The Founder's Troubles - chapter 9
JudgeDP



The dark figure slowly walked into the musky shop. Beautifully colored cloth and chains of beads hung up everywhere, but their beauty was lost in the darkness of the shop. A pile of skulls sat on a shelf, with one lone skull right side up to the right of its fellow dead. Animal inards (AN: I love that word) were sorted into various jars on other shelves. Old scrolls and books were arranged in some sort of order in a rather large bookcase beside this was a grandfather clock with a dead crow perched on top.

"Hello boy," came a crusty voice, perfect for cackles, "what do you desire of dear old Grandmother?"

"I need a way to get, a friend back." "Not just any friend I see. Well," a knarled hand appeared from behind some cloth and beconed him forward. "don't keep an old bird like me waiting, I might get angry and peck your eyes out! Come, come and Grandmother will tell you how to get this 'friend' back."


"What do you think you're doing?" asked Rowena, peaking over Salazar's shoulder.

"Nothing!" he said and quickly spung around while standing up, shielding what he had been working on from view. A few of the snakes laughed at this. "Quiet!" he snapped. "You should have warned me she was coming!" Both young sorcerers were in Salazar's hidden chamber.

"Nothing, hm? Then I guess there will be no problem with me seeing it, will there?" Rowena asked. Before Salazar could answer Rowena had rushed past him, knocking him to the ground. "Oh! It's darling! I knew you were keeping something from me, but this!"

"You know what it is?" Salazar asked, rubbing his head.

"Of course I know what it is! I sneak past Archanes wards and look at the forbidden texts just as much as you do. Oh, he's so cute! He is a he, isn't he?"

In her hands Rowena held a snake the size of a small rattle snake, he beared his fangs at her but drew them back in when she began scratching his chin.

"Yes, he's male," Salazar sighed. "You won't tell anyone will you?"

"Of course not, just promise you won't tell anyone."

"Why would I tell anyone about him when I just made you promise not to?"

"Not about him."

"Then what?"

Rowena sighed. "Come and see." She got up, handed the baby Basilisk to Salazar and led him to the tunnel connecting their two chambers. When they had made it through to the other side Salazar was shacked at what met his eyes. It looked almost exactly like what he had done, put a chicken egg under a toad, but what lay before him was no chicken egg. "Is that a-?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise, to thank you for the sword."

"Is that a-?"

"Phoenix egg. One of them owes me, and since she this was her second and they don't usually live without magical interference anyway...."

"Won't she be mad that you're turning her second born into a snake?"

"No, she and her husband both died a week ago."

"That's horrible."

"Yes, but he never would have survived on his own."

"Oh. How long have you had the egg under the toad? It took mine a fortnight to hatch, but that was a chicken egg. Do you even know if this will work?"

"No, but I think we are about to find out."

The toad hopped off the egg and disappeared into the surrounding darkness of the chamber. The egg though began to swell and a sound more beautiful than any either children had heard came from it. Suddenly and with a mighty heave the egg shattered and in its place lay a snake slightly smaller than the one Salazar held in his hands and covered in feathers all along its back.

"Oh!" exclaimed Rowena rushing to pick the tiny thing up in her arms. "He's so tiny."

"What was that music?" whispered Salazar, brinning a very curious basilisk up to meet the new one.

"Phoenix song," Rowena whispered just as quitely as she put her hands beside Salazars so the two serpents could meet.

"Will he make it again?"

"I don't know. We should name them."

"Slink and Slither."

"Which one's which?"

"Yours is Slink, mine is Slither."

"They aren't mine or yours, if anything they are ours."

Salazar was about to ask what she meant when he caught Slither looking up at him and saying, "Father," then turning to Rowena and saying, "Mother." "I guess you're right. This is going to be a lot of work."

"Good, then you won't mind teaching me Parseltongue in the midst of it."

Salazar looked at her in wonder then said, "As long as you teach me how to talk to birds."

"Then here is your first lesson; I have no idea what humans call the language but birds call it Flocksong."

"But all birds don't flock."

"That doesn't matter to them, it is only a name."

"Oh."


"I have done as you asked," called the dark figure as he slammed into the shop over a year later. He threw down a sack which was leaking some liquid onto Grandmother's table, the girl sitting across from the old woman jumped up in surprise.

