Sweet Deception

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Life of Salazar Slytherin

Harry instantly felt a cold shill run straight up his spine. He looked into Slytherin's cold eyes and felt his heart sink.

Slytherin had to know!

Slytherin guided them towards his office. Harry looked at Hermione only to see that she wasn't worried in the least.

"You two are in big trouble," said Slytherin.

They entered the castle. Harry looked around and stifled a gasp. Everything was different; new. The walls, the wood, the candles, the doors, everything. Harry could definitely tell that there was a one thousand year difference from the castle he was in now and the castle he lived in one thousand years later.

Slytherin took them to the dungeons, another bit of the castle that looked completely new, and to his office near the Slytherin Common Room. As soon as Harry entered the office, he looked around there, too. He had been in Snape's office before, but Slytherin's was better; much cleaner.

"Sit," said Slytherin, pointing to two chairs.

Harry went over and sat down in one of the chairs, closely followed by Hermione.

"Now," said Slytherin, pulling out a piece of parchment. "Let me begin by telling you two that I am very displeased at what you have done."

He put the piece of parchment in front of Harry and Hermione and Harry felt his heart lift; it was a list of things they had done to the school.

"Now," Slytherin continued, "as you know, these incidents are enough to get you expelled." He pulled the piece of parchment back and looked over it. "You've set off snakes in the hallways, laid the candles on the drapery, put robes in the fireplace to burn, and flooded the kitchens."

Harry stared at Slytherin, then figured out what was happening; he thought they were just students!

"Explain yourselves," said Slytherin.

Harry looked at Hermione. She spoke up.

"Well, Slytherin, sir, we -- er -- we just decided that we -- erm -- we wanted a -- a -- change in the -- er -- the school, and -- we -- er --"

"Silence!" shouted Slytherin. "Since no serious damage has been done, I will only give you two detention for the rest of the year. Now. Return to your common room and think of what you have done."

Harry and Hermione got up and left the office. As soon as they shut the door, Harry burst out with anger.

"What is happening?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head, clearly confused. "I have no idea."

"How come you didn't panic when he found us?"

"I'd done enough studies on the potion to realize that if we can be seen they'll only think we're students; nothing more, nothing less."

"What House are we in?"

"Apparently we're in Slytherin."

"What about our year? Our names? The password to get into the common room?"

"I'm supposing we're in the same year, I have no idea about our names, but I hope they're the same, and we should just find someone else who knows the password."

Harry shook his head. "Hermione, we don't know how people lived one thousand years ago! We don't know if Hogwarts has the same rules, different ones, or anything of that sort!"

"I know."

Harry stared at her, wanting more information out of her.

"What are we going to do?!"

"What we came here for. Follow Slytherin around."

Harry shook his head. "I can't believe this."

"Neither can I. Isn't this the common room?"

Harry looked up and saw that she was, indeed, correct; it was the common room.

"Yeah. But how do we get in?"

A boy walked up behind them. From the looks of it, he was probably in his second or third year, and he gave them an odd look.

"Apparently you two haven't gotten the message," he said rudely, "but us Slytherins don't want you in our House anymore. You two cause too much trouble. Go away!"

He took out his wand, did a curse that Harry had never heard before, and he and Hermione flew backwards all the way down the hall and into a broom cupboard.

"Well," said Harry as he and Hermione got out of the cupboard, "I guess following Slytherin around won't be that hard."

Hermione thought for a moment. "I just hope his life isn't as dangerous as it's supposed to be."

They heard footsteps coming down the hall, and Harry shoved Hermione back in the cupboard. He turned and shut the door behind him. He was very squished in the cupboard, but it was better than being caught by whoever was walking down the hall.

"Ah, there you are, Godric," came a female voice.

Godric Gryffindor! Harry thought happily. Someone I can relate to!

"Ah, Helga," came a voice of a male, most likely Godric. "You said you wanted to see me about something? Something about Salazar, no?"

"Yes, it was about Salazar," came the worried voice of what had to belong to Helga Hufflepuff. "I think we need to get Rowena in on this. Things have taken a turn for the worst."

"Why? What's happened?"

"I think we need to get Rowena so we can talk about this."

Harry could see a little in between the cracks of the door, and he saw a very disgruntled woman take the robes of a very confused man and they started walking down the hall.

As soon as he was sure they were out of sight, Harry opened the cupboard again.

"Salazar's up to something," said Hermione. "We need to follow Godric and Helga to the teacher's room so we can find out what it is."

The real Hermione was getting angry towards Voldemort.

How come you're playing along all sweet and innocent? You know what's happening! she thought angrily.

Actually, no I don't, thought back Voldemort. I want to find out all that I can. I know about as much as Harry does, so shut up girl before I kill you.

Harry and the body of Hermione continued walking down the halls.

