Disclaimer – The world of Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling and various publishers. I make no claim to ownership. I'm just here, living in her world. I also took some ideas from Under Siege by Dens Serpentis. I make no claim to their ideas.
The Founders Return
by blackrhino
Chapter 7
Once the students had started eating, Dumbledore conjured four chairs at the staff table, a chair next to each head of house
Once the students had started eating, Dumbledore conjured four chairs at the staff table, a chair next to each head of house. Harry and Hermione were sat next to each other on one side of the table and Ron and Ginny on the other.
By now, the school was eating and talking. Everyone kept glancing at the staff table and the four founders. A lot of people kept asking if they were real, or just a massive hoax created by Professors Potter and Black. They'd done it before, but not on this scale.
It was just when the four had just started to load their plates that Flitwick finally burst.
"Miss Ravenclaw! Lady Rowena! I have so many questions to ask you!"
"Professor, just call me Rowena."
"And you may call me Filius!"
"Ok Filius. Fire away. I suppose I'm ready."
"You're always ready Rena." added Ron from half way down the table.
"Shut it you!" Hermione glared at Ron, the laughter in her eyes giving her away.
"Umm, My Lady, first question?" started Filius, only to continue after she nodded her head.
"How old were you four when you founded Hogwarts?" All the staff were looking attentively at Hermione.
"Well," started Ron, "we found the castle when we were what, 15? Help me guys!"
"Yeah. It was shortly after Sal's 15th birthday. I remember because he got embarrassed and accidentally shadowed to Scotland. And then, we had to go find him. When we found him, he ran up to us shouting something about castles and centaurs…" Ginny trailed off, lost in thought.
"And at the top of the hill, was this massive castle! It was falling to pieces and was clearly abandoned… But it was then, we decided this would be the perfect place to teach children magic!"
"No Rena, you said that, we agreed" added Ron.
"And then we took off after Sal as he sprinted up to the castle to take a look. All the while, we were shouting No! It's probably dangerous and full of horrible creatures!" sighed 'Mione.
"And when has that ever stopped him?" asked Ginny. "Once his mind is set on something, there's no stopping him. Remember the basilisk? We told him not to. That it would grow into some hideous killing machine, but no. He just sat there stroking it. Humph."
"I'm not that stubborn…" grunted Harry, glancing between his friends.
"Why did Sal get embarrassed anyway? I can't remember…" murmured Ginny, deep in memories.
"It was because Mrs Gryffindor mmhh!" Hermione abruptly stopped after Harry tackled her and covered her mouth.
"I thought we agreed to never talk about that again?" he asked. Most of the great hall stared at the spectacle.
"Ha! Sorry Sal. I forgot…" laughed 'Mione, shattering the silence.
"S'ok" he answered.
"Right. Now where was I…" 'Mione started, glaring at Harry. "We tided the castle up, which took quite a while actually, and put up all the necessary protections. Then for the fun part. We just went round enchanting the whole place!"
"I did all the secret passageways!" boasted Ginny, a smirk on her face.
"Really? All of them?" asked a surprised Prof. Sprout.
"Yup. I know where every single passageway in the upper castle is and where it goes. Very useful for quick getaways." She answered, smirking.
"The upper castle? What's that?" questioned Professor McGonagall.
"The upper castle is everything above ground level. So, everything except the dungeons. That's Sal's territory."
"I enchanted the staircases. I originally did it to annoy Sal, but then realised he never used the staircases. He has his own secret passageways throughout the school. So now, the staircases just annoy everyone!" said Ron, the pride showing in his voice.
"I told you that Gryffindors aren't useless" gloated McGonagall.
"Well, I did the ceiling in here, most of the portraits and the Room of Requirement. That one room may have taken me two months but it was well worth it! I also enchanted all of the suits of armour and statues to come to Hogwarts aid if the castle was ever attacked. I also cough, cough putinallthetrickstepsandmadesurethattheclassroomsmovedaroundallthetime."
"So it was you?" gasped Ginny. "I thought that was Sal, you know, he's always pulling tricks… I'm very disappointed with you Rena. Now you have to come and prank students with us!" she smiled.
"That sure is a lot of work Lady Rowena. Especially up against the others." stated Filius.
"Sal did more work than all of us. He has the whole castle connected." Said Ginny
"Yeah. Sal was in charge of recruiting house-elves. He made sure he gained their trust and worked along side them. He made passages through out the whole school for the house-eves to use. He put the kitchens in, made the charm that moves all the food up on to the tables and he also had to put the farm in under the lake." Finished Ron
"Farm?" everyone questioned.
