Salazar Slytherin had been the first among them to walk in the night, spurning the light of day. He’d feasted on the purest of humans, turning those deserving into his younglings. The Malfoys, the Notts, the Blacks, the Lestranges, and twenty-four other families knew that Salazar's blood ran through their veins. They were the sacred, the special, yet only the Gaunts had an undisturbed line, never marrying outside the family. They were revered, until the line had faltered, their last female, Merope, a frail, and appalling woman.