Moon and Stone

Salazar woke a few times to healing potions and the vague thought that it didn't usually take this long for him to heal before he finally woke with a clear enough mind to look around the room for Helga. But she wasn't there. Nor was Godric or Rowena. Salazar tried to fight back the disappointment. They had other things to do, students to deal with. And werewolves. His stomach twisted. He didn't like the thought of however many werewolves were now resting in the school, but he unfortunately wasn't in any condition to do anything about it now.

A slight movement caught his eye, and he turned to see a form he hadn't noticed before. Still not his friends, but-- "Meghan? What are you doing here?"

"Professor Hufflepuff asked me to bring you food, and give you this potion when you woke, and tell her how you were."

"I ssuppose sshe's sstill bussy, then..." He supposed the girl made sense. She and Sarah were the only students who knew about his...condition, which would be hard to explain to the students who were probably told he'd been injured in the battle. But he very selfishly wanted his wife there. "You may tell her I'm fine."

"I think she wouldn't quite believe me," Meghan said seriously. "She is very busy. I could see she'd rather have come herself."

He smiled faintly. "Tell her I'm as well as can be expected, then. How is...everything?"

"Strange."

"We need to work on your ssspeaking ssskills, clearly."

Meghan blushed, which made him realize how pale she'd been before. Now, if that was on his account, he wondered uncharitably, how bad was she about the rest? Then he brightened. At least Meghan wouldn't tell him not to worry. "Well, the corridors are still not quite in the same places, and the other teachers all look tired. Not as tired as you," she added, "but I don't know if anybody's caught up resting since the Dementors."

"What about the...prissonersss?"

"They've probably slept more than anybody else?" Meghan offered with a tiny attempt at a smile.

Salazar hissed softly. "I don't blame them. They were closser to the Dementorss. Do you....know how many there are?"

"Fifteen. No... fourteen. One died this morning." Meghan swallowed. "And they've been sleeping partly because... they're charmed to. Professor Hufflepuff said it was gentlest, and safest for now."

"Ssssssafe. Good. They sssshould be careful." Salazar closed his eyes again briefly and sighed. He was sorry to hear one had died, though a small part of him whispered it was just as well. He pushed that part aside firmly and opened his eyes to look at Meghan. "You sssaid you were here to bring me food and potion too?"

She went red again and moved the tray toward his bed, then hesitated. "Do you need help sitting up...?"

He shook his head, braced himself, and sat up in one quick motion that drained his face of all color. He breathed in short gasps for a moment, then managed a shaky smile for Meghan. "Sssssee?"

Meghan regarded him with rather worried wide eyes, set the tray carefully across his lap, and then hastily moved to rearrange the pillows so he could lean back against them. "I... see."

Salazar lifted the small goblet that held his potion first, making a face at the smell before downing it resolutely. As he started picking at the food, he asked Meghan, "How are the sssstudentss dealing with everything, other than being tired?"

"...Staying away from the passageway to that part of the school, mostly."

"A very fine idea. No lasssting effectss from the Dementorss?"

"Still some... dreams. Sarah says feeling cold is part of it too."

"Yesss. It will go away eventually. Try telling pleasssant sstoriesss or jokess, or jusst be together. It will fade fasster."

She nodded. "Thank you. We'll try." She was hovering, a little too tense, and watching him eat. "I hadn't known Dementors could be destroyed that way...."

"Nor I, frankly. I've never heard of anything but Patronussses. But your professssorsss are very creative."

Another tiny smile. "I'd noticed."

Salazar picked at his soup listlessly. He wanted Helga. "How isss William?"

"Professor Hufflepuff's been keeping him with her." Meghan paused. "I could ask her to let me bring him here? Or would you rather wait until she can?"

"I..." Salazar wavered briefly, his desire to see his son warring with fatherly protective instincts. Finally he said reluctantly, "Bessst wait. Don't think I can even hold him now."

"Oh. Well... I'm sure she'll bring him as soon as she has the chance?"

"I know." Not soon enough. "Don't worry about it."

Meghan nodded obediently and continued to hover, observing his slow progress with the soup until he inquired, "Did ssshe tell you to report how much I ate, or are you hungry?"