"Where do you suppose the Staff Room is?" asked Harry. "Think it's the same place?"

"One can only hope," said Hermione.

They came out of the dungeons, looked around, and headed towards the location of what was the Staff Room one thousand years in advance, hoping it was the same now.

As they neared, they noticed that it was, indeed the same Staff Room. They entered, looking around, and saw no one there.

"They're probably getting Rowena," said Harry. Come on, let's hide in the cupboard Ron and I hid in in second year when they were discussing Ginny."

They went to the cupboard, and about two minutes later heard voices. Harry recognized Godric's and Helga's, and he figured the latest female voice had to be Rowena.

"What?" asked Rowena. "What's the emergency?"

"It's Salazar," said Helga.

"What's he done this time?"

"I heard him talking," said Helga. "He was writing a letter out loud, like he always does, to his girlfriend. He said that he had been working on a - a chamber somewhere in the school. He said it was a secret chamber, and he was the only one who knew how to find it and open it. Then he said that he was a raising a monster in there to kill all the Muggle-borns because he disagrees with our ways."

There was a long silence before someone else spoke.

"Are you sure?" It was a male's voice, and Harry knew that had to be Godric.

"There was no mistaking it," said Helga.

There was another silence.

"What are we going to do?" came the worried voice of Rowena Ravenclaw. Harry could tell that she was the most worried out of all of them.

"I think we need to confront him," said Godric.

"And say what?" asked Helga incredulously. "'Salazar, we think that you're brewing evil things in the school can you tell us if it's true?'"

"No, we just need to talk to him."

"That's not the best idea," said Rowena. "I think we need to search for the school for any clues. Search for the chamber."

"OK. That sounds best."

"Let's get looking," said Godric.

The teachers left. As soon as the door shut, Harry and Hermione got out of the closet. Harry looked around and saw portraits of the House leaders on the wall. His heart stopped.

He was looking at himself.

"Hermione, look," said Harry. He pointed to the painting of Godric. Godric smiled at him and waved, then continued on doing whatever it was he was doing before Harry talked to him.

"Why, Harry," said Hermione, stunned. "That -- that looks like you!"

"I know!"

Hermione walked closer to the picture. "If that's you, then why are you in Slytherin in this time?"

Harry shook his head. I don't know. Maybe Godric has never seen me before. Maybe we're in someone else's body, but we still look like ourselves to each other."

Harry looked around and saw a mirror. He walked over to the mirror and saw -- well, whoever he saw, it wasn't him.

"I think you're right," said Hermione, looking at the mirror. "But what about the portrait? Do you think that you might be Gryffindor's heir?"

Harry looked at the portrait of Slytherin and saw the face of Tom. He thought about the Sorting Hat wanting to put him in Slytherin, then about the sword of Gryffindor.

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

"Harry, I'm horney," said Hermione.

Harry gaped at her. "What?"

"You heard me. Let's have sex again."

"Hermione, this is oddly random. And you're pregnant."

Hermione's voice turned somewhat lower. "Harry, I'm suffering from the effects of the bean; I'm still in love with you! Let's do it! Right here, right now!"

"No."

Even though Harry said no, he couldn't help feeling the same way Hermione did.

"Fine," she said, disappointed.

"Work first, pleasure later," said Harry.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"OK, good. Now, speaking of work, let's get to it, shall we?"

They left the teacher's room and went down the hall. They continued to look around, still amazed at what a thousand years can do to a castle. Harry looked out a window and saw that the sun was setting. He also saw a figure running towards the woods. He stopped and looked closer; it was Slytherin.

"Hermione," said Harry. "Look! It's Slytherin! He's going towards the Forbidden Forest!"

Hermione ran over to the window and looked out. "It is!" she said. "Where do you think he's going?"

"I have no idea."

"Well, we should follow him."

"Yeah. Let's go."

They ran down the hall and headed for the doors that lead outside from the Entrance Hall. As soon as they opened them, they sprinted towards the Forbidden Forest to where they saw Salazar running just moments ago.

As soon as they got to the edge of the forest, Harry and Hermione looked around. There was no hut and no Hagrid, so things were a bit different.

"No hut," said Hermione, voicing Harry's thoughts.

"Yeah. Oh well. Come on, let's go look for Slytherin."

They ran into the forest and looked around. The forest had sure changed from one thousand years prior; it was a lot darker.

"Come on," said Harry. "We can't be afraid. What's the worst that can happen?"

Hermione looked at him. "I'm not sure how much I want to find out."

"Well, we need to go find him, don't we?"

She nodded. "Let's go."

They continued their walk into the forest. They went very carefully, so as not to step on any twigs and scare off Slytherin. After they had walked for about ten minutes, the sun had completely gone down and they began to hear voices.

"How is the process going?" came a dark, deep voice.

"The chamber is nearly built," said the voice that Harry recognized to be Slytherin's.

