Hermione and her parents had agreed to let him stay over Christmas break. Albus had offered to help Salazar pick out some modern clothes to wear, so he could blend in. Salazar, however, took one look at the robes the Headmaster was wearing – bright orange with green and purple paisleys and neon pink stripes- and decided to ask Mr. Potter for help instead, as he had lived in the muggle world and, more importantly, could actually match colors.

After Salazar purchased some muggle clothes for himself, he visited the ministry to let them know that he would be staying at the Granger's over the break, and that he had no intention of not using magic. In addition, he decided, whoever had come up with the rule that students could not use magic except at Hogwarts was a complete idiot. That rule was in no way conducive to learning. How could students remember what they had learned if they were forbidden to use it?

It was a nervous Salazar who rode to London in his own compartment on the train. While it was true that he was curious about the modern muggle world – first and foremost, Salazar and the others had been scholars – Salazar admitted to himself that he wanted to make sure Miss Hermione Granger was safe over Christmas break. She reminded him a lot of his dead student, and he would be damned if he would let another bright young witch die.

Hermione seems to love her parents, a part of his mind pointed out. And you should give these muggles a chance - after all, much has changed in a thousand years.

But people's fear of the unknown hasn't changed, retorted another, more cynical and jaded part of his mind. And to muggles, magic is an unknown that should be stamped out. Look at what happened to Gwynneth. Look at what happened to your parents and Annabel.

He looked at his bag, where he had the pictures of Helga, Rowena and Godric, who had convinced Salazar to bring them along, his robes, some knives, and several books. His sword was disillusioned at his side. Also inside his bag were around a hundred ungraded essays, and he sighed before conjuring a flat surface to write on, as well as a quill and red ink. He pulled the first one out of the pile. Grading, the four had always agreed, was the absolute worst part of being a teacher.

It seemed like forever before the train stopped, though he was unsure if that was because of nerves, grading, or it being an actual long time. He took a deep breath and stepped off the train, and his eyes went wide at the sheer number of people on the platform.

He spotted Hermione by two people and walked over to her. Hermione looked up. "Professor Slytherin, my parents Daniel and Emma Granger. Mum, Dad, Professor Salazar Slytherin."

Daniel Granger had dirty blond hair and brown eyes, and stood a good six feet tall. He was wearing what Harry had called blue jeans and a jacket. Emma had bushy brown hair like her daughter and hazel eyes, and was the same as her husband. Salazar did a double take at her clothing before regaining his composure.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," he said, kissing Mrs. Granger on the hand.

Emma blushed. "It's doctors, actually, but please call us Dan and Emma. It is nice to meet you as well, Salazar."

Salazar nodded before turning to follow the Grangers. He looked around, seeing many strange sights. Fixed to the ceiling were many flameless lamps, and the clothing that some of the women wore was very revealing – Emma's clothing did not seem so outrageous anymore. Eventually they stopped at what Hermione said was a car, but it was surrounded by hundreds of similar contraptions. It looked to be metal painted white with four black wheels on the bottom. There were glass windows around the top of the car. Inside were leather seats, and the right seat on the front row had a wheel in front of it. He looked at it skeptically. "There are no horses," he said simply, at Hermione's questioning look.

"We don't need horses," said Emma. "We just need ridiculously overpriced oil."

Hermione and Dan snorted, before getting into the car. Salazar sat in the backseat next to Hermione, and she showed him how to put on the seatbelt. Salazar jumped as the engine started. Dan started to turn the wheel, which seemed to allow him to steer the car.

The car suddenly jolted to a stop, and Dan started to curse. "Why the hell did you stop in front of my car, you f-"

He suddenly cut off as Emma glared at him. "Not in front of Hermione!" she hissed. Dan nodded meekly and started drumming his fingers on the wheel impatiently. Eventually they exited the area where the cars were still and went onto the main road.

Salazar just stared. These cars were going much faster than any carriages could go. "Is this safe?" he asked.

Hermione nodded. "Mostly, yes." Somehow that didn't reassure him. They entered the road and Salazar felt the speed increase at least threefold. He looked around some more. He saw buildings that must have been at least a hundred feet tall, if not more, and more flameless lamps, these ones suspended over the road and colored red, yellow, and green.

He suddenly heard a strange noise, which passed soon. "What was that?" he asked, bringing out his wand.

"A plane," said Hermione. "It's basically a huge car with wings that carries people place to place through the air."

"Through the air?" asked Salazar weakly. He had known much would change in a thousand years, but he never would have expected muggles to be able to take to the air, much less in what seemed to be a metal bird with wings that was flying much higher than any broom ever could. "What do you do for a living?" he asked after the silence became excessively awkward.

