Changed Perspectives

            Draco leaned over to where Harry was watching the Sorting. "Bet the boy third from the right end will be in Slytherin," he whispered into Harry's ear. Harry looked over to where Draco was signaling and saw a small little boy with auburn hair and sparkling hazel eyes. The boy looked timorous and as unsure that Harry was sure that he felt the day that he had been originally Sorted.

            "You have got to be joking," Harry said looking at the boy again. "Do you know who that is?"

            "No, but he does seem like the ambitious, cunning, Slytherin type." Draco said, smirking again.

            "You really have got to be joking," Harry said again. "He looks more like a boy suffering from acrophobia that's been told to fly a broom to the top of the astronomy tower. Way too nervous; definitely a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor."

            "O'Connor, Shawn!" Minerva McGonagall called. And the boy that Harry and Draco had been watching quickly walked forward to the stool and jumped when the sorting hat was placed on his head. After about a minute the sorting hat announced its decision—

            "SLYTHERIN!"

            Harry's jaw dropped and Draco laughed outright at his stunned face. "I only speak the truth*."

            "You rigged this—you had to have rigged this. What are you? A Seer?" The little boy, Shawn O'Connor, walked forward and sat down at the near the end of the table, about five seats down and on the same side as Harry and Draco. Harry thought of a capricious idea looked up to the Head Table to discreetly check and make sure that none of the teachers were watching him. Putting a finger to his lips to indicate silence to the Slytherins in front of him in an ephemeral manner, he grabbed the Slytherin accused of being supercilious, Draco Malfoy, and pulled him to the ground behind the bench. Vince (Crabbe) and Greg (Goyle) scooted towards each other on the bench a little to make the space between more obscure to prying eyes who would wonder why there was such a gap in the space at the table.

            The Slytherin table was at the far right of the Great Hall, opposite of the Gryffindors and next to the Ravenclaws so when Harry dragged Draco down to the stone floor they were placed up against a wall. "What are you doi—" Draco started to ask before Harry silenced him with a glare and he crawled to his right a few feet before sitting on the bench again abruptly, six seats down from where he had been before. Draco muttered darkly to himself about 'fickle former Gryffindorks' but he went as sat beside Harry as well. "Now can you tell me what in Slytherin's name that was for?" he whispered heatedly to Harry in a voice with no mitigation of severity.

            The newly appointed Slytherin just smiled enigmatically to him before turning to face a boy sitting in front of him. "Hey, you must be Shawn O'Connor, if I remember correctly." Harry stated stretching his hand out for the anxious first year to shake.

            "I'm Harry Potter and this is my friend Draco Malfoy. You'll probably hear a lot of stories of a lot of rivalries between us while you're here." Draco snorted at that comment. "Anyways, you can call me Harry unless some better name should come along and call this idiot next to me," at that point he gestured at Draco, "anything you want. But I suggest such names as ignoramus, imbecile, snoot, spoiled rich kid, et cetera. You'll soon find out that Draco here loves and that needs attention very much.

            Draco rolled his eyes. "You can call me Draco, nothing else."

            The little boy gave a small smile. "It's nice to meet you two; you can call me Shawn and should any of those other names be aimed towards me in a manner not of friendly jest then I will be spending all my time in the library here looking up all possible curses imaginable for the day I can face you."

            The two elder Slytherins just smirked at that statement. Harry then leaned over the table and spoke a conspirator's voice. "Have you ever met this man as told him of your ambition to become a member of the Slytherin house? Did you ever tell him that you were going to be in Slytherin?"

            The boy just shock his head looking confused but Draco just laughed uproariously, no trace of malice on his face or his actions, at that comment, but luckily the Slytherin table had just received the last student of the Sorting, Selene Yerington and the applause drowned out that sound.

            Then the headmaster stood up and called for the feast. Food instantly appeared on the golden plated, and Draco and Harry said good-bye before walking to their former place at the table to talk about quidditch and other subjects over the delectable food being eaten.

            Vince leaned back to look behind Draco's back to a question to Harry about something he had been wondering about. "So what was the quidditch strategy?" he questioned eagerly.

            Harry just grinned and mysteriously answered. "I'll tell you later, in the dark of the night…" after saying that he laughed heartily. "It makes it seems so much more secret when you do it that way…"

            Desserts appeared then disappeared as the time passed on. Then Albus Dumbledore stood to speak, giving his traditional beginning of the year speech and announcements and also informing them all that Filch's list of prohibited items for the school now reached the new high of five-hundred-forty-nine.

            The Great Hall was almost empty as Harry stood up from the table in order to follow Draco and the others towards the Slytherin Common Room he was stopped by Ron and Hermione.

