The End of Sirius Black (The Long Live Sirius Remix) [Harry Potter, Sirius Black, gen, PG]
Title: The End of Sirius Black (The Long Live Sirius Remix)
Author: dr_darth
Summary: So that was the famous sorting hat, Sirius really thought that an ancient and powerful magical object should look a bit less rubbish.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Narcissa Black, Bellatrix Black
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JK owns all
Original story: Holy Palmer's Kiss by pixiechan
For as long as he could remember Sirius had been bombarded with lists of things that it was Not Proper for a Black To Do. Blacks do not betray their emotions. Blacks do not show weakness. As such it was no surprise when his mother said nothing to him the morning he left for Hogwarts, the cool look she gave him as his father ushered him out the front door said nothing so much as 'Don't disappoint me, son. Or there will be consequences.'
His father barely seemed sorrier to see him go. He patted his eldest son awkwardly on the shoulder at the main entrance to Kings Cross Station, a gesture that he wouldn't have dared do had Sirius' mother been present. Physical affection, that was another thing Blacks didn't do. The old duffer was nearly as under the thumb as Regulus, and at least Regulus had the excuse of only being eight.
The sooner he was off to Hogwarts the better. Sirius shrugged off his fathers awkward hand, muttered something about not wanting to miss his train, picked up his trunk and headed into the throng of people. Being a part of one of the oldest pure blood families in England he'd never spent much time around muggles and he looked curiously at them dressed in their strange clothes, getting on and off trains, buying cups of tea. What weird lives they must lead without magic. He got so lost in gaping at his surroundings that he was almost run down by an adult muggle wheeling a bicycle. Stupid way to travel, Sirius thought, they couldn't even fly. The muggle shouted at Sirius for getting in his way.
"Same to you too, mate!" Sirius shouted after the muggle. Before remembering that was something else Blacks weren't supposed to do, talk to muggles, even if it was only to shout abuse at them.
In this strange muggle place he was relieved to see a swarm of people dressed in wizarding robes hovering around a barrier between two platforms. He hurried over to platform nine and three quarters. Of course as a pure blood he knew all about the hidden platform but it was easy to guess who the mudbloods were, they were the ones squinting stupidly at their tickets and then looking searchingly around. As if even the Ministry of Magic would be daft enough to park a train to an invisible magic school in Scotland in the middle of a muggle train station.
"Oi, watch it," Sirius said, when a small podgy boy with colourless hair and eyes trod on his toes.
"I-I'm sorry," the boy timidly shrank away waving his ticket in a confused sort of a way. "I don't know-"
Sirius brushed past him, closing his eyes and squaring his shoulders for the run at the barrier. Having second thoughts he caught the podgy boy by the scruff of the neck, shoving him ahead like a human shield as they ran at the barrier.
When he opened his eyes they were on the hidden platform with students, parents and assorted pets milling around them. The timid boy looked up at Sirius seeming torn between thanking him and bursting into tears.
"Pete, Peter, you figured it out! You got through." A skinny boy with a wide grin and sticky up black hair pushed his way through the crowd and clapped the boy Sirius had dragged onto the platform on the shoulder so hard that his knees buckled slightly. He was followed at some distance by a lanky boy with hands and feet that seemed too big for his underfed looking body.
"I'm James Potter," the dark haired boy introduced himself, he jostled the shorter boy, "this is Pete Pettigrew."
"Peter," the boy corrected with a whisper that James ignored.
"And that's Remus Lupin."
Sirius had heard the name Potter before, a third or fourth cousin of his had married a Potter. He'd never heard of any pure bloods named Pettigrew and all the Lupins had been burned off the family tree years ago. He didn't know why, his parents wouldn't answer any of the questions he asked about so called blood traitors.
"I'm Sirius Black," Sirius introduced himself. James' wide grin slipped a bit, Sirius' mother said that the Black name inspired fear and respect, but in James it only seemed to inspire slight distaste.
"I'd better get on the train." Sirius picked up his trunk and hauled it away pretending not to hear James give his two friends a whispered commentary on the history of the Black family. Sod the lot of them then, it wasn't as though he'd wanted to hang about with two blood traitors and a mudblood anyway.
