September 1, 1971
Sirius pushed his dripping hair back off his forehead, reached down and wrung out the sopping sleeve of his robe. He squelched his toes in his soaked shoes and cursed under his breath. Looking down at his drenched body and the puddle of water growing at his feet, exasperation welled up inside him, threatening to burst out in an unpleasant manner.
“Blasted day,” Sirius muttered under his breath.
It started out with the long, tiring, and uninspiring ride on the Hogwarts Express trapped in a stifling compartment with Bella and Cissy and their friends, also known as the most annoyingly humorless and priggish girls Sirius has ever had the displeasure to meet.
He was literally confined to the tiny compartment, forced to ‘stay put or be hexed into oblivion’ and listen to them talk rubbish about shoes and other girl nonsense because bloody Bella, on orders from Sirius’s parents, did not let him out of her bloody sight the entire bloody journey from bloody London to Hogwarts.
And now he stood in his pathetic little puddle waiting outside the Great Hall of Hogwarts having been personally ushered in by that giant, and left to stand in the interim with the other first years.
Sirius cast a quick glance at the equally drenched boy next to him. What a stupid prat. Sirius glowered at him and the boy glared back. The stupid, bloody giant had dragged the both of them in together by their collars and made them stand next to each other at the front of the crowd. Stupid, bloody giant.
Between his frustrations of being nearly imprisoned for hours on the train with his two blasted cousins, becoming unexpectedly sodden from head to toe, along with the maddening building anticipation welling up inside him that this was his first bloody day of school, Sirius had to let the tension out somehow. He turned to the disheveled and dripping boy beside him.
“Four-eyed idiot,” Sirius muttered.
“Arrogant wanker,” the boy, Potter, grumbled back, never missing a beat.
Sirius stomped cruelly on Potter’s wet foot. Potter yelped in surprise then kicked Sirius in the shin. Sirius grunted in pain and cocked his fist back ready to punch when the large door in front of them creaked open and a tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes emerged. Her lips pursed together in a stern line as she raised one thin eyebrow at him. Studying her warily, Sirius slowly unclenched his fist and put his hand back down at his side, the witch’s mulish face reminded him of his mother, or of someone he would rather not cross with the abysmally dreadful path his day was currently taking.
The two boys had shared the last of the small boats that carried the first years across the immense lake over to the Hogwart’s castle. Sirius wasn’t really sure how the scuffle started but it ended with the tiny, self-propelled boat tipping both occupants into the opaque and frigid lake. The giant had pulled them both up with one of his massive hands and escorted them personally to the front of the line.
“Here’re yer firs’ years, Professor McGonagall,” said the giant.
“Thank you, Hagrid.”
“These two had a little mishap, Professor,” Hagrid chuckled as he nudged Potter and Sirius forward.
“I will take them from here,” she nodded.
This had to be it. Sirius didn’t think he could wait any longer, drenched or not. The Professor started into a long-winded dialogue about Houses, rules, and the Sorting. She just kept droning on. Sirius felt he should probably be listening but he just couldn’t. He couldn’t concentrate on anything other than getting to the Sorting. He rubbed at his wet nose with the back of his wet hand and sniffed. The Potter boy glared at him and Sirius returned it in full.
He could hear the muffled sounds of hundreds of voices on the other side of the doors. He felt like the top of his head was going to blow right off because his mind wouldn’t stop racing and if he didn’t stop gnawing on his thumbnail he’d wear it off before he got through the doors. If Professor McGoogle, or whatever her name was, didn’t stop blabbing on about points and open the bloody doors so he could get this over with he couldn’t be held responsible for what might happen…and the Potter kid was still glowering next to him just asking for it.
“Follow me, please,” Professor McGonagall said.
Finally.
Sirius took a step forward and Potter took two, so Sirius took another and the two boys were scuffling shoulder to shoulder elbowing and shoving for a position at the front of the line. The bundle of students bumped and knocked into one another filing down towards the front of the room.
They were barely inside the giant room when Sirius noticed the room itself. He felt his mouth drop open. This castle was amazing to say the least but Sirius wouldn’t dare let on how impressed he was. He quickly clamped his jaw shut and faced directly forward with one final push at Potter. They were walking up the aisle in between four long tables. There were candles floating overhead and the ceiling was charmed to look like the night sky.
Not as cool as Uncle Cygnus’s house though.
They were headed towards the front table where it looked like all the teachers and faculty sat. In front of that table was a three legged stool with a dirty, old hat perched on top. Sirius wondered what the hat was for.
They had made their way nearly to the front when Sirius heard a distinct whistle coming from the middle of the hall. It was Andromeda.
“Go on, Sirius, make us proud!” she yelled.
Then a roar of laughter filled the same vicinity. Sirius chanced a quick look over at his favorite cousin, grinned wickedly, and then forced his features into a look of suave coolness to hide his blush. As he turned back from Andromeda, the Potter boy was glaring at him. Sirius pulled a face at him then focused his attention on the stool up front.
