Hogwarts; A History

Chapter 4

"One, two, three, lift!" Rowena cried as she and Salazar lifted the door off the ground. "Now, over to the house...no, Salazar, the house is this way!" she rolled her eyes as her friend redirected his path towards the side of the house. "Alright, now set it down...Slowly, slowly, agh!" Salazar smiled apologetically at Rowena, who was glaring at him maliciously. "Please, Salazar, try not to drop it. Honestly, Salazar, sometimes you seem to be more trouble than you're worth."

"Well, how much trouble am I worth?" Salazar asked slyly.

"Well you're...oh Salazar!" she laughed and turned back to the door that lay at her feet. "Alright, you take that end and I'll take this one. Then we tilt it...towards the house..." the door was tilted upwards towards the frame, and soon it was in place. Salazar looked at it and frowned.

"How do we attach it to the house?" Salazar asked plaintively.

"Well..." Rowena began thoughtfully. She hadn't quite thought of that yet. "Maybe if...or we could...or if we..."

"Well," Salazar interrupted. "The door used to be attached by those...those... swerving...things..." his voice trailed off.

"Hinges?" Rowena piped in helpfully.

"Yes! Well, the door was attached by hinges, so if we can find them, we can reattach the door!"

"Oh!" Rowena's eyes lit up. "Why didn't I think of that?" Her voice contained a hint of irritation that Salazar had come up with the solution instead of her. "But where are the hinges?" she asked, finding the sole flaw in Salazar's ingenious plan.

"Oh...um...well...we could make new ones," Salazar suggested.

"Oh, that's a great idea. Let's just make hinges why don't we!" she rolled her eyes. "And what, may I ask, would we make the hinges out of?"

"Grass?" Salazar suggested, noting the abundance of grass around the Ravenclaw manor.

"Alright. We'll make hinges out of grass. And how, master Slytherin, do you plan to make these miraculous grass hinges?" Salazar looked thoughtfully at the squashed blades of grass that lay where the door had been, trying, though failing miserably, to think of any way to make hinges out of grass. The impatient stare Rowena's was giving him wasn't helping at all. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted (much to Rowena's chagrin) by someone inside the house. Salazar quickly dived behind a bush, which was conveniently located right behind him. Shortly after, a tall woman, whom Salazar assumed was Rowena's mother, pushed open the door (which fell over as a result) and took a few steps outside. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she looked like an enlarged version of Rowena. She probably looked just like Rowena when she was younger, Salazar thought, although she had only grown vertically since her childhood, as she was as thin, if not thinner, than her skinny daughter. She looked down at the fallen door disapprovingly and then turned to look at Rowena, speaking quickly.

"Come, we must go and visit a few shops."

"Yes mother," Rowena replied and followed her mother across the yard and out of Salazar's sight.

As soon as they left, Salazar rolled out from behind the bush and sprawled out on the grass. In his hurry to hide himself, he hadn't had time to find a comfortable position to wait in. Also, he hadn't realized the bush was a rose bush, meaning it had thorns.

He'd make note of that for next time. He wondered what he would do with his time now that Rowena had left again. One thing was for certain, though. He wouldn't try to climb that fence!

Rowena and her mother strode briskly down the muggle-packed streets. Neither of them spoke, for Rowena had learned long ago from her mother that, when muggles were involved, it was best to keep your mouth shut. If you didn't, it would almost always have a disastrous effect! Soon, they reached a tall stone building and entered. There was a very high ceiling inside, but the room still had a very cramped feeling to it. Rowena's mom led her daughter down a long skinny passageway that branched off into many others as it went along. Rowena had been here only a few times before and had learned that there was no chance of her ever finding her way around in it, so she had just stuck close to her mother, trusting that she knew her way. Eventually, they reached what seemed to be a dead end. Rowena waited patiently as her mother approached the wall and began counting various stones. Three up, two across, on and on she counted the stones, until Rowena was completely bewildered. Finally, she took one step back and briskly tapped the wall three times with her fist. The stone she had touched quivered and wiggled, and a small hole appeared in the middle. It grew and grew until a large archway was formed. Rowena was yanked through just before the archway pulled itself shut with a shloop!

