Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 6: Day One in the Snake Pit

2 September 1991

Harry awoke from eight hours of wonderful sleep in the most comfortable bed he'd ever been allowed to even touch. As his roommates stirred around the First Year Slytherin dorm, he thought back to the night before. Jim had, of course, gone into Gryffindor and actually had the temerity to look hurt and betrayed when Harry went Slytherin. The Weasel had joined him, as had (surprisingly) the timid Longbottom boy and (less surprisingly) Hermione. Poor Longbottom looked terrified of everything and probably might have been happier in Hufflepuff, but from his observations before boarding the Hogwarts Express, Harry gathered that his parents had been Lions and that his grandmother and especially his great-uncle would deem him a failure if he hadn't followed suit. Still, if the boy got some confidence, maybe he could adapt to his new situation. Hermione, as he'd suggested on the train, might actually do quite well in Gryffindor if she could adapt to that house's anarchic culture.

The Hat actually called Draco Malfoy for Slytherin before it sat all the way down on his head, which Harry found amusing. It sorted Blaise Zabini nearly as fast, but took a few minutes for Theo Nott, a shy, thin boy who seemed almost ... resigned to being a Slytherin. There were four girls also sorted into Slytherin: Greengrass, Davis, Parkinson and Bulstrode. Malfoy – for the two were not yet on a first name basis – quietly told Harry that Greengrass and Parkinson were both Purebloods from Noble (but not Ancient) families, while Davis and Bulstrode were both Half-bloods from "unimportant" families. Despite their differing backgrounds, Greengrass and Davis somehow knew each other and were friends. Bulstrode seemed a bit of a loner, while Parkinson practically cooed over Draco. She hinted that Draco and she had an arranged marriage ("At the age of eleven?!" thought Harry), the mention of which caused Draco to turn a bit green.

Crabbe and Goyle also made it into Slytherin. In fact, their Sortings were the reason Harry's own took several minutes. The Hat immediately suggested Slytherin, and in principle, Harry didn't object. But he'd spent time talking to Crabbe and Goyle on the train, and during his Sorting, Harry had bluntly asked the Hat how two monosyllabic slabs of beef could have gotten into "the house of cunning and ambition." The Hat hemmed and hawed before finally admitting that it had tried to direct both boys into Hufflepuff, but it was bound by certain rules put in place during the Middle Ages to sort children of "vassal families" into the same houses as their "liege lords." The Crabbes and Goyles (and to a lesser extent, the Parkinsons) were bound to the Malfoys by magical contracts dating back several centuries, the nature of which the Hat was not at liberty to disclose. But if Harry wanted to learn more about such things, he should definitely go to Slytherin because there were quite a few snakes hidden in the paintings and worked into furnishings of their dormitory that, in the Hat's opinion, were "prone to gossip." Since exploring his Parseltongue gift in controlled and discrete circumstances was high on Harry's to-do list, that was a clincher.

Of course, the placement of the Boy-Who-Lived's mysterious brother came off as quite a scandal. Dumbledore looked disappointed, as did "Mum." More troubling was the fact that Professor Snape, his head of house, looked outright homicidal. Later, he would send the prefects to deliver the orientation speech to the Slytherin First Years. According to some of the older students, that was the first time he hadn't welcomed the students personally since any of them had been at Hogwarts. Oh, and for some reason, the DADA instructor gave him a sharp headache every time he turned his head.

On the bright side, Harry's extended Sorting also gave him an idea for how to spin his Slytherin status. "I begged the Hat for Gryffindor, honest I did! But then, it asked why and I said I wanted to help protect Jim! And then the Hat said 'Well, where do you think most threats to the Boy-Who-Lived are going to come from?' So I thought it over ..." That, to Harry, seemed plausible enough for James to believe, and going undercover among "the slimy snakes" seems like something that would amuse a prankster like him. Harry resolved to send a letter to his birth-father right after breakfast.