Autumn 1991
Ronald Weasley
"Expelliarmus!" Ron's voice echoed off the cold stone walls of Salazar's room. A flash of small white light erupted from the end of his wand and flew harmlessly at one of the shimmering figures that lined the walls. The figure tilted slightly but kept its balance, the thin outline of a wand not budging from its blue translucent hand.
"Again!"
Ron took a short breath, his heart pounded heavy in his chest as he spun and raised his wand again. Another figure stepped forward, this one purple-hued. Ron said the words again and flicked his wrist, another flash of white light spiralled away from him. This time, the figure stepped to the side and the spell splashed against the grey walls. He took another gasp of breath. He couldn't remember how many times he had tried to cast the spell but his arms ached and his hair was drenched in sweat.
"Focus!" Salazar's voice rang cold. "If you lose focus in a battle, boy, you will die."
"I'm tired," Ron bit back. "It's been almost two hours."
"Two hours?" The founder said and shut his eyes tightly. "Very well, we may take a break."
The figures around the room disappeared in puffs of dust until only Ron and Salazar remained. Ron quickly dropped to his knees and then laid backward on the cold floor letting his wand clatter beside him.
"That… was terrible," he said through gasps of air.
"Terrible?" Sal shook his head. "This was nothing, Ronald, just training. Becoming a great wizard is hard work and I can assure you that nothing you do here will be as hard as fighting a real battle. You must be prepared for when that day comes."
Ron didn't bother replying, he was too busy trying to stop his heart from exploding out of his chest.I hope a real battle is over quickly,he thought bitterly. When Sal had asked to teach him some new spells he hadn't expected that it would involve so much… work. Nothing that Professor Quirrell had taught them in defence against the dark arts compared to how horribly physical real duelling seemed to be.
Once Ron's breathing returned to a regular pace, and his muscles weren't burning quite as much, he lifted himself into a sitting position. He tilted his gaze up towards Salazar, who stood motionless with his arms crossed and an unreadable expression on his lips.
""Those figures," Ron said slowly, "Are they a spell? I mean, they're not real practice dummies, are they?"
Sal arched an eyebrow. "No, of course they aren't, boy. I wouldn't have you train with idle wooden toys."
"What are they, then?" He asked.
"They are a part of this room," Sal said simply. "Conjurations from my memories, nothing but the shadows of foes I faced when I was young. Not as young as you, of course, but young nonetheless. I expect, once you learn more, they should be trivial compared to whatever magic exists outside of this room. Hundreds of years is a long time for magic to change and I imagine that there are many curses which I know nothing of."
Ron grimaced, the shadows were hard enough.
"Which is why you must prepare," Sal nodded.
Ron groaned and stood back to his feet. He picked his wand off the floor and let himself enjoy the warmth for just a moment. "Alright," he nodded.
Ten differently-coloured shimmers formed around the room again. They had all swapped places but they were unmistakably the same as before.
"When you're ready,"
Ron took a deep breath and raised his wand in the direction of one of the shimmers. "Expelliarmus!" he shouted for the hundredth time. The spell raced out of his wand and struck a glancing blow. The shadow didn't drop its wand but instead wrapped its arms around itself in apparent pain.
"You're frustrated," Salazar commented. "Your spells will have more anger in them, but that makes them more unpredictable."
Ron shook his arm loosely and fired again, this time he missed as the shadow !
"Anticipate where they will move."
Ron turned around to face one of the others, shooting just to the left as it moved. The spell hit the target directly in the chest, but instead of dropping its wand it simply disappeared in a puff of dust.
"What the fuck?" Ron mumbled.
"Too hard," Salazar scolded can a spell be too hard?
As quickly as he could say the words he sent three more spells racing towards the wall. The first two missed, one of them chipping the stone work, while the third hit the purple shimmer. Unlike the other, it didn't explode and instead it grasped towards its chest like it had been impaled. Its thin wand yanked from its hand and went high into the air before disappearing when hitting the floor.
Ron let a triumphant smile spread across his brilliant!
"Very good," Sal said with an approving tone. "Try once more."
