Harry Potter and the Travel through Time
Chapter 1. Salazar
A handsome young man with his jet-black locks tied back by a silver ribbon and an aristocratic, powerful air was striding down stone halls lit by torchlight, hissing to a black and cream viper on his arm. The hissed conversation abruptly stopped when a light emerald glow appeared in front of them out of nowhere. That is… my Family Magick!
The (literal) ball of bright green energy faded to reveal an infant perhaps one winter old. He knelt beside the dazed child who was now starting to look around in confusion, but all words died in his throat when the little one's eyes connected with his own. His breath hitched; it could NOT be possible! How can this be? I must speak with Meredith at once!
The wizard moved to pick the babe up, when a painfully young and innocent voice said: "Mummy?"
He stared, then Occluded in order to organize his thoughts. The ravenette let out a hiss that the snake immediately obeyed. She slithered down his arm and away, back in the direction they had come from. He locked eyes with the little one again.
A sturdy young man with a mane of ginger hair, a strawberry blonde young woman with a motherly air, a regal young woman with long tresses of midnight black hair, another two young men, and a brunette young woman carrying a bow and an arrow-filled quiver on her back were running towards their kneeling friend. The female archer abruptly stopped, mouth falling open at seeing her husband with a mere babe. Her friends exclaimed in surprise at their sudden stop.
"Sal?" she quietly inquired, forcing the horrible thoughts that arose at the sight of the child to the furthest recess of her mind.
He snapped out of shock, wrapping his arms around the little one protectively and gracefully rising to his feet. "Meredith, I… my son…"
Pandemonium erupted. Everyone talked over themselves until the snake slid up her Master's leg and complained about the noise. The babe hissing back silenced the agitated witches and wizards.
"Salazar?" the male redhead broke the silence, cyan eyes filled with trust.
Sal sighed; if his hands weren't full holding an infant, no doubt he would be pinching his nose. "I looked into his mind. My daughter sent him here."
"Your daughter?!" half the group exclaimed, nearly gaping.
He rolled his bright green eyes. "Yes, my daughter – and no, Godric, the babe in my arms is not female."
The bushy-haired man frowned, scratching his forehead in confusion. "You are making no sense, Salazar."
His best friend looked at Meredith. "It is what it is. My love, do you have faith in me?"
She did not answer at first, sky blue eyes staring into his. A slow nod. Her hidden doubts vanished at the look of absolute devotion that bloomed on Salazar's face. They linked arms and the group dispersed as he walked Meredith towards their quarters, the others leaving them be in favour of preparing for the arrival of the students tomorrow.
Once home, Salazar hissed at a slab of stone in one wall mostly covered by a silver-trimmed green curtain arranged in a U-arc. He let his wife enter first, holding her hand like a perfect gentleman.
They walked down a winding path of stairs, coming out of the hidden passage into a cavern holed by rough passages. Soon the couple reached a wall with two entwined serpents were carved on its middle. Their eyes were set with great, glinting emeralds that seemed almost lifelike.
With a hiss from Salazar the pair of snakes parted as the wall cracked open, its two halves sliding smoothly out of sight. He and his wife entered the place dubbed by the other three Founders 'Chamber of Secrets' back before Meredith had even met Sal. It was very long and wide, with towering stone pillars entwined by more carved serpents. They cast long, black shadows through the Chamber's dim, greenish glow. There was nothing else save for a dozen snakeheads dotted around the spacious stone room.
"My love," Salazar finally spoke, turning around and locking eyes with her once again, "Know that I would rather die than allow harm come to you, and I could never look at another woman."
"I know, Salvazsahar… I know," Meredith replied with complete honesty, briefly pressing her lips to his in a flutter of a kiss. She looked down at the babe, whom had fallen asleep in her husband's arms. "You claim a son and a daughter."
He nodded. "'Tis a… complicated situation. I brought you to the Ritual Room in hope of determining the reality, for what his mind tells me is difficult to believe yet my Magicks know it to be true."
Meredith bowed her head, smiling knowingly. "You wish for me to learn if they are my son and daughter? While the Veil between those departed and those alive is thin?"
Salazar gave half a smirk. "You know me too well."
A bell-like laugh. "And you I, my love. Very well... Let us begin."
She moved to retrieve some things from one of the various secret rooms her husband had built over time, disappearing before reappearing a moment later with the required objects. Meredith set the objects down beside Salazar, then Conjured a simple chair so she could sit when chopping an apple with a knife of Thestral bone. After crushing it via a likewise pestle and mortar, moved to the centre of the Chamber and used a bowlful of wood chippings – holly – to form a circle around herself.
Next the witch pointed her wand at a free palm, a deep cut appearing on it with a tiny slash of coloured light. She walked to the middle of the circle drawn and used the injured hand to cover every inch of the wood with bloody applesauce.