"What? I -- no! That is, well, she did say to make sure you stayed awake long enough to finish it...."

"Wide awake," he told her with another faint smile, followed by a yawn. "Sssee? But I think ssomeone sslipped ssleeping potionss in my ssoup."

"...She said you were more tired than usual this time."

"Jussst a sside effect from the Dementorss. Don't worry."

"It's hard not to," she said softly. He barely heard her.

"I know it mussst be frightening for all the sstudentss, but the danger iss over, and you've sseen that you ARE ssafe here, even if there are thosse who would ssseek otherwisse."

"I'll try to remember that, sir."

He took another shaky spoonful of soup, aware of Meghan's surreptitious glances and feeling unaccountably frustrated. He knew the girl found him intimidating despite all their efforts, but an angry flobberworm could do more damage that he could right now! He looked over at her and snapped, "Thiss is the time of month you can be MOSSST calm around me, you know."

Meghan jumped and opened her mouth, looking very distressed, and then closed it again for a few seconds before saying in a very small voice, "..I hadn't even thought you'd try to hurt me."

"Then why do you keep acting like I'm about to bite you?"

"I didn't think I was...."

"You're acting nervoussss. As ussual, but...you don't have to be nervousss around me. I'm just a professsor."

Meghan bit her lip. "You're still one of... them. The wizards from back home, I mean. But I -- I think I've grown used to that, mostly...."

Salazar leaned his head back against his pillow and sighed quietly, his appetite gone. "Meghan, I haven't...been one of them for a very, very long time." There was a hint of pain in his voice, but mostly resignation.

"I know you've not been back there, but.... I think that scared me at least as much as finding out you were a werewolf did, at first. And I do know that -- that you don't act like them -- they wouldn't have taught me."

Salazar considered this for a moment, then admitted, "They might have, if you'd been willing to renouncce all your tiess to the Muggle community. But they probably would never have even known you were magical. They wouldn't have noticced you enough for that." If not for him. His mouth twitched in a bitter smile. "But at leasst they'd ssstill recognize you as human."

"I wasn't ever sure if they thought Muggles counted in the first place."

"Lesssser humans. But sstill human. They never ssought to...exterminate the Muggle community, did they?"

"It wouldn't be there if they had."

"Preccisssely."

She lowered her eyes. "But they don't think you are." A moment later she looked intently at him and asked, rushing the words, "Do you think that? That we're -- that Muggles are lesser humans?"

Salazar was silent for a long moment, considering his words carefully. "I did, oncce. I never thought that it could be otherwisse. I never knew Muggless, and didn't quesstion what I'd been told. And...during my yearss before coming here, I learned only that Mugglesss could be dangerouss." Another bitter smile. "But then, ssso could wizardss." He sighed, ripping off tiny pieces of bread and dropping them in his soup. "But then I came here, and I ssaw that people could be good again, whether they were of old magical families or the firsst in their familiess with ssuch a talent." His smile was less bitter, thinking of Rowena, who hailed from a very old family, but Muggle aristocracy, not magical. "I'm...ssstill not ssure what I think entirely. I'm sssorry I can't ansswer you better."

"You answered. You could have told me not to be impertinent."

"I'm a teacher. We like quessstionss." His smile was more genuine now.

Meghan smiled back, though Salazar still thought she looked too pale. "But you don't have to like personal ones. Thank you."

"All learning iss valuable. And I think you're more entitled to mosst to the ansswer. I did ssseek only magical-born for my Housse, but not becausse I thought Muggle-born were...lessss."

She frowned over this a little, and gave his soup a significant look. Salazar swallowed the unexpected urge to laugh and dutifully tried to swallow more of his meal as well. "Why is it, then?" Meghan asked finally. "It doesn't get you out of teaching the very beginning things...."

"Sssafety," he said quietly, stirring his soup. "There are sso many Muggles who are terrified of magic, and who would sseek to harm any wizards they could. Children are esspecially vulnerable, and I would rissk no chancce of harm to you if I could. The others didn't agree. I have taken ssome Muggle-born ssincce, but...it iss a hard habit to overcome."