Ron nodded and sent a final blast towards the blue shadow, it hit just like the last. He nearly jumped in joy as he watched the figure's wand crumble into nothingness.
"I did it!" He said proudly as once again all the shadows in the room disappeared.
Ron felt a euphoric rush wash over him. He had an actual combat spell he could perform and he could hardly be happier. He wondered why defence against the dark arts was useless in comparison to Salazar. If they had been learning proper spells from the first day he was sure he would have mastered the disarming charm and even a few others by now. But then again, Professor Quirrell seemed to be afraid of everything, and Ron couldn't imagine him actually doing any duelling. He found himself suddenly wishing that the headmaster was also the defence professor, he bet Dumbledore knew some very powerful charms.
"You should be aware, Ronald, that the difficulty of this spell is partially because of your age," Sal gave him a well earned smile. "Your muscles are not yet dense enough to channel the full capability of your magic. It is why even an idiot of a grown wizard may seem so much more potent than a student."
Some of the excitement fled away. "You mean spells get easier as you age?" Ron asked.
"Certainly, which is why we build on the foundations of magic before teaching anything too complex. Or at least, that is my manner of teaching, and I will remind you that I taught many students."
"So you can't teach me the killing curse?" Ron asked.
Salazar suddenly froze and widened his .
"You don't know what you are asking me, boy. It is a spell that will change you, forever."
"I need to know it," Ron insisted. "I need to know how to protect my family, and the only way to do that is to kill the people who would harm them."
Salazar took a deep breath and began to pace. "There are many ways to kill someone, the killing curse is only one and it is a very extreme measure. One that must be avoided, it's a poison that inflicts you at the deepest level. It shatters your soul, so it is like a million shards held together only by threads. It is nearly impossible to remain the same after you have cast that curse. So when you ask me to teach you something like that, you are really asking me to teach you to become someone else. And you may not like that person you become."
"It doesn't matter," Ron dismissed. He didn't care what it did to him, as long as Charlie got to live.
"It does," Sal snapped at him. "You are too young to know what I am hinting at. I will teach you to defend yourself and to defend others, but I will not teach you that. Not until you are far older, not until you know the consequences of death."
"I see death everytime I close my eyes," Ron countered. "I watch my brother die, and see tents burn with families inside of them."
"I have used that spell three times in the entirety of my life, Ronald. I regretted every instance. I will not let you make the same mistakes that I did, not yet." Sal sighed. "You have a thirst for justice that impales some wizards so deeply. I know the path you walk, and it is perhaps why you were chosen to be our guardian. It's a tragic one, Ronald. It will leave you broken and changed beyond recognition, and yet I know you will choose it anyway. I will teach you other spells, some of them deadly. When you are ready, when I know what the spell will do to you, I will teach you."
"When?" Ron asked. He didn't want to wait any longer. He needed to know how.
"Four years," Sal said. "You may attempt to convince me that you are ready sooner, but until then I will resist."
Four years!? Merlin!Ron clenched his jaw tightly and took a quick array of breaths through his years,he mauled the words in his mind. Could he wait that long?
"What if I need it sooner?" he asked.
"Then I will know, and I will teach you," Sal nodded. "Do not wish for that to happen, boy. If I feel the need to teach you the spell then already Hogwarts will be close to being lost."
Ron loosened his jaw as he wrestled with the felt like a lifetime away and the thought of waiting made his stomach churn but at the same time he knew he shouldn't push Salazar harder. He looked into his instructor's eyes and saw something stir beneath the translucent coldness; pain or something else that Ron had brought on.
Ron let out a long breath, and tried his best to work the tension out of his muscles. Even if he disagreed with Salazar, he knew that the founder was one of the most powerful wizards to ever live. He had the experience that Ron didn't and there didn't seem to be much use in arguing about it. It was a fair deal, even if Ron didn't like it. He could learn the other spells, the ones that Sal said would still be deadly, and use them to protect Charlie. He could save the killing curse until he needed it most, and hopefully he didn't need it at all.
