The Severus Snape Saga-Book 1, the Sordid Hat

Chapter 3: Platform 9¾

It took Severus some time to adapt to having Serena around the house. She, if that was possible, used the family library even more than he did and seemed never to be happy unless her nose was buried in a book. But unlike Severus, she wasn't reading dangerous dark arts manuals, but history books of all things! At first Severus had just told himself that it was a desire to learn about the wizarding world, but as the days passed he came to grips with the fact that Serena was just a history freak!

"Why do yolike reading about dead people?" he had asked her on numerous occasions and she'd only replied "Because it's interesting." If reading about dead people was interesting, thought Severus, I'm a teenage horklump. Oddly enough, the only thing Serena seemed to love more than history was Crucy, Severus' abnormally colored Puffskein. Severus hadn't paid much attention to Crucy ever since he'd gotten his large, great horned owl which he had christened Imperius. Serena, on the other hand, seemed to simply dote on Crucy. The only thing she didn't like about him was his name. "You named this poor ickle critter after an unforgivable curse?" she had gasped when Severus had told her his name. "You are sick!"

But when she wasn't inviting Crucy to stick his tongue up her nose (which, for some reason she seemed to love) or reading a history book, she actually seemed to enjoy playing Quidditch with Severus and his friends (when they came over). She was easily as good as Antonin at being a chaser and even gave Severus a run for his money. Bloody Mudblood equaled Serena in Antonin's mind when they were playing Quidditch.

But Serena was doing more than humiliating Antonin at Quidditch. She was trying to help Bellatrix to get better at using Floo Powder and was even helping Augustus to learn how not to set his robes on fire by accident so often. With the exception of Antonin, everybody thought she was a great person.

But she wasn't the only new friend on the scene. Lucius would frequently use Floo powder to get to Severus' house and he had annoyed Bellatrix even more than Serena had annoyed Antonin. Lucius was a fair Chaser, a great keeper but a superhuman seeker. In a contest to see who could catch the most golf balls without screwing up once, Bellatrix caught a hundred while Lucius got all the way to one hundred and fifty and caught a few of them while deliberately looking the other way. Bellatrix had gotten so frustrated with Lucius that she had actually resorted to sticking pins in a makeshift voodoo doll to siphon out her anger. The unfortunate gnome in question had to be fed to a Jarvey eventually.

The days went by more quickly than Severus was accustomed, for he was not at all used to having another young person in the house. It was almost like having a sister except...well....it was just different.

Then, out of the blue, the first day of September arrived and Severus now had to haul his trunk out of the house and load it onto the family flying carpet while the same went for Serena, who now seemed to be more nervous than a rat in a room full of cats. Once the luggage was all loaded, a whole new side of the preparations was put into action. Severus' parents had to put disillusionment charms on all the luggage, the owls, the cages, the carpet and the people.

And then they were off, soaring over hills and valleys, headed at breakneck speed for King's Cross Station. Severus could hear Serena going "Oooh!" and "Aahh!" as the carpet zoomed around cliffs and through treetops. The wind roared in their ears and Severus had to try very hard to make himself heard.

"So, Serena, figured out which Hogwarts house you want yet?" he shouted over the wind. "No, Sev," she yelled back. "I'd like to be in Slytherin, but I'm still not sure if it's the right house for me!" "Why not?" asked Severus. "Because I'm muggle-born and Slytherins don't take kindly to muggle-borns!" she responded. Severus was going to explain that plenty of people in Slytherin were muggle-born but couldn't because the Carpet had just gone into a steep dive that left him and Serena screaming as the ground rushed up to meet them.

The carpet leveled out at the last minute, causing them both to cease screaming and catch their breath. In front of them loomed King's Cross and the train to Hogwarts.

"Well, nothing left but to disillusion you and your luggage and then me and mother will be heading home," came Mr. Snape's voice from a bush. Five minutes later, the carpet had soared off (or what looked like the carpet, they weren't sure because the sky could ripple) and they, two scared first years at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, had to enter King's Cross.

"Sev!" said Serena nervously.

"Yes?" asked Severus.

"Well, our tickets say that we board at Platform 9¾, but there's no such platform," said Serena in a small voice.

"Sure about that, are ou?" came a voice from one of the passers by. And the next second Lucius was looking at them, quite pleased with himself for having sneaked up so effectively.

