Before They Were Angels

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us."
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Harry groaned as he looked at his watch. His meeting was taking way too long, and Baby James would be so disappointed if he didn't get to hear more of his story. The woman speaking at the moment was one of the slowest talkers Harry had ever seen. She kept dropping her note cards and saying, "But, uhhhhhh...." She also had been speaking for two hours and Harry still had no idea what point she was trying to get across.

Finally, she finished. Harry could see John, the council president, out of the corner of his eye. His head was drooping as he snored in his sleep. Harry kicked his chair leg.

"What? Huh? Over already? Okay. Meeting adjourned."

Harry Apparated quickly to his living room. Mrs. Potter sat in the armchair reading I, the Jury. In the next room, Harry could hear Baby James singing at the top of his lungs.

"ROW, ROW, ROW 'UR BOAT!"

"Tough meeting?" asked Harry's wife, looking up from her book.

"A killer."

"GENT'Y DOWN THE STREAM!"

"James, your father's home!"

"YAAAAAAY! STOOOORY!!!!!"

Harry's wife grinned ruefully. "I do believe he wants a story. In fact, I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of it, too."

"Well, we've got a long way before the end comes. Come here, Jamie. Sit on Daddy's lap."

"What's next? Do they get in trouble? What House do they get in? What does Frank do? Tell me!"

"Okay, okay," Harry chuckled. "Well, the train finally stops and..."

~*~*~

"Firs' years," shouted the man Lily had met in The Leaky Cauldron. "Firs' years over here. All righ', Lily?" Hagrid's huge face broke into a smile. Lily grinned back at him and hurried to find a boat.

James, Sirius, and Peter were sharing a boat together. "Hey, Remus, wanna share our boat?" shouted James as he walked by. He had been thinking, after seeing Remus hit Malfoy, that maybe he wasn't so bad after all. But Remus just turned and walked the other way, his cheeks tinged pink and his brows knitted.

"Man," growled Sirius, jerking his thumb after Remus, "that guy is such a freak." The others nodded in agreement.

"A real jerk," Peter added.

"He's a loony," said James. Sirius snorted.

"What did you just say?"

"I just said he's a loony." Sirius busted out laughing.

"Loony Lupin. I like it." Peter, James, and Sirius grinned at each other.

"Forget him. Let's just try and enjoy the ride." James looked over at the other boats. "I think we need one more person, though."

"Good, you can bunk with yon Snape here," said Hagrid, coming up behind them. Under his enormous hand was the most disdainful-looking boy they had ever seen. His long, wet-looking hair fell into his smoldering black eyes. In one hand he carried a long wand, in the other he carried the biggest toad any of them had ever seen. They each scooted way over to the other side to give him room.

"I think," whispered Peter, "I would have preferred Loony Lupin over Scary Snape." They each nodded in agreement.

~*~*~

Meanwhile, Lily and Remus had found two other people to "bunk" with. A talkative girl named Jessica was telling Lily about her great-aunt who used to go to Muggle cities, jump off the tallest building there was, and Apparate in mid-air just to scare Muggles.

Remus, however, had met a dark-skinned, Hispanic looking boy whose name was Marcus. Marcus was the tiniest 11-year-old Remus had ever seen, and was even worse about talking than he was. He wasn't bitter like Remus; however, he did nothing but stare at the bottom of the boat.

As the boats began to move, they heard a great splash coming from another boat. They looked up in time to see Sirius go splashing overboard by the hand of a dark haired kid they had never seen before. Apparently, Sirius couldn't swim.

"Someone help him!" shouted Lily. James was now rounding up on the one who had pushed Sirius, whose face looked smug. Sirius' head was bobbing in the water; each time he came up he gasped for breath, looking wildly about him and trying to grab anything that might hold him. Finally, he sank like a stone.

James and Peter could only dog-paddle, but they tried to save their friend anyway. They grabbed hold of each others' arms. "One, two, three!" the boys shouted, right before they dived in.

Hagrid was desperately rowing his boat over to the scene. A few bubbles came up from where they had dived. He looked closely at the water, then shot his long arm in. The three came up altogether, James and Peter choking and spluttering, and Sirius lying limp. He took Sirius into his own boat.

"Give him mouth-to-mouth!" shouted a pink faced boy named Matthew Abbott. Instead, Hagrid stood Sirius straight up, then whacked him hard on the back. A stream of dirty water came shooting from his mouth.

