VERY IMPORTANT:This chapter was a bit odd for me to write. There are instances where I needed to call Salazar by is alias Harry (or Potter, whichever fit the circumstance) because another character would only feel or thing a certain thing about Harry, but would feel the opposite about Salazar. It's a bit confusing. You'll understand when you read.
Chapter Seventeen, Year Two: Surprises
Salazar felt his left eye twitch. He couldn't understand why people were standing in line, waiting to get an autograph from this waste of space. Lockhart probably put the 'dumb' in 'dumb blonde'.
"Merlin, this is pathetic," Draco sneered loudly. Salazar looked amused, Ron snickered, and Hermione glared disapprovingly at him.
Lockhart heard him. He looked up. He saw Draco Malfoy standing next to Harry Potter, and the two weren't fighting. He stared. Then he jumped to his feet and positively shouted, "It can't be Harry Potter! And Draco Malfoy too!" He added Draco like an after thought.
The crowd parted like the Red Sea. Lockhart dived forward, seized Salazar's arm, and Draco's elbow, and pulled them to the front. The crowd started whispering, no doubt gossiping about how Draco and Salazar weren't at each other's throats yet. Salazar expected to hear news of his and Draco's impending engagement in the Prophet tomorrow.
Draco wanted to crawl under a rock and die, or pull out his wand and avada the photographer. He also wanted to scourgify his hand. Lockhart was actually touching it. He looked over at Salazar. Salazar didn't seem to be faring any better.
"Nice big smile, boys," said Lockhart, through his own gleaming teeth. "The three of us are worth the front page."
As soon as Lockhart let go of their hands, Draco backed out of his reach. "That's quite fascinating, but we really must finish shopping for school supplies, so…"
Lockhart beamed at everyone. "I was originally going to announce this after I finished signing everyone's copies of Magical Me, but now seems like a good a time as any!" The crowd was staring at Lockhart in obvious anticipation. "I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
The crowd cheered, Draco groaned and Salazar hung his head.
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It was night. For whatever reason, Mrs. Weasley had insisted that everyone go to bed early. So, after much complaining, everyone had trudged upstairs to his or her bedroom.
Ron was out like a light.
Draco crept across the room as silently as possible. He stopped at the foot of Salazar's bed. "Hey, hey, wake up!" he hissed. Salazar rolled over, his hand going under his pillow. He muttered, "Marvel" or something along those lines (1). Draco couldn't really understand him; he blamed it on the drool.
"Potter, Harry, wake up!" he whispered again, poking him intermittently. He sighed, slightly annoyed, and removed his wand from his pocket. "Fine, you forced me to do this." And he raised the wand over his head, prepared to cast a water summoning charm.
Salazar jerked awake, hand coming out from under the pillow with a wand of its own (2). "Petrificus Totalus."
Draco tensed and collapsed to the floor like a plank of wood. Salazar peered over the edge of his bed. "Oh, sorry," he said, not sounding very sorry at all. "It's a sort of reflex. I'm allergic to threatening wands."
Draco glared.
"Useful little spell," Salazar said, with a thoughtful tone. "Imagine what could happen if you immersed a petrified person in water. Why, they could drown!"
Draco looked horrified.
Salazar smirked. "Good night, Draco."
Draco was back to glaring again. That stupid wanker! he thought.
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Ron awoke to the smells of bacon, eggs and pancakes. He stretched, yawned and itched his stomach absentmindedly. The holidays were great. No getting up early, and no screeching mum. He glanced over at Draco's bed. When he saw that it was empty, he figured that Draco had already gone down to breakfast, probably to hoard all the good bacon strips to himself (because what does a dragon do but hoard?), and perhaps to put something in the food to make people's hair turn green and silver.
Ron looked over at Salazar's bed. Or, at least where his bed used to be. All there was now was a trunk. Ron gaped, then instinctively looked up. Salazar's bed was floating in midair.
"HARRY!" he yelled in shock.
Salazar jerked awake at the yell. As he did, the bed crashed to the floor. He stared, wide-eyed at a ceiling.
"You were levitating!" Ron said, incredulous.
"How…observant," Salazar remarked, looking a bit shaken.
"Mmmph," uttered something from the floor.