Once to the front, the other first years shuffling around him, Professor McGoggles cleared her throat. The room went silent.
She held out a long piece of parchment and began.
“When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put the hat on your head to be Sorted.”
“That’s it?” Sirius unconsciously said aloud.
Another boy, to his right nudged him in the arm. “It’s a simple Sorting, the hat. What did you think we had to do?”
Sirius shrugged the boy off and did not answer. He was going to kill Bellatrix as soon as he had a chance. She had told him he would be asked to wrestle a troll armed only with his wand. Sirius knew how big a troll could get because of the large umbrella stand, made from a troll’s leg, his parents kept in the front foyer of Grimmauld Place. He’d been reading all he could about hexes ever since.
“Askins, Abigail!”
“Gryffindor!”
“Bennet, Patricia!”
“Ravenclaw!”
“Black, Sirius,” the Professor called.
Sirius felt his stomach drop to the floor. This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for…although he thought it would be much more physically demanding than sitting on a stool with a loopy hat on his head.
Don’t let them know you’re nervous.
Sirius lifted his chin and strutted forward with all the grace of eleven years of aristocratic breeding, ignoring the squelching noise his soaked shoes made in the process. He stopped in front of the stool, nodded curtly to the Professor and hopped gracefully onto it.
He felt a wave rush over him and noticed McGoogles had done a quick-drying spell before she placed the hat on his head.
“Ta,” he said with his most charming smile.
One side of his lip curled into an arrogant smirk as he looked into the crowd over at Andromeda then slowly turned his eyes to focus on his other cousins sitting a table away. Bella and Narcissa were eying him closely, Bella matching his smirk, Cissy looking rather nervous; he fixed them with a challenging smile.
Sirius was nervous himself but he willed himself not to let on. His heart felt as though it was about to burst out of his chest but he would not let these people get the better of him. He was a Black, most noble indeed, and he was now ready for whatever this silly hat could bring on.
“Another Black I see…” the hat paused.
Yes. What of it?
“The moment I touched your head I could tell who you are. What you are.”
What I am? I’m a Black. Anyway, I’m a who, not a what. What right do you have to call me a what? You’re just a nasty old hat. If anyone’s a what, it’s you.
“I should put you right in Slytherin. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
Actually, not really now that you mention it.
“Not Slytherin you say? But that is the house of your fathers. Do you not see yourself on the way to greatness? Slytherin will help you get there.”
Of course I see greatness in my future, I’m a Black. But I don’t know if I want Slytherin or any of its smarmy occupants to help me along the way. I don’t like them you see.
“You’re difficult, very difficult. I see a quick mind and an abundance of talent…recklessness though, definitely. My goodness, yes “ yes, that’s interesting, you’re very powerful. Pureblood, of course, but I can tell from the touch. The magic is within you, radiating all around.”
Of course, I’m a Black.
“But Blacks belong in Slytherin…”
Sirius shot a quick look at Andromeda.
Not all Blacks.
“But of course.”
I want to stand out. I want to be different. I want to make my father proud.
“Ah…bravery. You’ve got it in folds.”
Sirius set his jaw and tilted his head up in pride.
Yes, I do. I’m very smart too. So go ahead and put me in Ravencl…”
“In that case…GRYFFINDOR!”
No amount of pureblood breeding, pride, or arrogance could hide his shock. Sirius sat on the stool completely dumbfounded.
Gryffindor?
“Well go on, lad, you heard me!” the hat added.
Sirius slid down off the stool coming to his senses. He suddenly noticed how quiet the great room had become. His eyes roamed the crowd and found all eyes staring back at him. They knew who he was. They knew what family he belonged to. A Black in Gryffindor? He could almost read their minds.
Then he found Andromeda, her mouth hidden behind her hands, her eyes wide with apparent shock. She brought her hands down and slowly the corners of her mouth lifted into a grin. She nodded at him in encouragement and he blew out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. He reached up and removed the hat, handing it to an apparently stunned Professor McGoogles. He sniffed, set his jaw and walked proudly over to the Gryffindor table.
When he sat down at the designated table, a few of the Gryffindors moved away from him.
Bloody Gryffindors.
*~*~*~*
Sirius heard the smaller, pudgy boy whisper to Potter, “You’ve met Black before?”
“No, but I’ve heard of his family, they’re all dark wizards,” Potter whispered. He pulled a face and added, “We could actually be distantly related.”
“You’re joking!” the smaller boy gasped
“He’s a pure blood, so am I,” Potter shrugged. “But I don’t buy into that pure blood naff like his family does. The whole lot of my family has been in Gryffindor. Dunno what I would have done being sorted somewhere else.”
The two boys snickered, apparently aware Sirius was behind them.
Sirius followed the boys, although not closely, into their circular dormitory and selected a bed. He climbed over it and busied himself with the pretense that the contents of his trunk were the most interesting objects in the world. It had been a long day and he really didn’t know how he was going to fit in with these boys.