Rowena looked around in amazement. She still could not understand how this large market place had been concealed behind a stonewall! She looked up at her mother.

"Mother, why are we here?" she asked.

"We need some potion ingredients," she stated and hurried off towards the potion stand. An elderly man was seated there, and he smiled when they approached.

"Ah, Ralla!" he exclaimed. "It has indeed been a while since I have seen you here! And Rowena, it is a pleasure to see you again as well." Rowena smiled and curtsied, and the man turned back to her mother. "So, what business do you here?"

"I am here to pick up some supplies," she replied. The man nodded and listened as she listed all of the supplies she would need. Rowena stood there, watching, for a few minutes, but suddenly, an idea came to her. She reached into the small sack at her mother's feet and pulled out a few coins. Then, she slipped quietly from her mother's side and headed off towards the other end of the marketplace. She approached a small stand where another old man sat. He had white hair and his face was extremely wrinkled. As Rowena approached him, he smiled.

"Ah, Rowena! How is your wand? It had been a few years since you came here last."

"Hello, Mr. Ollivander. My wand is working wonderfully, thank you."

"Ah, glad to hear it, glad to hear it. Maple, 13 ½ in., a core of dragon bone. I remember it well. So, what brings you here?"

"I have a friend and something happened to his wand, so I was here to get him another."

"Hm..." Mr. Ollivander frowned and rubbed his chin. "I see...well, as you know, the wand chooses the wizard, and it would be hard to ever get a replacement wand when the person in question is not present, but I'll see what I can o. Could you...describe him

for me?" Rowena bit her lip and nodded.

"Um, well, he is relatively short and has black hair..."

Ollivander nodded, waiting for more, but nothing else came. "Ah, I guess I'll just have to work with that, won't I?" he chuckled. "Very well, then. Now, let's see what I have here..." He turned around and began rummaging through a variety of wand boxes. Eventually, he pulled one out from the bottom of a pile, causing a massive array of wands to come tumbling down to the ground, spilling out of their boxes. Mr. Ollivander didn't notice, however, and Rowena stifled a laugh as he tripped over an open box on the ground. He got up, looking somewhat irritated, and fixed the stack with a wave of his wand. Then, he turned back to Rowena.

"Here you go, young lady. Ash, 11 in., Unicorn Hair. Quite good for transfiguration. Let us hope it suits this friend of yours well. That will be three Galleons." Rowena handed him the coins she had stolen from her mother and, taking the box under her arm, hurried back to her mother. She reached the potions stand to come face to face with her mother, glaring angrily down at her.

"Where were you, child? You do NOT run off like that! Who knows what could have happened!" Rowena looked down at the ground, hiding the box behind her back. "Look at me when I'm talking to you! We are going back RIGHT now and I do not want to hear a word from you until we get back!"

"Yes, mother," Rowena mumbled, silently cursing her rotten luck at getting caught.

***

Salazar was sprawled on the grass underneath a particularly large oak tree, thinking of how nice it was to be outside. At the Slytherin manor, you simply did not go outside. His parents were always reading books or practicing various spells (most of which were dark magic). Salazar had usually occupied himself with Chuckles or reading, although the books he read weren't nearly as complex as the ones his parents did! His father took great pride in his book collection, which he kept on display in one of the largest rooms in the house. It was filled to the brim with books, most strange and complicated, but others that seemed to be there just for Salazar's enjoyment: Books like Snakes for Children, Small Magic for Small Wizards, and Snakes: Descendents of Dragons?. Even if Salazar had wanted to go outside, there would be little for him to do. His father was quite proud of his manor, which housed numerous fields. These fields were almost always bustling with peasants and servants who never seemed all too happy when Salazar got in their way. Because of this, Salazar had tried to avoid disturbing them, which is easiest if one remains inside. Therefore, he hadn't seen much of nature most of his life, but luckily for him, nature was something that there was definitely no lack of in the Ravenclaw manor!

"Salazar!" the call jerked him out of his reminiscing. Rowena was bouncing through the yard towards him, looking quite pleased. She skidded to a stop right next to Salazar's head, which scared him half to death! He quickly sat up and looked at her, his face a mixture of puzzlement and annoyance.

"Salazar, we went to the marketplace and guess what I got!" Smiling, she pulled a tan wand out from behind her back.

