From the Serpents' Vine
The figure fell to the ground like a comet and the light erupted just as if she truly were a star that had fallen to Earth. The room's occupants were to stunned to move and could only gasp and exclaim profanities.
The woman slowly rose to her feet, obviously shaken. The Headmaster was the first to recover and he hurried over to give her a hand but she shied away from him.
"Who are you, Sir?" she whispered. Where are my friends?"
"My lady, who are your friends?"
"Could you first tell me who you are, and why you are in Hogwarts without permission?"
"Without permission? I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster here at Hogwarts".
Confusion flashed across the woman's face but then she regained control and spat "I am going to kill Salazar!"
There was complete silence in the hall as the woman spoke and only one man dared to move. Severus Snape was slowly moving to join the Headmaster in the centre of the room. For the first time in memory his face showed emotion, severe guilt and anxiety.
"Lady Rowena"
She spun around and accidentally hit Dumbledore in the face as she raised her arms into a fighting stance. Magic was crackling at her fingertips and Severus swallowed.
"It was an accident", he tried.
"An accident! What year is it?"
"1996" he muttered.
"Nineteen Ninety Six. Nineteen ninety Six. I am going to kill you!"
He grimaced and held his breath as she flung her arms forward and hastily drew his own hands towards him, creating a blue shield.
"How dare you block? You deserve about ten times worse than that!"
"Rowena… please".
"Please what? Spare you for this? 1996! How are you even here? Did I curse you all the way back?"
Snape scowled. "No, you did not! I was attacked shortly after the accident and I became … It does not matter."
"Accident! It was not an accident you Mudblood! It was a prank and you ignored the consequences!"
"Be that as it may; it was a dare. I am truly sorry."
She fumed and her hands gestured again and he ducked the blaze of emerald light. Disbelief was etched across his face.
"What would you have done had that hit?"
"I knew you'd duck. You're a coward." She replied flatly.
"I am not a coward. I have endured too much to be called such."
"You are a coward Salazar Slytherin. You run from any skirmish, except your petty feuds with Godric but you always seek back up from Helga. It's pathetic."
"You always help Gryffindor!"
"I do not!"
"Most of the time then".
"He's usually right".
Snape growled and walked away from the fuming woman. He paused and spoke, "I am sorry that my apologies were not enough for you, but please remember my mistake, to me, was over a thousand years ago. You cannot expect me to retain the same emotions of that insipid fool I once was. We all learn, and you shall too Rowena, that men are too weak to carry the weight of such a world as we live in. Women don't fare much better, I assure you". He stormed out of the room.
Rowena Ravenclaw resisted the childish urge to stamp her feet as her husband left. Only Salazar could rile her so much. She looked around at the students and suddenly she could no longer be angry at the man. In front of her was evidence of their hard work and success. One thousand years later and Hogwarts was as strong as ever. She wondered idly if Salazar had ever left, or if he had stayed to guard their dream and, perhaps, to wait for her arrival.
Albus Dumbledore was sat in his office, staring into space. His phoenix was resting on his perch. All the portraits were whispering, congregated in one or two of the larger frames. The idle chatter was ignored by the aged man. In one day two founders had returned to Hogwarts. He corrected himself. One had returned. Slytherin had never even left. It was too much to think about.
He sighed loudly and reached for another lemon drop. The door to his office was flung open and Severus Snape barged in. He sat down, without preamble, in the visitors' chair.
Albus looked at him with curiosity.
"Are you ok?"
Severus was panting slightly, had rosy cheeks and looked furious, more so that he'd ever seen him.
"I'm fine. I've just been avoiding hexes and curses shot from every angle possible, and many I didn't think were. She's a damned menace.
I'm here for two reasons Dumbledore. One, even I will admit, is to get away from the cat and mouse game my wife is playing. The second is because I feel you are due an explanation."
"I'm glad, Severus. I was worried I would be left to work this one out on my own."
"I am and always will be Salazar Slytherin from the Fen that once stood here in Scotland. It had no other name for there was no one to give it one. I was a loner, and will always remain one. I was born as my mother died, out there in the wilderness. There was a servant with me who fought to keep me alive but we were lost and so I grew up in the nature of the world, at its very harshest. That servant was a very resourceful man and he managed to forge a life within the fen. I have no idea how we survived. I learned to speak very quickly and discovered my gift of parseltongue before that. I managed to enlist the aid of the serpents and I lived in the fen beyond the death of my mentor. I was eighteen when I decided I really ought to venture out into the world he had described so beautifully to me.
