The Founder's Secret Garden

Chapter One: The Secret Garden

Harry Potter didn't know what was happening. All he knew was that it was midnight, and something was compelling him to go to a part of the castle that he didn't even know existed. And for some reason he was following the pull. He couldn't stop even if he wanted to. Hogwarts was his home and he wanted, needed, to know everything about it.

He went through a large set of wooden doors that he had never seen before, even though he had been down this corridor a large number of times during his previous three years. He found himself in a large, cosy looking common room with hints of blue, green, red and yellow throughout. There were five doors coming off the room, four of them with portraits on them but the people in the portraits were nowhere to be seen. And another is a beautiful glass door, the wood around the glass panel looked almost like vines and some of them come in towards the centre and have carved wooden leaves coming off them.

From the looks of things it led into some sort of garden, and Harry felt the pull guiding him to it.

As soon as he opened the door, however, the world went black.

Harry woke to find himself laying on the soft grass of the garden. He wasn't alone, there were a fair few others waking up also. He looked around to find that the garden was neither small nor large, it was surrounded in beautiful, tall bushes that still produced tiny, pure white flowers and perfectly green leaves, despite it being September. In the centre of the garden was a large, round table surrounded by dark metal garden chairs that were intricately designed with metal flowers and leaves. There were lit lamp posts around the garden that provided enough light for Harry to see who else was there with him and notice all their confusion, fear, and nervousness.

"Well, it's about time you all woke up," they all jumped to their feet, wands in hand and pointing at the person the booming, cheerful voice had come from, or rather, him and the three others that were standing behind him, grins on their old yet serene faces.

"It is good to see you all have good instincts. Especially with what is to come," the other man said, a sly grin on his face.

Harry looked at the four of them, two men and two women. One man, the one who had the sly look, was wearing dark green robes with silver thread creating small, intricate patterns throughout. The other was larger than any of them and had a deep red robe on, this time the patterns were made using gold thread. One woman was quite short and had on a deep yellow, medieval style dress with black detailing on. The other was a bit taller and had on a deep blue dress with bronze detailing.

It couldn't be, could it?

"I can see from the looks on your faces that you have all either figured out who we are or are nearly there. I am proud of how smart you all are, even those of you who elect to hide your true intelligence from others," the woman in blue said and they all looked at her, and the other three, shocked.

"How?" many of them asked in awe and the Founders just smiled.

"That is a very good question, and before we answer I think we should all take a seat around the table. This is going to take a while and we should be comfortable," Helga said, a kind smile on her face.

Too numb with shock to do anything else, everyone took a seat around the table, with the four Founders taking the seats closest to the door. The seats were surprisingly comfortable. Harry found himself sitting between Neville and Salazar Slytherin.

Harry glanced around the table, truly taking in who was here with him. Neville, Fred, George, Cedric Diggory, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Luna Lovegood, Padma Patil, Terry Boot, Professor Snape (the only professor), Draco Malfoy, Daphne Greengrass, and Blaise Zabini.

"First of all, we should explain how we are here," Salazar said, his green eyes had a slight twinkle in them, "Before we died we created a ritual which would allow our magic and spirits to entwine with that of Hogwarts herself. Hogwarts is and always will be a sentient being, I do believe that all of you have in some way encountered Hogwarts herself at some point in your years here. But, as a result of this ritual, when we died we became ghosts of sorts. We are able to travel through the school without anyone seeing us, and when we are in our rooms or garden; which are hidden to everyone but those we wish to show them to; we are somewhat physical. We can touch, feel and move things, but we don't need to do all that living creatures need to do. We have all our memories from our times alive, and all memories we have created since then, and we are able to do some magic, though not to the extent that we could when we were alive due to a lot of it going into the wards and castle,"

"I can see the distrust in all of your eyes, and I suppose given all the rumours about Salazar it isn't overly surprising," Helga said from her seat in between Salazar and Rowena, she linked her fingers with Salazar's, "The things you have all heard about Salazar through the years, and about the people in his House, are all wrong. Salazar wasn't evil. Slytherin House isn't wholly evil. There are good and bad people in all the Houses. What you have heard about his opinions concerning Muggleborns is wrong also. He doesn't hate them. He doesn't want them dead. If anything, he wanted to save them,"

"At the time, as I know you are all aware, there were witch hunts. They happened all over the world, however, in Britain they were a lot worse than they were anywhere else, at that time anyhow. There have been a number of witch hunts over the years. The history books that are in circulation at the moment don't talk about how bad they really were here, but believe us when we say that they were worse than any of the things you may have heard about," Godric said, his eyes burning with anger, fear and pain.

"The main victims in these attacks were Muggleborn or Half-blood children. Many of whom were murdered, or tortured, or both, by their own families. Ourselves and many others did everything we could to save them. It is why we set up Hogwarts in the first place. As a safe haven from those who want to and will hurt us for what we are. And we were able to save many children and adults from the Muggles who feared and didn't understand us. But not nearly enough in our opinions,

"We set up the school in a way that would allow magical children to learn to control their powers in a safe place, a place that will always be there for them should they need it. Children who had nowhere safe to go would stay here all year round and we would look after them. Eventually the attacks stopped, when the majority of the magical population were hiding behind wards in their homes or at Hogwarts. But when children in Muggle households displayed magic they would be hurt, so we set about doing what we could to get them out of the place as soon as possible and bring them here," Rowena said, her voice haunted.

