Title: The Four Founders' Hunt
Author: Zimagesto
Summary: AU. The four founders celebrate their success in building Hogwarts by going on a hunt. All fun and games until they become the hunted... Alone, they can't survive... And why does everybody think the school remained theirs?
Disclaimer: Don't own any of the founders or Hogwarts or anything else you might recognize from the HP books. But I own the plot and JS.
Story: In perfect accord with 'Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch', one of my other fics. However, it's not necessary to have read any of them to understand the other. Same world, different times. RER (Read, enjoy, review). Flames accepted.
/-/-/-/-/-
Chapter 6
Roxana was happily going down to the place where the Fal'sils had set their camp before. She hadn't been gone for a long while –quite short, to tell the truth- and hoped to find the others there. If not, then they would be contacted through Hogwarts.
But the sight in front of her eyes made her stop in shock. Instead of either seeing a lot of tents and people walking around or a place with signs of the camping, she saw... she saw tents and a lot of things lying down, forgotten. Nobody was there to ask what had happened. Nobody had bothered to pick up any object.
"Oh, my..." she said slowly. She could see no dead bodies, she could hear no sound... no sound of birds or animals, either. Just a silence she did not like. Fear hit her in her heart as she made a few steps through the tents. Emptiness, it was as if something had come and deleted all the life... except the life of the plants. No bugs were buzzing, no birds were singing. Just dead silence...
Fear spread in all her body, turning into terror. Her face paled, her body started shacking and she let out a scream and ran away... far, far away from that place of doom.
/-/-/-/-/-
Rowena was having a very, very good time. A few nice moments with her husband, alone, in a room that had a bed in it... It was about time, too! Somebody always made sure that this wouldn't happen. They collapsed on the bed, kissing passionately when the most damned, annoying little thing happened.
"Steve, I need... oh, my"
Helga. Ah, trust Helga to always pop in at the very, very wrong moment as she just did.
"I didn't realize, oh, my, sorry, I'm gone now!"
The woman nearly ran out of the room, leaving the two to chuckle.
"Wonder what she needed" Steve muttered amusedly.
"I don't think it was important" Rowena replied.
But at that moment, the door opened again, showing a very concerned Salazar Slytherin.
"Sorry to interrupt you two" he said naturally. "We have some problems with the Fal'sil."
"They can take care of themselves, it's not like they could disappear or anything" Rowena said, wondering how she could throw the man out.
"Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened" Salazar said sternly.
The two lost all their appetite and sat down properly to listen to the third.
"What happened?" Rowena quietly asked.
"Roxana Chase came here a few minutes ago, saying she had went to their camp and they were gone"
"That's not so bad, they move from one place to another often, maybe they did that now. I'm surprised Roxana didn't think of it" Steven said.
"She knew they could have left, but apparently they didn't take anything with them. The tents are still there, so are most objects... And another thing, something truly weird: no live creature was there, be it human or anything else. Not even an insect, out of what she said. She is afraid and sincerely, so am I"
The two Ravenclaws looked at each other and frowned, then turning their gaze upon Salazar.
"Maybe we should contact Jack?" Rowena proposed. "He helped us before and he seems to pop in at the right moments, maybe now he has some advice. This might concern Hogwarts, and it is also his school, remember?"
"I thought of the same thing. There's just one problem and you've mentioned it" Salazar said. "He always popped in at the right moments. He just isn't here now and we never contacted him. Maybe he has something to do with this mysterious disappearing?"
"I don't think so" Rowena replied. "Take me to Roxana"
Salazar nodded and lead her to Godric's quarters. There, on a chair, pale and with red eyes, stood Roxana Chase... the queen of the Fal'sil.
"Rowena" she muttered. "Eagle always trusted you and told you a lot... did he tell you anything this time?"
"No" she truthfully replied. "But don't worry. Maybe they just switched the camping place for a while?"
"He said before I left that f I wanted to find him to ask at Hogwarts... and plus the animals were gone too. Not a bird, not a bug. I'm afraid" she replied, seeming ready to start sobbing. "There was something great and evil there and if they weren't killed by it, then they ran away from it and so did the bugs. I just don't know where. Help me!"
