LUKE CADDOCK AND THE DOMINION SEAL
Prologue: Year 993
It had been the moon that glanced off the glittering lake that cast the broken cliffs pale. Four wizards and witches were at work, laying the groundwork in incessant enunciating, swaying their wrists in a surgical fashion, and chaining a wide scale circle of glowing white runes. A budding energy pulsed through the earth as sparks snapped at the woven grass. The circle became intact.
One witch tossed back her hood, revealing jolly cheeks and keen blue eyes, and bundled up her wiry red hair. Rolling up the sleeves of her smoky robe, she gave a crow, "Exceptional work in its all-hood, folks! I sense our ancestors tonight."
"Dear Helga, they're laughing. You praise everything your eyes set on, it's misfortunate for the rest of us," a gaunt-faced man in softness retorted, appalling her into crossing her arms. He as well doffed his shroud, showing brilliant silver and wild hair. Salazar Slytherin didn't send a glance her way when he passed her, and she'd know by the flash of his cat-like eyes, approaching a tall, burly man with locks of golden rust. Salazar shot a shiny glare at him then upon the forest in the murky distance. Disinterested, he hissed, "Gryffindor. Save me."
A broad grin ignited his boyish face with throaty laughter. Godric turned and acknowledged her, "Not misfortunate at all, Helga, your spirit's uplifting! Let our work be done, then after, we shall have a good feast."
Helga shook her head with a wry gape at the men that departed before she clucked and took her girlfriend's elbow, "Come, Rowena. Ooh, don't you see it? Wasn't I true?"
"You are sanguine, so sometimes it does come off child-like," the woman shook her black, overflowing hair and pursed her rosy lips, "but it is not a problem. You both were true, and you both are, well, just… different."
"Everyday you wisen, I swear. I can't stand that snake," Helga's hands balled into fists before she noticed a muffled choke riled from her friend. Rowena was covering her mouth. Helga rushed to her side, arms around her, "Are you all right? Is it the baby?"
"I'm fine," Rowena swallowed, blinking rapidly, a bit off guard. "She's still kicking."
"I can you get water. I can go to the lake -," Helga stammered but she was silenced with a look. "No? Okay. Let our work be done quickly."
They returned to the foundation, now laying down the diameter from opposite ends, crawling on their knees towards each other. It would be in the middle they meet, murmuring ancient charms. Helga kept a fretful eye on her and her round stomach all the while. Rowena wasn't daunted.
The men were silent when they strolled through the gaps of the gnarled wilderness, Salazar occasionally slicing roots with a flick of his bony wand to clear the way. Godric scanned the depths of the night, sometimes startled when a unicorn galloped out of nowhere, but there was no real danger yet. They bumped and brushed into each other in their stagger, but made no reaction of it. Godric stretched and relaxed in the quiet ambiance, slightly sleepy.
"There, that would be noteful," Salazar pointed at a mountain, subtle behind a fury of towering trunks compassed with vines and cobwebs. They made notice of the several blue arrows that jut out of a tree. "Centaurs roamed through here. Keep awake."
"Nervous?" Godric gave an amused chuckle.
"Naturally," Salazar said without a beat, "Who'd else save me from that dawn of a wretch?"
"Why let Hufflepuff under your skin? It's Hufflepuff," asked Godric, who faced him with his eyes gleaming a dark emerald. Salazar kept his stare low and averted, rubbing his primate knuckles together. "I didn't hear about your distaste for her before."
"Forsake we were busy with other matters, and mind your business."
"What matters? You've been a shade for the past few years," Godric perched a thick eyebrow, but he wasn't answered. Salazar muttered under his breath an incantation that enflamed the barricade in sparkling black fire, the ashen smoke lifting a bloody color. That was Salazar. He'd rather die than freely announce the spells he crafted, but Godric cared not; the man was fascinating.
When Godric understood that Salazar wasn't in the mood, he dropped the conversation and braved through the deterioration to the other side. He raised his baton, a sleek limestone-carven wand, and began to stroke. Salazar followed cadence, and together they shouted, "Kallegu!"
In a seeping hiss, pressure erupted from the soil, and the ground disheveled without warning. Godric shot out an arm to keep Salazar back. Their wands grew heavier in their grasp, signaling them to raise it even higher. As the wands were raised, a myriad of monumental blocks levitated in the sky before vanishing into a violet lightning.
