Serpent's Bloodline: Legacy of the Basilisk

After they returned home from the Gathering, they told the ladies that they could go ahead and plan the new form of apprenticeship.

"The lads will arrive after harvest, and will have to return home for every harvest that follows," Peverell said.

Sal, who was sorting through his potions to decide what he needed to brew more often in the future, stopped sorting and turned to Peverell.

"Lads?" he asked, surprised. "You will take on only the boys?"

It was Rowena who shrugged.

"There is no way for Peverell, Godric or you to teach a lass," she said. "So of course they will just send you the lads. Every lass that will need to be taught will be taught the basics by her father like it has always been."

"But you…"

This time it was Helga who answered him smiling.

"We are both married woman and when we teach Godric or Peverell will always be in the same room with us - if it wasn't like that, it definitely wouldn't be proper for us, you know?"

Sal wanted to protest but his education on Arthur's court stopped him from doing so. You did not argue with a lady…

So he just hissed his displeasure in Parseltongue under his breath. Peverell and Godric both looked at him with interest when they heard him speak but neither said a word.

"So you will not teach the lasses," Salvazsahar finally concluded sighing. "That's not truly fair, isn't it? Rowena and Helga are after all at least as intelligent as we are and I am sure they aren't exceptions…"

"So… you want to teach the lasses as well?" Peverell asked surprised.

Sal contemplated this.

"I know it wouldn't be proper to do so," he finally said. "But we should look into it. We shouldn't shun the lasses just because it is improper for them to be somewhere without a male family member."

"Well," Rowena said, after she heard his proclamation. "We should not think about this now. Of course I would wish to teach the lasses as well, but I understand that it's impossible for now. Instead we should look at those we can teach for now - and for that we will have to decide what we want to teach our apprentices."

Sal just sighed and closed his eyes. He was not truly satisfied with just teaching the boys for now, but he also knew that there was no way to establish an education for the girls with the current societal standards. After all, they had just talked about the boys all along - and the other four were definitely children of their time…

"I know what I will teach," Godric answered Rowena promptly. "Battle Magic and Weaponry. I planned to teach them that since the day you asked me to aid you in your plans."

"You know that you also will have to teach them how to ride a horse, Godric," Sal entered the discussion, deciding to think about the girl-problem another time. "It's a useful skill, but not many have any experience in riding."

"Well yes, that also…"

"And etiquette. You are a Lord, you should know it well enough to teach it to the young ones," Sal added. Godric grumbled but nodded.

"Well, if you are teaching etiquette you may also include writing," Rowena added sweetly. "That way, we will be sure they know it and we won't have any trouble deciding who will teach them…"

Sal just shrugged. Writing was an important skill - but there was far too little parchment available to bother teaching writing first. Most of the things that the apprentices would learn they would have to learn by heart, as there was no way to use parchment for something that required physical practice.

"Well - I will teach them Transfiguration, as I am a master myself," Rowena said. "I will also teach them Arithmancy and Astrology. They will need Arithmancy for Transfiguration and Astrology is generally useful to everyone. They need to know what time of the year it is, after all."

"You are a Transfiguration master?" Sal asked, surprised.

Rowena shrugged.

"Father was one as well. A woman who knows more than the basics in magic will have a better chance to marry someone of high standing - after all, she will have the knowledge to teach her sons before they start their apprenticeship and that will broaden their spell-knowledge far more than just the apprenticeship."

"Then shouldn't we also accept lasses for this exact purpose?"

"We definitely wouldn't turn them away if their fathers ask for them to be here," Peverell answered shrugging. "But the chance that they do will be slim…"

"It will be," Helga said. "Maybe if Rowena and I offer to teach the lasses separately, at a time when there are none of the other apprentices… maybe we could send the lads home a little bit before harvest and then invite the lasses for a few weeks to learn some things - you know, the weeks when the Gathering of the Lords is taking place. We would all be in Londinium for the Gathering anyway - so why not take the lasses aside and teach them? No one could complain, as the lords of the clans would still be there, and a father or brother could accompany the lass in question so all would be proper. We could aid their teaching with household spells and herb lore - something that every sorceress needs. The sorcerers would not need these classes anyway, so there would be no argument from that angle."

"I think they should know some of it as well," Sal said frowning. He still wasn't pleased by the idea to teach the girls for only a few weeks in the year - but for the beginning, something was better than nothing. "Maybe you could teach them those spells as well, when we have them as our apprentices…"

"Household charms for lads?" Helga asked, sceptical.

