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Chapter 71- Salazar's Spellbook.
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Looking down at the unconscious form of Harry Potter with tear marks running down his face, I can't help but feel a little bad. I mean, I did play it up a little bit there at the end because there would be no consequences, but I didn't think... I didn't think. To be honest, I was just having a bit of fun after a stressful situation and having suffered the torture curse at his hand, I know I told him to do it, but it hurt like a bitch, and I wanted a little payback. Sue me; I am a vindictive guy.
And it's not like the things I said were untrue; I just said it in the meanest possible way. I did plan on the stuff, eventualy, they were definitely thoughts rattling around in my head. Also, I don't think I have had the chance to be totally honest and truthful since I came to this world, no, scratch that, since ever. I've never been able to trust anyone, being a former foster kid jumping between places, and I've never been honest. And then here came Harry Potter, the hero of the story.
Sure, I could have told any of the people I met before and then mind whammy and make them forget it, any of the women I have slept with, but it just wasn't the same. I couldn't tell Andromeda or Tonks because I have never used mind magic on them apart from some cursory scans and reading but no messing around, and if I told them, I would have to make them forget. But Harry, Harry was different for some reason. I can't even really say why.
Maybe it's because he is the main character or something, but telling him was different, and I was going to erase his memories anyway, so it worked out. Then it got a little mean because I remembered the pain of the Cruciatus, and I got a little mean-spirited. Like messing with your nephew, he's related to you, but he's not your kid, so you're in that lovely spot where you can fuck with him; at least, that's what I saw in some of the foster families I had. Though I don't think you would tell your nephew, you were going to fuck his dead mother... Let's ignore this for now.
Honestly, I wouldn't have brought Harry here if I didn't have to, but I can't speak snake, and this time, when trying to track down the Diadem, it led me here, so I brought Harry. I knew the Diadem wasn't here, but when I lit those three pyres and entered this room and saw the black door of snakes, I knew something was there, and I wanted to know what it was. And since it was a snake door, I figured Parselmouth, so I brought Harry. I faked that thing with Malfoy, blamed it on him and gave him detention and then secretly brought him here. Stupid Ron thought he was coming, but obviously, I shut that down.
Of course, I did need a healthy dose of Mind mumbo jumbo to keep him by my side and not question things too much. I doubt he would have come otherwise. Also, the urge in him to go and get a Professor or tell Dumbledore was so big that I was honestly surprised. The boy who did everything the Professors should be doing wanted to go and get them. It made sense when I thought about it. Last year, he tried to handle Quirell without the professors, and they all had to suffer some pain and spend some time in the infirmary because of that. No wonder he wanted to tell Dumbledore.
Still, the kid didn't make it half difficult, even with me mentally pushing him to be obedient and not cause trouble. He was just there to be my little mobile snake song. But then he went and nearly got himself bit by that snake statue, and I had to intervene and shield him and get bit myself protecting him. After all, I was planning on making him forget this and not be any the wiser about what happened. But I didn't know how lethal that attack was.
There was a chance it could be something I couldn't heal with my own healing magic knowledge, in which case I would have to go and dump Harry at the infirmary, and Dumbledore would be banging down doors trying to figure out what happened. I couldn't have that and would much rather risk the injury myself and then go get treatment outside of Hogwarts. Thankfully, it was just a snake bite, and I treated it with a quick Episkey, and that was that.
But then there was that damn torture door, and once again, I couldn't let Harry get hurt for the same reasons. The torture curse, when used on kids and those who were still developing, could have long-lasting results. It would be noticed if Harry had the Cruciatus cast on him, and we were stuck in that room unless someone was tortured, so I had to step up. Honestly, if there were no lasting consequences, I might have done it to Harry. I honestly couldn't say whether I would or not, but I probably would.
Thankfully, things were fine after that, and we managed to get out of the place. And most importantly, the exit I discovered was also an entrance and could be used to get back in to this secret room. I think I will call it Salazar Slytherin's study because what else would you call this place. Once I was sure I could get in and out without Harry's help, I wiped the boy's brain clean and put him to sleep. Now I just have to disillusion myself and him, carry him back to my classroom, and alter his memories so he thinks he was answering fan mail all detention. Then I walk him back to the Gryffindor common room and bid him adieu, his part done.
