The Silent Order: Draco Malfoy

Chapter 2

"DID YOU TELL THE HAT TO PLACE YOU IN SLYTHERIN HOUSE?" Dumbledore scream-asked me after dinner.

Apparently, my sorting had caused a ruckus. Dumbledore kept his cool until dinner was over and speeches beckoning a fruitful schoolyear said. Before I was allowed to follow the Slytherin prefect to my new House to get the grand tour, Dumbledore pulled me aside and we marched up to his office with Snape and McGonagall in tow. Snape was carrying the Sorting Hat who had gone all giggly, blaming it on the feast and the Butterbeer.

"You can ask the hat to sort you into the House you want to be in?" I asked.

He let go of his grip on me and started pacing his office, mumbling nonsense under his breath.

Snape and McGonagall exchanged a look as if silently battling over which of them had the unfortunate pleasure of attempting to placate him. Apparently, McGonagall lost.

"Perhaps all isn't so bad, sir," she said. "Lilian will be in Severus's House and can watch out for her. As he does now."

But this didn't seem to ease the headmaster, who continued his pacing while arguing with the other two professors.

"What's so bad about being in Slytherin House?" I asked.

The three of them stopped their squabbling to look at me. Although I had grown up here, I was kept somewhat isolated from the other students at Hogwarts as I was so much younger. The most I understood about the Houses were their colors and they all wanted the other Houses to lose to theirs at Quidditch. I was only a child, surrounded by adults and kids who were older than me and generally uninterested in my existence. It's not like the official Hogwarts students took me in to gossip with them.

"It's just that a lot of bad, dark wizards went to Slytherin House," said McGonagall. "We all three of us care about you dearly, and we would hate to see you go down such a path."

"But Snape was in Slytherin House when he studied here, and he isn't bad?" I asked. While I didn't have a particularly warm and fuzzy relationship with either of my two adopted fathers, if I had to pick a favorite between the two, it would have to be Snape. But this may just be because I tended to spend most of the school breaks with him. Perhaps my favoritism was tinged with proximity bias. In any case, Snape was at least around.

My question hung in the air awkwardly to no response. My primary guardian, Snape, came to my rescue:

"Sir, if I may; the hallmark qualities of a Slytherin are cunning and ambition. Neither requires evildoing...." he paused, "It just so happens that the capacity to inflict great harm is accompanied by both intelligence and greed. But a cunning beneficient could easily convince, say, the Minister of Magic, to allocate funds to honorable causes, and one doesn't get an audience with a high-ranking politician were it not for a prior inclination toward ambition. After all, one wouldn't receive counsel from someone who wasn't already something. Sir?" Snape finished.

Dumbledore had ceased his frantic pacing and had approached a stone pool into which he was staring intently. "You're not wrong, Severus," he said. "Of course, those of us with potential to do great things could also do bad things well. Which is all my worry."

"I know you're worried," said McGonagall, "but we should at least let Lilian show us who she is before telling her she is bound to be a dark wizard simply because of her Hogwarts House."

"You're both quite right," Dumbledore stated, calmer now. He set his wand up to his temple and drew out a long, shiny hair of light, letting it descend into the stone pool he hunched over.

...

Dumbledore let Snape escort me to Slytherin House. It was now after curfew.

"Thank you for letting me stay in Slytherin House. Do you think Dumbledore could have forced the Hat to re-sort me?" I asked.

"That would naturally be impossible," he answered.

Got it. Not in a great mood.

"Sev, just how many dark wizards come from Slytherin House?" I asked.

"Now is an indecent time for this conversation," he said as we entered the Slytherin common room. "But remember this: do not allow others to assume the worst of you because of your Sorting. Not even the headmaster. It is true that many dark wizards have emerged from Slytherin House. It is also true that a great many other evil wizards were sorted into the other three Houses."

A streak of blonde flashed across my peripheral vision, approaching the entry to the common room. Was Draco trying to sneak out right in front of Snape?

Snape turned about and grabbed Draco by the scruff of his neck and pulled him in front of us.

"Going for a midnight stroll are we?" he asked.

"What's it to you?" Draco asked as his stomach grumbled.

Snape rolled his eyes as if handling bratty kids was part of his daily routine. "You cannot be out of bed after curfew. Wait here while I see if the elves have any leftovers. But I'm letting you off easy just this once. In any other circumstance you would have lost House points for being out of bed after curfew and then talking back to your Head of House," he said, "but since I happen to require a tour guide for my ward I will humor you once."

"Tour guide, sir?" he snipped.

"Yes, Lilian was talking with myself and the headmaster until now. She missed the introductory tour. I need you to show her around Slytherin House and tell her how to get to her classes tomorrow morning," he told Draco, handing me a piece of paper with my weekly class schedule. "If you're a good little first-year I will reward you with a half-stale cookie from the kitchens in 20 minutes."

And with that, Snape let go of Draco and left the common room. Draco sized me up, clearly unhappy to be stuck with me. He made no move to actually show me around. I responded with nothing as well.

Finally he got annoyed with my standing there staring at him with a blank look.

"Obviously, this is the common room," he said gesturing widely. "The girls' dorms are down the left hallway, the boys' on the right. And as for your classes I assume you can just follow me around tomorrow since all the first-year Slytherins have the same schedule," he finished as he began to walk away.

"Oh actually I'm not in first-year classes..." I said.

He stopped walking away and turned back to look at me with both a confused and exasperated expression.

"Come again?" he asked.

"Since I've lived here my whole life I kind of started the Hogwarts curriculum when I was eight. Only in private tutoring though, never in a class with others. I'm technically a fourth-year in academics," I answered.

"You've lived here your whole life and you don't even know where the classrooms are?" he shook his head, "If you're in fourth-year classes just follow around a fourth-year tomorrow. Problem solved," he stated as he began to walk away again. "And I supposed if you get lost and scared you can go cry to your...dads?" he laughed.

"I don't really have dads but ok thanks for being a useless brat," I muttered under my breath. He paused as if he'd heard me but didn't acknowledge my insult before disappearing down the hall to the boys' dormitories.

...

I made my way down the girls' hall. The names for the girls who lived in each of the rooms were posted to the doors.

Daphne Greengrass

Milicent Bulstrode

Pansy Parkinson

Lilian Snape-Dumbledore

I entered a room with four beds, three of which were occupied by three sleeping bodies. I would have time to introduce myself to my roommates tomorrow.

I was mostly concerned about not waking anyone up as I changed into my pajamas and crept into the empty bed – my bed. Only it wasn't empty. A large black cat occupied the foot of my bed. It peered up at me when it noticed someone had joined it and blinked slowly.

As I got into bed I realized that the cat hadwarmed it nicely as I dozed off.