A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I am so sorry I haven't updated this in almost a year...I do feel really awfully about that. Good news is, I have a better idea of the shape this story is going to take. It will probably end up being 9 or 10 chapters in total. Anyways, you can find me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter three and be on the lookout for chapter four much sooner than a year, lol!
When they got into Helga's private rooms, Merlin left her without a second thought. Hermione stood at the periphery, taking every detail in, to confirm that she really was here, in the time of the Founders. The party was much the same as it had been the night before, only with slightly different faces this time around. Hermione was immediately waved over by an excited looking Nimue.
"Hermione? Hermione was it?" she asked, passing her some mead in some sort of drinking horn. "It's so good to see you again. I hope that Salazar didn't scare you off last night."
She laughed at the idea, thinking that after she had faced Voldemort that anyone else could frighten her. But, perhaps, if Salazar was who influenced Tom Riddle...
"It will take more than one miserable wizard to scare me off," Hermione said, with her head held in the air. There was no way that coming into contact with the Salazar Slytherin could tear her away from all this history and knowledge. It was practically a golden age for magical theory and Hermione couldn't wait to pick the brains of all these people.
There was Meredith the Grey! Hermione had just read his treatise on healing using yew roots. And over there, she thought she saw Aoife Bloodwand. She had dueled seven wizards at once and won, protecting her village.
"I wouldn't say that I'm miserable," a voice caught her out of her own musings.
Hermione saw Nimue looking wide-eyed over her shoulder and spun on her heel to come face to face with Salazar Slytherin himself. She flushed, embarrassed at being caught saying something so uncharitable behind his back.
"Oh, I didn't mean it like...that," she said, lamely. She felt supremely guilty.
Salazar snorted at her in disbelief. "How did you mean it then?" he asked.
"I just meant that you...you seemed to prefer being on your own," Hermione said, hoping to be as delicate as possible. He was still one of the four founders of Hogwarts, and she didn't really fancy offending him so much.
He laughed at her.
Suddenly, Hermione began to feel a little bit of annoyance bubbling up inside of her. "Nevermind. I stand by what I said. You are rude. You told Godric you were trying to get rid of me yesterday," she said, indigent. "And tonight you were eavesdropping. So, I've said it. I find you rude."
Salazar turned his head to his side. "I can understand why Godric gravitated towards you. You are very direct," he said, apparently not at all offended by her assessment of him. "Would you like another horn of mead?"
She gaped at him for a second, feeling whiplash from how quickly their interaction had changed. She didn't know what to make of Salazar, but she knew that she wasn't going to pass up a chance to talk to one of the greatest wizards to ever have lived. "Sure," she agreed.
They walked to one side of the room, where huge barrels of mead were stored. Salazar took her horn from her and filled it.
"I don't believe I ever got your name last night, witch," he said, handing her back her drink before filling his own cup. He took a long drink and waited for her to answer.
"It's Hermione," she said, playing with a strand of hair like a nervous school girl. She felt like she was talking to a rockstar or famous actor. It was a bit hard not to feel totally starstruck by him. She never could have imagined meeting one of the Founders. Their portraits didn't move either, so this was such a rare opportunity that she wasn't going to give up.
"And where are you from, Hermione?" he asked, his grey eyes shrewd.
Hermione wondered if he wasn't being nearly as friendly as he seemed or if he was just trying to get information out of her. In either case, she decided that it didn't really matter. "I'm from outside of London, actually," she said. "But I've been living at Hogwarts for the last, well... seven years really, while I've been a student."
Salazar's face twisted. "Ah, I see that you haven't abandoned the fancy that you are a time traveler," he said, sounding almost disappointed in her.
"It's not a fancy," she said emphatically. "I am a time traveler, even if this... portal to the past is just all some fever dream in my head. I've used a time turner to complete more classes while I was in school."
"That sounds ridiculous," he said. "A time turner? Time travel, while certainly possible, has not been achieved at this time."
"Well, of course you think that," Hermione said. "It hasn't been achieved in this time, but I can guarantee that it has in my time. What you don't realize is that I come from nearly a millennium ahead. I'm from 1998."
Salazar's grey eyes widened in surprise. "What sorcery is this?" he asked, looking around her like she was a wisp or an illusion. "How is it possible?"
Hermione shrugged her shoulders, feeling as if she was as in the dark as Salazar was. "I'm not really sure. I was walking back from the library after midnight and I must have took a wrong turn, because next thing I knew I was bumping into Nimue and Morgana and they brought me here. Today it was Merlin!" she said, only to be disappointed that he didn't have the same appreciation for these famous witches and wizards as she did. Of course, they weren't famous to Salazar, they were just his friends. "I suppose Godric must be onto something with the magical ley lines. The castle's magic was greatly disturbed recently and—"
Salazar cut her off before she could finish her rambling. "What do you mean the castle's magic was disturbed? What's happened?" he asked. "Some kind of natural event? We had a flood once."
She gave him a sad sort of smile. "No, unfortunately not. There was a war... a battle fought at Hogwarts, and it did a lot of damage," she explained. "The castle can do a lot to protect itself, but there is a limit to what it can withstand."
"A war?" Salazar asked, looking disturbed. "What was being fought over?"
Taking a drink of her meade, she tried to think of a reasonable answer, before deciding that it was too big of a can of worms, seeing as Voldemort was a direct descendent of this wizard, influenced by his own writings. "I don't really want to talk about it," she demurred.
