Chapter 139: A New Beginning
"What shall we do now?" Arabella broke the silence at the dining table. What had happen the night before felt like a nightmare.
"There's nothing we can do now." Sirius replied in a tired tone. The mischievous glint in his eyes was gone. His face was expressionless and unreadable.
"Both of you are not alone, we're all here." Elizabeth was sympathetic. The dining room in the palace was bright and spacious, with an aura of goodness, instead of the gloomy palace that Elizabeth had been living in for the last ten years. She had invited Sirius and Arabella to stay with her in the palace as her personal maid and bodyguard in title. After that fateful night, both of them had barely spoken a word in the last twenty-four hours.
"They had not died in vain, they saved us all. Without them, we won't be here." Godric said calmly despite his grief.
"They'll want us to carry on with our lives." Rowena added. "Although they're gone, they're always alive in our hearts." She gave Arabella a reassuring hug, eyes getting teary at the thought.
"All of you have to eat something." Godric reasoned. "By sitting here and mopping around, we're not going to achieve anything. What we can do now is to move on, do what they had set out to do in the first place."
"Dric has a point. We don't want them to die in vain." Helga whispered. She scooped a roll each onto Arabella's and Sirius' plates.
"Thanks guys. I've no appetite." Arabella stood up. "I'm going out for some fresh air, please carry on." She walked out of the dining hall towards the main entrance.
"Let me go instead." Sirius petted Rowena's left shoulder. She gave a nod of understanding and Sirius left and went towards Arabella's direction.
"What shall we do now?" Rowena asked the other three people left by the table.
"There's not much we can do other than being there and supporting them." Elizabeth sighed. "Six best friends gone, and trapped in a foreign place, it's really hard. The people who stay behind suffer more than those who are gone." The four set in silence for a few minutes before starting their dinner without much words being said.
X
"Bell, are you alright there?" Sirius called out as he spotted Arabella's backview.
"Yeah, guess so." Arabella kept her gaze in the sky which was dotted with thousands of stars illuminating the night.
"What're you thinking of?" Sirius now stood beside Arabella, looking at the direction of her gaze.
"Do you see that starry arch over there?" Arabella pointed at the four brightest stars aligned in a slight concave arch some distant away.
"Yes, do you think they represent something?" Sirius asked in a low voice.
"I think those are the star protectors of the magical community." Arabella said. "Only people with magical abilities can see them."
"But according to the legend, shouldn't there be seven stars?"
"That should be the case." Arabella nodded. "But if the star is within the person, it may only be released after the person dies."
"Are you saying that the four stars are Stefanie, Remus, James and Lily?"
"That's what I think." Arabella whispered. "I don't remember ever seeing these four stars before or learning much about them except from the children's story."
"Do you reckon the last three stars are within us?" Sirius asked.
"There's one within you, I'm sure about that. But I don't know about myself, it could be within me or Liz. And the last one should be within Salazar."
"What about Godric, Rowena and Helga?" Sirius asked. They were their descendents after all.
"I guess it's within the last incarnation. Like James is the descendent of Godric, and now that he's-" Arabella paused, not wanting to say the word. "I don't have magical power anymore, that's why I assumed it might be with Liz." She sighed. It was good to do magic again the day before, but now, her borrowed powers were gone. "Salazar is the sole descendent for that star at this point, that's why I thought the star should still be within him."
"Do you mean that it will only form the complete arch when we die?"
"Probably." Arabella shrugged. "That was our destiny." Both of them stood side by side for a long time, without talking, gazing at the stars ahead, deep in thoughts.
X
"I'll look for Zar first thing tomorrow." Godric was telling his plans to everyone that remained at the dining room.
"Then we will set up the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Rowena nodded firmly.
X
"There is a tunnel leading from Hogwarts to Honeydukes." Sirius suggested as he pointed to the bottom left side of the parchment. Tthe seven of them were now sitting around a large parchment, drawing the floor plan of Hogwarts.
