A/N: So while I was researching for who the next Hogwarts headmaster/mistress should be, I realized that I may have spelled Crabbe's name wrong (as in there's meant to be an 'e' at the end of it) but oh well, I'll correct that for later chapters. Also, before I had decided to myself to write a new chapter every weekend, but then I realized how impatient I'd be if I were in the readers' shoes, so for now it's whenever I feel like it with a week long break maximum.
The whole room turns silent, and I turn pale. I said not Slytherin. Dad had told me that the sorting hat takes people's words into account... so why am I in Slytherin?!
Slowly, like as if I'm heading for my death, I walk towards the Slytherin table, where they all clap mockingly. Slow, loud, sarcastic claps can be heard ringing throughout the hall.
"Hey! Potter! Welcome to the dark side!" Someone on the Slytherin table calls out, and everybody starts laughing. I sit next to Rus, who thankfully chose a seat that has nobody sitting either side of him for a couple of seats.
"Hey, Albus," He mutters miserably.
"Hey, Rus," I mumble back, just as miserable.
I barely notice the others getting sorted, I catch Rose's eye as she walks to the sorting hat. She looks about as miserable as I feel. She, of course, made it to Gryffindor, and though she should be happy about it, she just keeps looking at me with fear and worry, confusion and guilt. I know exactly how she feels. I'm just as confused as she is.
Then the Headmistress of Hogwarts stood up. Penelope Clearwater is said to have attended Hogwarts herself about two decades ago in Ravenclaw. She was a few years above my dad in Hogwarts, apparently Uncle Percy dated her at one point, I guess she looks pretty enough, so I can't really judge him.
"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we eat, there are a few announcements I must first bring to your attention. As with every year, the Dark Forest is, of course, forbidden. Mister Filch has asked me to announce also that the boy's toilets on the second floor, left hand side is off limits due Myrtle deciding to be a social butterfly and throw a rather large party in there, inviting half the school's ghosts along. Do not fear, though, the toilets shall be fixed soon enough. Also the basement is still off limits due to the dragon infestation, so if any of you have any lessons in that particular area, you will receive a notice as to where you should go. Now, as the Muggles say, bon appetite!"
Suddenly great mountains of food appear before my very eyes, platters holding lamb, chicken, roasts, peas, carrots, mash, everything you could think of to put on your Sunday dinner. My mood lightens quite a fair bit at such a glorious sight.
"Wow," Rus breathes as he stares at the food. Talk immediately starts back up again throughout the great hall, and I begin to help myself to something to eat.
"Wow!" I exclaim as I take a large bite out of a chicken drumstick. "It just melts in the mouth..."
"You should try the carrots," Rus mumbles dreamily through a full mouth. I've never been a huge fan of veg, but I must say, no matter how reluctant I am to eat them, eating them was still pure bliss.
"So," Rus says a few minutes later, mouth still full. "Are you really Harry Potter's son?" I nod before swallowing my food (though a bit reluctantly).
"Yeah... But I'm still like every other kid. I barely know any spells right now, but then again, dad does say that he used to be the exact same when it came to spells..." I never liked to brag, so when people ask about my parents and start saying, "Gosh, blimey, you're Harry Potter's son, aren't you?!," it can get a bit awkward as you repeat the same old "I'm just like everyone else" phrase.
After a fairly awkward silence, talk along the table began to get interesting.
"So... Lykas, is it?" one person asks across the table to an particularly sly looking Slytherin. The Slytherin in question lifts his head towards the one asking in acknowledgment.
"I hear your the big guy in this tattered, old, sorry excuse of a building," the Slytherin continues, smirking at Lykas, who merely narrows his eyes.
"I wouldn't call it me being the 'big guy.' Only me knowing what I want and when I want it," he replies in a voice that could glide on water. The immediate impression I get off this guy was that whatever his reputation is, it has nothing to do with strength. He's not exactly scrawny, but he's not bulging with muscle either, and the way he smirks and his eyes glint as if plotting something says it all. This guy's a thinker. He gets what he wants through persuasion, coercion, or if neither work, then through trickery. He also appears to be a couple of years older than me, just old enough to earn a name for himself...
"What are you looking at Potter?" the Slytherin beside Lykas asks. "Hey, Penance, I think he fancies you!" Lykas Penance turns to look at me like as if I were something he found on the bottom of his shoe.
"Is that so, Potter?" He asks smugly, raising an eyebrow at me. I immediately scrunch my face up. Slytherins! I decide not to argue, though, or else they'd find something else to pick at, making things much harder than they already are.
