The three Founders worked in unison together, whispering an incantation as the sound was almost like a constant hum to everyone in the room. Draco sat at one end of the round table as he watched each of them reach over one another, never bumping into each other and keeping in constant with their spell. He can see the curious eyes of Harry, Hermione, and Ron off to his side and as far away from him as possible. To be honest, if roles were reversed, he would've been as far away as well. Still, this was supposed to help his parents and his love for them is what is forcing Draco to stay at this table.
Draco lost focus for one moment before feeling a slight tug and a prick of his hair. He jumped back and hissed as he turned and noticed Helga Hufflepuff had pulled several pieces of hair from his scalp. From the side, he could hear snickering and cast a glare to Harry and Ron who couldn't contain their laughter. He huffed and turned back to the three as their constant ancient incantation was drowning them out.
Helga sprinkled his white blond hair into the potion as it turned light green and started to swirl and come to life. Draco couldn't help but let out a gasp as he shoved himself into his chair, the others seemed unaffected by this process but slowly started to slow down. Draco even wondered if he should get up and run over to the Golden Trio or possibly even farther.
The Founders reached out to one another and clasped onto each other's hands and bowed in concentration as finally one word Draco could recognize came from their lips. Malfoy! Malfoy! Malfoy!
Suddenly the potion turned into an entity and shot out of the potion, going in every direction, even hitting Draco square in the chest, making him tumble out of his seat.
"What the bloody hell was that?!" Draco screamed out.
"A protection potion" Godric responded, "Meant to keep all of the those in the House of Malfoy safe, dead or alive"
"You can do such a thing?" Hermione slowly entered the room, "That's unheard of, even Dumbledore wouldn't have been able to do that"
"Dumbledore was a strong wizard, yes" Helga smiled, "But he never built a castle in under a month"
"Are you sure that you want to waste your magic on someone's family like Draco's?" Ron mumbled.
Rowena turned around and stared at him, "Our magic is not being wasted on anyone but to serve a greater purpose, Ronald. I can assure you that our decision was worth the outcome"
Ron couldn't help but swallow and did a shallow nod to Rowena, breaking her gaze from the man. He never knew in his life that someone would be more terrifying at scolding him than McGonagall. Rowena Ravenclaw just gave the elderly witch a run for her own money. He could only imagine getting in trouble in that time, you would have to deal with Rowena out of all of the Founders. Harry seemed to have read his mind as he gave the man a small pat before joining the others in the room.
Helga pulled her hair back up as she watched the Gryffindors and Slytherin slowly coming together. None of the three ever asked if Draco were okay or even rushed to help him off of the floor, a sign of friendship or at most, respect. Draco didn't even seemed faze at their actions as well as he picked up his own seat and plopped back down. She looked over and noticed the three were standing awkwardly by the counter, almost as if Draco had a contagious unknown plague.
She glanced over to her friends and knew they noticed the rivalry went even further then these young adults age, Godric had bowed his head slightly as he must've been thinking about Salazar at this moment. It saddened her to think that nothing was resolved the way it should have been. Helga knew that what she was about to cast wouldn't help the problem but it would be a starting point in helping.
Ron watched as a big tray flew past Helga and landed with gooey cinnamon rolls. The smell couldn't even reach his nose before he lurched out and tried to grab one, all four of the young adults did as one but even the Gryffindors sat down and started to munch on the rolls in silence, not noticing that they were sitting next to a Slytherin.
"Thanks, Helga" Godric smiled to his friend.
"What?" Helga reached out and grabbed a roll, "I did not do anything"
Rowena couldn't help but smile, "Always choosing to make amends with food… works every time"
"I hope so" Helga glanced over to the others.
The founders sat down at the table and took some rolls themselves, "So what Draco had told me is that some of the Death Eaters knew of a secret plan that would be enacted if Voldemort should fail. Then we appeared by some mishap of a spell only to hear that we all made it through this extensive time loop. We thought it was Salazar in which case it was not, and then we thought it was the Death Eaters but they are equally surprised. Is there any other allegiance that would have the power to do this? What would be their purpose in bringing us to this time and not some other sorcerer?"
Draco muttered, "The Ministry of Magic could've done this"
"The Ministry would've never tried" Hermione defended them.
"Wouldn't they?" Draco barked back, "My father said they always meddled around with things they shouldn't have, things that could either expose magic or kill us all in our sleep-"
"Your father worked with Voldemort" Ron glared, "Don't think about talking about being killed in sleep with your dad playing puppet"
And just like that, another fight erupted between the Gryffindors and Slytherin.
Helga sighed as she leaned back in her chair, annoyed by the sudden contrast of the Houses. Godric and Salazar would only lightly bicker but save it for another time and focus on the task at hand, even in their bad days. Rowena shook her head as she rubbed her fingertips slowly around her temples. This was too much to handle and even she was wondering how the two Houses would work together in a time of need. Helga was honestly too tired to try and intervene at this point.
It wasn't until then that she noticed it was only Ron, Hermione, and Draco arguing and Harry was stoic and still. She could tell he was deep in thought as his eyes jerked from one side to the other, thinking of possibilities that no one else has even thought of. This caught her attention as she slightly straightened up and looked to the boy. It took Harry about a minute longer before he broke out of his trance.
"It has something to do with Hogwarts" he blurted out.
"What does?" Godric asked, eager to make the others shut up and listen.
"Rowena said that there were greater wizards throughout the age that someone could've summoned but instead they resurrected the Founders" Harry explained, "If that were the case then it has to revolve around something you guys accomplished in your time"
"The school" Hermione muttered.
"So they want us to do what exactly?" Helga said slowly, "Rebuild it? Hardly seems worth the trouble in summoning us"
"It might not be because of that" Draco muttered, "I might know the reason why"
"What do you know, Malfoy?" Hermione asked.
Draco looked up, "According to legend, Rowena Ravenclaw had repeated visions of a place to build something but it wasn't until the attack did you decide to build a school"
"That is correct" Rowena nodded.
Draco's eyes dropped down as he got up and took out his wand, the other three reacted but Godric cleared his throat and motioned for them to lower their own weapons. Draco swished his wand as materials came together and made Hogwarts and everything around it. Hermione and Rowena slowly got up from their seats to get a better view of the map Draco created.
The lower right had a small volcano which has been inactive for over 100 years, the upper right was the Black Lake, and above was said to be a field of magic, untamed and never ventured by students or staff. The upper left was nicknamed the gusty valley where wind always blows and was even used for Quidditch practices, below the valley was the Forbidden Forest, Hermione gasped as Rowena paled.
"Hogwarts is built on it's very own Pentagram" Rowena whispered.
Draco nodded, "Protected by the good intentions of the Four Founders and now that there was a great battle between good and evil-"
"Anyone can claim it" Harry finished.
"Exactly" Draco waved it off as all house materials went back to their former places.
"If they took us after Salazar had left the school and every Death Eater is out there looking for him then that means they want to use him as the key into turning our sanctuary into a violation of everything we ever built" Godric worried.
"It will not come down to that" Rowena sighed, "We have more of a difficult task at hand"
"More difficult than turning Hogwarts evil?" Ron asked.
"We need to do something that we could not even do in our own time" Rowena announced, "We need to convince Salazar to return to Hogwarts with us and defend it"
That's when all eyes laid on Helga.