Chapter Text
(Y/n) knew her life was over the day the sorting hat was wrong. She knew she should have felt happy. She knew from the start she didn’t belong in Slytherin. The other Slytherins constantly berated her. Professor Snape was the only one who silenced them when they had done this. She had gotten used to her professor not completely hating her, as he did with the other houses. Now any chance of her Professor liking her completely diminished as she heard frantic whispering from the teachers during dinner in the Great Hall. Something about the sorting hat, she could barely make out. Something about the sorting hat and...it being wrong! That can’t be right, the sorting hat was never wrong!
(Y/n) was uneasy for the rest of dinner. She just used her fork to push the food around on the plate, glancing up now and again and looking down the table at all the Slytherins who hated her and couldn’t wait to get down to the dungeons to their common room and bully her again.
After an unappetizing meal, what happened next she sort of expected.
Professor McGonagall approached (y/n) as she was about to leave the doors and head to the Slytherin common room.
“Miss (L/n), please come with us, quickly.” She urged.
She felt a hard lump in her throat and clenched her fist, walking being Professor McGonagall. Even Headmaster Dumbledore was walking ahead of her, as well as Professor Snape, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Sprout.
She pushed a strand of her (h/c) hair behind her ear as she tried to keep up with the teachers, now jogging.
They were in a part of the castle she hadn’t seen before. They took her into an empty room. It looked like an old unused classroom.
She stood rigid. Still none of the teachers had explained to her what was going on but, then again she had already seemed to figure it out.
Headmaster Dumbledore was the first to speak.
“(Y/n), we believe that the sorting hat may have been...wrong, when it sorted you into Slytherin.”
(Y/n) stared at him. She was right.
Professor McGonagall steppes forward.
“We have the hat,” she begins, pointing over to the chair sitting in the middle of the room. It was the same chair they used two months ago for the sorting ceremony. “And we’d like for you to sit and put the hat on again.”
(Y/n) walks over, shakily to the chair. The hat sitting on it. It was silent. Maybe it was embarrassed for sorting her into the wrong house. Did the hat even have feelings?
(Y/n) picked up the hat and sat down on the chair, taking a deep breath. Right before the hat fell over her head, she caught one last glimpse at Professor Snape, the Head of the Slytherin House who would most likely let her know how disappointed he was that she was never a Slytherin in the first place, and how he would turn it into her fault.
She felt sad. The first two months at Hogwarts has all been a lie. Now she would have to start all over in a completely different house. Has this ever happened before in Hogwarts? She wondered, staring at the inside of the hat.
“I’m...sorry.”
(Y/n) was shocked at first. The hat sounded very different. There was true sorrow in his voice...so the hat did have feelings.
“It’s okay.” She mumbled lightly so only the hat could hear, but deep down she was telling herself it wasn’t okay but she knew the hat knew.
The hat went silent. It sat upon her head for minutes, which to her felt like an eternity. She wondered if the hat would ever make up its mind. Maybe she didn’t belong in Hogwarts, or maybe the hat didn’t want to make a mistake again.
(Y/n) didn’t even have a preferred house to be in, so she wasn’t helping the hat out at all.
Finally, after what felt like ages, the hat called out:
“(H/n)”
(Y/n) takes off the hat and stumbles toward Professor (H/h).
“Welcome to (h/n)” they said, giving her a nod.
Before she got a chance to take in everything that had happened, Professor Snape speaks up.
“Can I...have a moment to speak to Miss (L/n), alone?” He asked in his usual emotionless voice.
The others nodded and stepped out of the room, Professor Snape facing the door, watching them leave, his back to her.
Sudden grief hit (y/n) as she stood alone with him. Tears began to dot the corners of her eyes and she sniffles, casing Professed Snape to turn around.
“You’re going to hate me now, aren’t you, now that I’m a (h/n)?”
Through her watery eyes and sniffling she could make out a shocked look on Professor Snape’s face, but he quickly masked it. She wasn’t even sure if she saw right, her vision was blurred anyways.
After a moment of silence from him and sniffling from her, Professor Snape finally spoke.
“I won’t hate you. You were a (h/n) from the moment you entered this school. I did not hate you then, and I will not hate you now. You didn’t fit into Slytherin anyhow, it was blatantly obvious.”
