HARRY POTTER AND THE PRINCES OF HOGWARTS
A/N: Hello everyone! Let me first apologize for the HUGE delay on the update, but I will hope to make it up to you all by posting twice this week! Look out for Chapter 7 on Sunday! I hope you all are having a great holiday! Happy Easter to those who celebrate it! For the others, enjoy your well-deserved holiday. Hope you like the chapter :)
Disclaimer: This story is written for fun and profit and I make no claim to rights and ownership of Harry Potter.
Chapter 6- Meet the Founders (1)
Harry yawned and opened his eyes a little, just to shut them immediately as bright light blinded him. As he woke from the best sleep he had had in a while, he became more aware of his surroundings and so tried to tell where he was, because he was pretty sure he wasn't in heaven. From what he could tell, he was in a warm room that smelled like pumpkin juice and lying on a soft mattress. He thought he had heard movement and murmuring before, but now the room was quiet except for his own, rhythmic breathing.
Trying to open his eyes again, squinting until his eyes adjusted, he yawned and sat up. The room he was in was small but comfortable and nicely decorated. The walls were made of stone and a chandelier hung on the high caved ceiling. Tapestries of flowers, famous wizards and witches and beautiful scenery filled two of the four walls. The other was empty safe for two plain, wooden doors. The bed he was on filled the fourth wall, its wooden headboard outlining the white king-size bed.
Curious about the mysterious doors, he stood up and sluggishly wandered to the first door. He tried it and it swung open to reveal a shining, white bathroom with heated, grey tiles, a sink and toilet, and a shower with a red curtain pulled to the side. He entered and explored the cupboards under the sink, hoping to find a cup for his raspy throat and maybe even a comb or toothbrush.
But he had only just rummaged through the first few when he heard a noise. It was a high-pitched creak as if someone was opening a door or stepping on a loose floorboard. His eyes widened at the thought of the second, mysterious door, its destination unknown to him. His stomach immediately filled with dread and he reached towards his holster, only to find it deserted.
Annoyed and scared, he tip-toed back to the closed door and pressed his ears firmly against it.
"Where did he go?", asked Rowena Ravenclaw worriedly, her black hair tied up in a long plaid, her blue eyes shimmering and her dark blue robes flying behind her.
"I don't know, but he couldn't have gone far", answered her best friend and colleague, Helga Hufflepuff, dressed in light green robes, her blond hair flowing down her back. She started to walk through the room looking under the bed, worried so much that she forgot she had a wand until her friend reminded her.
"Try and use this, maybe?" She held up her own wand, grinning. "Goes a lot faster, I'd say."
Helga rolled her eyes while giggling and Rowena wordlessly waved her wand, making a bright golden ball of light appear in front of her.
Helga recognized the spell, one that allowed you to look for someone if you knew enough about them or how they looked, and asked her, "Who did you say you were searching for, Ro? A small, messy black-haired, knocked-out child?"
"Well if he left the bed, then he isn't so much knocked out as running away, is he now?"
Helga burst out laughing. "Hello wand, show me where a young, small, black-haired running-away child is?" She doubled over, clutching her stomach.
"Well, I'm guessing you won't stop laughing for a while so I'll go get Rick."
She looked up, playfully furious. "Hey! You would rather go with Godric than me?"
She grinned. "Never said that, but I knew it would stop you from laughing!"
And with that, both friends followed the light that, to their surprise, showed them to the adjacent bathroom.
Harry, panicked to hear them starting to search for him, decided to go for his last option. There were no windows in the bathroom, no door that could help him sneak out. So, he decided that the only chance he had, even if it just delayed them finding him was to get into a cupboard and hide, hoping they wouldn't find him. Which was pretty useless and stupid, since they could accio him and he would just zoom out of his spot.
Uncomfortably settled in the cupboard next to the shower, squished in with bottles of soap and shampoo, he tried to quiet down his breathing and calm himself, so that his heart didn't feel like pumping out of his chest every second. He heard footsteps come nearer and nearer until they stopped right outside of his door.
The two witches followed the ball of light to a cupboard in the bathroom, which they both found very questionable.
"I think you cast it wrong, Ro, I mean, why would the child be in the cupboard? Or maybe it confused the boy with the model on your shampoo bottles you always provide for guests."
The Ravenclaw founder shot her an annoyed look. "We already agreed that your shampoo sucks and that mine should be in the guest rooms! We're not doing this here and now. Let's find him and then I can just persuade you all over again."
