When Harry got home from Diagon Alley, he decided to start reading some of his books, specifically, the ones about the Wizarding World. He found that he was mentioned in a couple of them. They didn't mention anything about a prophecy nor about the protection charm his parents placed on him when they died. He would have to ask Snape about that when he got to school. His uncle wouldn't allow him to send any letters using his owl. He also remembered that his aunt seemed to know Snape. That was another thing he would ask about.

Surprisingly, his aunt told him what she knew. Snape turned out, to have lived in the same town that his mother and aunt grew up in. Snape was friends with Harry's mother up until they were teenagers and then they seemed to go their separate ways. She described Snape as some what creepy and liked to talk about creatures that liked to suck souls out of people and other awful things.

Soon it was September 1st. Harry was able to, with a little help from his aunt (she said she something about not wanting screaming letters), convince his uncle to take him to King's Cross. After reading Hogwarts, A History, Harry had no problem finding platform 9 and ¾ . Harry found an empty compartment on the Hogwarts express. A few minutes later, he was joined by a red haired boy with freckles.

"Anyone sitting there?" the boy asked, pointing to the seat opposite of Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. The boy, who introduced himself as Ron Weasley, was a little shocked at finding out who Harry was. They talked mostly about Ron's family. Harry didn't talk much about his aunt, uncle and cousin must. He only said they were horrible and didn't want to go into details. He felt ashamed and embarrassed about how they treated him, especially after he read how the Wizarding World viewed him. He didn't want anyone to find out about him having to sleep in a cupboard for nearly ten years or any of the other things his relatives had done or said to him.

Soon a trolley with candy went by and Harry bought enough sweets for him and Ron to share even though Ron said he had plenty of stuff to eat already. Ron was about to show Harry a spell that his older brother George told him to turn his pet rat Scabbers yellow when a busy haired girl came in with a round faced boy.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one."

"We haven't seen it." Ron said.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it then."

The girl sat down. Ron looked taken back.

"Er - all right."

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine daises, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast.

Harry looked at Ron's shocked face at the girl's announcement. He felt relieved to know that Ron, like him, didn't know all of the course books.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"I know. But Professor Snape said my parents placed some kind of protection charm on me when they died or something like that. All the books make it sound like I did something when I doubt I did..." Harry replied.

"You meet Professor Snape, the head of Slytherin House? All my brothers except for Percy say he's a greasy haired git that gives detentions to everyone who isn't in Slytherin House for reasons like breathing wrong." Ron said.

"He delivered my letter and he seemed nice. My aunt said he was friends with my mum though she did say he was a little creepy..." Harry said.

"He was friends with your mum?" Ron asked.

"That's what my aunt said. Though she said something happened and they stopped being friends after their fifth year at Hogwarts."

"Anyways, do any of you know what house you're going to be in? I heard Gryffindor is the best; I read Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad..."

"Ollivander said I most likely would be in Slytherin but Professor Snape said that you can talk the Sorting Hat into putting you into what ever house you want to be in."

"You in Slytherin? Everyone in my family said you'll be in Gryffindor just like us. Slytherin house is where all the future dark witches and wizards go! There isn't a which or wizard that didn't go bad that wasn't in Slytherin." Ron said shocked.

"Slytherin is the house for the cunning and ambitious though a lot of evil people are like that." Hermione said.

"The person who told Voldemort, I mean You-Know-Who, where my parents were hiding was in Gryffindor. He also murdered my parents' friend Peter Pettigrew along with a bunch of muggles. And besides, Professor Snape seams nice enough as long as you get him mad like my aunt and uncle did." Harry said.

"And my gran says there were Death Eaters from all the houses at Hogwarts." the boy Harry assumed was Neville said.

Ron looked like he didn't want to believe that.

"Well, we better get back to looking for Neville's toad after changing into our robes. We asked the conductor a few minutes ago and we're nearly at Hogwarts." Hermione said.

"He said we had a half hour, no need to rush..." Neville he said while he and Hermione walked out of the compartment.

Harry and Ron changed into their robes. Harry had the feeling that Ron didn't like being told he was wrong. It was about ten minutes before Ron said anything.

"Why did Ollivander say you would be in Slytherin?" Ron asked.

"Well, green and silver sparks came out of my wand." Harry replied.

"That doesn't mean anything. When Fred and George got their wands, pink and purple sparks came out of their's and they're both in Gryffindor. Ollivander probably said that to scare you. He tries to scare everyone who goes to his store. My dad once went into his shop to buy a new wand holster and Ollivander said something about a ghost of the cow who's hide was used to make the holster haunts his shop and tries to run down customers now and then."

That sounded like something Ollivander would say. Maybe Ron was right. Ollivander was just saying that to scare Harry.

"Maybe. I just won't saying anything to the Sorting Hat and see where it puts me." Harry replied.

