched and a curtain of greasy dark hair in his eyes. James and Sirius started sniggering so loudly that several older students gave them strange looks. Lily was concentrating so hard on Snape's sorting that she didn't even seem to notice their laughter.

By the time the hat decided on "SLYTHERIN!," Sirius had his head down on the table he was laughing so hard.

"What's so funny?" Adin asked James, but both boys ignored her.

Wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, Sirius took a deep breath and looked up at James. "Bloody hell, I'm glad I'm not a Slytherin with that git. He'd probably try to curse me for breathing too loudly or something."

Snape sat down at the Slytherin table next to an older student who Sirius recognized as Lucius Malfoy and threw a look of pure loathing at James and Sirius, who were both bent over from laughing so hard.

After what seemed like an eternity, "Wilkes, Halden," was made the last Slytherin, and the hat and stool were taken away by Professor McGonagall. The applause and chatter faded out as Albus Dumbledore stood up from his seat. As soon as he was in front of them, his bright blue eyes sweeping the room, Sirius felt at peace. The kindness and power that was emanating from the headmaster was undeniable. Sirius wondered briefly why his parents had always spoken about Dumbledore with such disdain.

"Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" he said. "I have a few notices to address, but I can hear your stomachs growling from here and my words would be a poor substitute for food. So I will tell you all to enjoy."

He clapped his hands once and more food than Sirius had ever seen appeared on each table. Many of the first years gasped, but this seemed to be commonplace, as the older students all smiled and simply started digging in. Mouth watering, Sirius piled his plate with anything and everything he could reach, thrilled to be able to eat freely without the proper decorum his parents insisted on at dinner in Grimmauld Place. No father to growl at him to sit up straight, no mother to slap his hand when he used the wrong spoon for his soup. He shoveled a giant pile of mashed potatoes into his mouth and almost laughed giddily at the thought.

All of them were so intent on curbing their hunger that it was a few minutes until any of them spoke. Sirius looked to his left, where Adin Balini sat, brushing her dark brown hair behind her ear as she munched on some carrots. He grinned at her.

"I'm Sirius Black, by the way."

She looked up from her carrots and smiled brightly at him. "Yeah, I know who you are." She looked at James. "I think all the first years do now, James, I heard Emily Cagle talking about you before the sorting. I can't believe you jumped into the lake!"

James raised his eyebrows at Sirius. "It seems our reputations precede us. Which one is Emily Cagle again, Adin?"

Adin looked annoyed. "You've met her before, James, don't you remember at that New Year's ball my parents threw last year?" She pointed at a small blonde girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Emily was there."

James turned to look at the direction of her point and then shrugged back at her. "Only thing I remember from that party was being bored out of my socks."

Adin rolled her eyes and turned to Lily. "I really like your necklace, where did you get it?"

Neither James nor Sirius cared much about the conversation as the girls started chatting about jewelry. James was gnawing on a chicken leg when he looked at Sirius. "You going to try out for the Quidditch team?"

Before Sirius could answer, though, Peter chirped up. "I thought first years weren't allowed on the teams?"

"Nah, if they're good enough, they can get on the team. First years just aren't allowed brooms, which I think is a crock, but there's nothing to be done about it."

The conversation was interrupted when the burly boy James had high-fived appeared behind him, clapping him on the shoulder and grinning down at him.

"Well done, James," said the boy. "I'm sure there's a school owl being sent out with the results to your parents as we speak. Your dad'll be thrilled."

Sirius felt his stomach flip horribly. His parents would be finding out that very night that he had been made a Gryffindor. His mother's last words to him – "Do not disappoint us!" – surged through his head and he reached up to pull instinctively at the collar of his robes. What would they do when they discovered that their oldest son, the heir to the family fortune, had been sorted into the house they despised? He did not think disappointment would be a strong enough word to encompass their reactions.

"– and this is Sirius Black!"

Sirius pulled himself from his disconcerting thoughts and looked up when he realized James was introducing him to the older boy.

"Oh, hullo," said Sirius, reaching over the table to shake the boy's large hand.

"Stuart Bones," the boy introduced himself. "And are you quite sure you're a Black? I thought your lot was Slytherin all the way."

