What if they all lived?

Chapter 2

First year - the sorting

Athena Black

They all enter the Great Hall. Her eyes start looking for her brother. When he finds her gaze he signals for her to sit next to him as they wait for the sorting to begin.

Professor McGonagall, a thin, stern-faced witch who had led all of the first years into the hall was now standing beside a stool, holding a mangy old brown hat. Now she was nervous, the calmness and the jokes she felt and made back in the train seem to be a completely different person from the one sitting here waiting. She looks around and finds the Slytherin table and her heart rate suddenly goes into outer space. She has no need to feel like she is, all in the Black line get sorted here, but her stupid brother found a way to get in her head, and now she doubting the confidence with which she entered the train. The sorting starts and as kids pass her nerves are only growing. She comes back from her thoughts only for a brief second to see a boy get in Hufflepuff, and then goes back in stress mode. Five more kids.

Her brother is called up. Her stomach is turning upside down as she wonders if her breakfast would make a reappearance. She is picking at her nails now, if her mother could see her doing such a thing "Improper for a lady to pick on her nails or to sit the way you are... or to not get sorted in Slytherin" her thoughts are playing mind tricks on her. She lifts her gaze and watches her brother. Sirius, he looked positively queasy as he approached the stool. She looks at her cousins catcalling from their table, Bellatrix grinding and Cissy not really paying any mind to any of it , Sirius, who was now trembling on the stool looks up at her and forces a smile to appear on his face before half of it gets covered by the hat. The hall was quiet for a few moments, then the hat screeched,

"Gryffindor!"

A few moments of stunned silence before the clapping came.

McGonagall gently lifted the hat from Sirius' head and gave him a small, rare smile. No, she thought this wasn't happening. She can only imagine Walburgas face when she hears. She glances once again at the Slytherin table and sees Bellatrix yelling at Narcissa as she is trying to calm her down. The only words she manages to understand are "He is a Black! That hat is broken! How dare they insult us like this?!" She looked back at her brother; he looked completely horrified, casting a desperate look at the Slytherin table and then back at her. Her hands started shaking desperately, she placed her hands in her robes pockets to avoid questions she would not answer. Sirius got up and walked slowly over to the Gryffindors, where he was the first new student to take his place under the red and gold banners. He looked just as bad as she did. She couldn't help but wonder which one of them would be the first to break in tears or pucke their insides.

The sorting continued. Lily was also placed in Gryffindor, and sat grinning next to a very miserable looking Sirius. Then Remus who seemed to not fully understand what all the fuss was about. He looked like he didn't much like having everyone's eyes on him as he pushed to the front. He sat down and McGonagall looked down her nose at him. Her brother, who recovered a bit of the color on his face, looked like he forced himself to shove it all in for two seconds to look up at the tall boy. He had a curious look plastered on his face as he practically jumped when he got sorted into the same house. He shoved a girl away to let the boy sit next to him, now forgetting his problems as one of his newly made friends was now in the same place he was. It looked like she would be alone in Slytherin after all, she really thought she wouldn't lose her twin due to school.

By the time the 'P's' came around, Athena had somewhat recovered and was able to watch with some interest as Peter hurried towards the sorting hat. The hat was definitely broken, she thought to herself, to place this boy in Gryffindor when it was obvious at first glance that he had not one single cell of it in him. She didn't really understand the order in which they were being called, but she couldn't think of that.