Chapter 11
"Sarah!" Harry yelled in disbelief. Forgetting the Founders he leapt up and rushed over to her. She had lost all consciousness. He grabbed her arm to try and raise her, but stopped when he felt a wet, sticky substance. He raised his hands and looked at them with horror as they dripped crimson.
He raised his eyes to meet the Founders' gazes. Their eyes were also trained on his hands. Sarah gave a small groan of pain, and that snapped everyone back to reality. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw jumped to their feet and rushed over, with Slytherin and Gryffindor at their heels.
Harry turned his attention back to Sarah. She was deathly pale; one side of her face bore a red mark that could not be mistaken for anything but a handprint. She was in a cold sweat, and her whole body was trembling with shivers. Harry knew the symptoms all too well.
"She's been tortured," he whispered.
"What?" Hufflepuff said sharply.
He repeated himself.
"I would like to know how you're so sure," Gryffindor said, narrowing his eyes.
"As would I," Slytherin and Ravenclaw said in unison. They gave each other a surprised look.
"I just do," Harry said, his eyes back to Sarah.
"Slytherin," Slytherin murmured, taking in her uniform. "She's in my House."
Ravenclaw shook her head. Harry stared at her with some surprise. "She's a Gryffindor, I don't know how she found herself in your House Salazar, but she's a Gryffindor."
At this, Gryffindor knelt by her and placed a palm on her forehead. "She's burning up."
"What do you mean she's a Gryffindor?" Harry asked Ravenclaw. "She was sorted into Slytherin."
"Well, either the Sorting Hat has lost its mind, or she asked to be put somewhere else. There is no mistaking Gryffindor in her. You on the other hand, could have fit into either House."
Slytherin frowned at that, but didn't say anything.
"Never mind that now, we have to treat the poor girl," Hufflepuff said. She forced Harry to move away, as she knelt by Sarah. She ran her wand over the girl's body, frowning. Then, she pushed Sarah's left sleeve up. Harry gasped. It was a bloody mess. It was covered with new and congealed blood. "We have to clean this, it's the only physical wound on her body."
Gryffindor immediately conjured up bandages and a small bowl of water. He pushed them towards Hufflepuff while he began to tap his wand against Sarah's neck.
"Harry," Ravenclaw whispered. "Go get Leofrick, he'll be needed."
"And Matteus," Slytherin added.
"Why?" he asked, reluctant to leave Sarah.
"She was attacked, boy, and her attackers could still be present," Slytherin said.
"But she just appeared here, she came straight from the future!"
"Salazar's right, how do you know her attacker's didn't come either?" Ravenclaw said with logic Harry couldn't find the energy to argue with.
"Oh my goodness!" Hufflepuff exclaimed. Harry whirled around. "Godric, you must see this!"
She had wiped away the blood, and the wound was outlined clearly. Engraved on her arm, were the words blood traitor. Harry barely heard Godric Gryffindor's snarl of rage.
"I am going to kill them," Harry hissed.
"What do you mean by 'them'?" Slytherin asked, his eyes trained on the words as they started dripping with blood once again.
"Enough! You will fetch my nephew, and you will tell us once and for all, what is going on!" Harry flinched at the fury in Gryffindor's voice as he stared down at the words on Sarah's arm.
"Yes sir," he said.
Pain, and shouting. That was all she could pick up as she slowly regained consciousness. She shifted a little. It hurt too much. Her arm was aching and her head throbbed unbearably. She groaned.
A voice spoke urgently, and she tried to decipher what it was saying, but she couldn't. Instead she focused on the voice itself, which was deep, and for some reason, despite the hint of anger, comforting.
Sarah opened her eyes to a bleary room. She tried to sit up, but she whimpered again as pain shot through her one of arms. Strong arms helped her sit up, until she was being supported by a wall, or something of that sort. She tried to blink away the bleariness, which was dissipating very slowly.
She could just make out four figures, staring down at her. She tried to bring her hands up to rub her eyes, but one of the, a female in yellow, stopped her. She blinked again. Her eyes were starting to focus. The figures she had seen were two males and two females. One was dressed in green robes trimmed with silver, another dressed in red robes trimmed with gold, one dressed in blue with bronze trimmings, and one dressed in yellow with black trimmings.
