A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! This story has one chapter just one left. I would love to hear what you thought of chapter nine and be on the lookout for the finale soon! In the meantime, if you'd like, you can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour).
Hermione had nothing to do while she waited for midnight to come around, except to pack and repack her little beaded bag, unsure of what she would want to have with her. Once the clock struck midnight, though, she was on her feet, creeping through the empty halls of Hogwarts until she got to Helga's, pleased to know that she'd see Salazar again soon.
The party was in swing again once she arrived. She was greeted immediately by Morgana, who introduced her to Circe. She really knew she should take more interest in the beautiful enchantress, but her eyes kept scanning the crowd, looking for Salazar.
Morgana seemed to have caught on, looking at her with a knowing smirk. "He will be happy now that you've arrived," she said, sounding pleased that she'd worked it out. "He's always so morose in the days after you visit."
Hermione bit her lower lip shyly, pleased to hear that he obviously thought about her when they were apart. "Really?" she found herself asking, even though she'd seen the words that he'd written about her in his journal.
"Yes," Morgana answered. "Go and find your wizard. I think that he was talking to Balor last time I saw them."
Pleased to be given leave without being seen as rude, Hermione left them and slowly walked through the rest of the party goers, grabbing a horn of mead along the way. Taking a sip of the honeyed drink, it did not take long for her to find Salazar, drawn to him as she was. He was completely drawn into conversation with a large, dark haired man, but he stilled as soon as she came and stood next to him.
"Hello Salazar," she said, wondering how he'd react to her pressing a kiss to his cheek, here in front of everyone.
He turned to face her, his attention completely taken by her, his friend forgotten the moment that his grey eyes found her. "Hermione," he breathed out, like he couldn't believe that she was actually there. "I worried that I might have scared you away, after... after last time."
"Never," Hermione said. "Nothing could keep me away."
Salazar's face brightened at that, even as he fought a smile at her pronouncement. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against his side. "I'm... I'm glad to hear it," he said, shyly.
"I had some things that I needed to sort out, back home, but now I'm here again," she said, wanting to tell him about her little beaded bag. "How long has it been since I was last here?"
"It's been a few weeks," he revealed, the dilation of time making absolutely no sense to her.
"I wish there was some way... some scientific way to predict how the difference between our two times is related," she said, eyebrows drawn together. "It's been less than a day for me. I couldn't keep myself away. I—I broke up with Ron. My boyfriend."
"Ron," he said the name, not really able to piece together what he was trying to say. "You are happy about this?"
"Yes," she said, confidently squaring her shoulders. "I've come to realize that there are other wizards who I am more suited to than him. I'm happy."
He looked pleased to hear that and wore a slight smirk when he realized just who that other wizard might be. Oh, she wanted nothing more than to wrap him up and kiss him, right there in front of everyone, but their reunion was interrupted by the booming voice of Godric.
Somehow, they were pulled into a conversation with the ruddy wizard, who was describing some great adventure he and Salazar had undertaken. Hermione was pleased to hear all the little details, learning new things about the man who'd so captured her attention that could never be gleaned from a textbook. She drank her share of mead, laughing along as Godric embellished things in the hopes of impressing the beautiful Matilda, Baronetess of Ellis Moor.
She smiled at all of Salazar's little quips that added weight to the story. Hermione longed to have him to herself, but the knowledge that there was finally nothing holding her back soothed the want. She was content to chat with Salazar and his friends, knowing that she would have the rest of her life to spend time with him alone.
The feeling of Salazar's hand sliding into her own had her shivering in excitement, but she schooled her face, even as he was leaning over to whisper in her ear. "I think the fool is sufficiently occupied, should you want to make an escape," he said, his warm breath tickly, but pleasant.
Hermione chanced a glance at Godric, who had his hand on the waist of Matilda. "Only if you are escaping with me," she murmured in answer.
In turn, Salazar tugged on her hand, pulling her with him towards the doors to Helga's private quarters. When they were alone in the stillness of the hallway, Hermione couldn't help herself and pulled him back towards her, pressing up on her tiptoes to give him a little kiss — a taste of what was yet to come.
Something like devotion came over his face at the unexpected act. He pressed her back until she was up against the rough stone wall and slanted his lips against hers in a kiss that was altogether more possessive, as though he needed to convince himself that she was his. She moaned when his tongue slid against hers in a lazy pirouette, sending warmth flooding through her body.
He broke the kiss, in an effort to catch his breath. "Come," he said, pulling her down the hallway. "I will never hear the end of it if I am caught kissing you in the open like this."
She flushed, thinking that she wouldn't really mind. She wanted everyone to know that Salazar wanted her. Hermione Granger.
Perhaps to keep them on track, he started talking to her. "You seem so light, like a weight has been lifted," he said, sounding pleased. "Have you... have you made a decision about what you will do with your future?"
She smiled at his back. "I — yes, I have," she said, keeping it a bit cryptic for some reason she couldn't decide. She felt giddy at the thought of being with him forever. "I'm going to continue with my education. There is no reason why I can't continue to learn, no matter what my friends think." And, if Harry and Ron knew that she wanted to live in the time of the Founders to keep learning, they surely would think that she'd gone mad.
"The quest for knowledge is unending," he said, throwing a grin over his shoulder. "I don't think that I've ever stopped learning, testing the limits of magic."
