Harry waited with the rest of his year for the sorting hat to finish his song and couldn't help but feel apprehensive. It was his first year at Hogwarts and he was about to be sorted. Someone he considered to be a new friend stood beside him. This person was a very tall boy with bright ginger hair and a lot of freckles. His name was Ron Weasley and they had got on reasonably well on the train journey from King's Cross station to the school. He expected to be sorted into the same house as Ron was inevitably going to be sorted into; Gryffindor.

Strange thing was…he wasn't.

It shocked everyone when Harry Potter got sorted into Slytherin.

Harry stared at Ron who was looking as shocked as he was. Then Ron's expression changed to something worse. He looked betrayed.

Harry glanced behind him at the teachers table. Hagrid was looking stunned and almost ashamed of him. They all looked surprised and Harry didn't blame them. From what Ron and Hagrid had told him, he was the saviour of the wizarding world, he had rid the world of Lord Voldemort and now he had been sorted into the house that had produced Voldemort?! Something horribly wrong with that picture.

Dumbledore's face was unusual. He also looked surprised, but there was something else there too. A kind of puzzlement that went beyond shock. Harry wondered what he was thinking.

"Mr Potter? Please step aside." Harry turned back and met the confused gaze of Professor McGonagall. She pointed him towards the Slytherin table and he grinned in an embarrassed way and moved towards it.

The Slytherins were cheering and applauding once they had got over their initial shock as Harry sat down beside Draco Malfoy.

"Now that was a surprise." Draco said after a brief pause.

"You're telling me." Harry said as he watched Ron being sorted into Gryffindor.

"Still, I always figured you got rid of the Dark Lord through dark magic. So, tell us, what spells did you use?" one of the older boys asked him eagerly. The boy had a slightly trollish look about him and his teeth could use some serious dental work.

"I didn't use any spells." Those sitting nearest him looked baffled. "I was a year old at the time." Blaise Zambini took the seat next to Harry and he saw Dumbledore stand up.

"Then how'd it happen?" Malfoy asked quietly under Dumbledore's words.

"Search me. I didn't even know I did it until about a month ago." Harry hissed back as the food appeared.

During the meal Harry had to sit and listen to Draco and Blaise talk, no, boast, about their families. But he liked Blaise more than Draco. Maybe he would be Harry's friend.

Harry felt very left out and watched the Gryffindor table instead. Ron seemed to be having a much better time, even though he was sitting next to Hermione Granger, a bossy-know-it-all type of girl they had met on the train. She was talking to him and trying to get him to talk about something boring, lessons probably. Probably realising she would get nothing out of him she turned to one of Ron's brothers and found a more willing participant in him. Another first year opposite Ron made a joke or said something funny and those nearest him laughed.

"Are you staring at that Granger girl?" Blaise asked Harry jerking him out of his Gryffindor watching.

"No. Just wondering what they're talking about." He replied taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

"Let's get something straight." The older boy with bad teeth said leaning in. Harry tried not to recoil from his bad breath. "Gryffindors are the enemy. We Slytherins have been feuding with them since our great founder left the school after a fight with Gryffindor."

"Marcus, we'll give them the drill in the common room later. Excuse him, he's always like this. He's our Quidditch captain." a girl a little way along the table said. Harry looked confused as to why that made a difference but Draco and Blaise were nodding like they understood so Harry did the same. He would have to ask Ron what the big deal was about quidditch captain.

After the feast they were led down to the chilly dungeons and to a large stone gargoyle against one wall and one of the older boys said "Mudblood." to it and the gargoyle nodded and moved aside revealing an archway into what Harry assumed must be the Slytherin common room.

The room was quite dark because the torches and candles that lit it seemed to be burning with black flames. The sofas and chairs were swathed in green and silver edging and all the wood was really dark, although Harry reasoned that this was probably because the room hadn't seen the sun in years.

Then the older years sat the new students on one of the sofas and 'gave them the drill' on Slytherin code. Many of the newbies already knew what it was but Harry listened in case there was a test on it later.

The Slytherin code seemed to consist of picking on Hufflepuffs and generally being a bully to the other houses. Gaining extra house points through trickery. Walking around the castle like you owned it and above all…striving to humiliate Gryffindors at any cost. One of the prefects told them that there would be a session on how to do all these things over the first weekend and weekly lessons on spells that would help them achieve their ends.

Harry talked to Blaise as they unpacked their trunks after this as Malfoy stayed in the common room talking to the quidditch captain. Blaise seemed okay. He wasn't quite as mean as Draco Malfoy and seemed fairly new at all this too, although he was from a perfectly pure blood family.

"Blaise, can you do magic yet?"

"Kinda. Small stuff mostly. Why do you ask?" Blaise shrugged.

"I might not be able to do magic very well. I don't wanna mess up in front of everyone."

"Understandable. Look I'll help you with it. It's not hard once you get used to the techniques and everything. But you gotta do something for me in return."

"Deal." Harry nodded and grinned.

"I'll give you a list of books you can get out of the library to study."

Harry couldn't believe how nice Blaise was. Maybe he'd found a friend in Slytherin after all. "Thanks. I don't think I'll be alright with picking on people either. I mean, I was bullied by my cousin for ten years and I was miserable. I don't want to do that to people."

"Neither do I really. But while we're in Slytherin I don't think we have a choice. Maybe we could act it in public and then apologise in private to the victim afterwards. We'll figure something out. I can't believe how nice you are. I'm still having a hard time believing you're real."

"Ron said that on the train. I didn't know I was famous until Hagrid gave me my letter."

"Ron? Isn't he a Weasley?"

"Yeah. What's the problem?" Harry tucked some shirts into a drawer.

"Don't mention his name to Draco. The Malfoy's and the Weasley's have a history of…not getting on. The Weasley's are what Draco's family considers a disgrace to pure bloods. They are a pure blooded family, but they like muggles. And to a Malfoy that is almost as bad as being one."

"Is it such a bad thing to be a muggle?"

"Why did the hat sort you into Slytherin?" Blaise asked incredulously.

"It said I had great potential for being a good Slytherin. Said I could go far in this house."

"And no doubt he will!" they turned to see Draco Malfoy in the doorway grinning at Harry. "Slytherin seeker and perfect bully, from what I've heard of your father, you'll be good at both. A few weeks with us, and he'll be a model Slytherin." He ruffled Harry's hair and then moved over to his own bed and started throwing his clothes delicately into his chest of drawers. "Oh Harry, Marcus wants to try you out for the quidditch team this weekend. According to him your father was amazing and he's hoping you have the quidditch gene from him."

The next morning Harry couldn't think where he was. Ah yes, he was in his green curtained four poster bed. He heard Blaise swear from the bed next to his and Harry drew back the curtains and saw Blaise frantically pulling on his uniform and robes.

"What's up?" Harry asked curiously grabbing his glasses and putting them on.

"We're late." Blaise said briefly as Harry jumped up and started changing too, noting that the plain black robes were now edged with green and the tie had changed to green and silver.

When they were ready the two boys dashed out of the room and then had to dash back into it because they had forgotten their wands.

"What a great start to the year!" Blaise said sarcastically as they ran.

"Shut up and keep running!" Harry replied breathlessly.

They skidded to a halt as they came to a dead end.

"Uh, where are we?" Harry looked around the dark corridor.

"Got me, I'm as lost as you are."