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Chapter 10
The Founders
Disclaimers: I don't own anything but the plot and any strange character you might find. JK Rowling is the gracious owner of everything recognizable (as well as about a thousand different corporations!).
AN: Another chapter! Thanks to everyone that reviewed. The four aren't *quite* the reincarnations of the founders, but close....
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Harry gave the others a look to see what their reaction to this was. Each of them seemed to be wearing the shock he felt. Finally, Draco roused himself enough to ask a question.
"But, I thought that Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts never to return..." His voice was very confused sounding, and there was a puzzled look in his dark grey eyes.
Salazar pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Yes, I did say that. What many do not know, most likely only us four and now you, was that I came back here the day before my body passed on to help protect this school. I learned that I had been foolish to let one single issue drive a deep enough wedge that would ruin the best friendships I'd ever had."
Godric nodded. "We were pleased that he had returned, even though we could do nothing for him for him to keep on living."
"Yes," Salazar agreed. "I realized that, in the last thousand years, I have been wrong about pureblood."
Draco gawked, but Harry saw Aeryn move forward before he did so himself. He saw Salazar turn towards Harry. "I have seen that with you, Harry. In the last seven years I have seen the good that your mother gave you, even though she was born in the Muggle world. She gave her life for you when many of my followers would have let their children die. To work magic you don't have to be a pureblood."
Harry blinked rapidly, trying to suppress the emotions that wanted to choke him when anybody mentioned the sacrifice his mother had made for him.
Salazar turned to Aeryn. "And you, Aeryn, with you only being half human, you have surprised me as well."
All the others were stunned at this revelation, even the other ghosts.
"You mean she's only part human?" Rowena asked in an incredulous, but not disgusted, voice. "The one that is to replace me isn't entirely human?"
Aeryn gave an embarrassed nod and blushed. "I.... My mother was a forest elf."
"I see." Rowena gave her a warm smile. "That is why the bow showed up and not the globe."
Aeryn responded with a small, tight grimace.
"Hm." Everybody looked at Salazar. "And now we must pull together to stop my heir," he said in a sad voice. "He has walked too deeply into the darkness, and the only way to stop him is for him to cease to exist."
Helga laid a hand on his shoulder. "If he had any light left in him, this would not have had to happen."
Marty gave a slight cough. "So, why are you here, anyway? And where are we? Still at Hogwarts?"
Godric gave a bright smile. "You are in a room that only the eight of us know of. Even your headmaster," he looked at Draco and Harry, "does not know of its existence.
"Then why don't any of us recognize what's out the window?" Harry asked.
Helga laughed. "That is just a painting."
Four pairs of eyes grew wide at that.
"Then what is the painting of?" Draco asked.
"Avalon," the four founders said in unison.
"Merlin's forest?" Aeryn gave them a thoughtful look.
"Yes," Rowena answered. "He was the one who gave us much help when we started this school. He also taught us that we should be willing to work for what we wanted."
"It was his way of helping us from falling into the depths of the Dark Arts," Salazar added. "I just did not remember his lessons until it was almost too late."
There was silence for a minute before Aeryn spoke. "So we are the new guardians?"
Godric nodded.
"But, what happens when we actually go to take your places?" Draco asked.
The four founders looked a little unsure. "We are not entirely certain what will happen. Right now all four of you are on an equal footing, but after we train you that will not be the case," Rowena said. "There is also the possibility of our souls not being able to meld back into their right places, and the mix up of power could be devastating."
Helga nodded sadly. "This is one area of knowledge that no one understands. It is why the dead cannot be brought back to life without the death of another."
"We are taking as big a risk as you are," Salazar said.
"Once we attempt to join, the others outside of this room will cease to be protected by us." Godric gave the four in the chairs a steady look. "We have, several times in the last millennium, been the last resort to protect this castle and these grounds from those who have wanted to destroy all that we worked so hard to establish."
The room was draped in silence again for a long time as each delved into their own thoughts.
Harry suddenly jumped up. "I say we go for it. I mean, what other things can we do besides this that will guarantee we'll be successful? Voldemort has already managed to avoid death once, barely, but he will cling stubbornly to life as long as we don't do something."