Gryffindor? Honestly, what was that nasty hat thinking?
He felt a pang of homesickness and thought of Regulus. He wondered what he was doing now. Sirius hated to admit it but he missed him. He felt sick to his stomach suddenly as a guilty sadness overwhelmed him. If Regulus was here with him, together they’d take on these other boys. No one messed with the Black brothers.
The other boys were talking excitedly; well two of them were, the third was a bit more reserved. They seemed content with ignoring Sirius and he was glad for it. Being housed with Potter was one thing but now knowing they’d be sharing a dorm… It was best for Sirius to act as though he didn’t give a monkey either, for now, because he still had an underlying urge to cold-cock the great git.
“So what’s your name again?” Potter asked the quiet boy.
“Remus,” the boy answered softly.
“Remus what?”
“Remus Lupin,” the boy added. Sirius was listening but trying his best to look as though he wasn’t. He continued to unpack his trunk.
“I don’t know any Lupins,” Potter said.
Sirius rolled his eyes. Who was this Potter, and authority on surnames?
“My father was in Ravenclaw,” Remus added.
“What about your mum?” the blond boy asked. He was lying on his bed removing sweets from his trunk.
“She never went here, she’s a Muggle.”
“You’re a Mudblood?” Sirius blurted without thinking.
Sirius went from being completely ignored to the center of attention. All three boys turned their heads towards him.
Potter glanced back at Remus then said arrogantly to Sirius, “Nobody calls them Mudbloods, Black.”
Sirius eyed Potter, they were nearly the same height, same build.
Bugger it, I can take him.
Sirius took a step forward.
“I just did, Potter. What you going to do about it?”
Potter walked around his own bed and stood squarely in front of Sirius, casually cocking his fist back at the ready. Sirius lifted his chin, accepting the challenge.
“Knock you back to Slytherin, where you belong.”
“Better there than here with you bloody thick Gryffindors.”
“Say that again, Black, so I can clobber you. Nobody talks bad about Gryffindor House while I’m here.”
“What’s got your wand in a knot?” Sirius glared at the messy haired boy.
“You!” Potter answered, “Lets get one thing straight off; I don’t like you.”
“Well that’s ace, Potter, because I don’t like you,” Sirius said.
There was an awkward silence as the two glared at one another.
Finally, Potter said, “You don’t belong here.”
“Think I don’t know that?” Sirius said, his nostrils flaring, giving his most haughty stare.
“I know who you are,” Potter said.
“Yeah? Blow it out or your arse, because you don’t know shit!” Sirius said. He lunged at Potter to make him flinch.
Potter sneered back at him, “You said it yourself, you don’t belong here, you belong in Slytherin!”
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t? Who are you to say?”
“Because that’s where you belong. I’ll bet your lot sit around all day plotting ways to get rid of Muggle borns. No Gryffindors do that!”
“What do you mean by my lot?”
“Dark wizards…all of your family. I know what you are. We’ve got classes here regarding the Dark Arts, don’t you know? It teaches us ways to defend ourselves against your kind.”
Sirius was quickly disliking this Potter kid more and more every time he opened his fat mouth. That was the second time tonight someone, or something, called him a ‘what’.
“Hang on a tick, if you can hate me because of my family then why can’t I hate him because he’s a Mudblood?” He waved a hand lazily in Remus’s direction.
“Because your family are evil, foul wizards. Instead of Slytherin why don’t you leave all together? You should go to Durmstrang.”
Evil, foul creatures.
“I’m not evil and I’m certainly not foul you git!” Sirius shouted.
“C’mon, I dare you to say something so I can give you a matching shiner on the other eye.”
“Hang on Mr. Fisticuffs, why don’t you just bugger off? You don’t know anything about me!”
“Just stop alright?” It was the boy, Remus, and he had crossed the room and stood between James and Sirius. Remus touched Sirius’s shoulder and instinct made Sirius shudder and pull away. Remus stepped back just a bit seeing he had crossed some invisible boundary.
“James, it’s alright,” Remus reassured.
Grudgingly, James walked back around to his own bed, keeping an eye on Sirius, for good measure, as he did so.
“What happened to your eye then?” the blond boy, Peter he thought it was, asked Sirius.
He looked at all three of them, staring at him, waiting for him to answer and he just didn’t know if he wanted or trusted them enough to even tell them a lie about it. With one last look at all of them he pulled his bed curtains shut and mumbled:
“Nothing.”
*~*~*~
The next morning in the castle Sirius woke late to find all his school robes missing and the other three boys already gone. Cursing Potter (whom he deduced was responsible), Sirius dressed in all but his robes, grabbed his books and schedule, scanned it quickly for his first class and its location, and then rushed down the staircase, through the portrait hole, and raced down the hall towards Transfiguration.
He cursed Potter once again; Sirius had been looking forward to Transfiguration the most, and although it was not technically Potter’s fault he was late, Sirius didn’t mind placing the blame on him.
