Chapter 136: An interesting conversation and disgusting takeover
Chapter 136: An interesting conversation and disgusting takeover
(Salazar Slytherin speaks ancient English (kinda Shakespearean). But for readers' convenience, I've translated the interaction between Salazar and MC into modern English. Thank me later. )
"You're not my Heir. Who are you?"
Salazar and I stared at each other for an awkward moment. Me in full body armor and face covered in helmet and him in his portrait.
"Um...Excuse me for a moment."
But then, excusing myself, I went back the way I came.
"..."
Given that he's asking me questions instead of directly trying to kill me, it seems that things can be handled by just talking, without having to forcefully steal things away from him. And there's no use talking to him with my face covered and deactivating the armor right in front of him would reveal the fact that it's not made up of metal, but magic. Thus, I left from his range of vision to take off my armor.
Afraid that he could still see me, I first cast a disillusionment charm all around me, and then only did I deactivate the Corpomency. I then took out a real armor from my pocket and made a few clangs and click as if I were taking it off.
My explanation for the armor if he asks me? I have a perfect answer for that one so I wasn't worried.
For a moment, I considered taking an aging Potion to look more adult, but then I decided against it. He'll believe a child more easily. My age is actually an advantage here. I was wearing casual clothes inside, thankfully not the Ravenclaw uniform.
"Ahem,"
I returned to my previous place in front of and cleared my throat.
"Great wizard Salazar Slytherin, it's an honor to see you," I said, bowing deeply. "My name is Chris Martin. I'm from a Pureblood wizard who's heard and read a lot about you."
Slytherin looked surprised as he raised a single white eyebrow and his vigilance seemed to drop a bit.
"Oh, well tell me, young man, how did you enter here?"
"Through Tom Riddle?" I threw out the answer, fishing for information. If he interacted with Tom Riddle and sees him in a positive light, then Tom Riddle is my idol who gave me the permission. Ron was able to enter because he had Harry's permission.
But, the portrait's expression stiffened at the mere mention of Riddle and I got my answer. Riddle did indeed come here. So, I began to give my explanation in accordance with that.
"Well, that Tom Riddle left a Diary and that Diary could possess people and open the chamber. I first entered in here a few days ago when the diary kidnapped a student. After that day, I came again today to explore this place. Your mouth...I mean, your statue's mouth was hanging open, and I wanted to check if there was another Basilisk inside. So, I put on my armor and came here." I concluded.
I didn't mention the presence of another Parselmouth. From my words, it seems that the Diary Riddle him brought me here. I didn't want Slytherin to know that a friend of mine was a Horcrux. I know for a fact that the Diary Riddle never entered here since Michael Corner isn't a descendant of Slytherin so the blood wards wouldn't allow it.
Slytherin's eyes flashed with anger upon every mention of Tom Riddle. Well, I guess that's a good sign. But I still haven't revealed to Slytherin whether I have friendship or enmity with Riddle. I need to have more info.
Slytherin focused more on my last Words. "An armor, huh?" He muttered to himself. "What kind of armor is that? Is it Goblin made?"
It's time for my explanation. I opened my mouth,
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And gave my answer:
"It's a family heirloom. I know nothing about it." That's it.
After grandma, this family thingy is my second favorite. 'It's family magic', 'it's family heirloom'. How handy is that? Just blame it all on the ancestors.
The portrait went silent after getting its answer. It must really suck if your glorious defenses are casually broken through by an unassuming child.
Up to now, I've caught up with the situation and have planned my actions according to the things I've observed up to now.
The first thing to be noticed is how the Portrait doesn't seem intent on immediately killing me or getting me to leave this place.
I waited patiently for Slytherin to think it through.
"Hmm...if it's a family Heirloom, then the one who made it must be a genius. My spell should have directly bypassed any armor, and it can make its way into the body the tiniest of the gaps..."
The old man was mumbling things to himself.
I quietly took notes.
Doesn't have any op lie detection skills.
Has some level of obsession with magic, can be used as bait or bargaining chip.
Then I heard Slytherin mumble some words in Parseltongue and I heard a *click* from the wards in front of me.
"Boy, don't just keep standing there. Come in," said Slytherin. "I need to know everything that happened while I was asleep."
