Chapter 10 - First night with the ‘family’

-A.N- As you may or may not know, this will eventually turn into a multiverse fanfic. For now we have a relatively slow start with the story and all. I wanted to ask if you liked the pace or didn;t like it. Not that I would change it if you didn't though it's nice to ask.

After Dumbledore called us nitwits, we were gathered around by our prefects, a 5th year named Gemma Farley, who couldn't help but sneer whenever her eyes graced my form, that little skank and another dolt whose name is not important. They both led us to the dungeons where the Slytherin snakes slithered at night to roost. We soon arrived at the dorm entrance.

"Listen up!" Gemma began "To enter the dorms you need the password which will change weekly. It will be posted on the board in the common room. Also, the door is inaccessible after 9pm so if you have business after those hours, you'd better have someone on the other side to open up or you'll be sleeping on the floor. Got it?"

The other firsties nodded.

"Okay, the password for this week is 'anguis labebantur'" I couldn't help but snicker when I heard the password 'Who put slithering snake in latin as a password? Hehe'

"Got a problem, Morgan?" said Gemma with ice in her voice.

"None whatsoever, Ms. Farley" I responded with a sickly sweet smile that, even if I didn't know her at the time, would put a certain pink toad to shame.

"Hmp, you'd better not but what am I talking about, people like you are nothing but problems"

"People like me, Ms. Farley, oh I do wonder what you mean" I replied with my smile going even deeper.

That seemed to put her off for the moment as she simply snorted and lead us all into the common room.

"Alright, listen up! House rules!" began the other prefect "Slytherin is a house that stands united. Whatever problems you might have against each other, they stay here in this room. Outside we are one, we already have enough problems as it is with how the others see us" at the last statement he gave a small look towards Gemma who was sitting near him and still looking at me with disdain.

'This guy might be decent enough but we'll see if he practices what he preaches' I thought to myself.

"You all got that? Good, if you don't then things will get ugly for you. Not from us but from Professor Snape, our head of house. As you have no doubt noticed, he is the professor of Potions and thus, he expects Slytherins to be the best in his class so read your books before each class. You will raise your hands when he asks a question. He might ignore you but he will notice the effort. Do not raise your hands if you THINK you know the answer, raise them if you DO know the answer. Do I make myself clear?"

Cue collective nods from everyone, even me, no reason to disregard decent advice even if I'm an ass.

"Good, now for the dorms, due to the low number of students this year, each of you will be staying in single rooms. There are rooms that are better and some that are worse, decide amongst yourselves the method through which you choose them. Now, tomorrow be early for breakfast as that is the time where Professor Snape will be handing out your class schedules. If you don't know where to go or have any questions seek me or any other prefect out. For the first week, no Slytherin first year will be going alone through Hogwarts, one prefect will accompany you all so that you can get familiar with the location for your classes so we all leave together and if you are late then prepare for punishment by all of us. Got that?"

Nods all around once again.

"Next, we strongly recommend that you all travel in groups, especially this year. Due to our… reputation… let's say there are some people who like to play pranks if they find a first year Slytherin alone on the corridors. Beware the Weasley twins, you can't miss them. Got it? Good, you have 10 minutes to decide your sleeping arrangements while we leave you alone" saying his last piece, the prefect, I would have to learn his name at some point, left us to our own devices.

The girls separated from us and went in the opposite corner of the room in order to decide amongst themselves so I was left looking at Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, Nott and George. A small selection indeed, only 7 students in a new year, I could guess why we each had separate rooms.

Malfoy looked at the other guys and nodded to them, getting a nod in return from Zabini and George while Nott seemed resigned. No need to mention Crabbe and Goyle, they seemed to follow the blond ponce like he was their little fem-boy.

"Listen here mudblood!" Malfoy said while arrogantly looking at me.

I ignored him and picked my ear.

"Mudblood!"

I inspected my nails, my trim was still good.

"Listen here you bastard!" he yelled.

I looked at him and his face was beginning to look like a Weasley.

"Did you say something, Malfoy?"

"Don't ignore me mudblood!" he shrieked.

"Better question, who is mudblood?" I asked with a perfect look of bewilderment.

"YOU, YOU'RE THE MUDBLOOD!"

"No, I'm Femto"

"Don't get smart with us, mudblood" intervened Zabini while Draco looked like he was about to pop. So quick to anger that one.

"Maybe I should say it slo~wer. Me" I pointed at myself "Femto. You-" I pointed at Malfoy "Draco. You" I pointed at Crabbe and Goyle "Frankly, I don't know what you are" I said while shaking my head.

Draco was livid now while his two mooks were just sitting there confused. Blaise was getting angry while Nott had an expression between amusement and worry. And George, nobody cared about George, George didn't matter.

I was just sporting a smile as I looked at the 4 of them.

"Okay, okay, let's all take a breather" intervened Nott before the tension in the air exploded "Now, Morgan, what Malfoy meant is that you should take the room that is farthest away from us due to your status. Right Malfoy?" the ferret nodded "You will take it, yes?" he said while looking at me. I could see him muttering 'Do it quickly' under his breath.

'I could not do it and have some more fun with the idiots but Nott stuck his neck out for me, even if he wouldn't really harm him. But still, he was trying to be a bro' I mused to myself.

