Remus walked into the great hall with the three other boys at his side, Peter was standing a little behind James and shifting his weight from one foot to another. Sirius was playing with his sleeve as if none of this mattered to him, Remus assumed it probably didn't as he had made it clear that he knew what house he was going to be put in.
He was slightly ahead feeling mesmerised as he took it all in, he'd never seen anything like this, he could hear his sister's malicious voice in his head "magic is like a drug it takes you away from reality and makes you forget who you really are" Remus shook his head as if to put that memory behind him. She didn't even know what she was talking about, she'd never even been to Hogwarts.
The first years were led to the front by a teacher who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, she pulled out a list from her robes that tumbled to the ground with how long it was.
She called each person up one by one to be sorted into their house. He watched as the name Lily Evans was called out by the professor and a timid looking girl with dark red curly that fell past her shoulders and bright green eyes walked up and took a seat.
The hat was placed on to her head and was silent for a moment as if it was thinking, maybe it was, Remus wasn't sure how this worked. His thoughts were interrupted by the loud noise of the hat shouting very noisily "GRYFFINDOR." An applause from the Gryffindor table erupted and the girl took a seat with a wide grin on her face showing her freckles that scattered across her nose.
The next name the hat called was Barty Crouch, Remus saw him give a small smile to the boy next to him and then walk up to be sorted, "Slytherin" the hat called out before it had even properly touched Barty's head. The boy smiled and practically strutted over to his table.
Around 10 minutes later when Remus was starting to get fidgety he was snapped out of his day dream by Professor McGonagall calling his name exasperatedly, she must have been calling it for a while because everyone was starting at him and James was kicking him in the foot.
"Shit, I guess I like to make an entrance" Remus said to everyone watching him, he flushed red realising he had said that out loud, he felt relieved as his classmates laughed and the tension eased.
He took a deep breath and sat on the chair, the hat muttered something inaudible for a few moments before shouting "GRYFFINDOR" Remus jumped at the sudden noise but played it off by pretending he did it on purpose comically.
He walked over to the table and watched as his new friends got sorted, he thought they were his friends at least, Remus had never had friends before so this was all new to him. James was sorted next and into Gryffindor of course, along with Peter.
When Sirius walked up to the hat Remus felt his heart beating faster, he brushed it off unsure as to why he was feeling like this, he was probably just nervous at starting this new school. He saw a girl with white and black pin straight hair wave to Sirius as he walked up, Remus watched as Sirius looked back and smiled sheepishly.
As Sirius sat down Remus saw another girl sitting at the Slytherin table call out to him, this girl had shoulder length curly black hair and her wand tucked messily into her curls."No point putting the hat on his head, he's a black, there has never been a black not in Slytherin." She cackled at her own words along with a few other people at the table.
The hat was placed on Sirius' head, it stayed silent for an uncomfortably long amount of time, "well this is a strange one, very strange indeed" the hat said while grinning. "GRYFFINDOR" it called out, Remus watched as Sirius' face grew pale and a look of horror spread over it.
"No no it must be a mistake, try again please" he pleaded with the hat. The other students snickered around him. Professor McGonagall lightly pushed him towards the Gryffindor table and explained that the hat doesn't make mistakes.
Sirius walked over and slumped towards him looking dejected and scared, Remus tried to comfort him by patting his shoulder "It's okay Sirius, at least we are all together, Gryffindor sounds like a fun house."
Sirius turned his head sharply towards him "FUN?" "I don't care about fun, you don't understand, I have to be in Slytherin, my parents they will..." "oh what does it matter now, what's done is done" Sirius' words tumbled out as if he was being sick. Remus just watched nervously trying to be sympathetic even though he didn't understand what the fuss was about.
They were led up to the common room by the head boy, a tall stern looking boy who introduced himself as Frank Longbottom, Peter sniggered at this but James gave him a nudge "Shut it Pete" Peter rolled his eyes but listened to him. Remus was starting to get the impression that Peter just followed along with whatever James said.
They were given the password and let into the common room, Remus looked in and smiled, it looked so cozy and welcoming. The room was scattered with armchairs and various sofas each covered in red and gold cushions. There was a fireplace in the middle that was brightly lit and had little ornaments and trophies sprawled across the top.
The girls were then taken up to their dorms by a prefect named Alice and the boys were taken up by Frank. Each room had four beds and they got to choose who they slept in a room with. Remus started biting his nails nervously not knowing what to do. He watched as James, Peter and Sirius walked into one of the rooms and he put his head down, should he follow them he thought to himself or had he got it mistaken and they weren't friends.
Remus was pulled out of his dilemma by Sirius poking his head around the corner "Are you coming or not Lupin?" Remus sighed in relief and followed him happily, grateful for this messy haired kid that reminded him of a Labrador.
He walked into the room and looked around in amazement, they each got their own huge bed with red and gold drapes wrapped around, this was nothing like his tiny metal framed bed at home. He ran over to the bed next to Sirius that hadn't been claimed and bounced on to it, Remus felt a snap and quickly stood back up again in horror. He put his head in hands, he'd only been in here 2 minutes and had already broken a bed, how idiotic was he.
Remus watched as Sirius walked up to him and pulled out his wand that had been holding his black hair into a bun at the back. As his hair tumbled down to his shoulders Remus felt his stomach flutter, Remus pushed back the feeling as simply being scared about the broken bed.
Sirius flicked his wand "Reparo" "there you go, all fixed" he nodded at Remus and walked back over to finish unpacking. Remus smiled back gratefully, he was secretly shocked but assumed it was a normal wizard thing, not wanting to draw more attention to himself he continued to just unpack.
James however was staring at Sirius gobsmacked. "How the bloody hell did you do that?" "It's day one and we haven't even started classes yet" Sirius smirked nonchalantly "I'm a black remember" "I had a home tutor of course" he said in a mock posh accent. James rolled his eyes laughing while pinning a weird poster that looked somewhat like football but in the air instead.
"What's that?" Remus asked pointing looking at it confused. James looked up at him in mock horror, "I know you grew up with muggles but cmon, it's only the best game ever." Peter smiled sympathetically "Quidditch, that's what it is." Remus studied it for another moment before getting distracted by how the drapes worked on his bed.
Sirius walked over to help him, as Remus was tugging on it his sleeve rolled up, he was too distracted to notice it but the sudden silence caused him to turn around, three pairs of eyes were staring at him with mouths agape.
"Uh, you guys okay there?" Remus stuttered out confused at what was happening. James was the first to speak "Yeah mate, we're okay, are you?" He nodded to Remus' rolled up sleeve.
Remus at once realising what had happened pulled his sleeve down in a hurry, his heart was beating so fast and everything felt muffled around him. "Yeah, um i'm.. um yeah fine." "Just some marks from falling over as a kid." It was an obvious lie, even oblivious Peter could figure that out but Remus didn't really know what else to say, Sirius stared at him for a moment before nodding his head and changing the subject.
He now realised this friendship thing wasn't going to work, if he let anyone get to close to him they would figure it out, Remus decided it was best to simply not have any friends.
Remus went to sleep that night saddened at his decision but knew it was for the best, after a while of staring at the ceiling deep in his thoughts he finally drifted off.