She stared at them all wide eyed. "What…?" she said, her voice cracking. She coughed. The woman dressed in yellow hurried to press a glass of water to Sarah's parched lips. She drank it gratefully. Then she sat back and stared at them. And then around the room. It was spacious, and homey. The decorations were simple and the main theme of the room was scarlet and gold. Gryffindor colours.
Four strangers wearing the colours of four different Houses. The coincidence was too much and Sarah had to draw in a deep breath to calm herself. "Oh my god," she breathed. They frowned, and looked at each other confused. The dark-haired woman shot the male dressed in red and gold a look. It was he who finally stepped forward and spoke.
And what he spoke of, Sarah had no clue, but it was the same comforting voice she had heard when she was unconscious. He waited for her answer when he had finished speaking, but she shook her head.
"I'm sorry, I can't understand what you're saying," Sarah said shaking her head. "Where's Harry?" A flicker of recognition flashed through the man's eyes. He turned to the other Founders, and said something, with the only recognizable word in the sentence being 'Harry.'
She shifted slightly, panicking. Where could he be? "Where is he? Are you the Founders? You are aren't you? Where's Harry? I saw him, where is he!"
The man in red robes, whom she suspected was Godric Gryffindor, motioned for her to calm down.
She breathed in heavily, looking down. She was still wearing her uniform. Most of her attire had survived Bellatrix intact, except for her left sleeve. She frowned at it, brushing back the sleeve to reveal bandages. She didn't remember this.
"What happened?" she asked pointing at her arm. They looked like they got the gist of the question, and exchanged uneasy glances. Sarah had a bad feeling about this. She started unwrapping the bandages with a trembling hand; until Gryffindor caught her arm and said, clear in any language, no. She stared at him quizzically.
And Harry chose that moment to walk in, flanked by another boy. Sarah's eyes lit up at the sight of her long lost friend, and he gave an exclamation of delight to see her conscious. Squealing, she jumped out of bed, and met him halfway, clinging on to him tightly, like she could scarcely believe he was real.
"Oh Harry," she mumbled into his shoulder, wiping away a few tears. Her vision blurred again, and she had to be helped back to bed.
"Harry! What's going on?" she asked ignoring the Founders' obvious protest as she pushed back the covers again. "Who are they?" she said gesturing to the Founders, "Are they the Founders? Harry?"
He just stared at her confused. Sarah bit her lip as she realized he couldn't understand either. The Tenures must have broken the language barrier for him, but Dumbledore's contraption had done nothing to help her communicate, it had merely brought her to where she wanted to go.
Harry stared at Sarah, who was speaking unfamiliar words. All he could understand was his own name.
"What's going on?" he asked turning to the Founders. "Why can't I understand her?"
Slytherin sighed. "Languages change through time, the language you speak in the future is not the language we speak now." Slytherin glanced about the room. "Where is Matteus?"
"We couldn't find him," Harry said. "We looked everywhere," he added defensively in response to Slytherin's disapproving expression.
"Who is she?" Leo asked, green eyes curious. He looked over to where Sarah was sitting, and observing them.
"Oh right," Harry said embarrassed, "I forgot to introduce you. Er – everyone, this is one of my best friends, Sarah Selwyn. She's the same age as me, give or take a few months. And she's in Slytherin House."
"No," Ravenclaw said frustrated, "She is clearly a Gryffindor, she may have been put into Salazar's House, but she is not meant to be there."
Harry nodded. "That would actually explain a few things," he mumbled off.
"Why would she want to be in Slytherin if she was a Gryffindor?" Gryffindor asked.
"Things...they're different in the future," Harry said evasively.
Slytherin narrowed his eyes. "I thought you were going to give us answers?"
"Harry?" came a soft voice. He turned to look at Sarah, who gestured at the others. She pointed to herself. "Sarah." She pointed to him "Harry."
"Oh yeah!" he said, "Names don't change with the language."
