Revenclaw's Raise
The Starting Thought That Brings About the End.
As a Slytherin. Never falling, the rule seemed simple and true; a Slytherin was always the one who became ambitious, powerful, and dangerous. It seemed that only a Slytherin could gather the nerve to attempt the Dark Arts. It seemed only a Slytherin had the will to take on the task of conquering the world. Too bad That Slytherin hadn't been smart enough win.
She had watched as That Slytherin closely. She had seen That Slytherin as he entered Her castle, had watched silently as That Slytherin had been sorted into Salazar's house. She had watched That Slytherin grow up, watched as he bewitched the minds of his fellow students, fooling even his teachers with his charm.
There had been no reason for Her to care. She tuned in, from time to time, and would watch That Slytherin for several days; She thought he was remarkably intelligent, and it saddened Her that he had to be a Slytherin. Then things changed.
That Slytherin started spending time with Her daughter. That Slytherin had the audacity to charm Her daughter, to use his unnatural charisma to bewitch Her daughter. And Her daughter had given in.
It was in that moment that She realized how dangerous That Slytherin truly was. She became furious when Her daughter gave away Her greatest secret. Then, against all laws of nature and civility, That Slytherin had defiled Her most prized possession.
There was nothing She could do. She watched as time passed, never letting That Slytherin out of Her sight. She was with him when he left school, when he started working, when he stole other items belonging to the founders of Hogwarts. She watched in horror and disgust as he did to those items what he'd done to Her's; he tainted and corrupted them with the darkest form of magic.
She witnessed That Slytherin as he rose to power, turning the Wizarding World on itself. Things, from her prospective, looked bleak. The people who should have stopped That Slytherin couldn't. The Ministry, the wizards and witches who supposedly controlled Britten's Magical Population, weren't even sure who they could trust, let alone confident in their ability to stop That Slytherin.
That Slytherin would have won, would have taken over Britten, then the world. Sure, there was resistance, but not even the leader of that resistance, the grate Dumbledore, would be able to keep That Slytherin at bay for long. She knew that, in the end, That Slytherin's precautions would ensure his victory over even Dumbledore.
Then, to Her utter surprise and antipathy, That Slytherin chose to make a child, a small boy, his target. That's when She had enough. With all her will, with all the magic that had gradually gathered around her in the near thousand years since She had died, She willed the boy's mother's sacrifice into being a Love Shield. And that it was.
The killing curse, Avada Kedavra, was reflected, saving the boy, and destroying the body of That Slytherin. Of course, he wasn't dead. She knew that, with the five times, so far, he shredded his soul, there was no way That Slytherin could die so easily. But She, in ensuring the little one's safety, was too weak to follow what was left of That Slytherin's spirit as it fled.
She was left with no choice; She returned to Hogwarts, hidden as always, and kept tabs on the events of the world, awaiting a sign of That Slytherin's return. And, much to her dismay, he did come back; That Slytherin once again entered Her castle, attached, no less, to the soul of one of the teachers.
She wondered, briefly, why he'd decide to come back to Hogwarts, of all places. Then the reasoning became all too clear, for shortly after his return, the start of another school year began. And She saw the boy She'd helped protect just over eleven years ago. She understood then what That Slytherin's plan was; he wanted revenge, and was planning on killing the only person who had survived him.
Latter, near the end of the school year, She learned She'd been only partially correct. While That Slytherin had been trying to kill the small boy, but he had also been trying to find something called the Philosopher's Stone, something that could restore his body and give him eternal life. She silently thanked the heavens when That Slytherin again failed.
The next year, much to Her joy, there was no sign of That Slytherin. In fact, even though his precautions, his dark magic, were still in existent, She hoped that it would take him another a dozen years more before he could once again gain a body to work from. Then, again, That Slytherin dashed Her hopes.
An item of his, one of the many pieces of dark magic he had created, made its way into Her castle. It took time for Her to notice, but by the end of the second month, She knew that he was again in Her castle, acting through another. '
Just as he had done during his schooling, That Slytherin opened the chamber Salazar had secretly, deviously, built so long ago. This time, he used a small, weak, red haired girl. And this time, That Slytherin really made her mad.
He used his overlarge serpent to attack a member of Her house, and that was the last straw. She used Her own influence, to ensure that the Phoenix, belonging to Dumbledore, knew to search for the boys who went to save the girl That Slytherin was using. In the end, it was That Slytherin's own snake that destroyed a piece of his own dark magic.
The pattern was broken the next year, for That Slytherin didn't return. She spent her time the way She used to, before That Slytherin had first entered the picture. And the entire school year passed without any sign of That Slytherin.
Then, much to Her delight, the next year brought with it the reinstatement of the TriWizard Tournament. She decided to pay close attention to the tournament; aside from That Slytherin, She had never before taken an interest in anything outside of her existence. Best of all, That Slytherin had still not made a reappearance. Or so She thought.
This time, That Slytherin made sure to regain his body, before trying to kill the boy who had escaped death nearly thirteen years ago. She happily learned that, again, That Slytherin had failed to kill his target; at the same time, however, She was growing irate. She hated the fact that no one from Her house would dare challenge That Slytherin for the right to rule the world.
Things happened quickly. The next school year came, and it seemed to Her that barely anyone believed That Slytherin had returned. The Ministry had placed an awful witch in the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Worst of all, those who did know That Slytherin had returned were nowhere near defeating him.
Things continued to get out of hand. The following year, Dumbledore died. The year after that, That Slytherin took control of the Ministry. It seemed no one was close to destroying his precautions, his dark magic. Worse, it seemed She was right, for none from her house dare challenge That Slytherin directly.
Then he was dead. That Slytherin died, all of his Horcruxes having been destroyed. And life simply went on. It was in that moment, in the moment of That Slytherin's true death, that She decided to break the pattern. She decided that it was Her house's time. She would do everything to ensure that, when next there was a powerful wizard, he would be from Her house.
She, Rowena Revenclaw, would wait. She would wait until someone worthy of her desires was sorted into Her house. She would wait, biding her time, until the proper moment. She didn't care about right and wrong. All She cared about was proving Her house was better than the others. So She would make sure her champion did fail, the way That Slytherin had.
Rowena Revenclaw waited seventeen years, before choosing the boy she would make into the next Dark Lord.