“If you knew I wasn’t a Slytherin,” she said, wiping her eyes, “why did you always tell the others to leave me alone?”
“I didn’t want to take points from my own house.” Professor Snape Snape’s quickly but something told her that wasn’t the whole truth.
She stumbled forward without thinking and wrapped her arms around her Professor. She felt him stiffen up and realized the dumb mistake she had made.
(Y/n) had only been at Hogwarts for two months. In those two months she had easily grown close to all of her teachers but Professor Snape has always been the one to seem to get away from her. Her other teachers most likely would have accepted a hug, but she realized Professor Snape would not have.
She quickly began to let go to step back and apologize, but she felt his hand rest on her back.
He was...returning (y/n)’s hug?
She was shocked but his hand quickly fell and she stepped backwards, looking away awkwardly.
“Good luck in your new house, and this time, try to get along with the others.” Professor Snape said, sarcastically.
(Y/n) smiled, nodding her head. Professor Snape left the room and she followed him out.
“All done?” Headmaster Dumbledore asked.
“Yes.” Professor Snape said, beginning to leave.
“Alright, well (h/h) will take you to your dormitory.” Headmaster Dumbledore said.
She nodded, following the head of (h/n). They quickly brought her to the dorms as it was late. Once she reached the room she realized how achingly tired she was.
She was left alone now, to walk into the Girl’s Dormitory and be greeted by the other girls of her house.
She expected to be bullied straight away for what had happened, but the girls were welcoming as she explained to them what had happened and why she was suddenly there.
After a while, girls started to leave and head to their beds, too tired to speak to the new (h/n) anymore and the only one left was (y/n). It was dark in the room and she could hear slowed breathing for everyone, everyone but her. She laid in her bed, staring up into the darkness.
She felt unbelievably restless yet extremely tired. This dormitory was nothing like the Slytherin one. She had gotten used to the coldness of the dungeons. It was too hot. The air felt thicker here and harder to breathe.
Every time she almost drifted to sleep she would hear someone shuffle in their bed or loud breathing. The Slytherin Girls’ Dormitory was quiet all night.
Soon in became unbearable. (Y/n) slowly sat up and turned, feet dangling over the bed, she quietly leaned forward hoping the floor wouldn’t freak beneath her. She reached for her want, prepared to cast lumos as soon as she was out of sight of the others.
She quietly crept to the door, fearing someone would wake and see her.
The door knob turned with a squeak, then went silent as she turned it all the way, and snuck out of the room, shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could.
As she stepped out into the corridor the cold air hit her and she finally released the breath she was holding in and casted lumos.
Her wand lit up with an elegant blue light at the end. She wracked her brain, remembering which way Professor (h/h) had taken her to get here.
Remembering what she could, she made her way down the corridor, taking a turn here and there, feeling utterly lost. Everything looked different in the pitch dark, or maybe the rooms always changed. Either way, she was lost.
She just wanted to get to the dungeons where it felt familiar, but she knew she couldn’t just walk in without going unnoticed and getting in trouble.
She began to question her choices and tried to turn back to the Dormitory but couldn’t find that either.
Suddenly the though of expulsion filled her head and she began to panic. This was a mistake from the start.
She quickened her pace, going down corridor after corridor until-smack.
She fell backwards into the ground.
“Uhh...” She groaned, looking for her wand that was on the floor somewhere. As she was about to inspect what she had run into, she saw the blue light on the tip of another wand, directly in her face.
She traced up the arm that held it with her eyes until she reached the face of none other than Professor Snape.
She quickly snatched up her wand as she felt it on the ground and stood up.
“Professor Snape!”
“Miss (L/n), already causing trouble on your first day now, are we?”
Underneath his emotionless expression, she could almost make out disappointment.
(Y/n)’s (e/c) eyes met his dark eyes and for a moment you didn’t know what to say.
“Miss (L/n), do you plan to explains yourself or should I take you to Dumbledore’s office?”
“S-sorry Professor, I just...couldn’t sleep. I’m not used to the (h/n) Dormitory. It’s nothing like in the dungeons. It’s hot and hard to breathe and they’re loud, unlike down there. It’s quiet and cold. I just wanted to go down there.” She began to ramble, knowing this was no excuse for her to be roaming the castle in the dead of the night.
