Severus silently counted off the names of his new first years as he walked beside them down the corridor.

"Mr. McConnell! I would suggest you remove your hand from Ms. Daniels' skirt if you want to live to see tomorrow!" he called down the corridor, startling the boy and making his face go red. Severus sighed. He would have to give that one a talking-to soon.

Destiny Marie Daniels was a second year, who had grown considerably over the summer. She now had long, dark lashes framing beautiful coal-black eyes, with pouty lips and a figure much too mature to be twelve.

Severus grimaced, knowing that the akward, timid little girl would soon be a target for not only little Kyle McConnell, but for some of the older, more...rambunctious boys in her House as well. He would have to head that off soon, before anything came of it.

Pulling his mind away from the speech he was going to have to give his fifth sixth and seventh year boys soon, he focused on the most unusual addition to his house.

Elisabeth Hayley Thompson hung near the back of the line, closer to him than most new students dared to get. She was quiet and shy, Severus could see, but she also had a indifferent mask about her that reminded Severus of Draco. Or himself.

He smiled softly at the girl when she looked over at him, making her stop and stare, then trip over the heel of a student in front of her. Clumsy too, then.

"Sorry!" she whispered softly to the fourth year she had tripped over. He shrugged off the apology and turned back to his friends. Severus came up beside the girl, hoping to make her more at ease, and quietly asked her if she was alright, because she looked a little sick.

She looked at him and nodded. "Yes, sir." she answered. At his doubtful, slightly stern look she sighed, looking down at her hands.

"I-I miss my sister, sir. We're never away from each other, and, well..." she trailed off, looking miserable. Severus stopped and leaned down so he was eye to eye with her.

"I understand, Ms. Thompson. And I know it's frightening, being in a new place, with new people, and without someone you know to help you. But if you'll let us, we-your Housemates and I-we can be your family." he whispered, not wanting to embaress the girl by having anyone find out she was afraid.

She looked at him closely for a moment, as if sizing him up. Severus was careful to keep his face neutral. Finally, she nodded, smiling a bit.

"Okay. Th-that sounds nice." she said, a bit self-concious. Severus smiled at her, and told her to go join her Housemates, and try to make friends. She did, and tentatively struck up a conversation with Ms. Daniels. After a moment, she turned around and gave Severus a thumbs up, making him smile and nod encouragingly.

Now, with the other Houses, especially the Gryffindor's, Severus rarely smiled, if ever. But with his own House, his snakes, he felt safe in letting his gaurd down. The public usually misunderstood his House, thinking them cold, indifferent snobs. But really, these were some of the most amazing children he had ever known.

Many, regardless of Blood-Status, came from abusive or neglectful homes, which was what gave them either a drive to succeed or an extreme cunningness. That was usually the reason they were placed in Slytherin. Most of his snakes were quite brave and smart, and would have fit well in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

But Severus had made the Sorting-Hat promise him something when he first became Head of Slytherin.

"You send the hurting ones to me," he had told it. "I'll see that they get help."

The hat had agreed, and unbeknownst to anyone, even the headmaster, this had been the arrangement ever since.

That was how Draco Malfoy had ended up in his house. The boy had the brains for Ravenclaw, and (underneath the mask), the nobility and sense of justice of a Gryffindor. Severus had realized that last year, when he had caught him comforting a homesick first-year who was being bullied by a a few of the fourth year boys. The boy had even used his pure-blood connections to make the bullies quit taunting the child.

The act had earned him respect in the eyes of both his peers and Severus, along with the adoration and devotion of all the first-years, who were now second-years, and still worshipped the blonde-boy.

Syre, the boy had a drive to succeed, a pure-blood obnoxiousness, and an intolerable penchant for lying that had gotten him in trouble with Severus more than once. (Contrary to popular belief, Severus did not encourage lying among his house.) But there was so much more to the boy than the image of the perfect Slytherin that his father had forced him into.

Lucius was a ruthless man, and Severus longed to see him thrown into Azkaban for the way he treated his son. Severus would have pressed charges in the boy's first year, but Draco had begged him, for the sake of his home and mother, to not tell anyone.

