A/N

Some characters may seem a little oc like especially the Slytherins as they are very much up to interpretation.

Characters have their own rooms in this story

Reviews are appreciated, I'm especially looking for reviews on the pacing of the story, I definitely do not own Harry Potter or its characters.


"Hey, Potter!" Harry turned his head from the Hogwarts doors a few steps ahead of him to see Draco Malfoy a boy he previously met in Diagon Alley.

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, nice to meet you." he said as his two loyal bodyguards flanked him. He looked at Ron and Hermoine indifferently before forcing a scowl, "You could do with some better friends Potter." Harry saw straight through him.

"Draco," he said, "If you have to act like that around them, then maybe you could do better yourself."

Draco flushed red before turning around. Before he walked inside he turned his head to the side and spoke so only Harry could hear, "You'd do well in Slytherin, Potter."


Inside it was time for the sorting ceremony. As they stood waiting to be sorted, Harry became curious. "Ron," Harry asked, "Why is it that the professors look so young." He wasn't exaggerating, the professors (excluding McGonagall for some reason.) all looked as if they couldn't be a day older than 30. "Well it's because they're witches and wizards." Ron answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. After seeing the confused look on Harry's face he decided to elaborate. "All magical species have different quirks and stuff," he said, "for us, we genuinely look better than muggles, and we don't age very fast at all once we hit around 25… well until you get to Dumbledore's age.

Unsurprisingly Hermoine was sorted into Ravenclaw which Harry noted that Ron's brother Percy was the prefect of. Very surprising, at least to Malfoy was that Crabbe and Goyle were sorted into Hufflepuff. Thinking about it, Harry came to the conclusion that they really were loyal. As expected Malfoy was sorted into Slytherin. Neville was sorted into Gryffindor.

"Harry Potter!" Just those two words and the room froze in anticipation. I'm not that important he thought.

Sitting down he placed the hat on his head.

"Hmmm," it spoke in his head, "You are very brave." "Uh huh." Harry thought.

"But also quite intelligent…" "You can just say it already ya know." Harry thought impatiently. "Do not sass me!"

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat spoke, the words booming throughout the room.

Unsurprised, Harry stood and walked towards his house table. Applause was loud in Slytherin, but the other houses were a bit stilted. The heads of house clapped as they did for every other student, yet one Severus Snape seemed to be observing him curiously. Looking next to Snape, Harry saw Quirrell and something didn't sit right with him. He could see, out from his scarred eye, that something was very odd about his turban, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

As soon as he sat down his sight was covered by someones bright blue eyes. "Hey! Hey! I'm really surprised you ended up in slytherin Harry!" The messy-haired brunette was pulled away from Harry by a beautiful girl with platinum blonde hair tied into a long ponytail that ended at her waist. "Calm down, Tracey." she said. "She is right, Daphne," a light-skinned pretty-boy said calmly, "Even the staff is surprised, they're just hiding it." He observed. "I'm Blaise Zabini, nice to meet you."

"And I'm Tracey Davis." the energetic girl said. "Daphne Greengrass." said the other as if she couldn't care less.

"Don't forget me." Hissed a snake-like boy who Harry never noticed was there. He had eyes that made it impossible to tell if they were open or not, and one was covered by his pitch-black hair. "I'm Theodore Nott, I wonder how well you'll fit into the snakes den, Potter."

"I think I'll do alright Theodore." He responded kindly, only to be met with a hiss in response. "Watch the name, Potter." Theodore hissed. "Yeah, Harry!" Tracey exclaimed. "Wait… but you just-" Harry started to question only to be interrupted by Daphne, "Please, please just ignore her."

These people are harder to figure out Harry deduced.

"Hey," Draco said from farther across the table, "Potter's earned his way into Slytherin just like the rest of us."

Harry couldn't help but doubt that.

"If he's got Draco defending him, then I can't wait to see what he's made of." Blaise stated coolly as food appeared on the tables.