***
Sirius breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped off the Hogwarts express. He'd spent the lengthy journey from London crammed into a compartment with a whole load of other first year Slytherins. And how weird was it that they were all considering themselves Slytherins before there had even been a sorting? The group had included Sirius' simpering cousin Narcissa and some small greasy boy called Snape who in between talking about practising hexes on his neighbours' cat kept wiping his nose with his sleeve.
The platform was full of students pushing this way and that. Even Sirius, tall for his age, struggled to see where he was going through the wall of school uniforms.
The loud cry of 'first years, first years this way,' was reassuring and Sirius pushed against the tide of older students and followed the other first years down the slippery path. By the time he had made his way to the lakeside there were only two boats with a free seat, one contained Narcissa, Snape and the smellier of the Lestrange twins and the other contained James Potter and his friends. Snape sniffled loudly and Remus Lupin shifted along to make room for Sirius to sit next to him.
"W-what if you c-can't prove you're a wizard?" Peter asked nervously, continuing a conversation that had started before Sirius had joined them.
"They put you back on the train and send you back home. No point wasting a place at Hogwarts on a squib, is there?" James replied.
"What if I can't do a spell, I don't know any yet!" Peter sounded a bit distraught. Sirius grinned, catching onto the joke.
"They'll get you to do something else, wrestling a troll or something," Sirius said, channelling his mothers most arrogant tone of voice in order to try and sound convincing.
"A troll!" Peter sounded utterly horrified.
"It'll probably be small one, after all you're only little."
The quiet boy named Remus took pity on Peter, "they're taking the mick."
"Remus, you're no fun at all," James admonished, flashing an infectious grin at Sirius. It was a shame he and James weren't going to be in the same house. Potters were always Gryffindors and Blacks were always Slytherins, anyone with half a brain knew that.
The boats hit land and they scrambled up towards the castle, Peter slipped on the stone steps and was hauled up by James and Sirius. Remus followed behind them and along with the rest of the first years they scrambled into the castle and were hustled into a small room by a severe looking witch with scraped back black hair and a rotund wizard who introduced themselves as Professors McGonagall and Slughorn. There they were left to contemplate the impending sorting while the start of term feast began next door.
In the pushing, shoving and general milling about Sirius was separated from James and the others.
"Bet that one's a Hufflepuff, if he's got an ounce of magical blood in him at all that is." Narcissa had sidled up next to him and was nodding in Peter's direction.
"He's not that bad," Sirius replied. More to disagree with Narcissa than to defend Peter.
Narcissa snorted derisively, "If you carry on like that they'll shove you in Hufflepuff with the rest of the blood traitors."
Before Sirius could reply the stern looking witch came back and they were marched into the Great Hall and lined up in front of a stool with a fairly pathetic looking hat perched on it. So that was the famous sorting hat, Sirius really thought that an ancient and powerful magical object should look a bit less rubbish.
He lined up behind Narcissa and in front of a ginger girl he didn't recognise. There was a long speech and a shorter song neither of which Sirius really heard. He was too busy trying to ignore what Narcissa had said to him two minutes ago, trying to ignore the thought that had been festering all summer long. What if he wasn't sorted into Slytherin, what if he really was a blood traitor?
No, that was stupid. All Blacks were Slytherins, everybody knew that.
Not for the first time in his life Sirius hated his last name. It meant that he was one of the first ones sorted. Amos, Andrews, Avery, Bell and then
"Black, Narcissa," Narcissa flounced forward, bloody little show off that she was. She picked up the sorting hat and it seemed like it had barely touched her head when it screamed out
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Black, Sirius," with a helpful shove from the ginger girl Sirius stumbled forward. He looked around to find the eyes of the entire school on him, he recognised quite a few of the faces at the Slytherin table. His cousin Bellatrix gave him an encouraging smile, it made her look like a venus flytrap.
With the entire school staring at him it was actually something of a relief that the hat fell right down to the tip of his nose obscuring his vision. He'd been expecting the hat to sort him right away, like it had with Narcissa, but it stayed silent for what felt like ages. Sirius was considering taking off the hat and telling Professor McGonagall that he'd somehow broken it when the hat finally spoke up.
"Hmm, another Black, interesting, interesting. You are a tricky one, aren't you?"
"No, I'm not," Sirius whispered fiercely.
"My, we have got a bit of a temper, haven't we? And something of a mean streak, arrogance, vanity, rather like your cousin in that regard."
"Sound like the typical Slytherin, don't I?"