Sirius burst into the classroom; tie askew, hair wild, and missing his robe. After an initial reaction of shock, snickers began to trickle through the room from the students.
He scanned the room; found his dorm mates all looking down at their books, completely ignoring his disturbing entrance.
“Mr. Black,” Professor McG said, “you’re late!”
Sirius looked up at her. “Sorry, Professor.”
“And you’re missing some clothes,” she added.
Sirius heard some girls behind him giggling.
“I seem to have misplaced them, Professor,” Sirius answered.
“Misplaced them? I should hope you find them, Mr. Black, and before tomorrow.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“Very well. Now sit down and stop disrupting my class.”
“Yes, Professor.”
Sirius slouched in a seat at the rear of the classroom, dropped his satchel at his feet and glared over at his dorm mates. Potter was smirking back at him and all Sirius wanted to do right now was walk over and punch him square in the face. Peter didn’t seem to want to look at him. Sirius had a notion that the fat lump was afraid of him (being a ‘Dark Wizard’ and all that naff). Peter glanced up, Sirius caught his eye and sneered at him, Peter flinched and focused back down at his paper. Sirius grinned. He was taking pride in the ability to make the boy whimper. Remus was looking over at him but Sirius couldn’t quite read his expression; was it apologetic?
It didn’t matter. Sirius focused his attention on the professor as she walked the class through their first bit of magic to test their levels. Sirius redeemed himself to the professor by transfiguring a length of string into a perfect, shiny sewing needle on his first try. This infuriated Potter, making it all the sweeter.
The fact that he’d earned five points for bloody Gryffindor for his achievement both pleased and irritated him.
~*~*~*~
The morning classes passed by in flurried commotion. Before Sirius had time to even think about being hungry, it was time for lunch.
He entered the Great Hall and sat at the end of the Gryffindor table near the other first years. Having missed breakfast, the grumbles from his stomach were not something he could ignore any longer.
“Oi, Black, where are your robes?” Potter called down.
Sirius looked up from his chicken leg and glared down the table at his three housemates. The fat boy, Peter, was rosy cheeked from laughing and sneaked a peek at Sirius from time to time. The other boy, Remus, was lazily moving his food around his plate with his fork, curiously uninterested in Potter’s taunting.
“I would think you would know, Potter,” Sirius answered coolly.
The expression on James’s face was of mock surprise, “How would I know what you did with your clothes? I’m not your house elf,” Potter said, and he and Peter snickered.
Sirius had had enough. He hadn’t done anything to these boys and he didn’t understand why they disliked him so. He was a Black, he should be respected. What were Potter and the other boys playing at? Why did Potter feel the need to be such a wanker?
He pushed his plate away and stood. He saw Potter stand as well.
“Maybe you two should just sit down?” Peter squeaked.
“Maybe you should shut your fat face,” Sirius said to Peter, withdrawing his wand and walking around the table towards Potter. When Sirius had got around to him, the other boy had his wand raised as well.
“What are you going to do with that?” Sirius laughed.
“Hex you beyond recognition,” Potter said.
Sirius laughed again but was saved answering by Raven, his owl, who he spotted behind Potter’s head, swooping into the hall from high up in the rafters. Potter turned to see what Sirius was looking at. As the bird flew closer, Sirius noticed in her claws a bright red envelope sealed with black wax and the Black family crest. A letter from home…or more specifically, a Howler.
Raven landed on Sirius’s shoulder, lifted one leg and dropped the letter into his reluctantly opened hand. He stared down at the letter. This couldn’t be good. He’d received Howlers from his mother before when he’d misbehaved at his cousins over the summer holidays. He looked up and saw Potter staring down at the letter in his hand.
Raven nipped Sirius’s ear.
“Bugger!” Sirius spat and reached down to Peter’s plate and stole a bit of bread for her.
“Oi, I was eating that,” Peter objected.
“You’d better open it quickly!” someone shouted.
Taking his eyes off the Howler for a moment and chancing a look up, he noticed most, if not all of the Great Hall had their eyes on him. He would find out later that all the mail came in the morning at breakfast but since he had missed, Raven wasn’t able to deliver. This mail delivery at dinner was causing a pique of interest from the other students.
Another thing to blame on Potter.
“That’s a Howler!” someone else yelled.
“Do it quick or it’ll be worse!” another voice called.
Sirius swallowed down the growing lump in his throat. He didn’t dare look down at Potter and his mates, but he knew they, like most of the rest of the student body were all looking at him…waiting. The room was distinctly quiet, even the teachers were looking down at him from their high table. Sirius rarely blushed but he could feel his ears burning like fire.
He reached down with his other shaky hand and slowly slid his finger under the seal to free the Howler.
The letter shot up and conked Sirius repeatedly on the forehead before ripping open violently and screaming in the most hideous voice, his mother’s.