Aeryn nodded and stood. "I'm willing."
Draco and Marty were quiet as they looked at each other. They stood at the same time. "We're in," Draco said. Marty agreed. "I want to give a good shot."
The four founders smiled.
"This is going to be fun," Rowena said as a bright light filled the room.
******
The room that they met in was oppressive. It had been a month since the Dementors had tried to overtake the school - and a month had passed since Harry, Draco, Aeryn, and Marty had been discovered to be missing. The Order was quickly falling apart under the strain of worry.
Dumbledore's eyes had failed to twinkle more than twice in those four weeks. Snape had been watching for it carefully. The first had been when they had discovered the remains of forty Dementors throughout the school after the rumblings had shaken the very foundations of the castle. The second, and it pained him to admit it, was that something Dumbledore had said had given Black a strange look on his face and stopped him from completely moping around the rooms where the meetings were held. Suffering gladly from the surcease of melodrama that had been developing around the escaped convict, Snape vowed to be deaf when the news came out.
The Dementor attack had been swift and it looked like it had been carefully organized as well. They had been laying in wait in a not-oft used section of the castle, ready for the moment when the students would be arriving back from the winter holiday. It was only due to Draco Malfoy that the teachers had been alerted, but now the boy was missing.
Snape was just glad that Lucius Malfoy hadn't shown up demanding to know what was going on. The last news they had heard of him was that he was currently in St. Mungo's, refusing to say anything. The Ministry, or what was left of it, had moved him there when they had found him trying to strangle himself with his robe. So far he was their only chance to prove what was really going on, since many people had chosen to believe Fudge two years ago when he denied the rise of the Dark Lord.
His thoughts went back to Draco Malfoy. He was the last to be seen of the four by Professor McGonagall and Professor Steele. Dumbledore had last seen Potter, and Aeryn Negre, as well as Marty.
Snape's eyes narrowed as he searched the room as Dumbledore called the meeting to order. Many shifted uncomfortably in their chairs, even though they were the best to be had in the school. He saw Potter's friends shrink as the Headmaster brought up the subject of the four that were missing. Dumbledore was very worried on this subject, as Potter seemed to be the best way of defeating Voldemort. His face twisted in a scowl as he remembered meeting with Dumbledore to discuss what he might find out in the next meeting when the Headmaster had told him he wouldn't be going back. All because of some dream of Potter's.
Soon, though, he had found himself wondering about that dream. Potter had collapsed in front of him, clutching at his forehead much like he grabbed the Dark Mark when it glowed hotly. The boy had been in much pain and senseless. Still, he was a student, so he had carefully carried the boy to the infirmary. On the way there he had seen the scar become a scaly texture, glowing and pulsing in a strange red color. Finally Snape had had to concede on returning to spy on Voldemort when Dumbledore had threatened to make a potion that would stop him from Apparating.
"I heard something curious today," Dumbledore said in an odd tone of voice that Snape couldn't place. "A few of the house elves discovered that several books have become missing from the library that the founders used. I also asked Madam Pince if she was having problems, and it seems that several books are missing from the Restricted Section."
The group snapped to attention at this while the tension almost eased before it grew tighter at his next words.
"These books all delve very deeply into the Dark Arts, many of them written by Salazar Slytherin and Merlin himself." Dumbledore gave a soft sigh. "I highly doubt it is a student who is taking them, as none of these books indicate what is actually in them. Many have disguise charms on them so that they will be overlooked as belonging to the Dark Arts."
The group didn't know what to make of this information and Snape sat back as he watched the meeting continue. When it was over, he got ready to go when he noticed Aedyn Negre approach Dumbledore. Fawkes swooped out the doorway as well, leaving only the three of them still in the room.
"I haven't felt her in the last month, Grandfather," the younger man was saying. "This has never happened before. Even after Mother..." Aedyn took a deep breath. "Even then I could hear a sort of static, but now it's just empty. There's nothing there."
