Salazar's retirement career

[sunnyskywalker]

It's interesting that we never hear what happened to Salazar Slytherin after he "departed" that fateful morning. Jodel suggested a couple of possibilities (included below). As a slightly tongue-in-cheek exercise, here's a quiz on his possible post-Hogwarts activities.

(a) He founded Durmstrang.
(b) He founded the Department of Mysteries (whatever it was called pre-Ministry).
(c) He started a war (maybe with pureblood supremacist ideology, maybe something else).
(d) He retired and lived a quiet life of scholarship and contemplation.
(e) He served on the Wizards' Council.
(f) He started a pet shop specializing in exotic snakes.
(g) He accidentally got killed by his own basilisk. The other Founders covered it up out of respect for his memory.
(h) The other Founders killed him and buried him under the foundations of their new Astronomy Tower.
(i) Other, explained in comments.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, an argument between friends that went horribly wrong would be a prequel to the Dumbles and Gellert parting, so still not completely original.

As for Rowena, I wonder how having that tiara of wisdom and then losing it affected her judgment. Did she come to depend on it too much? Was she more interested in her daughter or in her trinket?

Also, supposedly Rowena is responsible for the insane design of the castle. Why Rowena? What kind of wisdom is in that?

[arcanetrivia]

Maybe she had a Luna Lovegood thing going on.

[torchedsong.livejournal.com]

Also, supposedly Rowena is responsible for the insane design of the castle. Why Rowena? What kind of wisdom is in that?

As much as I like Luna, I never got the sense the few known Ravenclaw characters in the books were wise as much as they were presented as either eccentric or bookish. The few Ravenclaw characters I can think of besides Luna are Cho, Flitwick, Lockhart, Quirrell, and Padma Patil. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but the strengths of Ravenclaws seemed even more ignored than Hufflepuffs in the books (with the exception of Luna, I suppose)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Rowena however had the enhancing powers of the diadem (unless the castle design happened after she lost it, maybe experiencing withdrawal).

[sunnyskywalker]

Not completely, but if that's what happened, at least one of them died instead of a bystander.

[sunnyskywalker]

Maybe only Ravenclaws can figure out the pattern of the moving staircases, and everyone else gets stuck? It doesn't make much sense to me, but she also made answering riddles the only way to get into Ravenclaw Tower, so.

It could be just that it was a really neat intellectual puzzle, and she never got as far as "is this a good idea, though?"

I wonder a lot about exactly how her diadem worked. And why she didn't just make another one if her daughter wanted one so badly.