I enjoyed writing that last chapter so I'm going to write this now. It will most likely establish the characters and where they are, and possibly finish off year 1 if I write enough. My main focus is getting Harry into the mindset I want before my surprise in year 3. Oh also, I know I completely butcher the canon class line up, and that's because, like I said before, its needed that way for the plot.

I will of course make changes as I'm writing to any comments that you might have. Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 2: Hold on you actually enjoyed the chapter?

Harry stood with his fellow classmates in the center of the Great Hall. At the end of the hall was the teacher's table, and in front of that was a stool, which Professor McGonagall now stood by, with an old hat in her hand. The hat gave a merry little song and then the first person was called up. He stood with his friends and watched as each student went by at the call of their name until "Granger, Hermione" was called, she walked up to the stool after waving to her friends, and sat down, she was soon enough announced as a Ravenclaw, and ran off to the table. "Potter, Harry" was called soon after. He walked up slowly and sat down on the stool to lots of whispers and mutterings. The hat was put on him and it slid over his eyes.

Hmm, difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness, yes. And a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?

I don't really know, I think there's more to me, like you said, then to put me in a single category.

Huh, we've got a thinker here, well that only makes me more sure of my decision. And remember, there's always more to something then you think there is. I think you'll find your place in, the last word is shouted out loud, "SLYTHERIN"

He nods and walks off to the table on his far left. He notices most of the Slytherins looking smug. He wonders if its that he joined their table or if they're always like that. He's kind of sad that he won't be seeing Hermione as much if he's right about the houses being separate. He sits down next to one of the other first years. A boy whose name was Leo or something. And waited for Garrett to get called.

"Hi, I'm Draco Malfoy" The kid sounded like Harry should be down on his knees for seeing him in the flesh.

"Hi, and my name is Mind Your Own Damn Business" Perhaps a bit harsh, but he reminded him too much of Dudley

"I'm sorry, did I hear that correctly" Oh vaguely veiled threats

"Sorry, I should have phrased it a bit differently, I don't care who you are, and as I made no move to talk to you when I sat down and I have been looking away the entire time, I assumed it was clear I didn't feel like talking. Sorry it wasn't made clear." Malfoy shut up after that.

"Hufflepuff." And the red headed kid, who was apparently named Ron Weasley, was sorted, next was Garrett and Harry picked himself up to look closely. "Slytherin" Garrett smiled and walked over to sit between Harry and Malfoy.

"Hey Draco, I should have mentioned it to you before, I met Harry Potter on the train, and I had to explain to him that when he was a kid he defeated You-Know-Who"

"He didn't know?"

"No, he was staying with his muggle relatives apparently until he got his letter, and they didn't tell him anything"

"Technically I didn't get my letter immediately, they hid them from me, I figured out they were addressed to exactly where I lived, whether in this room or another, so I got some blankets and slept in the woods outside, and I got a letter and read it out there"

"Those fucking muggles, I wish I'd been there, I would've taught them to respect a wizard" It seemed he was still trying to make friends with Harry, Harry decided to give it a shot.

"Maybe so, but I could've done it any time, its mostly that they were afraid of me, and I think they might be even more afraid now that I'm getting some training"

"Well you won't be able to now" Garrett said.

"Why not?"

"Because of the trace"

"What's a trace?"

"The trace is a charm put on your wand and doesn't go away until you come of age"

"18?"

"17"

"Oh, and does it prevent me from doing magic? How will I be able to perform in my classes then?"

"It just tells the ministry what magic you are doing at the moment, and if you're underage then they'll arrest you"

"Well that's bollocks."

"Yeah it is"

/I'm hungry, where is some food?/

/I don't know, I'll ask/

"Harry, what are you doing?" Garrett asked.

"Talking to my snake"

"You have a snake?" "You can speak Parseltongue?" Different questions with the same answer.

"Yes to both, although is that what its called? Pretty strange name. And why is it a surprise, aren't most wizards able to do it?"

Malfoy answered. "Parseltongue is an ancient art, attributed to Slytherin himself, is there any chance you're related to him?"

"I don't know, I just found out I was a wizard this summer you know. I guess it makes sense I'm in Slytherin though"

"Harry we're going to have to keep this quiet," Garrett told him, "There's so much prejudice against Parseltongue. It's supposed to be the mark of a dark wizard"

"So what, I have to contend with defeating a famous dark wizard as a baby, while also being a dark wizard myself, well this sounds like a bad backstory doesn't it?"