"Perhaps. perhaps. But then there's intelligence, humour and loyalty. Yes, fierce loyalty. Tell me, do you want to be in Slytherin?"
Sirius opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. He'd never really thought about whether he wanted to be in Slytherin, all Blacks were Slytherins.
"No, they're not. In fact Alphard Black made rather a good Ravenclaw."
"I definitely don't fancy being one of them."
All Blacks were Slytherins. His mother would disown him. All Blacks were Slytherins.
"Family Loyalty, especially to a family that you disagree with so strongly, is a commendable quality."
"S'pose."
"GRYFFINDOR"
Sirius lurched off the stool, handing the sorting hat to the next student in line 'Calder, Colin.'
He walked over to the Gryffindor table where a weak round of applause had broken out. He could feel eyes boring into his back from the Slytherin table, and he imagined that he could hear the whispers.
Several older students budged up to make room for him and offered words of greeting that he didn't hear or respond to. He wasn't in the same house as Bellatrix and Narcissa, this was fantastic. His mum was going to disown him, she was probably burning his name off the family tree right now. He thought he was going to be sick.
Sirius sat through the rest of the sorting in a state of numb shock. In due course Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and finally James Potter got themselves sorted into Gryffindor.
James sat down opposite Sirius. "Alright," he offered.
"Alright," Sirius replied weakly.
"You've got an audience; James nodded over Sirius' shoulder to the Slytherin table where a large group of students were glaring at Sirius.
Sirius looked round, his eyes met Bellatrix's. He remembered some advice he'd recently given Andromeda about Bella: never let her see that she scares you. He flashed the Slytherin table his most confident smile and even gave them a little wave.
He turned back to James with a grin. "It's nice to be popular."
***
By the next morning it all seemed like some sort of fantastic, brilliant joke. The heir of the noble and most ancient house of Black sorted into Gryffindor, it was almost enough to make him wish he was back in Grimmauld Place so he could see the fit his mother was having.
He swung into his place at the Gryffindor table, picked up a tower of toast, somehow managing not to smear butter all over his robes.
"You might want to cover your ears boys and girls," he addressed the rest of the first years. "Because the howler I'm going to get this morning is going to knock your socks off."
Sirius smirked at the thought of what it was going to say. What a disappointment he'd turned out to be, how he couldn't even do something as simple as get himself sorted into the correct house, how she was marching right up to sort this out with the mudblood loving school governors.
"You might want to stick your fingers in your ears, you're a bit young to be hearing this sort of language." Sirius addressed this to Peter.
"I've never heard anyone happy about getting a howler before," Remus said.
"This is how we express affection in my mad family," Sirius replied.
Any further attempts at conversation were drowned out by the sound of several hundred owls swooping into the Great Hall and dropping their parcels, mostly with their intended recipients. Sirius imagined he saw the red flash of a howler envelope in amongst the feathers.
With a whoosh of wind and what felt disturbingly like a talon in his hair the birds dropped their packages on the Gryffindor table, pin-wheeled and headed back out into the fresh air.
James had two letters, Remus had a copy of The Daily Prophet, neither Peter or Sirius had anything.
"Guess you got lucky today," James said, noticing Sirius' total lack of shrieking envelopes.
"Guess so."
Sirius heard a familiar yelp from the other side of the room. He snuck a look over to see Narcissa opening a package containing sweets and what looked like some prissy pink dress robes. Spoiled little princess.
"Heads up," Remus interrupted his daydream about going over and ripping the stupid present out of Narcissa's hands. "The prefects are handing out the timetables."
***
There was no howler on the second day, or the third. By the fourth day the joke was staring to seem less funny. It seemed like the first year Gryffindors shared an appalling number of classes with the Slytherins. Narcissa and Bellatrix seemed to be everywhere he turned. Peter's snoring was starting to make him long for his bedroom at home and the Gryffindor common room was up a bloody awful number of stairs to climb at the end of a long day.
At the end of the first week Remus Lupin cornered him on the stairs leading to their Charms classroom.
"Why don't you write to her?"
Sirius thought about pretending he didn't know what Remus was talking about, but he wasn't stupid and playing so had never suited him.
"I don't bloody care if she never speaks to me again, that's why."
Remus just looked at him, he did that a lot. Sirius wished he'd stop, he liked Remus and all but he wished that the other boy would stop looking at him like he'd seen so much more than Sirius had.
