The Sorting
“Granger, Hermione!”
The little girl with her bushy hair, and slightly prominent front teeth, almost ran to the stool in her haste to be sorted. Professor McGonagall put the hat on her head, the brim so large it hid her warm brown eyes, and the hall waited. The Sorting Hat hummed and twisted his pointy bit for five and a half minutes before finally yelling :
“Gryffindor!”
And the little girl, Hermione Granger, ran to the red and gold table of students as they were applauding wildly. The stern Transfiguration teacher almost smiled at this sight, but only her gaze was showing it.
“Granger, Titania!”
An identical little girl walked to the stool, almost looking bored. She, too, sat under the hat for a little bit of time. After twelve minutes, the hat was suddenly moving, bellowing :
“Slytherin!”
The little girl waited for the deputy headmistress to take the hat back, but it seems that the unflappable lady was as shocked as the rest of the hall. Sighing, the little Titania took the hat and put it on the stool, mumbling something that resembled a goodbye, and took off for the green and silver themed table in a pregnant silence. Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin House, was the first -and only- person to clap his hands. And he did so slowly, not very enthusiastically, out of duty more than anything else. And when Minerva McGonagall finally called someone else, he sighed and put his head in his hands.
That night, in the Slytherin Common Room, it was Hell, with a capitalized H.
When professor Snape came in, intent on doing his speech after the prefect’s and going open that bottle Minerva gifted him last Christmas, it was pandemonium. Students were shooting at each other, slurs were thrown in without mercy, each and every one of them were at war. Pinching the bridge of his nose, still hidden with the shadows, Severus Snape took a deep breath in. And shot a loud “BANG” with his hand.
“Enough, children,” he said slowly, his dark gaze passing upon everyone. “If you insist on comporting yourselves like dunderheads, then I will treat you as such. Understood?”
There was a blessed moment of silence before all the students mumbled a “yes, professor.”.
“Good. Now… What is the meaning of this?”
His gaze stopped upon Mariella Greenwood, a half-blood girl who happen to be this year’s Head Girl. Despite her blood status, she was well-respected in the House of Snake.
“It was… Uh… Malfoy, sir. He started it, raging that a “mudblood” was sorted in Slytherin. The girl punched him square in the jaw when he attempted to jinx her, and then, everyone was taking sides, and yelling… And then you arrived.”
He nodded, turning his dark eyes on the Malfoy heir. He saw the reddening of his cheeks, at being called out, and also the reddening of the punch on his jaw. The potion master turned his gaze upon the little bushy haired girl, who stared defiantly at him. Her warm honey-brown gaze was unrepentant. Severus withheld a sigh and arched an eyebrow at her.
“I am sorry, professor, to not know enough spells yet to properly chastised this pale dumb posh boy,” she said with a satisfied smirk thrown at the Malfoy heir. “But I will not apologise for being sorted where I will flourish.”
Returning his gaze on Draco Malfoy, the Head of Slytherin waited for a few seconds. When it became clear that the little brat will not apologise, even while defending his acts like the muggleborn girl did, Severus cleared his throat.
“In light of these explications, no punishment will be handed tonight. But. If I ever see anything as uncivilized as tonight’s… altercation, I will be most severely displeased. And you will be deeply sorry. Especially as I will hand out the most rigorous punishments to those I caught.”
All eyes were downcast. Severus allowed himself a self-satisfied smirk, before clearing his face.
“Now… Prefects, have you done your speeches?”
“No professor, we didn’t have time before…” breathed the fifth-year female prefect, Gemma Farley.
“Mh. I will do it, then.”
The dour professor walked to the fireplace, crackling merrily in the silent room.
“Welcome to Slytherin,” he said, eyeing each first year in turn. “You will find that, although our key words are cunning, ambition and self-protection, many do not seem to incarnate these virtues. But, as they landed in our house, we must treat them as such. Inside the Common Room, you are free to hate each other. Outside, however, Slytherin must show themselves as one entity. Out of the four Houses, ours is the most reviled. They say that Slytherin equate Dark, Evil and Cruel. They say that a lot of criminals came in from Slytherin, justifying their hatred for anything clad in the green and silver uniform. They conveniently forgot that many dark witches and wizard came from their House. The Dark Lady Imogen, in the thirteenth century, came from Hufflepuff. The Dark Lord Grigory Burntwood came from Ravenclaw. The Muggleborn terrorist of 1902 came from Gryffindor. They also forget that many Ministers for Magic were Slytherins. They forgot that Merlin himself was a Slytherin.”
