Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, I'm not making money with this
A/N: I know I said they would be in Diagon Alley this chapter, but things had to be described and explained and it just kept getting longer, so their shopping trip will be in the next chapter.
Chapter 3 - Recounting a Tale
Down in the dungeons, in an empty room, Ron, Hermione and Harry sat down. Godric and Salazar started warding the room to shield them from eavesdroppers and Harry began his tale.
"You remember when I told you I would look to see if the Chamber of Secrets was useable for the DA?" His two oldest friends nodded.
"It was only a few hours ago." Ron remarked offhandedly.
"For me it was just slightly longer." Harry continued, "well, I went down there and found this circular room filled with runes and a basin filled with potion stood in the middle. I went around looking at the runes, not understanding them, because I never took ancient runes and I accidentally walked into the basin. It spilled and the potion ran into the runes in the floor, filling them up and after about half a minute it started glowing, getting brighter until I couldn't see anymore and I fell unconscious.
"When I woke again I was in a strange cellar. Turns out I landed a thousand years in the past. There I met four very impressive and important people. The Hogwarts founders."
There followed a shocked silence.
"No bloody way." Ron said, disbelief clear in his voice.
Harry grinned cheekily. "So way. Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. When I landed though, Hogwarts didn't yet exist as such, definitely not as a school, rather a castle called Ravensreach. But anyway: the founders four were our age. Helga was youngest at fourteen years, next Godric, who had just turned fifteen. Salazar was fifteen and Rowena was eldest, soon to be sixteen.
"We had no Idea how to send me back and it took us a year to find one. So naturally I am now a year older as were the founders. It was one amazing year, I have to say. Deathly, dangerous, but great experience for survival.
"As for my companions; during the performance of the spell to send me back to the present there was an accident, resulting in Salazar and Godric getting dragged along."
Ron simply sat there, mouth agape, completely shocked. Hermione was regarding Harry pensively. "It would explain your change of appearance." She said at last.
"Oh, my outer appearance has changed the least. It's my mind that's changed. It was a dark year and to survive I had to adapt. The dark lord from then lets Voldemort look like child throwing a temper tantrum." Harry said, his cheerful facade slipping slightly at the memory of the dark lord Tenzin. The wizardry world was in terror, children weren't allowed to leave the house at night, people were being slaughtered left and right, and all because of one man who wouldn't believe in change.
"But wasn't Salazar Slytherin dark?" Ron asked.
"Yes he was, still is and standing right here." Salazar levelled Ron with a glare, "But do continue with what you were saying." A fake smile graced his lips.
Ron gulped, but continued, showing his Gryffindor bravery, "Wasn't he supposed to be the dark lord of that time?" he directed his question at Hermione, the one most knowledgeable with anything taught at school. The girl frowned, but before she could say anything Harry groaned with annoyance.
"History," he muttered with distaste, "Always mixing up the facts. The dark lord was Slytherin, but their were many Slytherins back then. Until the dark lord wiped them out, starting with his own brother and his wife, leaving their only son an orphan at thirteen. He was also the first Slytherin to go dark. The second was Salazar."
The room had gone silent. Ron was looking rather shocked at the revelation and Hermione seemed rather angry, probably because she had always taken everything written in a book at face value. Salazar had gone very still and seemed lost in memory and Godric looked very uncomfortable with the whole situation.
Harry, sensing things could start spiraling out of control if Ron asked more questions, changed the topic. "DA. What's the plan."
Hermione blinked. "Well, we went to the kitchens and asked Dobby if he knew of a place we could use and he told us of the Room of Requirements. It's on the seventh floor and you have to walk past a certain section of the wall three times thinking of what you need and it should reveal itself, giving you exactly what you wished for. We haven't tested it yet, we wanted to wait until you returned. We can go there tomorrow after lessons. I still have one question though. What was the story you told Dumbledore?"
Harry told her the cover story Salazar had invented, concluding with why Salazar and Godric were allowed to stay.
"And he believed you? Just like that?" Hermione was astounded.
"Well, not quite like that. There might have been three voices in his head, telling him to trust the story, one of them being mine." Salazar unabashedly told the rooms occupants of his manipulations regarding the headmaster.
"Who were the other voices?" Harry asked curiously.
"One was his conscience, telling him not to leave two school aged children unattended, regardless of circumstances, the other was the castle." Salazar patted the dungeon walls.
