“And I must say that it is delightful to see you somewhere other than Minerva’s office,” Dumbledore replied as he set aside the book he had been holding.
Kamen grinned, “I’m afraid you’ll no longer be seeing me there.”
“Of course, you graduated this last year! Congratulations, I’m sure that Severus is thrilled to have another one of you out of the house, or is it the other way around, and you’re the one who is glad to be out on your own?”
“I believe the feeling is mutual.”
“I suspected as much. Now then, I believe that you are here for more than just idle chatter. Would you care for some licorice?”
“No thank you,” Kamen truly enjoyed the former headmaster, he had spoken up on his behalf during several of his visits to McGonagall’s office during his seven years at Hogwarts. “I’ve found myself questioning my position within the Brotherhood, and the very nature of the battle that we are fighting. Perhaps you will be able to give me the answers I’m looking for.”
“I am afraid that I may not be able to answer all of your questions,” Albus said regretfully.
“Will you at least try?” Kamen asked, he had no desire to walk away empty handed.”
“I’ll do better than that!” Dumbledore said, looking immensely pleased with himself. “There is someone here that can help you. If you’ll just pull aside that curtain over there… yes, that’s the one. Of course, he’s asleep.” Dumbledore rolled his eyes.
Kamen pulled away the heavy green curtain to reveal a rather faded looking tapestry. The edges were frayed and it looked as though part of one corner had been burned off. All in all it was in a rather sorry looking state.
“Salazar, wake up!” Dumbledore shouted, “Bloody old fool sleeps like a rock…” he muttered, “Salazar, we have company!”
“Hmmm… what do you want you barmy old codger?!” the tapestry of Salazar Slytherin asked grumpily as he opened his eyes, squinting against the harsh afternoon light that filled the room. “Who removed my curtain!? You know I’m sensitive to the light.”
“You are not,” Dumbledore told him, “you know very well that you’ve been charmed so that the light won’t bother you.”
Kamen cleared his throat to remind the two portraits of his presence.
“Of course, forgive me for forgetting that you were there,” Dumbledore hastily inserted, “Salazar, this is Kamen Snape, he has some questions I believe you may be able to answer.”
“Kamen Snape… you must be Severus’ son. I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting him, but this loony old bat has told me everything I could ever wish to know, and some things I’d rather forget. Well then, what can I tell you? Go on, pull up a chair, I have a feeling this may take awhile.”
Kamen looked around the room and located a rather dusty armchair that he dragged across the floor so that it was in front of the two portraits and sat down in it, “I honestly don’t know where to begin,” he admitted. “I never thought I’d have the opportunity to speak with one of the founders of Hogwarts…”
“Dear lord, did you hear that Albus? One of the founders of Hogwarts, he says it as though we were demigods, we were simple men and women young Snape, that is all. Although you should count yourself blessed that I am the one who has been preserved for posterity, I can’t imagine you much enjoying a conversation with Godric…”
“You know, I was in Gryffindor,” Kamen told Slytherin.
“Well… in that case it would have probably taken him a little longer to bore you to death,” Slytherin said as he stroked his beard thoughtfully, “he was always so much more concerned with battles and portraying himself as the epic hero than he was with the scholarly arts. A bit on the boorish side really, although he could hold his own when it came to chess... not a bad opponent, although he never did beat me. A rather sore loser too, come to think of it.”
“And you of course were the sweetest rose in the garden,” Dumbledore said mildly.
“I said no such thing!” Salazar said, looking rather offended at being compared to a flower. “If you wanted polite conversation you spoke to Helga. Rowena was a worthy match it battles of wit, but always so concerned with appearance… They all had their good points, and their bad. I do too.”
Kamen was entranced, this had to be the most incredible discussion he’d ever been a part of. “Why was the school founded? I’ve heard it was partly because of the Christian church…”
“To help protect the magical children?” Salazar asked, “I thought as much” he said darkly as Kamen nodded, “Yes, that was part of it. But they never get the whole picture… I truly wonder if there is an accurate history book in existence. What with the fool meddling of that damn church and the even more damnable Ministry they never get anything right!”
