Houses Radiant and those of Shadow
Two books sat patiently waiting. One in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, the Second was in a secret Chamber. They had been there for a Mellenia. One or another of the headmasters would look at it and then would have promptly forgotten of it, whether of the book's magic or a lapse in its own memory the book remained forgotten. And the two simply waited and watched patiently, however something was about to change. The books began to glow slightly and a loud thud echoed through both the headmaster's office and the secret chamber's library as they fell off the shelves and opened.
The Heirs of Camelot: Arthur, Merlin, and the Potters…
Ambrosius was the magical brother of Uther Pendragon. True to the prophecy, Vortigern was slain and Ambrosius took the throne. After his death, Ambrosius was succeeded by his brother, Uther. Contrary to accounts in most histories, Ambrosius did have a child. A daughter, Lilly. Lilly was a promising young sorceress, much like her father, but upon his death, she didn't inherit the kingdom due to laws of primogeniture. She married one of her father's most trusted sorcerers, Harilclyth. Little is known of this man aside from his Saxon heritage, apparently a direct descendant of Beowulf, he not only a great warrior but was a great seer, he foretold Merlin's imprisonment. However, very little more was known as, after a quiet wedding, the two disappeared, leaving no record until one of their grandchildren emerged.
The Lady of the Lake had been in love with Merlin. She aided him, and gave Excalibur to Arthur at his request. Merlin, in turn, began to teach her some of the secrits of magic. He was then put under a powerful and ancient form of the Imperius curse by Morgana which had a two-fold effect. First Morgana used her control to learn the secrits Merlin had taught the Lady of the Lake, secondly she ordered the Lady of the Lake to kill Merlin, using the knowledge that he had given her. After making love one evening, when Merlin was weakened, the Lady of the Lake was going to follow through with her orders. However, love prevailed and she was able to overthrow the curse long enough to imprison him within the tree. Thus hoping he would be safe from Morgana, who was working to bring back the rule of Vortigen.
Merlin's prison was indeed inside a tree, growing in the upper tower of the crumbling castle of Camelot, where he would witness the fall of all he loved. The castle had been hidden from view through magical means. James, grandchild of Lily and Harilclyth, had heard this story much in his childhood. When Merlin was unable to aid Arthur, and the realm of Camelot disintegrated, as was foretold. At the age of fifteen James was certain that his grandfather's prophecy had come true. He decided it was his duty to free the ancient wizard from his prison, and he set off to find him. On the thirty-first day of his search a beautiful red phoenix came and rested upon his shoulder. It sang to him, and gave him the energy to continue. Some say the phoenix led him to the tower, others say that as his energy returned it stood there right in front of him. When he got to the north tower he shrank the tree, and planted it in a small cup he had brought with him. He then made the journey back home where he put the plant in a proper pot, and kept it safe from the elements by keeping the tree in the great hall of his manor. The friends of the boy teased him calling him the "great potter" thereby naming one of the most powerful families of the wizarding world, the Potters, and also marking beginning the art of Bonsai.
Morgana, believing the Lady of the Lake had fulfilled her duty, released her from the curse to offer her the choice to join her massing forces and death. Wrought with sorrow with what had happened the Lady of the Lake disappeared without a trace. Her disappearance coincides with the emergence of freshwater merpeople. Morgana was infuriated, she had not drained the Lady of the Lake's powers, nor had she convinced her to join forces. Morgana then aided the Saxon invaders, and continued her plight. She coupled with the most slippery of her followers, a fair, grey eyed Saxon and bore a child out of wedlock. She vested her dwindiling power in the child, taught him the ways of the dark. In her lessons she was sure to instill a desire to destroy the muggles, because she had come to know that the marrage of Arthur Pendragon's line to that of those who would be known as the Potters would eventually lead to the downfall of the dark.
