The hall seemed to become longer and longer as I traversed the hallway towards the hat that would decide my future. Would my father still love me even if I wasn't a Slytherin? No, I would eliminate that thought from my mind, there is no way that I would not become a Slytherin. A cold shiver went through my spine as I sat into the chair, but before the hat even touched my head, it screeched out, "Slytherin!"

I let out a sigh of sweet relief, and the Slytherin table erupted into applause as I swaggered my way over towards my new family, a family that could provide use to me in the future. The food was delicious, but even though I had been waiting for this moment all my life, I couldn't seem to feel happy. Why the hell not? Was it the Potter girl? She did bother me, mainly because everyone else around me acted like they knew Potter had a sister, but I had never even heard of a Sister! A hand laid on my shoulder, and I looked up to see an upperclassman giving me a comforting look, "Listen Draco, you might be nervous, but trust me, you will fit along just fine." He glanced over towards the next person walking up. "Just keep your wits sharp, and make sure you are careful with who you become friends with."

He seemed like a nice fellow, I figure I could probably manipulate him later on, would be great to have some kind of upperclassmen to assist me. Of course, I would always have to be careful about it, as father always said, subtlety is key. McGonagall boomed loudly, "Harry Potter."

That piqued my interest. Who knows, maybe Potter will get into something like Hufflepuff, or maybe even Slytherin. Now that would be funny, we would simply chew him up and spit him out. As the hat was laid upon his head, seconds passed, and then the stupid had finally called out, "GRYFFINDOR."

The Gryffindor table erupted into claps and applause, it might have even been louder than the cheers at the Quidditch Cup. It wasn't surprising of course, the foolish Gryffindors could cheer all they want, but it wasn't like it would change anything. As Potter walked to his new table, I tried to make eye contact with Severus, but he seemed to be focused on watching Potter. It wasn't a secret that he had something against Potter, but typically he was far more subtle than he was right now. I raised my hand in a small wave, but no matter how many times I waved my hand, his concentration simply wouldn't break. Eventually he finally turned, and gave me a shocked look before awkwardly returning my wave. Was something wrong with him? He seemed to stare at everything all doe eyed, almost like a Mudblood of some kind.

McGonagall announced another name, "Rose Potter!"

Ah, so her name was Rose? That was useful information to know, now to figure out how I was to make her day a whole lot worse. I didn't have any friends in Hogwarts just yet, except for Crabbe and Goyle, if you could call those brick walls, "Friends."

The hat announced something, and I paused, mainly because I had misheard what it had said. There was no way that what I heard was correct, I mean, a Potter in Slytherin? No way in hell. I was quickly corrected, as the entire hall fell into silence, and Rose slowly walked towards our table, and then whispers broke the silence. Blaise nudged me, "Holy shit, didn't you say you wanted revenge against her? You didn't even have to do anything to ruin her day."

Rose Potter slowly made her way to the seat across from me, and as soon as she sat down, everyone seemed to scoot away from where she sat, leaving about half a seat of room on each side of her. It couldn't have been more perfect. I gave her a small grin before digging down into my food, the taste finally hitting me in it's delicious full. Perhaps the taste had simply gotten better on its own, but I was pretty sure it had been fueled by the seasoning of satisfaction and happiness. My head turned back up occasionally, giving her a smug look when she looked up at me. Eventually it seemed like she had had enough, and she growled, "Listen here Malfoy, if you don't quit with that god damn smug ass smirk, I'm going to put this knife into your dick!"

She was joking right? Right? I winced before putting back on my smug look, "I would like to see you try, but don't only Slytherins do that? You wouldn't want to be a rude old snake would you?"

Rose snarled at me, "Listen here you inbred prick, when I get my hands on you!" She paused to take a few deep breaths. "Listen Malfoy, you keep out of my way, and I will do my best to keep out of your way? Is that a deal?."

The pressure of the other Slytherins around me seemed to bore into my head, and I knew that I couldn't make a deal with a weak Potter. I turned my nose up a bit towards her, "I don't agree to deals with filthy blood traitors, and I especially don't do deals with people who are too weak to defend themselves, after all, I could just take whatever I wanted from them!"

