Disclaimer: Amazingly enough, I still do not own anything. Sad, no?

I apologize for any grammatical errors, I'm doing this myself and it's always more difficult to find your own mistakes. Hope you enjoy :)

Telepathy

The six world-splitters (as they had jokingly called themselves before going to sleep the night before) woke for the second time that day. Only this time, they were quite different than they had been before their unforeseen nap.

"Arghh," groaned Ron, holding his head. "Anybody else feel like they outran a bludger only to get trampled by a hippogriff?"

"Uh," came Harry's coherent response. "I feel like Dudley used me for punching practice and then Uncle Vernon fell on me." There was a slightly hysterical giggle near him, and he responded to whatever was said. "Well," he said, sounding rather dazed. "I suppose Aunt Petunia could have fallen on me, too, but really, compared to Uncle Vernon, I doubt I'd even notice her." There were a few snorts from the two redheads near him.

"Well, I for one," said Hermione, standing up looking more than a bit queasy. "Think that we need to discuss what just happened-" she turned a pale green for a moment, and swallowed. "After I find some hangover potion." She stumbled away. "Or something to similar affect. Perhaps arsenic."

"Hey," Ron said, looking around as carefully as he could. "Where's Neville? And Lu- Luna?" He fell back onto the sofa nearest him and groaned loudly again as this served only to jostle already unsettled nerves. There was a grumble from behind said sofa. Ginny stared, slack-jawed, at the sofa from her spot on the floor where she had determined it best suited for optimal comfort and recovery.

"It spoke," she whispered, awed and sounding more like her befuddled brother than she ever had. Then she rubbed one hand firmly into her eyes, and squinted again at the space she could barely see underneath the couch. She frowned. "Neville. How'd you end up underneath the couch?" She imagined she could see a glare from him and blinked.

"I'm not underneath the bloody sofa! I'm behind it. There's a difference. Now quiet please. I've just come to terms with my death." There was a silvery laugh from the door. Harry, Ron, and Ginny (all of whom were in such positions that they could view the door) turned and saw a quite chipper Luna supporting a much less happy Hermione, but who, one could say, appeared in better, er, spirits, than before. At the very least she seemed to have been unsuccessful in her hunt for the solution to end all. Luna floated in her uniquely dreamy way further into the room, somehow managing to pull Hermione with her, who she sat down beside Ron.

"Stay," she admonished them sternly. And she disappeared back in the direction she had come from. She reappeared shortly after, this time bearing five vials. In a moment of sharp-sightedness not particularly customary to her, she attended to them one by one, unstoppering the vials and helping them drink. Once they were all somewhat lucid once more, they settled in as they had the night before.

"Well," Harry said. He scratched his hair rather nervously as he realized they all seemed to be looking to him for answers. Save for Luna. Luna, by all means, was fairly at peace with the world. He coughed. "The first thing I suppose, is to- er, determine whether or not we all experienced the same thing?" They each gave him looks suggesting that was a pointless exercise. He burst out, "Well, why do you all look to me for answers?" Their further looks of pitying amusement only frustrated him more.

"Harry, mate, you defeated Voldemort." Ron's voice was wryly amused. "Not a whole lot more to be said, really." Hermione chose to speak up.

"We should go about this logically." She waved her wand and conjured up a board to write on. "Now, I'm assuming we all experienced much the same thing, that is, the founders of Hogwarts appeared and some of them chose to impart some of their knowledge and abilities to you. For me, Ravenclaw chose me as her Heir, with Gryffindor choosing me as a sort of lesser ranking heir." She flicked her wand and her name flowed across the board followed by "Ravenclaw/Gryffindor". "Now, Ronald." Ron sighed.

"Well," he said, running his hand through his hair. "I'm Slytherin's Heir," he smiled at the irony and the shock on their faces. "Apparently, he wasn't such a bad guy after all. History's mostly distorted the truth. He only opposed muggleborns being taught at Hogwarts because many of the muggleborns they contacted ended up being killed by their village before anybody could save them. He wanted witches and wizards to marry only each other because it was really the safest option back then. And he was old when he left. He died visiting one of his grandchildren. Erm, I'm like you, Hermione. Gryffindor chose me as a lesser heir as well." He looked around quizzically. "Dunno who his true heir is." He shrugged. Ginny piped up.

"I do," she smiled. "Gryffindor picked me, and then Slytherin and Hufflepuff chose me as a lesser heir." She frowned. "But that leaves only Hufflepuff and none of them can have two true heirs." Everyone turned to Harry, Neville, and Luna. Luna smiled enigmatically and Harry looked a bit green. Neville spoke quietly.