Still, Severus made it a habit to let the boy spend as much time at his house in the summer as was possible without getting Lucius suspicious.

Severus smiled as Draco turned around to wave at him, the boy flashing a cocky grin and sticking out his tongue at his head of house.

The students stopped walking, and Severus went to the front of the line to open the door. Severus never disclosed his passwords to his students until they were safely inside the Snake's Lair, just as an extra precaution against intruders from other houses.

The Slytherins were the most secretive and close-knit house, which was why the public often considered them snobs.

Severus whispered the password to the snake-portrait and the door swung open and stayed like that, allowing all the students to go through. Severus stepped inside after his snakes, whispering an extra locking charm on the door like he always did.

The prefects had guided everyone to the middle of the common-room, and were helping them all find a place to sit, as they had been instructed by Severus before starting the trek to the dungeons.

Severus made it a point, every year, to sit down and have a talk with his Slytherins, to introduce the first-years and put their minds at ease, and to welcome back the returning students.

Soon, everyone was seated, the sixth and seventh years taking their places on the chairs and couches, the fourth, third and second years huddling together on the ground, and the little first-years scattered about, some on the fringes of the crowd, some snuggled close to brothers or sisters in higher years.

Severus smiled at a seventh year, Arieda Blake, who had a second year girl pressed against her side, and two first year girls sitting on her lap.

The Blakes were a poor family, with four other children besides these, all too young to come to school, and all girls. Arieda's father worked nearly all the time, and Arieda had become a second mother to her sisters, after her mother took ill and died during Arieda's third year.

The girl often spoke of her younger sisters, 6-year-old quadruplets who stayed in wizarding day-care while Arieda was at school, because their father couldn't work and take care of the children at the same time.

The first-years were Alayna and Allison, twins with 'the sweetest smiles you'll ever see' Arieda would say, the Liverpool in her accent prominent.

Severus waited until everyone was settled, then walked to the group and sat down in the armchair that the prefects kept unnoccupied for him. Over the years, it had come to be known as 'Snape's Chair', because that was where you would always find Severus when he visited his snakes in their common room, which was about once every month.

He waited patiently for his students to go silent, only speaking once he had their complete attention.

"As most of you have figured out by now, I am your head of house. Atleast, I would hope you know that, otherwise we might be having some rather unpleasant discussions this year." he said, sending a pointed look toward some of the more rebellious sixth year boys. They had the grace to blush, making the rest of the crowd laugh. Severus motioned for them to hush.

"I sincerely hope I won't have to have any unpleasant discussions with any of you this year." he said, looking stern. The first years shook their heads, eyes wide, as if the notion of getting in trouble terrified them. Severus smiled softly.

"I'm very glad to see all of you back this year," he said. "And I hope you'll be as well-behaved this year as you were the last. Now, that does not mean you are not allowed to hex the Gryffindors. Just wait till a little later in the year, alright? So as to let them work their way up atleast a third of your caliber, alright?"

The Slytherins laughed at this.

"And try to do it where no one can see, alright?"

Severus couldn't resist the light jab at their 'rival' house, knowing that the older students would explain later to the first-years that he didn't mean a word of it.

"Now, that I've welcomed you back, it's time for us to welcome our new little snakes. How about all the first years take turns standing up and saying their name and something about themselves. How about...what you had for breakfast this morning?"

The first-years giggled at this. Severus smiled. He had two reasons for asking them such an odd question. One, to break the ice, and two, to gauge which ones were from neglectful or abusive homes. Often eating habits were one of the biggest indicators of abuse. Sometimes, Severus would even get a child with the beginnings of anorexia or bulimia, and he tried to head that off as soon as possible.

"Hmm, who shall go first? What about you, little one?" he said, pointing to a very small little girl with huge silvery eyes.

"I-I'm Gabriele, and...I had a donut for breakfast!" she said, ending her sentence with a grin and a giggle.

Severus smiled warmly at the little thing, who was delighted when she saw she had made her house-mates laugh.