"I think they would have a hard time getting in here, if they meant harm." Meghan folded her hands together in her lap and stared at them as she added, "And wizards can be just as dangerous as Muggles, after all."

"True enough. I did sssay sso." Salazar turned up sodden bits of bread in his soup as Meghan continued to watch him. "Muggless wouldn't be likely to sset Dementorss and werewolvess on uss, after all." He picked at the remaining dry piece of bread and shredded more of it into the bowl. "When I ssaid... the wizardss back home would never have known you were magical... I ssusspect they do now. The one who attacked uss... knew me. He wasss angry with me -- he ssssaid for 'sssharing our sssecretsss' with outssiderss." Meghan had gone very white. "Jussst in casse he learned of you, we're sssending to bring your family here." He found it in himself to smile rather fiercely. "And we sshall alsso give warning that any further hosstilitiess and they will never be left to themsselvess again. I think they will keep him in hand, for the ssake of being left alone."

He could see the girl relax, though he was familiar enough with tension that wouldn't go away to see some of that in her even so. "Thank you," she said softly. "For -- for fetching them. I'm glad...." Meghan blinked hard; Salazar realized it was to stop tears. She conquered them, at least for the moment, by asking, "Are you, though? Sharing secrets, I mean?"

The question startled him into laughing. "Sssome, I ssupposse. For potionss-brewing, at leasst. If there are any on other ssubjectss better than what the resst of your teacherss have got, I don't know them."

She jumped when he laughed, but then smiled a little and looked down at her hands, then up at him again with a serious expression. "I'm sorry I've been nervous. It's -- it is strange here now -- and more so having you like this still -- and Professor Hufflepuff sent me to help, but I don't really know what I'm doing, not like Sarah would."

"I ssupposse Ssarah iss needed to help our...new guessstss. Don't worry." Salazar tried to smile reassuringly. "I don't actually need any healing now. Jusst resst."

"And food. Professor Hufflepuff was very insistent about that."

He chuckled softly. "I think Professor Hufflepuff jusst likess a sssturdy hussband."

"Well, you like to oblige her in that, don't you sir?"

He eyed her and took a large bite. "Yess. But you needn't look at me like I'm dying if I haven't eaten every drop yet."

"If I thought you were dying, I would run for Professor Hufflepuff to come and stop you."

"Ssee? You know what to do as well as Ssarah."

She smiled a little. "Maybe for that."

"You can relax. I won't be dying today." He smiled at her, though there was a hint of a shadow in his eyes. "I have too much sstill to do."

Meghan finally stopped hovering and perched in the chair by his bed, eyes troubled. "I hope you don't finish it too quickly, then."

He smiled faintly and finished his soup. "Don't worry."

"And tell pleasant stories?"

"Sstories are alwayss good."

"I'll try." She moved the tray aside. "Do you want me to put the pillows back down?"

"Mmm. Yesss, thanksss."

It wasn't nearly as graceful as when his friends did it all at once and by magic, but Salazar supposed she really couldn't be too worried about his attacking if she wasn't afraid to lean in and rearrange all the pillows again by hand.

...That was nice. People not fearing him had become very precious to him over the years. Perhaps...there was hope yet, for him and for those werewolves in the infirmary right now.

Not such a bad legacy to leave behind.

Salazar closed his eyes and leaned back on the rearranged pillows. He'd been thinking about his legacy a great deal lately. Perhaps...there was something he could do about it.

*****

"You want to do what?"

Salazar beamed at his friends, practically bouncing in his eagerness. "Enchant an object with our minds to do the Sorting for us. I've been working it out for days. Just think -- it'll Sort even better than us because it can read the children magically! And even after we're gone, we'll still be able to have our Houses chosen as we would want."

Helga frowned at him. "You been thinking about this for days and never mentioned it to me?"

"Well...you've been busy getting the werewolves set up and I've just been lazing around in bed. I had to think of something."

"And I suppose you wanted to work all the details out first? I'm still surprised you didn't say anything."

"The few times you weren't worn out when I saw you...that wasn't what was on my mind."