"Now, why didn't he say it like that, of course I would acquiesce to the demand of my friend, Draco Malfoy!" I said my piece and left the gathering before Draco's vein could pop and spray my face with his blood though I did hear the beginning of something-something about his father and his hearing. That boy was truly strange.

As I left I passed by Nott and muttered low enough for him to hear "As if I wanted to be anywhere near that little boy as he was getting spit-roasted by his tops. Thanks anyway, bro"

Nott hid a smirk of his own and shook his head.

For the rest of the room negotiations, because that's what they really were, an exercise for the older years to see which of them would be the better negotiators and a way of training for the first years. Nott did get it while Malfoy failed spectacularly, don't know about the other stooges. Even if I was a 'mudblood' Malfoy should have approached this from a different angle and subtly insulted me while making me give up and take the last room plus I didn't even believe it for a second that the older years didn't actually listen to us in one way or another. Heck, even Snape could be listening in but the man seemed to dour to do so.

The firsties couldn't really complain about being spied on in the common room because, if you blurted out family secrets in an open space, you were an idiot plain and simple.

A couple of minutes later the prefects came back to us.

"You all got it? Good. Boys follow me while girls follow Farley" said the male prefect.

The boys and I went to the first year dorms area and we all split up for our rooms. Malfoy went to one in the middle while his tard-wranglers who were special themselves chose rooms on either side of his. The rest of us spread out with me getting the farthest room in the corridor.

As soon as I entered my room, I saw Grimgor and his cage there but before going and freeing my boy, I took out my wand, a beautiful 9 ¾ inch of grey beech wood with a core of a phoenix feather. A wand made for intricate spellcasting, for the subtlety of magic, not for sheer destructive power. (AN I'm not going to give Femto the classical wand made of Yew and Thestral hair lol, nor some wand made by Ollivander's ancestors in 3000 bc. Or something absurd like that. A good wand's all I need)

I came back to myself after admiring my wand and then took out my trunk from its resting place and put it on the ground. I tapped the wand to the trunk and it enlarged back to its normal size. I could, of course channel magic without a wand but seeing as I am currently in an unknown environment, better to get rid of some variables.

I then casted some of the first spells that I learned once I had access to Diagon Alley. Were they destructive or cutting spells? No, my firsts were detection spells. For offense and defense I had my TK.

'Nothing inside the room, guess the older years either don't care about me that much, are not as malicious as I thought or didn't have time to set up anything in my room' I mused to myself. Maybe I gave the wizards and witches too much credit but in a house as infamous as Slytherin I would fully expect hidden, relatively medium on the difficulty scale, surveillance to be in our rooms but mine had nothing.

I sighed 'Maybe I really give them too much credit, nevertheless, must maintain vigilance'

I pulled down my wand and whispered "Dippet".

*pop*

My trustworthy aid apparated in my room and, without my prompting, began to cast magic in order to detect surveillance. Nodding at finding none, he enveloped us in a silent bubble so that no one might hear our talk.

"You have activated protocol Beta, Master?" he said in one of his rare moments of seriousness.

"Plans have changed, Dip" I nod to him.

"House of Snakes?"

"House of Snakes"

"I understand, I shall set up the counter-measures for the room. Early warning or full-on frontal?" he narrowed his eyes at the last one.

"Early warning for now, let's see if they escalate"

"And if they do? Shall I take care of them, master?"

"No, I'll do it myself" I said in a grim tone.

"Understandable. Now, please let the Young Lord out before he throws a fit while I set everything up" I nodded and went to Grimgor's cage and let him out. He swatted his paws at me as if saying that I took to long.

"Apologies, Grim, took longer than I anticipated" I told him while he nodded and went about to explore. Hogwarts was actually quite cool with pets, they could roam the castle freely while the house elves fed and watered them, as Dippet told them.

I sat down on my bed while I waited for Dip to finish. I was quite tired after the long day but we still needed to talk.

"Done, Master. Shall I organize your belongings?"

"Please"

He nodded and snapped his finger and my belongings flew out of the trunk and arranged themselves in the room. I rose up from my bed and sat at the newly placed table with 2 chairs. Dippet sat in the other chair and brought up two cups of tea.

I took mine and sipped it, feeling the energy coming back to me, albeit for a while with Dip doing the same.

"Hogwarts wards giving you any problems?" I asked my loyal servant.

"None whatsoever, they were designed to permit elves to come. From what I felt they used to have the function of blocking foreign elves not registered to the school but from my guesses it seems that it is probably deactivated"

"Good to know, at least we don't have to use countermeasure one"

"Indeed, I would hate to have to break our bond, even for a little, Master" said Dippet while releasing a sigh.

"Any changes that you would suggest to my plan, Dip?"

"Aggressiveness, Master"

"Thought so as well, I will continue to observe and wait and if things turn out as I feel they will…"

"You shall, as you humans put it, lay down the law"

*nod* "It all depends on them, really. They either leave me alone and go on with their lives or.." I drifted off.

"Or they kneel"

"Or they kneel"

We then finished our tea in silence with Dippet going back to my house while I went to bed and promptly fell asleep.

—

AN. Chapter out. Hope you enjoyed it.

Will the Slytherins ignore the 'mudblood'?

Or will they be arrogant and push the boundaries?

Hmm.