DISCALIMER: I own nothing. Damn it.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Second chapter. If the characterisations seem a little…off, please trust me, it will all be explained!
Again, this is post OotP and thus will follow cannon up to that point, even if it doesn't seem like it at first.
CHAPTER TWO
"No. Fucking. Way." Draco declared with ill concealed fury. "There is absolutely no level on which you are even thinking about setting foot in our common room. And you," he rounded on the hat, "you jumped up little…hat. Have you completely cracked? This is Harry Potter, Gyffindor Golden Boy, Boy Who Lived…need I go on? I mean, seriously," lost for words, Draco just stood there gaping indignantly at the hat, a mixture of fury and disbelief playing across his face.
"Well he took that well," if the hat had an eyebrow to raise, it would have done. "I assure you Mr Malfoy, I have not taken leave of my senses. You've known Mr Potter for over six years now, I'm sure you can understand how he could drive me to such extremes."
Draco was nodding sympathetically now, "well yes, I mean he is incredibly…wait a moment, I am not agreeing with a hat. No. This is not happening."
"To bloody right it's not," Harry recovered enough to speak. "I'm telling Professor Dumbleodre," he announced at the same time as Draco declared, "I'm telling Professor Snape."
Glaring at each other, the two boys rushed out of the classroom, leaving eighteen stupefied pupils, and one teacher who was too busy worrying about how all this drama would affect her house Quidditch record to consider the effect it was currently having on her lesson.
The stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's office was having a bad day. The good man himself had recently discovered chewing gum and had taken to leaving old pieces behind wherever he was when he finished with them (because everyone knows you don't swallow chewing gum, even if you are one of the most powerful wizards in the world). And unfortunately for the poor gargoyle, Dumbledore usually got through at least one piece in the walk from his office to the gargoyle. As a result, the statue was rather covered at the moment.
And if he had thought that was bad, he was currently being reduced to rubble by an irate Boy Who Lived.
"Let me through, I mean it," Harry was shouting, kicking and clawing at the statue, "I know you're up there Dumbledore, don't think you can hide. I won't let you ignore me, I am not accepting this…"
The boy had been going on like this for sometime now, and as it was more or less inanimate, the statue had no means of either defending itself or letting Harry know that actually, Dumbledore wasn't in his office, actually he was standing behind Harry, attempting to blow bubbles while he watched him take his rage out on a statue.
When Harry finally stopped fighting (for the most part) and slid to a sitting position in front of the statue muttering "I won't give up, I won't give up" under his breath, Dumbledore finally spoke.
"Something vexes thee?" Jumping Harry looked up and into twinkling blue eyes that had never been more annoying. "Oh, I see the Hat caught up with you then."
"It can't do this to me. Please."
"Come now Harry, it's not that bad."
"But I don't belong in Slytherin. You said it was our choices that defined us, and I chose Gryffindor. You said."
"It was what you wanted, need to hear, my boy. And now you need to start looking beyond yourself, you need to see something else of the world. Life is hard Harry, we don't always get to do what we want," Dumbledore looked seriously at the pouting boy before relaxing his features into their normal joviality. "Come now, it is only a month is it not? Thirty days. I'm sure it won't be as bad as you imagine. And remember, if it annoys you, just think how Severus will be feeling."
Cheering slightly, Harry grinned. It was always nice to piss Professor Snape off.
No sooner was the thought forming than the man himself swept round the corner, a smug looking Draco Malfoy at his heels.
"Professor Dumbledore, I assume Potter has told you what has happened. This is utterly unacceptable. The hat as gone too far this time. Surely you must concede now that it is an antiquated system that needs updating."
"Not at all Severus. Mr Potter is the one that tried to change the system, the Hat was just redressing the balance."
"The boy is not a Slytherin, will never be a Slytherin. He does not belong in my house, and will not fit in the dormitory."
"Good point, Severus. Come up to my office, and we will persuade the castle to switch itself around to make room for one more in the dormitory for a month. It is so nice when one's staff supports one.
With no real choice, Snape adopted his best 'the old fool's lost it this time' look, and trailed upstairs after Dumbledore, wincing in disgust as the man removed the chewing gum from his mouth and stuck it to the back of the stone gargoyle.
As the gargoyle swung back over the entrance to the Headmaster's study, Draco and Harry were left alone in the corridor.
