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I do not own the original story, it belongs to J.K. Rowling (if you did not know that O.O).
First time uploading something on this site, have mercy on me :)
No light was streaming through the slightly filthy windows of Arianne's bedroom in the Grimmauld place number 12. She still couldn't cope with the fact, that Sirius was dead, while trying to save her...
Everyone, her friends and members of the Order were telling her, that is wasn't her fault of course but in her mind, it was all her fault. Sleep was a torture for her, as it meant she would have nightmares of the moment when Sirius died on that night in the ministry of magic, and she would always hear Bellatrix Lestrange's mad laughter through it all.
She hated that woman, if it were not for her Sirius would be alive, he would be with her, in this lonely house she now called home. At the beginning of the summer holidays Arianne was still at the Dursley's, but Dumbledore had asked her to help him convince the former potions teacher Horace Slughorn to teach at Hogwarts again. It has been easy really. Arianne didn't even know how it happened, but Slughorn agreed to teach once again at Hogwarts with the condition of a salary raise. After they left Slughorn, Dumbledore had offered Arianne to bring her to the Weasleys, but she had declined politely and instead asked him if it was possible to stay at the Grimmauld place 12. It has been a mistake she now knew.
After his death Arianne had inherited the house and all of the Black's possession as she was his goddaughter but Arianne would have been happy not to inherit Kreacher with the house. The house elf didn't consider her as the new mistress but had to listen to her none the less. Setting him free was out of the question as he knew too much of the Orders secret.
Arianne cursed silently; she had to get a grip on herself and fast. All summer long, her friends had tried to cheer her up by sending her letters and invitations to join them and their families on vacation but to no avail. Arianne had locked herself up in the dark bedroom that was once Sirius and only left her solace if it was really necessary. She would soon start her sixth year in Hogwarts and she would be damned if by then she hadn't pulled herself together. Sirius wouldn't want her to be sitting around crying like some weak girl and pitying her life like some Mary Sue. She gave herself two hard slaps to her each cheek and stood up from the bed. "Kreacher!" Arianne shouted with annoyance in her voice. With a quiet crack Kreacher appeared in front of her and bowed lowly. "The unwanted mistress has called this humbly and unhappy Kreacher?" Arianne looked with disgust clear on her face at Kreacher, "as a matter of fact, I have. I want you to help me renovating this excuse of a home into a presentable house, starting with getting rid of all dangerous dark artefacts in this house. Oh, and don't you dare trying to sneak things away, before anything is thrown out you will be showing me the items first, is that clear?" Kreacher gave her an incredulous look and shook his head in an angry manner. "Mistress Arianne is going to change the interior of the noble Black's?! Oh what would the madam say if she knew about this, a half-blood daring to change the house of her ancestors oh poor madam..." Arianne snorted, "You know, I am sure that old bi- hag will have a lot to say to me, considering her damned portrait is still in this house and I am sure you will tattle to her anyway."
Kreacher and Arianne starred angrily at each other but at last, Kreacher gave her a slight bow and with an almost audible "understood" he disappeared again, following her orders Arianne thought.
After two weeks of hard work, Arianne was standing amidst new furniture in the now redecorated living room, as was the rest of the house. Arianne had always been discontent with the overly emphasis of Slytherin-love for the decor of the house. Some pieces of the former furniture were beautiful and not to mention important family heirlooms, so she kept them but she happily changed the whole tapestry of the house to a more modern white and cream coloured paint. She kept the generally baroque theme of the interior of the house just because she didn't have any special preference of style and also because she had been annoyed with Kreachers sobbing of her changing the whole house. Changing the green colours of the house to neutral white and beige had been a war in itself.
There was only three days left until Arianne would have to return to Hogwarts on the first of September and she had invited Ron and Hermione to stay with her until they had to leave for Hogwarts. At the moment she was silently watching her friends with a slight smile on her lips as both of them seem lost for words. "This is amazing Arry! What did you do to the house? I never thought this old wrack could ever be so..." Ron struggled for the right word, "friendly?" said Arianne with an arced brow. "Yeah, I guess that's the word", Ron laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "I tried to change the atmosphere to something light, the old depressing look reminded me too much of Sirius's death" said Arianne with a sad look on her face. "It's beautiful Arianne!" beamed Hermione.
