A/N This came to me one night a few weeks ago and I've been trying to perfect it in my head for ages. Any comments or reviews to make this fic more realistic would help out tremendously. And so, without further ado. . .
The white cliffs of Dover glowed almost supernaturally as they were lit up by lightning. The stormy waters of the English Channel lapped against them, but to no avail. Over the cliffs loomed the gray outline of the monstrous Ravenclaw Castle. The rain poured down in torrents as a black and green litter drove up to the drawbridge of Ravenclaw Castle.
"Oi! Who goes there?" called the drawbridge guard from his parapet.
"Salazar Slytherin!" called the footman of the litter. "Lord Ravenclaw is expecting him!"
"Right. Lower the drawbridge!" the guard cried.
The young man in the water of the moat heard the creaking of the drawbridge and frantically swam under where it would come down. He couldn't afford to be seen. He had waited too long for his escape. He had planned too meticulously for a visitor to ruin it all. He thought of beautiful Rowena and had a longing to go back into the castle with a falsehood about his falling into the moat while on his way to feed the horses. He swallowed his young love and kept going clinging to the slippery gray rock under the drawbridge as he heard the thunder of a caravan of many horses overhead.
Without warning, his hands slid off of the rock, and he went splashing under the water, trying to stay afloat. He dared not cry out, but fear for his own life increased as water started to fill his lungs. "O, mighty God!" he thought frantically. "Spare me! Spare me! I must escape from this tyranny, I must! Because of my peculiar gift, I am a prisoner in the House of my love! For Thy Son's sake, spare me, Lord! Spare me that I may strike back!"
With that, he began to float. At first he was on top of the water, and then he was above the water and then moving over the land until he was dropped safely ten feet from the moat. Seeing his chance, he began to run blindly into the rain. A black-and-green-liveried soldier stopped him. "Trying to leave the House of thine Master? Let's see what Lord Ravenclaw thinks about this." And he was dragged back into the accurséd castle of Ravenclaw.
He struggled with all of his might as he was dragged back into the castle, but it was to no avail.
"Young Slytherin! Welcome, welcome!" Lord Ravenclaw cried as he came majestically down the stairs into the dining room, his blue robes billowing behind him. Lord Ravenclaw, an ambitious and clever man, often used his intellect to further his own causes. He knew that his daughter Rowena was probably the fairest girl in all of England, and even the King had looked upon her with a fond eye, and he planned to make a good sum of money off of her marriage. The Slytherin family was the second richest family in England (second, of course, to the Royal Family) and they also happened to share the gift of the Ravenclaws. Ravenclaw himself didn't use the name of the Gift that he possessed, but he knew it meant good fortune for him if he used it wisely. He feared the Gift, and only used it when it seemed only good(for him) could come out of it.
"I hope the rain has not frozen thy bones too much!" the jovial-acting Ravenclaw roared boisterously as he approached Young Lord Slytherin.
"Ah," said Salazar, a slim, pale young man, "it has but chilled me a little. Thank thee for welcoming me to thy fine home." He gestured around him "Unfortunately I have some bad news for thee. One of my footmen caught one of thine own servant boys running away."
"Well, it's not bad news if he was caught! Have him brought in. Angus, bring some brandy to warm our distinguished guest! And while thou be doing my bidding, bring in the footman and the servant boy." Then, turning to his guest, "Sit down, please, Lord Slytherin."
Angus, a dirty-looking man with a blue livery and a scraggly beard, leered at Ravenclaw, but bowed out and did what he said.
"Salazar, if thou wouldst," Slytherin said amiably, a hint of oil in his voice.
There was no denying that Salazar was quite handsome. With long, black, curly, glossy locks that framed his pale face and brought out his black eyes, there was no mistaking it. Ravenclaw thought him to be quite a promising match for his young Rowena. Hopefully, she wouldn't fight this marriage. Rowena carried the gift quite well. If agitated, she couldn't be controlled.
The footman came in at long last with the servant boy dragged in behind him by two more footmen. This young man dressed in Ravenclaw's blue livery and it clung to his body quite obscenely. His auburn hair hung in sopping wet strings about his handsome face. His light blue eyes blazed with anger as he tried unsuccessfully to escape the footmen.
Ravenclaw cackled maliciously at this sight. "Ah, 'tis our young master Gryffindor, trying once again to escape our castle!" Once Gryffindor saw Ravenclaw, he bowed his head so as not to look into his face. Gryffindor secretly felt that he would have no trouble ripping Lord Ravenclaw into pieces if he looked into that cruel, laughing face. And Gryffindor was a civilized man; he didn't want to kill Ravenclaw. He wanted to find some other way around the situation.
"Give the boy thirty lashes!" Ravenclaw commanded. "Make it tomorrow morning, in front of all of the other servants. He needs to learn his lesson, and they need to learn from his shame." Ravenclaw leered unpleasantly at Gryffindor as he was drug away to the dungeons. "That stupid brat is always trying to escape from here," Ravenclaw laughed. "He feels that he's too good to work in my stable. Well, those lashes'll show him his place." He chuckled quite heartily at this. Gryffindor had the Gift as well, but somehow was able to show much more restraint over it. Ravenclaw mistook this as Gryffindor being weak. He thought he'd break that boy, some day. That day would be a glorious one indeed in the House of Ravenclaw.
"I suppose thou wouldst like to get down to business," Salazar said abruptly.
"Yes, might as well," Ravenclaw agreed. "I thought thou might be a suitable husband for our daughter. We would reign over the same lands. What's mine would be thine, and visa versa. Upon my death, thou wouldst inherit all that is mine. I have no sons, and I need an heir, not an heiress."
"Is the girl comely?" Slytherin asked.
"Yes, quite. Here, I have a miniature of her." Ravenclaw pulled a gilt-framed miniature out of his doublet. Pictured in it was a girl of about fifteen, with pink cheeks,grey eyes and ebony-coloured hair. Although she smiled, her eyes showed resentment at being forced to smile.
"She looks a bit troublesome," Slytherin commented.
"Aye, but she's worth the trouble, my Lord," Ravenclaw replied, now adopting a greasy tone and still trying to sound jovial.
"Might I have an interview with her?" Slytherin asked.
"Certainly, my Lord. Let us send a message to have her meet thee in mine library. This way." And the two men left the room, trying to conceal their hate for one another.