Magical Miracle
by Teddylonglong

Please refer to chapter 1 for my disclaimer and warnings. Thank you.


"The visitors," Hermione gushed, and the four children plus one puppy hurriedly made their way over to the large slide to get down and greet their guests as soon as possible.

"Inu, come here and sit on my lap," Harry invited the canine, noticing that he seemed to be afraid of the slide, and together, they slid down, thoroughly enjoying the ride.

There were, indeed, four unknown people standing in the middle of the Great Hall. They were wearing strange clothes, however, Harry noticed that they were smiling at them.

"Good morning, Hermione, Harry, Fred and George," one of the witches addressed them. "I am Rowena Ravenclaw, and these are my friends Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin and my husband Godric Gryffindor."

Hermione shook her head. "No, Madame, that's not possible. The names you mentioned are those of the founders of Hogwarts, and they lived one thousand years ago."

Harry nodded his agreement, causing the visitors to chuckle.

"Very well said, Hermione," the lady commended her. "There is just one tiny information that you're lacking."

"And what might that be?" Harry cast the witch a curious look.

"As the founders of this castle, we are able to time travel through Hogwarts."

Suddenly, Granny Minerva stepped over to the group and invited what indeed appeared to be the founders of Hogwarts, even if Harry was still not convinced, to take a seat at the table, where the adults were still having tea together.

Harry listened in growing amazement, when the founders told them that they were just in the final stages of building the castle and invited him and Hermione to come and study at their time.

"Excuse me." Harry inwardly chuckled, as Hermione was the first to speak up as usual. "How are we going to get to your time? What will you teach us at your time? Will we be able to study Ancient Runes? Are there other students of our age at Hogwarts?"

"Mione, stop," Harry whispered, recalling how their mummy always told his sister to only ask one question at one time.

"What?" Hermione asked in clear irritation, before she added just one more question. "Will we be able to return home at any time?"

Rowena smiled at his sister. "We were thinking about fetching you to our time. As I said, we are still building Hogwarts; however, we have finished our own living quarters and have finished the so-called Tapestry of Time."

Harry did not understand everything that she told them about the tapestry; however, he nodded, eagerly, when she explained that Helga had a sister, who was six years old as well. "We thought that we could teach the three of you together for two years, while you might even help us with the final touches to the castle, so that the three of you will be eight by the time we intend to allow the first students into Hogwarts."

"Are you going to teach students from the age of eight onwards?" Hermione's voice was laced with excitement, before she added, "Unfortunately, in this time, children have to be eleven to become students."

They discussed the matter for a while, before Godric, who seemed to be the headmaster in their time, asked if they were interested to study with them.

"Of course. Yes please. We're very interested, aren't we, Harry?"

Harry nodded at his sister. "Yes please."

"I will come to the Great Hall right after breakfast tomorrow and fetch you," Helga promised, smiling. "My sister, Ceridwen, will be very pleased to be able to study together with you."

"Do not speak about this matter to anyone apart from your family here," the fourth founder uttered, sounding very grumpy. "No one must know that we and our heirs are able to time travel, and we're not going to teach anyone else from this time."

'He somehow seems grumpy,' Harry thought, wearily eyeing Salazar.

'Harry,' he suddenly received a telepathic message from Uncle Severus. 'Salazar Slytherin is the best Potions master of all times. Even if he seems a little grumpy, if you have the chance to study with him, take it. He might be able to teach you things, which I cannot teach you. Perhaps, they even have potions in their time, which are lost in ours.'

Smiling, Harry cast his uncle an unobtrusive nod.

With that, the founders excused themselves, leaving two very excited six-year-olds behind. Soon, however, Neville and Severus' godson Draco came to visit, and the children returned to the playground with Inu in tow, the matter of the founders forgotten for now.

HP

In the evening, Harry was exhausted from playing on the playground all day; however, he was very happy, when he was lying in his bed together with Inu, who was cuddled against his stomach. 'That was a brilliant day, and I'm six and big now,' he thought, already drifting off to sleep, when his sister stepped into the room.

"Harry, are you still awake?"

"I am. Now," Harry replied, sleepily, only to roll his eyes upon realising that she was carrying a thick book.

"Harry, I'm so excited. We can study together with the founders and help them complete Hogwarts." She eagerly opened her book at what seemed to be the beginning. "Here, it says…"

Harry listened to his sister's tirade for about a minute, before he was lured into sleep by Inu's soft snoring.

HP

In the morning, Inu woke him up early, obviously in need to be taken outside for a weewee. To his relief, Hermione was already up as well, apparently too excited to sleep, and the siblings took Inu out onto the grounds, where they played with him until Harry's stomach began to grumble.

"Let's go and have breakfast. I can't wait to travel to the past."