I came from a family of muggles. There were few wizarding folk about compared to today and people did not go speaking about magic. I discovered I loved the world but not the people within it. I travelled almost constantly with a few snake companions from my Fen. Magic was a most welcome surprise. Should you see me and Rowena duel, and I'm suhre you will, you will see my magic is much more raw and natural than hers because it comes from deeper within. Hers was taught to her when she was very little. She learnt only the basics for she was very young but it was enough to change the natural low of magic. Trained thought and unconscious instinct work in different ways.
It is similar to the way a wand both hinders and helps a wizard. It allows them to do more with ease, but it restricts the power to an unimaginable amount, not to mention the imagination. We built this school on our own, four people without wands. We had to keep our concentration on the stones in this building or they would crumble. Our work was more difficult but far better than modem day construction. Wandless magic requires you to use your soul. Part of yourself goes into the spells you cast, and your magic takes you over.
I met Rowena in a small village that was at the time called Glen. It was small, even for the times. She was sat on her own. Her eyes were puffy in the evening sun. I was drawn to this loner but as soon as I was perhaps five steps away I felt myself pushed away; I was surprised. This woman had the elusive skill I myself prized so highly. She was the first witch I had knowingly met. Her shock at her magic's appearance showed and she began crying again. She was muttering to herself and I still can only guess it was an endless stream of 'Sorry'. The villagers had cast her out as she had accidentally set fire to a house in a fit of rage. I had learned this already in one of the taverns, or as near as you'd get to one. They said the Devil had taken her and should I see her to stay away.
This small creature did not seem so fearsome to me.
I let my own magic push against her and she grew even more scared and I cursed myself. I have never been good at comforting those that are distressed. You can see it is a trait I still have not acquired. Regardless of my inadequacy I tried and it seemed to calm her. I asked her accompany me on my perpetual travelling and as she had nowhere to go she accepted. Eventually we became friends. The other two founders were never friends of mine but of hers. Godric in particular was someone I could not abide and only suffered because of her. By the time we built Hogwarts I would do anything for her. That has not changed. I love her.
Hogwarts was built. We were relaxing in the aftermath of the greatest build of our time, and this one as well I might add. I had agreed to have a drink with Gryffindor, as a favour to her for she thought we'd be better getting on if we were to teach together. I agreed and the git challenged me to a dare and in my drunken state and hate for the man I agreed so as to prove myself greater than he. The dare went ill and so my wife was lost to me for several years. I did not fully understand what had gone wrong until I sobered up. With my wife gone there was nothing to keep me at Hogwarts. I fought ferociously with Gryffindor until I finally threw in the towel and after a vicious duel I left. I closed my chambers, locking the secrets within from Gryffindor's prying eyes. I did not return to Hogwarts until word reached me of my wife returning. I raced back to my home with all haste. She was not as I remembered, obviously older though she had not physically aged. Her eyes were brighter. She was paler, stronger and more confident. She informed me quite seriously that she loved me and would forever and that for that reason she could not stay for long. I was angry and relieved at the same time. She was alive and well but she would leave me so soon after being found. When it came time for her go she gave me a good hex for the dare that went wrong before hugging me and saying I would see her again in the future and it would be in Hogwarts that we would meet again. With that she retrieved a small item from about her neck. I now know it to be an adaptation of a time turned but then I had no idea for they did not exist. I went out to drown my sorrows and was attacked in my drunken state. You will note that I do not drink now, Albus. It is always in my inebriated state that I become an utter fool. A farmer came to my aid and saved them from killing me, but it was too late to save me. My attackers were vampires, and they had contaminated me. In those days vampires hunted freely; they feared not the wands of wizards and as shadows they struck the ones that dared wander in the dark.
