updated: I fixed some formatting problems and added some more visuals I hope you like it. Sanitatem means healing in Latin
The room was full and everyone was looking at the group of six, two standing and four sitting behind them after already having introduced themselves and giving the information they wanted to share.
"Welcome back to the dungeon returning students. Welcome to the dungeon new students, my name is Barnibus, please call me Barney" He gestured to the young lady at his side
"I'm Sanitatem, Sani for short and we are your fifth year prefects, the newest prefects of this honorable group." She gestured to the older students sitting behind them then looked back to Barney so he could continue speaking.
"If the wizarding world is new to you. I feel we should be honest with you and let you know Slytherins do not have the best reputation." The prefect looked apologetically around at all the students looking at him.
The girl by his side spoke up again "There is no way around it. Many mistakes were made by members of this house for many, many years. Some of those horrible actions were made by family members of students here now, mine included. We are not our parents, or aunts, or uncles, or any other family member. You will not be judged by us on something they did, you will be judged by your actions though. The rest of the school on the other hand has shown to be not as understanding. This does not come as a complete surprise. Many people were killed, tortured, controlled during the wars. Their families have not forgotten. " She looked at a few of the students she knew had family members on the wrong side of the war as she said it. She took note of them knowing this would be even harder on them than some of the others.
Barney spoke up looking first a Sani then to the rest of the room "Here in Slytherin your actions determine how people will view you. If you bring our house honor you will be applauded and respected. And bringing honor to our house means something different than it used to. We do not endorse cheating, bullying, and manipulation is okay only if no one gets hurt and used sparingly." He chuckled a little to show he was kidding and continued in a more serious tone "honestly though we have to be braver than any Gryffindor just by walking the halls of this school every day and going to class holding our heads high though others may whisper and point. We need to be cleverer than the Ravenclaws thinking outside the box in every situation we find ourselves in, work within the rules of the school. We need to be more loyal than the Hufflepuffs not just to our house and family but to Hogwarts, to our friends, to ourselves, to doing the right thing. We are clever, ambitious, loyal, brave, funny. We need to prove to this school, they are wrong about us, we are not the house of the bad kids, the evil kids." Barney spoke full of conviction.
Sani spoke the next line with a hint of shame in her voice "Some of our parents might have fought for Voldemort. But we didn't. The war was 5 years ago, when I came here the year after the war our prefects told us to keep our heads down, keep to ourselves, just get our work done so we can finish school and start our lives." Sani shook her head with dissapointment "This was the wrong way to go about it. We looked like we were hiding something, we looked like we were scheming, and we looked super shady. This just made things worse. We are starting this year in a worse position than the year after war." Her face became determined "But I think we can fix it, say hi to other students, help other students. Help the muggle born student understand our world, it is completely new to them. When picking a partner in class don't just go for the Slytherin next to you."
Barney let out a charming laugh and interrupted "Now we all want to succeed so that probably means we will go for the most able person in the class, it is completely the logical thing to do for your grades." He raised his eyebrows and cocked his head a little to the side "But offering help to the person who needs it the most is the logical thing to do if you are trying to repair our reputation. Think about how this will benefit not only you" He raised his arms gesturing to the room "but the whole house and the whole school. We need to think bigger than ourselves; we cannot succeed in society if no one trusts us. We cannot accomplish our grand ambitions if our only friends are from Slytherin, that is less than a quarter of the wizarding population in the UK."
Sani smiled a little uncomfortable smile "This is not going to be easy, it is going to be so hard, but take a cue from our school mates. Watch how a Hufflepuff can become friends with anyone. Learn how a Gryffindor can do something incredibly stupid and still get admiration. Get artistic like the crazy Ravenclaws, show the world how you are unique."
Barney spoke up again his chest swelling with pride "We are proud of being Slytherin; there have been many great Slytherins throughout history. Unfortunately the one most people remember is Voldemort, and that a majority of his followers were from our house. This was a terrible stain on our history and we can never erase it but was can learn from it and make sure it does not happen again. We also need to work together to remind our wizarding community what it means to be a Slytherin and that it is not a bad thing."
Sani looked over the group to see how the message had been taken a few people looked unhappy with the new direction but most looked hopeful. "Now it is very late and we all had a rather large meal so off to bed, but if you need help or would like suggestions on how to put what we talked about into action please ask Barney or me or any of the four other prefects." She again gestured to those behind them.
The room was finally almost empty after the students asked a few questions then went up to the dorms. Sani looked at Barney "Do you think this is going to work?"
"Not completely, but it is a step in the right direction. It is going to take years maybe generations to reverse the damage done. But you and I we are Slytherins and when we set our minds on a goal we accomplish it."
Sani nodded "We are doing something good here. We are changing our world."