"Wha..." Salazar began.

"I bought it from Mr. Ollivander," she continued, paying no attention to Salazar's stuttered reply. "I figured that, because your wand seems to be gone, I might as well buy you another one! Here! Try it out!" Salazar took the wander gingerly, holding it in his right hand.

"Leviatus!" he said softly, pointing his wand at a squirrel that was sitting by the pond. Slowly, it began to lift into the air, bur it only went a few inches from the ground before it fell down it a soft thud and scampered quickly away.

"It will take a little practice," Rowena continued, "But you'll get used to it. Mother wasn't too happy with my stealing her money, but she'll get over it!"

"Thank you," Salazar told her, smiling, but missing his own wand. It just wasn't the same. Still, it was nice of Rowena to get it for him.

"Now, Salazar, getting back to what we were doing before I left, we still need to find a way to reattach the door."

Ah yes, Salazar thought, annoyed. How were they supposed to do that? Luckily for Salazar, though, she seemed to have forgotten about his suggestion of grass hinges.

"Hm...well...I'll go into the house to see if I can find anything that can help. You look around out here." Salazar looked around. There was a lot of grass, but that obviously wouldn't work. Suddenly, Salazar saw the wooden fence. He hurried over to it, hoping Rowena wouldn't leave the house soon and see him missing. It took him a couple minutes to reach it, and when he did, he immediately began looking for a piece of wood that was jutting out. It didn't take long. Once he found a relatively long one (near the bottom, of course), he began to pull. Luckily for him, the wood was old, so it wasn't too hard to pull it off of the fence. After he had done this, he hurried back towards the manor, where he could see the figure of Rowena coming outside and wandering around the yard, apparently looking for him. After a little while, she noticed him and looking at him quizzically. Once he arrived, he noticed she wasn't holding anything.

"Look Rowena!" he exclaimed, holding up the piece of wood. "Maybe we could use this to make the hinges...all we need is string and something to cut with."

Rowena looked at the wood, as if thinking it over. Salazar's ability to think of solutions like this was starting to get on her nerves. Ah well, next time she would be the one to save the day. She nodded to him and, without saying a word, went back inside to get some string and a saw. The string was easy enough to find, but the saw was a different story. Even if there were an easy to find saw, her mother and father would be awfully suspicious if they saw her carrying it outside. Eventually, she found a small kitchen knife and, making sure her mother didn't see it, quickly snuck back outside to where Salazar was waiting.

"Alright, I have some string and a knife. Now what?" While she didn't exactly enjoy that thought of having to ask someone else what to do, she had to admit that she temporarily didn't know what his plan was.

Salazar smiled. "Well, we just cut the wood into rectangles and attach two of them together by string. Then it could be a hinge!"

"Oh!" Rowena exclaimed. That was actually a good idea. Salazar took the knife from Rowena and began to try to cut the wood. Unfortunately, the knife was rather dull, so it took him a while to even make one cut. Rowena watched impatiently as Salazar worked with the knife, but eventually, he had made six rectangles, although they were by no means identical! After this, though, another problem arose.

"How do we make the holes for the string to go through?" Rowena asked, finding a flaw in Salazar's plan. Unfortunately, Salazar had already had an answer planned out.

"Magic!" He paused and looked at Rowena. "That is, if you know a spell to cut things..." His voice trailed off expectantly.

"Well...of course I do," she replied, slightly flustered at his quick answer. She raised her wand, pointed near the edge of one of the pieces of wood, and shouted

"Holenis!" Immediately, a hole appeared in the wood. Salazar smiled. He had holed that she had known a spell like that, and she had not disappointed him. It took them a relatively short amount of time to make the holes in the wood, although attaching the string was slightly more difficult. Try as he might, Salazar simply could not get the large string through the tiny holes. Even after taking the string apart thread by thread, it was still a tedious project. Rowena ended up finishing all of them as Salazar lost patience after the first couple tries. Eventually, they were all done. It wasn't hard to find glue, so they attached the hinges to the side of the doorframe, waiting for it to dry before even thinking about attaching the door. Salazar smiled, proud of their accomplishment.