Salazar approached her just as Meredith took a vial of phoenix tears out of her pocket and used a single drop to heal her cut. She took the babe from him.
Meredith talked a sentence in Gaelic, again in Greek, and a third time in a language unfamiliar to Salazar. With every word the Rune, which she had painted on the little one's forehead with a finger dipped in blood when he was handed to her, pulsed with bronze energy. After the final sentence had finished, the round line around them erupted in the same bronze energy.
Magic wove around them, fading. The circle had burnt to ashes. Meredith smiled lovingly at the awakening babe, and rubbed their noses together. She grinned at Salazar.
"There you are!" Godric exclaimed when the couple entered the Great Hall with the babe in Salazar's arms. He grinned, pleasantly surprised to see Meredith cooing at the little one. His sister and fiancé rose too in order to greet them.
Naturally, Rowena did not hesitate to ask her question: "You learned whence forth he came?"
"The future," Salazar answered after casting several privacy spells. Godric, Helga and Rowena were the only ones he trusted with the truth.
"Surely you jest! How is such a feat possible?" the female redhead wondered aloud.
"'Tis true, Sal's claim," Meredith said with a wide smile.
"You look different. A good different." Helga gasped, then excitement gleamed in the cyan eyes as she took the brunette's hands in her own. "Is motherhood the reason?"
Meredith inclined her head. "He was right. The babe in my love's arms is his son, but mine as well. I love him even when he has been here for nary a night."
The other three exchanged dubious looks. "How is it possible for you to have a son with no warning, Salazar, Meredith?" Rowena regretted asking at seeing the dark expression that crossed her intellectual equal's face.
"An unusually foul Rogue was targeting our daughter many a year from now and her husband. Their son was brought to us by my Family Magick to keep him safe," he explained.
Godric literally growled; the only part he understood was a bad wizard attempting to harm the family of his brother in all but blood. "How dare they! I shall pierce that fiend with my sword! I shall–"
"Do no such thing!" Salazar told him in atone that brooked no argument. "I bear the responsibility to protect my family, as its Lord."
"I understand," the male redhead grumbled reluctantly, his temper still bubbling hot but waning in face of the ravenette's cold certainty. He re-sheathed the sword with a light grey metallic hilt topped by a large ruby, 'Godric Gryffindor' carved on the steely blade.
The five discussed the situation, agreeing to perform a very simple yet difficult Ritual Spell (which was not the same thing as a Ritual) to hide the little boy's origins. Helga was a little uncertain at hiding it from their two fellow teachers when they had been there, in the corridor where Sal had been found with the child. The snake now draped around his shoulders pointed out, in her own language (of course), that the Secret would be difficult to keep with five participants as it was.
"But since seven is a Magical number, it might not hurt to allow them in," she concluded.
"Fine. Rena, will you and Godric fetch them?" Salazar looked at the engaged couple sternly. "And kindly keep any mention of our son reaching other ears."
Godric saluted with a small grin, though from his eyes the seriousness by which he took this task could be seen. Rowena firmly nodded. Her pale grey eyes rested on the sleeping babe, and she looked determined. No child should suffer losing their family, especially to a Rogue! As though the Mundanes' increasing hostility is not an issue on its own… The engaged couple left the Great Hall.
"Did you perform the Identity Ritual?" Helga asked her fellow Founder, suspecting that as the reason her friends took so long. She knew he, aside from Goblins, was the only one who knew how to. Those greedy ground-workers never shared their secrets with humans; for reasons he refused to disclose, Sal was an exception.
"Correct." Looking down at the infant with a surprisingly soft expression, Salazar whispered in his mother tongue: "Welcome home, Hadrian."
AN: Here's the original beginning of this story–
The (literal) ball of bright green energy faded to reveal a toddler. A ragged child who was heavily bleeding! A furious hiss left the wizard as he knelt beside the injured child of about five winters old, right hand already taking a vial labelled 'Blood-Replenishing Potion' out of his pouch. "Expecto Patronum!" A silver, ghost-like version of the snake now slithering down the man's lower left arm to circle protectively around the child formed from the vapour that just erupted from the tip of his wand. "Give this message to the other Founders – Come to the Healer's Wing as soon as possible!" The transparent snake radiating happiness floated off in the direction they'd come from.
Back to AN: I decided not to use it because almost immediately after writing it, a better back-story for why Harry ended up in the Founders' time appeared in my head. (It's in Italics to make it easier to read. From here on, only singing and thoughts are in Italics, the former with "".)
Also, to them it's Greek but to us it was Ancient Greek.
And because the Books never specify what the Founders look like plus I don't count the movies as canon, I described them how those four are in my head. Hopefully there will be a picture of 'em up on Deviantart soon! :D