"Well, if they were dead, there would be bodies" Rowena said slowly. "So they just ran away... for a while. They will be coming here soon, for shelter if not for anything else and then you two can meet again."
"Thanks for the encouragement" she said sadly. "Maybe you are right. But there was something so... so evil there! You should never feel it, it felt as if it was the devil himself"
The Founders –Godric and Helga were there, too- exchanged a few looks.
"I wonder where Jack is" Salazar said. 'I do not know why, but I think about him a lot these days."
"Jack Strois?" Roxana asked slowly.
"Yes. You know him?" Helga asked.
"Of course I know him!" Rowena said. "He's my Master. He sent me chasing after the White Stag in the first place! But how do you know him?"
"Saved our lives and made us give him Hogwarts in return... it is therefore his school"
"Whoa" Roxana said gaping a little. "Never told me that"
"I have a feeling" Salazar said "that our dearest Lord of Darkness is hiding a lot more than we imagine"
"I don't have a feeling, I know it" Roxana said. He's shown me a lot of times proof that he is much more powerful than I believed him to be and he seems to know nearly everybody."
"Omniscient, huh?" Salazar asked. "Wonderful. And he won't show up because...?"
"I'm his disciple, not his caretaker!" Roxana complained and to her surprise, Salazar nodded.
"I understand. After all, if I were in his shoes, I wouldn't tell everybody where I am all the time! Imagine all the surprise attacks!"
Roxana gave a small snort that sounded rather like a blow of her nose.
"But he would be useful. What good to have a school owner if he can't even appear at key moments?" Salazar continued.
"It's not a key moment!" Helga said, surprised.
"What if it is? If we perish now, the school dies with us, end of story" Salazar said.
"Why on earth would we perish?" Godric asked.
"Maybe the thing that took care of the Fal'sil is coming here now!" Slytherin said, letting a soft 'sss' escape his lips at the end of the sentence. Quite a surprise, too, since the sentence didn't end in 's'. It sounded a bit like Parseltongue.
"Are you trying to scare me?" Roxana asked.
"Actually, he's trying to determine me to come" a voice said from the door. "Here I am, no need to hiss at my not being here"
Jack Strois looked at them, blue eyes shining at them.
"Finally" Salazar said. "These idiots won't understand. Rowena, you disappoint me!"
"What he means is" Jack said "that he was saying all that hoping I'd hear it and do something about it. But I came here anyway. Nice try, anyway. Roxana, child, do not worry. The reason why everything alive was not there was indeed the evilness you felt, but the live begins fled, they didn't die. They just didn't have time to warn you or gather their camp. Do not worry, they are all safe"
Roxana let out a small 'whew'.
"But unfortunately, it was only the beginning. The evil you felt was the trace of the Cloud of the Dark that went through there. Nothing died, they all fled, that why it all was so quiet and evil"
"The Stag mentioned the Cloud of the Dark, too!" Roxana said. "What is it?"
"It cannot be described in human speech" Jack replied. "It is evil traveling, instead of in a body, in a cloud that spreads on great distances. It chases away all those who are not powerful to stand in front of it. Those who cannot get out of the way are turned by it into dark creatures and they walk with the Cloud. But if they manage to escape it, then they can get back to where they were before. Unfortunately, the Cloud can control its servants from away, it is like the Imperius curse"
Roxana shivered.
"None of them were hit by it, were they?" she asked afraid.
"No, child. They all ran away. Some of the animals were trapped, but no humans"
Roxana let out a sigh of relief.
"But where are they?" she asked.
"In a safe place. They are feeling the loss of their objects right about now, but they manage."
Roxana nodded.
"Can I go see them?"
"Of course, daughter" Jack said softly and she got up.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Salazar asked. "I thought you had a problem with that five minutes ago!"