Raven flew off his shoulder frightened at the first sound.
“Sirius Mirzam Black! How could you disgrace us so?” The letter slapped him aside of the head again. He brought his arms up to protect his face.
“Gryffindor?” the letter continued shrilly, “No son of mine will be housed with mudbloods, blood traitors, and filth! You will go directly to the Headmaster and demand that you be resorted! I will not tolerate this! I will not stand for it! Your father and I are disappointed in you. Your first day and this is what you do? How could you let this happen? How could you disgrace the house of my fathers? You’ll never amount to anything worthwhile in Gryffindor!”
Sirius stared dumbfounded up at the letter. He glanced around to notice the students in close proximity cupping their ears from the sound of his mother’s howling.
“You are to fix this immediately! I cannot tell you how much you have embarrassed us!”
Sirius bowed his head, wanting to hide his face. The Howler silenced for a moment then, with a stern command, “Look up at me!” the letter changed its tone. And with a sigh, his mother’s voice became quiet, sad, disappointed.
“I can only hope this can be resolved quickly. Honestly, Sirius, we expected more of you. You have been brought up better than this.”
He could almost feel his mother’s hand on his cheek. He could almost feel the disgust in her voice.
“I’m ashamed of bearing a son so defiant…ashamed to be your mother. I thought we taught you better than this. Slytherin is your home and where you belong. I trust you will fix this immediately.”
And with that the Howler burst into flames, scattering into ashes, until it was nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing but the feeling of complete belittlement and total humiliation.
Sirius looked up at all the faces staring back at him. He lifted his chin, set his shoulders back and stared straight back at the other students. Pride remarkably intact, he slowly began walking the once short distance to the doors of the Great Hall. He wasn’t sure where he was headed but he wanted nothing more than to get out of the horrid spotlight.
“Aww, baby cousin! Poor baby cousin,” Bella taunted across the silenced hall. “Serves you right! Slytherin is your home and the sooner you realize that the better off you’ll be!”
“Bella, shut up!” Andromeda yelled.
Sirius grabbed the handle of the great wooden doors, as dignified as possible. Once outside in the hall, Sirius let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in and leaned against the cold, stone wall, head tilted back. He looked up at the ceiling.
Dissapointed. Ashamed. Never amount to anything.
In only one day at Hogwarts he had already broken one promise made the day before. Sirius turned so he was facing the wall and placed his forehead against the stone. The coolness felt refreshing to his pounding, spinning head. He softly knocked his head against the wall.
There was only one thing to do. He would go to the Headmaster after classes. He had to make this right. He had a responsibility to fix this. It was his duty. He couldn’t and wouldn’t disappoint his father. His father’s words from yesterday rang in his ears.
“Your family is, and will always be, the most important factor in your life. You have a responsibility to this family and its survival. You are the heir and you will act as is becoming a Black.”
Sirius kicked violently at the wall and swore.
Yes, there was only one thing to do.
*~*~*
Behind him he could hear Potter prattling on to the other two boys.
“The Wimborne Wasps are complete rubbish! Chudley is the only team worth rooting for. I’ve been a fan for ages.”
“They’re my favorite team too!” Peter added.
Sirius rolled his eyes. Potter must think he’s an expert on Quidditch too.
They were all on their way down to the dungeons for their first Potions class. The halls were dark and damp, and with no windows this far below the ground the only light that shown was from an occasional metal sconce. The corridor smelt musty and dank.
Sirius was trailing behind the other first years bringing up the last of his class. Only Potter, Peter, and Remus were behind him. He was deep in thought and was caught completely off guard with what happened next.
He more or less felt the hex before he heard it spoken. His back slammed into the cold wall and his head cracked back against a rather stubborn, protruding stone.
“Ow,” he gasped at the pain.
It must have been a Binding curse crossed with a Body Lock. That could only mean one thing; or one person rather.
Bellatrix.
She swayed out from the shadows with her two friends flanking her sides. She walked up to face Sirius who was plastered against the wall.
“I knew I could smell something rancid and look who shows up,” Sirius jeered.
“Aw, cousin,” Bellatrix cooed, “I’d watch your tongue if I were you.”
“What do you want?” Sirius asked. “You don’t have to hex me to get my attention, you know.”
“I’ll hex you if I wish. Anyway, I want to know if you’ve spoken with the headmaster yet.”
“What do you care?” Sirius asked.
“I care, cousin, because you don’t belong with those diseased Mudbloods and blood traitors. You belong in Slytherin with us.”
Sirius shook his head, “Maybe Gryfindors are Mudbloods but I’ll take my chance with catching some horrible disease before being housed with you, Bella”
Bella laughed eerily and it echoed off the walls. She pushed Sirius again so his head knocked a second time against the stone. Sirius gritted his teeth and growled attempting to shove her back but she was bigger and stronger.
“Leave him alone,” a voice called, forceful but wavering.
