Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: This ones for Rae Roberts because... I said so.

Chapter 5

It was mid-April when the thought first occurred to Rowena, and it niggled at her all throughout the month. As industrious as the four of them had been, there still seemed something missing at Hogwarts apart from the students – they wouldn't be coming until after the harvest.

Eventually, she decided to approach Salazar about it, after all he was sorting out all the problems of that kind.

"Salazar?" She'd caught him in his usual place; a table in their rather magnificent library (at the size of a longhouse it was indeed something to be proud of) which he had turned into his study of late.

He looked up from his rows of neatly scribed figures and simply looked at her. She knew that by that look he was giving her, he had a number nicely balanced in his head and if he spoke now, he'd lose it.

"Finish it off first, I don't mind." Rowena had been amazed when she'd first seen Salazar working in his books, she'd thought that she'd been good at Figuring, but compared to him, she was a novice. It had certainly been an eye-opener for her.

Salazar nodded gratefully and scribbled down a few more numbers, his hand still meticulous despite the speed. It was something the pair of them had over the other two Founders, Godric could write but only if he had time to do so and Helga was completely illiterate, not that she was any the lesser for it. She had her art, a talent that none of the others had in any degree. While she was ruminating, Salazar finished what he had been writing and placed down his brush.

"Now, Rowena, what is it?"

"Do we have enough people here to educate the amount of students that are coming? Even with Caflice and Inge helping, surely there can't be enough." Caflice Alleson and his wife Elva had moved up from the local village to help out with the general running of the castle. Nearly into their forties they could hardly be expected to deal with the children once they arrived, even if they had had a large family in their time. And Inge, Inge Hufflepuff was a Godssend; Rowena didn't know what she would have done without her. She needed someone of a similar age to talk to, Helga was wonderful but she was as old as her mother, and could be more than a little daunting at times. But Inge was nearly the opposite of her mother, mild and sweet and infinitely patient whereas Helga still threw the occasional ax.

"Don't worry; Godric's taken care of it."

Rowena nodded and left Salazar to his sums, rather worried about this new piece of information.


She awoke a week later to a tremendous din echoing through the castle. Immediately getting up and ready, she hurried out a while later on a hunt for Godric, he was after all, the usual source of any sort of disturbance in the castle. On the way she met Helga, who unsurprisingly, had her ax in hand. She couldn't blame the woman this time though, it wasn't even dawn yet.

The source of the clamour soon made itself known as they stormed into the Great Hall at the centre of the castle and were met with a most unusual sight. Rowena counted at least six people in the Hall, four of whom she'd never seen before. In the centre of it all stood a figure, who on closer inspection turned out to be a woman of Romany descent despite the man's tunic she wore. She seemed to be playing a musical instrument of some kind that Rowena had never seen before and while the fast-paced music was not to her liking, the woman seemed to be quite good at it.

Around her was Godric and... what seemed to be his brother, or at least another Saxon that bore a remarkable liking to the Founder. They were both dancing, badly and singing completely out of tune – that was the source of the din that had woken her up; her quarters weren't too far from the Hall and a sound such as they were making carried far.

Further away stood Salazar and an extremely tall, dark-skinned woman who seemed to be attempting conversation with their hands over their ears. Rowena could hardly blame them, the noise was deafening. And above them all, up on the stage where their dining table lay, sat a man dressed in a long white robe of some sort, who seemed to find the whole thing most amusing as he was currently giggling his head off.

"Godric!" Rowena tried shouting over the noise to no avail. Eventually she gave up and strode into the middle of the room and grabbed his shoulder.

"Godric."

"Ah, there you are Rowena! I was wondering when you'd come to join the fun, and I see you've brought Helga too. Excellent! Won't you join me for a dance?" He grabbed her waist and managed to swing her around once or twice before she struggled free.

"Godric! Who are these people?" Even with her naturally loud voice, she had to shout.

"Well, that's Mert, and this is Berkley and the woman over there, well I'm not sure who she is you'll have to ask Salazar her name, but I know the happy lad over at the table is Balasi. Rather a strange fellow if you ask me but very good at Divination. Now come on Rowena, dance with me!"

She avoided his grasp this time but couldn't help smiling at his exuberance; Godric could be most infectious at times. "No, Godric, I mean why are they here?"

"Well you should have said that my dear. And haven't you guessed it yet? They're our new staff!" And with that he jigged off, as the player, Mert apparently, picked up the pace once more, leaving Rowena with an astonished look on her face.

"What?"


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