James did not stop working on freeing Merlin from his tree-prison. Everyday for the next seven years he tried every complex spell he could imagine. It is uncertain what caused him to stop. The majority believe that Merlin is still trapped, and will arise again when a great evil comes to plague Britain. Others say that Potter had accomplished his feat, and Merlin secretly lived the rest of his days as an advisor to the Potters, magical tutor, and as a force against evil wizards. When he returned he wished to right what had happened. However, many things could not be easily changed, and Merlin did nought for fear of altering fate. It is said that he bestowed many blessings on the Potter family for having rescued him. He gave them the tools to be the purveyors of Light, even in the darkest of times. In order to ensure their future, he blessed the family to ensure that with every marriage would come a son. He sent the sons of the potter family to obtain his artefacts, and worked to write out many magical tomes which he entrusted the family to look after. These tomes contained the ancient secrets of magic, more powerful even than those he taught to the lady of the lake.
In addition he prophesized an era of precarious stability when an evil wizard, more powerful and deadly than Vortigen would rise, and the Potters, carrying on their legacy of the light, would be forced to take him on. The battle that ensued would be a turning point in history, for good or for evil Merlin did not know. A Potter would enter the final battle, and he would loose his parents in the fight. However, as heir of the light this child would be no ordinary wizard, nor sorcerer, he would hold magic within him that only those most powerful of the ancients before Merlin had possessed. From his mother's side he would inherit the royal bloodline of Arthur Pendragon. From his father he would be the heir of Ambrosius. Merlin, having seen this to be the true future of the Potters continued to outfit them with any knowledge or artefact that would aid the family for the day of reckoning. In addition it is said that he preformed an incantation which merged his bloodline with that of the Potters, so that they would carry his legacy. The legendary Book of Merlin was also created with this spell. It is said that when the heir is born he will not be an ordinary wizard, but something far more powerful. He will be known as a Hyaither and shall be an IsixisI, the first in millennia. However, this is all fable, as there is no evidence that Merlin escaped his prison, nor that any of these artefacts exist.
The Potter tendency to fall hopelessly in love with and marry muggle-born witches every few generations may or may not have been another of Merlin's blessings. As muggle's have no previous family, their magic is solely their own, and not based upon generations before them. It is believed that when they marry into an ancient family their magic goes to dilute the magic. However, with the Potters, like all other rules, it doesn't seem to apply, rather the influx of new blood serves only to strengthen the magic of the bloodline. Thus the family's ancient roots remain pure and undiluted and the 'new' blood only increases its strength. Many of the other prominent wizarding families are actually traceable to the Potter family, the legacy of the Potter daughters. In many eras of serious evil uprising a Guardian is born of Potter blood. Some famous Potters include: James "the great Potter", freer of the secretive Order of Phoenix, and his mysterious wife believed to be none other than Cliodna Bres son of Elotha, who took the throne from the silver-handed Nuada;…Alberic Grunnion…Aethenus Salvador… Sabrina Tigredore… Albus Dumbledore, defeater of Grindiwald, and Hogwarts Headmaster…James Potter, famous Auror, and most reciently, Harry Potter, who has thwarted the Dark Wizard Voldemort's attempts of evil empire on more than one occasion, very possibly the phoenix childe,True Heir of the light.
Despite all the hope Morgana had placed in the reign of her son, after her death, he was not granted by the fates to be a leader. Her gifts ant traits that passed to him were of less influence than his fathers, which made him much more likely to be directing things behind the scenes. He like his father before him and his decendants after was never anything more than a servant. However the family was prominent in the Wizarding world. During a period when evil was dominant they were married into the old Malfoy family who were recognized as nobility. Their blond hair and grey eyes unmistakable, the family was to live many more generations, and serve many more dark lords. There was one exception to the servant rule. Namely Salazar Slytherin, the 'black sheep' of the family. A dark lord of the time before the founding of Hogwarts had fallen in love with the daughter of his servant. She would bear him two children. The younger child was named Salazar. However, Salazar did not show any of the Malfoy traits. Rumors began that the second child had been a squib, and that Salazar was a foundling, an orphan. When the Dark Lord finally found out that the boy was not truly his, but rather the son of a muggleborn witch who had died in childbirth he mercilessly killed his wife.
