Chapter 4
ON THE TRAIN:
Sirius was finally aboard the train. Finally, Sirius thought. He was more than ready to make friends and go to school, he’d been waiting for this as long as he could remember. Sirius makes his way down the train, scouting for a compartment that already has some kids in it. Best not to sit in an empty one and risk the chance of ending up alone for the entire train ride. He sees Narcissa with her friends, although he would rather die than sit with them for the entirety of the voyage. Plus, Narcissa probably wouldn’t let him anyways. Sirius gives a slight wave in Narcissa’s direction, and continues further down the train.
Upon his quest to find kids his age to sit with, Sirius finds a couple. But they’re either looking at him with a funny look on their faces, or they’re not even paying the slightest of attention to him. So he continues onward, hoping to find some kids who look okay.
Near the middle of the train, Sirius hears a voice call out to him. “Hey! You can come sit with us, if you want!” To the left of his eyesight in a compartment sits two boys. Sirius quickly recognizes them as the Potter boy and the Pettigrew boy that his father was previously talking about. Perfect.
Sirius sits across from the two on the other bench. He’s somewhat wary of them still, but they seem like nice people. Sirius doesn’t have much experience with other kids, except for his siblings. The Potter boy quickly breaks the silence, “So, are you a first year? Pete and I are first years”, he gestures to the shy Pettigrew boy sitting beside him. Sirius’ eyes dart between the two boys, measuring them up in his head.
“Yeah, I am a first year student at Hogwarts. What are your names?”
“James Potter, pleasure to meet you,” James reaches out his hand, expecting Sirius to take it. Reluctantly, he does, and they shake hands. Sirius turns his eyesight to the other boy, “and I’m Peter Pettigrew,” Peter reaches out his hand as well.
After their formal greeting has occurred, Sirius feels a tad bit more comfortable than he was when he first entered the train compartment. He gives a wide grin, “It’s nice to meet you both.” All three of the boys get to talking, with James doing most of the talking, and Peter joining in every now and then with a funny joke or a random comment.
The half closed door to the compartment is loudly ripped open, with a scraggly looking boy with a buzzed head coming through the door. All three of the boys stare in his direction, probably making assumptions just like Sirius did when he first met James and Peter.
“Oi, this spot taken?”, the boy speaks with an accent that Sirius has never heard before. He is speaking improperly, with no regard to formality. If Sirius’ parents heard him speak like that, he surely would be beaten.
James finally speaks, breaking the silence. I obviously don’t know him well, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he does that a lot. Talk, I mean.
“Hey! No, this spot isn’t taken, please, join us!” Peter just smiles and nods, which is his way of greeting the new boy, I assume. I scoot over a little so that the boy with the buzzed head can sit down.
He promptly sits down and folds his arms, outstretching his legs a little bit. There is a silence in the air that makes me a little uncomfortable, but Peter is actually the one to break it this time, not James.
“So, what’s your name?” Peter has the usual smile on his face, as he stares at the new boy, awaiting an answer. I look at the boy, studying his features and the bare look on his face. I can’t tell what he’s thinking just by looking at him. With his arms still crossed, he looks up at Peter and James.
“Remus. Remus Lupin,” the boy says nonchalantly. He holds out his fist, his knuckles facing upwards. Without even so much as thinking about it, James does the same, and Peter is quick to follow. I am not sure what to do at this exact moment, but I follow suit in the other boys, and I hold my fist out as well.
The boy, Remus, looks at us with a peculiar expression on his face, “What, what are yous doing? Remus brings his fist down. “We’re doing what you were doing,” James replies. “Yeah,” Peter chimes in. James and Peter bring their fists down, and so do I. Remus looks at us with a puzzled look on his face, but he starts to laugh.“It's a fist bump. Yous supposed to bump your fist together with mine.”
Ohhh. It wasn’t clear at first, but the idea of what Remus calls a “fist bump” makes sense now. Remus holds out his fist again, and James, Peter, and I eagerly hold up our own fists. We all collide our fists at the same time, completing the act of “fist bumping”.
Remus grins and shakes his head, “Usually yous fist bump one person at a time, but a group fist bump can be a thing too I guess.” “Oh,” Peter looks at James and starts laughing, then James does too. Soon enough all four of us were giggling. Even though I just met them, I think the four of us are going to be alright together.
“So, what houses do you think you’ll be sorted in to?” James strikes up a conversation, it's what he does best. “Probably Hufflepuff,” Peter says with a disappointing look. James puts his hand on Peter’s shoulder, “Pete, there’s no shame in being in Hufflepuff. Plus, you don’t even know if you’ll be sorted into that house yet! Besides, all of the houses are great! Except for Slytherin, I mean,” Peter looks a tad bit happier, and he just nods along. “You’re right James, thanks for that,”
What’s wrong with Slytherin? My family has been in Slytherin for generations.
“‘Scuse me, what in God’s name are the Hogwarts ‘houses’?” Remus interrupts my train of thought, bringing my attention to what James says next. “Oh, they’re like different sections of the school that students are sorted into,” “There’s four of them!” Peter chimes in. James continues, “Yeah, so there’s my personal favorite - Gryffindor! It’s the place where brave people tend to get sorted into, and it's where most of the famous wizards and witches were sorted into as well. Then there’s Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw is generally where smart people go. Of course you can be smart and not end up in Ravenclaw though,” Peter adds to the conversation again, “Yeah, my sister didn’t end up in Ravenclaw, but she’s one of the smartest people I know!”
Remus nods slowly, “Ah, okay”. James continues, “Coming in third is the Hufflepuff house. The Hufflepuffs range from a variety of characteristics, they basically take anyone. And coming in last is the Slytherin house. The worst one,” James rolls his eyes, “my father told me it's where most of the bad people go, the whole lot of them are evil in some sort of way, especially this family that's part of the Sacred 28 called the Black -”
James continues talking but my mind veers off in another direction. Slytherin isn’t bad. Andromeda was a Slytherin and she’s not bad. She could never be. I am not bad. At this point, my mind is racing in a million directions, trying to make sense of it all. But my parents were Slytherins. And they’re not the nicest people. But I am not bad, am I? I don’t want to be bad.
“Hey, mate. You’re really quiet, are you okay?” James snapped me back to reality, saving me from the landslide of thoughts. “No,” I say simply, not wanting to go any further. “Well, what’s wrong?” Peter chimes in. I lift my head from off the floor, darting my eyes between James and Peter. “. . . I am from the Black family”. Peter’s mouth opens slightly and James’ face is filled with a sense of regret. “Sirius, I didn’t know, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to-” I lower my head towards the ground, “Don’t worry about it,” I snap.
The compartment that was once filled with laughter and jokes becomes quiet, everyone afraid to say another word.
I know that James didn’t mean anything by it, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. I don’t want to end up in Slytherin and have my new friends not talk to me anymore. But at the same time, I promised to make my parents proud. It was the only promise that I intend to keep. And I simply cannot do that, if I’m not sorted into Slytherin. I remembered something that Andromeda told me once, that the Sorting Hat takes into consideration your preference of the four houses. At this point in time, I’m not sure what to tell the Sorting Hat, but hopefully I can figure it out before that time comes.