"Hogwarts? You mean the castle, it's sentient?" Hermione furrowed her brows.
Frowning, Salazar regarded the girl with a stare. "She is very much sentient and would prefer not to be called Hogwarts."
"But that's its, her, name!" Ron exclaimed.
"That would be my fault." Godric said with a sigh. "When I inherited her I renamed her Hogwarts and I wasn't able to change it back. Believe me I tried, with all that nagging from Sally... Can't blame him though, he had to listen to the castle complain."
"Godric." Salazar started, "Can you tell me my name?"
"Sure thing Sally, its Salazar Slytherin." Godric confidently said, already knowing what was going to happen next.
"Then why, why! do you insist on calling me Sally!" If there was one thing that annoyed Salazar, it was being called Sally. You could see his fondness for his redheaded in Salazar's inability to harm him. The last person who wasn't Godric had apparently suffered under a few dark curses.
"I have a name! For god's sake, use it. If you need to use a nickname, use Sal, but don't call me Sally."
Godric waved his hand dismissively, "No thanks, I think I'll stick with Sally. It suits you better. You know, being so kindhearted and feminine."
Salazar gritted his him, "Will you excuse me for a minute?" Without waiting for a response he marched to the empty end of the room and let his magic swirl around him. As tainted as it was by dark magic, it was painful to watch for the purely light wizards like Ron and Godric. Reaching out with his own magic, Harry could detect the swirling darkness emanating from Salazar. It seemed to be lashing out at the wall, as if in anger, but there was definitely a tinge of amusement.
Once he was done, Salazar calmly walked back to the others, outwardly ignoring their shocked gasps at his actions. Turning around he took in his piece of art.
Engraved into the wall was lifelike picture of the time Godric tickled a dragon. Storming out of the cave, the enraged dragon followed a girlishly shrieking Godric and an exasperated Salazar stood further outside the cave, readying himself to save his friend once again. Underneath it said in bold letters: The very manly side of Godric Gryffindor
"Who were you calling feminine again?"
Godric simply looked at the carving in horror, before turning to his friend, getting on his knees and begging as if his life depended on it, "Erase it, erase it! You can't leave it there! Please, I'll do anything."
"You'll stop calling me Sally?"
"Anything but that!" Godric cried, clutching onto Salazar's leg.
"Then we have no deal." Salazar simply said, turning around and striding purposefully out of the room. Or he would have, hadn't Godric attached himself firmly onto the his leg.
Stunned at the founders behaviour Ron and Hermione simply trailed after Harry when he made his exit. They walked in complete silence aside from Godric's constant complaints about the unfairness of Salazar's treatment and Salazar's demand for Godric to let go of his leg.
They arrived at the portrait leading to the common room.
"Before I forget," Harry said, "Sal, Ric and I are going to Diagon Alley tomorrow to get school supplies, so we'll check out the Room of Requirements afterwards, okay?"
Hermione nodded and Ron grunted in agreement. "Why the nicknames, though?"
"Because Richard and Selwen don't really like their names." Harry gave his oldest two friends a meaningful glance.
Hermione caught on quickly enough, but Ron took a while. "He had already opened his mouth to ask a question when understanding lit his eyes. "Oh."
Hermione let them all in and Salazar and Godric looked around the room. Godric with fascination and Salazar with disgust.
"This is brilliant!" Godric cried, pleasantly surprised.
"It's absolutely hideous. Only you would decorate this brightly." Salazar retorted, disdain colouring his tone. "It looks like those fancy robes you like wearing. All red and gold died in the brightest colours. It hurts my eyes."
"And what colours would you prefer," asked Godric, slightly offended, "Green and silver? Or something equally stiff and stuck up?"
Ron and Hermione exchanged looks. "Are they always like this?"
Harry shrugged. "Mostly. I sometimes get the impression they're doing it for fun."
"You are forgetting something Godric." Salazar said, eyes cold. He leaned over to Godric and whispered something in his ear, making the redhead look away, ashamed.
Harry could only imagine what Salazar had said. Family was a sensitive topic for the elder wizard and silver and green were family colours, whereas Godric had chosen his house colours because he liked them.
Gold for glory and red for passion, was what Godric alway said.
"I'm heading up for bed." Harry announced. Godric and Salazar followed behind, letting Harry show them where they were going to sleep.
-
The next morning Harry was awoken by rough shaking of his shoulder.
