Disclaimer; I do not own any character, feature or whatnot from the world of Harry Potter. It's all J.K.R's; don't send lawyers after me please.

A/N: Do not expect large changes to some of the chapters I will be posting. I'm going to try and keep some of the original work but I'll be changing a few things, the only real change in the first chapter was the wand at the wand crafter's, just thought I'd let those of you who haven't caught the change yet. Please note that I have obtained the original author's permission to adopt this story, so please don't flame me for it.

Ok, I know that this author's note is getting long, but all this has to be said before I forget to do it. I moved the rating up to M to stay safe, so expect swearing, gore and all that fun stuff, and later on expect sexual situations, I'm not sure if it'll stay implied happenings or be somewhat or totally explicit, I'll post a warning above the appropriate chapters. I hope you all can find the changes I made to this chapter, if your aren't sure, just read the original chapter and mine side by side to find the differences, five points per right answer :P. Anyways, enough of my ramblings and onto the next chapter!

Chapter 2: Forged Friendships

Harry's eyes fluttered open and everything was blurry. He could feel the soft bed he was sleeping on and the very comfortable pillow his head was resting on.

'Wait a minute,' though Harry, 'Pillow?'

He tried to sit up straight but his body was in so much pain that he fell back on the bed again.

"Relax," said a voice reassuringly. The voice was unfamiliar but Harry was too tired to do anything about it. The last thing he remembered was pain in his scar and being dragged somewhere.

"My glasses," said Harry weakly. A shape appeared in his field of vision with something in its hand.

"Drink this potion," said the shape in front of him.

"What is it?" asked Harry weakly but suspiciously. The man in front of him chuckled softly and replied, "If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have waited until you were conscious. It's a healing potion for your vision, although I don't know why you haven't used it before."

Harry shrugged and sat up weakly, taking the vial from the hand of the person in front of him and gulping it down in one go. Harry felt as if something cold was put in his eyes, but after a few minutes, the feeling subsided. He felt his eyes water for a minute, which made him close his eyes. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and was able to see clearly.

"Thank you," said Harry gratefully, observing the person in front of him. He was a boy around his age with black hair that reached his shoulders, and his eyes were a lighter shade of green than Harry's was. He could easily pass for Harry's twin except that Harry was thin, malnourished, and short while the other boy had an athletic body, toned muscles, and was very well fed.

"Where am I?" asked Harry, finally remembering the incident with the scientist. He hoped that Robert was okay, but as he looked around the room, it wasn't anything like Harry had ever seen. The walls were a light blue; the bed he was resting on was silver and green, reminding Harry of Slytherin's colours. The boy sat down on a chair beside Harry's bed and began to talk.

"You are in my house. I was reading a book when a bang echoed through the foundations of my house and then I found you," said the boy conversationally. Harry didn't say anything and motioned for the boy to continue. "You've been asleep for the past three days and were on the brink of death, but thank Merlin I had healing potions. Your owl is flying outside the house and your trunk is downstairs."

"Thank you for saving my life," said Harry gratefully, extending his hand to the other boy. "My name's Harry."

"It was my pleasure, Harry," the boy said, smiling. "I'm Salazar. Salazar Slytherin."

It was as if someone has poured freezing cold water over Harry's head, trying to wake him up from a dream. However, Harry knew that this was not a dream, and that the blasted time machine had worked. Apparently, magic was the missing link in Robert's equation, which was a good thing. The bad thing is that the machine was destroyed before Harry lost conscious, so it would mean that Harry had to find another way to go back to his time.

Salazar noticed the colour leaving Harry's face and misunderstood the sign for fear. He sighed heavily and tried to think of something to say to the boy in front of him. Salazar knew that everybody was afraid of his family, since they produced evil wizards faster than a bird could fly. It was the same reason that led Salazar to pack his things, take a lot of money and leave. It was a year ago that these events happened which led him to leave and look for another house away from his family, who cared less that the boy packed his things and left.

