Author's Note: Well, I never thought I'd be writing for this fandom again! XD I love Harry Potter to death, but I just don't get that much inspiration to write in it. (And if you want to read my other HP fics, just be forewarned they're all extremely old and embarrassingly bad XD) But recently I've been reading the series aloud to a friend who's never read them before, and getting to go through the story again with a fresh pair of eyes has reawakened that love in my heart. This is a rather pointless, plotless fic, just to get out some ideas we came up with for how the Sorting system could be improved. I framed it in the form of a story because that's how I think.
As a young man, Harry Potter had often wondered why Albus Dumbledore had chosen to become the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Of course, he'd been extremely grateful Dumbledore had made that choice; Harry knew that he never would have become the man he was today, nor have made the friendships he had, if not for Dumbledore's guidance and leadership. But he'd been such a powerful, wise wizard. Wouldn't he have done much more good as an Auror, or perhaps Minister for Magic as everyone had wanted him to be? He could have led all of magical England through the years of Voldemort's rise and fall much more capably than the Ministers they'd had.
But it wasn't until Harry was an old man himself, his children grown and his best years of fighting Dark wizards behind him, that he really understood why Dumbledore had made that choice.
When the school governors approached him to ask if he would consider the post of Headmaster, Harry was strongly reminded of when his friends had suggested he start Dumbledore's Army. At first he was inclined to laugh, but the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. He began to see what Dumbledore had seen—the staggering number of people he could help as Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Harry had helped a lot of people in his lifetime, and a lot of things had changed for the better because of what he'd done. But people were still people, and injustices and evil still persisted. In that way, nothing had really changed since the days Dumbledore had been Headmaster, and it would continue to be so after Harry was gone as well.
Dumbledore had had many supporters, but also many detractors. After his death, many had examined his life and accomplishments, and criticized him for what he had failed to accomplish, what evils he had let endure. But what Harry had come to understand over the years was that a man had to choose his battles wisely. As powerful as he might be, he couldn't do everything, so he had to devote his energy to what he could accomplish. He had to choose the battles that would save the greatest number of people, or the ones that only he could win.
Dumbledore had chosen the battle against the most evil wizard for a hundred years. While he worked and schemed and taught and guided toward this end, fighting a battle only he even knew needed to be fought most of the time, he left other battles unfought. Some he may not have even recognized. Others he left for those after him. And just as he had left Harry with the task of hunting down Horcruxes and finally defeating Voldemort, Harry felt as though he'd been personally entrusted with Hogwarts' fate.
As though he could hear Dumbledore's voice echoing down the long years, Harry knew exactly what needed to be changed about his beloved school. There was a poison, a disease, that had seeped into the castle among all its traditions, stemming from the Founders themselves. Dumbledore had deplored this weakness, had urged people not to let it divide them, but ultimately had been too focused on more pressing matters to do anything about it. And perhaps he could not have changed anything in his tradition-filled age. Perhaps, had he done something, it would only have caused the poison to spread.
That poison was Slytherin. Harry had run headfirst into this problem when he had been a student at Hogwarts—his biggest rival was a Slytherin, and he endured countless taunts and torments at the hand of Slytherins, not to mention the trouble they stirred up for people Harry cared about. Most of the Death Eaters, and Voldemort himself, had been Slytherins. In the Battle of Hogwarts, no Slytherin students had remained to defend their school.
As a boy and a young man, Harry had assumed the problem inherently lay with Slytherin itself. Salazar Slytherin had been an evil wizard who disdained Muggles and was far too fond of the Dark Arts, and his legacy had been passed on to his house. He could think of countless examples of Slytherins who were evil, selfish, and downright cruel.
But as he grew older and wiser, Harry came to the realization that Slytherin was not the core of the problem. It was the effect, not the cause. It was a result of the way Hogwarts was structured—Sorting students into four houses that brought like-minded people together, using competition and camaraderie to encourage learning. In itself, the system wasn't evil. He wasn't about to abolish the Sorting system outright. But because of the characteristics of the kind of person Slytherin looked for, and the resentment that often sprang up between students competing against each other, Slytherins were almost encouraged to act out of cruelty and complete selfishness. The other houses didn't attract such negative qualities—Gryffindors were encouraged to be bold and selfless, Hufflepuffs kind and steadfast, and Ravenclaws focused on academic excellence. But because Slytherin attracted the ambitious and those who were only concerned with protecting their own, a division grew between Slytherin and the other houses. That enmity was passed down through the generations, resulting in the mess Harry had to deal with now.
