Better Be Slytherin!

asleep that night.

TBC . . .

A/N: My apologies on the late updates this week. I've been under the weather, and kind of stressy, what with one thing and another, and have just gotten to feeling a bit better today. Thank you, everyone, for your continued support!

Your reviews are wonderful, like a frozen mocha frappachino with an extra shot, and a side of pumpkin bread with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

*Chapter 20*: Chapter 20

Better Be Slytherin! – Chapter 20

By jharad17

Disclaimer: Not mine. I imagine I'll get over it.

Summary: As a first year, Harry is sorted into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor, and no one is more surprised than his new Head of House.

Previously:

Perhaps, though, he should just have the Baron talk to Potter while the boy prepared more potion ingredients. The ghost seemed far better able to deal with the child – or was more consistent with him, at least – and Severus knew he was likely to be short and snappish this evening, even without Potter's temper thrown into the mix.

Yes, that would work. And it would have the added benefit of freeing Severus to visit the Headmaster and show him a few home truths.

Whilst Harry Potter squeezed out enough bobotuber pus to fill twenty four-ounce bottles, Severus paid a visit to the Headmaster. He had been planning this visit ever since he had directed Potter to the Infirmary the first time, and he was annoyed that he actually had more evidence now to lay at the feet of Dumbledore than less. What had the Headmaster been thinking to leave Potter with Muggles? Especially those Muggles? Minerva had said, more than once, that they were the worst sort. And now he knew exactly what she'd meant.

He had been sickened, really, by the callous disregard with which the Dursleys treated their nephew, the lengths they went to, to ensure he felt unwanted, and the outright viciousness that they let their own progeny get away with in regards to his cousin. The whole thing had made him faintly nauseous, and not only because he knew Lily would have been sick at heart about what had happened to her son.

It was with this sense of indignation on behalf of one of his students that he sat in Dumbledore's office and stared at the man over his folded hands.

'You visited the Dursleys today,' Dumbledore said, after Severus had waved away his offer of tea or lemon drop or any other damned thing.

Severus was not even surprised at the Headmaster's knowledge. 'I did. I found the circumstances of Mr. Potter's health at the start of term rather troubling, even for someone from a Muggle home, and I wished to find out what I could about those who raised him. It is my practice for all new Slytherins to make a home visit.'

'I understand, Severus,' Dumbledore said quite calmly. 'There's no need to justify yourself.'

Severus scowled. With what he had learned today, it was Dumbledore who would need to justify his actions. If he could. 'Indeed. And I admit I am troubled by what I learned.'

'Ah.'

'Ah? That's what you have to say? Did you have any idea what those Muggles subjected him to?'

'He was safe there.'

'Define 'safe,'' Severus snarled.

Dumbledore peered at him over the rims of his half-moon spectacles, looking faintly disappointed in Severus' vehemence, but with the beginnings of a glazed expression that Severus knew too well, having seen it many times when they discussed similar problems his Slytherins had suffered in the past. 'None of Voldemort's supporters have been able to breach the blood wards enacted on that property on the night after Lily's death. So long as Harry's aunt gives him hearth rights for a minimum of two weeks a year, every year, that will remain true.'

'And meanwhile, the Muggles can beat him, starve him, and lock him in a cupboard, as they have for ten years! But that's all fine, isn't it, so long as he doesn't face a potential threat from the Dark Lord, such as the one he has already faced at school.'

'Severus, I understand how—'

'You understand nothing!' Severus gripped the arms of the chair till his knuckles turned white. It was always this way, with Albus. He saw everything in the big picture, but never suffered qualms over the details of what his plans and machinations meant to others. Especially when the others were Slytherins. 'Do you want another Dark Lord on your hands? You'll get one if you allow that abuse to continue without stepping in. How will he ever trust the Wizarding world, or not think the worst of the Muggles, if all he knows from both is pain and misery?'

Dumbledore shook his head, his continued calm like a stabbing pain in Severus' side. 'I certainly do not believe it will come to that. I know you have been looking out for the boy since he came to Hogwarts, and from all reports, he is fitting in well with his classmates—'

'And he has almost died twice already!'

'Once by his own hand, of course.'

'Of course.' Severus wasn't sure, exactly, why he had bothered coming here. It was obvious he was going to need to see to this situation on his own. Potter, having committed the cardinal sin of being sorted in Slytherin, was beneath the Headmaster's notice.