Hi!

This one is a bit different, not much craziness I'm afraid. My muse had been quite elusive lately. I think it will be at least two weeks before annother chapter. I started half dozen ideas that never went anywhere. This is the best I could come up with.

As usual, I'm French and have no beta so mistakes made are my own. Review are welcome! I hope you'll like this one, and if you don't you can tell me too, I like constructive criticism. If you have a prompt, feel free to share it too. Ideas are getting harder to find, so it might spur me in new directions and rekindle the flame.

Thanks to those who followed and favorited, it always makes me happy to see the notifications.

Have a nice day, or nice night depending of when you are :-)

Albus

Winter of 1012 A.C., Hogwarts

Master Salazar left in a fury. Albus, his elf didn't understand. Why his master was in such a rage? And why didn't he take him with him? Albus was hurt, and confused, and afraid. Master left a pair of barely hatched basilisks to protect the school. Why would he do that? It took him fifty years to hatch those, just to abandon them in the cold dungeons?

So, not knowing what else he could do, he took them to Helga. She wouldn't slain them like Godric, she wouldn't try to study them like Rowena, she would just find someone who could properly take care of them, and train them. Salazar wanted to make guardians out if his creations, but for them to become intelligent and not just mindless beasts, they needed to be taught.

Summer 1023 A.C., Hogwarts

The basilisks were growing strong. Albus was glad.

If only his master could come back and give him proper instructions on how to take care of his things. He left everything in his secret chambers when he stormed out, eleven years ago. He knew he was somewhere in the far west, beyond the see. Their bond was more and more strained, and Albus worried. If only he would talk to him, he could maybe figure out what happened. And mistress wasn't dead, she was in pain, he felt that in their bond too. But she didn't call him either, so he couldn't help her.

Still, the basilisks were growing strong, and soon they would be able to patrol the grounds on their own. Eaun was a good care taker and trainer, and Albus was happy to help him in this endeavour. They named the basilisks Gospatric and Matilda, one male and one female.

Fall 1023 A.C., Hogwarts

The school was bustling with life. Students were milling the grounds. Gospatric and Matilda were offering rides to the infants, who loved it. Euan was never far away, just in case. Parents who elected to live in the nearby village to be closer to their children were helping built a new wing to the castle. People were coming from far away to be taught by the three remaining founders, younglings and adults all the same. Godric, Rowena and Helga were helped by former apprentices turned teachers, as they couldn't face the demand by themselves. They were near a century old.

It came as a surprise when they saw the column of angry people march to them. The castle was in a remote location, specially to deter any idea of invasion. They had forewarning, of course, the castle had been positioned to have a good view of its surroundings, even if the thick forest had covered most of their advance.

Gospatric and Matilda had their first taste of battle, if it could be called that. They simply slithered between the attackers, who froze on the spot. They weren't mature enough for their eyes to be deadly, but they could petrify easily.

As simple as that, the two thousand and twenty-three combatants were neutralized. It was only a matter of collecting them, and grow enough mandragora to revive them one by one to interrogate them.

Summer 1026 A.C., Hogwarts

It took them more than two years to get to the bottom of it. Some wizard down south wanted their ruin. He recruited others to ensnare people and start a war against them.

It took as much time for Albus to convince Godric and Rowena to send a message to Salazar to come home, tell him he was right and that they needed him to defend the school.

The basilisks were a great advantage, but they got lucky, the enemy hadn't been aware of their existence. They had been revealed only the day of the attack. Their foe would be better prepared next time. Battle magic was heavily taught to the students and their families now.

Winter 1027 A.C., Hogwarts

Salazar had finally returned. Albus was so happy! But he was a changed man. He was sombre, paranoid, aggressive to anyone. Rowena's mind had been affected by her diadem's magic. She was haughty, so sure of her own self worth that she couldn't be bothered by the inferior mob of people walking on her property. Godric was only talking about battle and dying with courage, while chugging ale at an alarming rate. They were old, their bodies becoming frail, but it was like they were only younglings, their worst traits coming to the forefront to keep reason at bay. Only Helga kept a semblance of sanity, taking care of the grounds, feeding the ever-growing population taking refuge behinds the castle walls. Yet, she was obsessively doing so, neglecting any other duties.

Trouble in the south were growing unchecked, and the school and nearby village slowly but surely became a symbol of peace against the war brewing there. Albus knew it was only holding by a thread. Slowly but surely, every witches and wizards were becoming more and more… unhinged. The other elves were worried too, their masters magic was… Something was amiss, and if it could be ignored a decade ago, it surely couldn't now.

Albus knew that if no one reacted, all would be lost.

Spring 1027 A.C., Hogwarts

After months and months of tergiversations, Albus finally acted.

He told Salazar that his wife wasn't dead. She was suffering somewhere south.

And he went to France, to see Gaubert Flamel. Flamel was a friend of the Hogwarts' founders, the fifth unofficial founder actually. He was a great wizard, and wanted to keep travelling to unravel the secrets of the world. He helped create the school, stayed a few years at the beginning, and resumed his wandering, followed by two or three apprentices at a time. Albus knew that if someone could help them, it would be him. He exposed him the situation.

Summer 1027 A.C., Hogwarts

While Albus was away, Salazar had retrieved his wife. She was held hostage, and tortured by one of his former apprentices. Godric died, as three dozen witches and wizards that came with them. Ewain, the traitor, was maimed, but he managed to escape. In a fit of rage, Salazar burned the whole village, killing culprits and innocents alike.

Albus came back to those stories, and unrest amongst the Hogwarts and Hogsmeade inhabitants. Fear was growing. A pack of werewolves were lurking somewhere near, and a dragon had nested in the caves. Flamed arrived at the peak of the summer, with some of his former apprentices.

Spring 1028 A.C., Hogwarts

Finally, Flamel found something. Two of his apprentices had already fallen into the madness that was gripping the castle's inhabitants, but he found the cause. Someone had woven a curse into the dungeon's stones, a curse that was reinforced the more magic the walls were engorged with. It was vicious, subtle, pernicious. Elf's magic, different than the human one, wasn't affected.

They tore the castle down, stone by stone, cleansed them all, and rebuilt it better, stronger, bigger. It took them ten years, carving protective magic in every stone, layers after layers, each and every inhabitant involved into its creation. Unfortunately, none of the founders saw the new castle completed. Salazar sacrificed himself to strengthen the wards, his wife having killed herself two days prior. Rowena blew up in an ill-advised experiment, and Helga passed from old age in the middle of her parsnips' field.

Euan trained a score of dragons as protectors too, and the basilisks hatched younglings. Ewain perished trying to take down one of them. The new Hogwarts could house two thousand people comfortably, Hogsmeade having been abandoned to built one stronger hold. They fenced part of the woods, and called them the Wolf's wood for the full moon nights.

Two hundred years later, a new village named Heaven would emerge on the old Hogsmeade ruins, and become the heart of the magical British world for the next two millenniums. Hogwarts stayed a beacon of hope and knowledge, the magic woven in its very walls nurtured by every people walking its halls, calling forth the want for peace and harmony between all sentient beings.