Harry started moving ahead in the passageway until he reached a dead-end. The wall in front of him had the portrait of: *Salazar Tertius Slytherin*
The proud eyes opened and Harry felt like he would be killed if he looked into them. Harry instinctively kneeled: "It is an honor for me to meet the founder."
Salazar smiled satisfactorily as he told him to stand up: "My name is Harry Potter."
"Might you be the son of Iolanthe, Potter?" Slytherin frowned at his name.
"I'm afraid I don't know my ancestry, very well." Harry apologized. "Strange. Very strange indeed." Slytherin was left in thought as he explained: "Out of all the families, you are from one most distant to me." He laughed like he had told a joke.
"But..." Harry was confused: "How... do you know if the Potters are your descendants or not? You existed long before them."
"Ah, you're right." Slytherin said: "Follow me." The portrait opened like a door and Harry entered it into a big library with two green pedestals.
"Behind you, boy." Harry looked back to see Slytherin standing just like before on the back of his own portrait which was apparently a door: "Now, look back again."
Harry turned around to see, right in front him, a large tapestry sticked to the wall. It was like a tree but downwards.
"Go on. You may read it."
Harry went near it. On the top was written the name: Salazar Slytherin.
It descended down to reach the Gaunt and Naga families. The Naga family descended linearly showing that almost all of them were purely inbred. But they didn't reach the end. It showed that there was no living descendant from the Naga line.
On the other side of the tapestry, the Gaunt family interbred among some other magical families including the Peverell and Prewett families. The last of the line from the Gaunt family was a half-blood named: Tom Marvolo Riddle.
He was the direct heir of Slytherin.
The Prewett line ended with Fabian and Gideon Prewett, along with Molly Prewett.
Marrying Arthur Weasley, Molly Prewett had seven children, but all of their names were barely visible, with only one being the most readable: Ginerva Weasley
"It's a pity-" Slytherin said, sighing: "-that their blood has more of Gryffindor than mine. With how they breed, I'd have ended up with a fortune. If only this Ginny marries a muggle, or maybe a half-blood; I'll have at least one decent Heir."
"But you do have an heir." Harry pointed towards Tom Riddle.
"Oh don't get me started!" Slytherin waved his hand like it was a nuisance: "He's a shame to call my descendant! Do you know?" He looked at Harry who shook his head: "The last time he was in the school, he opened my poor Bitsy's chamber and used her to kill a student!"
"Bitsy?" Harry asked.
"Oh, you know. She's my pet. Cute little basilisk. I hatched her myself, it's a pity she'll have to fight those dangerous muggles when the time comes."
Harry was flustered. 'Excuse me, what? Cute, basilisk? LITTLE? Hatched her yourself!? DANGEROUS MUGGLES!?'
Harry voiced his opinions: "What do you mean (fighting dangerous muggles) when the time comes?"
Slytherin quickly turned serious: "I'm sure my heirs already told you... but I saw a vision long, long ago. I saw those muggles using their weapons of mass-destruction, destroying the sanctity of these sacred halls. I saw an heir using the cruciatus curse on them thus opening this scriptorium. But before he could fully harness my teachings, it was already too late."
"Do you know who he was?" Harry asked.
"Someone much like you, but not you, I'm sure." Slytherin replied: "He had my blood."
"Do you understand now, my child?" Slytherin looked at him worriedly: "Why it was necessary to station the basilisk for such times? Why it is crucial to block the muggleborns' magical education?"
"You're wrong." Harry looked at him dead in the eye: "It wasn't. And it isn't necessary to block them from being one of us. Hell, it just increases our numbers."
"If what you say is true, then rather than despising their technology, we should harness it. We must use it in collaboration with our magic, to fight them if it comes to it."
Slytherin looked at him worriedly: "What you propose is even more difficult than what I did, do you know that?"
Harry nodded and said: "But it's the only way."
"Ambitious child, you... are a true Slytherin." Slytherin thought for a moment before saying: "Very well, I shall accept you as my spiritual heir."
'Spiritual heir... so that's how Merlin became his heir too.' Harry reasoned.
-
Knock Knock
"You may enter." Dumbledore gave his permission and Snape entered the office: "So, how did it go?"
"As it should have, the Dark Lord has returned to full, if not more, power." He replied worriedly.
Dumbledore, noticing his tense voice, asked: "Is everything alright, Severus?"
Snape remained silent for a while before revealing: "I think... I think the Dark Lord is suspicious of me."
"He wants me to persuade you into not going to the banquet tomorrow." Snape explained: "But he should know that doing so is impossible. What reason would I have to stop you from going? He wants to have an excuse to dispose of me."
"Is that it?" Dumbledore replied after he had listened.
Snape nodded as Dumbledore continued: "You have done well, Severus. You may go to sleep now. But before that..."
"You should go and tell him... that you have managed to persuade me into not going. Tell him that I will not be there. In fact, tomorrow, you will go as Harry Potter's escort."
Severus didn't understand, he never could. Snape nodded. He felt something was odd when he said: "Is everything alright, headmaster?"
"Ah, yes. Everything is quite alright."
"No, I mean. I don't see the snake." He looked around, but there was no cage or snake around. "There had been an issue, seems it was more than just a snake. But now, it's been solved." Dumbledore revealed.
Snape nodded and took his leave.
-
After dinner, McGonagall clinked the glasses to announce: "First year student Harry Potter is allowed to bring two more guests to the Evening Banquet and as such, his chosen, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger are instructed to be ready at sharp 6 PM with him. Professor Snape, it has been decided, will accompany them as an escort."
Draco and Hermione were elated when they heard it and shared a gaze. Right after dinner, Hermione headed over to Draco: "Hey, Draco. Where is Harry, by the way?"
Blaise and Pansy gave her a venomous look but Draco scowled at them: "We should take this somewhere else, Hermione." He smiled at her.
-
'His willpower is amazing.' Slytherin thought. The first step for an Heir to become a Successor was forcing the animagus form upon oneself. For Harry, the method included drinking the thousand forms of venom and winning over each of them. Though it was difficult, he still endured. These forced methods were dangerous and so, the wizardom converted to an equally difficult but less dangerous method to become an animagus.
Even if Harry was following each of the steps from the Grimoire carefully to drive away each poison, the amount of pain he had to face was significant.
'I am satisfied I snatched him first or he would have made a perfect Gryffindor naturally too.' Slytherin smiled. For the first time in a thousand years, he felt like he was alive again.
In Harry's green eyes which showed his unwavering determination, Salazar Slytherin saw himself.
-
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