Disclaimer: Nothing in the Harry Potter universe is mine. I simply love to play with it.

AN: Finally, another chapter! I am so grateful for your patience and your encouraging words. Thank you to everyone who followed, favoured and reviewed.

Many hugs and kisses to my two wonderful betas vichan and Cameron Lindsey.

As the whole world is in a crisis, wherever you are, I hope that you are all safe and healthy and take care of yourself.

Have fun reading.

On with the story.

Chapter 8: Slytherin Oddities

An insistent ringing woke him from his nap, and it took his brain a few moments to realize that his wards were going off, alerting him to the fact that someone was standing near his bed. Fumbling for his glasses and wand, Harry tapped the curtains to settle the wards down and then pushed the curtains open only to find Zabini in front of his bed with an intrigued expression on his face.

"Those are rather impressive wards, Potter." Zabini's gaze wandered from Harry to his bed frame and curtains. "If I didn't know any better, I would think that you were trying to keep someone out. But why would you want to do that?" He smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"You damn well know why I warded my bed." Harry rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, ignoring the twinge coming from his side as he stared at Zabini. "Just be grateful that you didn't try to open the curtains. What do you want, Zabini?"

Zabini completely ignored his question. "Ooh - grouchy. Didn't sleep well in your fortress, then? Your wards put Azkaban to shame." He grinned.

Harry frowned at his roommate. "What do you want, Zabini?" he asked more insistently, wishing Zabini would leave him alone. His head still ached.

"Look, Potter…" Zabini paused. "Yes, I do know why you put wards on your bed. If I had been sorted into Gryffindor after years in Slytherin, I would be suspicious and on guard, too. But you heard Professor Snape and Fraser. I'll admit that I can't guarantee that all Slytherins will be welcoming, and I am sure after the shock has been digested, there will be some idiots who will be behaving antagonistically. But here, in this room, none of us will be coming after you. In this room, you should feel safe."

Harry looked at the boy through narrowed eyes. "Why should I believe you and how can you speak for the others?"

Zabini sighed and looked at Harry before he seemed to come to a decision. "Can I sit?" He gestured to the bed.

Surprised at the question, Harry nodded. He tapped his wand against his bed frame to lower the rest of his wards – which got him another raised eyebrow - and Zabini settled on the edge of the mattress.

"I can't speak for all of Slytherin, but I know the boys in this room really well - some of them even from before Hogwarts. They take the house rules very seriously," he said. "We all grew up with certain expectations heaped upon us. I have it rather easy since only my mother is in the picture, and no pure-blood propaganda has been spoon-fed to me since childhood. But the others…" He sighed.

"We established in our first week here that all of that stays out of this room. There's no politics, no propaganda, and no fights over superiority." He paused, smirking. "And everything that happens in this room stays in this room. This is our home away from home, and for some of us, it's our only home."

Harry went stiff at this and suppressed the urge to openly stare at Zabini. That sounded far too close to home for him. Was it really what Harry thought that Zabini hinted at? And who was he talking about?

Zabini continued. "I know it will take time till you really believe it, but I want to assure you that this room is a sanctuary for all of us. In here, I don't confront Draco with his stupidity when he loudly proclaims his family's pureblood beliefs. Instead, I encourage him to think for himself," he said, "In this room, we normally let the mask slip, even more than in the common room, and don't need to be afraid that someone would use our weaknesses against us. We all want - no, need our dorm to be a sanctuary, and because of that need, every single one of us has to be on the same page." He got to his feet. "I know it is a lot to ask of you, but... think about it, okay?"

Harry could only nod in surprise.

"Good." Zabini let out a relieved sigh and started to leave but turned back before he opened the door. "Now hurry and go see Professor Snape. He knows what happened and he's waiting."

Harry sat there for another moment before his brain caught up with what Zabini had said. He got out of bed and the groan that came out of his mouth wasn't only due to the aching from the bruises. It was just his luck - on his very first day in Slytherin, he had managed to warrant three meetings with Snape.

Despite his fears, it wasn't nearly as bad as Harry thought it would be. Snape stared at him with a freakishly unreadable expression and reprimanded him for walking around alone despite the instruction he had received. Predictably, he placed a few scathing insults in his speech.

He looked utterly unconvinced when Harry said he was fine and made that clear when he checked Harry for a concussion. It seemed that someone had told him what had happened in detail.

Harry could still feel the pressure of the long thin fingers palpating his head, moving it from side to side, and there were still stars in his eyes from when Snape checked Harry's pupils with the light of his wand. Snape had never before touched him, aside from grabbing his arm to haul him to his office. He had nearly been gentle.

If Harry didn't have a headache already, it certainly would have induced one.