His brother, Thanatos Slytherin, was the perfect boy for them. He had excelled in everything and he was now married to a woman from a pureblood family. Although Salazar was exceedingly more powerful than his brother, he hid the fact very well.

Salazar also knew that if his family were aware that he was more powerful than their perfect Thanatos, they wouldn't have let him leave. All the same, he hated torturing people for fun or practicing magic on muggles because they were without it.

"I know that my family produces evil wizards, Harry. But that's the reason I left them in the first place," Salazar said sincerely. "I don't want to be evil and I don't want to torture innocent people. This is why I live alone in this house."

Harry looked at Salazar strangely, before he understood what Salazar took his silence for and grinned slightly. He shook his head and replied, sitting up in his bed. "I'm not afraid of you, Salazar. But it is the fact that I don't have a way to get back to my home is what was bothering me in the first place."

Salazar sighed in relief. Finally, someone was not afraid of him because of his family. Everywhere he went, everybody looked at him with fear in their eyes that Salazar might attack them, which made his life a living hell.

"Where are you from?" asked Salazar. "I don't think it's impossible for you to go back. Don't you know how to Apparate?"

Harry decided that there was no need to hide the truth from Salazar, since he needed help to find a way of going back to his own time. Thus, he decided to come clean with the truth and just get it over with.

"I'm from the future, Salazar. About a thousand years to be exact," replied Harry grinning, waiting for what he said to sink in. He didn't have to wait for long because Salazar fainted.

It was a few hours later when Salazar woke up to a grinning Harry. It took another hour for Salazar to accept that his new friend was indeed from the future. However, after he finally accepted that Harry time travelled, he began asking him about the future, which Harry kept his mouth shut about.

"Come on, Harry. Please tell what interesting things will happen in the future."

"For the last time Salazar, it could change the future and I will no longer exist if my future was whipped out," said Harry to the other boy. Salazar took Harry on a tour of the house, which was not much but it was nice. It contained a potions lab, a library, a kitchen, and other rooms.

Harry and Salazar sat down and talked about their lives, their past, but Harry left out things that could change the future in any way, like the name Hogwarts, or anything that Salazar might recognize.

"By the way, how are we talking the same language? I'm talking modern English but you wouldn't know," asked Harry perplexed.

"It's the wonder of a translating spell, Harry."

He told Salazar that there was a dark lord in his time that killed Harry's parents and tried to kill Harry when he was a baby. He told him about growing up at the Dursley's household, and how they treated him. Salazar sneered as Harry continued his tale, an expression of revulsion settling on his aristocratic face.

"Why would they treat you like that," asked Salazar frowning. Nobody should treat their family members like that.

'Well, maybe mine would,' thought Salazar bitterly.

"They're muggles, Salazar. They hate anything to do with magic," explained Harry and continued with his story.

He told him about going to a magical school, which made Salazar's eyes light up at the idea. It wouldn't change anything since Salazar had to build Hogwarts with the other founders anyway. He told him about risking his life to save the school from the dark lord every year but he left out what actually happened or what he saved the school from, shuddering at the thought of the basilisk.

Harry told Salazar the prophecy, something that he had kept from his best friends, Ron and Hermione. He felt as if a burden was lifted from his shoulders and he could finally think clearly about it without having to suffer its knowledge alone.

Salazar sat thinking about what he heard from Harry about his life. He wondered why the fates were messing with his new friend's life. Salazar asked Harry about the way he time-travelled and how he came to be here. Harry had told him that it was his magic reacting to a Muggle invention, which was the cause of him being sent thousand years in the past. He finally told Salazar about being a Parselmouth.

"Parselmouth?" said Salazar excited. "Are you sure you're not my descendant?"

"No Salazar, I'm not your descendant," assured Harry his friend. He didn't want to tell him that Voldemort was of the Slytherin bloodline. Salazar already hated his family for producing many dark lords in the past but to know that the most powerful dark in history was his own descendant would devastate him.

