Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

Monday rolled around, and it was just a couple hours before all the students would arrive back to the castle. Dumbledore called all the heads of houses and Arcturus Snape to his office for a private sorting before the feast. Severus, Harry, and Castor met McGonagall at the base of the gargoyle statue. "Tootsie Pops," she said. "It's good to meet you, I'm Professor McGonagall. I've really only seen the two of you in passing," she said kindly to Harry and Castor.

"It's good to meet you, Professor McGonagall," Harry said. "Dad says you teach Transfiguration. That's one of my favorite subjects." Snape glared at Harry with a raise of his eyebrow communicating a clear and accusatory 'suck up.'

"I look forward to having you in my class then," McGonagall smiled as they stood on the revolving stairway. "I forgo the normal wager, Severus, I'm sure we're both certain that a son of yours will be in your own house."

Snape frowned. "I regret that I fear he'll end up in yours Minerva. He has all the idiotic courage of one of those blasted Gryffindors."

"Hey, I'm right here!" Harry protested.

"And, I mean it in all love," Snape said with a roll of his eyes.

Minerva laughed. "Oh, that'd be golden, a Snape in Gryffindor! Now, if he'd only join the quidditch team, I'd have bragging rights until the end of time!"

"I don't play quidditch unfortunately," Harry said.

Snape gave him a quizzical look, but Harry just looked away, not wanting to go into it right then. "Oh, well, you could very well end up a Hufflepuff anyway," McGonagall shrugged, but with a smirk at Snape.

Snape grumbled at that statement all the way into Dumbledore's office. Professors Flitwick and Sprout were already in the office with Dumbledore. "Welcome!" Dumbledore effused. Fawkes also squawked a melodious welcome. Harry thought the phoenix seemed to recognize him, but he didn't think that would be a problem…hopefully.

"Good to meet you Mr. Snape. I'm Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff house," Pomona offered her hand, followed by Professor Flitwick after her.

"Ok, Mr. Snape," Dumbledore explained. "Just have a seat and we'll put the Sorting Hat on you."

Harry handed a gurgling Castor to Severus who bounced him a couple times to the amazement of the other professors and creating more of a twinkle in the old man's eyes. Harry sat and Dumbledore immediately plopped the hat on his head.

Well, hello again.

Er, hello, Harry thought at the hat.

It's not often I get a repeat sorting, Mr. Potter, or rather Mr. Snape. It's interesting to see how you have grown within your house all these years.

I've learned a lot

Yes, I see that, and made some good friends as well.

Does that mean you're putting me back in Gryffindor?

The hat seemed to think a minute. You do have courage in spades, but now you have much more loyalty and family connection with your son and new family, which would speak more to Hufflepuff. I still don't think Ravenclaw is best for you even though you are a bright student, though not really living up to your potential now, are we?

Harry winced. Yeah, sorry about that. I don't really want to stand out.

Uh huh, yeah, let's try to fix that this time around, shall we?

I'll do my best.

And, that's all anyone can ask. So, even with this, I think I'm going to stick by my original sorting. I think Slytherin is still the place you can learn and grow the most. Also, I think it's the place you can do the most good. Are you going to disagree with me on this again?

No, I think it's time to actually listen to you.

Good luck, Mr. Snape…SLYTHERIN!

As Harry took the hat off his head, he saw a nodding McGonagall and unconcerned other professors who had all been expecting this decision already. Snape's look was priceless though. Over the top of Castor's head, his jaw was open, and he looked at a complete loss for words.

Snape handed Castor back to Harry as they made their way to the Great Hall to wait on the other students. "Well, that was shocking to say the least," he grumbled.

"Do you not want me in your house?" Harry asked, concerned for the first time.

"Of course, I want you in my house, idiot boy," Snape protested. "But who would have thought you could be in any house other than Gryffindor?!"

"Actually," Harry corrected him with a large grin. "The Sorting Hat originally wanted to put me in Slytherin, but I hadn't heard any good things about it at that time and asked the hat to put me somewhere else. Gryffindor was its second choice."

