The Great Exchange by JAWorley
Summary: Hogwarts has enacted a house-exchange program in the interest of increasing inter-house unity and understanding. Students fourth year and up can visit other houses for two weeks if they sign up. Harry has a morbid curiosity about what it might have been like to be sorted into Slytherin.
In Response to the House Exchange Program prompt by JAWorley.
Categories: Healer Snape, Teacher Snape > Professor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Flitwick, Ginny, Hagrid, Hermione, McGonagall, Other, Ron, Theodore Nott
Snape Flavour: Snape is Angry, Canon Snape, Snape Comforts, Snape is Mean, Snape is Stern
Genres: Angst, Drama, Fluff, General, Hurt/Comfort
Media Type: None
Tags: Hufflepuff!Harry, Injured!Harry, Ravenclaw!Harry, Resorting, Slytherin!Harry
Takes Place: 6th Year
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Bullying, Neglect, Violence
Prompts: House Exchange Program
Challenges: House Exchange Program
Series: None
Chapters: 6 Completed: Yes Word count: 50961 Read: 49683 Published: 30 Nov 2017 Updated: 20 Dec 2017
The Ambitious House Of Slytherin by JAWorley
"The exchange will continue through Christmas," Professor McGonagall announced to the school at dinner on Harry's last evening in Hufflepuff. "Because there are so many wishing to exchange, and so that we do not have to transfer students to houses they've already visited, we have decided to continue with the exchange through Christmas instead of waiting to resume after the holiday. This will allow students to fill empty spots left by those leaving for the holidays. Come and see me after dinner to put your name on the list for Holiday exchanges. If you put your name on this list, you will go to your new house tomorrow and go through the last week of classes, and then continue through the two weeks of the holidays. Do not put your name on the list if you are putting your name on the list of students going home for the holidays."

Harry stood up after dinner and made his way towards Professor McGonagall, but Ron met him halfway there. "You're crazy Harry. You're not actually going to do it are you? If you do this you'll end up in Slytherin for three weeks!"

"Well you're going home for Christmas right, and so is Hermione. Who will I have left?"

"There's a bunch of other kids staying in Gryffindor this year."

"Well, I wanted to try Slytherin anyway. Their dorms'll probably empty out a bit, so what's an extra week in emptier than normal dorms?"

"Crazy," muttered Ron again, but he backed away as McGonagall eyed him as he and Harry got closer, and let Harry approach her alone.

"I trust you're enjoying yourself Mr. Potter if you're back to put your name on the list again?"

"Yes maam."

"You do understand this means three weeks in Slytherin?"

Harry nodded.

"Very well then." She wrote Harry's name down.

"Is Mr. Weasley coming over as well?"

"No, don't mind him. He's trying to stop me." Harry turned and looked at him. He was motioning silently trying to get Harry's attention.

Only a few people put their names down on the list. As it worked out, only Harry, Draco, one Hufflepuff, and one other Slytherin had opted for the holiday exchange. Harry wondered which house Draco would be going to for the holidays and why he wasn't going home. He thought it might actually be better to see the last house over the holidays anyway. This way he would spend the holiday doing something productive, and after the holidays were over he could look forward to spending the rest of the year with his friends in Gryffindor. He missed his own house.

The next morning, Harry said goodbye to Ernie and Justin and went to sit at Slytherin table. A lot of people at Slytherin gave him unhappy looks, but no one said anything about him being there. He supposed by now everyone was used to people coming in and out of their common room and dorms.

Rylee French and Sylace Reid came down the table to sit next to Harry. "Hi," Harry said. He'd been to two other houses and had Draco in Gryffindor, but suddenly he was feeling shy sitting at Slytherin.

"Welcome to Slytherin," Rylee said. Both Rylee and Reid had stayed in Gryffindor while Harry was away at Ravenclaw.

"Thanks," Harry said.

"Someone said you were almost sorted here," Reid said.

"Yeah, the hat was going to put me here at first."

"But?"

"I'd just met Draco and gotten into a fight with him and Draco had just been put in Slytherin, so I asked the hat to put me somewhere else. I didn't want to start off in a house with someone who already didn't like me."

"That sounds like a strategic move a Slytherin would make," Reid said in approval.

"Er, I guess." Harry was beginning to feel confused about where he belonged. Sometimes he still felt excited about learning new things like he never had before visiting Ravenclaw, and this morning he had just left Hufflepuff who had helped him a lot. Now he was being told he was like others in Slytherin.

"Draco went to Hufflepuff this morning," Rylee said.

"I'm ok with him now," Harry said, thinking they might believe he was apt to start a fight with him. "He stayed in my dorm in Gryffindor for two weeks."

"We know," she said.

"Gryffindor is strange," Reid said then. "We all know none of you like us, but when we went into Gryffindor it was like someone stepped up to protect us from other Gryffindors. We're old enough to take care of ourselves you know."

Harry frowned. He had seen the Gryffindor Quidditch team constantly surrounding Rylee. He wondered who had looked out for Reid.

"I didn't know that," Harry said. "I mean, I knew you could take care of yourself... it's not like you needed protecting or anything, I just mean, I didn't know you all looked at us that way."

"That is what happened, isn't it?" Rylee said. "The entire Quidditch team acted like if anybody even looked at me sideways they'd pounce on them. And we all know you and Draco hate each other, but you decided to include him in everything you did while he was there anyway."

"When I went to Ravenclaw they acted like I was just another boy in their house," Harry said. "I just thought if they did that for me I should do that for Draco... try to include him in stuff so he didn't feel left out. Don't you do that for people coming into Slytherin?" Harry was confused. That is why they'd come down the table to sit with him, wasn't it?

Rylee and Reid looked at each other, and then back to Harry. "We only saw Gryffindor. We haven't been to other houses yet." Maybe they had just come to sit with Harry to question him about his intentions.

Harry didn't feel like what he had done was wrong. He supposed he would have done the same if Mathe or Justin or Ernie had come to Gryffindor to visit while he was there. But then again, Katie Bell had told Gryffindor to treat Rylee nicely or she'd have something to say about it, so it hadn't surprised Harry that the team had stepped up to make sure she was treated fairly. He supposed they were protecting her. Now that he thought about it, the Ravenclaws had had their doubts about incorporating Harry and Ginny into their house but had been told by Professor Flitwick to try, and Ernie and Justin seemed to do it out of a genuine desire for friendship. Harry and Draco weren't friends, and Harry hadn't been told to make him feel at home by McGonagall, so he supposed he must have done it because he felt it was the right thing to do. He wasn't sure if it was a protection thing or not though.

"What are you thinking?" Rylee asked then. Harry looked up. That was an odd question. No one ever cared what he was thinking about.

"Probably that you're right," Harry said, and explained about not realizing it until just now.

Rylee looked smug for a moment, but then she looked relieved. "We didn't think a Gryffindor would ever admit they were wrong."

"Well I was, so why wouldn't I? It's not right to carry on like you're right when you're not." He waited for them to mutter, ‘Gryffindor' because he'd come to expect it of others now, but they didn't.

Breakfast finished and Teddy Nott came down the table. "Come on Potter." Harry knew Teddy was reserved. He always seemed reserved and calculating and sometimes even moody. He was quiet like Mathe, but also didn't have trouble speaking up if he thought there was something you should hear. Harry had seen Teddy tell other Slytherins they were being stupid on several occasions, once even when Draco was starting to call Hermione names in the corridors.

Harry followed Teddy and the other sixth year boys down to the dungeons. He didn't tell them he already knew where their common room was or that he'd been inside before.

"This is the first time in seven centuries outsiders have been allowed in Slytherin," Blaise Zabini told Harry as he said the password and the bare patch of wall opened to reveal the long, low ceilinged common room. This was easily the largest common room of the four Harry had seen, but the Ravenclaw common room felt larger because of its tall, tall walls and domed ceiling. Harry felt like he should say something though so he said, "It's very nice."

"Don't mock us."

"I wasn't," Harry said. He definitely preferred the Gryffindor and even the Hufflepuff common rooms, but Slytherin had its own appeal. Instead of plain stone, there were a lot of dark wood beams going up to the ceiling and occasionally crossing from one side of the room to the other. One wall on the far end behind the fireplace had tall windows that showed water with a gentle green tinge, and Harry could see weeds, bubbles, and the occasional fish swimming by. Upon further inspection when closer to the windows, he could see the bottom of the lake. They were at a shallow spot, and light was filtering down from above the surface to help light the common room. There were dark Slytherin green rugs all over the wood floor of the common room, and silver lanterns hanging from the ceilings. The upholstered furniture was light grey and well taken care of, and the tables were wood though not as highly polished as the tables in Hufflepuff. To Harry it felt almost like they were on a ship, but that could have just been because he could see out into the lake.

"Sometimes we swim down to look at people through the windows," Pansy commented, coming into the common room behind them.

"Oh," Harry said, "I'm not a good swimmer."

"C'mon," Blaise said in a bored tone. "Our dorms are over here." He led Harry to a door that led to a long hallway with eight doors off of it. There was another window at the end of this hallway that showed the lake.

