They walked a few meters in the gallery and looked into the large window.
Harry repeated the same operation that Hermione did with the other one, so that they could hear what they were saying.
You could see the founders in a room, apparently very hot, they seemed to melt like icicles. In a mixture of magic and science of the foundry, they were forging something, with immense attention.
They were all around a furnace, Godric took a special tool, and collected some very bright liquid metal, probably gold, from the furnace.
Rowena handed him some ring moulds, all different from each other, and Godric, who wore huge gloves made with dragon scales, spilled the contents he kept locked with his tool in the ring mould, and then, they immersed the mould in water, from which a white cloud of water vapour rose.
Helga approached the water basin and took out the mould, and with her wand she decorated the entire circumference of the ring with a row of blue stones and another oval, larger and of a slightly different shade: brighter, deeper.
Salazar took the second mould, and two snakes came out of his wand and twisted around the ring, clutching what from that distance was only a glitter.
Unfortunately, The students watching the shene, couldn't see clearly the rings, only vague colours and shapes. So they didn't know about snakes or diamonds. They couldn't see; they were to far.
Finally, Rowena, on the last golden circle, formed golden stops and with immense attention she placed the first philosopher's stone ever mede on the ring.
Then, they placed the rings in the centre of a table and pointed all their wands at them. A lightning spread across the room coming from their wands, light covered the rings for about ten entire seconds, the golden light that infused in the rings the magic wanted by the founders.
Once finished Damaris Dragonlear took the first ring: the curature one with the diamond; which unfortunately could not be distinguished very well from the window (they could see only the golden circle and the bright light of a precious stone.)
He held the ring in front of him, so that everyone else could see it.
"the Dragonlear's ring." he said in a deep and solemn voice. "That can cure from terrible diseases." he added, placing it in a box of green velvet.
Then he took another ring, the ring with from the window seemed a mixture of golden and blue light.
"the ring of truth. That will allow its owner to see through the shields of people the armour of their hearts, to be able to help them in any situation." he put the ring in a dark blue velvet box. He took the last ring off the table.
"This ring is the most powerful of the three, fused together with our philosopher's stone. That can amplify the effects of our spells, whether they are offensive or defensive." He finally put the ring in its purple-red case.
"we forged these rings for the sole purpose of defending the just cause, the weak, and our school. We must not allow anyone to use it for personal purposes. It will only serve to help who, or what, needs it."
Damaris peered carefully at the others in the feeble light of the foundry, looking through their eyes trying to read their soul for a few seconds of silence.
"I will personally guard the rings; I will keep them carefully guarded in the study of the principals, with a code that we will only know, so that we can take them in time of need and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands." the others in the room nodded.
"now we can go back to our business" saying that, he left the room disappearing in the fog like the rest of the scene, the time frame was over... .
The group of students walked quickly to the next window, where they saw the five founders fighting. Those same friends who had founded the school together, were fighting, and also quite animatedly.
Harry took his key and did exactly the same thing he did just before. After a few seconds, the sounds came to life, and what were previously only moving lips, began to produce words.
"Salazar, but what's come over you?!" exclaimed Helga Hufflepuff.
"Try to be reasonable, we have not built the school to involve only the purebloods wizards! Any person with magical powers can join. Even with both Muggle parents!" Godric barked gesturing like crazy.
"Salazar, what's happening to you? You are a very intelligent man; how can you think of such a thing!?" questioned Rowena Ravenclaw agitated, but still in calm tone.
"I don't want any wizard who is not a pureblood in our school!" Salazar yelled.
At this point Damaris, who until then had been seating in his place with his hands clasped one in the other and the thoughtful gaze lost in the void, without saying a word, stood up and approached what was one of his dearest friends: Salazar Slytherin.
He put his arm around his shoulders and, while with his free hand he gestured in midair as if he was illustrating a fantastic project, he tried to calm down the other. "Salzar, my friend, what happens to you? We all know you don't really appreciate Muggle-borns, but when we decided to found this school together, we also said that anyone could study here, and you, you have to keep your promise." he explained calmly.
"I don't want to see them in our corridors anymore!" Salazar replied, pulling Damaris's arm away.
Godric became so furious that his face became the color of his cloak, he stood up and began to yell at Salazar. "now stop! I don't recognize you anymore, Salazar. Once we were friends remember?! But I don't think I can stay a second longer with someone who says these nonsense. I hope for you that you are just going through a period of madness, because if it isn't so, it will be you I will not want to see in our corridors!"