"Honeydukes?" Elizabeth asked.
"Oh, I mean the restaurant Mrs. Puff." Sirius corrected. "It became a sweet shop named Honeydukes in our time."
"That sounds cool." Helga nodded with a smile. "I like that."
"And a path to the shr- I mean School of Zar." Sirius pointed out at a corner on the large parchment.
"That's nothing but an empty land now." Salazar said in a low voice. He was not used to the hospitality that everyone was showing him. Although his step-father, or that evil-doer, was gone for good, he could never revert to the way he was before.
"We can build up a house for you." Rowena volunteered.
"Your parents would have left you the land." Godric petted his right shoulder. "Don't worry about it, we'll help you."
"Thank you." Salazar said in a low voice, grateful that the only friend in his life was by his side. He would have thought that people would ostracize him after what he and his step-father had done, but Godric stood firmly by his side in front of the whole village.
"What's next?" Elizabeth asked as she looked up at Arabella and Sirius for ideas.
"Erm, the location of dormitories." Arabella suggested.
"I want Gryffindor house to be in a tower, entrance must be from one of the highest floor of the main building." Godric suggested, exactly at the place where Gryffindor was located in Hogwarts, before Sirius or Arabella even mention where it was in present time.
"Can mine be somewhere near the kitchens?" Helga suggested sheepishly.
"Slytherin house would be at the opposite end of Gryffindor." Salazar grinned at Godric. Since young, due to Salazar's competitive nature, despite being best buddies, they had always been competing with each other. "The furthest possible place."
"Ro, what about yours?" Arabella exchanged a look with Sirius. All three founders did get the common room position at the place where it ended up at.
"I would like mine to be at a tower, need not be as high as Dric's, but tower seems cool." Rowena blushed slightly at the mention of Godric's name.
"Exactly where they are in the future." Arabella gave a small smile as the memories of future Hogwarts flashed across her mind.
"I never dreamt that I'll be taking part in the process of setting up Hogwarts." Sirius grinned, not his usual bright smile, but an upward curve nevertheless.
X
"How do we create the Room of Requirement?" Sirius asked suddenly. It was a pity that the Marauders Map for Hogwarts was left in the future. That would be a useful gadget for their planning process.
"What is that?" Helga asked. The group was sitting in one of the meeting rooms in the castle, having a serious discussion on the setting up of Hogwarts. It had been almost a month since they first started creating the floor plan.
"It is a magical room that turns into a place for someone who is in need." Arabella explained.
"That room can be anything, even the Marauders" Sirius paused for a moment. "Can't plot it on the map."
"How are we going to create it since we don't even have the slightest idea on that?" Rowena asked, looking up.
"Since that exists in the future, we must have created it somehow." Godric commented. "So let's gather the villagers for help to build up the school."
X
"Take a rest from all the work." Arabella called out to the villagers who were playing a part to build up Hogwarts from scratch. As she was not able to perform magic, she contributed by dealing with the logistic side.
"Thanks." Sirius was the first to dash for the drinks and gulped down the contents within seconds. "Heavenly." The moment the cup was placed on the magical tray, it filled up magically with water again.
"Thank you." Elizabeth sipped down her drink. "This must be tough on you."
"What I'm doing is nothing compared to what you are doing." Arabella said as a matter-of-fact. "You're of royal birth, instead of living the luxurious life of a princess in the palace; you chose to help us to set up the school, getting all dirtied and everything."
"You're my incarnation, that wouldn't make any difference." Elizabeth whispered. In order not to get their names recorded in history, they used a different name in the public. Sirius Black named himself Syrius White, and was holding the title as Princess Elizabeth's bodyguard, while Arabella Figg was now known as Arabel Fitz, personal maid for the Princess. Other than the difference in hair colour, they appeared to be splitting image of each other.
"The whole thing is looking good, isn't it?" Godric commented in satisfaction as he looked at the walls that had been put up magically by the villagers who were hovering on their broomsticks.
