Snape had a headache. He had read and reread the books about horcruxes he bought and was becoming quite convinced that he really had died and gone to hell. The books had told him that the surest way to destroy a horcrux was to damage it beyond repair. In the case of living thing that would be to kill it.

There were alternatives though. Having a dementor kiss the horcrux would also work. However, in the case of an animal life form that was turned into a horcrux, this was not a good option. Using a dementor to remove a soul fragment from any animal life form that's behavior was more then just acting out of instinct had the danger of leaving the animal brain dead. The dementor had no way of knowing if it was sucking out the soul fragment or the life form's own soul until it was too late.

A partial "kiss", in which the dementor started to suck out the soul or the soul fragment and was stopped before any of it had left the animal's body, could work in animal life forms that were classified as sentient beings. The partial kiss would, if successful, separate the being's own soul and the soul fragment, resulting in the two fighting for control over the being's body.

If the being was good at both legilimency and occlumency, the being's own soul would be able to destroy the soul fragment by 'devouring' it (assuming the soul fragment didn't belong to an individual that had legilimency and occlumency skills equal too or greater then to the being the soul fragment was in). Harry was a horrible at occlumency due to the boy being emotionally damaged from growing up with the Dursleys. It would take far too long for Harry to emotionally heal to be proficient enough in occlumency to even consider the idea. In addition Harry was, as the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures put it, allergic to dementors. So that ruled that idea out.

'How am I supposed to get that blasted soul fragment out of Harry with out harming him!!?' Snape thought to himself. 'There has to be away! If I can convince that homicidal maniac that I was still a loyal Death Eater after Dumbledore said I was a spy in front of the entire Ministry, there has to be a way! If there is no way, then when I die, I am going to murder the Fates for putting me through this!'

Snape managed to calm down after few moments. He didn't want anyone to suspect what he was doing.

It then dawned on him there was another potential problem - Hermione Granger. What is he going to do if she ended up in Gryffindor and Harry end up in Slytherin? Hermione was the brightest person in her year and he noticed an improvement in both Harry and Ron's work after they became friends with her. The only reason they became friends was because Voldemort convinced that idiotic Quirrel to let a troll into the school and it went into the bathroom Hermione was in and Harry and Ron saved her.

He never told anyone but he knew that Hermione had been lying about the reason she was in that bathroom. She was upset from a comment Ron made about her. Harry and Ron, after finding out where Hermione was from a fellow Gryffindor, went to that bathroom to warn her about the troll. However, there was still a chance if Hermione was in Gryffindor, she would befriend Harry as that in the old timeline, she had tried to convince both Harry and Ron to befriend Slytherins. Harry needed Hermione. However, getting them together would be easy. Snape just realized all he had to do was pair them together in class.

He still hadn't quite worked out how to get Ron into the mix if there was any hope of getting Sirius out of Azkaban legally and without suspicion. It was too risky to brake into the Weasleys' home due to the wards. Going into Gryffindor tower would definitely not work not work as the Fat Lady would be bound to tell someone. Snape just had to get Ron in a place where Harry could at least find out how long Ron's pet had been in the family so Harry could get suspicious and tell some adult.

August came and went, and before Snape knew it, it was September 1st. The students would be arriving. He had hoped to have destroyed at least one of Voldemort's horcruxes by now but had failed to do so. Making his class plans had taken too much time. He decided that first weekend, he would make a quick trip to Little Hangleton and get the ring. Hopefully Dumbledore was being honest about the only real protection it had was that curse...

Snape sat in the great hall waiting for the first years to be sorted. The Sorting Hat sang a stupid song that it spent all year composing and Professor McGonagall proceeded to call the first years up to the stool to be sorted. All the sortings were going as they had in the old timeline up until Hermione sat on the stool. The Sorting Hat seamed to take longer then it did in the old timeline before proclaiming her a Slytherin in an annoyed tone of voice. Snape lifted his eyebrow.

'How is that possible? I never met Hermione in this timeline so far. Something must have happened that caused her to talk the Sorting Hat into placing her into Slytherin... And by judging by the Sorting Hat's tone of voice, it didn't seem happy about it. I shall look into this if I have a chance.' Snape thought to himself.

Soon it was Harry's turn to be sorted. His sorting was quicker then it was before. When the Sorting Hat proclaimed Harry a Slytherin, there was several gasps (mostly from the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables), some students in Slytherin house from light sided and neutral families applauded, and Professor McGonagall briefly gave Snape a nasty glare.

Snape then realized something. He felt like an idiot for not coming up with the idea sooner. Snape decided to try a wandless confundus charm on the Sorting Hat. Snape never had done wandless magic, with the exception of the flying spell he learned from Voldemort, but from what he knew, it was harder to do then magic with a wand. He also knew that if put his mind to doing a spell, he could do it and he was confident that he could do a wandless confundus charm.

It came time for Ron Weasley to be sorted. Snape made sure nobody was looking, pointed his hand at the Sorting Hat, and thought the appropriate spell. A few moments later, the hat proclaimed the youngest Weasley boy a Slytherin. The boy's reaction was worse then he had imagined. The boy let out scream, threw the hat on the ground before Professor McGonagall could touch it, and proceeded to try and run out of the great hall. Professor McGonagall had to grab him causing the hall to erupt in laughter.

"Mr. Weasley, will you kindly go to the Slytherin table?" Professor McGonagall said in stern voice.

"I don't want go to Slytherin! My brothers will kill me!" Ron yelled while trying to get away from Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall, while holding on as best she could to Ron, said very sternly, "All sortings are final Mr. Weasley and I will assure you that your parents and the teachers here will do everything in their power to prevent your brothers from killing you. Now just go to the Slytherin table."

She let go of Ron and he marched to the Slytherin table like storm cloud and sat down next to Harry while people still laughed at what they had just witnessed.

'Merlin help me if Ron Weasley ever finds out I confuded the Sorting Hat...' Snape thought to himself.

Snape looked at the Gryffindor table and saw that Fred and George Weasley were both laughing up a storm at their youngest brother's behavior. Percy Weasley, who was sitting near them said to them, "You aren't going to let him forget this?"

Fred or George (Snape could never tell the two apart without using legilimency on them) replied, "Never."