Chapter 209: The Heir of Slytherin, Salazar Slytherin
The moment that ancient, weathered voice echoed through the Chamber, every alarm in Leonardo's mind fired at once.
The Heir of Slytherin.
Had the surge of magic triggered something built into the Chamber itself? A failsafe left by Slytherin to protect his heir?
Leonardo made his decision in an instant.
His left hand drove forward, plunging the Sword of Gryffindor straight at the diary.
At the same time, his right wrist flicked. A bolt of lightning wreathed in purple and green arcs shot towards Tom at a speed too fast for the eye to follow.
Plans meant nothing if the situation changed. Destroy the Heir of Slytherin first, sort out the rest after.
A sharp hiss tore through the air.
The black smoke swirling around Tom's form ignited into sickly green flame, surging towards Leonardo, only to collide head-on with the lightning bolt.
Thunder and fire met. The explosion was deafening.
Tom had already braced himself for the agony of his Horcrux being struck.
But the pain never came.
And something else: the force opposing his green fire had suddenly weakened, drastically.
As the glare of colliding magic faded, Tom's eyes locked onto the spot where Leonardo had stood.
Leonardo was gone.
The silver sword that had been about to pierce the diary was gone with him.
Relief flooded Tom's spectral body. A smile crept onto his face before he could stop it.
"Ancestor," he breathed, turning towards the towering sculpture on the Chamber wall, "you protected your descendant after all. And punished the Mudblood who dared raise a hand against your heir."
The carving was enormous, nearly as tall as the room itself. A wizened face like a withered ape's, with a sparse, trailing beard that pooled on the stone floor.
Salazar Slytherin.
One of Hogwarts' four founders. Creator of Slytherin House. A legend of his age and a master of powerful Dark magic.
It was Salazar who had left the Chamber and the basilisk, waiting for a worthy heir.
He was also the ancestor of the Gaunt family. Tom's mother had carried the Gaunt name, and through her, Salazar Slytherin's blood ran in Tom's veins.
Fifty years ago, Tom had found the Chamber and entered it, claiming Slytherin's legacy.
Blood, talent, knowledge, temperament. By every measure, Tom believed himself the rightful heir.
True, he had not heard that ancient voice the first time he came here. But it hardly mattered. Perhaps the massive release of magic had triggered it. Perhaps Tom's peril had activated something dormant. Either way, Slytherin's safeguard had fired.
Still riding the wave of elation, Tom bent and picked up the vial of dragon blood that had fallen to the floor. He checked the remaining amount, confirmed it was enough, and let out a slow breath of relief.
He walked to the cauldron, still untouched by the blast, and prepared to finish the final step of the potion.
Clatter.
The small vial slipped from his fingers and hit the stone again. Dark red blood trickled across the floor.
Tom stared at his hand.
It was translucent. And fading, visibly, at terrifying speed.
"No…"
He managed a single word before his entire spectral form flickered and dimmed.
A faint red glow emerged from his chest, rising like a scarlet shooting star, and flew straight into the eyes of the Slytherin sculpture.
Tom reached for it, fingers clawing at the last traces of life force, but he was too slow.
In the final instant before his eyes dissolved, Tom's gaze found the stone face of Slytherin.
It was filled with nothing but confusion.
His soul dispersed entirely. All that remained was a wisp of dark mist, which drifted, trembling, back into the diary.
A second later, a pale blue orb of light rose from Lockhart's forehead as he lay collapsed on the floor. It too floated upward and vanished into the sculpture's eyes.
…
Light flashed across Leonardo's vision.
Then white. Nothing but featureless white, stretching in every direction.
Finding himself in an unknown space without warning, Leonardo's first instinct was defence.
Protego. Impedimenta. Armatura Fulminis (Lightning Armour.)
Layer after layer of protective magic wrapped around him. The moment he finished, he reached for Aurelius, intending to have the qilin carry him out immediately.
Clap. Clap.
Applause, from directly behind him.
"Excellent reflexes. Good awareness…"
A drifting, ancient voice followed the sound.
But Leonardo was already gone. In the instant the clapping began, he had Apparated.
He reappeared at a different position, frowning.
Apparition worked. But Aurelius had not come.
There had not even been a response.