Sirius looked back to find Potter standing with his wand hand pointed at Bellatrix. He looked like a right berk. He was an arrogant prat for thinking he could take on Bellatrix Black on his own, but it was quite amusing to see him panicky and pushing his glasses up his pointy nose.
Bella laughed again and turned gracefully towards him.
“Silly boy, don’t point that little thing at me until you know how to use it.”
“Bugger off, Potter, I can handle this,” Sirius said as he felt the Binding Hex wear off.
Bellatrix turned back toward him, “Stupid cousin! You know better than to play with me.”
“I can handle anything you dish out, Bella!”
“Oh really? Remember the attic? You cried like a baby!” She giggled as she said this last bit loud enough so Potter and his mates could hear.
“I was six, Bella!” He had had enough of her already. Sirius lunged at her and pushed and she stumbled backwards.
Her face was livid and she shoved him back up against the wall.
“You little bastard! Don’t you dare push me! You’re filthy! Filthy since you’ve been housed with them!”
“I’m not filthy! There’s nothing wrong with me!”
Bella laughed again, shrilly, “You’ll never amount to anything you worthless…”
Sirius kicked her hard as he could in the leg and she screeched in pain. While she was tending to her shin, Sirius pushed her down onto the stone floor.
“That is enough!” another voice, much older, much bolder bellowed.
Sirius and the others turned back to see Professor McGonagall striding towards them, her brows knit together in a frown.
“There is no fighting or dueling allowed in school hallways, as you all well know!”
She surveyed the group, Bella on the floor, her two mates helping her up, Sirius standing over her looking livid, and Potter and the other two standing back watching it all. She fixed her gaze onto Sirius.
“Come with me, Mr. Black.”
*~*~*
Sirius stood in the doorway of Professor McGonagall’s office, hesitant to enter. She arched a pencil thin eyebrow at him and ordered him to have a seat. He sulked and kicked at the leg of the offered chair before sitting.
“I will ask that you please do not take out your aggression on my furniture, Mr. Black.”
“Sorry,” Sirius grumbled.
“Now. ” She sat down behind her desk and smoothed out her robes, then sighed and crossed her hands, palms down on her lap before continuing.
“I realize, Mr. Black, that your first twenty-four hours here at Hogwarts have been more than a little disturbing for you.”
Sirius snorted and rolled his eyes.
“But I cannot and will not,” Professor McGonagall raised her voice a notch, “put up with fighting in the corridors.”
“She asked for it,” Sirius grumbled.
With a simple stern look Sirius fell silent.
“I am telling you, Mr. Black, it will not be tolerated and unless you want to end up in detention on top of everything else that has occurred today, I would keep your mouth shut until I finish. Is that understood?”
Sirius nodded.
“Now.” She paused. “I realize the Sorting last evening has put you in somewhat of a difficult situation. Perhaps your Mother, or parents rather, were assuming you would automatically be Sorted into their house. Is this correct?”
“I guess so,” Sirius answered glumly.
With a raise of her eyebrows at him he added, “Ma’am.”
“Let it be known, Mr. Black, that there are indeed four houses in this great school and each one has its defining characteristics which the Hat looks for in our new students. And, although I don’t say this often”” she cleared her throat “”being head of Gryffindor House, Slytherin does have its fair bit of fine qualities. But, let me tell you that being Sorted into Gryffindor is not at all something to be ashamed of.”
“I’m not ashamed, Professor. I just don’t belong there!”
“Why do you say that?”
“No one in my family has ever been in Gryffindor. I thought it would put me in Ravenclaw, but I know I really belong in Slytherin, but…but I didn’t want to be sorted there because I don’t want…” but he couldn’t finish his thought.
“Don’t want what?”
Sirius sighed, “I dunno…”
There were a few moments of silence while Sirius sorted the jumbled thoughts in his head.
“Professor?”
“Yes?”
“Do you suppose I could just try the hat on one more time? Perhaps it made a mistake with me?”
“The sorting hat never makes mistakes.”
“It does! It put me in bloody Gryffindor!”
Professor McGonagall mouth went stern at his outburst.
“Sorry, err…Gryffindor,” he corrected sheepishly.
“First of your family to be Sorted into Gryffindor shows you’re brave, Mr. Black. It shows you’re not afraid to be different.”
“I’m not afraid to be different, I want to be different, but there are…certain things that are expected of me.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Don’t you understand? I’m the heir to the Noble House of Black.”
“That means nothing within these school walls,” Professor McGonagall said softly.
“Does too!” Sirius lifted his chin in indignation. “I’m better than most of these snotty nosed kids here,” he pointed vaguely towards the Professor’s office door. “I’ve been brought up with a future laid ahead of me. I need to be different and stand out among these kids. I promised my father that I’d…” Sirius paused.
“That you’d what?”
“That I’d make him proud,” Sirius finished his thought quietly.
“Will he not be proud of a brave Gryffindor for a son?”
Sirius thought.
“I dunno,” he answered.
“You don’t know?”
