Chapter 88 — Salazar
Chapter 88: Salazar
The next two weeks passed under enormous pressure. To begin with, I needed to recover, and so for the next lessons, Flitwick stood in for me. Not that this troubled him; he was a seasoned hand, and a few extra lessons a day were not enough to break him. For my part, I buried myself in theory.
In the meantime, I spoke with Candida and Helga, proposed bringing Flitwick and Pomona in to help restore the castle, and they agreed. I passed on several runic chains and explained precisely where they needed to be applied.
I was also deep in preparation for summoning the imprint of Salazar Slytherin's personality and soul, though at this stage the preparation consisted primarily of drawing the ritual circle and gathering the various components. In short, two very taxing weeks.
And today I had finally recovered enough to perform the ritual. I only needed to deal with one small, persistent inconvenience that had been following me around all day.
So before heading to the Room of Requirement, I stepped into one of the unused classrooms, drew my wand, spun it between my fingers, and cast Locking Charms on the door and all the windows.
"Rita."
I kept my voice low and even.
"This really isn't the way to go about things. We had an arrangement: if you ever need something, you simply come to me or my mothers and we'll do our best to give you a proper interview."
The beetle I had been tracking from the moment we entered the room fluttered about anxiously, and she only transformed back into the journalist once she realized I was watching her.
"I was... hoping for something exclusive."
She looked slightly unnerved. The wand in her hand suggested she was prepared to fight for her life.
"Rita."
I shook my head.
"Put the wand away."
Steel had entered my voice, enough to make the girl flinch and take a step back. Her hand trembled faintly, though her fingers only tightened further around the wand handle.
"Rita, do you really think that once you lower your wand I'm going to hurt you? You know what I'm capable of. You understand that if I had wanted to attack you, I would have done it while you were still in your Animagus form. I could have conjured a jar, put you in it, and made a few holes in the lid."
She stared at me with something like fear.
"And there would have been nothing you could have done about it. But I did none of that, so perhaps we could simply have a conversation?"
"All right."
She nodded slowly and tucked the wand back into the holster at her waist.
"So. What possessed you to do something so reckless?"
"I... I already said. I was hoping for something extraordinary. I'd heard through my contacts that you'd purchased a great many rare ingredients, and I decided to follow you and see what you had in mind for them."
"Hm. What exactly?"
I regarded her thoughtfully.
"For now, I won't be answering that question. Making it public would stir up far too much debate. But I can promise you this: it is something extraordinary. And you will be among the first people I invite when the time comes for the world to know what has happened."
"Ahem. That is rather tempting, though I still have no idea what we're actually talking about."
"You don't need to yet."
I shook my head.
"For now it's enough to know that it genuinely is extraordinary. Nothing like it has ever been done, and once it happens, Britain will feel the change."
"Hm. You're building my interest without giving me a single piece of information."
"I know."
I smiled at her.
"But that's all you'll get from me today. For now..."
The Unlocking Charm flew from my wand to the nearest window.
"You should leave Hogwarts. I have a great deal to do and very little time."
"All right."
Rita nodded. I could see in her eyes that she was not particularly pleased about being sent away, but she didn't press the matter.
"In that case, I want an interview. I want you to tell me, and only me, everything that happened at the tournament and during the attack. And I want to know who the young woman is who returned from Germany with your mothers."
"There are parts of it I won't be able to discuss."
I shook my head.
"But I have no objection to an interview as such. I think I can find a couple of hours this weekend for a productive conversation."
"Very well."
Rita walked to the window, opened it, and swiftly transformed into a beetle and flew out. I closed the window, cast an Unlocking Charm on the door, and hurried to the Room of Requirement.
"You're late."
"A journalist got her hooks into me. That's a very convenient Animagus form for surveillance. It's fortunate I checked whether I was being followed before coming here, or we might have had an unexpected audience."
"Right. Let's get started."
I nodded and finally began performing the ritual on Salazar Slytherin's portrait.
Some time later.
"And what, precisely, is happening here?"
A quiet, faintly imperious voice filled the room.
"Salazar, we'll explain everything. For now, you'll simply have to be patient."
Candida addressed her old companion, who looked her over carefully.
"We are portraits now. You. Helga. Godric?"
"Not yet. The ritual is too costly to perform in quick succession, so there must be a certain interval between them. Though the issue isn't money. I believe Draco has already begun selling your Basilisk's venom, so funds are not a concern. I myself pay for the ingredients out of my own reserves. The problem is simply that not all the ingredients can be sourced quickly."
"Perfectly clear, and perfectly opaque. How is the Basilisk?"
Several pairs of eyes turned to me, and I understood very well that if I failed to answer, the conversation that followed would be more humiliating than bathing in a slurry pit.
"Someone, using your Heir's name as cover, found their way into the Chamber, placed her under a compulsion, and directed her to attack. The first attack was on the caretaker's cat. No lasting harm done. Before the New Year, a Mandrake Restorative Draught was prepared. There will not be a second attack; I've removed the curse that was used to control her. I feed her regularly with suitable animals, and she hunts on her own in the Forbidden Forest."
"Good to know she's well."
Salazar nodded.
"Portraits, then."
"I'll leave you all to it."
I decided to leave the portrait gathering.
"I still have studying to do, and lessons to prepare."
"Come back tomorrow. Once Salazar has heard our plans, he should be able to offer more concrete assistance in preparing for the Convergence."