The three of them spend the rest of their summer holidays doing their assignments from school (Hermione already finished them since long), playing games and talking about just anything that popped into their heads, as long as it wasn't about Sirius was left being said out aloud. The Order still had its meetings in Grimmauld place 12 with the consent of Arianne.
On September the first, it was time again for the trio to get back to Hogwarts. Arianne was even more happy than usual to get back to the school, the house still held so many memories of Sirius and she wanted to get away from it as soon as possible.
The new school year held many changes, after the incident in the ministry of magic, the wizarding world now knew that Voldemort has indeed returned and more vicious than ever. The terror of the dark lord and his death eaters now have expanded to the muggle world and reports of tortured, missing and killed wizards, witches and muggles alike were starting to become more frequent on the news papers. Also due to this, Hogwarts security has also been increased, an attack on Hogwarts by death eaters seem very likely now.
With Slughorn as the new potions teacher, Snape finally got his wish and became the new Defense against the Dark teacher to Arianne horror. But at least she and many other students are now able to continue potions even though they didn't get an outstanding in potions during their O.W.L.s last year.
Being in Hogwarts was indeed helping Arianne to not think about Sirius or possible revenge on Bellatrix (which she would have never admitted to her friends, they would just unnecessarily worry about her). Snape wasn't all that bad at teaching DADA but he was still being an insufferable bastard to all students beside the Slytherins but that was nothing new.
One month into the school year, on a rather cold October evening, Arianne found herself sitting on the Astronomy tower with Hedwig beside her. Due to some unknown reason, she wasn't feeling hungry and excused herself from her friends, saying she had a headache and that she would be going to the hospital wing in order to ask for some medicine and after that she would go to bed early. The headache wasn't even a lie. Her head had been hurting all day long and Arianne wondered if she was coming down with some sort of cold. Luckily the pain had nothing to do with her scar that, would have felt differently. It was a cold but clear night and Arianne could see the stars twinkling above her head. She absentmindedly petted Hedwig one last time before sending the owl back to the owl tower. Still not minding her surrounding, Arianne walked back down the stair, her thoughts on her future which didn't look all too rosy with Voldemort's return, the death eaters and with her luck, possibly even more trouble than she can think of.
After a while, Arianne was not sure how long it had took her to realise it, she was startled out of her thoughts by a noise. She looked up to see Ms. Norris not too far away from her, standing beside a portrait which didn't seem to be occupied at the moment. The cat hissed at her and gave her sort of a glare if cats could possibly glare, Arianne thought. She still had three hours left until curfew so it wasn't like she would get in trouble with Filch so she ignored the cat and took in her surroundings. Not far away ahead of her was the room of requirements. An idea flicked through her head and Arianne walked up to the room. She slowly paced three times past the door, each time thinking I need a break from this mess called my life. Anything will do. After the third time Arianne stood blankly in front of the door, still wondering if she really should be opening this door right now.
With a shrug of her shoulders and a deep breath she opened the door to find a small chamber behind it. Arianne quietly closed the door and slowly inspected the room. The walls of the room where adorned with strange runes there were no windows or furniture beside a strange glowing crystal orb in the middle of the chamber. With a curious look on her face Arianne walked up to the Orb and stared at it. Is this supposed to actually distract me from my problems for a moment?, thought Arianne to herself. I probably didn't give the room a clear explanation of my needs. Or rather, I don't really know what I want at the moment and this stupid headache doesn't seem to be going away soon! With a sigh Arianne starred more intently at the Orb. The glowing seems to come from the inside of the orb. Bluish light was swirling inside the orb sometimes flaring up to a bright white-blue, sometimes dimming to a dark midnight blue. There was a note attached to the stand which held the orb. Think once about past incidents of your life, think twice about your current situation, but do not think about the future at all for the moment, as you wished upon a break from your current life. Getting away from the present? That shall be granted to you for it is an easy wish to grant. Thrice is the number of fate if you still wish for a change, state your Name, your need and last but not least, state any limitations you can think of that you deem necessary. THRICE, if you so wish for a change...