"This one is sixth years," Blaise said. There was a number 6 on one of the doors just inside the hall.

Inside the sixth year boy's dormitory there were six beds, five wardrobes, and six desks. There were also several half height bookshelves along the walls, and an old painting depicting Merlin experimenting with magic.

"Merlin was Slytherin," Crabbe gruffed, like he was extremely irritated that Harry was there.

"Yeah," Harry said, "I read that once. That's cool." He had a feeling the Slytherins were extremely proud that the most famous good wizard of all time was from their house. Harry wasn't sure how to feel about it though because he rather thought having the most evil wizard of all time from one's house canceled Merlin out.

"Your dorms are a lot bigger than all the others," Harry said. This room was easily twice the size of the dorms in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw and almost three times the size of the ones in Hufflepuff. As Harry continued to look around, he also noted a couch against one of the walls in the square room, but it was covered with clothes. It looked like someone was already packing to leave for the holidays. The room was bigger, but it was also more cluttered since they had so many places to set things. There were brooms leaning up against two walls instead of being in their wardrobes, books stacked on almost every desk instead of in their trunks or on the already overflowing bookshelves, and other personal items strewn about. It wasn't as if everything was just tossed and dirty, there were just a lot of things out. One thing Harry was interested to notice were the lack of posters on the walls. Instead of Quidditch posters or posters of wizard bands, there were maps and charts, some with tacks on them depicting certain locations.

"What are you looking at?" Goyle asked, lumbering over. Apparently Harry had been standing and staring too long.

"What are the maps and charts about?" Harry asked.

"Projects," Goyle said. "Where do you put your maps and charts? The floor?" He began to laugh but Harry didn't understand.

"What kind of projects?"

Goyle frowned. "Term projects. What else?"

Harry looked around at the others. They all seemed to know what Goyle was talking about.

"You don't have projects you work on in your spare time?" Blaise finally asked.

"No-"

The other boys looked around at each other again. "Draco's the only one of us who's been out on exchange yet," Blaise said. "Teddy's scheduled to go after the holiday. You don't have anything like this in Gryffindor?"

Harry shook his head. "Maybe if you explained to me what the projects were about?"

"Each term we have to work on a project of our choosing. Professor Snape doesn't care what it is, but we're to choose something that's not taught here to study or learn about, or a business plan to implement, or things of that nature."

Harry still looked confused, so Blaise walked up to the chart and map Harry had been looking at. "Look, this is Goyle's project. He's been researching new companies for his father's quill company to trade with. The pins mark new markets he's helping his father get into in Europe. The chart on the wall shows projected costs versus projected benefits, versus projected profits, versus projected debt."

Blaise turned and walked to another wall at the end of the room by the door. "This is Draco's project. He's been learning elvish and he's been translating a book from ancient elvish to modern elvish and then to English. Once he's finished he's supposed to give a speech to the elven consulate in Edinburgh asking for permission for his family to take over their rightful land that's been held by the consulate for the last two hundred years." There were charts with elvish runes and letters taped above Draco's desk. There seemed to be three sets, over two dozen papers in all. It seemed like a lot of work. Was this why Draco was so stressed and mopy?

"You don't do anything like this?" Blaise asked again.

"No. I haven't seen anything like this in the other houses either."

"What do you do with your free time then?"

"Erm... play board games," Harry said, feeling lame. If this was what the Slytherins were working on in their free time, then Harry felt like a loser, or something, spending his time with his friends. Draco had seemed confused that they'd spent so much time walking, talking, and playing games. "We take walks, talk with friends, visit friends in other places. After we get our school work and studying done," Harry clarified. He looked around the room again and realized that a lot of the things piled on the desks and all of the stacks of papers were likely for these projects. Maybe this was why the Slytherins always seemed so grouchy. What was he going to do for three weeks if they were all busy studying and doing these projects?

"You'll be expected to do a project too," Teddy said. "All the other students who have visited have done projects."

"I'm not sure what to do," Harry admitted.

"Ten or eleven students focus on making art. A couple of people in the house run businesses and sell things around school for extra money, a lot of students help with their parent's businesses, and the rest just study things that interest them."

Harry supposed he could choose a random subject to study, but he wasn't sure what he was interested in. The only thing he'd been interested in recently was visiting all of the houses and comparing and contrasting all of the differences. Maybe he could do something with that.

The boys didn't seem to want to linger in the dorms any longer than they had to with Harry there, and looked impatient to get going. "You're in Draco's bed for the week," Teddy said. "It's that one. Don't use his desk though, use the empty desk over there so you don't disturb his project."

Harry looked at Draco's bed and saw his own trunk at the foot of it.

"Um, it looks like Draco forgot his coat. Should I just set it on his desk?"

The boys looked at each other and then Blaise said, "Draco gave instructions that you were to use his coat while you're here. It's his spare."

Harry frowned. "Use his coat? Why?"

"Don't know Potter, it's just what he said."

"Oh, ok." Maybe it was because he'd asked why Harry was using Ron's second coat and figured out Harry didn't have one, but Harry couldn't see why Draco would let him use his very nice black coat, or why he'd tell the other boys to make sure he did.

"Come on," Crabbe grunted. "And bring the coat."

Harry grabbed the coat and followed the boys out. The sixth year girls were waiting for them in the common room and were all dressed for cold weather. "Come on, hurry up already! We're going to be late!"

"What are we doing?" Harry asked as they left the common room and went back out into the rest of the Dungeons. He followed them up to the Entrance Hall and then out onto the grounds. It had finally begun snowing last night and the world was white. Harry was glad Draco had lent him the thick warm coat.

"Pansy spent the term practicing dryad magic. She's been learning to grow trees. She planted seeds behind Hagrid's cabin and has been going out there twice a day to water them and practice her magic. All the trees she grew are getting cut down today and we're going to help her bring them in to be used around the castle. The Headmaster said she gets to decide which Christmas trees go to which parts of the castle since she grew them."

Harry was surprised. That seemed interesting. He supposed they had to have new trees planted each year since Hogwarts used so many, or else the forest would be cleared after so many years of cutting two dozen trees down for Christmas.

Hagrid was happy to see Harry when they got there, and it seemed like he was waiting for them.

"Alrigh' yeh just tell me which ones yeh want Pansy an' I'll cut ‘em down. Then the rest o' you can label ‘em and begin taking ‘em up ter the castle. Remember now, don' use magic ter haul ‘em or they can't be decorated with fairy lights."

Pansy began directing Hagrid on which ones to cut. She started with the biggest three trees, and as soon as Hagrid had them sawed down Millicent Bulstrode and Daphne Greengrass labeled them with a parchment tied to the trunk and told the boys to haul them up to the Great Hall. Harry and Goyle struggled in the wet, slippery snow to haul their tree up the slope to the castle, but finally managed, the other boys not far behind them. It was another matter getting the trees up the steps and inside however. All four boys had to work together on carrying one tree at a time as they couldn't drag it or it would lose all its needles. Task finally complete they headed back to Hagrid's and passed Daphne and Millicent struggling up the hill with a smaller tree headed for Ravenclaw.

It took them all morning to get the trees to their destinations, but when they were done they enjoyed a warm meal in the Great Hall and then went down to Slytherin with the final tree, where the other students delighted in the chance to decorate it. Harry was allowed to help put fairy lights on the tree (a simple spell where one touched their wand to a branch and thought a color and a glowing fairy light appeared in that color). Several girls used their wands to put fake, never-melting snow on the tree, while others tied green and silver ribbons and silver bells to the branches. The second years hung green and silver ornaments with the Slytherin crest, and the first years hung garlands around the common room. The room felt festive when they were done. Usually Harry missed the decorating of the Gryffindor tree because he was at Quidditch practice or in detention. He'd only ever gotten to help decorate once before and had usually found himself wishing the others in the tower had waited for him. The Slytherins waited until every person in the house was present to decorate, and each year had a job to do. Rylee told Harry that all students looked forward to moving up a year so they could do a different and more desirable decorating task at Christmas.

"Is the Gryffindor tree all red and gold?" Millicent asked.

"It's got a lot of colors," Harry shrugged. "I think most of the gold ornaments are broken and were replaced with green and blue and purple." He never paid too much attention to the tree since he never got to decorate it.

"Why didn't they fix the gold ones?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I never get to decorate the tree. I'm always out of the common room when the tree comes in."

"They don't wait for you?"

"They probably didn't realize I was gone. It gets busy in there."

"They don't realize- but they must realize someone's not there to do their job."

"People don't have jobs in Gryffindor," Harry said.

"They don't do projects either," Blaise put in.

"They don't?" Millicent sounded confused.

"No projects," Harry confirmed, which reminded him that he was supposed to come up with something to do to keep himself occupied.

* * *

"Potter."

Harry turned at Snape's silky drawl. He had come up behind him in the darkly lit dungeon as Harry was on his way back from dinner Monday night.

