Harry was awakened rather rudely by a dull thud, followed by a curse coming from the next room. Let's be roommates! It'd be nice to live together under normal conditions for awhile! Exactly what had made him say that was unknown to him. He sighed, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so he reluctantly opened his tired green eyes to look at the clock beside his bed. 3:30?! He groaned, today was not starting off well. He threw his blankets off of him and slowly got off of his bed, exiting his room while pulling a robe around his dark green pajamas. He was planning on making a cup of tea before trying to sleep again, however he was sidetracked when he almost tripped over his best female friend.
"Oh, Harry!" she said in a rapid whisper. She was kneeling on the floor, trying to pick up a rather large stack of books and papers that were scattered all over the around her. Explains where the sound came from, Harry thought to himself.
"I'm so sorry! Ron left his shoes out in the middle of the floor and I tripped over them. I didn't mean to wake you."
"Where'd all these come from?" he asked as he leaned down to help her gather up the ancient looking papers.
"Luna," she said, a slight sigh in her voice. "She's in the process of moving, and she said that she didn't have enough room for all of her books, and told me I could have some."
A grin crept over Harry's face, "You took some of Luna's books?"
Hermione smiled slightly, "Well, at first I thought they'd be complete rubbish, but it would be rude to just refuse, so I said that I'd come over and at least look at them. Most of them were… well, obviously something she'd enjoy, but these," she nodded at the books that she had successfully picked up again, "Were actually fascinating. I wonder how she got them…"
Harry stifled a yawn and picked up a loose piece of paper that Hermione had missed, he half heartedly scanned the page, not paying much attention until a phrase caught his eye. "It is believed that is where Godric Gryffindor was first introduced to Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff," he read aloud. "Hermione… what is all of this?"
A smile crept onto the brown eyed girl's face as she set the books on a table, brushing hair out of her face, "Information about the Hogwart's founders."
"The… founders?" asked Harry, half expecting that he'd heard her wrong. She nodded her head and beamed at him, "These are from… Luna? How'd she get them?"
"I didn't ask, though I probably should have," she added as an afterthought. "But even if it's complete rubbish it'd still be fun to read about them!" Harry nodded in agreement, feeling a slight bit of guilt as he did so. The Hogwarts Founders were legendary, and he had destroyed their most prized possessions. If it wasn't for Voldemort's obsession with immortality there would still be artifacts from them.
"It wasn't your fault they were destroyed, it had to be done," Hermione said, and Harry looked up to find she was studying his expression. He nodded once more; too tired to come up with a proper response. "Want to read some of this with me? I'll make some tea and we can study together, just like old times," she said with a laugh. Harry couldn't help but smile… it seemed like an entire lifetime had passed since he had spent a night studying with his best friend. Most of his time had been occupied with Auror training which didn't require much reading, just practice. Hermione, on the other hand, had become a Healer at St. Mungo's, and spent her time studying how to make potions and how to properly perform complicated spells. Harry thought the job suited her, Ron pointed out that she was going to spend her entire life reading and never have any fun. Harry liked to believe that was Ron's way of agreeing with him, but he couldn't be too sure. Not that the redheaded was home often anyway, he had Quidditch practice so often in hopes that his team might finally win a series (Harry didn't point out that even winning a game would be a step up).
He walked over to the table where Hermione had sat the books down, and picked up a loose piece of paper at random and began reading.
It is unknown when exactly Salazar Slytherin left the school, but it is widely recognized that he left shortly after fights broke out between him and Godric Gryffindor.
"Anything interesting," Hermione asked as she set a cup of tea in front of him before taking a seat beside him and picking up one of the older books.
"We already knew this," Harry said, slightly disappointed.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "I have a table full of books full of information and you're upset that you knew something on one piece of paper?" She leaned over to read what he had just finished. "That goes to this book," she said, handing him a small silvery book with all the pages the same shade of yellow as the one he was holding. He wondered briefly how she knew the exact book, but didn't voice it and flipped through to find where the page went.
"This entire book is about Slytherin," he mentioned. "But the page about him leaving is in the middle, didn't he fade from view after he left?"
Hermione shrugged, not looking up from the book she was reading, he looked closer to see that it had a dark blue cover. He glanced at the top of the page, and sure enough the name Ravenclaw was repeated a few times. He set down the Slytherin book and began searching through the pile for one with his own House colors. Sure enough, near the bottom of the pile was an old and battered book with a red cover, and the name "Godric Gryffindor" etched in fading gold across the top of it. Beside it was a yellow book with "Helga Hufflepuff" written in grey ink that he assumed was black at one point. He grabbed them both and set them beside him, as he opened up the Gryffindor book and began searching for an author, but he didn't see any. He was convinced that they were by the same person since all of them were the same size and looked to be about the same age. "Hermione, who wrote these?"
She looked up from her book, and glanced at the small stack Harry had made. "Lady Stephanie of Stumpage," she answered. Harry gave her a bewildered look, and she muttered something about Hogwarts a History. "She was a cousin of Helga Hufflepuff."
XxX
I know I shouldn't be starting another story since I already have three or four I need to finish… But I'm not sure what should happen in my SS/RR fic yet, so this is what I use to occupy my time. Also, Lady Stephanie of Stumpage is just some random name that came out of a generator, but if you know who she's supposed to be in the series, tell me in a review so I can change the character if need be. If not, who cares? I'm going to end up changing a lot of things.