The Slytherin table is silent. No one talks, not even a whisper. Against the harsh stares, they hunch their shoulders, stare down at their food. It hits all of them—the seventh years all the way down to the second years. None of them can avoid it, no matter their allegiance or what they did in the last year.
It doesn't matter to them, Daphne thinks, bitter. It doesn't matter what they did because they are Slytherins and so they're wrong, dark, evil.
As normal, the Sorting Hat sings its song. The silence of the Great Hall is heavy, and some of that comes from the fact no one's meant to be speaking, Daphne reckons. But more of it—most of it—is caused by the fact they all knew what happened here.
(All of them remember it, and even those who weren't there know what happened. Hogwarts has always been a place of magic, but it lies thick in the Great Hall. This is the place where Voldemort died, where Harry rose from the dead, where the final spells were cast. This is the place where they laid the bodies out, one after the other, and found wrote down their dead.)
(How many people have died in Hogwarts? How many did Daphne know by name or by face? Too many. The answer has always been too many.)
As the hat falls silent, at long last, McGonagall begins calling forward the first years. Daphne is silent as she watches them shuffle along the hall and to the stool. They all look so small, impossibly small. The idea that Daphne and her year mates were once that small is a strange one.
Beneath the hat, the first years fidget, robes still black and plain. One by one, they are sorted into Gryffindor and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Each table cheers as people are sorted, stamping their feet and clapping their hands. It could almost be any sorting that Daphne's ever attended—except for the fact no one's been sorted into Slytherin yet.
Daphne like her housemates expected this. After all, the witch chooses the house, the Sorting Hat only offers the options to each student. The Slytherin House, which has already had a dark name since the beginning of time it seems, has only been further vilified ever since the end of the war.
The war the Slytherins didn't lose—because it wasn't Slytherins versus the rest of Hogwarts. No, it'd been Death Eaters and, despite what people thought all too often, being a Slytherin doesn't automatically make you a Death Eater. Not that that had ever stopped people from thinking otherwise.
Then, at long last, the Sorting Hat shouts, "SLYTHERIN!"
The student is small and they get smaller, hunching their shoulders. Around them, people hiss and boo and shout—it's so similar to Daphne's own sorting she could cry. At least when she'd been getting sorted, she could pretend that things were okay. Back then, the war had been a memory growing more and more distant.
Now the war is a memory that lives with them, that haunts them all as they sit here, silent.
But that doesn't excuse the behaviour of the other students, Daphne thinks to herself. It doesn't excuse the silence of the teachers. It doesn't excuse how this has been ignored, time and time again.
This system isn't working, Daphne thinks to herself as Professor McGonagall talks about interhouse unity.
This can't keep happening, she thinks as she begins eating, the others doing the same around her. Other students begin to talk, but there are only a few whispers from people at the Slytherin table.
This is a cycle that needs to be broken.
The realisation comes at the end of the meal, when they're heading down to the dungeons. It should be a place that is home, but it's not because they were locked there and told they couldn't fight—couldn't fight their families, couldn't fight for their friends, couldn't fight because they were Slytherins and therefore Death Eaters.
But what can Daphne do about this? She's only a student—a Slytherin, at that. She's a Greengrass, lacking any of the wealth that some of the more powerful houses have accumulated. She has some political allies, but her family is neutral and have been for generations. If Daphne wants to make a move, wants to rock the boat, she's going to have to prove that there's good reason to.
Not that such things will be hard, though, considering how many people Daphne knows who are Slytherins or were once Slytherins. People have always been complaining about Hogwarts' housing system, though only off to the side, where such conversations can be brushed aside and easily ignored. Perhaps it's time to say such things in the light. Perhaps it's time to really fight.
Daphne's determination to do something only lasts until she gets to the Common Room. When she gets there, the atmosphere is hostile. People are segregated in clumps, the new first years are hesitant and stick close to one another.
Once, the Slytherin Common Room had been safety. Now, it doesn't feel that way. Instead, all Daphne sees are the gaps where once they'd been people.
The year that's been diminished the most is, by far, her own.
Draco is there, of course, by order of the Ministry. But he's a pale shade of himself. Beside him stands Blaise, face blank, and the space where Pansy once stood is all too clear. But she didn't come back, as Daphne had expected. After the battle, she hadn't thought Pansy would come back, especially when she'd encouraged the student body to give up Potter. Millicent is there too, same old jutting jaw and an expression that promises war for any who come after her.