Still frowning, Snape had handed him a bruise balm for his cheek and a potion for his head, instructing Harry to come directly to him or Madam Pomfrey if he felt the slightest bit of dizziness or nausea. He muttered something about idiot Gryffindor tendencies, then made it clear that he didn't want to see Harry in the next few days outside of the classroom.

It seemed that even Snape had had enough of seeing Harry three times in one day.

Despite the insults, Snape hadn't sounded overly harsh, instead seeming more tired and frustrated. After being ejected from Snape's office, he stood outside the door with the potion vial and balm jar in his hands, and the entire situation felt more than a little surreal. Where the hell had the evil bastard gone? Where was the dungeon bat who had made Harry's life at Hogwarts as hellish as he possibly could?

Shaking his head and knowing he wouldn't find an answer to that, he downed the potion and made his way to the common room.

Harry settled into a comfortable armchair as far away from the windows as he could. The dark greenish water reminded him too much of the second task of the Tournament.

A few glances were cast in his direction, but nobody disturbed him and for the next hour he tried to finally write the letter to his godfather.

After a few scrapped attempts, he decided to keep it simple in the end.

Dear Snuffles,

By now, I think you must have heard what happened. I was resorted into Slytherin.

So far, – it's not horrible. It's not Gryffindor, sadly, but I wasn't attacked instantly and there hasn't been any open hostility. But I know it hasn't even been a whole day yet, so I will keep my guard up, nonetheless. Mainly, it's just different.

I'll understand if my resorting makes you disappointed with me, but the hat was rather adamant.

Yours,

Harry

It sounded rather cold and distant, but Harry didn't dare put more emotion in. If Sirius couldn't handle his new house, it would be better to be a bit detached. He folded the parchment and put it in one of the pockets of his robe, intending to visit the owlery before dinner. With the prospect of visiting Hedwig, Harry felt lighter.

He still had some time until dinner, so Harry settled back and observed his fellow students. He again realized that his interactions with Slytherins prior to that year had been rather limited. He hadn't spared a thought about what they did in their free time. Although Ron certainly would assume that they were talking about their evil plans or the like, Harry truthfully hadn't even thought about it.

As he sat in the common room, he definitely registered the hostile glances thrown his way from time to time - mostly from the upper years - but he also saw the intrigued glances, some open, while others were hidden. He had a talent for reading people and their moods as long as he had the time to familiarise himself with the situation and the environment.

It was obvious that the house of snakes behaved differently inside the dungeons. There were still masks up - similar to the ones he was used to - but he had never before actually realized that they were masks. Even so, there were cracks in the icy exteriors and the more he just sat there and melted into the background, the more he saw them let their guard down. It wasn't entirely surprising after everything he had already learned since yesterday.

What he hadn't anticipated were the dares.

Dares seemed to be constantly thrown around the common room, and there didn't seem to be any kind of separation between the years. Students daring another student in the same year were just as common as younger to older and vice versa.

A second year who had apparently been to Japan during the holidays had brought back an obscene amount of sweets, among them was something Harry heard him call 'Mochi.' What he could see from afar was a round, and apparently very sticky ball of something that resembled marshmallow. The boy dared his friends to eat more than one at a time and nearly fell from his chair in laughter when his friends almost choked. One of them went blue in the face before the Head Girl had to step in to cast a spell and rescue the boy.

At another table some girls dared each other to touch a plant which reminded Harry of a cross between a Venus flytrap and a cactus. It had bared thin, sharp teeth at them and nearly took a finger from one when her reflexes weren't fast enough.

There were dares about food, schoolwork, clothes, and seemingly everything else under the sun, including simple 'dares' to play a game of chess or gobstones. Some looked harmless and utterly meaningless, such as the two boys who were dared to sit next to each other for twenty minutes. Nothing happened - they didn't even talk - but afterward the ones who had dared them seemed to owe them a favour.

Favours were another concept Harry discovered. Not only did the snakes dare each other over everything, but it also seemed that they traded and paid in favours, as if they were currency.

It baffled him.

Who knew that the ambition Slytherin was known for would show itself in dares – especially stupid dares like eating a handful of obscenely hot peppers?

Who would have thought the famous cunning and determination would present itself in trying to outsmart each other and trapping someone with a favour?

Harry found himself flabbergasted as he watched. The whole situation intrigued him but made him also aware of just how different Slytherin was from where he had come from.

And despite the constant dares and challenges, the common room wasn't chaotic or overly loud. It was still easy enough to find quiet parts where people were reading or writing.

All in all, it made Harry's head hurt again, despite the potion he had taken. He could tell that there was a system to it all - from who could dare whom to why and in what amount someone was owed a favour. There obviously was a hierarchy to it, and at first he thought it was from younger to older, as some of the elder students simply didn't accept a dare.

