Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following one-shot represents the immediate reaction of the local version of Severus Snape to events in one of those alternate universes where Harry Potter, upon arriving at Hogwarts, ends up sorted into Slytherin. The story is rated 'M' to be on the safe side on account of occasional strong language.

Severus Snape was having the first of what he suspected would be a number of very long nights – the reason being that instead of having had the decency to get himself sorted into Gryffindor like both his parents, James Potter – of the Harry variety – had only a couple of hours earlier got himself sorted into Slytherin – of all the houses – somehow.

To be fair to Mr. Potter he hadn't looked entirely happy with the hat's pronouncement, as he headed for the Slytherin table (said table sitting as most of the rest of the hall had been at that point, in stunned silence), and had furrowed his brow when he glanced at the high table where the staff sat, to see Severus clapping, the first (and at the time only) person doing so.

Severus never failed to clap a pupil sorted into Slytherin, and he did so neither enthusiastically, nor slowly. He simply clapped in acknowledgement of their presence, and the Slytherin former-spy did so out of professional instincts, otherwise like everyone else in the hall at that moment, he might have been sitting in stunned silence.

And Severus saw things in those eyes – Lily's eyes – and written on that face.

It had been with some difficulty that he had reined himself in from attempting a light legilimency probe. Potter hadn't done anything wrong yet – well not apart from look much like a darker haired version of his father and get himself sorted into Slytherin, but those were hardly his own fault.

Well, perhaps not the looking like his father bit.

Severus' continued measured claps jolted the rest of Slytherin house out of their stupor. They started clapping, Lucius' son Draco Malfoy being amongst the very last to join in, scowling in the latter case, no doubt, at now having a 'celebrity' that he was going to have to share the limelight with.

There were looks of confusion on faces at the tables of the other three houses, and some claps and some frowns. Minerva, with the list of pupils as yet unsorted, had shown the briefest of traces of disappointment to Severus' casual gaze, but had otherwise managed to control herself reasonably well.

Then the sorting went on, disrupted only by the half-hour long sorting of Mr. Ronald Weasley who had sat with determinedly folded arms, and increasingly going red in the face, until the hat had finally put him in Slytherin. The fact that Mr. Weasley of the Ronald variety deliberately made for where Harry was sitting and placed himself next to him was tremendously enlightening to Severus. Apparently Mr. Weasley had met with Mr. Potter at some point beforehand – perhaps they had done so in Diagon Alley or on board the Express – and Mr. Weasley had been hell-bent on convincing the hat to place him in Slytherin with Mr. Potter rather than in more usual Weasley haunts, such as Gryffindor. There had been a second 'stunned silence' at this (Weasley) sorting result, (though as much, Severus suspected, in that some of those bored and waiting for dinner might have partially gone to sleep as out of any shock), though said dearth of clapping was considerably briefer in duration than that which had followed Mr. Potter's sorting – at least from the Slytherin side of things. Weasleys might be considered blood-traitors in general by some Slytherin elements, but despite that the Weasleys were undoubtedly a very old and pure-blooded family.

Mr. Ronald Weasley did not concern Severus Snape right now – he must have at least some measure of ambition or of low-cunning to have got the hat to place him in Slytherin – and moreover, unless his (Gryffindor) relatives disowned him, Mr. Weasley had three older brothers currently in the school, one of whom was a prefect, and two of whom were notorious pranksters. Mr. Weasley had powerful allies. (Although on a side-note, regarding Mr. Weasley's relations, quidditch seemed to run in that family; one of the oldest boys who had already come and departed from Hogwarts had been a quidditch captain, and it seemed likely the twins might get on the Gryffindor team this year. Perhaps Severus ought to invite Mr. Ronald Weasley to try out for the Slytherin team, and maybe get him on the reserve list whilst a first year …)

The problems that Mr. Harry James Potter was potentially going to cause Severus, on the other hand, did however vex him – hence this meeting about to take place with the headmaster. Once the feast was over (or at least the Slytherins had departed it – Severus always insisted on members of his own house leaving slightly earlier than the others, so as to be fresher the following morning for the new school year) Severus had delivered a slightly more pointed address to his assembled house in the Slytherin common room of a 'do not get caught, including by me, breaking any school rules anywhere which might be regarded as public' variety than he might usually give, informed his house that the first instance of rule-breaking which came to his attention by any one of them in the first fortnight would be punishable by detentions for the rest of the year until said perpetrator had successfully copied out by hand the complete compiled edition of the Rules of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – which contained every rule made since the school had been founded (revoked or not) – and had then gone to urgently seek the headmaster, whom he was reasonably sure would be equally eager to see Severus.

Which brought Severus to the here-and-now.

"Quite some sorting, tonight, Severus." Albus said. Every half minute or so Albus' nose was twitching minutely, one of the few 'tells' Severus had ever known him to show that he was highly agitated about something.

Severus was slightly wishing at this point that he had queried Albus' wisdom of nearly a decade ago in placing Harry with Petunia Dursley (née Evans), of all people. It would have afforded him the unexpected pleasure of being able to say 'I told you so' at this point, as he was reasonably certain that Petunia must have been a primary factor in the placement of a son of James and Lily Potter in Slytherin. Both the adult Potters had been as about as priggishly Gryffindor as one could get, even if the female one had been so unfortunately beautiful and slightly less priggish during the earlier of the years she had spent at this very school.

"Indeed, headmaster. With Mr. Potter of the Harry variety in my house, clearly I am going to have to interact with him on a daily basis in a less-then-hostile fashion. There is no way that we will be able to get through seven years if we are glaring at one another at breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. The general plan that I should treat him with at least disdain, in case I should be required to get into the good graces of any of those whom the Dark Lord branded like cattle, is clearly not going to work for now."

