The Founders' Legacy

Before 993 A.D.

Their work was completed, and yet it had just begun. The architects and workmen had left work today after a joyful celebration. Hogwarts was silent again, with its founders being the only inhabitants - but not for long. Tomorrow the first students would arrive, filling the castle with life. The four Founders gathered in the entrance hall. There was one thing left to do.

Rowena was the first to enter the Great Hall. The others remained outside. The full moon shone brightly from the enchanted ceiling, illuminating the four long tables. Rowena stopped in front of the raised platform at the end of the hall. Here, at this table will we sit tomorrow evening and welcome our students for the first time. The High table was empty except for a roll of parchment and a quill. Rowena took a deep breath and raised her arms. She called upon the four elements, creating the ritual circle. The air fizzed and whirled with the building magical energy. Then, when she felt the power reaching its peak, she began the incantation. The circle started to glow, shining in a bright blue light. Rowena tied the spell and released the circle. She left the hall without looking back. The quill on the table stopped writing.

The others outside weren't surprised to see her drained expression. Working a charm this complex was very exhausting. Rowena barley made it to the marble staircase to sit down. She raised her head and looked at Helga.

"Your turn."

Helga Hufflepuff entered the hall with a smile. She could hardly wait to see the tables filled with children. There would be only a few at first, but she was sure their number would grow.

When Helga finished her incantation and released the power, her knees went weak. She lay there on the stone floor, still warm from the energy and couldn't get up. After a while the door opened and Godric Gryffindor looked inside hesitantly. Seeing her on the floor he rushed inside and picked her up. Almost running up the staircase he called back over his shoulder for Salazar Slytherin to go next.

Salazar was impressed. He knew that Helga was a strong witch and she must have cast a very powerful spell to be in this state.

Once inside the Great Hall, Salazar raised his arms and began his incantation. He used Parselmouth, but the quill wrote down the spell just like it had Rowena and Helga's.

Godric Gryffindor was the last to go. In the Great Hall he could still smell the fresh paint over the slightly burned smell of magic. He tried to have a look at the parchment, but it appeared to be empty. Godric grinned. Of course, it made sure none of them could see the spells of the others.

When he had cast his spell, the quill stopped writing again and the parchment rolled up by itself. Later, when Helga felt better, they would seal it.

1612

Headmaster Ubertin Adelmus buried his head in his hands. An eerie silence hung over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry- the silence before the storm. He picked up the note on his desk. Its content wouldn't change, regardless how often he read it. The goblins were only five miles away from Hogsmeade and their leader had set his mind on destroying the wizarding headquarters there, which left Ubertin in a terrible situation.

Hogwarts was full of children and not all of them were students. Parents who had joined the fight had sent their younger children to Hogwarts with their older brothers and sisters, thinking this would be the safest place for them. And now the goblins were coming.

Ubertin had no illusions. If the goblins attacked Hogsmeade, the fight would spread towards the school.

"Hogwarts is the safest place on earth," Old headmaster Jorge Hawthorn had said when he took his farewell.

But was it safe against war?

"If you want to know the true nature of the wards protecting the school read the Founders' legacy," Hawthorn had told him.

Ubertin Adelmus straightened up. The school was in danger; he had to know. He got up, opened a chest and took out a fragile and old looking roll of parchment. After placing it on his desk with trembling hands he raised his wand. "Recludeo!"

The seal glowed and the parchment unrolled.

Three days later

Immensely relieved Ubertin put the letter down. The goblins had been defeated and in the next few weeks a peace treaty would be signed in Hogsmeade. The danger was over. He picked up the Founders' legacy again. The spells were intriguing and he wished he could study them more closely. After a moment of hesitation he picked up a quill and parchment and copied them. Then he rolled up the original and resealed it with a wave of his wand. He hid the copy in one of his books and returned the Founders' legacy to its place in the chest.

Thirty-seven years later

Venantius Valerian, the newly appointed headmaster of Hogwarts, looked up from the letter and frowned.

