I'm a Slytherin

Everyone is staring at him.

Even as the sorting goes on, the students at Hogwarts are no longer paying attention.  Eyes dart to Sirius Black sitting hunched over the Gryffindor table, whispers are passed around.  Sirius keeps his head down.  He can't bear to look at his cousin Narcissa, nor at the Slytherin table in general.  In all of his privileged life, he has never known such despair.  He works hard to force down the lump in his throat.

He supposes it is a good thing he is sitting here at Hogwarts, away from his parents and the rest of the family.  He thinks his mother might actually kill him if she were here.  All he can think about is his cousin, Andromeda, who has recently been courted by a Muggleborn, and his mother's awful reaction to it - the hatred that spews from her mouth, the disgust in her voice.  The way she glares at the family tapestry on the wall, seething over the blemish upon the Black name.  Because while Andromeda is not from the original line of first born sons, she is from the second and close enough.  Worse, Walburga Black herself is from the second line - she feels even more shame for hailing from the same ancestors as Andromeda.  More personally violated by her niece.

But, thinks Sirius, at least Andromeda was a Slytherin in her day. 

"Evans, Lily."

A name he recognizes from the train ride - Sirius glances up at last to see the red haired girl slip neatly onto the stool.  The hat is dropped upon her head, and there are several long moments as everyone waits and stares at him instead of at her.

"Gryffindor!" shouts the hat at last.  Lily slowly takes the hat off.  She is biting her lip, looking disappointed, looking at Severus Snape. 

Sirius glances to Snape waiting with the other first years.  The boy looks like a lost puppy as his dark eyes follow Lily's path to the red and gold table.  She approaches Sirius now, and he scoots over to make room for her - she, at least, knows how he feels.  They share the same disappointment over the Slytherin house.  But Lily turns her nose up and walks past him, clearly still bitter about what happened on the train.

"Bint," Sirius mutters at her back.  But her rejection has him feeling more sorry for himself than ever now, and he goes back to hanging his head.  Snubbed by a Mudblood.  Sorted into Gryffindor.  Can he get any lower than this?  He doesn't pay attention to the others who begin joining the table, even as the empty seats around him - the only few available - begin filling up.

He doesn't look up again until he hears James Potter's name called.  The strict woman in glasses has barely placed the hat on his head before it is screaming, "Gryffindor!" and James is heading his way with a smug grin.  But as he slides into the seat beside Sirius, his expression becomes grave.

"I didn't think you were a Slytherin, after all," he says in a low voice, for nobody but Sirius to hear.

"You're wrong," says Sirius, not looking up.  "I'm going to talk to Dumbledore after."

James looks annoyed, or at least he sounds annoyed (as Sirius hasn't looked at him yet).  "Why do you want to be in Slytherin so bad, anyway?  Just because your family says so?"

Sirius meets his eye at last.  "Because I'm a Slytherin," he tells James firmly.  "I'm a Black, and it's what we are."