Weathered Creed~

Chapter 1: Glamourie

Harry sat, shocked. He blinked, rubbed his eyes and shook his head. This had to be a dream, but if it was it was the strangest dream.

"You must be mistaken, I am Harry Potter, and Salazar Slytherin has been dead for thousands of years!" But even as he said it he got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had seen the man's face before, in Dumbledore's office. The four founders were placed behind the desk, just above where the headmaster sat. His stomach did strange flip, this was Salazar.

Salazar gave a strained laugh, "Ah, but I am dead, Harry, and you are Septimus, come and we will talk."

Following obediently, Harry found himself in a larger room, a large couch and several plush chairs arranged in front of a massive hearth. Sitting down when the man motioned to one of the chairs he sat opposite of the strange wizard. The strange dead wizard.

"When I was twenty seven I met and fell in love with a witch named Sylvia. We had one child and lived very happily for three years before she died from health complications. Our daughter, Lydia, grew into a very good witch, married and had a son, Marvalo. I mourned my wife, when I met another woman. Her name was Narcissa." Salazar's hard eyes softened a little when he whispered her name. "We had a son, and he grew into a very powerful wizard under my schooling. Lydia, obsessed with being my sole heir, knew that I favored him over her and vowed to destroy him.

"Seth, was his name, he knew what his half-sister wanted and wanting to protect his own son, placed the Glamourie curse on himself and his son. He changed the components of his and his son's blood later, altering their appearance, leaving no trace of my influence. Secretly I knew what he had done, and made no move to contact him or any of his children or theirs.

"I took the secret to my grave, until the Chamber of Secrets was opened and the terror unleashed. I got to know Tom Riddle very well; I studied him and his followers and knew he was the spawn of my first child, Lydia. I knew only my secret heir would be able to stop him. I watched his opposers carefully, but could find not trace. When I came upon a most unusual man. He had black hair and deep eyes, I probed his mind undetected and found the memory I knew my son had wanted to implant upon every one of his heirs. The truth. I watched him carefully, the first of his line to marry a muggle born witch, but I was silent. He had a son, black hair and emerald eyes. I watched in horror as Tom destroyed your family, and when he turned to you I thought for certain my hope would be diminished. But your mother helped you, I must say James did well when choosing her for his wife. She put a simple but powerful spell on you, part of the old magic. So I knew with you, Tom's reign of terror would come to an end. And you've done fine, if I do so say myself. You would have done very well in Slytherin"

"The Sorting Hat told me that as well" Harry answered, still confused about what was happening. "But I begged to be put into anything but Slytherin. Ron told me there wasn't a wizard that hadn't gone bad who was in that house."

Salazar nodded his head, watching his son's heir carefully. "I see, so tell me Harry, are you willing to see what memory my son instilled in his heirs' mind before death took it's toll?"

Harry nodded his head, shrugging feeling somewhat ill at ease.

"Then wait here" Harry watched as the tall, imposing wizard left the room in a swirl of black cloth, only to return a minute later, a pensieve in his hands.

It was made of black stone, with several different gems imbedded around the sides, glittering in the light eerily.

"Come here" Harry obeyed, standing up and closing the distance between them in a few long strides. "Sit" He complied. Salazar took out his wand and muttered an incantation while looking Harry straight in the eye, refusing to bat an eye. When finished with the spell he commanded Harry to take out his own wand and press it to his temple, focusing on the name 'Septimus'.

Harry felt a cool hand on his forehead, a voice speaking softly in his ear. Slowly a swirl of memories filled his mind, forcing him to take a step back, gasping in surprise. A second hand gripped his shoulder, keeping him in place while the memories of someone else's' life danced across his mind. How long he stood like that, Harry wasn't sure but when he felt the cool hand draw away he blinked his eyes open. The cool hand wrapped itself around his wrist tugging away the wand. "Focus" Salazar reminded. He felt something slip away from him, leaving a blank hole where he had been focusing. "Open your eyes"

Harry watched as the founder of Slytherin placed a silvery substance into the basin of the pensieve before returning his wand back to him. When motioned to come forward he glanced down at the single strand of silver curiously. "Now watch"

Harry felt himself fall into the silver mist before coming face to face with James Potter. He looked around wildly for a moment, surely this was a cruel joke of some sort. A hand on his shoulder caused him to jump, before turning around to face Salazar. The wizard motioned to watch what was happening, and confused, Harry complied.

