The Founders Four - A HP Fic Last Part pg21 17/05/15 - Page 14

Originally posted by: Aru_A

i always thought of visiting the link in ur signature,but never did...

n one day i visit the HP forum n open a thread...it turns out to be urs...what a coincidence!!!!

i'm Aru btw...

i've juat started reading it...cudnt even complete the first chapter...

but yeah...its really nice...really really nice...took me back to my harry potter days...

will again comment when i read the whole thing...

but honeatly...its really really eeally nice...will wait... :)

Originally posted by: pari0706

OMG hey Aru😲 I have seen you around if I am not you are from Maharan Pratap forum right 😉

Aah well so my story was calling you 😆 will wait for your comments ...

Everyone else thanks a lot for commenting and liking my story. I have written one more chapter but I want to finish the story or atleast 3-4 chapters before posting it so that I don't take such a long time to post another chapters. 😳

Hello All,

I have nothing to say but apologise for this delay... I saw that most of you have chosen option 2 where the story should go ahead after the war. I am really planning this part. But in the meantime I have written the following chapter and have almost finished the chapter after this.

The story is going very fast from now until the war is over... so please bear with me.

Furthermore, I have started a new job so I might not be able to update very quickly. But be rest assured that I will not abandon the story.

Now before I start I wanted to repeat that I do not own Harry Potter.

Before you all start cursing me for the looong note here is the chapter.

----

Chapter 23 A trip to the Forest

Soon Salazar and his group found themselves in the same hospital wing of the Chamber of Secrets. Salazar did not allow anyone to enter his private potions chamber. He soon returned with a short list of things to get from the forest.

It turned out that Salazar was correct in his assumption that they would only require unicorn tail hair and some basic potion ingredients such as Boomslang skin, cinnamon, and porcupine quill Severus was able to supply most of them from his store, and hence the only thing required from the forest was the unicorn tail hair.

It was decided that all of them will go to the forest for that.

After walking for half an hour, Salazar, who was walking on the side, was poked in the back by something sharp.

"Greetings, Eldest One" Salazar said turning around.

Hearing Salazar speak, the others too turned around and were left speechless at the sight of a pure silver unicorn, looking at Salazar with eyes full of wisdom.

"Greetings, Serpent King! Welcome to this new time. I can sense that you are seeking us, how can I help you"

As the unicorn spoke in a soft musical voice, the group from the present was stunned. They had never seen a unicorn coming so close to a male, let alone hear a unicorn speak to a human. Unicorns were known to be shy of humans and more so of males.

But they were brought back from their thoughts by Salazar's voice.

"I salute your ability to sense these sorts of things. It feels great to be able to talk to you once more, Eldest One. Are the other Elders well?"

"Yes, Serpent King, the Elders and our generations have flourished in the forest you provided for us, and we will always be grateful to you for that."

"It was only my duty, but I am humbled by your kindness nevertheless. You must know that an evil wizard has risen in recent times"

"Yes, we are aware of that, Serpent King."

"We are planning to destroy him, to restore peace in the world, but we need your help to do so. We are here to seek your aid, Eldest One"

"We are always ready to help you, Serpent King. Tell us, what would you require for your latest potion?"

"We require but a solitary hair from your tail."

The Unicorn nodded and turning around, allowed Salazar to pluck a single strand of hair from its tail.

"May this strand bear its share of the burden to slay the monster that roams freely on these lands." It intoned solemnly.

"Thank you, Eldest One. Do give my warmest regards to everyone."

"Sure, Serpent King, May the world not misunderstand you or your achievements again."

Saying so the unicorn disappeared faster than the speed of light, leaving behind four awestruck people

-

"Shall we head back to the castle now?" Salazar said as if nothing out of ordinary had just happened.#

This broke his companions' stupor.

"I never knew that Unicorns spoke English" Lily said timidly as they followed Salazar through the forest. They were stopping every few moments, so that either Salazar or Helga could collect some or other plant.

