"Well, took you long enough!" Godric's voice said, startling him as he turned to face the portrait.
Salazar had returned one day later to see to his friend's vaults and, no wonder, had chosen to see Godric's first right after leaving his own.
"How…" The fourth founder frowned "Oh, of course. Rowena did succeed in her little art experiment then"
"Clearly, old friend" Godric smiled, showing his white teeth.
The man in the painting was visibly older than the one Salazar remembered, but his smile was just the same. He had always regretted that the last expression he had seen in the man's face was one of sadness after a heated discussion, but now that had changed. The fiery red hair was longer than what he remembered too, but it only served to accentuate the curls and was not even as long as his own, stopping just below the ear. Bright blue eyes conveyed regret and joy at seeing his friend again.
"What of the women?" He asked
"Oh, they are waiting for you on their vaults, but Rowe was sure you would visit me first" The man shrugged "How much has passed? We do not have ways to measure the time in here"
"More than a thousand years" Salazar answers, approaching the portrait "How could you let that dirty impostor slander my name?"
"How many apologies do you need?" The redhead rolled his eyes
"One would suffice; I cannot believe you could not tell the difference!"
"Alright, I can recognize my mistakes, unlike others. I apologize" The portrait offers with a sigh "Can we move on? I have not seen those beautiful ladies in a thousand years!"
"As you wish" Salazar smirks and, taking out his wand, taps it twice on the frame. It shrinks to the size of a galleon before he throws it in the pocket of his new robes.
Godric's vault was primarily full of weapons, the amount closely followed by gold and other trinkets. One could tell a few things had been moved or removed in time, but none of it recently. It seemed the bloodline was too far wide to provide one direct blood heir for the vault at this time.
The sight of Rowena's vault, the next he decided to see, was comforting. The amount of books and loose parchments far surpassed the amount of gold in a corner of it, with barely enough space for him to walk to the end wall.
"Oh, is that you Salazar?" He heard her before he saw her, but once he did; he could not hold his surprise.
Rowena had been the youngest of the three, but now she looked older and the change was slightly unsettling. The dark brown hair reached her waist, probably past the frame of the painting; her smart upturned grey eyes had a knowing look as her lips held a smirk, arms crossed over a blue dress.
"I take it you have been expecting me?" He speaks once he has the presence of mind to do so.
"Of course" she smiled openly "One grows bored after a decade or two of being a painting. Tell me, what has happened to our school?"
"That is a matter to be discussed later; I would rather have all of you present" Salazar answers, repeating the same action as before and shrinking the painting, pocketing it.
He took a while in the vault, looking for a few specific books and shrinking those too to take with him as he left.
Helga's vault was the less full of theirs, holding various trinkets but a small amount of gold to their standards. She was the most likely to still have one heir or two around with rights to it.
"Helga?" Salazar would deny, but his eyes watered slightly at the sight of her portrait.
Her blond hair was shorter, cut to shoulder length and framing her heart-shaped face. Kind light brown almond eyes looked at him in surprise and her mouth soon stretched into a smile.
"Oh, Sal" her voice was as sweet as he remembered "I have missed you"
"And I you, Helga" He smiled in response "I have the others with me" he pointed to the pocket in his robes "I believed it was time we talked"
And talk they did.
Soon the living founder as well as the paintings found themselves in the chambers below the school, positioner in a circle to that all could see each other. Pleasantries were exchanged and apologies were given and accepted before they finally came to the point of interest. Hogwarts.
"How did our school come to this?" Helga looked disappointed at his explanations.
When he entered the Harry's mind, the soul piece was not the only thing he saw. An old man with ridiculous colorful robes ran the school and seemed to not care much for other student's safety, setting tests for first years and allowing possessed professors to work on the school.
A ghost with little teaching talent taught History of Magic and narrow subjects such as the goblin wars. Astronomy was taught at night, as if there did not exist any charms to mimic the night sky onto a classroom's roof, Herbology has little to no theory classes and Potions had a completely unsuitable teacher that, while seeming to be a decent Potions Master, was not fit to interact with children and blatantly favored the Slytherin house.
Divination was one of the causes of more concern. The teacher could barely be considered a seer, her classes apparently smelt too much of incense and alcohol to know if she was drunk or simply out of her mind while predicting student's deaths left and right. That was a class supposed to be available strictly to students with seer or empathy gifts, not a joke of a class considered an easy pass.
"This needs to be corrected" Rowena insisted
"Sally, old friend" Gryffindor smirked mischievously "I want you to do us a favor… now tell me more about the houses…"
•••
It was the day after New Year and the Hogwarts express had arrived earlier, meaning that all students were present for the night feast. None of them, however, paid much attention to the walls behind the high table.
Ron was happily munching on a chicken leg while Harry moved some food around in his plate. Hermione, whom they still were not speaking to yet, sat further down with a few other girls and had her head stuck inside of a book.