Snape saw Dumbledore's face whiten and felt himself grow pale. He had read of this happening, but it was always when it was the case when one twin died before the other. This information was not good, as it meant that the four were... not available to fight. No, it did not bode well at all. He watched as the Headmaster suddenly sat down in his chair, one shaking hand passing over his white face.
"Albus?"
Dumbledore looked up at Snape's question and nodded for him to continue.
"Why do we need Potter to help fight other than the fact that his scar connects him to Voldemort?" he asked. Snape found that Aedyn was looking at Dumbledore curiously.
"He is the last physical heir to Godric Gryffindor," Dumbledore finally said. He looked at the other two men, his normally pale blue eyes dark with sadness. "He also has enough power to help defeat Voldemort, but his powers won't fully develop until it would be too late. It took Gryffindor ten years to discover the extent of his powers, in much the same way that the other founders did.
"Harry can lend us the power, but he doesn't have the strength to control it. That is why I have always let him try to do things on his own - to help him learn how to control them before they ever started to emerge."
"The..." Aedyn finally said in the silence that had once again fallen around the room. "You don't think that the Dementors got them?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "They would have left their bodies. And we also haven't heard anything from any of Voldemort's supporters about captives. I wouldn't be too surprised if Voldemort wouldn't hold the news that he had captured Harry go unnoticed."
Snape nodded. "If he had the chance, he would let the entire wizarding world know that the one they've been relying on to scrape themselves out of this mess was in his hands," he said, bitterly.
"Severus," Dumbledore chided.
"It's true!" Snape pounded his hand on the table next to him. "They've blinded themselves to the fact that they are letting a seventeen year old child fight a man who is striving to be immortal - and has come pretty damn close to it."
"We haven't," Aedyn said in a soft voice. "Remember that fact, Professor Snape. *We* haven't, and each of us in the order is willing to help defeat Voldemort, no matter if we have to continue without Harry... without Aeryn." His voice drifted off as he looked away from the other two men.
Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak when Fawkes burst back into the room. The phoenix flew over and sat on the Headmaster's shoulders, bobbing his head and making strange clicking noises.
"What is he doing?" Snape asked in a disgusted tone.
"I have no clue," Dumbledore replied. All three men watched the bird as it flew up and started doing a strange dance in the air, whirling and weaving around invisible columns.
A rumbling filled the room, shaking the pictures and portraits that lined the Order's main meeting room. The men looked around as they noticed that the entire castle was shaking.
"The wards are breaking," Dumbledore said in a horrified voice. "The ones put up by the founders themselves." He stood and was just to the door when the rumbling stopped and an odd sense of peace floated through the room.
Dumbledore looked at Snape and Aedyn in a confused way. "I don't understand. I felt them breaking but now it's as if they were just put up."
"They were," a voice came from the wall opposite the door.
They watched as a tall man with long, black hair stepped through the foot thick stone wall. Knowledgeable green eyes danced in a young man's face. In his hand he held a stack of books.
"Harry!" A female's voice called from behind the stone. "Would you wait up!? I can't carry as many as you." A woman with long blond hair with pale colored streaks in it stepped through the wall. "I'm not a man, so why'd you give me this many books to carry in the first place?" She hadn't looked at the three men who were standing, slack jawed at their appearance.
Aedyn fell to the floor, clutching his head. "Aeryn," he choked out.
The blond woman turned. "Aedyn!" She stepped out of the shadows and they saw who it was as she ran over to the fallen man. "It's so nice to hear you again!"
The man named Harry stepped out of the shadows and Dumbledore and Snape gasped.
"Harry?"
A smile sparkled on his now older face as he nodded. He winked at Dumbledore before looking back at the wall he had stepped through. "Hold on a moment," he said, laying the stack of books he was holding on the table in the center of the room. Once they were piled neatly, he strode back through the wall.
Snape stared at the wall as Dumbledore looked over the books on the table and the ones Aeryn had set on the floor next to where she sat with Aedyn. A light appeared on his face as he figured out the mystery of the disappearing books.
