Chapter 287 - A Bloody Memory

Chris reached out and touched the Slytherin's locket. The room around Chris gave an almighty lurch and Chris felt like she was sucked into the locket — then she was falling through something cold and dark —

Chris landed into a very old wooden house. She was standing in a room attached to the kitchen. There were a fireplace and four wooden chairs around the room. The kitchen had very few appliances but it was placed neatly. The sun was setting outside and the soft glowing evening light was coming through the two windows in that room. There were two doors, a front door and a door at the end of the room, which Chris guessed as the only bedroom. Suddenly, Chris heard heavy footsteps and shoutings outside the cottage. She peered through the small window beside the fireplace and saw many people dressed in Medieval clothes were hurrying towards the cottage. They had fire torches and they were shouting angrily. The door at the far end of the room opened and a woman dressed in rags came out, followed by a boy. The woman looked like in her mid-thirties and the boy was around fourteen or fifteen. They both had similar dirty blonde hair and distinctive green eyes. They were also in the middle of a heated discussion. 

"But Mother — " roared the boy.

"Not another word Sal," said the woman furiously. "Go now."

"I am not capable of doing this," said the boy softening his voice a little bit. "Mother, please, come with me."

"It is not possible, Sal," the woman peered out of the window and saw those angry people coming close. "I have to look for your father. I have to make sure —"

"Father would not want this, mother," the boy said angrily. "Come with me."

The woman whirled around and face the boy.

"Sal, listen, get out of here while you can. I have already lost your elder brother, I can not see you dead," the woman said holding the boy by the shoulder. 

"And you think I can leave you to die?" said the boy looking sick. 

The voice outside became clearer, the crowd was close.

"You will die today!"

"Demons! You will die!"

The woman heard those voices and looked fearful, she started crying.

"No, you do not have to see me die if you leave now," she sobbed. "Promise me you will live. You will be safe. You have to escape. Please Sal, for me. Go."

"It is your last day Witch!"

A voice screamed outside. The crowd roared in that voice's support.

The boy clenched his fist.

"No, I will not leave," he spat. "I will kill them all."

"NO!" the woman looked shocked then her expression changed to hostility. "They are naive, ignorant, oblivious. They do not know what they are doing. But one day they will regret it. They will, Sal, you will see."

"Open the door!" yelled the crowd outside. They were almost outside the door now.

"Sal, go," the woman hastily tried to pull a chain from her neck but in rush she pulled it wrongly and the chain cut deep into her neck.

"Mother!" the boy looked pained. His eyes filled with tears.

"Take this!" the woman thrust the chain into the boy's hand. "Your father made this for me as our wedding gift. After that I always wore it. Now it is yours. Till it is with you, remember, I am with you."

"Break it!"

"Break the door!"

"Now Sal, leave," the woman waved her hand at the other side of the wall in the kitchen. The wall magically disappeared and open to the backyard of the cottage and the backyard path led to a deep forest.

"I love you, Mother," said the boy.

"I love to, Salazar, my child," the woman hugged him tightly and cried.

Something heavy collided with the front door. The woman jumped and pushed the boy out of the house through the magical hole. 

Chris felt a pull and suddenly she was also outside the cottage with the boy, Salazar. The wall reappeared as the front door breaking sound came. Then came the woman's screaming noise.

"Where is the boy?" Someone yelled.

"Where is the boy, witch?"

"Tell us!"

People yelled.

Salazar clenched his fist more tightly around the locket and ran. Chris ran after him, though she didn't really have to because the boy was pulling her with him. He ran through the forest, ran and ran then finally stopped in a cool and wet part of the forest where barely any sunlight could reach. Salazar looked around carefully then made some hissing noise. After a moment or two, several snakes came out from their pits. Then Salazar made some more hissing noises and started to run back. Chris and the snakes followed. Then Salazar changed paths, ran again and ended up in a clearing where Chris could see the town's square. Those angry people were still screaming. Salazar hissed again and the snakes started to go forward but then stopped. Salazar angrily looked around and saw something then cursed under his breath. He held his hand up to do some magic but then he noticed what Chris had noticed a lot before than him. The crowd was not yelling anymore, they were cheering.

"Dead!"

"Dead!"

Salazar cautiously stepped around the clearing where he was hidden and tried to see and finally he saw. A woman hanging by her neck. Chris looked away but Salazar stared at his mother's hanging body. Chris looked down at his hand and noticed the thing his mother gave him some time ago. It was the locket, the gold locket of Salazar Slytherin. But it didn't have the snake mark very clear, right then. 

Salazar's nails dig into his own hand as he watched his mother's body and his blood covered the locket's chain which already had his mother's blood on it. Slowly, the entire locket was covered in Salazar's blood and then suddenly, he turned around and ran back inside the forest. Before following him Chris noticed some flowers around the town's square which were used to avoid snakes.

The site around Chris dissolved and she felt pulled out from it. She landed back in the Room of Requirement. Chris panted like she had run miles with the boy, Salazar Slytherin. She took some deep breaths and saw the locket was still glowing softly. She pulled her knees close to her chest and buried her face on them and stayed still like that for a long time.

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To be continued. . .