Harry violently shut his satchel and looked up. Theodore was hurrying out of the dorm, his satchel over his shoulder, Zabini following suit. Crabbe and Goyle were still rummaging in their wardrobes, however Malfoy met his eyes and raised his eyebrows.

‘Looking for something, Potter?' he asked with mock concern.

And in that moment Harry was sure that it was Malfoy who had taken his homework. Without answering, he grabbed his bag and hurried out of the dorm in the direction of the potions classroom. He was desperate to meet his Gryffindor friends and was lucky to find that they were already waiting for him in their usual seats in the classsroom. As usual Harry sat down next to Ron and was in that moment even more glad than normal that this made him sit far away from the Slytherins. In a low voice in order not to be overheard Harry filled them in.

‘That git!' Ron's reaction was exactly as Harry had expected. ‘We really have to think of something to make him stop causing you trouble. Maybe we should ask Fred and George for help!'

‘I think you should tell Professor Snape,' Hermione said predictably.

Harry shook his head. ‘I can't sneak, that will only make it worse,' he said unhappily, and his gaze travelled to the old pewter cauldron on the teacher's desk which contained an increasing number of rolls of parchment as the passing students dropped their homework inside.

‘No, you can't,' Ron agreed. ‘Not that I wouldn't like to see Malfoy get into trouble, but sneaking on others is just wrong... ‘

‘But Ron, Harry didn't say anything when they put the ants in his bed and look where it's got him! It just got worse! Harry, you have to do something, you have to tell a teacher! If not, what will be the next thing they do to you?' Hermione hissed.

‘Yeah, I definitely need to do something,' Harry agreed. ‘I think asking Fred and George is a good idea. I can't sneak, Hermione, I really can't...Besides, I doubt that Snape would believe me anyway, it's my word against Malfoy's ....'

‘Still...' Hermione hesitated. ‘I don't know either, Harry. But at least you should tell him straight away that your homework is missing, that will be better than letting him find out for himself....'

She interrupted herself because just at that moment Snape arrived and noisily closed the door behind him. The man then leaned against his desk and let his gaze wander over the students as they finished preparing for the lesson. Harry looked at Ron who shrugged, then at Hermione, who gave him an encouraging nod. Hesitantly he raised his hand.

‘Mr Potter.'

‘I'm sorry, sir, but I couldn't hand in my homework.' He swallowed and continued in a small voice, ‘I did it last night, but now it's gone.'

‘Gone,' Snape repeated. ‘How peculiar.' He advanced a few steps until he was in front of Harry's desk, where he leaned down, his eyes boring into Harry's. ‘I don't see you as a student who finishes his homework days in advance. So I think it is quite a coincidence, Mr Potter, that your homework has mysteriously disappeared just the morning after the evening when you were unexpectedly busy doing lines and went to bed early.'

‘I did my homework', Harry insisted. ‘I wrote the essay after I finished my lines!'

He looked over to his Slytherin classmates. Pansy Parkinson was whispering something into Daphne Greengrass's ear and giggling, while Millicent Bulstrode was looking at him curiously, Malfoy coldly, Zabini pensively and Nott wasn't looking at him at all. Instead, he  kept rubbing his forefinger along a scratch on his desk.

‘Nott!' Harry said. ‘You saw me do it after I gave my lines to the prefect! I know you did!'

The blond boy unhappily looked up and briefly met Harry's eyes. His usually pale face showed the slightest sign of pink when he averted his eyes again and said hesitantly, ‘I saw you write something after finishing your lines, but I didn't see what it was.'

‘But that's not true!' Harry felt the heat rising in his body. He was sure that Theodore Nott must have seen that it had been his potions book lying open on the table right next to him. But before he could say anything more, Snape spoke.

‘Mr Potter, I think you have wasted enough time of this lesson. If you feel the need to argue further I will give you another five minutes of my time for that later. Your detention is scheduled for seven o'clock tonight, be five minutes early if you want.' Without waiting for an answer he turned around and marched to the blackboard.

Pansy Parkinson giggled even louder and Malfoy smirked at Harry behind Snape's back. Angrily Harry turned and looked at his friends. Ron grimaced sympathetically and Hermione shrugged helplessly. Harry sighed. It was not that he hadn't expected to get detention from Snape for not turning in his homework, but the actions of his new housemates bothered him more than he would have expected.