"Maybe you don't have to actually send it to her, maybe you could just write it down. It might help you work out how you feel."
"I don't feel anything," Sirius hissed. Blacks did not show emotion.
"C'mon," he grabbed Remus by the elbow. "We're already late."
The stairs had moved while they were talking and now terminated somewhere near the Ravenclaw common room rather than the Charms corridor. When they finally reached the correct classroom more than twenty minutes later they were both given detention.
***
Mother,
I am writing to inform you-
No, too formal.
Mum,
I guess you heard about what's happened-
Too casual
To Walburga Black-
He doesn't even know who that is.
He heard the shouting and clattering of the other boys making their way up the spiral staircase. He shoved the crumpled parchment under his mattress just as James came bounding through the door the other two following in his wake.
James chucked something small and shiny into the air and then threw himself at it. He landed in a sprawl on Sirius' bed, having succeeding in catching the object which Sirius could now see was a tiny golden snitch.
"Where did you get that?"
"Nicked it from Quidditch practice," James let the snitch wiggle free of his fingers and dart a few inches away before he snatched it again.
Sirius looked out the window and far below he could see tiny figures on brooms. They didn't seem to be practising, just flying around and around in circles as if looking for something. Sirius noticed that they were wearing the green and silver robes of the Slytherin team. He enjoyed the swell of satisfaction of realising that Bellatrix would be down there in the cold rain searching for something that was up here wriggling in James' fingers.
"When are you letting it go?" Remus asked.
James shrugged and stuffed the squirming snitch into his pocket, "I thought I might hang onto it for a little bit."
Later that night Sirius nearly set fire to the bed incinerating his half written on parchment before James could find it and give him the mocking he probably deserved.
***
"Bella is looking for you," Narcissa deigned to speak to Sirius for the first time in weeks and weeks in the line outside the potions classroom.
"Well, here's hoping she doesn't find me," Sirius was only standing next to her because James was still sulking about Sirius referring to that Evans swot as a mudblood. It wasn't as though he'd even meant anything bad by it. It was just what you called people with muggle parents, everybody did. At least Sirius was pretty sure they did, James was just being a big girl.
"She has a letter for you, from your mum."
Sirius ran his hand through his hair, a habit he'd picked up from James. It gave him a few seconds to think, "I'm not bothered."
"Suit yourself," Narcissa harrumphed and tossed her hair over her shoulder forcing Sirius to hop back from her in order to avoid getting a face full of wispy blonde hair. He caught James' eye and got a nasty glare for his bother. His friend was standing in line next to the Evans mud... witch. Peter was bouncing around him like a hyped up Springer spaniel and Remus was standing a ways away from the three of them reading over his homework essay.
Well, if they three of them were going to carry on like infants. He pushed off the wall and prodded Remus in the stomach on his way past.
"Say that I've gone to the hospital wing, will you," he ordered bounding away.
Bellatrix was sitting at a library table along with a load of other Slytherins all considerably older and bigger than Sirius. He marched right up to them.
"I hear you've got a letter of mine." He addressed Bellatrix.
"I didn't think the little children were allowed free periods," one of Bellatrix's fourth year friends said, laughing at his own joke. Sirius ignored him, staring right at Bellatrix.
"I saved you the trouble of opening it."
"I bet you did," Sirius extended his hand palm up. Silently demanding his letter.
Bellatrix sighed dramatically, reached into her robes and pulled out a crumpled scrap of parchment.
Sirius opened it, read the six words written on it and balled it up again. He snarled his thanks at Bellatrix turned on heel and left.
He was in the hidden passage he and James had found the week before, the one that opened by tweaking the nose of Neville the Notorious. It was in this cool passageway the he smoothed out the wrinkled parchment against the damp stone and again read the only words that his mother had written to him in nearly two months.
'YOU ARE NO LONGER A BLACK'
That Bitch, Sirius felt the anger welling up inside him, he slammed the fist holding the parchment into the stonework, drawing blood from his knuckles. That utter cow.
***
The air around his bed was thick and pasty, they hadn't gotten to silencing charms in lessons yet so he had no way of knowing if this was how it was supposed to feel. He gritted his teeth and buried his face in the duvet.
He didn't even need the stupid charm. Blacks did not lie awake in their beds at night trying not to sob because their best mates had fallen out with them and because their stupid sodding mothers couldn't even be bothered to disown them in person.
He felt the tears hot and wet escape from between his clenched eyelids.
