Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Poop.

A/N: Thanks you EmptyOrFull and soontobeburns for their awesome reviews. I love reviews! Also mentions of abuse. It will continue throughout the story, so I'm not going to say it again, but I forgot to put it in the summary, so here it is.

Chapter 2

Every time Severus' life changed it was because of a single person. Lily Potter. The first time he realized that he was capable of being loved, of having a friend, it was because the small red headed girl with beautiful green eyes stretched out a hand to him. The first time he realized that was his father did to him was wrong, that he did not deserve it, it was because the same green eyes were filled with tears as they stared at his red and ravaged back. His first time at Hogwarts had happened with Lily by his side. His first kiss had been Lily, when they were in only their second year and Lily had kissed him because Black had dared her to kiss somebody and instead of choosing Potter, sitting right next to her, she had walked all the way to the Slytherin table and laid one on him.

The first person who he had loved had been her. The first person to break his heart had been her. And the first person to make him realize that he was destined to be exactly like his father, a bitter man who was loved by nobody, was her, when he was foolish enough to value pride over friendship.

And now, years after her death, after his heart had been shattered into a million pieces, he found that Lily Potter was not done changing his life. Because her son, and it was only a times like this, when he could forget how angry he was supposed to be at the child and call him her son instead of Potter's, was in Slytherin.

"What?" Sprout whispered next to Severus. Though Severus did not say such out loud, he agreed. Harry Potter was a Gryffindor through and through. He had the reckless bravery attributed to the lions' house, and the lack of for thought before going into situations that only Gryffindors could claim. But apparently Hogwarts had been missing something about Harry Potter all these years.

Potter took the hat off of his head and walked steadily to the Slytherin table, sitting down in the front with the first years. Severus shook himself and turned his attention back to the sorting hat. He wouldn't put it past Potter to have somehow bribed the hat into doing this for him just so he could get more attention.

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"Harry my boy, take a seat," Dumbledore extended one elegant hand towards a chair in front of his desk and Harry sat down wearily. He was not in the mood to deal with Dumbledore's antics. He just wanted to go down to the Slytherin chambers, take Snape's abuse, and then go to bed so the moment when he could ask if Ron and Hermione if they would still be friends with him would be here sooner. He could not take the anticipation. That was always the worse.

"Was there something you need, sir?" Harry said when it became clear that Dumbledore was not going to start without a little prompting.

"How do you feel about this, Harry?" Dumbledore asked. Harry sighed and forced himself to meet the elderly man's sparkling eyes.

"About the resorting, sir?" He asked, purposefully being dense. "I suppose it's good sir, for people to examine other aspects of themselves."

"How do you feel about being in Slytherin?" Dumbledore asked. "We can put you back in Gryffindor."

Harry was tempted. He was so, so tempted. But if he did this he would be exactly the type of person Snape thought him to be. Spoiled. Entitled.

"Are you offering this to others, sir?" He asked Dumbledore. "If not, sir, I'll remain in Slytherin if it's all the same to you."

"Very well Harry. You best be off so you can become accustomed to your new quarters," Dumbledore said. Harry got to his feet and left the room, feeling better than he usually did coming out of the office.

Suddenly he slammed into someone.

"Harry!" It was Ron, and Harry felt himself tense suddenly. He did not have the energy to deal with Ron's rejection right now.

"Hi Ron. Hi Hermione." He greeted his friends.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked. Harry looked at him piercingly.

"Are you guys okay with…you know, all this?" He asked. Ron looked at him steadily.

"Harry, I can be described as thick a lot of times but I'd like to think that once I make a mistake I won't make it again. I was a fool to let stupid things between us in year four, I'm not letting it happen again," Ron said. Hermione looked between her best friends and then threw an arm around them both.

"Are you crying?" Harry asked her bewilderedly.

"She is," Ron laughed.

"It's just, you boys," Hermione waved a hand at them but didn't release them.

So it was with a light heart that Harry left his friends to go down to Slytherin chambers, took Snape's expected snark, and then followed the sallow man's finger up into his dorm room.

And then he realized that he had forgotten a whole other problem. He was in the same year as Malfoy. And now he was in the same house as Malfoy. Which meant he was in the same dorm room as Malfoy. The dorm room in which Malfoy changed clothes.

Everyone was surprisingly quiet as Harry took the empty bed and shuffled through his recently relocated trunk, digging for pajamas. He looked up, wondering if they were planning on ambushing him, at the exact wrong moment. Because Malfoy was standing there. Without his shirt on.

Harry promptly found it hard to swallow and he wanted to look away but couldn't. And then Malfoy turned and Harry found his breath robbed away from him for a whole different reason.

"What?" Malfoy asked defensively. Harry shook his head innocently and crawled into his bed, drawing his curtains around him, trying to get the image burned into the back of his eyes away. It wouldn't go away, the image of Malfoy's back, pale skin perfect except for the harsh scars that ran laterally and vertically across the taunt muscles in his back. They were horrible scars that would most likely never go away or even fade.

And they were exactly like the ones Harry had on his back.