Author's Note: Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! I was so worried about how people would take this story given the unusual notes and the fact that this is based off of a story not my own. I'm so glad I was wrong! :)

Written for…

Ludo Game Challenge. Prompts: cat, sleeping, surprise

Elliot and Ansel

Molly woke to a persistent poking to her back.

"Wake up," came the familiar whine. Molly rolled over, bumping into her youngest cousin's side.

"Lily, I'm about to have a baby. At least give me a few more months to sleep in?"

"But it's almost noon! You're turning into such an old lady." Lily pouted, pulling a small pink box onto the bed. "Which reminds me, happy birthday!"

Molly groaned, struggling to sit up. "I already told you, I don't want a party."

"We're not having a party. I mean, I don't know what Lucy and your parents are doing, but I just wanted to give you a present." She slid the box closer to Molly and crawled to the end of the bed to get a better view.

The box was a plain pink with a white ribbon holding the lid on loosely. It didn't take much tugging to get the big bow on top to crumple and the ribbon to fall away. The box started shaking right after. Lily nodded encouragingly, but Molly still tried to keep her distance as she gently lifted the lid.

Meow.

Molly did a double-take. Of all things she fully expected her cousin to get her – a list which included a cactus, glow-in-the-dark boots and a How to Train Your Basilisk book – a tiny black and white kitten was certainly not one of them.

Lily squealed, reaching forward to scratch the top of the kitten's head. "Isn't he cute? I've been calling him Elliot, but I'm sure you and Salazar will have a better idea of what to name him."

"Lily, why is there a cat in my house?"

"Because he's cute! And I thought you could use the company, since you're cooped up inside all day."

"I have the basilisk for company." Lily snorted and Molly stuck out her tongue. "You're not the only one who can talk to her now," she bragged, trying in vain to untangle the two necklaces she hadn't taken off in almost a month.

There was the sound of dishes clattering downstairs and Molly and the kitten both startled at the noise.

"Did you let someone in my house?" she accused.

"It's only Grandma. She wanted to make you lunch since you've refused to have a party."

Molly sighed, allowing her cousin to pull her and the kitten downstairs.

:-:

"None of this makes a bloody bit of sense," Salazar muttered under his breath, dumping a pile of paperwork in the rubbish bin.

"More mind-numbing forms?" his cubicle-mate asked, doodling on the corner of his newspaper.

Salazar heaved a sigh. "If only. I've been doing some research on the founders of Hogwarts."

The coworker, whose name he hadn't bothered to remember, leaned around the partition separating their desks and raised an eyebrow at the heap in the bin. "Isn't it enough that we have to deal with teachers' credentials and exam dates? You want to read this stuff in your free time too?"

"My wife's a historian," Salazar said by way of an explanation. He couldn't very well tell anyone the truth about his interest in finding out what happened to his co-founders after he left them in the past.

"I guess you would be into them. You're named after Slytherin, right?"

Salazar resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Sometimes he couldn't believe the newest generation's gullibility. Just the same, it had made adapting to the modern times much easier when everyone believed he was Salazar Tudor.

"Correct. The problem is that there is little to no information on any of the founders aside from what we – they, I mean. Aside from what they did to put together the school. It's maddening!"

The coworker – Ansel, Salazar suddenly remembered – hummed as he leaned back in his chair.

"Well, let's see … Ravenclaw was quite old when she died. Disease, but no one knows what. Her daughter's the Ravenclaw ghost. She never talked much when I was at school."

"Daughter?" Salazar scribbled the information down quickly. The last he'd seen of Rowena, she'd been twenty-six and had no interest in men.

"Oh, sure. Helena. Calls herself the Grey Lady, though."

"Who was her father?"

Ansel shrugged. "No idea. I guess it was never important enough to write in the history books. Maybe your girl can help with that?"

Salazar smiled. "Do you know anything about the other founders?"

"Not much. Slytherin left early on, I heard. Huge argument with the others. No one knows what happened to him after that. I mean, he had a kid of course."

"Excuse me?" Salazar dropped his quill, staring Ansel down. "Salazar Slytherin had no children."

"Sure he did. You-Know-Who was descended from him, wasn't he?"

Salazar considered the possibility that Ansel was seriously mistaken, but he was a Ravenclaw after all, and he'd doubted Rowena's intelligence enough times to not make the same mistake with the people of her house.

Without another word, he apparated home.