She colored slightly and smiled at him. "Mmm, well...it just seems a little redundant to have an object trying to sort the children into Houses when we choose the ones to come anyway. When's the last time we changed our minds about a child once he actually arrived?"

"That's worked for the ones we've chosen, but even now we have friends and acquaintances sending us children," Salazar countered. "We have to sort those once they've arrived as it is, and as things expand we'll have former students sending even more. That may even be the way we recruit completely in the future."

"I've been working on a charm to find all the magical children in the isles," Rowena told them, with evident enthusiasm and her eyes unfocused in the direction of the far wall.

"And we've been wanting to expand," Godric mused. "It takes long enough to sort just a few unexpected students. But I'm not sure how a spell like that would work. Can we trust any enchantment to know what we'd want? We can enchant behaviors, but we can't make it think."

Salazar leaned forward. "It's possible to give an object a mind. Our minds."

Rowena's eyes lit and she cried out excitedly, "Of course! Put a bit of ourselves into it and it would make whatever choices we would!" She grabbed her husband's hands and danced a bit eagerly. "I don't think it's ever been done before. Think of the challenge!"

"I've been working it out as far as I can in my own mind." Salazar gripped the edge of the table. "There'ss no reason it shouldn't work. And we work together well enough --"

"So there's no reason why our minds shouldn't as well." Godric rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He was technically the charms expert of the group, though by this point they'd intermixed each others' specialties enough that it barely mattered. "I think..." A broad grin. "It just might work."

"Of coursse it would."

"Don't sound so insulted. It's not worked out in my head like it is in yours yet. But since you've worked it out so nicely, tell us just what we'll be putting our minds IN."

Salazar frowned. "Well... I didn't get that far. It should work with any object, in theory -- so should giving it a way to look into their minds and give its decision -- they'd need to touch it, that's all...."

"So we could just enchant a...quill or something?" Rowena asked. "It could look into their minds, then write out their House!"

Helga smiled and suggested, "Maybe something a little sturdier?"

Rowena hmphed. "We could enchant it for that."

"We'll be enchanting it enough as it IS, though."

Godric grinned. "I have the perfect solution."

"NO rocks," Salazar warned. "We want children to be able to pick it up!"

"Oh please. We put a rock in the middle of the Great Hall, they walk up and put a hand on it. Nice and sturdy. But anyway, that's not what I was talking about." His grin broadened as he plucked the hat off his head and plopped it on Salazar's. "Light enough for you?"

Salazar scrunched his face up, causing Helga to giggle, and removed the hat, which he regarded with distaste. "You do realize," he pointed out, "that this thing is hideous?"

"But comfortable," Godric dismissed the objection easily, used to the argument. "And anyway, it doesn't have to be pretty to work."

"No, but it's looked as if it might fall apart ever since it was made." Salazar frowned at it dubiously. "If this is to choose when we're gone, I'd rather it actually outlast uss."

"It's not charmed, but it's made out of some sturdy stuff, I promise. It'll last a thousand years at least, I promise!"

"What is it, then?" Helga laughed. "Dragonhide?"

"My sssecret," Godric replied in a passable imitation of Salazar's Parseltongue accent, making the other man snort.

"If it has intrinsic magic in it, we'll have to take that into account." Rowena took the hat from Salazar and peered into it, twiddling the brim between her fingers and then giving it a sudden yank. "Hm. Well, I suppose it is sturdy. At any rate, it could interfere with our magic, otherwise. With it in mind, though, we should be able to hang ours on the intrinsic magic and make it a good deal stronger...."

"Griffin hide, actually. Someone's idea of a joke. They apparently have very sturdy skins under the feathers." Godric shrugged. "There's nothing about it that shoulde interfere with our magic, and I think it's a perfect form. The children can just put the hat on and it can see straight into their minds!"

"Well," Helga said thoughtfully, "at least this would keep you from wearing it all the time."

"We'll use it," Rowena and Salazar said in chorus.

"Hey, what makes you think it would keep --" Godric stopped. "Ah. Of course. It would share your opinions, wouldn't it."

