The Foundation for the Future
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC. Dumbledore/Weasley bashing! It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it.
If you don't like it, go and find something else to read or write your own story to your liking!
However, it should take more than a year, before the three children would be able to discover Godric's secrets, since on the last day of the holidays before their third Hogwarts year, Rowena decided to show them her project.
"Not even my colleagues are aware of it, so please keep the matter to yourselves," she instructed the children, before she led them to the seventh floor, very much to Harry's surprise, as he had never seen anyone using the upper floors of the castle apart from within the houses. Rowena stopped in front of an empty wall. "Behind this wall is the Room of Requirement," she informed the children and paced in front of the wall to show them how to activate the room, stating, "Rowena's secret room."
Finally, a dark wooden door appeared in the wall, and Rowena motioned the children to follow her.
"This room is just my favourite place," she explained, "however, you can wish for a different room, you just have to think of how you want it to be when you pace in front of the wall."
The room, which Rowena had chosen, was more like living quarters than just a single room. It contained of a corner that was equipped with comfortable looking sofas and a huge bookshelf, another corner, which appeared to be a dining corner, a corner that seemed empty on the first glance but was surrounded by what seemed to be a glass wall, and a swimming pool in the fourth corner. A door right next to the pool was closed, so they could not look behind it, but it was obvious that it had to lead to a bathroom.
"Amazing," Hermione breathed, before she asked, curiously, "Excuse me, Professor, but what's the empty room for?"
Rowena smirked. "That's a training room, not only for sword fighting and such but also for me to try new charms without endangering anyone or anything. In fact, I was planning to use the room today to have you practise a very difficult spell, which is a combination between a charm and a spell." Seeing the children hang on her lips, she explained, "It's the Gladius Memoria Maxima spell."
"The Gladius Memoria Maxima spell?" Hermione repeated, incredulously. "I've never heard of anything like that."
Rowena smirked. "Of course not," she replied, rolling her eyes, "because I only invented it about a year ago and didn't teach it anyone but my husband yet."
"What exactly does this spell do?" Harry enquired.
"Do you know what a Pensieve is?" Rowena returned a question and, seeing the children nod, informed them, "Using this spell, which consists of half a wandless spell and half a charm, you can make memories coming out of the tip of your wand instead of placing them into a Pensieve. Since Pensieves are very rare and expensive and Godric is the only person I know who owns one, I believe that this charm spell is extremely convenient."
The professor motioned the students to take a seat on the comfortable looking sofa in the first corner of the room, before she cast the charm spell to show the children the effects.
Harry, Hermione and Ceridwen observed in surprise how a scene emerged from the tip of Rowena's wand.
Beginning of memory
The memory played in the headmaster's office. They could recognise the office, and even Fawkes was there, however, the room looked slightly different. Two people were occupying the room, one of them being Harry and the other a very old wizard with a long, white beard.
"Harry, my boy, I couldn't tell you before," the old man apologized, popping a lemon drop into his mouth.
"You SHOULD have told me before, you manipulating old coot! You keeping secrets from me cost my godfather his life!" Harry shouted back, before he began trashing most of the glass devices that occupied the shelves in the professor's office.
After destroying everything in his reach, Harry finally dashed from the office, and the memory faded.
End of memory
"What was that?" Hermione was the first to speak, incredulously. "Was that really our Harry?"
Rowena let out a long sigh. "Yes, it actually was Harry, as unbelievable as it is, knowing him as a polite, loving boy. However, in my visions, your future is horrible. It's not for a reason that we brought you here in order to prepare you for everything. After all I know from my visions, I believe that Harry, whatever he did in his memory, was fully right to do so."
In spite of Rowena's kind words, Harry felt horrified at the scene that he had just viewed. "Excuse me, Rowena, but who was the old wizard?" he asked in a soft voice.
"That was Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster during your time at Hogwarts in the future," Rowena replied, sighing again. "In fact, my colleagues and I believe that the deputy headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, would make a much better head of Hogwarts, however, we'll further discuss the matter before you're going to return to the future."
