Unofficial Portkey Archive

Harry Potter and the Gilded Portrait - Part 3

Standard Disclaimers Apply…

Chapter 44 - Slytherin - A History

Zalina Sheryl Star (or who they later discovered to be Sallispell Slytherin) was not the only one in a bad mood after the latest brush with the barmy Dark Lord Voldemort…

Harry Potter found himself feeling very stupid by letting himself get trapped by something he felt he should have seen before it was too late. Everyone, including his Commander Kingsley Shacklebolt tried to reassure him it wasn't his fault but he was finding hard to reconcile his short-comings as a supposedly highly trained wizard.

Professor Hilliard Dervish felt like a blithering idiot for being taken in by what he had referred to as, `A pretty face,' and vowed to never fall in love again even though everyone tried to make him understand that he had been subjected to some fairly sever and powerful Legilimency and may have even been put under the Imperious curse but no-one knew for certain. He showed no outward signs of the Unforgivable curse after Zalina had been subdued.

Hermione Granger had to be physically restrained from not only throttling just about every Professor at Hogwarts for not teaching them what Slughorn had called Clinical-level magic, she also had to be kept from throwing herself off the Astronomy tower for missing what she called Hippogriff-sized clues and being completely helpless to save Harry's life.

She had been in an evil mood for a day or two until Harry grabbed her, took her to her bed chamber in the Head dorm and subjected her to a dose of her own brand of physical therapy. Even Peeves breathed a sigh of relief when she finally calmed down.

The poor gargoyle that protected the Headmistresses office paid the price for denying Hermione entrance during that dark period and ended up in even more pieces then he did during the final battle.

It took the combined effort of Professors Flitwick, Sinistra and Grubbly-Plank to put him back together and it was said the poor gargoyle had a slight tick in his right eye from that day forward…

But it was one Headmistress Minerva McGonagall who was inconsolable for letting the woman get past her. She had lamented to all the past Headmasters about feeling completely inept and foolish for being, what she had irritatingly considered, completely hoodwinked!

A snickering Albus Dumbledore's only response was… "No-one's perfect my dear Minerva!"… For which his image had then been completely denuded of every hair and whisker on his head.

Phineas Nigellus Black almost fell out of his painting laughing so hard telling Dumbledore he looked like the new Professor of the History of Magic, Atriums Croaker…a human version of an Edison light bulb!

Everard cackled that he looked like a shaved Chizpurfle! Dumbledore turned red as a tomato and decided to go visit his other portraits for a while after all that kerfluffle.

It was during the interogation after Hermione, Ron, Draco and a shocked Narcissa helped save Harry that the complete story and history of Zalina Star, a.k.a. Sallispell Slytherin came to the surface.

The details had stunned everyone so much Kingsley requested a secretary from the Ministry with a ream of parchent and several Quick-Quotes quills to come and record her complete story.

The tidalwave of information came out after Kingsley asked only a single question…

"Who are you really?"

"My real name is Sallispell Slytherin," the woman began in confunded-sounding, slurring voice thick with the after-effects of the Virtilixer, "I was born in 1146 in Moldavia. I am the child of Salazar Slytherin's Granddaughter Hestonia. I have no idea who my father was."

"I grew up in the ancient Forests of Maribor near what are now known then as the Aggresian Mountains. We were what you would call Gypsies, a nomadic peoples known for our magical abilities and skills."

"Ours had been a peaceful existance and had long possessed a reputation for healing the sick and afflicted among the local populations of our region with our magic, potions and elixers. It had been our stock and trade and most wecomed us and traded with us willingly for the things we required to survive."

Zalina's face turned dark and deadly as she continued speaking…

"It was after the arrival of the so-called Christian Church that we found ourselves branded evil and heretics and were hunted like animals. They turned the people against us when we refused to accept their religious beliefs!"

Tears began to fall from the beautiful woman's eyes as raw misery swept over her.

"It was in the year 1170. It was my twenty-fourth summer. We had followed the Drava River south to a place called Vukovar fleeing the death and destruction of the army of iron-clad knights but they had followed."

