What happens after the founders vanish back into their long lives and Magical Britain tries to forget about their visit?
CHANGE SCENE && Lucius Malfoy's EndIt was several hours before Lucius returned to consciousness again. This time he was confined by muggle ties to a bed in a muggle hospital. A mudblood woman asked him questions but he cursed and spit on her resulting in three men entering the room and increasing the ties on his arms, legs, and torso. Then an older muggle with grey hair entered and once again tried to ask him questions. Malfoy was consistent with the spitting and the old man cleaned the spittle from his hospital coat before signaling the three men to wait outside. Once the door was shut, the older man leaned forward, grinned, and said, "I have a sad tale to share with you, Death Eater."
Lucius started. He muttered, "How does a mudblood know that word?"
The mudblood answered in a whisper, "Your ministry dumped you at this hospital last night. Something happened and your magic is all shriveled up and gone. You're lower than a squib now – you're a mudblood without any skills or knowledge."
"And I am the liaison from the real government who deals with the ones who get discarded after losing your power. No one on the other side of the looking glass will want you now – not your pretty wife or proud son. Their story will be you died fighting courageously for whichever side wins the fight," the man continued.
"Kill me. Kill me then," Lucius commanded.
The muggle grinned evilly and replied, "Kill you? Oh no, Lucius. You're in high demand from powerful muggle-born patrons of the hospital who want your bloodline. They'll use your sperm to impregnate their daughters so their grandchildren will inherit the Malfoy fortune."
"What? No, my son is healthy. "
"For now…" said the figure before it vanished from sight.
"What? No! that's line-theft! I'm pureblood! You can't do that!" shouted Lucius as he struggled with the bindings on the bed. Outside an observation window, the doctors consulted and shook their heads.
"Mad – he's totally mad. He thinks he is a wizard and part of a hidden society here in our very midst," the first doctor told the second.
The other physician shook his head and added, "Or does he think he's a vampire? Isn't it in some vampire story about the bloodlines?"
"Hmmm…he does look ageless," the first physician said before he scoffed. They had little time for meaningless musings.
"Shall we maintain the medications?"
"Yes, of course…don't change a thing."
The former Death Eater lingered for ten years in the care facility and finally succumbed to a virulent strain of muggle influenza in 2005. His wife and son never searched for Lucius after the Aurors reported the wizard had lost all his magic at the hands of the Dark Lord on that cold day in February. The DMLE had been drawn to the north of England where tremendous amounts of magic had been used in the middle of the afternoon in a muggle village. There they detected evidence of the Dark Lord's magic being dispersed and the drained Lucius Malfoy.
Narcissa and Draco were both greatly affected by the news. Draco reformed his behaviors and was a neutral and calming influence on Sylterin for the remaining years he attended Hogwarts. Freed from her controlling marriage, Narcissa waited until her son turned seventeen and became Lord Malfoy before she remarried a wizard from Norway with muggle-borns in his ancestry and birthed four metamorphic witches and wizards to carry on the Black family power.
CHANGE EVENT && LegaciesAlbus Dumbledore stumbled through all the troubles and changes forced on Magical Britain by the last death of Tom Marvolo Riddle, and the embarrassment of the messes left by Rex Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor, and Nicolas Flamel, and his wife, Perenelle Flamel when they disappeared from England in February 1996.
The headmaster gave interview after interview about the Horcrux book before it was denounced as a plagiarized copy of a work of fiction by Lady Dalrymple from two centuries earlier. Dumbledore attempted to present the book as fact and embarrassed the Hogwarts Board of Governors again. The out-of-print work of fiction had been widely read in the 19th century but was removed from most library shelves in Magical Britain around 1900. The governors voted unanimously to dismiss Dumbledore, and his term as headmaster ended in June 1996.
After leaving Hogwarts, the former headmaster retired to his family home hidden somewhere in Magical Britain and was only seen at the rare memorial services at Hogwarts. When he made inquiries about being buried on the grounds of the school, Lady Hogwarts replied with a personal letter in which she praised the former headmaster and his devotion to the rules and precedence set by the previous headmasters.
'We are certain that a private setting is more appropriate for your eternal rest as opposed to some public tomb that will only confuse the young witches and wizards one hundred years from now – or say even just fifty years from now – who will have no clue who you were in the distant past. You might also consider that Merlin's legacy is built on his good works, not upon a tomb like Napoleon, Grant, or Lenin.'
While Dumbledore vaguely remembered lessons in his history lessons as a child in the 1860s that mentioned Napoleon Bonaparte and his wizards attacking Britain around 1800, the elderly wizard had no idea who the castle meant when she wrote 'Grant or Lenin.' Those were not wizarding names he recognized.
Obscurity and isolation were purgatories to the elderly wizard, and he welcomed death when it arrived a few years later. Though his reaction to his reward in the afterlife is left up to the reader to imagine. His portrait in the headmistress's office awoke but appeared to have been perpetually befuddled by someone to reply to every question with platitudes about forgiveness.
