Chapter One

He sat with all the others at the largest table in all of the castle's Great Hall, between Helga and Godric, and narrowed his eyes slightly at the fat lady standing at the very center of the vast hall. She was singing and there were no instruments accompanying her.

"Salazar," Godric nudged Salazar's side, whispering in his ear. "You could at least fake a little bit of excitement."

"Oh? But I am most excited," he replied, his voice and face a cool mask of downright indifference.

"She traveled a long way to come here," Godric continued, "We should thank her for coming."

Salazar tried not to roll his eyes. A glance towards other tables showed students drinking and eating to their hearts contents, absolutely ignoring the boring singer. They whispered quietly amongst themselves and every now and then put on polite show of showing their fake enthusiasm for the foreign singer that had come all the way from… where was she from again?

It mattered not. As soon as she was done singing, the festivities commenced. The Great Hall filled with the loud and jovial voices of Hogwarts students as they feasted upon the finest food and ale. This is when Salazar would usually leave, not particularly interested in loud environments.

As he stood up, Helga looked up and shot him a knowing smile. No one commented about him leaving this early. He simply walked away without a word; his long dark cloak billowed after him as he calmly walked down the dimly lit hallways. He detested the speech that would follow, about how everyone was welcome to his school when they knew how he truly felt about the filth that was being let in.

Mudbloods.

The cold hit him like a blessing, shaking his thoughts away as they would do him no good. He could no longer endure the endless fights with Godric and the others. He could not bring them to see reason. With a long suffering sigh, he jerked his head up. The full moon was obscured by a flock of thick and bloated thunderclouds that didn't even allow the barest fingers of moonlight to peek through.

That's when he heard something or rather someone. With a quick movement of his wrist, his wand came to rest in his hand and he moved quickly towards the dark forest. His olive green eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and moved about with poise, his feet making absolutely no sound. He was an avid hunter and he knew the forest like the back of his hand.

"HARRY!"

The disturbed and fear-stricken scream made him come to a sudden halt. It sounded like a female was on the run and most likely distressed. She was approaching him too, perhaps not even aware that he was right there. He could hear her running and she was coming in his direction.

Salazar narrowed his eyes. He didn't know who she was but he was very curious to find out how she came to be in the forest and so close to the castle.

"Lumos."

He saw her then. She froze a few feet away from him; her dark eyes were wide with sheer horror as she looked right back at him. She was dressed in strange vests and she looked like she had been through hell and back. Her hair was all over the place, her upper lip was swollen and she had a nasty cut over her cheek.

She took a few steps back and suddenly had her wand aimed right at him, "Stand back!" her voice came out in a very insecure tone.

Salazar's lips curved upwards in sheer amusement, "You dare aim your wand at me?" he asked, his wand aching to teach the little wench a lesson.

There was confusion and fear dancing in her eyes. She took his appearance and looked quite insecure but held her ground and did not lower her wand, "I said stand back!" she raised her voice, "W-w-where's Harry!?"

He mockingly looked around, "It's just the two of us here, love." He spoke, his fingers playing with his wand, "Now, lower your wand and state your name and how you came to trespass into private property."

The young woman slowly looked around as if to make sure that it was indeed just the two of them, "This is the forbidden forest, isn't it?" she asked and frowned, still pointing her wand at the strange man, "This is hardly your property."

He frowned at her cheek, "This is where you are highly mistaken. This is indeed my property," He said and smirked at her as with a single flick of his wand, her wand came flying quickly and he held it carefully.

She gasped in shock and almost stumbled on her own feet as she backed away with palpable fear dancing in her chocolate-brown eyes. Her chest heaved up and down rapidly and her gaze fell between the man's eyes and her own wand trying to decide whether he was a threat or not.

And that amused him.

His smirk grew a little as he watched her like a lion watches its prey. She was obviously foreign and had no clue of who he was; everyone knew him. He was the one and only, Salazar Slytherin. He played with her wand on purpose, watching as she grew unnerved with that, "Your name." the command slipped from his lips easily.

A frown spread through her young features and then relief as well. She was relieved that she didn't know who she was and that only made him all the more curious about her own person. "My name's Luna." She said quickly and was surprised when he made click noise with his tongue.

"Your real name, wench." He said now pointing his wand at her, "Go on. Try and lie about it and a curse will fly your way."