"I could insist Macbeth re-sort him." Albus' nose twitched again minutely, glancing at the mantelpiece where the Sorting Hat (known for some reason as 'Macbeth' for as long as any of the current staff were aware) was pretending to be asleep so that it could spy on the conversation.

"We both know that any request for a re-sorting has to come from either Mr. Potter or Mr. Potter's guardians or from the board of governors – and requires solid reasons behind it in the latter case." Severus said. He was reasonably sure a re-sorting wasn't going to happen for at least six months, or at least not unless he personally encouraged the rest of Slytherin to actively try to kill Mr. Potter – which Mr. Potter might not survive.

"Quite." said Albus, his nose continuing to twitch.

Damnit. Why was the old man so nervy?

"Severus. I fear that Quirinus has been in contact with your former master, and that perhaps he is working, this year, specifically at some direction from him." Albus decided to finally spill what was bothering him. "Hagrid told me that he had seen Quirinus in Diagon Alley the day that he collected the stone and on which there was also the failed raid on Gringotts, and I do not believe the facts to be entirely unconnected. With the stone in the school at Nicolas' request, I suspect that if Quirinus was indeed involved with what happened at Gringotts that he will make efforts to retrieve it either for his own use or for that of your former master."

This was much bigger than anything that the two men in the room had anticipated or had feared would happen – well at least that Severus had anticipated or feared. Albus had believed for years that the Dark Lord was still around in some form and minimally capable of action, even though Severus had seen no such signs in the actions of his former Death Eater associates. And if Quirinus was working with Voldemort, Quirinus would be observing on Severus' behaviour and reporting that back to him, never mind the possibility that he might try to contact Severus on 'his master's orders' in an extreme and ask or try to order Severus' assistance – although that latter seemed unlikely since this was the first Severus had heard that Voldemort might be involved in this mess, and if Voldemort had intended Quirinus to extend feelers, surely he would have done so by now?

Damnit and buggeration. Severus was starting to see just why Albus was so jumpy.

"Is our priority Harry Potter or Voldemort?" Severus asked. He almost made the mistake of saying 'your' instead of 'our', but managed to correct himself before the word emerged from his mouth.

He saw Albus hesitate – in the context far longer than he would have liked.

"Harry." Albus said.

"Very well then." Severus said. "For now I shall feign that I am curious about Mr. Potter if Quirinus engages me in casual conversation. Nobody knows quite how Mr. Potter survived ten years ago," he continued as if he hadn't noticed the slight guilty look Albus momentarily displayed which suggested that the headmaster rather thought that he knew, "and there were indeed some rumours circulating at the time that he did so by being if not a 'dark' wizard in the making, then by at least being a remarkably powerful one. That should give me a level of plausible deniability later about my actions of at least this coming year, if we decide I need to try and spy on him in an extreme where it is necessary for Mr. Potter's protection. So long as Quirinus doesn't bother me too often on the topic, and he moves on to other things by the end of the school year. Although," Severus hesitated, "I will not be able to plausibly keep so close an eye on Quirinus as you might have liked, headmaster, if Harry is supposed to be fascinating me this year. Well not unless Quirinus is stupid enough to try to make some move against Harry."

"The stone will be safe, of that I have the utmost confidence." Albus waved that aside. "Do whatever you consider necessary, Severus, to ensure that Harry is safe, and which will otherwise best leave your future options open, should we need you to contact Voldemort at some point. For now, I am confident to leave this to your judgement."

Author Notes:

This is alternate universe, and it's possible that some characters may differ in their reactions to events from their canon counterparts. Since the Philosopher's Stone came up in the conversation between Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore, I've taken the liberty of assuming that in this particular alternate universe the stone's owner, Nicolas Flamel, insisted the stone be moved to Hogwarts (calling in favours the headmaster owed him, to override any objections Albus tried to make). That seems as good a reason as any to me (in particular in Albus having no say in the matter) for the stone being the school.

Ronald Weasley in this universe figured that Harry Potter was in danger of being eaten alive, if left on his own in Slytherin and decided he liked Harry enough to want to try and be there to assist him. (Which being so recklessly stubborn and Gryffindor on several counts, and loyally Hufflepuff on others was why the Sorting Hat took so long to sort Ronald Weasley, as it tried to put him elsewhere.) This is, as I noted, an alternate universe, and it's possible that Ronald Wesley's canon counterpart might not have adopted such an attitude.

For the record, presumably everyone else in this universe's 1991 sorting other than Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were sorted as in canon.

The Sorting Hat in this universe is known as 'Macbeth', having 'murdered the sleep' of so many headmasters & headmistresses with 'awkward' sortings. Yes, I've used that before in another fanfiction, and I like it sufficiently I may well use it again...

I'm unclear on the levels of disclosure that exist in canon between Albus and Severus regarding the Quirinus Quirrell situation during the 1991-1992 school year; I get the impression that in canon Albus is keeping at least some things back for quite a bit of the year. In this universe, the situation of Harry being sorted into Slytherin leads to Albus feeling his hand is forced and that he needs to take Severus more fully into his confidences at an early stage.

This story is a one-shot. It was written as an attempt to look 'behind the scenes' at how Severus Snape might react (and ended up involving the headmaster too) in one of those alternate universes where Harry Potter gets sorted into Slytherin.

Update:

Yes, the Weasley twins, Fred and George, are in this universe trying out for the Gryffindor team a year later than their canon counterparts. That's down to some initial confusion on my part over when they signed up in canon...