Chapter Text
Remus POV
“Firs’ Years! Firs’ Years, this way please!” Remus heard coming from a giant man. He wondered if this person was some kind of giant or half-giant. He made a mental note to find out the man’s name and talk to him more. He followed the man towards a fleet of boats, and realised that they’d be crossing the lake on them. He was very anxious, especially as he’d be sharing with at least one of the other boys from the compartment
“No more than four t’ a boat please.” Remus heard the giant man say. He internally groaned. He just knew James and Sirius were going to end up rocking the boat. Peter looked quite green at the idea of travelling across the lake in a boat. Perhaps he got seasick? Either that, or he’d come to the same conclusion Remus had.
“Come on lads, let’s get a move on. Can’t be losing our chance at getting a boat to ourselves, can we now?” James cheerfully said. Remus was pretty sure he heard Peter comment about it being ‘such an awful possibility’ quite sarcastically, though James clearly hadn’t heard. Sirius was very quiet, especially the closer they got to the castle. Remus wanted to check in on him, but the boy looked very conflicted, and Remus doubted he’d be able to do much.
“Now look ‘ere, we’ll be gettin’ our first sight o’ Hogwarts in just a min.” Remus heard the giant man say this and looked towards the front of the boat. Sure enough, Hogwarts came into view a few seconds later and Remus was in awe. Reading about the school did nothing to prepare him for the sight that was Hogwarts. It looked like something out of a fairytale. Seeing the castle only strengthened his resolve to not let anyone find out his secret, as he wanted to spend as much time in the castle as possible. He knew he probably wouldn’t graduate, but he hoped to at least make it through third year, as he wanted to visit Hogsmeade.
“We’re nearly there now! Mind your heads!” The giant man gestured towards the rocky entrance. Remus’ anxiety grew. He was terrified for the Sorting. A million different possibilities ran through his head, none of them ending well. James was the only person around them who didn’t look scared in some way.
The giant man led them through the entrance and into a room. He told them to wait there, that someone would come get them in a moment and left. Nervous chatter sprang up from the people around them. Sirius and Peter were both quiet, and Sirius looked a bit pale. James, ever the talkative one, was talking for all of them, and kept switching topics every few minutes.
“Welcome to Hogwarts. I am the Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall.” Remus heard the woman speaking, and stopped fidgeting with his hands to look up at her. “The start of term feast will begin shortly, but first you must be Sorted. This is very important, as during your time at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family. You will have classes with your House, sleep in your house’s dormitory and spend free time in your house’s common room.”
Remus heard someone mumble something like ‘hope they’re not actually like my family’ and suspected it came from Sirius. Professor McGonagall began speaking again and Remus resumed listening.
“The four Houses are: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Each house has its own history, and has produced outstanding witches and wizards. Whilst you are here at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, and rule-breaking will lose you points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points will win the House Cup. I do hope that each of you will be a credit to whichever house you end up being Sorted into.” Professor McGonagall finished, and James muttered something along the lines of ‘House point’s won’t stop us, boys’
“I suggest you all take a moment to smarten up a bit, you will be called in for the Sorting in a few minutes.” As she said this, her eyes lingered on James’ untidy mop of hair, and Peter’s tie that wasn’t done properly.
Remus nervously smoothed out his uniform and tried to flatten his curls a bit. He took several shaky breaths to try to calm himself, before they were all called in to the Great Hall.
He looked around the hall in awe, and looked up at the sky. There was a good view of the constellations and he started mentally reciting them. That helped to calm his nerves a bit.
There was a hat on the stool in front of them, and he realised that this hat was going to be the one determining his future at Hogwarts. He was just wondering how it worked when the hat suddenly burst into song.
Once the hat had finished it’s song, Professor McGonagall had stood up at the front with a roll of parchment in her hand. She called out what was presumably the first name on the list.
“Abbot, Maximilian.” She called. A young boy with blond hair stepped forward and sat on the stool as the hat was placed on his head.
“Hmm, I know just where to put you. HUFFLEPUFF!” The Hat called, and the Hufflepuff table burst out into applause.
“Black, Sirius.” The whole hall sudden went dead silent and held their breaths.
“GRYFFINDOR!” There was a moment of dead silence, and then the Gryffindor table burst into applause. The Slytherin table looked murderous.
