Chapter 46. Fallen Apprenticeship

In the deafening silence that seemed to last for eternity, Merlin sat in purgatory. Waiting for any sort of reaction from his mentor and master. Finally, Salazar opened his mouth, the rest of his body almost seemingly petrified. “I see…” He muttered, nothing more for him to say. In worry, Merlin quickly began to explain. “While test riding on my  newest broom, I crashed and was helped by a muggle prince while he was on a quest. Prince Arthur. We have become friends.”

By the time there was a lull, Merlin saw Salazar’s head tilted towards the ceiling as he spoke. “Have I taught you, NOTHING!?” Salazar screamed, the entire room quaking under the sheer pressure of his magic. Merlin found himself gasping for air as Salazar turned around, his eyes filled with betrayal. “Through all those that attended this school… You have been the best and brightest… You have been the one that I had picked to pass on my teachings…” He slowly walked over towards Merlin, his gentle foot-falls disproportionate to the fearful power he emanated with his presence.

Merlin gasped, still wanting to explain. “We- We can live in peace… Arthur is not like his father, we can build a kingdom for both-” Before he could finish, he was thrown aside, his entire body slamming against a shelf, shattering under the force of impact. “You can build nothing of the sort!” Salazar raised his voice, pulling away Merlin’s wand with the summoning charm, silently casting the spell bringing it to his own hand.

With a sigh, he turned around, not caring to see Merlin’s painful injuries as he spoke. “You have been blinded by your life of peace… You have not seen the lengths and terrors muggles have gone in hatred of our kind… I hoped you would have seen that…” Salazar shook his head, resting his head against his temple. “There is no peace with communion… The only peace we had attained, that you have thoughtlessly lived in, was only brokered through segregation. I have told you this time after time, what none of the others seem to understand! Now including you…”

As Merlin barely got to his feet, leaning against the wall to keep himself up, Salazar caressed the box covered sheet with his hand, his other playing with the locket around his neck, Merlin’s gasping for air falling on deaf ears. “I had come so close to trusting you with my final request before leaving… However, I suppose only the bounds of blood shall carry out my will for generations to come… To keep the peace I have built with my own two hands, from the top of the towers, down to the deepest bowls of this school…” After a few seconds of silence, he finally looked back at Merlin, tossing Merlin’s wand on the floor in front of him. “Leave.”

Merlin, shaking, stared down at his wand, before looking back up at his mentor with disbelief. “M-Master…?” Before he could say anything more, Salazar cut him off with a silencing spell, locking Merlin’s lips together. “There will be none of that… You are no longer an heir of my tutelage… If anything, I would cast you out of my house… Leave me now before I force you to do so myself.”

With a gasp, I was suddenly broken from the story, the loud bell of the clocktower jerking me from my seat. With a few unsteady breaths, I quelled my beating heart, finally licking my dry lips before speaking. “You were the one he told… Of the Chamber.” The old image of Merlin slowly nodded, a deep sigh escaping his nose “Indeed.” He murmured, reliving the one of the worst memories of his life. “I spent years of my life as a professor in these halls, searching for where he stored away the Chamber of Secrets, and the beast he raised within it… Salazar had a habit of building hidden rooms for only those he deemed worthy to view and learn from.”

“Like the one you described earlier? Do you know of many more?” I asked, hoping one could have a clue I might find as an Heir to Salazar. Merlin nodded in response. “Yes, just like that one. However, I must apologize, after all these long years, the locations of his hidden studies have eluded me.” I frowned with disappointment, now only having a loose lead as to the Chamber’s location.

“Thank you.” I said, giving a nod to Merlin as he turned his chair back around to the horizon. “Think nothing of it… Think of it as my own selfish desire to aid you in righting wrongs of your bloodline…” As I stood up, I paused at his words, he knew I was truly an heir of Salazar. Staring back at his slow rocking motion I held back asking him how he figured it out. Instead pondering a sudden idea that came to my mind. Wondering if Salazar had created some enchantment to resonate with his own bloodline for years to come, resonate with my blood.

‘I must hurry.’ I thought with grit teeth, quickly heading out from behind the major staircase. Doing so, the plentiful amount of students from other houses turned their heads one by one, their distraught and accusatory gazes stinging all over my body. I quickly walked away from the main stairs, morning breakfast beginning to be served, and plentiful amounts of students present to glare at me for being a Slytherin.

I made my way through the main courtyard, and towards the boat house. The further I walked the less populated the area was. Going back through the winding road towards the boathouse I was previously rushed through was nostalgic, if not a bit wishful to desire my years to end at this place, and to never look back as I left. There were so many triumphs, but just as many scars were created in their place. I grasped at my chest, the weight on my heart increasing just from the memory I had buried deep.

“Alohomora.” I whispered, waving my wand at the locked wooden door, an audible click accompanying my voice. Opening the doors, the humidity of the air sharply rose as I entered towards the staircase, looking down at the filled docks. With a sigh, shaking away my nerves, I closed the door behind me, and carefully made my way down the stairs, making sure that the moisture of the air wouldn’t make me slip on the stonework. This place certainly was a great place to hide something, a room only used once a year, and never thought of by any older students or staff, only the newest students on everyone's mind.

At the end of the top stairs, there was a small level portion for the new students to stand while introduced to the school. I could hear faint hissing whispers a few steps off the beaten path, I looked around the same stairs I descended, walking towards the same area where Merlin's painting was hung up in the main portion of school where the barely audible hissing could be heard. ‘Why would he ask to be placed in a similar location of bad memories such as this?’ I wondered, placing my hands on the cold stone, feeling around as I looked closely at each individual laid brick.

After a few minutes, I felt a familiar sensation against my fingertips, and paused, the hissing growing ever so slightly louder. I removed my hand, and intensely gazed at the singular gray brick. The design of the brick was textured slightly differently from the others surrounding it, resembling scales. “This is it.” I whispered, taking a breath before tapping my wand against the brick.

Slowly dragging my wand back, hissing emanated from the wall, before the gray, stonework snake followed my wand, using my arm to keep itself upright. “Feed me twice with magical power.” I paused hearing the wall hissing instructions that matched with Merlin’s words. ‘Was this supposed to be discovered by me when I first walked into the school?’ I wondered, thinking back to how I was rushed off towards the school without having a chance to wait here for a teacher.

I followed the hissing instructions, and finished the secret password by dragging my wand all the way down the stone snake’s belly, silently wondering if there were perhaps more places around school I could find as a parselmouth. ‘Merlin was not a parselmouth like me, and Dumbledore doesn’t have the lineage in my veins. Perhaps the Chamber of Secrets was his greatest creation, but I may still find more around the castle.’ However those thoughts were broken by the myriad of slithering and squirming of snakes all along the wall. I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes while entering head first into the undulating doorway.