"We should increase the height of the entrance a little." Rowena was calling out from her broomstick as she magicked another brick to be put on top of the current level. "It's the grand entrance after all."
"Alright." Helga levitated a brick off the ground with her as she flew from ground level. The royal family funded the resources while the villagers contributed their time and energy in the building process. "Ro, have a break before continuing." She called out to Rowena.
"I'll leave it to you then." Rowena smiled before flying towards Arabella's direction. Helga gave a thumb-up for a reply.
"This is going on faster than we thought." Arabella looked up at the building-in-progress castle. "The battle felt like yesterday but it was almost a year ago."
"I'm sure things will turn out to be much better in the future." Rowena smiled. "The future will be much better definitely." Both of them took a look at Salazar, who was talking with Godric over the stadium for flying sports.
X
"It has been five years, hasn't it?" Twenty-four-year-old Arabella asked Sirius. Five years ago, on this very night, was the death of the six people closest to them.
"I can still feel the pain and memory as though it just happened yesterday." Sirius sighed as he stood beside Arabella. They always looked at the night sky from one of the highest tower in the palace, to see the magical arch that reminded them of their loved ones.
"You know, I can't help but wonder sometimes how life is like two thousand years later." Arabella said wistfully. "Is there another group of us in Hogwarts? Are we living life without the destiny of saving the world?"
"I'm sure our future selves are in a better state than how we were last time." Sirius commented longingly. "Look at how magnificent Hogwarts is looking now." He pointed to the castle silhouette some distance away.
"It's amazing how we got the whole castle from scratch." Arabella smiled. The Hogwarts castle had almost completed their main building process, and now they were just doing the finishing magical touches and miscellaneous buildings. It should be ready within the next two years, and it looked exactly like how it would two thousand years from now.
"Now I know why Hogwarts is the best magical school ever." Sirius joked. "It has modern magic from two thousand years into the future for its construction. Magical charms and items that are not even in existence today."
"The best part was the Room of Requirement." Arabella reminisced how they created the room. "The future generation benefited from it thanks to you. No wonder all mischief-makers always seem to find that room."
"I created and dedicated it especially for such talents in the future." Sirius laughed. They had built to the level where Room of Requirement was located before planning on how to go about creating such a room. In fact, the plan for that room was one of the shortest ever.
"Now, how are we going to create the Room of Requirement?" Godric asked. They had finished the ground floor up till sixth floor of the building before gathering for ideas.
"Any spells or charms?" Helga suggested.
"I think it needs something more than spells and charms alone, probably serious magic." Rowena contributed.
"How do you activate the Room?" Salazar asked.
"By walking past the section of blank wall back and forth three times, concentrating hard on what is needed." Sirius answered automatically.
"Perhaps we need something from the brain, like mind power, brain juice, and all kinds of magical creature brains?" Godric suggested helpfully.
"Do you think we need someone with supernatural brain power? Like a telekinetic?" Rowena spoke her thoughts. "I would think we need something more than just normal magic, like something really extraordinary and powerful."
"Stef was a telekinetic, but my super power lies in my eyes." Sirius frowned while thinking hard. "Do you think it is created on the exchange of such magical powers?"
"How are you going to create a room with your eyes?" Helga asked. "As you said, the room can be anything."
"Maybe I can create it with my mind?" Sirius said more excitedly. "Perhaps we can all create it with our minds; it doesn't really exist to start off." He stood up from his seat in the palace's discussion room. "We can all focus on the area meant for the Room, I can try to enter your minds, and combine all our brain magic together to create the room. We can create the room in our minds."
"Wow, it sounds real tough." Rowena commented. "We can give it a try tomorrow, but that's going to be real exhausting."
"I think that should be the way. Since the method of activation is from the mind, the way of creating it should be from the mind as well." Salazar agreed.
"We should give this a try. It just sounds like the perfect way of creating this room." Godric nodded approvingly.