"Lucius!" said Serena in a relieved voice. "Thank Goodness, would you believe that they want us to board at Platform 9 and three..."

"And that's where we board," said Lucius patiently.

"But...there's no such thing," said Serena, and then she hastily added "I mean, wouldn't someone notice it?"

"Of course, but they don't pay any attention to it," said Bellatrix's voice and the next second Bellatrix had strode over to join them. "Let me show you why, Serena," she said, and she disappeared and returned with her trolley. "Follow me," she said.

"Shouldn't we wait for Rodolphus and Antonin and the others?" asked Serena.

"They're already aboard," said Bellatrix. "I came back through to get you. Severus here knows how to get to the Platform, so I don't see why he's hanging around."

"Oh, right," said Severus and he wheeled his trolley toward the barrier between Platforms nine and ten. He wanted to watch the fun when Serena saw how to get to the Hogwarts Express, but he knew better than to dilly-dally, so he focused on the barrier and ran straight at it. He heard Bellatrix's voice coming closer just as his trolley went right through the barrier and him after it.

Had Severus been on the other side he would have heard Serena's squeal of "SEV!" and Bellatrix's need to soothe her, but as Severus was not on the other side he witnessed neither of these incidents. Just as he wheeled his trolley away he saw Bellatrix come through the barrier onto the platform followed by Serena, who had her eyes closed. Then Lucius burst through and the four of them set off onto the Hogwarts express to find seats.

It took them some time to find the car where Antonin, Rodolphus and Augustus were sitting. Rodolphus and Antonin were busy in a game of Exploding Snap and Augustus was reading a book entitled "Potions for Dummies." Unluckily for Severus, he entered at the precise moment when the house of cards blew up and showered him with bits of cardboard. The swearing that followed led to Antonin and Rodolphus jokingly calling the game "Exploding Snape".

As the Hogwarts express pulled out and Severus had finished dusting the card pieces off, suddenly the compartment door swung open and who should walk in but Lily Evans. Severus looked at the various card pieces which were littered about the floor and at Antonin and Rodolphus having their raspberry contest while Lucius noisily ate a Fizzing Whisbee, and wished he could disappear. Lily did not seem bothered, however by the surroundings.

"Severus!" she said warmly, and she strode over and hugged Severus in full view of everyone. Bellatrix's mouth fell open. Lucius' noisy chomping stopped abruptly and Rodolphus and Antonin stopped blowing raspberries and stared. Only Serena didn't seem bothered, but that was because she was absorbed in Hogwarts, a History. Augustus had gone to the toilet, so he didn't see it happen.

"How are you, Severus?" asked Lily, beaming down at him like some great cat.

Severus didn't know how to respond. "I'm...alright," he said, frantically trying to untie the knot his tongue had tied itself in.

"Excellent. Oh, and these must be your other friends! Severus has told me all about you all," Lily said, addressing the compartment like an audience in a lecture hall.

"And you would be?" asked Bellatrix, with more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Lily Evans. Sev and I met when he was down in Surrey. He told me all about all of you when we were there. In fact, I bet I can guess your names!" she squealed with delight. Severus would have tried to stop her, but he was too dumbfounded to do anything.

"You must be Bellatrix!" she said to Bellatrix, who inclined her head with a somewhat condescending smile.

"And you're Rodolphus!" she said to Antonin, who snorted.

"I'm Antonin," he said sardonically.

"Oh, well never mind," she said, and then faced the real Rodolphus. "Then you must be Augustus," she said.

"No, I'm Rodolphus," snapped Rodolphus.

"Oh. Well, I guess Sev made a mistake with the description," stammered Lily, who was blushing scarlet. Just as she was turning to Lucius, Severus found his tongue and intervened.

"These two," he said, indicating Serena and Lucius, "I didn't mention. This is Serena Acklebridge," he said, indicating Serena, who nodded in greetings, "And this is Lucius Malfoy."

"A pleasure, madam," said Lucius in his usual suave manner, kissing Lily's hand. Lily was quite taken aback.

"You're quite a forward thinking man, Lucius," she said a little unsteadily. But then she looked a little distressed. "But where's Augustus?" she asked.

"He's here," came Augustus' voice from the door. "And you are?"

"Lily Evans," she said, shaking Augustus' flabby hand vigorously. Augustus looked thoroughly shocked at meeting someone who was so bubbly and full of energy.

