Countdown

Countdown Chapter 6


Disclaimer:

I wish I owned Harry Potter but I can’t find it on eBay. Until I do the characters all belong to JK Rowling.

Shey I found it!! Wait never mind it was just a copy of the books. Damn and I wanted the copy rights!

Adjustments have been made please take care in reading. - Beta read by God Of Mercy
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'He just ran as fast as he could to get to Salazar in the hidden chamber he had found. Running over, he hissed it's password and ran down the stairs. Rushing over to stand in front of the mirror where he first saw Salazar. He was surprised to see three people in the picture waiting for him instead of just Salazar.'


“Hello little Gryffindor.” Greeted Salazar with a small smile.

“Oh my god! I have to be dreaming or going out of my mind.” Salazar who was sitting in the middle just rolled his eyes.

“I told you that this was a mirror and that I control the pictures at Hogwarts.” He reminded the child.

“No you didn’t! You said that your pictures were under your control. You did not say all pictures at Hogwarts were under your control.” Harry pointed out to him.

Salazar just looked at him. "Besides that why have you come?"

“I just, just wanted to know how Voldemort and I were more alike. I know that we are both parselmouths but that is all I know.” He sounded defeated, even to his own ears.

Before Salazar could speak the beautiful woman on Salazar’s right, who he assume to be Rowena Ravenclaw spoke.

“Why don’t we bring you to the demon world so that we may talk? The time here is different than the time there.”

That was when the equally beautiful woman on his left who he assumed to be Morgan spoke.

“If he does not have demon or any other creature blood in him the power that flows naturally around this world will kill him immediately. It would be easier for us to just go to that realm and slow down time.” Harry took a step back.

“How are you going to get in the castle without the Headmaster knowing?” He looked up confused at them.

Salazar rolled his eyes again and told him. “Hogwarts would never expose one of her founders. Rowena and I still control the wards around Hogwarts. The castle would never reject her founders or one of their heirs. In addition, as you know the chamber is not under the same rules as the rest of the school. I built it to be a place that my family and me could come and go as we please.”

“Does that mean that people can apperate in and out of the chamber?” Harry's eyebrows rose with his question. Salazar smirked.

"That is exactly what I mean. That means no matter how powerful Albus may think he is, if Marvolo wanted to bring all of his death eaters into the school all he would have to do is apperate into the chamber. Nothing and no one can block someone from being able to come into the school, Except for Rowena and I, we have not blocked Marvolo. Besides, Hogwarts is just as much his home now as it was fifty years ago. Now stand away from the mirror, we're coming through." With that said, the three in the mirror prepared themselves to step through.

Harry hastily stepped away from the mirror, this is not how he had expected this discussion to go, he thought Salazar would simply point out the basic similarities, whatever they were and simply tell him no more. Instead there were now three people who are supposed to be dead for centuries about to join him in the chamber of secrets. Why couldn’t he be normal???

Salazar stepped out first and quickly glanced around the room before his mates followed. Rowena was beautiful as was Morgan, they both had long blonde hair that was where the similarities ended; Rowena had light blue eyes, she also scanned the room before nodding and turned her attention to Harry. Her skin was lightly tanned and seemed to glow. Morgan’s eyes were silver, kind of like Draco’s, she was completely pale. Both women smiled at the same time and he hesitantly smiled back. Salazar was watching him curiously. When Harry noticed, Salazar snapped out of it,

“Come through here, we can talk in the other room.” He said and his mates nodded and followed the two males to the other room. Salazar sat on the couch with his mates on either side of him and Harry sat in the chair across from them.

“Well Harry, you asked how you and my Marvolo are similar, well I ask that you listen in silence as I answer.” Harry nodded his agreement and Salazar began.