"Or you simply add other useful charms to your class, and simply call the class 'Charms'," Sal interrupted.

"I do not think that men need to know such things…"

"Maybe they don't," Sal acquiesced. "But what about future widowers? They might need it then - or do you want them to die because their wife perished and took away the knowledge of how to cook?"

"The sorcerers won't like…"

"They do not have to," Sal interrupted. "But do you really want them to grow up as useless as Godric?"

"Hey!" Godric exclaimed good-naturedly, but Helga looked at him thoughtfully.

"No," she finally said. "I don't. You're right. I will also look for other spells they might need that I will teach."

"So your class will be 'Charms' and not 'Household Spells," Sal concluded. "What about also adding a creature lore class to your herb lore? The boys might need the creature lore more than the herb lore but both might be good to know for both genders…"

"We won't teach the lasses that, Salazar," Rowena rebutted.

Sal just shrugged. Of course they wouldn't at first - but he definitely planned to add the girls as soon as he could. He just had to think around the hindrance of tradition and what was seen as proper… but in a few years' time…

Helga looked at him oddly for a moment as if she was trying to read his mind, but then she just shrugged.

"I might as well add herb lore and creature lore to the teaching of our apprentices…" she gave in.

"And we also should teach them the mind arts," Sal added. "I do not like the thought of them being unprotected - and the mind arts will also aid them in their studies, so that will be another benefit for them."

And the mind arts were needed. Even the females were taught them - Sal had tested the shields of Rowena and Helga both. He was sure that it was not by chance that he had not been able to read the minds any of the sorcerer or sorceress he had met.

It seemed it was part of the typical education - Sal guessed it was to keep family secrets and other secrets they were taught by their masters.

"Well - I won't teach them," Godric said in that moment. "I am not really good in them and I would not want to teach them something I am faulty at, at best."

"I also won't," Rowena said. "The mind arts are a complicated thing to teach. I do not know enough to even think about teaching them." The other two just nodded.

Sal stared at all of them.

"How can you not know?!" he finally asked astonished and then decided to bait them just because he could. "There are a lot of Legilimens out there, and you go around unprotected and not even concerned for what they can plant in your head?!"

"Oh, shut it, Salazar! We're not unprotected! We're simply not very good in the mind arts!" Rowena exclaimed and Sal suppressed a grin when she took his bait and got a little bit riled up. "We're good enough to get by but not good enough to teach. But you may do it when you are certain they should learn. You seem to be really good; you seemed horrified when we told you we weren't."

They argued for another half an hour, but Sal finally gave in to their demands and added the mind arts to the list of classes he was responsible for - not that he hadn't known from the start that he would give in, in the end…

"You will also have to teach them potions," Rowena added.

Sal just sighed.

"And Runes," he said. "I want them to be able to write and speak Brezhoneg like they were born with the knowledge. I would not trust them to attempt hexes and curses in runes without this knowledge… and we will have to combine runes and Arithmancy somewhere in their schooling. It would be good for them to have experience in combining them…"

Rowena nodded.

"Maybe when they're twenty or twenty-one," she said. "When we take them in at fifteen that would give us five years to…"

"Fifteen?!" Sal interrupted this time, truly astonished. "Why do you want to wait until they are fifteen to teach them?!"

"Because their magic needs to be matured to teach…" Godric said surprised. "Don't you know this fact?!"

Sal stared at Godric, then at Rowena, Helga and Peverell. They all stared back at him.

Finally Sal shook his head and sighed again.

"What by fire, ice, and the fairies have you been taught when you were children?!" he finally asked, exasperated, while rubbing his forehead.

"Salazar? What are you talking about?" Rowena - of course.

"The first time a child's magic matures is when they reach their tenth or eleventh year of life," he answered finally. "After that you can start teaching. The second time they mature will be between fifteen and nineteen, the last time between twenty and twenty-three. There is no logical explanation why you should wait until their second maturity to start training them…"

"An apprenticeship always starts when you turn fifteen, Sal," Rowena said. "You should know this. You are a healer - you should have started…"

"I was trained since I was eleven years of age," Sal answered sincerely. "My father would have been horrified if it had been different. Not training a child in their first maturity will just lead to a lot of accidental magic - and that's something I would like to try and stifle. It's not good for the child to start training years after they had their maturity. There is a lot they will be forever unable to learn simply because their parents waited too long to train them…"

"So… you propose that we will start with their training as soon as they turn eleven?!" Peverell asked, starting at Sal as if he was crazy.