"What?!" Snape exclaimed as he stopped in the middle of the hallway and stared at Harry.

Harry shrugged. "I'm an abused kid who had to fight every day just to get food and to keep myself from being beaten. I learned to be cunning and cover my true emotions to only let others see what I wanted them to see. I have the servant mask for my family just as I have the good Gryffindor mask for Hogwarts. I'm looking forward to putting aside these masks for a while and just being me. Whether that's very Slytherin or not, I don't really care."

Snape stared at him like he had never seen him before, which there was some definite truth in that. Harry only let others see what he wanted them to see, or what he thought they wanted to see. Snape shocked himself by admitting he was looking forward to getting to know this young man in front of him, his son, for the first time. He just cleared his throat and pushed all those thoughts away for now. "We have a quick meeting in the common room after the feast. Come for that before you head to your rooms. The password is Patrician. A prefect can show you to the common room.

Harry shuffled his feet a bit. "I already know where it is," he admitted.

Snape narrowed his eye. "Indeed, we'll be talking about that later."

Harry just grumbled as they both made their way into the Great Hall. Harry sat at the Slytherin table where he remembered the seventh years normally sat and pulled Castor's fuzzy hippogriff toy (his favorite at the moment) out of the diaper bag to keep him occupied. He nervously checked that his hair was covering his ears and that he was wearing the glamour ring as the students started filing in. Harry and Castor were getting curious looks from all the houses as well as his own. He might no longer be the Boy-Who-Lived, but he was a 6'3" new student with long, steel gray hair and tattoos visible on his neck above the collar of his shirt, not to mention the clapping baby in his lap that seemed to be having a very animated and unintelligible conversation with the fuzzy hippogriff.

"They do seem to get younger every year, Pansy," Blaise Zabini said as he sat down beside Harry. Pansy Parkinson sat across from them.

"I thought they were at least potty trained before the sorting though," Pansy laughed.

"Pretty sure Draco wasn't," Blaise replied as Draco Malfoy sat beside Pansy with a scowl at his friend.

"Just because I live with you now doesn't mean you can make fun of me whenever you want," Draco drawled. "I'm Draco Malfoy, by the way," Draco said, extending his hand to Harry. "Those two ingrates are Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson."

"Arcturus Snape," Harry said, shaking his hand. Since Malfoy had quickly changed sides at the end of their sixth year and warned everyone about the impending Death Eater attack, Harry had decided to give him a second chance to see if he could truly redeem himself, very provisionally, of course. Harry wasn't an idiot, no matter what his dad believed. "You lot can call me Artie though. This is Castor," He said bouncing the baby that was now grabbing at Blaise's robes.

"Pleased to meet you, little Mr. Snape," Blaise said, shaking the little chubby hand that had a fistful of his robes.

"You related to…?" Malfoy asked, motioning to the head table.

Harry nodded and smiled at his dad who he was happy to see was chatting with Professor Lupin. "Yeah, Severus is my dad," he said.

"Blimey!" Blaise remarked, sounding a lot like Ron in that moment.

"I didn't know he had a son!" Draco exclaimed indignantly. "I'm his godson; how didn't I know he had a son?!"

"I was a secret since, with the war and all, it just didn't seem safe. My mum died though, so I had to come and live with dad," Harry said, sticking to their story.

"And, this little cutie?" Pansy asked as she made faces at a laughing Castor.

"My son," Harry said proudly. "His mum died when mine did. We're all alone now, right bub?"

"Wait!" Blaise said, dramatically holding a hand up. "That means Snape's a grandfather!"

Pansy and Draco looked like they were holding back chuckles. "Yeah, maybe don't tease him about it though. He can be a bit of a grump about it. Right, Cas?" Harry explaining Snape as being 'a bit of a grump' really did set them off into giggles.