Arianne pondered the words for a while. It seems the orb grants wishes, but there are no wishes without a price, are there? This is not some stupid story with a magic lamp that grants wishes, nor is it some happy fairy tale. It is plain and simple REALITY. But that doesn't mean that Arianne was not curious. This was Hogwarts and whatever may happen, it can't be all THAT bad, can it? The school itself has never hurt her in any way, and the room was a part of Hogwarts so yeah, you get the point. And this orb doesn't seem to have anything to do with Voldemort...
She wouldn't hear the end of it if Hermione were beside her but with her usual curiosity and what she liked to call her braveness, like a true Gryffindor mind you,(some may call it unwariness, arrogance of being the girl who lived, or just plain stupidity) Arianne said "I, Arianne Lilly Potter would like to get...More time for myself. I want to get away from my current situation for an undefined time" and after some seconds of thinking she added "and I shall not return until I have an answer to my predicament of a life". Arianne knitted her brows together in thought. That sounded just stupid but to her dismay she doesn't have a better idea how to phrase her inner wish. She just knew the stress was getting to her, the expectation of the wizarding world, of Dumbledore, and her friends, to beat the dark lord, was getting heavier by the day on her shoulders. It just wasn't fair. She had never wanted to be special, a calm and normal life would have been more than satisfying for her but no, she was the-girl-who-lived and due to some stupid prophecy by an even more annoying professor namely Trelawny, she has to get rid of Voldie. Now somewhat pissed Arianne straightened her posture and said her sentence twice more with a loud and clear voice. Who cares if it sounded stupid? If it grants her wish she would not be the one to grumble.
The light in the orb slowly faded and moments later Arianne got the same feeling encircling her body like with a port key, the world started to spin, nausea hit her like a rock and combined with her headache she felt like she had to vomit and pass out at any time soon, instinctively she closed her eyes tightly shut and after what seemed like hours Arianne finally felt sturdy ground under her feet. Or rather a snow covered ground, judging by its icy coldness and a cold wind touching her skin. With a groan she crumbled to the floor. Where the hell was she? The last thing she registered before falling into unconsciousness was a voice "Your wish is granted. You may not return until you have found what you seek. These were your words yes?" With a snicker the voice faded into the blackness of unconsciousness.
Something didn't feel right. And it's not the headache Arianne felt, or the fuzziness. It's rather that, what she should be feeling right now and the clear absence of it.
I am sure there was some snow on the ground, not to mention that freaking wind...Slowly Arianne opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was in the hospital wing of Hogwarts, judging by her surroundings. Of that, she was hundreds percent sure of it. She was probably the only student that spent so many hours, if not days, in the hospital wing. It seemed to be night time. The room was dark and there were no other students in here. What the hell happened? Did the orb transport me outside and then I was found by someone? But there had been snow lying on the floor after the orb transported me and it hadn't been that cold when I went outside of the castle the last time before going to the room of requirements.
This is just stupid Arianne thought. And with this she sat herself up on the bed and listened intently to the nightly noises of the hospital wings which, like always was completely nonexistent at all. With that she carefully and as silently as she could, stood up from the bed and turned to the door.
I should look around a little. It should give me some hints to as what really happened after I passed out. Before leaving the hospital wing she had enough patience left in order to peek outside of one of the windows. Indeed, there was snow lying on the school grounds and new snow was falling silently from the night sky. Shit, so SOMETHING did happen after I got transported. With a new sense of restlessness Arianne walked out of the hospital wing and entered the corridor. Of course at this time there were no other students walking around in the halls. But she still had to look out for the prefects, restless teachers and Filch and Ms. Norris. That is, if there was a Filch and Ms. Norris in whatever place she currently was walking around in.
