Purpose

~ Chapter 38: Salazar ~

In Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom...

The group of seven people were waiting for Harry to successfully communicate with the sink using the Parseltongue language. To their relief, the ghost of the girl that had been killed by the basilisk fifty years ago was not around as they stood in the middle of the bathroom. After a couple of false tries, Harry finally succeeded in opening the sink again using his gift of reptilian speech. Their group looked down at the gaping hole and Ginny sighed. "I never thought that I would step foot in there again. No help for it I guess." She started to place her legs into the pipe when Charlie shook his head, clearly intending to go down first. She complied and while the rest were waiting for a signal that all was clear from the dragon rider, Harry wondered just how on earth they would get back up.

"We're around you know," Aelwyn spoke up, making those who had not expected company, jump in surprise.

"Thanks," he answered gratefully and a spark of green light burst out of the pipe. "Let's go!" He grinned to his group members.

They slid through the pipe and got to the damp pavement without any problems at all, but Ron and Ginny were staring at the ceiling critically. Charlie gave a lopsided grin and flicked his wand and pointed it to the seemingly ruined ceiling.

"So where do you reckon we should cast the spell en bloc?" Ron asked, looking at Hermione and then at Harry.

"The most logical place will be in the Chamber," Hermione replied and they waited for Harry to take the lead. The place smelled damp and was lighted dimly with the light that seemed to be coming from the walls.

Halfway through their journey to get to the Chamber, something blocked their way and Harry felt the blood drain from his face. "Fenix?" Ginny asked incredulously, not knowing why the Fire Master was down at this level. The Fire Master stood motionless and both Ron and Hermione lighted up their wands. The students looked at her with shock. Her eyes were cold and her face was melancholy.

"Why did you let him die?" she rasped. "Why did you let us all die?" She began laughing bitterly. Harry took a deep breath and spoke out aloud.

"Stop playing games with me, Voldemort," he said firmly. The person they thought that was Fenix hissed in anger. "You should try and say something more different. Or maybe do a little bit of research. The Fire Master isn't the type who dwells on things that are no longer present nor is she one who gives a bean about Death."

"I don't think it is a good idea to tell Fenix that someone had been trying to impersonate her," Charlie said, looking at the phantom with a bored expression.

"I'm not too sure about that but let's keep it as a secret first," Ginny agreed. "She might see it as a personal insult."

"What should we do about that?" Jude pointed at the phantom with his wand. The 'thing' that was controlled by Voldemort was muttering under its breath, something about Fenix obtaining a mortal wound but yet survived.

"We'll take care of it." Krill's deep voice echoed menacingly around them. In a matter of seconds, there was a loud bang and Fenix's mindvoice yelled into Harry's mind.

: Are you all right? You are? Then, what was that? : The Fire Master sounded very relieved.

: It's just a Boggart, Fenix. That was Hermione's stallion doing the sound effects, : Harry lied quickly.

: Don't give me a heart attack, Harry, : Sirius's mindvoice joined in. : I'm not getting younger by the second. : Harry gave a sigh of relief when they withdrew their presence. He narrowed his eyes at the spot where the phantom had been.

"Krill, next time do give us a little bit of warning," he muttered. "I don't want any white hairs to sprout over my jet-black ones yet."

"I had no bloody idea that he was vain," Ron kept a straight face as he said it. Conversation died as they walked onwards and finally came to the doors that sealed the Chamber. Harry made a hissing noise and the doors parted to reveal the Chamber. All of them were expecting a horrible stench to hit them and held their breaths but nothing of the sort happened. The Chamber still had that eerie greenish glow and Harry motioned everyone in. There was no sign of a dead basilisk anywhere in the chamber. Hermione went straight to the stone face of the founder of Slytherin then gave a shriek when two knights popped out of the figurine, clearly engaged in a sword fight and remained hovering five feet from the ground as their swords clashed.

