Chapter One –

The Four Founders

Magic, as everyone knows, has existed for thousands of years and can be traced back to at least the Ancient Egyptians, who used simple magical spells to protect their tombs within the pyramids (for a detailed look at this period of wizarding history, see A History of Magic, Chapter One: Ancient Magic). However, for a long time, the early witches and wizards of the world had nowhere to learn spells, more of which were being created every day. Parents often taught their children what they knew, but if their knowledge were limited, they wouldn't be able to pass on a great deal to their children. It was also unlikely that the parents would know much about the various magical creatures that share our world, and therefore their children would know just a little; this can be dangerous, especially when it is necessary to learn how to repel certain dark creatures such as a Manticore.

Therefore, over the years, only the most wealthy and powerful witches and wizards were able to live their lives to the fullest. After all, they were unlikely to die because they didn't know the spell to repel a Nundu or because they didn't know how to escape from an angry crowd of Muggles eager to kill you. This trend continued for hundreds of years, but just over a thousand years ago (exact time unknown, circa 1000 A.D), four wizards and witches came together to create a magical school where children of all wealth and background could study magic together in safety.

First and foremost was Godric Gryffindor, whose tales of killing a Welsh Green dragon with his legendary sword had made him famous. He conversed with the three other most powerful witches and wizards of the time all around the British Isles, and found they had a common goal: to create a school of magic. Therefore, Godric Gryffindor and the three others, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin, tried to make their dream a reality. Of course, they had problems right from the start, including where to build their magical school.

Slytherin wanted the school built in southern England, where he had been born, but the other three knew that was foolish; there was a high concentration of Muggles there, and they didn't want them to disturb their magical school. Therefore, the four founders chose a place where Muggles were unlikely to stumble across: the isolated highlands of Scotland, Rowena Ravenclaw's home. Thus, the magical school, which soon became known as Hogwarts, was born.

Humble Beginnings

Hogwarts a thousand years ago was nowhere near as grandiose or as spectacular as it is today, nor was it as large (rooms and towers were added over the centuries), but it was nonetheless a magnificent building, few of which existed at the time. There were only a few floors, not as many subjects and, of course, Quidditch was not played since it had barely even come into existence at this point. However, there are several rooms that were created a thousand years ago that exist even to this day (although they have been changed and refurbished many times since). The Great Hall is such a room, though at the time of Hogwart's founding, it contained only one large table for the students (the houses did not exist yet) and a smaller table for the founders and the other teachers. However, even in the earliest days, the ceiling of the Great Hall was enchanted to reflect the weather outside – a little addition created by Hufflepuff, who was quite good at such charms.

The dungeons, of course, existed but they were not used to teach; instead, they were used to punish students who misbehaved. Salazar Slytherin was said to spend much of his time down here, since he apparently dished out the majority of the punishments (the other three founders were much more understanding). The kitchens, also, have existed since Hogwart's earliest histories, and, according to some reports, have also employed house elves to cook their food, although there were a lot fewer than exist today. Helga Hufflepuff apparently also worked in the kitchens quite a lot since she was quite adept at food-related Charms and had a lot of input on what food was to be served during mealtimes. Indeed, many of the recipes still served in Hogwarts to this day was thought up by Hufflepuff all those years ago.

The lessons taught at Hogwarts a thousand years ago were much simpler than those taught today. Students were taught how to perform spells and how to brew potions, and that was usually it. Only as the years progressed did more subjects start to appear, and the castle was forced to expand to accommodate the increasing number of rooms, as well as the increasing number of students, since the magical community was growing and more had learned about Hogwarts. Many of the students that attended Hogwarts later went on to achieve great things in the wizarding world, such as discover new potions or spells, or even found new branches of magic; such wizards or witches were often later painted and their portraits placed around the castle when they had died so that, even after death, a part of them would still linger inside Hogwarts.

Fall Out of the Founders

Although the four founders co-existed peacefully for several decades, they started to reach disagreements after a while when they started to realise they wanted different things for their students. Gryffindor and Slytherin had been great friends up until this point, but their friendship began to decay when they put forward their different views. Gryffindor, who was well known for his courage and bravery (he had not only defeated a rogue Welsh Green, but many other magical creatures such as giants), wished to teach likeminded students, those who had brave deeds to their name. Salazar, who was no braver than Fulbert the Fearful (who lived at the same time and was too cowardly to even leave his house), thought that this was highly unfair. However, his method of selecting students was just as unfair; he wanted to choose students of only pure bloodline, for he saw only them fit to learn magic and pass it on. Godric, who was fond of half-bloods and Muggle-borns, scoffed at the idea, and a rivalry started to brew between them.