Arianne wondered if she should go to the headmaster's office or maybe go to the Gryffindor tower. She concluded it would be better to get back to the Gryffindor tower. Someone had brought her to the hospital wing but it's not like she had any injuries, even her clothes that she had been wearing before were still on her.
Arriving at the tower and standing before the painting of the fat lady in pink, Arianne confidently walked up to the lady and gave her a challenging look. "Danger is fun" Arianne said. The lady gave her an inquisitorial gaze and shook her head. "First of all, that is not the password and second, students should not be walking around at this hour. Moreover I don't remember you. You're not a Gryffindor are you?" Arianne looked disbelievingly at the fat lady. "What do you mean I am not a Gryffindor? Come on, it's me, Arianne Potter! You know, the-girl-who-lived? The girl who survived Voldemort's killing curse?"
"Young lady! I will keep quiet about your appearance and not report this to the masters and mistresses. Whichever house you belong to, you should hurry back to your own dorm. Now, off you be!"
Arianne was baffled. The fat Lady didn't know her? How can this be? Maybe she was playing a prank on her. After all, she did wake her up from her slumber in order to get into the tower. No wait, it's not get into but rather tried to. With an inner derisive laugh at herself she turned her steps in the direction of the headmaster's office.
Getting there was one thing, as it actually took her almost a whole hour (after all, the office was 5 corridors away from the Gryffindor tower, which meant many stairs up and down between the corridors. Arianne somehow got the feeling the stairs were all working against her tonight. Changing their direction at their whims and once even refusing to move at all, until she actually whispered a small plea to the stair to move for her).
Getting the right password for the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office to move was a task on another scale. The stupid thing was not budging at all. To hell with it! She had tried at least thirty-five different candy names she could think of. With a disdainful groan she tried the last thing she could think of. "Uhm, how about Jelly beans?" Mind you, Jelly beans were just the same as Berty Bots beans, just without any weird flavour but maybe Dumbledore had tried some muggle candies? Who could say what that old buffo-, eh old wise man liked to eat in his free time. For all she cared, that man could eat insects and she would not care anymore than this. Arianne was starting to get desperate and trying to figure out a new option.
She didn't want to go to a teacher, yet. But she had no choice. It's starting to get really cold, whatnot with her just wearing normal blue jeans, sneakers, and a shirt with a green cardigan.
Well, better get this as fast behind me as possible. There is no way around some scolding from McGonnagal for leaving the hospital wing without asking and of course, asking some strange orb for a favour was definitely not something a good or rather a sane student would do. Without knowing the nature of the orb, that is.
Arianne turned around and walked back to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey's office was right beside the infirmary so that she could go to her patients without delay if there was ever a need for it.
While still grumbling about her bad luck, Arianne finally arrived the corridor which led to the infirmary. She had been in deep thought without minding her surroundings all that much, so she did not sense the presence of another person closing in on her until the person was right behind her. Before she could turn around a hand gently but firmly never the less, placed itself on her shoulder and someone, a man by his voice, leaned down over her shoulder and whispered softly into her ear.
"What a rude intruder you are little girl. Is this how you thank the people who saved you, by sneaking around secretly?"
Arianne's breath hitched, she felt a chill running down her spine but to some unknown reason she couldn't turn around. The voice didn't belong to any teacher she knew of. It was low and smooth, pleasant to listen to, if this had been during a class and not in the middle of the night and in a Hogwarts that seemed familiar but at the same time not so quite.
"Oh? Are you by any chance deaf? Or maybe mute? If not, do answer me girl. I'm not known for my patience with rude guests."
Arianne tried to get a hold of herself. The man's appearance had surprised her but the thing that had thrown her off more than anything was his hand that was still grabbing her shoulder in a firm grip, in order to prevent her escape. For a moment she had even considered to turn around and point her wand at him, but had thrown that thought almost immediately away. She had been wanting to explain this situation to a teacher, and with the appearance of this man, she saved herself from waking up Ms. Pomfrey.
With a determined look on her face she slowly turned around to face the man and stopped in her tracks.