She jumped out of the way and watched the founders of Slytherin and Gryffindor in an almost hysterical amusement. Ron's mirth however seemed to have gotten out of control and his laughter was loud enough to inform the two knights that they were not alone for the moment. The others were finding it hard to keep their faces straight as they stared at the ridiculous sculpture, and suddenly remembered his face when he had taken off his helm after the Sorting Ceremony. They began trying to mentally compare the two different images. Now that he had the time to think about it, Harry found the image on the stone was rather ridiculous.

"I wonder which of his face is real." Ron chortled and the eyes behind Salazar's visor twinkled mischievously.

"I'm sure if you ask him," Salazar jerked his mailed fist over at his sparring partner, "he would say that I resemble an ape more than a superior wizard or a humanoid. So if you want to know which is the real me, I suggest you pester the Fire Master. She would either answer in two ways: either she tells the truth or she would just tell you to go to the dogs." He winked at Ron.

"We can chat later," Hermione said and went back to stand before the mask. "I think this is a good place to cast the charm."

"Good hunch, little one," Godric complimented and she thanked him with her winsome smile. They agreed and began to spread out in a semicircle, with Hermione as their center. The two founders watched the students-- plus one ex-student-- with pride as their Unbreakable Charms began to spread in all direction, to join the ones the students had cast above their floor to form a latticework of spells. Hopefully, Voldemort would not have the time to find out about the weakness of the charm.

"Good job, everyone! Ten points each for all of you!" Charlie said brightly and Ron gave him a quick punch at his shoulder.

"As if you have the authority to give us points!" His younger brother snorted but Charlie just gave him a sidelong look.

"Why don't we go up and look at the hourglasses?"

Hermione looked around and shrugged to herself. "Well, we're done! Let's go back up!" The two founders exchanged glances, with the founder of Slytherin opening his mouth several times to speak up but in the end gave a mournful sigh.

"Wait..." Harry was peering up at the stone mask. For the first time, he noticed that there was something different about the mold. An impression was created at the base of Slytherin's chin. His left hand reached for the crystal that he kept in his pocket after his godfather advised that he would need it to uncover why he was the Heir. Taking the bait firmly, Harry had fished the crystal out of his trunk where he kept most of his things. He took his wand into his left hand and with the blue crystal in his right, he began to will the crystal to float up and tried to fit the crystal into the impression. The two female founders of Hogwarts appeared and they drifted closer to Harry, pushing Ron nearer to Harry. The founders completely cut off the boys from everyone else and Hermione frowned at them, filled to the brim with suspicion.

"You've got the crystal upside down, Harry," Helga Hufflepuff pointed out gently as Harry tried to fit the crystal into the hollow space.

"Oh..." Harry muttered absently and with a slight twist of his wand, he deftly turned the crystal and almost as if the stone face was a magnet and his crystal was metal, it was sucked in and fitted into the carving nicely. The instant the almost-flat crystal became one with the stone face, the Chamber suddenly froze and all sounds became muted. He turned around to see both Hermione and Charlie frowning at them, and stared in amusement at Ginny's suspended movement. Ron examined them with a peculiar expression on his face, which he quickly dropped when a great roaring noise filled the entire chamber.

Both of them covered their ears with their hands but the noise was still too loud and they winced when it screeched to a high pitch. It went on to a higher pitch, and higher until it reached the frequency that was simply too high for both of the boys to hear. They put their hands down and stared at the chamber when the light began to change from an eerie green glow to an ethereal hazy golden light. Harry began wondering at what had happened to the founders who had been directly behind him just a minute ago.

The room quavered almost fluidly and Ron looked terrified. "Harry! What's going on?" His friend had no time to answer him when Harry felt his stomach heave. He opened his eyes to find that he and Ron were no longer in the Chamber. They seemed to be in somebody's quarters of some kind, though the furniture in the room was sparse. They could see a cot, a small cupboard, and two armchairs at one corner of the room. There was also a dark-brown office desk facing the window but was unoccupied for the moment. "I think we're in some sort of a time travel," Harry said dubiously to his friend.

