Parseltongue is bold "Close your eyes young one. You shall kill me if your eyes are open"
Thoughts are italic
"Of the many fearsome beast and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live hundreds of years is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of Killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare and all who are fixated with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk for it is their mortal enemy and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it"
-Excerpt from Most Macabre Monstrosities
A young wizard wearing a robe of dark green and bright silver stood looking at the cracking egg in front of him. A toad hopped off the egg with a croak as it shattered revealing a dark green snake. "Close your eyes young one. You shall kill me if your eyes are open"
The little snake closed its eyes slightly confused before rambling off a bunch of questions. "Why are my eyes closed? Who are you? Who am I? What is this place?"
The man chuckled at the youngster "You are a basilisk little one so I asked you to close your eyes so that you do not kill me. My name is Salazar Slytherin and I am your new master. This place is called Hogwarts and we are in a chamber that I built so that you may live, grow and eventually help me rid this school of those who do not have pure magical blood. Now I shall shield my eyes so that you may open your eyes and look about your new home"
The little basilisk slithered out of the remaining egg shells and sat there for a moment as waiting a few moments to give the wizard a chance to shield his eyes. When she opened her eyes she saw a magnificent chamber with beautiful snake fountains rising up out of pools of crystal clear water underneath catching the falling water from the snakes' mouth. There was still a large hole in the wall towards the back but it looked like the wizard was building a room back there.
Out of the corner of its yellow eyes, it saw movement. A toad. The youngster moved quietly as close as it could keeping its gaze on the toad whose back was currently turned to it. The toad turned at the last second and looked right into the eyes of the basilisk and fell dead.
The little snake looked shocked. The man told the truth his gaze was deadly!
"No need to waste this…" Gobbling up the toad he turned and found his way back to the mans' feet "So I am to live here? What am I to eat aside from that toad?"
Salazar looked down at the little snake whose face was pressed up to his robes, "You can leave this chamber once you are big enough to fend yourself but as of right now I shall bring you food. Do not worry. I shall allow you hunt it. I shall not bring you cold, dead food."
"This is nice of you but why can I not leave? I killed that frog just looking at it!"
"You are still young and quite small. Your gaze worked on the frog but would not actually kill anything much bigger….petrify maybe but not kill. That is why I do not look you in the eye."
The basilisk gave a hiss of anger, "NOT FAIR!"
Salazar let out a deep laugh at the little snake. "You are defiantly a youngster with that temper. I need to name you…now what would be a good name for you….wait are you a male or female? I am assuming male because of that temper."
If the snake could have snorted she would have, "I am a female." "I apologize little lady then I shall call you Azrael it means 'Angel of death' which is what you shall be to those whose blood is not pure."
Azrael let out a soft hiss of approval before she felt a tingling in her lower stomach. "I hunger again…where more food is?"
"I shall go fetch you some. Would you like another toad or something warm?"
"Warm….I wish to see what this warm food is."
"Very well Azrael I shall return shortly. Please make yourself at home. Explore. But come when you hear me call. And Azrael…DO NOT go down the large tunnel to the right." With that final warning, Salazar turned and walked down the tunnel towards the left.
Azrael sat there a moment debating on what she should do, "He said not to go down that way but that just makes me want to go that way….but there is a lot more in here to explore so I will just wait a few days before going down that tunnel But he never said I couldn't follow him!"
She slithered off the way she saw Salazar go and found steps. Working hard she managed to make her way up them. After demanding that a door open she found herself in a strange room filled with shiny white bowls and what looked to be lots of feet. "Why those feet smell sort of what Salazar smells like…I wonder what they are…I better close my eyes so I do not harm them by accident."
Using her tongue to scent the way Azrael wandered around the white bowls till a scream was heard.
"A SNAKE!"
"KILL IT OH KILL IT!"
"HEY DON'T KILL IT….."
A hand quickly wrapped around Azrael and it took all her control not to bite, "Must not harm the little Salazars. Maybe if I ask nicely they will let me go?"
"Please let me go? I will not come go near your shiny bowls I promise!"