"Now calm down Godric!" ordered Rowena, who was sitting next to him; then with Helga's help, she got him back down on his seat. Godric took deep breaths to calm down. "Be careful Salazar, that you have to change this attitude of yours, if you do not do it alone, I will help you, and I won't be delicate."
"Stop! What about our wonderful friendship, which led us to found this magnificent school together! You won't want to jeopardize everything for so little!" Helga intervened.
"little?! How can you say little?! This one here, would like to prevent little wizards and witches from educating themselves! Magicians like you, like me, who have nothing less than the purity of the blood!" Godric burst out.
"Please calm down, you all." Damaris recall silence again. Everyone returned to their seats, and waited for him to begin his speech. Instead of speaking, the wizard took a velvet box from his pocket and placed it on the table by opening it, inside there were the three rings.
"remember, right, when did we forged these?" the others nodded, not understanding, however, what he wanted to get up. "We forged them, to protect Hogwarts and the entire wizarding world. But we did it only because we knew we were a team of friends, that would never break up; because we knew we could count on each other. Don't you want to ruin everything?!"
Damaris looked sternly at the others who made expressions of dissent, all except Salazar, who continued to look at the others with now resigned anger.
"Now I want each of you to take some time to think and forgive. You have to accept eachother's ideas, because we won't ruin everything for a fight, my friends." Said Damaris approaching Salazar slowly. The wizard got up from his chair and with fake affection hugged the other founder pretending not to feel resentment.
Then Damaris hugged each of his companions, whom he would never abandon for the world.
All the company watching the scene studied what was going on suspiciously; there was something that didn't entirely convince them.
"We are almost there, I bet that in the next window there will be the hiding place of the rings." said Hermione determinedly.
They walked quickly, to the next window and leaned in front of each other to get a better view It was just one small window, from where you could see the principal's office, it was exactly like what they had always known, nothing had changed in the centuries.
This time it was Ron who made sure they could hear what they were saying.
The office door opened, and Damaris entered, in the same clothes as the painting that was in the room where they had discovered of his existence. He advanced with determined steps, towards the back of his study, he turned around the desk, from which he took a purple-red velvet box.
He continued up to the steps that were a few meters from the desk, and found himself in a small sitting room, which it was probably used to receive illustrious guests. There were two extravagant leather armchairs, and a small velvet sofa, but the most important and special thing in the small room was certainly the stone fireplace on which the sculpture of an owl with large spread wings dominated.
There was also a low wooden table between the fireplace and the sofa, on which there was an inkwell with a voluminous white feather, and a few sheets of scattered parchment.
Damaris took a piece of parchment and wrote something in ancient runes, then he went to the fireplace and put in a piece of parchment folded in the beak of the owl, which suddenly came to life, and after having stretched its wings, he detached himself from the wall and made a turn flying over him then diving into flames of the fireplace causing a strong silvery glow.
The fireplace was high enough for a person to pass if he had only bent over a little. Damaris followed the owl and threw himself into the flames that still had a silvery complexion, and for a few seconds absolutely nothing could be seen.
Then a room opened as the bliding light was gone. not much of that room could be seen, but in the middle there was a stone pedestal with the Hogwarts crest.
Damaris took the velvet boxes from his pocket and gently placed them on the pedestal. Then a barrier that seemed to be made of glass quickly formed around it. After that, Damaris grew a poisonous creeper with his wand on it.
He turned and went back to the wooden door, which was to be the link to the fireplace. When he went out, however, he found someone waiting for him.
Unfortunately you couldn't see the face of that someone, the window allowed to see only up to the upper back of the silhouette with a dark cloak that was waiting in the living room, and of which only the back could be seen.
Damaris was preceded by the stone owl which flew out of the fireplace and repositioned itself on the wall as the silver light disappeared.
"I was waiting for you." Said a powerful voice, probably altered with magic.
"My friend, what's the matter? Is there a problem?" asked Damaris with an almost innocent voice.
"problem? Oh well, no, there's no problem... here... actually... I decided it's time to leave, i have to go at... " answered the powerful voice.
"You don't know how sorry I am. I will miss you infinitely, all of us will, my friend." Damaris said.
"eh, I do not think so. Avada Kedavra!"
A flash of green light filled the room, as Damaris's eyes, which were covered with terror, emptied of every bit of life. The magician's body fell heavily, laying in front of the fireplace.
