Disclaimer: I don't own HP.
Chapter Ten, Year One: End of Year One
Something gold was glinting just above him. The Snitch! He tried to catch it, but his arms were too heavy.
He blinked. It wasn't the Snitch at all. It was a pair of glasses. How strange.
He blinked again. The smiling face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above him.
"Good afternoon, Harry," said Dumbledore.
Salazar stared up at him. Then he remembered: "Sir! The Stone! It was Quirrell! He's got the Stone, quick-"
"Calm yourself, dear boy, you are a little behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Quirrell does not have the Stone."
"Then, he died and T…Voldemort does!"
"Harry, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out."
Salazar looked around him. He was lying in a bed with white linen sheets, and next to him was a table piled high with what looked like half the candy shop.
"Tokens from your friends and admirers," said Dumbledore, beaming. "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you. Madame Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic, and confiscated it."
"How long have I been in here?"
"Three days. Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Granger will be most relieved you have come round, they have been extremely worried."
"Sir, the Stone-"
"I see you are not to be distracted. Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived inn time to prevent that, although you were doing very well on your own, I must say."
"You got there? You got Hermione's owl?"
Dumbledore smiled. "I received Mr. Malfoy's owl. Apparently he found out about the Stone, and Voldemort, and sent me this very useful owl only a few hours after I left."
"Malfoy?"
"It appears he doesn't want to follow so closely in his father's footsteps."
Salazar just stared.
"When I arrived, Mr. Malfoy was waiting. We went to the dungeons, and encountered Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger. He escorted them to the Infirmary.Thankfully,I arrived just in time to pull Quirrell off you. I feared I might be too late."
"You nearly were, I couldn't have kept him off the Stone much longer-"
"Not the Stone, boy, you-the effort involved nearly killed you. For one terrible moment there, I was afraid it had. As for the Stone, it has been destroyed."
"Destroyed?" said Salazar blankly. "But Nicholas Flamel-"
"Oh, you know about Nicholas?" said Dumbledore, sounding quite delighted. "You did do the thing properly, didn't you? Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat, and agreed it's all for the best."
"But that means he and his wife will die, won't they?"
"They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die."
Dumbledore smiled at the look of amazement on Salazar's face.
"To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicholas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all-the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."
Salazar lay there, lost for words. Dumbledore hummed a little and smiled at the ceiling.
"Sir?" said Salazar. "There are some things I'd like to know, if you can tell me…things I want to know the truth about…."
"The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."
Salazar thought this sounded…manipulative. Dumbledore had just told him straight out that there was information that he wouldn't tell him, and might never tell him, even if he had the right to know.
"Well…Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?"
Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time.
"Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day…put it from your mind for now, Harry. When you are older…I know you hate to hear this…when you are ready, you will know."
Dumbledore was right, Salazar did hate this. But, if he wanted his other questions answered, he'd have to agree to this term.
"But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?"
"Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as you mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrel, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good."
"Sir, with all due respect, I think you are wrong."
Dumbledore's eyebrows moved toward his hairline. "What do you mean?"
"Before I blacked out, I think I remember Voldemort attempting to possess me. If the protection was only in my skin, then he could easily have possessed me. However, I propose that my mother's protection is inside my soul, and that the Quirrell's burning was caused by an after-effect of the fire. It would make much more sense for the protection to be in my soul. After all, people love with their soul."
Silence filled the room for a few minutes, before Dumbledore smiled. "That is an interesting idea, and it makes much more sense, now that I think about it. Yes, Harry. I do believe you are right!"
"Sir, I have two more questions."
"Ask away."
"Do you know who sent me the invisibility cloak?"
"Ah-your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Useful things…your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."
"And sir, did you cast a spell on me that bound me to the mirror, or the Stone?"
"Yes, actually, in a way. The mirror would have revealed the Stone's location to anyone who wanted to find the Stone-find it, but not use it. However, only you would've been able to receive the Stone from its hiding place. Really, Quirrell wouldn't have found the Stone in that chamber. It was safe in my office the entire time."
