Chapter 4 – "To Hogwarts"

"Bugger," Rowena muttered as she hung by her left hand from the railings while struggling to reach into her robes for her wand with the other. A shadow fell across her face as she realised that Salazar was tentatively climbing over the railings himself to reach her. His normally rather pale face was now completely white. "Go back. I can manage," she said as she fumbled to find her wand.

Salazar ignored her protests. He crouched down, one hand keeping a tight grip on the railings while the other reached down to grasp her left arm. "I've got you," he said breathlessly as Rowena finally succeeded in pulling free her wand. "I won't let you fall."

Rowena smiled as she pointed her wand downwards. A rush of air beneath her cushioned her as she rose back up to the balcony.

"Why didn't you just levitate me back up?" she asked quietly as soon as they were both back on the correct side of the railings. "You didn't have to climb over to reach me."

"I didn't think," Salazar admitted in a whisper as he held her close. He was shaking slightly though Rowena didn't know if it was an after effect of his fear for her or his fear of heights. "I panicked."

"Are you all right?" Helga called up from below, Godric echoing her concerns as he ran onto the balcony.

"We were too far below to risk trying anything ourselves," Godric said in an apologetic tone. "If we'd hit Salazar with a spell instead of you, you could have fallen. We couldn't see whether he was keeping you from falling or whether you had a steady grip on your own."

"There's no need to explain," Rowena assured him. "I was foolish."

"I'll say you were," Salazar hissed, his fear now giving way to anger at her reckless actions. "That's the sort of thing I've come to expect from Godric. I can't take it from you as well."

"I'm sorry," whispered Rowena as Godric called down to Helga that they were both safe and unharmed.

"What were you trying to do anyway?" Salazar asked.

"I had an idea about the problem with the staircases," Rowena explained. "Let's go downstairs and I'll show you what I have in mind."

"Don't you think that's a little dangerous?" Helga asked after Rowena had demonstrated her idea. "What if some twelve year old is on the stairs when they start changing?"

"It'll reinforce the importance of the rule about no running," Salazar suggested with a smirk.

"That's not funny," Helga snapped.

"It could work," Godric mused, his mind processing the possibilities of Rowena's idea. "Take that corridor with the rooms that we haven't allocated uses for yet. We could use that for our stores and only have the stairs go there once a week. Better security against sticky fingered students."

"But what's to stop some enterprising student from moving the stairs themselves?" Helga asked, clearly not as enthused about the idea as Godric and Rowena were.

"No one but us can alter the structure of the castle itself," Godric answered, as though this was self-explanatory to anyone. "We own the land and only we can build on it with magic. It's in the paperwork and, more importantly, in the spells we've put on it."

"And after we're gone?" Helga questioned.

"Then the premises will be in the keeping of the Headmaster –"

"Or mistress," chimed in Rowena.

"…Or mistress," Godric continued with a roll of his eyes, "and only they will be able to alter the structure of the building in any fundamental way."

"Are staircases counted as structure?" asked the still apprehensive Helga.

"They are in this building," Godric answered, "at least for the purposes of this sort of magic. No one will be able to alter the stairs except for us, and the Heads who follow after. We could probably even fix it so that they simply continue moving in sequence after we're gone with no interference or help from our successors."

"I like the idea," Salazar replied. Godric turned to him and raised an eyebrow in question. "As long as I know what the sequence is, so I'm not on them when they start to move," he added.

"So we're agreed?" Rowena asked, eager to get started. Helga finally gave a cautious nod, and Rowena set to work.

By the end of the day the castle was starting to take shape. There was still only one tower built but the first floor and most of the underground chambers were completed. They had gone through the rooms they had created one by one, furnishing them with items from storage.

"It looks just like a real classroom," Rowena squealed after they finished decorating the first one.

Salazar and Godric rolled their eyes at her reaction.

"Just like a real classroom," Godric repeated. "Imagine that?"

The four friends ended the day sitting near the side of the lake, watching the sunset and eating the supper Helga had prepared for them.

"It's really happening, isn't it?" Helga said as they looked at the castle. The grey stones were glowing orange and red in the light of the setting sun.

"It's really happening," Rowena confirmed. "Our own school, at last."

"To Hogwarts," Godric said as he raised a goblet of nettle wine.

"To our school," Helga added as she raised her own goblet.

"To our dream." Salazar raised his goblet too.

"Did I really agree on that name?" Rowena asked.

"Yes," the others answered in unison.

"To the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry that the world will ever know!" Rowena said and raised her own goblet.

They drank to their future school and dreams as the sun finally disappeared beyond the horizon.