"It's marvellous," I breathed, as the late evening sky bathed me and my three friends in an orange glow. The castle cast a great grey shadow over most of the grounds, but we were standing just in front of where the shadow stopped, just far back enough to admire our handiwork.
It was the evening of October Twelfth, and earlier that day we had just finished perfecting Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the groundskeeper's hut, the Quidditch pitch and every other building the school could possibly need. When I say we, I mean myself, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin, who would be known in later life as the four founders of Hogwarts.
"Isn't it just?" Helga sighed, and rested her head on Godric's shoulder. He tenderly placed an arm around her waist. They were the perfect couple. I wish I could say the same for me and Salazar, the sly, mysterious man of my dreams, the one who I loved so dearly but I was sure didn't return his love to me.
I tore my eyes away from Helga and Godric, and suggested that we make our way back up to the castle, for there was much work that needed to be done on the inside. Salazar agreed, but Godric and Helga, the ever romantic couple, wished to stay and watch the sunset.
So, Salazar and I started up the walk to the castle alone, the journey held in a companionable silence, until we reached the steps and we looked back at the couple. "Don't they look happy?" I smiled, though I was feeling a little jealous inside. Salazar looked at me, and then at them. "I suppose so."
We padded though the entrance and into the great hall. Though the outside of the castle and its other buildings was finished, the inside still needed decorating. The only room that was finished was the biggest one; the Great Hall.
Godric and Salazar had worked together to put a charm on it, so it looked like the night sky, and the marble floor had been done before any of the other floorings. The wall was bare brick, and it looked lovely in my opinion, but there weren't any furnishings in the Great Hall other than the four beds positioned around the room on which we slept.
Thankfully, the beds did each have curtains around them, so we had a little privacy. My bed was the one in the furthest corner in the left from the door. I bid goodnight to Salazar and slipped into bed, pulling the thick curtains around myself.
I undressed quickly, pulling out my nightgown from under my pillow and getting dressed into it. It'd been a long day, and I had thought I had been ready for bed. I was wrong.
As soon as my head hit the pillow, my mind started buzzing with the strain of my affection for Salazar and the hurt because he didn't return it to me.
It might sound a little odd, but I know exactly when I fell for Salazar. It was the day when that warty hog (long story) told me where to set up Hogwarts in a dream. It was when I met his eyes as he leant against the doorframe.
It had me smiling just thinking about it.
I didn't stop smiling until I drifted off into the land of dreams.
The next day, I awoke feeling optimistic; everyone seemed happy and there was a lot of planning to be done. Weirdly, I like planning.
Helga conjured up a table for us all to eat around in the great hall, and I pulled out some blueprints from my trunk. "Obviously we need a library." I said, showing them the large room in the south wing of Hogwarts. "The Hospital Wing could be here," Helga pointed out the second largest room in Hogwarts, which was also on the ground floor. We spent a good half hour going through every room in the castle, but we also left a few empty. "Then the future students will be able to make their school." Godric beamed.
"What I was thinking was," I said, changing the subject slightly, "That there should be four houses of Hogwarts, like one for each of us. And we could pick some traits that we want the people in our house to have, and then we could hand pick them." My idea was well received, much to my joy.
"We could call the houses Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin!" Helga said chirpily.
At first, I was a little doubtful at this; I was so used to our surnames that it sounded a little weird to me. Then again, our surnames were quite uncommon; chances are the pupils will never have heard of them. So I smiled and agreed with this, praising Helga for her idea.
"We'll need house colours then, and mascots." I said, gathering up my papers and walking over to my bed. I didn't mention it to any of the others, but I had been planning that the school would be split up into four houses for quite a while, I'd just not had a chance to pitch my ideas with all of the building work.
The excited chatter from the Godric and Helga carried over all the way to my bed, and as I returned, they were fighting out over a colour. "Godric darling," started Helga, batting her eyelashes, but her tone was one of utter poison, "You know you have to be noble and let me have the colour yellow." Godric snorted and crossed his arms. "I don't have to do anything,"
I could sense a fight coming (maybe it was because of the venom in Helga's eyes) so I intervened. "One of you can have gold, one of you can have yellow," I said, rolling my eyes.
"I'll gold!" Godric seemed more than happy to take the compromise, and called it out as if he were a little child. "Because gold and yellow are so similar, you're going to need another colour too," Salazar said, crossing his arms and resting them on the table.
