The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 21 February 2010

Chapter 77 Where is Salazar Slytherin

Salazar landed with a thump on the carpet of the office. He felt a spell hit him, than a voice saying, “Now, you were not whom I was expecting.” Salazar didn’t move, guessing the spell that had been thrown at him was a stunner or sleeping spell. He didn’t open his eyes, but listened as whomever it was walked around on the thick carpet.

“Hummmm. When I went to the Weasley’s to recruit them for the Order, I turned one of the kid’s books into a portkey. I told Mrs. Weasley I was a collector and would pay her one hundred galleons to get the book autographed. So, who are you?” the old man asked no one in particular.

Salazar was glad he hadn’t worn the usual Prince Conglomerate uniform, but had opted instead to wear regular finely cut and stylish robes, lined with the skin of his favorite familiar of course. At least the old man didn’t associate him with the company and therefore didn’t associate him with Becca per se. He suddenly felt himself lifted from the floor with a levitation spell and realized he was being floated out of the office and into the castle. At least he knew where he was.

The old man floated him down into the dungeons and into a small room that could actually be called a cell. It had a small bed and a chamber pot, but nothing else. He was a little disconcerted as he heard the door lock after he was placed on the bed in the room.

He listened for a few minutes to see if he could hear any noise. As there was none, he opened his eyes and looked around the room, then he smiled. This room had been one of the private potions chambers in his time. When an advanced potions student wished to experiment on something new, they would be given use of a small brewing room. Not only was this for the safety of the students, but it afforded some privacy so the new potion could not be copied by someone else. It was to guarantee their work.

He went over to the wall an the left side and counted three down and three across and placed his left hand on the stone, then he counted two down and one across from where his left hand was and placed his right hand on that stone. He hissed **“open”** at the stones and watched as the doorway appeared.

As he entered his chambers about fifteen minutes later, he walked across the library and into the room of mirrors. He briefly wondered where his familiar was, but needed to see what the old man doing first.

After a shouted command at the mirrors, he was watching the Headmaster pacing in his office, lamenting about how such a simple operation could have gone so wrong. This meant the woman of the Prince family was still in Diagon Alley signing books.

Salazar found out that Albus, when agitated, liked to mumble to himself. It was fortunate for him that he could fine tune the sound on the mirrors to hear most of what the man was saying. His plan was to capture Becca, feed her veritaserum, get all the information about the company he wanted and then obliviate her and send her back to the bookstore. The plan obviously failed and so Salazar got caught instead. He wondered what the old man was going to do when he found his prisoner gone from the locked cell he was placed in.

Since he was already here at the school, he decided to look around and see if there was anything he wanted to take back with him to the manor. He went to his desk to see if the Slytherin bonding rings were in there. He had asked Severus and Harry permission to ask Becca to marry him and wanted to do it on Christmas day. He had waited until after she had the baby to approach the subject with the two men as he had thought she had enough going on without a wedding in the mix, but now he was more than ready.

He found the rings, exactly where he left them in his own time line and put them in his pocket for safekeeping and went to search for more forgotten treasures. Becca and the others had stripped his chambers from Harry’s timeline, but most of that stuff was still packed in trunks. It would be easier to find some of his personal items here than digging through dozens of trunks that were hurriedly packed at the last minute.

About an hour later, he heard a yell from the room of mirrors so he went to see what the old fool was doing now. He laughed when he heard the Headmaster say he had been to Diagon Alley and found the woman he wanted to interrogate heavily guarded and impossible to get to. He even bought a book hoping to get a chance to grab for her when she signed it, only to find a house elf handing him the book and he wasn’t able to get near her.

Salazar wondered why the old man was so insistent on knowing about them. It wasn’t as if they were his sworn enemy or anything, at least not that he knew. He decided to sit and listen for awhile. As the old coot ranted and raved in his office to no one but Fawkes, Salazar came to the understanding that the man just didn’t like the unknown. ‘He likes to be the one in charge of the chess board’ Sal thought to himself. He started to laugh; the more persistent the man was the more elusive the Prince family was. The more elusive they became, the more persistent the old man became. They were driving the old man quite mad with their aloofness and adherence to privacy. Wait till he told Severus, he would get a kick out of the situation.

As he was just about to leave the room, Lashisa finally made her presence known. After visiting with his familiar for awhile and then collecting the shed skins that were around the chamber he left the castle through the outside exit. He thought as he was walking out, he could hear Dumbledore ranting about missing prisoners in his castle.

When he finally arrived back at Prince Manor, Becca flew to him and put her arms around him crying about not knowing what happened to him or where he was. He was grateful for the concern, but knew they were worried about nothing really.

“Come on Becca,” he said soothingly, “nothing was going to happen to me.” He rubbed her back in calming circles to get her to quiet down.

“You could have been killed!” she fussed at him. “What if you had been sent to Voldemort?”