He looked disappointed to not know the answer, but something in his face actually softened. Hermione was struck by how handsome he looked at the moment, nothing like the portraits that survived of him. She wondered what had happened — perhaps it was dark magic, same as Voldemort.
"I understand," he said softly. Salazar looked away from her, giving her a moment to gather herself outside of his prying eyes.
Hermione wondered if he could ever comprehend why she wouldn't really want to talk about it. Did he know the immense amount of harm that he'd done, his thoughts rippling through time into something destructive and awful. Would he be repulsed if he knew that she was a muggleborn? She couldn't bring herself to reveal it to him — not now anyways. It didn't seem right to rock the boat when she was enjoying the opportunity she had to speak with the Founders.
"So, a time turner," he said, eventually, before leading her back into one of the many alcoves in Helena's room. There were some cushions on the floor and he gestured for her to sit.
She floundered for a moment, before doing as she was instructed. She took a drink of her mead, noting that the party was not quite so loud here. "Time turners," she repeated, wondering what he was after.
"What is it? How does it work?" he asked, looking at her curiously.
Hermione eagerly launched into a description of the curious little devices, their golden rings around the magical sand that drove their purpose. She talked about the fine art of learning how many times to turn the rings, something that she'd gotten rather good at when she'd used them.
Salazar seemed amused at her passionate response, but he also was genuinely interested in the device and how it worked. "That's a rather apt name," he said. "A time turner," he repeated, toying with the word. "And you've used this device?"
"Yes, as I said, I wanted to take more classes," she answered with a bright red blush on her cheeks. "Ancient Runes and Divinations were at the same time and well, you can't be in two places at once."
"Was it worth it?" he asked. Salazar did not seem to think it was folly to take both Ancient Runes and Divination, not like her friends had.
Hermione briefly thought about asking him his personal opinion on Divination. She was certain that some people had the gift, but trying to teach it was useless. Did he put more stock in it? He didn't have (well, most wizards for that matter) the benefit of a thousand years of science to explain unknown things. "Not really," she said, biting her lower lip. "I quit Divinations mid-year."
Even if he thought that Divination was important, he did not scold her for giving up on the class. "And you... were a student at Hogwarts?" he asked, looking at her curiously.
"Yes, I've graduated recently," Hermione answered. "I don't know how it's done in this time, but where I am, you receive instruction for seven years and then you graduate and find a job out in the real world."
"Hm, no, we would provide an education here at any time to anyone who would like to learn," he said. "And they can stay as long as they would like."
"That sounds nice," Hermione said wistfully. She didn't think that she would ever be ready to be done learning. And staying in the protective cocoon of Hogwarts was appealing.
"So, you are ready to go out into the 'real-world'," he said, though it sounded as if he didn't really understand what he was talking about. "What sort of job do you want?"
Hermione couldn't help but laugh. "I don't really feel ready, actually. Everyone around me is, but I just don't really know what I want to do with my life yet," she explained. It was nice to be able to open up to someone who had no idea who the Hermione Granger was. He wasn't judging her at all. "None of the jobs really seem to fit right. My boyfriend — well, I guess he's not technically my boyfriend, but we are dating — seems to think I should be an Auror."
"What's an Auror?" he asked, bombarded by her modern vocabulary.
"It's like a dark wizard catcher," she explained. Her eyes widened when she saw the comical look of surprise on his face. "Well, not exactly. There are laws about what kind of magic you can do. So Aurors find people doing things against the law. Maybe like a Sheriff, if you are familiar with the muggle term."
"There are many things you speak of that I am unfamiliar with," Salazar said, giving her a crooked grin. "You do not wish to be an Auror?"
"Well, no," Hermione said, with a frown. "But it's not like I have a better idea of what I should do, either."
"What magic has captured your attention?" he queried. "Time magic?"
Hermione laughed. "No, not really. I would say probably Charms or Arithmancy is the most interesting to me," she said. "But my best subject is probably Transfiguration."
"You should speak with Rowena," Salazar said, running his hand along his jaw. "I'd introduce you tonight, but she is too busy hovering over her daughter. And, unfortunately for you, my strengths are primarily in Potions."
"That would be lovely, thank you," Hermione said, thinking that she would rather like to speak with Ravenclaw as well. She couldn't believe how lucky she was that she was able to meet the Founders, even if this really was all a figment of her imagination, like Ron insisted. But, it was rather strange to have an ally in Salazar Slytherin, especially with the rocky start they had gotten off to. "Why are you being so nice to me?" she demanded, suddenly suspicious. "I thought we had established that you didn't like me and I thought you were rude."
The wizard shrugged his shoulders. "I find you fascinating," he revealed, no guile in his voice. "You are an intriguing witch."
She blushed at the compliment — at least, she thought it was a compliment. She wasn't sure what to do with herself, but she was suddenly very aware that she was getting career advice from Salazar Slytherin in an alcove off of Helga Hufflepuff's main room, during a party with all manner of famous witches and wizards.
Maybe Ron was right. Maybe, she ought to take a break and rest a bit.
"I really should be going," she said, standing abruptly.
Salazar made no move to stop her and tipped his head to wish her a good evening. Then, Hermione slipped out of the party, back out into the hallway, letting her feet take her back on the all too familiar walk to Gryffindor Tower.