"She doesn't need to know" Jack laughed. "I will take her there. I put the wards on Hogwarts and therefore I can bend them. I'll take her there in one second"
Roxana smiled as he took her hand and, after only a second, she disappeared under the amazed eyes of the four founders.
"Simply spiffing" Salazar said, his eyes huge and mouth slightly gaping.
"Why, thank you" Jack carelessly said. "So, it's bad. The Cloud of the Dark is coming and is searching..."
The founders stared at him, waiting for him to finish the sentence, thing which he never did.
"What's it searching for?" Salazar asked.
"Never mind" Jack replied, his eyes concerned. "I must go now"
Before the four could complain, he disappeared, not unlike Roxana.
/-/-/-/-/-/-
"Roxana!" Eagle said, smiling happily. "How was your mission?"
"Great" she replied, tears in her eyes. "But when I went back to... to the place where you camp had been... I saw... It was like a grave..."
Eagle nodded and took her to a tree trunk he used as a bench.
"We saw it coming. It was like a cloud, a black cloud which meant no good" he said slowly. "It was evil and we ran as fast as we could until we made it here. It was a Stag that lead us here"
"A Stag?!" she asked, surprised. "Was it white?"
"Yes. It shone like a star in the darkness that seemed to surround us... It took us here" Eagle said and frowned after a second. "Wait... weren't you chasing a white stag?"
"Yes! Yes, I was!" she replied, her eyes widening. "It said... before I started chasing it... 'for help, catch me'. Maybe it is true, then. The Stag can be in two places at once!"
Roxana stared wide-eyed in the eyes of her husband, her mouth slightly opened.
"Did you catch it?" Eagle asked softly.
"Yes. I did. And it told me I had already helped myself by chasing it and I had no idea what it meant... and then it swore to protect me at the right time!" Roxana said, her voice shaking a little. "What's going on? Please tell me you know..."
"I'm sorry..." Eagle replied and held her. "So sorry... I do not know. I do not understand"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/
AN: Another chapter of this story finished! Hah! I'm writing more than usual these days. And I love it! So, guys, read & review. Ok?
Thanks to: the Red Dragons Order
Author: Zimagesto
Summary: AU. The four founders celebrate their success in building Hogwarts by going on a hunt. All fun and games until they become the hunted... Alone, they can't survive... And why does everybody think the school remained theirs?
Disclaimer: Don't own any of the founders or Hogwarts or anything else you might recognize from the HP books. But I own the plot and JS.
Story: In perfect accord with 'Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch', one of my other fics. However, it's not necessary to have read any of them to understand the other. Same world, different times. RER (Read, enjoy, review). Flames accepted.
/-/-/-/-/-
Chapter 6
Roxana was happily going down to the place where the Fal'sils had set their camp before. She hadn't been gone for a long while –quite short, to tell the truth- and hoped to find the others there. If not, then they would be contacted through Hogwarts.
But the sight in front of her eyes made her stop in shock. Instead of either seeing a lot of tents and people walking around or a place with signs of the camping, she saw... she saw tents and a lot of things lying down, forgotten. Nobody was there to ask what had happened. Nobody had bothered to pick up any object.
"Oh, my..." she said slowly. She could see no dead bodies, she could hear no sound... no sound of birds or animals, either. Just a silence she did not like. Fear hit her in her heart as she made a few steps through the tents. Emptiness, it was as if something had come and deleted all the life... except the life of the plants. No bugs were buzzing, no birds were singing. Just dead silence...
Fear spread in all her body, turning into terror. Her face paled, her body started shacking and she let out a scream and ran away... far, far away from that place of doom.
/-/-/-/-/-
Rowena was having a very, very good time. A few nice moments with her husband, alone, in a room that had a bed in it... It was about time, too! Somebody always made sure that this wouldn't happen. They collapsed on the bed, kissing passionately when the most damned, annoying little thing happened.
"Steve, I need... oh, my"
Helga. Ah, trust Helga to always pop in at the very, very wrong moment as she just did.
"I didn't realize, oh, my, sorry, I'm gone now!"
The woman nearly ran out of the room, leaving the two to chuckle.
