Apologies for the long wait, I hope this one doesn't disappoint. And it should answer some of the questions about Godric and Sal in the process :-) Let me know what you think!

14. The Contract

Harry felt dazed as he stepped out of the fireplace and into the small, cozy living room that apparently belonged to Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. Two of the Founders of Hogwarts were still alive… and the most infamous one of them had offered him an Apprenticeship. How was this his life?

Behind him, the Founder of his House cleared his throat, and Harry turned to face him as he realized he must have been standing unmoving in the middle of the room for over a minute now. Godric was regarding him with that familiar warmth Harry had come to associate with the redhaired wizard, and almost against his will, he found himself dropping his guards again as Godric started towards one of the cabinets and took out a bottle and two tumblers. "If you'd rather be alone, just say the word and I'll leave you alone for a bit, but I imagine you have questions."

Harry contemplated the older wizard's words for a moment before sighing and moving towards one of the armchairs, taking one of the tumblers from Godric as he sat, nodding when Godric held out the bottle of what he guessed was something strong in a silent inquiry. He needed something strong right about now. "Yes, I have questions. So many of them I don't even know where to start," he ended with a strained chuckle, and Godric gave him a sympathetic look before filling both their glasses and sitting down across from him. The redhead swirled the contents of his glass, his gaze distant as he seemed to deliberate what to say to that, and Harry waited. His world had just been turned upside down. Again. He didn't even know where to start asking questions. So he waited.

And he didn't have to wait long. Godric took a small sip, and as he lowered the glass again he looked at Harry. "I'll tell you about us, and how it's possible that we're still alive. Hopefully that will answer some of your questions already… Feel free to interrupt at anytime," Godric started, and seemed to gather himself before continuing. "When I was very young, the witch hunts were all we Wizarding folk could think of. We couldn't hide as effectively back then as we do now, and whenever anyone was suspected of being a witch or wizard, in most cases they, and sometimes their entire family, would be murdered. Burned, drowned, hunted down, what was done to our kind was unspeakable… Hiding what we were was a matter of life and death. Some of the resources and spells we now have hadn't been invented back then, so we couldn't simply Obliviate a Muggle if one saw us by accident." Godric took another deep swallow, and Harry noted his posture changing as the older man remembered that time. The younger wizard couldn't imagine what that life must have been like, but it was obvious that remembering what had happened back then still pained the redhaired Founder, even after almost a millennium had passed.

"It was very much like a war back then. My family was rich, and we lived a sheltered life safely hidden away by our wards, but some of the smaller villages falling under my father's responsibility weren't as lucky, and the Muggles would attack those villages more and more often as their fear of us grew. I remember a day when my father returned from one of those villages. He had left over a week before that to protect that village from the Muggles with twelve other wizards under his command, all of them battle hardened men. Only four of them, my father included, returned that day."

Harry leaned forward, catching Godric's gaze as the older man paused, his drink forgotten. "What happened?" How could Muggles have defeated such a large number of wizards, especially at that time? And where was Godric going with this, why was he telling him all of this?

Godric shot him a rueful smirk, and Harry remembered how easy it had been for Simon… no, Salazar, to read his surface thoughts, and it was pretty obvious that Godric was capable of that as well as he spoke. "I thought you should know where we come from, and where the history books got it wrong. Because I'm not an impulsive do-gooder with delusions of grandeur, and Salazar isn't a Muggle and Muggleborn hating psychopath. But he is cautious of them, and with good reason, something I hope you will come to understand after I've told you this… Because that day when my father returned, we learned something that would change our lives forever. Somehow, those Muggles close to our home had started to use witches and wizards against their own kind, and my father had brought back one of those wizards. And that wizard was Salazar. I was only ten and didn't understand what was going on at that time, but I did know that things were bad by the look on my father's face as one of his men pulled Salazar off his horse with such violence it sent him to his knees in the mud at my father's feet. I remember seeing the hatred in the eyes of the men who had served the Gryffindor family for almost their entire lives. And these were men I knew, with whom I'd grown up with and played with in the courtyard. I had never in my life seen such loathing before, and it was only later that I understood that it had been Salazar who had killed their kinsmen."