"Yes," Sal answered coolly.

"We always waited until…" Godric started.

"How about trying it out?" Rowena interrupted, staring at Sal with thoughtful eyes. "We can always change the age to that of the normal apprenticeships if it does not work - and it would give us some more time to train them. I do not think the lords would mind if we also took in the younger children…"

Peverell stared at her, and then shrugged. "It's your apprenticeship. If you want to try, try it. I do not mind either way."

"That's because you refuse to aid us with it, my dear husband," Helga said snorting.

"Oh, I will help you, I am here after all. I might as well use some of my skills to prevent a total failure," Peverell answered scowling. "I will teach them history, law and politics - someone has to, after all."

"I knew you would see reason," Helga answered smiling.

Peverell just scowled even more and then turned and left the room.

"Well - back to the lesson plan," Helga said cheerfully.

They decided to start with eleven years of age for their apprentices.

The next few months they decided on lesson plans, the costs of the schooling - they had to add a price because the lords firstly expected to pay for the apprenticeship and secondly they needed the money to pay for the meals and the other things the children would need. After that they sent out letters to the lords.

They finally started the school exactly one year after the Gathering of the Lords where they had spoken about their idea, in Peverell and Helga's home - a home that now also inhabited Sal, Godric and Rowena and nearly twenty students.

The first class Sal taught was… strange.

It was entirely different to stand in front of a bunch of students that looked at you with eager eyes then to sit there and wait for a professor to speak.

He stared at them and suddenly the words Severus Snape had used in his own first class returned to him - or would it be 'would use'? Time-traveling definitely wasn't good for your tenses…

But still… the words of his teacher were burned in his mind and when he started the class, he could not help it, he just had to…

" You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he exclaimed, repeating exactly what his potion's professor had… would use in his class. Well - not exactly. He did not want to insult any of his students when they never even had a potions class before that. He wanted to capture them, to draw them in - speaking about 'foolish' wand-waving and 'dunderheads' wouldn't do that…

" As there is little wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you to really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through the human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you listen and follow my lead."

The answer was even wider eyes that were still shining within eager faces, looking at him as if he was their way to heaven. Sal returned their gaze with his own, and then he turned and took one of the ingredients he had prepared before class and showed it to them.

"Is there anybody in this room that knows what that is, and what it is used for?" he asked softly. A lonely hand shot up in the air and Sal smiled.

He was looking forward to teaching.

Well - at least he was until the next two days had passed. After that he got frustrated. He had taught them about the ingredients - then why did he have to repeat himself every time he entered the classroom?! Why couldn't they remember things he had taught them the last time they had classes?! Did they not want to learn?!

He had looked in their faces and thought that they were eager to learn - but now, that seemed to have been an illusion. After all, if they really would have been eager they would know the ingredients he told them about by heart now! So why didn't they?!

What did he do wrong?!

Had he been wrong about their interest in learning?!

Had he been wrong about their wish to brew by themselves?!

He had told them what they could mix, about what they shouldn't mix and about the whys behind that - he had told them again and again. He had to question them every time they had classes and had to supervise their brewing so that he could react before they blew up the room.

It was like swimming through mud. It was tiring and Sal doubted the children learned anything at all.

But they were eager - weren't they…?!

And still…

Why?!

What did he do wrong?!

It was simply frustrating.

After two weeks he finally talked to the others.

"They are not learning!" he said. "I thought they were eager to learn - eager to know! But they still do not know more than before!"

Rowena just stared at him as if he was crazy.

"They are fast learners, Salazar," she said. "I just had to tell them three times until they got it right. I do not understand what is bothering you…"

"Yes," Godric said. "They even learned faster than I did. When I was taught my first spell I needed a week to get it right - they just needed four days. They are amazing, even the eleven year olds!"

Sal just gawked at them.

Fast learners?

Amazing?!

"They are not like you, Sal," Helga said softly. "They need time to remember everything. Be patient and they will get it right…"

"That's not the problem!" Sal cried, just to stop midsentence when Snape came to his mind. Helga was right. That was the problem.

At that moment Sal understood his father. He himself had lived for over a thousand years - he simply had not thought about the problems he had had when he first came to the past. He had never seen the difference between the ability to memorize he had gained from his father and the memory of others as clearly as that day.

