Challenge # 58 The Magic Mirror Challenge Someone does something with a mirror.
Title: Into the Mirror
Rating: PG
Characters: Salazar Slytherin, OFC
Author's notes: This is a prequel to "A Reflection Out of Time"
"Welcome back Aurelia," a smooth voice cut through the fog that bound her mind.
The young woman opened her eyes, shook her head to clear it and got slowly to her feet. A glance at her surroundings caused a moment of panic as she found herself in a small featureless room of white. One wall was a made of glass apparently, and outside the glass stood the tall man in green robes who had spoken her name.
"Salazar… What have you done? Where am I?" she asked in a trembling voice.
"Where you will stay unless you give in to me," came the haughty answer.
Anxiously, she pressed herself against the glass in front of her; it felt cool and very solid beneath her fingertips. She bent to search for her wand, but her captor's smug tones halted her and brought her attention back to his face.
The man held up her wand for her to see. "Looking for this? You cannot escape. That prison is more than a room, Aurelia, it's a trap that will hold you in its grasp for a 1000 years, if necessary. You cannot escape it, unless I let you out. Which, of course, I will be happy to do if you will simply stop being so stubborn and marry me as you once agreed to."
Sorrow crossed her aristocratic face, and the young woman tried to swallow back her sudden stab of fear. "I cannot marry you, Salazar. I told you that before. Your actions, as appalling as they are, change nothing. I've made up my mind. You only want me because you've decided that my bloodline is the most suitable for you to use in order to carry out your misguided theories about pureblood superiority. I won't be a party to your ravings, your selfishness and the pain it will cause. I don't know you any more. The man I once knew would never have done something like this."
"You've forced me to this extreme, Aurelia. You promised to be my wife then you changed your mind, pulled away from me, considered marrying another. I can't allow that. If you don't honor your original commitment to me, I will seal you into this mirror and keep you in there for all time."
He held up a crystal ball for her to see. The center of it glowed red and pulsed with the sound of his voice. "If I break this ball, you will be cut off from all contact. No one will ever know you were there even if you scream forever at the top of your voice. Then the only way out for you will be for someone else to take your place and be sealed in forever in your stead."
"How can you be so cruel to someone you say you love?" she asked quietly.
"It is because I love you that I do this. I will not be thwarted in my plans. So I ask you again…will you change your mind and marry me as you promised? I am warning you though, I will leave you in that prison if you refuse me. If I cannot have you then no one else will either."
She nodded sadly. "I know you would, Salazar, and that is why I must refuse you. I've loved you ever since I was a child. I looked up to you, admired you, but as I grew, I began to realize that I never truly knew you. Your views that say that only those, who through an accident of birth, are descended from a line of pure wizardry, are fit to flourish, have become more and more extreme over time. They will tear wizardkind apart if left to spread. I won't be a party to that. I won't bring another Slytherin into the world so that you can found a dynasty to rule over others."
Her hands trembled against the glass. "You once helped to found a school to help and guide and teach, yet now, even your friends, the other founders of this great school, disagree with your views. They all stand against you in this. You won't prevail in the end."
"I have ways of dealing with my friends," his voice infused the word with contempt.
"Listen to yourself!" she cried. "Do you hear what you're saying? You once stood beside them, worked with them. You helped to found this school to help all of wizardkind. Now all you'll do is destroy it. I don't understand what happened to you, Salazar, but I cannot aid you in achieving your aims. I won't. I'd rather die."
The dark wizard's hand shook ever so slightly as he raised the glowing ball in front of her face. "That is your final word on the subject?" he asked coldly. His eyes glowed oddly in the flickering torchlight.
"Yes," she whispered. "Yes, it is."
He stared at her for a moment as if memorizing her features for all time. Then with a fluid gesture, he smashed the globe of crystal into the stone floor.
The sheet of glass in front of her face shimmered slightly but otherwise remained unchanged to her eyes. Slytherin stared into the mirror for a long moment, then with an angry flurry of green material, he turned and marched out of the room without a backward glance, slamming the door behind him.
Aurelia's knees gave out beneath her, and she sank to the floor of her prison staring after him in silence before finally whispering softly, "Goodbye, Salazar."