All eyes were on him. Even the upper students. It was rare, after all, that their Head of House make the welcoming speech. He was sure that, next year, the prefect’s speech will be similar to his own.
“The first official rule of the House, therefore, is that outside of our Common Room, every Slytherin act as one. No squabble, no name-calling, no sabotaging. If a Slytherin is in trouble, you will come to his aid. I will be very displeased to hear otherwise.”
Some upper years looked guilty, and the potion master committed their name in his memory to investigate later.
“The second official rule of the House is linked to the first. Everything that happen inside the Common Room will stay inside the Common Room. No blabbing about it in the corridors or anything. No matter what. It also means that students from other Houses can’t know our rules.”
The students were more at ease with this rule, assuring the dour professor that they respected it sufficiently.
“Finally, the third official rule of the House is, whatever you are doing that is outside of the school rules… Do. Not. Get. Caught. If I caught you, I would hand punishment in private. If another professor caught you, I would let them handle your punishment without interfering… And add one of mine.”
The Head of Slytherin let himself smirk when seeing the many guilty faces in the crowd. A lot of them were sufficiently cowed to not try to act unruly and getting caught again.
“Within the first week, first-years will have the prefect showing them the castle. No classes yet, but familiarisation with your new environment. I will also meet with every first-year, alongside Madam Pomfrey the mediwitch. We will evaluate your health, physical and mental. It is a mandatory check-up in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff too. I do not think that Professor McGonagall do it this way for her Gryffindors, but I will insist in it, like I do every year. The list of appointments will be clipped to the announce board tomorrow morning, alongside the new Common Room password for this week.”
Severus was clearly displeased with his colleague, even knowing the woman was swamped with other duties. He has made his opinion known during many staff meeting.
“At the end of each month, we will have a mandatory House Meeting. I will hear your concerns, your fears and your opinions on your schooling. I will also assign tutoring if I see your grades are not at least at an Acceptable Level. The rankings will be permanently clipped on the announce board. It is self-updating. The three best students in each year will be rewarded. The three students who will have scored the most House Points will be rewarded. The three students who will have lost the most House Points will be punished. The one with the most detention will see me to discuss his behaviour.”
Some students were glowing with pride, whereas other were reddening in shame.
“In the Common Room, you will find many facilities that the other Houses don’t have. There is a Library, where you can add copies of your books for your fellow students if it isn’t already in the registry. These books, however, are not to be taken outside of the Common Room. There is also a training room, where you can practice your spells. There will always be a house-elf on duty of watching, so they can help if anything gets out of hands. There is a duelling room, but you will have to book it to use it, and there always must be an elf to be on watch duty. They will call for me if there is an emergency. Finally, there is a potion lab. You also must book your station if you want to use it, and each ingredient you take in the cupboard, you need to replace it within the week.”
Each door leading to the facilities he listed glowed when he showed it. The library has a giant book carved in the dark wood, the training room has a single wand carved in the pale wood, the duelling room has two wands crossed on the golden wood, and the potion room has a cauldron bubbling carved on the cherry-red wood.
“The dorms are below the Common Room. The stairs on the left, with the silver doorway, leads to the boys. The stairs on the right, with the silver doorway, leads to the girls. The first-years dorms are at the bottom, and the seventh-years’ are at the top. If a boy tries to get in the girls dorm, the charms on the stairs will freeze him and alert me. If a girl tries to get in the boys dorm, it will be the same. Curfew is at eight In the evening, and lift at five in the morning. First and second-years must be in their dorms at nine, at the latest. Third to fifth-years must be in their dorm at ten, at the latest. Six and seven-years must be in their dorms at eleven, at the latest. Is that understood?”
A chorus of “yes, sir” filled the air.
“Good. One last announcement. If I caught you using slurs, against anyone, I will be the harshest you will ever see. You may be children, but you are still civilized enough to not resort to these words. You may conveniently forget it, but the most famous words of our Founder are not “Blood Purity above anything else”. It is “Blood matters, but ability and power matters more”. Good night.”
With these words, he walked to the black door near the fireplace and closed it behind him, finally in his office. His brandy was waiting for him in his liquor cabinet. He just needed to schedule his appointments with the first-years, and he could finally savour his drink.