"Unicorns are very wise creatures; they understand any language and can respond accordingly. However, they do not exhibit this ability to anyone who they deem untrustworthy. They have excellent sense. They can see anyone's aura and can know the character of any that they encounter. This is the reason they are considered to be epitome of purity, as they will run away from anyone they deem is evil." Salazar explained

"Then how come that unicorn was talking to you? You are known as one of the darkest wizard in history." James asked tactlessly, earning himself sharp glares from his wife, two friends and Helga.

However, Salazar stopped looking at a plant, and slowly stood straight and looked at James, before speaking in a soft voice that sent chills down everyone's spines.

"History is always written by the victors, Mr Potter. Hence it is of paramount importance to keep an open mind whilst interpreting history. I realise that it is not always possible, but can you tell me what atrocities have I done for you to hate me? Except for burning the whole village. You know the real reason why I did that now. What else?"

When everyone seemed puzzled he continued

"One should never form an opinion on a person just based on books from single author. Always look for multiple opinions and see if you find what exactly that person has done to deserve such hatred. If you cannot find many concrete examples, than that will mean that the authors who called that person evil is not very reliable source. In this time, a practitioner of dark arts is automatically assumed to be dark or in other words evil. Can you tell me what the definition of dark arts is?"

By now everyone had stopped walking and was listening to Salazar with rapt attention. The fact that Salazar referred to James as Mr. Potter' was not missed by anyone.

When Salazar did not get any response from anyone around him he continued.

"The truth is that during my time there was no such thing as Dark Arts' or Dark Wizard'. However we had what was called forbidden arts. This included any form of magic where the main intent is to harm or control another being. However, as time passed by a new term developed called Dark Arts. Dark Arts now include any form of blood magic; any ritual and any form of magic that with intention to hurt others. This gave birth to grey magic or what it is now known as borderline dark arts. This includes any form of magic, which requires emotion to make it work."

Salazar look around to others before continuing

"Now Mr Potter, if I had given up blood magic or ritualistic magic, Mr Black would not be alive. So how was that practice evil? Why do you hate that branch of magic? The truth is there are very few spells that were actually created to hurt others. Most of the branches of magic can be used for both good and evil purposes. For example, the cutting curse that is used in battles to incapacitate the opponent can also be used domestically to cut hard meat when simple cutting curse is not effective. I am not justifying the invention of unforgiveable curses or other similar curses. In fact I do not know who invented then and why."

"I know how to do the forbidden rituals, but I never harmed anyone by it. The only time I have used those forbidden spells is to confuse the other person whilst we can escape a dangerous situation. Hence I will not deny that I can use them. Now coming to your question of how can the unicorn trust me if I use the so called dark arts. Well as I just explained there is a difference between using the dark spells and using it to harm someone. This small difference is what differentiates an evil person from a person with a good heart. This is the difference that humans are mostly unable to identify."

Saying so Salazar started to walk ahead, with others following his trail.

"People always fear what they cannot understand. This fear causes them to react in ways they normally never would. Muggles are the best example of this. Normally a muggle would not harm another muggle without any reason, but if they think that he/she is a person practicing magic, they will automatically go against that person and try to kill them. They would not stop to think that maybe that person is not harming anyone by practicing magic. For the muggles, just the fact that they are using magic and hence might be capable enough to harm them is enough proof. Magic users everywhere are against muggles for the very same reason; we have laws to keep our world a secret from muggles. But aren't we doing the same thing? We are banishing users of a branch of magic that is so powerful that not everyone is capable of using it. We have labelled it as dark arts, or forbidden arts. By doing this we have shunned a certain part of the community. Just the fact that they are capable of using the dark arts makes us hate them. We close our eyes to any good deed that they might have done. This is the fear, the fear of the unknown."

After pausing for a few moments they were about to exit the forest, when Salazar turned back and looked at James

"Mr. Potter, I know that you are not a bad person. I know that you have the ability to look beyond the common beliefs of the Wizarding World. I understand your prejudice against the name of Slytherin. However I do wish that you would look beyond the common prejudice in this case as well. Open your eyes, Mr. Potter. You might be surprised at what you see. Little Harry was killed by Voldemort, yes Voldemort was in Slytherin house, and most of his followers do come from there. That does not mean that any other houses have not produced death eaters. I do believe Mr. Pettigrew was a Gryffindor. It is not our house, but our choices that defines who we are."