Helga sighed, "All right." She bent down and opened the cupboard door and gaped, surprised beyond words. In the cupboard lay the boy that had escaped. She realized she was blocking the view and her friend still didn't know if there was anyone in there, so she scooched to the side and she looked inside.
Having registered the child, she raised her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide. Though she soon realized that he was probably scared and as surprised as them, so she took him in her arms and hugged him, tightly. At first, he was a little stiff, but after a few seconds, he melted into the stranger's hug.
Anyone who meant to hurt you doesn't hug you first.
She sat him on her hip and told him. "So you probably have as many questions as we do, so why don't we discuss this all together over lunch. You must be starving; you were passed out for three days!"
That was news to Harry. "I was?"
She sighed but smiled at him. "We'll discuss everything in a moment. Now Helga over here is just going to get Rick and Sal, and a few house-elves to make lunch, and we'll have everything cleared up by afternoon."
Helga, after she listened to what her friend had told her to do and then hurried to comply, while Rowena and Harry walked at a much slower, calm pace to the Headmaster's office.
As Harry walked down the corridors beside the woman he had just met. He only knew of one other Rowena, and that one had lived a thousand years ago. He looked up at the beautiful women walking beside him and even though everything in him knew it was impossible, the similarity to what the Ravenclaw Founder was supposed to look like was uncanny.
They walked in comfortable silence, Rowena ushering him down corridors and up staircases, while Harry took everything in. The moment he had stepped out of the room, he had realized where he was. Hogwarts. The portraits that lined the stoned walls and the armours stationed at each corner were a dead give away. He even passed the staircase with the missing stair again.
She took him to see the most beautiful scenery through huge windows and her favourite portraits and decorations, making a detour, but it was worth it. Harry looked through multiple windows, seeing the warm sunshine upon the stilled, black lake the trees surrounding it bloomed in the most beautiful shades of green, some yellow and some pink. He wondered why he had never noticed those before. When you looked closer, you could even see centaurs and other animals grazing at the border of the forest. The sky was free of clouds, tinted light blue that reminded Harry of Fleur's eyes. If only she were here to see this.
The portraits she led him to were of both men and women of every age, all of them waving cheerily from their frames as if still alive, all inquiring about the little boy with her. They welcomed him, complimented him, smiled at him. She showed him chandeliers with diamonds that glinted as they captured light and candles that shone brightly in contrast to Hogwarts' dark walls. She showed him her favourite telescope, the side ornamented with deep blue stones, the handle made of silver. There were also thousands of flowers with all kinds of nice scents and colours, roses, tulips, lilies, orchids and roses, each one prettier than the next.
At last, they had to get to the office so they both ran up the stairs, Harry barely keeping up with the stealth Rowena had, even in her flowing dress. But it was fun as they laughed and pulled at each other to slow down and shove the other to get in front of them. The pair managed three staircases before breaking down and walking up the remaining two, panting.
As Harry remembered, two gargoyles protected the Headmaster's office, their fearlessness and loyalty carved in stone. The door sprung open and Harry climbed the tight, spiral staircase behind the woman. Finally, they arrived at the top and she reached out for the lion-carved, stone, handle. Before she opened it, she turned her head and shot him an encouraging smile.
Inside the well-lit, carpeted room, surrounding the desk sat four people. Helga, who he had met just a while ago, then a man with curly, auburn hair and a beard with long, bright red robes that had golden embellishments on the side. He had a kind face and smiled warmly at Harry as he entered, welcoming him in a manner that required no speech. Beside him, composed and surly in a way that reminded Harry of Snape, was a man with short, black hair, neatly trimmed, but his face was free of a beard. His eyebrows arched strictly and his lips were thinned in a straight line, though Rowena had warned him that he could be a little cold at first before you got to know him. He wore emerald green robes, with the faintest touch of silver and black boots. Though he had never met them, Harry had studied History, and even if he hadn't, the four young men and women that stood in the room were famous.
Chatting merrily with Helga was another man, though, in contrast to the others who couldn't have been older than 30, he seemed very old, with a long beard that reached beneath his belt and white hair that framed his face. His face was soft, kind and giving, with wrinkles of laughter at his eyes and corners of his mouth. He wore colourful robes, yellow, green, and blue beautifully splashed on in a pattern onto the white canvas of the cloth. Harry thought that this could have easily passed as Dumbledore, but his chocolate-brown eyes twinkled other than the Headmaster's bespectacled ones, less manipulative and more genuine.
