Then
Night had settled on England like a cold blanket, Salazar sat on the dirt floor of the Slytherin cottage, drawing lines and connecting them with circles. His mother Beth was stirring the rabbit stew over the fire, her face turned red and sweaty from the emanating heat of the flames. Her bulging stomach was getting bigger every day; nobody else saw it but Salazar did, because he always saw the little changes in everything. Beth was humming a lullaby she had used to sing Slytherin to sleep with; lilies were braided into her hair that shimmered in the flickering light of the two candles on the table and the blazing fire.
The boy connected two lines with a third and the drawing became his mother in her favorite gown. Salazar smiled to himself and drew five straight lines and a circle that became his father. More lines became him and finally an oval became the new baby that was expected any day.
His mother was making preparations as fast as she could; every day she would set two knitting needles to work while she concocted potions and healed ailments. They made blankets and knit caps to keep the baby warm when winter's chill crept in under the door and through the thin walls. Their clicking drove Salazar to a near-breaking point, there was nothing like trying to study old tomes and ancient spell books, and hearing an incessant click-click-click of the needles hitting together. But he never interrupted them, if only to see the look on his beloved mother's face whenever she walked in from her workshop and saw them working. That look was magical, and she didn't even need a wand to create it.
A cold gust of autumn wind blew in as Arthur Slytherin threw open the door and gave his small family an anxious smile. Arthur was a tall, lean man who was slippery as a serpent. He could barter and argue any merchant down to the price he wanted, then tell a joke and have you giggling for hours. He had Salazar's electric eyes and a smattering of freckles on his tanned skin from the long hours spent searching the woods and looking for various plants, fungi, and other potion ingredients. His boots were old and the leather was cracked but he refused to get new ones because they felt like a second layer of skin giving his feet protection.
He strode over to his son and ruffled Salazar's small shock of hair. Salazar grinned up at his father and pointed to his picture. "Father!" He said gleefully. "Look, it's our family!" Arthur bent down so that his face was right next to his son's and his eyes were narrowed in concentration. Salazar was so happy with himself he could barely stand it, but he didn't miss the fact that his father had a gray pallor to his skin and he looked utterly exhausted; there was also a glazed look to his eyes as if he were under a spell. Before Salazar could ask why, Arthur had nodded, smiled at him, and straightened up.
Arthur strode to his wife who had her arms crossed tightly across her chest and her lips pinched up; Salazar thought this was the first time he had seen his mother without some semblance of joy on her features. "What is it, Arthur?" Her voice caught and her hands went to her stomach, cradling it. After being married to her husband for nine years, she practically knew what he was thinking. Those four words broke the spell over him and he ran to the walls, pulling jars and other things off the shelves and shoving them on the table in the middle of the room. Candles, preserves, strips of dried meat, candlesticks, vegetables from the garden, and Salazar's few toys carved out of wood all lay pathetically on the table. Salazar watched as the pile slowly grew and felt a cold horror start to fill the pit of his stomach.
Beth didn't give up so easily; she planted her hands on her hips and glared at her beloved. "What happened, Arthur?" He ignored her completely, tipping a trunk over and sifting through its contents. "Arthur?" Her face was turning red and her eyes were narrowing. He ignored her again and picked up his pace, practically sprinting around the cottage. Salazar suddenly feared that he would be trampled under his father's feet.
Beth retrieved her wand from her apron pocket, tears sparking at the corners of her eyes. "Petrificus totalus!" She said loudly, her wand pointed at Arthur. He stilled immediately, his muscles seizing up and freezing. Beth gave a small sob, one hand clutching her chest, and her wand hand hanging limply at her side. "You have to tell me what's going on, Arthur. Right now!" She waved her wand half-heartedly and Arthur relaxed, doubling over and taking deep, long breaths.
He stayed like that for a few moments and the scene truly sunk in for Salazar. His mother had tears in her pretty eyes and his father looked terribly sick and nearly deranged. Salazar looked down at the picture he had traced into the dirt, and felt his heart break. The family in front of him was the exact opposite of the family in the picture. Salazar raked his hand through the dirt figures; they were scary reminders of what his family hand been just minutes before.
Arthur lifted his head, his eyes rimmed in red. "They know, Beth." Her reaction was instantaneous: her features became slack and she stumbled backward until her back hit the cottage wall and she leaned against it, as if gaining support from the very bones of the house. One of the lilies fell from her hair and drifted to floor. "I was in the forest, getting blue bird feathers for the potion for the Gryffindors a few villages over." Arthur continued, as if he was unable to stop talking. Beth's face became paler with every word. "I found a beautiful male, as blue as the clearest of skies. I didn't want to hurt him, you see, so I used a stunning jinx and caught him when he fell from the tree. It worked perfectly and I rennervated him without any harm. But when I turned around, there was a boy of about twelve looking at me with his mouth hanging open. I ran home as fast as I could, but not before some of the men confronted me. I'm sure we have only minutes." He glanced out the single window by front door and Salazar swore he could see an orange glow becoming brighter and larger.
Beth gifted herself one moment to simply sob, her shoulders curving protectively around her stomach and keening wails shaking out of her chest. She closely resembled an animal who was backed into a corner, chased by death, and was finally giving up. The moment came and went with a whisper of the wind. She straightened up, and tears still streaming down her cheeks in torrents, seized a blanket from Salazar's straw pallet on the floor, and spread it out on the floor. Arthur hastily placed items he had collected on the table onto the blanket and when there was a fair amount, Beth gathered up the blanket and tied it off. "Salazar can carry this," She murmured to herself before she helped her husband with a much larger bundle.
Salazar had been watching the orange glow outside of the window which he now realized was torches. They were right outside the cottage by then and he could hear shouting voices like thunder. He covered his ears with his hands and curled in on himself as the pounding on the door, window, and walls started. Beth and Arthur looked at each other for a devastatingly long moment, the hopes of their perfect small family shattering around them. They finally nodded at each other once and sprang back into action. Arthur picked up Salazar from the floor; his hands were shaking but his arms were strong and comforting. He opened the door to the only other room in the cottage: the apothecary workshop. Arthur set his son down just inside the door and kissed the top of his head. "I love you, Son." He whispered and straightened up, looking like a man who had lost his will to live.
Beth ducked around him and handed Salazar his bundle and her wand. "You remember the spell for unlocking doors?" She said quickly, looking frenzied and like she was dying on the inside. Salazar gave her a quick nod; of course he did. "When it's all over, run. Run past the other villages. Find the Gryffindors. They'll take care of you." She wrapped her arms around him tightly, so tight it hurt. "Keep your hair short," She whispered. "Your eyes don't shine otherwise." She straightened up. She had stopped crying, but she too looked like a person who had lost her will to live. The two stepped into the main room of the cottage to face their fate and locked the workshop door just as the door to the scary outside world was thrown off of its hinges. Salazar was left in the dark.
