Chapter Text
“Who d’you reckon he is?” James hissed. “R.J. Lupin” Sirius immediately responded.
“How d’you know that?”
“It’s on his case,” shot back Sirius.
The short, scrawny, scruffy looking boy with large scars spanning the width of his face kept his eyes firmly shut, as the three boys stopped to stare at him.
“Well should we wake him…?” Peter added timidly.
“Go on Sirius, dare you to poke him” replied James.
“Why me?! Get Peter to do it!” Sirius replied in a panicked whisper.
“Yeah, go on Peter!” “Come on Peter!” he and James whisper-yelled, grabbing Peter by the arms and attempting to pull him from the corner where he sat towards the mysterious Lupin.
Sirius was sharply pulled from his antics as from the corner of his eye he saw the boy’s right eye flutter open for a moment. He froze, unsure of what to do next. He began frantically elbowing James, whispering “Is he… looking at us…?” At this James dropped Peter’s arm and whipped round to stare at the boy as well.
The boy sheepishly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times to adjust to the yellowish light in the compartment. The three boys sat, staring at him, and there was an awkward pause before James said “Uh, hi there, I’m James, James Potter” while Sirius simultaneously jumped in with “So what does the R.J. stand for?”.
The boy took a shaky breath before answering. “Hello James Potter, I’m Remus, Remus Lupin, and as for the J” he said turning to Sirius “Its John, but please don’t call me that…”. “I’m Peter… P-Peter Pettigrew” Peter mumbled shakily. “And I’m Sirius, Sirius Black”. There was a pause as no-one really knew what to say.
James broke the silence first. “Know what house you’ll be in yet?” “No” said Remus. “Well, no-one really knows until they get there, do they, but I hope I’m in Gryffindor, all my family have been.”
“Gryffindor?” Queried Remus. James paused for a moment before leaning forwards to explain. “Well, there’s Gryffindor, the best house, which is for like, brave awesome people, obviously like me-” Sirius couldn’t help but snort loudly at this, making all three boys’ heads turn to look at him. “Something the matter Sirius?” “No no do carry on your awesomeness-”, James only responded to this with a violent smack across the back of Sirius’s head.
“OW!”
Sirius rubbed the back of his head lightly, shooting James a look which in his mind was a hurt bemusement, but which looked more like constipation in the foggy train window.
“Anyway, as I was saying, then there’s Ravenclaw, which is for the smart people, Hufflepuff for like, nice people I guess, and then there’s Slytherin… undoubtedly the worst house. There’s not a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. It’s full of evil, backstabbing, ambitious assholes...” Sirius felt his face drain slightly of colour, gazing uncomfortably out at the countryside whizzing past them. James seemed to trail off at the uncomfortable look on his face. “You alright mate…?”
“Yeah, it’s just… well my whole family’s been in Slytherin... Hopefully I’ll break the tradition though...” He fixed his eyes firmly on a single droplet of condensation making its way slowly down the glass pane, hoping beyond hope that if he just stared at it hard enough the fear that was brimming deep in his chest wouldn’t spill out. He felt an arm drop lightly around him, patting him carefully on the shoulder. “It’s alright mate I’m sure you will…”
A voice from the corridor came filtering in through the slightly open door. “Aaaanything off the trolley dears? Aaaanything off the trolleyyy?” James and Sirius shared an excited look as an elderly smiling woman slid the door fully open and said, “Anything off the trolley dears?”
Sirius, James, and Peter quickly emptied their pockets and began counting coins, handing them to the woman in exchange for what can only be described as a mountain of goodies. From across the carriage, Sirius heard a stifled rumble from Remus’s stomach, and looked up to see the boy wrapping his arms across his chest in an attempt to stifle the sound. He froze for a moment, hastily inhaling the remainder of the Pumpkin Pasty he had been eating before he could speak. “Do you want anything Remus?”
“Yeah, go on, have something” Added James with his mouth full of Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum. “Er... alright…” said Remus hesitantly, reaching out and grabbing a box of Bertie Botts every flavour Beans. “Oh, be careful with those, they really do mean every flavour! I got a bogey flavoured one once!” Piped up Peter “There’s all the ordinary ones like chocolate, strawberry, peppermint and marmalade, along with spinach, liver and tripe.”
James picked up a green bean, inspected it for a moment, before shrugging and sticking it into his mouth. A few seconds later James went a similar shade of green. “I– I think that was vomit flavour...” Peter bit his lip to prevent a snort of laughter from escaping his mouth, while Sirius had actually slid off the seat and was now wheezing on the floor “V-Vomit flavour!” He snorted.