Blacks did not cry.
It's just as well that he's not a black any more.
Author: dr_darth
Summary: So that was the famous sorting hat, Sirius really thought that an ancient and powerful magical object should look a bit less rubbish.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Narcissa Black, Bellatrix Black
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JK owns all
Original story: Holy Palmer's Kiss by pixiechan
For as long as he could remember Sirius had been bombarded with lists of things that it was Not Proper for a Black To Do. Blacks do not betray their emotions. Blacks do not show weakness. As such it was no surprise when his mother said nothing to him the morning he left for Hogwarts, the cool look she gave him as his father ushered him out the front door said nothing so much as 'Don't disappoint me, son. Or there will be consequences.'
His father barely seemed sorrier to see him go. He patted his eldest son awkwardly on the shoulder at the main entrance to Kings Cross Station, a gesture that he wouldn't have dared do had Sirius' mother been present. Physical affection, that was another thing Blacks didn't do. The old duffer was nearly as under the thumb as Regulus, and at least Regulus had the excuse of only being eight.
The sooner he was off to Hogwarts the better. Sirius shrugged off his fathers awkward hand, muttered something about not wanting to miss his train, picked up his trunk and headed into the throng of people. Being a part of one of the oldest pure blood families in England he'd never spent much time around muggles and he looked curiously at them dressed in their strange clothes, getting on and off trains, buying cups of tea. What weird lives they must lead without magic. He got so lost in gaping at his surroundings that he was almost run down by an adult muggle wheeling a bicycle. Stupid way to travel, Sirius thought, they couldn't even fly. The muggle shouted at Sirius for getting in his way.
"Same to you too, mate!" Sirius shouted after the muggle. Before remembering that was something else Blacks weren't supposed to do, talk to muggles, even if it was only to shout abuse at them.
In this strange muggle place he was relieved to see a swarm of people dressed in wizarding robes hovering around a barrier between two platforms. He hurried over to platform nine and three quarters. Of course as a pure blood he knew all about the hidden platform but it was easy to guess who the mudbloods were, they were the ones squinting stupidly at their tickets and then looking searchingly around. As if even the Ministry of Magic would be daft enough to park a train to an invisible magic school in Scotland in the middle of a muggle train station.
"Oi, watch it," Sirius said, when a small podgy boy with colourless hair and eyes trod on his toes.
"I-I'm sorry," the boy timidly shrank away waving his ticket in a confused sort of a way. "I don't know-"
Sirius brushed past him, closing his eyes and squaring his shoulders for the run at the barrier. Having second thoughts he caught the podgy boy by the scruff of the neck, shoving him ahead like a human shield as they ran at the barrier.
When he opened his eyes they were on the hidden platform with students, parents and assorted pets milling around them. The timid boy looked up at Sirius seeming torn between thanking him and bursting into tears.
"Pete, Peter, you figured it out! You got through." A skinny boy with a wide grin and sticky up black hair pushed his way through the crowd and clapped the boy Sirius had dragged onto the platform on the shoulder so hard that his knees buckled slightly. He was followed at some distance by a lanky boy with hands and feet that seemed too big for his underfed looking body.
"I'm James Potter," the dark haired boy introduced himself, he jostled the shorter boy, "this is Pete Pettigrew."
"Peter," the boy corrected with a whisper that James ignored.
"And that's Remus Lupin."
Sirius had heard the name Potter before, a third or fourth cousin of his had married a Potter. He'd never heard of any pure bloods named Pettigrew and all the Lupins had been burned off the family tree years ago. He didn't know why, his parents wouldn't answer any of the questions he asked about so called blood traitors.
"I'm Sirius Black," Sirius introduced himself. James' wide grin slipped a bit, Sirius' mother said that the Black name inspired fear and respect, but in James it only seemed to inspire slight distaste.
"I'd better get on the train." Sirius picked up his trunk and hauled it away pretending not to hear James give his two friends a whispered commentary on the history of the Black family. Sod the lot of them then, it wasn't as though he'd wanted to hang about with two blood traitors and a mudblood anyway.
***
Sirius breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped off the Hogwarts express. He'd spent the lengthy journey from London crammed into a compartment with a whole load of other first year Slytherins. And how weird was it that they were all considering themselves Slytherins before there had even been a sorting? The group had included Sirius' simpering cousin Narcissa and some small greasy boy called Snape who in between talking about practising hexes on his neighbours' cat kept wiping his nose with his sleeve.