In the summer leading up to his first year as Headmaster of Hogwarts, Harry thought long and hard about this problem. He read the roster of names of the students who would be beginning their magical education that year, and felt a heavy burden settle on his shoulders. He couldn't let this evil continue. He couldn't watch another generation grow up believing that Slytherins were scumbags, or that a decision made by an enchanted hat could dictate the way they lived their lives.
And by the time he stood up for his first ever welcoming speech, he was ready.
After introducing himself (though, judging by the whispers, that wasn't exactly necessary) and outlining a few of the more important school rules, Harry explained how the house system would change. He hadn't taken this before the school governors or even told the rest of his staff about this change. He had, after all, grown up under the guidance of men like Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black, who were more concerned with doing the right thing than gaining permission for it. He had a feeling that, whatever their thoughts of this plan, the governors would give him the benefit of the doubt for one year. He was one of the most well-known wizards alive, so he could afford an experiment or two. Of course, if it didn't work, he probably wouldn't be able to try again.
"A change has been made to the points system," he announced at the end of his speech, "one that will no doubt take some getting used to for those of us who are accustomed to the old way of doing things. Students will still be able to earn points for their houses, but here's the catch: You will only earn points for helping students from a different house. This applies to helping your fellow students inside and outside the classroom. A modified form of the Trace has been cast upon the castle, which will be able to detect your helpful actions whether you are under a teacher's gaze or not. If you don't know anyone from another house, please see a Prefect about arranging an inter-house study group. Please keep in mind that every time you help another, you are earning your own house points for the House Championship."
A flurry of discussion broke out among the students (and some of the teachers too, though they tried to look as though this wasn't news to them) once he dismissed them all. But Harry just smiled to himself and sat back down.
It was a while before they saw any results. Old hatreds took a long time to die out, and it was almost impossible for some to overlook the prejudices that had been pounded into them from their birth. But gradually, as students and faculty alike got used to the idea, things started to change.
It started as he'd expected it to—Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw fifth-years organizing a Potions study group so they could help each other prepare for their OWLs. More and more students followed suit, till it seemed that everyone was involved with at least one study group. Harry was disappointed, but not particularly surprised, that none of these groups seemed to include Slytherins. The emeralds at the bottom of Slytherin's hourglass remained a pitifully small heap compared to the mounds of gems that grew daily in the others'.
The little girl who started the change deserved five hundred points, in Harry's opinion. Instead, little Marianna Clavington, a Slytherin first-year, only got five points when she helped Morgan Milligan, a Hufflepuff boy from her Transfiguration class, pick up a stack of books he'd dropped as he crossed the Entrance Hall.
"Thanks," Morgan said automatically as Marianna handed him the last of his books.
They both froze, as though they'd just realized what had happened, and turned to look at the giant hourglasses on one side of the hall. Innocuously, as though this happened every day, five tiny emeralds dropped down to the bottom chamber. Marianna grinned, because this was the first time she'd won any points for her house. Morgan smiled back, happy that he had helped her too.
At first it was just Marianna going out of her way to help people, but before long the rest of Slytherin seemed to realize what was happening. And, as Harry had predicted, once the ambitious Slytherins understood that helping other people would benefit them, they pursued that goal with single-minded dedication. Soon, it became a common sight to see a Slytherin giving a Hufflepuff tips on potion brewing, or swapping essays with a Ravenclaw to proofread, or even distracting Peeves when a Gryffindor was late for class.
Harry knew the motivation behind most of these helpful actions were primarily selfish. Everyone wanted their own house to win the House Cup, so they looked for ways to earn extra points. But he also knew that, once they got into this habit, many students would start helping others like it was second-nature. They would make friends from other houses, and then they would start helping each other because of friendship rather than points. Students started joining their friends from other houses at meal-times, till it became hard to tell which table was which.
And, when Slytherin won the House Cup by a landslide that year, everyone cheered.