The portrait of Phineas Black ran to his frame in Grimmauld Place. "Sirius! The Headmaster – apparently he's been possessed by the Elder Wand since he defeated Grindlewald. Salazar's fighting him now – get help! Dilys Derwent went to St. Mungos to get help." Sirius immediately flooed the Auror office, and Moody, Shacklebolt, and Dawlish joined him as they apparated to the front gates of Hogwarts and ran to the headmaster's office, hoping they wouldn't be too late.

Meanwhile, Salazar was questioning Antioch while dodging curses. "Can your presence be removed from Albus Dumbledore, and if so, how?" he asked as he dove out of the way of a flaying curse.

"If all the hallows are united I will be expelled from the wand and able to be destroyed. I gave the cloak to Potter because it was weakening my hold on this host."

However, Salazar's questions caused Antioch to notice that his glasses had been turned on him, and he roared in anger before sending a large cutting curse toward Salazar, who blocked it. However, the force of the curse sent the founder stumbling back. Antioch pressed his advantage, and Salazar was hit in the side with another cutting curse before regaining his momentum and dodging Antioch's next attack. The founder sent a stunner toward Antioch, who dodged and transfigured his desk into a lion, which leaped at the parselmouth. Just in time, Salazar drew his sword and the lion impaled itself on the founder's weapon. Salazar conjured several snakes, which he sent toward Antioch with a hissed command. Antioch vanished them with a careless wave of his wand.

Salazar was beginning to get worried. While he knew he was good at fighting, Antioch had centuries more experience than he did. He knew he was losing. Antioch sent another curse towards him, one he didn't recognize, and he dodged out of the way, wincing as the movement irritated the cut in his side.

The battle raged on for several minutes, and while Salazar got off a lucky hydrosecta that opened a gash on the shoulder of Antioch's wand arm, the founder knew that he would not last much longer. Usually, he would have tried to disarm his opponent, but Salazar had no wish to touch the cursed wand and risk being possessed himself. He also knew that if he destroyed the wand, the sudden shock could have negative effects for the real Albus Dumbledore.

Another curse, this one darker, hit Salazar in the leg, and he stumbled into the way of an petrificus totalus. Antioch smirked and walked up to the fallen founder, and placed his wand on Salazar's chest.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Miraculously, Salazar wasn't dead. Dumbledore had fought his possessor and, at the last second, caused the wand fire at the floor next to Salazar. Salazar could tell that Antioch was back in control now, though, and this time, he wouldn't miss.

The doors to the office flew open, and Antioch quickly fell to several stunners, then was placed in magic-suppressing cuffs. Moody put on dragonhide gloves and moved the wand to a magically inert box as Shacklebolt freed the founder. The Aurors went to put Dumbledore in a hidden cell that phoenixes could not access. He would stay there until they found a way to force Antioch out of his body.

Before they left, Salazar told them what had happened, and offered to collect Mr. Potter's cloak to give it to the goblins, who might have a way of tracking the stone using the cloak. After reassuring Harry that the one item he had from his father would be returned to him, Salazar brought the cloak to the goblins after making a short trip to the Hospital Wing to treat the cut in his side.

As it turned out, the goblins did have a way to track the remaining hallow. Three goblins were sent to help him- Bladetooth, Stonejaw, and Narlock. Using something they called trigonometry, they were able to figure out the general area where the stone was located. They traveled to several locations in the British Isles and pulled out a map, on which they drew a line that started from their location and kept going in the direction the cloak was drawn to. They then traveled to the intersection point, which the goblins assured him was where the last hallow was located. Once there, Salazar immediately moved to a shack which was the only spot with magic in the vicinity. He felt wards and immediately realized they incorporated parseltongue.

As he helped the goblins take the wards down, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. A snake was silently moving within striking distance of Narlock. ~Stop!~ he hissed, and the snake paused before turning the other way and fleeing. Just as he brought the wards down other snakes poured out of the doors and windows.