"Lily here has been bugging me about meeting all of you for ages," said Severus, attempting to explain away Lily's abundant supply of energy.

"Well, maybe she'll stop bugging now that she's met us," said Bellatrix with just a note of tiredness.

"Exploding Snape...er..Snap, Miss Evans?" asked Antonin, who seemed to be the only one who was making an effort to be friendly. Lily laughed quite happily and said that she would be quite pleased to join him in a game.

Lucius pulled Severus into a side compartment as soon as she was absorbed and hissed "What are you playing at?"

"Nothing," said Severus, though he had expected this.

"Oh, really? Then let me put it a little more plainly, what's the point of bringing a time-bomb who just happens to be Muggle-born too into our compartment?" Lucius snarled.

"I didn't invite her," said Severus.

"But you didn't have the guts to tell her to scram," said Lucius angrily.

"Lucius, you saw the way she was acting. How could I rain on that parade? And how did you know she was a mudblood?" Severus protested.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it? There isn't an old wizarding family that I know of called Evans. Believe me, I would know if there was," said Lucius dryly.

"You don't mind Serena, do you?" asked Severus.

"That's different, she's with you, Severus! She's basically an adopted Snape! As far as I'm concerned her blood's as pure as the rest of ours but Lily's not even the right sort of person to be a Slytherin!" Lucius spat at Severus.

"Look, what should I do?" asked Severus as a huge CRACK sounded from the other room and he heard Antonin cursing.

"Tell her to scram, got it?" Lucius said dangerously, and he opened the door. "Go on."

Severus entered the compartment to see Antonin and Lily engaged in arm-wrestling.

"Lily, can I talk to you for a moment?" asked Severus.

"Sure, Sev," said Lily, not looking up from her match with Antonin.

"Privately," said Severus, and Lily dropped her arm reluctantly and followed Severus out of the compartment.

"Alright, Sev, what's up?" asked Lily.

"Lily, I don't mean to offend you but could you leave?" Then, seeing the look on her face, he said "Well, you see, everybody in that compartment is either an adopted member of a pureblood family or an actual pureblood and no offense, but they don't take kindly to muggle-borns."

Lily looked cold as ice. "And you don't either, is that it, Sev?" she asked coolly.

"Well, it's just that I've been brought u-" Severus stopped abruptly, realizing what a prat he was being. Lily looked like she was ready to breathe fire.

"Well, I am so SORRY if I broke up your little pureblood Slytherin clique in there, Master Snape, forgive me if I just don't CARE what you think of me or any of your friends think of me and I only think that if you had the least ounce of respect or decency you'd take my actions on your own shoulders! But I suppose you're just too PURE to do that for a MUDBLOOD like ME!" she spat in his face and stomped off in a huff.

"Lily, I-"

"Drop dead, Salazar!"

Severus re-entered the compartment to find the others with their ears pressed against the walls. "Were you listening to that?" he asked angrily.

"Well, Sev, we just couldn't help it, we were curious about what you had to say," apologized Bellatrix.

"Well, thanks, if I'd known I had an audience I might have bothered being a LITTLE LOUDER!" shouted Severus so that the whole compartment trembled.

"Severus, Shhh!" hissed Serena.

"Look, Sev, you did the right thing. We can't afford to associate with mudbloods," said Lucius as though that settled the matter.

Big Mistake. Serena slammed her book shut. "Oh, can't we, Mr. Malfoy? You see, I was under the impression that I was not just some piece of fungus on the floor of this compartment, but I suppose I must have been wrong!"

"Serena, you're diff-" began Lucius, but Serena had already stomped out of the compartment.

"Now you've done it, Malfoy," Severus growled at Lucius, who put his hands up as if to say "Why am I the one being blamed here?"

"Yeah, Malfoy, what was the matter with having that Evans dame in here anyway?" asked Antonin. "I rather liked her."

"You surely have more respect for your heritage than that, Dolohov," whispered Lucius poisonously. "If your father saw you associating with her he'd have a fit."

"Shut up about my dad, Malfoy," said Antonin with an unearthly cool voice.

"Well, it's true!" Lucius sneered. "He wouldn't be at all happy that his boy was consorting with mudbloods..."

"SHUT UP ABOUT MY DAD!"

