Prologue
They stared at the four vials on the stone courtyard floor in front of them, hesitating.
They looked innocent enough, just a softly glowing, silvery liquid in ordinary crystal vials that were only worth a mouthful. They looked different in the rising dawn, glittering and tempting, quite unlike the clear liquid it had been just hours before they had started. They stank of magic and something that made all of their hair stand on end. After a year of brewing and calculations made to the absolute perfection, a joint effort between the founders of Hogwarts, they still couldn't bring themselves to drink. It wasn't because they were scared exactly after all this was just based on the theoretical, but they were still unsure of where this would take them.
Helga Hufflepuff had cast the runes, Rowena Ravenclaw made the potion, Godric Gryffindor had done the Arithmetic calculations and Salazar Slytherin had created the charm they had just cast in their Circle. They were breathing heavy, sweat on their brows, at the dance they had just performed. It had taken a few months before they could cast without stumbling into each other- as four was not traditionally well spaced out when it came to the casting of such powerful Ritual Circle Magic. And powerful it had been, now, they were all the floor, pushed back by sheer force of their combined magic.
"Bloody hell," muttered Salazar, pushing back his black hair with a ring heavy hand. Most attributed him to a sly cunning, he was a strategic genius of course, which meant for impeccable manners and tact, but his dearest friends knew the man to be a foul mouth and a little dense at times.
Godric laughs, a slightly hysterical note to his throaty voice:
"Now that had some bleedin' kick! "
Rowena snorts, carefully sitting up, pushing herself with her elbows. Even disheveled with flyaway hair, she manages to look elegant.
"I believe we may have miscalculated the out-pour of magic."
Godric looked over, pursing his lips.
"There's nothing wrong with my calculations."
Helga sighed, pushing herself into a sitting position before she fell back and gave up. Her blond curls bounce as she flops backward with the grace of a wingless butterfly.
"Then we were a bit overzealous in our invocating because I believe what you said was, 'It'll just be a little whack on the chest, Helgy'. "
Godric rolled his eyes.
"Excuse me if casting magic to reincarnate ourselves required a lot more of us than what we expected. I did say that there was a possible pull from the spell!"
The Four had stumbled upon this thought after having a bit of a rousing night of drinking in the nearly finished Teacher's Lounge last summer. It was a bit of a ridiculous area of research, they could admit. The idea of an ethereal essence in all of them, souls, being real. And the idea of using their Magic as a means to attach them once again to another body after death, to be reborn again in this world.
Of course, they were all well read, had seen the merits of the theories of those Greek chaps, but it had only been used to educate and further their inquiry of their world. The idea had festered and made them wonder, where would their souls, if they existed, would go after they left this world? Would they simply fall into a void of ether and would their hopes, dreams and memories simply crumble to dust as their bodies would, or would it just recycle again? They had no idea and their research could only get them so far. It had been Godric's idea to push it from the theoretical to reality.
Salazar sighed and moved forward first, long and pale hands snatching up the vial in a quick movement.
"We might as well," he sniffed, curling his fingers in his dark, black beard, "It's not like it'll kill us. We already cast the spell. Where's your sense of adventure?"
Godric looked towards his best friend and raised a brow. He picked up a vial, lifting it to his tawny, brown eyes.
"Do you really think this will work?" he asked, amused at the prospect of what the spell and potion would do together. The spell had been a bombastic show of light and beauty, but they had created such spells as duds before.
Rowena sighed, crawling forward with the strength of a newborn lamb. She lifted the vial, smiling at her own work and shook her head, her dark brown hair moving with it in a silky wave.
"What? That our souls will not depart onto the next adventure and instead return to a living vessel upon our deaths?" she laughed, her voice a chime of bells, she smiled, large, dreamy gray eyes flashing, "We have no idea. But is that not the fun of it?"
Helga sighed, flipping herself with a grunt, moving forward and lifting the vial to her own blue eyes. Salazar watched her out of the corner of his dark brown eyes following her every movement. She frowned, biting her lower lip. She was the first to drink, tipping back in a quick movement. Salazar's eyes widen at the sight of her glowing faintly gold, before he followed suit, fumbling to drink his own vial, nearly dropping it in his haste. His own body was an emerald green, for a few moments, before his pale skin dimmed. Rowena and Godric looked at each other before Godric drank his vial in haste. He glowed red, bright and hot before his darkly tanned skin was normal. Rowena hesitated, waiting for a minute or two to see that the others had not dropped dead before she drank, glowing deep blue once she had finished her potion.
Neither said nothing, trying to see if they felt any different or if they were all about to keel over and die.
"How will we find each other," muttered Helga, she turned to her fellow founders, to her best of friends in the last few years since they had decided to start this crazy idea of bringing magical people together in times of burning and fright amongst their fellow man, "How will we even know of the others if it works, if we remember our lives now?"
They were all renowned across Europe despite their youth, despite the dismissals of many when they had all announced their intention to form a magical school for most of the Isles to unite, but in that moment at Helga's poised question they all felt their ages. Barely past their twentieth years and faced with their mortality.
"Hogwarts. We'll come back. Go to our personal corridor," mentioned Salazar, plainly, placing a comforting hand on Helga's shoulder. He was pointing out their private quarters, in the heart of the school, hard to access and easy to hide if they so wished it.
She stared at him, a small smile growing on her face before she boldly pushed his hand off. If her fingertips linger upon his for a fraction of the second, neither mentioned it.
"What, shall we decided to seal it after our deaths?"
Rowena hummed.
"And what shall be the new password, upon the seal, 'Follow the Hog to the cliffs, by the water'?"
"I rather like the choice of 'This was a shite idea and a shot in the dark, but hey, souls exist'," mentioned Salazar, smirking.
"How about, 'A drinking contest with Godric leads to amazing discoveries' ?" mentioned Helga, winking at him.
Godric grinned, waggling his thick, vividly red brows at her.
"If I recall, you challenged me."
"And out drank you," she said sassily, tossing her honey blonde curls, smiling at her dear friend.
The man laughed, deep and moving his massively muscled chest in sheer delight.
"Oh Helgy, I should've known that a woman of your beauty and power could handle me, sister of my hearts!"
She curtsied, as elegantly as she could sitting down.
Rowena watched their easy friendship, in the soft, quiet way of hers. Large dreamy eyes intent on the people she had become friends with, whom she had striven to rise within troubled times against her people. She looked around in the courtyard they had just finished, looking at the walls they had all gathered painstakingly over the course of five years to construct a magical sanctuary for children to learn without fear of the noose or the fire. She touched the stones of the courtyard, closing her eyes so she could feel the very magic they had instilled into them for the protection of the castle.
"I know what our code should be, 'The Doors of Hogwarts shall always be open to welcome us home', " said Rowena, softly, opening her eyes and staring at them all. Her eyes were misty, wide and far away.
They smiled back and not even Salazar could make a smart comment on it, placing his empty vial back onto the floor. The rest did so as well. It was a moment before they could even speak. Then, Salazar smirked.
"Well, to life after death," he remarked, long arm flickering out, wand drawing up some whiskey, along with four goblets.
Godric snorted, snatching a glass from the air. He allowed Salazar to fill his goblet.
"This is what got us here in the first place."
Rowena smirked, gently guiding her own goblet into her hands.
"And how is that a bad thing?"
Helga laughed as she grabbed her goblet.
"My friends, may we meet again!" she said, lifting her glass.
The four Hogwarts Founders lifted their goblets, smiling and laugh at the prospect of another life with their friends:
"May we meet again!" they chorused.