Title: Liliacea
Author name: The Divine Comedian
Rating: R, for explicit violence
Summary: If there was one thing on which the founders agreed, it was the fact that Salazar had started it in the first place. Salazar was decidedly evil, so he had to be killed. How were they to know his death would have unexpected side effects?
One thousand years later, the marauders start their seventh year at Hogwarts. But the world isn't exactly Woodstock, though they try to pretend: Voldemort is on the rise, people get killed, and a certain undead founder begins to mess with their lives. Suddenly, they are given the chance to defeat their worst enemy - but can they really cope with such a responsibility?
Simple answer: they can't.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's note:
I suppose I have to warn you: this story contains explicit violence (hence the rating), self-abuse, drug-abuse... you get the idea (though it has its happy moments... somewhere...). There is also f/f slash in very small amounts - nothing disturbing, really.
Edit May 2005: I'm taking out the song lyrics. Also note that this story has been written pre-OotP.
Beta-read by Juliette.

Prologue

July 23rd, 981

It has been eleven years now. Eleven years of terror and war. Most of the wizard settlements have been destroyed. So have a few muggle towns.

It has been eleven years since I last met you. Eleven years that I hoped you would come back. Do you know how much I have been longing for you?

You did come back. And everything threatens to become worse than it has ever been. The war is over - for the moment. The dark wizards have vanished somewhere, as have the horrible demons called dementors.

You told me you were back for good. You even agreed to accept muggle-born students at Hogwarts. You told me you were on the good side. How much I wish I could believe you.

You never told us you were the leader of the dark army. But we all knew.

I have hardly seen you the past few months since you returned. You have spent them locked up in your room, studying . You have grown paler, and there is an aura around you that I can not fully identify. It is evil, but not entirely. There is also some kind of guilt, the few times you looked at me. And something more.

You told us you had spent the years down in Persia, but neither of us believed you.

And now I am here to kill you before you can restart the war. For I know you would.

I knock on the heavy, wooden door. The room remains silent for several minutes. Then I hear footsteps, the door being unlocked, and I finally see you.

"Rowena," you whisper. You drag me inside and close the door. That snake of yours is lazily rolled up in front of the cold fireplace. The room is very dark, there is only one torch lit just above the table, sending its fidgety shadows into the chamber and on your face. I suddenly realize that we are standing very near to each other. I look down. I cannot bear the look of your eyes, remembering me that I once loved you. Stop. I love you even now. I just do not want to think of it. It is already hard enough for me.

Oh, why do I only have to do that? Why do I have to be the only founder who is muggle-born?

Finally, I search your eyes. They seem to glow, not their usual black, but they appear to be almost red. And it is that stare that convinces me to not kill you. Not now. I know I make a pact with the devil. But the decision is done.

You kiss me. As I feel your lips on mine, I notice their dryness, and I feel kind of relieved that there is at least one thing that has not changed. I see amusement sparkling in your eyes. Do you know what you are doing to me? My body burns where you touch it, but I still want to hold you tighter. You know perfectly well that I came here to kill you. And yet you kiss your personal devil.

I feel your hands behind my back, opening my dress. My clothes fall down to the floor, joined by yours, a second later. I shiver a little, due to the cold in your room. But this feeling does not last long.

Yes. Perhaps it just goes that way. Maybe we are two devils.

Maybe we are only two insane lovers. For I love you, Salazar.

(Told by Rowena Ravenclaw)

She is lying here next to me. I believe she is asleep, but I can error. I watch her. Eleven years have not done anything to her beauty. Her hair is longer than it has ever been, from a dark reddish-brown and as straight as hair can be. Her eyes, closed now, are grey-green. The colour of the sea. Her perfect skin is darker than mine, though this is not really saying much.

It hurts to look at her, but yet I am not able to look anywhere else. We have been lovers since she was fifteen and I nineteen, but we are not married. If we were muggles, they probably would have already imprisoned us or worse.

Stupid muggles. Rowena was born by them. However, they died when she was twelve, and she was brought up by my aunt and uncle.

It was me who killed her parents. Another thing I never told her. They lived next to our mansion and I just could not stand to see how they were treating her. I discovered that she was magical, and also unusually intelligent. I mean, how many children can speak English, German, Ancient Greek and Latin (the last two I taught her) at the age of seven? Three years later she knew as many spells as every Hogwarts absolvent does now. Her parents noticed that and, instead of feeling honoured of having a magical child, they threatened to put her into a convent. So I killed them and convinced my relatives, with whom I was myself living, to take her.

It is right, Rowena. It was me who lead that army, and I seriously plan to go back and continue the war. Power is a wonderful thing to have, Rowena. Pity you never experienced it.

Did you ever ask yourself why I came back in the first place? Not only to study, even if Hogwarts has got the best library on the dark arts in Europe.

You were the main reason.

I know you are here to kill me. I noticed it when you kissed me, there was a dagger hidden in your robes. Be more careful next time. Stop. There will not be a next time.

I do not want to get killed, not even by you.

Silently, I get up and dress.

(Told by Salazar Slytherin)

Why do you only have to be that evil?

And why do I have to be muggle-born?

I dress in your bedroom. Don´t know where you are, you had already been gone when I woke must be some time past midnight, judging after the moon that is shining through the tiny window. I am fully dressed now. As I comb my hair, my eyes are searching the room, looking for my wand. It is not there. Just great. The dagger is gone, too.