Grandmother glanced angrilly at the man but her face softened as she turned to the girl and said, "All you need to do is go out into the front of the shop, under the lone skull will be a bag, do not be frightened that it moves! nothing within will harm you, place the contents into this mans bed tonight. I will warn you though, the thing in the bag will sting you, but it is the sting that will work the magic on him. All that night after the creature stings him he will dream of you and in the morning will be madly in love with you and do anything to please you. Now go! and remember to leave all the money in that purse where you'll find the bag!" The girl fled from the table, gathered the sack from beneath the skull and left. When she was gone the crow came in and looked in the woman's eye. "Idiot girl!" Grandmother exclaimed. "Now I will have to take revenge on her! And she was so kind to dear old Grandmother too."

"She didn't pay you I take it?" asked the man as the bird flew back to its perch.

"No."

"What will you do to her?"

"That is none of your concern." The old woman opened the sack and cried out in glee, not an at all pleasent sound, "You killed him!"

"It was no easy task I'll tell you. That dragon was huge!"

"I know, that is precisely why I sent you. I knew you wouldn't care how big it was you're so blinded by-"

"Love, yes it will do strange things to men."

"No! I was going to say that you are so blinded by your need to possess this person."

"I love her!"

"Yes and I love kneazles. Come now it is almost time for you to stirke. Tomorrow that blasted wizard will be leaving with two of the children, your 'friend' is not one of them, she will come back to you easily. But beware! A vile prophecy from long ago is said to be fulfilled within the next two moons, it may be fulfilled in you."

"Will I need anything to get into the castle?"

"Only to wait for your friend to come out, play on her weaknesses and she will welcome you in. The other person in the castle may be a problem though. It seems he has feelings for her and will use all his resources to keep her if he feels she is leaving against her will."

"How can I overcome him?"

"One of three ways. First get her to come with you, of her own will, to this shop. Once here I will put her in a trance and she will be yours forever. Second get her to give you the sword."

"What sword?"

"The sword of her honor. She will only give it to one she truely loves and she cannot escape its hold on her. The third and final way to get her is to take the sword by force. Once you hold it she will not be able to go against you if you do not want her to. But! if you should let go of the sword or lose it she is free and may lash out at you with all her might. That is why it will be in your best interests to come to me once you have the sword so that I may put her in a trance."

"Thank you Grandmother, I will return soon." With that the dark figure left the shop to make his way toward the castle.

"That you will boy, that you will."


That afternoon Archanes gathered the children together.

"Helga will you please stop playing your flute? Godric, put your sword away! Rowena, turn your staff's orb off! Salazar would you stop making the furniture float?" To put it simply Archanes was discovering the joys of taking care of four young sorcerers. When they had all sat down he took some magical pain killer and said, "Are you four trying to drive me mad?"

Salazar opened his mouth to answer but Rowena put a hand on his arm and shook her head at him.

"Now, the reason I called you all here today is because I am planning a trip to go see an old friend of mine, a Miss Cassandra. She is one of the most powerful sorceresses I know and I want to take two of you with me to meet her. I have given this a lot of thought and have decided to take Godric and Helga. Adolf will be coming along as well so I want you two," he looked at Rowena and Salazar, "to be on your best behavior."

"Why would we not be?" asked Salazar.

"That goes double for you Salazar! I have asked the centaurs to look in on your from time to time."

"How long will we be gone?" asked Helga.

"Quite a while I imagine, at least until Adolf cannot stand it anymore and drags us all home."

"Why would Adolf not be able to tolerate the sorceress?" asked Godric.

"Because Godric," said Archanes, "he does not like her due to some of her, er, practices. Now out with all of you! I expect Godric and Helga to be ready to leave by dawn tomorrow!"

"I cannot believe he chose you two over us!" exclaimed Salazar when they were well away from Archanes rooms.

"What are you so unhappy about?" asked Rowena. "He knows that we want to stay here."

"And why might that be?" asked Helga, obviously hinting at something.

"We talk to the inhabitants of the forest," said Salazar flatly. "They teach us things that Archanes never does."

"'Inhabitants,'" said Godric, "I didn't think you would know such a large word Salazar."

"Have you always been prone to such suicidal tendancies or was this a resent development?"

"I thought that was you, Salazar. It was you and Rowena who pulled Helga and me into this castle to face those tests."