And the fight was on. Severus managed to excuse himself from the compartment just as Antonin pounced on Lucius and punched his face soundly.

But no sooner was Severus out of the compartment when a hateful voice said "Well, well, Snivellus."

Severus rounded to see James Potter and Sirius Black standing there with two other boys.

"Got your girlfriend mad at you, Snivelly," hissed Potter, drawing his wand. "Whassa matter? You let all that greasy hair of yours get in her eyes?"

"Nah, she'd be blind if that happened, James," said Sirius cruelly. "Rhemus, whadda ya say we take that hair off Snivelly's hands?"

The one called Rhemus didn't seem to share the sentiments of his companions. "Leave him alone, you guys, what's he done to you?"

"Well, it's more that he exists if you see what I mean," said James snidely.

"L-let's leave him alone James," said the other boy, a chubby child who looked like a toad with watery eyes. "He scares me."

"Ah, don't let old Snivelly scare you, Peter," said James. "Just because he does that to the hookers there's no reason he should do it to y-"

ZAP! Severus had whipped out his wand and blasted James with a boils curse. He then followed up with a Jelly Legs hex and watched as James sprouted little purple tentacles all over his face.

"And you think I scare people?" asked Severus, doubling up with laughter at James' comic appearance. But Sirius had his wand and was just about to curse Severus when...

"Expelliarmus!" shouted the one voice Severus wanted most to hear at that point: The voice of Lily Evans. She was striding down the hall with her wand out and she had just blasted Sirius' wand away. "What is going on, may I ask?" she snapped, looking from one face to the other.

"Heho, Schveetie, Shorree to dishtoorb yoush but dish giut dinksh ee as dee reit doo koorse oos," James gibbered, his mouth full of tentacles. Lily turned to Severus.

"Severus, it seems you're the only one who can give me a reasonable explanation of what happened here," she said.

"Well, Potter here thought he'd get a little smart with me so I gave him those nice little extra appendages to teach him a lesson and Black here was just about to curse me when you arrived," Severus replied.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Men!" she snorted. "Look, all of you ought to just act your age and quit being at each other's throats. Finite Incantatem." the tentacles disappeared. "And for gods' sakes stop trying to make fools of yourselves!"

With that, Lily stomped off, leaving Severus, James, Sirius, Peter and Rhemus dumbfounded. James gave Severus a dangerous look.

"I don't want to get you back with that hottie on the prowl, but you just watch your greasy soon-to-be-Slytherin butt Snivellus." James threatened, waving his wand around, and he stalked away leaving Severus alone.

But Severus wasn't done with him. Just as James was far enough down the hall that he could escape, Severus shouted "Locomotor Mortis!" and disappeared into his compartment just as a stream of hexes hit the door.

For a second, Severus thought he'd entered the wrong compartment because two boorish thugs were staring down at him evilly. But then he saw Lucius push his way between them.

"Severus! There you are! I was beginning to wonder whether I should send Crabbe and Goyle here to help you against those jerks outside the door. The little mudblood seems to have saved your skin, though," Lucius said.

Severus looked up at the two thugs. "Where'd you get the goons, Malfoy?" he asked, impressed.

"Oh, you haven't met them, right. This is William Crabbe," indicating the one who looked like he had the overbite of an alligator and the muscles of Popeye, "And this is Shylock Goyle," indicating the one who looked, for all the world, like a great shaved ape. The two muttered grunts which Severus supposed were supposed to be greetings. "Boys, meet Severus Snape," said Lucius.

After extensive questioning, Severus found out that the Crabbe and Goyle families were Malfoy vassals and that their kids were bound to act as bodyguards for any Malfoy who passed through Hogwarts. Severus couldn't say he didn't enjoy having a couple of human trolls around in case James and Sirius came back, but the compartment got a little cramped, considering that just Crabbe and Goyle took up an entire side all on their own.

Still, affairs seemed to act as they had when Crabbe and Goyle hadn't been there, considering that the two new members did little but watch and guard Malfoy like a couple of Dobermans. Serena had re-entered and went back to her book and Antonin and Rodolphus went back to exploding Snap.

But then Lily made her second entrance. She pushed her way through Crabbe and Goyle without looking twice and said "Sorry, everyone, but all the other compartments are jammed. You mind if I join you?"