"Besides," Rowena pointed out with impeccable logic, "you can hardly wear it all the time if we're going to use it for the sortings."

"I could take it off for them," Godric grumbled. "But I couldn't live with you three chattering in my ear all the time. Ah well. I can find a new hat."

"Godric, you are my husband and I love you very much," Rowena told him, kissing his cheek, "and I will find you a new hat. You'll just end up with something else that looks like THAT!"

"That's the whole POINT!"

"I thought you wanted it to be comfortable."

"That one IS comfortable." But he swept her up in a quick, hard kiss and grinned. "I'll take whatever you give me, wife of mine. Now Salazar, how do we go about doing this enchantment of yours?"

*****

Four days later, Salazar had called the other three in to gather around a deep cauldron filled with something bright white and faintly glowing that he said was a potion for holding thoughts.

"It looks," Helga observed, "very like milk."

"I promise it won't sour." Salazar rolled his eyes, smiling, then pulled her against his side and kissed her. "Or not quickly. We can place memories and thoughts in it and let the hat steep in them."

"Amazing." Helga leaned over the cauldron and studied the ingredients from only a few inches away. "So that's how we'll give the hat our minds. But how do we put our thoughts IN it?"

"Eassy enough." Salazar pulled out his wand and touched it to his temple. When he pulled it away, silvery strands were attached. He touched it to the potion, which glowed brighter for a moment before returning to its original color. "It's simple. Just be sure not to remove the memories permanently."

They stared at him. "Do you think," Rowena asked after a moment, "that you could go into a bit more detail on that procedure?" She eyed the potion with interest. "Of course, I suppose it might be possible to do much the same as in writing the thoughts down...."

He laughed. "That's exactly the idea. Just hold a thought firmly in your mind and think of writing it -- speaking it, whatever you prefer -- as you hold your wand to your head."

"Very clever," she said approvingly. "Does it require anything physical from us as well?"

"It will, but not yet. To sseal the spell in the end it will require something physical, but I haven't decided what yet." He grinned. "No body parts, though. I had to prevent that from affecting things, or we'd end up giving it the personality of the griffin."

Godric laughed at that. "Definitely not a good idea. Griffins are touchy. So." He stared the potion speculatively for a long moment, a small wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows, then touched his wand to his own temple and drew out something that looked remarkably like a spiderweb until it all came free and collapsed into a single strand.

"That looked like a complex thought," Rowena said. "What was it? Or what were they?"

"Not complex enough, yet." Godric smiled at her. "About all of you."

"Oh dear. I'd best put something in immediately to counteract it, then." Rowena smiled warmly at him, touched her own wand to her temple, and concentrated for a moment until a silver strand attached to it. "That should even things out."

"I had it in mind that we would define ourselves," Salazar pointed out, "not each other. Though I suppose this could have interesting results...."

Godric clapped him on the shoulder and grinned. "There's little that defines me more than the three of you, Sal. That's the first thing I'll put in to anything."

"And anyway," Helga said lightly, "I think we have a higher opinion of you than you do sometimes, Salazar. If we contribute to what the hat knows of you, you should be pleased."

"I DO want it to be accurate, my dear."

"Then you should be pleased all the more," she retorted.

"I'll just be sure to counter your version with the truth," he told her with a light kiss. "At any rate, it needs to ssoak for twenty days, so we can add thoughts as we think of them. Try to concentrate mostly on what you want your House to mean."

Rowena nodded, which Salazar missed entirely while looking at Helga. Rowena cleared her throat. "And after that?"

"Oh. Well, that sshould leave it with the ability to think -- it's not as if magic doesn't tend to make personalities a little contagious anyway -- and then it will need the ability to look into their minds, to speak, and... I wass thinking a direct connection to the sschool." He looked from Rowena to Godric. "Land and stone and sspirit."

"Aye, a good idea. It's to be part of Hogwarts, for now and always. I can take care of that part. Helga's always spoken for the school from the beginning, so that'll be her part, I imagine?"

"Leaving the mind-reading for me," Rowena finished, nodding. "Sounds logical."