"The Convergence?!"
Panic filled Salazar's voice. I said my farewells and left the Room of Requirement, knowing I would return the following day.
The following day. The Room of Requirement.
"So. My sisters have told me what is happening, and quite frankly, I'm appalled that the person preparing for the Convergence is a schoolboy, even a newly made Apprentice, rather than the school's Headmaster or the Ministry."
"Well, they are preparing, in their way. The Unspeakables certainly are, and the Aurors as well. Beyond that I have no detailed knowledge."
"But the Headmaster..."
"That was Lady Ravenclaw's decision. She decided this school's preparation could be entrusted to me, to Dean Flitwick, and to Dean Hufflepuff."
"Yes, she has explained all of that and given her reasoning. But..."
Salazar closed his eyes.
"In short, the plan must change. In my time I did a certain amount of work on the castle's systems, and there is a way for us to place our portraits in the Great Hall, where no one will be able to remove or enchant us."
"I wouldn't rely on that."
I shook my head.
"I'm not talking about faith in human goodness. I'm talking about a number of spells that don't function in the conventional sense, but will allow whoever activates them to take control of the castle."
I blinked in surprise.
"What, no 'this is a great honour'?"
"Honestly, I'm thinking about how to tactfully pass that honour along to Professor Flitwick."
"Hm. Candida thought you might say something like that. I didn't believe her."
Salazar shook his head.
"But you don't have a choice. She trusts you more than anyone, and besides, we're not asking you to take over the running of the school, only to take control of the specific enchantments that have been laid upon it."
I sighed.
"I would honestly still prefer to hand this honor to Flitwick."
"This is no longer your decision."
I closed my eyes.
"Actually, it is entirely my decision. Forgive me, but you are portraits. Without my help, or the help of another wizard, you cannot do anything at all. And I have no desire to take this on. I have no time as it is, even with the projection charm handling the theory."
I opened my eyes and looked at the portraits with an expression that probably communicated the stubbornness of a particularly determined ram.
"I've already shifted to working almost entirely on practical magic myself, which simply means I'm significantly more tired all the time."
"I did warn you."
Candida's voice was mildly amused. She lifted a fan from the small painted table beside her and covered her lips, which were almost certainly curved in a smile.
"I don't understand this. It is a great honor. You would become our voice in this school, your authority would surpass even Dumbledore's."
"I am not interested in power."
My smile was crooked.
"If the Ministry were visibly preparing, I would honestly prefer to hand our family's resources over to them entirely and let them sort it all out, so that I could simply live and ready myself for what's coming."
Salazar grimaced.
"What do you want?"
I closed my eyes for a couple of minutes, thinking about what I might actually want in exchange for taking on this particular burden, and it would certainly be a burden. I would have to work twice, possibly three times as hard.
"You are, if the historical record can be trusted, a brilliant Potioneer, among your many other achievements. Is that accurate?"
"It is. Though Helga was no less skilled than I, we simply had somewhat different approaches."
"Good. What I need are potions: strong ones for recovery after physical, mental, and magical exhaustion, but with minimal side effects. Any side effects that do exist should be manageable through correct administration and antidotes, which I will also need. And the potions must be safe for children from the age of seven or eight."
"Ahem."
Salazar gave a small cough.
"Is that all?"
"For you, perhaps. For anyone living today, those potions cost an extraordinary amount of money, and while my mother, as a Healer, has the qualifications to brew them, we don't have the recipes. Those exist only within the Potioneers' Guild."
"I see. Very well. I'll dictate the formulations to you, and explain how they are to be administered. I should note, however, that while they are essentially safe, one need only allow two days per week for rest and the antidotes, even so..."
He shook his head.
"Prolonged use of potions of this kind leads to a cumulative toxicity. Taking them continuously over several years is not feasible. The optimal frequency is once or twice per month."
I grimaced slightly, but nodded. I reached into my bag and produced a scroll and a Self-Writing Quill, which began transcribing the formulations as Salazar dictated them. The ingredients were remarkably ordinary, available in any apothecary, which made it all the more puzzling that such recipes had been suppressed. Or perhaps not so puzzling.
People take the path of least resistance. No doubt someone at some point had died of an overdose, and all the recipes had been quietly removed from circulation so that people's own foolishness couldn't kill them.
"The antidotes I'll dictate once you have connected yourself to the castle's auxiliary enchantment system. It's considerably more limited than the primary system, but given what's been done to the primary system over the past year..."
Salazar shook his head.
"Very well. Tell me how it's done, and tell me exactly what you expect of me as the person managing these enchantments."
"To begin with, you need to go to the Great Hall. On the wall bearing the four house crests, directly below the crest of my house, there is a small hollow in the stone. It's concealed among the natural unevenness of the wall; you won't find it without knowing where to look."
Salazar went on to describe precisely how to locate the hollow, how to press one's wand to it, and how a small passage would open behind it, leading to a hidden room with a pentagram on the floor. That pentagram would bind the castle's enchantments to my magical signature.
"I trust you understand that I'm going to copy this pentagram first and have it checked by specialists before I do anything with it?"
"And why are you not in my house?"
"Because even though I understand that everyone acts in their own interest, and I do the same, I'm drawn more to seeking and mastering knowledge than to scheming."
And on that note the conversation ended. I hurried to leave the Room of Requirement; there was far too much still to be done.
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