"Yes." Started 'Mione. "We put a farm in under the school in case Hogwarts got locked down. Then we would have a self-sustaining farm right here, under the lake."
"On top of all that, I put my own passages in the castle, passages big enough for Seesha, re-did all the pipes under the school and enchanted the entire second and third floors of the dungeons." said Sal, looking impressed with himself.
"And hollowed out that cathedral sized space under the school for your chambers." added Ginny.
"There is no second and third floors in the dungeons." added Snape in his nicest voice ever.
"That's because I cornered them off. Sal has a very… malicious sense of humour." finished 'Mione.
"I disagree. I think Prideaux was looking for trouble. If Sal said don't go there, he would immediately do the complete opposite. His head was far too big." added Ginny, thoughtfully.
"I couldn't stand that stupid French blond ferret. I don't know how he got into my house. All he wanted to do was beat up the smaller students. Idiot." snarled Sal.
"Well, we opened the school on All Hallow's Eve, when we 16. We had a great turn out. We had 8 pupils, 2 Gryffindors, 1 Ravenclaw, 3 Hufflepuffs and 2 Slytherins. We didn't expect that many pupils!"
"Who taught them? You?" questioned Dumbledore for the first time.
"Yeah. We all have our preferred subjects and the masteries to teach them." started Ron.
"You have masteries? At your age?" exclaimed Professor Sprout.
"We are not considered young where we come from. We are of age and can do what every we want. Back home, wizards usually live for about 50 years. It's even less for muggles."
"Well yes… I suppose you're right."
"What masteries do you have anyway?" asked Flitwick, truly excited.
"Well, Rick over there has masteries in…" started 'Mione in a thoughtful voice.
"Defence, Astronomy and Arithmancy." said Ron, in a proud voice. "I also teach Swordplay, Flying and wandless magic." He finished with a nod.
Most of the students were staring up at the table. Wandless magic? Nah. It can't we true.
"I have masteries Herbology, Magical Creatures and Divination. I also teach Archery and how to complete the Animagus transformation." Said Ginny quickly before anyone could question Ron about wandless magic.
"I got my masteries in Transfiguration, Charms and History and I also teach the students about muggles, invisibility and how to apparate and disapparate. I never knew it was so hard to teach kids to apparate…"
"That means I got stuck with Potions, Runes and the Dark Arts. I also teach Occlumency, Duelling and Hand-to-hand combat." Harry finished in a bored tone.
"Dark Arts! You can't get a mastery in the Dark Arts! It's… it's dark magic!" the whole hall was in an outrage except the four teens, Snape and Dumbledore.
"Silence!" shouted Dumbledore. "Let him explain."
"Well you see, no-one is really bothered about practising the Dark Arts. It's only recently been called that. Before it was called the Hidden Arte because not everyone could control, it. Those people became jealous and called it the Dark Arts. Most people don't bother though. The majority of people believe that the world isn't in black and white. There is only grey. People are more worried about good and evil than light and dark. The way I look at it is that someone can be dark, but good and light, but evil." finished Harry in a very bored tone.
"Trust us. We've come across plenty of evil people. Light and Dark." added Ron.
After all of the students had calmed down, the staff continued their conversation with the four founders.
Sprout was still amazed by the four teens. "I can't believe that the four of you have multiple masteries and you founded this school. And at such a young age. You are the same age as our seventh years. We knew the founders were exceptional but…"
The bell rang for the end of breakfast.
"Do you heads of houses mind if our guests go with you to your lessons? I'm sure you won't mind." Dumbledore asked them, twinkling the whole time.
Severus kept glancing behind him. He couldn't believe it. The Slytherin founder, Salazar HIMSELF, was walking behind him. He looked exactly like he had imagined him. He was amazing, and amazingly scary! Just by being around him, you got the feeling you really didn't want to get on his bad side.
They walked down to the dungeons in an awkward silence.
"Soo," said Severus, shattering the silence. "Did you teach down here in the dungeons? Was the Slytherin common room down in the dungeons as well?"
"No actually." He replied smoothly. "My classrooms, office and lab were on the second floor. Near one of the entrances to my chambers, you see? The Slytherins slept in a tower identical to the Gryffindor tower. Except for the colours though."
"Oh… I wonder when the Slytherins moved. Their dorms are down in the dungeons."
They walked on in silence.
