There is a calculating stretch of silence. "I see that you still remain unconvinced," Salazar Slytherin murmured before his eyes flicker towards the red sand that seems to be fading away into the air. "Time itself will run out once the red sand is gone," he matter-of-factly stated. "I have answers and as do you, what say ye to a trade? What say ye and if that still does not set your mind at ease what about a magical binding oath?"
"A magical oath?" Rowan pressed her lips into a thin line. It was certainly a tempting thought, but she would prefer not to take such a risk. However, her eyes lingered on the mounds of red sand around her. There was plenty of time left and she needed to buy time.
"An oath then," Rowan finally answered, "on that which can be answered."
"Agreed," Salazar immediately replied giving Rowan the feeling that she had been cunningly entrapped.
"Repeat after me," Salazar instructed as Rowan followed his wand movements with her own wand. "Jusjurandum Tempore," glittering sparks in an eternity circle float around him. "I vow to not ask any knowledge of events that have yet to transpire," he swore with glittering dark eyes.
"Jusjurandum Tempore," Rowan said as glittering sparks encircle her. "I vow not to answer nor grant any knowledge what has yet to transpire in Salazar Slytherin's current era," Rowan carefully worded her own oath. Her lessons with the goblins and in Gobbledegook. The goblins only ever acted EXACTLY according to what was stipulated in the contract. And she was certain that Salazar Slytherin was a similar type of foe who would cleverly weave a loophole into anything.
The oath fades away, but Rowan feels the uneasy creep further up her back. She had not failed to notice that Salazar Slytherin did not vow to bring harm to her. The same could be said about her, but in the grand scheme of things, he could do her far more damage as she had yet to come into existence. There was no telling if she could bring any true harm to him in this time plane.
"Good now that is over and done with my first query is what will become of Godric Gryffindor?" Salazar's eyes gleamed with envy, anger, and even a hint of old nostalgia at the former friendship.
"He dies like all things," Rowan carefully replied revealing nothing about how Godric Gryffindor died in the pursuit and destruction of Hydra.
Salazar clicked his tongue against his teeth in dislike. However, there is an approving, proud gleam in the depths of his eyes at the response of his future descendant. He approved of all that was cunning and sly and benefitted him. "Very well, go on, descendant, it is your turn."
Rowan wanted to ask about the abomination, but she couldn't. The thing about the butterfly effect is that if and when she returns to the future, she may arrive in an entirely different world. For example, what if Salazar Slytherin died early on or did not die at all because he did not entangle himself with Hydra? That single act could very derail and change the entire future that she knew of. Rather it was far more important that she think of a question that will not have repercussions on the future to come into existence.
"It is said that ye are from the Fen, forefather, and where exactly does that lie?" Rowan finally asked with sincere curiosity. It always had been a mystery from where Salazar Slytherin originated from.
A sly grin appeared on Salazar Slytherin's face as he replied in an almost sing-song mocking tone of voice. "The Fen to the East, the Fen to the West, the Fen to the North, the Fen to the South. We are those born to the Fen."
Rowan's face darkened quite a bit at that response, there was a good chance that Salazar Slytherin had been born in Ireland or in East England, but he could have easily been descended from wizards across the seas. The Prince's had arrived with the Roman Legionaries and then left for a time in the aftermath of the destruction of the Wizarding Assassin Clans, but in origin, they would have originated from the branch that departed from Persian Hassan clans.
Then again, maybe that was her response after all. The Slytherin family may indeed presently reside in said parts, but that does not mean that their ancestors did not originate from elsewhere. Perchance even from further away from considering the family's parseltongue ability and the fact that Salazar Slytherin would have needed to travel to South America to acquire a branch to forge his wand. At a time when only Vikings traversed the seas or wizards and witches via magical means. The native snakewood required for his wand is a native tree species in the coastal regions of the northeast of South America. In fact, Castelbruxo is the same age as Hogwarts. A strange coincidence or then again maybe not.
The silence stretches for a moment as Salazar Slytherin observes his descendants for clues, before somewhat curiously asking, "And whose lineage are you descended from that of my sons or my daughters?"
"A son," Rowan straightforwardly replied. It just happened to be an illegitimate child that Salazar knew nothing about. The product of a single night with a maiden of the Wizarding Hassan Clan.
Seeing a lack of a prompt response Salazar petulantly gestured to the fading sand. "The sand dwindles with each passing moment!"
"I have found the Chamber of Secrets, the hidden lair that included thine laboratory and personal effects including the Basilisk egg. Beyond the present chamber is there any other which I need to seek out and find?"
"If I had the time, I would," Salazar confessed in a grimace. "The muggles in Francia, (the Kingdom of the Franks aka modern-day Northern France, Belgium, and western Germany) have created the "Episcopi" a text of medieval canon law dedicated to condemning the maleficum (bad-doings) and sorilegium (fortune-telling), or any real form of magic. Similar laws have long ago already begun to spread, and our people are lynched and killed if caught by those ignorant brutes! I will not idly standby and witness such muggles torture and kill innocent children who are not capable of even defending themselves!"
(Recorded in 910 by Regino of Prümm just before the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire, but witchcraft/punishment are recorded even earlier in the Bible and in other historic texts.)
"It is the same story rehashed over and over again, but worst of all those we call muggleborn are the first to ignore their friends and side with those filthy muggles! They are MUDBLOOOD's, traitors to their kind!" Salazar hissed in genuine fury and indignation. "And that THING roams unchecked among THEM! They will be the DEATH of us ALL!
Sensing the very real ire in Salazar Slytherin's voice, Rowan knew that there must be a story there. After all, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin had once been the best of friends. And yes, Salazar Slytherin may very well be ambitious and even an arrogant, unpleasant prick, but he had an equally important part of the foundation and creation of Hogwarts. (That and Salazar Slytherin had slipped up revealing the existence of Hydra by calling it that THING!)
Under these circumstances, it was understandable why Salazar Slytherin had come to hate muggles and muggleborn after witnessing countless injustices in a tense political climate full of persecution against anyone magical (likely also fueled by Hydra. Especially if the past and inevitable death of Sir Knight Prince were any indications to go by).
All witches and wizards desired to be free of persecution just as much as those of a different race in the muggle world. At least there were now civil rights in modern-day, but even after all these thousands of years the same could not be said for the rights of a wizard or a witch to live freely in muggle society. Even to this day, the only way to survive for those possessing magic was to continue to hide.
And for the first time ever, Rowan felt just a smidgeon of understanding for Salazar Slytherin and Gellert Grindelwald. Oh, they went all about the wrong way to fix injustice, but she certainly could understand their frustrations. Not that they had always done so out of the goodness of their hearts, she knew very well that the two wizards were ambitious, power-hungry narcissists.
Yet the world is not black or white as many perceive it to be, but rather it is gray. It is these gray areas that are the most complicated and often filled with turmoil. It is the gray that determines the villain or the hero.