"Bloody hell! Hermione is not going to like this..." Ron grimaced and then tugged at Harry's sleeve when a figure slowly materialized. It was a man-- or maybe wizard-- given that his robes were much like Dumbledore used to wear, only that it seemed much more ancient. The robes were of a gray color but when the wind blew around the room and the robes moved a little, the fabric glittered. The two boys slowly began to move towards the window and as they came closer, they were able to see that the room they were in, was at least several levels above the ground floor, for it had a nice view of the giant lake.

The two Gryffindors stood close to each other as they cautiously examined the wizard's face. It was lined and wrinkled. His eyebrows, hair and beard were a mixture of black, gray and total white. Although aged, the man still held the handsome features of his youth, especially his eyes and lips. His deep emerald green eyes held great sadness though, and the two boys somehow had the feeling that they were intruding on something personal.

"Ric had died today..." the wizard spoke softly, making the boys jump in surprise.

"Is he talking to us? Or himself?" Ron whispered, but Harry indicated that he had no idea. Now that they were aware of the wizard's melancholy, they fidgeted uneasily, waiting for the aged wizard to speak. The wizard clearly was unaware of their presence and he rambled on softly.

"Wen, did not even let me see him... before he died..." A tear dropped onto the gray sleeve. "Even gentle Helga forbade me from going to see him..." His green eyes studied the expanse of the summer sky with deep sadness. "It was just as well... I don't think it would have been safe for me to watch him die. I might go mad...He was still young... why did I not go first? I'm at least two decades older than he is..." he whispered bitterly. "But I could not. My task remains unfinished..." He turned his head slightly so that his eyes pierced through Harry's. "But it would be... if you are hearing my words, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Great chaos would trundle upon the lands of the wizards and the normal human beings in centuries to come. The Future is fluid, changing its paths every so often by the small and great deeds-- both good and bad-- by the living. Not the Dead." The man stopped and smiled briefly as a hummingbird of deep green and hues of red hovered at the window, chattering at the wizard."The course to the most benign future will be altered desperately by one of my own, the one they call Voldemort, or Tom Marvolo Riddle. He and a group of people had twisted my very teachings of magic," he spoke without looking at Harry.

"It's strange how rumors over a long period of time could become facts... in history books," the wizard said with dry amusement, and chuckled."My friends are unaware that I have the gift of Sight. But unlike most Seers, I could only See what could happen in the distant Future. So I know that the facts that was written about me had inspired some people to take on my views to the extreme." He gave a great sigh.

"It's strange on how one could go when one has the need to mend his blunders. I had made the most grievous mistake I could have ever done in my life... short as it may be... I do believe in teaching those born purely out of wizard blood, for they have a higher success in becoming great teachers but I guess I was short-sighted." He stared again at Harry.

"But even wizards have their own fanatics, those who study the Dark Magicks wanted to use their knowledge to bring themselves into Power, or alter the normal course of Nature or Time. Others used it for petty things, like maintaining your youth. To do that, you have to kill seventeen virgin girls and drink their blood." The wizard snorted derisively. "No matter if we are the bearers of Magick, we could not consider ourselves superior to the normal humankind. For God did not give us the gifts so that we could escape, from love, life, sorrow, pain and death. Our fundamentals are still those of a human, suffering from the same diseases and illnesses, suffering from the same emotions." His eyes twinkled gently in amusement. "And we are the kind of people who find it easier to become imbalance mentally."

"If some writer or philosopher had heard me say this, I dare say that wizards who wants to create a superior batch of humans who are resistant to diseases and let's say-- immortality-- would spring up. They simply do not understand the first instant why they have the gift. Actually, I don't think I do either." He smiled faintly. "Though one thing is for sure. I do not want a blood bath to occur because of my views and opinions of teaching pureblooded generation. You would think that Voldemort was smart enough to know that that didn't matter to the School anymore. He did got into Slytherin, didn't he? Being half-blooded didn't stop the Hat from choosing him into the House. And it's not because my blood flows in him, either." The wizard pursed his lips in distaste.