"Only my father, my brother, and I can speak Parseltongue. Only the males in the Slytherin family can speak Parseltongue," explained Salazar eagerly. The Slytherin family had prided themselves on being able to speak to snakes. It was perhaps one of the traits that had made the Slytherin family extremely feared, as they controlled deadly snakes, basilisks or even dragons.

Salazar told Harry about his life, his past, and his family. He told him how he grew up with his family's expectations of surpassing his brother and being a great dark wizard. He told him how his family treated him when he refused to torture an innocent Muggle for fun.

Harry sat captivated by the tale that no one ever knew. As Harry heard about Salazar's life, he vowed to never fully trust anything in a book or trust the history records as much as Hermione does. Harry felt strangely peaceful as he shared his whole life story with Salazar, something that he had not accomplished with the little bits that he'd told Ron and Hermione.

They understood each other better, their friendship was growing fast and strong. It was the first time that Harry found a true friend in Salazar and their trust in each other grew every second.

"We have to get you into shape then, Harry. You have an evil idiot to fight and kill," said Salazar sincerely. Harry, for the first time since Sirius had died, smiled.

"It's about time I did something about it, Sal," replied Harry, a glint of determination in his eye.

"Sal?" asked Salazar, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," replied Harry grinning. "I can't go round saying Salazar all day, can I? It's too long!"

"Why not," shrugged Salazar playfully, and returned the grin.

For the first few months of his stay with Salazar, both of them began to run through the woods on one side of Salazar's house. They performed push-ups and sit-ups and ran every morning, with the time increasing every day. Salazar would force Harry to drink horrible tasting Bone Strengthening, Nutrition, and other similar healing potions to undo the malnourishment and abuse effects that Harry suffered from because of the Dursleys. He had already started to gain some height and shoulder broadness that he should have had.

On the other side of Salazar's house was a village where Salazar and Harry bought things to eat. Harry didn't want to live on Salazar's money so he offered his services to help anyone in the village, either helping with some work on a farm or taking care of a pet, child, or any other work he would find. They were suspicious of him at first but soon, they warmed up to him and welcomed his help.

He even helped a black smith with making swords and knives, which he found was a very hard work to do. The people in the village liked him a lot but they were still wary of Salazar, although not as much as before. Salazar supplied the village with healing potions in exchange of things he required.

During these months, Harry's body began to quickly develop from being fed normal meals everyday with the potions added in his diet, and running many miles with Salazar, as well as working with the blacksmith, he continued to grow and develop into the 16 year old boy he was supposed to be. He discovered life as he lived with Salazar and performed normal labour tasks like taking care of the garden, cooking, and many other things without the slave-driving presence of Aunt Petunia.

Salazar had a small library that he nicked from his family before leaving to which Harry added his books. They began the first subject of study in their quest for knowledge, which was Occlumency.

When Harry first tried to study Occlumency, he had failed to empty his mind. He realized that Snape had truly done great damage to his natural shields and though it was repairable, it made Harry's hatred for the man increase.

It took a lot of arguing as Harry continually tried to empty his mind from thought until Salazar had managed help him. Salazar would conjure a white sheet with a black dot surrounded by green ones and tell Harry to stare at the black dot only.

Harry tried to protest but a glare from Salazar managed to do the work. Salazar himself studied Occlumency with Harry but he was able to clear his mind from thoughts quicker than Harry was able to, though he had some troubles with clearing the thoughts of his family.

It took a lot of time for Harry to be able to clear his mind from thoughts and emotions, but in the end, he succeeded in doing so. Between the physical work and their work on Occlumency during the first few months, Harry and Salazar achieved good results.

They managed to organize their minds in a short time, succeeding in the second step of Occlumency and Salazar began to teach Harry one of the things he was exceedingly good at, swordsmanship. The other good thing that Salazar was brilliant at was potions.

