one unknown
caused by fear
caused by hatred.
Two men
once friends now torn apart
by fear
by hatred.
A Quick Author's Note:
To properly understand this, please read my prologue: Fear And Hatred: Prologue (I know, original title, huh?). Thanks!
Rowena Ravenclaw slowly added a bit of lacewing to the potion she was brewing and heard the door to her office burst open with a short knock. Godric Gryffindor fairly stomped in, looking as if he was having a hard time keeping his temper.
"What's wrong, Godric?" Rowena asked calmly, knowing it took a lot to anger Godric.
"I -- He -- Salazar and I just had another argument," he said shortly.
Rowena carefully laid aside her potion and turned to Godric. "What about this time?"
"The same as usual," he said in a somewhat calmer tone. "Over muggle-borns coming to Hogwarts. I don't see any difference in them and the other students, of course, but Salazar....you know."
Rowena sighed. Of course she knew. Salazar Slytherin often had very different ideas than the rest of the founders....especially about muggle-borns.
"Of course," she said. "Something must be done about it. I'm afraid Salazar's temper might get the better of him, one day."
Godric nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of," he said sadly. "He's been talking about it for the past couple of days...and I really don't want anything to happen now, since this is only our fifth year to start the school...."
"Well, perhaps we should have a meeting about it," Rowena suggested. "Just let me finish this potion I'm brewing..."
"What is it?" Godric said curiously. "I've never seen that kind before." Rowena smiled. "I'm inventing a potion that will transform an ordinary pointed hat into one that can talk and see into your intermost thoughts."
"What purpose would that serve?" Godric asked. "It is an interesting theory and all..."
Rowena laughed. "I thought that perhaps we could use it as a way to sort the students, instead of choosing them ourselves. Helga was commenting that she thought it unfair the way we sort them just the other day. We thought of this." "That sounds like a good idea," Godric said, impressed. "We will have to talk about it in the next meeting...but I'm afraid Salazar won't like it. He prefers to hand pick his students."
Rowena made a face. "I know he does, but he'll just have to deal with it." Godric laughed. "I'm going to go tell Helga about the meeting. Should we have Salazar come?"
"Well, I suppose..." Rowena said thoughtfully. "We did agree to never leave the others in the dark about something, didn't we?"
"You're right. When you're finished with your potion, could you go tell Salazar about the meeting? We're not exactly on friendly terms right now..." Godric said, his sentence trailing off.
"Sure," Rowena said, though not exactly thrilled with her task. Not that she didn't like Salazar, just that after a fight he could be in a frightening mood. All in all, Rowena wasn't frightened very easily.
"Thank you," Godric said, relief in his voice. "In the staff room in half and hour then?" "That will do," Rowena said as he walked out the door.
She carefully added the rest of her potion and left it on the fire to boil. There. As long as the meeting didn't last to long her potion would be all right. This was the most complex one she had ever made and Rowena feverently hoped that it would turn out good. Her and Helga's idea had been sensible, since the way they sorted the students now was picking the ones they wanted. Godric leaned toward the students who were brave and kind and had a good sense of humor and Rowena's kind was the students who tried hard in their studies and were more serious. Salazar almost always chose students who were cunning and smart whereas Helga tended to chose students who were cheerful and sweet.
Rowena walked briskly out of her office and down the corridors. More likely Salazar was in one of the dungeons, that was where he went to brood. She just hoped he didn't have one of his snakes along with him. There were just some things Rowena couldn't stand...
She rapped on the only closed door dungeon and her Salazar mutter something about coming in, which she did.
"We have called a meeting in the staff room," Rowena said. Salazar shot her a venomous look. "Now? Did you stop to consider that I might be busy?"
"Its quite urgent, Salazar," Rowena said, giving him a look of her own. Oh, she should have had Helga be messenger. She was so sweet and Rowena had a bad feeling she was putting Salazar in a more terrible mood.
"Fine," he snapped. He somewhat slammed down his quill and reached for his snake as Rowena flinched. He knew she didn't care for the creatures. "Very well," she said. "In half an hour in the staff room." She turned to leave and heard Salazar saying something in parseltounge. She hated the sound of it; it sounded evil. All parseltounge did, maybe because it was snake language....
Rowena looked around the school as she was walking toward the staff room. They had put a lot of work into it....common rooms, the great hall, passage ways....Rowena smiled to herself. She suspected the Godric had made some sort of secret passage ways somewhere along the way. Her mind drifted back to the night they had put the protection charm on the school, the very night before the children came. It had took a lot of time and energy and all were a bit tired after it...but it had been worth it. No evil could come in uninvited. For the first few years they had just chosen their own students and taught them on their own account. This was the first year that they had decided to teach all the students. Rowena would teach Potions, Godric would teach Transfiguration, Helga would teach Herbology and Salazar would teach Charms. Then they would have their own classes to teach the children whatever else they thought they should learn. She vaguely remembered Helga saying something about divination, and Godric said something about magical creatures. Rowena wasn't exactly sure what she would do with her extra hour, but there was some extra time to think about it....
