Notes: This plot bunny was based on a rather bizarre dream I had, although the more I thought about it, the more I found it could make sense. I've read fanfics in which the Sorting Hat puts Harry in Slytherin, but I don't think I've ever seen this variant before. So, I hope you can try setting your preconceptions about the characters aside and considering how different the Potterverse would be if events had played out this way.
Pairings: HG/DM and HG/SS. The beginning obviously isn't a romance (they're 11, yeesh), but there's going to be tension between these characters with the passage of time. I suppose we'll see what develops. ;)
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Feedback: Yes please!
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry,
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
These patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!
As the hat completed its song, everyone applauded loudly, and Hermione could see relieved smiles on the faces of a few other first years on line around her. Neville seemed particularly pleased, perhaps because she'd ceased her whispered tirade about which spells they might need. But Hermione, unlike her classmates, suddenly felt a spike of anxiety. Since she'd read so much about the magical world over the summer, she could have been confident she was prepared for any test of knowledge the hat gave, but this was a complete unknown to her.
Professor McGonagall had unrolled a sheet of parchment and now began to call names. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A blonde girl pulled the hat down over her eyes, and there was a few moments' pause before the hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"
The table on the right side of the hall answered with cheers and shouts.
"Bones, Susan!"
A hat is going to examine my psyche. Hermione's nervousness faded as she fought back the urge to giggle, wondering what her parents would think, or even what she would have thought just a few months earlier. The categories that had been set forward now seemed different from what she'd read in Hogwarts, A History, which had gone out of its way not to show bias towards or against any of the houses, merely noting some of the more prominent alumni of each. Hermione bit her lip thoughtfully. Well, she did enjoy learning, maybe she would be a Ravenclaw. Was she loyal? Brave? Cunning?
Her reveries were interrupted as Professor McGonagall called out, "Granger, Hermione!"
The entire hall was watching her.
And so she stepped forward and jammed the hat on her head.
The hat was quiet for a moment, then began, "Hmmmmmm, how interesting. You have a clever mind, very clever, I see! But yet - you feel a need to prove yourself, constantly show others what you can do. Why?... Ahhhhhh, you have muggle parents. I see, I see... Such a quandry you are, a noble mind and yet without the noble upbringing. You will surprise many in the magical world. There are still some who believe in the supremacy of bloodlines, obsessing over pedigrees as if breeding dogs... You would do well in Ravenclaw, of course. But if you really want to prove yourself, to shine with your own fame and not that of others... and you can, you can! - there is another choice. Are you brave enough to be the one who does this, who mends the split between pedigreed and non-pedigreed alike? I have been looking for that muggleborn... Ohhh, are you fiery! Yes... I think you just might be...
"SLYTHERIN!"
---------
A murmur broke out in the Great Hall, starting with the students from pureblood families whispering to their neighbors, and eventually spreading to all. Albus Dumbledore exchanged a glance with the head of Slytherin house over Professor McGonagall's empty seat, and both rose wordlessly as McGonagall tried to restore order so the sorting could continue.
"Miss Granger, may we have a word with you before you join your house table?" asked Dumbledore in a friendly-yet-serious voice. Nodding mutely, she permitted the hand he paternally placed on her shoulder to lead her into a side chamber near the head table. The other man swept in shortly behind them, closing the door as he did.
"Hermione, this is Professor Snape, head of Slytherin. I believe something rather curious has just occurred." Dumbledore surveyed her over the top of his glasses, his blue eyes considering her as if she were a difficult puzzle. "Forgive me for being intrusive, but I know of no pure-blooded line named Granger, nor do I believe any witch or wizard has recently married into such a family. Tell me, Hermione... is there anyone magical in your family at all?"
Her eyes went wide as she was hit with the realization of what had happened. "No, Professor."
"Then it is as I thought," Dumbledore mused gravely, stroking his beard. After a few moments' quiet reflection, he added, "It appears you understand something of the oddity of this situation. Tell me what you know."
