Transtemporal Travel Ⅲ

A shrewd gleam flashes across Salazar Slytherin after his emotional outburst. Taking a calming breath as if to calm himself, Salazar's nostrils flare for a moment. "Descendant, what of my legacy, am I not the Greatest of the Hogwarts founders?"

"To those that that can see," Rowan drily replied in a neutral tone.

"Is that not always the case?" Salazar's lips twitched with cold, mirth. "The blind are always ignorant to all that exists past the end of their noses."

Trying a different angle to throw Salazar Slytherin off his pace, Rowan interjects, "Ancestor, who is the father of Rowena's daughter?"

Salazar Slytherin's eyes grow hard with an old emotion. "It is not I and that is all I will suffice to speak on the subject."

Rowan's brows arch in surprise as if that answer revealed a far more personal history between the two Hogwarts founders. Maybe at some point, there had been something going on between them. Clearly, it had not lasted, but still, it was food for thought or at least for a vivid imagination…

Refusing to be unsettled, Salazar Slytherin concentrates on what he can magically sense. "I can sense more than one familiar scent from you, child. Tell me which of the other three Hogwarts founders are you descended from?"

"Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff," Rowan plainly responded seeing no reason to hide her descendants from the two other members of the Hogwarts founders.

"Although we are no longer friends," Salazar Slytherin paused with only the slightest tinge of regret, "Godric is powerful with nary an equal, and Helga is often underestimated by all including myself. Even I have one more than once occasion made that same mistake, and I am capable of even admitting that not once have I ever been able to get the best of her."

Not missing a beat, Rowan gestures to the carved stone serpents in the chamber. "Even in my time there is not much known about the origin of parselmouth's," she deliberately paused, "but I am certain that the greatest parselmouth of all time surely knows better. And so, I dare to ask, Ancestor, does the Slytherin possess any creature blood?" And it would certainly explain why Hydra could not possess Voldemort.

A flicker of regard flashes across Salazar Slytherin's face. "It is said that long ago before the world split, and before the Greeks stole and changed the tale; there were three sisters called, the Gorgons. The eldest, Stheno, and the younger sister, Euryale were cursed with hair made of living, venomous snakes and horrifying visages that turned any who beheld them into stone. The most famous of them is the second sister called Medusa. She was a beauty without parallel, but she was desired by a great spirit of the Sea, Poseidon and she was forcibly taken in the palace of another great spirit, Athena.

The spirit instead of having compassion upon Medusa, who bore no fault in the sin was mercilessly cursed by the ruthless Spirit with the same curse that lay upon her two sisters. Medusa could not bear the injustice and went mad only to be eventually slain by the mortal known as Perseus. When the two sisters learned of Medusa's brutal end, the two sisters sought revenge but failed to slay her murderer the mortal named Perseus.

Euryale the youngest of the sisters and the fiercest, unleashed her wrath of vengeance against the mortals, but Stheno was far cleverer. Stheno sought out a blind mortal and seduced him with the aid of a potion. Having successfully mated with the blind mortal, Stheno's belly grew larger and larger until she birthed a son named, Ophiuchus for the child could speak to all serpents and remain unharmed by them. Stheno raised her son with great care until that child grew into a strong, strapping young man possessing great magical powers.

Once her son was fully grown, Stheno sent Ophiuchus off with the ill-begotten wealth gathered and taken from those her younger sister, Euryale had slain. But not before Stheno's son, Ophiuchus swore to her an unbreakable oath to avenge Medusa and return with the murderer's head. And so, Stheno's son departed into the infinitely great wide world.

Using the ill-begotten wealth, Ophiuchus spread his name far and wide until at long last he received an invitation to a certain mortal's palace. With great fanfare, Ophiuchus was invited to the palace of the one called Perseus. He patiently placated the mortal with great glittering gifts until he, at last, brought the trust of the mortal. Then one night while everyone slumbered from a night of joyous feasting, Ophiuchus slipped into the chamber of Perseus and slit the throat of the mortal and removed the mortal's head just as the mortal had once done unto his aunt, Medusa.

By morning when the screams of the servants awoke the guests, Ophiuchus was long gone with the head of the mortal. The mortals clamored in great fury seeking vengeance, but it was too late. Ophiuchus was never heard of again in those lands," Salazar pensively muttered.

"Although family lore has it that Ophiuchus presented and gifted the head to his mother and his aunt. It is said that he went on to sire many children through every corner of the world. It is widely believed in our family that those that are parselmouth's are the last remnants of his living descendants even to this day," Salazar muttered with a proud smirk.

"Fascinating," Rowan honestly commented never having heard this version of the tale of Medusa. However, she rather liked this version of the tale rather than the Greek version. She had always hated how Medusa had been raped and instead of being helped, she had been unjustly punished. At least, in this alternate ending justice had served no matter how twisted it may have been.

And that also explained why parseltongue could be taught enough to be read, but not to be spoken. Apparently, there truly was a magical component required to speak that required a direct bloodline. (Because even if Dumbledore could read parseltongue in Potter's time when studying Voldemort's Horcrux Journal, Dumbledore was still not capable of speaking parseltongue. Or that of Newt Scamander, who seemingly seems to understand all manner of beasties and they him, but even Newt is not capable of speaking the language.)

A rustling sound caused Rowan to glance down at her feet to see the dwindling red sand vanishing between the stone cracks with relief. There was not that much time left, but still, there was more than enough left behind for comfort. She needed to buy more time, but surely Salazar Slytherin had already noticed her intentions.

Reassessing his descendant, Salazar's hand toys with his beard for a moment, before allowing his beard to fall back against his chest. "A captivating tale of family lore," he drily said carefully noting the lack of shame or guilt on his descendant's face. "Considering that you are here, I am certain that you inherited my personal effects including the cure for werewolfism. Tell me have you shared it with the world?"

"The cure is known throughout the entire known magical world," Rowan neutrally replied keeping her face carefully blank. She wasn't about to tell the creator of the cure for werewolfishm to his face that she gave the credit to another Potions Master. There was no telling what he might do!