"Gross!" squealed one girl. Sirius was sitting and coughing by now.

"I think I've had enough water today," he said, teeth chattering. Hagrid made the three boys sit in his boat and share his enormous overcoat. He then climbed in the boat with Snape, who didn't seem to be too happy about it all.

"I didn't know he couldn't swim," he murmured.

At this point, the tangle of vines they had been passing through parted, and they saw Hogwarts. Everyone gasped, speechless. It was mammoth. They gazed in awe at the towers, which to 11-year-olds, seemed to reach right to the sky. Lily was fascinated with the tower that rose on the left. She could have sworn she had seen a light flickering from it.

"Did you see that?" she asked Remus, clutching his arm unknowingly with all the excitement.

"No," he answered, then looked away. At the precise time he looked away, a face appeared, then, just like that, was gone.

"There it was again!" she shouted.

"I think you're imagining things, Lily," he said calmly. "You're probably just nervous and your mind is playing tricks on you."

"I know what I saw," she said irritably. But she didn't have time to worry for long. The boats had stopped and the doors were opening.

A no-nonsense type woman was standing in the doorway, peering over her square shaped spectacles. She was fairly young, but anyone could tell right away that she was not to be messed with. James nudged Peter and grinned.

As they all trooped in, the woman looked at a piece of parchment she held in her hand. "James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans, and Remus Lupin: come forward," she said, a line creasing on her forehead. They each reluctantly stepped up to her. She peered at James, Sirius, and Peter. "Why are you wet? No matter. I am Professor McGonagall. Follow me, please."

She led them around twists and turns and up spiraling staircases until their heads spun. Lily felt as if she might cry. She had never been in real trouble before, and here she was, on her first day of school, about to be expelled. At least that's what she thought. Would they call her parents? Did they even have phones here? Or did they only use owls? She could see Petunia's laughing face now. "Ha, expelled on the first day of school. It was probably better that way. At least she didn't get eaten by a dragon."

Remus was having far worse problems than her, however. He didn't know exactly where the professor was taking them, but he had a pretty good idea: to Professor Dumbledore's. He did not want to face him. Albus Dumbledore was the only Gryffindor Remus had ever respected. He was the only reason that Remus was even going to this school, and how did Remus repay him? By getting in trouble on his first day.

Adding insult to it all was the fact that he was going to be punished with these morons, these... these... Gryffindors. How dare they make Remus stoop to this level? The absolute insolence of them!

If anyone could have heard Remus' thoughts right about then, they would have begun to laugh uncontrollably, for right then they seemed absolutely outrageous. But that was the way he had always thought about Gryffindors, ever since being taken in by his aunt.

Sure enough, they stopped in front of a stone gargoyle. The professor gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes. "Chocolate Num-Nums," she whispered, trying to keep it from them.

The wall split open in front of them, showing yet again another winding staircase. "You're very lucky," she told them. "Since it's your first day, Professor Dumbledore will deal with you. Normally, except on special occasions, I would be who you would talk to. And believe me, that is far worse."

Sirius heard James whisper something that sounded very much like "Marilyn wouldn't have done this to us."

When they arrived at the top, they were met with a circular room in which paintings of past Headmasters looked down upon them with stern eyes. A magnificent phoenix sat in a cage beside the door, ruffling its red feathers. Headmaster Dumbledore sat at his desk, writing something with a quill and parchment. He looked up just in time to see them come in. "Sit down," he sighed.

"Should I stay, Albus?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"No, you may wait outside the door," he said gently. She nodded and stepped outside.

Professor Dumbledore was an old man with long hair and a flowing beard. He had blue eyes behind half-moon glasses. At this moment, he had a very grave expression across his face. Looking each one of them in the eye, he got right to the point.

"Now," he said gently, "Tell me what happened. I already know, but I would like to hear your side."

Lily, who had been thinking that she was to blame, spoke up first. "Professor, it's my fault. A group of boys were teasing me and calling me a Mudblood, so I ran into their compartment and told them what happened. I didn't know that the word Mudblood was such a bad thing. Then when those boys came into the compartment, they started laughing at all of us, and then Remus just finally hit one of them really hard."

Albus Dumbledore turned his attention away from her and onto Remus. "Is this true?" he asked, almost sadly. Remus, who was naturally proud, tried to stare back into the Headmaster's eyes, but then dropped them.