The man was handsome alright, that much she would admit. He was a head taller than her, her own forehead barely reached his collarbone, with wavy black hair an aristocratic face and cold cobalt blue eyes. But that was not what had shocked her. This man looked alarmingly like a person she had only seen once in a painting in the common room of the Slytherins (She quickly pushed the memory which tried to surface in her mind away. It was not a happy memory to think about, whatnot with her and Ron drinking some polyjuice and pretending to be Crabbe and Goyle in order to uncover Malfoy as the Slytherin heir in second year). It was a much younger version of the painting standing before her; he seemed to be around twenty-one, but never the less, this man was "Salazar Slytherin". Arianne quietly whispered the name, unbeknownst to herself that she had spoken out her thought.
Salazar raised an elegant brow inquisitively at her. "So, you know my name. But that is rather unfair don't you think? I have yet to aquire your name Ms...?"
"Arianne Potter. Arianne Lilly James Potter."
Salazar looked even more surprised after hearing her name. "A Potter? Are you supposed to be coming to Hogwarts? We have not received any former notice of a member of the Potter family joining the school. That makes your claim rather questionable Miss Potter. But I'll rather hand you to Godric if you're truly a Potter. Considering your family's ties with the Gryffindors. Also, I do not want to deal with this. It was Godric's and Helga's idea to help you out."
Arianne has no idea what he was talking about but gave him a quick nod anyway. She would rather talk to Gryffindor than Slytherin. After all, she is a member of the Gryffindor house.
Salazar gave her a last searching look before turning around and beckoning her to follow him with his hand. There were no words exchanged between the two after this, with Slythering walking fast in front of Arianne and her struggling to keep up with his long legs and fast pace. He stopped without any warning in front of a door. Arianne who didn't had the time to stop in her tracks crashed with a startled squeak into him and would have fallen down, if Slytherin hadn't pulled her back by her left arm. With a derisive snort he quickly detracted his hand and gave her an irritated look.
"This is the door to office. At this time he is probably already asleep. So just knock until he opens the door. I hope to hear good news tomorrow Miss Potter." He stressed the word Potter, probably to show her that he did not believe her to have told the truth. And with those words he left her and quickly went his ways seemingly melting into the dark hallway. Merlin, Arianne now knew why all Slytherins were such pricks. Their founder had been one himself! He may not be so vocal about his dislike for her like Malfoy had been, but never the less, he definitely gave off the vibe of dislike in her opinion. All right, so maybe she seemed pretty suspicious for wandering around the castle in the middle of the night and also the fact, that she knew Salazar Slytherin's name(not considering the fact that she was actually a student of Hogwarts or that she indeed should NOT be wandering around the castle if she were a good student).
But after she had seen Slytherin's face she didn't want to say too much about herself to him or any other person she met that night. If there were any problems to arise later on, it should prove her more beneficial if any person she met knew as little as possible. Arianne was frenziedly thought about her current situation. So she just met Salazar Slytherin, a founder of Hogwarts and behind the door in front of her was Godric Gryffindors office, another founder of Hogwarts. The two of them had lived a thousand years before her own time but she had just seen one of the founders in flesh. Also the fat lady guarding Gryffindors dormitories had told her she didn't know Arianne, like she had never met her in the last six years Arianne had spent in Hogwarts. And her expression had been genuinely confused at Ariannes. She really didn't seem to know Arianne. Was it possible that she had travelled back in time? Or was this some sort of fictional world in her dreams in which the orb had recreated Hogwarts during the founders' time? A dream, in which she could stay as long as she wished. Maybe this was similar to the muggle story of Alice in wonderland?
