This is surprisingly a new fandom for me to write for. I'm trying to improve so constructive criticism is welcome and begged for.
It was a dark and stormy night, and by the time the three companions reached what must have been the only inn for miles they were thoroughly soaked with empty bellies and low spirits.
"We're stopping here." The tallest among them said as he gestured to the lighted inn with a mighty hand. If his hand alone was mighty, the rest of him was even more so. His hair and beard were long, thick, and bright as the sun and he looked as though he might have been a quarter giant.
"We should have stopped before the sun went down Godric. Who knows what lurks in this valley?" The speaker this time was a lady, tall and fair with clever looking dark eyes. She looked none too pleased to be tramping around a valley in Wales when she could have been at home in her library,warm and dry.
"It was your dream that led us here Rowena. Lest you forget that. You are the one who said we would find the fourth founder of our school in this valley." The final companion looked, perhaps, the most miserable of them all. He was a gaunt man with gray eyes and lank black hair, with a cloak pulled so tight around him that it was a wonder he didn't fall over.
"If we are to stop," the man continued." Let us stop at a wizarding inn."
"This is the only inn in the valley Salazar," Godric snapped, surprising his friend. "We go in, wizarding or not, or we camp."
"Well you two can stand here all night arguing, but I am going in before I decide this whole venture was a bad idea," and with a flourish of her blue cloak Rowena walked down the stairs to the inn. She was followed closely by Godric, and then Salazar a few steps behind. Rowena opened the heavy wooden door with ease, and all three of them stepped into the inn at once.
It was a warm, welcoming place, sunk a few feet below the earth to keep out the worst of the cold. There was a roaring fire at the end of the room in a hearth of gray and black river stones and a group of obvious muggles clustered around it, oblivious to the fact that all the smoke from the fire, nay all the fires(candles included), went straight up the chimney without lingering. Windows set in the top of the walls showed the outside gloom and rain, yet it felt sunny somehow, and even Salazar took his cloak off without complaint.
Scarcely had Godric closed the door when they were accosted by a slightly plump, curvy woman, with copper colored tresses and shining blue eyes. She gave them a quick once over before smiling broadly and ushering them forward.
"You'll want the back parlor. Will you need rooms?"
"Yes, three of them if possible. And three meals," Godric replied.
"Two meals," Salazar countered. "Just beer for me."
"Beer on an empty stomach?" Rowena said, sighing. "After you grumbled your way through the valley?" She looked at Godric, but even his determination and her intimidation could not figure out how to get Salazar to eat at another country inn. (At the last place they had stayed, he had eaten bad rabbit and was violently ill.) Salazar glowered, and opened his mouth to speak, but the smiling woman did it first.
"Just a few bites for you then. If you're under my roof, you'll have my hospitality. Now it's time to sit. " her voice was kind, but firm.
Rowena smiled as Salazar taciturnly agreed. The hospitality laws were ancient, and so ubiquitous that even muggles had picked up on them, and were accustomed to offering guests bread and salt as a sign that they would not attack their guests while they were their hosts, and the guests in turn would not hurt them. Some more powerful witches and wizards also extended this right to protecting their guest to all harm, though it was a rare and powerful person who did that. Her smile meant that she thought it rather clever, as it could be dangerous to reject hospitality outright. The trio followed her, two of them cheerier than before.
They followed her past a closed door, presumably the kitchens as loud banging noises and the smell of cooking food came from it, and found themselves at a plain unimposing door, cunning concealed from muggle eyes with a bit of charm work.
"It looks like you got your wish after all Salazar," Godric said with a chuckle as the door opened. The room was precisely the same,with the exception that the patrons here were a group of suspiciously quiet goblins, and a slightly batty looking old wizard with an owl nesting in his hair.
"Were we really that obvious?" Godric asked.
"Not at all, but there are few people in the valley that my family doesn't know, and fewer strangers are willing to go through this late at night. And you have a look about you..." she trailed off briefly and then smiled broadly.
"I'll just go and get your drinks." She bustled off,leaving the three to their table.
" Can you believe we nearly missed a part wizarding establishment? Godric said with a hearty chuckle. "If we're to find a wizard-"
"Or witch," Rowena reminded him.
"Yes, or witch. They're likely to be here. Isn't that right Rowena?" Rowena shrugged uncharacteristically. She wasn't a seer, not usually anyway, but her dream had told her to go to the valley. The same dream had come three times, and dreaming three times about a place she had never been to three times meant something. Even if she had been a muggle she would have known that, but so far the search for the final founder of their school had been both fruitless and miserable. Cleverness only got you so far in weather like this, she wanted to be back in her study.
" It only matters that we're here now," she replied eventually. "Once we find the cleverest witch or wizard in the valley we are sure to have found our equal."
"You just want another witch like you. We would never get anything done that way. With two founders that will not leave the-" Salazar said, stopping as his tongue started flickering and the words became hisses.
"Salazar, not in here!" Godric whispered. "You'll get us kicked out. Calm yourself and that serpent tongue of yours."
Salazar furrowed his brow, but said nothing, not knowing what was going to come out of his mouth. Talking to snakes was associated with the darkest branches of magic and it had gotten him in trouble before as Godric knew well. Some days it was the only language he could stomach, and today had been one of those days. A day when even his good friend Godric got on his last nerve and stayed there. Then of course, that cheerful woman came back with her tray, just in time to boot them out if he opened his mouth.
She smiled as she set down three foaming tankards without spilling a drop, followed by a plate of oat cakes dripping golden honey and butter.
"The main meal is coming in a moment, but you promised me a bite," she reminded Salazar. He gulped subtly, remembering the inn days ago, but took his promised bite to please her. Then another, and a third until the whole cake was devoured and a large portion of his foul mood, which he now suspected had been brought on by hunger and fatigue, was vanquished. He took another cake with sticky fingers, slightly perturbed. Now that he had eaten something his true hunger came back, and he was ravenous.