It was also that day that he finally understood Severus Snape. Like himself, Snape could not see how a child could not understand potions. Snape might not have an eidetic memory like himself but Snape was a potion-brewing genius. He simply could not understand the problems a normal person had…

Snape had never understood the problem - Sal instead swore that day that he would follow in his father's footsteps and not his potion professor's.

And so he swore to himself to be patient.

"A normal child cannot remember its entire life," he told himself when he had to tell them again and again. "They cannot remember every day and everything they have learned in their entire life. I will have to teach them patiently until they are able to remember…"

And so he did.

At first it was still like swimming through mud. Then the weeks passed and suddenly his students knew things. Suddenly they got them right. But Sal was not content with that. He questioned them again and again until they could answer his questions while sleeping.

He did not stop until they knew all he knew about the ingredients he was talking about by heart and could tell him about them without hesitating.

"You are too harsh on them, Salazar!" Rowena chastised him. "They are children - they do not need to know all that by heart."

"Potions are dangerous," Sal simply replied. "Just one moment can kill you if you are not concentrating. I will not stop teaching them until they do it right without thinking about it first. I want prevent them from killing themselves because of stupidity!"

When Rowena wanted protest against his words, Helga stopped her.

"Let him be," she said. "It is his right to ensure their safety. If he thinks that that is the right way we will not stand in his way to do so, will we?"

Rowena just sighed after that and shook her head.

"We won't," she answered. After that no one criticized Sal again.

At the next Gathering of the Lords in harvest, there were only positive responses to their teaching.

"They learned even more than they would have if they had been apprenticed in the usual way," Lord McGonagall said. "I am impressed by their knowledge. I will definitely send you the rest of our children after the harvest."

The other lords nodded.

"Even the eleven year olds know their magic, and their problems with accidental magic have declined. I will follow Lord McGonagall's lead and send you other children of my clan," another lord said.

This was the time Godric told the other lords about the summer school the two women planned for the girls. At first, the lords were hesitating but finally they decided to try it - after all they were there and the women had nothing to do while the lords gathered…

After the first harvest Sal and the others had thirty more students that wanted to join. The year after that there were even more.

The trial run of the summer classes for the girls a year later brought better results than they thought it would and so the summer classes for the girls by Rowena and Helga were added to their new system.

Soon the five were recommended teachers in the world of sorcerers, and even more lords started to send requests to enter their young ones in either the apprenticeship of Sal and the others or Rowena's and Helga's summer school.

And so they suddenly had fifty more request letters of apprenticeship on their table at the end of the third harvest since opening the school.

"They will not fit into the manor," Peverell sighed when he saw them. "And even with the money we make from teaching them, we cannot build enough rooms so that they would all fit in. We will have to turn away some…"

"Or we change the location," Helga said, who was standing next to him and also looked through the letters together with Rowena and Godric.

"And where do you want to go to, Helga, my dear wife?" Peverell asked with a raised eyebrow. "Do you maybe have somewhere a castle in hiding I do not know of?"

"Well… no… but…"

"So where do you want to go?"

Sal was standing next to the arguing pair. He hesitated just a moment. Then he gave in to his idea - he had to, he had known long ago that he would give in one time.

"I do," he said.

"What?!" Peverell, Helga and also Godric and Rowena who had been following the argument stared at him. "What do you mean, 'I do'?!"

"I have a castle hiding somewhere," Sal answered.

The others blinked.

"You… do…" Peverell said slowly. "How, by Morgana, do you have a castle hiding somewhere?!"

Sal just shrugged.

"It's hidden behind blood and soul wards," he answered. "We could use it if you want."

"Where?!"

"In Pictia," Sal answered. "I can guide you and the students there."

The other ones just stared at him.

Then understanding lit Peverell's eyes.

"You're talking about your ancestral home. You talked about it in the Gathering of the Lords…"

"Yes."

"But… it's your ancestral home…" Godric said.

Sal just shrugged.

"I do not need it - so why not use it for our project?"

The others hesitated, but finally after some arguing the others gave in somehow.

"Let us see it first - then we will decide if we can use it for our students," Peverell finally decided. Sal shrugged and nodded. But he was smirking inwardly. Maybe he would finally have a chance to add the girls to their schooling. He just had to lead the others slowly to his growing plans…

So they started to travel to Pictia three days after. A few weeks later they reached Camelot…