Reborn

Reborn

Chapter II: Discovery, Minor

Goodrich Geoffrey rolled his eyes at the letter he just received in the Owlery. It was from his best friend and classmate in the university. The University for Graduates of Hogwarts (or, as some students called it, UGH) to be exact. It was a new school, for graduates who wanted to have extra credits to qualify for certain careers. Students outside of Hogwarts could attend too, but there was complicated transfer paperwork that one would have to go through, but more and more students had started to apply. So Geoffrey had rushed back to Hogwarts after his morning classes and almost missed lunch in the Great Hall (especially because he bumped into Robin Runette and then Helen Hemmingsway was blocking the entrance), but had forgotten his composition on Early Education in Ancient Times - the differences between then and now. And he thought that he´d finally gotten away from History of Magic, at least he didn´t always fall asleep in class as he did in Binns. Thank goodness for his best friend, no matter how annoying his stupid little letter that he attached to his schoolwork was. He walked down the stairway and into the hallway. Directly adjacent to the door, was an open window where Geoffrey heard a small shout that he recognized as Helen Hemmingsway.

"Oh! C´mon don´t be so slow! Hurry up Robin!"

Robin. Geoffrey turned away, shame faced. Oh why did he just have to do what he did? Robin might report him... God... student and teacher rules were clear on the subject. He bit his lip, hoping whatever Hemmingsway was urging her to go to; it wasn´t to tell a professor. That was all he needed.

Practically flirting with her! Oh the ridicule he´d get from Smith if he ever found out! But... oh, it was Robin! He was older than she but he just... somehow; he knew she was the one. But even that was ridiculous! She was too young to be thinking of marriage and so was he! After all, he was only eighteen years old, as Smith pointed out at each opportunity. At least Smith was in this third year. He only started attending U.G.H. Even so, though, there was always a pang of emotion when he ran into Robin, which wasn´t very often.

Geoffrey mused as he strode towards the Staff Room, remembering when he just stared contentedly at her. He definitely shocked his best friend, who caught him one day and Geoffrey explained himself. His friend asked him if he was stalking her! Geoffrey denied that. Stalking! Him! ... Maybe he was a little right but Geoffrey wasn´t about to admit that. Plus he wasn´t stalking! Merely...

Falling in love.

He spotted Smith, grading papers in the corner, as he entered the Staff Room. Aah, was he ever so glad that they weren´t working closely in Hogwarts. It was bad enough they were in the same university and both teaching at Hogwarts, but actually working together too? Heavens no! Geoffrey was satisfied with their current status with each other as archenemies, thank you very much.

Sean Smith lazily marked the parchment on the top of the pile of his students´ compositions a very low grade. `Horrendous structures, not enough detail, atrocious examples´ were some of the things he wrote next it, just for that boy to note his mistakes. He shook his head, wondering why ever did that boy chose Ancient Runes for one of his extra classes. It wasn´t as if it was easy. Sean wasn´t going to go easy on them either. Not once. He had a reputation to keep after all.

A funny feeling told him that someone was looking at him, which caused him to look up.

Oh. It´s just Geoffrey.

Geoffrey was glaring at him and Sean glared back. Humph. They mutually agreed to hate each other years ago.

It was Sean´s fourth year. Geoffrey was a lowly second year. Sean was Keeper for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, soon to be captain, in the following year. Geoffrey was a reserve Chaser for the Gryffindors. And it was just Sean´s luck that one of their Chasers happened to take ill that day. It figured though, the Gryffindor team was lacking that year. Especially with all but Potter left. The others (the two Weasleys, Johnson, Spinnet, Bell, and Wood two years before) were all gone. Graduated. And it was left to Potter. You had to hand it to him though. He was a determined fellow. Geoffrey was one of the youngest on their team and Sean thought it would be easy. He remembered the year before, at the Sorting. Geoffrey had been a small, over excited little kid. Nothing had changed, in Sean´s mind at least. He´d be so easy to block.

