Magic.
No one believed in it. Those magicians and performers you see on the street? Con artists. Pure and simple. Magic didn't exist. It never existed. So why does this word have a huge stigma attached to it?
.
"Grandmother! Grandmother! Tell us a story tonight," the little children squealed. "Tell us a story about magic." The last word was ushered in a whisper of childlike awe.
The elderly woman smiled fondly at her two grandchildren as they got into bed. "Don't be afraid of a word, deary. Magic isn't real." The children looked at her doubtfully. Such a fantastic thing had to be real!
As the grandmother got comfortable in her chair, she began rocking gently as she spun her tale.
"Once upon a time, there were two wise men. One was named Godric Gryffindor and he was a great mage. The other man was Salazar Slytherin, Godric's best friend and a scientist. Together, these two men sought to improve the lives of the poor, who struggled everyday for meager foods in their pitiable states and on wretched lands.
Godric, born with the innate ability to manipulate the essence around him, worked together with Salazar to provide basic artifacts that would greatly improve the lives of the people. Salazar built great machines that, after Godric infused with magic, would churn the soil for the farmers. Many of the machines that Salazar built significantly helped the lives of many and soon the country prospered.
Not only did the country prosper monetarily, but it also prospered in knowledge. Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin built a school with their other fellow mystics, Rowena Ravenclaw, a mage like Godric, and Helga Hufflepuff, another scientist, and called it Hogwarts. This school sought to impart the knowledge that their great founders had. And in that sharing, many new magics sprung forth and laws of nature were discovered and applied to improve upon previous techniques and also to create new objects.
However, not everyone had the opportunity to learn. Because of this, great envy began to spring forth within and outside the country's borders. The people who did not have the opportunity to take part in the gathering of knowledge became jealous, restless, and volatile. They began to harm the mages and the artificers in great numbers.
In retaliation, mages and artificers began to develop artifacts and weapons that caused greater harm than ever before and they aimed them at those who would seek to harm them. Soon, a great civil war raged and ravished the country.
Hogwarts was also not unaffected. Salazar and Rowena were outraged by the actions of the very people they sought to improve the lives of and sought to help those who retaliated. Godric and Helga, however, did not approve of the efforts at retaliation.
'We must not use our powers for evil,' they cried to Salazar and Rowena, 'for evil begets evil.' Yet, Salazar and Rowena did not listen and continued to create more powerful and destructive weapons.
After everything within their once beautiful country was destroyed, only the mages and artificers remained. Despite their victory, they were weak and weary of battle.
The envious neighboring empires saw their chance and they took it. The war torn and prosper less nation could pose no threat anymore.
They invaded the lands, began to enslave the artificers and the mages, and extracted the knowledge from them. With their newfound knowledge, they began to create a new kind of magic, magic designed to hurt and kill people. They were different from the weapons and magicks used before. This type of magick's sole purpose was to cause suffering, pain, and death. They came to be called Soul Magic, for only those with the soulful desires to cause suffering and pain could use it.
The new mages and artificers, with their newly made magic, began to create havoc and hell upon the earth. Soon, there was safe place on earth to hide. They became a larger and larger organization, bent on satisfying their desires to cause pain and death.
The founders of Hogwarts were overcome with grief at the consequences of their actions. Wishing only to impart knowledge to better a man, they had instead created a monster out of man. Therefore, they took responsibility and sought to suppress the magical energy abundant upon the earth. But that was an impossible task, for magic allowed nature to prosper.
'There must be another way to stop these people!' Salazar cried in anguish.
The founders kept looking and experimenting, while the earth and its inhabitants slowly suffered and died.
In frustration, Helga Hufflepuff threw down a book. 'I wish we had never imparted our knowledge!' she screamed in aggravation. Rowena looked at her interestedly. 'What if that was the solution?' she said.
'What?' Everyone looked at Rowena in confusion.
'What if we made them forget?' Salazar scoffed at the idea. 'That's impossible! We'd have to go back in time and then try to convince our past selves to give up on creating a school! You know how stubborn we are now, think of how stubborn we were then, when we were drunk on youth!'
'I've been studying Time Magic, and although going back in time would seem like a useless idea, what if we were to stoptime? What if we stopped it and then sealed the knowledge of magic and disappeared?'
And with newfound vigor, they researched tirelessly to perfect the very plan that Rowena had conjured. For an indefinite amount of time, the earth aged while its inhabitants did not. And slowly, physical proof of magic and artifacts disappeared.
The magic used to stop time was draining. The founders felt their life force slowly draining as time continued to halt. And soon, they completed their arduous task. They looked out the world through their grand windows, out of Hogwarts, who once stood so proud, and said their goodbyes. With the last of their magic, they sealed Hogwarts and time started to work.
The earth's inhabitants slowly woke and wondered about their dream. It was a such a terrible nightmare, they pondered. Magic was supposed to be fantastic and wonderful. It wasn't supposed to cause suffering and pain, they tried to convince themselves. But their subconscious remembered. It remembered how it felt to suffer for nothing more than existing and they began to fear it, fear something that they've never had a chance to use or see.
And so the earth's inhabitants prospered again and great war was waged with crude weaponry and civilization advanced until it has become what it is like today. Magic was never seen or used anymore but as generations and generations passed, the story of how terrible magic is was passed down."
The grandmother smiled softly at her sleeping grandchildren. She kissed them both softly on the forehead and whispered a quiet good night. She took the lamp with her as she closed the door and walked to her room.
"What a touching story, old hag."
The woman turned around quickly. At the sight before her, she screamed and dropped her lamp. The fire that resulted illuminated the intruder, a tall monster with a jackal-like head and appendages. It growled before snapping its jaws. It bounded towards its victim and howled in pleasure as it ripped the woman to pieces.
"Too bad it's true." With a sinister smile, revealing its sharp teeth and powerful jaw, it bounded towards the children's bedroom.
.
The village burned merrily as its intruders carried its children off. A gleeful bystander, with curly shoulder length hair, watched with joy. His plans were coming along perfectly.
Etcetera: Decided to post it as a new story. Sorry about the confusion. Dx