Slytherin’s New Star

"Welcome to Slytherin children. For those of you who are new to our school this will be your common room for the next seven years. The male dorms are on the left side, the females to the right. My office is before the door to the common room and is marked as such. I expect you all to behave as per the rules listed on the wall behind me. Remember that you will be treated far more harshly than the other houses and so we must provide a strong front. For that reason I do not want to hear of any arguments in public."

With a nod to his prefects the students were thus divided and taken to their rooms to unpack.

A few minutes later and Draco Malfoy had already claimed the 'best bed' in his specific dorm room before addressing another issue.

"Something wrong with your bed Potter?"

The green-eyed boy glanced up, noting who was addressing him.

"Not at all, why do you ask?"

"I don't see you unpacking anything."

Harry returned a smile, "Oh I didn't have time to go school shopping before classes started. Hopefully I can pick some things up in the next week or two. But with my lack of money to use I am not sure how that will…"

The room practically erupted into laughter, and the boy tilted his head in curiosity.

"Having money problems Potter? I thought with all of that fame money you would be parading about already."

The boy shrugged before a white owl came flying in through one of the charmed windows to land on his shoulder. Due to their underground location magic was applied to various windows to allow for a viewing of the outside weather, along with having owls enter and exit for mail delivery.

"What do you expect from a Half-blood Draco? He probably doesn't even know what a 'Wand' is."

Again more laughter flooded the first and second year dorm at Nott's verbal jab.

Harry merely smiled once more, as if enjoying a joke that only he understood.

...

Severus Snape strode towards his potions class room for the first day of class with the newest students, a sneer forming on his face as he began to think over of what he had seen thus far. Crabbe and Goyle were just as dimwitted as their fathers were, Draco was already acting like a typical Pureblood, and none of the others had stood out.

Well, except for one, Harry bloody Potter.

How in the world Potter had ended up in his house was beyond the Potions Master. Either fate was cruel beyond belief or someone had finally managed to figure out a way to charm the Sorting Hat… his money was on the Weasley twins.

Regardless he was stuck with the boy for now, unless he could convince Dumbledore to transfer him elsewhere.

He pushed open the door as he made his way towards the front of the classroom. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the raven-haired boy was turning through the last few pages of his text book, glancing at each page for a moment before continuing on.

Perhaps he hadn't read in advance as all of the others had been told to do, this put the professor in a difficult spot. Severus had a general philosophy, never take points from Slytherin. It wasn't that he hated the other houses, it was for the simple task of isolating his own house more than they already were. Slytherin is the house of cunning, of manipulations, and, surprisingly enough, of unity. By forcing the other houses to develop that rivalry it helped the talented students from the house of snakes adapt and grow far faster than they normally would have.

No reason to let them get lazy after all.

The problem was that he wanted to take points from the boy so very badly . Lily's son or not, he resembled James Potter far more than the angelic woman who was his mother.

"Potter"

"Sir"

At least the boy knew respect, regardless of his father, "It appears you did not read ahead as was suggested before school began."

The boy just smiled back, "I seem to have missed that information sir, my apologies."

A patented sneer formed on his face, and he ignored the whimpers of several Gryffindors. "There is no excuse, so tell me… what is the last ingredient added to our first potion, the 'boil removal'?" There was no way the boy would remember such a fact, and although it would cost Slytherin some points…

"Powdered goat bones"

The man halted, the boy was right… but he certainly didn't expect him to be.

"Correct…"

Maybe he had actually read ahead and just pretended not to? Interesting…

"Then perhaps you could inform the class how many times to stir a 'Wolfesbane' potion?"

It would be almost four months before they even studied this, there would be no reason he would know…

"Nine, five clockwise and four counterclockwise."

Now even the other students looked surprised.

What followed would go down in Hogwarts legend as the Professor tried nearly a dozen different questions from various chapters in the book, and Harry answering each question easily. By the end nearly all of the Slytherins had brought out parchment, along with Hermione Granger from Gryffindor, to take notes for future reference. The rest of the lions were simply staring in shock as the boy, who they all thought for sure would end up in their house, breeze through the 'test'.

"One hundred points to Slytherin…" If Snape couldn't take points due to the boy's failure, then he would certainly not miss the opportunity to begin working towards the House Cup.

"Wh-what that isn't fair! You didn't even give us a chance!"

Ah yes, trust a Gryffindor, especially a Weasley, to make a scene and present an opportunity. "Is that right Mr. Weasley? Tell me then, what is the last ingredient in the 'boil removal' potion?" The boy faltered, and glanced around as if to get some sort of clue.

Ignoring the desperate hand raising, practically flailing, of the bushy-haired Gryffindor Snape stalked towards his target. "Come now Mr. Weasley, surely you can at least copy Mr. Potter's answers."

The boy's face turned almost as red as his hair. A sure fire way of getting a reaction from the 'house of the brave' was to imply that they were inadequate to another house, especially his own.

"Well? I gave Mr. Potter half this time to answer. A response if you will."

"I… I don't know sir…"

"Ten points from Gryffindor for poor preparations. I would not expect someone of your caliper to be as informed as a Slytherin but I do expect reading up on what we will be working on for that day." With that the man turned back to the front of the room, before a wave of his wand displayed a list of components for them to collect.