Sirius swallowed and shrugged at him. "I must've tricked that old hat somehow. I did bathe this morning, you know…maybe I wasn't greasy enough for it to assume I was a Slytherin."

Stuart Bones laughed loudly. "That's the spirit," he said, giving Sirius an approving nod before turning to walk back to his spot down the table. "You'll fit in just fine round here, I reckon."

"Stu's on the Quidditch team," James told him proudly once the boy was gone. "A Beater."

"How do you know him?"

"Oh, his grandparents are my parents' best mates, so our families are always spending holidays together and the like. His brother Eddie's absolutely brilliant, I tell you. But he's done with Hogwarts, finished a few years back. He was Quidditch Captain for a while."

"Are you going to try out for the team, James?" asked Peter.

James had now moved on to some black pudding. He nodded at Peter. "Definitely. I love flying. My dad put in a Quidditch pitch a few summers ago and I've been practicing every day since then." He turned back to Sirius. "What about you, Sirius?"

Sirius had only been flying a few times when he had been staying with his Uncle Alphard. He shrugged. "Oh…I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it."

James nodded, but looked slightly disappointed nonetheless. Peter started rambling about how he had only ever played Quidditch once, but he had caught the Snitch in three minutes before falling off of his broom. Sirius barely listened. He had spotted the brunette from the train platform sitting at the end of the table. He watched her nibble on her dinner and talk to several of the girls sitting around her, her long brown hair cascading down her back. He closed his mouth, hoping no one had noticed that he had been gaping like an idiot.

The pudding trays were miraculously empty and Lily Evans thought that she might never need to eat again by the time the fifth-year prefects called for the first years to follow them through the castle. Despite her best attempts, she had not even been able to catch Severus Snape's eye during dinner; he had kept his head turned staunchly away from the Gryffindor table as he had listened to the conversation around him. She wanted to talk to him. She needed to talk to him. But before she knew what had happened, she had been shepherded out of the Great Hall and up a magnificent marble staircase and had lost sight of the Slytherins completely.

"It's truly unbelievable, isn't it?" said the girl called Adin Balini, mistaking Lily's neck-craning attempts to spot the Slytherin as a fascinated interest in the castle surrounding them.

"Oh," Lily said, caught off-guard. She looked around at the row of portraits that hung on the corridor wall. All of the painted occupants seemed to be raising a toast to them. "Yes, yes it is."

"My mum told me this morning before I got on the train to remember it all," Adin told her as the group began climbing a narrow staircase. "She said her first night at Hogwarts is one of her most cherished memories in the world and that I should take it all in." She gave a huge yawn and then grinned at Lily. "But I'm so tired I'm not sure I'll remember any of this tomorrow morning."

Though tired herself, Lily decided then and there to not worry about Severus again that evening. She would be able to talk to him in the morning, she was certain, and she surely didn't want to allow the pall of their divisive sorting to dampen what should be a happy memory for her. The day, all in all, had not gone well. She should do what she could to salvage the end of it.

The prefects stopped in front of a portrait of an overweight woman wearing a pink dress, who smiled down at them all. The girl prefect, who had introduced herself as Hestia Jones, turned to look at the small group of curious first years.

"This is the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. The password is 'Amortentia,' but it changes regularly, so make sure you know it before leaving the portrait hole, or you won't be allowed back in."

The male prefect, a curly-haired boy by the name of Newlyn Gallit, turned to the portrait and told the fat lady the password. She winked at him before swinging open. The first years clambered in.

If Lily had thought she had felt at home in the Great Hall, it was nothing compared to how she felt when she entered the Gryffindor common room. The circular room was covered in red and gold arm chairs and cushions. Study tables lined the walls. The windows were large and covered the walls so that she could see the stars and the moon quite easily from where she was standing. The fire roared unnecessarily on the hot night, but she didn't mind, as it gave off a sense of comfort and coziness that she never thought she could feel in such a short time and she drank it in, wanting it to wash over her after such a long and trying day.

She watched as Newlyn led the boys up the staircase on the left. The girls were following Hestia up the one on the right and she hurried to catch up.

