Author's note: Hello Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – I don't know how well this story will be – I'll either put in way too many descriptions and we won't ever get anywhere, or not enough and it will be too short, but hey we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with it

This is a story of the Four Founders – a tale which talks of their decisions and the reasons behind them. This is the story of Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Godric Gryffindor

Chapter one – first meeting

Salazar was 20 when they first all met; it was at his father's Birthday Ball. All the lords and ladies from the pure blood families had been invited, including the new Lord Ravenclaw with his fiancée, a middle class witch of 16 who went by the name of Rowena, and the Duke of Glen with his wife and their two children 14 year old Horace and 13 year old Helga.

However Sal wasn't interested in the party, he was only here because it was his duty. Where he really wanted to be was back at his château with his wife, Selena, who was seven months pregnant with his heir, and despite the front that he put on, Sal was actually a big worry-wart. So because of this and the fact that he and his father never got on that well – he found the celebration to be very boring.

Helga was one of those people who always seem to be smiling, though at the moment she was sulking – she hated attending formal gatherings like this, she would have much preferred to sneak away to the kitchens and hang out with the servants, but no her father said that as a duchess she was required to attend these gatherings. She walk through the doors, behind her family and surveyed the room, it was a huge ballroom decorated in green and silver – the colours of the Slytherin family.

Rowena was a nervous wreak, on the inside at least. This was the first real time that she was going to be around other people of the upper-class system. In reality she would have rather immersed herself in Richard's library – that was the main reason she had agreed to let him court her, the Ravenclaw library was huge. The down side of marrying a lord though, was that she had to attends gatherings such as this – and the truth was she wasn't sure if she was up to the task of masquerading as an upper-class lady.

What happened at that party was called different things by different people, Helga and Rowena constantly argued over weather it was fate (Helga) or just pure coincidence (Rowena), what ever it was, the three founders attending the party all decided to leave at almost the same time and walk around the grounds. Sal wandered around his childhood home, he paused by the snake cage to converse politely, but at that time of day the snakes were only interested in sleeping so he soon left them behind and was just walking aimlessly, staring at the scenery when suddenly he bumped into someone.

It was a lady of 16, dressed in a gown of blue and white. She had long brown hair and a face that could be considered both beautiful and proud, though Sal could tell that she wasn't an upper-class lady, she still held herself as one – he remembered that she the fiancée of Lord Ravenclaw.

Rowena had been watching a bird fly when she bumped into a man, he was tall and thin with ebony black hair that was held neatly in a pony-tail – as was the fashion of that time – he had a small goatee and a cruel face but if a sharp-eyed person looked closely they would see his eyes hid a twinkle of warmth, she recognised him as the Slytherin heir by his green and silver robes.

All this was taken in, in a second, then Sal curled his lip and sneered "watch where you are going, will you", Ro glared at him "excuse me, my lord, but I believe it was you who banged into me, which indicates that you sire, that is in need of having your eyes checked out" he opened his mouth to retort when they heard a light feathery giggle and a girl "actually I think you both might need to watch where you are going"

They both turned to stare at the new arrival; it was a plump but pretty girl with soft blond hair and bright eyes, she was wearing a soft yellow dress, and was laughing at them. Sal glanced at her and said politely "you are the Duke of Glen's daughter", her smile disappeared slightly as she scowled and said "yeah and you are the heir of Slytherin, but those things are only titles and don't matter do they" Ro laughed at that, Helga held out her hand to her and said "hi I'm Helga, what is your name?" Ro shook her hand and introduced herself "I am Rowena Nightpaw, soon to Rowena Ravenclaw" Helga smiled again and was about to say something when they interrupted yet again, this time by a cruel sneering voice

"Well, well, well, looksee what we got here boys", the three found themselves backed against a tree and surrounded by a group a men dressed in black – all holding a wand and a knife, pointing at them. The three attempted to reach into their robes and grab their own wands, but one of the men did a quick summoning charm – leaving the three quite defenceless. The man standing directly in front of Helga seemed to be the leader and was speaking to his men.

"This lot 'ere should make us lots and lots of gold, let's see – a Duchess, a lord/heir of Slytherin and a soon-to-be Lady of Ravenclaw - We's made quite a good deal at this 'ere party, ain't we lads" the other men smirked and laughed as they went about the business of tying the prisoners up – proving that though they had wands, they weren't very skilled at magic. However they seemed to be at home with using their knives, as was shown by how the leader pressed his knife to Helga's throat and opened his mouth to say something more.