They had to break off their conversation as McGonagall let in the new first years with the Sorting Hat. Harry had no clue what the Sorting Hat sang or where any of the first years were sorted because he was looking over at the Gryffindor table. Ron and Hermione were sitting together. He couldn't tell from looking at them what they thought about his absence for 'training.' They didn't seem overly upset, but he wouldn't have wanted them to either. Neville was making comments to Ginny about the new first years, it seemed. He was looking well. He seemed to have had a growth spurt over the summer. As much as he didn't like Dumbledore lying to everyone, he was a little grateful that he wasn't watching his friends dealing with his death, just some training nonsense. Luna was sitting a little off from everyone at the Ravenclaw table. When Harry looked over at her, she met his eyes and gave him a friendly smile. Harry smiled back but quickly focused his attention on Castor again as he had decided to play with a fork and Harry thought that seemed dangerous.

Up at the head table, Snape and Lupin both were keeping an eye on Harry and his interactions with the other students. Snape was glad he seemed to be getting along with some of the Slytherins but also noticed the longing look over at the Gryffindor table. Nothing of note happened at the welcome feast (the Forbidden Forest was still forbidden, and Weasley Wizarding Wheezes were all banned). The only interesting thing was when Castor loudly squealed in the middle of Dumbledore's speech. Snape and Lupin both concealed grins behind their hands. "Yes, thank you Mr. Snape, I agree as well," Dumbledore said as he continued with the speech.

"Now, as I'm sure you have noticed young Mr. Snape if not his father at the Slytherin table, I would like to introduce Arcturus Snape and his son Castor Snape to you all. Arcturus is Professor Snape's son and is joining us for the year. Please be respectful of there being a baby in our midst and don't give them a hard time. Now, off to your common rooms!"

Harry got a lot of looks again as students started leaving the hall. This time he noticed that they kept glancing up to the head table as well. "You know, I wouldn't picture Professor Snape being ok with a lot of body modifications," Pansy mentioned to Harry, looking over his hair and mostly hidden tattoos. "Might our esteemed head of house have some hidden tattoos himself we don't know about?"

Harry chuckled as he shifted Castor to pick up the diaper bag and start towards the common room. "He hasn't said anything to me about my appearance besides my clothes, which he insisted on replacing," Harry said with a fake shudder. "As far as I know, he doesn't have any tattoos himself, but I would pay big money to be there if you ask him." This was now very true since the Dark Mark was gone.

Pansy laughed. "I don't quite have a death wish just yet."

"Hey, anyone else noticed our resident 'Chosen One' wasn't in attendance?" Draco asked.

"Huh, maybe he'll turn up in a flying car again," Blaise shrugged, which made Pansy snigger.

"Who?" Harry asked, playing dumb.

"Harry Potter…Boy-Who-Lived," Draco explained.

"Oh, him," Harry hummed. "Yeah, Dad mentioned something about him not being here this year. Like some kind of training or something. Dad seemed really happy about it for some reason."

Vincent Crabbe huffed behind them. "I hear he offed himself," Crabbe said darkly. "Good riddance."

Draco, Pansy, and Blaise all stared at him in shock. "Nah, he'd never…" Draco began.

"Yeah," Gregory Goyle agreed with Crabbe. "I heard his homelife was shite and he just couldn't take it anymore."

Harry noticed Draco, Pansy, and Blaise look at each other in concern. Interesting, Harry thought to himself. He knew Draco had changed sides, but it appeared Pansy and Blaise weren't with the Death Eaters either. He'd definitely have to watch Crabbe and Goyle though, they knew too much to not be connected to Voldemort. He also noticed neither of them bothered to introduce themselves to him…interesting.

Snape walked into the Slytherin common room to find his son sitting between Zabini and Parkinson. Surprisingly, his grandson had a fistful of Zabini's robes. However, as Snape got fully in the room and it went silent for him, Castor raised both arms up to Snape and squealed. Snape sighed and went to pick up the child. No one was going to take him seriously this year. As he took Castor, he passed a note to Harry.

Harry smiled as Snape gave in to Castor's large, blue eyes and picked him up. He raised an eyebrow as he opened the hastily scribbled note.