Even with Salazar's help, there were several close misses. Not all the snakes were willing to listen to him. Stonejaw was glad that his boots dragonhide instead of leather, since a snake had sunk his fangs into his boot, unwilling to stop on Salazar's commands. It would have bit him if his boots had been made of a weaker material. Finally, though, they had reached the hallow, which was mounted on a ring.

Salazar moved toward it before one of the goblins stepped briskly in front of him, and Salazar realized that there had been a strong compulsion on the ring, as well as a nasty curse. After removing the curse and the accompanying compulsion, the goblins informed him that it would have meant a certain and painful death. They also informed him the ring was a Horcrux, but decided to wait to remove it, as it was possible that reuniting the hallows might force the soul out.

After all, if it would expel Antioch's soul from the Elder Wand, it might expel Voldemort's soul from the Resurrection Stone. Salazar returned with the ring and cloak to the Ministry, where he was met by Moody, who led him to where Dumbledore was. Mr. Potter was there, which made Salazar start in surprise.

"We decided that it would be best if the Peverell Heir united the Hallows. The descedents of Ignotus Peverell married into the Potters, so Harry's the heir. Ignotus was the only one of the brothers to have male children, though Cadmus had a daughter."

Harry stepped forward and accepted the cloak and stone from Salazar. He laid the cloak on the floor before placing the stone on top of it. He then opened the box and placed the wand on top of the cloak as well, positioning it so it was touching the stone. Harry, Salazar, and the Aurors heard several screams as both souls were driven out of their containers and placed into the wooden blocks that the Aurors had prepared.

Before they could celebrate freeing Dumbledore, however, a second scream erupted from where Harry was kneeling above the hallows. His scar had split open and black mist flew from it. Moody quickly gathered himself and directed the mist to the block where Voldemort's Horcrux was with his wand.

"Slytherin, can you use your knife to destroy the Horcruxes?" Moody asked gruffly.

Salazar stepped forward and plunged the knife first into the Horcrux of his so-called heir, then into Antioch's horcrux. More intense screams than the previous ones followed, and they all waited a minute before checking to make sure Dumbledore was clear of possession. Once they determined that he was, they woke him up.

"Thank you for freeing me," the old man said softly.

"Thank you for saving my life," Salazar replied. "If you hadn't fought his hold on you, I would be dead."

"Antioch manipulated many people using my hands. Right now, I'd like to rest, but tomorrow – I'll need to start fixing what he messed up." He then allowed the Aurors to escort him to St. Mungo's in order to rest, leaving Harry and Salazar in the room alone.

Harry was looking at his hand. "Where did this ring come from?" he asked, and Salazar looked closer to see a signet ring bearing a coat of arms with three bushels of wheat. Salazar took Harry and escorted him to Gringotts, since he thought that he might now also be able to claim his other lordship. While Harry was claiming the Potter Lordship, the founder went to the apothecary to obtain potions ingredients. He returned just as the twelve-year-old was leaving, and he then apparated Harry back to Sirius' house, as it was very late. There was still another week before classes would resume.

The founder apparated back into his quarters and went to sleep. It was ten-o-clock in the morning when Hogwarts told him that Dumbledore was wishing to see him to help get rid of many of the manipulations that Antioch had done.

When they met in the area that first-years were kept before being sorted, Salazar could tell the older wizard still looked weak. Salazar told him in no uncertain terms that he would dispel the manipulations while Dumbledore told him what they were. "In fact, some of the wards that you replaced were gone because Antioch got rid of them," Dumbledore said. "He was very angry when he was forced to let you replace them in order to keep his cover."

Dumbledore first led him to the Slytherin dorms. "You probably haven't noticed these since you have not entered the dorms, but shortly after they gave me the position of headmaster, Antioch had me place runes on the beds in the Gryffindor and Slytherin dormitories that that would cause the students who slept there to hate the other house. The student has to sleep in it every night for the runes to work, and during the leaving feast, as well as the last feast before Christmas holidays, the drinks at the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables are laced with antipathy potions keyed toward the other house, so that the students will continue to hate each other until they can sleep in the bed again."