Headmaster Ubertin Adelmus had died a month ago after being hit by a stray bludger during a Quidditch match. The School Healer had declared heart failure as cause of death. The mood in Hogwarts was still low and Venantius felt rather uncomfortable being the new headmaster.

The moment when he had to pack up the old wizards belongings and sent them of to his family in Prague

was one of the hardest of his life. Now Ubertin's brother had written him. Apparently some books had gone missing on the way.

With a sigh Venantius leaned back. Time for supper. It felt so wrong sitting in that chair at the High table and he suspected that the staff and students could see the discomfort on his face.

Prague, summer 1995

Sophie Beresford left her small hotel in the old part of Prague. There was not a single cloud in the sky and it was already warm. She decided to have breakfast at the small cafe near Karl's bridge. Maybe she could visit the Muzeum Antonina Dvoráka later. Entering the cafe she choose a table at the window and ordered coffee. It was her last day in Prague and she would miss this place.

Sipping her coffee she watched the people passing outside. Old women with shopping bags, men in suits, carrying briefcases and groups of students dressed in T-shirts that read "Praha Drinking Team", who followed their teachers with varying degrees of boredom. The teachers were easy to spot; they all had their noses buried in guidebooks. Sophie could hear a large variety of languages; English, German, French, Swedish ... Prague seemed to be the capital of school trips this year.

Suddenly her eyes fixed on a small shop directly across the street. Strange, she had been here every day and she never noticed it before. There was no sign outside, but it was definitely a shop. Sophie could see the faint outlines of books in the dusty window. She blinked. She could have sworn that it wasn't there yesterday. Sophie paid her bill and walked over to have a closer look. The window displayed several old books, some with Latin titles, others English. It seemed to be an antique book store. How could she have missed it? Maybe they had some interesting pieces for her collection.

A bell sounded when Sophie entered the dimly lit shop and immediately the owner appeared from behind a curtain. He was looking rather strange, like he wanted his clothes to match his books. Instead of trousers and a shirt he wore some robe-like garment. Flowing white hair and a long beard completed the look. His eyes widened for a second when he saw her.

"Can I help you?"

There was only a hint of accent in his English.

"Thank you, I'm just looking around."

"If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you."

Sophie wandered around, picking up books here and there and placing them back. It was like paradise. The whole shop seemed to be dedicated to the occult and Sophie had been collecting old books dealing with magic for a long time.

She rounded a high shelf and reached for another book. It was stuck and she pulled harder. When it came free a single sheet of parchment sailed to the ground. Sophie bent down to pick it up. It was very old and the edges were frayed. Sophie had never seen something this old outside a museum. Curious, she started to read. There were four small paragraphs. The first two and the last one were in a medieval form of Latin, but the third one was unlike anything else she had seen. It was the same handwriting, but it looked like a different language or code.

Loud voices startled Sophie from her thoughts. She hadn't noticed someone else enter the shop. She looked through a gap in the row of books in front of her. Two men had entered. They were dressed in the same strange clothes as the shopkeeper; black hooded cloaks. The men argued with the owner. It appeared like they wanted something, but the old man simply shook his head.

"I don't know what you want!"

His accent was now more obvious and he looked frightened. One of the cloaked men turned around and Sophie's breath caught. He wore a mask. Quickly she ducked again. One of the men hissed a word. It sounded like "Crucio" and the shopkeeper screamed in pain. The other man started to search around. She could hear books being thrown to the ground.

Sophie had no idea what was going on, but she had to get out of here. She inched closer to the exit and then started to run for her life. The two men spun around; one of them shouted "Get her !", but she was already out on the street. She didn't dare to look around if they were following her.

Several streets away she slowed down and scanned the area. No one had followed her. She was still shaking when she returned to her hotel and thought about calling the police, but then she decided against it. Someone else would have done that already. There had been people on the street and they surly had noticed what was going on. No need to get mixed up in some police investigation when I have to go home again tomorrow she thought, suppressing the guilty feeling.

Sitting down on the bed she realised that she was still clutching the parchment from the shop.