"We're dentists," said Emma. "We clean people's teeth." Salazar supposed that that was a respectable profession, though wizards had never seen the need for it, as their magic seemed to keep their teeth white. "And you are a teacher? What do you teach?"

Salazar sighed. "That is complicated. Before I was forcefully pulled through time, I taught Potions, Warding, and helped to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now I teach Defense, but I am hoping to use my influence as a founder of Hogwarts to reintroduce Warding as a subject."

"Hermione mentioned you are actually from the 900s. How did you appear in this time?" asked Dan, not looking away from the road.

"I am not completely sure. I was using a warming charm since it was raining – I am a Water Mage, so the rain didn't bother me, but the cold did. I suppose the charm and my water magic combined with the lightning that hit me to send me forward in time a thousand years."

"Oh," said Emma, before she froze. "You got hit by lightning!?" she demanded. "Why were you even outside when you knew there was lightning?"

Salazar grimaced. "I had an argument with the others about letting Muggleborns into the school – but not for the reasons that history seems to have given me," he hastily added, before he continued darkly. "One of my most promising young students was Gwynneth Caddell, and she was muggleborn. I had thought about having her be my apprentice when she became older, as she was incredibly gifted at potions. Gwynneth went home to her father over Christmas break, but she wrote a letter to me saying that her father was planning on killing her because of her magic. She said he told her the Bible said "thou shall not suffer a witch to live," and she became terrified and wrote me the letter. I immediately apparated to her home, but it was too late. I saw her on the bed, lifeless and covered with blood. Her father had been blown across the room by her accidental magic. He was dead too, but he was holding a bloody knife in his hands." Salazar paused, before his voice grew even more bitter. "She was eleven years old."

Emma gasped, but Salazar wasn't finished telling his story. "I had an argument with the others the day I… left. I said that I would not teach children just to watch them die because of the magic we taught them. I left and went outside, even though it was raining. The lightning hit me soon afterwards, and I woke up in this time."

"What father would kill their own daughter?" asked Emma in a disgusted tone.

"You'd be surprised what people could do in the name of the Lord," spat Salazar before he opened his locket and spent the rest of the time looking at the pictures of his family.

It was with relief that Dan reached their house. He could tell that there was more to Salazar's last statement than what he had told them, but he didn't press.

He showed Salazar to the guest bedroom, where Salazar unpacked his belongings and placed the pictures of Helga, Godric, and Rowena on the wall with a sticking charm. "Dan, it is possible for me to ward your house to protect it, but Hermione told me that magic and … electronics?... don't exactly mix. However I believe – not that I profess to be an expert in electronics – that passive wards would not have an affect unless they activate, but I presume at that point your electronics would be the least of your worries."

"Passive wards?" asked Hermione, brown eyes sparkling with the thought of knowledge.

"What sort of protection will the wards entail?" asked Dan.

"The wards would repel anybody with bad intentions from entering the house, as well as wipe their memories of the magic used to repel them if they were a muggle. They would also make your house fireproof. Also, they would allow your daughter to use magic over break."

"Then I agree," said Dan.

Salazar nodded before turning to Hermione. "To answer your question, there are two main types of wards: active and passive. Active wards, as the name implies, have magic that is always active. They are stronger than passive wards, but also easier to detect and therefore to dismantle. They feed off energy from missed spells as well as ley lines. Passive wards, on the other hand, cannot absorb energy from spells and must rely on magic from the caster and from ley lines. The magic of passive wards is usually, well, passive, and usually blends into the background, making them harder to detect and dismantle. However, because the magic of passive wards only flares up if there is a threat, then they are inherently weaker than active wards. Because they are weaker, I believe this will have little effect on your electronics, at least until they activate."

"Ley lines? I've read about them, but the book didn't go into detail. Why can wards be powered by them?"

"There are ley lines – which are basically lines of magical energy – crisscrossing the whole globe and covering it a complex web. Some ley lines are stronger than others, but the most magical places are where strong ley lines intersect, such as Hogwarts and Stonehenge. I will have the wards up in ten minutes," Salazar said, going outside.

When he returned, Dan thanked him before turning to his daughter. "Can you show me what you have been doing?"

"Dad, are you encouraging me to break the rules!?" demanded Hermione. "I can't break the rules! I'll be expelled from Hogwarts!"

"Yes, yes I am. I want to see what you have learned, so yes, I am encouraging you to break a completely unreasonable rule with the approval of one of Hogwarts founders. I highly doubt you'll be expelled sweetie," Dan said.

Hermione took a deep breath. "I'll start with one of the first things I learned. Wingardium Leviosa!"