(NOTE - Students start their education at Hogwarts age 18)

Harry Potter couldn't help but feel a sense of impending doom approaching as Headmaster Dumbledore finished his welcoming speech and waved for the students to retire to their respective dormitories.

Reluctantly standing up from his seat at the Slytherin table, Harry joined the long queue of students heading to their common rooms. From somewhere near the end of the line, he watched as one of the prefects, a beautiful, blonde-haired girl named Gemma Farley, ordered the members of Salazar's house to form a straight line and maintain order.

Soon, Harry found himself walking out of the Great Hall and into the dark and cold dungeons. The procession of students walked down a long number of dimly lit corridors until they finally arrived at a blank wall. Confused by his surroundings, Harry was just about to ask somebody what they were doing there when Gemma spoke the password and a small entryway came into existence. Immediately, most of the students quickly rushed into the common room, but when it was his turn, Harry couldn't help but hesitate to step through the doorway. That was, at least, until a person shoved him from behind and whispered harshly, "Start moving, mudblood. It's time for you to learn your place in the world."

Despite being surprised by the shove from behind, Harry didn't lose his balance. He recovered pretty quickly and glanced over his shoulder at the person who had pushed him. As his eyes met those of the culprit's, Harry immediately regretted his decision as he found a tall, blonde-haired boy glaring at him with hateful eyes.

Harry couldn't help but sigh tiredly at Draco's aggressive attitude. For a split second, he felt tempted to push the idiot boy back, just to give him a taste of his own medicine. But in the end, he decided he didn't want to start his first night at the school with a fight. So, with another weary sigh, he ducked his head down and stepped through the opening, finally entering the Slytherin common room.

Harry usually would have loved to see how different his new common room was from any other place he'd visited before in his life. From the large glass windows showcasing the marine life in the school lake to the dimly lit torches, it all added up to give a very spooky sort of feel to the place. However, Harry didn't give it much thought at the moment; his focus was on far more important things right now.

Not eager to bring any attention to himself, Harry had quickly made his way to the end of the common room and was laying low in a secluded corner as Professor Snape entered behind the students and started his welcome speech.

For the next few minutes, the hook-nosed Professor lectured his students on the necessity of presenting a united front in front of the rest of the school, while also encouraging them to settle disputes with their wands in the common room. Harry, for his part, didn't pay much attention to what the man was saying; instead, he was looking around him, trying to see which one of the students would be the first to attack him.

Finally, Snape finished his speech and, with a terse nod to the students, left the common room. As the door slammed shut behind the greasy-haired man, the entire common room turned to look in Harry's direction.

For a moment, Harry almost buckled under the pressure as he saw the hostility in everyone's eyes. But he managed to control himself and held his head as high as possible as the entire Slytherin house glared at him with suspicion and disgust. Unfortunately, it wasn't such an easy thing to do; everywhere he looked, he could feel people's hatred focused on him.

For the hundredth time in the last half hour, Harry wished he had argued with the Sorting Hat during his time underneath it. Instead, like a massive idiot, he had just decided to accept its decision and allowed it to sort him into Slytherin. Unfortunately for Harry, it looked like his blasé attitude towards sorting was going to turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life.

Harry could feel people glaring at him in hate and anger. Still, he wasn't going to let it intimidate him. He looked all of them in the eye and asked angrily, "What?! Do you lot have something to say to me?"

A few students bristled at Harry's tone but no one said anything in reply. Harry started to think that maybe he wouldn't have to fight with anyone when his hopes were swiftly crushed into dust as Draco Malfoy pushed through the crowd to the front of the group.

Flanked by two massive-looking boys, the blond boy glared at Harry with a contemptuous expression on his face. "Take care how you speak to us, Mudblood," he warned Harry with a hiss. "Don't you know you are in the presence of your superiors? Or perhaps you need to be taught a lesson?"

