Salazar stared thoughtfully out the window, stroking the sheets of parchment in front of him with the coats of arms drawn on them.
They had managed to decipher Flamel's ramblings, and to extract from them a rational grain. First they worked out one coat of arms, then the second. The third coat of arms was deciphered for a long time...
All this time Salazar was plagued by a strange feeling... as if he had missed something, or forgotten something, or not paid attention... He didn't know these coats of arms, only the third... there were some familiar elements in it, but it could not be said only about him...
But the fourth was a struggle.
Slytherin and Thomas were only able to decipher a third of the descriptions, and then the work stalled.
Time passed, Salazar was torn between school and family, and there were new distractions in the form of Neville's grandmother and Hermione.
%%%
Augusta Longbottom was truly a formidable woman. She kept her clan in a fierce grip, striving, if not to increase its influence, at least not to lose the old one. Her grandson's letter about the appearance of a completely unexpected relative, however distant (or close?), was a thunderbolt from out of the blue.
Augusta rushed to the family library and searched the archives for confirmation of what she had learned.
To her shame, it turned out that everything written was true, from first to last word. Augusta knew they were descended from the great Helga, but the fact that she was the named sister of the equally great Slytherin came as a surprise.
The witch was uncomfortably prickled by this.
Why... why didn't she know that? After all, Augusta's father, Julian, knew the history of the House perfectly, was proud of it, and had a great way of telling it.
The children listened when the magician began to talk about the origins of the Clan and other things...
It got me thinking...
How would the story have gone if she had pulled up the archives earlier? Before Frank and Alicia had been attacked?
Or better yet, before her son went to school...
After all, it was because of her stories that Frank chose Gryffindor as his idol and went to the alo-gold department... ...thinking he was brave... ...but bravery must always be accompanied by intelligence, which was a problem in the department... and so it began...
Augusta wondered. When did it start? Certainly before Frank went to school.
Then again, so was she! So focused on her son that she almost lost her grandson, and thank goodness he was a clever boy!
The woman shook her head grimly.
Definitely her grandson would be a much better Head than she was...
Meeting a Slytherin had made a lasting impression on her.
An incredibly powerful mage, whose mere presence made her swoon in sweet terror and delight at the power emanating from him, proved to be a very intelligent, commanding and charismatic man.
The mage received her and Neville with great pleasure, talking about the times when his sisters and brother were alive... The Slytherin questioned carefully about the state of affairs, how things were going financially and other things... he was interested in details, all of them.
At last, having found out everything that interested him, the magician went on to the main thing.
" How are things with your son and his wife?"
Augusta lowered her eyes for a moment.
" They aren't. As before... " she folded her hands prayerfully, with longing and mad hope in her eyes, "My Lord, I beg you... Is there any hope?"
" We'll have to see," the Slytherin shrugged.
%%%
Three days later, the magician stood over the bed where Frank lay and cast diagnostic spells. In silence. The ward manager and the whole crowd of witch doctors just shook their heads: Not only were the spells being cast non-verbally, but they couldn't make sense of half of them, either!
Half an hour later the magician finished his diagnosis and turned to Augusta, clutching her handkerchief nervously, and Longbottom, frozen as a statue:
" So... they're physically intact. Both of them. Nerves are fine, muscles are fine, bodies are clean... No effects from the Cruciatus, which brings us to our next question: why would you think their mental state was a consequence of the Unforgivable they suffered?"
The mage glanced around at the frozen Witch doctors. The headmaster frowned perplexedly:
" But... it was obvious! When they were brought in..."
" You don't understand... " The Slytherin folded his arms across his chest, looking mockingly at the Witch Doctor. " The Cruciatus was originally a medical spell designed to offset the effects of paralysis, to help restore sensation to nerve endings, to bring out comas, though not of all types... It NEVER leads to mental disturbance, I mean physically, not psychologically... Apparently, their minds were broken with the help of legiliments, and it was done very crudely and on purpose. Whoever went through their brains was not interested in their health AFTERwards..."
Augusta went pale and clutched at her heart. What was said meant a verdict: the body is healthy, but the mind is irrevocably dead...
" Tell me... in the husky voice of an elderly and fatigued witch... is there any way... " tears were quietly rolling down Iron Augusta's cheeks. Salazar nodded:
" There is. And a very simple one. You must do the following: officially acknowledge them in the Clan as DEAD. That's the first thing. Then... you readmit them into the clan. As your children... both of them. Full Blood Recognition. They will no longer be Frank and Alice, husband and wife... but they will become your son and daughter. That's the only way. You can't take Alice into another bloodline... ...they are bound by the bonds of marriage, so that, to the Longbottom clan, they are perceived as one. After that, their minds... will be restored. They will be newborns, developing quickly... a couple of years, and they'll "grow up." They should be given different names... That's the only way. As individuals they are dead."
