The Losing One || Sirius Black

7. The Sorting Hat

Sirius Black / Remus Lupin / Peter Pettigrew / James Potter

Wednesday, 1st September 1971.

Hogwarts

Sirius still couldn't believe it. He was really looking at the Hogwarts castle. It wasn't the greatness of it that sparked the joy inside of him, he was used to that. It was the opportunity to be away from his parents, the opportunity to have a home, to finally be himself for once and not having to apologize for it. The real chance at freedom.

"Are you guys coming?", he heard James' voice after he stopped walking towards the shore next to the boats they are supposed to take up to the castle.

It didn't escape his notice that James used plural so, when Sirius turned to his right, he saw Remus with the expression which could describe exactly how Sirius felt. It was expression of hope. It made him not feel alone in his admiration.

The taller boy yelled back at James, "Yeah, we are coming.", and as they approached the boat, he gestured for Sirius to step first inside and join their two friends.

The four of them stayed quiet for the duration of the ride, which seemed silly as they couldn't shut up on the train. Somehow all of them felt like this experience deserves some kind of a quiet respect.

The lake was dark, reflecting the stars and soon to be full moon. Sirius noticed that Remus' gaze was fixated on his lap while all of the other first years were looking at the surroundings and the beautiful night sky. He suspected Remus maybe didn't know how to swim, so he got a bit scared of the lake and boats. Soon enough they were at the boathouse located in the foot of the castle hill. James exited the boat first and helped Peter.

As soon as Sirius stood up after Remus, the boat started to wobble due to the lack of weight. He placed a hand on Remus' shoulder for support and the taller boy got a hold of his upper arm, preventing him from falling straight into the mud on the shore.

With that, they helped each other get out of the wobbling boat and started their journey up the stairs. James and Peter were a bit ahead of them talking to some blonde girl, but there were too many first years for the two to try and catch up.

"Where do you want to be sorted?", he heard Remus' voice from beside him.

Sirius shrugged, not really thinking about the answer, "I don't really know, my whole family has been in Slytherin so I assume I will be sorted there too."

That earned him an amused laugh from the boy, "But that isn't really the answer. I asked what you wanted, not where do you think you will end up."

They were now maybe a third of the way up.

That made Sirius muse, "I didn't really think about that.", he was slightly intrigued by the boy's explanation. James had asked him the same thing back on the train, and he didn't really have a real answer then either. The Slytherin was just an obvious choice, so there wasn't really much point in him thinking about that. He already got the chance to get away, so everything else somehow seemed like a sealed deal.

"What about you?", he looked at Remus curiously.

The tall boy put on a smug smile, "I think I would like for the Sorting Hat to determine that."

"Hey, that's not fair, that is also not an answer.", Sirius playfully punched him on the arm, "What is it that you want?", using Remus' own words against him made the boy laugh.

"I guess you are right.", there was a pause before he continued, "I think I would like to be with you lot, wherever that may be."

Sirius thought for a second, he really liked James, Peter and Remus. When he first talked to James couple of hours ago, he felt some kind of connection he never felt before. Like he was already comfortable with the boy, like they have been friends for years. If he got the chance to choose, would he rather choose them over Slytherin? Did he even want to be in Slytherin? Was there even a choice to be made?