CHANGE SETTING && Gifts and RequestsOn the last day of his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry smiled when Hedwig arrived with a small package sent from his godfather in London. Purchased from the best jeweler in the whole of Britain, Sirius sent Harry a necklace of the purest gold. It would wrap around a lady's neck and lay upon her bosom over or under her robes. With a smile on his face, the teenager climbed to the seventh floor where he found the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls to dance ballet.
He grinned with delight to see the trolls in the tapestry begin to twirl properly now. Walking back and forth in front of the wall, Harry thought, 'I need the room with the Horcruxes to say goodbye for the summer. I need the room with the Horcruxes to say goodbye for the summer. I need the room with the Horcruxes to say goodbye for the summer.'
The door appeared and Harry used his wand and handprint to gain access. (There were pictures taken by Colin Creevey of Dumbledore's attempt to access the room. The headmaster fell down two flights of stairs and only Professor Flitwick's cushioning charm combined with Professor Lupin's strong arresto momentum spell saved the headmaster's life.)
Entering the room, Harry sighed with relief – the six Horcruxes were still in the room. Cleopatra's bust, Caesar's gold leaf crown, Theodora's necklace, and Justinian's belt buckle were the four sitting Horcruxes on the table. The Ankh of Ramesses The Great rested on a stand where Lady Anne Hogwarts could reference it as she put the finishing touches on a new painting – she wanted to incorporate the Ankh into the castle emblem that would be mounted in the Entry Hall before 1 September and the beginning of the next school year. The Ankh would be placed in the center of the shield and incorporated into the emblem.
The sixth and last Horcrux was the golden knife sheath used by Alexander the Great for his Horcrux. Harry knew the castle kept it safe and cared for it gently. Only she could touch it and Harry waited for the entity to manifest in the chamber.
"Harry! Why are you here?" Lady Hogwarts asked when she appeared a moment later, her magical staff in her hand. "Is everything well?"
"Of course, Lady Hogwarts. Everything is great! My OWLS are finished and the train leaves in just over an hour but I wanted to give you something before I left."
"A gift? Harry, you've helped me so much this year and saved my soul," the castle replied. "It should be me giving you gifts."
Waiting a moment, Harry grinned when the castle entity grew impatient and insisted, "What is it? Show me! Please! I love presents."
"There are two parts to my present. First is this necklace forged of the purest gold available to mortals," he explained while unwrapping the small package. The feminine face of the castle entity brightened with delight as the chain glittered in the sunlight from the windows.
"Now, the second part," he said as he stepped closer to the Horcrux of Alexander the Great. "Do I have your permission to perform a spell on your most prized possession?"
She hesitated but then acquiesced, "Only you can ask that of me."
Without touching the Horcrux, Harry levitated the knife sheath and then shrank it to be the size of a galleon. With another spell, he attached the 'jewel' to the necklace and floated his gift over to the entity.
"With this around your neck, Alexander will be with you always. Until we find him in the world, his soul will be next to your heart for the rest of your existence."
Lady Hogwarts lifted her hand and took the chain from the air before placing it around her head. With her magic, the chain never got caught in her hair and fit perfectly around her neck. She glanced at Harry, who motioned for her to place the necklace and the Horcrux inside her robes. With a simple thought, Lady Anne's robes became more revealing of her bosom, and she slipped the Horcrux down the cloth at the top of her robes.
"Thank you, Harry Potter. This is one of the great gifts of my life." The castle took a deep breath and felt the Horcrux on the necklace move against her skin. Was it possible to feel Alexander's soul stir?
"How can I repay you?"
The wizard grinned again and turned his eyes toward the Horcruxes of the Four Founders. "Well, there is something I want. I'd like to repay the founders for the kindness they showed everyone during their visit."
CHANGE SCENE && Summer 1996Harry Potter left for the train station in Hogsmeade with a smile that threatened to burn so bright it would power the Hogwarts Express to such speeds it would fly through the countryside of Britain and arrive in London before noon. The other students paid little attention to the Boy-Who-Lived-and-Conquered, nor did they notice Lady Hogwarts was dressed differently.
Headmistress Minerva McGonagall noticed the change in the entity's robes and decided to immediately discuss the advantages of some lace to hide the bosom. Deputy Headmaster Filius Flitwick didn't notice the change in her robes. Still, his goblin ears noticed a difference in the sounds associated with the steps that Lady Hogwarts made when she walked along her stone floors. It took his goblin hearing a moment longer to determine that there was a jingle now in her walk.
'No, not anything on her person,' he decided after one moment of observation and additional listening. Then he saw and heard the source of the noise – the head of her staff now had four new trinkets attached. There were four charms, each on the end of a silver chain embedded into the staff. With each movement of the staff, the charms banged against each other and the staff. It would be impossible for her to walk silently through the halls of her castle again.
'Unless she wants to be silent and sneak up on someone,' he decided. 'I might adopt the practice myself.'
CHANGE SCENE && On the ExpressNeville asked Harry about his smile. "What do you and your godfather have planned for the summer? Are you going on vacation somewhere warm?"
"Sirius has recovered from his injuries and said he'd surprise me, so there's no telling where we'll go. It might be hiking with cannibals in Africa, swimming with anacondas in the Amazon river, or dancing with kangaroos in Australia."
