Chapter 07
Two rats, two timelines
Even's POV
Merlin had seen some kind of moving picture near the bed I had chosen and had almost torn it from the wall, apparently not even noticing how he had undone the magic keeping it stuck to the wall and after looking at it for a few seconds, had the man run back after the matron who had just joined us for a most epic tale-telling.
I wonder what it was on the picture that caught my friend's attention so and a few minutes later, just when Ienzo and I have taken off our lab coats, do the two walk back and does Madam Rosmerta ask: "Great Merlin, why are you so shocked by this boy's name? He died years ago? What is so important about him?"
And the man answers: "His name is important, because there was another Peter Pettigrew, back in Arthur's time." The woman looks shocked and Merlin goes on: "He was Arthur's second greatest enemy, right next to his own illegitimate son Mordred and Morgana Le Fay and he was often the cause for many magical deaths."
Merlin shakes his head and says: "I never thought I'd see those sneaky eyes again. This, this man – he has to be a descendent of him. Of that same bastard. It all falls together now.""It – it does?" Madam Rosmerta asks and Merlin nods as he says: "Pettigrew was a Muggleborn wizard who hates his own magic and with that all magic.
He swore, just before he was supposed to enter Hogwarts, that he would destroy all Hogwarts stood for and that he would rid the world of magic. Arthur was against him, but only had Excalibur and lost almost half his army to him back in 938, so he was forced to count on Salazar and the others to protect his magical people for him.
But Pettigrew was nothing if not cunning and ruthless. He was the first wizard in the history to be capable of causing burst of accidental magic at age 39 and he often used this around witches and wizards who were, after that, unable to defend themselves from the Muggles attracted to them by said accidental magic.
He also had a terrible hatred for Salazar and I know this is because of what Salazar was trying to accomplish, to protect us magicals from the Muggles, while Pettigrew wanted us all extinct and I have no doubt he did something to cause Salazar to either die, be killed by Muggles or simply give up on our plan."
Merlin then starts to walk around, murmuring under his breath about ways in which Pettigrew must have been capable of doing this and suddenly he stops, just when he passes a window and he runs back, looking through it at Hogwarts and he says: "Wait a minute, Hogwarts is about 20 miles away from this tavern, isn't it?"
Madam Rosmerta nods and says: "Yes, it is. It used to be a home, before that it was a home for graduated students and before that – well, no one knows." And Merlin says: "Maybe not, but I do know who was the builder of this house. I know the original owner and if I know him as well as I like to think that I do –."
He stops talking and walks over to the midst of the room, rubbing his hand over the wooden planks there and smiles widely as he grabs one of the planks and pulls at it, pulling it loose easily and while holding the plank bent, he says: "Get it, quick." I run over and see a small journal hidden in a transparent cage of magic.
I look shocked, but then quickly change the magic into ice and pick the whole thing up, just before Merlin lets go of the plank and it easily slides back with the others, while I had expected it to slam back with a loud bang. I then undo the ice and hand the book to Merlin, who smiles widely and says: "Godric's journal, I knew it."
Instantly the mouth of Madam Rosmerta drops and she asks: "Godric? As in Godric Gryffindor? This was his room?" And Merlin says: "Not just his room, this was the house he and Salazar shared once they completed the Blood-brother bond. They lived here and this is also where we came up with the Muggleborn–safety-plan."
The woman looks shocked and says: "I – I cannot believe it. So the actual history between Salazar and Godric is written in that journal?" And Merlin nods as he says: "Yes, and also the answer as to what Pettigrew did to Salazar to have him gain the reputation he holds today." The woman looks shocked and Merlin opens the book.
He pages through it and I am amazed at how quickly his eyes scan over the pages, while I can't help but wonder how a book of more than a millennia old can still be in such terrific state and then suddenly Merlin says: "Here, I have it right here. What happened to Salazar. Godric saw it in his mind after – oh Arthur's sword no."
