Part One… The Founders and Imprisonment
Sometime in the 900's
Godric Gryffindor did not like cowardice. It would be an understatement to say he utterly despised and loathed it. He failed to see that sometimes bravery was also a form of stupidity – and it was this fault of his that made him think that bravery was the best virtue to have, and therefore be the trait that all Gryffindors would be most famous for in the many years to come.
When he first heard of the Fairy Mother, he had laughed his rumbling laugh, and proclaimed loudly that Fairies were good for nothing except pretty lights for chambers. Ironic, but he would not realise that this would be their only use in the new age.
But a few years later, the founders had just started teaching with another batch of willing students – some had come from as far away as Worcestershire in England. They were extremely pleased. Which is probably why the founders became so angry, especially Godric, when their joyous feasting was disturbed by the news that there had been a brawl in the local village and the girl who was responsible for causing it had got off without punishment, her excuse being that, 'the Fairy Mother tricked me'.
Godric said he would go to the village and sort it out, and his three friends agreed to it, for in the mood he was in no one would be let off. In the past few years of the four founders and their students living there, the villagers had moved from tolerant of the wizards to dependent, and they were usually called upon to sort out troubles. The Muggles heard nothing of the witch burnings happening in England, as they were very isolated, and by some lucky chance, not one of them thought of it.
It was this village that would soon become totally magical – not many know, that Hogsmede as it would later be named, started off as a totally muggle village.
It was not long before Godric Gryffindor heard the full story of events. The father of the two original fighters –a pair of brothers, who, until recently had been very close- told Godric that his sons had been arguing over the affections of a young girl.
"I told 'em that lass was nothin' but trouble, the wife did too." The father said, glaring down at the guilty sons and rubbing his hands together anxiously. "But did they listen? Ha! They'd be more likely to capture the damned Fairy Mother than do that."
Godric regarded the family carefully – they looked hard working enough, and he had seen the sons working in the fields before, they didn't look the sort to cause trouble. He turned back to the father.
"Where's the girl?"
He scowled, "She's at her ma's house – the daft womans been flappin' an frettin' about the silly gal since she found out it were Fairy Mother's doins."
Godric frowned, and nodded – he didn't want to give his thoughts on that subject. He returned to the cluster of stone buildings that was the young Hogwarts a few hours later, seething at the gullible peasants. In his mind already was a plan to get rid of this ludicrous idea of a Fairy Mother. That an old tale such as this could be a reasonable excuse for turning two brothers against each other was unacceptable to Godric. She had done it for some amusement, Godric had met the girl and didn't approve at all. The old farmer was right, that girl was nothing but trouble. He frowned again – he wouldn't be surprised to find she had some Veela blood in her, vain and pretentious she was.
Helga met him outside the doors of the dining hall, blinking in surprise at his obvious angry stance. She had expected him to let out any pent up frustration, by yelling at the villagers. Yet, he didn't appear to have done any yelling at all, Helga blinked in surprise again. There must be something wrong.
"What is it?" She asked, biting her lip anxiously.
"Bloody peasants, they're a bunch of gullible fools." Godric growled.
Helga breathed easy again, and smiled warmly. She was a good ten years older than the other three founders (with Salazar Slytherin the youngest of them all) – and more often than not acted like a mother.
"Yes, yes, come inside and you can tell us what happened this time." She clucked, trying to push him through the doors.
"No." He said, rather too forcefully. "I'm going to end this 'Fairy Mother' tale tonight."
Helga snorted and laughed loudly. "What? That silly old myth?" She smirked, "What are you getting all worked up about that for?"
"It's stupid-" Godric began.
"Yes, well, I know that."
"-and the villagers think it's an excuse for everything. We're going to find that silly Fairy and prove she's nothing more than that – a fairy."
Only now did Helga begin to worry. "Now? In the dark forest?" She asked weakly.
Helga Hufflepuff was no coward. She only saw the difference, unlike Godric, between bravery and stupidity, and this was definitely the latter. Entering the forest at night with only the aim of trying to find a single fairy was bad enough. But, Godric wanted to try and find a fairy that was more than likely made up years ago by a tired old woman who wanted her children to behave.
"Of course." Godric said, beginning to like the idea more and more.
"Absolutely not." She said firmly, rising slightly on her toes to show her dominance, even though Godric was still a foot taller than her.
"Why not? Are you scared?" Godric taunted, forgetting himself.
Helga's sharp eyes, which were normally so warm, narrowed, and she glared at Godric like a little boy who was misbehaving. "You know better than that Godric." She said, "Let's go inside, perhaps Salazar will talk some sense into you."
