Salazar's Study
Friday, 11 September 1998
“You don’t take divination, right?” Harry asked.
“Who are you asking?” Draco responded.
Harry was pretty confused by the question, then remembered that he was sitting at the Slytherin table in the middle of a very crowded Great Hall during lunch.
“In my head, I was asking Theo,” he specified.
“Well,” Draco said, “I don’t take divination, in case you cared.”
“I didn’t, but good to know,” Harry said, voice dripping in sarcasm, “Theo?”
“Oh,” Theo said, finally joining the conversation, “no, I don’t take divination, why?”
“No reason.”
“You’re weird, Potter.”
“No one ever said I wasn’t, Parkinson,” Harry shot back with a sticky sweet smile.
“Why did you need to know if Theo took divination?” Draco asked.
“If you really must know,” Harry said with a sigh.
“I must.”
“You’re the worst,” Harry said, “anyway, I’m working on an assignment for my warding independent study, but there’s some unfamiliar runic language I don’t understand and can’t begin to translate, and Theo is the most likely candidate to recognize the script.”
“I’d love to help, Harry,” Theo said with a smile.
“Thanks, Nott,” Harry said, grinning back.
“Wait,” Daphne cut in, “is it the script that looks vaguely like Elder Futhark but also has odd bits of Cyrillic?”
“Yes!” Harry exclaimed, “are you working on the same assignment?”
“Yeah, I am, I can’t figure it out either, would you mind if I joined you?”
“Fine by me,” Harry said, “do you guys want to meet in the library or down in the study in the Chamber?”
“Is that even a question?” Theo asked incredulously.
“Daph?” Harry asked.
“The study in the Chamber sounds good, Harry, we can head down after lunch.”
“Works for me.”
“It’s probably a good place to work on this specifically,” Daphne mused.
“What do you mean?” Harry asked.
“Well,” she continued, “the language is obviously not commonly known and would be ancient so the library in Slytherin’s study is probably more likely than the library to have a reference text.”
“Good point, I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Well,” Theo cut in, “I’m ready whenever you two are.”
A few minutes later, the trio bid their goodbyes and headed down to the dungeon entrance to the Chamber. Harry had been rather grateful to discover that there were entrances to the Chamber hidden throughout the school and that the one in Myrtle’s bathroom was intended for the basilisk to use, not a human. The reason Tom hadn’t been able to find any of the human entrances was that they only opened to a true heir while the one in Myrtle’s bathroom simply opened to parseltongue to allow the serpent to open the passage on her own.
This meant that, not only did Tom have to slide down a grimy pipe every time he wanted to be in the Chamber, but he also never had access to everything else stored in the Chamber. He never discovered the library or the study or the potions lab and adjoined ingredient storage. He never had access to the various artifacts Salazar and his descendants had stored down there. He only had access to the central chamber and the snake. It was a good thing, too, because he did enough damage with the basilisk, Harry shuddered to think what he would’ve been able to do with some of the artifacts and potions ingredients he’d found.
When they reached the entrance, Harry placed his Slytherin ring against the brick that had a serpent carved into the stone and hissed allow me entrance, as ordained by my birth.
The bricks then shimmered slightly before revealing a wooden door. Harry turned the knob and let Daphne and Theo enter first before shutting the door and making sure the passage was sealed.
At the end of a brief hallway, they came upon the entrance to Salazar’s study.
The study in the chamber was larger than the one in Lord Slytherin’s quarters up in the Tower. It was more similar in size to the joint study that the founders shared. From chatting with the portraits, they’d discovered that Godric’s study had been turned into the Headmaster/Headmistress’ office, Helga’s study had been absorbed into the Hufflepuff common room, and the same had happened to Rowena’s. Salazar’s study was the only one untouched.
Three of the four walls were covered in bookshelves with tomes covering everything from ancient runes to potions to parselmagic. It had to be the largest collection of books written in Parsel in existence.
The trio sat down at the table in the corner of the study and started working on translating the runic text. Theo pretty quickly recognized the language as a type of pre-Christian Slavic writing, and they were able to find a dictionary amongst the vast collection of texts.
Two hours later, both Harry and Daphne were done with the assignment. The group left the Chamber and started climbing the stairs, heading toward Bill Weasley’s office to drop off their work.
As they climbed, Daphne asked, “what are your plans for the weekend?”
“I don’t really have any yet,” Theo responded, “I’ve got a bit of homework to complete but it shouldn’t take much time.”