The platform was full of students pushing this way and that. Even Sirius, tall for his age, struggled to see where he was going through the wall of school uniforms.
The loud cry of 'first years, first years this way,' was reassuring and Sirius pushed against the tide of older students and followed the other first years down the slippery path. By the time he had made his way to the lakeside there were only two boats with a free seat, one contained Narcissa, Snape and the smellier of the Lestrange twins and the other contained James Potter and his friends. Snape sniffled loudly and Remus Lupin shifted along to make room for Sirius to sit next to him.
"W-what if you c-can't prove you're a wizard?" Peter asked nervously, continuing a conversation that had started before Sirius had joined them.
"They put you back on the train and send you back home. No point wasting a place at Hogwarts on a squib, is there?" James replied.
"What if I can't do a spell, I don't know any yet!" Peter sounded a bit distraught. Sirius grinned, catching onto the joke.
"They'll get you to do something else, wrestling a troll or something," Sirius said, channelling his mothers most arrogant tone of voice in order to try and sound convincing.
"A troll!" Peter sounded utterly horrified.
"It'll probably be small one, after all you're only little."
The quiet boy named Remus took pity on Peter, "they're taking the mick."
"Remus, you're no fun at all," James admonished, flashing an infectious grin at Sirius. It was a shame he and James weren't going to be in the same house. Potters were always Gryffindors and Blacks were always Slytherins, anyone with half a brain knew that.
The boats hit land and they scrambled up towards the castle, Peter slipped on the stone steps and was hauled up by James and Sirius. Remus followed behind them and along with the rest of the first years they scrambled into the castle and were hustled into a small room by a severe looking witch with scraped back black hair and a rotund wizard who introduced themselves as Professors McGonagall and Slughorn. There they were left to contemplate the impending sorting while the start of term feast began next door.
In the pushing, shoving and general milling about Sirius was separated from James and the others.
"Bet that one's a Hufflepuff, if he's got an ounce of magical blood in him at all that is." Narcissa had sidled up next to him and was nodding in Peter's direction.
"He's not that bad," Sirius replied. More to disagree with Narcissa than to defend Peter.
Narcissa snorted derisively, "If you carry on like that they'll shove you in Hufflepuff with the rest of the blood traitors."
Before Sirius could reply the stern looking witch came back and they were marched into the Great Hall and lined up in front of a stool with a fairly pathetic looking hat perched on it. So that was the famous sorting hat, Sirius really thought that an ancient and powerful magical object should look a bit less rubbish.
He lined up behind Narcissa and in front of a ginger girl he didn't recognise. There was a long speech and a shorter song neither of which Sirius really heard. He was too busy trying to ignore what Narcissa had said to him two minutes ago, trying to ignore the thought that had been festering all summer long. What if he wasn't sorted into Slytherin, what if he really was a blood traitor?
No, that was stupid. All Blacks were Slytherins, everybody knew that.
Not for the first time in his life Sirius hated his last name. It meant that he was one of the first ones sorted. Amos, Andrews, Avery, Bell and then
"Black, Narcissa," Narcissa flounced forward, bloody little show off that she was. She picked up the sorting hat and it seemed like it had barely touched her head when it screamed out
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Black, Sirius," with a helpful shove from the ginger girl Sirius stumbled forward. He looked around to find the eyes of the entire school on him, he recognised quite a few of the faces at the Slytherin table. His cousin Bellatrix gave him an encouraging smile, it made her look like a venus flytrap.
With the entire school staring at him it was actually something of a relief that the hat fell right down to the tip of his nose obscuring his vision. He'd been expecting the hat to sort him right away, like it had with Narcissa, but it stayed silent for what felt like ages. Sirius was considering taking off the hat and telling Professor McGonagall that he'd somehow broken it when the hat finally spoke up.
"Hmm, another Black, interesting, interesting. You are a tricky one, aren't you?"
"No, I'm not," Sirius whispered fiercely.
"My, we have got a bit of a temper, haven't we? And something of a mean streak, arrogance, vanity, rather like your cousin in that regard."
"Sound like the typical Slytherin, don't I?"
"Perhaps. perhaps. But then there's intelligence, humour and loyalty. Yes, fierce loyalty. Tell me, do you want to be in Slytherin?"
