Snake Charmer, chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, which is probably a good thing seeing what I do to them... Anyway, the point I'm making is don't sue.
Author's Note: Alright, I'm incredibly nervous. I haven't really ever posted anything like this up, and I for some unknowable reason, decided to do so without a Beta. T_T Yeah, I know, but I don't think there are too many mistakes. This has a total of tweleve chapters, as far as I can plan ahead, and I think there's a bit of smut in every chapter except the first and last (and even then I'd still rate it M). This story contains a LOT of slash male/male/male threeway sex, so be warned. Basically I decided to get as much slash out of me as possible so when I write anymore slash I won't be so nervous. Hopefully I do it right.
Summary: Severus finds a new way into the Chamber of Secrets, where he unwittingly revives Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor. Now he's stuck watching over the two powerful wizards as they get used to life in the present. AU sorta, Set post-books, but ignoring HBP & DH. Warning: Slash, Threesome, Salazar/Godric/Severus, mentions non-con & rape.
Chapter One; The Revival
Severus Snape walked briskly through the halls, robes billowing impressively. If anyone had been around to see him they would probably think that he had someplace very important to be and would have scurried to get out of his path... as it was though, Severus wasn't going anywhere important at all, and there was no one in the halls to scurry away from him. It was the middle of the summer holidays for the students of Hogwarts, meaning that they had all long since hitched the train home to their families. Severus himself would usually have been back on Spinner's End, attempting to keep his sainity there for three months until he could return. This year was different, however, in that the Dark Lord was now dead for good and he was no longer a spy. That gave him no reason to leave the santity of Hogwarts.
Of course, that also didn't give him a reason to stay. Professors, of course, didn't need a reason to stay over the holidays (just look at Sybil who literally lives up there in her tower), but when asked Severus felt that he had to give some sort of credible explaination. So far it had been his work, and how it was much easier doing it here than at his own home. This was the perfect excuse... for the first two and a half weeks. The only problem was, it was true, and work that he could stretch out for 3 months while on Spinner's End was completed and double checked by the end of the third week. That left him with two months' time to kill, while avoiding Albus (who tended to pop in at the most inconvienient times, wards be damned) and trying to look like he actually had something to do.
And so, that was how Severus found himself striding through the dungeon corridors, looking flustered in a way that he would never let anyone actually witness. The dungeons were vast, far larger than the rest of the school, and far deeper down than anyone would have guessed. He had a feeling that he knew more about the winding halls underneath the school than anyone else alive, but he also knew that there was much more to them than what the Potions Master had discovered on his own. He had never possessed the time or the curiousity to explore them properly, after all, and most of what he knew was due to to his tendency to hide down here in his youth, whenever he felt threatened.
He stopped when he reached the blank and slightly damp wall that lead to the Slytherin common room. Severus found that when he wasn't paying attention he would wind up here automatically, and he had a feeling that most of the dungeon corridors did that on purpous, whether or not they geographically should lead here or not. It was very useful, since whenever one was lost or in a daze they would automatically end up where it was safe - well, at least Slytherins did. He couldn't count how many times he'd found stray Hufflepuffs lost and terrified in a remote corner of the dungeons.
Severus looked at the wall for a few moments, deciding whether or not he should go inside, when a small movement caught his eye. He turned quickly, pulling out his wand in one smooth motion, only to see a detailed snake-engraving slithering lazily along the wall. All he could do was stare at it for a while, he could tell by the intricaties that it wasn't a show of student-vandalism, but at the same time he'd never seen the engraving before. The snake wasn't small either, it was about 8 feet long, rounding down, and it's head was larger than his fist. It gazed at him from the wall, it's eyes a sharp silver, and then it slithered off quickly rounding the stone corners like nothing. If it could navigate the entire dungeons like that, it was no wonder he hadn't seen it, Severus thought, before lighting his wand and following after the large serpent.
He spent the next few minutes walking after the snake, which he would just barely spot before it slithered off again. Severus at first thought the snake might be leading him somewhere, but more and more he was beginning to think it was just a wild-goose chase. After losing sight of it for a while, Severus finally had enough and prepared to turn back (and test his theory about the corridors leading to the Slytherin common room when you were lost) when he suddenly spotted the snake again and wondered how on Earth he could have missed it. Heaped in large coil, dead center on dark stone wall, lay the snake. Had it been a real snake it would have bit him, Severus thought a bit lamely. The snake had it's head raised up about three feet above it's coils, making it nearly eye-level with him from its postition in the wall. It was staring at him intently with large, silver eyes, and Severus had the oddest feeling that the engraving was sizing him up.
