As Oleandra emerged from the other side of the wooden tunnel, the first thing she noticed was a sculpture of an old man's head, with a full beard of snakes.
"Truly the Medusa of facial hair," Oleandra thought to herself.
They had found themselves in a small study composed of two levels. Two staircases on each side of the room led to the upper level. Paintings and frescoes adorned the walls, and the décor was greenish-silverish themed.
"Neat," said Daphne, holding up a beige scarf she had found in a chest in a corner of the room. "Do you suppose it's cursed?"
"Look," said Oleandra, ignoring her. "A desk, and there's a stack of papers on it. Shall we get reading?"
And so, the sisters sifted through Salazar Slytherin's notes. Most of it was just ranting about how Wizards were declining, and how the Muggle-Born should never have been allowed to attend his school.
"I found a mention of the Chamber of Secrets!" said Daphne suddenly. "Let's see… We shall never come to an accord, and so on and so forth, Gryffindor furious at Slytherin's pure-blood theories, discord, etcetera."
"So? Where's the Chamber of Secrets in all that?" asked Oleandra.
"Patience, dear sister. It's coming up," said Daphne, scanning line after line. "There! The creature will be put in a deep sleep in the chamber, until one of Slytherin's descendants who shares his views comes along and rids Hogwarts of those who would stain his legacy!"
"That's great!" exclaimed Oleandra. "Now, where is the Chamber of Secrets, and what's the creature?"
Daphne's face fell. "It doesn't say. Maybe the answer is on another parchment?"
The sisters went back to their task of searching through the various parchments Slytherin had left behind. There were accounts of his travels, magic he had devised, alchemical recipes, potion recipes, memoirs and even love letters. Luckily, none of the documents were encrypted, though ye olde English and Slytherin's handwriting made it sometimes difficult to decipher their contents.
But as Oleandra neared the end of her pile of parchments, a phrase caught her eye. She took a moment to read the document in its entirety:
After I left Hogwarts, I returned to my ancestral home, where I dedicated myself to the task of proving once and for all the superiority of Pure-bloods over Half-bloods and Mudbloods. I knew it to be true, for each of the bloodline clans have their signature magic that only they can perform at maximum efficiency. When the four of us, the greatest Wizards and Witches of our age, came for their spells and magical knowledge, they proved to be quite a challenge, unlike the Wizards' Guilds and Cabals.
Thus, I pored over my family's documents about our history in search of an answer. Strangely enough, they only went as far back as six hundred years ago, during the age of Merlin, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Oleandra scowled in distaste upon reading Merlin and Arthur's names. For some reason, she had never quite liked these people, even though they were historical figures from some fifteen hundred years ago she had only read about in history books.
In those days, Britannia was still under the rule of Rome, and that included magical society. It was only after Rome fell and Arthur became king that our land's Wizards were free once more, and that is where my family's records start. I visited some acquaintances who looked upon me favorably, and they generously agreed to let me read their historical documents. Incredibly, none of them predated the era of Rome's fall. Had our Wizards been oppressed under the Roman Empire to the point of not being allowed to keep records? I left the British Isles for the mainland, where again and again I came upon the same results. Only outside of Rome's historical area of influence would I find more ancient records of its indigenous Wizarding communities.
During my search, I managed to identify the last stewards of magical Britain. Armed with this information, I found their old haunts, where I learned the horrible truth.
Oleandra couldn't believe her eyes when she read the next passage. If what was written was true, then nobody could be allowed to know. Never in a million years!
A great majority of the first-generations of the pure-blooded families of Europe were in fact, MUGGLES. Ancient Roman Wizards experimented with thousands upon thousands of Muggles with magical tonics and rituals, imbuing them with the bloodline factors of Fantastic Beasts, granting them in the process access to magic. The Romans must have inherited this research from the Ancient Greeks, for Parselmouths such as Herpo the foul predate Rome itself.
In the end, these artificial Wizards eventually rose up against their masters, helping bring down the Western Roman Empire. Ashamed of their origins, they wiped away all traces of their past and began anew, integrating into Magical Society as if they had always been part of it, leaving their descendants none the wiser. With their powers, ordinary Wizards could not match them, and thus they gained the status of nobles.
Who knows if this is how the original Wizards gained their powers thousands of years ago, or if the early Wizards had always had the power within them.
Oleandra turned the parchment over. There was still more written on the back.
It's impossible for a descendant of those pure-blooded Wizards to gain further power through the same rituals and potions, for centuries of interbreeding have polluted their bloodline origin. To tamper further with it would cause catastrophic damage to the body. One would need to be a pure human Muggle to have the slightest chance of surviving the ordeal.
However, using the Roman Wizards' notes, I have devised a potion that would purify and amplify a pure-blooded Wizard's bloodline. I have tried it on myself and found that it functions very well. The potion must be adapted to the Wizard's bloodline origin. In my case, it is the Basilisk.
Attached is the Bloodline Atavism Potion's recipe
Oleandra rapidly scanned the list of pure-blooded clans and their Fantastic Beast origins. The Greengrass's origin was the humble Wood Nymph.
Ingredients (adapted to the Greengrass bloodline)
1 cup of Ovid's Tincture
1 tablespoon of essence of Moonlight
3 Ashwinder Eggs
2 cups dragon's blood
1 fruit of the lotus
7 hairs of a Wood Nymph
1 teaspoon Cinnamon (for taste)