I was surprised, "Alright, I'll tell you everything. When was the last time you were awake, Lord Slytherin?" I asked, still not going in.
Slytherin sighed, as if remembering the past memories, "The last time I was awake was when I banned that lunatic descendant of mine- Tom, from this library. I had to change a lot of wards just to make that possible, and then I went into slumber only to be awakened if anyone tries to enter this place," explained Slytherin.
'Wow. Just wow.'
After thinking for some time, I said, "About 50 years have passed, Lord Slytherin. After graduating from Hogwarts, Tom Riddle became a Dark Lord..." I began to tell him.
***
*General PoV*
Slytherin woke up only a few days ago when he found that someone was trying to trespass and enter his place a few days ago, but of course, the attempt was unsuccessful. Even though he knows that everyone would be unsuccessful, he still needed to make sure of it. After all, the things he's hidden here are of that much significance.
But after he woke up, he found out that his Basilisk Truci was dead! Slytherin knew that Truci was getting old, mad, and bloodthirsty and it was perhaps better that she was dead, but he was still grief-stricken.
Slytherin had been mourning her loss and wondering what happened in here for a few days after which, another person tried to trespass, and to his absolute surprise, the person succeeded!
Slytherin couldn't believe it when it turned out to be a boy, but then he explained about his family heirloom and Slytherin thought it might be possible.
But! He didn't miss the other part of the boy's explanation as well. About the Diary possessing a student. That must be the Horcrux. Slytherin had only come to know about it after Tom had made one and then asked him if he could make 7.
Tom had been a smart and deceptive young man. Slytherin was so happy to have an Heir that he completely missed just how much of a psychopath his heir truly was. The magics and rituals which he was copying and from the library were so dark and dangerous that one would have to sacrifice their humanity to practice them.
Slytherin knew at that moment that he can't allow Tom to get any more knowledge from his library, not to mention the other previous but dangerous things stored here.
That was when the portrait of Slytherin had to expend all of his magic to ban him from entering here. His alive self, when dying alone, had truly given a lot of privileges to the Heir who manages to enter here. Thus, Portrait had to a majority of its magic to ensure Tom's eviction.
Slytherin now really wanted to know just what had his former student/heir been doing for all this while and just how many innocents did he kill, but as expected he can't right now.
He needs more rest before he can finally be out of danger of getting faded. Banning Tom from entering really took a toll on him, after all, normal portraits can't even do magic. It's only him who can do this. But! It was worth it. He shudders to even think what would have happened if everything in here was acquired by Riddle.
'Though he still copied a lot of books before I was able to kick him out.' Slytherin wanted to know just what had that madman done with all that knowledge and just how much further had Slytherin's image fallen in the eyes of people.
After hearing some of Chris's explanation, Slytherin sighed as he muttered, "He needs to be killed as soon as possible." Then he turned back to Chris.
"Young man, I need to slumber for at least half a year before I'd be able to talk more. So, I would like to request you come to visit after a few months or years. You will be handsomely rewarded." Currently, Chris was the only person who could enter here, so Slytherin could only humbly request him.
"Oh?" Chris was a bit disappointed after hearing that, and he considered using pure magic to recharge this Portrait. But...
'It's only a few months, isn't it?" He can wait that long. And in that time, he can also come up with a reasonable way to steal *ahem* acquire all the stuff in there. In the end, Chris agreed after putting in some conditions.
***
Chris's life at Hogwarts resumed like normal after that. He was truly curious about the numerous books resting in the Slytherin's Chamber. And other things. Because it seems that Tom Riddle got access to many, and his power is so strong.
Not to mention the knowledge of wards and powerful ancient spells which were placed in that room. Those were awesome.
The world is a vast place. There can be many people as strong or stronger than even Dumbledore. There are bombs like nuke being developed by muggles in large quantities. Thus, he wants the wards on his home to be powerful enough to withstand anything.
At Hogwarts, these days, the most popular thing at Hogwarts was Chris's club. The Hogwarts Home Club had a total of 95% of the school's populace regularly attending every day.
This could be attributed to many factors, one of them being that there was currently no DADA teacher at all. Lockhart had already run away and the students that Chris had selected for each class were much better than Lockhart at teaching.