Salazar grimaced, and tried using a spell to cut away the area of the wood where the runes were carved, only to find that he could not. He looked closer and there was a spell of protection in the runes. He tried vanishing the beds, but he sighed when he could not – he hadn't been expecting a different result. Salazar eventually shrunk the beds in the boys dormitory and got the house-elves to send them to the quidditch pitch so he could burn them later. Dumbledore then suggested he get a house-elf to gather the beds from both the Slytherin and Gryffindor girls dormitories. That was how Antioch had gotten around the protection.

Salazar did so and shrunk those down as well, before the house-elves sent them to the quidditch pitch. He grabbed Dumbledore's arm and side-along-apparated him to the Gryffindor common room, from where shrunk the beds in the boys dormitories there as well, and sent them via house-elf to where the other beds were.

Dumbledore then knocked on Severus' quarters, and Salazar's heart sank, guessing where this would be going. Severus answered, and Dumbledore explained about his possession, as well as the manipulations, then said there were runes on his and the other head of houses beds. Severus agreed to have his bed burned, then asked Dumbledore if Antioch had sabotaged his relationship with Lily.

"Yes, he did that, and more. He forced you to say that word to her. He knew that if Lily rejected you, you would be alone and would just need a small nudge to join Voldemort, which Antioch provided. He then used a listening device he had tagged you with to figure out that Voldemort wanted you to spy on Trelawny's interview, and then imperioused her to give that prophecy, realizing that he might be able to end his younger brothers' line at last. The prophecy is a fake."

"Excuse me," Severus said, and hurried to his bathroom, where Salazar heard the sound of retching. He then came out, and said he needed time alone and ran to the potions lab.

"You should probably tell Harry that the reason Voldemort is after him is because of a fake prophecy, too," Salazar said. Dumbledore sighed, but agreed.

Severus's bed had the same runes on it as the Slytherin students, as well as additional ones that made him hate Harry Potter specifically, and another one that led him to be biased toward Slytherin and another that made him ignore bullying. By tomorrow, Severus would be acting very differently. In fact, all of the other professors had runes on their bed causing them to ignore bullying. Their beds went with Severus's to the quidditch pitch.

"Rory!" Salazar called for one of Hogwarts House-elves after he wrote a note on a piece of paper.

The elf popped in. "Yes Master Salazar?"

"Take this note to Howard Householm, who runs a furniture shop in Diagon Alley. It calls for an express order of enough new beds for the professors and the two houses, to be completed by the time classes resume. Until then, I have conjured beds for the students who have stayed over the holidays and Severus."

Dumbledore then told Severus and Salazar that he had given several potions to Harry – one that made muggles hate him, and another that made the other people's opinions of him change with the slightest provocation. He asked Severus to brew the antidotes while he and Salazar dispelled more of Antioch's manipulations. Harry had also had a block on half of his magic, as well as a 25% block on his intelligence and growth, so Severus was also asked to brew growth-stimulating potions.

"Wait," said Salazar as they left to burn the beds before they would removing the blocks on Harry. "Didn't Antioch send him to live with muggle relatives? How long was that first potion active?"

"As long as he was there," Dumbledore said sadly. "But there was another thing I wanted to ask you. I, personally, have no experience being the headmaster, and little wish to do so as it would just remind me of him I knew you already would do so, but I'd like to formally ask you to be the new headmaster."

"I will," said Salazar. "If you take over the defense position."

"Deal."

A/N: I was on vacation in London and then went to other parts of Europe, and imagine my surprise when I went to the Tower of London and saw a carving by a "Thomas Peverel" who had been held in the tower. It included a picture of a crucifix, a skeleton, and a coat of arms which was too small to be made out. I then looked it up online and figured out that the coat of arms of the "Peverel" family was three bushels of wheat. For the purposes of this story, the muggle house of Peverel was founded by a squib from the wizarding family. The spelling is different because there was no consistent spelling then.