No, Arianne didn't think this was a fictional world or a dream. She had far too much control over her body and mind for this, to be a dream. But she had never heard of time travels into the past which went over more than three hours. Or dare she say it, one thousand years back into the past. And how was she supposed to get back anyway. For the life of her, she could not possibly think of a reason why she had wanted to go away from her old life in search of something. She had told the Orb that she wanted to get away for an unknown time in order to get a break. But with a curse on her lips, she now saw the error in her wish. She should have specified her wish a little more, like being ported to a place without facing other problems. There was no Voldemort in this time, no students, or people at all who knew her as the-girl-who-lived, there were no people who whispered behind her back or looked at her with hope, with scorn or simple hate. It was strange but Arianne also slowly felt a feeling akin to...excitement? Sure, she was in a situation where nobody knew her and where she had no friends, no relatives whatsoever, but that also meant that there were no people with any expectations of her. Having come to a conclusion in her train of thought, she finally knocked at the door before her with a resolute expression on her face. This sounded like an adventure, in a nice way, not deathly with people who tried to either hurt or kill her.
Arianne smiled coldly to herself. She never considered herself to be a pessimist but that actually sounded rather morbid if she could think of her near death experiences like it was some sort of Saturday shopping. Something that you do on a regular basis, just because it was part of one's life. But for Arianne Lilly Potter it actually just was a part of her life. People she loved seemed to always be taken away from her, her parents and Sirius...All that just because they wanted to kill her.
But now... maybe I should just try to see where this adventure is taking me, Arianne thought to herself. After all, she had wished for a break, if this was the answer the orb came up with... Arianne "Arry" Potter never ran away from a challenge. Let's do this.
With a loud creak the door in front of her was opened and a sleepy man with shoulder length brown-red hair poked his head out of the small gap the opened door has made.
"What is it? Are you a student? Could this matter not have waited until tomorrow?" Godric Gryffindor covered the yawn he was sporting with a hand and looked questioningly at Arianne.
"Lord Gryffindor. My name is Arianne Lilly Potter. I...am the unconscious girl you have found today- or rather yesterday" Arianne said, with a look to the wristwatch on her left wrist.
"Oh right, the girl Sal had found in the morning. So you are a Potter? Well, it is nice to see you up and well. Oh, and drop the Lord part. I am not really one for etiquettes if I can avoid it, just call me Godirc or Professor Gryffindor. On second thought, cancel that one, you are not a student here and you are a relative of Lord Nathanael Potter I take it? But really, could you not have waited until tomorrow to thank me? You know, Sal almost threw you out of school grounds if it weren't for me and Helga."
Arianne gave him an apologetic look "I am truly sorry Lord Gryffindor, but it was actually Lord Slytherin that had brought me to your door so that I could talk to you."
Gryffindor scrunched his eyebrows together in thought. "Sal did? This doesn't seem like him. Is it some sort of prank in order to annoy me?"
"Well actually..." Arianne hesitated then with an almost an unintelligibly voice "He found me walking around the castle. He wasn't all that happy if you know what I mean...But yeah, he said he didn't want to deal with it so..." with a shrug of her shoulders Arianne stopped midsentence and looked up at Godric.
"Now that clarifies some things. Come in Miss Potter." With that he opened the door widely for her and side stepped to let her past.
After Arianne entered the room, which seemed to be a study with two closed doors on both the left and the right side of the room, Godric motioned for her to take a seat on one of the leather armchairs and closed the door behind him, before taking a seat on the himself opposite of her. "Emy" without any sound a house elf appeared beside Godric and bowed slightly with a smile on his face. "How can Emy be of service to master Godric?"
"Strong tea for two persons and some cookies would be nice Emy".
"Right away sir", with a bow the house elf disappeared and not long after that a tray with a pot of tea, two cups and a plate with cookies appeared on the side table beside the two armchairs.