Ravenclaw looked thoughtful. "Yes, she seemed to understand when your name was spoken." She looked at the girl. "Good evening." She pointed to herself. "Rowena Ravenclaw." Sarah gasped, eyes flying to Harry.
Harry nodded at her grinning. "Wait, she'll be able to."
Sarah pointed at Hufflepuff next. "Helga Hufflepuff." Hufflepuff nodded encouragingly. "Godric Gryffindor." Gryffindor smiled warmly at her, she beamed back. Her gaze landed on Slytherin, and Harry felt his heart sink. "Salazar Slytherin." Her smile had dropped off her face and she shrunk back.
Harry stared at Sarah in dismay. "She doesn't know yet!"
"Doesn't know what?" Ravenclaw asked.
"That Lord Slytherin isn't evil," Harry said completely forgetting himself.
"What?" Slytherin turned on him. "What do you mean evil?"
The other Founders looked at him in the same manner and Gryffindor was shaking his head.
But Harry wasn't paying attention to them. An idea was starting to form in his minds-eye. "Lady Ravenclaw, do all languages change?"
She looked startled at the question, considering Harry's recent revelation. "No, some stay the same. Very rare, those languages, but they don't have the capacity for change."
Harry grabbed Slytherin by the hand and dragged him over to Sarah. She shrank back at the sight of him.
The others moved forward to hear better.
"What are you doing Harry? You're scaring her," Hufflepuff reprimanded. "If she's frightened of Salazar, don't bring him closer."
Harry felt a surge of guilt as he noticed Slytherin's face fell at those words. He pointed at Slytherin. "Salazar Slytherin." He pointed at Sarah. "You." He pointed at his mouth. "Talk."
Sarah clearly understood what Harry was trying to convey, because she shook her head, and edged away from Slytherin.
"If I'm scaring her, you should stop," Slytherin said, his face was devoid of emotion, but his eyes betrayed him, as they saddened slightly.
"Is there a way to get her to understand us?" Harry asked Ravenclaw.
"There are spells, but they're complicated. It could take weeks," Ravenclaw replied.
"Then she'll just have to get over her mortal fear of you," Harry said grimly.
"Tell me why she's so afraid of me," Slytherin demanded. There was a murmur of agreement. "I refuse to help until you tell me."
Harry looked at them all. Leo caught his eye and nodded encouragingly. "Several things are happening in our time, terrible things. The people doing them are doing them in your name."
That was not what Slytherin was expecting to hear. He stared at the Harry, his expression shocked. Then furious.
"What?" He roared. Sarah gave a cry of alarm. Harry took her hand.
"Salazar calm down!" Gryffindor said.
"Yes, you really should Lord Slytherin, you're going to scare her more, and," Harry hesitated a little, but knew they would demand answers anyway, "that's not the worst of it."
"There's worse?" Leo said incredulously.
"Oh dear," Hufflepuff said weakly, her eyes filling with tears. She conjured herself a chair next to Sarah's bedside and sat quickly.
"What do you mean worse?" Slytherin growled. He had lost all of his composure.
"There's much worse, but I'll tell you later, can you calm down? You're not helping your image by losing your temper," Harry said.
Slytherin's eyes flickered to Sarah, who was studying him closely. He sighed, giving a weak nod. "But I want to know all of it," he warned Harry.
Harry gave him a nod, then he eyed Sarah. "Sarah," he said gently, "He's not evil, he isn't who you think he is."
She closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Come on Sar, look at me," he gave her a little shake, "Slytherin," gesturing to Slytherin, "good." He gave her the thumbs up. "No, no. He hasn't brainwashed me. He's not evil."
Sarah gave him a bewildered look.
Hesitatingly, she copied his earlier actions. Harry nodded enthusiastically, smiling for better emphasis.
Finally, she nodded. She moved closer to them, gripping Harry's hand tightly. And then she spoke.
/Sssssallazzaaar Sssslytherin, Harry ssseeemssss to trussst you/ she hissed. Slytherin almost fainted from shock. Harry was almost betting he would when he found out everything that was happening in the future.
