CHAPTER 8

(A/N: I apologize for the slow pace, and this chapter is pretty much just a description of the house, skip it if you want, there won't be much missed, I'm sorry)

"Well that's helpful," Helga stated. "Why don't we try it out eh?"

"We don't know where to go Helga," Godric pointed out.

Harry came up with an idea, "Well, do you think you could follow me?" he asked. They looked at each other, "Most likely." Rowena answered.

"Well, I'm mapping the place so, if you follow me while I walk around, you'll know where the other portrait frames are."

Godric smiled, "Sounds good, lead on Harry." So Harry left the room, and found the four waiting in a portrait on the other side of the hall. Harry entered the room right across from him. It had oaken flooring and white walls, another large window took the place of the farthest wall. The room was bare except for a picture frame that had only Godric in it. "The others couldn't fit." he explained. Harry nodded, and exited the room. The other two rooms on this floor were exactly like the one opposite the founders' original room, but they didn't have the large window, only smaller ones. Unlike the 'Chimera Room', as Harry called it, the three rooms were huge, maybe three times the size of the Chimera room. The founders then followed Harry down to the second level. The second floor has seven rooms in all, with portrait frames big enough to fit two of the founders at once.

The first room was completely black; floors, walls, everything was black. With a wave of his wand, Harry changed the wall color to relaxed blue, and the ceiling to white. Rowena was pleased with his choices, and promised to teach him how to enchant ceilings like the one at Hogwarts. Harry also changed the black curtains to whit. He then moved on to the next room. It was just like the first. Are they all going to be black? he wondered, then changed the carpet and curtains to white, and the walls a golden yellow, the ceiling became cream colored. The third room Harry based on a dark red, and tan; and the fourth room green and grey. Harry grinned when he realized that he'd done the first four rooms in the colors of each of the four houses. The last three rooms Harry put in tile, which was a bit harder than carpet but Godric helped him a bit, as he planned to make these into bathrooms. He'd silently decided that this would be the guest floor.

Finally, Harry led the founders to the ground level, where Salazar complimented the green marble and grey walls. "Their whole family except Sirius was in Slytherin house" Harry explained dryly, "He was in Gryffindor." Godric laughed at the face Salazar made, and they continued their exploration of the rooms. Starting down the left hallway, Harry found an archway that led to the dining room. There was a handsome mahogany table that could seat twelve people in the padded chairs that surrounded it. Harry left that room alone and continued on. Helga popped into the next room before anyone else entered. At her squeal of delight, Godric and Salazar said in unison, "the kitchen." then looked horrified at having the same thought, while Harry and Rowena laughed.

It was in fact the kitchen, and a large one at that. The floor was pine, and the walls plain white; Harry added a light blue trim before continuing his observation. A set of grey-marble topped counters lined the walls, stopping only for the huge icebox, the stove, the oven, and the various spice racks. "What's that?" Godric asked, pointing at the refrigerator.

"It's a muggle icebox. Harry explained, "The Black family probably magicked one so it wouldn't need electricity to run."

He looked confused, "What's electricity? And how can it run? There's no legs."

"As you can see, Muggle Studies was not Godric's strongest suit." Slytherin drawled in Parsletongue.

Harry grinned, "Did the muggles have electricity in your time?" he hissed back.

Slytherin thought about it, then asked Rowena-- Godric was having it explained to him by Helga. "I believe they had just invented something, a bulb of light or something of the kind," Rowena answered, Salazar nodded.

"Oh, that was the light bulb. But wait-- that wasn't until after the medieval period, how do you know about that?" Harry asked.

Salazar raised an eyebrow, "You have to be dead to have a portrait you know."

Harry blushed, "Oh, sorry." They finally dragged Helga out of the kitchen (Harry had to threaten to leave her behind) and went into the first diagonal hallway. There were no torches, and no windows, so the hall was rather dark. With another transfiguration spell that Helga suggested, Harry was able to conjure several globes that shone with a bright, steady light; only four were needed to illuminate the two halls. The rooms in these hallways were small. Three were broom closets and held cleaning supplies, another was the laundry area, and the last two were pantries storing non-perishable food items, and --to Harry's delight-- Quidditch equipment, balls included.

With these rooms searched, they made their way back to the entry way, and went on past the kitchen. The next room could be entered through another arch, it was the living room. There was a massive fire place made of red brick, and it had an oaken mantle. It was about five and a half feet tall, so it could easily be used to travel by floo powder. I'll have to connect it somehow without the Ministry finding out, Harry thought. There were two couches, and three arm chairs, and one of the couches sat in front of the fireplace. The armchairs and the remaining couch all faced each other, with a glass-topped coffee table in the middle of them. Harry changed the walls from dark brown, to a blue that wasn't quite dark, and not quite bright. The rug that was underneath the furniture Harry changed to a plush, dark green one that went well with the walls. He left the furniture with its black leather, but-- at the suggestion and help of Helga-- made the stitching silver. Finished, Harry asked what the founders thought so far, "I like it," Godric replied first. "Wonderful color," Rowena said.