“Becca, calm down and think about this for a minute.” Sal said in response to her raving, “If Voldemort had accosted me, then I would have announced myself as Lord Slytherin and he would have listened as soon as he heard the snake language. As it was Dumbledore accosted me and held me prisoner in the castle. As soon as he locked the cell door, I got out through a secret passage and spent some time in my chambers before leaving.” He pulled out the shrunken package from his pocket, “Here are some of the basilisk skins that were in the chamber. I thought you could give them to Seamstress Sissy for later use.”

Becca wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and took the package from him. She swatted him on the arm for worrying her like that, and then went to her room to get ready for dinner.

At dinner that evening, Salazar relayed to the others his observations of the Headmaster. He also relayed his displeasure at leaving the meddling old fool in the position of Headmaster in his school. Obviously Dumbledore had not made a good impression.

For the next couple of weeks everything was quiet as far as the war was concerned, but business was booming as Christmas came closer and everyone was busy getting their gifts for each other and for the children. Of course Harry’s kids were too young to remember anything this year, but that didn’t stop the adults from using Teddy as an excuse to have lots of decorations and all the trimmings.

Everyone had agreed to spend Christmas at home, and then two days after the holiday Becca, Salazar, Harry and Severus as well as the babies would go to France to visit with the Malfoys.

This year, just as they had the year before, Harry and Becca decorated the sitting room with all kinds of decorations, stringing popcorn and with lots of tinsel. The only difference was all the decorations had been made unbreakable in deference to Teddy being there. No one wanted him to get hurt on the glass bulbs they hung on the tree.

The little boy was going to be three years old in April so he was just old enough to start remembering things. He was trying to get more decorations to put on the bottom of the tree when Harry heard him talking to Sixth Born.

“Sisth, dat” he said as he pointed to the box of decorations. Sixth Born slithered over to the box and gently pushed the ornament out with his tail, and then rolled it over to Teddy who put it on one of the lower branches of the tree.

“Loo Unca Hawy” the little boy said. “Pretty”

It was the first time he had said Harry’s name and all the adults in the room, turned around and looked at him. He was jumping up and down clapping his little hands as his hair turned different colors in his excitement.

“That’s really great, Teddy!” Harry said to encourage the little boy. “Can you do another one?”

Teddy nodded his head and said “Sisth” and again pointed to the box. Sixth Born again went to the box of decorations and repeated his earlier ‘trick’ in getting the ornament out of the box.

“Dank oo” was the reply from the little boy as the snake rolled the glittery item to his little master.

“Hey, little man, how would you like to put that one up high?” Harry asked Teddy. When he nodded in reply, Harry picked him up so he could put the ornament on one of the higher shelves. When he was finished, Teddy clapped his hands and Harry put him down before he squirmed out of his arms.

It was Christmas day…

Everyone was having a lazy morning, that is everyone except the Lupin family who had one very excited little boy. He wanted “Li and Ewan” to come and play and see his new toys. Remus Sr. had finally acquiesced to letting Tonks give him a small toy broom for Christmas. They had ‘childproofed’ the sitting area so Teddy could zoom in a small part of it to show everyone his new ‘boom’.

“Loo Unca Hawy, Unca Se… Me fry” he said as he buzzed around on the broom. Severus and Harry laughed at his excitement and his trying to say their names. They couldn’t wait for next year when their own children were older.

There were lots of gifts for the children. Becca and Harry had been working on getting two rooms ready so later they could each have their own room. It would be at least another year before they used them, but it gave them something to shop for and they wanted to take their time to decorate for the different genders. Harry was especially excited as he had never had a room of his own. Even when he was given Dudley’s second bedroom, it really wasn’t something he could decorate for just him.

It was later that day when Salazar Slytherin got down on one knee and asked Becca for her hand in marriage. Becca of course became over emotional and cried even as she nodded her head yes. The whole family and extended family were there to see this wonderful event. Harry, thinking about the proposal Severus gave him, was glad he had not been surrounded by all these people at the time.

Everyone was talking at once about the wedding while trying to make suggestions for the ceremony and honeymoon plans. As the day came to a close, the presents were put away and the kids brought to bed. Harry and Severus left Sal and Becca in the sitting room as they turned in for the night. Kreacher was once again put upon to be the official chaperone for the two as they stayed up and talked into the night.

Two days later they left for France…

It was Christmas Day all over again, only with different people. The children received the bulk of the gifts. The Christmas goose and other foods loaded down the table so it looked like it would collapse if anything else were put on it. It wasn’t until later when the day was almost over that the conversation turned very serious.

“Lucius,” Harry started the conversation, “we need to know if Tom Riddle has every given you a diary or a journal to hold for him?”

“I remember him giving it to my father just before I was marked. It was in the study for a number of years, but after I met your family, I no longer wanted to be associated with that mad man and put it in one of my vaults.” Lucius earnestly told the soulmated couple.