The two gorillas behind Draco cracked their knuckles together and gave Harry rather dangerous looks as their leader delivered his threat.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, Harry wasn't intimidated. In fact, listening to Draco's threat, he couldn't help but find it all rather amusing. After dealing with Dudley's gang for years, Harry had no fear left of a beating. In fact, he could say with confidence that as long as no magic was involved, he could knock most of these guys out in a fight without even breaking a sweat. After being his cousin's punching bag for years, Harry had learned quite a few things about boxing. However, the one thing that had stuck with him was that size wasn't everything. The technique also mattered. Besides, this wouldn't be a professional fight. And none of these guys had been in as many scrapes as him. So, Harry felt pretty confident about his chances. After all, he was pretty sure none of these posh guys had ever used their fists in their lives and wouldn't even know how to throw a proper punch.

Despite his confidence in his abilities, Harry couldn't help but curse himself for landing himself in this situation in the first place. Honestly, he couldn't understand what the hell was going through his head when he decided to tell Draco about his muggle upbringing. In his defense, Harry had no idea that the boy was such a huge bigot and would turn out to be so nasty.

When Harry was first sorted into the Slytherin house, he had found himself sitting beside Draco Malfoy. At first, the pure-blood boy was quite nice and friendly, but the moment he realized Harry had been raised by Muggles, he completely lost it. Apparently, Muggle-borns like Harry were persona non grata in the Slytherin house. Draco had wasted no time in spreading this news to everyone around them, and suddenly the entire Slytherin house was furious with Harry for daring to join their house.

Meanwhile, Draco couldn't help but feel a little unnerved when Harry didn't cower in front of him. He glanced over his shoulder at Crabbe and Goyle for reassurance, but the two of them were also looking a bit uncertain. Feeling like he was somehow on the wrong foot, Draco looked around the common room for help, and then to his relief, his eyes landed on a tall, brutish-looking boy among the crowd.

Draco smirked as he stared across the room at the Slytherin Quidditch team's captain, Marcus Flint, and suddenly got a wonderful idea. Draco had no idea what Potter's deal was, but clearly, for some insane reason, he wasn't afraid of him or his friends. But it didn't matter now. Like the rest of the house, Flint was glaring at Potter with a murderous look in his eyes, and with a little push from Draco, he would take care of the mudblood for him.

"Flint!" Draco called out to the boy across the room, causing him to turn his head in his direction. "Are you just going to stand there and allow this dirty mudblood to defile our sacred common room with his presence, or are you going to do something about it?"

Harry frowned as Draco turned out to be smarter than expected. Rather than taking his bait, the pureblood boy had decided to use someone else to do his job for him.

Flint's eyes narrowed and his hands clenched into fists as Draco backed him into a corner. The older boy looked around the common room and froze when he realized everyone was looking at him, waiting for his next action. Despite not being the smartest guy around, Flint understood that unless he wanted to destroy his reputation he had to do something quickly. Draco's lips curled up in a pleased smile as Flint growled and started shoving people around him, making his way to the front of the group.

Harry watched with slight apprehension as Draco and his goons stepped back into the crowd and allowed this new guy named Flint to face him. Looking at the older boy, Harry couldn't help but feel a little wary as he realized that unlike Malfoy, this guy would definitely know how to use magic in a fight. Suddenly, Harry discovered he wasn't as confident as before; his shoulders hunched down and his breathing sped up a little.

Flint stood in front of the crowd and glared at Harry with a sneer. "Alright, Potter," he said. "Here's what's going to happen. You're going to go down on your knees and beg us to allow you into our house. However, if you don't do that, I'll just have to break a few bones in your body," he finished his threat by summoning his wand from his sleeve.

Harry looked around the room desperately, hoping against hope that someone would stop Flint, but unfortunately, nobody came forward to rescue him. Slowly, Harry resigned himself to the fact he was going to be cursed when his eyes landed on the female Prefect, Gemma Farley. Harry opened his mouth to ask her to interfere on his behalf but she quickly looked away, avoiding his eyes.