"Obviously not every Muggle hurt their children, but the majority of them did, at that time anyway. Hogwarts remained a safe haven as well as a school for a good couple of hundred years after our deaths. However, the Ministry decided to step in and model it after Muggle schools, with set years and lessons. Which wouldn't have been an issue really supposing they still saved children who were being abused even before they were of Hogwarts age. There is certainly enough room, and we set the school up so that thousands of people can reside here. And yet, the Minister of the time decided that family can't hurt family, so the children weren't allowed to be brought here until they were eleven, however if the children were being abused they were allowed to stay at Hogwarts all year until the age of eighteen. That is when the magical population started to decline, a lot of children were killed before making it to the sorting. A lot of which we could have saved. A couple hundred years after that was when the prejudice against the Muggleborns started as the Ministry was infested with Pureblood supremacists," Salazar said.

"We saw more and more of the Pureblood families demanding their children marry other Purebloods, and this slowly also led to the decline of population due to the effects of inbreeding amongst many of the families. Men's sperm counts were getting lower and lower, women's ovaries and wombs started declining in health so they were struggling to birth children. Male bearers were born less and less often. Female sires also. Magic was declining also, both for the inbreeding, and as we lost the pagan traditions to Christian ones,

"And then Dumbledore started teaching. He had the Headmaster wrapped around his finger even before he was Deputy. When abused children went to ask for sanctuary during the summer they were declined because Dumbledore got it in Dippet's head that they were either exaggerating, or that family couldn't possibly do that to them. So we started losing more children who would go home for the summer and were killed, unable to use magic to protect themselves due to a law he brought in that stopped children being able to use magic at home," Godric said.

"Of course if they did use magic to protect themselves they were expelled and killed by their family shortly after. When a child didn't return for the following year and he saw Dippet start to regret sending them home he would use spells to convince him they just decided to go to a different school. He is also the reason for the lost classes, he convinced Dippet to cut a bunch of them, then proceeded to cut more when he became Headmaster. He has been getting rid of books and storing them in his own collection also," Helga said.

"How do you know all of this?" Snape asked, his eyes looking shocked and sad at the revelations, everyone felt the same.

"We have been watching. We know everything that has happened in this school, and in the lives of our students, since we died. But we couldn't do anything to stop it. We are invisible outside of these rooms, and Hogwarts can only do so much. We have instead been biding our time until we found the perfect group of people to aid us in bringing the school, and the Wizarding world of Great Britain, back to the way it should be. What needs to be done… Unfortunately it can't be done by just one person. We need people from all backgrounds and with all desires in order to do what needs to be done. We have had people over the years who have done what they can, but it only lasted whilst they were alive. With this many people to help, though, and the many legacies that can come with it, hopefully it will last,"

"We are the group of people you think can do this?" Fred said, shocked at being recognised, let alone by the Founders of Hogwarts.

"Yes, Fred," Helga said, a small smile on her face, causing the twins to look even more shocked. There weren't many people who could tell them apart.

"Why?" Neville asked nervously.

"A number of reasons, young Neville. You have all, in a variety of ways, experienced things that no one should have to experience. Some things that none of you have told anyone about apart from the one man you assumed could and would help you, and yet he didn't. You are all survivors. You are all brave. You are all loyal to those you feel deserve your loyalty. You are all intelligent, even those of you who hide your true intelligence and abilities due to the things you have been through. You are all cunning and ambitious. All of you could have been in any of the Houses. And if you all truly knew each other, and not the fronts you put on to hide from the world, then you would all get on spectacularly well. You would all understand each other in ways no one else can," Rowena said, her eyes twinkling in the light of the lamp posts.

"As well as that, you are all magically powerful. More magically powerful than even you yourselves know. And you will grow more powerful when we have removed the blocks on you, as well as gain new abilities. You all also have experience with either Purebloods or Muggles, and therefore there is enough experience for you to know what needs doing and the ambition to actually do it. And all of your desires for the future are things that will help the world, the school, and the country to become the things it should have been all these years," Salazar added, a grin on his face.

"Then there is the fact that there hasn't been this many soulmates in the same country, at the same time, in hundreds of years," Helga said, a sly grin on her face, everyone looked at her, eyes practically bugging out of their sockets, "Yes, each of you have a soulmate in this room. You don't feel the connection because Dumbledore has been spiking everyone's drinks with a little known potion to stop it since he became Headmaster, just in case anyone were soulmates. Don't worry, we can release it soon. And Severus, you didn't think you stopped aging when you were seventeen for no reason did you? It happens when you have a soulmate who isn't of age yet, you stop physically aging until your soulmate is of age. And I know you use that glamour to stop people getting close to you and hurting you, but it would be nice if you actually used one closer to your actual looks,"

Everyone looked at the Professor in shock, the Professor hid behind his hair, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"As well as that, however, there was a ritual that was used a lot thousands of years ago, similar to the soulmate one, that bound groups of people together as found family. Many people had family members who died from war or illness and so, when they found people they came to consider family, they would do this ritual which bound them as family for eternity, like soulmates are bound eternally. It has been many hundreds of years since found families have been found in the same place, or found at all. The only reason you all haven't connected the way you should have is because of the people and circumstances in your lives keeping you apart. But you now have the time and ability to make that connection," Godric said, a large, beaming smile on his face.

