Marigold looked from the sleeping Ginny Weasley to the Riddle diary, sitting open on the desk. She saw the inked quill sitting invitingly next to the diary, and could still feel the subtle pull of the pages. The compulsion magic was weak, but real nonetheless. Something in that book wanted her to write.
How would such a diary have influenced her if she had held it for months? What had it done to Ginny?
I want to see what the diary does if I write. Marigold thought.
Spellforged let the unease in his thoughts carry across the link. I really don't like it, Mari.
Marigold smiled at his concern. I know. Honestly, neither do I. But look, Ginny's been writing in it since at least the end of summer, and she is alright, mostly. And I have you here to pull me back if it tries anything, right?
The silence before his reply was troubling - he wanted to find an alternative - any alternative. Have you tried mage sight?
Rolling her eyes at the lapse, Marigold uttered the incantation. A few objects glowed dimly, surprisingly few for a magical home. She ignored that - her eyes were on the inky black surrounding the diary. Dark Black. Merlin, I wish you could see this.
That's soul magic, Mari. Powerful, from what you're describing. Spellforged paused, more worry bleeding through. Be very careful.
Marigold nodded to herself, as if Spellforged could see. Always. She took up the quill.
She looked at the first page, studying it. The book seemed to all appearances to be a plain, muggle diary. A drop of ink from the quill, however, rapidly disappeared as if the diary had drank it. With a sigh, she put quill to page.
-My name is Marigold Potter.-
After a moment, the line she had written faded, to be replaced with another.
-Hello Marigold Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?-
-A friend of mine left it on her desk, and I thought it was someone else's that had been misplaced. I apologize for trying to read your diary.-
Marigold wanted to know more about this Tom Riddle, and played the meek trespasser card almost by instinct. She reasoned that the diary wanted to be read, it wanted someone writing in its pages - even if it wasn't the same person. Did Tom Riddle remember Ginny?
-Not at all, Marigold. I left my memories in this diary so that they could be read. You did nothing wrong. Is Ginevra well?-
That answers that, she thought.
If it has some hold on Ginny, then it makes sense that it would want to go back to her. Or else it would have to start over with you. Spellforged still sounded worried.
When the next line appeared on the page, she realized how right he was.
-Is someone else there with you?-
Marigold slid back in the chair, dropping the quill, her face a mask of horror.
oOoOoOoOo
Ragnok never, ever entered his son's room without asking, but the shouted curses he had heard, at this late hour, screamed threat in the old goblin's mind.
Opening the door, blade in hand, he saw Spellforged standing in the center of the room, breathing heavily, his hands on his desk. He looked up as the door opened, before realizing why his father was standing there.
"It's alright, father, it was just a nightmare."
Ragnok did not lower his blade. "Should I be concerned?"
Harry shook his head. "No, sir. If it becomes an issue, I will of course tell you."
Now, Ragnok sheathed the blade. "As you say, Harry. Do get some rest. You have an early portkey tomorrow."
"Of course. Thank you, father." With a nod, the door closed, and Spellforged was alone once more.
Spellforged, you there? Marigold's voice was as agitated as his had been moments before.
I heard it. I heard a whisper of the thing before you read it back to me. He continued to calm himself. If this artifact was as dark as it seemed, they could not risk it learning about the link.
I'm walking away now. Marigold's resolve was clear, even across the link. Harry found himself nodding at it - that would be his choice, as well, were he there.
Good move, he acknowledged.
I need to find a way to talk to Ginny about this. Oh, oh Merlin, what if it tells her?
Spellforged heard the rising panic in her voice. Then it tells her. Nothing for it, you'll just need to play it off. Say it fell off the desk and you didn't realize it was hers or what have you. Say it seemed like a neat trick. She might say something that helps.
He could feel Marigold calming down, even as he did the same. Harry, what if all five Ginny's have a diary like this? He considered the ramifications of that as she continued. You said she gave you a look after her sorting, she tried to get into Ravenclaw, didn't she? And Rose said she tried to get into her Slytherin.
I believe so - but I can check the book in the morning, see what I wrote down in my notes. That sounds correct, though.
