The Scriptorium - Potter

As Harry got out of his dorm into the hallway leading to the common room, four slytherins blocked his way. Cassius Warrington, Terrence Higgs, Vincent Crabbe and Blaise Zabini stood in front of him, snickering and sneering at him.

Harry's hand quickly went to his pocket but he could not find his wand. In Diablo's grief, he had forgotten to take it with him. Crabbe and Warrington quickly grabbed him from both his sides as Terrence readied his wand: "If you try anything special, I will cast Crucio on you here and now."

Blaise Zabini stood in front of Harry, looking straight in his eyes: "Here you are, Mister Boy Who Lived~"

"You can have the others all sparkly over you, but not me. I remember." He punched him in the eye as Harry struggled to stand straight: "You filthy blood traitor!"

Harry's world was circling before him as the punches kept raining on. At last, he fell down and landed face first on the floor: "Better stay in your limits now, Potter." Zabini announced as they turned to leave.

'I must... keep up... to his expectations.' Harry said as he slowly got up.

Boiling in rage, he ran towards the last person walking. Harry crashed into Terrence Higgs, making him fall down with his wand. He lunged to pick it up and body-bound them all in a jiffy.

Sigh

He looked down on them from above. First, he moved over to Zabini. Crouching over him, he gave him a strong punch and the frail boy passed out.

'Che. If you know how to punch, you should know how to take it too.' He stood up, eyes filled more with pity than revenge. Then he moved over to Terrence.

"Did you say you would use Crucio on me?" Harry asked mockingly: "Do you even know... how to use it?"

Harry readied his wand above the boy, pointing it towards him.

-

"Tell me, Severus. What do you know... about the boy's snake?"

Snape was flabbergasted. 'How did he come to know about it? Even Snape didn't know about it until Dumbledore had ordered McGonagall to call Harry in order to catch it.

"The snake has been caught by Dumbledore, my lord." He said slowly: "I am certain that right now, Dumbledore must be extracting it's memories to get information over it's master."

Voldemort looked satisfied with Snape's explanation: "Why must you think, Snape, that there is a someone else behind it?"

Voldemort let out a snicker as Snape frowned. Could it be possible? He thought.

"Is it true then, my lord? That the snake himself was the only one behind it all? Is that even possible for a mere snake?"

Quirrell/Voldemort started laughing and when he stopped, he said: "It is a good thing that Dumbledore has taken care of the most dangerous individual himself."

And then he looked dead in Snape' eyes: "I have one last job for you, Severus. Should you succeed in it, we shall have killed the boy before tomorrow's sun sets."

-

"Crucio!" Harry's curse hit the boy and he started wriggling and squirming because of the pain.

Harry looked at the state of the boy, the image of Diablo's body wriggling, eventually ceasing all motion entered his mind and his wand stopped itself: "Get out of my sight!" He casted the general reversal spell on them as they started running for their life.

Sigh

Harry felt a soft humming when a door with a snake embedded on it appeared on the wall.

*The conditions have been met. The door for the Scriptorium is now visible.* The embedded snake spoke in Parseltongue: *Command the door to prove your heritage.*

'The condition must be to use the cruciatus curse in the hallway.' Weird, Harry thought.

He was sure his heritage didn't have Slytherin even distantly, but to prove his heritage by commanding the door. This was something he was fully capable of.

*I command you as the Heir of Slytherin. Open!*

-

Dumbledore moved closer to the cage as he saw the snake moving. It was awake.

"I'm sorry, my friend, that you had to suffer so much. But the fault is in you for following someone so dangerous." He pulled out his wand to start doing his legilimency.

But then... the snake started to swell.

-

The door opened for Harry to show a dimly lit passageway. It's walls were adorned with two sleeping portraits left and right, both of which had their names written in weird lines but Harry could them -it was Parseltongue.

The names read: *Myrddin Wynn Emrys* and *Cenric Slytherin*

Yawn

Myrddin woke up and frowned: "Ah! Cenric! Cenric! Wake up! We have a visitor!"

After that, Cenric woke up too: "Wha- Oh, hello there, descendant! It has been a while someone walked in here."

"You bet, he's the first after us." Myrdinn explained: "Anyways, welcome. I am Myrdinn, also known as Merlin."

Gasp

Harry gasped, he was Merlin, and unlike the bland portrait near the staircases, this seemed like the real thing. Harry bowed: "It is an honor."

Cough, Cough

Cenric coughed to get his attention: "Welcome, child. I am Cenric, firstborn to Salazar Slytherin."

Harry bowed again as a formality: "It is an honor. But what is this place?"

"It is Slytherin's Scriptorium, built by Salazar Slytherin partly to preserve his teachings. He was worried what would happen to his prized students after he left, so he made this." Merlin replied.

"Partly?" Harry was confused: "What was the other reason?"

"To give strength to the wizarding society when they would eventually be oppressed by muggles." Cenric replied, turning serious.

Harry frowned. How could the muggles oppress the wizards?

"Master used to tell us tales of a world where the people without magic would become so powerful that they would be able to erase whole islands with just a flick of their fingers." Merlin explained.

"All of the others ridiculed him. Thought he was mad. But how could we? We believed him, and if it was so. It was necessary to block all muggle education. Teaching them magic would only hasten our doom. They were the worst kind of people, muggles. Even when they only had fire, they used it to kill us in their trials. What if they did hold the power Father warned us of?" Cenric asked Harry.

They were right. If the magic society was to be revealed now, there was no telling what would happen.

"But why... does opening the door have the condition to use the Cruciatus curse?" Harry asked them skeptically.

"That... I don't know the current situation, but back then; Slytherin was not just a house, it was a home. No one would dare to use such a spell against one of their own, in the house Master taught. And so, when it happened, it would mean that doom was finally upon us, thus opening the Scriptorium."

"So you're telling me that Slytherin did not hate muggles?"

"No, that is not what we mean. Father did hate muggles, it's just that his hate was deeply rooted in his fear. And that fear, was valid."

"And... what did you mean when you said strengthening the society?" Harry asked his last question.

"Keep walking and you'll eventually know." Merlin edged him to move forward.

-

Dumbledore stood in the center, body-bound.

"Che. I'll have to say, Professor, I'm disappointed." The man said to him as Dumbledore's forehead started sweating profusely