Author's Note: This is Part One of my tale of the Four Founders, as told by Rowena Ravenclaw. It came from a dream where I was Rowena, hours and hours of research, several re-readings of the Harry Potter series, several re-readings of Ivanhoe, and extensive time with my nose buried in a French/English dictionary. Still, it was fun. I know this probably isn't how J.K. Rowling planned it, but she probably is never going to write the real version, so I said, why not? There will be a sequel with the Founding itself in it, and then one or two further sequels.

Augusta

Disclaimer: If you recognize it from Harry Potter, then it belongs to J.K. Rowling. If you recognize it from Arthurian myth or historical incidents, then it belongs to European history. If there are other unconsious resemblances, I apologize and give the credit to the author. If it belongs in none of the above categories, then it's mine.

26 October, 1011 Anno Domini

A tall, black-haired girl of fifteen nodded graciously to her footman as he handed her down from her coach. Her old nurse, Madge, was next, followed by Madge's daughter Martha, who served the tall girl as a maidservant. Neither Madge nor Martha spoke a word, just stood behind their young mistress looking grim. They served Rowena Ravenclaw, and were no happier than she to be here.

Rowena looked over the small castle with its warm stones with a critical eye. Much larger than her father's small manor, it somehow seemed much less grand. She knew that she should be glad people of such a higher standing than a struggling knight from Glen would be willing to take in his daughter, but could not make herself like the cheerfulness of the place. She was used to the severity and elegance that she had grown up in and could not help but feel slightly contemptuos of the merry folk, the Hufflepuffs of Lanast.

The large front doors opened and two people came out. One, tall and dark-haired, was unmistakably Lady Gwyneth, Lord Hufflepuff''s reserved convent wife. Some suggested that it had been a love-match, ridiculous as that was, because they were so utterly different that no one could fathom him having her otherwise. Lady Gwyneth was well known for vey rarely smiling and for her sterness and piety. Lord Hufflepuff was known for his good-natured forgetting to do anything, including go to Mass, and constant good humor. By Lady Gwyneth's side was a girl who had to be her eldest daughter, Helga. Short, plump, and with a riot of unruly golden curls, she was practically hopping with excitement, her bright yellow gown contrasting sharply with her mother's dark gray. "Scandalous, Lady Rowena," Madge muttered to her. " If I was Lady Gwyneth, that slip of a thing would never be allowed outside until I beat some sense into her long enough for her to marry some fellow who had never seen her, lest he change his mind!"

" Hush," she said softly. " Helga Hufflepuff may be a ninny, but she's still higher ranking than me. You and Martha watch your tongues around these folk. I'll never tell them, but we would have starved in short order if Lord Hufflepuff hadn't remembered that his daughter was my brother's widow and that I was supposed to marry his son. You two may be turned out anyway, so don't give Lady Gwyneth a good reason. She won't be as lenitent as Lady Alienor." She saw no reason to keep calling the woman 'Mother' now that her father was dead. Alienor had raised Rowena right along with her two sons as her daughter until she and both boys were taken by the sweating sickness, but there was no forgetting that Rowena's mother had in fact been a Saxon beauty the dead master had been fond of. She had left when Rowena was only a year old, and all she knew of her was that, save for that the Saxoness had the pale hair and eyes of her own people, they looked alike and shared a name. But there was no time for musing. Lady Gwyneth was waiting at the head of the stairs. Touching her rosary with one long finger, she forced her face into a smile and walked toward the woman and her daughter.

Gwyneth looked at her as if summing her up. Rowena couldn't tell if she was pleased by what she saw or not. She gave a rare smile. " Welcome, Lady Rowena. I am Lady Gwyneth Hufflepuff and this-" she nodded at the girl- " is my daughter, Helga. We are pleased to have you he-"

Helga interrupted her. " Lady Rowena? How can you be Lady Rowena? You can't be married!"

"Helga!" Lady Gwyneth exclaimed. " Do you not know the meaning of manners? It's no fault of Rowena's that her father was only-er, was never very-" Gwyneth seemed to be at a loss for words.