Suddenly they heard a shout "Hey leave them alone you thugs!" Everyone turned their heads in time to see a boy running at them, the men laughed and one of them lunged at him – thinking it would be easy to knock the boy off his feet. He couldn't have been more wrong.

The boy side-stepped the lunging man, causing him to fall to the ground. The boy carried on sprinting and punched the lead bandit right nose. This made him stagger back slightly and yowl in pain and shock. The boy picked up a fallen stick from the tree and twirled it around then held it in front of him like a sword. The leader clutched his bleeding nose and yelled at his followers "don't just stand there idiots, get him!" a few men jumped at the boy and he whirled his "sword" around - knocking one man down, hitting another on his head and poking one guy hard in the stomach. Sal noticed that he boy then stood back, as if waiting for the men to get back up.

This (as Sal knew) was the first mistake that the boy made, Helga let out a scream as all the men lunged at the boy and soon there was a huge pile with struggling people, the three tied up could see that the leader had managed to grab the boy by his neck and was choking – then it happened. Ro felt it first – a wave of just pure power. Suddenly the bandits found themselves flying, with no control over where they were going. The three sat in shock as everyone and everything was pushed away from the boy.

For a few moments the bandits sat where they had fallen, staring at the boy then all got up and ran as fast as they could towards the exits. What the boy did next was (the other three all agreed) the strangest thing they had ever seen … at that time. The boy sat up with a dazed expression on his face and asked "What just happened?" Sal was in shock – a boy with that much power, and he didn't even know he had it? Ro made a small noise as if she was going to explain exactly what happened, but that small sound was enough to make the boy remember the three.

He jumped up, picked up a fallen knife and began cutting away at the rope. When he finished they surveyed him – he looked about ten years old, and had short, untamed, red/gold hair and deep blue eyes like the sea on a beautiful day, you could tell just by looking at him that he was going to grow up to be a very tall and handsome man, though Helga doubted he would ever loose his childish disposition. His clothing suggested that he was a servant of some kind.

Rowena spoke first "thank you young man (the boy puffed up at that – well he is ten) it was very brave" Sal interrupted here "and stupid, you could have gotten yourself killed" the boy looked up at him confusion on his face "and let them hurt them hurt all of you?" he asked as if that was an impossibility, Sal raised an eye-brow – leaving others to feel pain was something he had been raised to not feel bad about, and he just couldn imagine doing what this boy did for them.

Helga smiled at the boy "what is name?" he gave her a smile that would melt the hardest of hearts and answered "Godric Gryffindor," Ro smiled, and said "that was some very impressive moves you did" he grinned at her and answered with a distinctive note of pride in his voice "yeah I want to be a knight when I grow up … if I can get the training" this last part was said sadly, suddenly he seemed to realise that he was talking to people, he blushed and looked down "er - I – I should get back to work" he turned to leave but Sal stopped him – surprising himself "wait, er, Godric, what do you mean work?" because even in this time ten year olds weren't really supposed to work.

Godric turned to face them "I'm the new stable boy sir" he said with a grain of defiance in his voice, Ro said hesitantly "you are just working, so that when you go to school you can impress your friends with the money that you make?" he shook his head "no miss, I don't go to school" Helga frowned "and what do your parents think of this?" Godric shrugged "don't have any parents, and if you'll excuse me I have to go before they catch me, bye my lord, my ladies" he bowed to the three of them and ran off.

That night three people went to bed with a plan in their heads that would change a little boy's life, and though they did not know it at the time, both their own lives and the fate of the world.

Helga was thinking of it as a chance to make new friends and maybe start to help change the world for the better. Rowena was thinking of all things she could learn and of being able to pass her own skills on. And Sal, Sal was attempting to convince himself that he what he was going to do was just to repay his wizard's debt to the boy, and maybe be able to gain some control over Godric's power – he was refusing to believe that it was because he wanted to help the lad out.

As for Godric, he fell asleep with visions of knights and damsels dancing in his head, dreams of fighting dragons and saving the day – though this dream there were three figures, one in green, one in blue and one in yellow – they stood cheering him on and in his sleep Godric Gryffindor smiled

Author's Note – yay end of this chapter! Thank you soo much for reading, I hope you liked it. I would just like to say that Salazar Slytherin is going to be a good guy in this story – he has a lot of bad qualities, but he is a good guy. By the way the characters are how I imagine they might look and act.

Oh and I am now 17!