“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
-Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray

There was a warm and inviting speech from Dumbledore right after the feast. In which he also added the rules about how no student is allowed to be in the Forbidden Forest and that the door on the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out-of-bounds. Harry got up from the table to walked with the other Slytherins toward the Slytherin Common Room.

Harry was still unsure about the sorting and his choosing of friends, but he knew that there was nothing he could do about it now. He was a Slytherin and there was nothing he could do anymore. He was now friends with Draco Malfoy, if you could call Malfoy a friend. He’d only known him for a couple hours.

Harry wasn’t in that good of a mood and the fact that students, whether they were a first year or a fifth year, were looking at him and his scar. Every time he looked up, he caught someone else’s eyes moving up toward his scar in awe. He could hear whispers all around him. “I can’t believe Harry Potter became a Slytherin!” said a girl loudly not even caring that he was standing right there. She walked by and Harry noticed that she looked like a fourth year.

From the Great Hall, an older girl from Slytherin walked the first years around a couple corridors and down two flights of stairs. They seemed to now be in the dungeons of Hogwarts. They walked until they came to a regular spot of stonewall. What are we doing here? Where’s the Common Room and the Dormitories? The older student said, “Awakening” and part of the stone wall magically formed into a stone door, that slid away to reveal the Slytherin Common Room. Harry found out that to get into the Common Room later, he would have to remember that password.

After all the first years were inside the a Common Room, a professor he recognized form the High Table came to “welcome” them. Harry couldn’t quite see the professor because of all the other first years in front of him.

Harry looked around before the professor spoke. Like outside, the room had stonewalls and set around the room were various dark green chairs and couches and a couple tables. On one wall there was a fireplace with a large fire.

Harry heard the professor clear his throat, so he turned back from looking at the room.

“New Slytherin’s, I’d like to welcome you to Hogwarts. I am the Head of Slytherin House. I am Professor Severus Snape. But… since you are all in my House, you may call me Snape. This room you are all standing in is the Common Room and if you follow those stairs downward you will come to find your dormitories. Now lets get straight to the point,” said Snape, waiting for some of the other Slytherin’s to calm down.

“Look at the people around you. These are your allies, your classmates, and most of all, your friends. Do not cross one another, for you may never know who you will need in the future. Here are the rules: One. I am warning you now; I am not someone to cross. I will not take crap from any of you. Two. There is to be no fighting among you outside these Slytherin walls. I will not have one of you, making the rest of us look bad. Do what you will here. And three. No one is to go into the Forbidden Forest and you must not be out past the Slytherin walls after dark. And another thing, no one, no one is allowed to go on the third floor corridor on the right hand side. Yes, Professor Dumbledore told you this, but I am saying it again. Heed these words,” said Snape, as he waited for a dramatic pause, which definitely worked. “That is what you need to know. The secrets within these castle walls will become apparent to you overtime. For there is much each of you have yet to learn. For now, go to your dormitories and do what you will.”

The other students in front of Harry began walking toward the stairs that lead downward toward the dormitories.

Harry turned and saw Snape looking at him. Now, after getting closer to Snape, he could see the professor a lot better than from behind all his other classmates. Snape was very pale with long, oily black hair and a large nose. It seemed that the teacher had a very noticeable dislike for Harry. Harry could almost see anger in Snape’s eyes. Why is Snape looking at me like I did something seriously wrong? I haven’t crossed him. Have I? Harry had never met Snape in his entire life, before today. That Harry was sure of. He definitely would have remembered seeing someone like him.

Harry looked away, but he could still feel Snape’s eyes on him. He began walking down the stone steps. The only thing lighting their way were torches evey two feet. The further he went down, the colder it got. But the cold didn’t seem to be bothering anyone else. It was as if they didn’t even notice it. Harry tugged at his cloak to wrap it around him more.

“Cold, Potter?” someone asked from behind. Harry didn’t even check who it was. He didn’t recognize the voice anyway.

“Yeah, a bit,” Harry replied back. Why didn’t anyone else notice that it was getting colder. I hope that there are fireplaces in the dormitories. Or else I’ll freeze to death before classes even start.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, the hall split into two corridors. The older girl student that had led them to the Common Room told them that boys were to the left and girls to the right. He saw her lead the girls down the other corridor. Harry turned to follow the rest of the boys. Again he saw torches lighting their way. At first there were no doors, only engravings in the walls on either side of them. They were of two huge snakes entwined in each other. On the stone ground, there was now a deep red carpet leading to the end of the hall, which was a dead end. On the wall at the end there was one huge snake in a large spiral with its tongue out.

“Oh! Cool! I like the snakes,” said a boy who was standing in front of him.

Now Harry and the other Slytherins could see four back doors on either side of the hall. They were all numbered in Roman Numerals. One of the older students came out of the closest door to the left, which had a the letter “v” on it standing for “five.” He told us that the door furthest down on the right, which had an “i” on it, was for the first years.

Once Harry got in the room he saw that, thankfully, there was a fireplace. He saw that the walls were again stone and that against the walls were four-post beds. Next to each bed was a small table with a green lamp on it. There were also lamps on the walls, instead of torches. Harry saw Malfoy walk towards the bed on the other side of the wall in the corner of the room. He noticed that his trunk was in front of the bed that was across from Malfoy’s, which was in the other corner. Crabbe and Goyle went to the beds next to Malfoy. Harry went and sat up on his bed. He saw the other Slytherins taking out things that meant a lot to them and setting them on the table beside the bed. Like pictures of their family. Harry was thinking of what was in his truck that meant a lot to him. Nothing. I don’t have anything that means a lot to me. Nothing the Dursley’s ever gave me was special because they didn’t give a shit about me.

“Hey, Harry,” said Malfoy, from the door. “Want to check out the rest of this place?”