Welcome to Hogwarts

Four figures stood on the lawn, gazing up at the large castle that loomed high above them. It was still dark out, the moon just beginning to disappear over the horizon while the stars still twinkled hopefully overhead just as the sky with beginning to lighten with the promise of a new day.

"Just think," Rowena Ravenclaw said with a slight smile on her face as her eyes took in the sight before them. "In just over a week's time there will be students roaming these halls for the first time. After all our hard work, I'm just so excited to see all the eager young faces ready to learn, studying in the library, climbing the stairs to the towers…"

"Do we really need that many staircases?" Helga Hufflepuff asked suddenly. "Couldn't we go for something a bit more… practical?"

Rowena sighed wearily. "It's a bit late for that, Helga, dear," she said, straining to keep the impatience out of her tone. Besides… what could be more practical than staircases? She didn't say that last bit out loud though, hoping to avoid yet another debate over what exactly constituted practicality.

Helga shot her a look that seemed honestly perplexed. "Too late? It'll only take a minute, I'll just duck in and cast a few hundred levitation spells…" She was already beginning to stride forward.

Rowena rolled her eyes as she reached forward and grasped her friend by the shoulder. "No you don't," she said calmly, pulling Helga back to where she originally stood. "We all agreed, the school is finished. No more changes for the foreseeable future, remember?"

It had been an incredibly long process to build this school for young witches and wizards, longer than it probably should have been given the situation. It was not easy for four individuals with vastly different personalities and ideals to work together in order to reach this common goal. Time and time again, different facets of the castle had to be redone in order to accomplish compromises between the four companions. And this was not the first time they had declared the school finished. Over the past couple weeks there had been no less than five times where they had agreed that the school was complete, only to come upon another aspect of the castle that they decided to change.

With the start of their very first school year so close at hand, Rowena had been quite hopeful that this time their declaration of completion would stick. However, that hope was quickly starting to fade.

"I dunno," Godric Gryffindor suddenly spoke up, stroking his beard thoughtfully as he looked up at the castle. "I like the levitation idea. Perhaps we could charm some giant stone dragons…" Suddenly there was a mischievous spark in his eyes. "Or! What do you think the odds are we could get some real dragons for students to ride? Sure, we'd have to shrink them a bit in order for them to fit in the hallways…"

Rowena barely managed to stifle a groan as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. Honestly, despite how brilliant she knew her companions to be, sometimes they simply wore on her nerves with their illogical ideas.

"Salazar," she said as she opened her eyes and cut her gaze over to her final companion. "Please help bring some sense back to this conversation."

Salazar Slytherin was standing a few steps back from the group. His expression appeared neutral, but Rowena could have sworn that she saw a spark of amusement behind his dark eyes.

"Really, Rowena," he said, shooting her of all people a pitying glance. "You make it all too easy for them."

It took several beats for his words to really sink in, aided by the laughter that was suddenly coming from Helga and Godric. Keeping her back to the two, she rolled her eyes to the sky as she attempted a calming breath. Then she whirled around.

"That is not funny," she practically scolded. "It wouldn't have been the first ridiculous idea you two came up with, at this point how am I supposed to tell fallacy from genuine intention? Honestly, somebody has to be the voice of reason here."

Godric was still chuckling as he spoke. "Well it would seem," he paused to take a breath and grinned widely, "at this point that voice of reason would be Salazar."

They all turned to regard the fourth member of their group. Salazar cocked an eyebrow at the rest of them.

"I'm honored," he deadpanned.

Godric roared with laughter as he crossed the space between himself and Salazar, giving the thinner man a hardy slap on the back. Salazar stumbled forward a step at the action and scowled, but Godric didn't appear to notice the sour reaction. Rowena couldn't help but think that the man still seemed a bit put off even months after the argument about

"We must celebrate!" Godric declared. "We should have a great feast to commemorate the completion of our school!"

Rowena eyed the man wearily, trying to decide if this was supposed to be another joke. "Even though the school is finished, there is still much to do before the students arrive," she pointed out carefully. "Lesson plans must be made, schedules still need to be written…"

"Rowena, my friend, we've been working on this school for almost a year now," Helga pointed out with a warm smile. "I think we've earned a little fun, if only for one evening."

Despite her annoyance with the woman only minutes ago, Rowena couldn't help but return the smile. After all, they had all started on this journey together because first and foremost they had been friends.

"Okay," she agreed. "We will conjure a grand feast tonight in order to celebrate. But I am spending the day today starting my lesson plans."

"Fair enough," Helga allowed, her smile shifting to be a full grin.

Finally, the sun began to rise, bathing the landscape in golden hues. The castle was now fully visible in the dawn light and all four of the people standing on the lawn couldn't help but look up in awe of what they had created.

Godric, as usual, was the one to break the stilless as he took a step forward, placing his hands on his hips as he looked upon the castle as a father would look upon his newborn child.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!"

Grand Battle Prompts

Dialogue Prompts:

"Do we really need that many staircases? Couldn't we go for something a bit more… practical?" (6)

Word Prompts:

Feast (1)

Moon (1)

Sun (1)

Fallacy (1)

Character Prompts:

Helga Hufflepuff (2)

Pairings Prompts:

Creature Prompts:

Dragon (3)

Spell Prompts:

Total Points: 15