"Black, Cassiopeia."

As I made my way to the front of the hall, I had to look both of my brothers in the face. I had to sit on a stool and make eye contact with the boy that had been there since womb and the one that had practically walked me through life.

I was split between two houses, trying to decide which one I hated the thought of less. Part of me wanted to forget them both and beg my way to Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. As Professor McGonagall set that hat on my head, blocking out the interrogating gazes of my brothers, I cleared my head. I wanted to be sorted into the house that I truly deserved, not the one that I asked for because I couldn't see any other destination.

"Another Black. Interesting...," the hat sneered into my head. "I suppose you'd want to be in Slytherin, where your entire family has been. Unless… you're like the other one. A Gryffindor, ay?. But your brain's big enough for Ravenclaw and your strong will is enough for Hufflepuff. But I can see that your heart is saying Gryffindor, so I suppose I'll have to say,"

The hat's stopped speaking for a second or less before shouting out for the whole hall to hear, "Gryffindor!"

I felt my stomach twist as light filled my eyes and Regulus' cold gaze froze my heart to stone. I stepped past him on my way to the Gryffindor table, but he refused to make eye contact with me. I was no longer a member of my own family.

As I looked down the Gryffindor table for Sirius, the wind was taken out of my lungs as I was hit with the force of a human. Sirius wrapped his arms around me, "I cannot believe you, Cassie. I cannot believe you."

"Get off of me, you knob!" I gasped, trying to remove his arms from my body. "Off Sirius! Off!"

"I'm not a dog!" he whined.

I scoffed, "Well, there isn't much of a difference."

"Black, Regulus!" Professor McGonagall called out.

Sirius and I turned towards the front of the hall to see Regulus sitting on the stool with force, his arms crossed. He'd never looked so angry. I could see that in that moment, I was losing my twin to wrath of house division and cold blood.

"Slytherin!" the hat called within a second.

Regulus stared Sirius and I down as he marched towards the table of silver and green.

Sirius held my arm, pulling me down the table to where him and his friends were sat. I recognized them all from pictures hanging in Sirius' room.

"Cassie Black, everyone. Everyone, Cassie. Welcome her, enjoy her presents even when she makes you want to shove a spoon into your eyes, and most importantly, respect my baby sister, no matter how much it pains you."

I pressed a hand to my heart in mock appreciation, "You're so sweet."

A boy with destroyed black hair and glasses reached a hand across the table, "James Potter, pleasures all mine."

I grinned at him, shaking his hand, "I've heard a lot about you, James."

He looked towards the girl three places down with fiery red hair, "See, Lily, I can be a gentleman… if I try hard enough."

I nodded, looking back at Sirius, "Yup, I've heard a lot about you."

The boy on the opposite side of me smiled, "Remus, uh. Lupin. Remus Lupin." His burned red as he stumbled through his words, "Chocolate?" He held out a block of chocolate wrapped in silver paper.

"Lupin's a little… awkward," Sirius chuckled.

"Peter's worse though. Isn't that right Pete?" James slapped the short, warty kid on the back.

The warty kid forced a half smile, "I'm Peter Pettigrew, welcome to Gryffindor…" his attention flickered to the sorting ceremony, seeking to find how many kids were left to be sorted. "Is the feast starting soon?"

James cleaned his glasses on his robe, shaking his head, "Last two people, Peter."

As the last two first years were sorted into Slytherin and Hufflepuff, Professor Dumbledore stood in front of us, "A new year, brings new food. Eat!"

And with that the feast began.

"He's always strange like that?"

Sirius grinned, "Always."

"Did you hear about Slughorn's new lesson plans? It's exactly the same thing was did last year."

"From what I've heard your year almost burnt down the castle with a Calming Draft, so can you really be surprised," I added.

Remus sighed, "Peter and I were the only successful draft last term. And Peter slept in that class… and every class."

"I've been studying fifth year Potions and Transfiguration over the summer. Only up to third year with Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms though."

"Only up to third year," Sirius scoffed, stuffing a roll into his mouth and continuing to mock me through the bread.

James grinned at me, "Let me guess, you've already practically finished Astronomy and Herbology? Taken flying lessons, started Arithmancy, mastered the art of taming unicorns, and talk to all the dead people that you learned to channel in your time studying Divination."

"Herbology is a waste of my time, I've been flying since I was three, Arithmancy is something that can be learned in Muggle books if you read between the lines, Divination is a scam, and taming unicorns is practically impossible. They're one of the more gentle creatures on the Earth, there's no need to tame them."

"Guess we've got two walking textbooks now," James looked at Remus.

Remus rolled his eyes, "Glad I'm no longer the only one with a brain. I'll be forever in your debt, Ms. Black. But, just so you're aware, Arithmancy is a practice-"

"Of Divination? Yes, it's used to accurately predict the future. It's based on facts while the actual practice of Divination is based around fantasy. It's predicting the future by pulling it out of thin air. I don't believe in delusional guessing. I believe in facts."

"It's funny, my mom used to say something similar about magic," Remus retorted. He turned back to his food and the conversation was over.

I made small talk with the boys as the feast continued. James began bothering Lily Evans and I was informed that he did that a lot. Although I felt quite bad for Lily as she obviously didn't have an ounce of compassion for James or his antics, it was sweet that he cared so much for her.

Sirius gave me a lopsided grin, "Told you they were great."

"Anyone that spends more than a day with you and doesn't stab themselves in the eye with their wands is most likely brain dead, so I can't make any positive assumptions about any of them yet."

My brother raised an eyebrow, "Even though your brain can't comprehend friendship, I know you must remember me saying that you'd be a Gryffindor."

I grimaced, "I don't remember anything."

"A galleon a paper."

"No."

"Please?"

I latched my hand onto the back of his hair and pulled him backwards, "I'm not doing your work for you."

"I won the bet!"

"There was no bet!"

He gaped at me, "Don't you- I said you'd be a Gryffindor and I was right. A galleon a paper, Black."

"There was no bet! I would never agree to letting you cheat your way to school. You're smarter than you let on."

Sirius covered my mouth with his hand, "No! No, I am not. I need help, Cassie. All of my professors hate me because I don't apply myself and I need you to be the one to change their minds."

"Sirius," I whined.

"Cassie," he mimicked.

I took a moment, calculating my options, "Two papers a week, three galleons a paper."

His jaw dropped, "That's so unfair. We agreed on one galleon for every paper."

"Two galleons, and half of the papers you get in a week or the deals off."

Sirius smiled, holding his hand out for me to shake, "You got yourself a deal, Ms. Black."

Remus looked over me, "Can I get in on the other half of those?"

"Am I contributing to your book fund?"

"Any money I get is contributing to my book fund."

Sirius sighed, "Fine, whatever. Cassie gets Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday. Remus gets the other half of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You each get two galleons a paper. I can't believe that I just sold all of my work for the entire year."

Remus and I smirked at each other, a competition already brewing between us.

"Damn Sirius, you must have gotten the short end of the stick when it came to brains in your family," James teased.

"He got the short of the stick when it comes to everything in our family. I got the brains, the personality, and the looks."

Sirius scoffed, "The looks. That's rich. Have you seen me? I'm the definition of a male sex symbol."

"You've got the body of a prepubescent girl. I have better abs that you do."

James and Remus burst into laughter, pointing to the dumbfounded expression on Sirius' face. He shoved me into Remus, "I disown you."

I pushed him back, "You can't disown me!"

This was going to be a year ending in many detentions shared with my stupid older brother.

I had never been so excited.