Sirius shook his head.
“Perhaps,” Professor McGonagall started picking her words carefully, “for now, Mr. Black, you should not concentrate so heavily on family duty. Right now your responsibility as an eleven year old student is to come to this school to learn to be the best wizard you can. Don’t you think that, in fact, will make your parents proud?”
Sirius pulled a face. “Professor, do you even know my parents?”
Professor McGonagall lips curled into a small smile in spite of herself but forced her face back to neutral grounds.
“I know of them, yes. But one cannot live their life trying to live up to another’s standards.” She leaned forward on her desk and added, “Use your gut, Sirius, use your heart. Let that guide you.”
Sirius left her office with one thought.
Use my heart? What rubbish.
*~*~*~
Sirius lay on his back in his bed, hands behind his head, staring at the canopy of red curtain above him. He was once again listening on and off to his bunk mates talking. It had been a very long and tiring first day, late for his first class, the Howler at lunch, the duel with Bella, and then the chat with McGonagall in her office. Sirius had so much to think about. McGonagall wasn’t such a bad bird after all. She really had some good points to think about but she also didn’t understand what it meant to be a Black. Of course, now Sirius wasn’t sure what it was to be a Black. He thought he knew. But, if being a Black meant being like Bella in order to make his father proud, then he’d have to find a way…
“Sirius, what about you?”
The shock of hearing his first name made him pause his thoughts and look over at the other boys. They were all sitting on James’s bed, which unfortunately was right next to Sirius’s.
“What?”
It was Remus. He gave a shy smile and repeated.
“We were just talking about our first bit of magic. You know, what you were doing when you first found out you were a wizard?”
“What about you, Sirius? What did you do?” Peter asked as if to clarify matters.
Sirius narrowed his eyes at all three of them.
“What do you care?” he asked testily.
Potter looked at Peter and Remus before addressing Sirius.
“Look,” Potter said resolutely, “I realize we’ll never be best mates but the three of us were talking and well…we’re sharing a dorm, right? Well I reckon…well, we reckon we should at least call a truce. What d’you say?”
He held his hand out. Sirius looked at the other two boys and they both gave small, encouraging smiles. Sirius paused, thinking this over. Potter had a point; they would be in close proximity of each other every day for the next year at least; however, he ignored his outstretched hand.
“What about you lot then?” Sirius asked, “What happened with you?”
Peter, sitting in the middle of James and Remus, was the focus. He looked at the three of them and gave an odd smile.
“I dunno, mine was barmy really, I think my mum was making me wear some stupid yellow waistcoat for Easter Holiday one year and I hated it. It just kept shrinking so it wouldn’t fit me around the middle. Mum said it was magic.”
“A yellow waistcoat?” James snickered.
“She’s very proper,” Peter explained, not able to hide his smile.
“What about you, James?” Peter asked.
“Hmm, I was four I think and my da left his broom by the back door. Well I snuck outside with it and flew around the back garden. My da was funny, he thought it was wicked I was flying so young but my mum had kittens because I ended up hitting a tree and knocking myself senseless and busting an arm.”
The two boys laughed and Sirius found himself smiling against his will.
“No big deal, she patched me right up. Da was so proud though. Went right into town and bought me my own broom.”
“Wicked,” Peter added. “You a good flyer then?”
“Da says I am. Wish first years could try out for Quidditch. Shame we can’t. What about you, Remus?”
“I don’t really remember,” he smiled and played with the cuff of his trousers.
“Bollocks,” Sirius said abruptly, and the other three turned to him as if they had forgotten he was there too. “Everyone remembers their first bit of magic.”
“What about you then?” Remus asked. It wasn’t a challenge, just a friendly question.
“Me?”
“Yeah,” Potter added with a small smile, “What did you do, Bla…I mean, Sirius?”
Sirius smiled, thinking back on the memory. He stretched his arms above his head and rolled over onto his side, facing the other boys, head propped up in his palm.
“I had to have been four because my brother was barely two, I think…”
“You have a brother?” Peter interrupted as he rolled over onto his stomach on James’s bed.
“Yeah, right pain in the arse he is.”
The boys laughed and Sirius couldn’t help but smile at their reaction.
“Anyway, he was two, right, and he couldn’t really talk much. He would just point and grunt a lot. Well he would follow me around all the bloody time”still does actually, and it’s a bit annoying.”
“Wish I had a brother,” James said absently, with the wistful enthusiasm of an Only Child. But when Sirius paused to look at him, James nodded encouragingly to continue his story. “Go on.”
“You can have him,” Sirius said with a wry smile. “So anyway, the little berk was tottling after me so I got mad, right, and I pushed him down and told him off. Well he goes all mental on me and starts wailing, top of his lungs.”
“Was he hurt?” Remus asked.
“Nah, just being todger, so I remember thinking: ‘I wish he would shut his gob. I wish he wasn’t so loud. I wish he would just shut up and leave me alone!’ and well, it took my mum four days to figure out how to get the hex off him.”