HP

To Harry's surprise, Helga Hufflepuff arrived, just when he finished his breakfast. 'How did she know?' he wondered, however, gently woke up Inu, who was asleep on his feet.

"Now, Hermione and Harry, are you ready to come with me?"

"Yes." As usual, Hermione was the first to reply. Harry chuckled, when she jumped from her seat, causing the chair to fall onto the floor with a loud bang.

"Hermione, slowly," their mummy lightly scolded her.

"Sorry."

"Excuse me, Madame," Harry addressed the founder.

"Oh Harry, please just call me Helga."

Harry nodded in understanding. "May I bring Inu?"

"He's your familiar, isn't he?"

Helga sounded very kind, and Harry nodded, eagerly. 'Without Inu, I won't go,' he resolved, smiling when Inu gently licked his hand.

"Then of course you may bring him."

"He's not really potty trained though. Harry only received him yesterday, and he's still a puppy," Hermione explained.

"Then, we'll just have to train him," Helga replied, smiling.

"Thank you, Helga," Harry replied, feeling very grateful. He smiled in appreciation, when his mummy pressed a small bag with doggy treats into his hand.

"You'll need these to train him. As I don't know what kind of dog food they have in the past, take these with you, and don't forget to give him some water, too."

"I will. Thank you, Mummy."

Helga agreed with his mother that he and Hermione should be back at six o'clock in the evening, so that they could attend dinner in the Great Hall together with their family.

Harry slid the dog treats into his robe pocket and together with Hermione and Inu followed Helga through the corridors, before she stopped in front of a painting of what seemed to be the four founders.

"This is the entrance to our quarters." Helga smiled, when the door opened without further ado. "We will always let the two of you in."

They arrived in a cosy living room with comfortable looking sofas which were arranged in front of a large fireplace. Another painting of the four founders occupied one of the walls, while the opposite wall was dominated by windows that allowed the view onto the lake and the grounds.

Before Harry could further look around, however, Helga led them straight into a small side room, which was lacking any furniture whatsoever. Instead, a large, red tapestry occupied a complete wall.

"This is the tapestry of time. Take a good look. You should be able to see your own face, Harry, as well as mine." Helga explained that they had to touch the face of the person they wanted to visit and tell the exact date. "Today, I will take you with me. Tomorrow, I want one of you to try and take the other and myself with you. When you get used to it, you may just travel to my time and back by yourselves."

Harry nodded, while Hermione voiced her consent, and all of a sudden, the room around them began to turn around, and the movement became faster, before the room completely vanished from the sight, only to reappear a few seconds later.

Helga pointed at the time display above the door. "This is a permanent time display, which Rowena added this morning. Please always make sure that you arrived at the correct time before leaving this room."

When Harry and Hermione followed Helga into the living room, which looked slightly different from before due to the more ancient furniture, the other three founders were obviously waiting for them. Harry's eyes fell onto a girl of about his age, who looked like the spitting image of Helga.

"Hello Harry, Hermione and Inu," the girl beat everyone else to a greeting. "I am Ceridwen, and I am very happy to have you here."

"Hello Ceridwen, hello Rowena, Salazar and Godric," Hermione replied, while Harry observed in amazement how Inu approached the girl and eagerly licked her left hand in apparent approval.

"Hello Ceridwen, hello professors," Harry echoed, smiling.

"Welcome in our time," the headmaster spoke up. He glanced at his wife. "Rowena, your charm seems to have worked."

"What charm?" Hermione's voice was laced with eagerness, causing Harry to inwardly grin.

"Rowena has charmed the door to the chamber of the tapestry of time." Godric sounded proud. "If anyone leaves the chamber through the door, their language along with their clothes will adjust to the English and the attire of the time of arrival."

Harry glanced at Hermione and himself, only now realising that their clothes had indeed changed to the same kind of strange attire, which the founders had been wearing on the previous day.

"Did you only cast the charm this morning?" he heard himself ask, unintentionally. "When you visited us yesterday, you were wearing the clothes of this time."

The founders nodded. "Well observed, Harry. I only added the charm earlier this morning, before Helga left to fetch you."

"Amazing. Will you please teach us to cast such useful charms?" Hermione cast the older witch a pleading look.

Rowena nodded and made a promise. "We shall teach you whatever you wish to learn."

"For the beginning, however," Godric continued, "you may not choose what to study, as we want you to acquire general knowledge. You will have two hours of lessons with each of us per day.

They agreed with the founders that Harry and Hermione should arrive for their first morning lesson at eight o'clock every morning. Lunch would be at twelve o'clock, and afterwards, they could do as they pleased, before the afternoon lessons were going to commence at one o'clock. Their lessons ended at five in the afternoon, and during the remaining hour, before they had to return to the future, they were again allowed to do whatever they wished.