Meanwhile Snape had begun his lecture on ageing potions. Harry was unable to listen. Instead he pondered various possibilities of revenge and decided that Ron's original idea of asking Fred and George for help definitely had its charm. The screeching noise of chairs being pushed back drew him out of his thoughts, and he noticed that his classmates were getting up to fetch the ingredients they needed for the recipe that had appeared on the blackboard. Harry hurriedly read through the list and hastened to follow, deciding he would just take what Hermione took - not exactly a new procedure for him. As he was trying to get through to Hermione who, predictively had got to the shelves first Harry suddenly found himself eye to eye with Theodore Nott. The blond boy hastily looked away and took a step back to let Harry pass.

‘Thanks so much for your help, Nott,' Harry hissed. Nott's face turned pink but the boy didn't say anything. Harry glared at him and went to collect his ingredients.

Back at his desk Harry desperately looked at the blackboard. He had missed Snape's entire lecture, which meant he could only blindly follow the steps indicated on the blackboard without any understanding of the context. Sighing, he set himself to work. Chopping his roots he imagined the thin pinkish bits to be Malfoys fingers. Quickly he lit the fire under his cauldron, muttered ‘Aguamenti', filling his cauldron with water out of his wand, and added the chopped roots. He was just going to add the dried spiders when he was interrupted by a sharp ‘Mr Potter!'

Startled, he looked up and found Snape directly in front of him. ‘Sir?'

‘Read again what you need to do before adding the spiders!' Snape said and frowned at him.

Harry peered at the blackboard and found the line. After reducing the fire, add two handfuls of dried spiders. He hastily dimmed the flames and looked up, prepared for the coming dressing down by Snape, but the man had already walked on and was peering into the cauldron of a very nervous looking Neville Longbotttom. Relieved, Harry exhaled slowly and exchanged a glance with Ron next to him. They both carried on in silence. They mutely exchanged another glance when an irate Snape started berating Neville. Luckily for Harry, Snape didn't address him again, or maybe he wasn't so lucky, because at the end of the lesson, when Snape ordered them to cork a sample and bring it to him, Harry's potion had transformed into a sticky mass that he had problems getting a portion of into the little phial. Snape raised  his eyebrows when Harry put his work on his desk but luckily didn't comment.

‘Phht,' said Harry when they were finally leaving the classroom. ‘That was a really messed up potion.'

‘But you're lucky,' said Ron, ‘and me too. Snape didn't bother us as much as he normally does. Well, I guess there must be some advantages to you being in Slytherin.'

‘Yeah, he wouldn't take points,' Harry agreed, ‘but mind you, I'll probably get it all in detention this evening. You know what, though,' he added and looked over to Neville who, after having his usual harassment by Snape , was fighting back his tears, ‘ next lesson I am going to work at the same table as Neville, and we'll see if that helps.'

Ron grunted in the affirmative and then the friends had to separate. Harry went to join his new housemates on their way to the transfiguration classroom, but didn't talk to them. He hadn't forgotten his disappearing essay.

The transfiguration lesson with the Slytherins wasn't so different from how it would have been with the Gryffindors, Harry soon found out. McGonagall was a strict professor who didn't tolerate any talking amongst the students or any nonsense during her lessons and so it didn't really matter with whom one attended the lesson. Harry was pleased to notice that none of the Slytherins, not even Draco, dared to show the slightest sign of disrespect to his head of house. Yes, Harry stil considered her to be his real head of house. The lesson passed rather quickly.

‘Please stay behind for a moment, Mr Potter.' Harry looked up and nodded as his classmates hurried from the room as quickly as they could.

‘Yes, Professor?'

‘I wanted to ask you how your first days have gone so far. How are you settling in?'

Her voice was crisp as usual, but Harry knew her well enough not to miss the trace of concern in her tone.

‘Not too well,' he muttered. He hesitated. Should he tell her about his stolen essay? But he had no proof, and even if McGonagall believed him, she could hardly go to Snape with nothing more than his story. And Snape would only get angry that he had sent McGonagall to him. No, he decided, he wouldn't tell her.

‘I'm sorry to hear that, Mr Potter. Is there anything I can do to help?'

Harry mutely shook his head.

‘Well, if something should come up where you think I can help, do tell me.'

‘Thanks,' Harry muttered and turned to go, but then he stopped, an inspiration having just come to him. McGonagall seemed to be in an uncharacteristically mellow mood....

‘Professor, actually there is something... couldn't you sign my Hogsmeade permission form? My relatives forgot to sign it....'

The old witch looked at him with an expression that quickly turned from surprise to pity.