"Sir?" He reached up to smooth his hair down self-consciously and Snape didn't fail to notice. Harry couldn't help it, he'd done his best to do as Professor Sprout had said, and comb it right after getting out of the shower and right away again after it was dry. It had helped make it straight and not wavy, but Harry was sure it still wasn't right and Snape would say something about it. He didn't. Instead his eyes fell to Harry's black coat.

"That is Mr. Malfoy's coat."

"Yes sir," Harry said. It was a lot warmer than Ron's, and Harry felt rich walking around in it. It did wonders to ward off the chill of the castle since Harry had no long sleeve shirts or sweaters or sweat jackets to wear.

"And you are wearing it because?"

"Draco said I could," Harry said.

"Doubtful," Snape said. "It's convenient that the moment you move into the Slytherin dormitories and Draco is not there to guard his belongings, you are seen wearing his things about the castle. I believe you have detention for theft Potter. Take off the coat." Harry didn't fight with him. He didn't want him to start yelling, and he wasn't going to get out of detention now that he wasn't a Hufflepuff, though he wished he were just then.

Harry followed Snape down the corridor to his office, where Snape retrieved a key from his desk, and then followed him down the hall to the first year Potions lab. Someone had had an accident in here earlier in the day and there were now crusted gray blobs of dried potion coating a workbench, two chairs, and the floor. The mess was so hardened that the chairs were glued to the stone floor.

"Clean," Snape said, and went to sit at the teacher's desk with Draco's coat. Harry went to the supply cupboard where he knew Snape kept scraping tools to clean up messes just like this, and retrieved a large scraper, a bucket, a scrub brush, and a rag. He filled the bucket with soapy water at the large sink in the front and then set to work trying to soak the hardened potion and then chip away at it as best as he could with the scraper. It was hard work and his entire body ached by the time he was done an hour and a half later. He was also cold from the chilly dungeon air and having wet hands for such a long time.

"Do not cause trouble in my house Potter," Snape warned him as he released him. "If I catch you stealing anything again, your time in the exchange will be over, and I will make sure you have detention until Easter. Theft is not taken lightly here."

"Yes sir," Harry said, and made his way back to the common room. It was almost nine and he still had at least two hours of homework to do before bed.

* * *

The Slytherins mostly left Harry alone and kept to themselves, and before he knew it, it was Saturday and most of them were boarding the train to go home for the holidays. Harry went with them to the train platform to see all the students off, and took the opportunity to say goodbye to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Mathe also made his way over to Harry to tell him goodbye, and so did several students from Hufflepuff. Ron saw Harry without a coat in the snow and took his off and handed it to Harry, who thanked him and put it on right away, hoping to warm his numb arms and hands up.

"It's ok, I got the spare one in my bag," Ron said. "And I have another at home."

Teddy, Blaise and Tracey were staying at Hogwarts and didn't board the train. They gave Harry a strange look when he came back wearing Ron's patched red and gray plaid coat.

"Where's Draco's coat?" Tracey asked.

"I'm not allowed to wear it anymore," Harry said.

"But where's yours then? Why are you wearing Ron Weasley's coat?"

"I usually wear Ron's coat. I don't have one. Only I think Draco must have said I could use his since Ron would need his since I wasn't staying in Gryffindor."

"You don't have a coat?" Blaise asked critically, looking Harry up and down.

"No."

"Why can't you wear Draco's anymore?"

"Professor Snape told me I couldn't."

The three looked at each other and then back at Harry. "Why would he say that?"

Harry shrugged. "He said I stole it. I said Draco told me I could use it, but he thought I was lying. He gave me detention and took Draco's coat and told me not to steal anything else."

"When did this happen?" Teddy asked.

Harry thought about it. "Tuesday evening?"

"And you've been without a coat the last four days?"

Harry shrugged. "It's ok, I usually don't have one."

"How come you didn't come get one of us."

"I kind of thought you might have told me to wear his coat so I'd get in trouble," Harry admitted. "I thought it from the start but the coat was so nice and I've never had such a warm one to wear. I wanted to wear it as long as I could before I got in trouble for it."

"Draco did tell us to make sure you wore his coat," Teddy said. "We didn't lie to you. We don't do that Potter."

"Sorry," Harry said. "I didn't mean to mis-judge you."

"If you're visiting Slytherin, that means you're one of us for the time being. That's probably why Draco gave you his coat if he knew you needed it. Slytherins take care of each other."

"So do Gryffindors," Harry said.

The three had just seen Ron take off his coat to give to Harry, so he knew they must have known it. "We see that," Tracey said as they continued their walk back up to the castle.

* * *

"Is that your project?" Teddy asked Harry Sunday morning. He'd stayed up late working on it and had a couple of things taped to the wall above his desk. It was pitiful looking compared to the other boy's progress on their projects.

"Yeah," Harry said. "I just started. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do."

"We're supposed to start new projects after Christmas and then again after Easter or else expand our current projects to incorporate more elements. It always takes us some time to come up with a new project."

Harry looked over his notes and when he didn't tell Teddy what he was working on, the other boy sighed and rolled his eyes and then plopped down into his own desk chair at the desk next to Harry's. "What are you working on?"

"Every time I visit a new house I find out that everything I thought about that house is wrong. And people ask me questions about Gryffindor and seem surprised about the answers I give. It seems like everybody has misconceptions about the other houses, and something Hermione said earlier this year made me think. She said, if they'd done this exchange sooner, she wondered if there would still be a lot of fighting and rivalry between the houses. Well I'm getting a new understanding of different houses, and so are some others, but kids below fourth year aren't, and not all of the older students are signed up to do the exchange, so they're not learning much of anything except from people who come through their houses. But even when people do come to visit, not everybody interacts with them. Ron mostly tries to stay away from people coming through Gryffindor. I thought if I could interview some people who have been to other houses already, and ask them what they thought of that house before and then after they visited, I could share the results."

"Like a presentation to the school?"

"I was thinking maybe to my own house."

"What good would that be?" Teddy said critically, "It'd be better if the whole school heard it."

Harry thought about it for a few moments and then said, "You're probably right."

"You're still thinking like you're only part of one house."

"But I am."

"Are you? You've lived in other houses for five and a half weeks now, right? You said you learned about them."

"I don't know," Harry said, but he supposed Teddy was right about this too. He'd tried very hard to be part of the other houses. He had liked Ravenclaw, and he had really liked Hufflepuff. He supposed he wasn't doing so bad in Slytherin either. He still missed Gryffindor most of all though.

"What are the questions you're going to ask? What are the rules of the study going to be?"

"Rules?" Harry asked.

"There have to be rules for it to count as a project. You have to state a goal and write out the steps you're going to take on the way to the goal, and you have to write out how you'll know the goal is complete."

"I guess my goal is to stop myths about the different houses. Show the truth."

"Write it down," Teddy directed, and Harry did so.

"The steps are I'm going to ask people questions of before and after they visited houses."

"But are you going to report everything you find? It's not fair if you only report what you want to. What if you ask people questions about Gryffindor and don't like the answers? Then it's not a true study and you'd be twisting the truth, which wouldn't meet your goal."

"I'll report everything I find," Harry said and wrote it down.

"And the goal will be complete after your speech, but that's not really quantifiable. You could only really know if you saw a change in people's attitudes and behaviors, though I'm not sure how you could measure that."

"I could do a survey after I give the presentation," Harry said.

"People could lie on it."

"I'll make it anonymous."

Teddy thought on it for a few moments and then said, "Now it's starting to sound like a project."

Harry showed him the questions he had thought up the night before and then got Teddy's opinion on them, and then Blaise came in and Harry explained his project to him and got his opinion. After the three boys tweaked the questions, Blaise showed Harry how to draw up a chart and calculate percentages, and Harry was set to begin asking questions. He started with Rylee, who had stayed at the castle for the holiday. She made Harry explain his entire project to her, and the rules before she agreed to take part. Harry found several other Slytherins who had also already done the exchange who also made him explain his project, but they eventually answered his questions as well.

Harry spent almost an entire day writing letters and then coaxing school owls to agree to take them to people. He wanted to get as many people to answer his questions as possible and so many people who had done the exchange had already gone home for the holidays. Harry also spent several days asking people in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff questions after he'd obtained a list from McGonagall of who had participated in the exchange so far. When Harry talked to Draco, he got a chance to ask him about the coat.

"The others in the dorm said you wanted me to wear your coat."

"I didn't want you to do anything Potter," Draco said. "You don't have a coat and it's the middle of winter. Slytherins take care of each other."

"Even if they hate each other?"

"Yes," Draco said.

"Gryffindor is like that, but people don't really hate each other."

Draco made a disgruntled noise and then rolled his eyes. "Potter, nobody in Slytherin hates each other."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said. Like your project, maybe I found some interesting things out about certain people too."

"Yeah?"

"Just- mind your own business Potter."

Harry marked something down on the parchment he had been writing notes on while interviewing Draco.

"What was that?"

"The rules are I have to report what I find out."

"So?"

"I'm keep track of how many people tell me to shut up and mind my own business."

Draco scoffed and then left Harry in the Great Hall to go back to the Hufflepuff common room.