Lucius looked less-than-happy with the arrangement, but Severus, Antonin, Rodolphus and, surprisingly, Bellatrix overruled him. Lily once again challenged Antonin to Exploding Snap and once again was victorious. Antonin and her seemed to get on famously though the other members of the compartment did their best to pretend she wasn't there. Thankfully for Severus, she didn't notice.

As Lily finished her fifth Exploding Snap game with Antonin, which had culminated in his victory this time, Lucius suddenly seemed to lose his cool. "What do you think you're playing at, anyway, Evans?" he asked harshly.

Lily looked up and returned Lucius' steely glance. "What do I what?" she asked coolly. Lucius snarled "Trying to cozy up to us purebloods, are you? Let me tell you this, Evans, it doesn't work! Purebloods will always be purebloods and Muggle-borns will always be unfortunate mistakes and there's no changing that."

"I'm afraid I don't understand you, Malfoy," said Lily with unnerving calm. Severus tried to work up the energy to tell Lucius to shut up but with Crabbe and Goyle sitting there...

"Understand this, then!" snarled Lucius, suddenly leaning forward and shoving his face dangerously close to Lily's, "Now get OUT of our compartment, you mudblood tart!"

Lily was furious and she slapped Lucius with a scream of rage. Crabbe and Goyle, however, managed to grab her around the waist and drag her, still protesting, out of the cabin.

"That's it, boys, throw the dirty blooded bimbo out the window and save us the shame of having her at school," laughed Lucius and Severus suddenly felt himself rise and punch Lucius in the jaw.

"You--stupid--prat! What--did---she--ever--do--to--you?!" Severus growled between punches. Crabbe and Goyle, however, had returned and had dragged Severus off Lucius and thrown him against the opposite compartment wall. Severus and Lucius glared at each other and it was impossible to know which face showed more anger.

"What's the matter with you, Severus?!" hissed Lucius, his voice filled with rage. "You, of all people, should appreciate the value of being pureblood! You, who took Serena under your arm and saved her from a destiny as a mudblood! You should know better than to associate with a bint like that!"

"She is NOT a bint!" snarled Severus.

"Yeah, whatever, Sev, just because you FANCY her doesn't mean the rest of us have to soil our hands by being friends with her," said Lucius. Severus wanted to kill him.

It took some time for the animosity to die down between Severus and Lucius, but by the time it did the two of them had changed into their Hogwarts uniforms and were now nervously awaiting the time when the train would arrive at Hogwarts. The train drew to a hault agonizingly slowly and Severus, Bellatrix, Serena, Lucius, Rodolphus, Augustus, Antonin, Crabbe and Goyle all filed out. As they made their way slowly through the crowd they heard a voice calling out "FIRS' YEARS THIS WAY! FIRS' YEARS OVER 'ERE!"

They looked up to see the biggest man they had ever seen in their respective lifetimes. He was at least fifteen feet tall and for some reason he was brandishing a large pink umbrella. "FIRS' YEARS FOLLOW ME!" he called out again before motioning the crowd of first years that had gathered around him into boats. Severus climbed into one with Lucius, Bellatrix and...Lily.

She looked awful. She appeared to have been crying as her eyes were red and puffy. Even Lucius looked a little guilty when he looked at her, but he immediately looked away and settled into what seemed a bit of a hurried conversation with Bellatrix. Severus crawled into the back with Lily.

"Sorry, Lily," he said softly.

"Severus, you never told me your friends were such complete jerk-offs," sniffed Lily.

"I didn't know that Lucius was like that," said Severus. "And I would have stopped him throwing you out of our compartment if it hadn't been for his thugs."

"Oh, I see, wanted to save your own neck rather than stand up for me, eh?" Lily said acidly. "Thanks, Sev, but that is just so Slytherin! I can't believe y-"

She was cut short by the booming voice of the giant calling out "WELCOME TO HOGWARTS!"

Severus and Lily looked up along with Lucius and Bellatrix and slowly their jaws dropped. Hogwarts was a castle, but what a castle! It was huge and so vast it seemed to fill the entire horizon. All the spires twinkled and one big window opened up warmly toward them, making the whole place seem like a massive magic hive. It looked, for all the world, what Severus imagined Heaven must look like.

And then they lost view of it as they entered a slimy cavern. Lily seemed to be too awestruck to rebuke Severus any further and whatever Bellatrix and Lucius were talking about, they had shut up. The shadow of Hogwarts was busy imprinting itself on their minds.