"And besides all of that, none of you have had people truly believe in you. The real you, not the front you put on. I know what you all may be thinking, everyone believes in and loves Harry Potter, here," Salazar said, placing a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder, Harry looked down, a tad upset, "However, from what we have seen and heard these past three years, that is nothing but a lie. People love him one minute and hate him the next. And besides, they love the-boy-who-lived, not Harry. They love the hero he is hailed to be, not Harry. No one knows who Harry really is, who he really wants to be, because no one, except Neville, George and Fred, have truly taken the time to get to know him. Or at least as much of him as he lets out, he is very secretive," Salazar had a cheeky smile on his face as he spoke, though his eyes held a knowing, yet dangerous quality to them as he looked between Harry and the others.

"How exactly are we supposed to return Hogwarts, the country, and the world to what it is meant to be?" Draco said, "I mean, most of us are currently fourteen years old, what are we able to do?"

"Admittedly at the moment there isn't much you can do, other than train, learn all you can, and put together plans, setting some of them in motion, and others will have to wait until after you have all finished your education. But you can make a start, and we will be here to help and guide you all, of course. Even you, Severus. Despite how much knowledge and skill you have, the level of education here has been steadily declining for about a hundred years now, and the more knowledge all of you have the better," Rowena said.

"We want to train you all, in everything we know, both from when we were alive and from what we have learned in our time as ghosts," Godric almost squealed in excitement at having people to train again, but everyone around the table was just staring at the Founders in awe.

"However, we will have to make plans for the training another time. We have more important things to be doing tonight. For example, getting you all to open your found family bond, and unblocking all your magic and gifts," Salazar said.

"And how are we supposed to do those things?" Susan asked, a hint of nervousness and almost sorrow in her voice.

"For the found family bond you need to stand in a circle, holding hands, and let your magic flow into each other, thinking about what you feel a family should be. Thinking about what you want from a family. Thinking about what you need from a family. You also have to accept everyone into the family you are forming. I know many of you have had difficulties in the past. But I also know that a lot of those incidents were formed because of the masks you all wear, and should you drop those masks and actually get to know each other, you will all love each other. You are all pretending to be someone you aren't because you have no one to protect your true self, but now you will have people to protect your true selves," Rowena explained in a gentle voice.

"I feel like it is maybe best if we start with unblocking their magic and such since we are doing it in a way that will allow them all access to each others' memories, and ours. That way they will truly be able to understand each other, and know that they have more in common than they think," Godric suggested to the other Founders, not noticing how everyone else tensed when he talked about them seeing each other's memories.

"Everyone will see our memories?" Luna said quietly, a tear slipping out of her eyes.

"Yes, sweetie. I know you have all been through painful things that you don't want anyone to know about, but in order to truly understand each other, what you need to do and why, you need that knowledge. You also need it so that you can help each other with what you have already been through, as well as what you may still go through in the future. You will also see the memories we have from our time alive and any memories we deem adequate enough for you to see from the past, so that you know what to do. What needs to change. As you go through this your magic will grow to the power you are meant to have, and you will gain abilities that will help you look after each other, yourselves, and ones that will help you with what is coming. You will also gain immunity from mind control, any other potions or spells that may be used to change you or your magic in some way, etcetera. As well as some of our original powers, and the ability to truly speak to Hogwarts," Helga said calmly, with a sad smile on her face.

The four founders allowed the group a few moments to silently take it in and prepare themselves for what was to come. It would be painful for them. Not physically, but mentally and emotionally. It would also be draining, even despite the increase in their powers.

They all took a shaky, fortifying breath and looked at the founders rather than the table.

"Let's do this, then," Harry said, and the others nodded.

The founders smiled at them proudly, letting love and warmth exude from their bodies for these people who were so strong and powerful but didn't know it.

They would soon, though. And they will be the glue that holds their world together. They will also be able to help each other in all the ways that will be, or are currently needed.

They could do all they needed to do, and more.

The founders believed in them, and they were the first ones to truly do so.

Hiya my lovelies, I hope you are well!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry for all the dialogue in it but I couldn't think of a better way to write the stuff that needed to be written, but the next chapter will be the rituals to reveal their soulmates and release the bonds on their magics, etc.

I have a Facebook group called Maraudering_Paige which each and every one of you are welcome to join if you want to and are able. It is where we can talk about Harry Potter, fanfics, life, share memes and more. It is also where I will be sharing updates on what I am working on, both fanfics and original, plus a sort of update schedule. I will also be sharing any new ideas I have with all of you. So if you are interested than I will happily accept you all.

I hope you are having an amazing day!

Kind regards,

Paige xx