That evening, Professor Snape gathered his Slytherin students together. "I am sure most of you are aware of what happened earlier today."
Asher wanted to run and hide. He could feel his face burning in embarrassment. He hated being the kid that everyone felt sorry for. If they weren't pitying him for his deafness, now they would pity him for being bullied. This was not what he wanted.
"For those of you who do not know, two of your fellow Slytherins were attacked by some older students from another house." Snape glanced around the room, making eye contact with each student in turn. "As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, your housemates are your family here at Hogwarts. Blood status does not matter. Family ties do not matter. This is your family," he held his arms wide open, indicating all the members of the house of Slytherin. "We protect our own."
He began pacing in front of the students now. Asher was glad that he was able to understand Snape's thoughts as following his lips would have been difficult now.
"I do not care if you do not like your fellow Slytherin. You may not be friends with them. But you will help protect them." Snape's eyes caught a group of seventh year students, "And I am counting on the upper classmen to stand up for those younger students who are not able to hold their own just yet."
Pansy sniggered. She elbowed Draco and gave him a significant look that seemed to say that anyone who could not hold their own was beneath her.
A pair of dark, angry eyes met hers. Professor Snape strode over to her, his robes billowing behind him. Pansy shrunk back. "If a pair of sixth years pounced on you in the hallway, do you think your family training of the basic spells would protect you, Miss Parkinson?"
Asher could feel her fear, but she stood a little taller and said, "I think I could handle it, Sir."
A shocked silence fell over the room. The other first years stared at Pansy in disbelief. The older years were in shock that someone would talk back to their Head of House in that way.
Snape smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. It was one of warning. Asher was sure that whatever would happen next would bring a twisted satisfaction to the man when he proved his point.
"Step forward, Miss Parkinson," he said.
Pansy took a tentative step forward.
"Mr. Flint," Snape called. "Come join us."
Marcus cut through the other students and stood in front of the group with Pansy.
Snape looked at Pansy, "You want to prove what you can do? Go ahead, show me how strong you are against a fifth year."
"You want me to attack him?" Pansy asked, fiddling with her wand.
"We are witches and wizards of class, are we not?" Snape asked the crowd. A few of the students nodded in agreement. "We do not attack. We duel."
He nodded towards Marcus who walked a few paces away from Pansy and turned to face her.
Pansy glared at the boy across the room who towered over her even from this distance.
"What are the rules, Sir?" Marcus asked. His face projected boredom but Asher thought there was a smirk to his lips.
"Disarm only. I am sure Miss Parkinson will have no problem protecting herself from that."
Marcus twitched his wand and muttered, "Expelliarmus."
Pansy's wand flew out of her hand and clattered on the floor in front of a group of third year girls. The girls giggled.
"I wasn't ready!" Pansy cried as she collected her wand.
Snape, who now looked like he was fully enjoying himself, looked at Marcus. "She was not ready. Perhaps count to three this time."
Pansy glared at him and then turned her attention to Marcus.
"One, two, three, expelliarmus," Marcus spoke loudly.
Again, her wand jumped out of her hands and landed in front of Asher. Pansy's face turned bright red. She rushed to pick up her wand, glancing at Asher as she did.
He wanted to laugh but the look of mortification on her face stopped him. He could sense her embarrassment. He checked his laughter.
Professor Snape raised his hand and the laughter in the room stopped. He walked over to Pansy and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, Miss Parkinson, for demonstrating my point so well. I could not have demonstrated it so well without you." He said it with such sincerity that it almost felt as if he and Pansy had decided previously to act this out.
"I trust that you all can see now why it is important to look out for one another. No one in this castle will cut you any slack. You are at an automatic disadvantage because of the house you belong to. But this does not mean you are worth less than anyone else here."
The students had sobered again and were listening intently.
"You are stronger and more determined than the other students because you have to work harder to earn what they have already been gifted. And that is why I am proud to be your Head of House."
Asher felt a pride well up inside himself at Snape's words. He understood now what Snape meant. They were constantly being looked at with suspicion. If he hadn't been able to show Snape the memory, he wondered if they would have gotten in trouble as well. Or if the Gryffindors would have gotten in trouble at all.
"I know you can be united. I know you can bring honor to your house. Prove it to the rest of the school," Snape again made eye contact with each student as he looked around the room again. "Show them all what it means to be a Slytherin."
Professor Snape looked one last time at the group of seventh years before turning and leaving the room.
Millicent turned to Asher, a wide smile across her face. "That was priceless! Did you see the look on her face when she was disarmed a second time?"
Asher shook his head. She was embarrassed, he wrote on his notepad.
"Well, yeah. If she's going to act all high-and-mighty because of her family…" She caught the look on Asher's face and her smile dropped. "Oh, you want me to be nice, don't you?"
Asher smirked.
"I don't know why I'm friends with you."
He nudged her with his elbow.
"Don't even think about it."
He looked at her, questioningly.
"Don't try to make me a better person, Asher."
He grinned. Just give me time.
She read what he wrote and stuck her tongue out at him. "You only have seven years here at Hogwarts. I'm not sure that's long enough."
XXXXX
For the next two weeks, Asher did not walk anywhere by himself. Millicent was practically surgically attached. And she wasn't the only one. The seventh year Slytherins caught the message from Snape and had begun escorting first and second years around the castle.
At first, Asher had been annoyed. He liked to be on his own timeline, without having to depend on anyone else. Now he couldn't walk alone from the Great Hall to the bathroom without someone jumping up to join him.
But even that first day he had caught several less-than-pleasant looks from other students in the hallways. And those looks continued and multiplied. Everyone had heard some version of the events of that weekend. The reactions were varied.
Asher suspected that Slytherin's tendency to stick to themselves and befriend only members of their house contributed to the misinformation floating around the school. The Gryffindor students were able to spread their version, where a first year Slytherin boy attacked a first year Gryffindor girl and they stepped in to protect her. They earned a few bruises and a broken nose for their efforts.
Most of Gryffindor looked at the Slytherins with distain. Hallway jinxes were on the rise between those two houses in particular. It went both ways. But Asher thought it was usually started by the lions.
Hufflepuff students tended to edge away from the Slytherins. They wanted to be neutral in all of this, but the ones who believed the Gryffindor story were not so controlled as to hide their disgust in the looks they gave him.
Ravenclaw as a whole were cold to the Slytherin house. It was a strange development as they were usually friendly with the snakes. Now they would avoid Slytherin. Asher had watched a few conversations where the eagles would share their disgust at the supposed actions of 'those Slytherin hooligans'. And one older Ravenclaw girl had wondered to her friend if 'that deaf kid' was faking it and was actually 'a plant for the death eaters'.
He had asked Millicent what that term meant later that evening. She had grabbed his arm and dragged him outside to a secluded place where they wouldn't be overheard. She explained who death eaters were, who they followed, and why mentioning them in a house where many had lost parents to that group was a terrible idea.
Since then, Asher found that he was grateful for the escorts and for the solidarity of having his house beside him. He wondered again at the discohesion of the school because of the house system. Was it wise to pit students against each other in this way? Why did Dumbledore not do anything to stop the blatant prejudice against Slytherin? Was it possible to change the way the school saw them? Or were they doomed to complete the self-fulfilling prophecy of being a house isolated to themselves?