"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Lisa asked, clearly confused and slight taken aback at Dean's recognition of her.

Dean opened his mouth to respond that yes, of course she knew him! How could she not recognize him? But then his logical side asserted itself. Lisa and Ben were gone from his life. Cas had wiped their memory of him. The fact that she was here now was, undoubtedly, some cosmic test or joke by the Guide. Everyone in the room was looking at him expectantly, clearly waiting on some sort of explanation. He cleared his throat and affected an apologetic façade. "Sorry, you look just like someone I know back home."

"Oh, is her name Lisa too?" she asked, her voice still wary but somewhat less so.

"Yeah, she's a good friend of mine," Dean laughed. Now that the initial shock had subsided he began to notice several differences in his Lisa and this new world's. To begin with, his Lisa certainly did not have a French accent. "Sorry if I startled you."

"It's perfectly fine," The giant woman standing beside Lisa said, moving forward and extending a hand towards Dean. "I av' 'eard quite a lot about you, Mr. Weenchester."

"Indeed," a gruff looking man said, striding forward as well and seizing Dean's hand the second he was finished shaking with the giant woman. "I do hope you will prove to be as capable as your reputation makes you out to be. I do have some doubts."

"Yeah, well-." Dean began, intending on making a quip regarding the man's appearance. Dumbledore's hand on his shoulder stopped him short however.

"Now, Karkaroff, is that any way to speak to one of the people who we will be entrusting the protection of our students to?" the old man asked brightly, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Protection of the students?" Dean asked. "What's that supposed to mean? What do they need protection from?"

"The Tri-Wizard tournament of course," Igor said, for all the word stating it in such a way that it was clear that he thought Dean should have already been well versed on the subject. "After quite some time, our respective governing bodies have allowed this tournament to take place. Naturally they installed several safeguards, including people capable of intervening if something should happen endangering the lives of students."

"By your accent, I assume you are from the United States?" Lisa asked curiously. "Surely you would have heard of the tournament there?"

"Never was much for paying attention to big events," Dean said honestly. Not unless they involved an apocalyptic crisis.

"Well, we can certainly catch Mr. Winchester up on the finer points of the tournament later," Dumbledore said, waving his wand and conjuring several very comfortable looking chairs and taking a seat upon one. "For now, shall we discuss the matters we came here for?"

While this took place, in the dungeons, Sam had been pulled into giving yet another private lesson to the Slytherins in their common room. He had originally been asked to assist with disarming spells, but that had rapidly devolved into him helping with other spells as well. Luckily, he seemed to be some sort of natural with spells. "Vanishing isn't that complex," Sam told them as he strode between a large group of Slytherins who were trying desperately to vanish the cushions he had placed in front of them. He had a vague memory of inanimate objects being easier to vanish than living ones. "Don't overthink it, don't try too hard at it. Take things slowly."

A shout of triumph came from Sam's right and he saw a delighted looking first year standing triumphantly over a half-vanished cushion. "I did it!" he said excitedly, his wand shooting out small red sparks. "I did it!"

"Good job!" Sam said, pointing his wand at the cushion and causing it to restore itself. "Now, keep that focus and try it again."

Other students, mostly older ones who had moved past vanishing objects, were sitting around the common room and watching with interest as Sam instructed the younger students. Every so often one of them would make a comment to one of the younger students instructing them on how to better their technique. Sam was no longer shocked at how helpful Slytherin house was to one another. To other houses, which after seeing how they were treated, they were cruel and mean. But when they were dealing with their own house, Slytherin was as kind as anyone. Sam had resolved to remedy the broken bridges between Slytherin and the other houses, and he had several ideas of how to do so. But it would not be easy. Centuries of bitter arguments and bad blood were not going to go away overnight.

"Professor!" One of the students who was lounging on a couch called. "How about telling us a story of you taking on a Dark Wizard?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Travies, if I wanted to tell you stories about my career as an Auror I would have said as much."

This was, predictably, met with a large amount of groans from everyone present. "Come on!" Another said eagerly.

"That goes for you too, Septien," Sam said sternly. "All of you, in fact. I am your professor; I can't exactly sit around and have story time. Besides, from what I have seen you lot have been getting into a bit of trouble."

There was a general chorus of, 'Trouble? Us? Never!' from the assembled Slytherins followed by a split between too-innocent looking faces and those who were grinning mischievously. Sam rolled his eyes once more and crossed his arms. "Alright, those of you who are practicing Vanishing spells take a rest." Sam took a seat on an open armchair and leaned in. "Look, I get it. I really do. The other Houses treat you like dirt, so you treat them like dirt right back."

Clearly not expecting this topic to be brought up, the Slytherins shifted uneasily where they stood or sat and looked anywhere but in Sam's eyes. "A lot of people don't trust me, or even like me either," Sam confessed. He was going to edit his story a bit to fit his wizarding backstory, but he had resolved to give them advice based on past experience. "Being a Hun-, sorry, Auror, people get really nervous around me. That's part of the job though, I'm used to it. What you can never really get used to though is when people hate you for it."

"People hate you for catching Dark Wizards?" A first-year asked disbelievingly. "What for?"

"Because some times you do things that people don't like, or don't approve of," Sam said. "Sometimes those people get mad. My brother and I, when we were on the road, we were in a hotel and two people we called friends showed up and tried to kill us."

The room was dead silent, not a single student spoke or moved. "That sort of thing happens when you are an Auror. That sort of thing happens when people really don't like you." Sam shrugged. "My brother and I got out of there, obviously, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a betrayal. Slytherin House is full of friendly and bright young people with wonderful futures in front of them. But what do the other Houses see?"

"Future Dark Wizards," a seventh-year said grimly, "That's all they see when they look at us. Slytherin produced the most Dark Wizards, but other houses have popped out a few as well. They just needed someone to blame."

"Exactly," Sam nodded. "And you guys going around hexing and cursing people isn't helping things."

"But Professor, they start it just as much as we do!" A first-year said and Sam felt a swell of pity for the young student. Even as first years they had already begun to see and feel the animosity held towards their house. "We have to fight back!"

"I'm not saying that you shouldn't defend yourselves!" Sam said calmly. "You absolutely should. But, tell me, when was the last time any of you offered help to another student?"

"Herbology, just the other day!" the same first-year that had just spoken said. "I tried to help a Hufflepuff, but they ignored me."

"Then try again next class," Sam said simply. "You, all of you, have a very difficult task in front of you. Now, you can ignore me. This isn't an assignment or an order or anything like that. This is just me trying to make things easier."

"Professor, are you saying that you want us to be the other Houses' bitches?" the seventh-year asked, his chin raised defiantly. "Because I would rather get hexed every day for the rest of my time here than do that."

"Not at all," Sam shook his head vigorously. "If someone comes at you, go right back at them. Don't back down, don't give an inch. But if you lose a duel, don't go for revenge. Or, if you win a duel, don't gloat. Make sure they are alright. All of you are brilliant students. The other Houses don't know what they are missing. I just think that you should show them."