Summary: In a fit of fear, Harry Potter disappears from his abusive aunt and uncle's nearing his seventh birthday and lands hundreds of years in the past. Eventual Rowena Ravenclaw/Harry Potter
CHAPTER FIVE: ALONE
Alone - having no one else present.
"Harry." A voice in the breeze caught Harry's attention. The voice stank of ash and blood and hurt and was so familiar to Harry, that it hurt. "Harry, brother, please." The gentle begging in the voice was startling to Harry and with all his strength, he awoke.
"Sal." Harry gagged on the smoke that surrounded them. In blinking his eyes, he saw fire creeping through the front room of the house. No danger, he noticed, but it was there. Salazar was still holding onto the grimoire tightly and was quietly crying.
"Harry," Salazar said with a sob. "You're - by the GODS!" Harry reached out to clutch his brother's hand.
"I'm with you." Harry promised. Sal cried loudly and Harry's eyes drifted. He was propped against the far wall, across from the bay window they had been hiding by. Behind on torn apart window, beyond their home was pure destruction.
"Eve - she -" Salazar hesitated and turned his head.
Harry saw her then. Their little sister, the only one that Harry had ever had, was lying limply in a pool of her own blood by the staircase. He could see where the blood was coming from; her neck was tilted at an entirely wrong angle and her eyes…they were wide open and filled with fright.
"Mama?" Harry whispered. "Pa?"
Salazar cried. It was a terrible thing and it hurt Harry's ears to hear it. He stared upwards, at the fiery blaze and a roof that was no longer there. He could see daylight streaming in. Who knew how long he had been asleep?
"We need to bury her." Salazar said finally, tears drying on his cheeks. "There is nothing of Mama and Pa..but - but Eve, she was just simply struck by the magical backlash.
"This is my fault." Salazar said dimly as Harry pulled himself up and glanced across the room. The house was in smithereens. Half the staircase was gone, and looking over there was sickening as well what with Eve's broken body laying at the bottom of the stairs.
"No, it isn't." Harry whispered. "Please, don't say that." He curled up, and leaned his head against his knees. His tunic and trousers were covered in soot but unsinged and unburned.
"We need to bury Eve." Salazar mumbled again, but he sat down next to Harry with a small thud. "And then we need to go. The entire village was here tonight and they're all dead."
"They're dead," Harry muttered, shock in his voice.
"The ritual Mama and Pa did -" Salazar started but stopped. "It - uh, protected us and destroyed whatever was outside the doors."
"Eve opened the door." Harry said dully.
"Eve opened the door." Salazar agreed mournfully. "Pa gave me the heirlooms. Grandmother Mina's locket, the family ring and the grimoire. And you have your inheritance papers and such."
The Peverall ring thrummed on Harry's finger. "We should go to Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Salazar repeated. Even in their grief, the way he spoke the place made Harry snort. It was a silly name for a place. "What in Merlin's great name is Hoggywarts?"
"Just Hogwarts, jerk." Harry nudged Salazar with a faint, sad smile. "It's my property, from the Peverall line. It's in Scotland. Just a - just a minute -"
Harry pulled the perfectly in tact inheritance papers and tapped the paper with his finger, thinking about Hogwarts. Slowly a map appeared in black ink. They were far from Scotland, maybe even months away but it was doable.
"And it's called Hogwarts?" Salazar said in disbelief.
"St. Hogwarts," Harry said, rolling his eyes. He focused on the parchment and words appeared to the right of the map. "Originally belonging to the builder of St. Hogwarts, Lord Emelius Peverall, St. Hogwarts is a sprawling castle alongside the Peverall Forests."
"You have a bloody castle." Salazar deadpanned.
Harry shrugged.
"Guess we have somewhere to go." Salazar said. His eyes drifted to Eve. "But first -"
"We have to bury Eve." Harry said solemnly.
And so they did. Getting up and walking out to the half burnt corpses in their yard was hard enough, but clearing a path and building a grave for their sister was even harder. At the end of the day, when light was fading, Eveline Selene Slytherin was placed in an oak casket and buried at the front of the house. When Harry dragged the two packs outside, he saw Salazar wave a hand and beautiful flowers appeared at the gravestone.
"East, right?" Salazar asked dully, brushing a hand along the gravestone they'd conjured together.
"Until we hit the merchant's route and then we head North. Keep travelling until we hit a town called Moris and then west and north AGAIN at a town called Hyland - "
"Lots of north." Salazar comment. He nodded towards the east forest line. "Away from the village then, good. Let's go."
"Yeah," Harry said, looking back sadly at the home he had come to love. "Let's go."