We all look at him inquiringly, while he sags back down in his chair and whispers: "After seventh years brought his crushed body, with not an unbroken bone left in his body, back to Hogwarts." We all look shocked and Madam Rosmerta asks: "Crushed? But – but what crushed him?" And Merlin takes a deep breath as he starts to read.
The vision of my friend – my brother – so crushed, with his eyes closed and up to the heaven, as if begging for the gods to spare him, is more than I can bare and, just knowing with my gut feeling that Peter Pettigrew – Sal's greatest rival – is behind this I decide to practice the art Salazar taught me, Rowena and the Seventh years.
I focus my mind on that of my brother and whisper:"Enter mind." And as I open my closed eyes, I feel myself going through all kinds of passageways, which I know represent the many memories of my brother. Hating that I have to do this, but forcing myself to do it either way, I head for the darker part of his memory.
There I pass the memory I know Salazar hates with his being and soul and find my brother holding up a gigantic black fortress with large windows and a single door high above his head. I realize I have found the right memory and whisper: "Enter." The magic of me and Salazar easily responding to my request.
But when I enter the structure is still standing and I am at a hilltop, together with my friend. Salazar has his hands stretched out before him and I know he is evaluating the building like only Salazar can do. Seeming to find it acceptable he grabs his faithful cane and I can tell he has been forced to use it a lot this summer.
Wishing my brother had accepted for Helga to come with him as she – and only she – can help him relieve the pain of his leg, but Salazar represents one of the custom personality qualities all magicals have inside them; pure stubbornness. I shake my head at this good-naturedly and look on as Salazar leaves for the structure.
Then my neck-hairs stand up and I look behind me, but see nothing. Gazing over the ends of the other hills surrounding the building I suddenly see Peter Pettigrew hiding behind one of them, leering at Salazar and making me want to attack him were it not for the fact that I am but a ghost in this memory.
I walk over to where the man is standing and gasp as behind him is a small village of plunderers and farmers, all of them looking tough with great muscles and ripped arms attached to their cloths; men perfect for Pettigrew to use in his plans to kill Wizards without having to do the terrible deed by himself.
I look from the village to Salazar, who has used cutting hexes on the vines surrounding the structure and who is currently using special digging spells, of which I know need a little bit of wandless magic, to get holes in between the ground he is standing on and the building, to see him repeating this last set of spells over and over again.
Luckily, does the magic not seem to register to the small instincts of the hunters, but I can tell that the excessive magic required for wandless magic is slowly reaching out to gather inside the crops and other vegetables of the farmers. My lips thin as I just know this will alert the farmers to magic and I wish my friend would stop.
I look from the farmers, coming out of their small houses to work on their crops, to Pettigrew, who is glaring at the magic Salazar is casting, to my brother and friend, who stops for a short while and leans on his cane even more, worrying me even more as it proves that Salazar has used a lot of magic before coming here.
Wondering if this tired out state of his will be detrimental to the oncoming state of events, I gulp and wander over, wanting to be closer to my brother when it happens. But just when I have reached the valley, do I feel waves of excessive magic flowing over us and gasp in fear, looking behind me to where Pettigrew is casting.
Salazar notices the same and shouts: "PETTIGREW! How long have you been following me, you waste of precious magic!" And the rat shouts: "Precious? Only to those who worship the devil magic is precious! I work in name of our lord and future ruler. God, I will cleanse this world of the devil's evil cry!"
I shake my head, knowing that witches and wizards are never to be raised like Christians as this is just the result and Salazar shouts: "God was 900 years ago! A new millennium is coming! Just accept that already!" But Pettigrew shouts back: "All I have to accept is that the new millennium will birth a new son of God!"
And I hit myself on the head as Salazar curses in Parsletongue before he shouts: "Pettigrew, you wasting your excessive magic won't allow you to live for another 10 years at max! Stop this nonsense or you'll die, you idiot!" But Pettigrew just laughs and says: "Words of a coward, words of the devil, I say."