The landscape outside changed from the flatter English countryside to the hills and forests of Scotland as the train began to slow down. A voice echoed down the long corridor outside: “We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, as it will be taken to the school separately.”
The train finally jerked to a stop, and the passage filled with students pushing to get off the train. The four boys hastily stuffed their pockets with the remainder of their sweets and shoved their way through the throngs of students out onto the platform. A giant of a man with a long shaggy mane of hair a wild tangled beard shouted over the throng “Firs- years! Firs- years over here!”
A small crowd of 11-year-olds pushed their way forwards and boarded the small boats waiting at the edge of the lake. “No more’n four to a boat!” The deep voice of the giant boomed out. Sirius felt an arm grab him and looked up to see James dragging him and Peter towards one of the small boats. Almost instinctively, he flung his own arm out and grabbed Remus, who flinched hard as he stumbled after the three boys. “SORRY LUPIN!!” Sirius cried over his shoulder, painfully aware that the boy seemed to be shaking.
As the fleet of boats moved out across the lake, Sirius gazed up at the castle looming over them, with hundreds of twinkling lights shining out from the many windows. “DUCKKK” Hagrid shouted, as the boats dipped under an ivy-covered arch leading below the castle. As the students scrambled off the boats, Hagrid raised his giant fist, knocking three times on the large wooden door. It swung open, leading upwards into one of the grandest entrance halls Sirius had ever seen, from which the first years were led through the huge double doors into the great hall by a stern looking witch who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall.
Sirius felt his stomach grow tighter and tighter with each step he took. His mother’s voice echoed through his mind. “NO SELF-RESPECTING MEMBER OF THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK WOULD WISH TO BE ANYTHING BUT A SLYTHERIN! WHY IN MERLINS NAME WOULD YOU WISH TO BE A GRYFFINDOR OF ALL THINGS?! THAT HOUSE IS FILLED WITH NOTHING BUT MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS!” She had spat out the words as if they were some vile poison. The butterflies in his stomach seemed to have suddenly become stampeding hippogriffs. He turned to look at his friends.
Remus was staring, captivated, up at the magnificent ceiling, which seemed to have been bewitched to look like a vast section of the night sky, with thin grey clouds floating high above the hall, and millions of twinkling stars shining down. James’s face held only wonderment and excitement, while Peter had gone a greenish grey and looked about as sick as Sirius felt. “When I call your name, you will make your way up to this chair and place the sorting hat on your head to be sorted into your houses. Ambrose, George!” A tall, skinny boy with thick curly blonde hair nervously stepped forward, sat down, and put the hat gingerly on his head. “HUFFLEPUFF!” Shouted the tattered hat, followed by thunderous applause.
Sirius let his head tilt back slightly, watching as the clouds drifting over and past the moon high above him, until suddenly Professor McGonagall’s stern voice called “Black, Sirius!”. The nausea which had been building slowly suddenly increased in magnitude, and he slowly made his way up to the hat, feeling as if he was simultaneously headed to his salvation and his doom. A few catcalls came from the Slytherin table, and two older looking girls with long wavy hair leaned towards each other whispering. Andromeda and Narcissa. He already knew what they were thinking. Would their little cousin finally be a credit to the family? Sirius scoffed internally at the thought. All he knew was that all he wanted was to be the complete opposite to his vile family. The so-called “Noble” House of Black was, in Sirius’s opinion, nothing more than an inbred, elitist cult, driven by money and power with no love for anything that didn’t help them rise in social standing. His vision was blocked as the hat came down onto his head, dipping below his eyes.
“Hmmm” a low voice muttered in his ear. “You’re an unusual one aren’t you. Slytherin seems to be the obvious choice… Perhaps Ravenclaw- there’s plenty of intellect… a very brave heart…” There was a brief pause while the hat deliberated. “Better be… GRYFFINDOR!”
There was a stunned silence as the hat’s judgement was absorbed before the applause started up again, while the girls stared across the hall at Sirius, one in some kind of proud sadness, the other in smug hatred. Sirius didn’t know how to feel. On the one hand, he had proved he was not like his family, but deep down he knew the wrath he would face from them both in school and outside of school would be immense.