"I think he'll take a meal now," Godric said with a chuckle as he helped himself to a cake, popping the whole thing in his mouth. Honey dribbled down his chin to his beard, but he didn't seem to mind at all.
"Thank you, yes. He's correct." Salazar said, not surprised at all when his words came out in the common tongue this time. She nodded, and walked off, still smiling and obviously pleased with herself. Rowena took a cake, chewing carefully.
"If I didn't already know she was a witch, I would certainly think she was one now," she said.
"I already feel a fool," Salazar said. "You do not need to rub it in."
"We are not Salazar. It's been a difficult few weeks for all of us and traveling in the rain for days has not helped. I was the one who thought we needed a fourth member." Godric took a pull from the tankard, glancing at the wizard wearing his owl. There was no way the man made it past the muggles like that. He peered over at the goblins as well, who had gotten up, leaving a small pile of gold on their table and slipping on cloaks.
"You are not alone in thinking it. Three people to teach all the magical children that can be found? To feed them, look after them, make sure they have wands? If it was any less practical we would be better off leaving them be."
"You three are teachers? The woman asked as she levitated three steaming pies in front of the trio, passing out cutlery as they dropped softly.
"Attempted teachers," Rowena corrected. "We have tutored before, but this is a whole new challenge. A whole wizarding school, for all the children, and a safe haven in times of turmoil."
The woman sighed wistfully.
"A beacon in these dark times. My sister would have appreciated a wizarding school. Her youngest just got his wand today. We're going to have our work cut out for us."
"And how many children does your sister have?" Rowena asked politely as she cut into her pie.
"Five, would you three want cheese soup?" She said cheerfully.
"I don't think that will be necessary, but thank you."
"Did your sister marry a wizard?" Salazar asked.
"Yes. It's nice not to worry about him popping in and finding us around a bubbling cauldron mixing potions. It's not why she married him, but it's nice." The wizard by the fire called her over, and she popped off with another smile. The trio ate their food and drank their beer, chattering amiably.
"You know," Godric said as he drained his second tankard. "If we don't find our witch or wizard here, we could always loop around the valley and come back."
He stopped and shuddered. The warm had been sucked out of the room, the crackling fire had frozen, giving off the faintest blue light. The window panes had begun to ice over, leaving hideous patterns in the frost. It was like all the life that had been in the inn was gone. Godric sprung up, brandishing his wand.
"Dementors!" He cried, ignoring the cold sweat running down his forehead.
"Lots of them," Rowena said, peering out the window. She was pale as the moon, but her own wand was drawn.
"They are coming in through the front," Salazar stood,wand limply at his side, advancing towards the door, before Godric ran past him, and dragged him forward into the muggle room. The few muggles that were left in the misty room were under tables, shaking, and in one case sobbing. The door had been flung wide open. Godric dove for it, only to find the inn keeper already there, copper tresses dull. She was kneeling in between the inn and the dementors, one hand clutching her wand, the other on the cold earth as though she was drawing power from its presence.
"You leave my valley, you never come back."
The only answer was the cold rattling of the dementor's breathing as one came forward from the pack. It's cloak shifted, and a single corpse like hand dropped the hood, revealing its empty eye sockets, and gaping maw. The incantation was on Godric's lips, but she got to it first.
"Expecto patronum!" The corporeal patronus shone brightly, as though it had absorbed all the light the dementors had sucked away. It was a squat little beast, with a stub of a tail and a long striped snout, but it charged at them faster than it had any right to. They retreated quickly, and in a blink the patronus had circled the inn,bathing in silver light. Then it charged at the dementors again, leaving a silvery trail in its wake. She stood, siphoned the mud off her dress, and watched as the light disappeared over the horizon. She turned around, with a shaky smile, breathing heavily.
" Are you and your friends all well?How about a pint, on the house?"
Godric gaped, Salazar stared, Rowena tactfully took this time to obliviate the muggles and send them home. It was only when the last muggle was gone that all four of them sat down in the wizarding room of the inn.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are a talented witch?" Rowena asked her.
"Once or twice, but there aren't many wizarding folk that live here, so I don't think I'm that much better than anyone else really. I work hard is all, and I was protecting my guests."
"You stood between your guests and danger. It was brave of you," Godric added. Salazar, who had up until that point been drowning himself in the tankard spoke up.
"You should join us." Godric and Rowena stared at him, surprised. The thought was in their minds too, but they had never suspected Salazar would voice it first. Salazar who distrusted most people on sight.
"In teaching at your wizarding school?"
"In founding our wizarding school," Rowena corrected. 'Giving all wizarding children a safe place to learn. I'm Rowena Ravenclaw. This is Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin."
She sat for a moment, stunned .
"Godric Gryffindor, the best duelist of our age? Lady Ravenclaw, wife of Roran Ravenclaw? People come through here talking about how you're the brightest and most beautiful witch they've ever met! And Salazar Slytherin, well I don't even know how to sort out what I've heard about you, but you're supposed to have led the battle at Ipswitch against all those trolls. The inn truly belongs to my sister, and she runs it well. Are you sure you want me though? I'm no one."
"Why wouldn't we want a doughty witch like you?" Godric asked.
'A powerful witch who could have suffered a fate worth than death for a group of people she barely knew." Rowena added.
"But did not, and then proceeded to pour a round of drinks for everyone else before so much as sitting down. Foolish yes, but enduring. You are equal to any of us, and I do not say that lightly."
The witch looked down at her hands, then up at the faces, eager to hear her answer.
"I'll do it. My name is Helga Hufflepuff. It's a pleasure to meet you all."