Helga Hufflepuff's laugh suddenly brought her back to earth. She was in front of the staff room. Rowena walked in to see tea all set out on a table and refrained herself from laughing. Helga was always preparing delicious foods for the students and teachers to eat. She seemed to think good food was right up there with good common rooms and wands in importance.
"Hello Rowena! How is the potion?" Helga asked, with the usual lilt in her voice. Helga was always cheerful, but she was always the first one to cry when something sad happened.
"Hello, Helga," Rowena smiled. "The potion is coming along nicely. It should be ready when the meeting is over."
"That's good," she said, smiling. "The sooner we can have a more fair sorting, the better!"
"What's this about a fair sorting?" said Salazar from the doorway. Luckily, he hadn't brought his snake with him.
"Oh, Helga and I came up with a plan to have a better sorting," Rowena said carefully.
"Oh," Salazar said, setting down across from Rowena. He didn't even glance at Godric. The tension between the two was thick.
"So!" Helga said brightly, "There are many things to do before Hogwarts opens, aren't there! We should prepare the opening feast and clean the common rooms and get prepared for the sorting. Who's in charge of getting the students this year?"
"I am," Godric said tensely, then blurted out, "What are we going to do about muggle-borns?"
"You know my opinion," Salazar said coldly.
"Yes," replied Godric just as cold. "But the rest of us would like them to have a chance too. Isn't that why we opened this school? To give young wizards and witches a chance?"
"Then do what you want," he snapped. "But there will be no muggle-borns in my house. They are most unreliable. They are not to be trusted and not worthy to learn magic. Who knows what evil they could commit.....They should be stopped."
Rowena refrained from sighing. She remembered how Godric and Salazar had been such good friends and confidantes. They had always been talking and laughing (well, she thought, more laughing on Godric's part than Salazar's). Still, she wondered what had come between them. She knew that they had been arguing over muggle-borns....but it seemed that there had been something else...
"Rowena? What do you think? Rowena?" Helga was saying.
"What, oh, sorry Helga," Rowena said, mildly embarrassed.
"She wanted to know what you thought about mascots," Salazar snapped, giving her a withering look.
Rowena wanted to return the look but instead, said to Helga, "Mascots for our houses? Sounds interesting."
Helga nodded, smiling, "It would really get everyone into such school spirit! Maybe colors too!"
Godric laughed, "I am sure there are plenty of possibilities."
Salazar, who was in an impatient mood snapped, "Is there anything else to discuss?"
"Only one more," Rowena said. "The suggestion of teaching the students how to ride brooms."
"Fine by me," Salazar said, waving his hand. "You can teach them to ride dragons for all I care. Most of my students know how to apparate by their second year."
"I love the idea," Godric said, ignoring Salazar's last comment. "It is a incredible way to travel."
"Sounds good to me," Rowena said. "It would be a bit useful."
"I don't know," Helga said, worriedly. "What if they fall off?"
"We will teach them safety first," Godric said. "Don't worry, Helga." They all laughed. Telling Helga not to worry was like telling a potion on the fire not to bubble. Useless.
When the meeting was dismissed, Rowena felt as if a matter had not been cleared. She vaguely remembered the discussion about muggle-borns and tried to forget the look in Salazar's eyes when he mentioned them. Of course under the certain circumstances, she could almost understand why he hated them....
Rowena shook her head virgoursly. Salazar might be cunning, but he wouldn't do anything foolish. But yet as she walked down the hall toward her office she heard an echo of Salazar's voice in her head and remembered his icy tones and flashing eyes...
"They must be stopped...."
Author's Note: Disclaimer:
This should have been subtitled 'Rowena's Ramblings'! Mainly, the only use for this part was to get you up-to-date on what is happening at Hogwarts....and probably because Rowena is my favorite character (of the month). I promise the next part will be more exciting...maybe.
As you can tell this series is about the Hogwarts founders. I like to write stories about some of the minor characters in the books. There will be five or six parts all together...The Prologue, Parts 1-4, and maybe An Epilogue.
Please review! I hope you liked the part. I like to give the characters some personality before the plot comes in...which you all already know. Darn. That's the bad thing about writing fan fiction, that your readers already know how it turns out. Maybe I'll twist the plot a little....
Tiger Lily
The characters belong to JK Rowling, who better hurry up with the fourth book, and her publishers, who have extremely vague websites.