"And the basilisk? How is that coming along?"

"It has nearly hatched, sir."

Harry froze. The basilisk. He remembered back in second year when he had had to fight that. He looked at Hermione. She seemed to remember it as well, having to be Petrified and all.

"Good," said the dark voice. "I want this done by the end of the year. Muggle-borns can't walk freely in the wizarding world."

"No."

"Now. Go."

A body stood up, and Harry figured that was Slytherin. The body started walking towards the edge of the forest, and soon after the image disappeared, another body arose and heading deeper into the forest.

"Well," whispered Hermione. "That was interesting. So the whole chamber and basilisk thing wasn't completely Slytherin's idea."

"No," said Harry.

A twig snapped behind them. Harry and Hermione jumped and turned. They sat in silence for a few seconds.

"What was that?" asked Harry in a whisper so soft Hermione could barely hear it.

"I don't know," replied Hermione in the same way.

"You two are far too nosey," came the voice that Harry had learned to dread; Slytherin.

***

Back in Slytherin's office, Harry and Hermione sat staring into the fire.

"Wandering around on a school night, are we? Is detention not good enough for the both of you? Now I must take matters into my own hands. See, I've been thinking of challenges that will help me get stronger, but I don't know how safe they are. It's come to my understanding that neither one of your parents care about you. So, if you die, I'm sure they'll be happy."

Harry felt anger swell up inside of him. He knew what it was like to be unloved, and Slytherin had to rub it in by saying that they might die and no one would care.

"Don't take it so close to heart; you know that I speak the truth. So, I propose that you try my many challenges. The first one I dare you to do is to spend a full night in the Forbidden Forest. Tonight, in fact. So go. And beware, it's a full moon out there, so I'd be extra careful if I were you."

He motioned for them to leave his office, and they did so, not wanting to cause any trouble. They went to the Entrance Hall, then left the castle to head for the Forbidden Forest for their punishment.

"This sucks," said Hermione, clearly upset.

"I know," said Harry. "I wish he hadn't caught us already."

Hermione stopped suddenly and sat down, putting a hand on her stomach. She winced and looked like she was about to be sick.

"Hermione!" said Harry, rushing over to her and putting a hand around her. "Are you OK?"

She winced, then nodded. "I just feel very -- strange, that's all."

"D'you think it's the baby?"

She thought for a moment. "It's possible. I could be entering the first stage of the pregnancy. That's the sickness part."

Harry nodded. "Well, I hope you'll be OK. We have a long night ahead of us."

They entered the Forbidden Forest and Harry looked around. It was surely a lot darker than it had been when he had entered in his first year, but that, of course, was one thousand years after this. He was still trying to get used to all the changes, but he was sure he was going to make it through.

Hermione's voice cut into his thoughts. "Harry? Are you OK? You look a little -- well -- lost, to say the least."

Harry shook his head. "I'm fine. I'm just wondering about all of this. How we're going to survive now. Especially tonight."

She nodded in agreement. "Especially tonight. I really hope we survive."

There was a growl behind them, then the sound of a wolf howling towards the moon right after. Harry froze, as did Hermione. They looked around, not breathing, trying not to make a sound, looking for the source of the noise. When they couldn't find one, Harry just sat down, closely followed by Hermione. There was another growl. The solid shape of a wolf came out of the shadows and sat in the sunlight.

"Er -- Harry?" asked Hermione. She started backing up very slowly.

"Yeah?" said Harry shakily, following Hermione's suit.

"What are we going to do now?"

The wolf started pacing with them, staying no more than three feet from them. It continued to growl, baring its teeth.

"Run!" said Harry as the wolf lunged for him. He and Hermione spun around and started sprinting for the nearest opening, closely followed by the wolf. They ducked under branches, dodged around rocks, slid around trees, and jumped over holes, but they couldn't seem to get the wolf off of their tails. They began to get tired, but they knew the wolf wasn't going to give up too easily.

"Where are we going to go?" panted Hermione.

Harry thought back to second year and thought of the cave that Aragog stayed in.

"I think I know a place," he panted. "Come on! Just keep running!"

They continued to run. Harry tried to remember the exact location, and as soon as they got there, he and Hermione ran into the cave and hid inside the shadows. The wolf ran right past them.

After about three seconds of waiting to make sure the wolf was gone, Hermione spoke.

"That was close," she whispered in a tired voice.

"Close enough," said Harry. He stood in the cave opening, waiting for the wolf to disappear.

"This is so strange," said Hermione, looking around the cave.

"I know," said Harry. "This kind of looks like the cave Aragog lives in...or will live in, rather."

"No, not the cave. Just -- this. I mean, living one thousand years ago. It's just...very strange." She poked her head out of the cave. "Erm -- I think that the wolf is gone now." She turned back to Harry. "Come on, let's go."