"On the night of the Summer Equinox under a full yellow moon the Muggles caught up to us and raided our camp! Those despicable heathens passed judgment on us and sentenced us all to death! They had overpowered us as we slept but we knew nothing of war or how to fight. We were a peaceful people!"

"They tied me, my mother and father, two brothers and my sister, who was only in her tenth summer, to trees they had cut down and placed in the center of our camp and they meant to burn us to death! I could not stand it!"

"We were forced to watch as they beheaded my Grandmother before our very eyes. I believed then that my mother and I were the very last living direct descendants of the great Salazar Slytherin and with our deaths the line would be broken and given over to his wife and sole heir, Illzadora Black!"

"I could not live with the thought our great and powerful Great Grandfather's name would be lost within the pages of history for all time."

Zalina was sobbing pitifully now, her head down as tears of frustration, pain and hate coursed down her cheeks to splatter the dusty stone floor below the chair she was tied to.

"I watched as they lit the fires that consumed my family! I forced myself to see their faces as they gave themselves over to the agonizing death of being burned alive! I fought against my restraints and prayed with all my strength for deliverance from the madness.

"It was then, as the flames climbed my legs to catch my dress on fire that I strained with all my might and something happened…I was no longer within myself…but outside! I found myself hovering in the air just above my burning body as I watched myself being consumed by the flames."

"I felt no pain! I was free! I realized very quickly that I was in my spirit form but had no idea how I was able to survive but as I lingered to watch the flames feed on the flesh that was my family I began to fade."

"It was then I realized I needed to find another body to inhabit or I would cease to be. I have no idea how I was able to know these things but I was certain of it."

"I cast myself to the nearest soldier and forced myself inside him but much to my dismay his body was ill suited to me and I felt filthy and disgusted. I was only able to linger within him long enough to travel to the near-by village of Olbesk-Varja. I forced him to obey my commands!"

"It was there I found the body of a young woman just entering her eighteenth summer and felt I could remain within her almost completely undetected but I was not happy with that arrangement."

"In the beginning of this new incomprehensible liberation I realized I was only able to co-exist with my host bodies and before long they would began to rebel against my existence within them so I needed to find a way to take over completely."

"After many attempts to force my host's existence out of their bodies I was able to create the necessary spells and incantations necessary to take over my hosts. It took many years to perfect. I discovered I was only able to inhabit the bodies of women near my age and only those who possessed a touch of darkness within their souls."

"Those who possessed a pure spirit of goodness were too rebellious and resistant to my invasion and had the power to repel me even though they had no knowledge of what was taking place within them."

"Centuries I hid, moving from host to host leaping across the vast emptiness of time until the day would come I could take my revenge on those who destroyed my family and besmirched the name of Slytherin!"

"I watched as the purity of our race was defiled by the very disgusting things that had destroyed everyone I loved. I searched and searched for a way to strike back."

"It was late in the nineteenth century when I came across the name of Gaunt. I was surprised to find they were descendants of my Great Grandfather's name by marriage and therefore the only remaining living relatives outside the Black clan."

"I found a body to inhabit that would get me close to these people and took the form of Elladora Black, a descendant of Salazar's wife Illzadora."

"Even though her body aged and eventually died I managed to keep her name and identity by passing on through her descendants fooling even the ridiculous Muggle financial institution in Albania into believing Elladora still lived! It was my soul who remained after all, not hers!"

"I watched the filthy inbred Gaunt family until, in the early twenties, that disgusting Merope tricked the Muggle Tom Riddle Sr. into marrying him! She seduced him and in nineteen twenty six gave birth to her son, Tom Riddle Jr."

"I watched Tom grow from a distance careful to keep my identity a secret and when Albus Dumbledore came to bring Tom to Hogwarts and the boy was sorted into my Great Grandfather's house I knew…I knew he was the one I would help to obtain greatness and bring about a cleansing of our race! I would help him restore the purity of our bloodlines and rid ourselves of the scourge of the Mudblood taint!"

"I took the body of a young Slytherin student named Agnes Bulstrode and subversively influenced the young Tom Riddle with dreams and visions using the talent of Legilimency I had learned through the centuries to be able to influence those around me to do my bidding!"