Sirius opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. He'd never really thought about whether he wanted to be in Slytherin, all Blacks were Slytherins.
"No, they're not. In fact Alphard Black made rather a good Ravenclaw."
"I definitely don't fancy being one of them."
All Blacks were Slytherins. His mother would disown him. All Blacks were Slytherins.
"Family Loyalty, especially to a family that you disagree with so strongly, is a commendable quality."
"S'pose."
"GRYFFINDOR"
Sirius lurched off the stool, handing the sorting hat to the next student in line 'Calder, Colin.'
He walked over to the Gryffindor table where a weak round of applause had broken out. He could feel eyes boring into his back from the Slytherin table, and he imagined that he could hear the whispers.
Several older students budged up to make room for him and offered words of greeting that he didn't hear or respond to. He wasn't in the same house as Bellatrix and Narcissa, this was fantastic. His mum was going to disown him, she was probably burning his name off the family tree right now. He thought he was going to be sick.
Sirius sat through the rest of the sorting in a state of numb shock. In due course Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and finally James Potter got themselves sorted into Gryffindor.
James sat down opposite Sirius. "Alright," he offered.
"Alright," Sirius replied weakly.
"You've got an audience; James nodded over Sirius' shoulder to the Slytherin table where a large group of students were glaring at Sirius.
Sirius looked round, his eyes met Bellatrix's. He remembered some advice he'd recently given Andromeda about Bella: never let her see that she scares you. He flashed the Slytherin table his most confident smile and even gave them a little wave.
He turned back to James with a grin. "It's nice to be popular."
***
By the next morning it all seemed like some sort of fantastic, brilliant joke. The heir of the noble and most ancient house of Black sorted into Gryffindor, it was almost enough to make him wish he was back in Grimmauld Place so he could see the fit his mother was having.
He swung into his place at the Gryffindor table, picked up a tower of toast, somehow managing not to smear butter all over his robes.
"You might want to cover your ears boys and girls," he addressed the rest of the first years. "Because the howler I'm going to get this morning is going to knock your socks off."
Sirius smirked at the thought of what it was going to say. What a disappointment he'd turned out to be, how he couldn't even do something as simple as get himself sorted into the correct house, how she was marching right up to sort this out with the mudblood loving school governors.
"You might want to stick your fingers in your ears, you're a bit young to be hearing this sort of language." Sirius addressed this to Peter.
"I've never heard anyone happy about getting a howler before," Remus said.
"This is how we express affection in my mad family," Sirius replied.
Any further attempts at conversation were drowned out by the sound of several hundred owls swooping into the Great Hall and dropping their parcels, mostly with their intended recipients. Sirius imagined he saw the red flash of a howler envelope in amongst the feathers.
With a whoosh of wind and what felt disturbingly like a talon in his hair the birds dropped their packages on the Gryffindor table, pin-wheeled and headed back out into the fresh air.
James had two letters, Remus had a copy of The Daily Prophet, neither Peter or Sirius had anything.
"Guess you got lucky today," James said, noticing Sirius' total lack of shrieking envelopes.
"Guess so."
Sirius heard a familiar yelp from the other side of the room. He snuck a look over to see Narcissa opening a package containing sweets and what looked like some prissy pink dress robes. Spoiled little princess.
"Heads up," Remus interrupted his daydream about going over and ripping the stupid present out of Narcissa's hands. "The prefects are handing out the timetables."
***
There was no howler on the second day, or the third. By the fourth day the joke was staring to seem less funny. It seemed like the first year Gryffindors shared an appalling number of classes with the Slytherins. Narcissa and Bellatrix seemed to be everywhere he turned. Peter's snoring was starting to make him long for his bedroom at home and the Gryffindor common room was up a bloody awful number of stairs to climb at the end of a long day.
At the end of the first week Remus Lupin cornered him on the stairs leading to their Charms classroom.
"Why don't you write to her?"
Sirius thought about pretending he didn't know what Remus was talking about, but he wasn't stupid and playing so had never suited him.
"I don't bloody care if she never speaks to me again, that's why."
Remus just looked at him, he did that a lot. Sirius wished he'd stop, he liked Remus and all but he wished that the other boy would stop looking at him like he'd seen so much more than Sirius had.
"Maybe you don't have to actually send it to her, maybe you could just write it down. It might help you work out how you feel."