But I'll do that in a bit; right now, I want to focus on the big book I have found. And man, am I glad I came because this bounty is the motherlode of bounties, and I am so fucking happy. A spellbook full of spells, theories, and all sorts of stuff was written by Salazar Slytherin personally. At first, I was wary of it, given who it was written by, but there was nothing wrong with it at all; it was just a book. I guess the defences made sense now. If this was his study, then he probably left all his books and notes and stuff in here and never removed them, so why would he curse or put protections on them and risk them accidentally backfiring against himself.
He had an easy method in, which I deduced could only be found by people who had been in the room before, so now I have unlimited access to this space, so he had nothing to worry about. Anyway, while this was indeed a great discovery, what really excited me was not the possible spells in there but the research. Because in a quick flick through, I saw a section dedicated entirely to soul magic, which I would definitely be using to help me with my greatest priority now. Finding that Diadem and then using that Horcux to find the diary. They are soul pieces in objects, so Salazar's research should help me find them. But that is for later; I have to take care of something else right now.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
I turn my gaze back to the unconscious boy hero on the floor, sleeping peacefully. Not because he is actually peaceful but because I gave his brain a nice wash, so he doesn't have a recollection of any immediate problems and can rest for now. Also, I gave him a stupefy, so he is dead to the world. Casting the disillusionment charm on him and hiding him, I then... I dispel the spell, levitate him up and grab him by the foot and then reapply the camouflage to him and myself. Now, I am ready to go and make sure nobody knows about any of this.
As far as Harry knows, he was blamed for something that he didn't do, got detention, served his detention answering fanmail for me and then getting escorted back to his common room by me. That's it. No secret passageway, so snakes, no torture, no crazy villainous monologue in which his friends are made out to be targeted for sexual domination as well as his dead mother, and no reason to give good ol' Professor Lockhart a second glance. Alls well that ends well...
I didn't just jinx myself, did I?
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Well, everything worked out just fine. Harry didn't remember a thing, and nothing happened in the days after, everything returning to normal. By which, I mean everybody was going about their days on tenterhooks and expecting something to jump around the corner and petrify them at any moment. Nothing actually did, though. It made me wonder why? I am sure in the original story nothing was happening at this point in time due to Harry having found the book and talking to it and unravelling multiple things while being manipulated by Riddle.
But in this reality, Harry never found the book; somebody else did. Somebody who had proved to be just as manipulated as Ginny Weasley had been, and yet, nothing had occurred in a while. Tom Riddle was still out there, manipulating someone and putting his plans into action. Yet, nobody had been hurt, and there hadn't been an inkling of his presence anywhere. I'm sure some people would be grateful that nothing has happened, but I am even more concerned. I would rather people were being attacked, as that way, I knew what he was up to. But this way, he is laying low and planning something. I don't like it.
Still, I can only focus on me, myself and I and work towards my goals. I can't get bogged down by what others are or are not doing; I have to focus. And that is what I have been doing, day after day, researching, reading and experimenting. There were a lot of spells in Salazar's Spellbook, but having had a look through, I saw nothing that would help against a Basilisk, so I only devoted a part of my time to learning and mastering those spells. No, most of my time was spent delving into his research on the soul. And man, did this guy not mess around. He went in depth.
Of course, he didn't mess around with his own soul, as that would be foolish; he wasn't as idiotic and power-hungry as Voldemort is. No, he did the sane and proper thing, which was to experiment on others. Most of his research was being used on muggles and on those whom he perceived as betraying their own kind and helping muggles. And I don't mean muggle-borns when I say that, but people that were offering their services for a fee or putting their magical power behind a monarchy or ruler and helping them. Like Merlin would be for King Arthur, that kind of person.