* * *

Severus Snape was irritated. ‘The-Boy-Who-Lived-To-Be-The-Bane-Of-His-Existence' had been receiving mail all day long. From breakfast until dinner, owl after owl had been dropping cards with Christmas well wishes off to him. He'd never seen such a display before. It seemed that the boy had used his time on house-exchange to garner sympathy from as many students as possible. He'd certainly made that clear in Hufflepuff. Severus had read the word-for-word recounting of the Hufflepuff student court and had felt sick to his stomach with how twisted the Potter brat had woven his tale of their encounter in the dungeon corridor. He could only imagine how he'd convinced his witnesses to lie about seeing him shaking as mean Professor Snape had shouted at him. The recounting of the court hadn't mentioned it, but Severus wondered if the brat had stuck his bottom lip out and let it tremble during proceedings. The only good that had come out of those proceedings was the brat's new haircut and that his tie was now always straight.

Another owl swooped in and dropped a letter next to Potter's plate and Severus allowed his lip to curl. The brat was so stuck up he didn't even open any of the letters or cards. He shuddered. He couldn't stand the whelp on the brat's best days, but to think that he was now in Slytherin trying to garner more sympathy and gain more fans? No, he'd stayed out of Slytherin common room for the last two weeks intentionally. Tomorrow was Christmas, and then the brat would only be there for six more days. He couldn't wait until he was out of his house and back in Gryffindor where he belonged.

* * *

Harry had three presents under the Slytherin tree. They were small, but they were his, and he was grateful for them. He was certain he knew who each of them was from. He unwrapped the squishy one first. It was a jumper from Mrs. Weasley, and Harry excitedly put it on, feeling properly warm for the first time since Snape had taken Draco's coat from him. There was a Christmas card wishing him well, and also a pack of Drooble's best blowing gum from Ron and a letter from Ginny asking how Harry's time in Slytherin was going.

The next package turned out to be from both Ron and Hermione. It was a book about running a Quidditch team and the methods to do so efficiently. Ron had picked the book out and Hermione had paid for it.

The last package was from Hagrid. It was a tin of surprisingly good unburnt cookies and a handmade Christmas card. Harry cherished all three items.

"What did you get Potter?" Rhylee asked curiously.

"Oh, Hagrid made me cookies and a nice card. Do you want one?" He held out the tin and she took one. "And Ron's mum made me a sweater and Ron gave me a pack of bubble gum and he and Hermione went in together to get me a Quidditch book."

"What else?" Rhylee asked. The fifteen Slytherins that had stayed for the holiday were all in the common room opening their presents and several were looking to see what others had received.

"That's it," Harry said, beaming.

"But what about from your family?"

"Er, I don't have a family," Harry said.

She stared at him and Harry was aware that Blaise and Teddy were listening too as they were sitting on the couch next to Rhylee.

"You live with someone, don't you? You don't live in an orphanage?"

"They're not really family. They don't like magic and since they don't like magic, they don't like me. It's ok," he said with a grin, "I'm used to it." Harry pretended he was ok with it, like he always did. If he pretended it didn't sting that they didn't give one whit about him, then he could try to believe it himself. It was best if he was just thankful for the friends he did have and the presents he had gotten and didn't dwell on the Dursleys at all. The fact was, he was better off here. If he were at Privet Drive right now he would be locked in his cupboard without a meal and listening to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon joke and laugh with Dudley and Aunt Marge and feed any portion they might have given to Harry to Marge's dog Ripper instead. No, that was no way to spend Christmas. At least here he was by a warm fire with a full stomach, sitting on a comfortable couch with company and able to look at a nice tree he'd helped to decorate. He could still see all the exact places he'd put fairy lights if he really looked at it.

Later, after the Christmas feast when Harry was back in the dorm with Teddy and Blaise, and going over more replies he'd received in the mail, writing down answers and marking things off on his charts, he thought that it hadn't been such a bad Christmas, and it occurred to him that it could have been if the Slytherins had determined to make it miserable for him.

"You've all been really nice to me," Harry said, turning to look at them. Teddy was on his bed reading a new novel he'd gotten that morning, and Blaise was just starting to doze off in his own bed.

"We've hardly been ‘nice'," Blaise said, as though Harry was accusing him of a crime.

"Well, you could have been nasty to me is all I mean. It's been a good Christmas."

"Did you expect us to be nasty?" Teddy asked. "Maybe you'd better put that on your charts as an expectation you had."

"No, I didn't," Harry said, "I didn't know what to expect. I really just wanted to come find out what it might have been like if I'd been sorted into Slytherin. I wasn't sure how you'd be. In the past Draco and Crabbe and Goyle haven't been the nicest to my friends and I though."

"What, you want to know why we're being ‘nice'?" Blaise asked.

Harry shrugged. He would like to know.

"After Draco got back from Gryffindor he said you weren't so bad and actually made an effort to be nice to him while he was there."

"Hm."

"We figured if you could do it, we could do it," Blaise said.

Harry smiled to himself as he turned back around to his desk. That was the thinking that had led him to try being nice to Draco in the first place.

* * *

"More fan mail Potter?" Snape sneered from behind him as Harry made his way across the Entrance Hall towards the Dungeons. He'd just come back from the owlery where he'd given every single owl a treat for coming and going so frequently with his project letters. There had even been a few more letters waiting for him in the owlery.

"No sir, these are for my-"

"Potter." Snape cut him off and sounded angry. "Is that Weasley's coat?"

Harry looked down at the warm red and plaid coat. He'd put it on to see the owls so he wouldn't freeze to death since it was snowing heavily outside.

"Yes sir," Harry said.

"Did I, or did I not tell you that theft is not tolerated?"

"Ron said I could wear it sir."

"Do not lie to me. You waited until he left on holiday, went back to your dormitory, and took it from his wardrobe when he wasn't there to stop you."

"No sir-"

"I believe I warned you last time that if I caught you stealing again your time in the exchange would be over."

"I didn't take it sir. He said I could wear it. I don't have a coat."

"Harry Potter without a coat?" Snape actually laughed then, and it chilled Harry. "I believe that like I believe other students are just falling all over themselves to give you their coats."

"I SWEAR!" Harry shouted, feeling panicky. His hands were shaking again and he jammed them in Ron's coat pockets.

"Give me the coat Potter. Then you are to go to Slytherin, retrieve your belongings, and go back to Gryffindor tower. I will be coordinating all of your future detentions with your head of house."

"But-"

"NOW!"

Snape was yelling and Harry could feel the blood drain from his face as his heart started pounding. Nothing good ever came from an adult yelling. Harry cursed at himself internally as his hands shook making him fumble with the large buttons as he undid them and then pulled Ron's coat off. He had goosebumps going up and down his arms from the chilly castle air as he handed the coat over.

"Twenty minutes Potter, and then I expect to see you vacating Slytherin."

Harry nodded stiffly and then hurried past the man and down the stairs to the Dungeons. He was still pale and shaking when he hurried through the Slytherin common room past Teddy, Blaise, and a few others and into the dorm. Teddy and Blaise followed him in and found him throwing things haphazardly into his open trunk.

"What are you doing?" Teddy asked.

"Snape said I'm to leave Slytherin immediately. He said I'm kicked out of the exchange."

"What'd you do?" Blaise asked.

Harry stood up and looked at them angrily, though the anger was to keep himself from feeling any more anxiety over the encounter with Snape, because he didn't think he could physically handle any more anxiety at that moment. "You just assume I did something to deserve this? Is it just because I'm a Gryffindor or because you don't like me?" He didn't really want to know, but he'd gotten so used to asking questions like that over the course of the term that he couldn't help but spit it out sarcastically. Harry answered their question in the end though as he threw the jumper from Mrs. Weasley into his trunk. "He caught me wearing Ron's coat. He said I stole it and that he warned me if I stole another thing after Draco's coat I'd be kicked out of the exchange."

Harry registered that the boys both looked surprised and then promptly turned around. His exchange visit to Slytherin was almost over anyway, so why did he care if he got kicked out five days early? He'd already had two weeks there. He thought it might be a mixture of his anxiety and the fact that he no longer had anything warm to wear. The jumper from Mrs. Weasley was nice and thick but it wasn't going to do anything for him whenever he'd have to go out in the wet snow to get to Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures. He was just tired of being cold and having things taken from him. It wasn't fair or right and that stung for some reason almost as bad as knowing the Dursleys cared nothing for him. Somehow the two were tied together but Harry had yet to figure out how.

Harry looked around when he realized the other two boys hadn't said anything and realized they were gone. He sat on the edge of his bed for a few moments to try to compose himself. He was on the verge of tears or a panic attack, whichever came first, and he didn't want to traipse out of the Slytherin common room with the shame of being kicked out of the exchange in front of everybody and be crying at the same time.

* * *

Severus tapped his fingers impatiently on his desk and watched the clock. There were five minutes left until Potter was to be out, and then he wouldn't have to worry about the brat any longer. He could be Minerva's problem again. There was a knock on his office door, and he was ready to throw the door open and scowl down at the brat and tell him to get back to Gryffindor tower. He opened the door and found Theodore Nott instead of Potter though, and stood aside so the boy could come in.