Swordsmanship required the improvement of discipline of one's mind, which was why Salazar had waited until Harry learned Occlumency before teaching him any basics and techniques.

They ate, studied, practiced, and did everything together. When anyone watched them, they would just assume that they were brothers. They studied everything they could get their hands on, whether it was potions, spells, charms, Legilimency, Occlumency, runes or rituals.

They managed to master Occlumency after a lot of hard work and began their studies on Legilimency, which was a lot easier with a disciplined mind. Harry taught Salazar every modern spell, charm, or potion he knew from his time while Salazar taught Harry what he did not know of the 'past' spells, which greatly outweighed his modern list.

Salazar taught him about potion ingredients and how and when to put them together, but Harry only learned a certain amount from Salazar and preferred using spells. Both of them were outstanding duellers, but neither of them was able to beat the other. They would fly together on their brooms around Salazar's house and woods, enjoying themselves despite their hardships.

It was only after a year of Harry's arrival that they managed to finish and master every book in their combined library and Harry had grown strong with a sword, but far from mastering the art. Harry and Salazar celebrated their 17th birthdays together, since Salazar was born on the 1rst of August.

Thanks to the healthy diet along with all the potions and all the physical labour that he had undergone either in the village or with Salazar; Harry was rewarded with a very athletic body. Toned muscles, increased height, broader shoulders, and a sturdy frame showed off his wiry athletic body, instead of a body builder who conditions himself to have bulging muscles, hindering his speed and agility, Harry had added some muscle but had toned it and kept his body agile and speedy. Even his friends wouldn't be able to recognize him.

They exchanged gifts and Harry was surprised and also amused to see that it was the same gift which he had given Salazar, though not the same design. Both of them got the other a magical sword, which was very expensive but since Harry helped the man with the work, he got it at a reasonable price.

The sword Salazar gave Harry was an intricately sculptured solid metal with a dragon's head pommel with a ruby in its open jaw that Harry had previously seen in Salazar's things, on the blade there were runes that spelled out his name next to the hilt of the sword. However, the sword Harry gave Salazar had a snake head pommel with an emerald inside its open mouth, which Harry had to work very hard for with the blacksmith to get as with his own, Harry had added the runes to spell out Salazar's name on the blade by the hilt.

"Wow," both of them said at the same time, and then laughed.

"What did you do to get one of these, Harry?" asked Salazar teasing. He knew that Harry worked very hard the last few months for the blacksmith, but he was touched that Harry had worked extra hard just to get him this sword.

"Just made over 500 swords and 200 knives," said Harry shrugging, "It was no big deal." Harry was surprised when Salazar pulled him into a brotherly hug, but it took only a second to return the hug. Both of them had become the other's family in the past year and looked out for each other.

"It is a big deal, Harry. No one had ever done anything like this to me," said Salazar sincerely. "Thank you."

"Thank you Salazar. You saved me from dying, took me into your home, and gave me the most important thing in my life, a family," replied Harry sincerely. He didn't know how he would be able to return to his time and leave Salazar, a thought that had been on his mind for a long time.

"Harry, we learned all we could learn from the books. It's time to travel around the world, learn new things from new people," said Salazar softly. "There are some tribes who have their own magic, and only teach it to people whom they deem worthy. There are a lot of duelling tournaments we could enter and a lot of branches of magic to learn, as well as different and new techniques and styles of sword fighting."

Harry nodded his head in understanding. There are some things that are not written in books and are too dangerous to be written for fear of being used wrongly. In addition, some people preferred to teach their knowledge to only worthy people. He needed knowledge to be able to go back to his time and defeat Voldemort.

Thinking of Voldemort brought Harry's thoughts to his friends. He missed them very much and every day, he would wonder if they thought he was dead. He looked forward to, but dreaded the day he would be able to go back to his time. He hated the fact that he had to leave Salazar but knew that he must do it in order for Voldemort to be born.

"When do we leave?" asked Harry quietly, breaking the silence.

"We'll leave tonight."