Their ears perked at a faint clamor. Salazar cuffed Godric's shoulder as he stood so close to him that their wavering breaths clashed into their necks. They Disapparated just before a volley of arrows missed their mark.
In a whoop, centaurs charged in a horde before their war cries died out. They stared at the arrows that penetrated nothing but footprints.
In a pop, they Apparated in the shores of the lake, drenched waist-down. Salazar hissed loudly and was the first to thrash towards land. Godric did his best to hide a smirk, but Salazar had caught the sparkle in his eyes and narrowed. Then in a rumble, a long tentacle emerged in a brief rain, pillaring high, before striking down with a slap on the surface, nearly missing Godric by a few feet. It was Godric's turn to hurtle out of the water. Abashedly, he faced Salazar who left him a contemptuous grin.
"Oh my!" Helga came running from the cliff, her bosoms bouncing at which Salazar cringed, "Was that a squid just now? In the lake?"
"Yes," Godric peered and panted, all soaked. "There's centaurs too in the forest."
"Really, is this the ideal place to found a school of witchcraft and wizardry here?" Helga posed the question. "The best in the world for our students?"
"Yes, yes!" Rowena pitched in stubbornly when she arrived, "I told you, that warty hog led me here, on a full moon, and a seer said it would be ours."
"Don't start that again," Salazar looked away to the lake, placid again, glaring bright.
"I'm dead serious, Salazar!" Rowena called after him and looked to the rest of the group, rambling in as much as she could. "The warty hog wasn't there when I looked, but when the mist came in, I got lost, and that hog ran in and led me out here. I am telling you!"
"What happened to the hog, Rowena?" Helga sneezed. "Excuse me."
"I… it was gone, I didn't see," she faltered.
"A hallucination," Salazar said flatly. "You're with child."
"No, it was lucid. And you don't hallucinate with child."
"A ghost, then?" Godric posed another possibility.
Helga sneezed again, "My, isn't this strange! I've no allergies."
"I'm content with where we are," Salazar looked bored.
"But it's dangerous!" objected Helga.
"Careful," he pointed past her, "The ghost of the warty hog is watching you."
She crossed her arms, "Don't take me for a dimwit, Salazar!"
Salazar soon contradicted her, hissing in Parseltongue.
"It is best that we prepare our students to face such dangers," Godric put their quibble to rest. "Otherwise, we fail as teachers. We're about to establish a school here. While we may or may not be ready, we are proficient to suit whichever occasion. Remember why we're here."
He held his wand up high, and Salazar did the same, following tempo.
"Kallegu," they spoke in unison.
In a crack of thunder, giant boulders appeared, hovering above the cliff. The four wizards and witches slashed and drew motions in the air with their wands, shouting a fountain of sounds. Crumbling apart and dropping into bricks and pavement, structures were gradually assembled. It was a sight to behold, castles and towers beginning to form, perfectly according to design. Then the magical fiber that bound the grounds into place was sealed.
"What do we call it?" Helga proposed the question, still gazing with wonder.
Briefly, they fell silent.
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Salazar said.
The rest ripped with hysterical laughter. When they started to speak excitedly about it, Salazar frowned at them disapprovingly, "I was only joshing! You cannot be serious!"
A high-pitched shriek echoed.
"What was that?" Godric took some steps forward before Salazar stopped him and pointed to one of the windows of the castles. It was a floating light.
They entered their school grounds, wands at ready, watching the light filter through the windows in muffled thuds. Helga commented on being thankful there were no glass or anything valuable inside as of yet. Rowena, despite being pregnant, chose to go with, tailing behind her good friend. Salazar and Godric were at front, braving up the steps to the main entrance.
There was no wood, no knob, only an arched and empty doorway that revealed a dusty and gothic interior. A light plummeted from a balcony into dead center. It screeched in agony and in inscrutable pain. Helga started to sneeze uncontrollably before they came to the conclusion it was the very thing that was irking her button nose.
The spirit of a warty hog, shimmering and translucent, writhed on the floor. Rowena dug her boot into the back of Salazar's leg that made him trip and scowl at her.
"We've bound it into the foundation…" Helga said, struck with pity.
The hog twisted and convulsed before it was blasted apart, flayed in indecipherable runic markings. Salazar neared it and whispered, kneeling to its side. In an instant, somewhat flesh had sewn it together, colorful fabric and hair, in short bursts.
