Chapter Five: The Reminscence

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When Harry stepped into the room with his trunk at his feet, he was hit with a blast of orange. The posters, the carpet, even the walls were orange. This was clearly not Ron's first time here. His temporary room was starting to look like his room at the Burrow, which was, to say the least quite......creepy. There is a limit to such things. Ron had clearly crossed the line a long time ago. When Harry finished unpacking his trunk, he put on a new pair of black trousers with a green shirt. I guess this isn't too Slytherin-like. I have to draw the line somewhere. Before coming to the Quidditch World Cup, Harry, Molly, and Ginny had gone on a very quick shopping trip (the latter albeit reluctantly) to buy some clothes. After all, the wizarding world's savior cannot just go around with school robes and muggle clothing that was old, torn, and 4 sizes too large. That day his mind had apparently been in 'Slytherin-mode', as he had named it. He spent plenty of galleons on trousers, socks, shirts, socks and more. Being the heir to the House of Black was not a bad thing as he saw the large vault, filled to the brim with family heirlooms, galleons, potions books and much, much more. Harry stepped out of the tent and walked over to Ginny who was chatting with the Twins. Harry had also bought Ginny some clothes as well, partly because she was his friend (in his past and present lives) and because it wasn't fitting for the former Head of Hufflepuff and a Founder of Hogwarts no less, to walk around wearing simple clothes. He had wanted to buy Ron and Mrs. Weasley clothes as well, but he feared that it would be a bit much. Oh well, there's always Christmas.

As Harry walked over to them, he was stopped by Ron who was wearing Fake Durmstrang robes and was looking quite odd.

"Hello, Ron."

Harry looked at him up and down quickly before asking, "May I ask where you acquired such...robes?"

Harry grimaced as he mentally face-palmed himself. He just sounded like a well-bred pure blood. Or at least someone with some decency, as he recalled the many times of seeing Ron's room a mess, with garments lying around in the most obscure places. He suddenly remembered seeing Ron's pants lying out on a scroll of his Charms essay and decided not to touch Ron's books unless he used 'Scourgify' on them. Ron had apparently missed the grimace and gave him a weird look.

"I got these robes from Seamus back in May. He said that he was coming to the World Cup as well but had an extra pair of robes that I could borrow."

He leaned over and looked around as if to make sure that no one was watching before saying "It'll look more natural if I'm wearing Durmstrang robes since that's the school that Krum goes too. I'll just look like a friend cheering him on."

Harry didn't know what to say. The plan was alright...for a Gryffindor. There were too many things that could go wrong and Harry quickly decided that he was going to sit away from Ron at the Match in case things get...steamy.

Mentally banishing the sudden image that came with the words 'steamy', 'Ron', and 'Quidditch' Harry simply nodded and clapped his friend on the back.

"Seems like a cool plan." Harry didn't know what to say, but as Ron opened his mouth, probably to comment on his recent weird behavior Ginny came over with a bright smile and said,

"Isn't this exciting? Getting to see a REAL Quidditch match, it's much better than our school matches." Ginny said brightly, though he did detect an underlying hint of fondness for their school. Knowing Helga, she was going to enjoy watching everyone having fun but will be fretting the whole time and would be having mini heart attacks every time someone got injured. She would be a mix between Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey.

Harry smiled and replied "Of course! After all, it is my first real Quidditch match isn't it Miss Weasley?" He mockingly made hand gestures and dodged as the former-Hufflepuff attempted to swat him on the head. Harry chuckled as Ginny scowled. Ron looked to and from both founders in a confused manner.

"Since when have you two become such good friends." Before Harry could open his mouth to reply, Ginny heatedly replied.

"Frankly, it's none of your business Ronald, so if you'll excuse us we have a match to attend." Ginny linked Harry's and her arm together and dragged him off, but not before Harry cast an apologetic glance in Ron's direction.

Sensing that Ginny was in a bad mood, Harry walked ahead silently for a while before opening his mouth.

"So...what was that," Harry subtly motioned his hand towards Ron who was still standing where they had left, fuming. "all about?"

Harry waited for a response and when he did not get one, he continued.

"Has anyone said anything to you?" He asked and when she faltered in her steps, Harry took this as a sign to continue and quickly asked,

"Who was it? Was it Weas-" Harry paused. Salazar had often referred to others by their surnames, but with a large family such as Ginny's, it was impossible to tell which Weasley one was speaking about.

"It's not what someone has said...more like what they're going to say." Ginny sighed and looked around at their surroundings, to make sure that no one was listening or to hide her face, Harry was not sure.

"It's just...I don't know what the others are going to be like. Rowena was devastated when you left and we found out that the information we had received was false and that we had banished you over a simple rumour. She would probably be very happy to see you and beg for your forgiveness." She paused.