“What hex?” James asked.
“I dunno,” Sirius shrugged, “but the little bugger couldn’t talk or even grunt for days. Mum was livid. You heard her in the Howler, she can go quite mental when provoked.”
The other boys nodded in agreement and smiled sympathetically.
“I will never forget that first bit of magic. My arse will never forget it,” Sirius laughed.
“She clobber you?” James asked, intrigued.
“Yeah,” Sirius nodded, “like she never had before. I hurt her precious pumpkin, Regulus.”
“That your brother?” James asked.
“Yeah.”
“You really hate him?” Peter asked.
Sirius shook his head.
“Nah, not really, he’s alright. Pain sometimes but,” Sirius shrugged, “he’s my brother. Blood ‘n’ all that, right?”
“I have a sister. She’s alright. Wish she was a brother though,” Peter added.
Sirius smiled.
“What about you, then? Remus, right?” Sirius asked. “What did you do?”
Remus stood up and walked over to his own bed, “I told you, I don’t really remember.” He busied himself sorting through his side table drawer.
“Not fair, mate, you’ve got to tell us,” James added.
Peter hopped off James bed and back to his own, James stretched out, and Sirius fell back onto his bed but watched Remus out of the corner of his eyes.
“C’mon then,” Sirius prodded.
Remus looked at the three other boys and blushed.
“Alright, but it’s rather girly, honestly. I was five, I think, and my mum was making me eat mushy peas. I hated mushy peas. Still do, by the way. So well, I didn’t want to eat them so I turned them into something and they flew away.”
“What they turn into?” James asked.
Remus’s lips were in a fierce battle as to whether they wanted to grin or frown. He was hesitant to answer, and then said almost apologetically in a very small voice.
“Butterflies.”
The boys fell into a fit. James cackled, Peter giggled madly, and even Sirius smiled hesitantly, still not quite feeling the dorm mate dynamic.
Even Remus was laughing now.
“Remus, mate, you’re a bit of a Nance!” James said, as friendly as possible under the circumstances.
This made Sirius bark in laughter. Soon he was rolling on his back and howling. The laughter that escaped him became stronger and exploded in a fit as a mixture of pent up tension over took him with a fabulous, giddy feeling of release.
Bloody daft Gryffindors.
~*~*~
Truce or not, the boys couldn’t help but try to outdo one another in the coming weeks. One day Sirius found his hair dyed when he borrowed a bottle of shampoo from James, charmed to change the poor unsuspecting wizard’s hair to a putrid vomit color, charm courtesy of James himself.
So the next day, James found himself with black teeth, a similar charm inflicted by Sirius onto James’s toothpaste. James retaliated with a Bat Bogey hex that made them shoot forcefully out of Sirius’s nose at unsuspecting passersby. This prank backfired, however, because Sirius seemed to enjoy this new ability, much to the chagrin of the other students in the halls.
Then James found himself victim to Sirius’s, soon to be famous, Blanket Wrapping hex that nearly strangled the bed’s occupant in his own bed sheets, rendering them late for classes.
The two of them found that, even though they’d “never be best mates”, that if they worked together they could come up with some pretty fantastic ideas to try on other students.
Sirius also started to realize that Gryffindor House wasn’t so bad after all. The boys in his dorm were quite clever too. It wasn’t Ravenclaw, or what he had wanted, but it was growing on him.
Perhaps one of the best things he learned was that James hated Slytherin. He didn’t know why James hated them and although Sirius couldn’t say he hated Slytherin per se, he did in fact hate at least two of its occupants; his cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa Black. He also came to realize that one of his new favorite pastimes was hexing said cousins.
James Potter and Sirius Black, together they found they were exceptional pranksters.
Best mates? Never.
Friends? Unbeknownst to them, they were…working on it.
~*~*~
September 3, 1971
Sirius,
Mum is really mad. She said if great grandfather were still living he would not let you back in the house. Grandmother thinks you should be punished and I don’t think you want to know what kind of punishments she was talking about. Mum and dad have been fighting a lot. Mum went through three potion bottles just yesterday. She was saying strange things too. It was kind of scary. What is Gryffindor like? It must be really bad.
I got bit by a doxy in the drawing room yesterday. I don’t know how long I was lying on the floor but mum said I was lucky she had the anty-bote I think is what it is called. I was playing with the daggers. I made Kreacher dress up like a pirate with me. I got to be captain though since you are not here to play. He wasn’t pleased and mum thinks that is why he did not tell her I got bit, but she made him slam his nose in the door jam for leaving me lay there for so long. He is listening to me more now, dunno why tho.
Father brought me this green ink back from Latvia to practice my writing. I think it looks cool.
Write me. You promised you would. My new tutor, Ms. Babbcock helped me with this letter. She is pretty and not as hairy as Mrs. Tootles. It is a good letter, do you think?
Write back.
Regulus A. Black