"It turns into a slide if a boy tries to climb it," Hestia was saying. "Apparently, the founders found boys to be less trustworthy than girls. Supposedly there's a way around it, but nobody that I know has ever discovered it," she added with a grin.

Adin raised her eyebrows at the prefect. "But we can still get up their staircase?"

Hestia just laughed and opened the door that had a sign on it reading 'First Years.' "If you can stand the smell, I guess," she said with a wink.

Lily followed Adin into the circular tower room and was shocked to find that her trunk was already at the foot of a handsome four-poster bed.

"Get some sleep tonight, girls," Hestia told them. "Tomorrow's the first day of lessons and you want to be on your toes for them, I promise." She left the room, closing the door gently behind her.

The first thing Lily did was take off her shoes with a satisfied sigh, her feet throbbing with exhaustion. The second thing she did was pop open her trunk and pull out the worn, stuffed unicorn named Cobb that her father had given her years ago. There was a nagging temptation to crawl into her bed at that very moment, to pull the red velvet curtains that hung around the four-poster closed and to hide from the world. But as Adin said, it was their first night, and it was worth an effort. She tucked Cobb against her, looked around at the four other girls who she would be spending the next seven years with, and she decided that being social on this night trumped anything else – even sleep.

Adin was sitting cross-legged on her bed, a Cheshire grin on her face as she watched the other girls begin to unpack their trunks. "Okay, okay," she said, and the others all stopped their movements to look up at her, "I think introductions need to be made. No sleeping until we all know something about one another."

One of the girls, who had light brown hair pulled back into a thick ponytail, smiled at Adin from across the room and then went back to tacking up a powder blue poster above her bed.

"See?" said Adin, jumping off her bed to walk closer to the girl. "I already know something about you now and you haven't even said anything. You're an Arrows fan!"

"Arrows fan and proud of it," said the girl, admiring her poster before turning to Adin. "I'm Raeanne Muller."

Lily stared at the poster, which showed a group of wizards in blue robes zooming around on broomsticks. Severus had told her about the wizarding sport Quidditch, though he had spoken of it derisively and said only the numbskulls were interested in it. But Raeanne Muller didn't look like a numbskull to Lily.

Adin, too, was looking closely at the poster. "I'm Adin Balini," she said, somewhat distractedly. She pointed at one of the wizards. "And that Arrow is rather good-looking, isn't he?"

Raeanne grinned and nodded. "Jedidiah Cuffe. He was just picked up by the squad last year."

"I don't follow Quidditch," said Adin, hopping back over to her own bed. "But maybe I'll start if more players look like that! My little sister's a Puddlemere supporter, and she'll be coming to Hogwarts next year…"

The girl opposite Lily with a blonde plait down her back interrupted her. "How do you know?"

Adin stared, clearly confused by the question. "How do I know what?"

"Sorry, I was just curious as to how you know that your sister will get into Hogwarts?" the girl said softly.

Adin still looked confused. "Because why wouldn't she? No one in my family has ever not gone to Hogwarts."

The girl blushed and looked down at her fingers. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know that's how it worked. I thought everybody waited for their letter to find out." She paused a bit awkwardly before giving Adin a cautious smile. "I'm just a bit out of the loop, I guess. I didn't even know Hogwarts existed until I got my letter last month."

Lily had the urge to hug the girl. Severus had told her that being Muggle-born didn't matter, but everyone else already seemed to know everything, and this roommate of hers was the only other Muggle-born she had yet met.

"Don't worry, I'm Muggle-born too," Lily said, smiling kindly at the girl. "My name is Lily Evans."

Relief flushed the girl's face as she looked at Lily. "Thanks. I'm Mary Macdonald."

"Well we'll just have to figure out this place together, won't we?" said Lily.

Raeanne paused in digging through her trunk and looked up at them, startled. "Hey now, I'm from six generations of witches and wizards, I have a brother in third year and a brother in fifth year, and I still have no idea about this castle!"

"Yeah, me either, come to think of it," said Adin.

Lily laughed and hugged Cobb more tightly against her stomach. "Well good then, we're all on the same page."