"The six of you have extraordinary magical powers. I've got a good feeling about this." Arabella supported enthusiastically.
"And the most amazing part was that it was created within two weeks." Arabella smiled fondly at the memory.
"That didn't work well." Rowena shook her head, collapsing onto the floor due to exhaustion.
"Maybe we should do a five-point arrangement instead." Godric suggested. "Retain the shape of a star and we can replace someone for rest once every eight hours."
"That's a good idea." Helga nodded. "It is like from the power of the stars above."
"Let's start with the rotation schedule." Godric led the group into planning the rest-time rotation.
"I reckon two weeks should suffice in the Room creation." Sirius said logically. "By two weeks, we should be really exhausted even if we don't get the room ready. Let's stop after two weeks, and come up with another plan by then."
"Oh yes, ten days." Sirius commented. "Try concentrating for ten days straight and see if your brain continues to function after that." The six of them took turns and sat in the five points with equal distance to the centre of the room and concentrated hard on imagining how the room looked like. As the room was created solely by the brain, it was not exactly solid, to put it simply. Hence, they built the strongest wall around to protect the room from any possible forms of damage.
"It was strange to see the room without the door." Arabella laughed when she remembered the first time they tried out the Room of Requirement.
"Let me try it first." Sirius spoke up excitedly the moment they completed building the surrounding brick walls to the Room of Requirement. He stood in front of the empty wall, closed his eyes and walked back and forth three times.
True enough, a door appeared magically in front of him. The seven of them erupted into a chorus of cheers, while hoping that the room was a success.
"Let's see." Sirius pushed open the brick door, and revealed a Gryffindor dormitory. "It works!" He looked around the round room, looking pensively at the tables and beds.
"This is exactly how I envisioned the Gryffindor dormitories to be." Godric looked around in awe, it looked better than in his imagination.
"This is how the Gryffindor dormitories looked like in the future." Arabella walked around clockwise, touching the bed closest to the door. "This was Lily's, then Stefanie, and mine, to Joey and Samantha. How I miss those times with them." Her eyes got teary at the thought of her roommates and life in Hogwarts.
"I guess we should continue testing the room." Sirius stood up from the bed where he was sitting in the last five minutes.
After a try each by all of them, they had asked some of the volunteers and villagers to test it. After slightly more than a hundred tries, only three failed. One man wanted a beach full of naked women, which was obviously not possible as the Room could not create human nor natural environment. Another was a little boy who wanted all the toys in the world. Since it was not necessary to create such a room in the school, no one had thought about it. The last was by Arabella, who was not able to activate the room, probably due to the lack of magical powers.
X
"Welcome to the official opening of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The King announced. All the villagers in Hogsmeade were gathered in the Grand Hall of Hogwarts, celebrating its beginning on 1st September. "We're proud to be the first in history to build the biggest magical school in the world. After seven years of hard work by everyone, we finally can get this school running from today onwards." He paused for a moment before continuing his speech.
Despite the grandeur of the place, they wanted to keep Hogwarts exclusive by keeping the publicity to the minimal. After more than a year of planning with the royal advisors, they derived the school's syllabus with all of them taking up various managing responsibilities.
"I shall now introduce the Hogwarts team." The King turned slightly to divert the audience attention to the group standing behind him.
"We will have Elizabeth Suidae as the Headmaster." Elizabeth walked forward with a big smile and bowed slightly. "She will be the overall in-charge." After her introduction, she moved to the side of the stage.
"We have Agenor Peverell, the Royal Advisor, who will now take up additional duty of being Hogwart's advisor." An amiable-looking man about sixty walked forward with a nod before moving off the stage.
"Next, we will have Godric Gryffindor, who will be the Head of Gryffindor house and teaching Transfiguration." Godric moved forward swiftly. "Helga Hufflepuff will be the Head of Hufflepuff house and teaching the subject Herbology." Helga took a deep breath and walked forward with a big smile. "Rowena Ravenclaw is the Head of Ravenclaw house and will be teaching Charms." Rowena walked gracefully forward the stage after the King finished his statement. "The final house will be Slytherin, headed by Salazar Slytherin. He will be teaching the subject potions." Salazar moved forward, showing the friendliest expression he ever had. There were slight murmuring in the audience but no one had any objections since the King had approved his title personally.
