Prologue
As children, the worst of our fears are the monsters in our cupboards and under our beds. As we grow older we realise the other horrors in the world. For some of us, we fear God, our parents, rejection and failure. Some of us fear growing up, so we make the best of our childhood. Some of us go through abuse, peer pressure and bullying. These becomes our new fears and we have long forgotten about our fear of monsters that we now cease to believe in.
For some of us, the fear we have never changed but it only increased. Voldemort. That's what most wizards and witches fear. When he was gone, people found something else to fear, his Death Eaters. Unable to tell which of us are Death Eaters, they gave a whole lot of people the unwanted title. The Slytherins. Since then, no one cares of them anymore. No one cares who these people are inside. It no longer mattered if this person is a huge ray of sunshine. The fact that she or he is a Slytherin cuts above the rest. Hell, you don't even need to be a Slytherin to be shunned, all you need is one family member in Slytherin.
As time passes, these children are conditioned to think that they are evil. They start to believe the lie about who they were. Slowly, their glinting eyes losses its light, their smiles fade and turn to smirks. Day by day their heart turns rock-hard and love leaves their soul. They start to believe what they were told they were. They start to turn evil, even if they truly aren't.
Years would pass and it would be time for their children to go through the same process. The cycle restarts and slowly the children becomes what people call Slytherins. Being a Slytherin isn't an easy thing. The hate plays a big part but their life at home, they aren't pretty either. Very rarely do they have parents who don't beat them up or show even a little love. Believe it or not, most of the Slytherins are used to being under the Cruciatus curse on daily basis.
Yet, every generation there would be this one spark of light amongst them. Like moths attracted to flames they hang onto these sparks, hoping deeply that the small spark would lead them to freedom from their own souls. Sometimes, as time passes the little spark would vanish. Sometimes it stays and finally leads some lucky souls out of the darkness of their world. The Slytherins keep many secrets. Hell, even their whole life is a huge secret! At times, they would guard them with their lives but sometimes they wish to just yell it to the world. These are the secrets of what most call Death Eaters.
[Edited - 1/6/2014] A million thanks to my beta A.D Sarrasin for the amazing job well done!