"Am I the only one who remembers what happened to Gwynneth Caddell? I will not allow any more muggleborns to put themselves at risk to come to this school. It is too risky, both for us and for them."

Gwynneth Caddell had been a first year student sorted into his house. She had been an utterly brilliant witch, especially in potions. Although she was only in first year, Salazar thought it was possible that she could brew fifth year potions. But over Christmas, she had returned home. She had shown her father what she could do, and her father grew scared of her. When she was asleep, he had taken a knife and killed his daughter. Salazar was devastated at the death of the bright witch.

"While what happened to Miss Caddell was a tragedy, I believe it was a single occurrence. Muggleborns should continue to be allowed a magical education."

"Gwynneth's magical education killed her!" He spat. His snake, Sylvanna, hissed in agreement. Salazar paused. "I will not be a part of the death of any more children, Godric," Salazar ground out. He paused before impulsively saying his next sentence. It was out of his character to be so reckless, but he would not be the cause of the death of any more children.

He knew firsthand how ruthless muggles could be when it was discovered one was magical. Salazar closed his eyes as he remembered his parents and sister. He had been nine years old, and had only barely managed to escape being burned at the stake with his life. The rest of his family hadn't been so lucky. And now, partly because of him, another family had been ripped apart. "I quit."

"Salazar-" Rowena protested, and a breeze whipped at her hair before the Air Mage calmed it. Each of the founders had studied an elemental magic and had reached full mage level in it. Rowena had studied Air. Helga was an Earth Mage, and Godric had devoted himself to the flames. Salazar was a Water Mage. Rowena usually kept her powers under tight control; it was extremely unusual for her to show any emotion at all. But the extreme surprise had caused her to momentarily lose control.

"But you cannot-" Godric started, and the fire in the fireplace roared as the Mage was surprised. Godric was the opposite of Rowena. He was extremely hot tempered, and never had a problem telling a person exactly what he thought of them. Salazar winced, remembering the duels that Godric had been in over his blunt comments. There hadn't been that many, but there had been enough that it was a running joke among Salazar, Helga, and Rowena.

Helga was staring at him with a shocked expression on her face. "Salazar, are you sure?" Nothing happened with her element. Earth was the least emotionally driven of the elements, followed by air. Then water. Fire was extremely emotion driven.

"â€ĶI am."

"Then this is where we part," sighed Godric. "Farewell, Salazar."

"Write to us," said Rowena, and the other two murmured their agreement.

"You must visit," said Helga. It wasn't a request. Some people thought of Helga as the weak one, but that was not true. He had once heard that badgers went straight for a person's manhood. Knowing Helga's temper - oh, yes, she was calm, but God help you if you got on her bad side - he wouldn't be suprised.

"Salazar!" Godric shouted as the parselmouth turned. The Fire Mage was fingering his sword and Salazar could see his wand strapped to his forearm, allowing him to cast even while using a sword. Both Salazar and Godric had hand and a half swords, allowing them to fight with either one or two hands."One last duel? For old times sake?"

"For old times sake," agreed Salazar, and they retreated to one side of the room. Helga and Rowena exchanged a glance before throwing up a protective wall, ensuring that no spells would hit either of them.

Salazar held his sword in his right hand and his wand in his left. Although Godric's wand placement allowed him more strength when attacking with the sword, it also made his spells less accurate. Salazar, on the other hand, had compromised some of his sword's strength (it was a hand and a half sword, he could fight with either one hand or two) to take full advantage of his being ambidextrious.

The two founders quickly put a spell on their swords that would temporarily dull them. They would not kill, but they would leave bruises. Godric started with a standard ox stance. Salazar smirked as Rowena called the start. Godric immediately brought his sword into an attack, which Salazar did not try to block with his sword. He would be able to block if he switched to two hands, but he did not want to lose the greater control of his wand. Salazar quickly conjured a shield charm, which broke apart on impact with Godric's sword.

Salazar used the moment that Godric was distracted to send a stunner Godric's way. Godric sidestepped and went on the offensive again. This time Salazar put more power behind the shield charm, and Godric staggered slightly backwards. "Immobilus!" shouted Salazar as ropes wrapped around his friend. Godric fell onto the floor, and his sword clattered to the ground. Godric held his wand arm out to defend himself, and with his other hand started burning through the ropes. He rolled out of the way of another stunner and got up, summoning his sword.

Salazar cursed. How had Godric managed to escape that? Salazar ducked low, using his wand to conjure a shield of water above his head, jabbing his sword to Godric's stomach. The Fire Mage easily parried, and brought his sword up to point at the parselmouth's throat as Salazar pointed his wand at Godric's.

"I believe that is a tie," commented Rowena. "Salazar, you are always welcome here. And here," she thrust a small silver armband at him, that perfectly fit around his forearm. On one side was carved his name, and on the opposite side of the band were carved three sets of initials. HH, GG, and RR. The initials of his friends were all glowing blue. She then put a bronze version of one (with her name, and the initials of the other three) on her arm while passing a gold one to Godric and a black one to Helga. "If our initials are glowing blue, we're healthy. Yellow, we're injured. Green, the armband has been separated from our arm. Red, and we're dead. It should be glowing at all times."

