Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only own the plot and a few characters I made up to help shape our heroes.

September 2nd, 1971

Contrary to popular belief, Sirius Black was not an idiot by any means. As much fun as it was to goof off during classes, he actually took notes and at the very least got Acceptables on his tests. Or, rather, he was planning to. And because of the fact that he wasn't stupid, he walked with James and the other Gryffindor first years to every class and tried to keep his head down.

"I don't understand why you need to be in this group. You or James. You're both purebloods and have powerful families, most people will stay away from you." The comment came from Darla Pewitt who was a pureblood herself, but her family had a history of marrying muggle borns and muggles themselves. She herself was only a first generation "pureblood" meaning one of her great-grandparents was part muggle.

The answer came soon enough as they came across arguing on their way up their next class, only just having rounded the corner when they saw the group of older Slytherins with a few first years, Lily was clearly upset to see Snape as one of them. "He's not worth this, don't you see that? You know what's going to happen if a teach finds out a pureblood was…" Cissy cut herself off when she noticed the group of Gryffindor first years approaching. She gave Sirius a pitying look and stepped aside. Although she conformed to their families pressures, she was by no means the worse. She did as she was told but didn't actually believe what she was doing, it was just a survival method. She was a Slytherin through and through.

When the first wand was raised, Andromeda stepped forward and instructed all of the first years to get to class. "You are not to take part in this, I don't want the habit of losing house point rubbing off on you all." As soon as they disappeared, there was nothing she could do so she stepped aside. "Have at him. I'm going to class, come along Cissy." Even with her disdain for the name, Narcissa followed obediently as ever behind her sister.

"Are you going to step forward to protect all the mudbloods, blood traitor Gryffindor that you are? Or are you a coward?" Lucius was such a hypocrite, hiding in the middle of the crowd and ready to slip away if any teachers showed up.

Sirius knew this was coming and made sure he was at the front of the group, glaring at the people that would be protecting him if only he'd been in their house. "You're all.." He hissed as the wordless cutting curse hit his leg, pain flaring up and down his nerves. "Apparently you finally got a silver tongue, yet are still afraid to use it." There were more wands raised to retaliate, but then there were voices around the corner and the crowds dispersed. He hobbled to the Hospital Wing by himself, knowing the warning was made clear and there was nothing else coming,

Walking the halls alone as a first year was incredibly stupid, but she had no choice. Snape wasn't taking the same elective as her so he couldn't walk with her to their classes anymore and the sixth year that decided she was Venus' mentor after being impressed by her reaction to Snape's guarding at dinner the night before, had her own classes. So she was stuck.

"You're a Slytherin, none of the other houses are going to target you because they either think they're better than that or are afraid you'll humiliate them." Though Severus was right, the other houses weren't what made her nervous. After saying goodbye as they left Charms together, he ran to catch up to the real reason she thought it was stupid to walk alone. The fifth year Slytherin boys were blood purists and had a cruel sense of humor that they liked to use to terrorize the school. When she'd comment on their nastiness, Severus just rolled his eyes. "They don't actually believe that stuff, they just put on a show like the rest of us."

"I don't need to put on a show; I know how to be who I am and survive this school." She'd stormed out of the common room and made her way to the Great Hall without their prefect, plopping down next to Andromeda. She'd barely gotten the chance to wave at her sister and friends before her view was blocked by the same boys her only acquaintance in the house had attached himself to like a leech looking for power.

Speak of the devil's and they shall appear. "Leave me alone!" Her curiosity got the better of her as she rounded the corner to find three of the group taking turns hexing a Gryffindor first year. She looked like she'd just come up for air with her cheeks flushed and shiny, her red hair plastered to her head with what could have been either slime or blood. She winced everytime they called her a mudblood even if it wasn't followed with a hex, the word was a punch to the gut no matter who said it.

"What do you think you're doing?" Venus put her best motherly voice on as she stormed over to get between them, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed. "Disgracing our house like this, I thought you were supposed to be role models!" She could feel the first year disappear behind a corner, but she didn't dare look away from the stunned faces of the boys in front of her. "I mean seriously, going after a muggle-born first year who has no idea how to defend herself! Where's your ambition or are you too afraid to go up against someone who can actually fight back? Pathetic."

As the boys went to raise their wands against her for making them lose their prey and the insults, Slughorn cleared his throat behind them. "It seems that the tradition of detentions given out on the first day will not be broken. You three will join me in detention every night for the next week and if I hear of you doing this again, there may well be an expulsion hearing. As it is, ten points from Slytherin each. I hope you enjoy telling your classmates exactly why you lost them so many." The boys hurried off to their next class with hidden anger while her head of house turned to her instead. "What's your name dear? And why did you defend the girl?"

"Venus Williams, sir. I defended her because it's repulsive that they would use hexes on another student who hasn't even done anything wrong. I understand harmless ones for a prank, though I would not participate myself, but actually aiming to hurt someone?" Her face twisted into disgust that she couldn't mask. Her worries of her teacher taking away points for disrespecting her housemates was squashed.

Slughorn's face lifted in relief and he passed her a smile. "I believe you're going to be one of my favorites, if you can pass my Potions class. 15 points to Slytherin for true representation of the house." He disappeared around the corner.

She turned around to look for the girl who was attacked, but found nothing. She must have already gone to the hospital wing.

"They just kept hexing me like it was a game, giving the spells that would fix it after they had a laugh so I had no proof to go to a teacher." She was shaking as she explained what had happened to some of the other first years, not realizing that the elder years had joined them in the common room as well. "They kept calling me mud-blood and one of them started saying a cutting curse…" A sob escaped her before she could finish, Alice pulling her to her chest and started petting her hair. Once she could breathe again, she whispered a quiet thank you to her dorm mate and picked up where she left off. "He never got the chance to finish though because there was this first year in between us, yelling at them about how they were disgracing Slytherin. I hid around the corner but I heard Slughorn give the boys detention and threaten expulsion. He gave 15 points to Slytherin to the girl though, for defending me."

When she looked up, she found faces that were so shocked you would have thought she'd been Dumbledore who apperated into the house and shaved his beard. "Why on earth would a Slytherin go against fifth years, let alone to defend a muggle born? No offense Lily, it's them." A fourth year she didn't recognize was the first to speak up.

Lily huffed, insulted that they would target her protector. "Well of course she would go after fifth years because she's a Slytherin. Ambition, take down a few of the top dogs and no one messes with you. Venus didn't even call me a mudblood during it, then when she thought I was gone and she was talking to Slughorn, she looked like was completely disgusted with them."

"Venus defended you? That makes total sense then, she probably just charged in without thinking, She's a bit of a Gryffindor that way." It was one of her fellow first years but she didn't quite remember his name. His shaggy brown hair covered his eyes but it did nothing to hide the dark blush that fell over his cheeks from all the attention he was getting from their housemates. "What? Just because she's a Slytherin doesn't make her evil." Lily decided she liked this one and promised herself she'd find out his name.

AN: I am so bad at keeping to timelines because I just want to give you everything I write, but when life gets harder I want some extra chapters to fall back on. I still have a few but like. Would you rather me post everything now with longer waits later or keep to a schedule?