The Sorting
He say, "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together, right now
Over me
Remus was quite sure he was dreaming. Or that he had drowned whilst going over the god awful lake and that his mind was coming up with hallucinations before he died. He was stood in an enormous stone hall, the size of a fairly large cathedral. It was packed with students, all dressed in identical billowing black robes (besides their ties) and lit by candles. Not regular candles, however, these candles were floating. He thought that he could pass it off as them being attached to wires, or maybe a trick of the light – yeah he could live with that. But when he looked up, he had to bite back a yell. There was no ceiling above them, just open to the vast night sky, glittering stars and he could see the Orion constellation just to the right.
Nobody else seem interested in what was above them, except for the the red haired girl – Lily – and a few others he presumed had come form muggle families. Remus was in his uniform now, and felt slightly better to be dressed in the thing as everyone else. All the other students were sat along 4 long banquet tables, under their house banners. Jamie had explained excitedly all about the different houses, much to the displeasure of Sirius and Pete, whom both were convinced that they would end up in the wrong place. Remus was unsure whether to be nervous or not. He couldn’t see how much it would mean to him what house he was in; he would probably be thrown out after his first lesson anyway. The more time he spent surrounded by wizards, the more he convinced himself he couldn’t really be one.
Professor McGonagall, a thin, stern faced witch who led all the first years to the hall, was not standing at the front next to a small stool, holding an old, scabby brown hat. This must be the test that James had explained about on the train, he thought to himself. They had to have the hat placed upon their head, then somehow each student would be sorted into a house. Remus glance up at the four different banners. He had already come to the conclusion that (quite unlike his father) he was not going to be in Ravenclaw; not if you had to be smart anyway. He didn’t think much to the yellow one with the badger – not the most exciting of creatures, badgers. He quite liked the colour green and found snakes fascinating. But James and Pete had both been eager to be in Gryffindor, and because they were the only people to be friendly to him, he wouldn’t mind going with them.
A boy called Simon Arnold was first up to the stool. The shabby hat was place on his head, covering the top half of his head. Remus wondered what it smelled like – whether it was as bad as it looked. His mother was always maniacal about head lice, which might have been another reason for her shaving his head once a month. Simon was sorted into Hufflepuff, the yellow one, to a tsunami of applause.
Sirius was the first of their group to go, and he looked positively petrified as he came closer to the stool. There was some catcalling from the Slytherin table – the green one – some of the older students were calling to him. Two young women with tendrills of black curls and high cheekbones the same as Sirius’, were looking rather sternly at him on the stool. The hall went quiet for a couple of moments as the hat came to a decision on his head. Then the hat called,
“GRYFFINDOR!”
There was a few moments of stunned silence before the table with the red banner began to clap with the blue and yellow joining soon after. McGonagall listed the hat from his head and gave him a gentle nudge towards the Gryffindor table, a small rare smile place on her lips. He looked completely and utterly horrified, throwing a desperate look over to the Slytherin table. The two women were now heckling him and hissing, their eyes narrowed. He walked slowly and unsteadily towards the other Gryffindors, where he was the first new kid to take his place there.
The sorting continued. Lily was also place into the Gryffindor, and sat with a wide smile next to a mortified Sirius. When it was his turn, Remus still couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. He didn’t like having everyone looking at him as he pushed his was to the front, but did his best to ignore them. Ordinarily, he would have shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched, but it wouldn’t have the same effect in his robes as it would in his jeans.
He sat on the stool, McGonagall looked down her nose at his. She somewhat resembled his mother. She lowered that hat over his eyes and everything went dark. It didn’t smell at all, and the peace was a relief.
“Hmm,” A voice spoke softly in his ear. It was the hat. He tried not to cringe away as it purred quietly like a cat, “You’re a strange one aren’t you? Where shall we put you... maybe Ravenclaw? You’re quite clever.”
Remus flinched as he suppressed a snort. He felt as though someone was playing him. nid gwaedlyd tebygol, diolch.
“But then,” the had considered, “You might go far... Much further, if we put you in...” The suspense was killing Remus.
“GRYFFINDOR!”
He ripped the hat from his head as soon as he hear these words announced to the rest of the school. He scrambled over to the Gryffindor table, hardly registering the cheers as he passed. He took a seat opposite Lily and Sirius. Lily gave him a pleased smile, but he just looked at his empty plate in front of him.
By the time the ‘p’s’ came around, Remus had recovered to some extent and was able to watch the rest of the students get sorted with some interest. Peter, small and pudgy, looked hurriedly over at the Gryffindors as he made his way up to the hat. Pete was the sort of boy who would not survive back in Wales on his farm. He looked as though he would be scared to round up sheep. Remus was surprised that Jamie – who was the polar opposite of Pete; self-assured and relaxed, overflowing with confidence – was being kind to someone so obviously inferior.
