Portraits and Progeny

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jet and Harry said at the same time.

"Oh, another parslemouth," Salazar said in a interested voice. "hmm, interesting. And you have my sword as well," He noted, switching back to plain English.

"Hold up a sec, you're Salazar Slytherin?" Harry asked, struggling to believe that he had just somehow stumbled upon a portrait of one of the Hogwarts founders. Though to be fair if he was going to find one then it made sense that he would find one in a secret chamber that belonged to one of them.

"Yes, I am." Salazar spoke in a prideful voice.

"Your English is rather modern for a portrait of someone who lived so long ago." Harry pointed out, while he wasn't sure how different it was, he knew that the language in Salazar Slytherin's time was far different from the modern English that was spoken now.

"Oh, that would probably be the translation runes fitted into the portrait, I just need to hear someone speak a language once and I will instantly know all of it." Salazar replied. "Doesn't work outside of portraits as far as I am aware. It was Rowena who helped me with them, she was quite the genius, though I never really worked out how to do them as good as she did. My talents were more centered around charms and potions for the most part. By the way, if I might ask, how long has it been since someone has come to visit?" He asked, looking very curious.

"You don't know?" Harry blinked.

"I am a portrait that is stuck in this room," Salazar pointed out. "I don't know what goes on in the outside world."

"That sounds...very boring." Harry commented after a few seconds of silence, not really sure what else to say.

"It is but I had actually been deactivated." Salazar admitted. "The first time I woke up was when a boy named Tom Riddle entered the chamber, he never really discovered this room and we never really talked but he did make use of my outside library. If nobody is in the chamber then I fall asleep. So, what year is it?"

"Well...it is 1992." Harry answered.

"I beg your pardon?" Salazar blinked, looking at him with pure disbelief. "Really?!" He breathed.

"Really." Harry nodded before he remembered something. "Wait, outer library?" Harry asked.

"Hmm?" Salazar blinked, looking at him, he looked like he still hadn't gotten over how long he had been here.

"You said 'outer library'," Harry pointed out. "that means that that there is an inner one." He said.

"Oh, yes, there is." Salazar said after he shook his head to clear it. "That boy, Riddle, he had used the outer library. It's more of a guest library for those who visit, I had planned to have a few friends around, never got around to it. But that library just has copies of about a quarter of the books in the inner library."

"How did you know about Tom Riddle if you never spoke with him?" Harry asked, trying to stay focused even though he was jumping for joy on the inside at the chance of reading Salazar Slytherin's personal library.

"Ah, look around." Salazar said as he gestured to the various metal snake decorations.

"Oh yeah, you use them for spying." Harry said with a nod. "The first time I ever used the snakes in the common room was to show people that I was firmly on the 'not to be bullied' list."

"Ah," Salazar nodded in understanding. "that is good, my heir should not be bullied by anyone, especially in his own house."

"Your heir?" Harry asked. "I think you're mistaken."

"I can't be," Salazar insisted. "you're in my chamber after all."

"My father is a Potter, descended from a long family that has never had any relations to your family line." Harry replied, and he was very sure about that, he had checked several times during his second year when everyone accused him of being the heir.

"And what of your mother?" Salazar asked.

"A muggleborn." Harry answered, waiting for the inevitable explosion.

"Hmm, it's possible she might be descended from my family and just the first magical in a long line of squibs, or maybe a descendent of a secret branch of my family." Salazar calmly theorized.

"What makes you so sure that I am your heir?"

"The sword, boy." Salazar said in an exasperated voice. "The sword only appears for the true heir of Slytherin, if that was not enough then add in the fact that you speak parsletounge and add in the fact that you were even able to enter this room. Anyone who was not my heir would find themselves unable to enter this room, including that Riddle boy. He tried several times but he was never able to enter."

"Oh," Harry blinked as he processed that information. "wait a sec, you didn't even seem bothered by the fact that my mother was a muggleborn."

"First of all, we've just established that she probably wasn't. Second of all, why would I have been?" Salazar asked.

"Because you hate muggleborns, don't you?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would you think that?" Salazar frowned.

"Ah, this will be a fun story." Jet hissed in an amused voice.

"You can tell it then." Harry replied.

"Too late, dibs on not doing it." Jet said quickly.

"Fuck."

Harry was not really sure how much time had passed but he was eventually able to explain everything to Salazar Slytherin, Harry had explained how everyone had viewed him and the man looked far from amused.

"Well that's bullshit!" Salazar said by the end of Harry's explanation. "I don't hate muggleborns! I hated those without magic!"

"I've been meaning to ask, what was up with that?" Harry asked.

....

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