Harry's shoulders slumped; his disappointment was evident as he realized the female perfect was just going to ignore her duty and let things happen without interference. Harry couldn't help but feel bitter at the fact that just like in the muggle world, nobody was going to help him out now. Suddenly, Harry's blood began to boil, and he decided he didn't care about anything else. The only thing that remained clear to him was that he wouldn't allow himself to be insulted any longer.

Flint, meanwhile, started to get a little impatient as Harry continued to be lost in his own little world. "What are you thinking about so hard, mudblood?" he called out to Harry rudely. "It's a simple thing. Just get down on your knees and apologize to everyone here for ruining the sanctity of our glorious house with your dirty presence."

Harry's teeth clenched in anger as Flint called him that slur again. "You call me that name again, asshole, and I swear I'll make you regret it," he warned the older boy.

Unfortunately, Flint didn't look threatened by Harry's words; instead, he threw his head back and started laughing.

"Oh, really?" he said to Harry, chuckling. "And how are you going to do that, firstie? I doubt you have any idea how to use your wand."

Harry winced as he realized that the older boy was right. He stood zero chance in a magical duel, but still, there was no way in hell he was going to admit that to the bastard's face. In the end, Harry knew he couldn't show any weakness to Flint. So, he put on a brave front and told him calmly, "I don't need a wand to deal with bullies like you, Flint."

Harry's words finally seemed to rile up the older boy too much, causing his face to get increasingly red with each second.

Flint's hands clenched around his wand and he glowered at Harry. "You think you're better than me, mudblood? I guess Draco was right about you. You do need to be taught a lesson."

Harry tried not to flinch as the older boy suddenly flicked his wand in his direction and shouted, "Serpensortia!" A large number of students screamed in surprise as a large snake erupted from the older boy's wand and landed in front of Harry.

Flint smiled in glee as the twelve-foot-long venomous snake landed before the mudblood and started hissing at him furiously. He waited for the boy to start panicking and piss his pants, but what the boy did next blew his mind.

Contrary to what everyone expected, Harry didn't panic at the sight of the enormous snake. Instead, he looked completely calm and, to everyone's shock, started approaching the hissing animal.

Harry couldn't help but thank his lucky stars as he realized Flint had chosen a snake to frighten him. For a moment, he had been worried that the older boy was going to hit him with a nasty curse or something equally painful, but this wasn't so bad. Unlike Aunt Marge's dogs, Harry had always been very good with snakes, so he was pretty sure he could persuade the frightened creature not to attack him.

Harry's emerald green eyes locked with the snake's, and suddenly a hissing sound came from his mouth. Everyone in the common room felt a chill run down their spines as Harry conversed with the snake in his own language, explaining to it what had just transpired. Slowly, the snake lost its aggressive stance and bowed its head to Harry.

The common room suddenly became deathly quiet as everyone watched Harry work his magic on the snake. For several seconds, nobody moved an inch as no one could believe what they were witnessing with their eyes. However, the spell was finally broken when the mudblood picked up the snake from the ground and draped it over his shoulder.

Harry couldn't help but smile as he picked up the irritated snake and put it on his shoulder. He then looked around the common room and almost did a double-take as he noticed the way the entire house was staring at him in horror. For a moment, he couldn't understand why everyone looked so shocked. Harry didn't think he had done anything out of the ordinary. Surely, there must be other people in the wizarding world who could speak to snakes like him. But as he examined all these shocked faces, Harry slowly realized he had done something unnatural and that his ability to speak to their house's symbol must be a very special thing in the wizarding world.

In the end, the one thing that finally convinced Harry that he had done something truly extraordinary was the way Flint was now eyeing him fearfully. The older boy had been glaring daggers at him only a few seconds ago, but right now, there was no hostile expression on his face. Instead, he was staring at Harry with such a fearful expression, it almost seemed like he was going to piss his pants.