Vampires are an ancient people with magic that is far different to a wizard's. One of their most known traits is the ability to transform, most notably into bats or wolves. In actual fact vampires are full metamorphmagi. I have never left Hogwarts since I recovered from that night. I have gone through the education system more times that I count and then returned to teach. Over half the portraits on your wall are some depiction of me. I have become pets to students and even school owls. I never desired to leave in case I should miss her. Tonight she has returned but she hates me because of a mistake I thought myself forgiven. It is worse because I can see how the future will unfold already. She will manage to persuade me to do something I swore I would not and it scares me that I have such a glimpse of the future but one day she will forgive me and then go back to set my past self on its right path.
I am Salazar Slytherin and I am an elite vampire. I have resided in these walls for a thousand years and if you think you will get rid of me you will fail. My wife belongs here, and she is simply a lost witch from a lost time. Anyone who harms her will meet a painful death. My disposition is not far removed from my displayed one of Severus Snape. I assure you I expose my own feelings and emotions less than when I wear my masks."
Dumbledore had not spoken a word. Suddenly he started chuckling, and then he lost control and laughed even louder.
Slytherin frowned and sneered, "You find my story funny?"
"Salazar Slytherin has been serving Voldemort! The man he thinks of as a god is his servant!"
Salazars grimaced. "Voldemort is a sore issue with me. He parades as my heir but he is in fact not. He was sired from the line of my mentor and not me. His blood is not mine but of a mere servant. I am, as my wife pointed out so harshly earlier, a mudblood, and therefore not worthy of his great devotion anyway. Rowena's parents were magical but they died when she was young, leaving her in the care of her uncle who was as suspicious as they come.
Voldemort was a surprise and I enrolled to see what the Hell he was up to. I discovered I could unravel the magic within the Dark Mark. I remove it when I wish not to be found. I serve no one. He is a puppet master but I have cut my strings. He is a fool and a disgrace to his loyal descendants."
"I have seen the heritage of Voldemort. He is right in saying he is descended from the line of Slytherin".
"He is, but my mentor's name was Slytherin. My mother was dead and he did not know who my father was and so he named me with his name. He knew only his surname and so he named me Salazar Slytherin. It was not uncommon in those times to know only one name and I am honoured he gave me two."
"These times are about to be shaken up".
"I will not interfere further with this war. I will become Salazar again and abandon the persona of Severus Snape, and with it goes espionage and tattoos. He may be a megalomaniac, but he is the heir of my first friend and father. I will not end his line."
"The threat of Voldemort must be eradicated. Surely you can appreciate that we need your help."
"You do not need me. I should by all accounts not be here and therefore should not be required to assist you. I am a dead man walking, and always have been. The great and devious Salazar Slytherin did not span many years. Details have been lost in history. I have always been a recluse and will remain so. I am not a hero. I left such impulsive behaviour to Gryffindor and his cronies. Helga was the true heroine. She gave selflessly but did not spout her self-devotion after every good deed. She never refused aid to someone in need but it is not something that is remembered today."
Albus Dumbledore slammed his fist on the table. "You must help! It is your duty to help!"
"I have helped and I have done enough. You have all the tools you need and the opportunities are available. It is not my fault if you are too blind to see them. Now I have fulfilled my moral duty to inform you of who I am, and of my circumstances, I take my leave. I have a wife to find and be hexed by. Goodnight Dumbledore".
"Sever … Salazar. Please, at least say you might lend a hand in the dark days to come".
"I will give aid where I see fit and not where you do. If it is needed I will give, but I think it is time you modern wizards toughened yourself up for the fight ahead. Goodnight".
He let the door close quietly and shook his head slightly. The Headmaster was a fool. He needed to be strong for the school but instead he was pleading for help from a man supposed dead. He was the great warrior of the age; he should be able to defend himself and his students.
He turned to secure himself in his bed for the night.
"And where do you think you are going, Salazar?"
He smiled at Rowena and held out a hand. She took it and leant towards him.
"I am sorry, Salazar. Perhaps we could forgive each other and move on?"
"I have nothing to forgive. It is horrifically one-sided and selfless of you to suggest it. Naturally I accept."
The woman smirked. You have plenty to forgive Sal. I heard everything you said in that office. I have jumped down your throat without understanding. I have known for years that whenever you get yourself into scrapes Godric is involved; I should have known it this time."
Salazar drew her closer to him as they walked.
"Then we are forgiven. Let's get back to eternal insanity." She kissed him gently on the lips before he opened the quarters he had resided in for the past sixteen years and welcomed her home.