"Let's take it to one of the headmasters…maybe they will know what to do with it? Awe listen to it hiss!"
"You know Sara even for a Slytherin you are really weird…"
"Bite me!"
"Nope going to let that thing do it for me….come on I think I saw headmaster Salazar near the stairs. He is a parsalmouth so maybe he can tell it to go away."
The two girls wearing different colors wandered out of the bathroom. The girl named Sara wears a black robe trimmed in green while the girl Mary wears the same but trimmed in red. Sara holds on to Azrael gently but firmly, "Hold still little one. I do not want you to fall and get hurt. Ah, there is headmaster Salazar. Oh, poor Alfred must have done something again…. HEADMASTER!"
Salazar turned slightly to the right after hearing his title called and the student he was scolding took that moment to bolt.
"Yes, young ladies?" His voice smooth but serious, a voice that is known to make young women stutter when he spoke.
Sara blushed a bit and held out the little snake she caught, "We found this little snake in the bathroom. We were wondering if you could tell it not to come back? It scared a lot of people. Even my "brave" Gryffindor friend Mary jumped."
"Hey, I resent that! I just wanted to get out of the way quickly so… " Mary exclaimed quickly but couldn't figure out an excuse.
Salazar shook his head trying not to grin before looking in Sara's hands and letting out a small gasp. "AZRAEL!?"
"Headmaster, is this your snake?"
"Yes, girls it is. She must have wandered off after I told her to stay still. Thank you for finding her and bringing her to me.
Sara handed Azrael to Salazar, "She is really pretty sir. Such a pretty green. Although I wish I knew what color her eyes were. She refused to open them this entire time."
"She was born blind so her eyes have always been closed. Thank you again, girls, now go on to class. I hear Headmistress Ravenclaw wants to show you all something new in transfiguration."
As the girls smiled and ran off Salazar let out a sigh of relief before getting angry as he walked back towards the girl's bathroom. Making sure it was empty before stepping inside.
Back in the Chambers, he set Azrael down before he started to fuss at her.
"AZRAEL YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE YOUNG LADY. I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO DOWN THAT TUNNEL!"
Azrael opened her eyes and looked at his feet before replying, "I didn't go down the tunnel I followed you!"
"You…followed me!? AZRAEL YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HURT. KILLED EVEN!"
"Those tiny salazars would not have hurt me! I could have opened my eyes and hurt them!"
"First off they are called children and those two were girls. Very much like you. But yes you could have been hurt. You are tiny! What if you were stepped on? What if you got lost!"
Azrael suddenly felt really bad. She knew he was right. She should have just explored the chamber and waited for him patiently to bring her something to eat. Which reminded her, "Did you bring me warm food?" "Yes, little one I did. I was actually on my way back to give this to you when that stupid muggleborn Alfred Peterson tried to sneak into the girl's bathroom. I had to then stop and scold him. If he had not been a distraction I could have prevented all of this from happening by catching you myself. I hate muggleborns' They should be brought in as babies so to learn our customs. Muggles are dangerous. I would hate for any of the children including muggleborns to be burned for a preventable mistake. That is why we have you. Any muggles that get past our defenses will face you my sweet gem. No child shall ever die at Hogwarts as long as you are guarding it."
Salazar reached into his pocket and pulled out a small stunned rat and set it on the floor, pulling out his wand he mumbled something . The rat started to move but not quick enough. Azrael struck and her venomous fangs hit right on target. A few seconds passed before the rat died and she gobbled it up.
"Warm food is good. Much better than a toad."
Salazar chuckled, "I am glad you approve my lady. But you are still in trouble. You are not to leave this room of the chamber for one full day. When I return to feed you again then you may leave."
"Yes papa…"
She watched as he turned to leave once more going down the tunnel that led to the room of shiny bowls.
"Next time I wonder if I can get further without being caught and see more of theses 'Children' I wish to learn more about them."
Azrael closed her eyes and began to dream of the kind girl who saved her from the screams in the land of shiny bowls.