The Founders Four

Chapter 17: A little history lesson

Like all other occupants of the Headmaster's office after the arrival of the letter from Ministry of Magic, Severus Snape was intrigued about the test of Salazar Slytherin. However, he never expected to have the opportunity to watch a sword fighting match between the two.

As the group arrived in the gallery and saw the two founders enter the room with battle armour, Severus could hardly hold back his smirk, and he would definitely enjoy the Slytherin founder defeat the obnoxious Gryffindor. Oh! How he would love to see the faces of the Marauders when that happened! However when the terms were laid, Severus was shocked to know that no magic will be involved. The Salazar Slytherin, who was famous for his views on non-magical people; fight like a Muggle? He Severus Snape was sure that Salazar would refuse this obnoxious terms and attack the big headed Gryffindor with a hex or two. However that thought was thrown out of the window when Salazar agreed.

As the match progressed Severus was truly astonished at the display in front of him. After watching the amazing match, one thing was clear in his mind, there was a lot more to the character of Salazar Slytherin then what was mentioned in the history. Salazar Slytherin was not the man he always imagined him to be. And thus, he was fascinated by the real Salazar Slytherin!

Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout were just marvelling at the opportunity to watch the match between the two male founders. They were enjoying the contest with a competitive spirit without any bias. They were both amazed to know earlier that Salazar was not a bad person. The fact that the he saved Sirius' life by playing with his own life was proof enough for them to start liking Salazar for who he was and not what history portrayed him to be.

They reasoned that whilst Salazar might choose the path of evil later on in his life, the fact still remained that he had volunteered to teach magical children in a time when magic was generally frowned upon. He had also, along with the other founders, taken on the responsibility of protecting those said children and as far as they knew (from the history books), he had never personally harmed any child, regardless of his biased views against the Muggle born children. Furthermore, this was a younger Slytherin, who had not yet committed any crimes that he was notorious for and it would not be fair to treat him any differently for something he has not (yet) done.

They were now impressed with Salazar's ability to hold a sword and be able to draw the match against one of the most famous sword fighters in the entirety of magical history. This just told them that Salazar was not entirely against the Muggles – he had after all taken the time to learn and master the Muggle art of Swordsmanship!

So what had happened that caused history to overlook all this and why was Salazar known as a dark wizard? Were the history books right?

Whilst Professor McGonagall was miffed about the slyness by which Salazar drew the match, she had to admit that it was not against the rules.

She was not sure on what to make of the notorious founder. She was rather humbled by the way he had saved Sirius, one of her cubs, but she could not bring herself to confess, even to herself, that history might have been wrong about the Slytherin founder. That was not possible! Slytherin was always an enemy of Muggleborns and hated them. Yes that was right, even if he knew how to wield a sword (a Muggle art) and saved Sirius from the Death Eaters; it did not mean that he was not biased against the Muggleborns right?

Unknown to everyone, the Marauders and Lily, were having similar thoughts going on in their heads.

Very grudgingly Sirius had to admit that he was impressed by Salazar Slytherin and he could not find any fault against the founder. He had always hated the Slytherin founder but now as he was seeing him in person, all he could think of was, why? Why did history portray him the way it did? The man described in all those history books would never risk his own life to save a stranger who was suffering from a dark curse. In fact he would relish the bloodshed. Then why did he save Sirius? It was very frustratingly confusing for Sirius as he couldn't help but like the person in front of him and he felt disgusted about the fact as well, as this went against everything he believed in for his entire life.