"Yes?" Severus asked, trying to remove the irritation from his voice as much as possible.

"Sir, why do you keep taking Harry's coat?"

"Excuse me?"

"You took his coat again. Now he's in the dorms pretending not to cry while he's packing his things."

Severus rolled his eyes. So Potter had gotten to the Slytherins too. He never thought he'd see the day.

"Mr. Nott, I do not know what Mr. Potter has told you, but he has a coat. I did not take his coat, nor would I. He has been caught twice now stealing another student's coat. One of the coats he stole belonged to Mr. Malfoy."

"But he didn't steal Draco's coat. Draco told him he could use it."

"That is what you believe?"

"Sir that's what Draco told me."

Severus turned his head slightly and narrowed his eyes. "What is what Draco told you?"

"Before Draco left to go to Hufflepuff, he told all the boys in the dorm to make sure Harry wore his spare coat. He left it on his bed for him. He made us promise to tell Harry to wear it. Then he went and made the girls promise to tell him to wear it if he didn't believe us."

"Draco Malfoy?"

"Yeah."

"And why pray-tell would Draco do such a thing?"

"He didn't say, but I assume it had something to do with the time he spent in Gryffindor. He said Harry was nice to him while he was there."

"Doubtful."

"I could see why you might think he stole Draco's coat sir, but then you took Ron's coat too. Harry doesn't have a coat. He's usually walking around in the snow without one."

"He likely went back to the Gryffindor dorms and took it after Mr. Weasley went home."

"But sir," Teddy said seriously, "Blaise and Tracy and I watched Ron give it to him on the train platform. He saw Harry standing there freezing in a t-shirt, took his coat off and gave it to him before he got on the train."

Severus seemed to be rolling the information over in his mind. He supposed it was possible Weasley would do such a thing, he was a Gryffindor after all, but he still had trouble believing Draco would willingly just give Potter his coat after so many years of hatred and rivalry between the two.

"Unless-"

Severus looked up at Teddy.

"Unless you think I'm a liar too."

Severus sighed. "I do not."

"Then maybe you could go to the dorms sir? Harry's a real mess."

"Are you telling me you prefer he stay for the rest of the break?"

"He hasn't been so bad," Teddy said. "He keeps to himself mostly and works on his project."

"His project? I was not aware he was doing one." He'd believed the brat thought himself too good to follow house traditions.

"He's been sending off letters to people all week and getting them back to gather data. I think he used just about every owl in the school to do it."

"I'll take care of the issue Mr. Nott," Severus said, though he wasn't looking forward to going to the dorms to speak to Potter. He had taken two coats off the boy after all, though he still wasn't entirely sure he believed what Theodore had told him. He wouldn't put it above Potter to slip the others in the dorm a potion or curse them to do his bidding.

"Thanks sir," Teddy said. "Maybe you could give him the coats back too. He's only got one warm thing to wear."

"One?" Severus asked.

"Ron Weasley's mother sent him a jumper. He acted like it was a new racing broom. But since he only got that and a book for Christmas, I could see why he'd appreciate it so much."

"You're telling me he only got two gifts?"

"You're acting like I'm a liar again?" Teddy shot back.

Severus narrowed his eyes. Theodore Nott was one of the bolder Slytherins and generally the only one to ever challenge Severus. If he had not encouraged the trait in the boy throughout the years, he might have been more irritated with him than he was.

"Do not push your luck Mr. Nott."

"Yes sir."

Teddy left and Severus sat at his desk for two full minutes in silence trying to mull things over. No, he didn't believe a word of it. He was going to go to the dorms and find Potter and find out what potion or curse he had used on Theodore Nott, and then there would be hell to pay. That was what Severus was planning anyway. What he found when he got to the dorms challenged his plans however.

He threw open the door to the sixth year boy's dormitory and found Harry inside alone. The door had startled him and he'd turned to see what the noise was. The boy's eyes were red and he hastily wiped his sleeve across his eyes before turning away and digging behind the bed for something.

"I"m sorry sir! I'm going I swear! I just can't find my new book. I have to find it before I go! The rest of my things are packed!" His voice shook and Severus could hear the anxiety there as the boy frantically searched and stammered on about being ready to leave. When he couldn't find the book behind the bed he dropped to his stomach to search under it, before standing abruptly again and searching the green and silver curtains that hung from the fourposter, as if it somehow might have gotten lost amongst them.

"Potter."

"I can't leave it sir, I can't. It was a Christmas gift. As soon as I find it I'll go, I promise." Severus was disturbed to see how the boy's hands shook as he went to the desk and began pulling open every empty drawer. He was too busy to wipe the tears from his eyes which were pooling there now, ready to spill over the edge. In that moment, Severus felt bad for the child, and felt ashamed that he hadn't believed him or even believed his own Slytherin students.

"Potter, stop for a moment."

Harry stood up straight as though he'd been slapped and waited with wide eyes, hands still shaking and tears still pooled. He bit his lip like he was waiting for a tirade to start against him. If Harry's hands had been shaking anything near how they were now when he'd yelled at him in the corridor about his attire, then the Hufflepuffs gathered must have seen it. Severus did read that Harry had been shaking in the court recounting. He had to admit that at the time he had been too busy yelling at the boy and dressing him down to notice.

"Mr. Nott informs me that you did not steal either coat."

Harry shook his head, still biting his lip. He was too anxious to speak.

"If you did not steal the coats, then I owe you an apology for accusing you of doing so, and not believing you when you told me you did not take them. At the very least, I should have gone to Mr. Malfoy to ask him if your side of the story was true. It also occurs to me that if you did not steal Mr. Malfoy's coat then you did not deserve the detention that I made you serve, and do not deserve to be thrown out of the exchange program."

Harry didn't know what to say. He was too overwhelmed with anxiety to think about what Snape was telling him. He sat down on the edge of his bed and swiped at his eyes furiously but it didn't help. His breathing was quick and erratic and he didn't know what to do to stop it. He'd always had some anxiety over getting in trouble he supposed, or when waiting for uncle Vernon to come home to judge the work he'd done on his chores, or when getting into a confrontation with Snape, but this was as bad as it had ever been.

"Potter, you need to focus on slow, steady breathing."

Harry shook his head and then sat on his hands to keep them from shaking, or to keep his Professor from seeing, Severus wasn't sure which. The boy was clearly fighting an anxiety attack, and he wasn't helping any.

Severus let his eyes roam to Potter's desk and found a few items taped to the wall.

"Theodore said you were working on a project," he said. He walked over and pulled out Crabbe's desk chair and sat in it and looked at the untidy scrawl of Harry's charts. "This looks interesting, what is it?" If he couldn't talk the boy down it would be better to pretend nothing was wrong at all and engage him in some other mundane conversation to distract him, or so he hoped.

When Harry didn't answer, Severus didn't turn around to look back at him. Instead he said, "What are these percentages about? And the different colors?" The chart was labeled clearly with letters such as G1, G2, G3, and S1, S2, percentages next to each item, and there was a color coded bar graph with red, blue, green, and yellow. Instead of asking another question, Severus decided to wait for an answer and see what happened.

After several moments of silence, Harry finally said from behind him, "I've been comparing what people thought about houses before they went on exchange and after to see if any previous notions they had were dispelled or reinforced."

Severus raised his brows. That was interesting he thought, and if the study had been done correctly, he was sure the Headmaster would like to see the data gathered.

"Oh?" It was better to ask something vague, he'd found. It was the best way to get people to talk when he didn't want specific information.

"I sent letters to everyone on the list of people who visited other houses, and asked everybody the same questions, I'm still waiting for a few to come back."

"And the goal of this project?"

"To tell the school the findings so those who didn't participate or interact with house visitors can compare what they believe to what others who have done the exchange believe."

"And how will you know if your goal is met?" It was the same set of questions he asked all of his Slytherins when they presented their project ideas to him. The boy had done a remarkable amount of work in his short time there, and Severus was certain some of the other boys in the dorm had helped him.

"I'm going to give an anonymous survey afterwards to see if any perceptions changed after hearing the presentation."

Severus turned to face Harry who was still sitting on the bed. The boy's eyes were still red, but now tear free, and his hands had stopped shaking. Harry was refusing to look anywhere but his hands however.

"I will give you back the coats as I took them from you wrongfully. I wish to know however why you do not have a coat of your own."

Harry shrugged.

"It appears to me you have made an effort to fit in here, am I correct in assuming you have also made the same effort in the other houses you visited?"

Harry gave a single nod.

"Why?"

"I joined the exchange to know what it was like to be part of other houses."

"Even Slytherin?"

"The Sorting hat tried to put me in Slytherin before it put me in Gryffindor. I wondered what it would have been like to have been sorted here."

"If you want the full experience, you will have to answer my questions."

Harry finally looked up at him. "Why?"

"I assume by your new haircut and straight tie that Professor Sprout made an effort to help you fix those issues."

"Yes sir."

"In Slytherin, students talk to their head of house truthfully about issues they are facing, such as not having proper attire."