"I don't feel anything," Sirius hissed. Blacks did not show emotion.
"C'mon," he grabbed Remus by the elbow. "We're already late."
The stairs had moved while they were talking and now terminated somewhere near the Ravenclaw common room rather than the Charms corridor. When they finally reached the correct classroom more than twenty minutes later they were both given detention.
***
Mother,
I am writing to inform you-
No, too formal.
Mum,
I guess you heard about what's happened-
Too casual
To Walburga Black-
He doesn't even know who that is.
He heard the shouting and clattering of the other boys making their way up the spiral staircase. He shoved the crumpled parchment under his mattress just as James came bounding through the door the other two following in his wake.
James chucked something small and shiny into the air and then threw himself at it. He landed in a sprawl on Sirius' bed, having succeeding in catching the object which Sirius could now see was a tiny golden snitch.
"Where did you get that?"
"Nicked it from Quidditch practice," James let the snitch wiggle free of his fingers and dart a few inches away before he snatched it again.
Sirius looked out the window and far below he could see tiny figures on brooms. They didn't seem to be practising, just flying around and around in circles as if looking for something. Sirius noticed that they were wearing the green and silver robes of the Slytherin team. He enjoyed the swell of satisfaction of realising that Bellatrix would be down there in the cold rain searching for something that was up here wriggling in James' fingers.
"When are you letting it go?" Remus asked.
James shrugged and stuffed the squirming snitch into his pocket, "I thought I might hang onto it for a little bit."
Later that night Sirius nearly set fire to the bed incinerating his half written on parchment before James could find it and give him the mocking he probably deserved.
***
"Bella is looking for you," Narcissa deigned to speak to Sirius for the first time in weeks and weeks in the line outside the potions classroom.
"Well, here's hoping she doesn't find me," Sirius was only standing next to her because James was still sulking about Sirius referring to that Evans swot as a mudblood. It wasn't as though he'd even meant anything bad by it. It was just what you called people with muggle parents, everybody did. At least Sirius was pretty sure they did, James was just being a big girl.
"She has a letter for you, from your mum."
Sirius ran his hand through his hair, a habit he'd picked up from James. It gave him a few seconds to think, "I'm not bothered."
"Suit yourself," Narcissa harrumphed and tossed her hair over her shoulder forcing Sirius to hop back from her in order to avoid getting a face full of wispy blonde hair. He caught James' eye and got a nasty glare for his bother. His friend was standing in line next to the Evans mud... witch. Peter was bouncing around him like a hyped up Springer spaniel and Remus was standing a ways away from the three of them reading over his homework essay.
Well, if they three of them were going to carry on like infants. He pushed off the wall and prodded Remus in the stomach on his way past.
"Say that I've gone to the hospital wing, will you," he ordered bounding away.
Bellatrix was sitting at a library table along with a load of other Slytherins all considerably older and bigger than Sirius. He marched right up to them.
"I hear you've got a letter of mine." He addressed Bellatrix.
"I didn't think the little children were allowed free periods," one of Bellatrix's fourth year friends said, laughing at his own joke. Sirius ignored him, staring right at Bellatrix.
"I saved you the trouble of opening it."
"I bet you did," Sirius extended his hand palm up. Silently demanding his letter.
Bellatrix sighed dramatically, reached into her robes and pulled out a crumpled scrap of parchment.
Sirius opened it, read the six words written on it and balled it up again. He snarled his thanks at Bellatrix turned on heel and left.
He was in the hidden passage he and James had found the week before, the one that opened by tweaking the nose of Neville the Notorious. It was in this cool passageway the he smoothed out the wrinkled parchment against the damp stone and again read the only words that his mother had written to him in nearly two months.
'YOU ARE NO LONGER A BLACK'
That Bitch, Sirius felt the anger welling up inside him, he slammed the fist holding the parchment into the stonework, drawing blood from his knuckles. That utter cow.
***
The air around his bed was thick and pasty, they hadn't gotten to silencing charms in lessons yet so he had no way of knowing if this was how it was supposed to feel. He gritted his teeth and buried his face in the duvet.
He didn't even need the stupid charm. Blacks did not lie awake in their beds at night trying not to sob because their best mates had fallen out with them and because their stupid sodding mothers couldn't even be bothered to disown them in person.
He felt the tears hot and wet escape from between his clenched eyelids.
Blacks did not cry.
It's just as well that he's not a black any more.