A twisted black wand, which they could not distinguish exactly, lit up and moved with a gentle movement of the wrist the body that hindered its master's path, letting him walk in front of the fireplace.
He did exactly what he had seen Damaris do a little while ago: he took the parchment and wrote the runes he had been studying for some time, gave the ticket to the owl, who immediately hovered through the fireplace, and then crossed it in the luminous fog to reach the bright room from which Damaris had arrived.
The killer did not hesitate for a moment, he must have meditated every single move for a long time.
He stopped just a second in the doorway, and looked around the room with completely white walls. No defence was activated of those that had been prepared for the rings. And for some reason, none of those observing the scene found it strange; by now they had understood that the killer was completely unsuspected.
The magician took a purple potion from his pocket, probably a specific potion, because as soon as he touched the greenish leaves of the poisonous creepers, who protected the rings, he began to froth and crackle passing from purple to orange, characteristic of potions not only related to plants, but also related to dark magic counter-spells.
The killer held out his pale hand in front of him and with a lightning gesture grabbed the box that contained the rings, then squeezed it to himself and opened it. His surprise, anger and disappointment could be felt even without seeing his face.
His hands trembled and the box fell off. "There are only two rings, where was the third?! Two are still better than one; and besides, I can't go back after what happened." The killer whispered talking to himself.
He picked up the box and turned away from the room with the cloak fluttering behind him. He stopped for a moment as soon as he passed Dragonlear's corpse. He started to turn, but didn't have the courage to face his victim, and disappeared into the fog.
The students turned towards each other, all with the same expression upset and curious at the same time. They had to know who he was.
The dragons motioned the students to follow them, and walking through those corridors that looked so familiar, yet so full of surprises, they returned to the corridor from which they had entered.
As soon as they were close enought the walls sensed the keys and the dors reappeared.
"terguntemp" they whispered; the keys turned in the locks, and lit up to become blinding.
As soon as they got out, they looked at the keys. Runes had appeared on them. "Hermione, what's written?" Morgan asked, holding out the key to Hermione who stopped for a moment to recapitulate her runic vocabulary.
"Hestia." she replied confidently. "Zeus is written on mine, and Ron has Poseidon." She completed after translating her key and Ron's.
"Hades is written on mine. And on Luna's one: Demeter." said Draco returning the key to Luna, while the doors had disappeared and the dragons had returned to their usual positions.
"They all have names of Greek gods; Hestia: the goddess of home and family. Poseidon: god of the sea and storms. Hades: god of underworld and the dead. Demeter: goddess of agriculture and sacred laws. Zeus: King of the gods; god of sky, lightening, and order. All children of Cronus and Rhea. Chrono is titan of time and agriculture." said Hermione speaking mayinly to herself.
They all tied the keys around the dragons' necks to keep them safe.
Draco walked over to Hermione and whispered: "do you remember what both Dragonlear and the killer wrote to get into the fireplace room?"
"yes, but I couldn't translate it in time. I only understood the beginning: -the eagle and the owl fly high in the sky ...-" "-... above the white horse that runs with the dog and the fox in the amaranth field.- Do you have any idea what it means?"
"not yet, but I think It's symbolical, so I'm gonna find out going to find out tomorrow: there is a book in the library in the divination section, which indicates the symbolic meanings of plants and animals. I will look there.
And... I thought I had seen something more... when the window framed Damaris's corpse... there was a small piece of parchment wasn't it?" Hermione started, looking for confirm of her theory.
Draco nodded in confirm so that she could proceed.
"I thought it was something like... -the crocodile devoured the fox under the apple tree... - Maybe he used the same password system, to... tell us... maybe... who the killer was? Tomorrow I'll go to the library to look, we need to know who he was to find the other rings."
Hermione approached her dragon and stroked its shiny muzzle. "see you soon, Zeus." she whispered going at the exit of the room.
Everyone joined her and soon they were in the fog that enveloped the end of the stairs.
"wait, can you hear it too?!" asked Harry leaning to hear better.
"Yes, like someone running." Morgan said.
"yeah... .What if we are followed?!" Draco questioned suspiciously.
"But no, how is it possible?" intervened Ron.
"It must have been a draft, let's go now." Said Hermione looking for the stairs.
Everyone went up to the ground floor, and then spread out in various directions.
But was anyone really listening to them? Had they heard right?