“The first thing I want you to know is that neither of you are half bloods. That was a lie told by Albus to try to make you feel like mudbloods and half bloods could belong in this world. I told you once that Marvolo’s real parents were killed when he was a baby. Just like with you he was left on a door step, the only difference was you were left with your so called family and he was left at a muggel orphanage. Albus is able to sense power and he targeted Toms family the same way he targeted yours. He killed Toms family after learning about what he would be born. I told you once that I was not human, what I did not tell you was neither are my mates."

"Rowena is a ice and water demon and I am a earth and fire. Tom’s Mother was all three of our child and she passed all of her power to her son. What you don’t know is that Morgan is a lust demon. She feeds from sex. Do to Marvolo getting his power from his Mother he has the power of all of us. He also gets power from his Fathers family. His Father was also a lust demon and that is one of the reasons that Marvolo will need two mates. You have been told that Marvolo is my descendent, however you don’t know how close to me he is. Marvolos Mother was our youngest daughter. That makes him my grandson. Marvolos Mother was weak after giving birth as are all child bearers. Albus used this to kill her. Do to the fact that she was not mated to Marvolos Father she died and can not be reborn. Although Marvolos parents were not true mates they loved each other very much. When his Father found his wife dead and his child missing he went into a rage. He was able to track his child to Albus’s old home. Albus was casting spells to block Marvolos magic until he could use him. Marvolos Father flew in but was not expecting to find ten or more wizards waiting for him. Do to the amount of people and it just being him. He was killed. One of the first things I want you to remember is that Marvolo grew up during a time when anything you did wrong, was punished severely and you were thought to have the devil in you. The orphanage that he grew up in was run by Nuns and he had no control of his magic at that age.” Harrys face paled, he could see where this was going.

“This was also during a time when the country was at war. Orphanages often suffer the most during this time because they rely on money from the government to take care of the children. More then not the Nuns at the orphanages did not have enough food to feed the children in the first place so whenever Marvolo had a burst of accidental magic the first thing they would do was withhold food. Remember that accidental magic can start as young as two depending on how powerful a person is. Now I know your relatives did not always give you food and you were made to cook and clean from the time you were five years old. I also know that you were abused for anything you did wrong by your aunt and uncle. Marvolo and you were alike in that aspect. Think about this, you only lived with three people that hated you. Marvolo grew up with more than twenty children and six adults that beat and starved him. Beating and starving was not the only thing that happened.” Salazar took a deep breath and started to talk again.

“From the time Marvolo was six he was sexually abused.” Salazar gritted his teeth after telling the boy, remembering what he had seen and heard about his Marvolo. Calming himself he went on.

“I will tell you to be happy that your relatives thought you were to contagious to touch you in other ways besides for beatings. I will also tell you that before you make judgments on Marvolo for the things he has done to look at it from his point of view. Yes, you were beaten by your so called family and your cousins little friends, but compared to the number of people that use to attack Marvolo that is nothing. I am not trying to say what you went through wasn’t horrible, but at least you had friends to have your back. Before you say that they weren’t really your friends and they were only using you, you didn’t know that until just this year. From the day Marvolo walked into the wizarding world and they found out that he was able to speak parselttoungue and was my heir, he was used." Harry looked positively stricken at the idea of what the older man was saying.

"He had people that only wanted to know all about me, they wanted to be able to touch the money I left for him. He never had anyone even try to be his friend. This was only after he was found out to be my heir, before that the Slytherins rejected him for his last name alone. They believed he was a mudblood and that he was nothing. He wasn’t even safe in his own house. He had to sleep with the strongest wards he could manage in his bed to keep them from trying to hurt him. I know you were told that he found the chamber in his fifth year but that is not true. Marvolo found the chamber in his second year when he was running from a group of boys from another house. When he went to school he practically lived in the chamber. I trained Marvolo in the chamber to keep himself safe. I was the one he use to run to when he had no one else. This is one of the reasons he goes off when anyone talks bad about me. I am the only Father he has ever had. The chamber was the only place he felt safe." Salazar felt sadden and angry for his Marvolo, for what had happened to him.