‘I am sorry, Mr Potter, but you have to ask Professor Snape for this now. This is out of my hands. I do not have any authority exceeding that of an ordinary teacher over you at the moment.'

‘But Professor,' protested Harry, who wouldn't give up easily, ‘can't you just sign and pretend I asked you last week?'

‘Mr Potter, are you really asking me to forge the date of my signature?' McGonagall asked in a stern tone. Harry didn't respond and nervously bit his lip.

‘I am sorry,' McGonagall repeated in a friendlier tone, ‘but as I said, you'll have to ask Professor Snape. - Now you'll have to hurry, or you'll be late for your next lesson.'

Harry was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. The prospect of the upcoming detention didn't raise his spirits either, but as he knocked on Snape's door he was determined not to aggravate the man any more and give him a pretext to prolong his detention.

‘Come in.'

Harry opened the heavy oak door to Snape's office and slowly walked inside. He had the same awkward feelling in his stomach that he always had when he went to a detention with Snape. He uncertainly looked at the man who wordlessly pointed to a small desk near the wall. Suppressing a sigh Harry lowered himself onto the hard bench.

Snape got up from behind his desk and walked over to Harry.

‘You should be aware, Potter, that I do not tolerate it if students don't turn in their homework on time - regardless of their house affiliation.' His tone was quiet and cold.

‘I did my homework!' Harry insisted. ‘I told you the truth, it was just... gone.'

‘How?'

Harry blushed and bit his lips. Should he say he had put it into his satchel and closed the satchel? That from Malfoy's face he was sure he was responsible for taking it? That this was the second time his dormmates had given him a hard time? No, that was impossible. So he remained silent and shrugged helplessly.

‘So you insist that you did it after finishing your lines?'

He mutely nodded.

Snape summoned a role of parchment and a quill and placed both items in front of Harry.

‘Start.'

Puzzled, Harry asked, ‘You mean the essay? Sir?'

‘Mr Potter, if I wanted you to write lines you can be sure you would have already heard from me what I wanted you to write.' With that, Snape went back to his desk, and began reading his way through the stack of parchments, probably the output of Harry's classmates.

Harry groaned internally, the essay had taken him long enough the evening before, and now, to do it all again... But probably still better than cutting potions ingredients. Without commenting, he started his homework once more. To his surprise, the work went rather quickly. The day before, a considerable part of his time had been taken by looking up in his textbook what he might write, but now he could still remember quite well what he had written. So when he hesitantly said ‘I've finished, sir', merely half an hour had passed.

‘Bring it here.'

Harry did as he was told and watched nervously as Snape was quickly scanning his text. Without commenting the professor put it to the other rolls. Then he pointed to the chair opposite his desk.

‘Sit.'

Harry sat. Snape looked at him intently before he started to speak.

‘I was surprised to see you had already retired to your dorm when I came into the common room last night.'

‘I was tired,' Harry muttered, not sure where this was going.

‘I wasn't so surprised, though, when I heard that you had already earned yourself some lines.'

Harry didn't answer, but stared at him defiantly. So what? What business was it of Snape's, if the prefect had already dealt with it?

Snape must have guessed his thoughts. ‘While I am sure that Mr Chesterton dealt with you appropriately, I don't want to ignore the incident completely. Do you really think that it is a good idea to spread rumours about Mr Malfoy's father in front of everybody?'

‘It wasn't rumours, it was the truth!' Harry retorted heatedly.

‘It's nothing proved, so it's rumours,' said Snape calmly.  ‘And besides, that's not the point. The point is that you brought Mr Malfoy into an awkward position in front of his peers and thus made sure he would retaliate.'

‘But he started it!' Harry was really furious now. ‘He started by saying that I...'

‘Stop it, Potter. Just tell me, what are the traits that characterise a Slytherin?'

Harry closed his mouth, puzzled, and quickly thought about the sorting hat's song he had heard in his first year. ‘Ambition,' he said.

‘And?' Snape prompted.

Harry hesitated. ‘Erm.. cunning?'

‘Indeed,' Snape said. ‘And if you don't want to be completely miserable , you'd better start showing some cunning. Trying to publicly humiliate the obvious leader of your peers is not exactly clever, Mr Potter.' He looked at Harry intently and said, ‘You have to make a greater effort with your housemates, Mr Potter.'