Leonardo stared at the spot where he had been standing. Nothing was there. Yet the voice had clearly come from right behind him.
The vortex in his pupils expanded rapidly, flooding his dark green irises with pure black. He pushed the Peeking Fiend's Eye to its absolute limit, searching for any trace of whoever had spoken.
"Interesting eyes. But not quite enough…"
The voice came from behind him again.
Leonardo did not hesitate. Searing lightning erupted from his wand tip and blasted outward in every direction, expanding violently from his position.
But he felt no impact. No feedback of the attack striking anything solid.
Was the speaker dodging too quickly?
This space, whatever it was…
Magic left behind by Slytherin?
Then an absurd thought flashed through Leonardo's mind.
He pulled his magic inward, gathered the lightning close around his body, and spoke into the emptiness.
"Salazar Slytherin?"
His voice echoed endlessly through the white void.
"At last… another heir worth the name."
After what might have been seconds or an age, the voice returned, layered with the same ancient weariness Leonardo had heard in the Chamber.
A figure began to take shape before him, solidifying from nothing.
The figure inclined its head towards Leonardo, as if studying the boy with quiet interest.
"Hmm. Ravenclaw's…"
But when its gaze dropped to the Sword of Gryffindor in Leonardo's hand, the voice stopped.
"Which House are you in, exactly?"
The White Space
The figure before Leonardo sharpened into clarity.
A tall, silver-haired man with vivid green eyes. He wore elaborate black robes of intricate design and regarded Leonardo with open curiosity.
His eyes were striking, the vertical, slit pupils of a serpent, gleaming with an eerie light.
Leonardo studied him in return. He looked nothing like the sculpture in the Chamber.
Legend held that Slytherin's extensive dealings with Dark magic had warped his body over time, leaving him with the twisted, ape-like face of an aged creature.
Was this how Slytherin had looked when he was younger?
A quiet thud resonated inside Leonardo's mind. He frowned.
His Intellect Bastion had been struck.
That was an ancient form of magic he had unearthed from Nicolas's library. It condensed one's knowledge and magical power into a mental barrier, protecting the mind against Memory Charms, Legilimency, and other magic that targeted memory or the soul.
It served a similar purpose to Occlumency, but its properties suited Leonardo far better.
He had even used branches and leaves from the Whomping Willow as materials when constructing it.
The Intellect Bastion was under attack. Leonardo's wariness sharpened another degree.
Legilimency.
Slytherin was a master Legilimens. The Sorting Hat's ability to read the qualities of young witches and wizards came from him.
"What sort of bizarre knowledge have you been learning?" the silver-haired man said suddenly. His ancient voice clashed strangely with his relatively youthful face.
"What do you mean, 'mass and energy are not two independent concepts but two different manifestations of the same entity'? Mass-energy equivalence…"
Leonardo's expression turned peculiar. Using vast quantities of Muggle knowledge in the construction of the Intellect Bastion really did produce "results".
The Bastion had a particular trait: the more unfamiliar its contents were to an intruder, the harder it was to breach, and the stronger the defence became.
An intruder could force their way through, but it would cost several times the magic and time, more than enough for Leonardo to detect the attempt and respond.
Very few wizards genuinely understood Muggle knowledge. Even those who were friendly towards or curious about Muggles rarely bothered to study their sciences in earnest.
The man's gaze settled on the House crest at Leonardo's chest. Two orbs of light had appeared in his hand at some point, one red and one blue. He rolled the blue one gently between his fingers, thoughtful.
"Muggle knowledge, is it? You remind me of Rowena. She was always happy to learn, so long as it was knowledge."
Leonardo felt certain the "Rowena" he meant was Rowena Ravenclaw, the founder of his own House, one of the four who had built Hogwarts together.
The familiarity in the man's tone when he spoke her name all but confirmed his identity.
Which raised a far larger question. Why had Slytherin not gone to save Tom? Why had he pulled Leonardo into this space instead, and spoken of an heir?
"You've already guessed," the man said. "I am Salazar Slytherin."
"As for what happened outside, don't worry. It's been dealt with. Leonardo Grafton… second-year Ravenclaw, am I right?"
Had his Legilimency broken through the Intellect Bastion?