As the boat pulled up to a dock Lily, Severus, Lucius and Bellatrix disembarked and followed the other students up the stairs. They were met by a stern looking witch with her hair tied up in a neat bun. Severus had the fleeting impression that she could be quite good looking if she would abandon that austere look.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said in a brisk voice with a distinctly irish accent. " I am Professor McGonagall. In just a few minutes you will pass through these doors and join your classmates of the next seven years, but first there are a few details I should brief you on. Firstly, there are four houses here at Hogwarts and when you enter this school the most vital thing that will happen is for you to be sorted into those houses. They are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin. While you are here, your house is like a tight-knit family of students who share the same interests, personality types and ultimately CHARACTER TRAITS as you do. How these are judged you will find out in a few minutes but let me just put a few fears to rest. The way we sort you is utterly painless, I assure you. And also, some of you may be carrying heavy expectations regarding what house to be in. I assure you that if you are not placed in these houses, it is nobody's fault but your own, as if your character really did dictate that you should be in that house you would have been sorted there. With that, good luck."

And with that, she opened the doors. Quite a few gasps escaped the crowd. They were looking into a vast hall with four tables and a long staff table set up at the front. The banners of each house were dangling from the ceilling in brilliant, flashing colors and Severus noted in particular the massive Slytherin serpent banner. Here it goes, he thought, I'm gonna be sorted.

The first years filed in and watched apprehensively as McGonagall placed an old, dusty hat on a stool with extreme reverence. The reason for this was soon made apparent as the hat burst into song.

Oh you may not think that clothing goes well with common sense

But within my threads is woven a strong intelligence

Try me on if you do dare, I'm never, never wrong

Just try me on why don't you? And see where you belong.

Perhaps you are a Gryffindor, with heart of steely sinew

While loyalty and nerve reside quite well within you.

Or possibly in Ravenclaw, they never miss a spot.

The Ravenclaws will always know which is and which is not

Or possibly in Hufflepuff, with hard work and strong loyalty

You'll lead a happy life there, though you might not be royalty

Or maybe Slytherin, they can't tolerate simplicity

To survive in Slytherin you need cunning and duplicity.

So try me on and fear no ill, I know my work quite well.

Though what fate you then await is only yours to tell.

Everybody vehemently applauded the hat's performance of a song without any visible vocal material and McGonagall began the role call.

"Aaron, Thomas!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Abbot, Edward!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Abosti, Guido!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Acklebridge-Snape, Serena!"

Severus held his breath as the hat considered Serena, who was clearly terrified. After a few agonizing seconds the hat screamed:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Serena pulled the hat off and walked over to the Slytherin table, clearly relieved. Severus now simply took to staring around at the great hall as Thomas Bankley was made a Gryffindor. His ears pricked up a few minutes later when McGonagall called out "Black, Bellatrix!" The hat had barely touched Bellatrix's head before it screamed:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Bellatrix sauntered over to the Slytherin table with her usual confident gait. "Black, Sirius" however, was a totally different matter, as the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" after about two seconds of contemplation. Sirius pulled the hat off his head and strode over to the Gryffindor table with arrogance in his posture. Severus snorted.

Five minutes later "Dolohov, Antonin!" was called. The hat took just as long with him as it did with Bellatrix, screaming out:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Severus only vaguely registered that Crabbe was already at the Slytherin table, as more students were called forward. His ears pricked up again at the shout of "Evans, Lillith!" The hat took very long with Lily, twitching in a way that made Severus very uncomfortable and when it finally did decide, the outcome was not welcome.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Severus' face fell. So that was the kind of person who ended up in Gryffindor. Half of him thought the hat had made a mistake, but the other half was berating itself for having made friends with someone who was so obviously not like him.

Lucius, Rodolphus, Augustus and Goyle ended up in Slytherin too and after a VERY long wait it was finally Severus' turn.

"Snape, Severus!"

Severus crossed to the center of the room, threw an arrogant sneer at the Gryffindor table and placed the hat on his head calmly....