Narcissa and Becca were with the children and didn’t hear the conversation. Lucius was glad, as he had never told his wife he had the journal of Tom Riddle. He had looked at it a few times but it was apparently empty. Even so, it was easy to detect the evil imbued into the book.

Salazar decided to join into the conversation as he asked, “Do you remember which vault you put it into?”

“Sure, it was the Malfoy main vault and it is on the top of the book shelf where we keep some very old original works that cannot be replaced.” Lucius replied to the founder.

The three men in front of Malfoy sported grins on their faces all at one time. This was a good thing and could be taken care of without Malfoy coming back to England.

“Alright, guys, what’s going on?” Lucius asked in a very un-Malfoyish manner. Those grins were giving him a cold feeling up his spine.

Salazar explained, “The journal belongs to Voldemort. It was something he created while he was still in school. It contains a splinter of his soul. It is a horcrux. If anyone uses the journal, they can be taken over by his soul or he can even resurrect himself with it by taking another life.”

Lucius blanched. “And this was in my house? With my wife and children?” the man got up and went over to the cabinet to pour a generous helping of whisky. He would have preferred cognac, but that was not something you knock back in a hurry. Right now he needed something for the shock to his system. It wasn’t until he was on his second helping that he remembered there were other people in the room. “How do we get rid of it?”

“Well,” Severus interjected, “since you were so nice to put it in a vault for us, the goblins at Gringotts will destroy it for you. They really don’t even need your permission, but it will look better if they have it.”

“Of course, but how will they destroy it? I thought horcruxes were indestructible. At least that is what my father always said.”

“Not indestructible, but close to it. Basilisk venom will destroy it, fiendfrye will destroy it and the sword of Gryffindor will destroy it.” Harry said with a grin on his face.

“You make it sound like you are speaking from experience.” Lucius said.

“I am” was Harry’s simple answer.

“What do you need from me?” Lucius responded in a serious manner.

Salazar answered him as only a Slytherin could, “Nothing really. As you may know, according to the documents signed when opening a vault, there is a stipulation that no sentient objects, ghosts or uncovered pictures are to be placed in your vault. The pictures could possibly go from frame to frame in other vaults; that is why you freeze them and cover them. The sentient objects and ghosts can move through the walls of the vaults and see what other people have. Goblins consider this a breach of trust. If it were me in this situation, I would write a note to Gorbink and tell him you just found out that there was an artifact in your vault, give him the vault number and location of the book, then explain you just found out it may have a sentient being in it. Give them permission to destroy it as soon as possible as you are out of town and are not able to get there immediately. This will absolve you of any breach of contract with the goblins.”

“I don’t want to send it by owl, it could be intercepted. If I write it before you leave, could you personally hand it to him?” Lucius asked, his mask slipping a bit to reveal the worry in his eyes.

“If you write it, we can call Gorbink or Griphook here and you can hand it personally to him. You know they don’t really celebrate Christmas the way we do. You won’t be interruption his holiday if you call him.”

“I would say the sooner the better.” Lucius then went to his desk and took out some parchment and a quill. Severus went to the floo and called for Gorbink at Gringotts. As soon as the little goblin found out what they wanted, he came right through the floo and greeted everyone.

When they explained what Lord Malfoy had told them and that he was writing a request to destroy the diary, Gorbink got a big evil looking grin on his face. It didn’t help that goblins had a very toothy grin with very sharp pointy teeth.

“So that makes three and three to go.” The goblin said as he flooed back out to find the diary.

“What did he mean that makes three and three to go?” Lucius puzzled over what the goblin had said. Then his eyebrows shot up and it was like a like going off in his head, “You mean that bastard had six of these things lying around?”

Severus smirked at him and said, “No anymore. He only has three.”

Salazar looked at Harry and coughed, “Not exactly. Harry and I went after the diadem when we were at Hogwarts the day you met with the Headmaster. Harry destroyed it with the basilisk fang he had. I wanted to surprise you later with it and then forgot about it when other things came up. The destroyed diadem is in my quarters.”

“So that really only leaves the ring and Nagini!” Harry said excitedly.

“Are you telling me you are going to try and kill the Dark Lord’s snake?” Lucius look of horror would have been priceless if it were not such a serious subject.

“We have to; she contains a sliver of Voldemort’s soul. She is a living horcrux. Actually she will be easier to destroy because of that, but harder to find. We can’t do anything about her right now; it will have to wait till we get closer to the day Voldemort is destroyed.”

“And when would that be?” Lucius’ skepticism was evident in that question.

“All Hollow’s eve this year.” Harry answered.

Lucius sat down rather hard in the chair, almost as if he legs would not hold him up anymore. “Then we can go home.” He said in a soft whisper as if talking to himself.

“Yes, Lucius” Severus reiterated softly, “You and Narcissa and the children can go home.

Harry wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn he saw a single tear make its way down the man’s cheek before he recomposed himself and changed the subject.