"I guess, but Harry, don't you want this to be kept quiet? At the very least, snakes aren't supposed to be kept as pets"

"Yeah, speaking of him, Slash wants some food, any idea when that's coming out?"

As if on cue, an old man with a beard stepped forward and started talking. He gave a strange speech, a few strange words, and then sat down again. And then the plates in front of him were covered in food. Harry smiled and started filling his plate. Making sure to get enough meat for Slash.

/Left arm/ Harry said to Slash. Slash slithered down his arm and Harry felt his head touch his palm. Harry kept his left arm by his side and used his right hand to pick up food with a fork. Making sure to eat as much food as he gave to Slash. He did this by spearing some meat, lowering his arm down, and sliding his left arm over for Slash to eat off the fork. He repeated this until Slash said he wasn't hungry anymore.

Garrett brought it up again when they had mostly stopped eating.

"So tell us how you got the snake?"

"First of all his name is Slash, and I got him from his father, a Burmese python from the zoo"

"And how and why did the snake give you his kin" Malfoy asked.

"I was talking with him through the glass, and when my cousin pushed me aside and knocked on the glass, I accidentally vanished the glass and he fell in, kicking and screaming, the snake thanked me and told me to look in the habitat. There was a small snake, about the size of my pinkie, and it was him. I took him home and fed him." Harry held up his snake and it poked it's head out. Malfoy went pale and looked away as quickly as he could.

"Draco what's wrong?" Garrett asked.

"Harry, how the fuck did you get a bloody basilisk?"

"Aren't those the mythological snakes that breath fire and leave a trail of poison?"

"Not that fucking muggle story, I mean the real ones, the ones that Herpo the Foul discovered how to make. They kill you if you look them in the eye"

"What? You're joking"

"That's what they look like, green with a red plume, how you've survived this long I don't know, but put the damn thing away" Harry didn't know what to think. He decided to say his theory.

"But his father was a Burmese Python, I'm sure of that, even if his mom was a Basilisk, I don't think he has this death vision you're talking about."

They kept talking, Malfoy looking away until Harry had put Slash back up his sleeve. They went back and forth, Malfoy wanting to test the snake's ability to kill through sight before anything was done. Garrett wanting to keep it hidden for Harry's sake. Harry wanting to let Slytherin know because otherwise someone was going to find it and kill it.

When it was time to leave, Harry and his friends followed the prefect Gemma. She seemed polite enough. She brought them through some twists and turns and down staircases before going down a very long one into what looked like a dungeon. He knew he'd need help getting to classes.

"Carpe Noctem" She said to a wall. It lifted and a passageway was revealed.

"Seize the night?" Harry mentioned.

"Don't know, probably means something to a prefect."

They walked down the hallway and reached a room that looked to be under the lake Harry had gone across on. Harry and the rest of the first years freak out when a large eye passes by the window.

"Don't worry, its just the giant squid"

"'Just the giant squid', why do we live here when a squid could crush us at any moment?" Draco says to them.

They get shown their beds and Harry slides into his since their things haven't been brought in yet. He falls asleep and doesn't dream.

Harry wakes up at the time he normally does, 6:00, two hours before classes. He stretches and lightly shakes his left arm to wake Slash up. He checks his stuff and thinks that it has been untouched. He pulls on a new pair of robes and puts his bag over his shoulder. Walking into the common room and sitting on one of the many couches.

He had just gotten a book out for his first class, Potions, when Garrett came walking in from the dorms, still in a wrinkled pair of robes from the night before.

"Harry why are you awake, it should take us 5 minutes to get to Professor Snape's class" He said through a yawn.

"I'm always awake at this time, and how do you know where the classroom is?"

"Draco mentioned it to me last night, and that meant we could Sleep. In." He emphasized the last two words in his sentence.

"Once I wake up its hard for me to get back to sleep, so I decided to get dressed and start reading my potions book"

"You haven't read any of it?"

"Some, but when I discovered I couldn't do them at my house, I closed it and worked on something more practical, like the summoning charm" He takes out his wand and says "Accio Quill" The nearest quill to where Harry pointed flew out of its ink holder and flew toward his outstretched hand, before flopping to the floor, "...I haven't mastered it yet". Garrett was having trouble not laughing. He sat down and planned to wait by the fire until around 7:30 to get dressed. At that time he did get dressed, and then was ready to go with the rest of their year.

