Written for: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments) - Arithmancy
Task: Write about someone who fits the arithmetic characteristics of the number seven perfectly.
Prompts used:
(characteristics) serious, scholarly, interested
(object) invisible ink
(word) secrecy
Rowena Ravenclaw was not a fool, though it appeared as though she had been deemed to be by one of her closest friends. Rowena had been monitoring him, ever since he started showing suspicious behavior after the fight he had with Godric.
Salazar didn't always detest the mundane. He was an ambitious and cunning wizard, although with a certain kind of devotion and kindness when they started this school, over 20 years ago. She, Godric, Helga and Salazar had gathered and after discussing the matter of building a wizarding school, they put the funds together and started Hogwarts.
It was a ridiculous name; she and Salazar had agreed on that at the beginning of their teaching days. But Godric and Helga had insisted and since Rowena was fond of her friends, she had convinced Salazar to go along with it. It had been hard to convince him, but in the end, he'd won out to the humor and whenever the naming was brought up, his lips twitched ever so slightly.
Rowena remembered when he was nought but a handsome wizard, with his smooth, wavy black hair groomed to perfection. He always wore tailored robes, the colors he had chosen for his House; green and silver. His grey eyes were as stormy as the clouds over Scotland on a rainy day and they were always twinkling with a wisdom beyond even her comprehension. He charmed the women, but he was not yet married. He enjoyed teaching, particularly Potions and the Dark Arts. The students were all fond of him, but his attitude toward everything changed after that fateful day.
The day his sister was executed was a dark one for Salazar Slytherin, especially as it was by the hands of nonmagical people. The mundane hated anything that had to do with magic and labeled anything unusual as being possessed by Satan and burned it up, even if it were human. Unfortunately, Sienna Slytherin had been caught within all this.
The day started when Salazar and his sister departed from the castle early morning, to go search for potion ingredients they were running low on. At some point, they were separated when Salazar went inside the woods to search for monkshood. In the meantime, Sienna was to search for moonstone powder.
At the village a few meters from Hogwarts, there was an apothecary that sold all kinds of powders and potions. Unfortunately, the village, called Hogsmeade was also open to the mundane, so witches and wizards always travelled and did business shrouded in secrecy. Wizarding shops and even Hogwarts were put under mundane-repelling (or muggle-repelling as some said) charms and only wizards could see and get through.
As the moonstone powder was immediately needed for a potion, Sienna had been in a rush and hadn't noticed a scraggly, mundane man staring at her richly made robes in suspiciousness and envy. What the mundane man didn't have in riches, he more than made up for in cruelty and manipulativeness. So he went over to Sienna, after deducing she was a witch when he saw her wand poking out of her robe pockets, and asked what she wanted. After discovering she wanted moonstone powder, the man, pretending he was a wizard, casually told her he knew of a man who sold moonstone powder at a very low price. So he led Sienna to mundane London, to the square where the witch burnings were held.
The man, in exchange for some gold, traded Sienna in and by the time she'd realized what was going on, it was too late and they'd snapped her wand. Wandless magic couldn't be done when one was in a hurry, and so Sienna was put over the fire pit and burnt as a legitimate witch. Salazar later discovered what had happened when a wizard told him, shrugging that scraggly looking man had taken Sienna somewhere.
He detested the mundane ever since, going out of his way to treat the mundane-born like dirt. No one knew what was going on, at first. But Rowena pulled it out of him one evening, and he made her swear an Unbreakable Vow not to tell anyone about what had happened to Sienna. Everyone thought she was gone on an extended vacation to France.
Salazar continued treating his nonmagical born students like they'd done something to offend him, until he and Godric got into a fight about it, over two weeks ago. Rowena watched over him, at first out of concern. But it slowly grew into suspicion as she found out Salazar was disappearing to a location for hours on end each day, after his daily classes had finished.
Now, Rowena knew she had to confront him.
After finishing grading her papers, Rowena set down her quill and walked over to a piece of parchment sitting on her fireplace mantel innocently. Casting a silent 'Revelio' on the paper, invisible ink slowly unraveled to reveal a map of their school, with the paths Salazar took everyday from and to his classes each day. Rowena followed his paths down the hallway slowly, making sure to hide the map underneath various pieces of fabric from her dress.