"This is not happening," Harry declared firmly, spinning on his heel and stalking determinedly away from Draco. His robes, he reflected sadly, had not flared out as Sanpe's would do every time he spun on his heel, nor was he actually going in the right direction, but he was storming off and doubling back would ruin the impact.
Harry finally made it to the Great Hall after several wrong turns and made his way over to Ron and Hermione, who were eating lunch far too calmly for his tastes. Sitting down, he let out a very exhausted, put upon sigh, looking at them both, expressively demanding sympathy.
It didn't exactly work.
Hermione raised her eyes from her book for all of two seconds, and Ron simply reached for the crisps without commenting.
Harry cleared his throat meaningfully and tried again. "I said…" he tried again, once again sighing expressively.
Hermione put down her book, nudging Ron, who turned from his contemplation of Susan Bones and gave his attention over to his best friend.
"What did Dumbledore say?"
"He's up there at the moment, discussing sleeping arrangements with Snape," which answer nearly killed Ron, who promptly choked on his lunch. "God Ron, they're trying to convince the castle to expand and make room for me in the dungeons."
"Sorry, nasty visual for a moment," Ron shuddered, taking a long drink of water in an effort to dislodge the remaining food from his throat.
"So you're dungeon bound tonight then Harry?" Hermione asked, "Do you need a hand packing your stuff?"
"What?"
"Well you won't be able to pop up to the tower whenever you need something," she argued practically, "not only is it horribly impractical, you're a Slytherin now, you've got to stick to your own common room."
"I. Am. Not. A. Slytherin." Harry ground out through gritted teeth.
"You OK mate?"
"No Ron, I am not OK…I'm a fucking Slytherin for the next month. Of course I'm not OK."
"It's not the end of the world mate."
"Um hello, SLYTHERIN. Evil house? Home of Draco Malfoy? House of general, all round bastards who, I don't know, want to kill me? Ring any bells?"
"Come on Harry, Ron's right, it's not exactly the end of the world now, is it?" Hermione soothed, "you've only got to spend a month there. And I don't think they really want to kill you," this last was said in Hermione's best 'I've told you a million times not to exaggerate' voice.
"Of for the love of…" Harry built himself up for the mother and father of all rants, only to be cut off by Ron, who was done with lunch and now ready to express an opinion.
"Harry, your view of the Slytherin's isn't exactly the most…stable, is it," he began carefully. "Think about it rationally for a moment and you would remember that it is no longer a Death Eater house, if it ever was. They helped us defeat Voldemort, Malfoy stood against his own father. You can't exactly judge a whole house against a few squabbles you had with Malfoy when you were eleven."
"Have you completely lost your marbles Ron? We hate them, you hate them."
"He's right Harry, you can not hang onto this childish rivalry with Malfoy, you're housemates now, you have to work together. Plus all the fighting is kind of embarrassing."
"It is not some childish rivalry. We HATE each other Hermione, he is my NEMESIS."
"Malfoy isn't your nemesis, Voldemort was. You can't have two nemesis' Harry – there's a reason no one knows the plural of the word."
"Voldemort wasn't my…" Harry trailed off under the twin glares of Ron and Hermione. "You just don't understand."
Harry left his friends sitting at the Gryffindor table and headed out to the Quidditch pitch.
"He's not dealing very well with this is he?"
"Not really, but he'll get over me. Do you think Susan would go out with me?"
"Ron! I thought you were seeing Lavender."
"That was last week."
"Oh, in that case sure, why not?"
Harry spent the rest of the day flying. He ignored Madam Hooch when she came out to give the first years their weekly flying lesson, simply flying higher and yelling that they could fly round him. He ignored the Ravenclaw Quidditch team when they came out to practice, he just closed his eyes and promised he wouldn't watch any of their new tactics. He ignored Ron calling him to tea, and ignored his own hunger, having concluded that starvation would be more fun than eating at the Slytherin table.
He wasn't able to ignore it, however, when Professor Snape came out and knocked him off his broom with a well timed expelliarmus.
Even as he plummeted towards the ground he felt a smug satisfaction that this proved that all Slytherins were, in fact, evil and nasty and he simply couldn't live with them.
He even felt a slight disappointment as Snape slowed his fall and cast several cushioning charms to ensure he came to no harm.