"Do you have any questions?" Salazar quirked an eyebrow, causing Harry to think that he had traits similar to his Uncle Severus. 'Perhaps, they are related, too,' he thought.

"I have a question. How will we be able to get our school books in this time? We don't have any money." Harry stared at his sister in amazement. He had not even thought of such a thing as a school book.

Rowena smiled. "Where do you get your school books in the future?"

"We buy them at the bookshop," Hermione replied, matter-of-factly.

"I see. Now, we don't have bookshops in our time yet. We write the books ourselves, which is in fact one of the things we need to do during these two years, and we will copy them for the students using a charm." Rowena chuckled. "If you are so eager to read, I'd appreciate it if you were willing to read through the first books and tell me if everything is comprehensible."

"I'd love to do that." Hermione nodded in apparent eagerness.

"Harry and I will help, too, won't we, Harry?" Lured by Ceridwen's pleasant voice, Harry automatically nodded his agreement.

"Do you have any experiences with the subjects which are taught at Hogwarts in the future?" Godric looked from Hermione to Harry. "If I am not mistaken, the future professors have been teaching you so far?"

The children nodded. "Yes, Harry particularly likes Potions and Charms, while I am very interested in Ancient Runes."

"Thunderbolt can assist me in the lab then, and if he proves himself as adequately talented, he may proofread my recipe collections." Salazar was the first to react.

"Remember that you mustn't write parts and pieces in Parselscript then." Ceridwen glared at her brother-in-law.

"Ah, Chatterbox, you're no fun." Salazar returned a smirk.

"Excuse me, sir, what is Parselscript?" Hermione glanced from Salazar to Ceridwen.

"Snake language." Ceridwen was wearing a grim expression.

"Harry can talk to snakes."

Harry glared at his sister. 'Did she have to tell them?' he thought in annoyance, not wanting anyone apart from his direct family to know that he had some strange ability.

"You're a Parselmouth?" To Harry's surprise, Salazar sounded delighted.

Harry shrugged. "I've been able to communicate with two small snakes on the Hogwarts grounds."

After this discussion, the founders quickly decided that, while they would teach all three of them general knowledge, Salazar would teach Harry more intensely in Potions, Rowena would teach him Charms and Hermione Runes, while Ceridwen was going to specialise on Healing under her sister's tutelage.

"Now, we've spent too much time talking already; therefore, this morning, I shall take you unicorn riding."

Hermione and Harry stared at Godric in amazement, while Ceridwen cheered. "Come." She motioned Harry and Hermione to follow her outside. "I'll introduce you to Moonlight and Midnight. They're absolute cuties."

"Excuse me, what about Inu?" Harry worriedly eyed the canine, while Hermione already ran after her new friend.

"Take him with you, and we shall try if he can sit on Moonlight's back together with you. Otherwise, I shall keep an eye on him."

Harry cast Godric a grateful look, before he hurried after the girls with Inu on his heels.

HP

At first, Harry was slightly afraid of the large animal; however, he relaxed, when Moonlight gently leaned down to Inu's hight, until their noses touched, causing Inu to waggle his tail in apparent happiness.

When Godric finally lifted him into the air and placed him on Moonlight's back, Harry found that unicorn riding was almost as much fun as flying. To his relief, Inu readily allowed Godric to place him in front of Harry, seemingly not afraid of the unicorn that was so much bigger than him.

HP

When Harry and Hermione returned home on time for dinner in the Great Hall, they told everyone about their day in the past, which had turned out to be absolutely brilliant.

As usual, Hermione did most of the talking. Only when she had finished her explanations, Harry spoke up. "What kind of animal could I become to be able to speak with a dog, a unicorn and a basilisk?"

He looked from his parents to Severus and Minerva, surprised that they stared at him with expressions of clear shock.

"Harry, where in the world did you meet a basilisk?" His mother enquired in apparent disbelief.

"Why, at Hogwarts of course. She is Salazar's familiar. Her name is Amaterasu, and she's totally cute."

Hermione shook her head in obvious annoyance. "Harry, she was huge. You can't call such a big animal cute. A cat is cute, but not a basilisk."

"But she was very nice, and she's my friend." Harry lightly glared at his sister.

"Now, Harrykins…"

"… Do you think you could, perhaps…"

"… bring us a couple of basilisk eggs…"

"… for some nice prank potions…"

"… to prank Percy…"

"… when he comes to Hogwarts next month?"

"Fred, George." His mother sounded exasperated. "You can't simply prank your older brother."

"Ah, but Mum…"

"… according to Bill and Charlie…"

"… he's a real git."

"Messrs. Weasley. Fred and George Weasley." Severus' voice was dangerously quiet. "If you have to prank someone by any means, come to my office on Sunday evening."

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir," the twins replied in apparent delight, for once simultaneously, causing Harry to roll his eyes at his older brothers.