Potions was a difficult class for Harry, he focused and managed average work, but the problem was the mediocre teaching, it wasn't like Professor Snape was a bad teacher or anything, it was that he didn't even try to teach them, he simply put the instructions on the board and let them work. Admittedly Harry somewhat enjoyed this atmosphere as it was similar to his work when he was back at his house, working on a spell and trying to master it, but this was still completely different work.

Harry handed in his vial at the end of class and was treated to a glare from the professor. He tried to act like he didn't see it and went to get his stuff to go along with the rest of the students to their next class, when he stopped and said to Garrett and Draco that he'd catch up. He turned and went to the professor.

"Sir, do you mind if I talk to you before the next class starts"

"No Mr. Potter, I have to finalize the lesson plan for the next class"

"Then when can we talk?"

"If it is an academic question then any time after classes have ended I will be in my office grading papers"

"Professor Snape why did-"

"Mr. Potter you will be late for your next class if you don't go now"

Harry caught up with his classmates as they entered their first shared class, Charms with Ravenclaw. Hermione smiled as Harry entered with Garrett and Draco, she was sitting alone and Harry and Garrett sat on either side of her, with Draco; seemingly annoyed, sat next to Garrett.

"Alright class, for this first class, let's see you try to perform the simple charm that softens things, can anyone name this spell?" As Professor Flitwick finished speaking, Hermione's hand raced into the air. "Yes Ms. Granger?"

"The incantation is Spongify"

"Very good, very good Ms. Granger, 5 points to Ravenclaw, now can anyone tell me how you move your wand to do it?" Nobody immediately raised their hands. "Nobody? Well that's because your books do not tell you, now that is an important part of charms, how you move your wand is half of the work, now, partner up, one person will choose an object and try to soften it, I will undo the spell if you manage to cause anything to happen" Harry asked Hermione and Garrett turned to Draco.

Harry said the spell, moved his wand, and pointed at the textbook with his wand. It did nothing, he tried it again and it did nothing, Hermione was trying not to laugh as Harry got more and more worked up over it. Hermione's jaw hit the floor as Harry had set his wand down, pointed at the book and said the spell, the at first hard back book was now similar to cardboard. Harry held his finger to his lips and then called out to Professor Flitwick, "Sir? I think I've done something to it" He held up the book and showed how the cover could be bent easily and then slowly returned to it's original position. He clapped and almost fell off of his stack of books. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at the book and silently finite'd the spell, the book returning to normal. Harry handed the book to Hermione and it took her many seconds to return to normal and ask under her breath. "How did you cast the spell without using your wand"

"I figured that because accidental magic is done without a wand, that I could do it as well, and the only reason most people can't is because they're so used to a wand, and since I started training with my wand and without it at the same time, it's easier. So far the only possible upside I've found is better ability to aim, and it's more a detriment if you ever lose it, so I'm assuming it's tradition, which makes wizards very short sighted" Hermione was silent for another long time.

"You have to teach me this after classes" She said firmly.

"Alright fine, I guess"

This was why, as they sat it the court yard, he did not talk to Snape about why he had glared at him. It was also why they were thought to be dating, sitting close together and talking in hushed voices does imply that, even if another explanation is that they were breaking a rule, like the rule against doing magic outside of classrooms. She silently cast a spell she had read about, the levitation charm, on rocks, she didn't know the wand movement for it and was forced to learn without her wand.

"Yet another argument for not using a wand, you don't have to make the movements for charms, allowing you to get a head start on your opponent"

"Wingardium Leviosa" She said under her breath, pointing at a rock. The rock slightly moved, disturbing the leaves around it. She held her breath and said it again, it slightly rose and then landed among the leaves, causing a crunching sound. She laughed in triumph in her head and hugged Harry fiercely, unfortunately crushing Slash in the process, causing him to come out of Harry's sleeve and hiss at Hermione.

/Leave human, I don't care to be crushed by your weight/ Harry covered him with his hand and spoke quickly.

/She didn't mean to, she didn't know you were there, if she gets you food will that make you feel better?/ Hermione was freaking out silently at this new development. Two to be exact.

/Fine/ Slash retreated back into Harry's sleeve with the promise of food.

"Why the heck do you have a snake in your sleeve?"

"His name is Slash first of all"

"Slash? Why does your snake have a name?"

"He isn't really my snake, we're more friends"

"How can you be friends with a snake?"

"Well he's not an animal... Well he is, but he still has a mind, I can talk to him, and I think he's part magical snake because he can talk back, and I haven't been able to find a snake with this pattern in muggle records so."

"How did you get him?"