"Any color's better than that borin' white we 'ad!" Helga said cheerfully. Right before they left, Harry added one of those light-globes to brighten it up a bit. The last room before the door Harry supposed led to the basement, was smaller than Dudley's second bedroom, but it wasn't small enough for a closet. Harry spotted three miniature beds, and three small chairs around and equally small table. There was a wardrobe, that was shorter than Harry, tucked into a corner. "Children's room perhaps?" Rowena suggested as she and Salazar looked in from the frame.

Harry shrugged, "Maybe, but I don't think so." Regripping his wand, Harry went over to the wardrobe and opened it. The only contents was a black tea towel, bearing the letter 'B' in white, ornate lettering. "It was the house elves' room" he confirmed.

"I wonder why they left," Salazar said.

"Well, there's plenty of reasons based on the information Harry gave us," Rowena began, then launched into an enormous lesson on house elves as they continued on. Harry was surprised that Slytherin didn't complain-- though Godric certainly did.

Finally Harry made it to the basement door. The spiral staircase down was a mix between oak and the blue marble he'd seen earlier-- confirming what he'd thought.

The air got cooler as he went down, and Harry created a light-globe whenever one was needed, then stuck it to the wall. He finally reached the bottom, and found all four founders in separate frames, waiting for him. It was a small corridor, and had four doors. Harry entered the first door on the right, and conjured two light globes to illuminate the room. Several tables lined up next to each other on the back wall, burners for cauldrons were on top. The two side walls were covered by shelves, which in turn were covered with neatly organized containers--ingredients.

A sink near the tables gave out what Salazar recognized as a neutralizing potion that would counteract most potions' effects, instead of regular water. There was a nice, wooden desk in the middle of the room, and a comfortable chair with it. Several quills and blank pieces of parchment were already on it. Interesting, Harry thought, and checked out the closet adjoining the lab.

Its walls were also lined with shelves; half supported cauldrons made of pewter, silver, copper, brass and even gold. The others displayed carefully packaged items which were labeled: 'basilisk fangs', 'dragon heartstrings', 'unicorns hair', 'phoenix feathers' (this box was empty) and 'griffin talons'.

"What are they for though?" Harry asked himself.

"Wands" Rowena answered. Harry looked around sharply.

"Up here boy," Helga called. Harry looked up, and found a frame hosting the two women. "Oh, hello." he said, "I didn't see that one up there."

"Don't worry 'Arry, always remember t' look everywhere is all." Helga replied cheerfully.

"So, these things could be used to make wands?" Harry asked, they nodded. I might have to stop by Ollivander's, Harry thought, then exited both the pantry and the potions lab.

Harry continued to the next door on the right, conjuring another light globe. His eyes widened at the number of books he found. There were about seven, fifteen-foot bookshelves crammed full of volumes, and it bore a strong resemblance to the restricted section in the library at Hogwarts. Harry bet that some of the books were definitely about darker topics. Merlin am I going to have a lot of books, Harry thought. He left the light in there, and left. Strangely, there had been no frames in the stone room. he and Godric entered the next room, which took two light globes to illuminate fully. Gryffindor whistled, and Harry just stared. This room was the armory. The room was about two-times the size of the elves' room above, and was more organized than the library. Each weapon was on a rack, and each shield was hung on the wall., Upon further inspection, the rolled up pieces of parchment next to each item was a sketch of the weapon or shield and listed and special properties it had--most of them did. Harry also found three holsters: two for wands and one for a dagger. The wand holsters were made of black dragon hide, and prevented both the wands and holsters from being summoned or stolen. The dagger sheath, as Godric corrected him, was made of basilisk hide. It was also black, and had some smears of poisonous-looking green-- much like the basilisk Harry had killed in his second year. The sheath kept the blade from being summoned or stolen as well, but it also had other features. It would automatically sharpen any blade put in it, it prevented the weapon from breaking, and was element-proof. The best part, in Harry's opinion, was that with a snap of your fingers, the weapon in the sheath would appear in your hand. Harry strapped one of the wand holsters to his arm, picked up a dagger that had nothing special about it then put it in the sheath, then strapped the sheath to his arm as well; hiding both under the sleeves of his sweatshirt. After that, he left to check out the final room.

It was here that Harry encountered the only locked door besides the Chimera Room--even though he wasn't sure it had been locked. The iron door resisted 'alohamora', curses, and everything else Harry tried. Sighing in disappointment, Harry left it alone and returned to the ground level.

Harry looked at the finished map with satisfaction; every room was complete. He'd added the four founders on it as well, and noticed that they never left the walls. With all that done, he touched the map with his wand and said, "Once in a blue moon." the map was wiped blank.

Looking out the window next to the main door, Harry noticed that it was a little after sunset. Weird, he thought, didn't know I'd been exploring that long. He was getting tired though, from all the decorating. Yawning quietly, Harry walked up the staircase to the top floor. He'd decided that the room with the huge window would be his bedroom. Using the last bit of his energy, Harry conjured up a small cot, and fell asleep on it.


(A/N: Thank you for bearing with me in this chapter, and again I apologize for the lack of interesting material in this chapter.)

Coming Up:

Occlumency

The beginnings of an Animagus

Mark

Then:

Hedwig

The Manor is furnished

The Founders begin to teach once more