Longbottom frowned and said, "It is winter down under. He's probably going to take you to the beach somewhere. Harry, you've had enough adventures this year. Maybe you should sit down and rest for a day or two this summer. Come over, and we'll trim the blooms off Dirigible Plums for potions."
His good mood unassailable, Harry agreed to trim blooms that summer. And he took a moment to think about the summer ahead for the Horcruxes of Cleopatra, Caesar, Theodora, and Justinian. They would experience constant banging against each other and the staff. Wherever they spent their summer, Helga, Godric, Salazar, and Rowena would find little peace and quiet. Lady Hogwarts would return the charms to their safe location in the Room of Requirement before 1 September.
CHANGE SCENE && EpilogueThe Horcrux for Alexander (Golden Knife Sheath), miniaturized and attached to a necklace of purest gold hung around the neck of Lady Hogwarts and close to her bosom for the next thousand years. On the rare occasion when she slept and dreamt, Alexander came to her, and they walked together in the Forbidden Forest on a spring afternoon.
The Ankh of Ramesses the Great became part of the emblem of Hogwarts beside the doors to the Great Hall. Lady Hogwarts kept a secret from Harry Potter when he returned for his sixth year. The day the emblem was attached to the stone wall was the same day that Argus Filch retired. The squib, almost ninety years old, vanished along with his cat. At that same moment, she found a missing presence from the magic around her – Ramesses the Great had been within her walls for many years without forcing himself onto the children, professors, or headmaster.
Harry Potter's sixth and seventh years were calm for the teenager and his friends and allowed them to concentrate on studies and Quidditch. Harry enjoyed his classes without extra adventures and threats to life and limb. His life was his own now.
After graduation, he began a search around the world for the long-lived Alexander the Great, but Harry never found him. With his ability to portal himself anywhere in the world easily once he graduated from Hogwarts, the young wizard was able to search all around the world.
In April 2000, while looking for Alexander at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Magical Campus) in the USA, Harry Potter found Hermione Granger enrolled as a student. Their reunion was tentative at first but then he enrolled at MIT(MC) that fall and before the Christmas holidays, they were dating. The next summer, they became engaged and married immediately after graduation.
Magical Britain was shocked when the Boy-Who-Lived-And-Conquered disappeared from Magical Britain society after he graduated from Hogwarts. While he attended university and courted his future wife, Harry refused all communication with Britain. Demands for his return and investigations by reporters and Aurors became intrusive in the life of Sirius Black. The infamous godfather lived quietly, creating prank items and jinxes for the Weasley twins to sell at their successful businesses in London, Paris, Florence, and Cairo.
Then, the Ministry for Magic threatened to seize the Black and Potter vaults with the Daily Prophet printing encouragement for such steps.
In August 2001, Sirius Black disappeared from London, the Daily Prophet shut down operations for a month while a new staff was hired by the new owners (Sirius Black and Harry Potter). Gringotts threatened war because of the significant drop in the bank's value when the 'entirety of Potter and Black vaults' left Magical Britain in one day's time. (Not completely true but shading the truth was often the cost of doing business in Magical Britain). An economic recession grabbed hold of the nation and there was significant emigration to other nations for the next ten years.
Throughout those years, Lady Hogwarts remained in correspondence with Harry Potter via muggle mail. Eventually, she found email when a creative magical couple in the USA adapted electronic devices to run safely off magic in 2002. The technology revolution that pushed the social revolution forward in Magical Britain was fostered by Hogwarts; when Headmistress McGonagall refused to allow these devices to be used in 'her' school in 2003, Lady Hogwarts forced Minerva McGonagall to resign. The castle debated appointing Anthony Hilliard or Harriet Carter as head and deputy but then the pair offered a solution that Lady Hogwarts approved.
Gringotts backed both the technology and social revolutions and provided low-cost loans (via Sirius Black's vaults) to retool magical factories and bring electrical devices into magical homes.
Beginning in 2011, Harry Potter and his wife (was that beautiful woman really Hermione Granger?) made an occasional appearance in London to support Gringotts, and at Hogwarts to provide lectures on the new technologies. During each visit, Lady Hogwarts powered her wards to full intensity. These wards captured and held reporters, lawyers, ambitious witches, and assassins captive in her dungeons for the full length of Harry and Hermione's visits inside her walls.
By the late 2020s, the increased enrollment of transfer students from around the world for one or two years of their education at the outstanding institution of magical learning allowed all five Potter children to surreptitiously attend Hogwarts for a year or two. For each young Potter, Lady Hogwarts acted as their magical guardian while in Britain. Headmaster Anthony Hilliard-Carter and Headmistress Harriet Carter-Hillard (co-heads) were the only persons on staff (living, dead, or portrait) who knew the true identity of the children during their time in the school.
When the eldest grandchild of Harry and Hermione Potter reached eleven years of age, she was willing to transfer to Hogwarts from Salem to enjoy being spoiled by Granny Hogwarts for a few years and she openly attended the school as Alexandra Lily Potter.