Finally, they arrived at the potions labs.
"Do you want some help today?" Harry enquired. He was enjoying this.
"Yes, if you don't mind. I'm teaching the 7th year NEWT class. I honestly don't understand how half those dunderheads got a pass grade on their OWLs. Most of all big-headed Longbottom. He blows up at least one cauldron a lesson. He'll never pass his NEWTs."
"He sounds pretty bad…"
"Bad is an understatement."
Harry couldn't help thinking, Was Neville the BWL here? Were his parents dead, just like Harry's were?
Snape burst into the dungeon in his usual bat-like style. Harry stalked in after him, scowling and glaring like the Slytherin he was meant to be.
Snape stood at the front and tapped the blackboard.
"Today, we will be brewing an exceptionally difficult potion in it's final stages. One wrong move and it could blow up. It usually takes a month to make. It is called Polyjuice potion. Can anyone tell me what Polyjuice potion does? No?"
he said ignoring the hands waving at him.
"Polyjuice potion allows the drinker to assume the form of someone else. It allows you to take on the likeness of another person. The effects last for an hour. A piece of the person who is to be imitated is needed for the transformation. The indredients are as followed:
12 Lacewing flies
1 oz. crude Antimony
4 Leeches
16 scruples of Fluxweed
3 drams of Sal Ammoniac
Knotgrass
1 pinch of powdered horn of a bicorn (lunar extracted)
Shredded skin of boomslang
Filings and rasplings of Salpeter, Mercury and Mars
And of course, the extract of The-Transfigured-Being-To-Be.
I have already stewed the Lacewing flies for 21 days so now all you have to do brew the potion. Now, get on with it!"
Harry lent on the edge of the desk chuckling.
"May I enquire what you find so funny?" Snape asked, rather politely.
"You said that Polyjuice is an exceptionally difficult potion to brew."
"It is. Unless, of course, you are exceptional at Potions."
"It's just, I brewed Polyjuice with Godric and Rena when we were 12." Harry said it in a completely emotionless tone, but inside he was laughing his head off at the shocked looks of both Snape anf the students.
"12? But… But how? Why?"
"Well, we brewed it in a bathroom at Godric's house. Well, it's more of a castle."
Harry twisted the real truth, to make it more believable. He wasn't sure Snape would believe him if he said they brewed it in a girl's bathroom to infiltrate the Slytherin common room.
"We did it to sneak into a meeting. It was important at the time."
"Did you get caught?" asked a girl from the back row.
"Of course not! The four of us never get caught!"
"Well, what else can you brew? You said you had a matery in Potions." Asked Snape jealously. Not even he had been able to brew Polyjuice at 12.
"Just about anything. From Skele-Gro to Veritaserum." Harry looked around at the class. Most of them weren't concentrating on their potions but staring at him with terror and awe. He felt the urge to look behind him.
He scowled at the class and leaned back against the desk. He glanced aroung the class again, looking at all the familiar faces, untill his gaze landed on a familiar blond ferret.
Draco looked up from his potion and caught the founders eye. They stared at each, a silent battle of wills. Draco was sat in the front row and nearest to Harry.
He cleared his throat, which had suddenly closed up.
"Nice snake." He piped out, his terror showing in his voice.
"She is, isn't she?" Harry answered, slightly hissing his Ss. Draco gulped. This guy was scary! This was his house's founder, and he was scared of him. He sucked up all his courage ans stuck out his hand.
"Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. Proud member of Slytherin house. A plesure to meet you Lord Slytherin." He tried to smile, but he decied it must look really fake on his face. Slytherin smirked and shoke his hand. His hand was surprisingly soft and he could clearly feel the magic rolling of the guy in front of him. He surpressed a shiver.
"Please, just call me Sal or Salazar. Lord Slytherin was my father and it makes me feel old. But, it's a pleasure to meet you too Draco."
A/N:Sorry for such a long wait. I've been incredibly busy. I will be very slow updating sorry! I will... hopefully, be updating my other story soon as well.
Thank you 8daisyduke8 for kicking my butt in to gear and getting me to update. Thanks to everyone else who reviewed!
To answer your question Celtic-Dragon-89, Harry has not been to see the basilisk yet because this is only their second day in the new universe. The first day they were in the hospital wing and really tired and today, he is too busy looking at all the people they knew in their universe and playing Snape. You will find out who the others are soon enough. They are new characters.
Please review. They make me feel happy and make me write. Please take a few minutes of your time to review!
blackrhino