The treeline gave out on a hill overlooking Merchant's Pass, as the road was dubbed and the two breached it nearly four hours after leaving. In the darkness of night, no one was traveling which made it easier for the boys to start their traveling.
Harry guessed it had been one or two in the morning when they hesitantly stopped and made a fire off the road. They only had room for two slim blankets in their packs so they huddled together to catch warm.
Salazar slept soundly but Harry felt he couldn't. Instead, he stared up at the blinking stars and thought rapidly about the tragedy that had taken place. The entire time he had with the Slytherin family, he had felt like something was off, something was strange. When Mama or Pa cast a spell, or even Salazar and Eve.
Harry scowled. What was wrong with that picture?
He closed his eyes and then he knew.
Even from a young age, Harry would be struck by images of places or people he'd never seen. A great black dog prancing around a crib; four men laughing in a small living room; a woman gently singing lullabies. And in all of these picture-perfect moments that Harry used to cling to, they all had the same thing.
Wands.
Long sticks that magic didn't just come out of, but danced through the very being of the wooden creation. Wands were special.
And apparently unknown in this day and age.
Harry wanted desperately to wake Salazar up and demand to know anything about wands but, in truth, Salazar would probably know nothing if Mama didn't and would be mad that Harry woke him up. With another deep scowl, Harry stood up and began hunting.
Keeping an eye on his brother was easy after he found a slab of wood (and judging by the trees around them, apple) and slowly began carving.
As he carved, he felt the wood with his magic and felt a looseness in the wood. Maybe this wand wouldn't be perfect, but it might be doable.
By the time Salazar had awoken, Harry had put out the fire, put away his half carved wand and knife and eaten a strip of jerky. Harry felt guilty as they walked and Salazar didn't know about his secret plans, but he didn't want to worry Salazar any more than he was.
They'd reached a grove of trees that covered the path in a nice shade when Salazar finally spoke.
"What's in your pack?" Salazar asked loosely.
"Nothing," Harry said quickly.
"Liar." Salazar snorted. He stopped and turned. "It's just us now, Harry. No lies. Please."
Harry sighed. "It's stupid. You don't have to worry about it."
"Please, Harry," Salazar said tiredly.
Harry sighed but swung his pack to lay gently on an old, cut down tree trunk and rifled past his snacks, a few coins and clothes to reach the half-carved wand. When Salazar had his hands on it, he ran across the wood and studied half-carved runes carved off to the side.
"Power, River, Strength." He repeated.
"Just some sample runes," Harry shrugged, "Power to enhance magic, River to let the magic run through the wand and Strength to amplify the spells."
"Might work," Salazar muttered, glancing over at Harry. He let Harry shove the wand back into his bag. "Don't wands need cores?"
"Do they?" Harry asked, face drooping. "Mama and Pa never mentioned anything about wands."
"There isn't a lot of wandmakers out there." Salazar shrugged. "The Slytherin family never used wands themselves." His face turned curious. "But the grimoire has information about wandmaking, I believe. We can look tonight if you want."
Harry's face lit up. "I'd like that."
Salazar grinned back and they began walking again.
They reached Moris in two days. Each night and whatever free time Harry had was dedicated to his wand. He had no idea when or if they would ever meet a magical creature to help power his wand but he was persistent in his new project. The wand was flimsy and runes carved in the base. It looked fine for a first try but Harry wondered if he could get better at carving if he made a different one.
The first thing Harry saw of Moris was a tall steeple. It was painted a pristine white and gold and beautiful stain glass windows flashed yellow and red and blue in the sunlight. He could count at least two pubs in the area, a large town square and a few shops in the town so far and they had only barely entered the town!
They headed towards the smaller pub that had a small sign swinging above the doorway: "Rooms Available". It wasn't too busy in the pub and the pub owner (a plump red haired woman with twinkling eyes) was kind enough to give them a two bed room at half price.
Harry stuck to the room while Salazar went to scrounge up information; see if any of the Muddies were coming for them. He came back with news.
"There's a few wizarding families." Salazar said gleefully. "I just met a chap downstairs. Gerald Gryffindor was his name. He's asked us to dinner with his family."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked worriedly. "Why would he ask us to dinner?"
"Related to the Westchester's on their mother's side." Salazar replied, digging through his bag as he pulled out matching coats, one in emerald and black and the other in scarlet and black. "Remember, Mama is - was related to them."
"The Mudbloods got them too." Harry muttered, remembering a solemn conversation.
"Yes." Salazar said, more focused on soothing out invisible wrinkles on the coat than their conversation. "Think we can conjure decent shoes?"
"Or transfigure maybe." Harry shrugged. With that, the two went to work. After all, they should look good for distant family, shouldn't they?