" He was only a lowly knight," Rowena finished for her bluntly. " I should be nothing but Mistress Ravenclaw, with my brothers inheriting everything. I'm not married, and both my brothers died. I am called Lady Rowena instead of Lady Ravenclaw because, before her marriage, Lady Ravenclaw was Alienor of Gwynned, sister of King Leodegraunce and aunt of Queen Guinevere."

" Well!" Lady Gwyneth said, sounding slightly flustered. " You certainly know who your connections are, Rowena. I may call you Rowena, mayn't I?"

" Of course. I come here as a friend."

Talkative Helga,however,was not finished yet. " But Princess Alienor wasn't really your mother, was she? You're name's Saxon, and they say your real mamma was some Saxon witch who-"

" Helga!" Gwyneth exploded. " How dare you ask her that! As far as you and I are concerned, Alienor was Rowena's mother, and it would be no business of ours if she was not! She is Richard Ravenclaw's daughter, and will make a fine wife for one of your brothers, and if that is enough for your father, then it should be enough for you, miss. Now I see why I never sent you to my old convent to be educated with the rest. The Mother Abbess would never have stood for such antics."

Helga didn't seem to mind the lecture. " No, I don't think I would make a very good nun, not like Elisabeth. I learned enough from Enna when I went to Tintagel in the summers."

" Tintagel?" Rowena asked. " Isn't that the haunted palace?"

Lady Gwyneth smiled at her again, as if to apologize for her daughter. " Come inside, dear. Helga will tell you all about it. It's quite exciting, I never would have hoped half so much for her."

Helga chattered energetically to her all the way up to the rooms here that would be hers. When they walked in, Rowena could not stop herself from doing the slightest of double-takes. Helga looked at her quizzically. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. " I never had apartments this large back at home. My father was not poor, but then, he was not wealthy. He never knew what to do with a daughter. Most of my things belonged to Lady Alienor-from Madge to the dress I'm wearing." She fingered the dark sapphire cloth unconsiously.

" Madge?" Helga asked, totally comfortable in the large, well-appointed room. Rowena supposed she had always lived in far larger.

" My old nursemaid. She came from Gwynned with Lady Alienor. Her daughter Martha has been my maid for about three years now-since she was old enough to do a maid's work and I was old enough to need a maid." A note of anxiety slipped into her voice despite her efforts to stop it. " They can stay, can't they? They won't take much, and my father left me enough to see to their upkeep-" she cut off as Helga began to laugh.

" You thought we would take your servants? My goodness! We wouldn't think of it, not even Mama. This is your home too, now. Papa said that you're just like another sister, with Elisabeth decided to be a nun and the other three all married. I can't believe that they haven't married me off already instead of waiting on one fellow this long."

" You're betrothed?"

Helga laughed. " D'you remember what I said about Tintagel? Well, Lady Igraine, when she wedded King Uther and went off to live at Camelot, she gave Tintagel to her sister, Viviane.Viviane married Francis Gryffindor, from Gaul, and lived happily with him until she died. She was really an Avalon sorceress, and her eldest daughter, Lady Setiva, became one too. The others are all right, though, and they all still live at Tintagel with Francis. Marie won't marry, Sophia can't, and Godric-" Helga stifled a shrill giggle, blushing rather badly.

" Godric?" Rowena said, rather confused. " I always knew Avalon priestesses were strange, but who ever heard of calling their daughter Godric!"

Helga bent over, nearly collapsing with laughter. " No, no,no. Godric's Marie and Sophia's brother, silly."

Normally Rowena would have been none too pleased at being called silly by a girl who had been jumping up and down like a moonstruck idiot earlier over the arrival of someone she didn't even know, but now she felt pretty silly. She should have realized what Helga meant, but Helga had implied that Francis Gryffindor of Gaul and the Avalon woman had only had daughters. " Well, what were you talking about? "

Helga gasped for air, bringing herself back under control. " I'm sorry. Oh, Godric. Well, I'm not betrothed-not formally, anyway, with the ceremony and all. But everyone knows that we're going to marry someday.Mama really wants this match, because the Gryffindors are even richer than we are. Your papa was about to seal a betrothal between your brother Manalran and Sophia Gryffindor- she doesn't talk, that's why no one'll have her, but I suppose your brother and papa thought she'd do- and another between you and my brother Edwain when the fever got all your family save you. Oh, I'm sorry!"