There was a long moment of silence as Harry took this in, but he didn't speak as Godric stood and started pacing and refilled his glass before bringing it to his lips and downing the entire contents in one go before refilling again. "What those men, and at that point my father as well, failed to understand was that Salazar wasn't insane or evil... but his father was. Lord Slytherin was a dangerously brilliant man, and notorious for his experimentation with the Dark Arts. He also made it a habit to test his theories on his son…" Godric came to a halt in front of Harry, and the darkhaired teen bit his lip as he refrained from reacting. He needed to hear more, needed an explanation as to why his soon to be mentor had murdered his own kind. He didn't want to judge in the face of such honesty and openness, but it was hard. Very hard. But he was glad Godric was telling him this now, he just hoped there wouldn't be any more earth shattering revelations after this. And there had to be an explanation… he didn't know what he would do if there wasn't.

He had gotten to know Salazar over the past few weeks, or at least he thought he had. The man had done nothing but help him and guide him since they'd met. And despite being young, living with the Dursleys had taught Harry to read people pretty well, and he had never sensed any evil intent from either of the two Professors. He wanted to trust them, and he wanted this Apprenticeship. Why couldn't anything be straightforward for once?

Godric took his silence as his cue to go on, and the older wizard did so as he sat down again, fingering the rim of his glass absentmindedly. "I can't explain the finer details of what he did to Salazar, but he devised a ritual which resulted in a lifelong, unbreakable Magical Contract which bound Salazar's power to that of another person, a Muggle… That Contract gave that Muggle absolute power over him. All that bastard cared about was a powerful weapon that would follow his every command without question, and that's exactly what he got. Until my father killed the Muggle and Salazar's Contract unexpectedly transferred to him, and when my father died, the Contract transferred to me. You have felt Salazar's magic yourself, and you know how unnatural it is.. That's what has kept the both of us alive for all this time. Salazar's magic, and that cursed Contract allowing his magic to sustain me as well."

Gods… Harry leaned back in the armchair and took a sip of the liquor for the first time, feeling it burn its way down his throat as he swallowed and he had to stifle a cough. So much for no more earth shattering revelations. What Godric had just told him went so far beyond his comprehension.. He could feel his blood pounding in his ears, and he winced as he pinched the bridge of his nose. This was too much, he didn't know how to react.

"I think you broke his mind. That didn't take you long at all, what the Hell have you told him?" Harry's head whipped around to find the source of that familiar voice standing next to his chair, and he shot to his feet to get some distance between them. He hadn't noticed the man's arrival or when the room had gotten that much darker, but he was sure it was somehow linked to the man in front of him now. That unnatural magic was heavy in the air, pulsing with tight control in reaction to its owner's emotions. And those emotions were pretty clear in those pale eyes as Salazar crossed his arms, and Harry recognized at least some of them. Anger was the one most at the forefront, but there was something else Harry hadn't been expecting in that pale gaze. Fear.

For his part, Godric remained calm as he regarded the other wizard, and Harry had to admire the redhaired wizard's composure as Godric stood and went to the cabinet to get another glass. "I told him what he needed to know, about how we're not dead after over a thousand years of living. You may not agree right now, but it's important for him to know this. Especially now. The chance of someone figuring out who we are is growing every day, and I want to make sure at least one other knows what's binding us together in case something happens to either of us. Or would you rather leave it up to Dumbledore, or better yet, Voldemort to find a way to to use this against us?"

Harry was watching Salazar closely as Godric finished speaking, and the redhaired wizard's voice still rang in his ears as Salazar cursed, and as the pale wizard uncrossed his arms the teen noticed with trepidation that the older man's hands were trembling. And while the entire situation made him extremely uneasy, he had to admit that he didn't want to see the other man like this. Yes, they had hidden things from him, but he could understand the need to keep something like this secret. The scenario Godric had just sketched… If either Voldemort or Dumbledore found out about that Contract, and if from what he understood it was somehow transferable. It didn't bear thinking about.

The darkhaired teen visibly shuddered at the thought, and he looked up at Salazar. He waited until the older wizard met his gaze and they looked at each other for long moments, Harry in silent contemplation and Salazar in what Harry could only describe as apprehension. He made himself smile, as much for the two Founder's sake as it was to restore some sense of normalcy to the situation. "I only understand half of the implications of what Godric just told me, but I can understand completely why you would want keep this to yourself." And that's when he realized something else, and his smile became genuine. They had trusted him with something like this… how the Hell could he not trust them after that? Godric had given him something so powerful, it scared him. But if that wasn't trust, what was?

He had decided what to do. He didn't know what was going to happen, and what else they were still hiding, but that was okay. Because he trusted them.

"Thank you for trusting me with this… I won't betray you, I promise." Harry paused, taking a deep breath before he repeated what he had said earlier that day. "Salazar Slytherin, I accept your offer, if you'll have me."

ooo

Next up is how Salazar and Godric feel about all of this, and some more bonding! :-)