Harry and Noah had been inseparable for their entire lives, after all, they were twins, though no one would know just by looking at them. Noah was tall whilst Harry was short, Noah had hazel eyes whilst Harry had green ones, Noah had curly fiery red hair whilst Harry had messy black hair, Noah had perfect vision whilst Harry needed quite thick glasses. They looked nothing alike and yet, they were closer than you could imagine. Which brought quite the heartache when Harry was sorted into Gryffindor and Noah? He was sorted into Slytherin. The twins who lived looked horrified at being separated, "Could you maybe send me to Gryffindor instead?", asked Noah.
"My decision is final, Slytherin is where you belong, I have never yet been wrong", the hat whispered into his ears.
There was silence in the great hall for an unbearably long while, before the Slytherin table got up and cheered, as the Gryffindor's had cheered when Harry was sorted there. With tears welling in his eyes, he sat down at Slytherin table.
"Don't look so down! Slytherin is way better than Gryffindor!", a burly slytherin patted him on the back.
"I- Harry and I have never been separated like this… we do everything together", he whispered through his tears, sobbing quietly.
"It's okay, Noah, we will be your new family, you won't even notice that he is not there", the burly student wiped away Noah's tears, "And besides, you will see him in the great hall and most of the time, the Gryffindors and Slytherins have potions and defence against the dark arts together, so you won't be totally separated from him"
"R- right… I'll still see him…"
"Good to see that at least one of the twins who lived has made it into the best house", a grey eyed, blonde boy with pale skin said, "I am Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, nice to meet ya"
"Noah *sniff*, Noah Potter", he took his hand, shaking it meekly.
The sorting soon came to a close and the feast began. There was all kinds of food from all over europe, there was game pie and spotted dick but also bratwurst and golumpki(polish cabbage rolls), even some foods he had never seen before. He helped himself to a generous portion. Back at the dursley's they had never gotten as much food as they wanted, just enough for them to look healthy enough as to not arouse suspicion. The last thing they wanted was for the police to come and knock on their door, what would the neighbors think? But now, now he was free to eat as much as he wanted. He helped himself to some good, beef stew, whilst Flint -the burly slytherin- showed him the professors, "That is Professor Snape, he is our head of house and the potions professor, next to him is Quirrel, used to be the muggle studies professor but recently came back to teach defence against the dark arts, over there is McGonagall, transfiguration, stern but fair"
Noah nodded along, though his gaze flickered to Harry often, if only he could sit there with him… well, it won't help crying over spilled milk, he supposed, maybe this could be a good thing? He hoped that it wasn't as bad as he imagined it.
"-and lastly, there is Sprout, Herbology, she is nice, makes the lesson fun, even if you don't really like Herbology"
"Now that everyone is fed and watered, I would like to make a few announcments", Dumbledore's voice was booming, likely magnified by a spell, "like you all should know, the forbidden forest is indeed forbidden but this year, the third floor corridor on the right is forbidden for all who don't want to die a most painful death. Mr Filch, our caretaker wants me to remind you that you are not allowed to cast spells in the hallways between classes"
"How are we supposed to practice our spells if we aren't allowed to cast them?" Noah asked.
"No one actually keeps to that rule," Flint chuckled, "so don't worry about it. As long as Filch doesn't catch you personally, you'll be fine"
The prefects guided the new first years towards their common rooms, Harry went upstairs whilst Noah went down into the dungeons. The prefect explained to them how they could find the entrance if they were lost(there were tiny serpents etched into the walls of the dungeons, each pointing towards the common room). The entrance looked like an ordinary wall, nothing special about it, "the door will only reveal itself to those who speak the password, it changes every month and you can find the new passwords on the notice board, the current password is adder"
As soon as he said that, the door revealed itself. The prefect guided them through the door, into the common room, which was filled with a green glow and decorated in all green too, with a huge window looking into the black lake. Noah could've sworn that he saw the giant squid's tentacle brushing against the glass for a split second. The common room was big enough to house a hundred students comfortably, more if you squeezed and it turned out, that wasn't the entirety of the common room, behind a few doors, were more rooms, a potions lab, a padded area for dueling practice, a room housing a moving model of the sun system and much more.
"All these rooms are free for use", the prefect explained, closing the room with the sun system, "Every second saturday, some of the older students will be holding study groups for the younger students. Just as the sorting hat said, in Slytherin you will find true friends. If you are struggling in any class, just approach one of them, their names and photos are listed on the notice board, with the subjects they excel in. We have two students for every subject, with most student specializing in two subjects, with a few that only have one. Once you are older -fifth year and beyond-, you can apply to be a mentor for the younger ones. It used to be every saturday but the mentors want to have free time too, visit hogsmeade and all that"
He then directed them to a large stairway, "On the right are the girls' dormitories, on the left, the boys'. And don't even try to get into the opposite sex's room, as you can see-", he stepped onto the right stairs, which went smooth and send him sliding down, "they are charmed. Your dorms are labeled 1 through 7, as you are first years, you will get the room number one. The older you get, the more spacious the rooms are. I even heard that the seventh years have their own separate bathroom, much like the prefects"
The students were left to go into their dorm rooms and, in the rooms, their stuff was already laid out, their trunks at the feet of their beds. There were six first years in the boys room, though there were seven beds and room for three more, though instead of beds, there were desks, seven of them, one for each of the beds. Above the door, inside the dorm, was a moving painting of a large, blue snake, §New students? Is it time already? How time flies§, it hissed and Noah understood it perfectly. Harry and himself had always been able to talk to snakes, since they could remember, they used the hissing language to talk to each other in secret. According to Hagrid, they had inherited that from their mother, Lily.
Nice to meet you too§, He told the snake, who looked surprised, not as surprised as Draco though, who shook him, "You are a parselmouth?"
"Yeah, Hagrid said I got it from my mum, she was one too", he didn't get what the big deal was.
"From your mother? But she was mud- muggle born, wasn't she? Could that mean that… no- could it?"
"Spit it out Draco", Noah demanded.
"Well, you know that Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth, right? The only european parselmouths are all descendants of him, which means your mother must've been the descendant of a slytherin squib", he said, "that would make you and Harry… the heirs of Slytherin"
"What is a squib?", he had never heard that word before, though it sounded like an insult.
"A non magical person born to magical parents, they are rare, very rare but- wait- who of the two of you is older?"
"I am", Noah said, "I was born shortly before midnight and Harry shortly after", though they never celebrated their birthdays anyway, they still were technically on different days.
"That makes you the heir of Slytherin! It is only fitting that the hat sorted you here, I even bet that was why he sorted you here to begin with", Theodore Nott said, excitedly, "Though I don't get why your mother never revealed her gift to the wider Wizarding world"
"Use your brain, Nott", Blaise Zabini scolded, "a muggle born, the heir of slytherin? It would've been chaos, you know how fanatical some wizards can be. I find it strange that the groundskeeper even knew it. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn't have told anyone"