"Sorry? Sorry for what?"

" Mama always told me what a big mouth I have, and she told me a thousand times not to mention Sir Richard and Lady Alienor or your brothers or betrothals in front of you! I'm so sorry! Do say you'll forgive me, do!" She looked near tears.

" There is nothing to forgive," she said levelly. " I was spared by God from the illness for some reason of His own, and my family was taken to Heaven to dwell in peace, never to suffer again. It would be foolish as well as a sin to take offense from what you said. " What she didn't mention was the fact that she had cried every night since her father's death and that she already knew that she would eventually be forced to marry Edwain Hufflepuff.

Helga smiled brightly, obviously relieved, and began chattering about possible marriages again. "Mama liked you, you know. You showed her backbone and you didn't slap me silly for running my mouth about your mother. I think she might try to wangle it for you so you can marry Salazar instead of Edwain. I hope not. If you were to marry Edwain, then we would really be sisters! And besides, Salazar..." she broke off, looking, for the first time, uneasy.

" Who's Salazar?" Rowena had learned fast that Helga knew everything about everyone who mattered.

" Salazar Slytherin. His mother, Ana of Portugal, was the sister of Viviane Gryffindor. They died on the same day, imagine. Lord Francis took in Salazar and his sister Isabel and raised them with his own for Viviane's sake-Salazar was five, and Isabel was three.Their father was British, but he had nothing and died before Isabel was born. Salazar is a count in Portugal, and Isabel inherited some lands and was made a viscountess. Salazar would have split the title with her, but then what would his wife be? Godric was supposed to marry Isabel once, but said marrying me would already be too much like marrying a younger sister, and Isabel would be far worse. Besides, they'd never agree on titles. Things are different, it seems, is Gaul and Portugal as to what someone in a position is called." A shadow crossed Helga's cheerful face for a moment, and Rowena could have sworn she heard her mutter, "And again different on Avalon." She was sure she was mistaken a moment later when the shadow deepened as she began to speak again. " Salazar's all right, usually, but sometimes he frightens me. He gets strange black moods sometimes, and he-he-" she dropped her voice to a whisper. "He speaks to snakes." Rowena gasped, covering her mouth with one hand. She had studied magic enough under Merlin when he visited, as he so often did, to know that the gift of Parseltounge was no gift at all, but a mark of dark sorcery, or at least the potential for it. Merlin himself could speak with all animals, but he could not abide serpents.

' They are the servants of all evil, my Ennaling,' he had warned her, using the grandfatherly pet name he so often called her by. ' There is no good in the serpent-beast. I am no Christian, but does not your God tell of his enemy the Devil assuming that form?' She had tried to explain to Merlin about the Lord and Satan, but he waved it aside. He worshipped the Great Goddess, and nothing anyone, even Arthur Pendragon, said would convert him. ' Ennaling, I could converse with the serpent if I wished, but I will not, for it is an evil act and a sign of an impure soul. I have looked into your future and have seen- the old man had closed his eyes momentarily, fighting the ordinance placed on him that stopped him from telling anyone the instrument of their fate. ' Beware of the Serpentongue!' he had barked, departing with all haste for Camelot.

She was dragged ot of her reverie by Helga. "Sometimes he can't stop himself, but sometimes he does it on purpose, I'm sure he does. Godric's the only person who dosn't ever seem to think that he'll go mad and kill us all-but then, Godric never has been much on tellng folk what he thinks."

Rowena shuddered and hastily bid Helga to change the subject, as she was only too happy to do. Rowena lent only half an ear to Helga's prattle, her brain working furiously. Merlin's warning was echoing through her brain. ' Beware of the Serpentongue!' Was it only a coinsidence that some fellow in these parts she assumed from what she heard of Helga's chatter she would soon be aquainted with could speak to snakes? It was time to do some research.

" Helga," she said. " Do you have a good library in this castle?"