Chapter Six: Spell Creation

A/N: Hello! I am back with a new chapter! This one took me a while and will probably be my last update for a few weeks. I have finals in two weeks and boy am I NOT ready for that. So in my attempts of procrastination, I finished this lovely chapter. As always, please review and enjoy this lovely little slice of Hogwarts in 993.

Feeling a lot lighter after her conversation with Rowena, Hermione returned to the library to do a little more reading on healing. While she was well versed in battle healing, she was still a little doubtful of her skills in an infirmary. While most people wouldn't think that they are different, the power that one put into battle healing was much different than what was put into regular healing. Hermione's main concern was not blowing up her patients because of using too much power by accident so she decided to search for the Room of Requirement to practice for a little bit.

Meanwhile, Rowena worked to track down Salazar. She knew that founder almost as well as she knew herself and knew that this conversation was going to be explosive no matter how she phrased it. He was extremely temperamental at the best of times and having to tell him he would have to let Hermione apprentice with him was not going to go well. Her actively searching for the other founder was a stall tactic as she could ask the castle where he was, but she wanted time to prepare herself for the explosion that was sure to happen. As she walked, she went through all of the personal shielding spells that she knew and that might stand up against Salazar's magic once he heard her news. Currently she had gone over the properties of five and none would hold against him.

On the other side of the castle, Salazar sat deep in thought. The muggle-born invader, as he had dubbed her, had the other three founders wrapped around her pinky finger and he found it intolerable. He could understand why Godric was fond of her, she was a member of his house in the future. Helga, too, he could understand but he could not fathom Rowena's interest in the girl. The girl had no knowledge of anything important to magic. She had no knowledge of the true foundations of magic and that frustrated him deeply. That was not to say that he would teach the little chit. He had no interest in gaining any kind of knowledge about her. He did not want to know what happened in the future. He was perfectly content to live in his own time and to die when his time came. This muggle-born showing up was just a small knot in the thread to him; something that could eventually be fixed.

One other thing Salazar did not understand was how the girl could be so uneducated about such important topics. The things she did not know were taught in the first two years at Hogwarts during this time. These things weren't just basic things that 'might' come in handy, these were basic things that were needed to truly understand ones' own magic. It was not likely that Hogwarts would change so much in a thousand years, was it? Apparently, it had, but that still bugged Salazar. The students in the future were going to be horribly ill-prepared for regular life as wizards and witches.

That line of thought created a tangent that scared Salazar. If Hogwarts was no longer teaching these basic magics then what else was removed from the curriculum? And who made those changes? Were the changes gradual or did one headmaster just up and decide that these were no longer necessary knowledge? These questions swirled through Salazar's head causing him to let out a string of rather ungentlemanly swear words and stand to go look for the resident time traveling muggle-born.

Hermione was sitting in her chambers reading a book on healing when someone knocked loudly on her door (in retrospect it was probably more of an insistent banging, but for our purposes loud knocking will work). Surprised and a little confused, Hermione waved her hand to open her door without standing and let whomever was there in. To her immense surprise, Salazar walked in slowly as though afraid something would jump out and attack him. This idea caused Hermione to smirk because it meant that the great Salazar Slytherin was scared of a measly muggle-born witch who the man deemed unworthy of magic.

"Lord Slytherin, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company this afternoon?"

Salazar sneered at her words, obviously having heard Hermione's sarcasm. "I have questions about the curriculum at Hogwarts during your time. I have some concern about what is being taught in the future."

"Oh! Has Rowena talked to you? That's wonderful!"

Salazar looked at her blankly for a minute. "What are you talking about?"

Hermione paled when the implication of his question sank in. "You mean you haven't talked to Rowena?"

"Not about anything pertaining to you. Was she supposed to have talked to me about you?"

Hermione bit her lip. "Will you keep calm if I tell you? I know how much you dislike my presence in the castle."

Salazar thought for a moment. "I will not make any promises that may be easily broken, but I will try to keep control."

"Okay, I would like to learn spell creation and potentially get a mastery for it, but when I tried to do so in the future the books that I have found now in the library were not there when I was in the future. When I was talking to Rowena, she said she would approach you first before I had to talk to you."

The explanation fell out Hermione's mouth in a breathless rush that Salazar barely understood. Taking a minute to process what she said was obviously freaking Hermione out. To further bug her he took a little longer than necessary to form a response to what was said.

"I hope you understand Miss Granger that being my student would be incredibly taxing. I am an exacting man and spell creation can be dangerous. You would be expected to be perfect in everything that you did. I will not allow for stupid mistakes."

Hermione stared in awe and nodded to everything he said. She had, of course, read the books on spell creation already and was aware of the danger. The art of spell creation was similar in danger to the art of potions. One wrong move and you'd be in the hospital wing. The fact that he expected perfection also wasn't a problem as she expected it as well. With those thoughts flying around her head Hermione looked at Salazar and asked the most important question she had asked since she arrived.

"Does that mean you will teach me?"