"Yes," he said miserably. They were all starting to get the idea that they would have rather talked to Professor McGonagall. Lily now felt like she had given Remus away.

The Headmaster was still looking at him, so Remus felt he was expected to say something else. "Sorry."

James had never liked other people taking the blame when he was just as much at fault, even if he didn't like the person. "Professor, it was my fault, too," he said.

"And mine," said Sirius.

"Mine also," added Peter.

"Good," said Headmaster Dumbledore. "I am glad you are taking responsibility for your actions, although I am guessing that in the future I will be hearing much more from you. Which isn't necessarily a good thing," he said dryly. "I'm not going to take points from your Houses, since you're new. Also, because you do not yet have a House!" Then he smiled. "Now go on! Get Sorted, and don't get into anymore fights."

"Yes, sir!" shouted Sirius enthusiastically, jumping up and saluting. "You won't hear from us again, sir. We will be perfect in every possible way, don't you worry now. And if you ever hear of fireworks in the toilets or the Slytherins' suddenly falling in love with one another, don't worry, because it's not us." The Headmaster chuckled as they each turned to leave.

"Wait. Remus, stay with me a minute, please." Remus turned back. Lily gave him a sympathetic glance, thinking he was still in trouble. They waited outside of the door with Professor McGonagall for a short time until he came back out, looking a little nervous. The group walked down in silence.

Down in the Great Hall, the rest of the first years had been sorted. Professor McGonagall called for their attention.

"There are five more students needing to be sorted," she told them. "The first one is...Black, Sirius."

Sirius tried to look confident as he walked to the stool with a tattered old Hat. What would he have to do? Would he have to turn it into something? What if he got placed into Slytherin?

He stopped before the Hat, looking down at it. "Put it on your head, stupid," someone called. Sirius sat on the stool and dropped the hat over his head. He didn't need to worry, however.

"Well, this isn't hard," said a voice in his ear. "GRYFFINDOR!" Sirius skipped to the Gryffindor table, elated that he wasn't a Slytherin. He looked over and saw Snape grimacing at him from the Slytherin table. Sirius wondered if he had gotten into any trouble for pushing him into the lake.

"Evans, Lily." Lily nervously rushed forward, almost as if she were trying to get it over with.

She sat and put the Hat on, gripping the edges of it. "Hmmmm," said the Hat, "I see you won't be hard, either. Plenty of bravery, more than I've seen in a long time. Yes, you are definitely a GRYFFINDOR!" Lily rushed to the Gryffindor table and plopped down next to Sirius.

"Lupin, Remus." Sirius watched Remus closely as he slowly walked to the hat, dreading every step. He seemed to have lost all of his previous nastiness, and his already pale face now looked the color of paper. Remus stopped for a second in front of the Sorting Hat, where he then tried to regain his composure. He was telling himself that he would most definitely be placed in Slytherin.. Where else could he be? He then dropped down on the stool and set the hat on his head, all in one motion.

"Finally, a bit more of a challenge," said the hat in his ear.

I'm not a challenge, thought Remus. I know exactly where I should go.

The hat seemed to hear him. "Oh, do you, now? Are you sure?"

Of course I'm sure, thought Remus almost snappishly. I'm a Slytherin.

"It's true that you would be good there ... But how about the others? You don't have friends just yet, but when you do, you will be loyal to them. Unfortunately, I don't think you are very hardworking. But you have a great mind. You can understand things that others can't. But, you would not study enough." Here the hat's voice became very whispery. You can be brave, though. Not in every situation, but I can't deny your bravery-"

NO, thought Remus. He almost shouted aloud. I'm not brave. I'm not a Gryffindor. I'm a Slytherin. I know where I belong.

"I know where you belong, too," said the hat.

Then put me where I really do belong, thought Remus.

"I will."

Thank you. Remus was pleased with winning the argument. Now he would be a Slytherin, which he knew was his place.

The hat opened the seam that served as a mouth. "GRYFFINDOR!"

~*~*~

"More, more, more!" shouted Baby James.

"No, I think that's enough tonight."

"But what about Remus? What about James and Peter getting sorted? What House do they get sorted in? What was the light Lily saw in the tower? What happened to Frank? You never answered me about him."

"You'll find out all about that. Don't worry..." yawned Harry. "But tonight I'm tired." Harry carried Baby James to his room to tuck him in. "Goodnight. James."

"Goodnight, Dad."