"Raeanne," said Adin, grinning widely, "you didn't stop talking to that Gryffindor boy all evening! Who was that?"

"Oh, that's Goomer." Raeanne waved a dismissive hand. "He's lived down the street from me for forever. Our parents are friends, so we've grown up together."

Adin seemed quite intrigued by this bit of information. "Really? Is he your boyfriend?"

Raeanne wrinkled her nose in distaste as she extracted some pajamas from her trunk. "Ew, no way!"

"Well good," said Adin, flopping back on her bed dramatically. "That leaves him for one of us!"

Lily giggled at Adin's audacity, though she had no interest in Jonathan Goomer, and hadn't even noticed which one he was. She turned to look at the girl called Gin, who she had met at dinner, but who had remained fairly quiet throughout. She was lanky and blonde and was sitting on her bed with all her limbs crossed, watching the other girls as if slightly entertained.

"What about you, Gin? Are you from a wizarding family?"

Gin opened her mouth to respond when Adin sat up suddenly and cut her off. "Wait a minute, first you need to tell us about your name."

"What do you mean?"

Raeanne and Mary, both in the middle of changing into their pajamas, froze and looked up at the two girls.

"I mean is your name really Ginuine Leigh?"

"Well I sure hope so, or else I've been answering to the wrong name my whole life," she said, her expression mildly annoyed.

Adin looked taken aback. She leaned over the end of her bed to start digging through her trunk. When she looked up again, her eyes were apologetic.

"Sorry, I just had never heard of anyone named that before. And when you say it all together, it sounds like…"

"Yeah, I know, don't worry about it," mumbled Gin. "My mum's a bit barmy."

Lily laughed and looked at Mary. "So many people here have the most unique names, don't they? That prefect's name was Newlyn and I sat with a boy on the train called Sirius -"

Adin popped up again, excited once more. "Oooh you sat with Sirius Black? He sat next to me at dinner and he is so cute!"

The other girls just rolled their eyes and laughed as they finished changing, taking turns to use the lavatory and listening to Adin prattle on about all the cute boys she had seen. And when Adin's voice had faded out and the only sound in the room was the deep breathing of her slumbering roommates, Lily stared up at the canopy above her, her mind whirring. She thought of Severus and wondered where he was at the moment in such a vast castle, wondered whether he had made an effort to be social, wondered if his roommates were as nice as hers.

And then, for the first time in hours, Lily allowed her mind to wander to her sister Petunia, and it felt as if a deep hole opened in her chest, threatening to swallow her up. Her sister, with whom she used to jump streams and play dolls and fight over who got to lick the pudding spoon. Her sister, who would let Lily kip on the floor of her room after a nightmare, but never in the bed with her. Her sister, who had stood on the train platform that very morning, and had called Lily a freak instead of hugging her goodbye.

Lily had not asked for this. She had not asked to be whisked off to a magical school with an enchanted ceiling and trick staircases and handsome four-poster beds. She had not asked for the ability to do magic any more than Petunia had asked for the ability to do up her hair in perfect pin curls. She felt as if she would fall asleep and wake up tomorrow in her creaky old bed in Cokeworth, the castle and the train and even Severus all snatched from her, leaving nothing but the taste of an odd and exciting dream lingering on her tongue.

But at least she would have her sister back.

Across the tower, Remus Lupin followed Newlyn, the fifth-year prefect, up the boys' staircase and into a circular room, where he discovered his trunk laid out at the foot of a four-poster bed, next to the bed which had been designated for a boy called Jonathan Goomer, whom Remus had met at dinner. Remus watched with wide-eyed astonishment as two black-haired boys started shooting sparks at each other from the ends of their wands, laughing fit to burst. The other boy he hadn't met yet, the pudgy one, climbed atop his own bed and cheered them on.

Remus ducked his head, not wanting to be caught staring, and clicked open his trunk to search for his night clothes. He was quite used to exhaustion, but the type he was feeling now was different than the aching fatigue he felt every month around the full moon. Now he felt as if his nerves had frayed all the way to their very ends, leaving his eyes droopy and his legs rather shaky.