Before he starts casting the excessive magic, but I can tell that the first batch was only to gain Salazar's attention as now the magic no longer flows our way. My eyes widen and I whisper: "The plunderers." And indeed the gigantic men and the farmers with their plows appear, arriving at the hilltop and glaring down at us.
I see Salazar looking around in shock as three small hills are now filled with the man standing on them and I suddenly see Pettigrew's entire stance and facial features take a new look as he seems to hide behind the rocks again and moans: "That's him, that's the evil one. He was luring me, enchanting me like the devil."
Rage fills me like no other and Salazar shouts: "You twisted little sneak! I'll get you one day, Pettigrew! You can't delude them forever." But the words: "Watch me." Are mouthed by the man before he whispers to the farmers: "Help?" Looking like a weak little child, instead of a forty-two year old man.
I shake my head and Salazar shouts: "You underestimate me yet again, Pettigrew! The plan won't fail, I won't allow it!" And with both hands he plunges his cane into the ground and casts a spell that makes the structure tremble and slowly float out of the ground. Salazar raises his arms and swirls his hands, keeping up the enchantment.
The farmers and plunderers are shocked to death and I silently hope they will remain that way, even while I know that I am currently residing in a dead man's memory, but then Salazar starts to struggle and looks at Pettigrew, who I see leaning against the rocks and twisting his wand a little, moving the structure with it.
I look at the structure and to my shock, while Salazar tries to let it float high enough to – as we have learned to call it – apparate it to Hogwarts, is Pettigrew pushing the structure to the side, over to where Salazar is standing. Salazar moves to another side of the building and this seems to give him a better aim.
He breaks Pettigrew's magic and pushes the building higher up, but the speed with which he does this seems to break the men from their shock and the plunderers shout as they run at my friend, who is forced to only use his free hand, while he uses his cane to keep a shield of vines and leaves up around him.
The plunderers cut through the green and I see Salazar struggling on the levitation as he re-grows the plants and conjures new ones, but the ring protecting him becomes smaller and I see the farmers leaving, which relieves me as it means their plows won't cut into my friend. But then I see the structure tremble again.
I look back at Pettigrew and see him now holding his wand like a real wizard, pushing his magic through it and overcoming that of Salazar only slightly, still allowing Salazar to raise the structure higher, but also pushing it to where my friend is standing – and this time Salazar will be unable to move to another side.
This worries me as I know it means this is where Salazar dies and I shout: "Pettigrew, you rotten piece of horseflesh! Who's the real wizard now? You're casting as well as us, so you're one of us! Accept it!" But then remember that I am but a memory and I hear Salazar groan as one of the plunderers strikes him.
I close my eyes and know that, while the strike might not be fatal, the hurt will cause him to lose focus and that focus will be the death of him. I turn my back to my friend as I feel the wind blowing up and then the ground below me trembles terribly as the structure lands right onto my dearest friend – and only brother.
Merlin stops there and closes the book, tears in his eyes as he must be feeling the loss of his friend becoming final at last. Ienzo and Lea walk over and both lie a hand on his shoulder in support, while Terra seems to have real trouble holding back his anger. Madam Rosmerta is also in tears and whispers: "That – that poor man."
Merlin nods and says: "The fact that his attempt to get a good house failed must have been seen by the other Founders as a sign they should not continue the plan and that must have twisted into the rumor that Salazar left because he couldn't face his school being filled with Muggleborns, which in return led to his infamous hate for Muggles."
The woman nods and Merlin sighs before he stands up and says: "My friends and I will go rest now, will you please put this in your rooms and keep it there until my group leaves for Hogwarts tomorrow. I feel I cannot rest with the knowledge of this story so close to me." The woman nods and leaves, hugging Merlin before she does so.
Merlin smiles slightly and whispers: "Let's just hope I can change the way people look at true history and history based on rumors spread over the last few centuries. The way Salazar died, he doesn't deserve his name being dragged through the mud like this." We all nod and leave for bed, me wondering what else we will discover here.