The hat took an extremely long time to decide were to put Peter. Even the teachers cast nervous glances to one another as the minutes ticked by. Eventually he was sorted into Gryffindor, and almost an instant later, so was Jamie. He strode over to the table with a sunshine bright grin on his face.
“How amazing is this!” H addressed the other three, “we all made it!”
Sirius groaned, his head in his arms on the table.
“Speak for yourself,” He moaned, slightly muffled, “Father is going to kill me.”
“I can’t believe it.” Peter kept saying all throughout the rest o the meal, his eyes wide. Though he’d evidently got what he wanted, he kept wringing his hands on the sides of his robes and shooting nervous looks up at the teachers table, worried that one of them would come over and whisk him away.
McGonagall did come over to the table, but she placed a hand gently on Remus’ shoulder.
“Mr Lupin” she said quietly, but no enough so the others couldn’t hear. “If you would please stop by my office after dinner? It’s next to the common room, a prefect can show you.”
He nodded and she left.
“What was that for?” James asked,”She wants to see you already?”
Even Sirius looked up at this, curiosity sparkling in his eyes. Remus shrugged, as if he didn’t care. He knew what they were thinking – the weird kid was already in trouble. Sirius was looking at him again. As luck would have it, the food appeared, distracting everyone. It really had ‘appeared’ too, the previously empty plates were suddenly ladened with an assortment of different foods – an actual feast. Golden roast chicken, fluffy mashed potatoes, crispy roast potatoes, peas, carrots and huge silver boats of rich, dark gravy. If the food was going to be like this all the time, then he wondered if he could ignore the uniform and snobby house mates.
He paid close attention to one of the Gryffindor prefects, who introduced himself as Frank Longbottom. He led them to one of the many towers, which held the Gryffindor common room. Remus hated getting lost, and he tried to engrave the journey in his mind as they went. He made a mental note of all the sizes and shapes of the doors they entered and each portrait they passed. He was too tired and full of food to even bother being weirded out by the moving staircases and portraits.
Once they arrived at the right corridor, Remus saw McGonagalls' office, which was marked with a neat gold plaque, and decided to get the meeting over with. He paused just outside the door was was raising his hand to knock when Jamie appeared beside him,
“Do you want us to wait for you, mate?”
“Why?” He asked, eyeing the dark haired boy suspiciously. James shrugged,
“So you won’t be on your own.”
Remus turned back to the door shaking his head slowly,
“No I'm fine.” He knocked, hard.
“Enter.” A voice came from inside the room. Remus pushed the door open. The office was small, with a neat fireplace to the left and rows of books stacked high to the ceiling to the right. McGonagall was sat behind a small desk which was impeccably neat. She smiled and motioned for him to take a seat opposite. He did, running his nose and sniffing.
“I’m quite pleased to meet you, Mr Lupin.” she said in a grating Scottish accent. Her hair was pulled back into a tight black bun, and she wore deep burgundy robes secured with a golden clasp. “I’m even more pleased to have you in Gryffindor, of which i am head of.”
Remus didn’t utter a word.
“Your father was in Ravenclaw,you know?”
Remus shrugged. He did know this of course, he wasn’t completely on the outskirts of wizard society. They lived in the same house after all. McGonagall pursed her lips.
“I thought it would probably be best to speak with you as soon as possible about your... Condition. Dumbledore has explained to me that you know quite little about the wizarding world even though you live in a magical household. I feel it to be my obligation to inform you that people with your particular issue face and incredible amount of stigma. Do you know that that means?”
Remus nodded, mutely. He couldn’t spell it, but he knew a basic definition of what it meant well enough.
“I want you to know that so long as you are in my care , I will not condone any discrimination against you. This applies to all students under my care. However,” she coughed, clearing her throat, “It may be sagacious for you to exercise caution.”
“I wasn’t goin’ to tell anyone. As if i want ‘em knowin’” He replied.
“Well.” she looked at him curiously. “That leads me to my next point. preparation have been made for the full moons, which occurs this Sunday. If you could arrive my office after dinner, I shall escort you where to go. Maybe you could inform your friends that you are visiting home?”
Remus snorted and rubbed the back of his head.
“Can i go now?”
She nodded frowning slightly.
Once outside, Remus found James still stood in the very spot he had left him, waiting for him.
“I told you I'd be fine.”
“Yes well, you missed the password from Longbottom. I didn’t want you to be stuck outside all night. Come.”
James led him to the end of the corridor, where a portrait of a curvaceous woman in a pastel pink dress hung.