Harry, never seeing a fraction of that much food in his life, dug in.


After being shown to his room in the Slytherin dorms Harry promptly passed out.


Classes hadn't been too bad so far Harry thought. Tracey had decided it was her job to partner with him to quote, "Help the lonely kid make friends!", which Daphne didn't seem too happy about. He hadn't been in a class with Ron yet, so he still wasn't sure how the whole "evil Slytherins" ideal was holding up. What really irked Harry though was the constant stares he got everywhere he went.

Slytherins wanted to test him.

Ravenclaws wanted to test on him.

Fred and George Weasley wanted to test pranks on him? Or maybe it was with him.

The Hufflepuffs were genuinely scared of him. He was already pretty famous, but him being sorted into Slytherin just made things worse. "Ron said that it wouldn't matter."

Harry thought out loud. "It doesn't usually for a normal bloke." Theodore answered seemingly appearing out of thin air.

After a proper yelp Harry said, "How do you know what I'm talking about?" "It's pretty obvious," Theodore stated, "everyone notices it because everyone notices you, when you think about it, everything you do matters more."

"I guess I'll just have to get used to that Theodore." Harry said as he entered the potions class.

"I never said you could call me that." Theodore hissed.

Smirking Harry said, "Get used to it, Theo."

Potions with Snape, it was one of the classes Ron mentioned included all four houses.

As Harry entered the room he spotted the freckled boy alone at a table. As Harry sat next to him Ron looked cautious, "Don't worry Ron, not all snakes bite, but I do." Harry said, letting out a playful hiss. Ron chuckled and Theo took a seat after making sure the Gryffindor didn't hold any ill will.

All talking stopped as the potion master entered the room. As he began to take the roll he paused at Harry's name, "Harry Potter." Snape looked at Harry ready to knock him down a peg, until he noticed something. "Your left eye," he said, "It's a separate shade of green." he stated blankly.

"Yeah, I think I noticed." Harry remarked, getting stifled laughs from the other students. Snape looked as if he wanted to say more, but continued on with class. It was a sight to see during class as Snape directed questions towards various students, while continuing to ignore Hermoine. Eventually he had enough of her, telling her that she should either learn when to stop being such a know it all, or hurry up and get out of his class.

"I think some of the Ravenclaw girls have been bullying Hermoine, some of the Gryffindors too." Ron whispered. Harry didn't respond but he didn't like what Ron had said. He knew what it was like to be picked on for something hard to control, something that's apart of you.

At the end of class, Snape towered over each table critiquing each potion. He came to a halt when he saw Harry's. He stood there in awe staring down at the cauldron, and then up to Harry's eyes. "Yes Professor?" Harry asked after a while. "It's perfect, you really are your mother's child." He said, "If you ever need to consult me on potion brewing, please do."


After potions with Snape the first years traveled out to the Quidditch pitch. Harry was very excited to fly, but judging by the look of the school brooms, he doubted any of them could travel faster than he could run. The lesson was going smoothly until Neville ended up injured.

"Classic Neville." Harry said, shaking his head.

"Ay!" Crabbe said getting Draco's attention, "He left his stupid gift." Draco looked like he really did not care. "Well, what're we gonna do to it!" Goyle asked impatiently. Draco was trapped. He couldn't care less about messing with Neville, he looked like he had it bad enough, but he had to do something. Draco's father made it painfully obvious that their political relations with Houses Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson were extremely important. It was because of these ties that they were able to control the Hogwarts Board of Governors. Draco knew well enough that his father would hear from Pansy if he was acting out of line, his father told him he had no problem with removing Draco as an heir and having another child. The fact that Draco was most likely to become Lord Black just made things more tense, and so Draco put a sadistic smile on his face.

