A/N: Thank you to those who have read so far. In case you haven't caught on, I am not JKR (I wish) so anything you recognize is not mine. This story will be told through each of the Founders POV at some point or another, and I will be careful to note which Founder is speaker. But, for now, here is another chapter from Salazar's POV.
Please read and review!
In Sal's tenth summer, Selenus' ninth, the plague struck. Nearly a third of their father's village was wiped out when their father began to nearly go insane with fear. He began to blame what the rest of Briton was also fearing.
Witchcraft.
"Please, don't be ridiculous, Abelard," Splendora would beg. "'Tis but a sickness—a horrid one—but a sickness nonetheless. Don't go seeking superstition. I am sure it couldn't be anything else."
"The sureties of a woman is second in uselessness only to your firstborn."
"Salazar is intelligent and so very—"
"The boy is weak," Abelard hissed. Salazar shrunk into the wall, red-faced, as Selenus stared at him. "If only the sickness would take him and my proper heir would be able to inherit these lands, if there is anything left by the time he is of age if these witches are not stopped!"
"Abelard, you are—"
Salazar did not truly begin to fear his fate until one day, his little brother began to cough violently, and by the end of the day was confined to his bed. Then, the burnings began.
Because of their power, Splendora seemed certain (even if Abelard was not).
"You must never practice magic again, my son," she told Selenus one day as he began to recover. "And you must run, Sal. Run and never look back."
Sal didn't listen. He hid in the bowels of the castle instead. The next morning, he watched as his father's advisors began to set up a pyre. Someone had seen Splendora and Salazar deep in the forest, surrounded by serpents, the so-called creature of the devil. And now, with her home country decimated and unable to go to war, would be the most opportune time to get rid of her and her older, supposedly weaker son. Only the son was nowhere to be found.
He stayed in the shadows.
He stayed in the shadows as his mother's was tied to the stake in the middle. He stayed in the shadows as the kindling around her was lit, as the flames licked higher and higher towards her. He stayed in the shadows, heart pounding out of his chest, aching to run to her as she gave her first heartwrenching scream and as she gave her last. He stayed in the shadows until the last of the mob had left and the pyre was no more than cooling ash. Sal very carefully made his way toward the pile of ash that had been his mother. Something glittered in the dying sun.
Very carefully, so as to not disturb anything, Sal picked up a large, egg-shaped locket on a thick chain. It had a Serpentine "S" on it for Splendora. His mother's name. Sal watched as one fat tear, sparkling like a jewel fell upon the locket. He quickly wiped the tear off, making the locket shiny again. For a brief moment, he looked up at the tower where he knew his little brother was still.
"Stay safe, brother mine," he murmured. Then he stood and slipped back into the shadows, quickly making his way to the woods where his friends, the snakes, did live.
It was that day that Sal finally absorbed a lesson from his father. And that lesson was hate.