He smiled at her. "Thank you." He turned to leave the room after shaking all their hands. Then he paused. "I will make sure to visit. You can expect me around Easter."

"We'll hold you to that, Salazar," said Godric, clapping his friend on the back. "Godspeed."

"Godspeed," he replied, before slowly walking out of the room

Salazar made a short detour to his rooms to collect his belongings. He gathered his things and put them in a sack that had been magically enlarged on the inside. He paused before adding the paintings of his three friends to the bag.

The rain was pouring hard as he opened the doors of the great hall. As a Water Mage, Salazar did not mind the rain. However, the biting cold caused him to mutter a warming charm. Thunder flashed and Salazar saw lightning strike the Astronomy Tower, but he didn't see the lightning coming at him quick enough.

The lightning combined with his warming charm and his elemental magic – triggered by the rain - produced a powerful explosion that knocked him off his feet and he landed with a thud, his head slamming into the ground. He realized that the rain had stopped, but he didn't have time to realize much else before he blacked out.

"Godric! Rowena!" Helga ran into the room, out of breath, thrusting her arm out. There were two sets of initials glowing blue on the black armband. To the left, RR and to the right, GG. But the SS in the middle wasn't glowing at all.

All three of them would search for him. None of them would be able to find a trace of their friend and colleague. During the summer, two of them took turns searching all of Great Britain for a clue of where he might have been, while the other stayed behind. They switched each year, and each year some of the hope that he would be found would disappear.

But that hope never completely vanished. The portrait hung in each of their quarters remained still and unmoving. Salazar, somewhere, was still alive. None of their messages were finding him, but he was not dead.

Helga was the first to die. She died, peacefully, in her sleep. The next day, Rowena and Godric looked at their armbands to find one blank initial – SS – and one red initials. HH. They slowly looked up at the portrait of the Earth Mage in their room. She smiled back at them. First at Rowena, as she was the first to wake up. Rowena looked at the portrait of her friend and the icy lady started to cry.

An hour later, in another tower of the castle, Godric fell down on his knees in shock. It had always been the four of them. Godric, Rowena, Salazar, and Helga. Even after Salazar disappeared, there was still some hope that he would be found, and that it would be the four of them again. Now Helga was dead, and four was three. They still refused to believe that they would never see Salazar again.

Godric was the next to pass on. The Fire Mage had been cursed during the summer, and it was slowly killing him. None of the students had suspected until he collapsed in the middle of teaching them. Rowena held his hand while he looked at two portraits and his breathing slowed. Helga's portrait let out a single tear as Godric fixed his gaze on the unmoving portrait of his best friend. Rowena held her friend's hands as the life slipped out of them. She watched as his eyes glazed over, and felt as his hands grew cold. However, she didn't really register his death until his portrait spoke her name.

Rowena was alone. Try as she might to forget that fact, Salazar was missing, and Godric and Helga were dead. She devoted herself to the school, but every night she thought about Salazar. He represented a riddle, one that she had been unable to solve. But more than that, he was her friend, and she was alone. She died two years later, thinking about two people: her daughter, Helena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.

Albus Dumbledore opened the doors to the Great Hall, sighing as the doors slowly closed. He had no idea how the bludger had targeted Harry, but he hoped a walk around the lake would help him figure it out. Lockhart hadn't helped matters either, and Albus sighed again. The wizard had proved to be completely incompetent, and instead of healing the break, had vanished the bones in Harry's arm. The poor boy was now recovering in the hospital wing. He seemed to spend way too much time in there.

He really should never have hired Lockhart, but what choice did he have? Besides Severus, Gilderoy Lockhart had been the only applicant. And he could not afford to lose Severus, so he had to give the position to Lockhart. Although he had been sorely tempted to take the position himself, but the other headmasters had convinced him that with his duties as Chief Warlock, Head of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Headmaster, that he had enough on his plate already. Albus was beginning to regret not teaching Defense himself. Or maybe he should have accepted the offer of Minister after defeating Grindlewald and avoided this whole mess in the first place.

He stopped when he saw the body of an unfamiliar man sprawled next to the lake. He had medieval-style dark green robes with silver trimmings, and had a sword with a snake carved on the emerald- inlaid hilt. A silver armband was wrapped around his forearm, but Albus could not make it out. The man had shoulder-length straight black hair, and he was a good six feet tall. On his right wrist was tattooed a rune: Laguz, the rune for water. Albus froze. He had read once that Mages had the rune for their discipline tattooed on their right wrist. Was this man a Water Mage?

Running over, he determined that the man was alive, but unconscious from a knock to the head. The man was also an extremely powerful wizard, one that surpassed even Albus in power. He would figure out who the man was later, but for now he brought him to the Hospital Wing.