"Every summer he would ask to stay in the school to keep from being beaten and having the other things done to him, and every year Albus would make sure he was sent back. Albus used Marvolo the same way he used you in the war against Grindalwald. The difference is that Marvolo was able to kill the monster. If you are wondering why I call Grindelwald a monster it is because no matter what you may think of Marvolo he has never raped a child. He has also never let his death eaters commit rape either." All through this conversation Harry sat there stunned. He had no idea what Tom Riddle had gone through. Salazar seemed to sense this and let the child process what he’d said for a few minutes.

“Now child do you have any questions or is there anything you don’t understand?” Harry took a minute more to gather his thoughts so that he did not stumble over his words.

“You said that Marvolo was abused in his own house, so why didn’t he tell anyone?” Salazar looked at Harry through narrow eyes.

“Oh but he did tell someone, he told many people. Just because of the house he was in made him unworthy of people caring. He came to me one time after he had went to the nurse in his first year in tears because she told him that a slimy snake like him, deserved it. He was just a child and they sent him away bleeding and hurt. He came back to school in his fifth year so beaten that he spent the first two weeks in the hospital wing. Even after that he was sent back. Some of the people who you looked up to are the same people that treated him like he was nothing. Your head of house was one of the people that tried to befriend him for his money and the books that are in his vaults. You can’t blame him for hating every one of them, you cant blame him for wanting them dead for what they have done.” Harry knew he could not argue with what Salazar told him. Now he saw what he had to do.

Five hours later Harry was walking toward Gryffindor tower in a daze at the similarities between Tom Riddle or Marvolo as Salazar called him, and Harry himself was shocked. He hadn’t known much about Tom Riddle at all, his past was never spoken about and while Harry had intellectually known the dark lord had not just sprung into existence he had never considered his past. If he had went through half of what Tom had went through he would have probably turned out the same. He knew that he had it bad, but it was never like what Tom had been through.

It was now about 3am and Harry was glad it was the weekend as it meant he could sleep a bit later. He had plans to meet Draco and the other Slytherins for the day at ten but until then he could sleep. He had never been happier than he was as he collapsed into his bed.

Back In The Chamber

Salazar, Rowena and Morgan watched the child leave the chamber the women were curious they had felt their mate use his magic on the child, the boy of course had not noticed. He had sent the child back to his dorm soon after, the two women now awaited the results of whatever the spell revealed. The entrance sealed once more they turned to their mate.

“Not here. Let’s go home this could take some time.” The women nodded and followed their mate through the picture into the demon world.

Once they arrived they walked into the sitting room and Salazar summoned an elf to bring them tea.

“What’s going on Sal? What spell did you use on the boy and what did you find that upset you?” Morgan asked, trying to find what had upset their mate. Salazar sighed.

“I cast a spell to reveal hidden things; I wanted to see if the boy had anything else kept from him.” He almost whispered he was still trying to process everything he had learnt in the past hours. They had told him parts of Marvolo’s life and asked about his there were many more similarities than he had expected. The two women looked at him expectantly; they knew it must have been something big to upset Salazar so.

“The child is a demon, he’s Marvolo and Lucius’s other mate. I also found so many different blocks on his magic that it is a shock that he can even do magic at all."

The next morning Harry met the Slytherin group in the great hall. He was worried for a second that he wouldn’t be received well despite the warm welcome yesterday. As if sensing this Pansy looked up and smiled.

“Sit with me sweetie, don’t mind these guys they’re not morning people.” Harry nodded smiling a little as he sat beside Pansy. She piled his plate with food and ordered him to eat. Draco grinned over at him.

“Pansy likes to mother people. You being small makes you an easy target.” Harry smiled not minding in the least he had never had anyone to look after him before. It was definitely a nice change.

“So is there anything in particular you want to do today?” Draco asked and Harry shook his head.

He was looking forward to hanging out with people he wanted to be around. It was strange but he thought of the Slytherins as his friends already. He guessed it was because they already knew a bit about each other; after all, they had been steady enemies for years now. They had had to do their research.