Professor Snape sighed, going silent.
She figured he was decided what to do to her. Take of tons of points from her house so that everyone will hate her just like they did in Slytherin. Take her to Headmaster Dumbledore and have her expelled? Fail her in Potions class?
“Come with me.” He finally says.
Her body is filled with dread and her legs feel numb as she follows him through the dark corridor. Where was he going to take her? She couldn’t bare the thought of being expelled from Hogwarts. She didn’t want to go back home. She wasn’t on good terms with her family anyways.
She tried to hold back tears as she followed him, her throat constricted and feeling sick.
He took her down multiple staircases. She could deal the air thinning and getting colder.
This wasn’t the way to Dumbledore’s office, it was...to the dungeons!
She felt a slight glimmer of hope but what could Professor Snape possibly be doing taking her down to the dungeons. She couldn’t stay in the Slytherin Girls’ Dormitory, she wasn’t a Slytherin, let alone would she want to be again.
She knew better to not speak as he was probably extremely angry at her, but her curiosity got the better of her.
“Um...Professor Snape, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you taking me?”
He doesn’t respond. (Y/n) knows better not to persist and to just leave it at that.
She suddenly begins to recognize her surroundings. They pass the Slytherin Common Room and continue down the corridor. They pass the Girls’ and Boys’ Dormitory, then suddenly they stop outside a room.
He turns to look at (y/n), glancing her up and down.
What could he possibly be doing and why is he looking at me like that? She questioned in her head, standing stiffly.
He turns back to the door and opens it, stepping in, (y/n) following. He shuts the door quietly behind her and uses his want to light a candle on the desk that was in the room.
She glances around the room. It was dark and lit only by the candle. The walls were lined with bookshelves and glass jars filled with things she didn’t even want to know what.
She began to piece it together as he walked past the fireplace, lighting it to reveal more jars and potions and books lining the walls. It was Professor Snape’s room.
She quickly turned, preparing herself to leave.
“Leaving so soon?”
(Y/n) turned and smile weakly at Professor Snape.
“Of course not.” She approached him, following him up a spiral staircase into a room, filled with more books and jars, except this room has a large bed. She glanced around the room. Books scattered the floor.
“It’s a bit of a mess, but you can sleep here then, if sleeping in the (h/n) Dormitory is so bad. “
She stared at him, shocked. Professor Snape had just told her that she could sleep in his room.
She didn’t even know how to respond. She wasn’t sure if there were rules against this at Hogwarts but she knew for sure that this wouldn’t be accepted by anyone.
She couldn’t decline his offer though as the tiredness hit her again, seeing the large bed, much bigger than her own and looked much comfier.
“Where will you sleep, Professor?”
“Don’t worry about me, I don’t need to sleep. I will be down there reading.” He left her and began walking to the steps before stopping, his back facing her.
“I am going out of my way to help you out, do not let me down.” He says in a monotone voice. It was strange to hear something like that with no emotion.
“Thank you, Professor, I won’t.”
“And be awake much earlier than normal, you should leave before everyone else is awake.” He finished before finally going down the steps, not staying long enough to hear her respond, “okay.”
She stared at the staircase for a few moments before turning and laying down in the bed. She was right. It was much more comfier than her other bed.
She felt bad though. Although Professor Snape said that he didn’t sleep, she could tell that this bed had been laid in many, many times. Too many times for a person who claims to never sleep.
She stared up at the ceiling, pulling the dark comforter up to her neck to block out the cold from the dungeons which she secretly welcomed.
Is this wrong? She questioned. It’s not like Professor Snape is....she stopped herself before she could finish the though. No. Don’t be obscene. Professor Snape is only helping his student out, he isn’t like that.
She rolled over on her side. He wasn’t really that much older than her, she had decided. As adults, the age different really wouldn’t have mattered. It was barely a ten year difference- she snapped herself out of her thoughts, feeling revolted. What was she thinking, that was her teacher and this was not her teacher making an attempt to get close to her.
She pressed her eyes shut tightly, not allowing any more thoughts to enter her head. She shouldn’t even think about things like that, she was a kid...a kid who has reached her adolescent years.