Except that he wasn´t. And that he was actually an excellent Chaser. In fact, Sean did wonder why Geoffrey chose to become a teacher, instead of a well-paid Quidditch star that he was perceived to be at the age of fourteen. That might´ve been better than their predicament now but then Geoffrey could boast to him that he was a better Quidditch athlete than he was. Either way, he didn´t like it; just as he hated it four years ago. By the time Potter had caught the snitch, it was ninety to twenty Gryffindor. Add Potter´s one hundred fifty to the score, it was two hundred forty to twenty. Humiliating.

Sean hated the younger man ever since.

"What are you looking at Geoffrey?" He sneered.

"Oh nothing," Geoffrey said. "Just wondering the same old question."

He knew what question that was, but didn´t want Geoffrey to think he listened to students´ gossip. "What question is that?"

"Why weren´t you a Slytherin anyway?"

Sean rolled his eyes. Wasn´t it obvious? Not that he ever told anyone. "Why? Do you expect me to answer?"

"No," Geoffrey replied curtly, looking nonchalant. "I don´t have high expectations."

"Really?" Sean contorted in mock-awe. "Why! No wonder you´re here then."

Geoffrey´s flippant look was replaced with a frown. "What´s that suppose to mean?"

Sean put on his best sneer in imitation of Professor Snape and told him in a condescending manner. "Well, that´s why you´re back at Hogwarts, aren´t you? Because your not ready to face the world?"

It seemed they were both back at Hogwarts and Geoffrey had finally had it, losing his temper, and jumping from his seat ready to lunge at the other boy, though the other only kept smirking, despite the look of menacing hate in Geoffrey´s eyes. That was a similar look was in those cold, light blue eyes of Sean. Except where there was the fury of fire in Geoffrey, there was piercing cold, thirsting for retaliation in Sean. Geoffrey opened his mouth, ready to come up with an insult before attacking.

Thankfully, McGonagall had entered with a stern look at them. Clearly, she knew what would have happened if she hadn´t arrived. "Goodrich, sit," she told him. Geoffrey closed his mouth and, fuming, abandoned his seat for another farthest he could get away from Sean.

Soon, the other members of the staff started to pour in and Sean´s mind started to focus on the meeting ahead.

In boring staff meetings like this one, Geoffrey often didn´t bother to listen. Just nodded his head like he knew what was going on. Sometimes commenting if he got interested in the idea and kept absolutely quiet when Sean had the floor. Best not to get into another argument unless he felt very strongly about the subject. He let his mind wander, often to Robin. He loved her even more when she smiled. There weren´t many times that happened but perhaps that was for the best as well. He might not have resisted the urge to grab her and kiss her. Of course, that would have been totally inappropriate. Not to mention he´d get sacked. Unfortunately, carpe diem was not his motto. And even so more unfortunate, it wasn´t hers either.

Time to listen in a moment, he decided.

"No! Don´t criticize me Pomfrey! It´s not my fault that those little brats always blow up some concoction! They are the ones that don´t listen!"

"Well, Severus, perhaps if you taught them better!"

"Are you trying to say that I don´t do a good job of teaching?"

"Precisely what I´ve been saying!"

"Don´t you start with me, you´re just the nurse. We can get another medi-witch you know!"

That was when McGonagall decided it was enough. "Severus! Poppy! Sit down!" A few faces, including both Sean and Geoffrey though they weren´t aware of it, frowned. And it was just getting fun too, Geoffrey thought, like the most of them. The quarrelling banter that broke out was comparatively more amusing than discussions or debates. Especially if it was between teachers like Snape or Smith, except when it included him. Not that he liked disagreements or anything. But it was so fun to see a previous teacher conflict with another, definitely when one or both teacher are so crimson with anger and the rest of them just watched was just so entertaining.

"Severus, no one will be fired today, at least as long as I´m alive," McGonagall continued. Snape was looking very sour. "Now--"

Geoffrey didn´t get to know what next for something had impacted into the door of the Staff Room.

