Chapter Twelve

Hidden in the Past

Courtney held the door open as Lynne and Albus stepped inside. The room was a light shade of green, with pictures of snakes that slithered and hissed around the walls.

In the center of the room was a large stone basin with silver light emerging from the top.

"This is definitely a Slytherin room," Albus said, looking at all the snakes.

"Is that a Pensieve?" Lynne asked. She approached the basin and looked over the edge. "Powerful wizards use these to store memories that can be observed at any time later."

An idea struck Courtney. "You don't think… This room showed up when you wished you knew more about the situation with James and Scorpius. What if the Pensieve has the answers?"

Lynne swallowed. "One way to find out." She leaned into the silver light.

"Hey, wait for us," Courtney said. She and Albus both went up to the Pensieve beside Lynne and gazed into the swirling memories within.

When the disorientation faded, Courtney found herself standing in a crowd on a foggy evening. Beside her, a pale, grey-haired man was whispering spell words under his breath. Courtney stood on her toes to try and see what the crowd was looking at.

There was a woman in front of the crowd. She looked to be somewhere in her twenties, her face had a pair of scars that formed a cross, and her entire body was tied to a wooden pole.

A man stepped from the crowd, a torch in his hand, and addressed the woman. "Letitia Weasley, you were witnessed, at four and ten on the Sabbath day, performing witchcraft." He sneered the last word. "Now is your last chance to repent for your sins and return to the path of the Lord."

Letitia Weasley did not even bother looking at the man, though Courtney figured she probably couldn't have even if she tried. "Daniel," she said in a weak voice.

"No," he snapped. "Unless you leave the Devil and rejoin us, you are not free to use my Christian name."

"Mister Holtz," she corrected. "I have never left the Lord, nor do I plan to."

Daniel Holtz sighed. "Lies, I can tell. I offered you a second chance, with this crowd as my witness. A third chance will not be given." He signalled the crowd with his free hand, and brought his other hand - the one with the torch - to the ropes that bound Letitia Weasley. They caught aflame, and Letitia burned with them.

The crowd cheered as the flames started to spread, crawling up her hair and causing her skin to go red. Courtney couldn't tell which sight was more disturbing - the burning woman or the people who were actually enjoying it.

Weasley's screams were lost in the sea of voices. The pale man beside Courtney who was muttering spells before was now the only silent individual. By this point Weasley was invisible in the blinding firelight. The crowd slowly dispersed as the flames died down.

In the end, the wood was gone completely, and so was Letitia Weasley. Most of the people in the crowd were gone - now Courtney could see Lynne and Albus standing not too far away. The only remaining members were the pale man and Daniel Holtz.

The pale man stepped toward the ashes. Holtz cast a suspicious eye toward him. "Do you need something?"

"I simply wish to see the ashes," he said in a hollow voice. "I knew Letitia well and am shocked that she would turn to evil. I hope I don't need your permission to pray for her soul to find repentance in the next world."

Holtz laughed. "You never give up on that, do you? I bet you would offer the Devil himself a second chance, and a third chance, and a fifteenth chance, even after he murders your whole family."

"You have my word that I would not go that far," the pale man said with a humorless smile. He knelt beside the pile of ashes and muttered something in Latin.

"You know who this is, right?" asked an awestruck Lynne. "This is Salazar Slytherin himself."

"So Slytherin's evil goes even this far back," Albus said. "He just let that woman get killed. Didn't Slytherin at least know the Flame-Freezing Charm?"

"Thank you," Slytherin said to Holtz. "I know she practiced witchcraft, but I am sure her eternal soul may have hope yet."

Holtz nodded. "She just might." All five of them could tell from his tone that he didn't really mean it. "We should probably keep watch of any bad signs from her sons."

"Completely understood." Slytherin walked away from Holtz, and the scene shifted.

Courtney, Lynne, and Albus were in a hut along with several individuals. Among them were Slytherin… and Letitia Weasley.

"We need to do something," Slytherin said. "These Muggles have been murdering each other left and right by accusing them of witchcraft. Now they managed to get Letitia here. They took her wand and left her no way to stop the flames. Had she not been a spider Animagus she would be dead now."

"The fire frightened me so much I lost all thought," Weasley admitted. "Transfiguring myself to get out of there… I would never have thought of that in time if Salazar had not spoken into my mind."

"Okay, I take it back," Albus admitted. "I guess Slytherin was saving her."

"From now on," another witch at the table said. "We travel in pairs or in groups. None of us may go off alone, without at least one wizard beside them who knows the Flame-Freezing Charm. That way, only Muggles will suffer."

"But what about the Muggles themselves?" an older wizard questioned.

"They're killing themselves," the witch waved. "It does not concern us. Focus on keeping ourselves safe and nothing can harm us."

"That is kinda unfair to the Muggles," Courtney muttered.

"But the Muggles are hunting for witches to kill," Lynne pointed out. "Why should witches and wizards put themselves in harm's way to save the people who are trying to kill them? You know how the witch trials turned out, it was a bloodbath!"

Albus asked the obvious question. "This is all great, learning about Slytherin's past. But what does it have to do with my brother and Scorpius?"

A booming, manic laugh echoed through the darkness. The laughing man was walking - no, dancing was a more accurate term - through a street. People - Muggles - were screaming and running, but the man simply pointed his wand at them, one at a time, and said in a singsong voice, "Avada Kedavra!"

"A Dark wizard terrorizing Muggles," Albus summarized in an exasperated tone. "So first Slytherin's the bad guy, then we find out the Muggles were bad for persecuting witches, and now the Muggles were just defending themselves from Dark wizards? So what's next? The Dark wizards were opposed to evil Muggles the whole time? But that was the last step!"

"These things can be a cycle," Lynne said. "'A circle has no beginning'. That was one annoying riddle…"

"Hatred breeds more hatred, and that only leads to pain," Courtney said. "That must be why Hufflepuff was all about fairness, so no one would hate anyone."

"Stupefy!" came a familiar voice.

"Expelliarmus!" came another.

The Dark wizard, caught off-guard, fell to the ground. His wand flew into the air as the sources of the two voices revealed themselves.

The first, the one who cast the Stunner, was clearly Salazar Slytherin. The other looked like a younger, thinner version of Professor Hagrid. He carried a wand in one hand and a ruby-encrusted sword in the other. His very presence carried an air of power and nobility. Even though Courtney had never seen his portrait, she could tell immediately who it was.

"Godric Gryffindor," all three children said, awestruck. Clearly, Courtney figured, Lynne and Albus figured it out at the same time I did.

"What's wrong?" the Dark wizard said. Strangely, there was disconcert in his voice, yet he maintained his joyful, practically singing tone. "Where has all the screaming gone?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Slytherin said drily. "I'm sure you'll hear some screaming soon."

Author's Note: Yes, two new chapters in one day. And this one is the longest chapter yet! That said, Slytherin's story is a major part of this, and it was a story I'd been waiting to tell for some time. Hope you enjoy.