Right, Marigold said, moving forward as only a gryffindor could. So Ginny tried to get into our house, even if it wasn't Gryffindor. She paused, then. Why?
Groaning, Spellforged stood up again, moving to his desk - and its locked drawer, which contained a small notebook written exclusively in the goblin tongue.
That, Marigold, is an excellent question. He grabbed a quill of his own.
oOoOoOoOo
It was mid-afternoon on Christmas Day when Remus Lupin found Chaser Potter. Susan and her aunt had left after lunch, and James was talking Padfoot's ear off about some Wizengamot issue coming up in the January sitting. All three marauders had noticed the look of worry on Chaser's face as he left the entrance hall, having joined his father and uncles in seeing the Bones family off. Moony had agreed to talk to him - but deliberately took his time in finding him, to give the boy a bit of time by himself.
It had been no secret where he would end up. Harry spent more time in here than James did in his study. The door to the quidditch den opened, and Remus stepped through. At first glance, the room seemed empty, despite the bright electric lights Lily had had installed so long ago as a surprise for James. He had helped her with the runes that kept them powered, and that kept their bulbs from burning out.
The bright lights illuminated the rows of quidditch brooms in their racks mounted on the long wall of the room. Most of those brooms were past their prime, kept for sentimental value. Mounted in a place of pride was the Cleansweep predecessor that old Charlus had been given when he learned to fly.
Along the far wall, between two cabinets of broom supplies, was a large net. At the center was an opening the size of a regulation Quidditch goal. It was set to the International standard, with a radius about nine inches narrower than British League regulations, and two feet narrower than the goals at Hogwarts. The net, and the goal, fed quaffles to a bin on the floor, where they would be swapped to the other end of the room.
As Remus watched, a quaffle sped across the room and passed through the goal. Turning, he saw Chaser Potter sitting on a worn muggle couch, his feet up on a low coffee table, sipping a butterbeer with his left hand. A quiet ding sounded, and Harry reached into the bin sitting next to him on the couch. Eyeing the goal, Harry threw the quaffle - and again made a goal.
"That's some fine shooting, pup," said Remus. Harry looked up and smiled at his Uncle Moony.
"Hey, Moony," he said. He threw another quaffle, this time with a bit of spin. The ball plonked the interior edge of the goal, before bouncing in.
Remus considered the shot - it would have been a perfect way to get around a tenacious keeper. Reaching into the cooler, he grabbed a butterbeer for himself along with another for Harry, before sitting in the armchair at the end of the coffee table. His own boot-clad feet went up, matching Harry's.
"What's bothering you, pup?" asked Remus.
Chaser tossed in another goal before replying. "I'm worried about the school, Moony." He looked over at his uncle. "Something is petrifying students, and we can't figure out what it is."
Amelia had mentioned the attacks, in passing, during the Christmas meal - and Remus had noticed that Susan and Harry said very little about the matter. At this stage, Amelia was fighting a losing battle to keep the Minister out of the investigation, but it seemed that her efforts would be for naught once school started up again in January. The Board was agitating for something to be done, and the Headmaster had been unable to reassure them. With Lord Malfoy as chair this year, it was only a matter of time before Fudge got into the mix.
"The Chamber of Secrets, I hear, right?" asked Remus. Off Harry's nod, he gave a nod of his own, leaning back in the chair.
"Do you know anything about it, Moony?" asked Chaser. He knew that Hermione and Susan would be researching anything they could about it come January, but Uncle Moony had tutored him in history - maybe he knew something useful.
"Some, mostly rumor." said Remus.
Chaser shrugged, taking another drink. "Anything might help, at this point. Sue and I have no idea what's causing all of this, other than that we don't think it's a slytherin."
"Oh?" asked Remus. "Why not?"
A chuckle. "Moony, what part of 'charge in and use a monster to attack your enemies' sounds like 'cunning and ambition'? Whoever did this wasn't being subtle about it - which means they're either a bad slytherin, or someone wanting it to look like a slytherin is doing it."
"That's…. actually, that's a really good point." Remus was impressed. Chaser grinned at him and tossed another quaffle, scoring once again. Remus gave a chuckle of his own, for Chaser had scored without looking.