"I don't like it," Ron mumbled. He looked down at the wand in his hand and traced his finger along the snake that wrapped the handle. "But… I trust you."
Salazar nodded and his gaze softened. "That is all I ask, boy."
"But, I want to learn the other spells. The deadly ones, the ones you said are better."
Salazar tilted his chin upwards. "Yes, spells to defend yourself greatly. The means to disarm, to incapacitate, and sometimes to wound so grievously that death is imminent." He cleared his throat. "But you must treat them as the weapons they are, Ronald. They must be kept a secret, to be used in only dire circumstances. They will not stain your soul in the same manner as the killing curse, but they could affect you in other ways."
"I'll use them carefully," Ron said. "And when I'm ready, when I really need it, I'll come to you for the killing curse."
Salazar let his gaze linger on Ron for a moment before nodding approvingly. "You must know, Ronald, that a great wizard knows how to fight but most importantly he must know when not to. There comes a time for killing and a time for peace."
"That's why you built the school?" Ron ventured.
Salazar nodded. "Yes, it was a time for peace and Godric understood that. I made a mistake in leaving, I thought there was still a war to be fought. I was wrong, and Godric was right. I died because of it, I never saw my daughter grow old."
Ron frowned, feeling suddenly very bad for his instructor. He made a mental note to himself to find out what happened to Salazar's kids. Maybe, Sal, the version contained inside the pages of a book, could meet his family one last time.
"Slytherin house is my true legacy, this school. Not my ideas about blood. It was a peace that I wanted to leave behind, and I ended up doing the opposite." Sal said. "That's why you must be careful. Sometimes we don't notice how we change the world until it's already too late."
Ron grimaced slightly. Slytherin house wasn't nearly as peaceful as Salazar wished.
"About that…" Ron huffed. "There is uh, a bit of a fight going on. In the house, I mean It's this boy, Draco Malfoy. He thinks he runs everything, and he has a group of students who follow him around like he's some kind of lord. They're… well they're causing trouble. They call me a blood traitor and threaten to break my limbs. They also laugh in the faces of muggle-borns and call them slurs. He stole something from one boy and nearly got another expelled trying to stop him."
Salazar's eyes brightened slightly. "I see. What is being done about him?"
"There is something happening, I mean, not just with him, but with all of the students. This girl, Daphne Greengrass, says everyone has to pick a side. That the house is divided between those who want to rule over muggles and those who want to maintain the statute of secrecy, it's going to be a big mess, a power struggle. Daphne and another boy, Theodore Nott, are already planning on doing something about Malfoy. To try and get him to lay off other students." Ron said breathlessly.
Sal thought for a moment before responding. "And you have already chosen the right side?" Ron nodded. "Then, I may surprise you, Ronald, by telling you that this is a good thing. It may not seem like it, but you are being forced to cooperate with those who share your views. It will help you forge friendships, and let you know who you can trust. It is important that you make friends and find people you can rely on so that they might help you when it is time to save the school. Do you understand what I mean?"
Ron nodded lightly. He could use his friends to help him change Britain and protect his family, just like he was going to use Percy.
"However, be careful about alienation. You have to offer your adversaries a path to being on the right side, otherwise, they may think they have no choice but to continue as they are," Salazar added.
I have to make sure that Theo doesn't go too far,Ron swallowed.
"You don't care? About the in-fighting?" He asked.
Sal gave him a strange look. "You are all children, I don't blame you for bickering as I was once a child too, many many years ago. I understand what it is like to think that the world is so small. I have no doubt that whatever this situation with this Draco boy is, it will not last long. You'll see things are set right, and then in many years you'll look back and regard the situation pleasantly."
Ron wasn't sure he would ever think of Malfoy in a pleasant manner. At least, not if Malfoy was anything like his father.
"Anyway, I think you've heard enough of my wisdom for today, and you did very well, Ronald," Sal said, prompting a smirk to form on Ron's face. "Now, you should find the time to be a child, even in such dire circumstances. Don't rush into anything terrible, boy, you have time to learn the killing curse, I promise you. Enjoy yourself while you still can."