The sound of puntuated hissing reached his ears and Severus realized that the serpent was speaking in Parseltongue. It was a language Severus couldn't know, but could recognize easily. He'd heard the Dark Lord and Potter speak it enough to know. Still the hissed sylablles made him shiver and he took an involuntary step back. It took him a while to realize that the snake was evidentally waiting for a response. Severus was about to leave, since there was nothing he could say to the engraving that it would understand and vice versa, however, something made him stay. He had the urge to reach out to the snake, and run his fingers over the rocky coils. He tried shaking that thought away, but it persisted until finally Severus decided to touch his wand to the engraving. This seemed to be the wrong thing to do as the serpent hissed angrily at him and showed its impressively large fangs. He forgot for a moment that an engraving, like a portrait, couldn't actually hurt him, and stepped back.
The serpent seemed to regard him again, pointedly looking at his wand. He took the hint and put his wand away, and the snake went back to looking at him. He got the urge to touch the serpent once again, and this time, for lack of any other options, he decided to try. His fingers traced the inside of the snake engraving which was cool to the touch, and wound there way around the stone coils. The snake shivered, the stone wall shuddering under Severus' fingertips, and suddenly he realized that the entire area was shimmering. He quickly removed his hand, but it was too late and the serpent's silver eyes were glowing and the dungeon floor was sucking him in.
When he opened his eyes, which he didn't even remember closing, he was laying in his back somewhere he'd never been before. He couldn't even say if this was Hogwarts, though he was fairly certain that nothing could have spirited him passed the wards. He sat up slowly and looked around. There was no indication of any sort of passage that could have lead him here from the dungeons, and there was no sign of the snake. Cursing silently to himself as he stood, he tried to figure out where he could be. The room was large, with stone walls and green lighting that reminded him of the Slytherin common room. Similarities stopped there, unfortunately, as the room was also covered in ancient runes and symbols he didn't know the meaning of. One motif he found was protection, the various symbols for it he remembered from his studies were engraved and painted all around this chamber, and, faded as they were, he could still make them out.
Glowing, light green crystals lay embedded in the stone floor, circling what looked to be a large, circular box, made of marble, with a heavy circular lid covering it. It was about knee-high and had the most runes engraved on it, each one barely taking up a square centimeter on its own, but all together they covered every inch of the marble's surface. Seeing nothing else in the room, Severus cautiously approched the structure, pulling his wand out as he did so. He paused at the crystals, but they didn't seem to be there to ward off intruders. He picked one up, examining it with his wand, but as soon as one crystal left the circle, they all flickered and the light within them went out. He started a bit at that, and quickly made to replace the crystal, when there was suddenly an odd noise. It sounded like a sigh, but following it was a wave of magic so powerful that it sent jolts throughout his body.
Turning to see where that wave of energy had come from, Severus' eyes widened as he saw the space between the bottom and the top portions of the white marble box begin to emit a bright golden glow. Stepping back away from the structure, he had just managed to get a few steps out of the former crystal barrier when the lid was suddenly and uncerimoniously thrown off. The heavy marble hit the ground with such force that Severus could feel the stone floor tremble. Tendrils of sweet-smelling silver smoke flooded out of the opening to the box.
The smoke got into his lungs, stinging slightly and he coughed until eventually the smoke settled on the floor like fog. Once he was sure enough oxygen was getting to his lungs, Severus looked back to where the smoke originated from, only to realize he currently had a wand trained on him. Reacting insinctively, Severus lifted his own wand to try to disarm his opponent, but found his wand pulled from his own tight grasp before he even managed to aim it. He cursed in his mind and backed up, it had been years since someone had disarmed him, expecially with a nonverbal spell. Finally, with options down to none, Severus actually looked to see who his opponent was.
Standing with one foot in the box and one foot on the edge stood a man that looked like he came out of a dream. He was soaked from head to toe, the liquid darkening his long, wavy hair, which was such a deep blood red that it could make the Weasley family look blonde by comparison. The man's skin was a sun-kissed tan and his body was sculpted like a Greek god's, something Severus could judge very clearly seeing as the soaking wet man was also completely naked. A light voice broke him out of his daze, once he realized that the red-haired man was talking to him, and his eyes shot up quickly, embarrassed not only by the fact that he'd been so distracted that he missed the man's words, but also because of were his eyes had ended up.
Concentrating on the man's wand and the warm-honey coloured eyes that were currenly boring into him with red-hot fury, and stook a step back while showing his hand, hoping to calm the man down and find out who he was. The red-head stepped completely out of the box, which from the sloshing sound was filled with whatever liquid was currently dripping down the man, his wand was still pointed directly at Severus. Golden eyes looking at him strangely, the man spoke again, his words slurred slightly with an ancient Scottish accent. "I asked who you are." The man said very slowly and deliberately, before cocking his head to the side suddenly. To Severus it looked like he was considering something, and the next moment he found out what it was. "Don' you speak English?"
