Disclaimer: I am not JKR and I am not making any money whatsoever from this.
Chapter 5: Salazar Slytherin
In the week following Hermione's birthday, everything had returned to normal, meaning Ron's unnatural consideration of Hermione's feelings had completely disappeared. Ginny was sitting next to Neville Longbottom, who Hermione had volunteered to help Ginny with her Herbology homework, trying to remember what he'd said about the life cycle of Mandrakes; trying because Ron and Hermione were once again arguing about their pets. As the noise level increased, she slammed her book shut, gathered her parchments, gave Neville a smile and walked out of the common room; she knew where she could get some peace and quiet.
After about an hour of work, she had gotten as far as she could without asking Neville for more help and so decided to take a break before starting on an essay for Professor Lupin. She glanced around the room trying to decide what to do when she saw the door to the museum and realized she hadn't actually seen the museum when she'd been in there last.
She walked into the museum and turned to her left, starting down the aisle. There she saw many interesting instruments and books under cases.
THE BOOK OF THOTH, one placard read, DISCOVERED AND DONATED BY ADAM ABBOT, ARCHAEOLOGIST. The "book" was a very old papyrus full of Hieroglyphics. There was a cloak claiming to belong to the very first Hogwarts Headmaster and a pair of socks that Dumbledore had worn during his vanquishing of Grindewald. It seemed to Ginny that the room was merely a place to keep rubbish that had belonged to famous Hogwart's alumni and she was about to leave when she heard a man say, "What are you doing here?"
She walked across the room sidestepping the pedestals and tables on which other items were displayed and over to the painting and glanced at the others noting their frames were empty. "Hi." She said warily, remembering that Gryffindor was friends with him, but still unable to trust any Slytherin, much less The Slytherin.
"Are you afraid of me?" He asked amused.
"No." She said standing up a little straighter.
"Hmm…What are you doing here?" Slytherin asked.
"Just looking around," she answered indignant at the unspoken accusation.
"Shouldn't you be off saving someone?" He asked nastily.
Ginny stared at him bemusedly, "Why?"
"Isn't that what you Gryffindors do, save people?" He asked scathingly. "Stand up for those who cannot defend themselves? Or is it that you only save your own?"
"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked starting to get angry.
"I've seen many students pass through the hallways of this school, paying special attention to Slytherins and Gryffindors, curious to see how they interact. Some decades they get along, others they do not, but, there are certain things you can count on, Slytherins will always watch out for themselves and Gryffindors will watch out for everyone else, especially students being bullied or made fun of…"
"I don't see what this has to do with me."
"Last week I was on my way to visit a scribe in one of the library paintings when I saw a group of Slytherins teasing one of their own, this was unusual because Slytherins don't do this in public corridors and then I saw you look over and keep on walking. It was the first time I'd seen a Gryffindor ignore someone in need of help."
Ginny stood there a few minutes staring at the portrait, unsure of what to say. It was true, it was wrong and un-Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin had told her this and she was once again confused. Thankfully at that moment the door opened and Ginny looked up to see Luna walk in. "Luna" she exclaimed.
Luna must have heard her but she didn't say hello, she just stopped in front of a cauldron and inspected it, Ginny heard her say "that's weird."
With a final glance at Slytherin's portrait, now empty she walked towards Luna. "What's weird?"
"The cauldron, something's off about it." Luna responded vaguely.
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, holding in the comment that something was off about Luna.
"I don't know. Something" Luna answered still staring at the cauldron intensely. Ginny rolled her eyes and pulled Luna out of the room, lest Slytherin return and decide to continue the conversation, challenging her to a game of Exploding Snap.
A/N: Salazar's back! He's almost as hard to write as Draco!
I've been meaning to do this for a bit: Thanks HP Lexicon, it's where I've been getting most of my info, including the timelines, so that I don't make anything happen that might conflict with the books anyway, THANKS!
