Sorting
Orion sighed heavily.
“Sirius, that transformation could have killed you. I knew that you were ready to go far for that werewolf, and I was ready to let you see the consequences for yourself. But I never wanted you to die while doing it.”
Minerva, who had gotten extremely pale during the clip, now turned to Sirius with shock on her face.
“You were eleven, Sirius. And you performed blood magic that is barely possible for full fledged wizards. That kind of spellwork is considered incredibly dangerous and unstable.”
Sirius rolled his eyes.
“I know. I knew of it even back then. Remember what Tripe said? If I had hesitated, I would have died. Even if I wanted to back out, once I drew the first symbol I couldn’t. That’s the problem with dark magic, especially the parts that need blood to fuel them. There is always a catch. As I said, dark magic loves blood. But it loves lives even more. If it managed to kill me, it would have loved it.”
Then he looked at Remus who was pale as well.
“Remi? You alright?”
Without a word, Remus reached out and hugged him. Sirius tensed up for a split second, before quickly hugging back.
“Not that I don’t appreciate the affection, but you’re worrying me.”
Remus leaned away from him and hit him over the head. Sirius grinned.
“Ah. There is the Remus we know and love.”
“You complete idiot! You could have died!”
Sirius shrugged.
“What’s life without a little risk?”
Then he leaned back in his chair and pointed at the wall.
“Well, now that that fun part of my life is over with, why don’t we move on to our second year at Hogwarts. I can assure you that it was much more eventful.”
Minerva raised her eyebrows.
“You could say that.”
Sirius grinned.
“Well, there was the big Marauder vs Marauder prank war. Although we didn’t call ourselves the Marauders back then. There was the crying Narcissa and red and gold Rabastan. Glittery pink Snape. My first full moon out with Moony and the drama that followed that. Me and Lily bonding over our siblings.”
He frowned slightly, while the three teenagers looked at him with shock. Ron mouthed ‘glittery pink Snape’, making Harry and Hermione shrug at him. Then, Sirius snapped his fingers.
“Got it. Let’s start at the beginning. With Reggie’s sorting.”
Sirius was looking around anxiously as the first years were led into the Great Hall. After a few seconds, he managed to find Regulus in the crowd and grinned, standing up a bit to see better. With a sigh, James grabbed his arm and pulled him down onto the bench again.
“Calm down, mate. It will be fine.”
The first few names were read and Sirius clapped absentmindedly as a girl was sorted into Gryffindor. He almost started clapping at a boy who went to Ravenclaw, but was stopped in the last second by James grabbing his hands and pushing them down onto the table. And then…
“Black, Regulus.”
Sirius sat up straighter when Regulus walked up to the front and sat down. McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on his head and stepped back. The boy closed his eyes and mumbled something, his hands gripping the stool tightly. At the Gryffindor table, Sirius rose up slightly again. Regulus opened his eyes and glanced over to him, trying to make it seem like he wasn’t looking at anyone in particular. Sirius smiled softly and nodded. Just a second later, the Hat yelled out:
“Slytherin!”
As the Slytherin table applauded, Sirius flopped down onto the bench again. James squeezed his elbow.
“I’m sorry, Sirius.”
Grey eyes turned to him, and James seemed shocked at the calm happiness he saw in them.
“Nah. I knew he would end up in Slytherin.”
Remus frowned.
“Then why did you seem so worried?”
“Because I wanted to see if my theory was right.”
Now even Peter, who had been totally engrossed in the ceremony, turned to them.
“What theory?”
“See, Regulus is a smart kid. Sometimes, even too smart for his own good. He sees connections where other people would not. He has read more than me. Heck, he would have read all the books we own if father hadn’t restricted some of them, and I hadn’t hidden the others. He is fiercely protective of our house elf. I had a theory that the hat might want to put him in Ravenclaw. I even had that talk with him once, before I went to Hogwarts myself. That if the hat wanted to put him there, he was supposed to say ‘no’ and that he wanted to be in Slytherin. And then, when the hat gave me the choice between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I chose Gryffindor, most probably confusing him. The hat hesitated on me. And now it hesitated on him. Which means that he isn’t a pure Slytherin. But he had to go there. I can take whatever our parents dish out. He can’t. He never had to.”
Understanding appeared on Remus’ face.
“That’s why he looked at you and you nodded. You were telling him that the plan was still standing.”
Sirius nodded.
“Yeah. I needed him to know that, whatever the hat said, he had to go to Slytherin. For his own safety. I can’t always be around to protect him, so I need to know that he can stay safe when I’m not there. He would have been an outsider in Ravenclaw, just as I would have been here if I hadn’t met you guys. In Slytherin, he has our cousins. Bella and Andromeda will take good care of him.”
They quieted for a few minutes to listen to Dumbledore’s speech, and then turned back to the conversation when the food appeared.
“So, how was your summer? James told us you went back home.”
Sirius nodded calmly.
“Yes. I was curious about a few things and had to go back. Family matters. Nothing to worry about. How was your summer, Peter?”
While the short boy started talking, Sirius and Remus looked at each other, their eyes meeting. Immediately, both of them froze, and stared at each other like they couldn’t look away. Sirius’ hand tightened around his knife and sudden anger filled his eyes. Remus was looking at him calmly, but there was a sudden danger clear on his face. Their staring contest was broken when James burst out laughing at something Peter had said and elbowed Sirius in the ribs. The boy immediately looked away, letting go of the knife and grabbing his hurting side.
“What the hell, Potter. Watch it.”
James rolled his eyes.
“Oh, come on, princess. You made of glass?”
Without a word, Sirius picked up his glass of pumpkin juice and calmly tipped it out over James’ head. The sputtering noises it made him do, was enough to make Remus and Peter start laughing. Sirius just grinned and glanced over to the Slytherin table. Regulus was looking at him with a frown, so he just nodded again and winked, before turning back to his friends.
“And that one thing started a prank war that made the entire Hogwarts wonder what the hell was going on.”
Remus nodded.
“Yeah. We went WAY overboard with that.”
Sirius shrugged.
“James started it.”
“Technically, you started it with the juice.”
“Oh, don’t even get me started on that, Moony. He elbowed me. And called me a princess. I simply defended myself. James pulled the first real prank.”
Then he smiled.
“By the way, have I ever mentioned how glad I am that we figured out how to be in each other’s presence without things getting out of hand?”
“Yeah. At least fifty times. In the first week.”
Harry frowned.
“What are you talking about? And why did you two stare at each other like that? What’s going on?”
Orion smirked from his portrait.
“My son decided to not think about the consequences of what his actions could lead to, before he actually did them.”
Sirius rolled his eyes.
“Oh, shut up. If I had known, I would have still done it. Sure, I freaked out when I happened, but I’ve learned to live with it. We both have. Even James and Peter knew how to act to not trigger anything during a full moon.”
By now, even Snape looked confused. Arthur frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Sirius shook his head.
“Not now. We’re going in order. And the prank war, Rabastan and pink Snape were before the first full moon.”
He turned to Remus with an odd look in his eyes.
“Now that I think of it, we were extremely productive that month.”
Remus rolled his eyes.
“I don’t think the teachers thought that.”
Minerva shook her head.
“No. Just the prank war alone was a nightmare to deal with. Although I have to admit to being curious as to why you targeted Rabastan Lestrange in that way.”
Sirius grinned.
“Oh, you’ll see. But the prank war was first.”
He waved his hand at the wall and the next clip started.