"Two colours each then?" I said, but I wasn't overly fussed. As long as I got a house which creative and intelligent students could be placed in, I was more than happy.
"I would like to claim the colours gold and black for the house of Hufflepuff." I rolled my eyes yet again as Helga outstretched her arms dramatically and gave a long, exaggerated speech about how Hufflepuff would be a house for those 'purest of heart'.
Eventually, she sat down, and Godric announced that for Gryffindor, the colours would be scarlet and obviously gold. I looked to Salazar to announce his colours next, but he gestured with his hands for me to go. "Ladies first," he said, smirking.
Despite having planned the house thing, I had only thought of one colour, dark blue. I hadn't factored into my planning that Godric and Helga would fight over yellow. I looked up to the ceiling for inspiration, and there it was.
The early morning sky was a deep royal blue in one part, but the sunrise from the west cast a bronze glow over another part, and the two mixed together perfectly. "Dark blue and bronze," I said, and Godric raised his eyebrows. "Fancy." He grinned cheekily. "Don't push it." I said, but I couldn't stop a grin from creeping slyly onto my face.
"So Sal, what's yours?" Godric asked. Salazar didn't like being called Sal, but since Godric was his dearest friend, he allowed it. However, he never gave Godric a nickname, since the closest thing to his name was 'God' and that would just make him happy, being called God.
"Slytherin shall dark green and silver, with the mascot of a snake." When he mentioned the mascot part, that got me thinking about Ravenclaw again.
The first mascot for my house that sprung to mind would be a Raven, obviously, but that would be a little stupid. My students would think that I didn't care about them, that I'd just made a mascot because it was in the name.
The second mascot that popped up was an eagle, for they were beautiful and intelligent creatures, just what I wanted my pupils to be like. The intelligent part I mean. I couldn't care less if the students were psychically beautiful or not; either way, I'd encourage them and help them realise their dreams.
"Ro? Rowena?" Helga snapped her fingers in front of my nose, pulling me back into reality. "Yes?" I replied, feeling slightly idiotic. "What will your house mascot be?"
I answered at once. "An eagle." Helga smiled, showing off her perfect white teeth. "Okay, so Ravenclaw will be an eagle, Slytherin a snake, Hufflepuff a badger and Gryffindor a lion."
It all sounded perfect. Just like I'd hoped.
Later in the day, after we had all gone down to the Hog's Head for lunch, I found myself in the library, or what was going to become it. Godric, Salazar and Helga had gone down to the Quidditch pitch to inspect it, but I had decided to come to the library.
Though I did enjoy an odd game of Quidditch now and then, there was nothing more important to me than the library.
Here in the completely empty room I could visualize what it would be like. There would be different sections located all around the room, with a large desk at the front with reference numbers to help you find books. The ceiling was much higher up than a normal room; it took up the room space in the floor above it. This meant that there could be high shelves accessible only by ladder, or a balcony which could hold a dark magic section.
I let out an excited little noise, which was oddly out of character, and started to walk around the room, wishing I had brought my blueprints to make notes. I reached a window with a little cove area, and sat myself in it, looking out across the grounds. I could just about see the others from here, but they were the size of ants.
One person who I could see though, who wasn't the size of an ant, was myself in the reflection. My dark hair fell around me in messy waves, and my grey blue eyes, that many had told me were intimidating, looked curious and intuitive. I had to admit, I wasn't beautiful in a way such as Helga, whose small stature and curves entranced almost any man, and whose blonde hair fell to her waist, but I was pretty.
Upon thinking this, I looked out of the window and towards the Quidditch pitch. The others had started their way back, the sky was darkening after all, and my eyes fell on Salazar, who was holding his lit wand out.
I sighed and leant against the cold wall harder. Was I pretty enough for him, or did he prefer Helga? Maybe he didn't care for either of us. Maybe he had a sweetheart back in England. He hadn't told me or Helga much about where he had come from. Obviously Godric knew all about him, but he never uttered a word about his friend's life.
Pressing my head against the ice cold glass, I noticed that it had started to rain, and my fellow founders of Hogwarts were running back to the grounds. Helga slipped over, and my eyes widened in concern, but Godric soon scooped her up in his arms, laughing, and starting running again.
I couldn't help myself wondering if Salazar would have done that for me.
A/N: Right, hoped you liked it and I know the Hog's Head wouldn't have been there back then, I just needed a place for them to all go. ;3
Thanks to Stars Fall at Midnight!