“Widdershins.” James said, and the portrait moved, swinging like a door. They entered the common room.
His home back in Wales had not been bad, but it was nothing compared to this. His living room had been decorated in a boring beige colour, containing shelve of books and pictures of him as a child. The sofa was leather that had been worn out from a lot of use.
The Gryffindor common, on the other hand, was warm, cosy and comfortable. There were huge armchairs and settees that looked as though you would sink into the cushions if you sat on them, a thick burgundy rug in front of a roaring fire, and even paintings emblazon the walls.
“We are up here,” James said whilst leading Remus up a spiralling staircase in a far corner of the common room. At the top, there was a door which opened into a dormitory. Again this was nothing like his bedroom back at home. There were four beds, all immeasurably large, with hanging red velvet curtains with gold trimmings and tassels. There was another fireplace, although considerably smaller than the one downstairs. Each of the four boys had their own heavy mahogany trunk and set of shelves around their beds. Remus saw his own battered suitcase leaning against the bed that he assumed was his.
Pete was raiding his own trunk, pulling things out in a haze of panic, making a disastrous mess.
“I can’t find my wand,” He whined. “Mum made me pack it so that it wouldn’t get lost, but it isn’t here.”
“Pete,” James grinned at him, “Your mum asked me to look after it for you, do you remember?”
Remus had learnt on the ride here that James and Peter had grown in the same town and knew each other really well. He couldn’t understand how though, they probably couldn’t be more different if they tried.
Sirius was perched on his bed, his things still packed away in his trunk.
“Lighten up, chap,” James said, plonking himself down next to the solemn looking boy. “It’s not like you wanted to be there anyway, did you?”
“Every single Black has been in Slytherin for five hundred years. CINQ CENTS ANS!” He burst out in french, confirming Remus’ suspicions.
“Well, it’s time someone was different then, right?” James clapped him playfully on the back.
Remus opened his trunk and looked at the contents. There was a large cauldron, a few more books and a long, thin wooden box with a note on top.
He unfolded it, staring at the swirly handwriting for a while, trying to read what it says.he could only make sense of the word ‘father’ and assumed that his dad had sent it ahead. He yanked open the lid, yearning to see what was inside. It was a long, polished stick. His wand. He hadn’t really gave it much thought. He took it up in his hand and immediately felt a sense of warmth wash over him. It was supple and felt good as he turned in his hand.
Sirius had started to unpack by now, revealing book after book and placing them on his shelves. Those that didn’t fit were stacked beside his bed. Jamie stared at him having finished his own unpacking and pinning a poster next his bed. It depicted a group of people whizzing around on broomsticks, throwing balls at each other. Remus thought it looked only mildly interesting. He prefered to be out on his horse.
“You do know that there is a library here, don’t you?” James asked, still watching Sirius.
Sirius smirked, “I know, but these are muggle books that my uncle gave me. If i left them at home ma mère would burn them to a crisp.”
Remus’ ears pricked up at that. What was wrong with muggle books? Not that he had any with him. He despised reading more than anything else. The next thing pulled from Sirius’ trunk distracted him from thinking about this though. It was a whole ass record player, followed closely by a collection of pristine records he could only assume were brand new. Without hesitation, he made his way over to look.
“Is that Abbey Road?” He asked, leaning to look in the box.
“Yep,” Sirius beamed, passing him the vinyl. Remus wrung his hands on his clothes before accepting the record carefully. “You must be muggle born.” He said “Never met a wizard who knows the Beatles before – besides my cousin Andy. She's the one who got them for me.”
Remus nodded, letting himself slip for a split second.
“I love the Beatles, Me Mam has almost all of their albums back home, but she never lets me touch them. Only listen.”
“Ahh. Where are you from anyway?”
Your accent is very distinct.” Peter asked, eyes wide with curiosity.
“Why, so that you can take the mick out of me? dim diolch.”He spat. He felt them all look at him confused. Clearly they didn’t understand the last part. Good he thought, let them wonder.
Eventually, Potter and Black started up a conversation about something called Quidditch. He’d heard of it before but it made him no the wiser as to what it was exactly. This soon became a heated argument between the two, so Remus climbed into his bed and draw the curtains a bit more forceful than he’d meant to, but no matter, maybe they’d get the message. He relished in the privacy. It was dark, but he didn’t care, he was used to the dark.
“You would think he would try harder to make friends,” Peter whispered loudly to the others. “Even if he is muggle born.” He’d clearly forgotten their conversation on the train back at platform 9 ¾, saying he was a half blood.
“Are you quite sure that the hat wasn’t meant to place you in Slytherin?” Sirius droned. Pete went quiet after that.