"These are the four houses in Hogwarts, and everyone will be sorted accordingly with your personalities." The King continued. "Other subjects that we are having include Defense against Dark Arts by Syrius White." Sirius walked forward confidently, exuding the charm of a twenty-eight-year old. "He will also be conducting Flying classes and in-charge of the sports in Hogwarts."
"Next, we've Arabel Fitz to teach Muggle Studies, to give us a better understanding of the other community we're living with. She'll also be conducting Astronomy classes for those who are interested." Arabelle walked forward with a smile. Although it had been more than ten years since she left Hogwarts without proper graduation, she was ready to teach the students all about muggles.
"We're thankful to all other contributors, suppliers, and volunteers who helped us to set up Hogwarts in the last few years. We truly appreciate for all that you have done to help us in educating the next generation of wizards and witches. Right now, please enjoy the feast lay ahead of you." The food appeared magically on the plates in front of them, with a large spread of chicken, pork, beef and vegetables.
X
"What a long day." Arabella took a seat in Rowena's bedroom in Hogwarts on a Friday night. "Can't wait for the Easter break to start."
"This is only our fifth year running the school and you're so tired." Rowena said half-heartedly.
"Are you alright?" Arabella asked. "You're not in your normal self today."
"Yeah, I'm alright." Rowena replied automatically.
"No, you're not." Arabella got up and took a seat beside her on the bed. "What happened?"
"I-" Rowena sighed. "I don't know."
"It's alright. We're here for you if you ever need someone to talk to." Arabella gave her a reassuring hug. "Have a good rest tonight. We can talk when you're ready." She stood up and started heading towards the door.
"I'm pregnant." Rowena whispered inaudibly.
"What?" Arabella turned around in shock.
"I said, I'm pregnant." Rowena looked on the floor, as though it was the most shameful thing ever said.
"How- I mean whose?" Arabella splattered.
"Dric's."
X
"Are you kidding me?!" Salazar practically shouted.
"How could something like this happen?" Sirius was reprimanding Godric. "You could have use protection, like transfigure a functioning condom or something."
"We did, I don't know, it just happened." Godric sighed. "What should I do now?"
"The only thing is to marry her." Sirius said. "Her reputation is at stake and it's your fault."
"B-but I don't love her." Godric said helplessly.
"Then why did you do it?" Salazar asked.
"It was like we drank a little too much during Christmas. I don't know how, but it just happened." Godric sighed in defeat. "I guess I don't have much of a choice now."
X
"At least he's taking responsibilities for his own actions." Elizabeth commented. It was three weeks since Rowena discovered her pregnancy. In haste, Godric and Rowena had a simple wedding in Hogwarts Hall a week ago on Valentine's weekend.
"I can't believe he could do something like this." Helga said. Elizabeth, Helga and Arabella were hanging out in Elizabeth's bedroom on the weekend since the students were out in Hogsmeade for the day.
"Love is complicated." Arabella commented. "It's hard to find a guy whom you love that can love you back unconditionally."
"I know. That's why we're still single in our thirties." Elizabeth laughed. She had princes from many regions coming to ask for her hand in marriage but she was simply not interested. Instead, she chose to dedicate her life to Hogwarts, spending all her time and effort in creating a better educational institute for the future.
"We all knew that Dric likes Liz, but how could he still do that to Ro." Helga shook his head.
"I won't reciprocate his love, especially now he is a married man. It's just wrong to betray my friend for a man like him." Elizabeth said as a matter-of-fact. "I guess fate has a way with people."
"On a brighter note, should we go for lunch in Hogsmeade? I'm craving for some Mrs. Puff pastries." Arabella suggested.