"Now the hissy fit is over, Mr Potter, all students should be in their common rooms for nine o'clock, and as it is eight-fifty, you better come with me and I'll show you to your new quarters." Despite all his talk of rebellion, Harry followed Snape without argument, although he was mentally kicking and screaming. "For heaven's sake boy, ward your mind, your grievances are deafening." Snape having an access all areas pass into his mind made him reluctant to challenge the older man, and Harry quickly built up his occulmancy walls, walls which had gone unneeded since Voldemort's death.
"Remember, left, left, right, left, right, left and here we are," Snape led Harry quickly through the maze of corridors down to the Slytherin common room, coming to a halt outside a portrait of Salazar Slytherin. Snape appeared to think for a moment before finally saying, "Vinci."
The portrait swung open and Harry had his first glimpse of the Slytherin Common room in nearly five years.
Looking round, Harry noticed with smug satisfaction that the Slytherin common room was almost exactly as he had expected it to be. It was a large room with bare stone walls and no windows. Candles flickered throughout the room, giving the place a gothic, murder mystery feel. The stone floor had a few carpets on, but the main feature of the room was the large fireplace. Large sofas were gathered around the fireplace, and behind these were tables for pupils to do their school work on. There was little colour to the room, a stark contrast to the cheerful red of the Gryffindor common room. The thing that struck Harry most, however, was the noise. Or rather, the lack of it. The noise level of the common room made the library seem noisy, and there was an almost eerie silence, especially to someone used to the raucous Gryffindor common room.
His eyes travelled from the fixtures and fittings to take in the Slytherins that now surrounded him.
Meek first and second years were scattered around the outskirts of the common room, not raising their eyes to look at him, acting as if he was not there. Closer to the centre of the room, bolder third and fourth years were sneaking looks at him, eyes resting on him for mere seconds before darting away as they whispered urgently with their housemates, undoubtedly discussing him. The lofty fifth and sixth years stared at him blatantly and shamelessly from their situation near the fire, assessing him and almost daring him to look away first. Finally he found the seventh years, occupying the best seats, the comfiest and the closest to the fire, without being too close and thus too hot. Draco Malfoy sat in the centre, Pansy Parkinson next to him, and both showed awareness of their position as King and Queen of Slytherin, holding court with a seriousness that belied their young age. The seventh years were ignoring him, much like the first and second years, but without betraying any sense that there was anything to ignore – they were simply doing what they always did, uncaring of the disruption heading their way.
Following Snape, Harry was forced to walk through to the centre of the common room, passing under the gaze of every student in it, being paraded as the outsider that he was. Snape came to a halt in front of Draco, who was calmly discussing arithmancy with Theodore Nott, no sign of animation or interest on his emotionless face. Noticing his head of house as if for the first time, Draco finished making his point before turning calmly to the older man.
"Good evening Professor."
"Good evening Mr Malfoy," Snape returned formally, "I trust your evening is going well."
"Most pleasantly, sir."
"I which case I am loathed to interrupt your pleasure, but I have bought your new housemate with me and he needs an introduction to Slytherin."
Harry narrowly suppressed a whimper at the sinister sounding words, feeling rather dazed at the formal exchange between the two Slytherins. Ignoring him, Draco scanned the room quickly, eyes settling finally on a sixth year Harry vaguely recognised, "Marshall, come here."
Much to Harry's amazement the younger boy obeyed, silently leaving his friends to stand before Draco, apparently waiting for further instructions. Harry turned to look at Snape, wondering if he had any reaction to Draco so easily ordering his housemates about. Snape cleared his throat expressively and Draco pouted, "fine, Marshall, you can go."
Without speaking the younger boy returned to his friends and Draco's gaze fell next upon his own friends, "Blaise, show Potter around."
Snape nodded his approval at the alteration and Harry followed dumbstruck as the dark haired Slytherin led him out of the room.
END CHAPTER TWO
Thanks to all those who reviewed: Fawna, QueenB23, anabel11, midnytestars, a7xroxmysox, BlackCrimsonRose, All-Knowing Alien 2, Akume and Silver Tears 11
Isis: yeah there will be slash (or at the very least pre-slash).
SporkadelicAsh: glad you like this. As for Deal, it'll be completed at some point…I promise!
Smurff: Harry wasn't wearing the Hat, rather it was a continuation of an ongoing argument between the two. The Hat didn't need to judge Harry because it already has judged him. (And that's all I'm saying for now!)
HyperBunnyAttack: slash? Hell yeah!