The Slytherin looked sympathetically at the frozen Neville.
" I'm sorry, Neville, that I can't bring your parents back to you..."
The boy shook his head and looked resolutely at the mage:
"It doesn't matter. But I will have a brother and sister. They'll be alive! And that's the most important thing..."
" Bravo! " The Slytherin smiled approvingly. " You will be a worthy Head! Helga will be proud of you..."
For the first time in all his visits to the chamber, Neville smiled happily.
%%%
Severus and Draco approached the most important test of their lives extremely responsibly. They read the books, got the portraits of the Malfoys and Princes to the point that the ancestors ran away at their mere appearance, tortured Lucius, who suffered for the second week with a headache that would not go away, drove the flower shop owners to a nervous tic...
For the storming of the impregnable fortress under the poetic name "Hermione" they were preparing, as for the mortally dangerous operation.
Two weeks later, Slytherin and Gaunt, drinking tea in the study at Hogwarts, were extremely surprised when Severus and Draco walked in and collapsed to their knees in a coordinated duet to ask permission to begin the Ritual of Courtship.
%%%
Narcissa looked around nervously, trying, however, to be as inconspicuous as possible.
"What's the matter, dear?"
" I keep expecting Severus or Draco to come around the corner again!" Lady Malfoy nervously waved her fan. Lucius snorted. Suddenly the fireplace burst into flames and Hermione emerged from it.
" Lord Malfoy... Lady Malfoy... I need your help..."
Lucius cowardly covered himself with a newspaper, Narcissa groaned doomfully.
%%%
If some former Eaters thought they got off easy, they were sorely mistaken. Many mages found the sentence lenient and... ...not binding... Nott, for example, snorted that he would not allow the contamination of the Kin! He was supported by many others...
The first indication that something was wrong was the spikes in magic. Very unpleasant to find that the Accio wasn't working, and the Lumos was an unattainable dream. Then it would come back... BUT...
When the magic began to disappear, EVERYONE was concerned.
The urgently assembled mages were dismayed when Gaunt came to admire them:
" What did you gentlemen want?" The former Dark Lord glared ironically at the former Eaters. " Magic is not to be trifled with! If you don't make it a year, you become... Muggles."
That's when they got really scared.
%%%
The Slytherin pulled back the piece of parchment and stared off into space. Voldemort, who approached, carefully picked up the piece of parchment and began to examine the unfamiliar coat of arms: golden stars on an azure field.
" Like maple leaves, they soar... " he muttered thoughtfully. " Whose is it?"
" By all appearances, Villalobos."
" Who?"
" They had a similar one... Only there were three stars instead of five... "Mumbled the Slytherin thoughtfully, wandering his thoughts to the distant past. "Most likely there had been a merger with a side branch... They had two stars..."
" Do you know them? " Thomas looked intently into the mage's face. He nodded absently:
" Of course I know... they killed my father... and I killed them in return."
" But..."
" Children are untouchable. I gave them to the side branches... ...and they gave up their claim on me, and I was within my rights... did one of the descendants decide to take revenge in this subtle way?"
%%%
The trip to Gringotts ended to the mutual satisfaction of both sides: the goblins received tinkling gold circles, the Slytherin received information.
A week later, the goblins provided a full report: indeed, the coat of arms belongs to Rod Villalobos... the second one belongs to Avellaneda, the former Perrera, and the third and fourth to Balesteros and Gabilondo.
The Slytherin found out why he couldn't identify the Perreras-they merged in the fifteenth century with another Genus and took its Coat of Arms.
" Did you think I wouldn't recognize it? " The cold in the mage's voice made the walls freeze. "Nothing... The more pleasant it will be to disappoint them..."
The mage flashed his fangs and stroked the basilisk's head nervously. The serpent squirmed, and rubbed against his master, making him stagger back.
"Get ready, baby... we're going hunting soon..."
%%%
Hermione slowly unfolded a scroll adorned with the seal of the Princes' coat of arms and carefully read the contents under the greedy glances of the girls.
Decorated with long silk ribbons, the scroll carried a message... From Severus. A second scroll, decorated with the Malfoy coat of arms, lay nearby.
The girls murmured, looking at Hermione with envy... After all, all purebloods and half-breeds were well aware that scrolls decorated in this way were evidence of the beginning of the Courtship Ritual.
Hermione read the letter and blushed slightly with excitement.
She needed help.
The Narcissus.