"What was that?"

"Ow! Ouch..." Squeaked a female voice on the other side. Then whoever it was started pounding on the door. "Hey! We need to talk to you! We found something that we thought you should see!"

"Helen! You´re going to break the door down!" Geoffrey bit his lip; his heart´s throbbing grew increasingly painful as the door pounding quietly decreased.

"Then what do you propose we should do?" Snapped the first.

Smith groaned and Geoffrey glanced at him as he muttered, "Hemmingsway. That insolent brat."

The second voice told the other, "Wait."

"Wait?! Why??"

"Because," McGonagall told her as she opened the abused door and revealed the two exhausted teenage girls, whom were panting heavily. "We heard you the first time, Miss Hemmingsway."

"Oh... Good," Helen looked the slightest bit sheepish, and added as an afterthought "Sorry."

McGonagall obviously didn´t forgive her but overlooked it for the moment. "So what is so urgent that you thought it necessary to interrupt our, er, discussion?"

Helen turned to her friend, who was pale. "Um..."

"Well, we found this room... and er..."

"There was portraits in it," Robin finished for her and added her own interpretation. "Helen found it. But it wasn´t just any portraits; they´re very old. Really old; they´re-they´re--"

"Ancient!" Helen provided.

"Well, not really ancient but hundreds of years old. Actually about a thousand... it´s well..."

"Has important pictures!"

"Painted images of... well..."

"Important people!"

"Helen!"

"Sorry! I´m just excited!"

"Get to the point!" Snape snapped, irritated with the two girls. Robin mumbled something so softly that no one heard her.

"Can you repeat that please? Louder?" McGonagall asked politely.

"The Founders," Robin replied still quietly but clearly. Then silence loomed over the room and the corridor where Robin and Helen waited for them to interrogate them further. But came no other inquires.

No one said a word for a long time; both girls were staring at the floor, shuffling their feet and feeling uneasy. Helen had just stumbled on to it. Not really grasping what in the world it was. Helen hoped Robin would know and she did, for the most part. It was definitely the Founders and there were vast pictures of them. Plus some writings in Latin which Robin had no way of reading. That wasn´t even the most surprising part.

"And you want to the scary part of it?" Helen asked breaking the silence. Her voice was soft but it seemed to be so loud after such quiet. She took the answer as a yes. "Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw... they kind of, um, resemble... well, Robin and me."

---

"Excuse me?" McGonagall asked after another long silence.

"Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw look like me and Ro!" Helen said, getting impatient. "You know, by the time you people do something, someone would have found the stupid room already."

Robin scolded her, "Don´t talk to your superiors like that!" Helen wrinkled her nose.

"Who says all of them are my superiors? I know at least one that certainly--"

"Helen," it was a warning.

"Fine, fine. Gee, you´re so bossy," Helen muttered, crossing her arms and started to tap her right foot. "Well?"

"We´ll see what we can do Miss Hemmingsway," McGonagall informed her, and turned to her staff. "Sean, Goodrich, come with me."

Robin glanced at Geoffrey and saw him wince as McGonagall called his name. Smith merely looked as if they´d given him anchovies with his pizza when he specifically told them not too. McGonagall looked a little concerned. Robin told Helen she shouldn´t tell them that they were almost mirror images to them, with some differences. It had freaked her out, to say the least.

"Show us where it is," McGonagall demanded. With her head down Robin, with Helen closely following (humming all the while), led the way.

Helen had taken it well. Looking like Helga Hufflepuff, that is. She acted as if she didn´t care. Though, of course she did, but she wasn´t going to admit that. Why exactly? She wasn´t sure. She´d always been a little proud. Maybe it was because of her aunt, or maybe because of her parents. They were just proud people. Even though they were some of the most flawed people Helen knew. Maybe that was also why she was so... different from them. She might have been proud but she was also ashamed: of not being loved; of not having love. She covered it all with an outgoing, boisterous, cheerful personality and wreaking as much havoc as she could.