And then, of course, there are the gaps. Vincent Crabbe died in Hogwarts, floors away, and no body was recovered. Gregory Goyle will never return to Hogwarts, but at least he lives. Tracey Davis isn't here and never will be again, having died in the battle that took place—and Daphne doesn't know if she was trying to run or trying to help. If anyone does, they're not talking. The other missing member of their house, other than Pansy, is Theo who fled, the Nott name having become too vilified for him to consider staying.
This is what Hogwarts, and the world, have done to her house and her friends. Cut them down, one by one, until it's either you run or you stay and deal with the ostracising.
But—it's one thing to have been a Slytherin before, and another entirely when you watch Blaise sign to a mermaid in the lake that Theo won't be returning to Hogwarts, not for a long time. An ache takes up residence in her heart as the mermaid's expression twists, before they turn and swim away. Daphne knows they won't be seeing them for the rest of the year; they'd been good friends with Theo.
"This sucks," Millicent says, voice low as she steps up to Daphne's side. It's not the most eloquent way of putting things, but that doesn't make Millicent wrong.
Daphne nods in agreement. "Yeah," she says, the word barely more than a sigh. "But what can we do?"
There's a calculating pause and Daphne looks around the Common Room once again, feels the silence, heavy and jagged press against her shoulders. "Well," she says, the words slow as the beginning of a plan begins to form in her mind, "there's not much more we can lose." They've lost so much already, their reputations and their pride and friends and family. What they have left to lose isn't much, not really.
There is, of course, a vague hope that all of them foster in their hearts that they might, one day, be considered okay in society's eyes; that they won't be stared at or cursed behind their backs; that the whispers and rumours will leave them behind.
Except it's only hope and it's a future that is a long way off—if it ever occurs.
"Hey Draco," Daphne calls and her loud voice seems to make all noise disappear entirely. What little whispering there had been has now disappeared. Everyone stares at her instead. Daphne doesn't let herself falter, not for a second, even as Draco spins around and stares at her. "How do you feel about starting a political campaign?"
The very idea is insane and she can tell everyone staring at her thinks the same. Still, though, Draco raises an eyebrow and slowly says, "You are aware of our current position, right?" It's more blunt than he's ever been in the past, but no one's tip-toeing around what happened these days. There's no point.
"Yes," Daphne says. "Which is precisely why I'm asking." She waves her hand. "Hogwarts has been settled in tradition far too long and perhaps it's time we call attention to it."
"What's your aim?" Millicent asks, voice a hushed whisper, but it carries clearly in the silence.
A slow smile creeps over Daphne's face and she says, "The abolishment of the Hogwarts' house system."
Whispers flood the Common Room and Daphne can see light in people's eyes as they turn to one another. They look alive, more so than they have before now. "It's going to be challenging," Blaise says from Draco's side, but Daphne reads the resolution in his eyes, in his stance. He'll work with her. "We're in a bad light right now."
"All the more reason for why this will work," Daphne says. She shrugs. "We can frame the war through the lens of how the anti-Slytherin movement that has presided within Hogwarts' halls for years led to it and the numerous effects it's had. This isn't just something that is limited to Slytherin either, but the other houses are both responsible and have also experienced ramifications due to the stereotypes that run rampant."
The Slytherins are looking at her, still, but less like she's insane and more like she's given them hope. Maybe it's an impossible thing to do, but the last few years have proven to them that nothing's impossible.
"Right," Draco says, before shaking his head with a smile. "Sure, whatever. Let's launch a political campaign. Could be fun."
(It is hard work and it takes time. But, eventually, the Hogwarts' houses will be a thing of the past. The system will be abolished due to the work of people from multiple houses, but it began with Slytherin. People will remember that.)
Honestly, I hate titling things so much. It's why this stood for so long in my drafts - and by so long, I meant a few days. I'm impatient, sue me.
I hope you enjoyed this! It's been something hanging around in the back of my mind for eons stemming from this little note that makes some sense that I'd had written for a while:
Calling for the abolishment of the house system of Hogwarts following the anti-Slytherin movement in the height of the wizarding war that presided for years within Hogwart's hall and led to numerous attacks and hostilities before the eventual fall of the Dark Lord, which - while the effort of multiple people - lies with the Slytherin students who changed their society.
I've had a few thoughts on this because it really does make sense and I'm not going to continue this fic in particular because I have no brain power for it now. BUT, it's an interesting premise and might make a reappearance in a long fic later on. Future me thoughts. For now, I'll leave you with this and hope you enjoyed it.