"I'm Hufflepuff's heir. Another lesser heir of Gryffindor, too." He, too, turned to Luna and Harry.

"I am the heir of the Lady of the Lake." Luna's voice was a cheery as it ever was despite the gasps from the others. "Ravenclaw chose me as her lesser heir. And the reason Harry looks a bit ill over there is because he's first and foremost Merlin's Heir." She tuned luminous eyes on him, ignoring the awed looks of the others. "He seems to think this makes him more of a freak." She frowned at him.

"I don't think I'm a freak," Harry said with some distaste. "It's just, weird. I dunno. But Slytherin and Gryffindor chose me as a lesser heir as well."

Ron looked at Harry steadily. Hermione seemed a bit wary, looking between the two as though she could not be sure what was about to happen. There was a bit of tension for a moment as Harry looked at his friend, silently pleading with him not to get jealous. Finally, Ron grinned.

"Had you going for a minute there, eh mate?" Ron shook his head. "Harry, if it's one thing I've come to realize, it's that for all that you seem to get everything as far as fame and power and wealth go, you deserve the good you get, and you tend to get rather a lot more bad than you deserve as a result. Nah, mate, I don't envy you one bit. You be Merlin, I'll be Slytherin, and we'll all do our thing. Hogwarts is what matters right now anyways." Hermione squealed and threw her arms around his neck. At the sight, Harry grinned.

Well, this is cozy, but there are a few more things we should discuss, I think. Luna's voice seemed eerily close. They each looked at her in confusion. As you should now be able to tell, I'm speaking to you mind to mind. I believe the muggles call it telepathy. Hermione gasped. I can speak and hear all of you because it is part of my ability as Lady of the Lake. For those of you that share a bond of heirship, however, you can speak to that person at will. For example, Hermione may speak to me due to Ravenclaw, and she can speak to the rest of you because you are all heirs of some sort to Gryffindor. The more bonds of heirship that you share with one another, the stronger your combined magic will be when casting spells together. Hermione jumped up.

"That's it!" She crowed. "The problem with the wards had to do with power and the fact that all records regarding their creation have been lost. Now, oh, now I need only research the knowledge given to me by Rowena, and, with our combined powers, we should be fully capable of restoring the wards!" She paused in her pacing. "The only thing to do now is to settle the matter of Voldemort in this world and by that time, I should be able to put something together." Her brow furrowed in thought. "That brings us to the matter at hand. We need to know a bit more about this world before we go gallivanting around. After all, who knows what's different here?"

Neville raised a hand. "I think I know the best way to figure that out." Now that he had everybody's attention, he continued. "I spoke a bit with Hogwarts last night when I was thinking about all of this and, on a whim, asked to speak to her. She came, and she told me that Dumbledore is still headmaster and that he would be the one to approach. As Headmaster, he is bound to Hogwarts and therefore cannot do anything to endanger her. With her help, we can approach him and get his help. From there I think it would be a wise idea to visit the vaults that we are now entitled to as Heirs." He held up his hand. "We have the rings of identification after all, and those can't be worn by anyone other than the Heir."

And indeed, sitting neatly on one finger was a heavy ring of golden yellow encasing a large black diamond and on another was a smaller ring of gold inset with a line of small rubies. Curious, the others looked to their own hands and found similar rings. Hermione's were white gold with a large sapphire and a smaller white gold with a similar line of rubies as Neville's. Ginny's main ring was golden with a large ruby and her second was intertwined silver and gold with a double line of emeralds and black diamonds. Ron's large ring was silver containing a large emerald and his second ring was silver with a smaller ruby. Luna's ring was the strangest. The best way to describe it was if somebody had taken a diamond and melted it to form into a ring, that would be it. Unlike the others, she had only the one ring upon which the blue sapphire of Ravenclaw set. Harry's was likewise unique. His ring was the same silver as Slytherin's but with a strange colorful glimmer to it, that, upon further inspection was revealed to be hundreds of perfect tiny gems of varying muted colors. He wore a silver ring inlaid with multiple emeralds and another ring directly next to it, of golden yellow inlaid with smaller rubies. Each ring denoted the rank and status of the bearer and they were in awe of them for a moment before turning to better things.

"So all agreed with Neville's plan?" Harry asked. As they all nodded, he said, "Alright then. We'll find Dumbledore, explain things and then proceed to Gringotts."

"Blimey," Ron said. "I do like actually having a plan for once, but something always manages to get bungled." He yelped suddenly. "Ouch, bloody hell, woman, what was that for?"

"For being annoyingly pessimistic," Hermione said primly.