Evelynne looked down the long table at the edge of the Great Hall. Next to her was Rowena, with her black hair and black eyes contrasting beautifully against her pale skin. On the other side was Helga, whose short, auburn bob was bouncing as she elbowed Godric. He had messy, ginger hair and bright blue eyes. Salazar was sitting next to Evelynne, his dirty blond hair sleek and neat, green eyes sparkling despite his frown. Evelynne had always thought herself rather plain in comparison- bushy brown hair, plain brown eyes and an abundance of freckles. She made up for it with amazing skill in most areas of magic, though.
"So, does anyone have any ideas?" she asked, pushing the plan of the castle into the centre. There wasn't much time left to organise what was left to do.
"Dungeons," said Salazar bluntly, leaning over to take the plan and colouring in a large room in the dungeons green. Evelynne smiled. At least that wasn't a last resort any more.
"I want the tallest tower!" Rowena and Godric both stated in unison, grabbing the plan from Salazar. They would have torn it in half if Helga hadn't snatched it from between them.
"Neither of you can have it. We're using it for Astronomy," she said, outlining the star drawn on the room on top of the tallest tower. Helga wasn't about to be argued with. Although she loved and taught Herbology, she was also passionate about Astronomy, and a disregard for Helga's passions led to her getting angry, which was a truly terrifying sight.
"I'll take the North Tower, then. You know, the one by the lake," Rowena said, taking the plan and colouring in her chosen room blue. Godric sighed.
"Honestly, you girls always get the best stuff. I'll take the East Tower, but only if we rename it Gryffindor Tower," Godric compromised, and everyone nodded.
"I like it by the kitchens. It always smells nice," Helga told them dreamily, colouring in a large room by the kitchens yellow. Evelynne thought for a minute- or rather, pretended to think, as she had already secured herself a common room.
"The big room on the seventh floor. It's very roomy in there," she said matter-of-factly. Everyone went silent. This was possibly the least special place in the whole castle.
"Well, let's go decorate. We only have a couple of days!" Evelynne said, wanting to get out of the awkward situation she had placed herself in. She rose with the other four founders and left to her common room. Evelynne had always found it funny that no one had noticed the absence of the large, purple door over the last few weeks. It was now just an unusually long stretch of empty wall, if you did't know what you were looking for.
I want to go to the Granger common room, I want to go to the Granger common room, I want to go to the Granger common room.
As she thought it, Evelynne watched the violet doors appear, a white rose engraved in it. She pushed the door open and found the large room, bookshelves lining the walls, shrunken furniture that looked like toys dotted around the room. Between the two white marble arches that led to the boys' and girls' dormitories sat a large cupboard with spare equipment and textbooks, for students who had run out or lent theirs to a friend. Evelynne flicked her wand, and the desks, chairs, armchairs and sofas grew to their usual size. Another flick, and a small library's worth of books flew onto the shelves. A final flick, and a large store of wood appeared next to the unlit fire place, ready for the 1st of September. Evelynne had always thought that paintings and tapestries should be hung by hand, and she hung a large tapestry of a white horse, her house mascot, on an empty wall, and a noticeboard on another. She had already prepared the dorms, so she made her way back down to the Great Hall, where the other four were already sat, finishing off the decorations for the first day of school. Salazar was placing snake-patterned goblets and plates on his house table, Helga was hanging flags with the house mascots above the staff table, Rowena was filling the house point hourglasses with gems and Godric was setting the staff table.
"Anything I can do to help?" Evelynne asked, looking around the hall in awe.
"Just get the Sorting Hat, if you don't mind. Then you can charm the ceiling, I don't want to leave that too late," Salazar instructed, and Evelynne rushed to his office to get the pointy hat that would sort the pupils into their houses. She placed it on the wooden throne they had found in the basement of the dungeons. It immediately sprung to life.
"Tomorrow, is it?" it asked in it's unusually loud voice.
"No, day after," Evelynne replied, beginning to cast the complicated invisibility charm on the ceiling.
"That's a shame. I really can't wait to sort those kids into their houses. Always fun, always amusing," it replied.
"Well, it's not much longer now. I've been waiting for September 1st for months," Godric chimed in.
"Yes. Not much longer now," Helga added, smiling into the distance.