Hermione knew that there was another alcove up ahead, one where they should remain somewhat unnoticed. Grabbing at his hand, she pulled him inside, until he was looming over her once again. Pressing to her tiptoes, she kissed him again, thrilled to hear that he supported her.
She pulled away breathless. "So you see, I'll stay here at Hogwarts," she whispered, staring up at him between sooty lashes.
Salazar blinked, looking at her like he was confused. "You can't do that," he said. "You'll just stagnate if you stay here. Keep learning, yes, but... you need to learn from other sources."
"But... you're here," Hermione said, her heart clenching like it was in a vice. "I thought you'd understand why I want to stay at Hogwarts."
He laughed. "It's not like I'll stay here forever," he answered. "We've made remarkable progress towards our goal, getting the school up and running, but it will survive without me. And then, I can go on to discover more about magic from faraway places. You can't stay in one place just because it's comfortable."
It was such a wild swing, to go from the giddy, happy, nearly manic mood she'd been in when she finally decided that she was going to stay in the past forever, to hearing Salazar discourage her from that path, crushing her dreams. "I don't..." she trailed off, wetting her lips. "I don't understand."
Salazar cupped her cheek gently. "Come, I have something that I want to show you," he said. "I think it will help you."
Hermione followed dumbly after him, barely looking at the stones on the floor or the hallways around them. When they finally reached their destination, Hermione was stunned to realize where they were. Horror pooled in her belly, but there was no stopping Salazar from whispering a bit of parseltongue. She could barely process what was happening before she was being tugged down into the Chamber.
They landed together on solid ground, Salazar's hands around her waist to steady her.
"The Chamber of Secrets," she breathed out, barely able to believe that she was here again.
His face was transformed with awe. "You know it?" he asked, unable to help himself. "You helped me think up the idea, you know? Telling me about your Room of Requirement. It took some work, but the castle yielded to me."
Hermione swallowed, wondering what sort of terrible curse she had laid at the feet of the Wizarding World. If Tom Riddle hadn't found the Chamber of Secrets, would he have turned out as awful as he had?
Salazar tugged her along further, until they got to the main chamber. He hissed into the vast emptiness and before long a tiny little thing was slithering out of one of the smaller pipes, to come coil around Salazar's feet.
"A basilisk," she said, her heart sinking further.
"Don't worry, I've told her not to look at you," he promised, turning to face her once again.
Hermione wasn't sure what he interpreted her horrified look as, but it wasn't the negative spiral that she was feeling. He kissed her, tongue gently teasing past her lips, as tenderly as he ever had, before he pulled back with a shy grin.
"You know, I built this all for you," he confessed, points of pink on his pale cheeks. "To protect the school from muggles. Now, you don't have to fear your future so much. There will be help at Hogwarts and now that you know about it, you can use the basilisk to help."
"From muggles?" she asked, her breathing starting to speed up. "Salazar, don't be ridiculous."
"No, you told me... about the war that you'd been in," he said, wrapping his arms around her to try and reassure her. "And, you didn't have to tell me. I know that the muggles must have found out about it and tried to destroy it in their jealousy."
"The war was among wizards," Hermione explained, her nostrils flaring. "Among people who thought that muggleborns had no right to magic and those who fought against that kind of prejudiced thinking."
"Prejudiced?" he asked. Hermione could practically see the gears turning in his head, when he pieced together which side she stood on. And which side he stood on.
"Yes," Hermione insisted. "I'm a muggleborn, Salazar."
"But... you are so... so powerful and so smart," he said, as if he could not comprehend a muggleborn being that way.
The dagger only twisted deeper in her heart. Maybe she'd done it subconsciously, but Hermione realized that she'd been avoiding telling Salazar about who she really was because she was fearing this sort of reaction. Because she knew this sort of reaction was inevitable. She'd read all of his personal papers, after all.
Hermione pressed her hand to her face, wondering how she had been so reckless. "This was a mistake," she choked out, only to feel a laugh bubble up in her chest. Oh Merlin, how had she ever thought this was a good idea? "I can't believe that I thought I could stay here with you — Salazar bloody Slytherin!"
"Stay?" he repeated, breath catching in his throat. He truly had never considered that was a possibility.
"Yes!" Hermione said, feeling completely hysterical at this point. "I was going to stay here at Hogwarts forever and keep learning and... Godric, I think I thought I was in love with you."
He didn't even stutter at her invocation of Godric's name. He stepped closer to her, his hand reaching out for her. "You can... you could stay, still," he said, practically begging. "We could go somewhere together. No one knows who you are yet, about you being a muggleborn. We could pretend—"
She made a noise of disgust. No, she would not pretend that she wasn't a muggleborn to stay with Salazar. "This was a mistake," she said, stepping back further from him. "I'm seeing now that I saw the past as this perfect place that hadn't been touched by any of the judgement or prejudice of the future, a place where I could fit in better, but I'm beginning to understand that I will only find myself comfortable in the place that I make for myself."
"Hermione," he implored, anguish on his face.
"I'm... I think I'm going to go back now," she said, resolutely. "I'm going back to my time. To where I actually belong."
Hermione hoped that he didn't try to stop her, lash out in anger or send the basilisk after her. But, she didn't hear anything but her steps in the pooling water while she made her way out of the Chamber of Secrets and back to her own time.