Harry scrambled out of the cave.

"Wow," he said, looking up at the moon, which was full. "This is so beautiful." He started walking back to the entrance of the forest.

"Do you think that Slytherin will allow us to stop our detention?" asked Hermione. "I mean, with the whole wolf thing and everything?"

Harry shrugged. "Not if he's anything like Snape..." Harry paused and thought back to Snape's viciousness. "You know...I never thought I'd say this, but, well, I sort of miss Snape."

Hermione goggled at him. "You what?"

"Yeah," said Harry, surprising even himself with the strange words coming out of his mouth. "I mean, what if he's so mean? He's probably a lot better than Slytherin is..."

They heard a scream back towards the entrance of the Forbidden Forest.

"Let's go see what it is," said Hermione.

Harry nodded and they started sprinting for the entrance of the Forest. They dodged tree branches, hopped over logs, and ran through little streams before they reached the entrance, panting.

"What do you think that was?"

They heard shouting coming from the Great Hall.

"I've told you to stop that!" came the voice of a lady.

"Let's get in and see what's going on," said Harry.

They ran up the stone steps and tried to open the doors, finding that they were locked. Harry tried Alohomora, but the doors still refused to open.

"Oh!" said Hermione. "What are we going to do?"

Harry looked left. "Ever heard of a window?" Hermione looked left with him. She nodded and Harry went over to the nearest window, broke it, and they entered the castle.

"Rowena!" came a male voice. "Stay away from him! He's clearly gone mad!"

Harry and Hermione walked towards the Great Hall.

"You have all betrayed me!" came a male voice. "You all have betrayed the school! How many times have I told you? It would all end this way!"

Harry and Hermione opened the door to the Great Hall. They looked in and saw about two other students standing, with their mouths open, at the fight between the House Leaders.

"Oh no!" said Hermione. "This must be the point where Slytherin decides that he's no good for the school anymore!"

Helga put up her hand. "Salazar, to be honest with you, I have no care for what you have said in the past." There was no mistaking the malice in her voice. "And I'm sure that I can find at least three people who will agree with me." She looked around the room as if daring anybody to stand up to her; no one did. "But you listen to me; I don't care that you want to be more selective of your students. We've gotten along fine with the Muggles that we have!"

"No!" said Salazar. Harry noticed that he was holding up his wand; it seemed to be pointing to the students. "Muggles are betrayers! They were never meant for the wizarding world!" He turned to the students. "Look at these two. I'm sorry that you had to be the first two Muggles to come in at a time liek this, but I'm afraid your lives are spent." He put his wand right under the chin of one of the Muggles, a girl, and she winced.

"Salazar," said Godric. "If you hurt either of these students, I swear you will wish that you've never been born."

Slytherin let out a long, boastful laugh. "I can think of only one mistake in my life that I have made. You want to know what it is? Making this school with a bunch of fools!" His laughed turned into more of a cackle. "You two apparently do not understand what real power is like. Having it at your mere fingertips! Aarg!"

His hand dropped his wand and immediately went to his injured arm. Harry looked at Hermione, thinking that she'd done something, but there was no wand to be seen in her hands. He looked around the room; Godric had pulled out his wand and apparently muttered some sort of curse to get Slytherin to drop his wand.

"You see what happens," he said slowly, "when you make it three against one? Any of us could have just pulled out our wands. You apparently forgot to think that one out. Rictusempra!" Slytherin flew backwards and landed on a table. Godric walked over to the students and began untying their ropes. "Tell no one of what you have seen," he said.

Harry and Hermione exited quickly before the students could see they were in there, since they had apparently gone unnoticed so far. They sat by the stairs and the students ran up them, clearly so frightened that they didn't even look around at them.

Harry and Hermione got up and walked back to the Great Hall. They opened the door only a little, so as not to be seen at all. They could see Godric helping Slytherin up. Slytherin seemed to be unconscious, but that didn't seem to bother Godric.

"Come on," they heard him say. "We'll get him to the hospital wing and tell them he fell in the Great Hall. We'll discuss more of this evenings events when he fully recovers."

Harry and Hermione hurried away from the door again, sitting back in their original spot by the stairs. Helga, Rowena, Godric, and Salazar all came out, not noticing them. Godric took Salazar up the stairs, Helga went to the dungeons to go back to her common room, and as soon as they got to the top, Rowena went the opposite way of Godric to go to the Ravenclaw common room.

After they had all gone, Hermione spoke.

"Well," she said. "This will be a lot easier than I thought."

Harry turned to her. "What will."

Hermione picked up a candlestick and hit him on the head with it, knocking Harry unconscious. She dragged him over to the stairs, picked him up, and started carrying him.

"Killing you, of course," she said to herself. "You're the sacrifice that will bring Salazar back to life in our time."