stellaathena:aplatonicjacuzzi:crazybutperfectlysane:So I was rereading Harry Potter, when I ca
stellaathena: aplatonicjacuzzi: crazybutperfectlysane: So I was rereading Harry Potter, when I came across this and thought- what if instead of Cedric Diggory, Cassius Warrington had been chosen to compete in the Triwizard Tournament?Imagine Dumbledore calling out the name of the Hogwarts champion and it isn’t a Gryffindor, or a Ravenclaw, or even a Hufflepuff, but it’s a Slytherin. A student from a House most people hate.Imagine Cassius Warrington getting up, and three out of four Houses are booing at him and shouting things like “NO!” or, “We can’t have a Slytherin champion!” or demanding a retry. But he’s a Slytherin- he’s been dealing with this shit since he got sorted, so he keeps his head high and joins the other champions.Imagine Harry trying to catch Warrington alone because he doesn’t really want to associate with Slytherins (plus Malfoy has this tendency of being around the guy ALL THE TIME since he got chosen), but at the same time he’s also fair enough not to want him to walk into the first task unprepared.Imagine Warrington walking over to Harry a few months later, and Ron and Hermione both jump into a protective stance, wands out, but instead of attacking Harry he just tells him to stick the egg underwater. (Because Slytherins don’t forget those who helped them out).Imagine Warrington and Harry helping each other out in the labyrinth.Imagine Harry being devastated when Peter kills Warrington- because Voldemort doesn’t care what house they’re form, a spare is a spare.Imagine the uproar that causes among the Slytherins, because some of their parents really are Death Eaters and they know what really happened.Imagine Slytherins fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts and shouting “This is for Cassius!” Imagine Harry returning with Warrington’s body, and the crowd realizes what’s happened, but Warrington’s parents don’t show up. There’s no one to mourn him, to cradle him in their arms and cry for their son. The Slytherins know why. His parents were Death Eaters, too.Imagine Slytherins reaching out, asking for help from classmates from other houses. They’re terrified, truly terrified because the being their parents claimed would never hurt them because they’re pureblood, they realize that he does not care.Imagine Slytherins in the 5th book sneaking off to join Dumbledore’s Army, to learn more about who Voldemort is without their parents acting as a filter. Imagine the shock when they’re told what he’s really done.Imagine that a few talented Slytherins went with Harry and the others into the Ministry of Magic. The others are a bit wary but they prove themselves as friends.Imagine them being confronted by Lucius Malfoy in the the Hall of Prophecy, and when the Death Eaters descend, they know that any one of them could be their parents.Imagine the shocked gasp of a Death Eater as they realize their own child, a pureblood, is standing defiantly with Harry Potter. They choke back a cry. They can’t let their child know that they were about to duel to the death.Imagine a DA Slytherin facing off against their own Death Eater parent. That they make the decision to let their child defeat them, because in that moment, they realize that they love their child more than they fear Voldemort. They go down, mask unveiled, and the Slytherin kid has to be dragged from the fight before he gets killed.Imagine Book 6 Slytherins getting more friendly and cooperative with the other houses. Two years of Voldemort terrorizing the muggle and Wizarding world, two years where their parents just up and leave some days, cringing from the pain in their arm, two years after the death of the first Slytherin pureblood, Cassius Warrington, killed by Voldemort’s right-hand man, and they’re slowly hitting the breaking point.Imagine Slytherin kids keeping tabs on their parents, sending the information to Harry, who shares it with the Order of the Phoenix, and hoping that their parents won’t be killed.Imagine Book 7 Slytherins low-key rebelling against the new oppressive Hogwarts staff.Imagine the final seige on Hogwarts, where Slytherins stand proudly by their fellow houses, knowing full-well they could be fighting their own parents. Some Slytherins know their parents were in the fighting. They hope to find them first and sneak them away. Their fellow students understand. Professor McGonagall allows 7th Year Slytherin, Pansy Parkinson, to duel a death eater in her stead; her father is under that veil. She knows it.Imagine the aftermath of the battle; every house suffered loses. Slytherin students crying over the deaths of friends they made in every house.Imagine a Cassius Warrington statue made in his honor, the first Slytherin to fight and die nobly with Harry Potter, the boy who lived, in the face of ultimate evil. He was a true Slytherin, and its in his name that Slytherin children and their families have cut all ties with the Death Eaters, denounced Voldemort, and are finally living in peace. Imagine the debates in the Slytherin common room after Warrington is murdered. Some continue to defend their Death Eater parents – the Dark Lord must have had a reason, Warrington or his parents must have done something wrong or are no longer needed: the Dark Lord has no use for the “useless”, the “spare” – because everything their family taught them cannot be wrong. This is what they know and these people are their parents; turning on them could mean losing everything. Others are vehement in opposition – how can we follow a madman? He killed Warrington, how does killing the child of your followers make any sense? We cannot possibly be safe. The younger students are frightened because they do not understand what is going on while the older ones are terrified because they do. They have no idea how the rest of the school is going to treat them, though, so they need a united front, as they always have, so they can at least protect each other. The compromise is to stay neutral: no more outward hatred and bullying of muggleborns, do not antagonize the Golden Trio, but do not befriend them either; stay out of school politics and do not cause a stir. Meanwhile, everyone is frantically writing to their parents to find out more information and get an update on the family’s party line. Imagine Snape watching all of this without getting directly involved. When he goes to tell Dumbledore, the headmaster already knows, because the portraits got to him before Snape did, as they always do. The two decide to reach out to the more capable anti-Voldemort students to see how helpful they can be. Thus is born a cadre of double agents under Snape’s tutelage – the Vipers? The Vipers all join the DA and help them learn what Snape had taught: occulemency, clever potions, hexes, and charms. As the war progresses, more students join the ranks of the Vipers and they all funnel information to the Order. Draco struggles the most with his loyalties: he hates the Dark Lord for threatening his family, but sees no way to get out since Lucius is the Dark Lord’s right-hand man. Besides, it is not as if his politics align with those of the Order, and in Sixth Year, the Dark Lord is going to kill his parents if he does not succeed. Draco ultimately follows his father’s lead and stays nominally loyal. Still, even though he knows about the Vipers, he never betrays them to the Death Eaters. Imagine the final battle: the loyalists stay in the Dungeons, away from the fighting, while the Vipers stand with the other houses, fighting against their parents. Draco stays loyal until he loses Crabbe to the Fiendfyre and is saved by Harry. He cannot bring himself to fight – it could cause too much trouble for his family should Voldemort win, besides, he might get hurt – but he goes to help those taking care of the wounded. He and Goyle need to get medical attention anyway and Draco is intimately familiar with the types of spells and artefacts Death Eaters are likely to use. Two Vipers watch him at all times, and he is not allowed to cast spells around the wounded, but he does contribute.Imagine the students returning to school after Hogwarts has been rebuilt. There are “good” Slytherins: the Vipers, and “bad” Slytherins: the loyalists. The loyalists have lost, and many of them would prefer to find a place in the new order, but they are shunned, harassed, and excluded. House solidarity continues regardless; the Vipers understand their choices. They refuse to abandon their housemates, even if it might be politically expedient, and convince the DA to help stop the bullying from their end. Slowly, as time goes on the Vipers and the DA lay the groundwork for mending the rifts between houses. By the time their children attend the school, relations are markedly better, though students are still prone to making distinctions between the four groups: Vipers, DA members, loyalists, and neutrals, who did not fight. -- source link