Harry decided it was a wonderful opportunity for him to escape the common room before the rest of his housemates could recover from their shock. So, without wasting another second, he quickly bolted up the stairs to his bedroom. As he crashed through his assigned bedroom door, Harry heard a sound akin to a cannon explosion from downstairs. It looked like the rest of the Slytherin house had finally got over their shock and were now involved in a furious argument.

Harry, however, didn't pay any attention to what was being said about him downstairs. He instead quickly locked the door behind him and sighed in relief as the wards in his bedroom came into effect and stopped all the noise from reaching his ears. As the adrenaline finally left his body, Harry realized he was so tired, and he suddenly slumped back against the door and slid down to the floor.

For the next few minutes, Harry remained there on the floor until he finally picked himself up and fell onto his bed.

Harry woke up the next morning, already dreading the upcoming day. Unsurprisingly, he didn't feel much keen to get up from the bed. So, for the few minutes, Harry kept hiding underneath the covers, that was, until he remembered the promise he had made to himself before leaving the Dursleys.

When he had realized he was going to Hogwarts, Harry had sworn to himself that after being afraid of Uncle Vernon for so many years, he wouldn't allow anyone else to intimidate him. Harry hadn't expected that he would be tested so soon, but still he wasn't going to take back his words now.

Filled with a sudden energy, Harry pushed his covers back and jumped to his feet. "Fuck this, I'm not going to hide in my room," he growled to himself angrily as he marched into the bathroom for a quick shower. After finishing his morning routine, Harry returned to his room and quickly put on his uniform. He then took a deep breath to center himself before walking out the door.

As he descended the stairs to the common room, Harry kept his back straight, standing tall. He hoped this way everyone would know he wasn't intimidated by the last night's incident. And if despite that, anyone still tried to mess with him today, Harry decided he would just knock their fucking teeths out.

A few moments later, Harry's feet touched the bottom step. Everyone in the common room stopped what they were doing as they noticed the new arrival in their midst. For his part, Harry didn't look at anyone as he walked up to an empty chair near the fireplace and sat down in it. Despite acting like he didn't care what others were doing, Harry still made sure to keep an eye on things surreptitiously, just in case anyone decided to attack him from behind. Because of his watchful nature, Harry didn't miss when two older boys nearby him looked at him with fearful eyes before fleeing to the other side of the common room.

Harry frowned and shook his head; he couldn't understand why everyone was acting so strange all of a sudden. One second they were all ready to crucify him for his muggle upbringing, and now they were acting like he was the devil incarnate. Clearly, Harry's small conversation with the snake had rattled them somehow, but surely that was no reason for everyone to act like this.

In the end, Harry decided to just put it out of his mind until he got some answers. The main thing was, as long as he was left to his own devices, he didn't care whether his housemates hated him or feared him. Harry's primary goal for coming to Hogwarts was to learn magic. As long as nothing interfered with that, he was happy.

With nothing better to do before it was time to leave for classes, Harry decided to check out his day's schedule. As he was noting which classes he would be attending on the first day, Harry suddenly sensed someone approaching him from behind.

Harry couldn't help but feel furious that someone had already decided to start a fight with him. Still, there was no way he was going to make it easy for them to curse him in the back. So, quick as a whip, he turned his head around and glared at the person trying to sneak up on him.

Gemma Farley squealed in surprise and stumbled back a little as Harry suddenly whirled around and gave her his most intimidating look. "Wait! I'm not here to fight. I just want to talk, Harry," she spoke quickly, raising her hand in a placating gesture.

Harry frowned as he listened to Gemma's request. For a moment, he wondered if she was trying to trick him, but a part of him told him she was speaking the truth. In the end, Harry rubbed a hand over his face and gestured for Gemma to join him. As the older girl quickly scrambled into a nearby seat, Harry wondered what she wanted to talk to him about. If he was being completely honest, Harry had to admit that he was a little curious. After everything that had happened last night, he wondered what she wanted from him.

As she sat down beside him, Gemma stared at Harry for a few moments before she finally opened her mouth. "First of all, I wanted to say I'm sorry for last night. You didn't deserve to be treated like that, Harry," she apologized sincerely.