Harry still felt angry. While he had to admit that Snape probably had a point that cunning most likely would bring him further than direct confrontation with Malfoy, it was still unfair that Snape made it sound as if it was all his fault. ‘Yeah, a greater effort,' he said sarcastically. ‘Maybe you could help me and show me how I can ward my things, cupboard and all.'

Snape narrowed his eyes. ‘That will not be necessary. You may go.'

Harry decided that being dismissed so early from a detention with Snape was a chance too good to miss so he didn't argue about Snape's assessment and hastened to leave the office. After entering the Slytherin common room he looked around, trying to decide once more with whom to sit. The boys from his class were all sitting together, except for Nott, who was by himself, scribbling something on a piece of parchment. Harry had no desire to join any of them, neither did he want to join the firsties again. So he walked over to where the girls of his year were sitting. Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass were busy watching a witch's magazine and taking turns pointing their wands at each other to try out different hairstyles. Millicent Bulstrode was sitting a bit further away with a book in her hand, her cat curled up at her side. The choice was easy.

‘Hi,' Harry said hesitantly, as he sat down on the sofa next to Millicent's cat.

‘Hi', the girl answered and snapped her book shut. Harry had the feeling that she was glad for the pretext to stop reading. ‘That was a short detention.'

‘Yeah', Harry muttered. An awkward silence followed.

‘What's that what you're reading there?' Harry asked, just to say something. You have to make a greater effort with your housemates, Snape had said after all.

‘Some stupid muggle novel. My mum's keeping sending me those, says I need to read something different than just wizard schoolbooks. Not that I mind in general, I just wish she would stick more to adventure stories and not this corny romance crap.'

Harry grinned at her choice of words, but he was astonished. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't ever seen a single muggle book in Hogwarts yet, and if he were to encounter one, he wouldn't have expected it to happen in the Slytherin common room of all places. Curiously, he asked, ‘So, your parents are muggles?'

‘Just my mother', said Millicent in a tone that made clear that she didn't want to discuss this any further.

In the awkward silence that followed, Harry said, ‘I don't read at all, except for class textbooks, I mean. I used to before I came to Hogwarts, though. I liked detective stories best.'

Millicent snorted. ‘So, Sherlock Holmes, why don't you solve "The Mystery of the Missing Potions Essay".'

‘Ha, ha,' snapped Harry. ‘I don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that out.' He hatefully glanced over to Malfoy.

In that moment the door to the Common room opened and Snape came in. Harry still found it odd how natural the students found their Head of House's regular visits. The students did look up briefly, but then they continued with what they were doing. McGonagall would only enter the Common room in case of an emergency and so there was always an almost breathless attention when she showed up. Snape quickly looked around, then made his way to the third year boys.

‘Draco,' Snape said calmly, ‘would you please accompany me to my office? I don't think it will take long.'

Draco's face showed a brief flicker of nervousness, before it expressed nothing but polite interest. ‘Of course, sir.' He quickly got up and followed his teacher who was already on his way out of the room. When they passed Harry, Malfoy stared at him and squeezed his eyes together a little as if he wanted to read something from his expression. When both had left the room, there was a ringing silence for a moment, before whispered conversations set in again. From his classmates he could hear the whispered words " Malfoy" and " Potter". There were glares like daggers in his direction, too. Pink-faced, he looked down and started stroking Millicent's cat who purred contentedly.

‘So you really did your homework, didn't you?' asked Millicent after a pause. When Harry nodded, she said drily, ‘Snape obviously believed you. That short detention was a record for Snape, and now after talking to you, he gets Malfoy immediately...'

‘Look, I didn't say it was Malfoy', Harry protested.

‘Hmph', Millicent made a doubtful noise.

Harry sighed and continued caressing the cat. ‘What's your cat's name?' he asked.

‘Tibby', she said curtly. 

‘My friend Hermione has a cat, too, Crookshanks.' Harry tried to keep the conversation going. ‘She just got him two weeks ago. Ron doesn't like him too much. He's scared he might eat his rat.'

Millicent snorted, ‘Rats are pathetic anyway. If you ask me he shouldn't even care.'

A loud giggle from the neighbouring table made them both look up. Both Pansy and Daphne were sporting long green eyelashes and fingernails.

‘Why aren't you with the other girls?' Harry blurted out before he could stop himself. ‘Don't they let you participate?' He suddenly thought about the deprecatory comments aimed at Millicent the day before. Was she an outsider, and thus maybe someone he could associate with?

‘Do I look like someone whose universe revolves around robes and hairstyles?' Millicent shot back. However, Harry saw her look at the other table a bit longingly. Not knowing what to say, he continued stroking the cat.