And practically jumped out of his skin. The hat was starting to speak to him. "Interesting, quite interesting, you're a Snape and like your father you've got that strong Slytherin inclination. But there are some things here which aren't quite what you see in typical Slytherins. There's an almost foolhardy courage, very Gryffindor, that, quite a bit of talent too. That fits with Ravenclaw. But there is a strong ambition, isn't there? But then again there's also quite a strong conscience. Altogether I think I'll leave it up to you. Which will it be, the cunning snakes or the mighty lions?" Severus was stunned. He had qualities for a GRYFFINDOR? Well, he wasn't going to walk in to Hogwarts that way. He thought what it would be like to be in Gryffindor and repulsed as he thought of being friends with James Potter. He felt a sort of anger at Lily for being stupid enough to enter that house. He'd show her...he'd show her by becoming the greatest wizard ever...

"SLYTHERIN!"

Severus pulled the hat off and walked over to the Slytherin table. He'd made the right choice and he knew it. Slytherin was the best house, there was no doubt about that. He took a seat between Lucius and Antonin, who both smiled at him and watched the rest of the sorting.

After Severus, only two students remained and they were both Slytherins. "Umbridge, Dolores" and "Zolario, Iago" were both sorted there, the former being a very chubby girl with a predatory glint in her eyes and the latter being a very tall and lanky boy with very malevolent looking dark eyes who reminded Severus of Professor Riddle.

That reminded him, he looked up at the staff table and saw Professor Riddle sitting there next to Dalverry Corlagon, the teacher he'd met in Diagon alley, and engaged in a conversation with...Antonin's father! What was he doing here? Dumbledore, the headmaster, arose and clapped his hands. "Tuck in!" he said, and the plates filled instantly.

Severus thought that he'd never eaten so good a dinner in his life. The food was outrageous for one thing, and the company was even better. There was always Lucius and Antonin and the others but Severus also found himself making friends with Iago Zolario and a red-haired witch with two-inch nails called Rita Skeeter.

When everyone had eaten as much as he or she wanted, Dumbledore rose again, clapped his hands, and the food vanished. "First off," said Dumbledore, "I have a few start-of-term announcements to make and then you may retire. Firstly, please note that the Forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students regardless of age or self-confidence," he said, flashing a mischievous smile at the Gryffindor table. "Secondly, please note that we have been unable to find a suitable flying teacher and Quidditch referee owing to the large amounts of Bludgers sustained by our last one, who submitted his resignation last week. However, one of the school governors has graciously consented to teach our flying classes this year. Please welcome Professor Vladimir Dolohov." Antonin's father stood up and grinned at the students, who were applauding him. He then took his seat again. "Thirdly," said Dumbledore, "Our recent History of Magic teacher, Professor Binns, has passed away. However, that does not mean he will cease to teach the subject, for he has very kindly volunteered to continue his job. Please welcome Professor Binns as the first ethereal member of our staff." Binns' ghost floated through the wall, causing several gasps from the assembled students. He then sat down (or rather hovered in the middle of) a chair. Dumbledore was the only one who clapped, as most students knew that Binns was a horribly boring teacher. "Good night," said Dumbledore, and the entire great hall simultaneously rose (with the exception of the ghosts, who floated out through the walls) and retired.

Severus and a bunch of other first years had to gather around a very noisy prefect who told them all, rather over-dramatically, that the password to the common room was "Doxy." They then, along with the other Slytherin house members, followed the much more level headed Prefect who guided them down into the bowels of the school where they soon encountered a dead end. Severus was just beginning to wonder whether they'd been landed with a troll as prefect when he saw that all that lay in front of them was a large statue of a snake with eerily real eyes.

The Prefect stepped up to the statue and rapped sharply on its snout. The Snake statue the moved violently, causing several first year girls to scream. The statue cursed a little before assuming its original posture and hissing "Passssword?"

"Doxy," said the Prefect, and the statue disgruntledly turned into a flight of stairs, which the slytherins descended until they reached their common room.

Severus was amazed at how friendly the common room looked for a place that was supposed to house connivers and schemers. The chairs had backs made of green satin, and a cheery fire was roaring in the grate. Several serpentine tapestries decorated the wall, and he was just stopping to admire them when he was hustled upstairs to the dorms where he found that he was sharing beds with Iago Zolario, Lucius, and a skinny, pale boy called Evan Rosier.

Severus didn't feel much in the mood for conversation because he was asleep before he hit the pillow. And he was far from alone, for the entire Slytherin house had let their fatigue from the day dominate their bodies and succumbed to welcome sleep...