"Well Miss Potter, I have a feeling this is going to take some time, yes? May I call you Arry? Miss Potter seems so stiff for this moment. It's not like you haven't seen me in my sleeping gown already. I am not one for formalities if you may have discovered." For more emphasis Godric tucked at his dressing gown which he had pulled over his pyjamas after closing the door behind the both of them. Arianne raised a brow at this. He seemed rather...carefree. In a disturbing way he slightly reminded her of Dumbledore a little bit. Godric chuckled good natured at her. "Whatever you are going to tell me, I ask you to not tell me any lies. If there are any things you possibly can't tell me, than I suggest you rather leave them completely out then telling me a lie instead." With a small nod Arianne sat up straighter in her seat and after taking a sip from her cup she started to tell Godric about how she had travelled from the future to the current time with the help of an orb from the room of requirements. She left any detail about the future itself out of course. It would do him no good if she would tell him about Voldemort or anything that had to do with him, his friends or Hogwarts. Not that she knew many things about the founders or Hogwart's history mind you, but you get the picture. Hermione had told her in their third school year after Ron and Arianne had found out about the Time-Turner, that by all means, they should not recklessly change the past, for it can have a drastic influence on the future. Especially with time travelling, that goes back one thousand years into the past Arianne thought.
But Arianne thought it wise to stick to the truth as much as she could. It would make her life unnecessary difficult if she were to lie about her identity. So she told him about her, being an orphan and a sixth year student at Hogwarts (without mentioning the way her parents had died of course) , her wish of getting away from her everyday life for some time (The reason she gave Godric for fleeing was the death of her godfather and the depression it had put her in. It wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth) and the condition she required to get back to her time.
It took Arianne almost 3 hours to explain everything to Godric and by the end of it, the clock had almost reached 4 a.m.
Godric seemed to be deep in thought. During her speech not once had he interjected her, just quietly drinking his tea and from time to time munching on a cookie. Finally he broke his silence.
"Alright Arry, that was quite a long story. I am quite sure that you have been honest with me, even though I am sure you have left out some details, but it is probably better for the both of us. To my understanding, the orb will not bring you back to your time until you made...peace with your troubles. Correct?"
Arianne shifted uncomfortably in her seat and gave him a nod.
"Do not worry. I will not throw you out of school grounds like Sal suggested" at that, Arianne winced a little bit, causing Godric to chuckle at her.
"Sal is, to say the least, a cautious person. You should not judge him too harsh just because your first encounter did not go smoothly. After all, he is one of my best friends. His views on muggleborn wizards and witches aside and yes also his pride of being a Slytherin, he does have his good points, you know? Just give him some time. I will talk to him. And you should too. Just show him you are not suspicious and he will eventually concede."
Arianne gave him a blank stare. Godric did not know that in some years that he and Slytherin and the rest of the founders' will have a fallout, resulting in Salazar leaving the group of four friends. Slytherin's ethics of refusing muggleborn students at Hogwarts was still strongly if not vehemently presented by students of the Slytherin house in Hogwarts. And the few that were not of pure blooded families but still ended up in Slytherin were still considered mean and cunning, some even evil by the other houses in Hogwarts. But of course Arianne was not going to tell Godric these facts which she had read about in the history books of Hogwarts. It was not her place to sow doubt into the friendship between the two men.
"I am sorry Sir Godric. I am not used to Slytherins, may it be the students from this house or their head of house, and surely not the founder of its house itself. In the future the other houses and Slytherins are not that close. And we don't have that many classes together. But I will try my best to talk to him, at least until I dispose of his suspicions of me. But on another note, how old are you and the other founders right now?"
Godric grinned at her. "Why, do I look that old to you? Rowena and I are the oldest. We are both twenty-seven. Helga is twenty-four and Salazar being the youngest is twenty-one. We just opened the school to the students officially two years ago. Before Sal joined us, Wena, Helga and I were already planning to found a school."
Arianne was to say the least, surprised. They had quite the age difference between themselves. Moreover Slytherin wasn't that much older than her.
"Wow, so the school is practically still fresh in it's making? I did not expect that" Arianne said.
With a heavy sigh Godric stood up and looked tiredly at her.
"I suggest we will make our way to bed now. I am getting really tired, a sure sign of me getting old if you ask me. But I guess we just sort you into a house before you go to bed. It's probably better if you try to blend in with the other students. I have no idea how to help you with your problem but, I am sure time will heal the wounds. As for the sorting..."