The group decided to hang out by the lake and talk for a few hours. Harry unconsciously stuck close to Pansy. It just felt safer. Even though he had been safe with them the day before he still didn’t feel completely sure about the guys. After all, they had a lot of bad history between them. They stuck to safe topics most of the day; quidditch, classes and general gossip about other students. They had lunch by the lake, delivered by the elves. By the time they decided to move the sun was setting over the lake.

Harry decided to go back to his dorm to get ready for dinner so the Slytherins walked him to the stair case where Pansy hugged him goodbye. They were going to meet him in the hall in the morning so they could study together. After they left him, the Slytherins made their way to the dungeons to discuss tactics. They all decided the night before that they wanted to be Harry’s friend; that they wanted him in their group. They had made a start today, now they needed to work out the next step.

An hour later the Slytherins had a plan. They walked into the great hall that night for dinner and they looked around for Harry. He wasn’t there. Pansy stopped them from saying anything and led the way to the Slytherin table.

“He’s probably in bed already he looked tired this afternoon.” She told him and he nodded.

“We could ask one of the other lions if he’s okay.” Blaise suggested and Draco nodded. The meal was tense they couldn’t pin point the problem but they all felt something was wrong with their new friend. After the meal they cornered Neville Longbottom.

“Have you seen Harry?” Draco asked trying not to sound to worried and the boy shook his head quickly.

“When I left the room his bed curtains were closed. He doesn’t usually close them but I think he was sleeping.” Pansy nodded it was just like she said. Draco released the other boy and the Slytherins returned to their room. They never noticed Harry wasn’t the only one absent from dinner.


The next morning Harry was missing from breakfast. The Slytherins began to panic. Draco looked over the Gryffindor table several times hoping Harry had merely forgotten about their plans. No luck, the younger boy was nowhere to be seen. He spotted Longbottom as soon as he walked in and rose to confront him. As soon as he got close Neville began to speak

“No I haven’t seen him, when I woke up his curtains were open and his bed was empty. Maybe he’s at the pitch or something.” He suggested. Draco stared at him and nodded, he turned on his heel and walked back to the Slytherin table.

“We need to search. This feels wrong. Blaise check the quidditch pitch, Pansy spread the word, Vince go wait in the library, Greg and I will look around inside. Meet back here in an hour.” He finished and they agreed. They were really starting to get worried about their new friend.

An hour later they met once again in the hall no one had found or heard anything. They then took it too the staff. Snape was their first choice.

“Pansy you go talk to Snape, Blaise go talk to Hagrid. Let him know Harry’s gone. He’ll make sure they do something. Vince and Greg and I’ll go look some more.” Draco told each of them.

The others nodded, they split up once again and within an hour the search was in full force the castle had been completely searched and so had the grounds. All that was left was the forest and Hagrid had asked for the centaurs' aid to search it.

The Slytherins returned to searching the castle before Draco remembered the Slytherin room. He turned quickly and his friends followed. Once he reached the room he paused.

“Sir, Harry’s missing.” He said as soon as he had the portraits attention. Salazar looked shocked and immediately allowed them passage.

“Draco, I don’t know how to tell you this and I hope your fathers explained your family history to you…” Draco nodded and Salazar looked relieved. It made it so much easier.

“You know then your father has two mates.” Once again Draco nodded.

“It would seem that Harry is their mate.” At Draco’s stunned look Salazar smiled.

“You must keep searching. I will alert Marvolo and Lucius to the situation.” He finished and the group nodded.

It was just before noon when word reached the castle that Harry had been found. Unconscious. In the forbidden forest. The faculty were in a panic and Harry had been taken to the hospital wing. Within minutes Pansy had let Salazar know and word was sent to Riddle Manor. Within an hour of Harry being found there were ministry officials in the school demanding justice. But as night fell and went, Harry was yet to wake. By morning Lucius had arrived to the school and by the look on his face he was not happy.