He then looked at Sirius before continuing

"Professor Black, I know your history and your reasons to hate anything with the name of Slytherin. But do not forget that the same Slytherin house produced Andromeda Black and your uncle Alphard. We all have got a dark and light side to us, Mr Black. It is our choice that defines who we will truly become. Think about it."

Salazar walked off towards the castle and was quickly followed by Helga.

Remus took that moment to speak up. "James, Sirius, he is right." He said quietly. "You gave me a chance to prove myself even though most of the wizarding population would turn their back on me once they realised that I was a werewolf. But you looked at the person behind the werewolf and made an effort to know me. Salazar has proved that he is not evil. When he realised that we were in danger he rushed to help us without any back up. He was outnumbered and he knew that. But he still came. Not only that, to save Sirius, he was willing to suffer with that deadly curse. The other supposedly light founders were against him. But he did that." Remus looked at both of them disappointed

"I agree with Remus," Lily said passionately. "You two were ready to defend him against the Minister of Magic, when you did not know his identity in this life. So what happened now? You were ready to accept him as Salazar Slytherin but not as Salazar's reincarnation Harry?!!! Harry is your son, James, and your godson, Sirius. We know that Salazar was not evil, and we know that this Harry has suffered and that our alternate selves are dead. We could not give our love to our Harry but when destiny has given us a second chance, why can't you just give it a chance? Why are you so against him? Do you realise how much this might hurt him? Hurt me?"

By the end of it, Lily was in tears.

"To be honest, I think the fear of your rejection was one of his main reasons to not tell us about his identity. The least you can do is to show him that he should not be afraid. He has been misinterpreted and shunned for no reason of his. Do not do the same." Remus said.

Lily and Remus walked towards the castle, leaving James and Sirius to their thoughts.

"What do you think Prongs?" said Sirius seemingly lost in his world.

"I think they are right, we did let our prejudice rule our judgement. I let my prejudice come in between me and my son. Even when I knew that as Salazar he was not evil. How could I?" James looked at Sirius with tortured eyes.

"I know what you mean mate. We have a lot to make up for. I say we start now." Replied a determined Sirius.

"I agree, I think we should start by apologising."

Both nodded at each other and dashed toward the castle. They found the others waiting for them just inside the main doors.

Both of them walked to Salazar.

"I do not know if you knew me in your world, or if so, how much you knew about my family. But I guess from what you told me earlier, you know most of it. Almost my entire family was in Slytherin, and were evil, so evil that any mistake was threaten to be punished by the Cruciatus Curse. When it became too much I ran away. I guess it was easier to blame the Slytherin house and hate every Slytherin, rather than accepting that only my own family was evil." Sirius chuckled darkly.

"After school, little Harry came in our lives. For me he was my son, and I had promised him that I will give him all the love I never received from my parents, that I would protect him from all the evils of this world. But when Voldemort killed him," He sighed. "I was not there. This gave me even more reason to hate Slytherins as Voldemort and most of his followers were Slytherins." Sirius looked at Salazar's eyes.

"I am sorry. Sorry for being prejudiced and not thinking. I guess I never let myself open my eyes to face the dirty truth of my family. In doing so, I have hurt many people. Destiny gave me a chance to see that not everything is bad but I was not ready to see it. You are right. It is our choices that make us who we are. We need to learn to accept the choices made by others. Learn to differentiate between wrong and right. Can you forgive this person, who probably was your godfather in another world? Can you give us a chance, Harry?" Salazar assessed Sirius for few moments before speaking.

"The Sirius of my world was the most loyal and loving person I knew. He was sent to Azkaban for a crime he did not commit. But he knew that he was innocent, and this knowledge was not a happy thought. Hence he kept holding on to this fact and was able to remain sane for twelve years. At the end of it he broke out, when he found that I might be in danger. I have not had much time with him unfortunately, but I knew him." Harry explained

"I know how hard it is to accept that your family hates you. It takes a great strength of character to accept what you just did Sirius. I think we can work on this relationship." He gave him a small smile and gave Sirius a warm manly hug.