“They both have their good points,” Albus reminded him gently, “the Catholic Church preserved the vast majority of Roman texts that are still around today.”
“They also destroyed more than their fair share. Although our Ministry has done the exact same thing. A whole lot of xenophobic fools are what they are, and what they always have been. You want the truth behind the founding of Hogwarts? There were persecutions from the church, yes. There was also a lot of unregulated magic being practiced. It was passed down from parent to child, generation to generation. You get one crackpot thinking that a bit of dark magic isn’t that big a deal and the whole thing snowballs. We all had such great hopes and dreams… we wanted to create a learning institution that was not bound by doctrine. The only muggle, and magical, schools in Western Europe at the time were church run, even the universities, which did not appear for several more centuries. We wanted a school where our god given talents would not be seen as the devil’s own handiwork.”
“Self preservation?” Kamen asked, not sure he was following.
Salazar sighed, “You have to understand that we didn’t even understand ourselves at times. You were Christian, or you were not. There was no middle ground. We were outcasts in muggle society, still are, although religion is not the factor it once was. We simply wanted a place to belong. A place where our children would be safe from being burned by the overzealous populace intent on saving their souls. A place where we could monitor that knowledge being passed on. A place where we could hope of dispelling the harmful notions of xenophobia. We were intent on creating a new way of life. We were the first institution in Europe that offered women a means of obtaining higher education! We were the first institution in Europe that opened our doors to everyone as long as they possessed magical ability, no matter race, religion, or social class. We were idealists.”
“What happened?”
“Godric and I differed on several points of administration.”
“You only wanted to admit purebloods to the school,” Kamen said as he looked up at Salazar. Everything he had heard about Slytherin was slowly being taken apart and being put back together into a new light. But this one point still confused him. So far the wizard didn’t seem to be one to discriminate.
“I had my reasons,” Salazar said slowly.
“He deserves to know,” Albus said gently, “the truth can only be passed on if it is known.”
“Very well,” Salazar looked rather ill at ease and proceeded to pace back and forth within the confines of his tapestry. “I married a muggle, she was much younger than me. But that was the way things were commonly done a millennium ago. She was barely a woman and I was a middle aged man. But we were happy, her name was Isobel. She was such a sweet thing. She was so proud when our son was born. She had given me an heir, the one thing of value she could give me. We named him Kenneth, after the current king of Scotland. A daughter, Una, followed two years later. They were everything to me. I was so pleased when Kenneth was ready to begin attending Hogwarts. I was so proud of the ability that he had shown from an early age.” Salazar abruptly cut himself off and stopped pacing to stare off into the distance.
Kamen looked pack and forth between Slytherin and Dumbledore. He opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but shut it again as he saw Dumbledore give a slight shake of his head. He leaned forward slightly in his chair, waiting.
After a very long pause Salazar resumed speaking, but it was in an emotionless voice, one meant to hide the pain in his words. “My wife’s muggle relatives were not as pleased with my son’s talent for magic, or for the ability that my darling Una was starting to show as well. Isobel’s brothers, both powerful lords, and their vassals decided to take matters into their own hands. If I hadn’t been in the north, assisting them with starting their own school… They burned my Kenneth. And those men, their religion forbade them from killing a virgin, so one of the knights raped my darling Una, and then they slit her throat.”
Kamen looked down at the cold stone floor and felt sick. He couldn’t imagine the pain that Salazar lived with, and he’d had nearly a millennium to dwell on it.
“I realized then that society was still too ignorant to accept us for what we are. I told the other three founders that we had to limit our admittance to purebloods. Half bloods and the muggle born were not safe, their own families would turn against them, I had witnessed it first hand. I told them that perhaps in a couple of hundred years society would be ready to accept us. But they wouldn’t listen. I was not going to sit around and watch the same thing happen to other families. So I left.”