“I have some training schedule, I need to check in with Nev and the portraits to see what the plan is, I might end up sending Teddy to spend the weekend at Grimmauld if it looks like we’ll be kept busy,” Harry said, “I also apparently have to talk to Flitwick and Bill sometime soon. I got a message from Ragnok and he said that the Nation would like me to train to fight with an axe. I think Helga would be able to train me, but Ragnok said he preferred for me to learn from a goblin, or someone trained by them.”
“What are you talking about, Harry?” Daphne asked.
“Oh, you didn’t hear?” Theo said with a smirk.
“Obviously not.”
“Hadrian over here accidentally got himself named as a Warrior of the Goblin Nation.”
“How do you accidentally get named a Warrior?”
“You kill a basilisk at 12 and then offer the Nation rendering rights.”
“Have you ever once had something normal happen to you?”
“I stubbed my toe the other day,” Harry said shrugging, “that feels pretty normal.”
“Oh, shut up.” Daphne responded sounding exasperated.
Harry just laughed while Theo shook his head.
“So,” Daphne said, “returning to my initial question, you don’t know what free time you’ll have this weekend?”
“If it’s filled with training, it’ll likely just be during the day and if I end up sending Teddy to Grimmauld my nights will be free. Why do you ask?”
“Pansy and I were talking to Seamus -”
“That is a terrifying combination.” Harry cut in.
“and we were thinking,” Daphne continued, ignoring the interruption, “that it’d be fun to have a party in the 8th Year Common Room. What do you think?”
“I’d be down,” Harry said smiling. Theo nodded in agreement.
“Alright,” Daphne said just as they reached the door to Bill’s office, “I’m not sure yet if it’ll be tonight or tomorrow but I’ll find you once I know.”
“We still need to find a time for you to teach us the Patronus charm.” Theo said, commenting on their struggle to find an easy way to communicate.
“Oh yeah,” Harry said, “we’ll do that soon. But Luna and I also discovered that if you just go talk to the dragon portrait at the entry of our tower she can pass messages on to any of the founders portraits and they can find us if we’re in the tower. Also, any of the portraits in the school will help you pass a message to one of us. They obey us as much as they obey the Headmistress.”
“That’s good to know,” Daphne said as they walked away from Bill’s door and headed back toward the 3rd floor corridor. The office was empty, so he was either teaching a class or was in his and Fleur’s quarters.
The three chatted aimlessly as they walked back toward their towers. When they got to the entrance, Harry waved goodbye and headed up to his quarters where Teddy was taking a nap under the watchful eye of Mimi. After checking to make sure all was well, Harry headed back into the sitting room to speak to Salazar.
“Good afternoon, Grandfather,” Harry greeted.
“Good afternoon, Hades,” Salazar responded with a smile, “how was your day?”
“It was good, I only had potions and I’ve gotten much better at that subject after going back and reviewing the basics. I’m actually enjoying it now. Then I worked on a project for my warding independent study with Daphne and Theo, we found a runic dictionary down in your study in the Chamber that was incredibly helpful.”
“I’m glad to hear it, my boy,” Salazar said before continuing, “now, I’m guessing you want to ask about Godric’s training plan?”
“Yes,” Harry said, “Death also mentioned he had something he wanted to speak to me about and I got a missive from Ragnok letting me know that the Nation would like me to begin training to fight with an axe, though I need to speak to Professor Flitwick or Bill on that front.”
“I’m glad to hear that, being named Warrior is a great honor but being trained in the ways of the Nation is an even higher one. You must remember to be respectful toward their culture and to work diligently in any lesson they give you.”
“Of course,” Harry said with a nod.
“Good,” Salazar said, nodding back, “well, Godric mentioned that he’d like to see where you four are in terms of dueling but that shouldn’t take too long. Probably just a couple of hours. Are you trying to determine what to do with Teddy?”
“Yeah, if it were just training with Godric I’d absolutely keep him here but I’m really not sure what Death has planned. He sounded much too serious for it to just be a discussion or training with the scythe.”
“Well, Teddy only went down about 20 minutes ago so he should be asleep awhile longer. Why don’t you go speak to Death in the study and then you can make your decision. You could always send Teddy to his grandmother just before bedtime tonight or wait until the morning. Also, depending on what Death is asking of you, you might want to join Teddy at Grimmauld Place to spend some time with your family.”
“That’s a good idea, thank you, Sal,” Harry said smiling up at the portrait before he turned around and headed into the study. Waiting, sitting in the chair in front of the desk, was Death.