He had the strangest feeling that this was a prank. The five people could have easily been wizards and witches that had been tailored with a few spells and dressed up. But that explanation just didn't seem right. There was something else going on here.
Rowena spoke up and placed both of her hands on his shoulders. "Gaga, Sal, Rick", he looked at each in turn, "this is Harry."
"Hi", he said, smiling a little. "Where am I exactly?"
"Hogwarts, of course, my boy!" said Rick, the man dressed in the maroon robes.
Harry looked around sceptically. If he was at Hogwarts, where was Dumbledore? Where were the shards of glass from the window, the slight traces that it had been put together again? Where were all the spinning, silver devices, both the ones he had broken and the ones that had survived his tantrum?
He turned in a circle on the spot, eyeing everything until he saw a familiar closet and something popped into his head. "Can I look around?", he asked sweetly.
"Of course, though try not to touch weird things. They might be dangerous.", answered Helga.
Harry took the opportunity and walked steadily towards the closet, ripped it open with much more force than he had intended to use and crouched down to the last shelf. No silver basin.
He remembered distinctly finding a rope beside it, yet here there was only junk to be found. He sighed in annoyance and spun around. "Where am I really?"
They looked at him strangely. "Hog-", Rick started to repeat.
Harry cut across him. "Yes, I know, Hogwarts. But I was just here yesterday, and it was definitely not like this."
"Well, I'm sorry, Harry dear, but we've never seen you before.", said Helga.
"That's because Dumbledore kept me hidden from everyone in a spare classroom!", Harry tried to explain.
The man in green, Sal, spoke up. "Who in the world is Dumbledore?"
He stared at them disbelievingly. "Are you kidding me? The Headmaster?"
For some reason, all the adults turned to Rick who stared right back at them. "Guys, none of my names, not my first, middle or last, is Dumbledore!"
"But-"
His voice faltered as his eye caught something lying on the desk. It was a simple piece of parchment, a newspaper, called 'Wizarding News'. It wasn't thick, only three or four pages but the date in the right-hand corner caused a lump in Harry's throat.
18th of June, 998
Harry turned back to gape at them all, pure shock written all over his face. Year 998. Realisation dawned on him like a big wave. But no, there was no way. It simply couldn't be. But there was no other option that could explain all this.
Somehow, he had time-travelled back to the Founder's time.
A/N: Ta-Daaaaa! There you have it, chapter 6! A little bit of a cliffy, but you won't have to wait a whole week this time for an update! To get notified when I update this story, it would mean a lot if you followed it and favourite it as well! To anyone adding me to communities, I am so very grateful, and nice comments always make me smile. (Plus, all of these things are free ;) ) I always appreciate it a LOT, because more people could read and enjoy my story, which makes me so happy 3
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Thank you all for reading, and for those who took a second to review, I will answer to them now. If you have any questions, you can read through the answers, especially the one with thunderofdeath97, since it might explain lots.
Answering to your reviews:
geekymom (Mar. 23): Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
Mark Sinfield: (Mar. 23): Well, here it is :)
tonks (Mar. 16): Awww, thank you!
Lucy (Mar. 16): It makes me so happy to hear that you are loving this story! And please, it would be amazing if people recommended this to someone! If you do, review and add this ':)', so I know 333
thunderofdeath97 (Mar. 16): Lily and James are in Paris for a holiday with Adrian, while Harry is sleeping at the Snapped Wand and ate at the Leaky Cauldron. They left that day to go on a holiday, and only arrived late, which is why Adrian was sleeping while Lily and James met with Dumbledore. They travel with Floo to meet there. Harry is 7, and has not talked to many adults except Sirius. Lily and James would never let him stay with Sirius because of the fight, and even less if they knew that he was with the Malfoys. Harry is just learning about his powers, and how powerful he is, but he will train a lot more. He just knows this stuff because he reads a lot and because of his tuitions, which he attends in disguise (cousin of Draco).
Mark Sinfield: (Feb. 2): That makes me so happy!
Lunawolf wolfstorm (Mar. 4): I intend to keep it that way, of course ;)
mistyleo19 (Dec. 20): Is he though? We'll soon find out! Stay tuned!
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Thank you to all that reviewed! Everyone, please stay safe and have a good holiday 3
~Meghan B.