Chapter 5 – Welcome to Slytherin

The next morning Harry was glad to find his way to the Great Hall in relatively short time. The other students had started to stare at him openly and he didn't like the feeling of being gawked at.

Luckily Draco could intimidate anyone with a simple glare back – as long as they were smaller than he was.

Harry had been lucky to be put into a dorm with Draco, losing the only friend he had made up to now was the last thing he wanted and Draco seemed to feel the same.

At breakfast they saw Hermione again and waved at her, but she had to take place at the Ravenclaw table. She seemed happy there, though, and she would be, taking into account that most Ravenclaws were considered bookworms and surely knew about 'chemisty', too.

Harry steered Draco away from the stupid gorillas Draco knew and found himself next to a red-headed girl. Zabini, Blaise he remembered from the Sorting ceremony yesterday.

"Good morning," she greeted them and shifted to make place for them.

"You just call the elves and they bring whatever you want. The Gryffindors still believe that you have to creep down to the kitchens... and they call us stupid!" an older boy just told the first-years.

"Passwords change weekly. If you're smart you won't need them anymore after about half a year."

Harry and Draco looked at each other in confusion. The boy laughed. "You'll know what I mean."

At breakfast Harry also heard what the new students thought about Hogwarts. Since very few of the new Slytherins were muggle-born most of them were used to ghosts, moving staircases and moving armours.

But the poltergeist Peeves, for example, was new to them too and constantly being watched for signs of impending mischief and dirty shoes didn't endear them to the caretaker Filch and his ugly cat either. All in all it wasn't much easier for those born into wizarding families to integrate into the community.

Harry stopped paying attention to their conversations after a while, he was barely able to sit still during breakfast, so eager was he to start his classes. For years he had had to listen to students talking about them, he had been allowed to listen to some of Severus' lessons, now he wanted to treasure the feeling of 'being old enough to go to school'.

Draco seemed more relaxed. He had told Harry that he had already tried a few spells and hexes he had found in books from his father's vast library at home. Apparently he had accidentally turned his table into a table with hooves instead of into a horse, which he found very amusing; his mother, however, didn't and demanded that he immediately remove his galloping table from the flower garden, where it had escaped to.

As it turned out, lessons were as great as Harry had imagined. His first class was an introduction to Hogwarts by the head of their house, Professor Snape. He had swept into the dungeons in his usual firm stride, Harry noticed that most students looked at him in apprehension and anxiety.

Severus closed the door behind him with a mere wave of his hand and stormed to the front of the room.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," he began and then repeated, "Welcome to Hogwarts it may mean to most of the students, the students from Ravenclaw, from Hufflepuff and even to the Gryffindors. That greeting is not meant for you. Welcome to Slytherin."

An absolute silence had fallen the moment he had entered the room and by now the students barely dared breathe. They were already captured by the passion in his first words. Harry knew him well enough to see that he really meant what he said and the others felt it too.

"As a member of this house you will be a Slytherin in the first place, then a Hogwarts student. Peers will refer to you not as 'other students' but as 'Slytherins'. You'll have to work twice as hard as them, for not even teachers will judge you in a fair way.

"I presume you all know the dark wizard Grindelwald, the founder of this house, Salazar Slytherin, and the Dark Lord.

Those are the persons people think about when they hear the word 'Slytherin'. And they will judge you by those images. To them you are nothing but a bunch of children growing to be the next generation of dark wizards. Don't expect kindness, liking or even friendship from anyone but fellow Slytherins."

He paused and looked around him. His speech was taking effect like a drug. Suddenly all the students sat a bit straighter, tried to look more dignified. He caught Harry's eye and nodded. Then he carried on in a low voice.

"Don't expect anyone to help you when you are in need of help. Don't trust them, neither in good nor in bad times. The only ones loyal to you are Slytherins.

We may not belong to the big family the Headmaster claims Hogwarts to be, but we have our own family.

Your family stands by you if you stand by your family. You will bring honour to your family and prove yourself.

I will not be anything like your father or saviour. When you have a problem solve it or die trying. Your house will stand by you but it will not vanish any difficulties or dilemmas. You get the idea.

Welcome – in Slytherin."

After that, the students shifted uncomfortably in their seats and looked for something to turn their concentration to. They seemed quite unsettled, which surprised Harry, for there had been nothing new to him in this speech. This was just the way Slytherin was.

Draco was sitting next to him, since the first lesson. It had become natural for them to stick together, Harry was happy to notice that Draco kept clear of the gorillas, he seemed to know that Harry didn't like them and preferred Harry's presence.