"After leaving Hogwarts I inhabited the body of Cassiopeia Black and began to teach him many skills through the years in order to prepare him for his quest to take over and dominate the wizard world!"

"It was I who taught him to inhabit that ridiculous sniveling Professor Quirrell but Tom had wanted to know more. He wanted the ability to evict a host's soul so he could learn to remain as I had done throughout the centuries but he was not ready for such knowledge and it would have destroyed him…but he was angry with me for keeping that secret from him."

"It was that psychotic Bellatrix who convinced the Dark Lord I was attempting to undermine his power by keeping secrets so Voldemort had me banished and put a price on my head to have me killed. I was forced to flee and go into hiding. I was angry but I still believed in our goal."

"It was then he revealed his plan to create those…those abominations called Horcruxes! It was stupid, dangerous and foolish but since I had been banished I could not convince him otherwise."

"Severus Snape…the worm…assisted the Dark Lord in creating those foul things and I watched as Tom…the very one I had spent so much time and effort teaching the ways of dark magic…preparing him for his glorious future…I watched him sink further and further into madness!"

"It wasn't long until Albus Dumbledore realized what Tom had done and took steps to try and stop him. I tried to warn Tom but I had been banished and as long as that disgusting whore Bellatrix remained, he would not listen."

It wasn't long until the Order of the Phoenix was born and a movement had begun to destroy all that I had created! I was desperate to help Tom gain the upper hand. It was I who convinced that filthy rat Pettigrew to betray the Potters! It was I who tried to undermine the subversive movement by convincing Cornelius Fudge Dumbledore was attempting to usurp his power!"

"Tom was too blinded by his lust for power and the unquenchable desire for immortality. I could have given it to him if he only would have been patient…but he was head-strong and impetuous and in the end…it cost him his life…and all my plans were RUINED!"

"It wasn't long until I remembered the secrets of the Riddle house. I had seen it in the mind of Severus Snape after I had taken the body you see before you. I wanted to become a woman no man could resist so I took this lithe and sensuous form so I could seduce Snape and try to influence the Dark Lord through him."

"But Severus had been oh so clever! He had kept his own secrets and his skill at Occlumency was even more profound then my own! I was able to see Tom Riddle's portrait and even the cash of wealth that lay beneath the ruins of his disgusting Muggle relative's home but I had no use for wealth…"

"I alone persevered and it was I who came up with the plan to extract the essence of Voldemort from the young Tom Riddle's portrait and I was going to use the body of the very one who had been instrumental in the destruction of the LAST REMAINING MALE SLYTHERIN HEIR! I WANTED JUSTICE! REVENGE!"

Zalina strained madly against her spelled restraints as her face crumpled into terrible grief and pain as she fell silent, sobbing uncontrollably.

Kingsley and most of the others who were witnessing this unbelievable confession couldn't help but feel pity for what this woman had gone through and had been subjected to her whole life but even so…they all knew how dangerous this woman was.

In the end she was placed in a heavily warded and spelled iron box that would prevent her from leaving her present body and escorted under heavy guard to the bowls of the Ministry and held in a special cell prepared for her within the Department of Mysteries.

It was Arthur's hope she could be rehabilitated but Kingsley and most of the others held little hope for that prospect but the Minister was conviced enough to try. Harry Potter agreed with the Minister and requested she be treated with as much kindness as possible under the circumstances.

In the end it had been the combined effort of a rather dizzy little Ravenclaw girl and a former enemy of all things Gryffindore who were able to break through the centuries of hate and pregudice and helped Zalina {Sallispell} heal.

Luna Lovegood and Draco Malfoy came to visit Zalina regularly to assist in preventing her from having to meet the same fate as so many other dark wizards. No-one wanted her to have to walk the Vale.

The ancient Slytherin woman even revealed the location of her Great Grandfather's portrait and it had been transfurred to her quarters in the Department of Mysteries so she could talk to and confide in her hero and mentor.

Even the image of the great Salazar Slytherin finally admited, under the unbelievably powerful positive influence of Luna Lovegood, that he might have been wrong.

No-one knew how Luna and Draco were able to break through…they were all just glad they did.

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