These were times of peace for the Founders, before the discovery of magic-blooded Muggles and the arguments that ensured between the founders.
Though both men were prone to bouts of stupidity and childishness, Helga had to admit that Salazar was sensible at the best of times – wary for his own safety. Unlike Godric, he wouldn't go barging into danger without a second thought. It was his tendency to think it through first, and it was the hope that he would do this and manage to stop Godric, which Helga clung to.
Once again the story was told, but to Helga's frustration, Salazar found it all very entertaining and claimed that they hadn't had a good adventure into the Dark Forest for a while. Helga ground her teeth and turned in a last hope to Rowena. She had watched everything with no more expression than a raised eyebrow and small quirk of the lips.
"Rowena! What do you say to this idiocy?" Helga said now very red in the face.
The dark haired lady shrugged lightly, "We cannot stop them Helga, you should cease trying. If they want to go galloping of at night into a forest that holds creatures that can quite easily kill them without even leaving enough time for them to draw their wands and try to defend themselves," She sighed heavily, and rolled her eyes, "On their heads be it."
Rowena was always like this, expressing her distaste or agreement with the things her friends did – but making no move to stop or include herself in the activities. She never took sides, but Godric and Salazar both held a wary respect for her, as she never lost her head and was remarkable at duelling. Helga though, thought the woman was a bit too cool, but a good friend all the same.
"Fine!" Helga snapped, spinning away from Rowena. The three of them tired her out with their own unique mannerisms; it was quite a struggle to control it all, as she tended to do.
Soon, all four founders were marching into the forest. Godric and Salazar went to find the Fairy Mother; a competitive air had come between them. Rowena went for research, she claimed, but both Godric and Salazar knew it was because she would very much like to catch the Fairy Mother herself and as she had done many times before, bring both of them to shame. Helga went because the other three did, and she didn't want to sit at home waiting and complaining, she'd much rather bring her complaints straight to them, and she did. Making sure all three of them understood how much she disapproved.
The four went their separate ways, all searching for the Fairy Mother. They hardly talked in the later years about what they discovered in the many hours they were in the forest. Though Helga mentioned unicorns, and it was believed she discovered a herd of them and spent most of her time blissfully happy wandering through the trees with the enchanted beasts. Rowena came back with a sudden new interest in astronomy, even with her logical doubts, and more than likely spent her time with a centaur or two. Salazar, though he did not come back empty handed, did not find the Fairy Mother, only several new kinds of herbs he excitedly spent the next few months finding uses for.
Our brave and noble Godric Gryffindor however, did achieve his goal, as all knew he would, he was too stubborn to give up, and though he never spoke about what happened, by the bruises he had it was obvious the Fairy Mother had more power than expected. She was queen of the little people after all; they would not allow her to be taken without a struggle.
The Fairy Mother herself, well she was a mystery, she certainly looked like a normal fairy at first glance, but soon you started to notice certain differences. It was these differences the four founders were talking about, now safely back at Hogwarts.
Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin were seated round the large ornate table in the Gryffindor common room – at that point just the beginnings of a stone tower. In the middle of the table was a large elaborate birdcage provided by Helga, with several binding spells placed on it.
The small glittering eyes of the age-old fairy glared out at the four friends. Focusing more often than not on Godric, who, if looks could kill, would be writhing on floor as all his organs slowly imploded. As it were, the Fairy Mother had to be content with just imagining it.
All Four Founders felt her anger, like small waves of rage that seemed to waft over them, emanating from the cage. They all contemplated this in silence, each gazing at the unusual fairy before them.
She glowed, like all fairies; pale, wax like skin contrasting greatly with her dark clothes. The doxy blood in her was shown in the long and straggle black hair that reached her lower back. Her wings were black, larger than normal and at this moment were still, showing the silver veins in the thin membrane. She was different from all the Little People, yet she was all of them together. No wonder she was their queen.
"Look at those eyes…" Helga breathed, "Like small orbs of jet."
"Or beetles eyes." Salazar added with a grimace.
"Small they may be, to us, but in proportion to her face they are large and the lack of a pupil only exaggerates their size." Rowena noted, as always acting like this was just an examination of some creature.
A hiss sounded from the cage, and though they all caught the general meaning of it, only Salazar understood what word was spoken, and he did not repeat, lest Rowena directed the anger it would ultimately cause at him.
"Perhaps it is not best to offend-" Helga started, but was cut of by the raspy voice of the Fairy Mother. Her words still held the hissing sound of snakes, but she spoke in English.
"You fools," She whispered, looking out from the golden bars of the cage, "You will regret this when my children come for you."
Godric laughed, "They won't come, I made sure of that, none of them can trace you now."
