𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐎𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐂 𝐆𝐑𝐘𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑 - {𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄}

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗫

{  SIRIUS' POV  }

«※»

The journey across the lake on the boats was just as magical as the castle itself. I couldn't believe I was finally here, my parents had been talking about sending me to Drumstrang, they focused more on the dark arts and that's what they wanted me to learn. But thankfully, they had decided against it. Maybe I'd finally have a chance to get away from the life my parents wanted me to live. They had told me about the Dark Lord and his plans for muggle-borns and muggles, I didn't agree with them. Based on what I'd seen of the muggles on the street they seemed harmless. Muggle-borns didn't seem like a threat either, they just seemed like everyone else. If no one went about talking about their blood status then you wouldn't even know who the muggle-borns were.
They climbed out of the small boats, making sure I kept close to James and Remus as we went up a few flights of stairs.
"Blimey, how does anyone find their way around this castle," I muttered to them as I looked down the many corridors.
"No idea, maybe there's a map or something," James replied hopefully.
He seemed just as daunted as the many corridors as I did which eased my nerves, or perhaps he was just worried about the sorting that was coming up as we stood in a hallway outside a pair of large oak doors.
Whatever the sorting hat put him in, I'd be glad. Although there was a large part of me that didn't want to go into Slytherin, but if that's the house I was destined to be put in then maybe I could live that.
They were greeted by an older woman with a sharp face, her greying hair was tied back into a sleek bun with a witches hat balanced on top of her head. She wore emerald green robes and waited for all the first years to arrive.
The woman was known as Professor McGonagall, my parents had often complained about her on the rare occasion they talked about Hogwarts. She certainly did seem like a strict and stern woman.
She did the introductions, talking about each of the houses and what they would do in their houses before leaving to go see if they were ready for us. The other first-years began nervously muttering about the sorting ceremony. James looked an unnatural pale colour and I tried distracting him from the nerves but I could tell that anything I was trying to do was making him feel worse.
Finally, Professor McGonagall came in announced for us to follow her. We rounded the corridor and the first thing I saw was the hundreds of faces from other years staring up at us as we walked down the steps and through the middle of the tables. The other students, however, were looking up at the ceiling and gasping. I turned my head up to see what they were all talking about only to see that there was no roof, rather the open night sky above us with hundreds of floating candles lighting the place up.
We came to a stop before the teacher's table up the front and there sat a small stool with an old manky witches hat that McGonagall picked up. She unrolled a long piece of parchment and read out the first name.
"Archibald, Sam!" McGonagall called, reading out the last name first.
A shaky, pale-looking boy with thick brown hair walked to the front and sat down on the stool. McGonagall dropped the hat on his head and it slipped down below his eyes. There was quite a lot of silence before the hat bellowed out.
'HUFFLEPUFF!'
A roar came up from the far right table, a few people around him jumped at the sudden noise.
The hat was lifted off the boy's head as McGonagall gestured for him to take a seat at the Hufflepuff table, he ran over and sat down next to all the other Hufflepuffs.
It didn't take long for my name to be called as my last name started with a 'B'.
"Black, Sirius!"
I could feel the anticipation from the table to the far left of me, the Slytherin's. As a part of the Sacred 28, it was almost expected that we were all to be put in Slytherin. To not be put in Slytherin is betraying the family, you'd be considered a 'blood-traitor'. I saw a few of my cousins, Lucius Malfoy sitting towards the end of the bench waiting to welcome the new first years.
The hat slipped over my eyes and I jumped slightly when the hat began talking.
"Sirius Black huh? You've got quite a creative mind, very determined and ambitious, good qualities to have in Slytherin," the hat began, "But there's something else a rebellious streak, a determination to prove people wrong. That requires quite a lot of bravery to turn against everything your family's led you to believe."
"I don't want to be in Slytherin, I don't want to follow the path my parents have laid out for me," I begged in my mind.
The hat chuckled.
"Slytherin wasn't the best fit for you anyways boy, so if it's certainly not Slytherin then it'd better be GRYFFINDOR!"
The hat shouted the last part to the great hall and there was quite a bit of shock amongst the hall before the Gryffindor table erupted into applause.
"On your way Mr Black," McGonagall said gesturing to the Gryffindor table with a small smile.
I couldn't believe it, had I just made a massive mistake? I could see my cousins and other relatives at the Slytherin staring at me with shock etched all over their faces. The look frozen on Lucius Malfoys face made me want to crack up. I was the first Gryffindor to join the table and the prefects couldn't have been more welcoming.
"I'm Billius Weasley, Gryffindor Prefect," said a red-haired wizard shaking my hand.
"I'm Sirius," I greeted shaking his hand back and taking a seat beside him as the next person was being called up to the stool.
The next Gryffindor to be sorted was a red-haired girl while brilliant green eyes and perfectly placed freckles along her face and arms. When Gryffindor was shouted the girl looked surprised and I joined the other Gryffindors in clapping and cheering as she came and sat across from me. She was introduced to the Prefects and other students nearby before the attention was turned back to the front.
A few more Gryffindors were sorting including the people he met on the train, Rames and Jemus. Or something like that.
The greasy-haired, rude boy I'd seen in Diagon Alley was sorted into Slytherin which was surprising. He was a half-blood, his mother was considered a blood-traitor to the Sacred 28 and none of the family talked to her or her son. Even his cousin didn't know how to react when he came over there, the applause for him was considerably quieter than it had been for previous Slytherins.
