Harry was aware that he felt properly rested for the first time in…he didn't know how long, and that he wasn't sore either, in any way, for the first time in he didn't know how long. The memory of what had happened, the choices that he had made, and the result sprang into his mind as soon as he started waking up, and he would have thought that it had all been some weird dream if it wasn't for the fact that he was laying on the luxuriously soft mattress that he had gone to sleep on, tucked comfortably under the wonderfully soft blanket that he could remember being tucked under.
"Are you awake?" Slytherin's deep voice asked just before the bed dipped, and a gentle hand combed through his hair, again and again, and again until Harry could happily have gone back to sleep. But curiosity got the better of him and he cracked open his eyes, blinking up at the man sitting on the bed, here and very much alive.
"Mm-hm. Nothing hurts," Harry said softly.
"I healed you while you were sleeping, of everything that has been done to you recently. A lot of your headaches were due to the fact that you did not have the right prescription for your glasses," Slytherin pinched his lips together but his hand remained gentle as he combed through Harry's hair.
"You healed my eyes?" Harry asked reaching up with a lazy hand realising that he didn't have glasses on but could see Slytherin perfectly.
"Yes, along with your hand and the damage that Snape has done to you with his joke for Occulamency lessons. He might as well have left you wide open to my cretin of a descendant," Slytherin sneered.
Harry managed to sit up, and turned to lean against the headboard of the bed, looking at the man sitting next to him, taking him in now that he was out of the portrait. He was as handsome as he had been in the portrait, and he was even bigger of a presence in the room than Harry had expected him to be, he towered over Harry at 6,4 and with his shoulders built to watch his frame he seemed to take up a huge amount of space in the room, but instead of feeling overwhelmed, he felt as though he was able to shelter behind that strength, he was able to take the moment that he had not had, and catch his breath.
He lifted his hand and looked down at it, there were faint pink lines on the back of his hand, but nothing from what it had been as an open, bleeding mess. He didn't feel any pain from it, and he didn't realise how relieved he would be to see his hand healed after weeks and weeks of going through the torture. Long fingers wrapped around his hand, Slytherin's thumb rubbed over the marks and he tightened his hand around Harry's making him look into those sapphire blue eyes that didn't seem as cold and sharp as they had in the portrait, they were soft and warm as they looked at Harry.
"Thank you, for healing me," Harry said and that hand tightened around his, not enough to hurt, but enough to feel him.
"You don't need to thank me, you broke me free from the painting, and you are mine to protect," Slytherin said, and Harry just blinked at him.
"Huh?" He heard himself asking, and Slytherin just looked amused more than anything else.
"We are bound together now, I told you that would happen if you chose to release me,"
"I feel like I should have asked how it was that we would be bound," Harry sighed, dropping back into the pillows.
"Though you have a lot of the attributes of my House, you have a lot of the attributes of Godric's as well," Slytherin chuckled amused. "Yes, you should have asked how we would be bound together,"
"You could have told me," Harry narrowed his eyes.
"Where would be the fun in that? I have been watching you for over a year now Harry, it was not a snap decision that made me reveal myself to you, and choose to take my chance at living right now," Slytherin smiled, and Harry found himself blinking again, it was like smooth chocolate, rich and something harry knew that he could easily become addicted to seeing.
"You truly can't use the same trick again?" Harry asked.
"No, it wasn't Black magic but it was Dark magic, and it was only sheer will and magical power that is no longer here that allowed me to cast that spell," Slytherin settled back on the bed, leaning on one arm and keeping Harry's hand in his other hand.
"Magic that is no longer here?" Harry frowned at the phrasing.
"Magical strength and a bond to be more exact. I should really explain to you why I chose to do this which in itself is an explanation as to how I did it," Slytherin said thoughtfully looking at the ceiling of the room they were in.
"You don't have to tell me, it is not really anything to do with me," Harry shook his head realising what he had been asking. The look that he received in response made him flinch back a little, it was pure anger.
"I am not angry at you Little Lion," Slytherin said quickly, and he did something that sent Harry's heart racing, he raised his hand still in Slytherin's and pressed a kiss to the back of it. It was such an old-fashioned thing to do, it was something that was so…different to the way that he had been treated by anyone.
"Who are you angry at?" Harry asked.
"The people that have kept things from you, the people that have made you think that you can't ask questions. To be clear, this has everything to do with you, we are bound together, and you are part of the reason that I am here, so you have every right to know what has led to this moment. Also to be clear, you may ask as many questions as you want of me, whether they are to do with you or not, and I will tell you if it is something that I do not wish to answer, and I will hope that you will respect that,"
Harry found himself nodding while staring at the man in front of him utterly baffled. This was something that he had absolutely not been expecting, no one treated him like this, and no one spoke to him like this. He closed his hand a little tighter around Slytherin's, holding onto him.