            "What the bloody hell do you think that you are doing, Harry?" Ron shouted at him from his point three feet away from Harry's face. "You're a Slytherin? Are you planning on being a Death Eater as well? Or have you already joined him?" he asked malevolently.

            Before even Harry could whip out his wand to curse his former friend, before Draco or any of the other fifth year Slytherins could grab their wands, a little boy ran forward and kicked Ron in the shin. "Never insult Harry Potter, you—you—conceited, haughty, pompous fool!" was shouted at Ron who had bent down to grip his leg as he squealed in pain for a few seconds.

            The red headed Gryffindor was faced with an equally red headed (although it was a more of an auburn) Slytherin with blazing hazel eyes. The boy was instantly recognizable as Shawn O'Connor. "My father and my mother are both Aurors, did you know?" the boy asked again. "And did you also know that they were both in Slytherin? I might be three or four years younger than you but at least I have some maturity and brains to realize that Slytherin isn't the epiphany of evil while you fastidious Gryffindors are all holy and good. I'll have you know that my parents have caught evil wizards, and that does not mean only Death Eaters, that have been known to be Gryffindors. Take a reality check; you really need one. Do you comprehend what I am saying here?" He only received shocked stares. "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?*" he said directly into the Gryffindors' faces.

            Almost everyone of that group was shocked the speech with really big words from a little boy who had seemed so timid beforehand. But Draco only smiled and leaned over to his friends around him. "He's a Slytherin all the way, I told you."

            Shawn smirked at everyone before turning around walking away.

            Draco noticed quite a few of the first years that had stayed behind looking around for the person supposed to be guiding them to their dormitories. "Crap." He said. "I have to go with the firsties to lead them to the dorms." Draco ran off and the other Slytherins watched as Ron and Hermione glared at them before walking away. But before they too could leave, Seamus Finnegan and the Weasley twins ran forward.

            "Bloody brilliant show!" Seamus cried as he hugged Harry tightly. "You should have seen Ron's face!"

            "Er, Seamus, I wasn't acting."

            "We know," Fred and George answered at once. "So we wanted to ask you if you could tell that sixth year Keeper on your quidditch team… What's his name? Devon Bletchley? Will you tell Devon that we were glad to do business with him and his Weasley's Wizard Wheezes order will be to him within the next week?"

            The three Gryffindors walked away after saying their good-byes. "Now those are the types of Weasleys I appreciate," Pansy said watching the twins go away. "They actually have goals in life unlike the other Weasley."

            Harry turned to look at Pansy. "Bill and Charlie, the eldest two, are actually quite nice. I think you could come to like them. But even I, who was friends with the git, have to admit that Ron is an insufferable prat."

            "Mr. Potter."

            Harry whipped around to see Professor Severus Snape standing behind him, looking at him grimly and down at him only slightly, being that Harry was almost to his height. "Yes, professor?"

            "The headmaster would like to speak with us in his office now. Draco will be joining us there soon."

            Harry nodded to show his acquiesce before turning to say good-bye to his friends. He grinned nervously to them as his eyes jerked to Snape. Pansy just smiled, and Millicent mouthed to him, 'Don't worry. He's not going to bite.'

            The newly inducted Slytherin just arched one of his fine eyebrows and turned to follow his professor. They walked silently for a moment before Severus deemed it time for him to speak. "I suppose that this is the time where I am supposed to say 'welcome to Slytherin, Harry' but I will not. I will say this however, now that you are a Slytherin, you live up to Slytherin standards. You are no longer to slack off in classes or allowed to be stupid enough to get caught during any rule-breaking excursions. No Slytherin ever betrays one of their own. So I will in no circumstances tolerate a spell used against your own house mate with out a very good reason. Do you understand me?"

            "Of course, professor."

            Snape glanced at him before walking up to the stone gargoyle leading to Albus Dumbledore's office. "Sour Punch." They walked into the office and Albus waved his arm, motioning for them to sit.

            "We just have to wait for Mr. Malfoy to arrive." Draco waltzed into the room and took a seat next to Harry. Albus sat down behind his desk and started to talk. "I just brought you in here to see if you, Harry, would like to become a Slytherin prefect as you would have been the Gryffindor one. If you accept, then Draco will tell you of the privileges you are granted."

            "I would like that." Harry answered, rather stiffly. "May I leave now?"

            Albus shook his head. "I was wondering Harry what suddenly brought around your sudden decision to switch houses…"

            "And I am wondering why that is any of your business?" Harry retorted.

            Severus and Draco both gasped at that comment coming from the Gryffindor Golden Boy, well, the former Gryffindor Golden Boy.