But then a third year dared a sixth year to go to dinner with pink hair. The sixth year refused to do it, and the third year won a favour. After that, Harry wasn't sure what the hierarchy was.

But he was sure of one thing: Slytherin was far stranger than he had originally thought.

Resigning himself to the fact that he couldn't hope to understand the system in the span of one evening – or ever - Harry decided to go to the owlery before dinner.

Hedwig must have missed him, or else she guessed that something was bothering him. She landed on his shoulder the moment he entered the owlery and then had started picking at his hair with her beak and butting her head into his - effectively grooming him and attempting to snuggle. She nearly refused to leave his shoulder when it was time for him to go.

Harry felt lighter as he walked down the stairs to the Great Hall. At least Hedwig didn't care if he was in one house or the other. He just hoped that for a few certain people it would be the same. There was a nagging feeling and an annoying voice in the back of his head that reminded him how Sirius hated everything that was linked to his family, and that definitely included the house of Slytherin.

He just hoped that Sirius would see him as the exception, and that the letter Hedwig was carrying across the country wouldn't be the last one he would send his godfather.

"Harry."

Startled, Harry stopped in his tracks. Neville stood near the entrance to the Great Hall. Cautiously, Harry stepped up to his former roommate.

Neville's normally soft, round face looked more serious than Harry had ever seen. His eyes flickered from Harry to either side of him, and Harry realized that a few students had started slowing their pace on their way to dinner. It seemed apparent to Harry that they were only dawdling so they could watch him and Neville.

Neville took a deep breath, raised his chin, and spoke in a steady voice that carried across the entrance hall. "I only wanted to tell you that my gran thinks it's rubbish what the Daily Prophet is writing," he said. "She cancelled our subscription because she thinks it's going downhill. We believe you and Dumbledore." He paused. "My gran always said You-Know-Who would come back one day. She says if Dumbledore and you say that he's back, he's back. I only wanted you to know that." He offered Harry a small, sympathetic smile. "And I also want you to know that we miss you in Gryffindor but being in Slytherin doesn't change who you are." He nodded to Harry, gave another short glance at the people around them, then tucked his head and went into the Great Hall.

Harry just stood in place for a moment, feeling a rush of gratitude towards Neville. He heard whispers starting up around him, and he shook himself out of his stupor to follow Neville into the Hall.

He hadn't known how much he had wanted to hear someone besides Hermione say those exact words to him, and the fact that it was the normally quiet and shy Neville made it even more significant. If Neville believed him - not only in regard to Voldemort but also that he wasn't any different because he changed to Slytherin - perhaps Ron would eventually come around.

Feeling like a weight had been lifted, Harry sat down at the Slytherin table without thinking about it, and then it occurred to him that he was sitting in the exact same spot as he had the previous night with Zabini and Nott on either side. As he looked up and down the table, he realized that nearly everyone was sitting in the exact same spot.

"Do you have a sitting order?"

Zabini grinned at him. "You are more observant than people give you credit for. Yes, we do."

Harry studied the placement of each student but couldn't see a pattern. Even so, he was again fairly sure that there was some kind of hierarchy in the snake's house- a hierarchy he wasn't sure he wanted to be a part of, much less understand.

The food arrived, Harry's plate filling automatically again as it had at lunch, and quiet conversations started up around him. Harry looked at his plate with a frown; even though the portion seemed small compared to what some of the others had on their plates, he wasn't sure if he was hungry at all. He had already had more to eat over the span of the day than he had in a long time.

He felt eyes on him and when he looked around, he saw several older Slytherins further down the table, the Head Girl, Malfoy, along with Snape and Pomfrey all watching him expectantly.

At least he now knew who the other Slytherin prefects were. Reluctantly, he began to eat.

"Where were you before dinner?" Zabini asked him.

Harry blinked at him and swallowed before answering. "At the owlery."

"Alone?" Bulstrode cut in.

"Yes. I wanted to send a letter. Why?" He looked at Bulstrode in confusion, who groaned while the others looked at him with various expressions of disbelief.

"After what happened earlier today, you decided to walk alone to the owlery?" Greengrass narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm starting to think you definitely lack at least one typical Slytherin attribute."

"And that would be?" Harry asked, slightly annoyed. He hadn't even thought about asking someone to walk with him to the owlery. He had to admit it was probably a stupid decision, especially when he still felt the sting in his side and the dull throbbing in his temple.

"Self-preservation."

Harry stared at the blond girl, then shrugged. From the perspective of a Slytherin, he supposed she wasn't entirely wrong.