Salazar just stared at the Headmaster numbly.
…………..
"You wanted to see me, Professor?" Draco asked. It had been two days since Quirrell had been stopped. Two days since the Gryffindor Golden Boy had fallen into a magical coma. The school was in an uproar, and several students had been removed already.
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy. To be blunt, I was wondering why."
"I didn't want to become one of Voldemort's lackeys. I've heard what he can do. I don't want that fate to be mine."
Dumbledore's eye twinkled. "Excellent, then let me introduce you to our resident spy!"
The door opened, and Draco turned around.
"You wanted to see me, Headmaster?" Snape asked.
"You're a spy!"
Snape frowned at Dumbledore disapprovingly. "Why did you tell him?"
"He told me that he did not wish to become a Death Eater."
"And you believed him!"
"Um, hi. I'm still here you know."
Snape turned his glare toward Draco. "How do you know that he's trustworthy."
"I could see it in his eyes," was Dumbledore's cheerful response.
With one last glare toward the Headmaster, Snape and Draco left.
……………
"Ready, are you?"
It was Uncle Vernon, still purple-faced, still mustached, still looking furious at the nerve of Harry, carrying an owl in a cage in a station full of ordinary people. Behind him stood Aunt Petunia and Dudley, looking terrified at the very sight of "Harry".
"You must be Harry's family!" said Mrs. Weasley.
"In a manner of speaking," said Uncle Vernon. "Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day." He walked away.
Salazar hung back for a last word with Ron and Hermione.
"See you over the summer, then."
"Hope you have-er-a good holiday," said Hermione, looking uncertainly after Uncle Vernon, shocked that anyone could be so unpleasant.
"Oh, I will," said Salazar, and they were surprised at the grin that was spreading over his face. "They don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer…."
As Salazar was walking away, Ron pointed at him and mouthed "Slytherin" to Hermione, who nodded absently in agreement, looking for her own parents.
A/N: I've had this chapter completed about a week ago. I'm really, really sorry I didn't get to post this until today.
Reviews:
Lady-Slytherin-Warrior, Didaskaleinophobia, and SlayerWitchGilmoreGirls: I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I hope that this chapter isn't as bad as I think it is and I hope you'll forgive me for not updating sooner.
dark-artemis89: Personally, I'm a big Voldemort/Harry fan, but that would be very odd if I added that to this story. At any rate, I doubt I could write a decent story with that pairing anyway.
NephyRiddle: Yep, inspiration comes standard. Where is that from? Yeah, he could. I don't know what I was thinking when I was writing the bit in chap.9. Well, I can say now that Draco isn't going to be loyal to Sal only. Dumbledore just recruited him. I don't think they're going to be enemies anytime soon.
SunStar Kitsune: Oops. I'll go back and re-edit that chapter sometime within the this year.
japenese-jew: I was waiting for someone to respond to that little thing. I'm glad you liked them. Now that I think of it, I should have started changing the plot subtly from the beginning. You can definitely look forward to a radically different second year.
Unseen Watcher: All the exposure to "Gryffindorishness" took its toll in little ways. Before he was always intentionally acting the Gryffindor and was constantly mentally criticizing his classmates/friends. A large amount of the criticizing has stopped because he's kind of starting to think like a Gryffindor, as much as it pains him. Don't worry, all his Slytherin qualities are still there and completely intact. Hopefully.
andy-may: I was thinking of making Sal use an obscure/forgotten dark magic, but then he argued that it would alert the wards (and in turn Dumbledore), and Voldemort would be suspicious.
The poll thing is still up. Please tell me if you want DM/HP (Sal.S) slash or not. So far, I've gotten three votes for no DM/HP (Sal), and one kind of vote for it. Remember, don't just sit there and think, "Someone else will vote for ." Because I've got new for you. Don't rely solely on other people to push things through. The only person you can rely on for that is YOURSELF. Unless you have a mult. personality disorder. Then I don't mind, just don't try to destroy all of humanity, suceed instead. Just joking. Thanks.
I hope everyone who's read this so far has enjoyed it.
