The Sorting
The school- more like castle, actually- is absolutely, fucking huge. Posh boy, whom Remus has learned is called Sirius, swears he can't even see the top of the doorframe, as they trudge inside, after their journey across the lake, though James points out that it's probably because Sirius is about as tall as a regular sized ant.
Remus laughs at this, and Sirius, after shoving James, turns towards him, grinning widely and seeming pleased about the attention Remus is giving him, even if it's only to make fun of his height.
His smile fades, however, as they make their way into a grand entrance hall, and when James and Peter strike up a conversation about ‘houses’ he turns paler than ever, which really shouldn’t have been possible, since he has the complexion of a well-groomed ghost.
During the train ride, Sirius and James had seemed positively fearless to Remus and Peter, who both approached life with a more cautious mindset, but now, Sirius is struggling to hide his fear of the upcoming ‘sorting.’
So, Remus makes a decision.
“Hey,” he whispers, placing his hand on Sirius’s shoulder and making the other boy yelp in surprise, “You alright?”
“Oh- yeah, I’m fine,” Sirius replies, turning away; clearly not fine.
“What’s the sorting even do?” Remus tries again, in an attempt to get his friend to talk.
He’s not naturally good at getting people to open up- not like James is but his words seem to have an effect on Sirius, as he stares up at Remus, confused.
“You mean you don’t know about the houses?” he asks.
“…No?” Remus is starting to feel a bit stupid, now. He regrets trying to cheer Sirius up. He probably just looks like an idiot.
The other boy still doesn’t appear to understand how Remus can possibly not know about what seems to be an essential part of Hogwarts, but then it dawns on him and his expression changes, instantly.
“Of course; you’ve been living with muggles haven’t you,” he says, a funny look on his face.
Remus remembers how the slimy boy on the train had looked at him, and how the girl he was with had seemed nervous to ask him about his parents, and a whole lot of things suddenly make sense. He feels anger boiling up inside of him.
“Yeah,” he says, a little and Sirius looks startled.
“Well, there are four houses - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and- and Slytherin,” he says, face souring at the mention of the last house, “You’re sorted based on your personality and values.”
“Well, I’ll probably end up in the worst one,” Remus sighs, already regretting his sort-of-outburst.
Of course, their conversation seems to have summoned James, as he bounds over, with far too much energy for someone who has just spent hours being bored to death on a train.
“Of course you won’t, Remus!” he says, offended, “Me and Pete have already decided we’re going to be in Gryffindor- house of the brave!”
“Can you choose what house you’re going in?” Remus asks, wondering vaguely where James gets his seemingly endless confidence from.
“Well, no, but we already know ,” James answers, carelessly. “What about you, Sirius?”
“My whole family has been in Slytherin,” comes the muttered reply, and Remus is surprised to see that Sirius looks ashamed.
He demonstrated such a ‘don’t care’ attitude that Remus assumed his mood was just caused by nerves, but he genuinely appears to hate the idea of following his relatives’ path.
“Well, you’ll just have to break the tradition, then,” James says, endlessly cheerful, before dragging a helpless Sirius and Remus through a doorway and into the largest room Remus has ever seen.
***
The Great Hall is massive; a cavernous room, filled with four sprawling house tables, crammed with students, and a golden teacher’s bench, where Sirius can see the smartest witches and wizards in Britain, sitting together in a row.
Him, his friends, and the rest of his year walk up to where a tiny stool is placed, at the front of the room and stand in a line, as the first name is called.
Students from all years watch as ‘Nancy Afellat’ is called forward and the Sorting Hat is dropped onto her head.
Sirius can’t see his cousins, but he can feel their eyes watching him. They’ll expect him to be in Slytherin, like everyone else. Even Andromeda wasn’t in Gryffindor and who is he to argue with the Hat.
Sirius likes James and Remus, and even Peter, but he knows, deep down, that he won’t be able to choose where he goes, and the very thought fills him with dread.
Of course, it’s just his luck that his surname begins with a ‘B’ and therefore he’s the first of his friends to be sorted. ‘Yet another thing my family has ruined,’ he thinks, as he steps up and sits on the stool, one leg crossed over the other and bouncing up and down, nervously.
The hat falls over his eyes and he feels panic rise like bile up his throat, before a quick, snarky voice begins speaking excitedly in his ear.
Well, well, well, the voice drones. What have we here?
The fuck, thinks Sirius.
Another Black, but this one much more exciting.
Loyal, yes, but easily angered and passionate.
I’m not passionate! Sirius yelps, now thoroughly pissed.
Feisty, of course, the voice drones on, but brave. You know what’s right, Mr Black, even if you have a certain disregard for the rules. You really are a fascinating specimen.
The Hat seems to be revelling in how uncomfortable it can make Sirius but, luckily for him, it decides to shout, without warning: GRYFFINDOR!