However, Gryffindor and Slytherin were not the only ones who had different opinions. Soon, Rowena Ravenclaw joined in the argument and disagreed with both Godric and Salazar, stating only the most intelligent should be allowed to learn magic, for she was inarguable the most intelligent of the four founders. Naturally, the others resisted her efforts to include only the most intelligent, and in her annoyance, Rowena drastically altered Hogwarts castle, creating the ever-changing floorplan that the school is famous for today. She proclaimed now that only the most intelligent of students would be able to learn anything with the layout constantly changing. Gryffindor managed to stop the stairs and rooms moving about as much as Ravenclaw had envisioned, but could not dispel the enchantment completely. Hufflepuff, meanwhile, tried to reconcile the other three founders by saying everyone should be accepted, but the others took little notice of her.

The founders realised that a compromise had to be made, though, and so the four houses were born. The houses, named after the four founders, would be Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Only the bravest of heart and most courageous would be made a Gryffindor; only the most intelligent were made Ravenclaws, and only the most cunning and ambitious (and, preferable, only pure bloods) would by made a Slytherin. Those that were loyal, patient and determined, or could not be fit anywhere else, were put in the Hufflepuff house. Whenever it became difficult for a student to be placed in a house, Gryffindor's magical hat (later known as the Sorting Hat) was used to see the inner feelings of the students and pick the house most suited for them. In later years, the Sorting Hat was used to sort every student, even if their virtues were already clear.

Due to this separation, the large table in the Great Hall was split into four house tables, and house dormitories were created for the four different houses. Salazar created Slytherin's common room and dormitories in the very depths of the castle where he preferred to reside, beneath the lake itself; Godric and Rowena made their common room and dormitories in the topmost part of the castle, creating specific towers for themselves; Helga, meanwhile, who was scared of heights and preferred to be close to the kitchens, made her common room and dormitories on the ground floor. The four founders became the heads of their houses, but trouble, although it had been temporarily quelled, did not cease completely. Indeed, the tensions between the four houses often reached breaking point, as one student from the eleventh century, wrote in his diary:

Today, Goodwin used a Limb-Switching Hex on Gregory from Slytherin, and he fell over, his legs having been replaced with arms. Gregory's gang leapt towards us, and I was forced to brandish my wand and hit Rivers with a Trip Jinx so he couldn't go squealing to Salazar. Then Zacharias from Ravenclaw got involved, and there were hexes ricocheting off the walls; the portraits were protesting; the poltergeist was egging everyone on; someone introduced a couple of imps into the fray and everyone was falling over them in the confusion; someone had bewitched a suit of armour to bash me over the head; Zacharias tried to Transfigure Goodwin into a slug, but it accidentally hit Madam Rudford and she sprouted antennae and started producing slime. Godric arrived and tried to stop the trouble, but Rowena turned him into a pumpkin and whispered into Zacharias' ear how to perform a Leg-Entangling Curse on a passing Helga Hufflepuff. I managed to escape before I suffered severe damage.

The school, at that time, had not Headmaster or Headmistress, so peace could not easily be restored. Most unhappy of all, however, was Slytherin. He was not content with having only one house of pure bloods; he wanted the entire school to be pureblood (or, at the very least, half-bloods – he despised Muggle-borns). He tried to enforce this idea many times, but this became one thing Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff agreed on – students from any background were allowed into Hogwarts. Therefore, Slytherin devised a plan to ensure that Hogwarts would one day become a Muggle-born free castle.

Deep below the castle, he created a chamber that would one day be known as the Chamber of Secrets. Within the chamber, he hid a basilisk that he had bred, a large snake-like creature that had the ability to kill anyone who looked directly into its eyes. Since Slytherin was one of the first recorded Parselmouths (that is, he could talk the snakes), he was able to control the basilisk. He daren't unleash the basilisk upon the school whilst the other founders lived there, for he knew their wrath would be great. Therefore, he sealed the chamber, intending it to be opened only when his descendant came to Hogwarts and used their inherited Parselmouth ability to open the Chamber and free the basilisk, which would then purge the school of all Slytherin saw unfit to study magic – in other words, Muggle-borns. The other founders knew nothing of this, of course.

Salazar, meanwhile, could take no more. Furious with the amount of Muggle-borns being admitted into Hogwarts, he had a huge argument with Gryffindor and finally stormed from the school in disgust, never to return. With Slytherin gone, however, a tentative peace settled over the castle once again. The other three founders started to work more closely and without the constant arguments. Ravenclaw wished to disband the Slytherin house and distribute its students into the other three houses, but Gryffindor decided to keep it in memory of the man who had once been his best friend.

The four founders led long lives and (with the exception of Slytherin, of course) continued to teach until their deaths. Before they died, Heads of Houses were appointed to replaced them to lead their houses after their deaths. Salazar was the last to die, and wanted his son to inform his son, Alasdair Slytherin, about the Chamber of Secrets, but died before he was able to (legend has it he was impaled by an angry Graphorn) and Alasdair, though he was a Parselmouth, did not learn of the Chamber's existence and therefore could not open it and set free the basilisk within.