Harry told Hermione the story of how he got Slash, how he got him into Hogwarts, revealing surprisingly a lot about how he grew up to her. He left out the possibility Slash was part Basilisk and then waited for her response.

"So I crushed him when I hugged you?"

"You kinda did, but he said if you bring him food he'll forgive you"

"I'll do that"

They had forgotten their reason for being there but quickly remembered and Harry congratulated her on getting a response without her wand. She thanked him again and said she was going to go tell her friend.

"No you can't"

"Why not?"

"Because for one you're telling them you broke the rules"

"Oh she wouldn't betray me like that-"

"One, you're in Ravenclaw, the smart house, not the loyal house Hufflepuff. And two; she's going to demand you or I teach her, and then she'll tell her friend, and eventually this ability I learned will be told to the whole school"

"And you don't want that?"

"I both don't want the attention it will bring to me, nor the constant advances to teach someone how to do it, nor the story to get twisted around and ending with me blowing up a wall or something with simply my hand and people thinking I'm a dark wizard"

"Oh that won't happen, she won't tell anyone if I ask her not to."

"Hermione, I'm asking you not to and you still want to. And another thing, you're in the Ravenclaw, the house that's good side and bad side, from my understanding, is pride on the bad side, and love of knowledge on the good side, and part of the good side is spreading knowledge so everyone can know it, don't you want to tell your friend so that she'll know how to do it as well?" Hermione was stopped for a moment at his words. She realized he was right, though she wanted him to be wrong in so many ways.

"Alright, I won't tell anybody unless you let me"

"Good, thanks Hermione"

It took many days due to homework and such, for Harry to actually get the chance to talk to Snape. He approached him after finishing up his paper for McGonagall, whose teaching style was making him appreciate his practice of the spells beforehand. Otherwise he knew it would be very difficult for him to do the practical side of things. He entered Snape's office at the professor's invitation.

"So Mr. Potter, what is it you wish to talk to me about academically" He said the last word as if he knew Harry had come here for a different reason. And was preparing an excuse if their talk strayed away from school work.

"I was wondering why you simply put instructions on the board instead of actually telling us what to do"

"Would you like me to hold your hand through every step Mr. Potter? In real life you aren't going to have a teacher for most potions, you're going to have to read the instructions and do what it says to do, and even if it was different, I have to grade papers, the amount of homework I have to do is staggering" His last point made it seem as if it was their fault for doing the work he assigned.

"No, I was just expecting some actually teaching when I came to your class"

"Well is that so Mr. Potter, well I don't believe it is your place to tell me how to teach my class, and I believe Professor Dumbledore would agree with me" Snape sidestepped his next response of going to the headmaster by implying he agreed with Snape's teaching methods.

"Alright I guess it isn't," Harry turned to walk away, his attempts at gaining some actual teaching set aside like an annoying fingernail, simply cut off and thrown away, "Professor Snape, may I ask you something not related to academics?"

"You already have, but I understand your meaning, go on."

"Why do you not like me?"

"Whatever do you mean Mr. Potter, I like all of my students equally" The statement couldn't have been said with less enthusiasm.

"Well you seem to glare at me in class, you reply with polite but curt responses to my questions, you continue to ignore me at the moment for a simple paper written by Goyle, and you seem to not have a reason for it" Snape turned to look at him, and set down the paper he was grading and looked at him.

"Would you like to know why I dislike you Mr. Potter?"

"Yes I would"

"Because you are just like your father. You have that arrogant look like we should all be bowing before you, you don't care about your work, you have that blasted black hair of his, and your eyes are-" He cut himself off at his rant. "Mr. Potter, our conversation has gone away from it's original topic, you have asked me a question about my teaching and I have answered it, please leave my office at this moment." Snape was noticeably shaking at that point. Harry nodded and left the office quickly. Going to the common room and then almost running to his dorms he went through the door and sat in his bed. Garrett was there and looked at him strangely when he ran in. But when Harry didn't say anything he shrugged and went back to the paper for Professor McGonagall.

It took many weeks for something interesting to happen, nothing changed in Potions besides Snape now completely ignoring Harry rather than glare at him, Harry didn't know which he hated more. The interesting thing was when Draco rushed into their dorms after classes were over. He held his cupped hands together with something inside, Harry sat up while Garrett had been in the common room and walked into the door as Draco was explaining to Harry what he had in his hands.

"So you know how Weasley has that rat?"