“And you’ve been cast as a villain for leaving, and all anyone has ever learned is that you quarreled with Gryffindor…” Kamen took several deep breaths, it didn’t seem fair.
“Life isn’t fair young Snape.”
Kamen wondered if the tapestry was capable of reading thoughts, “how does the Brotherhood come into this.”
“Ah yes, the Brotherhood…” Salazar resumed his pacing. “I was at loose ends after I left Hogwarts, didn’t know what to do with myself, until I stumbled upon the Brotherhood. Did you know that it is an organization that stretches far beyond Britain? No… well, that’s understandable, the different chapters tend to stick to themselves these days… the Brotherhood originated long ago. It was formed after the sack of Melos in 416 BCE. Do you know about that battle?”
Kamen shrugged, trying to recall what Binns had said about it in history of magic, “it was part of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians sacked the city, and there were wizards who fought on both sides.”
“Well, that’s a start,” Salazar said as he stopped pacing and settled down on a bench that was woven into his tapestry. Have you ever read any of Thucydides’ ‘Melian Dialogue’? No… let me see… how does the ending go… ah yes… ‘The Melians surrendered unconditionally to the Athenians, who put to death all the men of military age whom they took, and sold the women and children as slaves. Melos itself they took over for themselves, sending out later a colony of 500 men.’ A few months later Euripides’ Trojan Women was performed. Are you familiar with that play?”
Kamen nodded, “yeah, I’ve read it before. One of the saddest plays I’ve ever read… they based it off of the Battle of Melos, didn’t they?”
Salazar nodded in affirmative, “some of the wizards who fought on the Athenian side were so disgusted with what they had done that they swore it would never happen again. They banded together and took an oath, they vowed to do their best to fight injustice.” He smiled, “they were a bit on the optimistic side. It wasn’t until the 6th century that they began calling themselves the Grigorian Brotherhood, and I believed that originated in Italy… they had spread all over the Mediterranean by that point and were starting to spread north.”
“So, why did you join?”
“I joined because they were willing to do whatever they could to protect magical children, and other magical creatures and people, from persecution. They were fighting the same battle as I. So I became one of them, and I eventually became their leader.”
“Have they always maintained the noble intentions they started out with?”
“Yes.”
“Have they ever embraced the dark arts?”
“No.”
“Is Armand leading the Brotherhood to best suit his own personal goals, or the goal of protecting those unable to protect themselves?”
“He is young, and has stumbled upon occasion, but his intentions and heart are pure,” Salazar answered carefully, “he is developing into a good leader, and his only desire is to protect those who need it. Do not let some of his tactics throw you off. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.”
Kamen nodded, it was some of the attacks that had seemed unprovoked that had caused him the most worry.
“Remember, Armand has more resources than you can imagine for finding out the intentions of the dark forces. Sometimes he may lead an attack and you may not know the reason why. That is most likely for your own safety,” Slytherin seemed to read his thoughts again.
Kamen nodded again as he stood up, “thank you, I think you’ve helped me more than you know.”
“It’s been a pleasure young Snape, don’t hesitate to stop by again. I’ll tell Armand to let you visit whenever you want. There is precious little that entertains me these days, but I have a feeling I will enjoy your company. It’s a change from Dumbledore at least…”
Kamen started to walk towards the door, but stopped and turned back, “can I ask one more question before I go?”
“Of course.”
“The basilisk?”
Salazar smiled, “ah yes… I had a feeling you would bring that up. That decision is one that has come back to haunt me on occasion. Let us turn the tables, and I will ask you a question. Who was the first person to ever release the basilisk into the school?”
“Voldemort, back when he was a student.”
“Yes, and who was the second?”
“Voldemort, working through a diary he created as a student…”
“So…”
“I see your point sir,” Kamen smiled slightly, “if you had to do it again would you still have created the chamber of secrets?”
Salazar laughed, “That question I wasn’t expecting. The chamber, yes, I would do that again. The basilisk… that I’m not so sure about.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