Harry walked through the wall, another stack of books in his arms. This time he was followed by a young woman, her long, brown hair with white streaks throughout it. Laughing brown eyes lit up when she caught sight of Dumbledore.
"Harry?" the woman asked.
"Yes, Marty?"
"Draco's going to need some help," she said, turning her head sideways to look into the wall.
"Sure. Right on it." Harry walked back through the wall a second time.
"Did he just say 'Marty?'" Dumbledore asked, eyeing the young woman in front of him.
She nodded. "That's my name, don't wear it out!"
"Marty, that was awful," Aeryn said as she stood up. "If only I had never told you that joke." The blond woman was shaking her head, the streaks in her hair showing they were a pale blue.
Harry walked through the wall a third time. After setting this stack of books down he came to stand in front of Dumbledore, and the three men from earlier saw that his black hair was streaked with blond and his forehead was clear.
"Professor Dumbledore!" he finally greeted them in an excited voice. "It's so nice to see you again!"
"Harry!" Another man's voice came through the wall. "You still gave me too much. I'm not a muscle man like you are! Git!"
Harry laughed and they recognized it, even though it had always been rare since Voldemort's return. For a third time he strode through the wall. This time they heard a scuffling noise behind it and a few choice swear words uttered by both men.
"You stupid prat!"
"Git!"
"Oh, crud," Aeryn said as she looked at the wall. She straightened her robes from where they had been mussed from sitting on the floor and strode through the wall. "Really, you two act more like children every second!"
Her voice echoed into the room, followed by a rude noise.
"Fine! I don't see how I've put up with you two for the last two years!" Aeryn came tearing out the wall, purple eyes flashing dangerously and huffing slightly. "Urgh...."
She stopped when she caught the looks on the three men's faces. "What?"
"Two years?" Dumbledore asked.
Marty nodded. "Yeah. It takes a long time to study what we had to. Didn't you wonder where we were?"
"A month," Aedyn slowly said. "You were gone a month."
Marty and Aeryn looked disbelieving at each other. "A month?" Aeryn asked. "That's just not possible. I mean, we've been in that room for two years! Two years listening to those two bicker and then I've almost forgotten what being in the sun is anymore."
Marty looked over at the wall. "Would you two just come out already?"
Harry and a blond haired man stepped out, each with their arms filled with many more books, more than before. The blond sauntered over to the table and turned to the three men who were staring. "Hello, Professor," drawled Draco.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Knock it off, Draco."
The blond laughed, his red streaked hair swaying as he shook his head. "Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Harry."
"Draco?" Snape was stunned. This couldn't be his student. Neither could Harry, and yet, they seemed to be.
"I think we need to discuss this further," Dumbledore finally said. "But how can you go through the wall?"
"What wall?" Harry asked, a confused look in his eye. "It's a doorway."
"For better words, an arch," Aeryn added.
At this point, Fawkes finally stopped his dance and flew over to where the four who had been missing were standing. Stopping at Harry, he sat on his shoulder, craning his neck to rub against Aeryn who stood next to him.
"Hello, Fawkes," Harry whispered. "Nice to see you again."
"Hello, Harry," the phoenix answered back. "Hello, Aeryn."
She looked startled while the rest of those in the room looked shocked at Harry's voice as he went on to answer in the same ringing tones the phoenix had just done.
"I understood that!" Aeryn exclaimed. "But how?"
"Aeryn," began Draco. "Would you listen to your thoughts a little more carefully?"
"Oh," she replied in a small voice. "I kinda forgot."
"But how?" Aedyn looked between his sister, the bird and Harry. "All we heard was the phoenix song."
"Not a song," Harry explained. "Only a few words." He turned to Aeryn. "Aeryn has found that she can understand Fawkes mentally. And the same with us. We don't even need to speak physically."
"Just another thing from our training," said Marty. She drew their attention back to the books. "We should take care of this, don't you think?"
Draco nodded before turning to the three men. "We can take care of this in a few minutes."
As he finished saying this, the four disappeared and the books as well. A disembodied voice called after them to Dumbledore from nowhere,
"We'll see you in your office, Granddad."