Lily, the girl sitting across from him seemed put out by the fact that he was put in Slytherin. I'd seen them cross the lake together in the boats and they'd also been chatting outside the hall. How did Snape get sorted into Slytherin being a half-blood and being friends with a muggle-born, if that's what they were? Him, being put into Slytherin was almost as shocking as me being put into Gryffindor. After the last few people had been sorted, silence quickly fell over the hall as the headmaster, Dumbledore, got up to the podium to speak.
He said a few words before the feast began, dishes and dishes of all different kinds of foods appeared before them. I had never seen this much food in all of my life, and the best part was that my mother wasn't here with her controlling rules. I could have as many helpings as I wanted and serve my own portion sizes. The cooking here tasted so much better than what the family's old house-elf could do, the food he cooked tasted as bland and dull as the house itself.
I struck up a conversation again with James and Remus as well as exchanging a few words with Lily although James was the one who mostly talked to her. Maybe they knew each other beforehand somehow. Whatever it was, Lily didn't seem interested in keeping a conversation with him but did like talking to Remus who was sitting next to me. From the little I had overheard, they had met briefly in the bookstore back in Diagon Alley. I didn't know why they made her want to talk to him more than James who was actively trying to engage her in a conversation. I shrugged to myself, it wasn't any of my business to get into.
After I'd eaten my weight in food, Dumbledore said a few mores thing and warnings before Billius told all the first years to follow him. He led us through multiple hallways and stairs, giving us warnings and pointed out certain paintings and reminders around the castle so we'd know where we were.
We came to a stop in front of a painting of a fat lady in a bright pink dress.
"Password?" She asked.
"Gillyweed," Billius replied.
We all piled inside the common room, it was a warm room with a roaring fireplace with comfy and squashy looking armchairs and couches by the fire. The whole room just seemed so cozy and relaxing with its warm tones. It felt more like home than Grimmauld place ever had, I shuddered at the thought of the Slytherin common room which would have just been as uncomfortable as Grimmauld Place. I was more glad that I'd been placed in Gryffindor, although I shuddered to think of what my parents would be like when I returned home.
Lists of dormitories were read off and he only started paying attention when James, one of the boys from the train, grabbed my arm and the Lupin boy's arm excitedly. Apparently, we'd all been placed in a cabin together with one other boy.
How lucky was it that the boys I'd met on the train were also placed in the same house as me and were also in the same dormitory as me?
"Tomorrow morning if you think you need help finding the great hall or your classes, wait for me in the common room and I'll lead you guys down," Billius said.
I only caught that last part of what he was saying, I was too busy looking around at the decorations in the room. When I got home I would decorate my room like this too, maybe it'd feel a bit like home there too.
James pulled me after him up the stairs to our dormitory. He was the first one in the room and jumped on one of the beds that his trunk was in front of.
"I can't believe we're finally here!" James exclaimed as he stared up at the ceiling of his four-poster bed.
I took in his surroundings of this room too. The dark but inviting hardwood floors and deep red of the rug and curtains. I loved it here already.
"This is crazy, I'd never thought I'd be here," I added, grinning.
I flopped down onto my bed that was next to James'.
"We have a free period tomorrow, d'you guys want to go and check out the castle?" I asked the others.
James nodded eagerly while Remus agreed as well, saying something about needing to know where to go for his classes.
The door swung open and a boy almost tripped as he walked in, not seeing the little step into the room. He had a round stomach and thinning blonde hair that was swept to the side. He had beady little blue eyes and crumbs over his robes.
"Hey guys, I'm your fourth roommate I guess," the boy said awkwardly as he stood near the only empty bed.
"I'm Sirius and that's James and Remus," I introduced.
The boy laughed and I raised an eyebrow, was there something funny about what I said? Did I have something on my face? The other boys seemed just as confused and the boy's laugh quickly faded and he flushed.
"Sorry, wait, your name is actually serious?" He asked.
"It's Sirius," I sounded out, "Spelt S-I-R-I-U-S. Like the star constellations, my whole family is named after stars."
"You're named after a star called Sirius?" He asked like it was some sort of joke.
"Yeah."
The boy laughed again but quickly covered it with a cough seeing how none of the others was laughing. He quickly busied himself with unpacking the stuff from his trunk. I shrugged, not thinking much about that interaction much more.
"Your whole family is named after stars you say? What are their names?" Remus asked, interested in that fact.
"Well my mum isn't named after a star but my dad's name is Orion and my brother's first and middle name are named after stars, Regulus and Arcturus, he likes to think that it makes him twice as bright," I explained.
"I bet you could use that in divination," Remus replied, "Sirius, Regulus and Arcturus are some of the brightest stars in the sky you know?"
"Really? That's cool, I wonder if you could see me if you looked out the window," I commented,
"I think I see you there," James announced pointing out of the window from where he lay on his bed.
Remus looked out the window to where he was pointing.
"I'm pretty sure that's a plane, I don't think stars blink like that," Remus replied.
I snorted as I changed in my pyjamas and climbed into the thick and warm covers of my bed. Everything here just seemed so much better than back home. I  didn't have to freeze every night with the thin sheet that I was given to sleep under back at home.
I stayed up late into the night talking with the other boys about Hogwarts and getting to know about their lives and where they had come from. For the first time in what felt like ages, I went to sleep without having a single nightmare or worrying about the rules I'd have to follow or what punishments I'd have to endure.

Back at Number 12 Grimmauld place, someone else lay awake, staring out at the night sky waiting for a letter that was promised from his older brother. But it never came, Regulus was completely alone in the house.

A/N: Sorry for any typos or mistakes with third and first person I usually write late at night and grammarly is the only thing that is correcting this so far. Hope you're enjoying the story so far :)