Through his research, he learnt that while Muggles do have a soul, it is abundantly less than that of a magical being. That's not to say they are lesser mentally, but magically. Because what is a soul if not something spiritual and, dare I say, magical? Obviously, those who can't use magic would have a lesser soul, and by that, I mean a soul that is weak and not really usable for rituals or anything magical. Of course, that isn't to say that there are no uses for them, just that it would take a fuck load of dead muggles to power a spell or ritual, and I'm talking thousands.
Salazar even did research into the souls of magical beings and other sentient magical beings like Goblins and Veela, with a particular interest in the Werewolf as well. He discovered that their souls were quite similar to magicals, but there were parts that were different in them, and those differences resulted in an entirely different being. Or maybe because they were entirely different beings. He seemed to focus on the Werewolf, though, because the soul was fascinating.
The Werewolf originally had a magical soul, but once becoming a Werewolf, it was as if the soul was deformed, parts of it twisting and trying to emulate the soul of other sentient magical beings but not quite managing it. And so the Werewolf was usually rabid and unhinged, their soul kind of a mess. No wonder Lupin was such a toss-pot, the man having a messed up mind and emotional range and issues.
I really can't understand how such a fuck up managed to get with Tonks. Still, knowing the girl, I would assume it was to piss off her mother and getting with the most pathetic and undeserving fuck out there just out of some sort of spite. Still, this research points to the problem with Werewolves having something to do with the soul, and I could eventually delve into it far enough to come up with a cure or spell to try and revert it as close as possible back to a normal magical soul. Still, that would be an effort, and aside from the fame, which I already have plenty of, I would only do so if the monetary gains would be enough. And also when I was confident in my own strength to fight off all the Werewolves that had accepted themselves and taken affront to my solution.
Anyway, being who he was, naturally, Salazar had followed up on Herpo The Foul's creation of the Horcrux, and quite heavily, in fact. No doubt the man was trying to find a way to preserve his legacy and live on through the ages, but for what reason? I don't know, and I don't care to guess. He again did his experiment on other magicals, manipulating them and focusing them to make Horcruxes. He then experimented in all sorts of ways on its creations and the effects, advantages, and disadvantages. Naturally, he found cutting out parts of your soul was not healthy for your state of mind, and he tried to work on that.
The best Salazar Slytherin managed was to have the Horcruxes connect to each other over the vast differences between each other so as to try and maintain as close a connection as the parts originally had as a whole but remain separated. Horcruxes were connected naturally, but he amplified that so as to try and keep the soul whole but separate at the same time. He got close, but ultimately, the insanity and pure unhingedness were too difficult a barrier to overcome, and he abandoned it. Still, his research on the connections between Horcruxes would help immensely when I actually found the Diadem, and I could use it to find the diary.
Of course, I still had to find the diary, and unfortunately, there was nothing in the book that would help me with that. I still had to work on using the connection in my mind that the Diadem was having on me when trying to curse me and try to follow it back to the Diadem. However, it seems that whatever connection I was trying to follow was getting tangled up with a whole bunch of other similar things throughout Hogwarts, and I kept stumbling into different places, some known and others not. I've been all around the caste, ending up getting mixed up and following the wrong string to the wrong destination. One time, I ended up finding a hidden place right underneath the stairs outside of my classroom.
It was some kind of big clock thing that was actually hidden from sight; I only managed to find it through the connection I was following, and I managed to open it and go inside, which transported me to a different place. Thankfully, this place wasn't a horrific place like the last one I found, and there was no torture or trials to overcome. I just ended up in a big hall with some pillars around it and a whole bunch of dusty furniture around the place, and some chandeliers. There seemed to be some painting portraits on the wall, but some were completely blank while others were frozen, and the people in them paused mid-sentence.
It honestly looked like they were defunct or something, and something had killed whatever spirit had posses the portraits. There was also some weird kind of fold of painting thing with different pictures of landscapes on it, but I didn't pay much attention to it. Ultimately, the place wasn't particularly useful. Still, it was a nice secret place that others didn't seem to know about, and it wasn't the Room of Requirement and was right outside my classroom. An excellent place to have a secret meeting or a moment of privacy if you catch my drift, but I don't have any plans for that anytime soon.
Time marched on, and it was already Valentine's Day. I didn't have anything planned, but others did, as I would soon find out.