            "Harry, you know that Gryffindor was your father's house and I was just asking why you would want to leave—"

            "Maybe I have more in common with my mother than originally thought, Professor Dumbledore, and have learned the amazing game and reality of chess."

            "Harry, I was just doing what was best for you. Why do you seem to hate me so?"

            The emerald eyed boy glared at his headmaster. "You were doing what was best for me? Or best for your pawn? You knew that I was being mistreated at the Dursleys; you knew of how they all hated magic. And yet you reckon it safe enough for me to stay there. You do what's best in your own eyes without thinking of what other's believe. Life isn't chess and people aren't the pieces. And don't ever flatter yourself by thinking that I hate you. My hatred exists for only Voldemort and Wormtail at this moment and no one else. You have my utmost distrust though. I may not hate you but I will never trust you."

            Harry smiled fallaciously at the shocked three faces surrounding him before turning. "That felt good to get out into the open, didn't it?" he asked, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Albus just nodded his head before handing Harry his new and shiny prefect pin. The teenager pinned it onto his robes whose badge had changed to show the Slytherin crest before walking out of the room with a blasé good-night.

            Severus gave Draco some information and when the younger Slytherin noticed that since neither of the two professors he was with was going to talk to him he was free to go. He ran out of the office and down the corridor to where Harry was headed. He realized that the former Gryffindor seemed to know exactly where he was supposed to be heading. "Where are you going?" he asked, anyway.

            "To the Slytherin dormitories it seems, doesn't it?" Harry answered back shortly. "It's quite a long story about how I got to know the location of where it was, even though I only got a short time in the Common Room, I believe. Quite dark and depressing it seemed to be to me. But then again that was in the winter break of our second year when I believed that all things associated with Slytherin were dark, dreary, and evil."

            Draco turned sharply to Harry. "How in Slytherin's name did you manage to get into our Common Room?"

            "Tell all later." Harry said, smiling again truly since entering the headmaster's office. "I can't remember how to get to the Common Room from this point. So you'll have to lead now."

            Draco scowled slightly. "You are going to do a lot of explaining once we get to our rooms." He then smiled and laughed and started to jog down the hallway. "Hurry up… Professor Snape says that since we're both prefects we get a room for just us to stay in! More room! Come on, I hear that it's below the Circle."

*

            Harry was shocked by the Slytherin Common Room and dormitories. They were not at all as he remembered. The common room had five foot tall windows up near the ceiling and was in a circular shape. The divans were of the softest and finest leather and the round fireplace gave off a feeling of warmth to the congregated students.

            "The entrance to this room may be in the dungeons but the dormitories are not. We share one tower that goes up many feet. Don't worry though, the staircases move upwards by themselves and quickly, like the headmaster's. The regular boys' dorms are up the left spiraling staircase and the girls' are on the right. Our dorm will be up the middle staircase; that's where all the prefect rooms and (if they are Slytherin) head-boy or head-girl rooms are located. The head-boy this year is some Ravenclaw and the head-girl I heard was that girl Gryffindor, Angelina Johnson. The middle staircase also leads to the Circle."

            "What is the Circle?" Harry asked.

            "It was called the Circle Room but then everyone just started calling it the Circle years ago. It is at the very top of our tower and has a glass ceiling and roof so that we can do our astronomy homework here instead of going to that tower. It has an excellent view of the grounds, lake, and quidditch field. It's a lot nicer there than down here. But you are only admitted into the room if you are passing all your classes. And the middle staircase also goes down one level to our own library; it contains books that have been collected over the many and many years. No one is to know of it or the Circle outside of Slytherin."

            It was then that Isabelle Carnahan, the well-known and liked sixth year prefect and Slytherin Keeper, stood up and quieted the room. It was then that Harry realized that the room was still filled with all the students. "I would like to welcome everyone back to or for the first to Slytherin!" Cheers filled the room. "As today is Friday and there will be no classes tomorrow, I will not have to give the Slytherin rules tonight. Tomorrow, our head of house will at eleven o'clock in the morn so be down here by then. And everyone," she said, "Harry Potter is now one of our own so we will not be rude to him anymore! Is that understood?" Harry colored slightly as quite a few people looked towards him and all positively answered. "Now, time for bed! Good-night, everyone!"

            And so the Slytherins all retired for the night.

TBC…

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! It was awesome reading all of your suggestions and after taking into consideration all of your arguments I have come up with my decisions. But as this is my first slash I will still need suggestions on how to get the two boys to realize their affections for each other.

Story Ideas:

            Should Snape—

a) remain a bastard towards Harry

b) or accept him and actually treat him fairly despite who his father was

Should Narcissa Malfoy—

a) write to Harry about his mother again

b) or visit alongside Lucius for an upcoming quidditch match

            All other ideas are readily accepted!