"Sorting Hat? Fred told me we had to wrestle a troll." Ron said.

"I couldn't find anything in any books about the Sorting Hat but Professor Snape mentioned it when I was buying my wand." Harry replied.

"You said you said your aunt and uncle did something that got Professor Snape mad? What was it?"

Harry felt a little nervous and embarrassed about answering the question. "They tried to kill him and keep me from learning about magic. I didn't know I was a wizard or how my parents died until he told me..." Harry answered shyly.

"They didn't want you to learn magic? And they tried to kill a teacher? No wonder you said they were horrible... Dad tells me the muggles he has to deal with aren't at all like that."

The train ride ended and they had to arrive at the school in boats. When they entered the school, they were lead by a really tall and wide man to Professor McGonagall. She told them a little bit about the houses and how they were like families. She also mentioned about earning and loosing points for what ever house they get sorted in and the house with the most points at the end of the school year wins the house cup. She left briefly and when she came back she said they were ready to be sorted.

They entered the Great Hall, and right in front of them was a dirty old pointed hat sitting on a stool. It sang a song about the houses. After the applause from the rest of the school, Professor McGonagall started calling the students one by one to the stool and placed the hat on their head and it said for what house for them to go to. When it was Hermione's turn, the hat seemed annoyed when it placed her into Slytherin.

"Thank god. I don't want to be in the same house as her..." Ron said to Harry.

Soon it was Harry's turn to be sorted.

As he approached the stool to be sorted, he heard people whispering about him. He didn't exactly like that. When he sat down, the hat more or less fell completely over his head.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, not that's interesting... So where shall I put you? Hmm... SLYTHERIN!"

Ollivander was right! The Sorting Hat did place him in Slytherin. However, he heard a lot of gasps from the students. As he walked towards the Slytherin table he heard a person whispering about that maybe the reason he didn't die was because he was in league with You-Know-Who.

He watched the rest of the sortings and when it was Ron's turn he was a little shocked at Ron's reaction to being sorted into Slytherin. Ron made a big scene of it by trying to run away. When Professor McGonagall had to grab him, Ron yelled something about his brothers would kill him. Professor McGonagall told Ron to go the Slytherin table and then let go of him. Ron marched to the table and sat next to Harry.

"Did you try to talk the hat into putting you somewhere else?" Harry asked Ron when the sortings were done and Professor Dumbledore let the feast begin.

"I did! But the stupid hat wouldn't listen! It kept going on about how I always lived in my brothers' shadows and wanted to be better then them and how I could be great strategist and nothing I said could change it's mind about me belonging in Slytherin! It even told me to shut up!"

"The Sorting Hat is little mad at Professor Snape when I told it to put me in Slytherin house because Harry said Professor Snape was nice. It said Professor Snape wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that you could ask it to put you into what ever house you want to be in. Maybe it decided not to allow people to choose what house they want to be in anymore because of Professor Snape. " Hermione said.

"The hat said I should have gone into Ravenclaw but I was able to talk it into putting me into Slytherin like my dad." a boy named Blaise Zabini, who was the last one to be sorted, said.

"I'm a little shocked, Weasley, that you made Slytherin. My dad said the Weasleys are all stupid and you need brains to be in Slytherin. Though you looked stupid trying to run out of the school. I guess you must hate Slytherin." a boy named Draco Malfoy said.

"You bet I do Malfoy! Every Slytherin at this table I know of except for Harry and Hermione is some evil creep that only cares about them self! I'm not looking forward to going home for the holidays! My brother's will make my life hell because I'm an evil creep! I might wake up one morning and everything in my room, including me, will be green! And it will take hours to undo what they did! They may even set off dung bombs and filibuster fireworks off in my room in the middle of the night!" Ron ranted, causing just about everyone with in ear shot to turn and look at him.

Then one of the older Slytherin students said, "Well, I guess its our job to convince you that most Slytherins aren't evil creeps."

"And it sounds like your brothers are bullies and pick on you too much. Slytherins stick together and don't let things like that happen to own of their own. Snape would be furious if we turned a blind eye to Gryffindors tormenting a fellow Slytherin." a fifth year boy who wore a prefect badge student added. Ron was able to calm down enough to actually eat after hearing that.

After the feast, Professor Dumbledore gave some announcements. One of which was not to go into the third floor corridor unless you wanted to die a most painful death. Harry thought he must be joking about that. After singing the school song, they were sent to their dormitories.

The Slytherin prefects, who introduced themselves as Marcus Flint and Sharon Silverwater lead Harry and the other Slytherins to the dungeons. They walked up to a solid stone wall.

"This is the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room. It can only be opened by saying the password. The password will change every now and then and when it does, you will be informed by either myself, Professor Snape or Sharon here. Right now the password is bat mucus." The Flint said and a hidden door in the wall opened and everyone walked in.

"First years, please wait here." Sharon said.