Ron looked over. "Holy crap! Draco! You could've been crushed.
Draco looked at him with a sarcastic expression.
Ron blinked and looked at the door expectantly, expecting to see his mother, or father, or both, rushing into the room, wands at the ready and looking livid. No one came.
"Er, there was a silencing spell cast," Salazar said, tentatively.
Ron blinked, looked at Draco, and decided not to ask.
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For some reason, unknown to Salazar, there seemed to be a great flurry of activity going on in and outside the Burrow.
He didn't have long to think about that before he was dragged into Ron's room by an irate-looking Draco.
"What the HELL was that last night?" he hissed.
"What was what?" Salazar asked, trying to look innocent.
Draco folded his arms and glared at him, a stance he must have picked up from Severus.
Salazar sighed. "Alright, want to know the truth? I sleep walk." He stared defiantly at Draco.
"Sleep walking, right," Draco said slowly. "I have the feeling that you're just trying to avoid me."
"Avoid you? Whatever for?"
"Don't play stupid with me!" Draco snarled. He thrust a copy of the Daily Prophet in Salazar's face.
Salazar's eyes widened. Under the title, "Dark Wizard Showdown" was a picture of Walter and Tom dueling, the Dark Mark and sitting hanging next a bloody-looking infinity sign. Grindelwald's Mark.
Salazar skimmed through the rest of the article, eyes widening as he read that Walter was dead.
"…was he a friend?"
Silence.
"Would you like to talk?" Draco asked.
Salazar glared. "One of my best friends is DEAD, Malfoy. I don't think I owe you any explanations now!"
"Well, gee! Before you called me a friend too! I thought that's what friends did! You know, mushy crap like comforting them when a friend died!" There was an embarrassed pause. "I mean," Draco said with a slight blush, "if you want to explain to me how you came to know Grindelwald, I wouldn't object."
There was more silence. Draco shifted uncomfortably. He didn't get much sleep last night. Actually, he hadn't gotten much sleep at all since that house blew up. One of the ideas that governed his life was that no one was truly innocent (3), but he didn't think that whatever that family did warranted spontaneous implosion. Or explosion. And for some reason it was bothering him…
"Will you swear an Unbreakable Vow?" Salazar asked.
"That family didn't deserve to implode," Draco said.
More silence. Then, "What?" the two asked simultaneously.
The two stared at each other again. "Er, you go first, P-Harry."
"Are you sure? It sounds like you're going insane," Salazar said uncertainly.
"Bah."
"Okay. Do you swear the Unbreakable Vow?"
Draco blinked slowly. "What was that? I thought you mentioned Unbreakable Vows."
"I did."
"What could be so important?"
"If you swear it, you'll find out."
Draco glared at Salazar. "You know, all I'd have to do is get my hands on Veritaserum and…"
"I'd kill you."
Draco looked shocked. He'd never thought he'd hear those words coming out of Harry's mouth, especially for what seems like a purely selfish reason. And definitely not with the steely truth staining them.
But now Draco was curious as hell, and he could just tell the other knew it.
He took a deep breath. "Yes."
For the first time that day, Salazar smiled. "We'll need a Bonder though."
"I could get Severus to be our Bonder, if I pester him enough," Draco said slowly.
"Only if he'll swear an Unbreakable Vow as well; could you be the Bonder for that?" Salazar asked.
"It wouldn't hurt to ask him I guess."
"Only if he agrees."
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Severus agreed, eventually. If partly because his godson was annoying the hell out of him, and partly because he was curious. And maybe, just maybe, because he was a bit concerned about Potter's welfare. Or rather, Harry's welfare. It didn't mean he liked the brat. He was just willing to acknowledge that Harry wasn't James and, no, that didn't mean he was going to start giving the kid VIP treatment. Something needed to anchor that head to the ground.
Severus pressed his wand-point to their linked hands.
"Will you, Draco, promise not to tell anyone, any creature, anything or record anywhere the information I'm going to tell you about myself and my past life?"
"I will," Draco said, looking a bit bewildered.
Flame linked their hands together. It looked like a perverse form of marriage, with added trial-by-fire.
"And will you promise to continue to hold any such information to yourself until such a time that I tell you that I am ready for the world, or a third party, to know?"