Helga Hufflepuff, she thought irritated. What´s that all about? She was connected through the past by this painting of a woman whose house she was in and who looked like her. She wasn´t anything like Helga Hufflepuff. She wasn´t sweet or very hardworking. In fact, the only reason she had wanted to be in Hufflepuff was she wanted to prove that Hufflepuffs weren´t a load of duffers. She had no idea why but she liked the Hufflepuffs from the start and she knew they were more than people thought them to be.

She glanced back at McGonagall, Geoffrey, and Smith. If the room wasn´t there, they´d certainly give her detention. But then Robin was there and she usually told the truth. Usually. Not that Smith would believe. Smith was just... annoying. In her personal opinion, of course.

Robin kept her vision straight. Too scared to look at Geoffrey. Figures, of all things that would happen. First off, she barely had any lunch, which made her extremely grumpy, because Helen dragged her out for who-knows-why, has a row in the middle of the entrance hall, fights with her, then Geoffrey comes, and now that room! That damned room. She didn´t like it. Not a bit. The fact that she looked like Rowena Ravenclaw had freaked her out, but she just got this horrible feeling that they were being watched. The hairs on the back of her head were standing. It was creepy. No other word for it.

And now... she was going back there.

This just wasn´t her day.

---

It had taken them long to reach it. It was down in one of the dungeons, where Helen showed them a secret passage way. It was under a desk and the trigger that opened it was a small stone in the bottom of the wall. A stab of stone moved from under the desk and revealed stairs leading down. The passage was small, dank, and eerie. Green seemed to glow off the walls. Smith and Geoffrey had to bow their head just to enter. It was crawling with spider webs and insects and Robin was shaking nervously. She was a bit claustrophobic. Meanwhile, Helen kept flinching when she thought she saw something remotely resembling a spider. McGonagall looked around as if she was just asking herself why she never found this place before. Geoffrey and Smith both tried to look as indifferent as possible. They weren´t going to let the other know that they were a little spooked by this place. The passage turned and twisted. It seemed almost like hours when they reached a wooden door. It was lit by two torches that magically started to burn fire.

They muttered "Nox" to turn of their wand light and held their breaths as Robin slowly opened the door.

It opened to a tall, circular room. Tower seemed to be a more efficient word, for it was tall as one. There was light coming from the ceiling where the sky clearly shone through a round, glass pane. Other windows were scattered around the walls high above. There also was a hole midway through the tower and the floor was cluttered with pieces of wood that looked like blackboard and some debris. The walls however, were covered with dozens of paintings and chiseled writings. The light from above had somehow flooded the whole room and they could clearly see the old, molding paintings that were covered in dust. All of the people in the paintings were sleeping.

McGonagall gaped in awe. This certainly wasn´t ever found before! How that was, she had no idea. "Geoffrey, check for dark magic," she ordered, still astounded.

"Yes ma´am," Geoffrey said quietly. This place doesn´t feel right, he thought as he conducted his inspection. After verifying that it wasn´t full dark magic he announced, "It´s clean. At least dark-arts-wise." He went to investigate the drawings closer.

Smith started to go over the inscriptions. Latin. With some French-variations now and then. Hmm.... Intriguing.

McGonagall however turned to Helen and Robin to continue questioning them.

"How did you find this room?"

Helen answered, "Er... well, we were talking and I said something... mean... Robin stormed out--" Geoffrey froze as he heard this. That´s why Robin was crying! I guess they´re on good terms now though. "Then, uh... I was mad at myself. I kind of... threw stuff. Then I hit the blackboard... and it, um, fell, along with me. I quickly cast a cushioning charm on the floor as I fell--thank goodness Robin´s top of the class!--and I landed here. I stared around, saw the door, and ran out. Then I thought Robin could tell me what the room was. So I found her (and apologized) then we went down here, but not before getting lost and ending up outside... but we got here eventually and--"

"And looked closer at the portraits," Robin interrupted her. She didn´t think it was appropriate if Helen should tell them the whole of what happened down there. "There were inscriptions in Latin and we weren´t fluent. We thought it might be something that you should know. If it was dangerous or something..."