"Oh, come on, he lacks more than self-preservation," Parkinson snapped. "I'm still not sure that Potter belongs in Slytherin at all." She glared at Harry, though not as fiercely as she had the day before.

Harry wasn't at all hurt by her comment. In fact, it was somewhat of a relief to know that at least one of his yearmates hadn't changed their behaviour or feelings towards him. Of course, perhaps the others also hadn't but were better at hiding it.

Harry forced himself to stop thinking about Slytherins and their masks.

Greengrass gave his hand a pat while the others grinned at him; even Malfoy's lips seemed to twitch. "Don't worry," Greengrass said. "You'll learn self-preservation fast enough."

Somehow her smile wasn't reassuring, and nobody commented on Parkinson's outburst. The brown-haired witch turned her attention back to her plate, but not without an irritated huff and the air of annoyance around her.

Harry rolled his eyes and looked down at his plate, surprised to find it empty. He felt full but not uncomfortably so. He still decided to forgo dessert; perhaps in a few days his stomach would be up to it. Setting his cutlery aside, he turned to Zabini.

"What do you do normally in the evenings?"

Zabini shrugged as he finished his own plate.

"Nothing much. Normally homework or just hanging around in the common room."

"Do you play chess?" Malfoy cut in, looking at Harry. For a moment he was startled by the neutral expression on the boy's face. That definitely needed some time to get used to.

"I know how to play, but not very well. Ron always beats me."

Malfoy sneered. "I can't imagine Weasley is that good of a player."

Harry scowled at him. "Ron did beat McGonagall's giant chess game in first year, and nobody in Gryffindor can beat him."

Before the blond could say anything, he winced and looked to Zabini. "Blaise, what was that for?" Harry made an educated guess that Zabini had kicked Malfoy under the table.

"For being stupid." Then the dark-skinned boy turned to Harry. "Are you up for a game?"

Harry shrugged. "Sure, why not? But like I said - I'm horrible at chess."

The moment he left the Great Hall a hand reached out and grabbed him, and he found himself flanked by two identical red-haired grinning Gryffindors.

"Dear Harry-kins," one said.

"Great, sweet Harry-kins," the other said.

"We have a proposal for you," they both said in unison.

Harry shook their hands off and crossed his arms in front of his chest to hide his shaking hands, whether from adrenaline or fear of being grabbed unexpectedly, he wasn't sure. "Do I want to know?"

"Oh, we are very sure..."

"... that you would want to know."

Harry closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the stone wall, groaning. "Guys, you are giving me a headache and I already had one today."

When he opened his eyes again, they were looking at him with unusually serious expressions. "We heard what happened with McLaggen." Fred said - or at least Harry thought it was Fred.

"And you can be sure that the point loss and detentions will be the least of his problems." George's toothy grin was frightening.

Harry sighed. "What do you want?"

"You know, Harry dear, we found this generous sponsor at the end of last school year. And now we want to expand." Fred winked at Harry.

"Bring our products to the students," George said.

"To all students. But unfortunately, one Hogwarts house is closed to us." Fred sighed dramatically.

"As if they didn't trust us." His twin shook his head in mock sadness.

"But you - you, dear Harry-kins, greatest of all snakes, our most favourite Slytherin - you have intel there." The grin was back.

"You could open a way into Slytherin for us." Now they sounded awed, but the devilish grin and the twinkle in their eyes told Harry enough.

"You want me to talk with my new housemates - who aren't completely sure about me even being in their house - about buying your prank and joke products?"

"Exactly!" They both spoke together. "Even Slytherins want to escape from classes from time to time. And if they don't want to buy from us, you could sell the products to them."

"Er – " Harry wasn't sure what he should say, but thankfully he didn't need to.

"Potter?" Zabini's voice made the twins turn around. "Everything all right?"

Frowning, the boy stood at the entrance to the dungeon and looked from Harry to the twins, who both grinned at him. "We only needed to talk with our dear little Harry –."

Harry stopped Fred from talking by elbowing him.

"Everything's fine. They only wanted to talk." Turning to the twins he sighed. "I'll think about it." He practically could feel the grin from both of them.

Then he walked towards Zabini and followed him down the stairs.

"Think about what?"

"Nothing." Harry wasn't sure what he should think about the twins' proposal. Would the Slytherins even be interested in their products? Or would they be suspicious because they came from Gryffindors?

But the knowledge that the only reason the twins cared about him being a Slytherin was because he could open a line of business into the house made him feel warm. First Neville had shown his support, then the twins. Now if only Ron would come around, then Harry was sure he could handle everything.

AN: Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think.

Neville's speech is quoted from HP 5.

First published: 18th of March 2020