Salazar Slytherin was born into an ancient wizarding family who was intensely proud of its pureblood roots. If there was ever any Muggle blood in their heritage, it had been so well hidden that all traces were completely obliterated.

The Slytherin family was highly privileged and thus could afford the best tutors for their only son. While his sisters did share in some of the lessons, the majority of Salazar’s education was done in private. He was a very intelligent boy and thrived under this system and quickly showing the potential within him to become one of the greatest wizards the world had ever known.

Early on in his lessons a peculiar attribute of the young boy became evident: he was a parselmouth. This ability led to him developing a great fondness for snakes, a fondness that would lead to him taking the creature as his own personal emblem later in life.

For most of his formative years, Salazar did not meet too many people beyond his family (and the family servants, of course). One of these family members was his cousin, Ariadne, who was two years his elder and whose company Salazar greatly enjoyed. As he grew older, his feelings towards Ariadne took a romantic turn as he fell completely in love with her. When he was twenty, the two were married and both looked forward to a long and happy life together.

The next two years were filled with much happiness for the pair. And then, when Salazar was 22, Ariadne became pregnant. The couple awaited their child’s birth with great excitement. However this excitement turned to sorrow for Salazar when his beloved Ariadne died in childbirth. Unable to face his grief, Salazar left his infant son Perseus in the care of Ariadne’s parents and left England to travel the world. He would visit the child sporadically to make sure that he was being raised properly however Salazar never stayed long. During these years, Salazar began to gain knowledge of the Dark Arts and of dark creatures, something that had not been as much a part of his early education.

This journey took Salazar to Romania where, at the age of 25, he had a life-altering meeting. He was there to study dragons and he was not alone in this pursuit: another young wizard from England had been there for several months before Salazar arrived. Salazar didn’t think much of the man at first, finding him to be too loud and boisterous. Slowly however, Salazar was forced to recognize that this wizard was quite intelligent, perhaps even Salazar’s equal. This wizard, of course, was Godric Gryffindor.

Salazar was never what one would call a friendly man. And so he resisted Godric’s overtures of friendship, preferring to see the other wizard as a rival and nothing more. It was only after Godric returned to England that Salazar recognized, grudgingly, that he had enjoyed the man’s presence. He would not admit this to anyone but himself, however, though he did begin an owl correspondence shortly after leaving Romania himself.

One thing Salazar and Godric never saw eye-to-eye on was the treatment of Muggles and those witches and wizards who were born with mixed blood (or, perish the thought, the Mudbloods). The pair had many arguments about this matter. Eventually, in order to keep the peace, they agreed to disagree and stop discussing the issue.

Salazar continued to travel the world, gaining knowledge of magic from various cultures, for the next five years. On his thirtieth birthday, he decided to finally agree to Godric’s suggestion that he return to England for good. He had barely arrived back before Godric was introducing him to two talented witches whom Godric had become good friends with during the last few years.

Of Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar thought very little. She had talent and some intelligence, but overall he did not think she was anything special. However, Rowena Ravenclaw was exactly the opposite.

It had been a long time since Salazar had felt the stirrings of desire – not since his wife had died. But Rowena was intelligent and beautiful and definitely special. She was also married. And so Salazar kept his feelings to himself while doing his best to fill the role of trusted colleague.

Godric, Salazar, Rowena, and Helga soon began to establish a reputation as a team made up of some of the most talented wizards in the world. Instead of letting this go to their heads (well, maybe alongside it going to their heads) the foursome began to brainstorm ways to make use of their shared talent. An afternoon discussion between Rowena and Helga led to the idea of creating a school. This plan gained momentum as the Muggle community became more and more fearful of magic, leading to numerous persecutions for wizards and witches (along with unfortunate Muggles suspected of sorcery as well).

And so, six years ago, they founded the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, building a castle far from Muggles where young wizards and witches could learn in safety.

Salazar was a full partner in this project, yet even from the beginning he had his misgivings. He had to argue long and hard to keep Muggleborns from being accepted in the school. Halfbloods he was forced to accept, though never within his own house. Driven by his doubts and his tendency for secrecy, Salazar built the Chamber of Secrets underneath the school as a place for him to conduct various magical experiments in private. He also, at great hardship, managed to bring in a basilisk egg which would hatch one year after the opening of the school. Being a parselmouth, Salazar was able to control and train this creature, which he planned to use only if necessary.

For six years, Salazar was successful in keeping Mudbloods out of his school. However just as the first class of Hogwarts was set to complete their education, all this changed. What will happen next is, of course, unknown.