Even without looking around him, Harry could feel that everyone in the common room was eavesdropping on their conversation. But unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do to stop it. Still, feeling annoyed from everything that had happened last night, Harry couldn't help but find it a little hypocritical that these so-called cultured purebloods acted all high and mighty, but in truth, they had no respect for other people's privacy. Suddenly, Harry could feel his mood worsening, and he looked at Gemma with a sneer. "I don't care about your apology, Gemma. You said you wanted to talk. So talk."

Gemma bobbed her head up and down. "Of course. Of course. You have every right to be angry," she said quickly. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask you one question, Harry. Did you really talk to that snake last night? Or was that some sort of a trick?"

Harry had no clue why these people were so obsessed with snakes. For a brief moment, he thought about lying, but in the end, he could tell this question meant a lot to Gemma. So, he decided to tell her the truth. "No, it wasn't a trick. It was completely real." He answered her truthfully.

Upon hearing his answer, Gemma's mouth dropped open with shock, and she stared at him in amazement. Harry could feel his lips twitching into a smile as he heard the rest of the common room let out a collective awed sound at his answer.

For a split second, Harry thought that Gemma might continue to gape at him like a fish. However, to her credit, she didn't take long to recover from her shock. Unfortunately, she was now gazing at Harry with something akin to wonder in her eyes.

"Merlin's beard! I...I almost can't believe it," Gemma exclaimed to herself, shaking her head in disbelief. Suddenly, her eyes lit up brightly as she had another thought. "Can...can I ask what did you say to the snake to make him stop attacking you?" she asked Harry curiously.

Harry thought about it for a moment and decided he didn't have any problem with answering that question. "To be completely honest with you, it wasn't anything special," he told Gemma truthfully. "I just told the snake that someone had made a little mistake which brought him here. He said he wanted to go back home, and I promised him I would help him with that. In the end, he believed me and realized he didn't have to be aggressive toward anyone. He knew no one was going to hurt him as long as he was with me."

"Wow!" Gemma whispered to herself in awe. Suddenly, she leaned forward and looked at Harry with shining blue eyes. "And was that your first time speaking to a snake, or have you always been able to do that?" she asked, looking almost breathless.

Harry's mind flashed back to his zoo trip with the Dursleys, and a small smile appeared on his face. "Yeah, I've always been able to do that."

Gemma flashed Harry another smile, and in response, he finally allowed himself to relax a little. For the next few moments, Harry waited patiently for her to ask him something else, but she remained silent. Once it became clear to him that Gemma was finished questioning him, he thought about it for a moment, and decided it wouldn't hurt if he asked one question of his own.

Harry looked at Gemma and said, "Gemma, what is this all about?" He sounded a bit puzzled. "So, I can talk to snakes; why's that such a big deal?"

For the dozenth time in the last ten minutes, Gemma's mouth dropped open in shock as she listened to Harry's question. However, she quickly got over her surprise as she remembered one important detail about his past. He was raised by filthy muggles.

Harry watched as Gemma's face twisted into a grimace as she answered his question. "Right. I forgot. You were raised in the Muggle world."

At her words, a few people nearby hissed in anger as they also recalled the truth about Harry's past. Gemma suddenly seemed a little nervous as she looked around her and noticed more than a few disgruntled faces. "I think we should have this talk somewhere a bit more private," she told Harry, standing up from her chair.

Harry hesitated for a moment before deciding to follow her advice and reluctantly got to his feet. "Alright. Let's go."

Gemma gave Harry a sharp nod and started walking towards the exit to the common room. As he followed her behind, Harry could feel several people's eyes following him curiously, and he couldn't help but shudder as he noticed the strange look in their eyes.

Stepping into the corridor outside, Harry hoped that Gemma could provide him with some answers because honestly, he didn't think he could take any more of this strange behavior from his housemates without going mad.

A.N.

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