The thought flickered and died. The Bastion had given no feedback at all. Either Salazar's mastery was so far beyond anything Leonardo could detect, which was not impossible for a legendary wizard a thousand years old, or…
"Relax," Salazar said, catching the slight shift in Leonardo's expression. A faint smile played at the corner of his mouth. "I didn't read your memories. I read his."
Salazar tossed the blue orb lightly in his palm.
Lockhart's memories.
Leonardo's gaze followed the pale blue light, and understanding settled into place.
After a pause, Leonardo chose his words carefully.
"Headmaster Slytherin, there are a few things I still need to take care of. Could I finish them before we…"
But Salazar waved a hand, cutting him off.
"No need. This is a consciousness space. Time flows differently here compared to the outside."
A consciousness space?
Leonardo's surprise was genuine. His senses felt entirely real. His magic responded normally. And yet this was not the physical world.
That explained why Aurelius had not answered his call.
Deciding to test it, Leonardo focused his will on a single thought.
The Sword of Gryffindor vanished from his hand. Not stored away in any enchanted container. He had simply "wanted" it gone, and it was.
Salazar gave a small, approving nod.
"Quick learner."
"'Headmaster Slytherin'… now that's a title I haven't heard in a very long time."
"Well then. Will you accept my legacy? A Ravenclaw like you must hunger for knowledge. I can't imagine a reason to refuse."
Leonardo noticed that after the Sword of Gryffindor disappeared, Salazar's demeanour seemed to soften slightly.
The legacy of Slytherin…
Honestly, Leonardo's heart was already racing. Salazar was a legendary wizard from a thousand years ago. Whatever knowledge and power he had left behind would be beyond price.
"I would very much like to learn from you," Leonardo said. "But may I first ask what your criteria are for choosing an heir?"
He needed to voice the question that had been turning in his mind.
Tom Riddle had opened the Chamber fifty years ago. He could command the basilisk even now. His talent was extraordinary. His ambition for power and dominance was boundless. And through the Gaunt family, the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself ran in his veins.
By every measure, Tom should have been the obvious choice.
So why Leonardo?
"Talent," Salazar said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His green, serpentine eyes glinted with near-arrogant confidence. "My legacy is not something a mediocrity can touch."
The answer, and the look in his eyes, did not surprise Leonardo in the slightest. This was the founder of Slytherin House. That kind of pride was bred into the very stones of the place.
A pity that most Slytherin students lacked the ability to match that arrogance.
"Second," Salazar continued, "is the purity and completeness of the soul. The soul is paramount."
There it was. The other criterion.
The soul.
Leonardo grasped the key at once. Fifty years ago, the young Tom Riddle might well have met Salazar's standard. Before he made his first Horcrux, his soul had still been whole.
But now? Voldemort had created multiple Horcruxes. A soul torn apart that many times could never be called complete.
And the Tom in the Chamber had been only a fragment of that shattered whole. It fell nowhere near Slytherin's requirement.
"Your talent is superior," Salazar went on. "When you and that soul fragment clashed, and your magic erupted, I woke. Talent isn't only shown through magical circuitry. It's also carried in the signature of the magic itself. You'll understand once you accept my legacy."
Salazar let out a quiet sigh.
"Horcruxes. In the end, they are a dead-end path."
Salazar's command of Dark magic was vast. Naturally, he could see the diary for what it truly was.
The creation of a Horcrux was an act so vile that even Dark wizards recoiled from it. Most would sooner die than split their soul.
Without warning, Salazar flicked the faint red orb from his fingertip into his mouth and began to crunch it like a sweet, the sound oddly casual.
Leonardo's brow rose. That red orb seemed to be radiating life force.
"Catch."
Salazar tossed the pale blue orb to Leonardo.
"That contains Gilderoy Lockhart's memories, as well as his insights into Memory Charms. The young man's work on Memory Charms was, I'll admit, quite inventive."
Leonardo had not expected Salazar to speak well of Lockhart's Memory Charm research. It only made him more curious.
He had been planning to find a way to study that particular skill from Lockhart anyway. This saved him the trouble.
Snap.
Salazar clicked his fingers, and the scene shifted in an instant.
"Before you receive my legacy, you'll be tested. Let me see what you're capable of."