"Wonder what she needed" Steve muttered amusedly.
"I don't think it was important" Rowena replied.
But at that moment, the door opened again, showing a very concerned Salazar Slytherin.
"Sorry to interrupt you two" he said naturally. "We have some problems with the Fal'sil."
"They can take care of themselves, it's not like they could disappear or anything" Rowena said, wondering how she could throw the man out.
"Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened" Salazar said sternly.
The two lost all their appetite and sat down properly to listen to the third.
"What happened?" Rowena quietly asked.
"Roxana Chase came here a few minutes ago, saying she had went to their camp and they were gone"
"That's not so bad, they move from one place to another often, maybe they did that now. I'm surprised Roxana didn't think of it" Steven said.
"She knew they could have left, but apparently they didn't take anything with them. The tents are still there, so are most objects... And another thing, something truly weird: no live creature was there, be it human or anything else. Not even an insect, out of what she said. She is afraid and sincerely, so am I"
The two Ravenclaws looked at each other and frowned, then turning their gaze upon Salazar.
"Maybe we should contact Jack?" Rowena proposed. "He helped us before and he seems to pop in at the right moments, maybe now he has some advice. This might concern Hogwarts, and it is also his school, remember?"
"I thought of the same thing. There's just one problem and you've mentioned it" Salazar said. "He always popped in at the right moments. He just isn't here now and we never contacted him. Maybe he has something to do with this mysterious disappearing?"
"I don't think so" Rowena replied. "Take me to Roxana"
Salazar nodded and lead her to Godric's quarters. There, on a chair, pale and with red eyes, stood Roxana Chase... the queen of the Fal'sil.
"Rowena" she muttered. "Eagle always trusted you and told you a lot... did he tell you anything this time?"
"No" she truthfully replied. "But don't worry. Maybe they just switched the camping place for a while?"
"He said before I left that f I wanted to find him to ask at Hogwarts... and plus the animals were gone too. Not a bird, not a bug. I'm afraid" she replied, seeming ready to start sobbing. "There was something great and evil there and if they weren't killed by it, then they ran away from it and so did the bugs. I just don't know where. Help me!"
"Well, if they were dead, there would be bodies" Rowena said slowly. "So they just ran away... for a while. They will be coming here soon, for shelter if not for anything else and then you two can meet again."
"Thanks for the encouragement" she said sadly. "Maybe you are right. But there was something so... so evil there! You should never feel it, it felt as if it was the devil himself"
The Founders –Godric and Helga were there, too- exchanged a few looks.
"I wonder where Jack is" Salazar said. 'I do not know why, but I think about him a lot these days."
"Jack Strois?" Roxana asked slowly.
"Yes. You know him?" Helga asked.
"Of course I know him!" Rowena said. "He's my Master. He sent me chasing after the White Stag in the first place! But how do you know him?"
"Saved our lives and made us give him Hogwarts in return... it is therefore his school"
"Whoa" Roxana said gaping a little. "Never told me that"
"I have a feeling" Salazar said "that our dearest Lord of Darkness is hiding a lot more than we imagine"
"I don't have a feeling, I know it" Roxana said. He's shown me a lot of times proof that he is much more powerful than I believed him to be and he seems to know nearly everybody."
"Omniscient, huh?" Salazar asked. "Wonderful. And he won't show up because...?"
"I'm his disciple, not his caretaker!" Roxana complained and to her surprise, Salazar nodded.
"I understand. After all, if I were in his shoes, I wouldn't tell everybody where I am all the time! Imagine all the surprise attacks!"
Roxana gave a small snort that sounded rather like a blow of her nose.
"But he would be useful. What good to have a school owner if he can't even appear at key moments?" Salazar continued.
"It's not a key moment!" Helga said, surprised.
"What if it is? If we perish now, the school dies with us, end of story" Salazar said.
"Why on earth would we perish?" Godric asked.
"Maybe the thing that took care of the Fal'sil is coming here now!" Slytherin said, letting a soft 'sss' escape his lips at the end of the sentence. Quite a surprise, too, since the sentence didn't end in 's'. It sounded a bit like Parseltongue.