Professor Snape walked into the common room moments later.

"This is our first house meeting of the school year. The next meeting will be Friday evening and so will all other meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss what ever is on your mind that is school related: issues you have with your fellow students, problems you have with your professors, ideas for school activities, just to name a few. Since this is the first meeting I don't except there to be much to discuss. I know that a lot of you had a conversation about Mr. Weasley's sorting and I believe there should not be any more discussion about that in this meeting at this time." Snape said. Harry noticed Snape got a little nervous when he mention Ron's sorting.

"So I will inform of you of our house policies." Snape continued. "As Slytherins, you need to learn it is important to have connections with people. No person is an island. Get to know other students. There may come a time when you may need their help. Sometimes it seems as if there are two competing schools here at Hogwarts: Slytherin and the rest of the school. I would like to have that changed. Slytherin has become detached from the rest of the school because of the reputation it has for producing some of our society's most feared and hated individuals. Also, the fact that you only socialize with each other and then defend each other even when the person you are defending is in the wrong isn't helping get rid of that reputation.

"If you feel that any of your house mates is doing anything in public that could give Slytherin a bad name, do not support them. This applies to harassing and assaulting other students. There will be no more of this united front that we present to the rest of the school unless one of you is being picked on by a member or members of another house. Also, get to know people from other houses. You may just find they have similar interests as you do. And lastly, if you need to discuss anything with my in private, that door on your right will take you to my office. I will be up there until midnight on most nights after supper though I do not expect most you to be up at that hour unless you are doing last minute cramming for finals. If there are no questions or comments, you are dismissed."

There were no questions so they were dismissed. Snape went into his office. Harry thought now would be a good time to ask questions he had for Snape. Harry went to the door and knocked.

"Enter." He heard Snape say.

Harry walked in.

"Harry. Is there anything I can do for you?" Snape asked when he saw Harry.

"I have some questions about what you said to me before we went to Diagon Alley." Harry said.

"Very well." Snape replied.

"You said Voldemort, I mean You-Know-Who, believes I'm a prophesied savior but none of the books I read mentioned that."

"First of all Harry, don't call him You-Know-Who. Not speaking Voldemort's name is only giving into the fear he instilled in others. He wanted people to fear speaking his name, including his own followers. By not speaking his name, you are letting him win. In any case, about those books I got you not mentioning you being a prophesied savior, its because not many people know about the prophesy about you and Voldemort. The only other people who know of the prophesy are Professor Dumbledore and a few people who work in the Ministry of Magic. Professor Dumbledore is the only one alive that knows the full prophesy. He doesn't want to tell anyone what it is for reasons he only knows." Snape replied.

"I see. Also, you said that Voldemort couldn't kill me because my parents died trying to protect me placed some kind of protection charm on me. That also wasn't in any of the books I read. In fact they said I did something." Harry replied.

"It was dark times Harry. People feared for their lives. When Voldemort decided to kill you, one of his followers decided to switch sides in the war and protect your family. He warned Professor Dumbledore who was heading the fight against Voldemort about the danger you and your family were in. Professor Dumbledore had you and your parents go into hiding. He also had a monitor placed in the home in which your parents were hiding in to let others know if there was any trouble or if the protections on the house were to fail.

"When Voldemort was able to get through the protections, the monitor turned on and everything that was said was broad casted to the headquarters of the group fighting Voldemort. I wasn't there at the time but I know people who were. Professor Dumbledore is one of them. He knows a lot about ancient magic and from what he heard he was able to determine their actions had invoked some form of ancient magic that kept you safe. He tried tell everyone that the heroes of that night were your parents, specifically your mother. But most people wanted a hero that was alive to thank for making Voldemort disappear. That is why in those books they give you all the credit even though it is ridiculous to believe that a one-year-old baby could perform magic. Most children don't start doing magic until they are seven or eight. Five at the youngest but never at one year. So don't believe everything you read. History tends to be written in a way the author wants it to be." Snape explained.

Harry noticed that Snape got a little uncomfortable when he mentioned that a Death Eater switched sides but didn't think much of it.

"Thank you for explaining that to me. I don't like people saying untrue things about me. At least now I can correct them. I don't have anything else to ask." Harry said.

"Very well. If you have anything else you want to talk about, I'm always available. Now, go to bed. Your dorm mates are probably wondering were you are." Snape replied.

"Good night sir." Harry said before he left.

Harry was able to find his dorm room after a couple of minutes.

"Where have you been?" Malfoy asked. He appeared the only one not in bed yet.

"I had somethings I wanted to ask Snape about what he told me over the summer. Mostly about why Voldemort wanted to kill me and about my parents." Harry replied.

Malfoy looked at him strange before getting into bed. Harry went to bed a few minutes later. When he fell asleep, he had the same dream of a flash of green light that he had for year though this time he heard a woman screaming and man voice shouting "Avada Kedavra!"