Just then, Rowena's mom came out through the door. Salazar made a giant lead towards a bush, barely hidden and in an awkward position. Luckily, Rowena's mother was not looking at him. She had just seen the hinges and was giving them a puzzled look. She turned towards her daughter for an explanation.

"Well," Rowena began, "You saw that the door had fallen off, so we decided to make hinges to reattach the door..."

"We?" Rowena's mother asked. "As far as I can see, you are alone." With that comment, Salazar froze, hoping she hadn't seen him.

"Oh, tha-that's what I meant," Rowena stammered, turning bright red. Her mother gave her a suspicious look and then turned back to the hinges.

"Then why didn't you just ask me? We could have bought a replacement..."

"Oh, well, yes..." Rowena wanted to hit herself for not thinking of that but thought that such a gesture would earn her more puzzled looks from her mother, so she decided against it.

"Alright...As long as you're sure it will work..." Her mother shook her head as she reentered the house. Salazar immediately fell out from behind the book, rubbing his neck, as it had been in a strange position after his sudden dash for a hiding place.

"Why didn't I think of that?" she said out loud in frustration. "Hinges wouldn't cost too much, would they?" she sighed and turned to face Salazar. "Well, now that you have your wand, you can help me!" she exclaimed, completely oblivious to Salazar's bewildered expression. "Now, pick a target...a rock, a squirrel, anything, but NOT me!" She then turned and walked off to a far corner of the yard. She pointed her wand at a rock and began to wave it back and forth, back and forth. Salazar found a rock, pointed his wand at it and began to wave his wand as well. It didn't seem to be doing anything, and Salazar began to feel quite stupid. No, doing this certainly wouldn't accomplish much at all, except for tiring out his wand arm. Eventually, he walked over to Rowena,

who stopped right as he began to approach.

"What?" she asked curiously.

"How does this do anything? What ARE you doing?" he asked irritably.

"Testing spells, of course. Look, I'll show you." She turned to face a rock and began to wave her wand back and forth. "Elementrious! Peltirus! Omnir! Jelki..."

"You're talking!" Salazar interrupted, surprised.

Rowena raised her eyebrows. "Yes..." she said slowly. "Why wouldn't I? That's how you test spells..."

"Well, you weren't talking before!" Salazar whined.

"Yes I was!" Rowena replied, annoyed.

"No! I didn't hear anything! I just saw you waving your wand like an idiot!"

"An idiot? If you ask me, you're the only idiot here! You were over there, and I was right here and, seeing as I wasn't exactly shouting the spells, it is only logical that you wouldn't hear me! Now, please leave me alone." Salazar quickly retreated, feeling embarrassed. Well, he had nothing better to do, so he might as well test spells. This time, he found a squirrel and began to wave his wand back and forth, chanting random combinations of vowels and consonants, forgetting each one as it was said.

"Omnifiscis! Crecholfinis! Elktopenmix! Elminfio! Darlio! Mecrio! Crucio!" The word seemed to hiss out of his lips, staining the air with an eerie silence. As he held his wand out, the squirrel froze and fell over. Salazar stood rigid, watching as the squirrel began to twitch, its paws vibrating and its little eyes seemed to pop out of its frozen face. Its tail perked up, and its ears retreated against its head, reaching towards its face, which was twisted into a ghastly look of terror. Then, just as quickly as it had started, it stopped. The squirrel lay on the bed of grass, unmoving. Is it dead?! Salazar thought frantically. After just a few seconds, though, the squirrel began to get up. It turned to face the stunned boy, staring into his eyes. Salazar shook his head, trying to erase the strange feeling that was forming in the pit of his stomach, but he found he could not break the squirrel's gaze. His palms began to sweat, and a cool breeze blew by as Salazar watched the creature. He brought his hand to his forehead, as he felt suddenly light-headed and dizzy. After an eternity, Salazar managed to close his eyes. Just seconds later, he opened them to find that the squirrel had vanished. Shaking, he lowered himself onto the grass, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Had his new wand malfunctioned? Had he just imagined the whole thing? Both of these seemed very possible when he thought about them, but his heart seemed to disagree with every beat, sending a chill through his body. He lay down and closed his eyes, listening to the rhythmic chanting of Rowena's voice and falling into a dreamless sleep.