Harry was deeply annoyed. He visited the chamber some other times, but his last three visits had been unsuccessful. It simply refused to open for him! Had Salazar grown tired of his company? He tries his best not to annoy the founder, and even enjoyed when the man was busy making potions and decided to teach him a few things or let him help – Snape had nothing on the founder with his classes.
Now the other students were back from Christmas and sneaking around would become even more difficult.
"Well, doesn't that look tasty" A cheerful voice spoke above the noise and a few people turned to look in its direction, teachers included since for them the voices were even closer, as if right behind them.
The paintings behind the high table had always been the not moving type, from the time when it had not yet been invented. Supposedly, the central four ones in line with the four long tables were of the founders themselves, albeit there were no other confirmations to that.
"Oh, don't you start, Godric" a feminine voice joined, and that made all heads turn.
Three of the four usually still paintings were substituted for clearly moving ones. They held a few similarities to the ones from before, but their habitants were clearly younger than depicted in the still paintings and obviously, they could move and speak.
"Well, this is interesting" Dumbledore had gotten up once he noticed the change, and turned to the paintings. Godric Griffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff looked down at him from their respective frames "I had not been informed of any other paintings of the founders being found"
This causes a few chuckles, but the hall is quiet in awe as they look at the paintings.
"Well, no one had gone through the trouble of checking our vaults" Rowena said with a perfectly arched eyebrow.
"Do not be rude, Rowe, he was rather busy after all" Godric smirks, enjoying their little prank.
Salazar had protested, saying it was childish and they needed a strategy to take back the school and fix it, but even Rowena agreed that they needed some fun after so much time figuratively gathering dust.
"I apologize for the lack of warning. Headmaster Dumbledore, was it?" Helga smiles kindly "We would have requested for a private meeting but Godric insisted on this, the prankster"
"Come on, look at their faces" Godric prompted "Close your mouth, children, or you will catch flies and no ladies"
That had many of the boys closing their mouths and many girls giggling.
Harry could barely believe, there were moving paintings of the founders! Of course, their vaults. It downed on him that Salazar had probably been the one to arrange this and did not want him to know until now. Well, it was a pleasant surprise to know it was not because he had become a nuisance to the man.
"Correct, and It's of no consequence, I appreciate a good prank from time to time" The headmaster assured "But I would like to know how you came to be here" How someone entered the castle without alerting the wards and messed with the Great Hall without being caught!
"That was the work of a close friend of ours, though he was also against it. That man needs to loosen up sometimes" Godric teases "I see a lot of pretty faces in my house, the hat has been working right. Hello there!" he waves at the Gryffindor table, causing cheers and waves to erupt from it.
"Do be less of a child, Godric" Rowena rolls her eyes, but also waves slightly to her own table.
"Well, I believe introductions are in order" Dumbleodore turns to the other teachers, prompting them to get up.
Soon teachers and their positions were announced.
"I am not the only one to notice the lack of a portrait of Slytherin," Snape adds after introductions, making the silence return to the hall.
"Isn't that because he was a traitor?" someone's voice comes from the Gryffindor table, it's not loud but it's easily heard in the silence of the hall.
"Traitor?" Godric sounded offended "Where in heavens did that come from? The man is no more a traitor than Rowe is unintelligent"
The chatter erupts at that affirmation, while it brings a smile to Harry's face.
"History has a terrible habit of becoming distorted with time. I have even heard the ridiculous story that my dear Helena stole my diadem out of jealousy, how outrageous" she huffed "Unfortunately, writers tend to insert conflict where there is none"
"Sal does not have a painting because we could not paint one of him" Helga answers the question directly "Now, I'm sure these lovely children have to eat and go to bed, but we are free to answer question if your professors and Headmaster will allow"
"I'm sure we can find some time for that tomorrow" Dumbledore answer "We can cut short a class for the students to get to know the founders. As for now, everyone back to eating.
The command was obeyed with reluctance but soon the students were no longer staring at the portraits of the founders, or at least most of them were not.
"Can you believe that? The founders themselves!" Ron grinned, "Godric has red hair! Everyone thought he was blond"
"Yes, I noticed" Harry chuckles at his friend's enthusiasm.
"How do we even know those are the real founders?" Someone asked and they recognized Hermione's voice, so it was ignored.
"I just can't believe what they said about Slytherin. If he's not evil, why was there a bloody people-eating basilisk in the school last year?" Ron continued
A few of the people listening to their conversation nodded in agreement.
Godric watched the interactions with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
Things were about to get interesting in this school, or at least more so.
Possessed teachers, basilisks and prisoners on the loose, how can we compete with that?
Godric is a prankster, Helga is a sweetheart, Rowena is annoyed and Salazar just wants to plot in peace haha
I have no idea where this is going, by the way. It's one of those make-it-up-as-you-go kind of stories. Still, hope you guys are liking it!