"What is it?" He asked, instantly sitting up and alert. He must have head butted Ron, because when Harry turned to look at him, the redhead was holding his nose.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" Harry sputtered, embarrassment colouring his face red. "What did you want?"
"I wanted to wake you for breakfast. I don't know when you have to go to Diagon Alley, but I thought you might want to have breakfast with Hermione and me." Ron was poking at his nose, probably checking for damage.
"Thanks Ron. I appreciate it. Just let me get dressed. Are 'Ric and Sal already up?"
Ron shook his head. "Still asleep. Shall I..."
"No, you should probably leave that to me. They sometimes have violent reactions." Harry swung his legs out of bed and stood, stretching as he did so. Then he went over to Salazar's bedside and swished his wand, letting a slight breeze caress Salazar's face. Harry had learned it to be the best and least harmful way to wake his friend. The first time Harry had tried to wake him, he had done it like Ron and promptly had to dodge a volley of dark curses. Having deadly curses fired at one's person was, Harry had learned, a great teaching method. Never again had he tried to shake Salazar awake.
He had sadly taken a long time to learn the right waking method and made many mistakes, non of which he ever repeated.
As soon as he saw Salazar stir, he moved over to Godric.
Godric was much easier to make. Harry simply poured ice-cold water over his head and instantaneously received a reaction. Godric tried to jump up, but got tangled in the bed sheets and fell to the floor in an ungraceful heap.
A groan echoed around the room and a slighty unhappy "I hate mornings" sounded from the pile.
Salazar, much more elegantly got up from his bed and helped Godric stand. It didn't work quite as well as they had thought, because when Godric took his first step, he tripped over something and fell into Salazar, making both boys topple over. It gave Harry a bad sense of deja-vu.
When at last everyone managed to stand, they started to get ready for the day. That's when they encountered their first problem.
"How does the bathroom work?" Harry quickly showed them how the toilets worked and how to use the showers. Getting dressed he asked Ron where Dean, Seamus and Neville were. He hadn't seen them last night or this morning.
"They're already down having breakfast. They'll probably ask where you were. They wanted to do so yesterday, but I told them not to wake you."
"Thanks Ron." Harry smiled.
It was exactly as Ron had predicted. As soon as they entered the Great Hall they were flooded by people. It wasn't just Gryffindors though. It was Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws too and even single Slytherins.
Harry told them all the same story, the one they had told Dumbledore. After what Harry estimated were fifteen minutes, he had had enough and forcibly pushed his way through the students to the Gryffindor table.
The questions didn't end there though. The Gryffindors took their chance, especially Harry's year mates, to gather round, firing questions at him. It seemed impossible, but he actually managed to eat something before professor McGonagall came to retrieve them for their trip to Diagon Alley.
"Mr Potter," the afore-mentioned professor said in a clipped tone. "I am to take you and your friends to purchase school supplies. The trio got up to join professor McGonagall.
"Mr. Doorman and Mr. Nighthay, I presume." She didn't wait for an answer, simply turned and led them out, presumably to her office. "We're going to floo directly from my office to Diagon Alley."
Reaching the office, the professor led them in and showed them to her fireplace. "You know how flooing works?"
Godric looked at Salazar and Harry. Back in their time, floo hadn't even been invented yet, so they didn't know how to use it, but saying they had no clue would be suspicious, as they were supposedly raised and homeschooled by wizards.
"Naturally we know how to floo." Salazar smoothly said, the lie undetectable, flowing easily off of his tongue.
"Very well then. Mr. Potter, why don't you go first."
With a sigh Harry complied. He wasn't looking forward to flooing. He found it to be a terrible way of travel, but without complaint he grabbed a handful of floopowder, offered to him by McGonagall, and stepped into the fire, shouting his destination.
Harry's landing was as graceful as was to be expected. Covered in soot he tumbled out of the fireplace, luckily managing to stay on his feet. He was soon followed by Godric, who had an equally ungraceful landing, and Salazar who stepped out of the fire as if he did this everyday, not covered in the least with soot. Lastly McGonagall came through, more elegantly than Godric and Harry, but not as good as Salazar.
She led them through the Leaky Cauldron, the place of their arrival, and into Diagon Alley. Opening the stone wall, Godric and Salazar got their first look at the more modern alley.
"This looks so different from how I remember it." Godric whistled.
McGonagall looked at him with slight confusion. "This place probably hasn't changed for the last thousand years."
A/N: I hope you liked. Please leave a review!