"I just don't have one," Harry said in an exasperated way. It was the same tone he'd used when he'd yelled at Snape to shut up already.

"From the recounting of the Hufflepuff student court, it was also mentioned that you did not get new pants or other clothing for the school year."

Harry shrugged, but when he saw the look on Snape's face he said, "No, I don't have anything ok? Do you want to take my shoes and socks too? They're crap but they're mine and they're all I have, so if you're gonna take them I wanna get it over with."

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. "If I must apologize to you again, I will."

"Why? Why would you bother apologizing at all? You don't mean it. You hate me."

Severus wanted to tell the boy it wasn't true, but up until twenty minutes ago, he had hated him. He didn't know if twenty minutes was enough time to stop hating someone. It was only enough time as far as he knew to feel confused as hell and feel poorly about the decisions he'd made that led him up to this point.

"I'm offering you this one time the chance to know what it is really like to be a Slytherin before you return to Gryffindor tower on Saturday. It is your choice."

Harry seemed to be thinking it over, though he still appeared irritated now that his anxiety had faded. "I just don't have clothes. I don't have anything. I was lucky to get school books because I could send for them by owl order."

"You didn't go to Diagonalley for supplies before school." It wasn't a question.

"No. They wouldn't take me and they wouldn't let me visit Ron so I could go with his family."

"They being your family?"

"I don't have a family. I keep telling people that and they don't believe me." When Severus didn't ask another question, Harry looked up and filled in the silence by himself. "They don't like me, ok? I'm like a criminal or something there. I'm lucky I get to come back here every year."

Severus listened, asking an occasional question as Harry told him everything about living in the cupboard under the stairs, sleeping on the floor, feeling lucky to sleep outside where he could stretch out when they locked him out, not getting regular meals, the yelling, not liking loud noises, not having clothes to wear, sharing coats and hats and gloves with the other Gryffindor boys, and counting down the days until he could go back to Hogwarts each summer. There was so much more to tell, but Harry supposed he would never be able to tell it all.

"Why have you not told anyone else until now?"

"I told you, I keep telling people I don't have a family. No one believes me." Snape didn't seem to be yelling at him right now, and he had listened through his story. Was this what it was like to be Slytherin? "No one offered me a chance to be a part of anything I wasn't already a part of until this year."

So that was it, Severus wondered. The boy was just waiting for a chance to tell his story. He was just waiting for someone to invite him to and be ready to listen. It wasn't the first time he'd heard things like this from students, but it was the worst he'd heard of so far and hoped he never heard anything like it again.

"I am sorry I so often disparaged your attire and never did anything to try to remedy the situation." Maybe if he had the boy would have told him earlier. He'd obviously said enough to Professor Sprout that she took action to give him a haircut, fix his pants as best as she could and show him how to make his tie stay put.

"It's ok. We share in Gryffindor," he repeated from what he'd told Snape earlier.

"There are four days until you are no longer a Slytherin. If you will allow me, I will continue to give you the full Slytherin experience."

Harry nodded. It felt kind of good to have an adult listen to him and hear him out. He'd tried to tell Dumbledore once, but he hadn't heard Harry right or didn't understand. Snape stood up and left, and Harry flopped back onto his back on his bed. He felt worn out. His anxiety had left him drained. He wasn't sure whether he should feel good, awful, or relieved. He wasn't sure what to think of Snape either. He'd never seen this side of the man before. All he could remember as far back as his first day of classes at Hogwarts was the man yelling at him or tirading about him, or putting him down. Maybe he should have let the hat put him in Slytherin. He wasn't sure if he would ever feel comfortable here, but if this was the ‘full Slytherin experience' he would have liked to have seen this before now.

* * *

Severus shouted himself hoarse at the Headmaster. It went on for almost half an hour. It was part of the Slytherin experience he had promised Harry, because he was shouting on Harry's behalf. It was too bad Harry couldn't see it, though if he didn't like shouting and loud noises (and Severus could see why after what he'd been told) then maybe it was for the best that Harry hadn't been in the Headmaster's office that night.

* * *

Snape had returned both coats as promised, though now that Harry had Ron's, he didn't feel right wearing Draco's, so he hung Draco's nice black coat over the back of the blond boy's desk chair, and donned Ron's red coat over his weasley jumper.

* * *

"When are you going to give your presentation?" Blaise asked Harry Friday night as they played games in the common room.

"I was thinking about Saturday night. Professor Snape said I could go back to Gryffindor Sunday morning instead of Saturday." Since his project was a requirement as a Slytherin, he reasoned he should still be in Slytherin when giving the presentation, and the rest of the students didn't get back until dinner on Saturday. He moved his gob stones several spaces and grinned because it put him ahead in the game.

Harry found that sometimes Slytherins did relax and have fun, but it happened differently than in other houses. In Gryffindor and Hufflepuff games and walks were part of everyday life just because they were bored. Slytherins had little time to be bored however, and games and taking walks happened when they felt like they had accomplished everything they needed to in a day or else they used excuses such as ‘collecting ingredients for my potions project' to take walks with their friends, sometimes even getting permission from Professor Snape to be out on the grounds after dark. Harry's favorite excuse was the need to test the speeds of different racing brooms. A fourth year was trying to finish up his project on the study of racing broom invention and had convinced Professor Snape to let him go out to the Quidditch Pitch at almost ten o'clock at night. Of course the fourth year would need ‘help', so several people who owned brooms, including Harry were invited to come. It ended up being a race. Harry had a feeling Snape knew full well that it was an excuse to go out and fly after dark, but let it slide, even knowing Harry would be involved. Professor McGonagall would have called it nonsense and told them to go to bed if they were in Gryffindor.

Previously Harry would have believed as he always had that Snape favored Slytherins and only broke rules for them. Now he wasn't sure Snape was even breaking the rules letting them go out after dark. For the first time in his six years at Hogwarts, he wondered if rules were different for each house. The rules were subjective. Flitwick let Ravenclaws do all sorts of crazy experiments in their common rooms and stay up well into the night to watch stars on the tower roof. Hufflepuffs played by their own rules when it came to consequences for wrongdoings. All those times Harry had thought McGonagall had broken the rules for he and his friends, such as letting Harry join the Quidditch team as a first year, or awarding points for fighting trolls in the bathroom instead of expelling them, now seemed like the Gryffindor way. When Harry thought about it, a lot of things like that happened in Gryffindor for other students, not just him. Things that would have never been allowed in Slytherin or other houses. If Harry, Ron and Hermione had had to go before the Hufflepuff student court for going after the Philosopher's Stone, fighting trolls in the dungeons, sneaking off of school grounds to go to the Shrieking shack in the middle of the night, or any of the other crazy events they'd been involved in, Harry wasn't sure he'd even still be here by now or if he and his friends would have been expelled. Snape wasn't breaking rules, he was just making up his own like Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall were, and the Headmaster didn't seem to care. And not knowing that had made Harry and his friends believe a lot of things about students in other houses that weren't true.

"Are you going to move or not?" Blaise asked. Harry came back to the game and realized that Blaise looked irritated.

"I just realized something," Harry said instead of taking his turn.

"That you've been sitting there staring at the board for five minutes and haven't moved your pieces?"

"The rules are subjective."

"No, I'm pretty sure they clearly state you have to make a move when it's your turn," Blaise said sarcastically. Harry looked up at him and smirked. He rather thought he liked Blaise and his sarcastic sense of humor, and thought he would have been his friend if they'd been in the same house before now.

"No, school rules."

"That must be why you get so many detentions," Blaise said.

"The rules are different for each house. Like if you're in Hufflepuff, a professor can't just assign you detention. It has to go through student court first. And Ravenclaw's get away with things in their house that Gryffindors would have been punished for. It's like, because the different houses value different things, they have different rules to accommodate those values. That's why we all have misconceptions about the other houses. We all think they're breaking the rules."

Blaise looked at Harry critically for a moment and then said with a smirk, "I thought we were playing a game, not practicing for your presentation."

Harry moved his Gob Stones just to make Blaise happy, but Blaise sat back and didn't take his turn.

"Well?" Harry asked, motioning to the board with his hand.

Blaise grinned. "The rules are subjective, remember?"

* * *

Saturday morning, Harry didn't go back to Gryffindor table, and ended up sitting next to Draco at breakfast when the blond came back to sit at Slytherin.

"Aren't you supposed to be over there?" he asked, nodding at Gryffindor table.

Harry shrugged. "I have to give a presentation for my project to the school and they don't get back until tonight. If I went back to Gryffindor I wouldn't have to give it since Gryffindor doesn't do projects."

Draco asked if Harry, Blaise, Teddy and Tracey wanted to go for a walk on the grounds after lunch, and didn't have the excuse of needing to do so for his project. Harry didn't mind but the others seemed confused.

"What are we doing out here Draco?" Tracey asked. "It's cold." They'd slogged down through almost two feet of snow to the treeline at the lake.

"Well why do we always have to have a reason to come out?" Draco asked.

"What have they been teaching you in Hufflepuff?"