Severus was just about to answer when there was another sloshing sound from the 'pool' and another man slowly sat up, grasping at the marble edges to brace himself. "It could be possible that he merely doesn't speak your English, you Celt." A slightly lighter, but much more sophisticated voice sounded from the man in the pool, making the red-head turn back to frown slightly. Severus couldn't see the man too clearly, since he was still within the marble, but from what he could see, this man was smaller and paler than the first one, with straight, maple-colored hair that fell to the bottom of his neck and obscured his face.
"Ah spoke reit Anglish 'en, didne ah?" The red-head snapped back, his speech deteriorating quickly, proving that he had indeed tried to pronounce himself better. "'S nae mah fault eff he cannae undarstan', noo is it?"
"I am sorry, but I do not speak Celtic." The other man said mockingly, earning a small growl from the red-head. Severus considered finding away to escape while they were bickering, but remembered not finding any escape routes when looking around, and before he had the chance to look again the bright green eyes of the second man snapped to him. They were a very special kind of green, that was nearly blue and nearly brown at the same time. Like the color of the bottom of the lake when looking up to the sun. Those eyes regarded him silently, until the red-head quickly moved into Severus' line of sight. Looking up, those honey-eyes were looking at him with rage and Severus could hear a deep growling sound coming from him. "Las' time... do -" The red-haired man seemed to be steadying himself to deliver his question in understandable English, but Severus already knew the question, and knew better than to have the man with his wand ask him again.
"Yes, I speak English." Severus said clearly, breaking off the red-head's words, "My name is Severus Snape, and I am a professor here, at Hogwarts. Now who are you?"
This seemed to surprised the red-haired man who lowered his wand slightly. Golden eyes looked more questioning than angry. The green-eyed man looked out from around tanned legs, but the red-head gently pushed him back behind him. The brown-haired man just gave an exasparated sigh and sunk back into the clear liquid where, Severus was sure, he was just as naked as the other.
"Before yer question," The red-head said slowly, "Tell me: whot age is thes?"
"What?" He asked, not knowing what the other meant - apparently by the chuckle coming from the man in the pool and the gruff re-attempt to speak clearly from the read head, he was misunderstood. They thought he could't understand him because of his accent.
"No, you misunderstand. Are you asking for the year?" Severus asked slowly and, once getting confirmation from the red-head, replied, "It's the year 1999."
A look of shock sprung up on the man's face and he turned very quickly to the man in the pool, speaking in rushed Gaelic. The man was apparently lying before about not knowing Celtic, since he was able to speak it very calmly and without much hesitation. Finally after the red haired man had calmed down, and lowered his wand, the paler man in the pool began to speak in his refined English yet again. "Now calm yourself. It is not unusual for the spell to last this long, considering its source." The man said calmly, "You were not supposed to be in here."
"Whot? Thought ay woold nae be able te find yah?" The red-head grinned cheekily, before saying very slowly and seriously, "Ay woold never le' you lye 'ere all alone like tha'."
Severus usually didn't mind being ignored when he had no idea of the situation, but there was a strange suspicion in the back of his mind and he wanted his question answered. Before he could say anything, however, the dark-haired man in the pool began speaking Parseltongue, causing a stone wall (which he could see now was made up of tiny stone serpents) to slither away, revealing an even larger part of the chamber. If the Parseltongue make his little suspicion twinge, what he saw there made it jump. Laid out along the stone ground was the remaints of a slain basilisk. Severus realized immediately where he must be and couldn't believe he hadn't realized; the Chamber of Secrets.
Before he could fully get his head around that, he noticed that the two men were arguing again. The red-head feverently denying something, while this time the green-eyed man looked furious. The green-eyed man attempted to get up and go to the snake's corpse, but the larger man stopped him easily.
Serious honey-coloured eyes turned to him again. "Did ye kill 'at snake?"
"No." He replied quickly, and was very glad when he was believed. The red-head whispered something to the brown-haired man in his grasp that seemed to calm him, and then gently set him down on the edge of the marble pool. Making sure his compainion was alright, the red-head turned his gaze back to Severus. "Severus Snape." He said strongly, making Severus jump a bit, "Professor Severus Snape," the red-head amended himself after a beat, "My name is Sir Godric Artair Labhrainn Gryffindor, and thes is Lord Salazar Liveo Malvitus Slytherin. One thousand, one hundred and thirty-six years ago we built thes school. We have need to speak with thes school's current master."
For a moment all Severus could think about was that the red-head had managed to say most of that entire speech in clear English. The full meaning of what he was saying hit him just a second later. Oh Merlin.
To Be Continued...
A/N: Alright so what do you think? Particularly about my Godric and Salazar, since there characters are a bit differently played. I would really love to get some feedback. Also, there will be more obvious slash in the next chapters.