"It really starts with another prophecy," Slytherin said and tilted his head when Harry snorted.
"I have only known about the prophecy on me for…however long I have been unconscious,"
"Two days,"
"Huh, two days then, and I already have a disklike for them," Harry sighed.
"I think, I hope that you will like this one," Slytherin smiled, and he made himself comfortable again on the bed. "The Prophecy was read for me by someone that I trusted and respected, not like the fraud that teaches in this castle. Rowena was a seer,"
"Rowena Ravenclaw?" Harry spluttered.
"Yes. She came to me one night and told me that she had read a Prophecy for me. We went over the wording of it with Godric and Helena, and we discussed its meanings and the options that it laid out for me. It gave me two paths that I could walk, and I had to choose one. The first option was to remain at Hogwarts with the others, carry on making the School great and ensure that my name went down in history as one of the most powerful and Noble wizards of my time, and many generations to come along with the other three. Or, I needed to go into a stasis somehow and wait until it was the right time for me to walk freely again, my name would be blackened by the time that I walked free again, the work that I had put in along with the others forgotten about. I would have to face a decedent and help rid the world of him, but my happiness would also be here as well,"
"Your happiness?" Harry asked softly, something in his chest clenching.
"My happiness. The right person would be able to free me from my stasis, and they would be able to survive doing so. Rowena's Prophecy said that we would be the prize for each other for the things that we had suffered through our lives, we would be each other's reward, and we would belong to each other,"
Slytherin reached forward and combed his fingers through Harry's hair again, looking him over in a way that no one had ever looked at Harry before, looking at him in a way that made him feel….everything, so many emotions poured through him at the look, at the closeness of the other, at the words that were being spoken to him.
"Me?" He asked breathlessly.
"Yes, I have had my suspicions since you walked in here, but you were young and I needed to be sure, if you were the wrong person trying to remove me from the portrait would kill you. But yes, it is you, you are my reward for my wait,"
"But for that…you had to leave behind your friends, your time, your name, everything that you had known," Harry said.
"And in that was the choice. Rowena's Prophecy said that I could live a happy life in my own time. I believe my friendship with the others has been severely unknown, we were family, siblings, we loved each other more than anything in the world, and we trusted each other more than anything in the world,"
Harry flinched back at those words.
"I am not telling you this to make you feel guilty, I want you to understand the choice that I had to make, but it was my choice to make. If I stayed my family name, which at that point was one of the highest in the world, would remain intact, we would be respected, and I would live out my life. But, I would never meet you," Slytherin smiled as he looked at Harry. "I took a year to make the choice, the knowledge that one of my descendants would be wreaking havoc and try and destroy Wizarding Britain, destroy this school drove me, but the thought of you, of never meeting you, whoever you were going to be, of never getting to know you, in the end, I made the choice that I wanted to stop my descendant, I wanted to meet the person that was meant for me,"
"I am…I can not imagine being what you pictured," Harry looked down at their joined hands.
"Look at me," Slytherin…no Salazar said in that sharp tone, and again Harry found himself responding, looking up to meet those blue eyes. "You are not what I pictured, you are so much better," Salazar said before leaning forward and pressing their lips together.
It was so unexpected that Harry wavered for a second, his free hand waving a little in the air, before he settled it onto Salazar's broad shoulder, his fingers clenching into the fabric as a spark went through him from where their lips were touching and seemed to spread out from there through his entire body. He closed his eyes and pressed into the kiss, pressed into Salazar who slid his free arm around Harry's waist and held him comfortably, and he took him apart with his kisses.
Harry hadn't really understood the excitement of kissing and things like that, he had been too busy trying to survive to really think about it, and his kiss with Cho had confirmed that it wasn't worth the stress. But this, this was everything that people talked about and more, and Salazar took him apart with his mouth, kissing him sweetly until all Harry could think about was the contact between the two of them and the heat between them.
When they eventually parted Harry wasn't sure how long they had been kissing, but Salazar's lips were kiss bruised and fuller than they had already been, and he could feel that his own lips were swollen up as well. They simply sat for a little while staring into each other's eyes as the thing between them, the bond was practically tangible.
"I am more than happy with my side of the deal," Salazar said softly, his expression and his tone saying everything to Harry, telling him that he was speaking the truth.
"How did you do it?" Harry asked, and then the words slipped out without him realising, "how did you make it to me?"
