He silently made his way to the Slytherin table and seated himself away from all the other students, one hand in his pocket holding tightly to his wand. More for comfort than anything else. All through dinner he kept shooting looks at the Gryffindor table, they'd all ended up together, James, Remus, Sirius, even Peter. And Lily. Why was it that he always ended up the outcast? The only one to ever be by himself? He didn't eat any of the food in front him, he felt if he ate it he'd be seeing it again soon, only it wouldn't look nearly as nice as it did now. What should be an exciting day was turning into hell for him. As he followed the prefects to his house dormitory and went to bed, before he fell asleep he wondered if his parents the ones who had been too busy to see him off to school even missed their only child.

Respect by Fear or Love

Though the castle was hard to navigate Serverus found his way to breakfast rather easily. Perhaps the halls were only hard to navigate if you had a low IQ.

"Oi, it was hard to find it back here."

He heard a familiar voice say as it patted his shoulder, it belonged of course to James. He nodded his agreement to him then revised his theory; perhaps in fact it took no brain at all to find the halls hard to navigate. As expected a few moments after James had made his entrance in walked Sirius Remus and last and definitely least Peter, following like a loyal puppy.

"Sit with us Snivelly."

"Don't call me that James…"

"Whatever. Just eat breakfast with us, I guarantee you'll have better company than if you were to sit with your house."

He winked at Sirius when he said this.

"Yeah, tough brake, a pity you ended up in Slytherin."

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Serverus asked innocently, he hadn't found anything wrong with his house yet. Though some of the older students were rather unpleasant, and this one third year girl named Dolores was enough to make anyone wish they were momentarily blind and deaf while in her presence.

"Think about in Snivel-"

"Don't call me-"

"Whatever, but like I said think about it, Slytherin's turned out the vilest witches and wizards the worlds ever seen. That what you want to be?"

"…If it makes people respect you, then what's wrong with-"

"People wouldn't respect you, they'd fear you."

A new voice interjected, causing Serverus to look up into bright green eyes…Lily. He opened his mouth to respond but she spoke before he could.

"Wouldn't you rather have people love you?"

Sirius choked on his pumpkin juice and blinked at the girl.

"She has got a point Snivel-"

"James!"

She scolded.

"Err…sorry Evans, I meant Serverus. But like I was saying she does have a point mate. You should go to the headmaster and demand a house change."

"Dumbledore?" Sirius more asked skeptically. Now interested in the conversation in spite of himself, his dark eyes flashing with curiosity.

"He won't change it. The sorting hats word is final. You either stick with Slytherin or drop out of Hogwarts." Remus said softly, thinking it a little wrong that they were speaking as though what Serverus thought didn't matter.

"Wow! Has a first year ever dropped out before? You'd make history Snivellus!"

That was it, Serverus was livid now, the anger that had been slowly coiling within him had sprung, and he was getting rather tired of this who were they to stand around eagerly discussing his future. He jumped up and glared at the four boys.

"DON"T CALL ME THAT!"

He roared.

"AND DON"T TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD DO! I DON"T GIVE A DAMN WHAT HOUSE IM IN AS LONG AS WHEN THE SEVEN YEARS ARE UP PEOPLE RESPECT ME!"

At this everyone in the hall turned to stare in their direction, he didn't care, though he'd stopped yelling he was still shaking with rage.

"Be it fear or l-love,"

He stammered slightly.

"I don't care, but they will respect me!"

After this sudden outburst he turned back to the stunned Lily and muttered

"S-sorry."

And quickly walked away.

"Hey…"

The completely unruffled Sirius started,

"You don't think he's got the hots for Evan's d'you?"

James whispered so only Sirius could hear.

"I think he does." Sirius answered plainly/

"No worry then, he's certainly no match."

Sirius grinned at James.

"So we've found ourselves a new game have we?" He said, his grin becoming positively evil.