Harry and Hermione nodded, feeling very much relieved at the professor's promise to support and advise them before sending them back.
"Now are you feeling up to practising the charm spell?" Rowena asked in a lighter voice, causing all the children to nod, eagerly.
"I'd love to learn it," Hermione blurted out, turning to Harry. "If we both go back to my parents, we need to show them some memories about our time here and who you are, so we really must be able to cast this charm spell by then."
"We will," Harry replied, reassuringly, smiling at his best friend.
However, the charm spell was very difficult, as it had to be cast silently and wandlessly in order to properly work. At the same time, they had to keep the memory, which they wanted to be displayed, at the front of their minds, and it afforded a lot of magic to cast the charm spell. They realised soon that they wouldn't be able to flawlessly cast it after just a few hours of practice.
"We can come back here sometime during the weekend," Rowena promised, before she asked the children to not practise anywhere else, as such a powerful spell could do much harm to others if cast incorrectly. "Now shall we go for a swim?" she asked in a lighter voice, causing the children to squeal in delight.
HP
It took Harry, Hermione and Ceridwen almost until Christmas, before they were finally able to properly cast Rowena's secret charm spell, and Harry knew that Hermione was very relieved by the fact, knowing that it was their only option to make their parents believe what they needed them to believe upon their return to the future.
Just a few days later, Harry managed the complete Animagus transformation into a wind phoenix. Most of his feathers were green, with just a couple of white and orange back feathers. He flapped his wings in absolute excitement.
"Ahh, I want to be able to transform, too," Hermione blurted out and intensified her own attempts, spending every free minute practising her own transformation into a water phoenix.
"Your forms are very beautiful," Ceridwen said in clear amazement, when Hermione finally transformed just a week after her best friend.
"Just as amazing as your form," Harry replied, smiling. Ceridwen had already been able to change into her form of a white dove for a few weeks.
"Yeah, but my form's much easier to achieve, because it's not a magical form," Ceridwen said, dismissively.
"I wonder if it would be possible to have a second Animagus form," Harry thought aloud, glancing at Hermione.
"That would be even cooler," Hermione agreed, after changing back into her human form. "What kind of animal were you thinking of?"
"A griffin," Harry informed her. "Let's go and show Godric our forms and ask him," he suggested, causing his friends to eagerly follow him to the headmaster's office.
HP
The headmaster only laughed upon hearing their question, before he transformed into his fire phoenix form, followed by a griffin and finally a magical lynx.
"Just practise," he advised the clearly amazed children. "Nevertheless, we're going to end our Animagus class now, as you're able to just practise for yourselves, provided that at least two of you are together. Never practise just on your own."
"Sir," Hermione spoke up with clear excitement, "what are we going to learn instead?"
Godric looked at the eager girl, as he replied, "I shall teach you how to make yourselves completely invisible. As soon as you'll be able to achieve this, we'll try to apparate within and out of Hogwarts."
Hermione returned the founder's look, when she protested, "But Professor, in Hogwarts: A History, it says that it's not possible to apparate in and out of Hogwarts, let alone within the castle."
Godric nodded. "Yes, that's true," he admitted, smirking. "Maybe you won't be able to apparate at this time. In fact, only the founders and their close families are able to achieve this. In the future, when you're going to belong to Harry's family, you'll surely be able to succeed, however, right now it might be impossible. I'm sorry, Hermione."
"Excuse me sir, but how do you know that I'm going to belong to Harry's family in the future?" Hermione enquired, fighting back her tears. "From Rowena's visions?"
Ceridwen chuckled. "Not only from the visions, but also from watching the two of you," she then supplied, smiling broadly. "You're probably the only two people at Hogwarts who haven't noticed yet that you belong to each other."
Harry gave Hermione a shy look and, before even pondering what to do, he instinctively reached out and gently wiped an errand tear from her cheek. 'I couldn't imagine having anyone else as my girlfriend,' he suddenly thought. However, he did not know how to speak about such a thing and dismissed the matter for the time being.
"I'd like that," Hermione replied to Ceridwen, before she smiled at Harry, uttering, "Thank you, Harry."