"Are you trying to scare me?" Roxana asked.
"Actually, he's trying to determine me to come" a voice said from the door. "Here I am, no need to hiss at my not being here"
Jack Strois looked at them, blue eyes shining at them.
"Finally" Salazar said. "These idiots won't understand. Rowena, you disappoint me!"
"What he means is" Jack said "that he was saying all that hoping I'd hear it and do something about it. But I came here anyway. Nice try, anyway. Roxana, child, do not worry. The reason why everything alive was not there was indeed the evilness you felt, but the live begins fled, they didn't die. They just didn't have time to warn you or gather their camp. Do not worry, they are all safe"
Roxana let out a small 'whew'.
"But unfortunately, it was only the beginning. The evil you felt was the trace of the Cloud of the Dark that went through there. Nothing died, they all fled, that why it all was so quiet and evil"
"The Stag mentioned the Cloud of the Dark, too!" Roxana said. "What is it?"
"It cannot be described in human speech" Jack replied. "It is evil traveling, instead of in a body, in a cloud that spreads on great distances. It chases away all those who are not powerful to stand in front of it. Those who cannot get out of the way are turned by it into dark creatures and they walk with the Cloud. But if they manage to escape it, then they can get back to where they were before. Unfortunately, the Cloud can control its servants from away, it is like the Imperius curse"
Roxana shivered.
"None of them were hit by it, were they?" she asked afraid.
"No, child. They all ran away. Some of the animals were trapped, but no humans"
Roxana let out a sigh of relief.
"But where are they?" she asked.
"In a safe place. They are feeling the loss of their objects right about now, but they manage."
Roxana nodded.
"Can I go see them?"
"Of course, daughter" Jack said softly and she got up.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Salazar asked. "I thought you had a problem with that five minutes ago!"
"She doesn't need to know" Jack laughed. "I will take her there. I put the wards on Hogwarts and therefore I can bend them. I'll take her there in one second"
Roxana smiled as he took her hand and, after only a second, she disappeared under the amazed eyes of the four founders.
"Simply spiffing" Salazar said, his eyes huge and mouth slightly gaping.
"Why, thank you" Jack carelessly said. "So, it's bad. The Cloud of the Dark is coming and is searching..."
The founders stared at him, waiting for him to finish the sentence, thing which he never did.
"What's it searching for?" Salazar asked.
"Never mind" Jack replied, his eyes concerned. "I must go now"
Before the four could complain, he disappeared, not unlike Roxana.
/-/-/-/-/-/-
"Roxana!" Eagle said, smiling happily. "How was your mission?"
"Great" she replied, tears in her eyes. "But when I went back to... to the place where you camp had been... I saw... It was like a grave..."
Eagle nodded and took her to a tree trunk he used as a bench.
"We saw it coming. It was like a cloud, a black cloud which meant no good" he said slowly. "It was evil and we ran as fast as we could until we made it here. It was a Stag that lead us here"
"A Stag?!" she asked, surprised. "Was it white?"
"Yes. It shone like a star in the darkness that seemed to surround us... It took us here" Eagle said and frowned after a second. "Wait... weren't you chasing a white stag?"
"Yes! Yes, I was!" she replied, her eyes widening. "It said... before I started chasing it... 'for help, catch me'. Maybe it is true, then. The Stag can be in two places at once!"
Roxana stared wide-eyed in the eyes of her husband, her mouth slightly opened.
"Did you catch it?" Eagle asked softly.
"Yes. I did. And it told me I had already helped myself by chasing it and I had no idea what it meant... and then it swore to protect me at the right time!" Roxana said, her voice shaking a little. "What's going on? Please tell me you know..."
"I'm sorry..." Eagle replied and held her. "So sorry... I do not know. I do not understand"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/
AN: Another chapter of this story finished! Hah! I'm writing more than usual these days. And I love it! So, guys, read & review. Ok?
Thanks to: the Red Dragons Order