As surreptitiously as he could muster, he peered up at the two boys, who were now standing each on their own beds, dueling as if they had not a care in the world. The thought now crossed Remus's mind that he must be very behind in his spellwork. He had started reading his school books with fervent excitement as soon as they were purchased, but his father had told him that he wasn't allowed to do any magic before starting at Hogwarts. These two boys, though, had clearly been practicing. Remus averted his eyes, trying to quell a rising panic inside of him.

"Oi! Watch it there!" shouted Jonathan Goomer, whose curtains had nearly been set aflame by some of the sparks from one of the boys' wands. The duelers paused and then simultaneously collapsed on their beds, giggling tiredly.

The one with the glasses lolled his head over the side of the bed and looked up at Goomer, his face upside-down. "Sorry about that, mate. Didn't mean to almost get you."

Goomer smiled at him. "Not a problem. Just next time let me in on it so I have a chance to defend my territory."

The boy swung himself right-side-up, his face red from his inverted position. "I'm James Potter, by the way."

"I'm Jonathan Goomer, but everyone just calls me Goomer, and I know who you are. And you," he said, indicating James's dueling partner, "are Sirius Black. You're the ones that jumped in the lake."

The boy called Sirius Black was unlacing his shoes, but paused and grinned up at them. "I think that's going to be our names from now on. Sirius Black and James Potter – the thickies from the lake. Has a nice ring to it."

The pudgy boy tittered loudly at this from his perch on his bed, but nobody seemed to be paying him any attention at all.

"I'd hope we could find some better nicknames for ourselves sometime in the next seven years," said James, looking inexplicably at Remus. "What do you reckon?"

Remus felt his mouth go very dry as everyone turned to look at him. "M-me?" he stuttered. James nodded and raised his eyebrows, clearly waiting for a response. Remus fidgeted, trying to think of an appropriate reply. He didn't have any experience talking to boys his own age, but his mother had told him to be himself. "Well…I guess I reckon that 'Thickie From the Lake One' and 'Thickie From the Lake Two' don't really roll off the tongue very well."

Both James and Sirius laughed loudly at this, and Remus could not stop the pride that swelled within him.

"I want to be One!" James told Sirius. "You can be Two, Black."

Sirius finally got around to removing his shoes and chucked them onto the floor unceremoniously. "What's your name, anyway?" he asked Remus.

"Remus Lupin," he squeaked.

"Nice to meet you, Remus," said James, clapping him on the shoulder as he walked toward the lavatory. "And we'll leave those new nicknames up to you."

"Think you can handle it?" Sirius asked, his eyebrows raised innocently.

Remus licked his lips and shoved his hands in his pockets, so that none of the other boys would notice they were shaking. "Shouldn't be too hard to outdo 'One' and 'Two.'"

"That's the spirit!" said Sirius.

James and Sirius talked animatedly with one another as all of the boys prepared for bed, though neither said another word to Remus until he was pulling the heavy red curtains closed around his four-poster.

"G'night, Remus," came the voice of Sirius Black. "And don't worry, we'll find a nickname for you too."

Remus shivered, burying his face into the cool softness of the unfamiliar pillow. He had struggled all day trying to reconcile what his parents had told him that morning. His father had pulled him aside after breakfast and had instructed him to keep his head down and his focus on his studies, had warned Remus to not draw any attention to himself, lest the other students find out his secret. This, his father had said, was the only way to keep them all safe and to ensure that Remus would be able to get his education. His mother, on the other hand, had hugged him tightly on the train platform, and had whispered to him to be himself, to make friends, and that he was no different than any of the other boys, not really. She had smoothed his hair and gazed at him with tears in her eyes, had told him how proud she was of him, how the other students would be lucky to call him their friend. But Remus did not know how to be a friend. With the exception of a few Muggle cousins whom he saw once or twice a year, Remus had never been around other children…at least not since before. And he could not remember before, not other than a few blurry recollections that he was not convinced were more than misplaced imagination.

And so Remus Lupin laid in the darkness, awake long after the breathing of the other boys had become deep and slow and even, thinking of the many, many nicknames that Sirius Black could bestow upon him, and longing desperately for home.