"My friends helped," Salazar smiled, "When I made my choice they accepted it, and they helped me figure out a way to do it. We found the ritual to place me into a portrait where I would be able to interact and get myself released when it was the right time. We spent the next six months together as we prepared for the ritual, just spending time together and saying goodbye essentially. And then we pooled our magic together to cast the ritual. We were the most powerful witches and wizards of our time, and pooling our magic together, with the determination that we call had for it to succeed due to our bonds of love was a once in a lifetime chance and one that definitely can not be repeated considering we used the magic of Hogwarts as well to facilitate the ritual. The teachers were furious with us, we essentially short-circuited the whole castle for a week, magic played up that whole week because of the power of the ritual, of course, Godric, Helena and Rowena were the only ones that had to deal with it," Salazar grinned, startling a laugh out of Harry.
"Did they keep you company?" Harry asked concerned, absently rubbing his thumb over Salazar's hand.
"Yes. It was different of course, but they kept me company, and then their children did, and their grandchildren,"
"It was such a long time," Harry said, imagining the amount of time that Salazar had been stuck in the portrait waiting.
"It has been. And it has not been. Time moved differently, I was aware of time passing, and sometimes it felt as though I was never going to meet you, but then other times generations passed in the blink of an eye," Salazar shook his head. "And then I saw you the first time,"
"You weren't sure?" Harry asked.
"I felt the connection with you, I was sure it was you, but then I worried that it was desperation, that it was my longing to finally find you. But as I watched you, I became more and more sure," Salazar smiled that smile again and Harry could feel his heart fluttering faster in his chest.
"You gave up so much for me," Harry frowned a little as the thought came to him, breaking through that feeling.
"No," Salazar laughed leaning forward to kiss Harry again, "I gave up so much for me,"
"What?" Harry blinked confused between the kiss and that feeling sparking through him again and the words that Salazar had spoken.
"I gave up so much for me so that I could meet you and have what Rowena said that we would have between us. It was purely selfish, I assure you," Salazar chuckled.
"Somehow I doubt that," Harry shook his head, but he was chuckling with the other man anyway.
"Ok, not purely, I also had the responsibility of wiping out the cretin that is my brother's great great great great great grandson, or however many greats it is," Salazar shrugged.
"Do you know about the snake face?" Harry asked and watched as Salazar blanched.
"Snake…face?" He said slowly.
"Yeah, he went for a snake face,"
"Define snake face please?" Salazar clenched his eyes shut.
"Literal snake face, no nose only slits, completely bald, kind of looks a bit scaly, oh he went for red eyes as well," Harry explained.
"Dear Merlin, I knew that I had gotten all the brain cells out of me and my brother, but I had hoped that some brain cells would make their way back into the gene pool. Merlin, I wish I had chosen a panda or bushbaby for my representative animal," Salazar rolled his eyes, "it also would have been worth it to see Godric's face when I announced my choice," He added in an undertone, and that did it for Harry.
Salazar looked at him a little bemused as he sat back and started laughing, laughing so hard that tears welled up in his eyes, and he realised that he had not been able to laugh like this before. He wasn't sure whether it was the thought of the notorious Slytherin announcing that he was going to have a bushbaby for a representative animal and picturing the faces of the other founders at the choice, picturing generations of incredibly bemused Slytherins walking around with bush babies on their chests, imagining Snape as the Head of the bushbaby House, or picturing Voldemort with massive bushbaby eyes and features. It was probably all of it and this incredibly weird situation.
"Better?" Salazar asked amused as Harry finally calmed down.
"Much," Harry smiled.
"That is much better to see," Salazar smiled back, stroking his finger along Harry's cheek.
"What happens now?" Harry asked settling back against the pillows.
"Now we spend a little time together while you are healing up, get to know each other properly, and then we deal with the outside world," Salazar offered.
"That sounds good," Harry nodded leaning back into the pillows of the bed.
"I will deal with those who have hurt you, and make sure that you are not controlled the way that you have been," Salazar promised, turning Harry's hand in his and running his thumb over Harry's hand where those words were still visible on his hand. "No one will hurt you again while I am around,"
"No one has ever…" Harry started to say and then cut himself off.
"Please, finish what you were saying," Salazar requested, though his eyes were narrowed.
"No one has ever really protected me for the sake of protecting me," Harry said, and the fury on Salazar's face would have scared him if it wasn't clear that it was for him.
"I will always protect you, Harry, you will always be the most important person to me," Salazar promised before he leant down and kissed Harry again, powerful and dominating, but all designed to drive Harry to pleasure and draw him into the moment with nothing but Salazar, his lips, his hands, his body in his mind, that power between them, the bond humming and welling up inside Harry, so tangible that he almost felt as though he could wrap his hands around it and hold onto.
Salazar pressed Harry down onto the sinfully soft bed, his sinfully strong body pressing into Harry just right, seeming to blanket Harry's smaller body, protecting him and shielding him from the world. His dark hair fell around them like a curtain, shielding Harry and locking them into their own little world that Harry never wanted to leave.