"I don't know how Godric's going to react, but after...you died," Ginny made a strange hand gesture, pointing to Harry and then to behind her.

"Godric lost it. He spent months searching for a way to find you and when we found out that you had died, Godric went off saying that he had to attend to something" Ginny paused as her eyes grew misty.

"We found his charred corpse by the large dead body of a dragon that was threateningly close to the school grounds." Tears fell out of the girl's eyes but she continued.

"We buried Godric in what is now known as the Forbidden Forest and told everyone that the Gryffindor had given his life protecting the school from a dragon." Harry had been quiet and remained frozen during the whole tale, but he let out a small "ohhh" as he realized something.

"The school motto..." He breathed. This time Ginny completely broke down and said through her sobs, "We dedicated the school motto after both you"

She was unable to say anymore as she sobbed and chocked into her hand as tear after tear fell from her eyes. Harry could practically hear Rowena's voice as she translated the words into Latin for Helga. He could almost feel the sick irony of the double meaning to the words. Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus. Harry's throat tightened as he thought about what they had been talking about before Ginny's tale. How the others would react. He had thought about this briefly but he hadn't thought about it like this. Rowena would react similar to Helga had but Godric? Harry sifted through Salazar's memories as he remembered one night that they had spent together.

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He remembered siting in his personal chambers, watching Godric as he frustratingly run a hand through his hair. He watched as his soft blonde- nearly white - hair became messy and as his blue-gray eyes took on a hard look as he looked to his stack of parchments that he had to correct. His full pink lips parted as he laid his head against the table and sighed grabbing ahold of his hair in frustration. Salazar, against his better judgement, laid a hand on Godric's shoulder and patted his hand. For mere 19 year olds, they had a lot of responsibility. Teaching, running the school, protecting it from non-magic folk and now Rowena with Helena. One day, we'll all collapse and will be unable to do anything if we push ourselves like this. He remembered thinking.

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Harry pushed the memory away not wanting to see what came next. The betrayal hurt, it nearly killed Salazar, but the events of that night had made it so hard so hard. Harry pressed his lips together as a tear fell out of his eye at the thought and quickly wiped it away before taking a long, shuddering breath and biting his lip and looking away before saying,

"Do you want some privacy? We could find a place to stop. We'd raise too many questions by the way that you look." He pointed to Ginny's puffy red eyes, the tear streaks running down her cheeks. Harry knew that Ginny had seen the tear that had escaped him and probably knew what it meant as she had been there to see Godric's breakdown after his death but he couldn't help but think what she thought of it. Would she be disgusted with them? Salazar didn't want to think about that. Salazar steered them towards the loo as he patted Helga's back. It seemed that she had wanted to take that off of her chest.

Salazar stopped in front of the women's loo and said "Go clean yourself up. I'll do the same and we'll meet up by the stands." Helga nodded through the red hair shadowing her face and walked into the loo. Salazar walked a few feet and entered the men's loo. Thankfully it was empty. He walked over to the mirror in front of the tap and examined his reflection. His raven hair seemed to be as messy as always. Salazar grabbed his wand and muttered a few words in Latin before looking in the mirror. He had removed the trace from his wand as soon as he knew how, not wanting to take any chances. His hair now laid flat and looked much better. He charmed it to have it cut a certain way and when he was sure that he looked as much as Salazar as he could, he wet his face and dried it before walking out.

When he walked out he saw Helga by the exit and walked over to her. The Hufflepuff blinked and then gave a small smile at his hair.

"I see you've done something about your hair. It was looking awful." Salazar laughed.

"I decided to take a page out of my book. The great Slytherin cannot walk around with messy hair, now can he?" Harry said mock arrogantly and smiled as Helga rolled her eyes and started walking towards the stands. Salazar jogged to keep up and grabbed her arm, probably to make another joke when he grew rigged. Salazar's face grew pale and Helga whipped her head around as Salazar guided them towards the stands trying to remain in the shadows. Salazar seemed to be shaking and Helga was breathing heavily as she broke her arm from Salazar's now tight grip. His presence was suffocatingly close, Salazar wanted to reach out and...

"Salazar." A voice breathed, so painstakingly close and Salazar shuddered as he turned around to look into the wet eyes of Draco Malfoy.

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I know! I'm horrible! The overload of the feels in this chapter threatened to suffocate me and I couldn't leave it half done. I apologize if you think that the chapter is too long. Think of it as a special chapter in celebration of over 100 reads! I had the strongest urge to just break down crying during this chapter. I've been depressed the entire day. Please comment and review! Tell me what you think! I love replying to your comments!
-Madsinator (who is on the verge of tears)