Paper Rings || R. Lupin¹

Chapter 2

When the train had come to a full stop, the five friends shoved their way through the crowd and made their way onto the platform. They had just stepped off the train when they heard a voice,

"Firs' years, firs' years, this way please, follow me." When the group saw who was talking, they gasped, this man was huge and impossible to miss as he started in their direction.

"Are yeh five firs' years?" He asked them. James was the first one to find his voice and said, "yes sir, we are."

The large man smiled at them as he spoke, "now, none of tha' sir nonsense, me name's Hagrid. What are yer names?"

"James Potter." Said James and the rest of the group followed his example.

"Remus Lupin."

"P-Peter P-P-Pettigrew."

"Sirius Black."

"Nova Black." They all said their names one after another as Hagrid smiled fondly at them.

"Well yeh five, it's nice ter meet yeh, now follow me, come on now, don't dwaddle."

They all looked at each other before following Hagrid through the crowd. Soon enough they came to a stop at the edge of a lake. Floating on top of the lake was a fleet of rowboats.

"Now," said Hagrid, "five ter a boat, get goin' hurry on up."

James, Peter, Remus, Sirius, and Nova all clambered into a boat. As soon as all of the kids were settled, the fleet took off across the lake. As the group got closer to the castle you could hear gasps of awe coming from all of the students, muggle-born or other. Far faster than they had thought, they were at the castle, they climbed out of their boats and up a flight of stairs to the Entry Hall where they were greeted by a stern-looking, old witch, she held her hand out for them to stop and as she started to talk she caught the attention of the students.

"Hello, I am Professor McGonagall, in a few moments, you will be sorted into your houses. While you are here, your houses will be like your family.
There are four houses. Hufflepuff, the house of loyalty, kindness, honesty, and friendship.
Gryffindor, the house of courage, nerve, chivalry, bravery, and loyalty. Ravenclaw, the house of intelligence, wisdom, creativity, and originality. And lastly Slytherin, the house of cunning, ambition, determination, and leadership.

When the professor said Slytherin, Sirius and Nova shared a look, neither of them had any interest in being in Slytherin but they knew that they would be, seeing as everyone in their family was. Professor McGonagall herded all of the first years through a door and into a small circular chamber to the side of the Great Hall. They all waited in silence for about five minutes until Professor McGonagall came back for them. She lead them through the Great Hall until they were in front of all the other students, who were staring at them in fascination.

For a couple of minutes, they just stood there as McGonagall carried a wooden stool to them and placed on it an old, tattered hat that looked as though it would fall apart any minute. Soon enough McGonagall was standing in front of them, holding a long scroll, and was calling names off in alphabetical order.

"Avery, Tyler" was the first name called, and after about 10 seconds the hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!" And all of the Hufflepuffs cheered as Tyler ran to their table. The next person called was a small girl by the name of "Bidez, Elsie" this time the hat took over a minute before shouting out "RAVENCLAW!" The girl hopped off of the stool, practically skipping to the Ravenclaw table as they cheered. Professor McGonagall looked down at her scroll again before calling

"Black, Nova" and Nova walked up to the stool trembling and sat down as the hat was set on her head, she jumped a bit as the hat started whispering in her ear, "a Black I see, your quite determined and very ambitious." The hat said to Nova as she thought about this sadly to herself, she didn't want this, but she knew this was just how it was, but the hat continued. "But you are not suited it seems, for Slytherin like the rest of your family, you are brave and loyal, better suited I'd say for "GRYFFINDOR!"

It shouted this last bit as Nova sat frozen in her seat, staring at Sirius with a look of pure fear on her face, for she knew that her parents would not like this one bit. She was so paralyzed by fear that Professor McGonagall had to pry her off the stool and walk her to the Gryffindor table before calling Sirius up to get sorted.

This is it, thought Nova, I'm getting split up from my brother and we are never going to talk again and he's going to hate me and...

Nova's thoughts were abruptly cut off as the sorting hat once again yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!" Nova stared at her brother in shock as he walked toward her, also accompanied by McGonagall. As more kids got sorted Sirius looked at Nova and whispered,

"What are we going to do? Mum's going to kill us, we were supposed to be in Slytherin." Nova took a minute before answering him. "There isn't anything that we can do, we're Gryffindors, you know that the hat is never wrong, now pay attention that Lily girl from the train is being sorted," and indeed she was, before Sirius could say another word the hat shouted out "GRYFFINDOR!" And Lily was bounding to the table.

Remus was next and he too was put into Gryffindor, as were James and Peter, though unfortunately for Lily her friend Severus was put into Slytherin. Lily was upset about Severus but as it turned out Lily and Nova had a lot in common and were fast friends.

Much later in the evening, after they had eaten, they were brought to their common room and given the password which was "Phoenix Feather." Lily and Nova were put into a dorm with Mary Macdonald and Marlene McKinnon.

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter were all put together which was good seeing as they already knew each other. That night they went to bed with full bellies and happy hearts, all except for Nova and Sirius who stayed up late into the night worrying to say the least about what their mother would do when she found out that her children were in Gryffindor.

                                                                 1092 words