She swallowed hard and actually dared to glare at him, "Hermione. My name's Hermione Granger."

"Lady Granger, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Salazar Slytherin and this…" he said pointing at their surroundings, his wand stopped at the tall famous castle, "Is my home."

Hermione Granger's face had turned quite pale and she looked like she was about to pass out, "I b-beg your p-pardon?"

"Godric!"

Godric Gryffindor closed the front doors of the Great Hall behind him and immediately felt a sense of dread overcome him at worrying tone in Rowena's voice, "Come quickly!"

He took a deep breath, really in no mood to deal with his friend's drama but he hurried as he was told. He suddenly came to a halt as he turned around the corridor, his bright blue eyes stopping on Salazar's figure; he was carrying something or better yet someone in his arms. "Is it a student?" Rowena asked as she took a good look at the young woman in the man's arms.

"Does she look like one of our own?" Salazar snapped and his gaze finally met Godric's. "I found her in the forest; she seemed to be on the run but from who or what I know not." He said, readjusting the unconscious young woman in his arms as if she weighted nothing.

Finally coming back to himself, Godric took notice of the spare wand on Salazar's belt, "And what happened to our guest?" he asked as he stepped aside to give Salazar room to walk past him. He watched Salazar tense slightly and he narrowed his eyes.

"She fainted at the mere mention of my name." Salazar answered with a frown on his own features and when both Godric and Rowena looked somewhat taken back with his words he came to a full stop, "That and the nasty curse she was hit with." He said and before Rowena opened her mouth to protest, "Which didn't come from me." He added quickly.

Godric frowned deeply but gave him a slow nod, believing him. How on Merlin's beard did the young woman walk past their secure wards?

Salazar readjusted the young woman in his arms one more time and watched on as Rowena opened the doors for them. He watched as Helga looked up from her book and quickly stood up, her eyes widening at the sight of the female in his arms. He offered her no explanation as he settled Hermione Granger down on the hospital bed, "She was hit with some nasty curse." Rowena added before Helga could speak.

"Where did you find her?" Helga questioned as her healer side quickly kicked in. She pushed her dress sleeves upward and frowned as she looked over the young woman's strange clothing.

"In the forest." Salazar replied shortly.

"In the forest?" Helga repeated and looked up at him, giving him a questioning look but when she didn't get a reply she looked back down at her patience and sighed deeply. She scanned the girl's body with her wand, searching for the source of the curse and the answer didn't take too long to make itself known as suddenly the tip of her wand flashed a strong white light towards the girl's abdomen. With a suffered sigh, she flicked her wand and the girl's strange coat was off her.

Rowena picked it up and gently folded it and placed it on a nearby chair. That's when a metallic sound reverberated loudly, startling the four of them.

Salazar bent down slowly, his hand wrapping around the odd-looking item. At first it looked to be some strange necklace, but as he inspected it closely, it became obvious to him that it was some important magical artifact, "It's an hour-glass." He said quietly, feeling in his core that it was so much more than that. His head snapped towards the young woman and he grew more curious than ever.

"I don't know what happened," Helga's voice startled him from his reverie, "Or who she is…" she paused and looked quite worried, "But she reeks of dark magic."

Salazar lips slightly curved upwards, "How interesting…"

Godric looked between his friend and the young woman, a frown slowly making its way into his handsome features. He couldn't help but feel like this woman wasn't supposed to be here, that Salazar's suddenly interest in her was not a good thing. He was not a stupid man by any means, he was perfectly aware of Salazar's recent experiments with dark magic.

Rowena shivered slightly, "And what of her curse? Can you heal it?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't seen anything like this before." Helga replied quietly, "I can only try."

Salazar smiled and moved behind Helga placing both hands on her shoulders, "I know you can do it, Helga. There's nothing that you can't heal." He said and placed a soft kiss on her right cheek.

The blond-haired woman rolled her eyes but her cheeks reddened brightly, "Then out with the lot of you. I have work to do."

"Aye! As me lady wishes." Salazar replied playfully, winking at her, enjoying the way her blush intensified.

Author's Note: Helluuu all! Thank you for making this far! I hope this first chapter caught your attention and makes you want to read some more! If that's the case, please drop a review!

So I decided to write a Salazar x Hermione fanfiction because I stared reading some of them a few weeks ago and they're all so addicting and I wanted to try writing one of my own. I hope you'll like it and stick around!