The Untold Story of RAB

The Sorting

The carriages were incredibly bumpy and all three girls, plus two second year Ravenclaw boys were being practically tossed around on the long ride from the station to the castle. They didn't speak about Regulus or the Carrows and instead passed the time with talk of their upcoming classes and the impending OWLs.

    Once they arrived at the school they ran in as quickly as they could as the weather had taken a turn for the worst while they were in the carriages and the rain threatened to soak them if they didn't move fast.

    The entire school was funnelling into the Great Hall, half the school was already seated as those caught in the rain came trudging in. Diana, Margaret, and Saoirse took their seats on a Gryffindor table. Even though Diana had gone through the sorting ceremony and the first day feast four times now, the Great Hall always took her breath away. Perhaps it was the muggleborn in her that still revelled at the floating candles and starry ceiling, or the roaring fires that would never cease or the ghosts floating overhead.

    The Great Hall was organized with sixteen long oak tables and their benches, four for each house, lined up in rows, up and down the hall. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff on one side of the hall, and Gryffindor and Slytherin on the other. At the top of the hall on a raised platform sat the two tables for the teachers, facing the students. In front of them, a small podium shaped like an owl with its wings outstretched.

    The tables were decorated with autumnal leaves and jugs of water to drink during the ceremony. The girls were seated in the middle of the hall, on the side where their backs faced the Slytherin table. She could feel someone's eyes on her, and they didn't look away until a few friendly older faces came by to say hello to them.

    Remus Lupin, one of the prefects, was doing his best to greet people. Remus was very tall and lanky, he had light brown tousled hair and two long scars across his face which had appeared a few years ago. Remus was a nice, if not a rather reserved person to those who didn't know him. He was quite the academic and had held study sessions for students, or more accurately people had started asking him a million questions while he was studying and from there he grew a little following.

    Beside him was Lily Evans, another prefect, saying hello to everyone as well. Out of the two, Diana knew Lily the best, they had bonded last year over muggle movies, both being raised in the muggle world. The two had continued their friendship that summer and had gone and seen some movies, like Zorro, in London over the break. Lily was a little shorter than Diana though the same curvy frame, and a wry smile. She had her ginger hair curled and brushed out like Farrah Fawcett, and her nails painted red.

    Trailing behind them talking loudly about quidditch was James Potter and Sirius Black. James was Diana's new Quidditch team captain, classically handsome and almost as tall as Remus. He had light brown skin, dark hair that never stayed in place, and round glasses which were always slightly askew. Sirius looked like a Michelangelo model, high cheekbones, dark eyes, and shoulder length black shagged hair. He was only a little bit shorter than James. They paid little attention to the people Lily and Remus were talking to. Behind them quietly walking was Peter Pettigrew, a small boy with blonde sandy hair, a pudgy look, and slight bucked teeth whose dark eyes darted back and forth between James and Sirius like they were gods.

    Lily sat down across from them, and with her, the group of boys followed. Remus was a good friend of Lily's and seemingly the 'Marauders' never left each other's side so the other three boys were joining as well. It also wasn't a well kept secret that James was quite smitten with Lily, and over the summer Lily had said she would never, ever date James. But Diana saw a little sparkle in her eyes when she talked about him but decided not to point that out.

    A few minutes before the first years were bound to arrive, Mary MacDonald and Marlene McKinnon joined them, both close friends of Lily. Mary was petite with dark skin and long black curly hair. She was the prettiest girl in her year with big doe eyes and a wide bright smile, and a muggleborn just like Diana. Marlene was almost her opposite, very tall and slender, an athlete's body. She had pale blonde hair and even paler blue eyes. Her face was covered in freckles like Lily. She was very pretty as well, but perhaps she didn't know it yet.

    The first years filed in, all looking smaller each year and just as nervous. McGonagall announced names one by one and the hat sorted them. Their group clapped for all houses and only a few Gryffindors gave polite claps for Slytherins. They all cheered immensely for new Gryffindors. James and Sirius shouted sorting guesses once the hat was placed on a first-years head and booed when they got it wrong.