The Story Of Someone Who Was Once A Black

Chapter 1

     Sirius was never big on people. He always disliked hanging around with his family and the people his parents thought he ought to be friends with. I mean, sure he never really agreed with any of these people most of the time, and Regulus could be okay sometimes, but he always knew he was different from the other pureblood families surrounding his childhood.

     The day he had gotten his Hogwarts letter had been an exciting one indeed. His parents certainly seemed proud of him, and were happy to have yet another Black pass through the Slytherin house. September 1st rolled around, and Sirius had a sort of nervous excitement within the pit of his stomach. Standing there on Platform 9 and ¾, glad to be leaving his abusive family behind, for at least a school year, Sirius felt prepared for what lie ahead of his school days.

     After stiff goodbyes from his parents and a slightly tearful goodbye from his younger brother, Sirius had finally boarded the train and was moving along to find himself an empty compartment. Not long after he had found one and had stowed his trunk in the overhead rack, had a tanned boy with dark messy hair walked in and asked if he could sit with him. Sirius said yes, and not recognizing the boy felt as if he would not be the type of person his parents felt he should be hanging out with. The boy introduced himself as "James Potter, first year, who is quite excited to be sorted into Gryffindor like my dad." This comment surprised Sirius who responded with "Really? My whole family has been in Slytherin; that's where my parents expect me to get sorted to." The boy called James looked just as surprised by Sirius's response as Sirius was with James's. "Well," said James, "Where do you want to be sorted?" Sirius thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. I've only heard about Slytherin, and seeing as that's where my whole family has been I didn't really think about any other house I would like to be in." James looked at him curiously and responded with "Well, if we're to keep being friends you might want to think about it. Slytherins and Gryffindors don't tend to get along all that well." However, before Sirius could get a response out, another boy entered the compartment.

     "Mind if I join you?" asked the newcomer politely. "Sure." James shrugged. Sirius was slowly becoming more apprehensive about the amount of people in their compartment. "I'm Remus Lupin by the way, it's my first year at Hogwarts, and I was hoping to make some friends before everyone gets sorted and starts hating each other over house differences. What about you guys?" Sirius was beginning to feel as if the fairly roomy compartment was rapidly shrinking and hoped no one else joined them while James responded. "I'm James Potter, and this...well come to think of it you haven't told me your name, so I am unaware of it as is the lovely Remus here." Sirius was pulled out of his thoughts by this comment and replied with "Oh, right, yeah, I'm Sirius." James looked at him quizzically, but soon returned to his conversation with Remus Lupin. "Well yeah, so I'm James and he's Sirius, and we're both first years as well."

     As the train ride droned on Sirius became lost in thought and began making inputs on the conversation less and less. He was taking James's question seriously, and thinking about what house he would actually like to be in. He thought back to everything he knew about each house and, even though he still knew the most about Slytherin, he discovered he knew a fair amount about each of the other houses as well. He knew that Hufflepuff was the house of the kindhearted, although he felt as though he wasn't exactly the kindest person in the world; he also knew that Ravenclaw was the house of smart people, which considering he struggled to remember all the names on the Black family tree, and the steps to the dances his mother had tried to teach him, he didn't feel as if he was too particular smart either. Now Gryffindor he knew a little more about considering the rivalry between them and Slytherin, but, prejudices aside, he knew they were the house of the brave and loyal. Now he supposed that he wouldn't be the most loyal if he decided to go against his entire family and was in a house other than Slytherin, but he figured he must be pretty brave to endure the long dinner parties he had to go to as a child, and to deal with all the unpleasantness dealt to him by his mother. And then there was Slytherin, the house of cunning, he supposed he felt a certain affinity for that house since his whole family had been there, but was that really where he fit in? As these thoughts possessed him, he was shaken out of his reverie by James whom had said, "It's starting to get dark, we must nearly be there. We should probably get our robes on." So all three boys pulled on their robes and Sirius realized that if he were making friends here these two wouldn't be all that bad of a start, but what if they're in a different house, he thought bitterly, well, he thought, I guess I'll just have to wait till the sorting to find out then. And Sirius decided it would be best to just let the Sorting Hat decide his fate for the next seven years, rather than trying to figure it out then.