The next factor was everything inside the club. There were lots of sets of wizard chess, some sets of exploding Snap, wizard Skittles, etc, where a lot of students would play together. There was one counter which sold many muggle drinks and snacks, wizard snacks, and of course, the Butterbeer. The price was standard, or even a little over the standard but students were still buying them whatsoever.
The room was huge due to extension charms. And it was structured to give off a homey vibe. Chris had hired a few 'bouncers' to manage things if some students get out of line.
The Quidditch was still canceled since some players had been Petrified and the Mandrakes would only mature till the end of the year. Thus, the club more than made up for it with its competitions and prices.
Overall, life was going great for Chris at Hogwarts.
***
While Chris was having a peaceful life, someone else's life was currently destroyed.
On a full moon night, a man was walking through an unknown forest, dimly illuminated by the moonlight and his wand. The man's skin hand many wrinkles, especially his face. His head had started balding for a few months now. Gone were the once beautiful golden locks. Now, he only had patches of small pale hair on his head. He was impotent, and his body ached a little as if he was getting old.
This person was the once renowned and eminent Adventurer, Gilderoy Lockhart. But currently, he was miserable. Really miserable. He'd thought that becoming a professor at Hogwarts would be his next step to reach even more fame and attention, but... it had all backfired on him. Dreadfully so.
And all of it happened because of just one little kid.
"Chris Martin," Lockhart muttered through gritted teeth. His voice was dry and hoarse, but it was filled with unimaginable hate. But Lockhart really didn't have the capability to do anything right now. His mind was almost broken from the sudden changes that had happened to him this year.
"Sssssss....Hissssss." At this moment, Lockhart heard the hissing sounds characteristic of a snake from right behind him.
Lockhart jumped in fear and quickly turned around.
"!!!!"
There, right in front of him, he saw a large, green snake dimly visible under moonlight and wand light. It was about 12 feet long and as thick as a man's thigh. Though that wasn't the thing that terrified Lockhart. What truly terrified him was its red eyes which were looked straight into his own.
"Hisssssss," if Lockhart ever thought that snakes couldn't grin evilly, he was wrong.
Right then, he felt a strong force m bulldoze right through his weak mind. Currently, his occlumency was no more, and his weak mind was something the red-eyed snake had been trying to find again ever since its past prey Quirell.
Within seconds, Lockhart's weak mind was subdued by a strong and malevolent force, and the snake then opened its mouth wide And a dark, mist link thing came out of its mouth. As if the thing had a life of its own, he borrowed right into Lockhart, forcing its way into his head.
Lockhart fell back convulsed rapidly but couldn't utter a word as his body was taken over by an unknown being.
After an unknown amount of time,
"Ssssigh." A hissing sigh then escaped his mouth, but the voice definitely didn't belong to him. It was a very cold and evil voice, barely human.
The being slowly sat up and cast a few spells on his own body with a few waves of his newly acquired wand.
"Oh? No wonder," it muttered seemingly to itself as he observed the results. The being found that the body he possessed had at least five dark curses cast on it, and were still not cured.
"A minor problem." He muttered dismissively. Dark Arts was his domain. This level of curses were nothing too serious to him. In fact, these curses actually helped him. Otherwise, the prey wouldn't have been this easy to control...
"Now, let's check the memories." he muttered as he closed his eyes and began combing through Lockhart's mind, starting directly from the deepest parts.
"Ssaayyaasasha!!!" The being swore loudly in Parseltongue when the first memory he saw was what... this body's owner had done to its body.
Lord Voldemort had never felt this much disgraced in his entire life
....
A.N.: I wasn't gonna today, since I just took three tests back to back and was studying all night yesterday, so I really needed some sleep. But when I saw that many had still given power stones and many subscribed the *******, I felt motivated and obligated to right. So, I just posted a chapter on ******* and posting here as well.
Enjoy.
By the way, a part of motivation came from the chapter itself. It's title was 'The long awaited reunion'. You guess who he's going to reunite with ;-)
Patr /Snollygoster
Don't forget to give the POWER STONES that motivate me!
Now, I'm gonna sleep like a log. zzz zzzz zzzz