CH 54

Did you ever work out what the note you left yourself meant?' The portrait asked as Harry crumpled up the piece of parchment entitled The Big Book of Future Tournament Tasks.

'I can guess,' he nodded, setting fire to it with his wand. It would be best to get rid of the evidence that he was using a time-turner illicitly, just in case somebody did manage to come down here. Harry thought the eventuality unlikely, but Fawkes had managed and it would be unwise to underestimate Dumbledore's intellect.

It would be rather hard to explain.

'Did you guess?' Salazar pressed.

'There were dragons, the tiny model dragon that was used to select them bit me, and Katie Bell, one of my Gryffindor house-mates approached me after the match.'

'The small one bites,' Salazar smirked. 'Why so ambiguous?'

'If I had been forewarned too specifically the model would not have had the chance to bite me and I would not have been motivated to take it into the arena with me,' Harry began to explain, 'but if I hadn't told myself at all I probably would have ignored it and missed how useful it ended up being. It had to be just right.'

'Very astute of you,' the portrait complimented. 'It explains why you were grinning to yourself when you wrote the note, too.'

'I've never played a prank on myself from the future before,' Harry admitted. 'I found the concept entertaining.'

'So did Godric,' the painting grumbled, 'but he didn't have the decency to carry out his childish activities on himself.'

There was a brief interlude while Harry stacked the books Salazar had recommended he read on the desk. Most of them were ancient, leather-covered, heavy things with blackened pages and fading ink. Half of them were written in english so archaic Harry could barely understand it.

'What about Katie?' the founder asked when he finished.

'I can't be sure, because I didn't ignore her and see the consequences, but I imagine if I had ignored herm she would have been angry and I might have come to regret it.' Harry suspected the note had been left more for the purpose of Katie and their conversation than anything else. She had a short temper and was prone to taking revenge when she felt herself truly wronged.

'Important, is she?'

Harry considered that carefully.

'She's a friend and a team mate. Katie's also one of the few of my house-mates who never completely turned their back on me and has been trying to help me with the others all the while.'

'Don't want her changing her mind and undoing everything she did,' Salazar nodded. The snake mimicked the motion.

'That and I don't really have any reason not to talk to her. We were never close enough for me to expect her to instantly stand by me.' Katie had never really been more than a close acquaintance and team member before this year. He had spoken to the trio she was part of on and off, but normally just to say hi and chat about quidditch.

'She did, though,' his ancestor pointed out.

'In her own way, and not very openly, but I suppose she did, yes,' Harry agreed. 'I told you that you'd find people to stand with,' Salazar reminded him magnanimously.

Harry levitated the pile of books off the desk and lifted the portrait off the wall to carry Salazar out into the main chamber. The founder would not permit the use of any magic that was not tightly controlled in his precious study.

'Now I can finally teach you about the things I was exceptional at,' the painting rejoiced. 'I never really got to teach anyone about these before, you're the first real Heir of Slytherin.'

Harry leant the portrait against the foot of one of the serpent effigies and took a seat on the floor in front of the painting. Blood magic, and by extension parselmagic, were imprecise arts. 'Where to begin,' Salazar muttered excitedly.

'The basics?' Harry suggested. looked rather crestfallen.

Slytherin

'Fine,' he sighed. 'It will an age to get to the exciting things, but I suppose it's better than you accidentally destroying the chamber… or yourself,' he added as an afterthought.

This had all the indications of being a very long, theoretical discussion.

'The only real theory behind blood magic is that it is based in sacrifice,' Salazar informed him, 'and the only real rule, is that whatever you sacrifice must be equal to whatever you are trying to achieve.'

'That's it?'

'Of course that isn't it,' Salazar exploded. 'Blood magic is a very subtle, delicate thing. It requires a full, true understanding of magic and self. You cannot really sacrifice something when you do not know its value, nor can you attain a result you do not already understand the implications of.'

'What can I actually do with it?'

'Anything and everything,' the portrait responded. 'Parselmagic is merely an example of complex blood magic. This chamber, the thoughts of sufficiently intelligent serpents and our magic, are all bound to the blood that flows in my veins, and thus in yours. It is my finest creation,' the portrait announced proudly. 'The ability to speak to animals was once more common and applied to more than just snakes, but over time it was lost. The last witch recorded as being capable of speaking to animals died half a millennia before I was born. I attempted, originally through other means, but eventually through blood magic, to recreate part of what was lost. I was not prepared to sacrifice anything more than I did, so my piece of magic only responds to serpents as they are easily summoned.'

'What did you have to sacrifice?'

'Something that was of equal value to me,' Salazar replied, 'someone, to be precise.'

'You sacrificed a person,' Harry exclaimed, horrified.

'She was dying already,' the founder snapped. 'We sacrificed the little time we had left together, much as it meant to us, to create something that would aid our children and their descendants for as long as they survived.' 'Sorry,' Harry apologised. 'I should have known better than to assume.'

'Yes you should have,' the portrait retorted viciously. 'You do not understand the magnitude of the sacrifice. I and my daughter searched for many years for an artefact rumoured to be able to cheat the laws of death and enable us to speak with her again. I never found it. I was forced to give up when I became to old hunt for it, but my daughter had not before I died. It is possible she was successful, but I would not know either way. That sacrifice defined the rest of the lives of myself and my daughter in one way and then the rest of our descendants in another. That is the power blood magic can wield.'

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