She finally reached the end route and was about to start the paths again, when she saw a trapdoor, carefully hidden at the dead end of a hallway. Rowena walked over to it cautiously and after casting the Revelio again, she dismantled a caterwauling charm, two nasty stinging hexes and a deadly curse that could kill upon touch. Finally, she opened the trapdoor and after making sure no other spells were there, she bunched up her skirts and descended down the swirling hole.
When she reached the bottom, a thin layer of grime had gathered on her blue dress and after casting a wandless, silent 'Scourgify', Rowena walked down the small chamber, until she reached a bigger one. Salazar was indeed inside, levitating piles of rocks and carving various statuettes out of them, shaped like snakes.
"So this is whither thee disappear off to everyday." Rowena stated loudly.
Salazar dropped a pile of rocks in shock. He turned to see Rowena, her hair in a curly mass, unlike what it normally was; a stiff bun.
"Rowena. What art thee doing hither?" He asked sharply.
"Thee shouldst not beest so prideful, Salazar. Thy defenses wast awfully weak." She chided, moving in to have a better look of the chamber.
"Leaveth, Rowena. Thou art not welcome hither. Leaveth. I doth not wish to harm thee." Salazar clutched his wand tightly, moving into a defensive stance.
"Has't thee any idea what thee has't putteth Godric, Helga and I through?" Rowena glared at him sharply, caressing the stone head of a snake.
"Godric is a blinking idiot. He doest not understandeth. Leaveth, Rowena. Thou art in a precarious position. Thou art in mine own territory." Salazar growled warningly.
"Salazar, wherefore doth thee avoid us so?" Rowena asked softly.
"This matter is nay import of a mistress. This is a private matter yond is nay business but of mine. If thee stayeth I shall beest forced to hurt thee." Salazar sighed heavily.
"Thou art welcome to tryeth." Rowena invited, whipping her wand out.
"The chamber is weak still, Rowena. 'Twill collapse on us. Force me not to doth this." Salazar pleaded, looking more than the 36 he actually was.
"Salazar, thee has't been disappearing in this hole f'r weeks on end. Nay explanation; thee has toldeth us nothing. I hest answers." Rowena scowled, shooting a light stinging jinx at him.
He blocked it easily with his shield.
"Tis malapert to attack one in their own home territory, Rowena; which is wherefore I am refraining from attacking thee anon. Hogwarts is our home." Salazar replied calmly.
"Yet thee shall not giveth answers to thy brother and sisters in all but blood." Rowena glared angrily.
"I am not restful of the clotpole bunch of mundane people. They hadst mine own sister killed. I did swear I would has't revenge. The time hast cometh f'r those folk to realize their lodging." Salazar growled, not relenting.
"Salazar, their children art of nay fault!" Rowena pleaded.
"They art all the same, just as ungrateful. They understandeth less than their clotpole parents!" Salazar raged.
"They has't magic in their blood! We did swear to accept anyone who can doth magic. Tis not their fault their parents art uneducat'd!" Rowena exclaimed.
"Thee doth not understandeth, Rowena! They hath killed Sienna! They has't all but gotten rid of mine only family!" Salazar was breathing fire.
"Then maketh me understandeth, Salazar! Showeth me what is bothering thee. We can fix it!" Tears were pooling in Rowena's eyes.
"Thee has't nay lodging in this story of murder and torture. Sienna shouldn't hath passed hence. Tis mine own fault and I shall repent. Mine own sister shall not hath died in vain." Salazar looked weary.
"I shall standeth by thee, Salazar. Alloweth me help thee." Rowena's heart was beating fast.
"Nay, I shall not. Forgive thy brother, Rowena." Salazar looked almost apologetic as he sent that bolt of red light straight at Rowena's chest.
She shouldn't have been defeated this easily, but despair had weakened her and the tears falling down her pale cheeks were making haloes of light dance all around her. The last thing she saw before everything went black was Salazar's tear filled eyes, his solemn look and the twinkle ... the bright and shining twinkle missing from his eyes.
That night, Rowena lost a brother.