Chapter 17: Everything Starts Somewhere

The tables were empty. I've never seen it look this bare. Everything was just still. I closed my eyes and said a little prayer to whichever deity cared to listen.

Then my little reprieve was over. The floods pouring into the hall. With little old me standing on the teachers' platform. This was it. I started to feel a tingling in my arms and I concentrated on how I wanted to feel safe. Somehow I deflected a spell that was thrown at me, though I had no control over my magic anymore.

And the screaming. They were trying to work out how I deflected the spell. And trying to encourage others to hit me. Slytherins, typical. Trying to get someone else to do your dirty work. Have you never heard that the only way to get something done is to do it yourself? I guess it's time for me to be a Gryffindor.

"STOP!" The room went quiet, and the only sound I could hear was my chest pounding. "Look at yourselves. Monsters. Trying to hurt someone who dared not live up to your expectations of evil!" The Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and of course my dear Hufflepuffs began jeering at the Slytherins. "I don't think you all have the right to do that, do you? You are just as guilty. You isolate anyone who tries to be nice to Slytherins! I made some fantastic friends. And what did you do to them? You told them they were betraying their house. You know what; you are the ones who betrayed your house in favour of stupid prejudices!"

This older Hufflepuff lad stepped forward, trembling with fear, "My twin sister is in Slytherin. For 5 years I've had to pretend that we're distant relatives who didn't know each other, as much for her protection as mine, but this is it. My sister is a Slytherin and I'm proud, and no matter what anyone says, she means more to me than anyone else in this room!" A surprisingly large portion of the hall clapped.

Then a Slytherin girl also stepped forward. "Anyone hurts my baby brother, or anyone else for that matter, for associating with Slytherins and you'll have to answer to me. Thank you."

Suddenly the crowd became fluid, people were moving everywhere, then I could see distinct groups emerge. Red, Blue, Yellow and Green merged into one at the edges of the hall. Clare, Scarlett and Jam came and stood with me. Left in the centre was a small grouping, mostly of green, but here and there other colours all standing quite separately.

The usual suspects were in the left over grouping. The lads who attacked me on the first day of class, Georgia Eastbourne. But I was surprised to see the other girls in my year were standing with people they clearly knew from other houses. I guess they had just been playing follow the leader in self-defence.

Jacobs started ranting at the room. About how we were blood traitors, scum, filth. That a new dark lord would rise and we would all suffer. One of the Gryffindors started screaming about how they would never be friends with a snake because we were all death eaters who would turn our backs on them when they'd served their usefulness. I guess because they had been screaming towards me they didn't see who came up behind them. But the other students did. I guess the lads worked out something was wrong when the whole hall started laughing. They turned around to find McGonagall, Sprout and Neville glaring at them. Then Neville said very quietly, but so everyone could hear "I think you should go and wait outside the Headmistress' office. Now."

They slunked of, clearly not feeling guilty about what they said. But we couldn't care. The hall erupted into cheers. I guess they had also been on the end of their comments. Suddenly the hall felt friendlier. Maybe it hadn't only been me who was being supressed. Maybe the hat was right, that I could do some good by helping myself.

So here's to you Slytherin! Maybe I was wrong. Maybe we all were. And in the future, maybe people will start viewing you as we should have done for years: that you are exactly the same as the other houses. So maybe you value your own skin, but we aren't nerds, we aren't brave to the point of stupidity, we aren't goody two shoes house. We are Slytherins. And maybe one day you'll get the respect you deserve. I'll say this. I'm proud to be a Slytherin!

*Six Years Later*

Professor McGonagall stood in front of the hall grinning. We were to be her last year. Apparently the Potter siblings were due to start soon, so she was taking a well-deserved retirement, starting with a Caribbean Cruise. No wonder she was smiling, after 58 years in the job I'd want a break too.

"I don't think I've been prouder standing here today than I ever felt before. You truly are the last of the war generation, and I hope the lessons your year has taught us will stick with us for many years to come. It was probably February of your first year that I decided you would be my last year, and you have made me so proud. You will go forward from this hall to start your lives and I don't want you to do any more than carry the message of friendship to the world. To make one person happy is to change the world, and I know you all have it in you to change the world."

I droned out the rest of the speech. As much as I loved my mentor standing in front of us it didn't matter anymore. I entered this hall as a small child; I was to leave a Prefect with average NEWTS, ready to start at the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artefacts. Guess being Muggle Born payed off after all.

But I hope I've shown that labels do not have to bind us. I don't have to stay horrible just as people don't have to hate Slytherins. We are not the people we were when we were 11. I'm not sad to be leaving Hogwarts, I'm excited for the future. And I might not have a true friend like Mopsy every day anymore, Clare and Scarlett are off to healer training and Gringotts respectively so may be far away, but the blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb, or in our case the binds of the house. I love Hogwarts, I know, even love Slytherin.

My name is Amber Darrow. I am an oxymoron. I am the Muggleborn Slytherin. I faced ridicule, through death threats, through physical abuse. But I'm sitting here today next to Scarlett and Clare, an ordinary person. I was never unusual. I say this to any child worried about being sorted into Slytherin – it is a house where you will find real friends, where you will find yourself, and most importantly you will find a home.

And it's done! I'm sorry for the rushed ending. I wanted to conclude this story as it's been ongoing for 4 years now! Thank you for reading my story, and have a great day!