"So," Remus continued, "The Chamber of Secrets." He sipped his drink. "You have to understand Slytherin himself before you understand his chamber. We have what is known to be fact, and we have what people have guessed over the years. It is a fact that Salazar Slytherin joined with the other founders to start Hogwarts a thousand years ago, in the year 990. Before that, he had travelled extensively, mostly in the Far East. We have some tales of his travels, again mostly second hand. In one case, records from 973 describe a sage in green who stopped a group of non-magical Christian pilgrims from attacking a magical family in the fortress city of Shushtar, in what is now Iran. The Arabic form of the sage's name translates as Salazar."
"I wonder if that family was pureblooded," said Chaser, enraptured by the tale.
"The records are unclear - in that part of the world, you either had magic or you didn't. And remember, this is before the statute, so magicals and non magicals knowingly lived side by side. What we do know is that the elders of the city rewarded Slytherin with the opportunity to study under them, for a time. In turn, he taught some of his own, more traditional magic to their elders." Remus looked thoughtful. "A scroll from three years later describes a celebration for the sage's departure. The muggle elders, alongside the magical ones, gifted Slytherin a magnificent steel sword, inlaid with gems in emerald, and engraved with the name of his house. A decade after that, we have accounts from travellers of foreign sages visiting Shushtar to learn magic, so maybe they got the idea for a small magical school from Slytherin?"
Chaser was shocked - this didn't exactly sound like a pureblood supremacist. Muggles celebrating Salazar Slytherin? The fact that he had a sword was a surprise, as well - the only founder's weapon Chaser had heard of before was the lost Sword of Gryffindor.
"Shustar might have grown into a major academy of magic, had the crusades not intervened." Remus sipped his drink absently, in full professor mode. Chaser grinned at the gesture - he always loved Moony's lessons, and the man had probably forgotten more history than Harry would ever know. "Battles throughout the region forced many magicals to flee or go underground. By the 1500's, Shustar had been razed, and its magical population scattered."
"So," said Chaser, "it was like a mini-Hogwarts?"
"Maybe." answered Remus. "That was not the last record we have before the founding, either. In 981, Slytherin had returned to the British Isles, spending some time in his native Ireland. There, in a small village along the east coast, he found several wizards threatening to burn down a house containing a muggle family of five. The wizards said that the father had beaten one of their sons after the boy performed accidental magic. Slytherin agreed to mediate the dispute, according to contemporary accounts."
"Mediate?" asked Harry. "Wouldn't he just kill them all?"
Remus chuckled. "You'd think, but that's not what the witnesses said, that day. Slytherin put up a powerful ward, isolating himself and the wizard whose son had been beaten, and brought the man out of his home. There, the muggle said that his youngest had been hurt when the wizard's son lost control of his magic and sent out a blast of magical power. He struck the boy to knock him out and stop the magic from flaring even more."
"The wizard," Remus continued, "when he heard the muggle's side of things, simply shrugged. 'Who cares?' the man said, 'He's a muggle. He struck my son. His family should die for daring to attack the family of a wizard.' Slytherin looked from one father to the other, before he held out his hand. Witnesses said that a sword appeared, then. Experts believe this was the same sword he received in Shustar. It was curved like a blade from that part of the world, and it had green gems that caught the sunlight, for all the gathering villagers to see."
"One record gives us a word for word account of Slytherin's actions that day. Apart from documents related to Hogwarts, it is one of the few direct records we have of the man's philosophy." Remus leaned forward, speaking quietly. He knew Chaser was hanging on every word.
"Slytherin said that magic was a gift beyond price, unbelievably precious - and that if the wizard could not control his son, then perhaps the rest of his family could. But whatever the muggle man had done, that did not mean that his family, his wife and young children, should be burned. But the muggles, who even then outnumbered their magical cousins, could not be allowed to attack our children with impunity."
"He looked at the muggle man, and cast his gaze across the faces of the man's family. He then told the muggle man to choose one of his children. That child, Slytherin said, would be killed for his failure."