"So rather than making you, or your friends search the history books to find out what I really want, I will just tell you. It's accurate but it's up to you how you want to process what I'm going to say. You, as my Heir-- it would be rather thorny if Voldemort was to find out that I had cast him out of the succession line, wouldn't it?" The wizard cleared his throat. "I'm not forcing you to do this, but I want to make sure that you have a goal to achieve, rather than flounder about in Life trying to think of something meaningful to do. Think of it as an incentive to overcome the situation about Voldemort."

The wizard stepped forward, gazing levelly at Harry. "A new School must be founded, one that is one and not divided as it is with Hogwarts Four. Your generation would be the one to lead this new foundation of new teachings. And you won't be doing it alone. Try to get everything ready by the time there's a new Potions Master, and you could start from there. Don't worry about stealing ideas from the current Headmaster though, because I am sure that he understands why I had given this instruction to you."The sadness returned and filled his eyes.

"That does not mean that Hogwarts would go into disuse though, and keep reminding the current Headmaster that, wouldn't you? You have to do this because if you succeed in prodding the Present to go into the right Future, certain progenies would be in need to study the new and the old ways of Magick. Especially the ones by the Phoenix and the werewolf. Those coming from that pair would be a great handful to handle, and I think it would be rivaled by the one by the Dragon and the healer. And tell her I miss her by the way, you know to whom I am referring to. And you--" The wizard suddenly focused on his best friend.

"Make sure you deal with family planning first, and build a large house before you try to go for it. For starters, get three cradles at one go. She would need it."

Ron stared stupidly at the wizard. Harry scowled and blurted out. "What is the feather for?" The wizard looked strangely surprised that the boy had spoken.

"How remarkable! I did not remember designing the crystal to allow you to speak to me!" He laughed brightly. "Well, it's a magical quill for legislative purposes and it has some other uses. Although I doubt that you would need it since you would be having his wife," he was looking directly at Ron, and continued, "and several others to help you in registering for the new school compounds and so forth." The wizard narrowed his eyes speculatively then strode over to his desk and pulled a drawer. He finally got out a scroll with a black ribbon tied to secure it.

He went back to the two boys and unrolled the scroll for them to see and they felt their eyes widened as a silver-eyed Fenix, dressed up in the Slytherin's school robe staring out from the parchment in amusement. "I had made her stand for three straight hours after her graduation to sketch this. Would you please do me a favor? Tell the right eye of the stone face to open up and give whatever that's ejected out to her, please? I never did get around to send her those things." He smiled plaintively as he rolled the parchment back and kept it inside the drawer. There was a knock on the door, and a handsome-faced Rowena Ravenclaw, though her eyes were puffy, stepped in. She paused when she saw the two forms of the Gryffindors.

"Salz?" she said tiredly, her lips quivering and the Gryffindors looked at each other easily.

"In a moment, Wen," the wizard said softly. The two Gryffindors felt it wise not to look at the founder of Ravenclaw as they heard her sobbed in despair. "This is what you have to do. Think back on the exact instant on how the Chamber looked like before you heard the shrieking noise. Can you do that?" The boys nodded and the wizard smiled. "Then, get going..." His eyes stared penetratingly with Harry's green ones. The boys thought how the Chamber had looked and found themselves back with their friends. But the founders were missing. Instead, there were four bulbs of misty silver floating about the room.

"There is no need for us to linger any further, Harry," the voice belonging to Salazar spoke up. "I'm counting on you to make the future a better place for all of us." They were suddenly gone and normal conversation and Time resumed to its normal course.

Hermione looked at her friends curiously and looked around for the founders. Where had they gone? What happened? And why is Ron crying? The two boys were indeed crying. Ron gave a sniff and said in a hoarse voice. "So... how are you going to open the right eye? It's quite a way up."