After Severus' speech they left the dungeons and Severus showed them around the castle. They visited the library, several classrooms, the garden and the towers. After that they were free to go where they wanted, as long as they 'behaved accordingly'. Meaning in proper English: do whatever you want but don't let yourself be caught.

Harry took the opportunity to show Draco the kitchens. The older student had been right, it was not necessary to go down there, the elves fetched you anything you wanted, and more of it than ten grown men could eat, but Harry rather liked the atmosphere down there. He liked to hear the elves work around him, to see them prepare the delicious meals they then served for dinner and to talk to them, even though it made him feel a bit uneasy to be called 'Master'.

As Harry had expected, Draco loved to order the elves around. He didn't even seem to notice how bossy he was at times, but Harry didn't mind. The house elves took pleasure in being ordered around and were delighted to hear that the two boys planned to stop by more often in future.

But even for Draco bossing the elves about got boring after some time. They still had half an hour before their next lesson started and when Draco suggested to wander around upstairs some more, Harry didn't like the glint he thought to have spotted in Draco's eyes.

And true enough, after the second staircase they had climbed, Harry knew where Draco was heading – to the third floor corridor on the right hand side.

"Are we going where I think we're going?" Harry whispered behind Draco, who nodded and braced himself for the next flight of stairs.

As soon as he saw him nod, Harry sped up to stay close to Draco. He prayed that they would not be caught on their first day. Severus would not be very impressed and neither would the Headmaster be.

By the time they had reached the third floor Draco had slowed down considerably and frequently turned around to see if Harry was still behind him. At the top of the last staircase they turned right and sneaked down the corridor until they arrived at a wooden door.

Draco pulled at the handle.

"It doesn't move!" he hissed angrily, so Harry joined in and they put both their strength into it. Still, the door didn't move one inch. That was not normal, every door moved a bit, even when locked – unless it was magically locked.

"Of course!" Harry exclaimed, then quickly hushed his voice. "They don't want us to go in so they put a spell on the door!"

Draco drew his wand. "I know that one," he said confidently. Harry nodded and drew his wand too. Together they pointed at the door and whispered, "Alohomora!"

Slowly and silently the door clicked and swung wide open. Harry and Draco looked at each other and smiled in triumph. But their smiles soon turned into grimaces of horror when they spotted what had been hidden.

Behind the door a giant three-headed dog was standing – if it could even be called a dog. Three rows of feet-long fangs dripped with saliva and three pairs of blood red, mad eyes stared at them.

While the boys were paralysed with terror, the 'dog' seemed to be caught by surprise by the visitors. Then, his three huge noses started to smell them and he prepared to leap at them. Realizing what was to happen, Harry reflexively pushed Draco a few steps back and slammed the door shut again. He had almost succeeded when the monster managed to put a paw in between door and frame. That seemed to wake Draco from his shock and he threw a hex at the paw, which was pulled back almost at once.

"Claudo portam!" Harry panted with his last breath, and the door was firmly closed again.

"Thanks," Draco huffed and wiped sweat from his brow. He leaned against the door next to Harry. They stayed like that in silence and obvious relief for some time.

"The spell wasn't to keep us out," Harry mused, "it was to keep this in, whatever this is."

They were running down the stairs again, almost late for the next lesson with Professor McGonagall, their first Transfiguration lesson which Harry didn't want to miss, monster or no.

"It's called a Cerberos," Draco answered suddenly. "My nurse often told me stories about magical creatures but I don't remember much... I only know that these creatures are supposed to guard something... but I can't remember for my life what..."

Harry snorted. "I could have told you that too. Dumbledore wouldn't put a life threatening beast into the castle for nothing. The question is, what is it guarding?"

Draco shook his head. "No idea..."

They had arrived on the ground floor and joined the queue of first-years that were heading into the direction of the Transfiguration classroom.

"What would be precious enough to be guarded by such a thing?" Harry pondered loudly.

"What thing?" Hermione suddenly asked behind them. She had apparently come from the library, as her three bags seemed to be full of books.

Harry remembered that they had Transfiguration together with the Ravenclaws. One class where they would see Hermione... who was still watching them curiously. "What thing?" she repeated.

One by one the students filed into the class and Hermione too turned to find herself a seat. Harry and Draco sat down next to her. As soon as he had his parchment out, Harry wrote 'Later' on a piece of paper and gave it to Hermione. She read it and nodded at them, then they all concentrated on Transfiguration.

They only thing unsettling Harry was the mischievous glint in Hermione's eyes – the same as he had spotted in Draco's – but then, Harry wasn't sure what he would see if someone held a mirror in front of his own eyes at that moment.