Ceridwen cast her two friends a knowing look, before she motioned them to come unicorn riding with her.
HP
On the last day of the summer holidays between their third and fourth year, it was still not Godric to reveal his secret to them. Instead, Helga informed them that she was going to show them something that might come handy at some stage in the future.
'Another chamber of secrets?' Harry wondered, when they followed the healer into her and Salazar's quarters, where they stopped in front of a portrait of Salazar's mother.
Harry and Hermione watched in excitement how the painting swung back, revealing a door, while Ceridwen observed them in clear amusement, apparently already aware of her sister's secret.
Helga swiftly opened the door, motioning them to come. When Harry stepped through, he realised in surprise that they found themselves outside. However, this was not the Hogwarts grounds. Instead, they were standing right in front of a stone wall, which had just about the height to accommodate the door that they had just used.
"Where are we?" Hermione was, as usual, the first to voice the question.
"In Hogsmeade," Ceridwen blurted out, pleasantly, pointing out that they were standing just outside the Hogwarts wards, beside her parents' house.
"This area still belongs to Hogwarts, even if it's outside the grounds, which is to assure that you'll still have the possibility of getting in and out of Hogwarts quickly in the future, even if you should be able to apparate by then. Sometimes, it's easier to just step through the door, especially if you have people, familiars or luggage with you, depending on what it is."
"We understand," Hermione said, warmly. "Thank you so much for letting us in on the secret."
Harry merely nodded. Even if they had already studied at Hogwarts for three years, he sometimes was still amazed at what magic could do.
HP
It was only a year later that Godric let the children in on his own secret. He led the soon-to-be fifth-years to two oak trees in the first row of trees of the Forbidden forest, right next to the lake. The branches of the two trees were bent towards each other as if to show a gate.
"This is a gate," Godric informed them, smirking, "and it leads straight to Gryffindor Manor."
"Gryffindor Manor?" Ceridwen asked in apparent surprise. "I didn't know that you had a manor."
"Rowena and I built it right after finishing constructing Hogwarts," Godric explained, grinning, as he led them through the gate.
As soon as they had passed the two oak trees, of which Godric told them that Rowena had charmed them to remain the way there were for an eternity, the forest vanished in front of their eyes and was replaced by a carpet of white sand that was stretched out along the shore of the sea, and to their right side, they could see the manor. It was made of stone like Hogwarts, and the house was surrounded by flowers. A large stone wall surrounded the area, which seemed to not stop in front of the sea but somehow melt into it.
"Beautiful," Hermione breathed, letting her eyes wander around in clear amazement.
"Absolutely," Harry and Ceridwen agreed, simultaneously.
The three children spent the whole day on the beach. They even had a picnic on the beach, which house-elf Dredi served for them. Hermione taught Ceridwen and Harry how to swim, and they enjoyed themselves so much that they begged Godric to allow them to stay a little longer, when the founder wanted to return to Hogwarts.
"You may stay overnight if you wish," Godric finally relented and asked Dredi to prepare rooms for the girls and for Harry and keep an eye on them until the morning.
"Of course Master Godric," Dredi promised, bowing deeply, before she motioned the friends to follow her, so that she could show them their rooms.
"Beautiful," Harry thought what Hermione spoke aloud upon getting a sight at their rooms. Both rooms were equipped with large windows that allowed the view onto the sea. 'It just seems infinite, absolutely gorgeous,' Harry thought in amazement.
Nevertheless, the three fifteen-year-olds returned to the beach after a glimpse at their rooms and did not even want to return inside when it became dark.
To Harry's and Hermione's surprise, Ceridwen was the first to announce that she was going to turn in for the night. "Enjoy some more of this romantic evening," she whispered to Harry, smiling mischievously.
'It's really romantic here,' Harry thought, wondering if he might dare asking Hermione to become his girlfriend. Observing Ceridwen return to the house, the idea 'She just only left us for this purpose' crossed his mind, and he hesitantly made up his mind.
"Hermione," he spoke up in a small voice, "would you perhaps like to become my girlfriend?"
tbc...
Thank you very much for your kind comments!