"Besides, the weak magic of a fairy, even in numbers is not enough to beat four fully fledged wizard trained in defence." Rowena quoted, she could have had a book in front of her.
"You're trapped." Salazar said, smirking. The Fairy mother bared her teeth in a hiss, showing the sharp venomous fangs that doxies were famed for and slick, pointed tongue.
Once again, Salazar did not bother to translate her words, though this was through embarrassment. He instead settled on wondering how this fairy appeared to know more Parseltongue curses than he. He knew their languages were similar, but not this much.
"There's no need to taunt her." Helga scolded, smiling down at the fairy, if a little unsurely. Godric hadn't got all those bruises from walking into trees, she was sure. Then again, he was very clumsy…
"Why do they call you the Fairy Mother then?" She asked brightly; Godric resisted the urge to roll his eyes, Salazar however, did not.
"Because I am the mother of them all." Was the cold reply; Helga's smile faltered slightly.
"Did you make that girl from the village have the two Smith brothers fight over her?" Rowena asked.
The first sign of a smile appeared on the Fairy Mother's face, though it was more of a leer, "I didn't make her do anything."
"Indeed?" Helga's voice now took on the form of a reprimanding teacher.
"I merely talked with her and advised her on a few things. You'll find that little Sarah has quite a troublesome mind in her own right." A few minutes of silence followed, before Rowena spoke.
"I think," She said, "it is quite obvious that this-" she waved her hand in the direction of the cage and its contents, "-creature, cannot continue to live in the forest, she obviously has a… disruptive influence." The Fairy Mothers' sharp eyes seemed to glitter at that comment. "She cannot stay near the school."
Rowena smiled suddenly, "But I think it would be wise for us to keep a close eye on her…" She turned to Godric, as if offering him a gift "What do you propose?"Godric grinned widely, Rowena did have a way of making things seem right to Helga and yet still keeping them fun. Godric could propose whatever he wanted –within reason- and Helga couldn't argue, the Fairy Mother was too dangerous to let free after all.
He caught Salazar's eye across the table, they both shared a smirk, subconsciously agreeing to find the right punishment between them.
"I'll have to think it over Rowena, but thank you for letting me decided." He said, rising, Salazar followed suit.
"Not at all Godric, after all, you found her." Rowena smiled coyly, and Godric and Salazar left the room, presumably to discuss what they should do.
"You should not of done that." Helga said.
"Why not? It amuses them. And she deserves it," Rowena said, rather forcefully, glaring down at the fairy in the cage, who only stared back placidly.
Helga was surprised at the anger in Rowena's voice, since when did she take a part in the lives of the peasants?
"Did you know these brothers?"
Rowena moistened her lips, and looked back up at Helga, "Not personally. I knew of the eldest though; Jack." She glowered once again at the fairy, "He was, until a week ago engaged to Eliza."
"Eliza! She never told me!" Helga, being the mother hen of all students, usually knew the most about them, and Eliza, who was one of their very first students, and who's teaching had been mastered by Rowena, was very close with the warm hearted woman.
"Nor I." Rowena replied, "Until I happened upon her crying last Monday in my study. He has said he had found a 'normal' girl, though he'd had no problem with Eliza's magical abilities before, no doubt it was some dribble the little brat Sarah fed him." Rowena's voice was filled with venom, and she stared down in contempt at the fairy.
"I don't know what surprised her more," She said, referring to Eliza, "That I was willing to comfort her, or that I had some understanding of what she was going through."
Helga smiled gently, not many knew that Rowena had been engaged before she came to Scotland. It had been an arranged marriage, and Rowena hadn't minded at first. He had also opposed magical ability though, and upon realising it was a choice between her magic and her to-be-husband, Rowena had left for Scotland in search of the wizards who were meant to be setting up a magical school. Her family however, had not agreed with her decision. To be blunt, Helga, Godric and Salazar were her family now.
"My dear Rowena, to those who do not realise why you put on such a harsh exterior, it can be a bit intimidating. Yet, no doubt Eliza is even more loyal to you now than before, you have her respect and her understanding."
"Besides, Eliza and Jack will sort themselves out again, a little squabble is all it was. She will soon forgive him, though I bet she will not admit it till he has done a little grovelling!"
Rowena laughed, and they both left the room, making sure the Fairy Mother was secure in her cage.
She watched them leave; cursing them in all the tongues she knew. She was imprisoned, and waiting judgement, when just yesterday she had been flying free in the forest. They would pay, she vowed, pay for what they have done, and what they will do. She was the Fairy Mother, the Queen of the Little People, and she would show no mercy.
If it weren't for the damned cage that is.