"Hello, Harry"

"Dad?" he asked perplexed. The image smiled sadly.

"Yes Harry. I am a memory of your father, implanted in your mind until the right time in which the secret would be told."

"I'm Salazar Slytherins' heir?"

"Yes Harry, but there is more. You need to stay with Salazar until you have completed your training, you are the one who can defeat the Dark Lord"

"No pressure" Harry said bitterly, eyes flashing. James looked sympathetic.

"Listen to him, learn from him, Harry, his teaching will be a great asset to you, do you understand"

"I'm not going back to Hogwarts?" feeling a slight twinge of sorrow before dismissing it.

"No, not yet"

"Salazar called me 'Septimus', why?"

"That would have been your name, had we remained true to our heritage. It is a name I gave you secretly when I implanted this memory into your mind. Your full, true, name is Septimus Argus Slytherin," he said with a hint of pride.

Harry tried to pull together what little Latin he knew, "Seventh watchful Slytherin? And isn't 'Argus' Filch's name?" sounding somewhat disgruntled.

James Potter laughed, "Close enough, my son, and yes. Argus was a god with eyes covering his body" the image faltered for a moment, the air around them wavering. James' face lost its amusement and he reached out a hand as if to caress his sons' face. Hesitating he drew back his hand, "You must go now, Septimus, you've got a lot to learn"

"Yes, father"

Harry felt himself hit the carpeted floor again, had he left? Shrugging away the thoughts he ran a hand through his hair absently.

"Come, your lessons begin now" Sensing hesitation Salazar turned around and gave his heir a sharp look. "What is it?"

"If your dead… then where...how?" he motioned around him at the room, and their furnishings.

"When I died my spirit was confined to a place only my true heirs could find. But I felt the need to retrieve you, before Tom had a chance. If I had hesitated any longer…" Salazar trailed off, as if suddenly becoming aware of the scars of Harry's face. "Those are not from Tom"

Harry likewise remembered his marred features and a hand flew up to feel two scars parallel on his left cheek. His eyes dimmed for a moment while his other hand traced the long jagged scar that ran from his right eye down his throat and disappearing down his collar. "But, the Glamourie charm" Harry muttered to himself, perplexed.

"All charms must have fallen away when you came back from the pensieve. It is called a Truth Pensieve, it shows the truth, and is quite handy in getting undestorted memories. Perhaps it sensed the Glamourie, and did what it was made to do, showed the truth" Salazar wanted to press Harry for answers, but decided against it, sensing that the boy didn't want to talk about it.

Something tugged at the back of Harry's mind and finally, before Salazar could ask questions he preferred not to answer, queried, "When will I return to…the living world?"

"When you have finished your training. For every year you spend here, it is six months there. You will return in six years our time, three theirs. Now if we might get started?"

Nodding his head, Harry started after him, but paused. Bringing out his wand again he tapped it to each of his scars and muttered a quick spell. A warm, tingling sensation swept over his face and with a tentative hand, swept it over smooth, unmarred skin. With a grunt of satisfaction he followed his ancestor through the archway and down a long sweeping hallway.

*~*~*~*~*

Thank you to my reviewers:

Byproduct of evil

Tweety is cool

Slytherin Damien- LOL I was about to upload this chapter when I received your review. And yes I edited it, it was much to short for my liking. My original idea was to have him go back in time, to have Salazar train him, but then I changed my mind and inbetween all my other fics, my brain got muddled and I started spouting nonsense(see my fic 'I'm Not that Naïve', for conformation). Therefore, I'm still deciding where to go with this. But I'm still liking the idea of it being dark. I'm weird that way.

Lady Phoenix Slytherin- ok, now it's getting freaky, I had just finished writing the above comment when I received YOUR review.

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