"Well I have a reason for being out," Harry said. When the others turned to look at him lagging a little ways behind the group, Harry threw a big snowball that hit Blaise square in the face.

"Potter!"

Harry didn't give him a chance to curse at him though because he'd already scooped up another handful of snow and lobbed it at Tracey. She screamed and dove out of the way before she grabbed a handful of snow and Harry found himself with snow down the back of his shirt. That was all it took before the group was engaged in an all out icy war. Tracey and Blaise teamed up against Harry and Draco, and Teddy decided to be a rogue agent and had taken to sneaking up behind people and scooping armfuls of snow up and dumping it over their heads.

Being cold and wet was an excellent excuse to sit in the common room by the warm fire later as it turned out. They drank hot chocolate and Draco shared chocolates from a massive box of candy he'd received for Christmas with them.

Harry packed his things before dinner and pulled down all of the charts and notes he had taped above his desk. Draco came into the dorm to work on his own project for half an hour before dinner and said, "They said it wasn't so bad having you here."

"Well," Harry said, sitting on the bed to look over his presentation one last time, "it wasn't terrible having you in Gryffindor either."

"Gryffindor is weird," Draco said, though he didn't sound as though he meant it as an insult.

"So is Slytherin," Harry said with a grin.

* * *

Harry was standing in the Entrance Hall as Ron, Hermione and Ginny came in from the snow and cold of the chill night. Hermione gave Harry a hug and Ginny blushed as she hugged Harry as well.

"How was it?" Ron asked.

"Not so bad," Harry said. "I think you'd like it in Slytherin Ron," Harry teased.

"Hey, I signed up for Hufflepuff, isn't that enough?"

"I hope I get to go to Slytherin and Ravenclaw soon," Hermione said.

"I think you would have done better in Slytherin than Ravenclaw," Harry said.

"What?" Ron choked. "Did you drink any odd tasting potions lately Harry?"

Harry laughed and then told Hermione, "They do all kinds of extra studying in Slytherin. I had to do a project while I was there and I have to give a presentation about it at dinner in a few minutes."

"Is that what the questionnaire was about?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded.

His friends went into the Great Hall and sat down, but Harry stayed in the Entrance Hall to look over his notes again. He was starting to get nervous. He was used to playing Quidditch in front of the entire school, but that was different. With the roar of wind in his ears and the rush of flying, he usually blocked out the fact that there were hundreds of sets of eyes on him. Everyone would be quiet now though and he'd have to give them information. Some of it would be information they might not want to hear, and that made him more nervous not knowing how they'd receive his presentation.

"Harry?" Professor McGonagall came out of the Great Hall. He'd asked her earlier in the week for permission to present his project in front of the school and she'd cleared it with the Headmaster who apparently thought his project was ‘a wonderful way to enhance the exchange.'

"Yes Professor?"

"It looks like everybody's seated and eating. It's time to get started."

"Yes maam." He followed her in but didn't follow her up to the platform where the teacher's ate.

"Excuse me, I need your attention please," McGonagall said, voice magically enhanced to reach every corner of the massive hall. "As you know, we've had several rounds of the house exchange by now and will continue throughout the year. One of the students has something to share with you about his time in the exchange. You will give him your full attention until his presentation is over. You may continue eating, but please do so quietly." She turned to look at Harry and gave him an encouraging smile. Harry looked first to Gryffindor, but then nervously to Slytherin and caught the eyes of Teddy and Blaise who had been helping him with his project. Blaise stuck his chin up in the air as if daring Harry to actually get up and share what he'd learned. Harry climbed the three steps to the top of the platform and then went to stand in front of the center of the Head table, setting his open bag on the floor next to him. He cleared his throat and was surprised that his voice had also been enhanced. He wondered briefly if McGonagall had cast a spell on him, or if this spot had a spell on it so that anybody who stood there spoke louder.

"I've been able to exchange into all four houses now," Harry started, but then paused, wondering if he should have practiced his presentation on the Slytherins after all. What if the words he used sounded stupid? What if he messed up? His hand started to shake and he stuck it in his pocket quickly. He'd never had anxiety over something like this before. He cleared his throat and started again. "Every time I go into a new house I find myself surprised, not at how different and interesting things are, but by all the things I used to think were true about people from other houses, but find out aren't true at all." He scanned the sea of faces and found some looking interested and others confused. "I've also encountered a lot of people who believe certain things about Gryffindor, but then seem confused when they find out those things aren't true. For the last three weeks I've been in Slytherin. For those of you who don't know, Slytherins have term projects that aren't related to classes. Each term they choose a subject that interests them and put together a project. Their project has rules they have to follow, and goals they have to complete before the project is finished. Some people study new languages, or study a form of art, or help their families expand their businesses. Since I was a Slytherin, it meant I had to do a project too, which is what I'm going to share with you."

His hand had stopped shaking and he took it out of his pocket and looked down at his notes and figures. "I thought about all the things I'd learned about different houses, and then I thought about what my friend Hermione said. She had wondered: if we had had a chance to do the house exchange before now, if there would still be house rivalries. I also thought about how differently I see people from the different houses now, and how some people aren't participating in the exchange or can't yet because of their age, and how they won't really get to learn what I've learned and see what I've seen. That's what I'm going to share with you tonight. I did a study on what people thought about a house before they exchanged into that house, and what they thought after they finished the exchange. I sent out letters to everyone on the list of people who had exchanged, or interviewed them. I asked everybody the same questions. The rules of the project were, that I have to share whatever I find out, that way you know I'm not twisting the truth if it's something I don't like."

Harry noted a lot of the older students seemed interested, especially those who had answered his list of questions. "To start off, I want to say that when I was asking questions, 21 people told me to mind my own business." A little ripple of laughter went through the Great Hall, including from the staff behind him, and Harry was grateful. If people thought he was funny then it meant he could relax a little. Harry smiled. Blaise and Teddy had told him to start off with that fact before getting into the other data he had to share.

"I got a response back from every person who has already exchanged, so no one has been left out. So far 17 Ravenclaws, 21 Hufflepuffs, 16 Gryffindors, and 9 Slytherins have participated in the exchange."

Harry reached down into his bag and pulled out a Ravenclaw robe he'd borrowed from Mathe earlier today and put it on. "I'm going to start with Ravenclaw first because that's the first house I went to. When asked what people thought about students from Ravenclaw before visiting their house, 9 out of 10 people said they thought Ravenclaw's were naturally smart, or gifted intellectually. After visiting Ravenclaw, 10 out of 10 people said they believed Ravenclaw's worked hard for their grades, were curious and always wanted to learn new things, and knew things their peers in other houses didn't because they were always exchanging information with each other because they found it interesting." Harry paused to gauge the reaction of the audience and then continued. "Before visiting, 8 out of 10 people said they believed Ravenclaws thought they were better than everyone else, or above everyone else because of their intellect." A small murmur went up from Ravenclaw table at this, but Harry continued. "When the follow up question was asked about why people thought this, the 8 people who responded said because Ravenclaws often show up to meals late, correct peers from other houses during classes, or make comments about the poor grades of peers in other houses." The Ravenclaw table was quiet so Harry continued. "After visiting Ravenclaw house, 10 out of 10 people said they no longer thought Ravenclaws believed they were better than others. 9 out of 10 people said they believed Ravenclaw's were late to meals because they were too excited to notice the time because they were having too much fun conducting experiments with magic in their common room. After visiting, 7 out of 10 people said they believed Ravenclaw's corrected other people's mistakes because they themselves would want to know if they had said or done something wrong so they could fix it to get better grades or increase their knowledge."

Harry looked down at his chart again and said, "Finally, before visiting, 5 out of 10 people said they believed Ravenclaw's were unfriendly to those in other houses, but after visiting 10 out of 10 people said they believed Ravenclaw's were friendly and open to making new friendships outside of their house. 5 out of 10 people said they knew prior to visiting Ravenclaw that Ravenclaws often had friends in other houses, generally with Slytherin because they sell a lot of their new discoveries and inventions to Slytherins who run businesses as a term project."

Harry cleared his throat again. Some people had finished eating and he was aware he still had three houses to get through. His face began to heat up and he hoped people wouldn't get bored with his speech. It was all interesting to him, but that didn't mean it would be interesting to anybody else. Harry took the Ravenclaw robe off and pulled his Gryffindor robe out of his bag and put it on, willing his face to stop being embarrassingly red since his robe had enough red on it already.

"11 out of 11 people surveyed said that before they visited Gryffindor they believed Gryffindors were rash, lost a lot of house points, and earned a lot of detentions. After visiting Gryffindor 6 out of 11 people said they still believed Gryffindors made decisions without thinking them all the way through, 8 out of 11 people said they no longer thought Gryffindors lost a lot of house points, 3 out of 11 people said they believed only Harry Potter and Ron Weasley lost house points," here Harry heard Ron say loudly, ‘Oy!' and another wave of laughter made its way around the Great Hall. Harry continued, "and after visiting 5 out of 11 people said they believe Harry Potter earns the majority of house detentions." No one laughed at this but Harry didn't mind. Since the twins had left, he had earned the most detentions in the house, which were usually given by Professor Snape.