And with this ominous statement, he walked up to the still closed left door in the room and went in. It didn't even take one minute for him to get out again, in his hand Arianne could make out a hat. No, rather than any hat, it was rather the same sorting hat which had also sorted herself during her first year in Hogwarts. But the sorting hat of this age actually looked new (Wow, nice deduction Arianne, she told herself. Of course it looks new, the school had just opened it's doors for two years and not one thousand years like it had been for her sorting six years ago).
"Well let's get you sorted into a house before we go back to bed alright?" Godric said with a big grin on his face. "And don't you dare say that you already have been sorted into my house. That does not count as it has been in the past, or rather a still in the future-past? Whatever, it's more fun like this anyway. Don't you think? Who else could say that they had been sorted twice into a house by the sorting hat?" With a smirk Godric placed the sorting hat on her head and waited for it's decision.
Arianne cursed under her breath; she had hoped that she could just go straight to the Gryffindor house. But she reminded herself that the man before her was Godric Gryffindor himself, and if he wanted her to be sorted again then so be it.
"What if I am sorted into a different house than before?" Arianne asked.
"All the more fun! Don't you think so? You wanted a break from your old life. Being sorted to another house should be quite an interesting experience if you ask me. And you can't complain about NOT doing something different then you have been doing in the future."
His reasoning was quite convincing. At first, Arianne had feared being sorted into Slytherin (like the hat had wanted to do in the first place many years ago, or into the future, depends on how you look at it), but now, it did not really matter in which house she was being sorted into.
"Ahhhh, you are an interesting girl Arianne Lilly Potter. So much potential! But into which house should I be putting you? You seem quite loyal to your friends, so Hufflepuff comes to mind But..it clashes with your other potentials which are just as strong. And you're not stupid, quite intelligent actually...But no, you don't seem to like studying that much. Ravenclaws' are quite competitive when it comes to learning and grades. You would not be happy there. The two most likely to fit you are Gryffindor and...Slytherin." Arianne lamented this thought, so she was still something between a Slytherin and a Gryffindor? What a mess, no wonder she was the centre of attention in the future. Two houses that could not stand each others presence and she could just fit into both of them. But at her first year she had pleaded the sorting hat to not put her into Slytherin as she did not want to belong to the "evil" wizards. But, this time she will just let the hat do it's own choice without her interference, Godric was right. It was more fun this way, she thought with an inner snort at herself.
"Oh, so you have been sorted into Gryffindor once, by my future self no less? But if you let me decide this time child...I have to say, Slytherin will be of more use for you, considering your current situation *snicker*. All right, I've decided, you deprived my future self of this, so I will be saying this with much delight, "SLYTHERIN!"
Godric did not seem disappointed. On the contrary he seemed a little bit surprised maybe, by the hat's choice but mostly smug, if his expression was anything to go by.
"Slytherin huh? It should give you quite some chances to talk to Sal. We mostly teach the students of our own houses with some exceptions. But this is quite a surprise! Salazar and me may be friends, but we are quite different when it comes to our preferences and dislikes. I had thought you would end up in my house. Well, anyway, you may sleep in my guestroom for tonight. The infirmary and the dungeons are quite far away from my office."
And with that he motioned to the right door of his study.
Arianne slightly curtsied to Godric in a joking manner, and opened the door but turning around once again before entering the guestroom.
"Thank you Godric" she said in a serious and quiet tone hoping that her thankfulness had reached him with the simple three words. But still feeling slightly irritated by his smug expression she gave him one of her own smirks and said "and a goodnight to you, lord Gryffindor. I hope you will at least get some rest before classes start up again tomorrow."
Godric lost his smug grin for a second but it returned almost instantly.
"I am not that old Miss Potter, even if you may consider me an old man already. One night of slight sleep deprivement won't kill me."
Arianne only rolled her eyes at that and went into the room. Really, the founder of Gryffindor would probably have been the kind of student that would have earned himself many detentions with McGonagall with his juvenile personality that surfaced on some occasions. Much like her godfather and if she were to go by his and Remus' stories, also her father during their school years in Hogwarts. It was just her fate again, to meet a person in the past that reminded her of Sirius.
chapter I fin