Just as he was coming out of it, James spoke.

"I lost a lot of people to death eaters: My grandparents, parents, my uncle and his family, and finally Harry, my only son. My grandparents died when I was very young. And I guess when I heard my father say that all those death eaters were in Slytherin, my mind translated Slytherin to death eaters." James paused to control his emotions

"I know this is not a good reason to hate a house. It is not right to generalise. But I guess Sirius is right, it was easier to put the blame on any Slytherin, and be wary of them rather than trusting them and being betrayed. I won't apologise for my behaviour, as I think what I did is not worth forgiveness. But I want to thank you for making me face the truth. I needed that reality check. I really do hope that you can give me a chance to rectify my mistake and also to know the person who could be my son."

Salazar took a deep breath and replied. "Hate is a very powerful emotion; it harms us more than others. Nevertheless, it is a very addictive emotion. I am glad you realised that hating someone is not a solution to any problem. i really do hope we can get to know each other, as I never had a chance to know my father."

They smiled and shook their hands.

After a moment of awkward silence, Helga spoke.

"Sal, I think you forgot one key thing. Before the attack, you will need to take charge of Hogwarts, and recharge the wards."

However, before anyone could say anything else, a Patronus materialised and spoke in Rowena's voice.

"Sal!! Where are you? Come to the planning room before starting with your potion as you will need to recharge the wards before doing anything reckless."

"I guess Rowena too realised the same thing as you my dear. Now before she comes here herself, we should go." Salazar said amusingly.

Everyone chuckled at this, and left for the planning room.

--------------

Just as they appeared, Rowena threw herself on Salazar.

"Thank goodness you are here. Godric just would not listen to me when I said that it was important for you to take charge of the castle once again, before starting with the potion. He wouldn't even let me explain it to the Headmaster, and kept on interrupting. He..."

"Calm down Row, you know how Ric is. Take a deep breath and relax."

At these words, Rowena visibly calmed down.

"Headmaster, I need to talk to you about the wards of the castle. I understand that as the headmaster of the school, you are in charge of the wards? Is that correct?"

"Yes, Lord Slytherin. From what I gathered, I would need to transfer the control over to you, so that you can recharge the wards. However, I was under the impression that the transfer was only possible if a headmaster abandons his post or he dies."

"That is true when transferring the control of the wards between Headmasters. However, here you are transferring the control of the wards to the owner of the land. Hence you only need to be willing to give the permission. Then I can take it from you."

"In that case, Lord Slytherin, you have my permission to take control of the wards."

"I Harry Potter, reincarnation of Salazar Slytherin, the original lord of land of Hogwarts, hereby take back the full control of the wards of castle and the entire land that was once under the Slytherin family."

As he finished saying this, there was a thin golden light coming from Dumbledore and going into Salazar's chest. After that for a few moments Salazar was surrounded by white light.

Once the light subsidised, Salazar moved to a wall and pressed his right palm on it and closed his eyes. After sometime, it felt as if the entire castle had come to life.

-----------

After taking charge of the wards, Salazar had left to recharge them.

In the meanwhile the remaining founders gave the newcomers an overview of the plan and showed the map.

"This is the map of Hogwarts. From this room and from the Gryffindor tower we can monitor this. This will tell us where our enemies are currently located. As you all know, the castle has the lake on its eastern side. As this area is also under the Hogwarts ground, this water mass is so large that it is impossible to cross it without boats. There is no magic that can be used to cross this. This includes but is not limited to brooms of flying in Animagus forms." Godric took a pause in his explanation to see if anyone had any questions.

" The South and West area is covered by forest. This leaves us with North. We have a perfect bird's eye view of these areas from Gryffindor tower. This is where we will be when the death eater army attacks."

There was another short pause but no questions were asked. So Godric continued in his explanation.

"There is a possibility that we might not even need to step foot on the grounds and can still win the war. Between Rowena, Helga and myself we can hold an army of any size at the gates of Hogwarts from Gryffindor Tower. However, this is where Salazar's protection comes in. Salazar has ensured us that if anyone managed to breach our wards and entered beyond the gates of Hogwarts, he will manage them. We do not know what his protections are but if that happens then it will be his responsibility. He cannot even tell you as that is the secret only for the lord of the land." Godric finished with a sigh.