She went back to eating, and grumbled something about being sorted into Slytherin, and how I was as awful as something made me seem. I thought that was awful rude, but even I had a limit to breaking down someone. I had proven myself enough tonight. Blaise patted me on the back and gave me an approving nod, and then as quick as the food appeared, the food disappeared and Dumbledore began to call for the Prefects to take us back to our rooms. I moved into the line, and as we walked down the stairs, I remembered something father had said about the Slytherin House and where it was located. Being in the dungeon of the school sounded quite… unappealing, but I suppose I could deal with it. I was a Slytherin, not a crying child.

Taking back the whole not whining because I was a Slytherin felt like a very reasonable option as we slowly dredged down the long stairwell, our stomachs full and bloated. Crabbe and Goyle huffed and puffed behind me, yet they didn't blow me any closer towards the awaiting end. Good god, could they have put the entrance to the Slytherin House any farther away? Did the people of Hogwarts actually hate us this much? I understood we were not in good standing, but this wasn't being petty, this might as well be borderline torture! As we groaned and moaned down the stairs, a Prefect turned towards us before walking down the stairs backwards, which to be honest was the most magical thing I had seen all day. He gave us a smile, "Sometimes this happens and the stairs rearrange just to screw us over, this is the worst case I have ever seen, but you get used to it. I can see the entrance to the House, so hopefully that should provide some relief for you all."

It in fact did provide relief for me, so much relief. The group crowded around the door, and the Prefect turned to speak at us, "You May be wondering what the password is." He turned back towards the door and spoke in a odd tone, "Gryffindor Sucks."

The door opened, and the man turned back towards us, a shit eating grin widely displayed across his face. He spoke again, "Normally Professor Snape would be the one to create the passwords, but he has not shown up yet, so I took it upon myself to create it!"

The Prefect made a wide sweeping motion with his arm, "Come on in! Enjoy your new time in Slytherin! Keep your friends close and your enemies as far away as possible."

I ignored his buffoonery, and entered the massive welcoming room. As I stared around I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe, a sense of wonder that filled every fiber of my being. Perhaps that is what it is like when people meet me? Who would have guessed it. The Prefect began to call for people to go to bed, but as I began to walk off towards the stairwell a boy who looked like he was a fifth year grabbed my shoulder and whispered, "I want to speak with you about your actions in the cafeteria, wait here until everyone else has gone."

Would this fifth year hurt me? Probably not. Is there a chance that if he does it will have been for some petty reason? Most likely. Well, I suppose I have nothing to lose by hanging around. The only part that I felt frustrated by when waiting was that everyone around seemed to move so slowly, and then finally we were alone, and he began to speak, "Listen Malfoy, I get that you might think you are some kind of powerful wizard because your family told you all your life that you were special, but this is the real world you got that? You better learn that real fucking quick."

I grinned, "Do I now? It isn't that I think I am special, I know I am special!"

In the next couple seconds I experienced extreme regret as the man grabbed me by the throat and stared darkly into my eyes, "Listen here you fucking shit, you stay the hell out of my way and stay the hell out of my empire! I have worked hard to establish myself as the leader of this fucking snake den, I won't have myself be overthrown by a twelve year old little shit, you got that?"

My head shook up and down, and then he released me from his grasp. As I faltered to the ground I began to think, did he really think that he was just going to get away with this? "Do you really think I will forget what you just did? I will tell my father! I will ruin your stupid goddamn useless life!"

The boy turned and gave a sharp smile, "I suppose you don't have to remember do you." He pulled out his wand and began to cast, "Oblivi-". A loud creak from the stairwell interrupted his words, and he quickly put his wand back in his robes before turning to watch as the Prefect from earlier stepped down into the commons area. His eyes shifted back and forth to each of us. The Prefect moved his hand through his hair and sighed, "I want to see both of you in bed, now. I don't have time for dealing with this shit. Snape hasn't even showed up yet, and I know it isn't because he isn't here."

The boy next to me whispered into my ear, "This isn't over."

He raised his middle finger towards the Prefect before stamping off up the stairs. Me and the Prefect were the only ones left in the quiet room. Did he want to say something? His face seemed very conflicted, but then he seemed to decide on something. "Listen Draco, I quite honestly don't like you a whole lot, but you got to realize that you are real in over your head in this! Thomas Fawley isn't someone to be fucked with, he had my friend get the shit beaten out of him last year."

Fawley huh? That was one of the Sacred Twenty Eight! I grinned, "You don't worry about me, you should worry about yourself." What did he say to me, this wasn't over? It sure as Hell wasn't over, I hadn't even gotten a shot at ruining this guys reputation yet.