"Now I see how she got into Slytherin," Ravenclaw muttered.
"What is that?" Gryffindor said, pointing to Methuselya, who had ventured out of Sarah's right sleeve at the sound of Parseltongue being spoken.
"That's her familiar," Harry said, "His name is Methuselya.
Slytherin looked down at the little snake, listening. He soon hissed back. Harry watched everyone else watching the exchange. They were as clueless as he was. Soon Sarah hissed at Methuselya and he slid back into her sleeve.
"Lord Slytherin, can you ask her what she's doing here?" Harry said. Slytherin nodded.
Slytherin must have repeated what he said, because Sarah began to hiss furiously.
"She says that the better question is, what are you doing here?" Slytherin translated. "She's asking if you never thought that everyone would be worried sick about you," Harry looked away guiltily, "and she's wondering how you could be such an idiot as to insult threatening looking centaurs in the ForbiddenForest, much emphasis on the Forbidden," Slytherin said in one breath.
"Tell her I didn't mean to insult them, they're very…easily insulted," Harry said after a while.
Gryffindor started laughing, but choked it down when Hufflepuff sent him a glare.
Slytherin repeated his words. Sarah glared at Harry, speaking rapidly to Slytherin.
"She's says that was still a foolish thing to do. And she asks how much you have told us about the future."
"Absolutely nothing," Ravenclaw muttered.
"Tell her I haven't given away any major details. Only little things, like Sirius and C-Cedric being murdered."
Slytherin obediently translated. Sarah tilted her head, and then hissed back at him.
"She says you'd best tell us everything."
Harry stared incredulously. "But we could change too much! Bad things happen to wizards who meddle with time," he repeated, recalling Hermione's words to him years ago.
Slytherin relayed his words and Sarah gave an exasperated sigh before hissing back.
"You've gone too far back to change anything and –Dumbledore is it?" he broke off and continued at Harry's nod. "Dumbledore said it would be best to let us know what is going on."
"Dumbledore is the current, in my time, headmaster of Hogwarts," Harry explained.
"The headmaster gives you permission Harry, he's even encouraging it," Ravenclaw said, her tone slightly impatient. "What more persuasion do you need?"
"I like feeling normal," Harry mumbled. "But even here you can still tell I'm different."
"You can't change who you are, no matter where you go," Hufflepuff said gently.
Sarah was watching Harry closely. His green eyes were full of foreboding. She knew what it would take out of him to repeat his history from the beginning. He had already been fending off the curiosity of the entire wizarding community in their own time.
She made up her mind in almost an instant. Sarah hissed quietly at Slytherin, hoping she wouldn't regret this offer. Slytherin's eyes snapped to hers. He raised an eyebrow and she nodded in confirmation.
Slytherin spoke quickly to the others, who looked eager at the prospect of seeing the future for themselves. Hufflepuff, however, was frowning. She shot a question at Slytherin who translated for Sarah.
"Are you comfortable with everyone seeing your memories?" Slytherin asked.
Sarah nodded hesitantly, glancing around at everyone in the room. Her eyes lingered on Gryffindor the longest. He was just as she imagined him. Tall, broad, and, Sarah flushed slightly, quite handsome. He noticed her staring and smiled at her. She looked away immediately.
Harry was once again being questioned by Ravenclaw. His answer did not seem to satisfy the founder.
"What's she asking?" Sarah hissed at Slytherin.
"He requires a wand, but he complains that the one we've given him keeps rejecting him. Legilimency requires complex spellwork he may not be able to perform."
"Oh," Sarah said. "I won't go without him. He must come too."
She was already afraid of losing him after everything she had done. As Slytherin relayed her words, Harry beamed at her, squeezing her hand.
Sarah tried to smile back, but her heart felt heavy. How long would it be like this before she sent him back? How long was enough time?
Gryffindor now looked like he was instructing Harry in performing the spell. The founder had his wand out, waving it in a repeated motion, saying an incantation. Harry watched, eyes narrowed in concentration before bringing down his own wand heavily in similar motion, yelling the spell as he did so.
The lion founder attempted to stop him, but it was too late and the room was already spinning.