McGonagall nodded, "Hmm... Is that all that occurred?"

Robin´s eyes watered at her gaze, so she hung her head. "Yes," she lied.

Her professor looked up at the ceiling. "Hmm... I wonder why we never found this room. It can´t have been hidden over the centuries without being found by someone." Robin didn´t care though, she was shivering. She started to run with her hair with her hand, she did that whenever she felt someone what staring at her with intense scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey asked Smith, "Did you find anything?"

"It´s just mostly dates and notes," Smith replied. "On things like location, scene, position. Nothing too descriptive."

"Hmm," Geoffrey nodded and looked back at one of the paintings. It was at his exact head height. Fading, like the rest. The brass frame was intricate, but they were all different in each kind of painting. Geoffrey noticed all of the ones on the bottom half of the tower were only Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff. There were some others on the top, there looked different, more reds and greens. Probably Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. The one he was looking at, however, was a portrait of Ravenclaw. She was fast asleep and very still. He noticed her skin was quite pale. Her hair was an even darker brown than Robin´s, almost black. Two locks of hair were neatly braided in a crown around her head. But she wore a look of familiar sadness. He quickly stole glimpse at his secret crush.

They did look a like! At first he couldn´t get what they were on about. They didn´t look so similar. But, the shapes of their face and the three strains of hair on the top of their bangs that wouldn´t be tamed. And... and...

Geoffrey gasped as Lady Ravenclaw opened her eyes, revealing piercing light blue eyes. They were exactly Robin´s eyes! Perhaps maybe even a shade lighter because of the faded paint. She blinked at him in perplexity. In a soft, quiet voice she asked, "Who art thou?"

All eyes looked at him, then the image of Lady Ravenclaw. They all looked puzzled.

The picture-Rowena gasped, bringing up delicate hands to cover her hands. She used one to point to a broken canvas across the room. It was a wonder how she could see it with the liter scattered all over the floor. "That is our first! One of our only together! What had thou done?" She seemed more heartbroken and torn than angry.

Geoffrey walked towards it, there was writing on the back but he ignored it for the moment, turning it around. It was a younger Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, they were on the lake, but on the cliff that towered over them was nothing. No castle. Not only that, they were standing far apart, head turned away from each other, unlike some of the other images. Hufflepuff was looking apprehensive over the torn side though, while Ravenclaw sulked in the corner as far as they could tell, for their backs were facing them.

No one made a sound though; all the other portraits seemed still awake. At least, they thought so. "Under that big piece of blackboard! Are thou blind?" It came from high above.

"Good morning Godric! Hath thou a good sleep?" Picture-Rowena greeted, suddenly sounding warm.

"Aye, good as one could get out of a dream that hath lasted a millennia!"

Smith helped Geoffrey move a heavy chunk of blackboard that didn´t shatter into bits by the fall. They gazed up to the gap on the wall. Must have been a long fall, Geoffrey thought. As they lifted it, they revealed the other half of the broken canvas. It must have come from the wall that fell. Because it had Godric Gryffindor and Slytherin on there. They weren´t looking very friendly with each other. They could tell, even though they couldn´t see their faces.

"Bring the other half," Smith ordered Geoffrey. The younger man glared at him and begrudgingly got the other part. They fitted the halves together and as soon as they did, the younger Founders grouped together, holding a quiet discussion. Picture-Rowena sighed, "Oh I was so afraid that it couldst not be put together."

The others looked at her, looking for an answer, but Helen kept looking at the canvas. Her eyes widened as the Founders turned around and drew her breath.

The professors and Robin turned to look at her, in confusion then realized what made her gasp. "Oh dear..."

The young Founders, though dress and style different and were shades of different colors, looked exactly like Geoffrey, Smith, Helen, and Robin.