slytherin suits you, weasley
@percyprotectionnet: different house au
if percy weasley were sorted into slytherin…
he’d feel confused and disappointed. he’d expected to be in gryffindor (like his family) or ravenclaw (he was smart enough, after all) - but not slytherin. slytherin, a house of dark wizards and toublemakers and the dungeons and backstabbing and it came with such a bad reputation. a stigmatizing label to brand him for the rest of his life. the sorting hat must have made a mistake. he didn’t belong in slytherin.
his family would be shocked at first (slytherin? percy?). his brothers would tease him about it, but it wouldn’t be the biggest deal in the world to his parents.
his unease with being sorted into slytherin would hinder him at first. he wouldn’t connect with the other slytherin first years, choosing instead to dive into his studies head-on and try to make a few friends in the other houses, also offering to help other students (of other houses) with their studies when it became obvious that he understood the material better than most.
some of his friends in the other houses would agree with him - he wasn’t what they had expected of a slytherin, but they didn’t mind.
some of his other friends were confused by his dismay with his own house - what was wrong with slytherin? they were friends with him and he was a slytherin, weren’t they? the rumors about the slytherin house hadn’t gotten to them or they chose to ignore them, seeing the house instead as just another hogwarts house.
those friends prompted percy to take a look at his own house again - a little more kindly than the first time. though not ready to extend a friendly hand to marcus flint, he started offering to help fellow slytherins with essays and homework questions that they were struggling with. it was a start.
his fellow slytherins were weary of him at first - percy, the slytherin that had wanted nothing to do with them - but they still allowed him to join them.
hanging out with the slytherins, in their own common room and dorms, was… nicer than he expected. their tongues were, for the most part, sharper than those of his friends and their jokes took him a bit to get used to, but he enjoyed it. they were different.
his observations of the slytherins struck him with surprise:
1. the slytherin house stuck mostly to themselves. not because they necessarily wanted to, but because many of the other students from other houses expected them to prove that they didn’t live up to the stereotypes of the slytherin house and the slytherin students honestly just didn’t feel the need to prove anything to anyone but themselves. despite the pride that many had in their house and their heritages, they had heard the oppressive, narrow stereotypes for so long that they wore them as a second skin,
2. they were the same as the other students. they laughed, cried, had first loves and first heartbreaks, smiled, studied hard, procrastinated, cheated, lied, got caught, got brilliant marks, succeeded and failed, got frustrated and excited - they were human, just like him. even the meanest, toughest, hardest of slytherins had more under their skin than just a snake with fangs,
3. most slytherins had layers. what you got the first time you spoke them often was only the surface, and if you persisted past the bristles and walls many of them put up to those not close to them, then you could find something amazing beneath it.
4. slytherins were fiercely loyal to both their heritage ties (relationships with other families that their parents had made) and those they considered friends.
5. while competition was strong in slytherin, it could be cast aside when the need arose to come together.
he would realize that slytherin wasn’t as bad as he had thought. the pureblood pride was strong in a select clique, however, many slytherins couldn’t really care less as long as it didn’t affect them. other than that the students were… loyal to each other. slytherins stuck together, had each other’s back… even his, when he finally let them.
the stone-cold merciless brutality he had expected had turned out to be ambitious hopes and dreams, with the occasional cutthroat competition that rarely caused true harm to another slytherin.
as a prefect of slytherin, he was fair and just to all the houses. he never treated one with favoritism or another with distain – simply saw them all as students. that was one thing being in slytherin had taught him. there really was little difference between them.
he somehow found himself friends with the captain of slytherin’s quidditch team, marcus flint. despite the outer appearance that the other student put forth, he wasn’t so bad once percy got used to him.
because of this friendship percy went to every quidditch game, cheering for slytherin. the twins teased him endlessly about this, but the three weasleys made a game of sorts of it: whoevers house team lost had to do one dare the other told them to do. luckily slytherin didn’t lose often.
maybe, just maybe, percy would be okay in slytherin: their ambition was contagious, and their motivation helped fuel him to study hard for the ministry job he wanted.
yet they also reminded him to have fun every now and then, drinking games and rounds of challenges going late into the morning to celebrate having written difficult tests.
when it was finally time for ron and harry to join hogwarts, ron’s opinion of slytherin would be better than it had been because of percy, who was thriving in slythering as a prefect and top grades, studying hard – but slytherin was still undesirable.
every year, percy would try to convince the slytherin first years that blood status wasn’t important (look at him, top of his year in all of his classes yet a blood traitor) and that they didn’t have to follow the bad stereotypes of the slytherin house.
he always offered to help anyone - from any house - with their homework, yet reserved special times to help the slytherins. they were his house, after all, and many of them struggled with the coming of harry potter.
more often than not he found himself tutoring malfoy’s gang; crabbe and goyle already falling behind and malfoy quietly working on his own work next to them or prattling on about something or another.
the ministry job he landed after graduating proved his ambition and motivation paid off. he was proud, but exhausted.
the fight where he cut his ties with his family left him severely wounded inside, yet he wouldn’t admit it just yet. being around slytherins for so long had ingrained a deeper sense of devotion and loyalty to his family – they were very loyal to their own, those slytherins, even when their own wasn’t right – but percy was caught between everything he had worked for and his family.
he made the wrong choice, only realizing it later on, and he righted it. he quit for his family.
he’d return to hogwarts for the battle of hogwarts for two reasons:
1. he wanted to make sure his family was safe. despite being the black sheep of the family, shunning his father and cutting ties of with them before, he would never forgive himself if something happened to them, and,
2. he wanted to stop the young slytherin students from blindly following in (many of their cases) their parent’s footsteps or buying into the stereotypes that everyone else had of them. he wanted to try convincing them, one last time, that they could choose to be whoever or whatever they wanted to be - regardless of their heritage. that just because someone said something about them or believed something about them, they didn’t need to live up to those words or beliefs. they could write themselves - look at he. a weasley. a slytherin. top of his class. ambitious. a ministry worker. as smart as a ravenclaw. as passionate as a hufflepuff. heart of gryffindor’s lion. the purest, loyalest love of a slytherin. ambition did not have to mean stepping on others to succeed.
he was there to support his family when his brother died. surprisingly, many of his slytherin friends rallied around them – they understood loss well, their eyes understanding, offering him the comfort and strength he needed to be there for his family.
their gifts – to his surprise – extended to his family: small letters, little gifts, thoughtful things meant to offer kindness in a time of pain. his family, to his surprise, accepted the gifts. slytherin wasn’t mentioned at all. they were from his friends, that was all.
he’s realize that, in the end, he did belong in slytherin. slytherin was so much more than he had thought it was. is wasn’t backstabbing and evil, rumors and sabotage. it wasn’t just full of power-hungry purebloods, it wasn’t just a snakepit.
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