There’s a ringing in Sirius’s ears.
He can vaguely make out a scream, coming from the direction of the Slytherin table, and then absolute, ear splitting, silence.
No voices, no clapping, nothing. Just silence.
Then, whooping erupts from the line of students. It’s James, of course, and Sirius grins as he hears his voice.
Suddenly, the hall comes alive with chatter and applause, and as Sirius makes his way to the Gryffindor table, he feels like he will never stop smiling.
***
Sirius has made it. That’s the first thing Remus thinks as the talking hat- of course it’s a fucking talking hat that sorts them- shouts the name of his friend’s house.
Sirius has made it and now Remus is going to fail.
As the hat falls over his eyes, plunging him into darkness, Remus hears a voice.
At first, he supposes it’s a teacher, but the voice seems to know exactly what he’s thinking, and he hears it say, I’m no person, Remus Lupin. It laughs and he feels the hat move on his head.
It didn’t talk for Sirius, he thinks, picturing when the other boy had sat on the stool, before him. He’d looked so brave.
The hat laughs again, Remus doesn’t know why, and he feels himself turn red.
Of course it didn’t talk for Sirius, you idiot, he tells himself. He’s meant to be here, unlike you.
Oh shut up, says the hat. You may not know it yet, but you’ll do great things, Remus Lupin, it snickers, and great people. GRYFFINDOR!
Everyone cheers and Remus stands up, walking over to the Gryffindor table, feeling slightly confused, and taking his place next to Sirius, who beams at him.
“Knew you could do it, Lupin,” he smiles.
“Yes, well done!” he hears, and he looks up to see Lily, the girl from the train, sitting opposite him.
“Who are you?” Sirius says, accusatorily, scowling at her.
“None of your business,” Lily replies.
Sirius looks like he’s about to explode when, suddenly, Peter’s name is called and both Sirius and Remus sit up straight, silently cheering him on with their eyes.
It takes a very long time for Peter to be sorted, but he eventually sits down at their table, shaking slightly and looking overjoyed, as the three of them wait for James, who’s name is called.
He makes his way, eagerly, over to sit down, waving giddily at them, as if he isn’t nervous at all.
It only takes a moment for the inevitable GRYFFINDOR! to be yelled and Remus cheers and whoops with the rest of their table, as James makes his way over.
Something strange happens, though, once he reaches their table.
He’s grinning at Sirius, who claps him on the back, when he catches sight of Lily and his mouth drops open. He stares at her, running a hand through his hair, and promptly walks into the table, causing Sirius to let out a loud bark of laughter and shove him onto a seat, rolling his eyes and complaining, while Peter giggles uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, Lily is watching him, irritably, as her friends, a gorgeous black girl, who talks loudly and repeatedly applies her lip gloss, and a tall, blond girl, who’s rather shy, sling their arms round her shoulders and frown at him.
Later, as they make their way up to the dorms, James won’t shut up about Lily, leading Sirius to groan about him being an idiot and walk behind, with Remus, who’s knees are beginning to ache as they climb the steep, endless stairs.
Remus privately agrees with Sirius, though he’s not rude enough to say so out loud, and as he falls asleep, wonders if James’s apparent crush on Lily Evans is going to be a permanent thing, because if so, he’s seriously considering a room change.
Later that night, Remus is woken by a noise- a small, whimpering noise, like the sounds made by an injured dog.
Sitting up, blearily, and rubbing his eyes, in an attempt to see what’s going on, he realises that the noises are coming from Sirius’s bed.
Remus freezes, unsure of what to do. Should he wake Sirius, who’s clearly having a nightmare, or leave him and try to get back to bed?
Grumbling, he makes his decision and tiptoes over to the other boy’s four- poster, gently pushing aside the curtains.
However, just as he reaches towards him, Sirius let’s out a small shout, making Remus jump violently and slip over, landing half on top of Sirius, who wakes suddenly with a yelp.
“Fuck! Sorry,” Remus says, mortified, scrambling to get off the bed. “I think you were having a nightmare, or something- you were making noises- so I came to wake you up and-“ he stops. Sirius is shaking.
“You alright?” he whispers and Sirius nods, unconvincingly.
“Don’t worry,” he says, attempting to steady his voice, “Happens all the time. It’s probably just some weird product of incest or something,” Remus remains unconvinced.
“Here, budge up,” he commands. Sirius stares at him. “If you can’t sleep, I can’t sleep and I’m bloody well going to sleep, tonight,” Remus hisses, “so budge up.”
Obediently, Sirius shuffles further along the mattress and Remus slides under the covers next to him.
“There, now shut your eyes,” he says and Sirius smiles, before doing what he’s told.
“Thanks,” is the last thing Remus hears, as he feels himself drift back to sleep, Sirius’s hair tickling the back of his neck.