The first time Harry saw death take a corporeal form, he’d thought some random man had broken into Grimmauld. He did wear a cloak and carry a scythe like every classical depiction. But he wasn’t skeletal or pale. He didn’t have pure black eyes or a raspy voice.
He was just a man.
He had dark brown hair that looked perpetually windswept, similar to but not anywhere near as insane as the classic Potter hair. He had warm, golden-brown eyes and very lightly tanned skin, a few shades lighter than Harry’s. He had a mischievous smile that truly seemed out of place when you remembered this was an all-powerful deity.
When he pulled the hood of his cloak up and wielded the scythe he was absolutely intimidating. But sitting here in Harry’s office, leaning back in his chair with his arms behind his head and his legs crossed at the ankle, it just looked like Harry’s uncle had come to visit. Especially if you ignored the scythe propped up in the corner.
“Good afternoon,” Harry greeted.
“Good afternoon, Young Master,” Death said, with his eyes still closed and a teasing grin on his face.
Rolling his eyes at the truly absurd term of address, Harry sat down and asked, “what can I do for you?”
“This is why I like you, Hadrian,” Death said, finally sitting all the way up, “you always ask what you can do for me, never what I can do for you.”
Shrugging, Harry said, “that seems like the right way to act.”
“Indeed,” Death responded, smiling, “that is why my Hallows accepted you as their Master. That is why you can wield the most powerful wand this world has ever known without being corrupted by that power. It is why you can use that stone,” he said, gesturing to the Peverell ring, “without being dragged to my domain.” He paused for a moment, sobering slightly, before asking, “why haven’t you used the stone, Hadrian?”
“You mean to talk to my parents?” Harry asked, “all three of them?”
“Yes.”
Sighing, Harry thought for a moment before answering, “they left me a lot of ways to get to know them from their journals to the memories I found stored in my dad’s personal vault. I’m also still healing from everything that happened over the last couple of years, let alone my entire childhood. And, I’m honestly still reeling from the realization that I had a second father. I just feel I owe it to myself to heal more before I start asking them questions.” He then thought a bit longer before continuing, “I don’t want to overuse the Stone, it doesn’t feel fair to pull spirits back into this realm and I don’t want to just keep calling upon them for any little thing. I want to speak to them and know them and hear their voices, yes, but I don’t want to abuse this power.”
“I’m incredibly proud of you, Hadrian,” Death said, smiling, “you are truly wise.”
“Thank you,” Harry said, smiling back.
Death then sobered again, “Hadrian, what I have to ask of you is difficult.”
“Forgive my interruption,” Harry said, laughing slightly, “but I must say that I never imagined being the so-called Master of Death would always be sunshine and rainbows.”
“Good,” Death said, smiling slightly, “that is a good perspective.” He then paused to take a deep breath before explaining what he was asking of Harry, “you know that your specialties as a Mage are soul magic and necromancy,” Harry nodded, “soul magic is something you’re more familiar with. Emotional forms of magic like the Patronus charm and even the so-named Unforgivables are types of soul magic. But necromancy is much more foreign. It’s been qualified as a type of Black Magic throughout much of the modern wizarding world, but it is central to your role as the Master of Death. Throughout your life, you will train with me and, as I believe I’ve mentioned before, when you leave this life, you won’t truly leave. You will remain by my side and will remain the true Lord Peverell. You will be able to interact with the mortal realm and your position as both human and something beyond will be recognized.”
“But I will be able to pass over?” Harry asked, “even if just to … visit?” He said, not able to find a better way to describe what he was asking.
“Of course, Hadrian,” Death confirmed, “you will be much like the myth of Hermes. Are you familiar?”
“Yes,” Harry said, “I’d heard the basics of the myths back in primary school but when Draco insisted on naming my owl Hermes because he calls me Hades I decided to learn more. Hermes was a psychopomp, correct?”
“Yes, he, along with the spirit Charon, guided souls to the underworld. Hermes is known to be the only Olympian who can enter Hades’ domain without an invitation. He works alongside both Hades and Thanatos, the name the Greeks gave me, to deliver souls to their afterlife. He’s also able to interact with the mortal realm and maintain his position amongst the Olympians.”
“That makes sense,” Harry said, “but back to the core of this conversation, what is it you need to ask of me? I assume it has something to do with training my necromantic ability?”
“You assume correctly,” Death confirmed, before taking another steadying breath, knowing this conversation was going to be incredibly difficult, “what do you know of inferi?”
Instead of answering, Harry stood up and said “I think I’m going to ask Andromeda if she’d like to spend the next couple of days with Teddy. Something tells me this conversation is going to take up a lot of my weekend.”