After that, all the little ones were raising hands eagerly to be picked to announce their name and breakfast.

Severus soon made it clear that he was picking only the ones who sat quietly and waited, and the students soon settled down.

After everyone had had a chance to introduce themselves, Severus started into the heart of what he wanted to talk about.

"How many of you are pure-blood?" he asked, and almost all of the first-years raised their hands.

"Now, how many of you know what that means?" he said with a slight smirk. Nearly half of the first-years lowered their hands.

"Alright. Here's what it means: absolutely nothing." most of the children who still had their hands in the air stared at him in horror.

"It's true. Despite what you have heard, your blood means nothing. Hogwarts does not care about your blood, I do not care about your blood, and none of your Housemates should care about your blood," he said, looking at the older children sternly. They nodded quickly, trying to assure him that they were not prejudice. He softened his features and gave them a slight nod back, to let them know that he knew.

"For as long as you are here, in Hogwarts, your Housemates will be your family. For some of you, they will be your only family."

A few students looked away slightly, confirming some of the suspicions Severus had about their home lives.

"No matter where you come from, or who your parents are, no matter what color your skin is, or what you might have done, Slytherins stick by each other until the end. We are a strong house, and we are a unified house. Now, don't you think it would be different if we treated you badly because you were a so-called 'half-blood', or muggle-born? We would constantly be at each others throats, belittling and bullying each other. We would not be a family, we would be a pit of vipers. Do you understand?" Some of the first-years nodded, others still looked unsure.

Severus sighed. He hated when it came to this. "But, if that story can get throught to Draco, it can get through to anyone." Severus thought. Taking a deep breath, he began to tell his snakes the story of his fifth year.

"Let me see if I can try to make you understand a little better. When I was a student at Hogwarts, I had a very dear friend, who I had known since I was a child. When we came to Hogwarts, she was sorted into Gryffindor, and I into Slytherin.

Now, blood-status was very important to us then, and Lily, my friend, was a muggle-born. I was a half-blood, but I didn't want anyone to know it.

Now, Lily had a boy after her, one of her Gryffindor house-mates. James Potter was a bully, and he had a group of followers that revelled in tormenting me. Now, I'm not saying this to turn you against Gryffindors. They'll do a good job of that by themselves," he said, smiling as the little ones giggled.

"But I'm saying it to make you see that things might not always be easy, and other people may not be as accepting of you as we are. But anyway, one day James and his group were having fun at bullying me, and Lily tried to make them stop. Well, I was angry and a teenager, and stupid, and when James asked me if he should let me go because Lily said so, I yelled that I didn't need the help of a filthy mudblood.

Now, I never want to hear that word come out of any of your mouths, do you understand? It's something you should never say, because it's very hurtful to someone, especially when they have low self-esteem like Lily did. Things were never the same between us after I called her that. I nearly lost someone very dear to me that day, and I don't want you to make the same mistake, do you understand?" he said.

All the first years nodded emphatically.

He smiled at them.

"Good. So, what does blood mean?" he asked.

"Nothing!" they chorused.

"And what do Slytherins do?" he said.

"Stick together!" they screamed.

The second-years covered their ears and the rest of the kids winced.

"Alright then. Now, everyone, off to bed. The girls dormitories are on the left, the boy's on the right. Now, go!" he said, shooing them off.

They all got up and started to run up the stairs, until Severus called, "No running!" and they slowed to a brisk walk. Severus shook his head ruefully, smiling. Then he noticed a student that had stayed behind.

"Ms. Thompson? Are you alright?" he said, going over to the girl who was standing at the stairs to the girls dormitory.

"Y-yeah. I, I just-" she flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He tightened his arms around her, expecting her to start sobbing about her sister. What she did surprised him.

"I know about your son, Mr. Snape. Meet me in the astronomy tower Friday, 12:00 sharp." she whispered in his ear, then pushed away from him, turning and running up the stairs to her dorm, not a trace of tears on her cheeks.

Severus Snape sat down hard in his armchair, his mind racing.