The list carried on, with another going to Hufflepuff and two to Ravenclaw. Remus refocused on the sorting to hear a name called out
“Evans, Lily.”
“GRYFFINDOR!” At this, a boy with greasy black hair looked dejected, and Lily looked at him longingly, probably hoping that he’d end up being in the same House as her. He shook his head at her though.
A couple of people later, and Remus heard a ‘Longbottom, Frank’ being Sorted into Gryffindor. He realised that he was next.
“Lupin, Remus.” was called out. He walked towards the stool and sat down on it. The Hat was placed on his head, and Remus heard it speak to him.
“Well hello, little werewolf.” It said to him, and panic filled him entirely.
“Don’t tell anyone please, I’ll do anything!” He replied to it.
“Relax little cub, your secret is safe with me. I’ve held the secrets of students of this school for centuries. Now where to put you? You’d do well in Ravenclaw, although you’d be most in danger of others finding out. Not Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff, you’d be most likely to be accepted.” The Hat told him.
“I want to be with my friends.” Remus told the hat.
“Brave of you. Yes I see. You’ll do well in GRYFFINDOR!” It shouted to the hall.
Remus felt like his ears were ringing as he sat down. He sat next to Sirius and Lily Evans, and watched the sorting continue.
“MacDonald, Mary.”
“GRYFFINDOR!”
“McKinnon, Marlene”
“GRYFFINDOR”
“Meadowes, Dorcas.”
“SLYTHERIN!”
“Pettigrew, Peter”
“GRYFFINDOR!”
“Potter, James”
“GRYFFINDOR!”
“Prewett, Alice”
“GRYFFINDOR!”
At that name, Remus realised that there were three others at that table that Alice had a strong resemblance to. He wondered if she had older siblings here. He introduced himself to the new people around him, as he would probably be sharing his classes with them for the rest of his time at Hogwarts, and being on bad terms with them wouldn’t do him any favours. He paid little attention to the rest of the Sorting, and when the last person had been sorted into Slytherin, the Headmaster stood up.
“Let the feast… BEGIN!” He said to them all, and then piles and piles of food appeared on the table. After getting a plate full of food (the full moon was in a few days and Remus was starving,) he and a few of the girls started discussing how much they knew about magic. Apparently two of the girls (Mary and Lily) were muggle-borns, and had never heard of magic before getting their letters, and Remus offered to help them both. The blond girl, Marlene, was a half-blood, and had known magic existed, but didn’t know any. The biggest surprise was Alice, who was apparently from a Sacred 28 family, and Remus was correct about her having older siblings. She had two brothers, Fabian and Gideon who were apparently in seventh year, and an older sister Molly who was in fifth year. She was really shy and quiet, but Remus found he quite liked her because of that, and she was incredibly kind.
Eventually the feast came to an end, and Dumbledore made a few announcements, such as the forbidden forest was, well, forbidden. This filled James and Sirius with glee, no doubt those two already planning an adventure into the forest, regardless of the danger.
“Gryffindor first years, follow me please!” A female prefect called, and Remus made a note of her resemblance to Alice. They followed her, as she explained which way the Gryffindor dorm was, and how the staircases move around, and some passageways that made getting around much easier. Remus was making a mental map of the castle and resolved to draw it on some parchment and to find more passages that would make his life easier. They arrived at the portrait that was apparently the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, and the prefect said the password. She ushered the first years into the common room, and told them that the girls' dorms were on the left, and that the boys' dorms were on the right. Remus split off from Alice, Lily and Mary, and went up to the boys dorm to spend some more time with James, Sirius and Peter, and maybe start drawing the map. He arrived at the dorm and entered to see James and Peter changing into pyjamas, and quickly looked away as he turned red.
“Guys, we met this morning. How are you so comfortable changing where anyone can walk in?” Remus asked the two boys.
“Honestly? No idea, I just don’t care.” James replied to Remus. Remus quickly grabbed pyjamas from his trunk and went into the bathroom to change. He hadn’t seen Sirius since the feast, so he just assumed the boy had gone to bed. He decided to do the same, as he was sleepy from so much food, and he wanted to not be late for classes tomorrow. He fell asleep quite quickly after that.