(Ron's pov)
I had been watching everything going on since the start of term.
Harry seemed to be even closer to the Death Eater brats, completely ignoring anybody that wants to help or protect him.
I had especially watched the Greengrass harlot spend time with Harry, even after my sister had warned her away. The heiress acted as if she had the right to hang all over the savior like she had been ever since the day in the alley.
I glanced at the young redhead I was supposed to be watching out for. She had been glaring at the Slytherin table from the moment she sat down, though I wasn't sure if the glare was for Harry, who wouldn't give her the time of day. Or Greengrass, sitting beside Harry, smirking with the Boy-Who-Lived at something another snake had said.
Speaking of Ginny, don't think I haven't noticed her odd behavior. She seems to be walking in a daze quite often, and sometimes even disappearing altogether.
I had asked her a few days ago where she keeps running of to, but she replies that she has no idea what I'm talking about. I left her alone after that realizing that she is probably just working on a way to get Harry away from future servants of You-Know-Who.
(Harry's pov)
The weeks of the first term seemed to fly by without much problems. I had worked myself into a sort of schedule. Classes and homework with my friends. Nights were split between Severus, the trunk and lounging in Slytherins personal rooms talking to my ancestor.
He had told me all about his world, and how the story of the founders have been changed throughout the years.
Today, people believe that Salazar hated muggleborns, and didn't want them 'polluting' the school. The current version tells of an argument between him and Godric on the subject of possible students, ending with Salazar leaving the school, after creating a chamber and hiding a monster that an heir can use to purge the school of those unworthy to learn magic.
Salazar told me that the widely accepted story is false.
The truth was that Salazar had no problem with muggleborns, whom he refers to as common born. It was the non magical parents that he had a problem with.
(Flashback)
"I thought that you were supposed to hate muggleborns."
"No. I have no problem with common borns. It's their families that I don't like. From what you told me of your relatives, you can understand why."
"Kind of. I mean not all muggles are like them are they?"
"Perhaps not anymore Harry, but we were building the school in dark times. The ideologies of the church were beginning to spread, especially in Scotland. Before the church, wizards and witches were looked up to by the common folk. They would seek our advice, and help with many problems, such as medicine. With the church spreading, they began to fear us, shun us. Much like your aunt and uncle.
"We built Hogwarts not only as a school, but as a sanctuary for those who would die at the hands of those who should love and nurture them. Magical Children born to common folk were being targeted my family and neighbours. Killed for being 'unusual' and behaving 'ungodly'."
"So, if you didn't hate them, then where did the rumor begin?"
"My grandson from my second child. His fiance had been a pureblood that had been murdered by common folk during the earlier days of witch hunting. She was a gentle girl, who had found a young child that had been beaten by his father for a bout of accidental magic. She was seen healing the child magically. Needless to say she was burned at the stake, alongside the child she had tried to help.
"Her death pushed him over the edge and he added a baslisk to the chamber I built. The baslisk was placed there to attack and kill those who came from the same people who took his love from him."
(End flashback)
He told me how to close off the second entrance, the one that the angered grandson had made, since he couldn't access the personal rooms. I closed it off, making sure that no one could control the baslisk except for me, in case of the dire need to protect the school.
I looked up from my thoughts as Daphne entered the Common Room and went through the door leading to the girls dorms.
My mind went back to the conversation I had with Salazar shortly after the talk with my friend on what the Weasley girl had said to her.
(Flashback)
It had been 3 days since my conversation with Daphne, and I felt so confused. I hardly even noticed it when I sat down by the fireplace in Slytherins personal rooms.
"You seem to have a lot on your mind young Harry." The voice of the parselmouth founder had startling me out of my confusing thoughts.
"Hello Salazar. Yes, I have a rather strange problem." I continued on, explaining about Daphne's run in with Ginny Weasley and the conversation I had with her afterwards. I had already explained my knowledge to him. Having told him about everything that happened to me that led me to the Potter trunk and afterwards. So he already knew about Dumbledores manipulations and the Weasleys part in it.
He listened to the whole story, without interrupting, with an oddly knowing smile. He chuckled when I finished.
"Ah, the problem you face is one that every man faces at some point in their lives."
"What do you mean?" I asked. He told me the story of how he first met Rowena Ravenclaw. She was just learning the art of magic, and her family lived very close to muggles. At the time muggles were slowly leaning away from the magical population but this was still before the full fledged animosity that would soon begin the with hunting days that would eventually lead to our hiding.
She was still having a few bouts of accidental magic during times of stress and tension. She had one such bout when the muggle children in the neighborhood were calling her names because she was smarter than she should have been as a girl of the era.
Girls back then, especially muggle girls, were not really allowed to be educated like the boys. Girls of the time were always seen as property, meant only to obey their future husband and be good little housewives. Cook, clean and care for the children. That was all they were needed to know. Any more would be considered a waste to the controlling men.
He said that the boys were about to start 'teaching her a lesson' when her magic burst from her, forming a protective barrier around her. I could imagine what would have been done to her had her magic not responded to the danger she was in.
He explained how his father had been able to stop the would-be attackers, and how Salazar had helped Rowena get home where her witch mother had been able to comfort her.
For a long time he had no idea why he helped her. Sure it was the right thing to do, but a boy willingly helping a girl that was not his betrothed simply wasn't done at the time. All he knew at the time was that he felt strangely protective of the frightened young witch.
That event led to a friendship between the two families, and when the Ravenclaw family were attacked, a few years later, Salazars family stepped in as caregivers to Rowena. The attack had been seen as one of the first fires of the very beginning of the first and one of the only real witch hunts in history.
Back then muggles had taken to burning the unprotected homes of magical people while the family would sleep. Rowena parents had never seen it coming. Rowena was fortunate enough to have been awake; after a terrible nightmare; when the fire began. She had used the cover of the motionless night to escape unseen and run to Salazars home a few miles away.
As the years went by Salazar eventually understood why he helped the beautiful and intelligent witch. It was the beginning to a life of love.
He eventually courted Rowena, after many years of loving her from afar, not expecting his feelings to be reciprocated. By the time their courtship came into the light, they had already built Hogwarts with Godric and Helga.
"Godric and Helga were silent when it came to our relationship at first, expecting nothing to come of it. But when Rowena and I decided to marry, they decided to voice their opinions. They stated that it would be a conflict of interest, and they could not allow our relationship to continue.
"We ignored them, and got married in secret. It had lasted nearly two years, until Godric had seen me leaving Rowenas rooms very early one summer morning.
He challenged me to a duel, which ended up a tie, then banished me from the grounds, never to see my wife again. It wasn't until years later that I realized that she had become pregnant with twin boys."
He then told me that I was beginning to love Daphne. It is still in its early stage, where I would notice how beautiful she is, but not be in love with her as a man would be in love with his wife. However it will eventually evolve into the adult love. He said it was exactly how he felt for Rowena all those year ago. The day he helped her get home.
I knew then, that the feelings I felt around Daphne, were those feelings of love. An mostly unknown feeling to me. It felt good.