leo et serpens

Part 1

Harry sighed as he sat in the great hall with his friends for what was possibly the last time before his re-sorting. Everyone but him was extremely adamant that he would be sorted back into Gryffindor, where else could he possibly be sorted, really? That was what Ron was saying anyway. But he didn't know whether he could trust him anymore anyway. He had gotten into a massive fight with all of the Weasleys and Hermione the night before at the Black Manor. Could he really trust them if they thought that him being in Slytherin would really end their friendship?

Harry was trying to stay positive, but the hat had wanted him in Slytherin in his first year, hadn't it? He was trying to distract himself with his friends but it wasn't working. What would Sirius think? He had always hated Slytherin. He would be so disappointed. So would his parents. He tried to shake the thoughts out of his mind as he walked up to the hat and sat down after McGonagall had explained everything to the rest of the hall about how there was a technical error and Harry had to be re-sorted.

He sighed again as the hat was placed on his head, it wasn't that big on him that he couldn't see anymore, so he looked out at all of his peers staring at him, and closed his eyes. "It's very rare for me to sort one student more than once, Mr Potter. You must be special if Dumbledore has me doing it twice." The hat whispered in Harry's ear.

"You have no idea." Harry thought in his head, but it seemed like the hat heard him all the same.

"Have you reconsidered my comments from a few years ago? Slytherin could help you on the way to greatness. Not to mention that it would give you another chance to learn something new. You have always been a Gryffindor, yes, but maybe you have learned all you can from that house, and it's time to move you into another one? Slytherin could help you to fulfil your greatest ambitions. That is one of their many traits after all. And while I can see that you may not like certain students there, I can also see that you have the potential to do great things with them. Like, Mr Malfoy for instance? I remember sorting his father and mother quite a few years ago. He is nothing like his father, you two might actually be able to get along."

"I doubt I'll ever get along with Draco Malfoy of all people but I suppose you could be right about me being able to learn more there. I guess I haven't exactly been able to really be myself in Gryffindor. I've always felt that I had to act exactly how everyone else expected me to. I guess that in Slytherin, while they might perceive me the same, I could also get the chance to learn more. Everyone has always painted Slytherin in a particularly evil light, and I actually want to see where that perspective comes from. If I stay in Gryffindor, I might never get the chance to learn more about how Slytherins interact with each other. Put me where you think I would do best."

The whole hall was muttering at this point. A sorting hadn't taken this long in almost a century. And Harry had been there for almost twenty minutes by that point. "AFTER HAVING SOME TIME TO TALK WITH MR POTTER AND SEE INTO HIS HEAD, I THINK THE PLACE HE WILL BEST FOR IS... SLYTHERIN" Everyone went silent and then the Gryffindors started screaming about how it was all unfair.

Snape quickly took Harry aside and cast a silencing spell around them both so that no one else could hear what they were saying, as started practically interrogating Harry. "I don't know why you have been placed in my house, Potter. But now that you have, I have no intention of treating you any differently than I have been already. That said if you have any problems with any of the houses, feel free to come and speak to me about it. I will speak to the other Slytherins about this as well." He pulled Harry to the Slytherin table and expanded the silencing spell to cover the whole table and not just the two of them. "I want to make this clear to you all now. If any of you treat Mr Potter as anything but a Slytherin, as he is one of you now, you will be answering straight to me. Is that understood?" He pointedly looked at Draco at that, as if to emphasize his point.