"Well, sorry for the heart break, Potter, but you're just not my type," Penance sneers as his friends laugh around him. From beside me Rus makes a strangled sound. I turn around only to find him staring at me in horror. I roll my eyes.
"I don't really fancy him, Rus," I say through gritted teeth. Rus immediately looks relieved, which only adds to my annoyance. Penance. Let me guess, is his middle name Annoyance as well. Well, at least the whole of Slytherin seems to be having a good time with my supposed crush.
"Hey, Potter! Why don'tcha sneak a kiss?!" one such Slytherin asks from two seats away from me, I reply with a glare.
"Oh, Potter, what's with that look? Depressed that your gay fantasy will never come true?"
"Hey, everyone! Potter and Penance sitting in the tree, K. I. S. S- OW! What was that for Penance?"
"Leave me out of it!"
"Hey, Potter! When's the wedding?"
"Hey, Potter! You scum!"
"Hey! Potter!"
"WHAT!" I finally yell. "Oh, let me guess, you're the one who's falling head over heels for him, huh? Is that why you're calling me gay? I wonder how many times he said no to you, huh?" All this I shout to the boy next to Penance who had started the whole teasing wars in the first place, and judging by the colour of his face and the minute amount of distance between him and Penance, I think I got it pretty spot on.
"No! He's only trying to draw you lot away from him!"
"Oh, really," I reply, unable to hide my smug smile now at having guessed right. "Then why so embarrassed? And why are you so close to him? Or does being friends in Slytherin mean you have to act differently to, say, being friends in any other house, hm?" The Slytherin in question blushed brighter.
"I'm not gay!" He cries as all the Slytherins start laughing at his face.
"Oh! Poor little McDuck!"
"Aw, Quack and Penance sitting in the tree, K.I.S.S..."
Well, at least I can finally eat the rest of my dinner in peace. The only problem is, of course, when I finally return to my meal, it's gone, and in its place springs desert. I slump in my seat. Oh, well. At least I have more room for desert...
Two cake slices, a bowl of ice cream and a bowl of treacle tart later, we are all guided to our common rooms. While following the Slytherin prefect, I find myself walking through a labyrinth of cold stone walls and passages, finding memorizing the route useless.
"How could I possibly memorize this?" I mutter to Rus, who walks sullenly beside be.
"No clue," he answers honestly, returning my nervous look. "I've never had the best of memories..."
Finally we reach what looks to be a dead end. As all us start to whisper to each other, wondering if we'll get out alive, the prefect clears his throat.
"Morsus serpentum," the prefect says to the wall, and in response the wall... opens up, almost like a door... Once we are all inside, we admire the Slytherin common room, which is decorated in greens and silvers which shine in the light of the fire lit in the the large ornate fireplace across from us. Grand columns in the shape of snakes slither towards the ceiling, each encrusted with emeralds which shine in the light.
"So, what do you think Potter?" A voice asks smugly from an arm chair located by the fireplace. When I turn to look at the person who owns the voice, who else do I find but Penance. Oh, dear. My first day here and it looks like I've already found myself an enemy. Not too hard a feat, though, considering this is Sytherin, after all...
"Oh, it's nice..." I nod my head slowly as I look around. Yeah... nice is an understatement, but I won't tell any Slytherin that any time soon, let alone one who only needs to look at me to threaten me. The prefect sighs as he shakes his head in his annoyance and impatience.
"Boys, you will find your sleeping quarters up those steps and down to the back of the corridor to the right, and for the girls, it's the same for you but of the left hand side of the corridor. Now then, the hour is late, so I think now that you know where you sleep, we should all rest now, and tomorrow, expect to get your timetables." And with that, the unnamed prefect leaves us to find our beds for the night. Uncertainly, we all go up the stairs and to the very last doors of the corridor. Inside the boys' dormitories, I find bed sheets of black and drapes of venom green greeting us upon entry. There are no windows, and the only thing that provides any light is the large chandelier that hangs over head (snake inspired, of course). I walk up to the bed that holds my trunks and owl, who I'd named Swiftwing, on top of it and sigh. Home sweet home.
A/N: Hello again. Unfortunately, my Latin isn't very fluent, in fact, I had to rely entirely on Google Translate. Because of this, some of my Latin in this may be a little off... as in when I put in "Fang of the Snake" for the Slytherin password, Google came up with the password above, and when I copied and pasted the translated version and translated that, well, it came up with "flying snake"... If you know the proper translations of any Latin phrases I blab out, don't hesitate in telling me...