"Lord Gryffindor, can I ask a question?" asked Remus.

"Of course"

"If I remember my history correctly then, Hogwarts was attacked during the time of founders. So surely you would have seen Lord Slytherin's protections at that time."

The question was directed to Godric but looking at the sad face of him, it was Rowena who answered the question.

"You remember your history correctly Mr Lupin."

"Please call me Remus"

"Ok Remus, there was indeed an attack on Hogwarts and it was from this area."

As Rowena paused seemingly lost in the painful memory, Lily asked

"Lady Ravenclaw? I tried looking for the details of this war but the attackers were not named in any books. It is generally assumed that it was a student of Merlin. I think she was called Lady Morgan, who attacked. The reason given is that after this war it was this Lady Morgan, who invented the three unforgiveable curses and many other dark curses and hexes."

"I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. As I was saying there was indeed an attack on Hogwarts from this area. As Godric mentioned we managed to stop the army of millions. At that time Salazar was not in the castle. Between the three of us, we managed to take out three quarters of the army before they reached the castle gates. After that the three of us along with the other teachers of Hogwarts, went to the grounds and were able to stop the attack. Unfortunately this army consisted of our past students and their parents. Parents of the Muggleborns to be honest. We realised what Salazar was telling us. But it was too ... Too late" Rowena trailed off with tears.

Seeing that Rowena was unable to continue, Helga continued

"The three of us had the idea that parents should be allowed to visit their children during the school term if they wish. However, Sal always told us that no matter what, muggles should not know where Hogwarts is situated. He said it could prove harmful. But we never gave that another thought. After sometime we came to an agreement neither muggle nor magical parents would be allowed to visit. But Salazar agreed to not put up a muggle repellent protection around the castle. After this war, we realised that during that time not all parents were happy to have magical children. Apparently they were convinced that with time their children's freakishness will go away. Hence they felt it was their responsibility to stop us teaching other children. Their logic was that if there was no school teaching such "freakishness" then the parents will have a chance to convince their children that there is no magic and hence the children will be able to supress it. Therefore they will be able to lead a normal life."

Helga paused with a faraway look and Rowena continued in a composed voice.

"it was a brutal battle, we lost three teachers and Ric..." she started sobbing unable to continue.

Helga took over once again after keeping a hand on Rowena's shoulder.

"Ric was our best fighter; he had been to many wars and could fight with sword and wand. He did not die during the war but was badly injured. We tried to heal him the best we could but could not stop his death."

However before Helga could continue Rowena started speaking with an angry voice. For the first time the others in the room could see why the founder of Ravenclaw house was considered to be closest to the dark wizard Slytherin.

"With Ric gone and no sign of Sal, I knew I had to protect Hogwarts. The first protection I put on was the muggle repellent charms that Salazar was so insistent we put. We had since added lot more protections to the castle. But I was not satisfied. Hence I went back to the drawing desk so to speak. I used the knowledge I had received from Sal. He had taught me how to create spells. So I put my entire anger, my will to protect and my will to hurt the people who tried to hurt my dear ones. I wanted to instil such a fear in the minds of everyone that no one would dare to look at Hogwarts again. Some of the spells I created are still used now. In fact three of them are now called the unforgiveable curses. Many of the others are banned and branded as dark arts."

She looked at everyone and found their faces showed a mixture of shock and horror.

"I knew that if I wanted to keep a hold of Hogwarts I would need to keep a clean image. So I went out as a defender of Hogwarts under disguise. I had created spells to copy the Metamorphmagus ability, also the spells to enable me to be invisible. With the help of these I created an identity of Lady Morgan. From what you told me now, it seems that I was successful in in concealing my real identity; and no one could relate Lady Morgan to me."

There was complete silence after this as everyone digested this fact.

This silence was broken by a familiar looking Patronus from Salazar asking them to come to the chambers.

This reminded everyone that there was a war coming up and that they had to prepare for it.