"I say we put it in a tree!" Draco said reaching down grabbing the remembrall, but as he pulled it off the ground he found a hand gripping his arm. "Draco, stop." Harry demanded peering into Draco's eyes as if he could see through him perfectly. "Yeah Malfoy," Ron said walking up to the boy, angry that he would pick on one of his friends, "Crawl back into whatever hole you were birthed from!"

"Ron!" Harry exclaimed trying to defuse the situation, "Calm down."

"Harry, he's trying to bully Neville, whose side are you on!" Ron said flushing red with anger. "Yeah whose side are you on, Potter. I don't remember seeing you wearing red and gold." Draco stated, a calm rage spilling over his features at Ron's remarks.

"Draco please just put the ball down."

"Yeah, put it down snake!"

"You want a snake, I'll show you a snake!" Draco yelled, yanking his arm from Harry's grasp, and grabbing a broom. "Up!" Draco flew into the air remembrall in hand. Harry thinking fast grabbed a broom as well flying up to meet Draco's level. If the Slytherins wanted him to prove that he belonged in their house then he'll prove it.

Draco tossed the ball up a few inches, caught it, then nodded to Harry. Harry understood what Draco meant and nodded as well, ready.

"Lets see how well you can catch, Potter!" Draco said as he threw the remembrall far over Harry's head.

Harry spun around and immediately flew after it, but it was falling fast. "Uh oh." Draco thought out loud wondering if Harry was bluffing, but suddenly Harry dipped towards the ground committed to the chase.

As Harry drew his arm out in anticipation he realized just how much he loved flying, and he snatched the ball out of the air just before it could collide with the dirt.

Naturally the other first years were stunned, unable to process what they just witnessed.

"Well?" Harry asked in response to the stares he was getting. "Well, well, well…" Madam Hooch's voice called out from the castle behind him. He turned around in an instant, "Look I can e-"

"Nope, no explaining. Meet me after class tomorrow . Class dismissed!"

"Great, now I have detention." Harry thought out loud in a deadpanned voice.


Harry wasn't in a good mood. He was in his last class for the day, Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. His head was lying on the desk facing a wall, arms limp beside him. He couldn't get something off his mind.

"Pick a side." He thought out loud. "Everyone wanted me to be in Gryffindor, but I ended up in Slytherin, but, what am I now?"

"What do you want to be?" A friendly voice answered from beside him.

"I really need to stop thinking out loud." he said chuckling. "Really? I think it's kinda cute." He turned his head to see Susan Bones, the girl with a reputation to be lazy, laying her head on the desk beside him. "So, what do you want to be?" She asked. He had no reason to answer her, they hadn't ever talk before, yet he answered anyway.

"Myself, but I feel like everyone expects someone else." He replied.

"Yeah I get it, if you tried to fit into what other people want you to be, not only would you be unhappy, but you could lose friends." she surmised, understanding his troubles.

"I think it's pretty simple," she continued, "Are you a Gryffindor?"

"Sort of."

"Are you a Slytherin?"

"Sort of"

"So what are you?"

"Harry Potter, that's all I know I am."

"Then be Harry Potter, not the Boy-Who-Lived that defeated a Dark Lord, be the geek that I know you are inside." She said kindly half-insulting him.

"It might be tough at the beginning, but if you keep working hard your really loyal friends will stay for who you really are." She said.

"You mentioning hard work and loyalty are giving off vibes of alternative motives."

"Shhhhhhhh" She responded quietly falling asleep.

Harry then remembered they were in the middle of class. "Get up you Lazy Bones." He said shaking her awake. After a few indecipherable syllables she passed out again.

Chuckling to himself he decided to just let her sleep.

"Thank you."


A/N

I decided to introduce Susan at the end there and I think it worked out pretty nice~

I'm debating in my head on if I want to include a love interest in the story. (he does have to take someone to the ball), but I have no plans for who.

Recommendations for best-girl-waifu-love-interest are appreciated, or tell me if there shouldn't be one. I'm open to Harry/Multi.