Chaser's jaw dropped. "That's even worse than I expected."
"Ah," said Remus. "But that's not the whole story. The muggle man stood up, tall and proud, and said that the mistake was his own - not his children's. He begged Salazar Slytherin, bane of the muggles and champion of the pureblood cause, to kill him instead. Slytherin looked at him, and then at the wizard. And then he struck - and the wizard's head fell to the ground, followed by his body."
"Anyone who would kill a child for the sins of the father had no business living, he said. Then he told the crowd to disperse. The wizards were angry, until Slytherin asked them which of their children should die for their crimes? The wizard who died, he failed when he did not teach his son to control his magic - and blamed the muggle who probably saved the boy's life. Slytherin would not abide such cowardice."
Harry was stunned. "Why did he threaten the muggle? When he knew the wizard was the one who would be punished?"
"We don't know." Remus looked at Harry. "Some experts believe it was a test - if the muggle would hand over his child for his own mistake, then perhaps he was deserving of death after all."
That made some sense, Chaser thought. Except for the fact that it's Salazar bloody Slytherin defending muggles. "Why do we never hear about this?" Harry asked.
Remus reached for a fresh butterbeer. "It's not a goblin rebellion, is it? And if the pureblood houses learned that Slytherin himself would have held them responsible for the actions of their children? That he defended muggles, at least on occasion? No, you'll never hear that in Hogwarts."
Considering that, Harry took another butterbeer for himself. "So, how does this relate to the Chamber?"
"It relates by showing how Slytherin came to be one of the four founders. He spent years in a foreign land, studying their magic, learning about other magical cultures and techniques. Then he returned home and found wizards placing themselves at risk by not training their children. The solution, when his friends proposed it, was obvious." Remus smiled at Harry. "Thus, Hogwarts."
"Records of the Chamber itself are sparse. We know it was built in the early 1020's, thirty years after the founding. We don't know why or how. Even the wards at the school do not pass its walls. Some records point to an incident of some sort involving a student who died at Hogwarts, but there are no names and no specifics - we only know that construction began shortly after. In 1037, Slytherin demanded additional protections for the students, mainly against muggles. When the other three rebuffed him, he left, in what later became known to scholars as 'Slytherin's Flight'."
Chaser sat back. "He demanded protection from muggles, and the other three didn't give it to him - so he built his own." He tossed another quaffle. "What was in the chamber?"
Remus shrugged. "No one knows. Most believe it was a great beast of some sort, made to kill muggles and muggleborn. That was the rumor in the '40s, when it was opened last." He looked thoughtful. "You know, a student did die that time, when it was opened, and a gryffindor was expelled for it."
Chaser leaned forward again. "A gryffindor? Opening Slytherin's chamber?" He sipped his butterbeer. "Who was it?"
Remus smiled, and Chaser thought it looked sad. "Now, let me say first that I doubt it was him this time - he was in London during one of the attacks this year, visiting with me. And if I tell you, I need you to keep it quiet."
"Of course," said Harry, instantly. Remus looked at him for a moment, before nodding.
"It was Hagrid, Harry. Hagrid was expelled for opening the Chamber of Secrets."
A/N: A bonus chapter for you, both to resolve Marigold's encounter with the diary and to lay down some history behind Salazar Slytherin. It is safe to presume that all five worlds have this shared history, or else they would have diverged far enough over ten centuries for there to be radically different circumstances in the early 1990's. A butterfly flaps its wings, and so forth.
Part of the reason for this oral history of Salazar Slytherin is that I wanted to lay out some of the background before we enter the Chamber. Finding old journals in a hidden room in the Chamber, usually written in Parselscript, is enough of a cliche that I wanted to go a different way here. And be honest, Remus just fits as a history nerd, doesn't he? With a thousand years of bored scholars poking at original records and guessing, we would surely know more than we do about one of the major figures in wizarding history. I mean, Slytherin didn't just appear at the gates of Hogwarts in 990, ready to start a school. He had to have had his own journey. We explore part of that here.
300 follows - thank you for taking this journey with me. Keep circulating the tapes, and so forth.
Feedback, as always, is welcome.
