Hey, this is my first founders fanfic, constructive criticism is welcome, I'm always looking to improve my writing, and at the moment it's still pretty terrible.


Rowena had decided to call a meeting of the four founders, and that was why they were now sitting in what would become the head's office, waiting for her to arrive. It was guaranteed that she would be late, a complete disregard for the laws of time meant she was always out of sync with everyone else. Which was why this meeting was being called at 3am.

And that was why Godric Gryffindor found himself staring at a picture of Medusa, rubbing his eyes and trying to work out if he was supposed to be seeing something other than a mythological character.

"Why do you want a picture of Medusa in this school? Famous people, yes, mythological characters whose hair turns people into stone, no." He muttered. It was far too early in the morning to be dealing with such trivial matters as this. But, unfortunately Rowena had not thought so.

"She'll teach people to respect wisdom."

"How?" Either his brain couldn't function this early in the morning, he was mishearing Rowena's words or Rowena had completely the wrong end of the stick, and he knew which was most likely, having been on the receiving end of many a long speech about something completely unrelated to what he was talking about.

"Athena, the goddess who cursed Medusa, was the goddess of wisdom."

"Rowena." Godric said, looking her in the eye, wondering if he was remembering the myth of Medusa correctly. "Have you even heard the myth of Medusa?"

"Of course."

"She has nothing to do with respecting wisdom."

"Yeah, but she annoyed Athena-"

"Actually it was Poseidon who made out with her in Athena's temple."

"Oh yeah. But still. Can I have this portrait? Please? It'll break up the monotony of the boring portraits of head masters and other people, by having someone interesting."

"Rowena, it is far too early to be dealing with this kind of topic. Salazar, Helga, back me up here."

"The snakes for hair are cool." Salazar muttered.

"Thanks." The portrait spoke at last.

"How did you do it? Transfiguration, or…"

"I was cursed."

Salazar nodded. A curse will do that to you."

"Salazar." Godric snapped. "Stop taking her side."

"I was only saying." He shrugged.

"Helga? What do you think?"

"I'm with Godric on this one." Helga replied. "It's a bit too… I don't know how to explain it, but just no."

"Finally. Someone who can see sense. Now that this matter is resolved, can we please get back to bed?"

"Actually Godric, there are couple of more issues we need to discuss."

"Now's not the time. Night is for sleeping. Daylight is for talking."

"What are they?" Asked Salazar.

"Not you too. Is everyone against discussing anything at a reasonable hour?" The amount of glares he received make him rethink his statement. "Alright then I'll just shut up and stay here then."

"It's not like you know anything about going to sleep at a reasonable time anyway." Salazar interjected. "The amount of times you've woken me up so we can go off gallivanting on an adventure."

"You didn't have to come along." Godric argued.

"Yeah, right." Salazar muttered sarcastically. "Of course."

"Anyway, can we get onto the topics at hand please?" Asked Helga, continuing when she received silence. "So the first topic is how we are going to sort the children into each of our houses. We've decided on the characteristics each house needs, so what kind of thing are we going to use to sort them?"

"Some kind of test?" Asked Salazar after a while. "To see-"

"How clever they are. It's going to be a minimum of two hours long and probably closer to five hours, but they're going to have to answer questions on every aspect of wizardry, and if they don't answer enough right then they aren't allowed to enter Hogwarts.

Silence ensued throughout the study.

"That's a bit harsh Rowena." Godric muttered after a while.

"They're only eleven years old. You guys have to remember that. So whatever we choose we have to make sure that it's suitable for eleven year olds."

"They have to fight a dragon."

"What part of that is suitable for eleven year olds Godric? Tell me that, please?"

"Erm…"

"Exactly." Helga snapped.

"A test that is a maximum of two hours long, but doesn't test all aspects of wizardry, only some, and the pass mark is really low."

"Rowena. No tests. These are eleven year olds. Eleven. And you are also completely excluding every single muggle born ever."

"Oh yeah…"

"Oh yeah." Snapped Helga sarcastically.

"When I said test, I meant a sort of personality test that would examine all their traits-"

"And how long would it take to complete Salazar?"

"A couple of hours, probably more." He shrugged. Helga glared at him. "I can see why you don't like that." He muttered

"Why don't we have a sorting hat!" Godric said suddenly.

Helga paused for a second. "That's actually a good idea."

Murmurs of agreement followed this from the other two, desperate to please Helga so this night could be over.

"That they have to pull a sword out of. But they can only do this if they are a true Gryffindor, and are in harm's way."

"No no no. Stop that Godric."

"So they have to be fighting a massive dragon."

"No Godric!" Helga shouted. "No fighting, no possibility of dying, no exhaustive tests Rowena, no nothing of that sort. These are eleven year old kids. Give them a break." She calmed down slightly. "You know what? Let's keep the hat idea. But they don't have to pull out a sword from it."

"Yes, that's a good idea." Rowena said.

"Salazar, what do you think?"

"Oh? It's a marvellous idea. Simply superb."

"Good. We're all agreed on this finally." Rowena, Godric and Salazar all shared a look, and waited for Helga to finish speaking. "Well, I'm going off to my dorms, by the kitchen, don't understand why you lot wanted your dorms in towers or in a dingy dungeon." She left the room and the three remaining founders breathed out a collective sigh of relief.

"Well, at least that's over." Salazar said.

"I liked the sword idea." Godric muttered. "Consequences be damned, I'm still putting a sword in that hat whether she likes it or not."

"Just don't get caught." Salazar warned him.

"I'm going to turn in, catch a few hours of shut eye." Godric said, standing up and departing.

"Of course." Salazar said. "What about you?" He asked Rowena when it was just the two of them left.

"I'm going to find a place for this where Godric and Helga aren't going to find."

He nodded. "I suggest either somewhere in your tower, or if you can't find a place I'd be willing to find a place in my dungeons."

Rowena laughed. "I'm sure I can find somewhere. I'm definitely going to be putting a sticking charm on it. I don't want anyone to be able to remove Medusa. She's one of a kind." They both looked at the portrait, which happened to be empty, the inhabitant having gone off to talk with someone.

They both paused and Rowena tilted her head. "You know that basilisk of yours."

"Should I even ask how you know about him?"

"I heard something moving around in the pipework."

Salazar nodded. "Figured it'd be something like that. You're too clever for your own good."

Rowena laughed. "I am aren't I?"

"Just watch out before Helga or Godric notice. So far they haven't, but I wouldn't put it past one of them to go snooping around."

"Thanks. Take care."

"You too."