"I don't think I have to go up there and tell it to open." Harry examined the stone face critically.

"All right, you two," Hermione said dangerously, brandishing her wand in a threatening manner. "What in the world had happened? And where are the founders?"

"It'll take a little too long to explain, Hermione," Ron said patiently then unexpectedly blushed when he fully realized the true meaning of Salazar's warning. Triplets? At one go? He examined his partner's rather slender figure. But she's so small! Hysteria was bubbling inside him.

"And why are you looking at me like that?" Hermione wailed, her eyes pleading while the rest crowded in to question the two Gryffindors.

"Right eye of Slytherin..." Harry hissed in the reptilian language. His brows creased as he concentrated hard on his gift. "Open!" And the right eye of the stone blinked once then opened and several objects flew out of the air. The last object to fly out was a package wrapped in top quality black silk and the eye shut itself automatically.

"He certainly had quite a few of things to give to her." Ron looked around the Chamber and counted that there were at least twelve objects that had scattered about the room. "Well, let's go and pick them up and then--" Hermione began to protest but it died when both Ron and Harry stared at her in determination. "Then we can explain what all of this is about... but it's up to Harry if he wants to tell you all of it. Don't forget the crystal, Harry. You will need that feather."

His friend gave a lopsided smile. "I seem to have forgotten to ask him how I should retrieve the quill from the crystal. No matter." He concentrated hard and willed the crystal to pop out of the impression and it was a good thing he caught it quick before it had the chance to hit the ground. "Let's go then, and nobody open anything. Those are meant for Fenix."

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In the Hall...

They all seemed to be busy listening to Harry and Ron about the conversation with the founder of Slytherin. The two boys had silently agreed not to mention anything about Voldemort or Salazar's capability at seeing the distant future. They remained strictly on the subject of Slytherin's intention of building a new school and Dumbledore seemed a little surprised at that. Ron reassured that Hogwarts would still function, hinting that the new school-- if that could happen-- would be teaching a whole odder bunch of people, while giving Hermione, Alamanda and Fenix very sly looks.

The Fire Master ignored him, and the rest of them, as she sat on her pallet and carefully opened Salazar's gifts to her one by one. Most of them were various accessories for her ears, hair, and a couple of bracelets and necklaces. Except for the parcel wrapped in silk. McGonagall, after hearing from the boys that all the objects that they brought with them were all for the Fire Master, hovered curiously. Fenix did not mind that and then blushed when she saw what the parcel contained. It was a wedding dress-- although you would not know unless you happened to live in the first thirty decades after the Hogwarts Four had been founded, the style was greatly favored by the Celtic ladies. And there was a note attached to it: Don't let me down and not wear it on your wedding day. I may not be there to see it, but I still want you to be dressed like a woman for once. Fenix's eyes watered and she wiped them away in irritation. "Stupid old goat."

The teaching staff looked at her quizzically, wondering just whom she was referring to. She had moved on to untie the black ribbon holding several pieces of parchment and was distracted for a moment when a small piece of parchment fell out just as she began unrolling the scrolls. She read it silently: Well, if you received this... then I guess Time is going where it should. So guide It well, beloved. Fenix reread the note twice and sighed. Not letting go of the strange note, she picked one of the parchments and as she had expected, it was a sketch, of her against the background of the Forbidden Forest. She bowed her head down and tears began to fall silently. "He didn't stick around to say goodbye, didn't he?" she whispered. Harry and Ron stayed silent, watching Remus going to her. "Stupid, idiotic wizard."

: He just told me to say that he loves you. : Harry sent his thought and she gave a long sigh.

"Just as well. Both of us were never really good at greetings or farewells, believe it or not." Fenix sighed, finally smiling a little and began to study all the other sketches, allowing Remus to hold her as she tried to remember the instances when Salazar had sketched her images.

Harry was looking at the Fire Master curiously. So she was a student at Hogwarts, and a Slytherin to boot. I wonder how she lived her life back then. It must be pretty interesting...

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