"Given that you're the only one of us who's ever managed to read anyone's mind in something approaching an orderly fashion," Helga said decisively, "I should say so."

"Well, then..." Rowena tapped her index finger against her mouth, thinking. "If this has to soak for twenty days. We shouldn't do ours right on top of each other, give them each time to set. That will put us at..." She tallied things up on her fingers with a lot of humming, then frowned and looked up at Salazar. "It'll put us right at the next full moon."

Salazar smiled weakly. "It'ss a new potion. I'm quite sure it will work," he added hastily, "but I had to be careful -- and it does need the time. I'll have made all my contribution to it by then, other than the final object...."

"Which needs all four of us to do?"

"Well, not sstrictly speaking. Technically it only needs one person to insert the object." Salazar smiled faintly. "But I would like to be there, yes."

There was a short silence. "Well, then," Godric said at last, "if we can't have it done before, we'll finish it once you're well enough after."

Salazar draped his arm around Helga's shoulders and squeezed lightly. "I can't wait. Imagine -- no matter what happenss, there will be a part of uss living on for...however long Godric'ss hat lasstss!" He leaned his cheek against Helga's soft hair and smiled contentedly. "Alwayss a record of our friendsship and what we've built here."

"A strange kind of immortality," Rowena mused, "but the best, I think."

They added more ideas and memories, pieces of their minds and hearts, for the next hour before they were satisfied that there was enough in the potion for a good beginning. It had taken on a warm tinge, almost a color but not quite, that made them all want to smile when they looked at it. Godric lowered the hat in, upside-down, and it floated with the brim flat on the surface of the liquid for a moment before a silver-white trickle made its way through a gap and began pooling in the tip.

"Well...it looks like a good beginning, at least," Helga said hopefully. "And now I have just over three weeks to figure out a spell to make it speak!"

"You will succeed beautifully. Whereupon, no doubt, it will tell us what it thinks of this whole procedure," Salazar said with a grin. "Rowena, that remindss me -- if you are ready early with the spell to make it read minds, I don't think it would do any harm to place it at once."

Rowena frowned slightly. "I could probably do it within days, but I'm not sure how I'd avoid affecting the potion as well."

Salazar waved a hand. "That wouldn't be a problem. Composed in part of our thoughts as it is, it would only let it seek in us as well. Perhaps it would even enhancce the function...."

"If you're sure...I'll see what I can do. I don't want to rush it, though. We have plenty of time."

A look of pain flashed briefly in Salazar's eyes, though it was hidden as he ducked his head down to kiss the top of Helga's head lightly. "Of courssse we do."

Helga tilted her head up and smiled at him. "It never seems like we have enough time most days around here! But I don't have any classes, and you don't have any classes. William is asleep, and all my patients are finally out of the infirmary." She grinned and kissed the tip of his nose. "Godric, Rowena, if you'll excuse us..."

Salazar frowned suddenly. "About your patientss," he began.

"Her patients," Rowena proclaimed, "are giving you no reason to worry. The one who refused to try living in peace... fought with the wrong witch among the others, and the rest are settling near enough we can help them but not far enough to... raise alarm. Everything is going very well. Now be excused and give Helga a chance to do something other than worry about them."

"That's ssstill too near," Salazar grumbled quietly. "They were raissed againsst us oncce. What's to sstop ssomeone elsse from doing it again?"

"You've advised us how to stop the one who did it trying the same trick again," Rowena reminded him, "and since they don't want to come against us, Godric's made arrangements for them to be confined as well -- with or without his direct assistance."

Salazar sighed. He still didn't like it, but...after all they'd done for him, he certainly didn't have room to complain. And Helga was leaning against him, very warm, and he loved her so very much...He wanted to take advantage of that while he could. He was tired, more tired than he'd ever been between full moons before. He didn't want the others to see it, but...

He was getting old, that was all. There was still life in him yet. And he was going to enjoy it. "Then ssshoo, you two. Get to work providing William with a cousin to grow up with, hmm?" He pressed his lips against Helga's temple. "We'll be...unavailable for a while."

Laughter followed them out the door, but it politely found something else to do before they reached their own room.

*****