"11 out of 11 people said before they visited Gryffindor they believed Gryffindors thought they were better than everyone else. After visiting 11 out of 11 people said they no longer believed this was true. 5 out of 11 people said after visiting they believe Gryffindors think they have to save everybody else and protect them even if they don't like them. Four of the five who gave that response were Slytherin."

Removing the Gryffindor robe and pulling out a Hufflepuff robe from his bag to put on, Harry said, "Before visiting Hufflepuff, 11 out of 12 people said they believed Hufflepuffs didn't spend enough time studying. After visiting 12 out of 12 people said they believed Hufflepuffs studied as much as people in other houses. Before visiting Hufflepuff, 7 out of 12 people said they believed Hufflepuffs were pushovers. After visiting 11 out of 12 people said they believed Hufflepuffs stood up for what was right, and were simply friendly to everyone whether they liked them or not. 10 out of 12 people said after visiting they believed Hufflepuffs were likely to give anyone a chance to win their friendship, or give them a second chance to prove themselves to them."

"Before visiting Hufflepuff, 12 out of 12 people said they believed Hufflepuffs were quiet. After visiting Hufflepuff 12 out of 12 people said Hufflepuffs throw the loudest parties and board game nights they had ever seen." The entire Hufflepuff table laughed and giggled then and Harry smiled.

"There was an interesting response about Hufflepuffs," Harry noted. "6 out of 12 people who visited said they believed Hufflepuff students to be fair and honest, even though there was no preconception about the house regarding this before visiting."

Finally Harry took a breath and exchanged the borrowed Hufflepuff robe to don a Slytherin one. "Only nine people visited Slytherin. 7 out of 9 of those people said they weren't sure they should even visit Slytherin, and that their house mates considered them brave for doing so. After visiting, 9 out of 9 people said they were glad they had visited Slytherin and found it an enjoyable experience." Murmurs went around the Great Hall from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor. "5 out of 9 people said before visiting they believed Slytherins didn't have any fun. 9 out of 9 people said after visiting they believed the term projects the Slytherins worked on were fun, and 9 out of 9 people who visited said that even though Slytherins don't play as many games, they have fun trying new things and working with their friends on their projects. Before visiting 4 out of 9 people said they believed Slytherins were mean, rude, or aggressive. After visiting 9 out of 9 people said they believed Slytherins were proud of their house, and often upset that people from other houses said bad things about them. After visiting 9 out of 9 people also said that during their time in Slytherin no Slytherin was mean, rude, or aggressive to them. 7 out of 9 people said that Slytherins treated them with respect while visiting and 9 out of 9 people said Slytherins went out of their way to be helpful with their schoolwork or projects. 4 out of 9 people noted that while they believed Slytherins were cautious, after getting past that and earning their friendship they believed it was worth it to have a friend who would be so loyal. Lastly, 7 out of 9 people believed Slytherins thought they were better than other houses, but after visiting those same 7 people said they believed Slytherins just wanted to be considered on the same terms as other houses or be treated with respect."

Harry was done giving his facts, and no one seemed to be bored. He took off the Slytherin robe and stood before the hall in just his regular jeans and t-shirt. "I don't want to give any details about what my time was like in different houses because I don't want to spoil what it's like if you're going to go for yourself. You should go. If you haven't already you should know that each of the four houses is more different than the others than you think, and that the people in those houses are more similar to those in other houses than you think. If you haven't been then you really can't imagine what other houses are like, and after visiting myself and doing all of this research, I don't think it's fair that any of us judge people from other houses based on rumors when you have nothing else to base that judgement on. That's what causes house rivalry. If we all knew what Slytherins were actually like, we might not say bad things about their house and they might not be so upset about it. That's true of any of the houses. 75 percent of people surveyed said they believed people from rival houses thought they were better than everybody else before they visited, and 73 percent said they no longer believed that after visiting. I don't expect you to take my word for it. There's still time to go on the exchange if you haven't already, and if you don't plan on visiting other houses, you still have the chance to visit with people who are coming through your house. I'm really glad I got to see other houses. The last question I asked people was if their experience in the exchange had been good or bad. 100 percent said their experiences had been good." His eyes swept the crowd and tried to pick out the faces of his friends in each house but he couldn't and wasn't sure if it was because his glasses never really were up to par or if it was because he was feeling nervous again.

"To finish my project, I have to conduct a survey about what what you believe about other houses now that you've heard my presentation. The survey is anonymous. If you haven't already answered a letter or been interviewed by me, please fill out one of the surveys before you go and leave them at the end of your table. Thanks for listening." Harry stepped off the platform and went to the end of each of the house tables and set down stacks of surveys and a handful of quills at each. The survey was pretty basic and asked a few specific questions with yes/no check boxes about the things he'd mentioned about each house in the presentation. Students passed the surveys down and they all seemed to be filled out in short order and left in piles at the end of the house tables for Harry to collect. After the majority of students and staff had left, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall came down to talk to Harry.

"That was very enlightening Harry, thank you for conducting this research. Your project turned out better than I could have hoped."

Harry was flipping through surveys and scanning them. "I don't know about that sir," he said. A lot of people had checked the ‘no' boxes, meaning their views about the different houses had not been changed. "A lot of people indicated their views hadn't changed after hearing my presentation."

"You may have opened a few more minds however," Dumbledore said with a smile.

"I think you've had a bigger effect on people than you realize," Professor McGonagall said. She held up a piece of parchment to show to Harry. "While you were collecting surveys, I was collecting new names for the exchange. 37 just tonight, and most of them want to see Slytherin."

Harry raised his brows. "Really?"

She pointed to the list and Harry was surprised to see a lot of Gryffindor names which had appeared there, and though Ron's wasn't on the list for Slytherin, he had added it to Ravenclaw, which would mean that at some point this year he'd see Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw both.

"I would be interested to see the data from this evenings surveys," Dumbledore said, and Harry nodded.

"Yes sir."

Dumbledore walked away to speak to Professor Sinistra about something and Professor McGonagall walked Harry out of the Great Hall. "You did good Harry," she praised him, "and I don't just mean with your project. I had confidence you'd fare well in all the houses, but others had their doubts about your going to Slytherin. In fact, if you hadn't signed up to go over the Christmas break, you might not have gotten the chance."

"Why not?"

"Some opposed your visit to Slytherin."

Harry nodded. He figured it would have been Snape.

"I'm proud of the way you conducted yourself. I didn't fail to notice how you treated Mr. Malfoy when he was in Gryffindor, and you seemed to make friends wherever you went, even in Slytherin."

"Well it wasn't easy," Harry admitted. "It was mostly others making friends with me."

"Friendship goes two ways Mr. Potter," she said. "Don't be so quick to discount yourself or your accomplishments. I think the fact that you opted to see all four houses and fared well during each visit will look good on future applications you may wish to submit for apprenticeships at the Ministry. I would advise you to save all of your research as well and write it up as a formal paper if you haven't already."

They separated in the Entrance Hall and Harry found Ron and Hermione waiting to walk up to Gryffindor with him.

"That was good Harry," Hermione said. "You were very confident."

"No I wasn't," Harry said with a little laugh, "didn't you see my hands shaking?"

"When you put your hand in your pocket?" Ron asked. "That just looked like you were really comfortable and cool with talking to the whole school."

"Huh."

"I liked how you changed robes," Ron said. "That helped remind people you'd seen each house I think."

"It was clever," Hermione said.

Harry wanted to tell her it was the idea of Blaise or Teddy, as he'd gotten so much help from them on his project, but the idea to change robes had been all his idea.

"Was it really so much better in Slytherin?" Ron asked as they climbed up through the castle.

"Well it was interesting," Harry said. "I wouldn't say better-"

Ron and Hermione glanced over at him. "What happened?" Ron asked seriously.

"The students were ok. Actually they stuck up for me. Draco told the others to make sure I wore his coat."

"You didn't have a coat when we said goodbye at the train platform," Ron pointed out.

"Actually that's the part that wasn't so great. Professor Snape took Draco's coat and said I'd stolen it and gave me detention. Then when he saw I had your coat he tried to kick me out of the exchange. He said I snuck up to the dorms after you left and stole it too."

"He didn't!" Hermione exclaimed as they made Gryffindor tower.

Harry only nodded to confirm it though. "But then he gave them back," he said. "I think Teddy said something to him, because he came into the dorms and apologized to me and later he gave both coats back. I haven't really seen much of Professor Snape since then." He didn't tell them that Snape had asked about his home life and listened without calling him a liar when Harry had told him the truth.

"Snape apologizing to a Gryffindor?" Ron laughed.

"Well I was a Slytherin at the time," Harry said.

"I'm just glad you're in Gryffindor again," Ron told him, and as they entered the common room Harry felt the same as his friend. He was glad to be back, and the prospect of spending the rest of the year in Gryffindor struck Harry's fancy. He was back on familiar ground where he knew exactly what to expect from those around him.

The End.
End Notes:
Long chapter, but we're not done yet ;)


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