As Salazar grew up he burned to become something far greater than his brother who had already become right-hand man to the Dark Lord who had killed his 'mother'. He knew of the feud between the forces of dark and the Potters and became determined to end it, figuring it was better to have your enemy in your pocket than across the battlefield. Godric saved his life in battle, and offered him friendship despite his family's alliance with the dark. As their friendship grew Salazar fell in love with Godric's future wife; A beautiful muggle-born witch, Rowina Ravenclaw. His family's hatred of muggles clashed with his love for Rowina and he was never able to admit his feelings, as Godric had. Determined to stay close to her he embarked on the project that Godric, his sister Helga, and Rowina had started. The founding of a school of witchcraft and wizardry. However, when he saw Godric and Rowina together he became jealous, and that jealousy preyed on the little good that was born into his soul through the love of his parents. Unable to battle anymore he relented with the fates and forfeted his position to further the dark. He set up the Chamber of Secrits and then disappeared from Hogwarts after a brief goodbye. He then married a distant cousin, in attempt to keep the bloodline pure, however his only child was a sqib. Salazar worked hard to cover this up, and was quite successful.
It is rumoured that later in life Salazar went mad. However, that rumour is only partially true. Later in his life Salazar was exiled from the court of a never successful dark lord because he refused to be subordinate. Many of the Dark Lord's allies were former supporters of Salazar's Father, and Salazar felt he was wasting his time and talent there. Salazar left and wandered around, not knowing where to go, suffering self-imposed exiles from both good and evil . He wandered for several months before he became ill. A muggle woman found him and nursed him back to health. During this time he began to realize that muggles weren't the filthy creatures he had been taught to hate. He fell in-love with the muggle woman, and his whole life changed. Salazar established a life in the muggle world to live with her, she died bearing his child. Mad with grief he cared not about what would happen, and brought the child to Hogwarts and left him there. He went back to the in the house he and owned burnt it in his fury and was found months later starving and running about in the Forbidden Forest like a lunatic. No one knows what happened to him or to the child after.
Because of the Malfoy tradition of staying in the shadows, there are very few notable members of the family. They often occupy high position in government, or society, and are well known as a wealthy family. Before he went mad Salazar, through some means became aware of a prophecy which he wrote in his journal:
At the opening insurrection of true Dark
The Two Vanquishers shall arise
Malfoy Dragon born of tainted Mark
Born to the world sinister, wearing their disquise
Second the phoenix child one of the Dragon princes
Born to a world of love, rased in a place of hate
He who loyalty, integrity, courage, and light evinces
Holder of unimaginable power, and toy of fate.
Should they two join as one
Free the world from strife and struggle
They shall do as no other has done
Making free both wizard and muggle
Darkness nor light shall end the day
The two shall fufill their role
Balancing the power and creating grey
And the nature shall once more be in control
But should the two fall into hate
Not breaking the cycle started on the first day
They shall repudiate their fate
And the two will not be able to hold evil at bay
The darkness shall rule all
And with hope so too the phoenix child will fall
It stated that two dragons would be born in one generation. One Dark and one Light. One dragon would be born into the Malfoy family, and depending on the outcome he would alter the world for good or evil. This Malfoy will be the first to choose his destiny, and become something greater than a servant to another Dark Lord. If the Malfoy Dragon were to join with the Pheonix childe the world would once more be put in Balance. The Hogwarts founders knew about it, and it urged any reader of the journal to go to Hogwarts and discover the truth, as it was hidden in a hat. However, this prophecy is often discredited as it was made on the cusp of Salazar's madness, and there has never been a dragon born to a human in all of history, nor have there been any dragon anamagi. However the school motto is said to have connections to this prophecy.