He was pulled from his musings by the call of “Evans, Lily!” A curvy, freckled, ginger girl quickly headed up to the hat and nervously put it on her head. After a few moments of deliberation, the hat shouted “GRYFFINDOR!”, and the girl was heading over to where Sirius sat, while James stared after her open mouthed. Sirius’s eyes drifted past his best friends hypnotised face, spotting a smaller, greasy, gangly looking boy gazing wistfully after her, just as Patrick Murphy was sorted into Ravenclaw.
“Lupin, Remus!”
Remus seemed to freeze at the sound of his name, going paler than Peter as he made his way up the stairs, muttering something that no one could hear. There was a pause, before the hat cried out “GRYFFINDOR!” Remus hastily made his way towards Sirius and Lily, who was chatting animatedly to a girl Sirius was fairly sure was called Marlene.
Poor Peter was next. He was so startled to hear his name that he actually squeaked in surprise, tripping over the step up to the chair and more falling than sitting down to put the hat on. The hat took significantly longer than the others over Peter, until finally it cried out “GRYFFINDOR!”, whereas the hat had just about touched James’s head when it shouted “GRYFFINDOR!” and he was making his way over to one of the four long tables behind them with a huge grin plastered on his face.
After the feast, the first years were led to the house common rooms by their prefects. Before he knew it, Sirius was making his way through a portrait hole into a cosy, round room filled with shabby sofas. A warm fire was burning away in the hearth, and two spiral staircases twisted their way upstairs to the dormitories. The boys headed up the staircase to the left, until they came to a door marked FIRST YEARS. The door opened into a large, shared bedroom, with six ginormous beds with thick red velvet curtains and golden tassels. There was another much smaller fireplace set into the far wall, and each bed had a heavy wooden trunk by the foot and a set of shelves and a wardrobe on either side of the head.
“I WANT THE BED BY THE BACK WINDOW” Shouted James suddenly, rushing forward and throwing himself onto it, bouncing lightly as he did. Sirius followed suit, jumping onto the bed closest to the fire. Remus made his way to the bed beside Sirius’s, and Peter quietly took the bed next to James’s.
The boys had just started to unpack when there was a light knock on the door. The boys paused, looking at each other confusedly. The door opened to reveal a round-faced young boy with a large trunk behind him. “Uh… hi guys… I’m Frank… Frank Longbottom… are these beds free?”
“Yeah, take your pick!” James replied with a smile, turning back to his trunk.
***
Sirius lay staring up at the ceiling, listening as Remus’s light breathing from the bed beside him, when a hushed whisper broke the silence.
“Is he… you know…”
Sirius knew that both he and James knew perfectly well what Peter was getting at. “‘You know…’ what?” he heard James snap instantly, shooting Peter a glare that was darker than a goth’s wardrobe. Sirius heard Frank mutter under his breath “Now this I’m not getting involved in…”, as he rolled over to face the wall away from the other boys.
“N-nothing…” mumbled Peter, going an interesting shade of grey and cowering further back into the corner. “That’s what I thought.” There was a pause before another voice cut through the silence.
“Am I what?” he asked sleepily. Peter shot them all a panicked look, not realising that Remus was listening, while James stared daggers down at him.
“Uh… Well, the thing is…”
“Yes…?”
“Your parents… they are… our kind, aren’t they?”
“Our kind?”
“He means a witch and a wizard” Sirius drawled.
Remus gulped, clearly nervous. “W-well, my dad was a wizard, but I’m fairly sure my mum’s not… why… is it important?”
There was a pause as none of the other boys really knew what to say. “Not particularly” stated Sirius, still not looking at any of them. “It’s just Peter being a bigot.” “I’m not a bigottt!” whined Peter looking desperately around the room. “Well, we were all raised with that bullshit and none of us care!” snapped Sirius. “Raised with what?” Remus inquired. The awkward silence returned while the other three boys glanced at each other, waiting to see who would speak first.
Finally, James sighed and began to explain. “Basically, some families in the wizarding world are called Purebloods, which just means that they’ve never married outside of wizarding blood. After a while though the number of wizards they weren’t related to got a bit low, so most wizarding families started marrying muggles. There’s only a handful of families that are still... well… pure.” “Incestual more like” muttered Sirius. “Well, yeah actually, for example, all three of us are distantly related.” Added James, his wrist cracking slightly as he waved his hands in Sirius and Peter’s general directions.
Sirius remained in a heated staring contest with the ceiling, and heard Remus turn over in his bed and drift to sleep. He muttered angrily “Way to go Peter... now he hates us…” before sleep overtook him too.