"Yeah, Scabbard or something, don't tell me you stole it"

He made a show of sounding offended, "I, Draco Malfoy, steal something? Never. I merely... Borrowed it. For testing"

"And what testing was this"

"To see if Slash does have the death vision as you put it" Harry was surprised Draco had remembered Slash's name. He lifted his arm and held his palm up, and Slash came slithering out, Harry explained the situation and Slash was open to it since it provided a new opportunity for hunting. Slash was almost too big to carry around now, he was about three quarters as thick as his arm and was long enough to wrap around his arm many times and still go from shoulder to wrist. He held his head up and Draco looked away but kept his hold on Scabbers. His head poking out from between Draco's fingers and thumb.

/So look the rat in the eye/

/Yes I get it/ Slash looked and managed to make eye contact many times, yet the rat still squirmed around in Draco's hand.

"Well that settles it I guess" Harry said.

"Is there any chance the rat is immune?"

"No, a basilisk's gaze will kill anything according to my father"

"So there must be another type of snake with green skin and a red plume?"

"No, I've been thinking about that," Harry said "I think Slash's mom was likely a Basilisk, it likely was picked up by the muggles and then laid the egg for the Burmese Python before either being killed by the muggles or it escaped like the python did."

"So what, it gets the colors but not the death gaze?" Garrett asked.

"Likely it'll get its size as well, you'll need either a way to hide it, or keep it from growing"

"Maybe I could use a shrinking charm on it"

"That might work, but what effects it'll have on his health I don't know"

Harry decided to try it with Slash's permission, and when he got it he cast the spell on the half basilisk. The snake shrunk to about half his previous size and quickly said that it felt more like the world had grown then he had shrunk. He slithered back up Harry's arm and said the feeling was weird after being able to stick his head out Harry's sleeve while also feeling his shoulder. Harry nodded but said to Draco that he ought to give the rat back, especially if he was only borrowing it for testing. Draco groaned and left the dorms, presumably to give the rat back.

Harry and the rest of the Slytherins were out with the Hufflepuffs with Madam Hooch, about to start practicing with their brooms. Everything went smoothly except for a lazy attempt by Weasley to make Draco get on his broom, presumably so he'd be punished and Weasley would feel he'd have gotten back against Draco for taking his rat. Draco didn't though and though Harry and Draco were the best of the group, Garrett and Hermione doing poorly, nothing exceptional happened.

It was at Halloween that something strange happened. With Professor Quirrell's proclamation that their was in fact a troll inside the dungeons. Harry rather thought it idiotic then that they were being told to go back to there common rooms. Which for the Slytherins, meant going into the dungeons where there was a troll. They managed to make it inside without meeting any troll and were told that Professor Snape had dealt with the creature when it was found, knocking it out and it was then sent to the Ministry to be dealt with there.

Near the end of the year the students were told that Professor Quirrell had gone insane and was being brought to St. Mungo's for treatment. Harry found this strange that he could just go insane with seemingly no previous problems besides being twitchy. At the end of the year Ravenclaw won the house cup due to a streak of lucky wins and nobody losing too many points. Slytherin next, just barely below due to Snape's favoritism for them all, with the exception of Harry, Hufflepuff came third, and Gryffindor last, mostly because of the Weasley twins.

Harry was sad about having to leave his friends, even with Draco's promise that he'd take them both to his summer home when he got his father to agree. Garrett said he'd go if his parents let him and Harry nodded in agreement.

Harry walked home from London, he wished he could just float home, but that'd require two different spells, one to make him float, and the other to make him go forward, he didn't feel like doing that so he simply walked. He planned on only using magic to make a point in his house, otherwise he might get lazy, its a bit annoying for him to be out of shape simply because he doesn't feel like walking. He was going to enjoy theses next few months.

Judging from the time it took to write this, and how long it is, unless I hit a massive amount of writer's block, which I probably will because I'm saying this, I should be to year 3 within the next two weeks, wow.

I would like you all to review though, since every time that happens I get new inspiration to write, and possibly new ideas as well. And if any of you can guess what my surprise is I will mention that you got it when I write the chapter.

Yes I know it's strange that I put Ron in Hufflepuff when the rest of his family is still in Gryffindor, but I put Hermione in Ravenclaw and Harry in Slytherin so it just felt right. I am willing to rewrite it if any of you are annoyed by it, it isn't quite a plot point yet so it doesn't matter to me.

Just to be clear, Quirrell was stopped by one of the traps on the way to the Stone, most likely Snape's since that was the most daunting one. Voldemort had left him by the time he was found, and was simply called insane with his blubbering about his master hurting him for not getting the Stone.

As always, hope you enjoyed.

-WhatTheFAQ