Smoke trailed while the others watched on peculiarly.
Suddenly, a loud cackling filled the room, sending a jolt into them while Salazar stumbled back.
A little man in a bell-covered hat and an orange tie rose in the air with his legs crossed, his face sinister and pleased. He continued his mad cackling until he was blue in the face, followed by him soaring upstairs into the left corridor and having gone.
"What… what just happened here?" Helga squeaked, having clung onto Rowena before she was shoved off. The three looked at Salazar fixedly.
"That was a poltergeist," Salazar turned face to clarify, "The warty hog… its spirit, actually, appeared to be trapped inside the layers and layers of our spell-casting. Tried to set it free, but by then it was too late, its nature had changed. It's… pure chaos. Indestructible."
"This was a bad idea," Helga shook her head, "Nay, it's terrible! I will not stand for this. We cannot permit children in here with a poltergeist flying around."
"You may be right," Godric sighed, already exhausted.
"No…"
Everyone glanced to Rowena, whose smile was small but was growing.
"We can handle it, we're proficient," she spoke sharply, her dark eyes burning fervently, "Look around us. Look at what we've done, and we can do so much more. We're the founders of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, year nine hundred ninety-three. We're not done. Let our work be done. I'll start on the dining room."
Helga was on the verge of tears, "You wisen every passing second, Rowena Ravenclaw! I'll start with the kitchen!"
Godric and Salazar glanced at each other and shook hands in congratulatory laughter. They started up the stairs to look for the poltergeist and turned left to a corridor where they last saw it disappear to.
It wasn't far down the dim path that Salazar finally surprised Godric and propped him onto the stone wall bathed in pure moonlight, their fingers interlocked, their lips roughly contouring an embrace. Salazar's tongue slowly snaked across those big lips he secretly adored before penetrating, but Godric pushed him back, blinking at his silhouette.
"We can't," Godric cleared his throat. Salazar's brows furled with anger.
"What do you mean we can't?" Salazar hissed in a menacing tone.
"Think about aftermorrow," said Godric, uncomfortably. He couldn't look into Salazar's piercing gaze. He looked so betrayed. "There'll be students. Parents. Alumni. One little slip-up, everything we've all worked hard for would be undone. We've known this."
"Don't slip up then," Salazar pinned Godric again with a forceful hand, knocking a breath out of him, before his hand unfastened a tog, sending the robe sailing to the floor. Godric was left wearing a faded tunic of red and gold, silky briefs that cradled a thickening bulge, and boots that he voluntarily dug out of.
Salazar wrestled him out of his tunic just to have a taste of his erect nipples, licking his lips at the very thought and again at the sight of them. He stole a taste of the lion's ribs too, but Godric interrupted him and dismembered the tog on his robe with a slash of his wand, and the robe Salazar had worn fell apart rashly. He wore mail and nothing below but boots. His cock was already hard and rising.
Godric perched a thick brow, "Were you freezing?"
"Ice blood," Salazar's eyes shone silver. "So, no."
"Doesn't it hurt to touch me?" Godric realized.
Salazar said nothing; instead, he lunged his tongue into his mouth, constricted his arms around him, and thrust their groins together with nothing but silk between them.
"You know that -," Godric managed to groan out through their kissing, struggling away from Salazar's persistent tongue, "You know that we can't do this anymore…"
Salazar backed away, almost intensely preparing for a predatory strike, but calmed, "Yes. I was just caught ablaze. In short time, I will find my lady."
"Good, Salazar," Godric, looking relieved, hugged his good friend tight, "And I, my queen."
Salazar, smelling nothing but flesh, still slipped a cold hand down his silk red briefs and clutched around his screaming cock, "But tonight, mine."
Godric moaned, glancing up at the vaulted ceiling and thinking about their nights while camping in the forest together, rolling over each other in their tent, taken by ecstasy. Salazar sank with every soft kiss down his hardened muscles, exploding an intense pleasure that raked up and down his treacherous body. Godric closed his eyes and bit on his lower lip.
At the far end of the corridor, after seeing everything she needed to see, Helga Hufflepuff left downstairs with a hand that clasped her throat and collapsed on her bum.
"No, oh no…" Helga choked. "They doth ruin us all."