Well, I expected that.

Suddenly, I feel your hand over my mouth and the silver digger pressed against my neck.

I am not scared.

(Told by Rowena Rawenclaw)

"You know, Rowena, I truly love you," Salazar said. His firm grip did not vanish at any moment.

"I know you are here to kill me and I know who sent you." His voice seemed to tremble a little, or was it just her imagination?

"I hate what I am going to do now." At this words, he trow her to the ground. His wand was pointed at her.

"Crucio," he whispered. A sharp pain burst through her body, as if every bone was burning, her blood was boiling. It was worst in her head.

I will not scream. She concentrated hard on that thought, but it was nearly impossible. She didn´t risk to take a breath. She was the greatest witch of her time and she woul not scream.

Suddenly, he let go of her. He got down to his knees, tears in his eyes.

"Rowena," he whispered, hardly loud enough to be understood.

She got on her feet, and he followed her.

She had to perform the charm now or never. Each of the founders had invented an own kind of spells or charms. The ones of Salazar would later be called The Unforgivable Curses. Hers were the song charms.

Touching the talisman around her neck, she started to sing.

She sings like she used to sing for me - a long time ago. But I do not know that song. He suddenly realised that he was not able to move anymore, or to stop looking into her eyes. He was feeling weaker and weaker. And somehow he knew that this song was going to kill him. Pain was pulsing in him - not the sudden, violent one of the Cruciatus curse, but something that began warm and light, but increased with every beat of his heart, with every word she sung.

Tears were rolling down her face, but she continued. She saw the growing insanity of death in his eyes. She saw him dying.

It will kill him, but it will never kill his kind.

Rowena was shaking. Not that she had only killed the only person she had ever loved (and hated just the same) - but she had also seen into the malice eyes of death.

She knelt down next to him. And cried.

(August 24th, 981)

Rowena has not been the same since this incident. She has stopped teaching. If she goes on like that, we will need a new Arithmancy and Ancient Runes teacher. I know it is hard for her, but she has to get over it.

(Told by Helga Hufflepuff)

(October 31st, 981)

Hush, little baby, don´t say anything. Don´t tell Salazar, for I am going to pick flowers for him. It is his birthday, you know. I am going on bare feets, so he will not hear me. My feet are so cold, and why is my face wet? It is raining, I forgot.

It is also thundering, because it is late autumn, and I don´t need to worry anymore if Salazar can hear me. There are no flowers, and my child is yet unborn.

Just why? Good God, why?

(Told by Rowena Ravenclaw)

(January 1st, 982)

Just point the wand towards your chest, and say the words, Avada Kedavra, Avada Kedavra, Avada... You never taught me that curse, it would have been so useful now. There has never been a spell that I was not able to perform,so why do I fail now?

(Told by Rowena Ravenclaw)

(February 2nd, 982)

Little daisies on the ground, and there are roses for you and dandelion for me, and pansies and rosmary, forget-me-not and a liliacea here and there and violets, and that is chrysanthemum, astera compositae, and helianthus annus, and over there, an euphorbia. But the roses have got thorns and I am walking on glass, the lilies are blood-stained, and it is still winter.

(Told by Rowena Ravenclaw)

(February 7th, 982)

She has behaved strange lately. Will she ever get over that night?

(Told by Godric Gryffindor)

March 24th, 982)

Godric is dead. He was bitten by that blasted snake of Salazar´s.

Rowena´s sanity is lost forever, I fear.

(Told by Helga Hufflepuf)

(May 6th, 982)

Her daughter was born a week ago. I have taken her, for I believe that Rowena can´t be responsible for a child anymore.

(Told by Helga Hufflepuff)

(June 1st, 982)

Isn´t this funny? To watch one´s mind decline so slowly but yet so... successfully?

Where is my child, you stole her,you named her Hedwig. That is ridiculous, for Hedwig means "battle", and did not we kill Salazar to stop the war?

Just why?

(Told by Rowena Ravenclaw)

(July 23rd, 982)

It has been a year now, and this year without him has been worse than the eleven years before. I have already hidden two of the talisman´s three jewels in different places. The last jewel, the blue one for Ravenclaw, lies right here in my palm.

I am outside the castle, at the border of the lake, I stand beside a wild rose bush with red and white blossoms. The sun is setting, and as it does so, the colours of the scene are getting warmer and warmer.

It is so idyllic it hurts my eyes. My feet are bare, as always. I shiver slightly as I plunge my foot into the water. I wade as deep as I can, then swim towards the middle of the lake - towards the sun. The brilliant water glows orange.

I am exactly where I want to be. I feel the jewel burning in my fist. It is as if it becoming a part of is getting harder to let go. I had the same feeling with the other jewels.

I drop it.

I never knew magical jewels glow under water. This one glows brilliant turquoise, brighter than the sun.

That was the difficult part. The next one will be easy

I stop breathing.

(Told by Rowena Ravenclaw)

(July 24th, 982)

I found her body this morning, right where the weeping willow´s branches touch the water. As she can´t be buried on the Christian graveyard, the teachers and I will bury her in the vault down at the dungeons, where Salazar already lies.

(Told by Helga Hufflepuff)