"I will."
A second flaming-chain weaved with the first.
"And…oh damn, I don't have a third clause."
Severus and Draco just stared at Salazar.
"What? That seems to cover everything!"
"Just make something up!"
"Er, okay. And will you promise to…not sell me out to the Dark Lord, otherwise known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord Voldemort?"
Draco stared at Salazar like he was the stupidest person in the world. "Of course I will you dolt!"
A third link of flame weaved with the others. The braid began to seep into their skin. When it was fully absorbed, it felt like there was molten lava running through their veins until it all gathered at their hearts. Then the heat dissipated.
Salazar turned to Severus. "All right, your turn!" He sounded entirely too cheerful.
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Tom sighed. He came to Grindelwald for answers. His usual, 'do you know this' and 'what's a good solution for this.' But the man was completely unresponsive. He kept evading them. And when asked why, he just said something about Slytherin being back. Slytherin! As if that would be a reason to withhold information. If he was back it should just add incentive to give information!
Tom allowed his head to bang on the desk. It didn't make any sense. People had reported that they had seen Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy enter and leave Grindelwald's home right before he entered. Did that make one of them Salazar Slytherin?
Maybe he should kidnap both of them and run aura tests.
Or maybe he should just ask Severus.
Or maybe he should test them.
A grin slowly spread across Tom's face. Yes, test them. That way, he could find out without getting his hands really, directly dirty, and maybe, just maybe, he'll be able to kill some mudbloods as well. And then he could cast the reincarnation out or society and mold him and…
Tom grinned and Called Lucius.
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"My name is Harry James Potter, and I'm the reincarnation of Salazar Slytherin." Salazar looked around at their slack faces. "Maybe I should rephrase that, because it's not entirely true. I know I'm the reincarnation of Salazar Slytherin, and I consider myself to be Salazar Slytherin in the body of Harry Potter." There, that sounded more accurate. "No, scratch that. I AM Salazar Slytherin in Harry Potter's body."
"Stop joking around," Draco said weakly. "You're not Salazar Slytherin. You're too Gryffindor to BE Salazar Slytherin."
Salazar stared at Draco. "That was the point."
"Ye gods. I think I need to sit down."
Severus was watching Salazar with an unreadable look. "What are you planning on doing now?"
"Go to Walter's funeral."
"I meant, what are you going to do about…about everything?"
"I'm going to talk to Tom and see if I can knock any sense into him. I'm eventually going to go and talk to all the pureblood families and try to convince them that inbreeding is just not healthy. I'll show them a picture of Crabbe and Goyle. That ought to convince them. Too much hair, not enough brain."
Severus quirked a sort of hesitant half-grin. Draco stared at him like he was in a daze.
"Oh."
They decided to leave it at that for now.
A/N: I think I updated at a respectable enough time. Yea! Poor Tom, always choosing the hard way. Oh, and no offense was meant by the dumb blonde thing. I wasn't trying to say blondes are dumb. (My mom is blonde) I was trying to say that he put the dumb in the figure of speech. But it just didn't sound as snappy…I should've made that a foot note or something.
1. No, Salazar is not having perverted dreams about Tom. He dreaming about his eventual confrontation with him. Or something, just nothing incestual. No, that's not a word, but it will be used in this instance.
2. I never really explained this. He received from Grindelwald his old wand and various other stuff from his previous life.
3. A Vimes/Discworld reference (I don't own Discworld, or Vimes). Read Guards! Guards! Or read my Discworld quotes in my profile. Which are from Guards! Guards!
Reviews:
hard: I'm afraid some things are just inter-worldly. No, but seriously, it's because…I don't know.
kawaii chibi shun: Yeah, it from I haven't read it since last year. But there are the R rated chapters, and the NC-17 rated ones, and it's also slash. (Draco/Harry pairing) so I don't know if you'll like it.
Heather: Thank you. I hope you liked the Lockhart scene, and I hope you liked this chapter.
moose22244128: I didn't update soon, but I updated at a respectable date. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'd type something more interesting, but my brain is on the fritz, and my wit has been replaced by sheer tiredness, and I need sleep now.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and I hope everyone is getting more sleep than me.
