Salazar's Study: Book One

Chapter 1

Harry was walking down a deserted hallway, cursing. Reta Skeeter had written another fake article about him and Malfoy -Malfoy, of all people!- being in a secret relationship. He was getting howlers on the daily, and it was almost to much to handle.

"Fucking snakes," He muttered to himself. To his shock, the wall next to him started moving. In a few seconds, there wasn't even a wall there at all, instead, a hallway, with blown out torches on the sides. Harry took out his wand and, intreged, walked in. The second he did, the wall behind him closed and sealed again, causing him to yelp. 

"Lumos maxima," He muttered, and continued walking cautiously. At the end of the hallway, he saw a spruce door, with snake designs all over it. Harry was getting serious deja vu from second year.

Harry tried the handle, but it was locked. So on a hunch, Harry decided to speak. "Open," He hissed in Parceltongue. Nothing happened, except for one of the snakes on the door shifted a bit.

"Snakes, pureblood, basilisk, parce-"

The door started shifting, and it unlocked with a click and fell open. The so the password was 'basilisk', Harry thought.

He shone his wand in the room, and what he found, shocked him to his very core. It was a large room, with a dark green, dusty sofa on one end, a passage that looked like a hallway next to it, a grey carpet on black tiles, and bookshelves. Bookshelves everywhere, covering the tall walls. Hermione would have a field day, Harry thought, looking around. There was a large, oak desk nestled into one of the bookshelves on the left wall.

"Awsome," Harry whispered to himself, stepping all the way in and letting the door close behind him. Everything was so dusty, Harry wouldn't have been surprised if no one had been here in centuries.

He turned around once, and was surprised to see a large portrait of a man with long white hair, a large nose and spectacles, and a green dress robe with silver trim. The man was sleeping.

"Merlin," Harry muttered, in awe. It seemed he had stumbled apon Salazar Slytherin's old study.

The man in the portrait's onyx eyes shot open. "Who's there?"

His eyes landed on Harry, who was looking at the intimidating man with an awestruck expression.

"Who are you?" The man -who must have been Salazar- demanded.

"My name is Harry Potter, Sir," Harry said, deliberately in Parceltongue.

"Ah, I've heard of you. Though I didn't know you were a speaker... Anyhow, how did you find this place?"

Harry gulped. "I was walking in the hallway, Sir-"

"Call me Salazar, and I shall call you Harry." Salazar cut him off, causing Harry to adjust his glasses nervously.

"Well, I was walking through the hallway, and I was muttering to myself. I didn't realize it, but I was muttering in Parceltongue. I must have said the password, because the wall to the hallway collapsed and there was a passage, leading up to a door. After a few guesses, I guessed the password correctly and got in." Harry looked around the room once more. "What is this place?" He asked, his voice echoing off the walls.

"This, Harry, is my study and private quarters, from when I was still alive and head of Slytherin house. Speaking of which, which house are you in?"

"I'm in- er," Harry cleared his throat, and did his best not to stutter. What Hermione wouldn't give to find this! "I'm in Gryffindor, but the sorting hat wanted to put me in Slytherin."

"Then why didn't it?"

"It's a long story." Harry muttered.

Salazar chuckled. "I've got all the time in the world, Harry, literally. And I haven't had a visitor for over a few hundred years, so I would quite like to hear your story."

Salazar studied the boy in front of him. He was a nervous, shy and polite boy, not at all what he would expect from the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Well, when my parents were killed by Voldemort," Harry stopped for a brief second to asses how Salazar would react to the name, and found that he was simply watching Harry intently, not at all bothered. "I -er, went to live with my aunt and uncle. They were never really nice to me, so when I got my letter from Hogwarts, I was elated. A man named Hagrid came over and took me to Diagon Alley -you know where that is, right?"

Salazar shook his head and smiled slightly. "I haven't been alive for hundreds of years, Harry, do remember. There are some things I've heard, and some things I haven't. But I assume Diagon Alley is a place to go to for Hogwarts school supplies?"

"Yes," Harry nodded. "So anyway, Hagrid took me to a robe shop, and that's where I met a boy called Draco Malfoy."

Salazar wrinkled his brows. "Does he happen to have a woman named Ursa as an ancestor?"

"Probably. The Malfoy's are one of the oldest pureblooded family's known. So anyway, I met him there. He immediately started going off about Muggleborns and blood status and was basically a pompus brat the whole time. He was sorted into Slytherin, and I didn't want to be in the house with him in it, so when the Sorting Hat wanted to put me there, I whispered 'not Slytherin' and got my wish. If not for Draco Malfoy and his attitude towards Muggleborns, I would be in your house."

"Tell me," Salazar inquired. "What is the view on Muggleborns these days? They don't make too much trouble, do they?"

Harry snorted. "Trouble? My best friend is a Muggleborn, and she's the best witch of our year. Why would Muggleborns make trouble?"

"Harry," Said Salazar in a 'no nonsense' tone, "Do you honestly think Mudblood prejudice comes from nothing? I admit, these days it's mostly unwarranted, but back then..."

Harry frowned. "Back then, what?"

Salazar sighed regretfully. "Back when I was alive, Muggleborns who didn't agree with our methods would give us up to the muggles, and they would kill us ruthlessly. The middle-ages were scary times to be a wizard. That is why I wanted to eliminate the Muggleborns from the school, so that they could not give us away. That is why I made the chamber of secrets; not to kill muggles or Muggleborns, but for the children to go hide if the muggles ever found the castle. Back then, there were no wards that could keep away muggles, not we simply had to hope for the best. My basilisk, Zahini, was our protector."

Harry stood there, numb, as he felt his whole belief system shatter. It was not as if he was suddenly against Muggleborns, but now he saw a method to the pureblooded madness.

"Tell me, Harry, is Zahini still alive? A gorgeous snake, that one."

Harry gulped. "Sir, Tom Riddle found the basilisk-"

"Zahini," Salazar corrected.

"Zahini was taken under the control of Riddle, and a couple years back she tried to kill me on his orders, so I had to kill her first. I'm sorry."

"Shame," Salazar muttered. "Were there any casualties?"

"Thankfully none, Sir."

"Very well. Would you like to take a look around my quarters? I have quite a few books and artifacts that might interest you, and Gods know my rooms need cleaning."

Harry grinned. "I'd love to." He looked around for a second, before asking, "Do you happen to know any dust-banishing charms?"