Son,

I neglected to say before, but congratulations on being sorted into Slytherin. We take care of our own in this house. Remus suggested (oh, it's Remus now, Harry laughed) that we tell your housemates of your…status. It may help to have some support from them, and you seemed unconcerned about people knowing. If you agree, give me a nod, if not just shake your head and we'll forget it.

Dad

Harry thought about it. He really didn't mind if people knew. He was positive it would cause him more problems, but his ears were pretty hard to hide, so it would eventually get out. And, he wasn't Harry Potter anymore, so it didn't even matter if it got back to Old Voldy. It's not like you can turn a Fury. They inherently were their own side since their powers are completely dependent on their conviction and beliefs. Harry shrugged and gave his dad a small nod that Snape returned.

"All right all, quiet down," he said, even though it was already almost quiet. "Listen to me and ignore the baby," he continued with as much sternness he could muster with an 8-month-old baby playing with his hair.

"For those of you new, welcome to Slytherin House. For those of you returning, welcome back. We here in Slytherin take care of our own. You will find out very quickly that there are many prejudices against our house, some warranted but most not. I expect you all to watch each other's backs. Any problems between house members should not be handled in the hallways, but within the house. I expect you all to be beyond reproach. I will avoid calling you out when we are with the other houses, but I will handle any behavioral or academic issues with you privately, fairly, but also strictly," Snape looked over the first years with this. It was quite impressive that he was still eliciting fear in them, even with the gurgling baby.

"I feel I must mention the hippogriff in the room, or rather the baby," Snape sighed. "This will be a different year than most because my grandson will be in the castle. I expect you all to keep in mind that there is a baby around and to watch your language and actions in his presence. If his first word is a swear word, I'll be coming after each of you," Snape looked over to Harry. "His father included." Harry just smiled at him and a few others in the room chuckled. Pansy looked ready to have a heart attack that Snape had almost made a joke.

"There is one last thing that is different this year and still pertains to my family and watching what you say. I advise you all to watch any promises you make to my son. In fact, it is best if you make no promises to him at all." Everyone looked confusedly between Snape and Harry. "I would also ask that you help diffuse any situations where he may feel that someone is threatened around him."

Snape nodded to Harry who pushed his hair behind his ears and took his glamour ring off. Those around him gasped. "Hi all!" Harry called out to the room. "Call me Artie. Dad's rules are for your own and others' protection. I'm not dangerous, but I am a Fury." This got several more gasps from the room. "That means that if you make a promise directly to me, then it becomes magically binding. So, you must follow through on pain of death. I care less about the situations if someone is threatened, but I will step in. My instincts tell me to protect above all else, so they'll get what they deserve in my opinion."

Snape glared at him before sighing. "Be that as it may, no one wants an angry Fury around, so please don't be the ones he's coming after at least. And, try not to spread it around to everyone. Now, prefects, fill in our first years on curfew and study hours. The rest of you, off to bed!" Snape handed Castor back to Harry and swept out of the room, robes billowing behind him.

"So that's what's up with this whole…look," Blaise said, waving his hand in front of Harry. "That's pretty awesome, mate, especially the eyes," he concluded.

"Yeah, hot," Pansy added. "And, creepy."

Harry laughed. "Thanks, I think," he said as he put his ring on and his eyes went back to green.

"Think we could get the Weasel to promise something stupid to Artie here?" Draco grinned evilly.

"Oh, move on, Draco," Pansy said, rolling her eyes.

"Nah, it has to be an intentional promise," Harry said. "It's not a good idea anyway. You never really know how my vengeance side will come out. I'm still working on the whole control thing."

"So…the two of you are in our dorm?" Blaise asked.

"Yeah, figured I'd put the baby right by your bed," Harry smiled at him. Blaise's smile fell. "Oh, calm down, we have family quarters."

"I like babies and all, but I really like my sleep more," Blaise laughed.

"Well, we should go anyway, Cas is starting to fade," Harry said as he picked up the sleepy baby. "See you all in class tomorrow."

Up next: settling into classes...

Um, any date ideas? I'm trying to come up with some good wizarding world dates. Drop an idea in a review if you have one.