Disclaimer- I am not J K Rowling and I own nothing.
This is a prelude to my Lily Evans Series, it does not have to be read first or as part of that series. I have previously started posting that series, but began editing it due to numerous errors. It will be updated shortly.
Be aware this was written for my child who was 9 at the time I began it (many years ago) and developed as she grew.
I have not yet seen or read a Cursed Child so it will not be compliant with that storyline, though I have tried to keep it as canon (book) compliant as possible.
Work Text:
In a simple one roomed hut, in a country that had more hills than sky, as dawn was breaking a woman birthed a child. That in itself was not unusual, after all, women all over the world have been giving birth with varying degrees of difficulty for time out of mind. However, the birth of this child was unusual. The elder watching felt the tell-tale tingle on her skin that identified this child as blessed. After ensuring mother and babe were well and resting she departed the hut with a self-satisfied nod.
The years passed, and the child became apprenticed to the elder, following as she took care of the villagers, using simple charms and potions mixed from local herbs she healed their ailments. The child diligently learned the herb lore and spells always seeking a deeper understanding. She had barely reached a dozen years when she realised that she had learned all the elder could teach. A fortnight later carrying her meagre possessions over her shoulder she left behind the two dozen huts that were the village of her birth in the search for knowledge.
Rowena spent the following years seeking out elders in other villages, travelling further and further from her birthplace on a never-ending quest for wisdom. Over the years she encountered three others engaged in the same activity. A young brash man with ruddy features who even at the tender age of 16 sported a beard that vaguely resembled a lion's mane. Next a pair consisting of a tall sophisticated man, who was obviously used to the finer things in life, who was travelling with a tender-hearted woman. They each had their story to tell.
Godric, the bearded man, was the only surviving member of his village after an attack by a neighbouring clan. Salazar (Rowena felt his fancy name matched his fancy manners) had left the estate of his parents to seek his fortune in the world, along the way he had found Helga (the youngest of them) being chased from a village. That morning she had gone into a trance like state and delivered a prophecy. The villagers thought she was possessed by a maleficent spirit and violently expelled her from the village.
The four quickly became friends and decided to travel together. At night as they sat around the fire, they discussed their adventures, histories and what they had learned. They dissected how their learning took place and from their dissatisfaction with the ad hoc style of learning the idea of creating a singular place of study where all who were blessed could learn was born. From there they wandered the country searching for the ideal location, Salazar even offered one of the outlying holdings of his father's estate, but nowhere seemed suitable.
Months had passed since the idea was first proposed and Helga and Rowena were tiring of the group's nomadic lifestyle. The seasons had turned again, and the nights were closing in earlier, so they had set up camp on the edge of a forest. Godric and Salazar headed into the forest to search for firewood, while Helga and Rowena walked to the nearby lake to fill pots and flasks with water. As the girls passed the last of the undergrowth they found their way lit by a gently bobbing light, unable to resist they followed it to a path that lead them safely to the bottom of the slope. Standing at the edge of the water, they stopped to wonder at the view of the opposite shore. For there was an open stretch of ground that spread between the lake, and the forest, still lit by the last rays of the sun as they spread down the side of a cliff and ran languidly over the field below. The sound of kicked stones clattering disturbed their contemplation as Salazar and Godric emerged from the forest behind them. They had found their home.
After the stones of the foundations were laid it was decided that Rowena and Helga should leave to begin searching out likely students leaving Godric and Salazar to continue the building. Initially they could only coax half a dozen of the blessed away from the lives they knew, but with the passing years interest grew and soon children were arriving at the gates of the school, eager for an education.
Unfortunately this meant that students began learning as they arrived leading to every student being taught individually. While the numbers were few, the four managed, however as time went by it became clear that this haphazard approach could not continue so Rowena dedicated time to researching a means to have every student start at the same time. To do this they need to identify the optimum age for education to begin and a way to identify each of the children.
Twenty years after the first students began their lessons at Hogwarts Rowena succeeded in creating a way. On midsummer's eve the founders stood on a conjunction of the three major Ley lines that crossed Scotland and at the stroke of midnight they cast the spell. Ever since whenever a wizarding child born in the United Kingdom or Ireland, used their magic for the first time the spell has been triggered and a notation made, leading to their invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The artefact which detects the magic was stored safely away from prying eyes, away from the ministry and only visited once a year by the deputy Headmistress of the school in which it resided, when she would use the list to identify the muggle born students to arrange their introductions to the magical world.