Harry shook his head, pulling himself out of his thoughts on the Flamels and refocusing on the Hogwarts meal around him. He was relatively silent for the rest of the meal, though he could feel eyes on him from many angles, he ignored it. Draco didn't attempt to engage him in any further conversation either. Harry appreciated that much, he wasn't sure what he would say and at the moment being surrounded by a mass of people was more than a little unnerving to him. It had his instincts screaming at him.
Shortly afterward, the meal was dismissed. The prefects got up to lead the people back to their houses. Harry idly wondered if Dumbledore or someone else would want to meet with him, however no summons appeared, and he got up to join the rest of his house in the short trek to the dungeons, with Draco at his elbow.
Harry found it odd to be headed down when his instinct was to head up to the Gryffindor room. Harry kept his expression blank as he felt a little pang, just briefly. If Draco noticed, he kept it to himself as they ventured into the depths of the dungeons.
They reached a solid stone wall in the dungeons, and the prefect leading them, Terrence Higgs, if Harry's memory served, said loudly and clearly "Fraternity." The prefect went on to explain to the first years that the password would change every fortnight, and if they forgot it or neglected to get the new one from the noticeboard, they would be left outside until someone came to let them in.
The wall melted to the side, opening to a large room that was lit by lamps. The lamps emitted a greenish light, giving the entire room a green tinge. The room itself had lots of black and dark green leather chairs and couches, spread throughout the interior. The walls were decorated with tapestries featuring people that Harry assumed were Slytherins. Part of the room had a giant window that looked out into the lake, and Harry could see the fish on the other side of the window, swimming around.
Once inside, Harry noticed the entire house remained gathered in the main room, rather than dispersing to their rooms. At that point, one of the prefects strode to the front of the first years. The prefect was one that Harry didn't really recognize though he seemed to be in charge, so Harry assumed he was a seventh year.
"Alright. Listen up, you lot. I'm Lucian Bole. I'm the seventh year prefect. You've been sorted into Slytherin. As such that comes with certain expectations and rules." He looked around at all the First years, who all shifted nervously, and then glanced over to Harry who merely kept his face blank.
Harry was doing everything he could to clamp down on his emotions. He was in Slytherin. But…it really wasn't so much that he was in the house that bothered him. Nor was it the common room itself. He'd been here before. Granted, he'd been polyjuiced and convinced that Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin. Harry wondered if he would have done it if he had known just how dangerous a risk he was taking at the time. If someone had found Harry Potter in the Slytherin common room, he would have been lucky to make it out of the room alive.
That wasn't what was bothering him.
It was all of the faces, many of which were looking at him. He was used to being stared at. Had gotten used to it from the time he was 11 years old, until Voldemort had killed everyone who could stare. No, Harry was surrounded by faces that were at least passingly familiar to him. A great many of these faces had sided with Voldemort. All of them had died in the war. Some of them were the faces of people that killed some of Harry's friends. Some were faces of people that Harry had killed personally. Some fell into both categories.
He was resisting the urge to start throwing curses. Though at the moment he wasn't even sure he'd need to do that. Harry could feel the magic inside him boiling so much that he felt like it was almost ready to lash out at people around him. Harry clenched his fist tightly at his side, his nails digging into his palm so deeply, Harry thought he might have drawn blood. He slowly started to relax, and leaned back against the wall behind him. Harry's pose was casual but it served two purposes, one it made sure that no one was flanking him in order to curse him. Second, it gave him a relatively direct path toward the entrance of the common room. Through it all he kept the look on his face blank.
"First off, you represent our house now. As such you will not be late to any of your classes in the first month. The prefects will take turns guiding you to your classes for the first week to make sure you know where you're going." Lucian stopped waiting to see if there would be any questions before continuing.
"Secondly, you are never to go anywhere alone. Always go in pairs. Even to the bathroom." Lucian obviously saw some confused expressions so he expanded. "We are Slytherin. There are some in other houses that would take advantage of one of us on our own. This we do not allow."
Once he got confirming nods, he continued, "Thirdly, if you are going to cause trouble or break the rules in any way, you better not get caught. If you get caught and cost this house any significant amount of points, you can expect there to be… repercussions within the house." Lucian glared at each one of the first years to make sure they understood. He once more looked over at Harry, but Harry continued to keep his face blank.
"Fourth, it doesn't matter what happens in here. Anything that happens in the Slytherin common room, and dormitories stays in the Slytherin common room. Anyone caught so much as gossiping about something that happens in here, much less running to a professor who is not our head of house, is subject to severe punishment." After a pause to make sure his point sunk in, Lucian continued.
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