Silver Lining • Harry Potter X Blaise Zabini •

Chapter 2: Lions versus Snakes

Chapter 2: Lions versus Snakes

Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were the current fifth year prefects for Slytherin House. Markus Flint and Angela Burner the seventh year prefects and Edward Worthington and Katie Morson the sixth year ones. Severus gave these six time to introduce the first years to the personal rules of Slytherin house, show them the dorms and generally get them used to the house before he entered.

He waited perhaps half an hour before scooping up the sleeping kitten and heading for the Slytherin Common Room. Coming to the brick wall, he murmured the password he had set at the night before and stepped inside. Despite being situated under the lake, the Common Room was well lit, decorated sedately in green and silver, the house colours and filled with fire places and comfortable leather couches and chairs. Nothing like the gaudy, over decorated Gryffindor house.

As per usual, the prefects had gotten the whole house sitting comfortably in the Common Room, all over the couches and on the floors.
"Greetings" He murmured, moving to stand in front of the large, main fire place.
"Welcome to Slytherin House, I am Professor Snape, the Head of Slytherin House and Potion's Master for Hogwarts" He said for the benefit of those who did not know him.
"Your prefects have introduced you to the rules of our house and understand how we present ourselves to the rest of the school" He said, stroking Silver absentmindedly.
"I ask that you abide by those rules religiously in your time at Hogwarts, Slytherins are not well liked, and house unity is one of the few things we have to protect ourselves against the other houses" He explained.
"If you have inter-house problems, I ask that you speak to a prefect or if that is not an option myself. My door is always open to you, though I do hold office hours and spend one evening a week in the Common Room in order to help with homework, answer questions or give advice" He said, continuing to stroke the sleeping cat.
"This year, Slytherin has a new addition, this is my familiar Silver" He lifted the kitten sightly.
"I ask that you treat him as the mascot of this house, though he is not a snake" This caused a few of the younger years to giggle.
"Watch out for him, he is a curious little kitten and often wanders into trouble" This caused some more laughter.
"We'll protect him Professor" Flint said, grinning lightly at the small cat.

"Do you have any questions?" Severus asked, looking over the students.
"What kind of cat is he?" A brave little firstie asked, his blue eyes sparkling.
"He's a Geoffroy cat, normally a wild cat, native to South America" Severus explained, "He's a kitten, so just a baby" He added, wanting to impress upon the snakes that Silver needed looking after.

"When are Quidditch Tryouts?" A second year asked, Luke Dante if Severus remembered correctly.
"I believe we decided on the second weekend of September, so two weeks" Severus said, looking at Flint for conformation. The Captain nodded, and Severus looked around, offering to answer any more questions.
"When do we get our schedules?" Another firstie asked, this time a female with brown curly hair.
"Tomorrow morning after breakfast, I will be handing them out, if you have any questions or concerns you can talk to me then" Severus said, glancing down as Silver woke up and squirmed out of his lap. He sighed, smirking a bit as the little kitten bounced around the room, exploring everything curiously as only a kitten can do.
"He's adorable" Pansy said, wiggling her fingers at the kitten as Silver crawled onto Blaise Zabini's lap and batted at the Italian boy's robes.
"He sure is" Blaise said, smiling softly at Silver's antics.

Severus still couldn't believe that this kitten was Harry Potter. He and Harry had had a few conversations, but it was much safer to have Harry remain as Silver, and the more Harry remained as Silver the more carefree and happy the boy seemed. He sighed, watching Silver played with the Italian's fingers and Pansy cooed. It was almost hysterically funny seeing Harry Potter play in the laps of his enemies, but Sev was learning a lot about Harry this little while. Harry presented the 'Golden Boy' persona, but it wasn't him. He didn't detest Slytherin, just pretended to because the perfect Gryffindor didn't like Slytherins. He was good at Quidditch and pretended to love the sports because his father loved the sport. But Harry was a lot more complex, a lot more deep and broken then that. Silver gave Harry a chance to escape being Harry Potter-Golden Boy, and Sev was fine with giving him that opportunity.