The Common Room fell silent when the door opened again and Draco Malfoy came in. Head held high, he slowly walked over to the group he had vacated a mere ten minutes before. The others slowly got to their feet and greeted him with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. Theodore, Pansy and Daphne joined them, too. Millicent remained where she was, but she, too, craned her neck in order not to miss anything.

‘So?' Zabini asked.

Malfoy shrugged and to Harry his face seemed more arrogant than ever. He talked as if Harry wasn't in the room. ‘Yes. As you probably figured out. Potter's essay.' He paused.

‘So I take it Snape wasn't amused?' Zabini said.

‘No, not at all.' Malfoy looked around and his gaze rested on Theodore Nott who was looking extremely nervous. ‘But none of you need worry. I told Snape that I alone was responsible.'

Harry could have kicked Malfoy just for the self-satisfied tone of his voice and his anger got even worse when he saw the effect that his words had on the others. Crabbe and Goyle merely grunted appreciatively, but Theodore Nott was looking at Malfoy as if he had just saved him from a terrible fate and Pansy's face showed deep admiration. As so often, Zabini was the most outspoken of them. ‘Thanks,' he said. ‘That was decent of you.'

Harry snorted on his sofa.  The group surrounding Malfoy didn't hear him, but Millicent turned around and frowned.

‘What?' Harry asked rather aggressively.

‘That was decent of him', the girl said.

‘I'd bet it was the truth, nothing else', Harry said, not caring whether the others could hear him or not.

His comment finally made Malfoy address him directly. ‘Just for your information, Potter,' he said coldly, ‘you needn't worry about your things in the future. None of us is interested in anything that belongs to you. Sneak!' With that he turned on his heel and strutted out of the Common room in the direction of the dormitories.

Harry was painfully aware of the stony faces looking at him. ‘I didn't sneak!' he protested, but he could see that it was no use, they didn't believe him. Millicent gave him another doubtful look as well and opened her muggle novel again. As she had made clear how she felt about that "corny romance crap" Harry took it as a sign that she didn't want to talk to him any more. He sighed internally. Millicent had actually been rather fun to talk to. Her manners were on the rough side, but to Harry she made a pleasant contrast to the way girls usually behaved. Well, not Hermione, Harry corrected himself as he thought about his friend affectionately. What would she be doing right now? Studying most likely, and thinking about that he suddenly remembered that he had a History test due the next day. He decided he'd better go through his notes, incomplete as they were. I should have copied Hermione's notes while I was still in Gryffindor, he thought angrily and got to his feet to get his notes that he kept in his trunk.

When he entered the dormitory, Draco Malfoy, who was lying on his stomach on his bed, propped on his elbows and reading, shot him a dirty look but didn't say anything. Harry didn't want to get into another fight with Malfoy either, so he ignored him, just fetched his notes and left the dorm straight away. By himself he thought that Malfoy was pathetic. He made it look as if he had been so brave accepting sole responsibility, but he had nothing to fear from Snape - he obviously hadn't got detention and wasn't even doing lines. So it seemed that he had been told to stay in the dormitory, but in Harry's opinion this was hardly anything to make such a fuss about. Shrugging, he settled next to Millicent again, who still ignored him, and started revising his history notes.

Although Snape's conversation with Malfoy hadn't exactly endeared Harry to his fellow Slytherins, it had obviously helped with his daily life. During the week that followed, there were no other unpleasant surprises or hidden things. His history notes had obviously been as bad as he had feared as in spite of his revision he failed his history test, and, as Hermione had predicted, he and Ron failed their divination test as well. Harry spent as much time as he could outside the dungeons with Ron and Hermione, but the fact remained that in the evenings they all had to remain in their respective common rooms. The other Slytherins still ignored him most of the time. Draco and his two sidekicks were obviously still blaming him for allegedly sneaking on Malfoy. Nott, however, would nod at Harry when they met. Harry thought that the boy was probably still ashamed for letting Harry down in Potions class and, he thought a little bitterly, even if Nott also believed that Harry had ratted Malfoy out to Snape, he probably considered it a justifiable way to get out of trouble.

One evening towards the end of his second week in Slytherin Harry noticed that several pieces of parchment covered in Snape's spiky writing were attached to the black board. Stepping closer, Harry realised that it was a list of the students and the dates of their appointments with Snape. And with a rising nervousness he noticed that his name was among the first and that Snape had scheduled their meeting in just two days.