Salazar's Story

Ron went back to Gryffindor's common room, a blank look on his face. They had won, but not thanks to him and he felt frustrated and ashamed. It was one of those time where he found Fate unfair. He couldn't be academically the best, not that he wanted it anyway, but all he had ever wished was just a bit a recognition for a good effort. Today he had been a burden for his team. They were lucky to have Harry, otherwise they would have lost, and he couldn't have handled it.

He had expected a party to celebrate their victory, but when he entered the room, he found it half empty. He spotted Hermione and approached her.

'Ron!' She exclaimed. 'Where were you? I was so worried.'

'I just went for a walk,' he miserably offered as an explanation. 'But I thought you'd be with Harry. They are still not back from McGonagall's office?'

'Oh… You don't know?' Realised Hermione. 'They've been banned from Gryffindor's Quidditch team. They won't play anymore until they graduate.'

'What?! That's so unfair from McGonagall! That little git deserved every blow he received!'

'It's not McGonagall,' sighed Hermione. 'Umbridge stuck her nose in it.'

Ron was so outraged he didn't answer immediately. He would have roared a stream of insults anyway.

'I can't believe it…' He finally muttered. 'How could she…? Where is Harry?'

'I was hoping he'd be with you,' replied Hermione with a look of concern. 'Fred and Georges are back, but Harry hadn't showed up yet.'

His conversation with Harry before breakfast came back to Ron and suddenly his worries about the Quidditch Cup vanished.

'About Harry,' he whispered while glancing around them. 'Could I talk to you a minute. I think you were right about him.'

Hermione froze a little as she had rarely seen Ron with such a grave face. She nodded towards a deserted corner and waited for Ron to explain what he meant.

'All right, please don't me mad, but I've noticed that Harry has been sneaking out the dormitory a lot at night lately.'

'Lately?' Asked Hermione while frowning.

'Well, to be honest, I've started to notice it at the end of September,' clarified Ron. 'I sometimes get up at night to and he rarely was in his bed during those moments.'

'And you didn't tell me?!' Exclaimed Hermione. A few heads turned towards them.

'Shhhh,' whispered Ron. 'I didn't think it was important. I mean he can't step into the castle without drawing attention to him. So, I figured that maybe he enjoyed being on his own from time to time… You know?' But Hermione wasn't looking convinced at all. 'All right I messed up but honestly it was a genuine mistake.'

'How did you realise?' Sighed Hermione.

'I woke up very early this morning. I couldn't sleep you see, and I saw he had been up for quite a time already because he was gone. But I ran into him on the stairs and, Hermione, he had his school uniform on.'

'Did he forget about the match or something?' Asked Hermione intrigued.

'He did,' replied Ron with a low voice. 'But there's more. When I met him he was looking… furious. Honestly, I didn't think much about it then, but now that I do, I've never seen him like this.'

Hermione stood silent. Harry had been distant since the beginning of the year. If what Ron was saying was true, and she had no reason to doubt it, Harry's nightly getaways weren't innocent. She wondered if he had started to investigate himself. She didn't know what he could have found to help him about You-Know-Who in the castle, but obviously he had succeeded.

'Look if you want to talk to him,' said Ron, pulling her out of her thought, 'I'll go with you.'

'You will?'

'Harry has never let us down on purpose,' replied Ron with a worried look. 'Whatever he's been up to, he has always let us help him. I know my best friend. If he has been keeping things away from us, it's because it's serious.'

Hermione couldn't refrain a smile. She couldn't explain why but knowing that Ron was on her side made her invulnerable.

'I suppose you know the history behind this Chamber,' started Salazar. 'And I know you are aware of the purpose of the basilisk you slain two years ago.'

Harry nodded.

'This was a mistake,' continued Salazar detaching each word. 'I had this disagreement with the other founders, and I can now tell that I made a rather rash decision concerning this disagreement.' He marked a pause, and his eyes became cloudy. 'There are a few things I took the time to understand. One of them is that murder isn't the correct answer.' He raised his gaze on Harry. 'You learnt that magic is more than just a way to interact with your surrounding. It is way more mysterious than we think. But what I am sure of is that action have consequences and that curses are not always the result of hexes. Magic has a way to keep balance.'

He made another pause. Formulating everything was harder than he had thought.

'It's not a coincidence if, of all the future he could have had, Tom Riddle became the Dark Lord that is known today as Lord Voldemort. My anger and my resentment led me to build this Chamber and serve my ideal. But at the same time, I bounded my descendants to pursue it. I cursed my own lineage.'

'You're talking about this as if you had come to realise it,' said Harry a bit surprised.

'I did,' admitted Salazar in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. 'And I've never regretted something so much in my life. When my Heir opened the Chamber fifty years ago, he almost brought this school to the brink of destruction.'

'But they only said they would have closed it,' replied Harry.

'Surely you can understand that a place in which a Basilisk can roam wouldn't be considered fitted to learn magic anymore,' said Salazar sounding a bit exasperated. 'Hogwarts walls would have survived, but her spirit would have died.' His voice almost wavered. 'We built this place together to raise and educate young wizards and witches. Because of my pride I almost destroyed the work of a life. Of four lives.'

'Why are you telling me all this?' Asked Harry a bit annoyed. 'How does this help me?'

'In a fight, it's important to know oneself,' replied calmly Salazar. 'But it is also important to know your enemy. By learning about someone's past, you'll come to understand the kind of people they became and why. Knowledge is power.' Salazar briefly closed his eyes and took a breath. 'This is why I am going to tell the decision Tom Riddle took when he was at Hogwarts that changed the course of History.'

He gazed into Harry's eyes.

'Where did you get the idea of destroying Tom's diary three years ago? What made you think you could beat him this way?'

'Well, he was linked to the diary,' answered Harry. To be honest when he had taken the decision to strike it, he had just been bitten by the Basilisk and didn't really know what he was doing. 'I don't know how I understood it, but somehow I believed the diary was Tom Riddle.'

'And he was Tom Riddle,' approved Slytherin. 'He was Tom Riddle's memory from 1943. Do you know what an Horcrux is?'