Erik's POV:
The sorting finished without further hiccoughs and Dumbledore stood up to address the hall. "Another year starts, welcome to those that are new and welcome back to those returning. I have a few small words to say before you get yourself nice and full with the feast. And those words are 'Nitwit', ' Blubber', 'Oddment' and 'Tweak'." Dumbledore spoke before clapping his hands and the food appeared on the long house tables.
The selection of the food surprised me as it contained a lot of varied cultures and tastes. There were dishes from France and other European countries while also having large bowls of rice and curries from various Asian countries and dishes from African communities. I chose to go with Hasenpfeffer which I placed on my plate with roasted potatoes and vegetables to make a nice meal. Speaking up from the side Grace asked, "Thank you again for your welcome, I was very nervous with everyone looking at me. Your clapping seemed to break the hall out of their stupor so..."
Looking towards her, I say "No problem whatsoever, I am sure that they were just surprised that you went to Slytherin and not to Gryffindor like your brother. Let me introduce myself properly, I am Lord Erik Bodewig, Lord of the Bodewig family while also being heir to the ancient and noble Black family." I presented my hand towards her while noticing that my introduction drew a few eyes towards me, especially those who knew about the Black family and how well off the family was.
She took my hand while mustering all the pureblood etiquette she could and saying, "It's good to meet you, Lord Bodewig. My name is Grace Potter of the Potter family." After shaking my hand she turned towards the other side of me to formally introduce herself to Daphne. Daphne herself smiled and shook Grace's hand before replying with her introduction, "My name is Daphne Greengrass of the Greengrass family as well as being fiancé of Erik. I would also like to suggest that you ignore Draco at all times to try and save your sanity since he likes to think of his father as the centre of the world.
The rest of the grand feast passed with little else happening as everyone was busy filling themselves with the delicious food that the house elves provided. The deserts soon replaced the main course before vanishing after a while, it was then that Dumbledore stood a second time. "I have just a few announcements to do before you can all get a nice long night's sleep. Firstly I have to say that Filch has an expanded banned item list that you may peruse hanging on his door and that any item on it seen by him can and will be confiscated. Second I would like to welcome the returning staff for a new year before welcoming a few new teachers. We have Professor Quirrell re-joining the staff as a defence against the dark arts teacher," Dumbledore spoke as if he was talking about the weather, in a light airy tone.
Quirrell gave a scared jump before a hasty wave when Dumbledore gestured towards him, "There is also a new younger year potions professor whose name is Lily Potter." This time the name he said caused quite a stir amongst the students even getting a gasp out of Grace sitting next to me. A redheaded woman stood before giving a bow drawing quite a few eyes with even a few Slytherins unconsciously saying how beautiful she looked.
After waiting a few seconds for the noise to die down Dumbledore continued, " And last but not least, The third-floor corridor on the right side is off-limits to all those who do not wish to die a painful and horrible death. Now then all that is left is the school song." The school song turned out to be a jumbled mess of lyrics that somehow fitted together but what made it torturous was that there was no set beat or tune, it was sung however the singer wanted to which in turn made the hall fill with awful miss matched voices trying to sing over each other.
Eventually, it was just the Weasley twins singing their funeral dirge version to end it all. When they finished Dumbledore dismissed us and asked the prefects to lead us to our common rooms. The prefects leading the Slytherins to their common room were called "Emily Prewett" and "Damian Fawley" who were both pure-blooded as well as family members holding positions in the Wizengamot. They lead us along the corridor and down a flight of stairs towards the dungeons before coming to a stop at a junction with a large snake lying across a particular empty section of wall.
"This is where our common room is located, to enter it you will need a password which will be written on the wall to the right of the entrance so you will see it when you go to leave the common room. Should you forget it you will be locked out until someone graciously opens the door for you or until the following morning when we leave to get to breakfast." The stoic deep voice of Damian spoke while waiting for the Hufflepuff group to pass by us on the way to their secret entrance.
When they had all passed and moved out of earshot Emily spoke the password, "Pureblood." As the password echoed around the junction the snake lying on the floor sprung into action and started to move into an archway which revealed a door miraculously appearing on the empty wall. The door opened into the spacious common room where the chairs and walls were coloured in the green and silver synonymous with Slytherin while various paintings of renowned Slytherins were hanging on the walls.
"This is the common area where you can rest and relax with the friends you make in your time here. The bedrooms are on the left and right corridors with girls and boys being separated. Girls on the left and Boys on the right, let it be known now that girls can enter the boy's corridor but the opposite is not true." Emily spoke while pointing out the respective corridors along with introducing the paintings to the new members.
"You will be receiving your timetables in the morning, however, Professor Snape will be along in a moment to talk so please wait here," Damian spoke again making those who were moving to find their rooms stop in their tracks. As soon as Damian said that the common room door opened to reveal the overgrown bat that was Professor Snape. He swooped into the room with his signature scowl and swing of his robes, it reminded me of all those manga's of my old life where people were infected by chūnibyō syndrome and pretended to have eyes that could see evil.
"I care not for what conflicts you may have had before you were sorted, when you are in Slytherin, you are a family. That means that outside this door you will behave as such, no infighting is to be shown to the other houses but you are free to bicker or fight inside here. That is why there is a duelling room. Do you understand?" Professor Snape drawled in his specific voice which was a mixture between a harsh whisper and a raspy breath.