Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything in it.

General Warnings: tragedy, GEN, one-shot (with new bonus chapter up!), cutting, character death

Summary: Salazar cuts, and one time he goes too far.

Author's Notes: I've been reading a lot of Salazar Slytherin fanfics lately, and there was this one story where Salazar cut, but the author never really went into it. So, I thought, "What would make him cut? What if the other founders found out?" Voila! This was born.

And Then There Were Three

It was stupid, he knew. Stupid, dangerous, foolish, and utterly Gryffindor ― except Godric would never be doing something like this ― but he couldn't seem to get himself to stop. It was like an addiction, his coping mechanism, but he knew it was a sign of weakness (something he strived so hard to rid himself of), and the others would be upset if they ever found out ― not that he ever planned to let them ― and so he had tried to stop. He had succeeded for a while, only doing it when things became unbearable, and he had all but stopped when they had built Hogwarts and solidified their bond but-

But now, after seeing the terror on Helga's face, the shock in Rowena's eyes, and the repulsion practically written across Godric's forehead ― because being a Parselmouth had to be a sign of a Dark wizard, never mind that it was just a language, a genetically inherited trait and he could never have not had it, even if his magic had been inclined towards the light ― he couldn't stop himself.

Stumbling into his rooms, he took his customary dagger and locked himself in the bathroom, where it would be all too easy to wash away the evidence of his weakness.

He watched the line of blood ooze from his arm impassively, the sting temporarily soothing the ache, the hurtpainsorrowbetrayal in his heart, before etching yet another line amongst the multitude of scars already crisscrossing his pale skin.

Another cut and another, and before long, rivulets of blood had snaked their way down his arms and stained his robes a darker shade of black. He really should have taken them off, but he had been too hurt to think rationally at the beginning, all he had wanted was to stop thinking, stop feeling. He never should have allowed them to get so close to him, for him to care for them; hadn't he learned anything from his father's betrayal? To love is to be hurt; he knew that, and yet he had so stupidly done exactly that...

He was growing rather light headed from the blood loss, and he knew he should stop. He hadn't gone this far since that horrible day his father had murdered his mother (and tried to do the same to him) ― just because they were different, had magic. His eyes drifted to the cupboard, holding the bandages and other medical supplies that he had, and back to his arm. The knife hovered above his upturned wrist, and, he wondered, just for a second, if he should just make that last cut, put himself out of his misery, because really, what did he have to live for, now that his friends, the people he cared for more than anything in the world, were disgusted by him?

"Sal?" A crash. "Sal, are you here? I'm really sorry, you just took us by surprise-" The sound of Godric's voice babbled from just outside the bathroom door. He must have forgotten to set his wards in his haste, and so Godric had probably managed to break the door, from the sound of the crash; he had always been rather brutish-

"Sal?" Salazar looked up to see Godric's horrified face, but couldn't quite find the energy to care anymore, his glassy green gaze drifting back to the blood still oozing from his arm. "Oh god, you're bleeding!"

'An astute observation, Godric,' Salazar wanted to say. 'I am once again astounded by your eye for detail.' But his mouth did not seem to want to move.

"-you do this to yourself? Why-" Godric had rushed to his side and was attempting to stop the blood. He had never been one for healing though ― that had always been Helga's area of expertise, though both Salazar and Rowena knew some spells (or in Salazar's case, potions) as well ― so his work was shoddy at best. Salazar watched on in a detached, morbidly-interested manner that he knew, in some remote corner of his brain, was not a good sign for his future wellbeing.

His vision was beginning to blur, spots blotting out the fiery red mane of Godric as he tried desperately to help. Salazar knew he should get up, get a bandage and a potion to stop the blood, but he was really didn't feel like moving. And he was tired, so tired of facing rejection after rejection, betrayal after betrayal, so much pain and loss because no one could ever seem to just accept him the way he was. The others had apologized, accepted now, but if they had reacted that way to just him being a Parselmouth, how would they react to his really being a Dark Wizard? To his basilisk familiar?

He didn't want to know. He didn't want to face that. He wasn't afraid of nothingness, of the unknown. Death couldn't be so bad. Perhaps death could heal the ever-widening hole in what was left of his heart.

He dimly registered the sound of footsteps, and the gasps of "Salazar!" and "Sali!" from Rowena and Helga respectively, before Godric's calloused hands were replaced by the hard, work-worn fingers of Helga. A cold cold feeling had begun to creep through his veins. The last thing he remembered their terrified cries and the soft, slim hands of Rowena catching him as his world began to tilt sideways. And then there was nothing.

Notes: This can have a couple of endings actually. It depends on what you readers want. I can extend this to a full fanfiction (I've been reading reincarnated-as-Harry fanfictions), or I can have a happy ending (it'll turn into a two shot then), or I can just end it here. I can also keep it a tragedy, and just add an angst-filled bonus chapter of the other Founders afterwards. I'd prefer not to extend it into a full fanfic though because I'm already working on a separate Salazar-reincarnated-as-Harry fanfic (though I don't know if I will publish it). For now though, I will mark this as complete and leave the title as it is.

Please review!