Nervous as she was, Hermione was always eager to answer such a question. "Well, I read Hogwarts, A History cover-to-cover over the summer," she started, and Dumbledore acquired an impish twinkle in his gaze at this revelation. "... and I learned that sorting occurs by the criteria laid forth by each of the four founders, so those sorted into each house satisfy what their respective founder would have wanted. And Salazar Slytherin, he - he was the one who broke with Gryffindor about allowing children of non-magic parents to attend Hogwarts, wasn't he? So he probably would want those in his house to be purebloods, or as close as possible, in addition to cunning and whatever else the hat said."
"Correct," Snape cut in, whirling around from his place on the far side of the room where he had previously been content to examine the miserable night on the other side of the window glass while Dumbledore spoke. "Slytherin House favors purebloods; there are some halfbloods, and a few individuals who were less than half, but never - " He moved in one step closer from the window to emphasize the point, "never has there been a muggleborn in Slytherin."
Snape stared at her stone-faced, and Hermione struggled to hold up to his gaze. "This means the hat must have considered you exceptional indeed, Miss Granger. But it also means you may have a difficult time in Slytherin. With the headmaster's permission - " he looked sideways at Dumbledore, who nodded, "you should have the option of being re-sorted if you choose it."
Hermione studied Snape and Dumbledore in turn, trying to figure out what they would prefer and finding no straightforward answers. She certainly hadn't expected to have to make any difficult choices like this on her first day! Well, what the hat had said about her was true, everything it had read of her personality. Books and cleverness really weren't all there was to her. She could do more, and maybe she had to trust its judgement.
With a shaky sigh, she tried, "I'll stay where I am."
Snape's expression immediately seemed to soften slightly as she officially became one of his. "Then welcome to Slytherin." He briefly shook her hand, then turned to regard Dumbledore. "The others will see her as either the worst of them, because of her lineage, or the best, because she managed to become a Slytherin in spite of it. I should speak with them briefly to ensure they consider the latter." Dumbledore again nodded wordlessly. Snape took one step towards the door into the Great Hall, then turned back to Hermione. "And Hermione, I advise you not to needlessly flaunt what you've read, as you did earlier. You will quickly find that the serpents' den is a constant matchup in cunning, and it is wiser not to readily reveal just what one knows. Or does not know." He cocked one eyebrow at her, then left.
Dumbledore had started chuckling before the door had even fully closed, and Hermione turned to him with surprise. "Ah, dear old Severus does have a penchant for the dramatic." The twinkle was back in his light blue eyes, making him look more like the muggle St. Nicholas than the greatest wizard alive. "That was his way of encouraging you, Miss Granger," he explained, patting her on the shoulder again with an avuncular look in his eye.
Thoughtful now, Hermione recalled her friends from the train Harry, Ron, and Neville with a pang of regret. She wondered if this meant none of them would talk to her anymore. "I had sort of thought I would be sorted into Gryffindor," she admitted, recalling that Dumbledore had also been of that house.
"You know, Miss Granger, I think in some ways you were," he answered cryptically, searching the numerous pockets of his star-and-moon-covered purple robe. "Mint?" he offered, turning up the desired package. She shook her head, and he removed one for himself before going on. "Since you've read so much, I assume you also know something about the fallen Lord Voldemort?"
Now she felt doubly confused. "Yes, but what does that have to do with this?"
"His campaign against the established order was based on bigotry, Miss Granger," Dumbledore answered, his eyes now free of any pretense or biasing emotion. "Witches and wizards of purer blood attempting to gain power over those they saw as lesser. Over the centuries, there have been numerous attempts to defeat that sentiment, none of which were fully successful. I think Godric Gryffindor's hat out there realizes that only the young are able to learn or unlearn hatred, and for some time now, ever since it learned of Voldemort, it has hoped to find someone who could be a messenger to an entire generation of young witches and wizards. It needed someone who could go to those young Slytherins who would take pride in their family and show them that muggleborns can be just as good, and it needed someone who could still befriend the rest and show them not all Slytherins are bad. And the hat chose you to fulfill both tasks."
A gentle smile touched Dumbledore's mouth. "Miss Granger, you are now part of Gryffindor's legacy."