Easy Way Out
Hi everybody! Finally I present to you the long awaited chapter. Find out what happened to Salazar, why it is his fault, and also what happened to Harry.
Last chapter:
Both Snape and Remus agreed that when Salazar woke up they would get to the bottom of this and try and help the poor boy. Just as the two were about to head upstairs for bed, they heard a scream. They looked at each other in alarm and then raced upstairs to Salazar's room and saw him thrashing around on the bed screaming "It's my fault! It's my fault!"
Chapter 11
Easy Way Out
An hour after Remus and Snape finally got Salazar awake and calmed down, they all found themselves sitting down to a cup of hot chocolate. Salazar sat quietly with his knees drawn up to his chest, not saying a thing, while the two adults looked on at him in concern.
Ten minutes later, without looking up, Salazar began to tell his tale in no more than a whisper. He told them all about his father, about the abuse, the rapes,and how he had run away from home after the bastard had killed his mother for arguing with him about his treatment of their son.
He told them about meeting up with Godric, and becoming best friends with the older boy. Then how the two of them met up with Rowana and Helga and how the group quickly became inseparable. Together they had dreamt up the idea of a school for magical children. It had taken three years to build, and the result was fabulous. It was a magnificent castle as well as a safe haven for the many young witches and wizards who were at risk of joining or being victims of the war that had just started. The war that was being lead by Salazar's very own father, Xantonius Slytherin.
When Salazar heard what his father had done he knew that he would have to be the one to bring down him down. So, along with teaching children, he and Godric also took the time to create a defense group that called themselves the Aurors. They trained constantly in preparation of the war. Together, with Godric (age 20) and Salazar (age 17) leading, they went out into battle. There they did the impossible and took down almost all of the Dark Lord's Shadow Majai, before the Dark Lord himself gave an appearance.
Salazar told them all about his fight with his father, then Godric's timely, and brave arrival. Then he went on to say how he had caught his father by surprise and managed to kill him, and how with his last dying breath, his father had managed to whisper into his ear, "At last you make me proud my son. By my death you become what you have always feared to be, a wizard unafraid of killing to get what he wants. You have become just like me. Like father like son, at last." And with that he died with his lips twisted into a malicious smirk.
"Godric and the others did what they could to get me out of my depression. But I could do nothing but think about what my father had said to me. A part of me knew that what he told me was wrong, but…I think maybe he put me under some compulsion spell, because all I could think about was how it might be true. How it might be best if I just…"
Salazar let out a sigh and looked up at Severus and Remus hesitantly, pleadingly almost. "I-I don't know what made me think it was the only way. I should've just told my friends what I was feeling. They could've helped me. But I-I did a really stupid thing. I told myself that it would be best if I didn't let myself be around anymore. I might sink into darkness like my father. I might become my father's son. I …decided it would better for everyone if I just took myself out of the equation. I took a p-poison."
Severus and Remus both gasped and Salazar looked down forlornly at the floor. "That's not all though," he said quietly, "When I died...something really bad happened. A-Apparently my father's spirit wasn't completely gone, and with me leaving my body, well…He decided to take control. He became me. And because my body technically wasn't dead, my spirit couldn't move on to heaven. I was stuck on earth. Doomed to watch as my father lived my life, pretending to be me. My friends were alarmed with my sudden change, but they didn't suspect what had really happened. How could they?"
"Over the years I was forced to watch helplessly as my father turned my students evil. He convinced all of the pureblood students that muggles and muggle-borns weren't worthy of our world. He talked Godric into separating the students into houses, with all purebloods going into his own. He turned my students dark-used them for his own personal gain.
It took years for my friends to finally figure out that I, meaning my father, had gone evil. They threw him out of the castle, and that is when he once again became the Dark Lord. Though everyone thought it was me. He killed thousands before Godric finally managed to kill him. But even then he never really died. He had somehow managed immortality. I watched as he took over the lives of those with power, who like me, took the easy way out and committed suicide. Each time he became the new Dark Lord of that time.
First there was Lord Kythra, then Lord Mythos, then Lord Grindelwald, and then finally Lord Voldemort. Each time he waited patiently until he found the perfect powerful wizard to take their own life before he possessed them. Tom Riddle was the youngest. He was only ten when he took his own life. I blame the orphanage for that. What a cruel place it was. When my father had possessed that poor boy's body, I was outraged. I knew I needed to do something to stop him but I didn't know what.
After Lord Voldemort's first defeat, something unexpected happened. My father had become trapped to the last body that he had, because of an infant child's magic. Harry Potter. The only way for him to come back this time was to bring back the body of Tom Riddle. Years later-he finally succeeded, but at least this time he hadn't possessed anyone else.
By this time, with young Tom Riddle and my father's other victims help, I had figured out how to come back and destroy my father. I would have to do as my father had been doing...possess someone after they had taken their own life. I didn't want to, but I had little choice if I wanted to defeat my father once and for all. So when Harry Potter took his life-I did it. I took over his body, but I knew that like myself, because this body was not technically dead, he would be bound to the earth as I was. He would not be truly dead. So after I was finished I would have to give the body up...back to Harry," Salazar finished sadly.
Severus, alarmed, said, "But then you will truly be dead."
"Yes," Salazar said tearfully, "but it was Harry's body first. I can't just take it away from him."
"There must be something we can do to make it so that you can stay," Severus said so forcefully that Salazar looked up at him in alarm.
"But what about Harry?"
"We will find a way for him to come back as well," Severus once again said in a way that no one would dare contradict him.
Looking up at Remus, Salazar saw the werewolf nodding his head in agreement with Severus's statement. He suddenly felt overjoyed. For with their help, he became sure that theywould figure out how to do it.
tbc
AN: Well-how was it? It took a long time to come up with, but I think it turned out pretty good. Let me know what you think. Please review!
