It was a warm and rainy night. A glowing silver-yellow moon hung in a dark navy sky. A few stars twinkled feebly. Bathed in silvery moonlight was a small cottage. Hunched around a small table were four figures, lit by candlelight.
"Underground? Are you crazy?" The woman, in her mid-twenties, swept silky black hair out of her blue eyes. "Salazar that would never, ever work."
"And why not? Rowena, it would be hard to find that way. We'd be safe from intruders, at least." Salazar Slytherin said, banging his fist on the table. The candle wobbled and tipped over, nearly burning all of his papers.
With a quick flick
of her wand, Rowena righted the candle and fixed the burn on Helga
Hufflepuff's kitchen table. "Please, Salazar, be more careful."
She studied his profile: His long black hair, pointed beard, slight
French mustache, emerald eyes glittering excitedly in the firelight.
As the flickering flight from the flame played over his face, making
him look older than twenty-seven, Rowena continued.
"The
school can't be set underground. We simply could not make it big
enough." She reached out and patted his shoulder. "I'm
sorry Salazar. I know you really wanted this. You're right; it would
be hard to find and we'd be safe from intruders and winds, but it
wouldn't work..."
"If I may speak." The second man leaned forward, his dark brown eyes slightly glazed over with tiredness. "Dear friends, it is getting late, and I have a plan." Godric Gryffindor looked around at his companions: Clever Rowena Ravenclaw, stubborn but cunning Salazar Slytherin, and meek, modest Helga Hufflepuff. "My dear friends," he said again, "We will never learn anything if we just sit here talking. We must act; we must actually go out and look for places. If we want to start a school, we must first learn ourselves. We do need to find an ideal place, but let's go and look for one." He looked around again, a fierce determination in his eyes, the candlelight reflecting in his light brown hair.
"Yes," spoke up a soft voice. Everyone looked at Helga. She blushed, but continued. "Godric is right. It is better to see things for ourselves than to guess about them." She ran a hand through her long, wavy, dark blonde hair. Sighing, she rubbed her hazel eyes and said, "Well, we can decide in the morning. But for now, let's go to sleep. It is far too late for you three to go home. Rowena, you can share my room. Salazar and Godric, you two get the guest bedroom. No fighting. Follow me." She stood and picked up the candle, and led her friends up a thin flight of stairs. She pointed to a small room for the two men and proceeded to show Rowena into her bedroom.